Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 11, 2019
by sjvn01
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Open source advances deeper into hardware: The CHIPS Alliance project

Open-source hardware is older than you might think. Sun released OpenSPARC in 2007, and IBM started OpenPOWER in 2013. OpenSPARC would die after Oracle bought Sun, and OpenPOWER remains largely IBM-driven. With the recent arrival of the RISC-V (pronounced Risk-Five), though, open-source CPU designs have finally caught fire. Now, the Linux Foundation is helping form the CHIPS Alliance project. CHIPS, in turn, will host and curate high-quality, open-source silicon device design code.

Open source advances deeper into hardware: The CHIPS Alliance project More>

 

March 4, 2019
by sjvn01
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CoreDNS: The DNS for cloud-native computing

I have a t-shirt which reads, from top to bottom: “It’s not DNS. There’s no way it’s DNS. It was DNS!” As every sysadmin knows, all too many network problems boil down to a Domain Name System (DNS) blunder. That’s already annoying, but when you have to deal with a DNS headache with fast-moving containers and cloud-native computing, DNS problems reach migraine headache levels of pain.

A double shot of aspirin answer to this pain is CoreDNS. This is a new DNS server that was designed expressly to be extensible, fast, and flexible. In short, it’s just what’s needed for containers and cloud-native computing.

CoreDNS: The DNS for cloud-native computing More>

February 20, 2019
by sjvn01
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The battle between real open source vs. faux open source heats up

On February 19, Redis Labs, the home of Redis, the popular open-source in-memory data structure store, announced it has raised $60 million in new financing. Redis Labs CEO Ofer Bengal told Ars Technica that one reason for this was its new “open-source” Common Clauselicense. “The community now understands that the original concept of open source has to be fixed because it isn’t suitable anymore to the modern era where cloud companies use their monopoly power to adopt any successful open-source project without contributing anything to it,” Bengal said.

Accept? I don’t think so. To quote, Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), “Give me a f***ing break.”

The battle between real open source vs. faux open source heats up More>

February 19, 2019
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu 18.04.2 refreshes this long-term support Linux distro

Do you want the best compromise between the latest and greatest open-source software and the stability of an established Linux? If that’s you, and you’re an Ubuntu user, then you want Ubuntu 18.04.2.

This latest version of Ubuntu 18.04, the Long-Term Support (LTS) edition, will be supported until April 2028. If you’re using Ubuntu in business, this is the one you want.

Ubuntu 18.04.2 refreshes this long-term support Linux distro More>

February 19, 2019
by sjvn01
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Next Windows update brings better Linux integration

One of Windows Subsystem for Linux’s more annoying tricks is it’s hard to get at your Linux files from Windows. Oh, you can do it, but you take a real chance of ruining the files. To quote Microsoft, “DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, access, create, and/or modify files in your distro’s filesystem using Windows apps, tools, scripts, consoles, etc.”

In the forthcoming Windows 10 April 2019 Update, aka Windows 10 19H1, this Linux file problem will finally be fixed.

Next Windows update brings better Linux integration More>

February 15, 2019
by sjvn01
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The EU’s new copyright laws threaten to destroy the internet

Do you like sharing your favorite music videos like Old Crow Medicine Show’s Wagon Wheel? Do you use Twitter to track news stories like this one about President Trump? Do you link to interesting stories on Facebook? Well, if the latest version of the EU Copyright Directive is passed by the European Parliament, you may not do any of the above. The directive will kill the internet as we know it.

The EU’s new copyright laws threaten to destroy the internet More>