All About Linux Swap Space

I have had another article published by the folks over at Linux.com. This one is about using Swap Space with Linux. It has some techniques that may help you better manage swapping on Linux systems and get the best performance from the Linux swapping subsystem.

Read it here: Linux Swap Space

Mandriva comes with a cutting-edge 3D-accelerated desktop courtesy of Compiz Fusion

Mandriva have just announced the 2008 of their popular free Linux distribution and it comes standard with a cutting-edge 3D-accelerated desktop courtesy of Compiz Fusion 0.5.2

Also included is KDE 3.5.7, the new GNOME 2.20, a solid kernel 2.6.22.9 with fair scheduling support, OpenOffice.org 2.2.1 and Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6.

Mandriva Linux 2008 is available for download free of charge at the Mandriva website. They recommend the One installation CD which comes with a full KDE desktop and application suite, NVIDIA and ATI proprietary video card drivers, Intel wireless firmware, Adobe Flash and Sun Java browser plugins.

Linux sued

After so many years of hot air, veiled threats and FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt), Linux has finally been sued. To be precise, Linux vendors Red Hat and Novell have been sued for patent infringement. Groklaw is reporting that on Tuesday, the two companies were sued by IP Innovation LLC and Technology Licensing Corp. for violating three patents having to do with windowing user interfaces.

Interestingly Apple has also dealt with these guys previously and recently settled out of court for alleged infringements over one of the three patents used in this case.

What will happen? Nobody knows. It would be interesting to gather a large group of industry experts and use an audience response system (which allows large groups of people to vote on a topic or answer a question) and see what people think will happen. One thing is for sure, this will be another long drawn out case like the SCO case.

Red Hat have an indemnity programme to protect its customers and recently Novell signed a big cross patent deal with Microsoft. Also interesting is that IBM are missing from the list (possibly because it already has licensed these patents for other products) or because it has the money to fight such a case til the death.

Bye, bye SCO

SCO Group, best known for suing IBM about Linux, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This was widely predicted even during the failed IBM law suit, but the timing as left some surprised as many expected SCO to run out of cash at the beginning of this year.

You can read more here

SUSE sales up, but Novell posts Q3 loss

Despite the losses Novell are keen to show that Linux sales are up 95% from the same quarter last year. Invoiced earnings for Q3 were $38m.

“We are encouraged by our Linux performance and the market’s continued enthusiasm for our desktop to data center strategy. In addition, we are pleased with our operating margin expansion and progress on our strategic initiatives,” said Ron Hovsepian, CEO of Novell.

You can read more here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/08/30/novell_q3_07_earnings/

Open source powering 2 new web directories

The great thing about open source software is the availability of many turnkey solutions. For example two web directories have recently been launched (www.glowdir.com and dirstop.com) and they both use GPL software from phpLinkDirectory.

Great!

Novell is not SCO

Following the recent confirmation that Novell owns the copyrights to the Unix operating system, Novell has told The Register that the company does not plan to start suing people for using Linux. That's SCO jobs!!! :-)

"We have absolutely no intention of using our Unix copyright ownership to attack Linux," Novell spokesperson Bruce Lowry told The Reg. "We've had those copyrights for the past 14 or 15 years. The fact that the court has reaffirmed them doesn't mean we're now going to change the way we operate. We've never indicated we would use those copyrights against Linux - and we wouldn't. In fact, we want to defend Linux."

In other news, I've found a great web site for free credit card processing.

THP

Custom NimbleX 2 RC2 has been released

Custom NimbleX 2 allows you to generate your customized Linux distribution by choosing what packages you want to have. It features over 150 software packages from which you can choose and support for over a dozen most popular languages.

The only requirements from the users are knowledge of English, a web browser (Firefox) and a CD for burning the ISO that was generated.

You can read more at Custom NimbleX 2 RC2 released and at the Nimblex home page http://nimblex.net

THP

Dewitts media helps get the message out

It is a fact of life in the 21st century that a web presence is essential for every business regardless if they are open source or not.

One company that can help with this is Dewits media. They offer professional website design, content writing, SEO (search engine optimization), directory submission, link building, contextual adversting and custom programming.

Even open source products need professional web design.

THP

Hi-Tech Squad hits town

There is a new posse in town, the Hi-Tech Squad

These boys mean business! Seriously the Hi-Tech Squad is a new blog about technology. Covering Apple, Microsoft and Linux as well as Webmastering, CSS and PHP the Hi-Tech Squad promises to be a great read.

SCO takes shot to the head

Bang! Bang!. US District Judge Dale Kimball has issued a lengthy decision about who owns the Unix ownership rights. The problems all started with some vague language in a 1995 Asset Purchase Agreement between Novell and SCO.

Well, now, Kimball has solved the matter for the companies. “The court concludes that Novell is the owner of the Unix and UnixWare copyrights,” he wrote.

Dell goes with Ubuntu

Dell recently unveiled two PCs (the Inspiron 6400n and the Inspiron 530n) for Europe with the Ubuntu 7.04 Linux operating system factory installed.

According to the Ubuntu site, Canonical will offer full commercial support for Ubuntu 7.04 on all of the pre-installed Ubuntu certified Dell hardware.

Way to go Dell!!!

THP

CentOS 5 is out

Recently, two years since its last major release, the CentOS project released version 5 of its enterprise-focused Linux distribution. I downloaded it and put it to the test, and found that CentOS 5 has maintained its tradition of robustness and reliability while adding new features like virtualization.

Read more at CentOS 5 is a solid enterprise OS

THP

Someone gave me a Mac with OS X

Recently a very kind benefactor gave me and Apple Mac running OS X... I must admit it is nice... It is very nice... But don't fear I haven't abandoned Linux or Open Source... Interestingly enough there is some great open source software for the Mac...

More soon,

THP.