Open Source

Say Goodbye to Linux on the Desktop

News — Thu, 17 May 2012 03:18:21 +0000

In our strategy meetings, the team at reallylinux.com tend to start the month with big questions, for instance “where’s Linux desktop expansion now?” But this month, when we had our meeting our Senior Editor basically wiped the question from the whiteboard and wrote these words: Linux on Devices matters. The battle to position Linux on the desktop has always been tenuous. Because the OEM relationships, discussed by Walter (read Why Linux on the Desktop is Wrong) and marketing dollars will always promote the proprietary solutions.

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Survey data: nginx poised to become number 2 web server

News — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 23:10:25 +0000

April 25, 2012, 10:01 AM — If current trends hold, then sometime late this summer, Microsoft’s Internet Information Services will fall to the number three web server position in global domains, behind two open source web server platforms: Apache and nginx.

This conclusion is one that I drew based on the latest Netcraft Web Server Survey numbers, which show, once again, a slight increase in the market share for nginx and a similar decrease for Microsoft IIS share numbers from March 2012 to April 2012.

A quick scan of the last few month’s surveys seemed to indicate similar occurrences, so I became curious to see how this was actually playing out. I fired up the ol’ spreadsheet application and entered the last 12 months’ worth of data from Netcraft’s market share for top servers across all domains and discovered some interesting numbers.

First, after projecting forward the linear trend lines for IIS and nginx a few months, I confirmed my hunch: nginx will pass IIS in mid-August 2012 if these market share numbers continue to stay true to their current pattern.

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10 things the Linux desktop can be proud of

News — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 22:46:46 +0000

My recent post about KDE 4.8 got me thinking about the state of the Linux desktop. Despite the popular cries of havoc and war, I believe the Linux desktop is in a very good place at the moment. Here’s are some reasons why we should all be enjoying a true renaissance on the PC desktop, thanks to open source and Linux.

1: Innovation

Just look at the landscape. Look at GNOME 3 and Ubuntu Unity. You may not like those particular desktop metaphors, but you can’t deny that the developers of those desktops are bringing the best in innovation to the Linux desktop. Couple that with desktops such as Enlightenment and XFCE, and you have more innovation going on around the Linux desktop than any other area.

2: Variety

This is where no one can deny that the Linux desktop is in a place of pride. What other platform has so much variety to choose from? Think about it. If you want something somewhat traditional, go to KDE. Want a more multi-touch friendly, completely different desktop? Have at either GNOME 3 or Ubuntu Unity. What about something in between? You can go with the eye-candy rich E17 or the insanely lightweight and reliable XFCE.

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Is Linux About to Take Off On Tablets?

News — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 04:42:39 +0000

At this point, there’s no denying that Linux — despite high hopes early-on — is a late-entry to the world of tablets. But that doesn’t mean open-source enthusiasts have written off this segment of the hardware market. On the contrary, a number of initiatives to make Linux a viable choice for tablet users are in rapid development. Read on for a look.

In a lot of ways, Linux’s relationship with tablets is comparable to the open-source ecosystem’s experience with netbooks several years ago. When netbook hardware first began hitting the market in droves, Linux seemed like the perfect companion: It was inexpensive, highly customizable and well suited to new devices where users started out with fewer preconceptions than on traditional PCs.

Yet we all know how that story ended. Linux retained some share of the netbook market, but the Year of the Linux Netbook remained, and remains, quite elusive.

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Unknown Bash Tips and Tricks For Linux

News — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 01:08:58 +0000

Familiarity breeds ennui, and even though Bash is the default Linux command shell used daily by hordes of contented users, it contains a wealth of interesting and useful features that don’t get much attention. Today we shall learn about Bash builtins and killing potential.

Bash Builtins

Bash has a bunch of built-in commands, and some of them are stripped-down versions of their external GNU coreutils cousins. So why use them? You probably already do, because of the order of command execution in Bash:

Bash aliases
Bash keywords
Bash functions
Bash builtins
Scripts and executable programs that are in your PATH

So when you run echo, kill, printf, pwd, or test most likely you’re using the Bash builtins rather than the GNU coreutils commands. How do you know? By using one of the Bash builtins to tell you, thecommand command:

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Windows 8 may drive me to Linux

News — Sat, 10 Mar 2012 03:46:56 +0000

I have been a Microsoft defender for decades. “No, MS-DOS 4.0 isn’t really that bad,” I pleaded to friends almost 25 years ago. “Give Windows 98 a chance” I begged ten or 11 years later. Heck, I extolled the virtues of Vista (which I did believe in, by the way) to anyone willing to listen. But in the wake of last week’sintroduction of the Consumer Preview edition of Windows 8, I can say only this: Microsoft, you’re on your own.

Never — and I’m going to repeat this for additional emphasis, never – have I been as horrified by one of the company’s products as I am by this one. (Yes, I used Microsoft Bob.) Every choice seems to have been made for a sketchy reason, and the full collection of them bears the haphazard feel of the morning after a particularly raucous college party. Scratch that: Even at my most inebriated, I’m pretty sure I would never conceive of something like Windows 8.

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Ubuntu for Android: Linux desktop on a smartphone

News — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:22:00 +0000

You have to give Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company credit for thinking big. Today Canonical is unveiling Ubuntu for Android. What is in the world is that? It’s bringing the Ubuntu Linux desktop to to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. With it, Canonical claims you’ll be able to use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The company states that the phone experience will be pure Android–it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the sameUbuntu Unity desktop many of you are already using and it will include all of Ubuntu’s current applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

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Linux has a Place in the Enterprise

News — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:52:12 +0000

From its meager beginnings as a hobby project to its extreme success among geeks, Linux has survived lawsuits, boycotts and onslaughts from every corner of the UNIX, Windows and Mac computing markets. Linux has, in spite of its critics, made its way into the world’s data centers. Linux enjoyed early success as a host platform for the Apache web server but now has blossomed into a formidable contender for rack space. For an operating system, Linux has the best mixture of vendor neutrality, open source code base, stability, reliability, scalability and affordability. It also provides the user or administrator the choice of graphical user interfaces or none at all.

Linux has one very significant advantage over all other operating systems: Hardware compatibility. It runs on a variety of hardware platforms from wristwatches to mainframes, although it’s most familiar playing field is on x86 metal.

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IPv6 Certification

News — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:18:10 +0000

Linux Coming to Microsoft Windows Azure Cloud?

News — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 12:17:23 +0000

Plenty of pundits say the cloud runs on Linux. Heck, even Microsoft appears to be gearing up to support Linux in the cloud — sort of. The specifics: Microsoft is preparing to “enable” Linux to run on Windows Azure — though it doesn’t sound like Microsoft will officially offer “support” for Linux on Windows Azure.

The Linux-on-Windows-Azure chatter comes from All About Microsoft, the popular blog penned by Mary Jo Foley. Her sources have been solid over the years; I trust Foley’s reporting.

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