August 2, 2013
by sjvn01
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When Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, first announced its Ubuntu Carrier Advisory Group (CAG), it looked like only European and Asian telecoms were interested in Ubuntu’s smartphone pitch. Then, in July, Verizon threw its hat into the Ubuntu Linux smartphone ring, and now T-Mobile has joined them.
August 2, 2013
by sjvn01
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Google’s latest version of Android, Jelly Bean 4.3, has many good features. Under the surface, though, Google added five significant security features. On top of that, Google has added two other new features that work with almost all currently used versions of Android.
Android’s seven best new security features and one lingering security problem. More >
August 1, 2013
by sjvn01
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If you really want to make the most of a cloud, you need cloud configuration management software such as Puppet, Ansible, or Chef. With these, instead of your system operators sweating over management programs meant for single, standalone servers, they can spin off dozens or hundreds of server instances in less time than it will take you to read this article.
I’ve already talked about Puppet, perhaps the most popular of these development/operators (DevOps) tools. Chef may not have quite as many fans, but with companies such as Facebook, Ancestry.com, and big data powerhouse Splunk using it, by anyone’s reckoning, Chef is is a serious DevOps program.
Chef: Cooking up great cloud servers. More >
August 1, 2013
by sjvn01
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When I wear my IT hat, I like Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). With it you can easily and securely deploy complete desktops from servers to your users. Well, in theory, I like it. In practice, it’s often another matter.
I was reminded of why VDI drives me crazy at times in an excellent review of VDI programs by Tom Henderson and Lars Johnson. They found multiple problems that I’ve gotten to know all too well over the years.
July 31, 2013
by sjvn01
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Let’s say your business doesn’t have one bit of interest in sharing its internal code with the outside world. Does that mean that open source methods of programming can’t do you any good? Camille Fournier, Director of Engineering for retailer Rent the Runway, Apache ZooKeeper committer, and former Goldman Sachs VP, believes adopting open source software development methods can help even your organization.
At OSCon, the major open source convention in Portland, OR, Fournier opened her session, “Internal Open Source: Running internal projects with open source methods,” by observing that while “open source software is everywhere,” not all companies have adopted it.
“Most companies, big and small, have some code that is shared by many but owned by few. It may be in the form of useful libraries for common tasks like logging and configuration. It may be in the form of internal services that cross business functions,” she said. “Managing these libraries and services often falls onto the teams that originally created them, or on a core tech team that owns all shared software. This model has many drawbacks: slow changes, a lack of transparency for users, and a tendency to cause bottlenecks for other developers.”
July 30, 2013
by sjvn01
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Last year, IBM started investing more in Linux on its Power line of servers and now it’s doubling down on that bet with its new PowerLinux 7R4 server.