Practical Technology

for practical people.

March 6, 2015
by sjvn01
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VMware sued for failure to comply with Linux license

In 2007, top Linux contributor Christoph Hellwig accused VMware of using Linux as the basis for the VMware ESX bare-metal hypervisor, an essential part of VMware’s cloud offerings.

Years went by and the Software Freedom Conservancy, a non-profit organization that promotes open-source software, claims to have negotiated with VMware for the company to release ESX’s code, and its successor ESXi. That way, argued the Software Freedom Conservancy, these programs would legally comply with Linux’s Gnu General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). VMware refused in 2014.

Now, Hellweg and the Software Freedom Conservancy are suing VMware in the district court of Hamburg in Hamburg, Germany.

VMware sued for failure to comply with Linux license. More>

March 5, 2015
by sjvn01
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Red Hat buys into Docker containers with Atomic Host

Not much over a year ago, few people knew about containers, and fewer still knew about Docker. Since then, the idea of building server and applications out of container-based micro-servers, has exploded in popularity. Red Hat has been watching this and now with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host (RHELAH) the company has its own operating system/container pairing to offer the business world.

Red Hat buys into Docker containers with Atomic Host. More>

March 4, 2015
by sjvn01
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Companies really want Linux-savvy employees and they want them now

Do you want a job in IT that you can count on in years to come? Then start polishing up your Linux skills.

According to the Linux Foundation and tech job company Dice, in the 2015 Linux Jobs Report, “Nearly all hiring managers are looking to recruit Linux professionals.” While programmers and Linux system administrators are in high demand, your chances of landing a great job are greater if you have cloud, security, and/or software defined networking (SDN) skills.

Companies really want Linux-savvy employees and they want them now. More>

March 3, 2015
by sjvn01
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FREAK: Another day, another serious SSL security hole

It seemed like such a good idea in the early 90s. Secure-Socket Layer (SSL) encryption was brand new and the National Security Agency (NSA) wanted to make sure that they could read “secured” web traffic by foreign nationals. So, the NSA got Netscape to agree to deploy 40-bit cryptography in its International Edition while saving the more secure 128-bit version for the US version. By 2000, the rules changed and any browser could use higher security SSL. But that old insecure code was still being used and, fifteen years later, it’s come back to bite us.

FREAK: Another day, another serious SSL security hole. More>

March 3, 2015
by sjvn01
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BitTorrent Sync 2.0: For all your business file-sharing needs

There are endless ways to share files between devices. Some of them are complex, ftp and Network File System (NFS). Some, such as Apple Bonjour and Windows Homegroup, work with only a few operating systems. Still others, like Dropbox and Google Drive, require you to use a cloud. Then, there’s BitTorrent Sync 2.0, which is easy to use, works with most devices, and doesn’t use a cloud.

BitTorrent Sync 2.0: For all your business file-sharing needs. More>

March 3, 2015
by sjvn01
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No reboot patching comes to Linux 4.0

With Linux 4.0, you may never need to reboot your operating system again.

One reason to love Linux on your servers or in your data-center is that you so seldom needed to reboot it. True, critical patches require a reboot, but you could go months without rebooting. Now, with the latest changes to the Linux kernel you may be able to go years between reboots.

No reboot patching comes to Linux 4.0. More>