Practical Technology

for practical people.

November 5, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Ubuntu LXD: Not a Docker replacement, a Docker enhancement

PARIS — Sometimes it seems that Canonical, Ubuntu‘s parent company, can’t win for losing. Often accused of trying to force other open-source groups to follow their lead by keeping projects internal until they feel it’s ready to be shared with others, when Ubuntu announced its intention to build LXD, a hypervisor for containers at the OpenStack Summit, the company was immediately accused of announcing vaporware (!); of shoving LXD down other programmers’ throats; and of trying to replace Docker.

Please!

I spoke with Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical and Ubuntu’s founder, and Dustin Kirkland, Canonical’s product manager, at the conference, and here’s really what’s going on with LXD.

Ubuntu LXD: Not a Docker replacement, a Docker enhancement. More>

November 5, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Fedora 21 beta finally arrives

It’s a bit late, but the Fedora 21 betais now out and ready to download.

Previously, Fedora was first and foremost a desktop distribution that also contained server elements. If all went well, the new features introduced in Fedora would eventually appear in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). This go-around, there are three Fedora spins: one for the cloud, one for the server, and one for the workstation.

Fedora 21 beta finally arrives. More>

October 15, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Sexism is alive and well in the tech world

When I first heard what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had said at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing, I assumed it had been misreported.

Yeah, I know, me giving a Microsoft honcho the benefit of the doubt! What is the world coming to?

But it was difficult to believe that Nadella, when asked what advice he would offer women who are not comfortable asking for pay raises, would tell his audience of mostly technically savvy women, “It’s not really about asking for a raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will give you the right raise.”

Sexism is alive and well in the tech world. More>

October 3, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

A shout out for the introverts

Developers like to think they’re extroverted. Chances are they’re not. A recent IDG study, Introverts vs. Extroverts: Is There an IT Personality?, found that just over half of IT workers are introverts. Only those engineers who mistakenly think they’re extroverted would find that surprising.

Now, before you take offense, to say that most IT workers are introverts (as defined by HR’s favorite personality inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or MBTI) isn’t to say that they are the stereotypical computer nerd.

You know the stereotype I mean: An extremely bright, badly dressed, pudgy man with all the social graces of a bad-tempered alligator, who plays Dungeons and Dragons twice a week, can recite Monty Python skits and Star Wars scenes from memory, and can passionately argue that vi is better than EMACS and that only lusers run Linux since FreeBSD is the one true geek operating system.

A shout out for the introverts. More>

September 23, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

To Cloud or Not to Cloud: Answering the CIO’s Top 5 Questions

Yes, storing information in the cloud can be scary. Just ask Jennifer Lawrence! But, just because bad password management can open the door to both personal and corporate secrets doesn’t mean that your CIO should reject the cloud as a data repository.

There are many good reasons why you should invest in the corporate cloud.

Let’s start with item zero: Security isn’t a problem specific to the cloud. Security is a human problem.

To Cloud or Not to Cloud: Answering the CIO’s Top 5 Questions. More>

September 18, 2014
by sjvn01
0 comments

Microsoft heads back to the desktop

Microsoft has flopped on smartphones and tablets. At the same time, its Windows 8.x has continued to be such an abject failure, with a mere 13.4% share of the PC market, that it’s trailing even legendary fiasco Vista in market acceptance.

So what’s Microsoft to do?

Why, go back to its old playbook and kill profits entirely in the hope of regaining market share. Back in 2009 when Linux-powered netbooks were cutting into Windows’ market share, Microsoft brought back XP Home and almost gave it away. Simultaneously, Microsoft pushed Windows 7 out the door as fast as possible to replace Vista.

Microsoft heads back to the desktop. More>