Practical Technology

for practical people.

April 7, 2011
by sjvn01
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Yahoo: The Linux Company

San Francisco–If you know anything about big companies that run Linux, you know Google runs on Linux. Yes, every time you do a Google search you are, in one sense, a Linux user. What far fewer people know is that Yahoo is also a Linux company. Today, at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit, Sven Dummer, Director of Linux engineering at Yahoo!, explained that 75% of Yahoo’s Web sites and services run on Linux. The rest? It runs on FreeBSD.

While Yahoo isn’t as big as it used to be, it still, according to Dummer, has 100,000s of servers, 640-million users, and over a 1 billion visits a months. According to Netcraft’s list of the most popular Web sites in the world, that’s still good enough to put Yahoo in as the 13th most popular Web site on the globe, or the fourth if you count all the international Google sites as one. In other words, Yahoo is still a player.

So what does Yahoo use? Well, Dummer explained, “Yahoo has its own Linux distribution, YLinux, targeted for out specific needs. It’s based on Red Hat’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL). Yes, that’s right Yahoo is another Red Hat customer helping Red Hat become a billion dollar company.

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April 6, 2011
by sjvn01
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20 Years of Linux down, and the best is yet to come

San Francisco–Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, speaking from a wheelchair, opened the 2011 Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. This meeting Zemlin said, was for the “leaders of Linux.”

The leaders of Linux aren’t ready to declare victory over Microsoft, Zemlin told me before the presentation, but “We’re beyond the obsession with Microsoft.”

In his presentation, Zemlin amply demonstrated why Linux vendors, developers and users are looking far beyond Microsoft. Zemlin who had had a nasty ski accident, opened his presentation with a clever video celebrating 20-years of Linux history.

From there, Zemlin pointed out that Linux runs everything from air traffic control systems to infotainment systems to nuclear submarines. Linux also powers the $10-billion CERN super collider, the special effects in Avatar. Zemlin also pointed out that Linux-powered stock markets now trade “72% of the world’s equity trades in 2010.” This, I might add, was before the London Stock Exchange went to Linux earlier this year. And of course, there’s been a “complete inversion” in supercomputing. In ten years, the top 500 supercomputers have switched from 96% Unix to 96% Linux.

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April 6, 2011
by sjvn01
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Beyond Ubuntu CDs, Ubuntu Devices?

For years, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, has given away CDs of its Linux operating system to anyone who wanted them. That’s given away as in free, no cost, nada. But, all goods things must come to an end.

As Gerry Carr, Canonical’s Head of Platform Marketing, wrote on an Ubuntu blog, “It’s with some regret that we are announcing the end of the ShipIt Programme and the CD distributor programme. When we started ShipIt in 2005 broadband was still a marketing promise even in the most connected parts of the most developed nations. We knew that this represented a significant stumbling block to the adoption of a new technology like Ubuntu. So we invested in making the CDs free and freely delivered to anywhere in the world. Since then we have shipped millions of CDs to every country in the world and brought Ubuntu into the lives of millions of individuals, we hope making them a little better.”

April 4, 2011
by sjvn01
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The new Ubuntu Desktop: Unity

When Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu announced that the next version of the popular Linux, Ubuntu 11.04, would use Unity, instead of GNOME as its default desktop interface he shocked the Linux desktop community. Now, with the release of the Ubuntu 11.04 beta, we can get a real look at Unity.

Before going into that though, let me answer the question of why Ubuntu has decided to move from pure GNOME to the GNOME-based Unity. As Shuttleworth explained to the Ubuntu developers, “Lots of people are already committed to Unity–the community, desktop users, developers, and platform and hardware vendors.” In particular, he noted, “Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) favor Unity. They’re happy to ship it.”

That last part is important. Shuttleworth has told me that Dell, which he said had sold several million Ubuntu desktops, laptops, and netbooks, supports the project. In addition, Canonical has desktop deals in place with Lenovo and Acer. These arrangements may lead to these, and other, major PC OEMs finally releasing Ubuntu desktops in the U.S and European markets.

In short, Unity is Shuttleworth, and Ubuntu’s attempt, to capture not just a bigger share of the now stagnant desktop market. Its Ubuntu’s shot at capturing a lion’s share of the netbook, desktop, tablet, and smartphone markets. The master idea is that users, and OEMs, will want one interface for all user devices. Or, as Shuttleworth put it, “There will be no fault-line for OEMs between desktops.”

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April 4, 2011
by sjvn01
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Tethering Thief Nonsense

My ZDNet comrade James Kendrick argues that if you tether–use your 3G or 4G phone as a Wi-Fi hotspot without permission–that you’re a thief. Please. No. Just no.

When AT&T can charge users who have jail-broken their phones, such as an iPhone, to use them as mobile potshots, with a tethering fee, I don’t see how that turns such users into thieves. At the end of the day, they’re still stuck with the bill.

As a lawyer friend of mine put it, “The fact that it may be violation of the Terms of Service is merely a contractual breach; it’s not necessarily ‘illegal’ to jailbreak a phone or to use it as a hotspot, never mind calling it ‘thief.’”

Indeed, if I were going to throw the word ‘thief’ around, I think charging an additional a $20-$30 monthly fee for mobile hotspot service is the real thief here.

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April 3, 2011
by sjvn01
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In the Cloud

Cloud computing’s silver lining is that it helps law firms cut IT costs while requiring minimal in-house technology expertise. Now, thanks to web-based applications, even small firm practitioners can have the equivalent of BigLaw IT services. Caveat: To protect confidential client data, buyers need to choose vendors carefully.

The concept of cloud computing is simple. Instead of licensing, installing, and maintaining software, legal professionals access web-based versions of the applications. It’s also known as SaaS, for “software-as-a-service.” The vendor, not the firm, maintains the program online, and keeps it updated and running.

Though trendy, cloud computing isn’t new — it’s just the latest nickname for what was called application service providers about a decade ago. But ASP never really took hold in the legal community, primarily because of slow and expensive connectivity. That’s solved by today’s fast and inexpensive internet access.

There are, of course, many cloud-based general business software systems that a small firm can use to run its daily operations. These include software for word processing, e-mail, contact management, and presentations — such as Microsoft Office Live Small Business, Google Apps for Business, IBM LotusLive Symphony, and Zoho Business. Need online document storage? Choices include Amazon Simple Storage Service, Dropbox, and Nasuni, among others, and you can stop paying fees to house all those bankers’ boxes.

But when it comes to managing the practice of law, firms that want to move to the cloud will want practice management tools that are tailored just for our profession. Many vendors now target solo practitioners and small firms — among the offerings are LexisNexis’ Firm Manager, Rocket Matter’s and RealPractice’s namesake systems, World Software’s Worldox GX2, Themis Solution’s Clio, and HoudiniEsq.com from LogicBit. Typically, these offer secure, encrypted services that include personal and firmwide calendars, document tracking and templates, task scheduling, contact management, time tracking, billing, and invoicing systems, marketing tools — and the ability to generate a variety of reports. All offer a dashboard — a summary home page that helps users see a snapshot of their appointments, matters, tasks, etc. (See examples on lawtechnologynews.com.)

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