January 30, 2008 | Comments: (0)
Renault in Linux deal with Microsoft, Novell
Microsoft will deliver more than 1,000 support subscription certificates for Suse Linux Enterprise Server to French automaker Renault, under an agreement announced by Microsoft and Novell on Wednesday.
Renault will receive priority support subscriptions to Novell's Suse Linux distribution. Renault plans to consolidate existing Linux distributions to Suse Linux Enterprise Server with the intent of improving interoperability and taking better advantage of virtualization, Microsoft and Novell said.
Through a 2006 agreement between Novell and Microsoft, Microsoft has purchased support certificates to Suse Linux, with Novell to provide the support.
“Increasing the presence of Suse Linux Enterprise in the data center, well-integrated with a Microsoft Windows environment, will enhance the deployment of applications and increase the competitive advantage of innovative companies," said Susan Heystee, vice president and general manager of global strategic alliances for Novell, in a statement.
“Customers have asked for solutions to make Microsoft products work better with other platforms and for IP assurance that enables vendors to build technical bridges,” said Susan Hauser, general manager of strategic partnerships and licensing at Microsoft, also in a statement. “We are pleased to provide this real-world, pragmatic solution to customers, such as Renault.”
The controversial 2006 agreement also included provisions that Novell and Microsoft not sue each other's customers over any IP issues.
Posted by Paul Krill on January 30, 2008 05:16 PM
December 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
The growing prominence of Linux in China is resulting in an industry event to take place there in February, co-sponsored by the Linux Foundation and Chinese OSS Promotion Union, the foundation announced Monday.
The Linux Developer Symposium will be held in Beijing February 19-20. The event will address desktop, server and embedded Linux opportunities, the foundation said. Speakers include Andrew Morton, Linux kernel maintainer; Coly Li, Novell file system maintainer and Matt Mackall, embedded expert and kernel developer. Also scheduled to appear is Jim Zemlin, foundation executive director.
The event is intended to educate and promote collaboration among Linux kernel developers and local developers in the region. Attendees will include local developers and engineers from companies such as Google, IBM, Intel, Motorola, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems.
The Chinese government is requiring use of China-produced software in government agencies, the foundation said. National government agencies using Linux include the National Ministry of Science, Ministry of Information Industry, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Statistics and the National Labor Unit, China Post, according to the foundation. The local government in Beijing also uses it on 2,000 Linux desktops, the foundation said.
Additionally, 140,000 Linux PCs are to be used in schools in the Jiangsu province, said the foundation.
Posted by Paul Krill on December 17, 2007 02:04 PM
December 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Linux Foundation adds IBM official
The Linux Foundation announced this week that Ted Ts'o, maintainer of the Linux kernel file system, is joining the organization as a Fellow and chief platform strategist.
Ts'o will contribute to technical efforts including the Linux Standard Base. The foundation said Ts'o was the first North American kernel developer and has been a pioneer in Linux systems and an original organizer of the Linux Standard Base.
Ts'o has been a senior technical staff member at IBM since 2001, where he worked on an enterprise real-time Linux solution. After two years at the foundation, he will return to IBM.
Ts'o currently serves on the board of USENIX and is the founder and chair of the annual Linux Kernel Developers' Summit. He also has been a project leader for the Kerberos network authentication system used by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Suse Linux and Windows.
Posted by Paul Krill on December 6, 2007 09:10 AM
November 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Novell announced availability Tuesday of Suse Linux Enterprise Real Time 10, which is an open source real-time operating system for high-performance, time-sensitive applications.
Enhancements include technologies that reduce system latency or delay and improve predictability. Among the improvements are CPU shielding and priority inheritance.
With this operating system, financial organizations can more quickly respond to changing markets and new information, Novell said. Application reliability and predictability also are improved with this release, the company said.
Suse Linux Enterprise Real Time 10 is available for a suggested annual subscription price of $2,500.
Posted by Paul Krill on November 27, 2007 11:23 AM
October 17, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Linux desktop survey under way
The Linux Foundation is taking its third annual survey about desktop Linux.
The survey is designed to pinpoint areas of user need. This will enable the foundation to focus development efforts and accelerate the adoption of Linux desktops and clients. The survey has been made available in languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Russian and French to foster broad participation.
The 2007 Linux Desktop Survey will be conducted from October 17 to November 30, with results published shortly afterward.
To take the survey, please access it at this Web page.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 17, 2007 10:05 AM
October 11, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Linspire desktop Linux offered
Linspire announced availability this week of the Linspire 6.0 desktop Linux operating system, marking the company's first commercial release in more than two years.
Built on Ubuntu, Linspire 6.0 adds licensed proprietary drivers, codecs and software in its core distribution to offer a better user experience, the company said.
Improved support for hardware, file types and multimedia is featured for MP3, Java, ATI, nVidia, WiFi and other technologies. Microsoft software is incorporated including Windows Media, True Type Fonts and Open XML translators, allowing the OpenOffice productivity suite to edit Microsoft Word documents. The suite is pre-installed with Linspire.
Linspire has a patent covenant arrangement with Microsoft, intended to foster interoperability between Windows and Linspire. But the open source community has criticized this arrangement as well as a similar one made between Microsoft and Novell. These agreements have been viewed by some as a concession to Microsoft.
Linspire 6.0 also features the beta release of the CNR Client for software delivery. This offers access to open source and commercial applications such as StarOffice from Sun Microsoft and CodeWeaver Crossover Office.
Linspire 6.0 is available for download for $49.95.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 11, 2007 04:45 PM
October 04, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Novell announced availability Thursday of openSuse 10.3, a version of the desktop Linux distribution featuring a Linux-Windows dual-boot configuration and an improved user interface.
OpenSuse 10.3 is a community-supported free version of Suse Linux. A retail version also is available, featuring documentation.
With version 10.3, users can install both Linux and Windows on the same machine and choose which OS to use. A one-click install option provides easy access to many software packages residing on the openSuse Build Service, Novell said. Version 10.3 also has Microsoft Office file compatibility with the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and advanced multimedia support, Novell said.
Based on the Linux kernel 2.6.22, version 10.3 contains the latest versions of the Gnome and KDE desktop environments, including a KDE 4 preview. OpenOffice.org 2.3, meanwhile, is included with version 10.3 and enables sharing of files with Microsoft Office users.
A new version of AppArmor, included with the distribution, protects the operating system and applications from attacks and viruses. MP3 support in the new Linux distribution supports the Banshee and Amarok media players.
Open source applications in openSuse 10.3 support application development, setting up a home network and running a Web server. The Xen 3.1 and VirtualBox 1.5 virtualization software packages are bundled within version 10.3.
OpenSuse 10.3 is available for download here.
Posted by Paul Krill on October 4, 2007 03:43 PM
August 08, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Red Hat exec leery of Novell Linux effort
A call by Novell's CEO for a standardized way to certify Linux applications Wednesday was subsequently greeted with skepticism by a high-ranking official at rival Linux distributor Red Hat.
During a morning keynote at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, Novell President and CEO Ron Hovsepian said Novell was working with industry players on a plan to streamline certification of Linux applications. Red Hat's Michael Evans, vice president of corporate development at the company, said afterward that liked the idea. But he expressed doubts about the effort since Hovsepian was involved.
"Personally, that he's the guy that did the deal with Microsoft, I'm suspicious of things he says," Evans said.
Evans was referring to an agreement forged between the companies in which the vendors agreed not to sue each other's customers over any intellectual property infringement issues. The two companies exchanged monies in return for these covenants not to sue the other's customers. Microsoft later alleged that Linux and other open source software violate 235 Microsoft patents, although the company has not detailed those patents publicly.
The Novell-Microsoft arrangement amounts to a taxation of Novell's Suse Linux software by Microsoft, Evans said. "It's a taxation because there's a fee being paid by Novell to Microsoft for every copy shipped," Evans said.
The majority of the open source world thinks the Novell-Microsoft deal is a bad one, said Evans. Red Hat will not do a similar deal with Microsoft, he said. Novell has said it makes more money on the arrangement than it pays out.
Evans also said any plan to standardize Linux application certifications must be "grounded in reality" and that the Linux Standard Base project has been productive in the area of standards certification. Other than Red Hat and Novell both participating in Linux Standard Base, Evans was not aware of any approaches by Novell about the application certification plan.
Evans also commented on impacts of Oracle's effort to lure Red Hat users to Oracle technical support services. Evans said the company still has partnerships with Oracle and that Red Hat recently reported retaining 99 percent of its support customers, with a lone holdout just delaying a renewal. Red Hat has no numbers on the amount of Red Hat users who simply downloaded the company's Linux distribution and then sought out Oracle for support.
Posted by Paul Krill on August 8, 2007 01:36 PM
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