linux

Intel going mobile with Android?

Phone makers aren't the only ones interested in Google's Android software.

Of the 34 companies that agreed to join Google's Open Handset Alliance, Intel's decision to participate is yet another sign that the chipmaker is looking for alternative software to run on its Mobile Internet Device (MID) project. Most of the attention around Android focused on the mobile-phone market, and with good reason, as that area will be the first to get a sense of whether Google and its partners can actually make headway in this area.

But the world's largest chipmaker would still like … Read more

Dell [does not] drop[] Ubuntu in the UK [Update]

As Mark Shuttleworth just pointed out to me, Dell is still committed to customer choice. Communication breakdown, but not a Linux breakdown.

If you want to get Ubuntu on your Dell, you may be out of luck if you live in the UK, according to The Inquirer.

A call to Dell's marketing folk in the UK confirms Dell no longer supplies Ubuntu pre-installed. "It has been discontinued in the UK," a closed source said.

That didn't last long. Sheesh.

It would have been nice to inform Mark Shuttleworth, too. I asked him this morning if he … Read more

More Gphone chatter

I co-hosted the Buzz Out Loud podcast with Molly Wood today. Topic (suprise): Gphone. What else? Also covered: Why the Asus eee PC rocks and why the Foleo was killed too early.

ReiserFS programmer murder trial gets under way

The murder trial of Hans Reiser, the 43-year-old Oakland, Calif., computer programmer accused of killing his wife, is scheduled to begin Tuesday in what the San Francisco Chronicle predicts will be one of the most sensational local trials in recent memory.

Among the circumstances driving the likely media circus are Reiser's prominence in developer circles as the founder of the ReiserFS file system software available for Linux; the fact that the body of his estranged wife has never been recovered; and the national TV coverage, including a recent spot on ABC's 20/20.

Also fueling the frenzy are … Read more

Episode 598: Android overlords?

Linux without commercial backing = failure, says Linus Torvalds

Some developers think that free and open-source software would go along its merry way without commercial interest. Not Linus Torvalds. In an interesting interview, he suggests that Linux would have been dead on arrival had it not been for commercial backing:

Linux really wouldn't have gone anywhere interesting at all if it hadn't been released as an open source product. I also think that the change to the GPLv2 from my original "no money" license was important, because the commercial interests were actually very important from the beginning. The commercial distributions were what drove a lot of the nice installers and pushed people to improve usability. You need a balance between pure technology and the kinds of pressures you get from users through the market.

What we don't need, however, is the commercial interest of the kind Microsoft brings to the table:… Read more

Will Google fracture or unify mobile Linux?

Forgive me if I appear a little skeptical here about Google's Open Handset Alliance. By my count, it's the fifth consortium so far to attempt to craft something useful for mobile phones out of Linux and open-source software.

OHA has by far the highest profile, it's got the most persuasive list of members, and its timing is the best. What's not yet clear is whether the "Android" work of Google and its allies will unify or further fragment work in the area.

Rallying programmers behind a unified effort could help determine whether this effort will accomplish more than the Linux Phone Standard (Lips) Forum, the Open Source Developer Labs' Mobile Linux Initiative, the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF), and most recently, the LiMo Foundation begun in 2006. Related efforts one step removed include Intel's Moblin and, Nokia's Maemo, and any number of other open-source projects.

Just as with PCs, somebody has to write a "stack" of software spanning from basic operating system functions all the way through communication utilities, user interfaces and Web browsers. Unlike PCs so far, though, the mobile phone market has suffered from a profusion of incompatible software foundations, despite some efforts to use Linux and Java to bring some common ground.

This week in laptops

The Asus Eee PC grabbed plenty of headlines this week, as media outlets (including CNET Reviews) got their hands on the mobile Internet device. Our conclusion: it's the near-perfect choice for a second laptop. Also, CNET News.com's Erica Ogg attended the Eee PC launch event in Palo Alto, Calif., Engadget shared pictures from an Eee PC dissection, and NotebookReview has some ideas on how to hack the little guy. Given the Eee PC's approachable price and Linux OS, we imagine that more tweaks are to come.

We also reviewed a possible competitor to the Asus Eee … Read more

Red Hat and HP team up to secure the US federal government

Red Hat just concluded its Red Hat Government User's Conference, but it also announced an initiative with HP that will persist beyond the one-day conference: Multi-Level Security (MLS) Services for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

At the core of MLS Services is the fact that HP has achieved Common Criteria certification at the EAL 4 level with the Labeled Security Protection Profile (LSPP) -- certifications that mean HP, and now Red Hat, are can meet high-level government security requirements. Common Criteria certifications, for instance, are key government certifications that ensure a degree of security compliance against known criteria.

The expectation is that by raising the level of security in its products, Red Hat can lower barriers to open-source adoption.

While security isn't isolated to Red Hat Enterprise Linux (HP also supports Debian and SUSE), HP says that RHEL offers the highest level of security:… Read more

Linux CEO lashes out at Ballmer

After a chorus of peace deals between Linux vendors and Microsoft, it's almost refreshing to hear that some open-source companies still have fire in their bellies.

Fresh off seeing Microsoft move in at the last minute to grab part of a deal with the Nigerian government, Mandriva CEO Francois Bancilhon posted an "open letter to Steve Ballmer" in which he lays into the Microsoft chief for his tactics.

Bancilhon said that Mandriva was close to a deal, when Microsoft turned up the heat.

"I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that,&… Read more