Practical Technology

for practical people.

April 26, 2010
by sjvn01
6 Comments

Android and Linux are growing back together

Google’s Android, the increasingly important embedded Linux, has had one major problem. It had been moving slowly away from the Linux mainstream. Now, after the recent Linux Foundation Collaboration Conference, Android and Linux are coming back together.

Not only is Google going to be hiring two new Android developers to work closer with the Linux kernel development team, they’re also working on re-merging its driver code with Linux. Indeed, the first series of driver patches that will bring Android and Linux back into alignment have already arrived.

The drift between Android and Linux first came to light as Ryan Paul noted last year when he wrote that “Google engineer Patrick Brady stated unambiguously that Android is not Linux.” Indeed, Brady had said that, but that was an over-statement.

Android is Linux. To be exact, its latest version, 2.1, Éclair, runs on the 2.6.29 Linux kernel. Its userspace, however, instead of being based on the various desktop Linux software frameworks such as GTK+, commonly used in the GNOME desktop or Qt, which is the basis of the KDE desktop is built on top of Dalvik. This is a Google designed custom JVM (Java virtual machine). While this means that using conventional desktop Linux API (application programming interfaces) or porting ordinary desktop Linux programs to Android is very difficult it hardily disqualified Android from being Linux.

No, what was far more troubling was that Google’s engineers were no longer sharing their device driver code with Linux’s development community. This led Linus Torvalds to drop these drivers from the main Linux kernel.

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April 23, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Ubuntu would welcome Adobe to Linux

I recently suggested that, given Apple and Adobe’s growing war over iPad and iPhone applications, it would make sense for Adobe to move not only its end-user applications, but its Creative Suite development stack to Linux. While I don’t know if Adobe is considering it, Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu Linux, would welcome Adobe.

Gerry Carr, Canonical’s marketing manager told me that “in a recent survey we did of the Ubuntu User base where we got 32,000 plus responses, Adobe Photoshop as a potential application for Ubuntu got a 3.52 rating out of 5 being the second most popular potential app after Skype.”

That doesn’t come as any surprise to me. Photoshop has long topped the list of most wanted proprietary programs on Linux users’ wish list. You may be wondering why this is so since Linux already has GIMP (Gnu Image Manipulation Program), which is also a very strong image editing program.

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April 21, 2010
by sjvn01
0 comments

Hey Adobe, Dump Apple, Go Linux

Who can blame Adobe for being ticked off? They wanted a slice of the lucrative Apple iPad/iPhone application business, and Apple won’t let Adobe applications, or even Flash, on either platform. So, first Adobe started cussing Apple out, then Adobe started thinking about suing Apple, and, now, they’re talking about abandoning the iPad/iPhone platforms. That’s lame. Apple’s already told Adobe that they’re not welcome. I have a better idea. Forget about Apple, go Linux instead.

Mike Chambers, the principal product manager for developer relations for Adobe’s Flash, has already suggested that Flash developers start working Google’s Linux-based Android operating system “The iPhone isn’t the only game in town,” said Chambers.

Exactly. There are at least a dozen Linux-powered iPad clones on their way to market, and most of the early ones appear to be using Android. In addition, there are already popular Android-powered smartphones like Motorola’s Droid. There’s money to be made in tablets and smartphones that has nothing to with either iPads or iPhones.

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April 21, 2010
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Craigslist Scams

I spend so much of my time on computer and Internet security issues that I sometime forget that good old-fashioned scams are part and parcel of the dangers of being online as well. I was reminded of that when a Washington, DC area friend called me recently to ask if she should provide credit card information online for a Craigslist’s apartment rental. I checked it out, and boy, am I glad I did.

I called the contact info for the rental listing, and asked why they needed her credit card information. After fumbling for an answer like a five-year old trying to explain why the cookie jar was empty for a few minutes, they hung up. Further checking revealed that the ‘rental’ apartment was already happily occupied by its owner.

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April 20, 2010
by sjvn01
5 Comments

HP and Likewise to release Linux-based storage line

Many people use Linux every day in their homes and offices and never realize it. That’s because they’re using NAS (network attached storage) devices, like the D-Link DNS-323, and almost these drives run Linux and Samba. Now, HP has partnered with Likewise to bring plug-and-play Linux file servers to mid-size and enterprise businesses

These HP StorageWork servers will use Likewise-CIFS, a high-performance, commercially-supported Windows-compatible file server, and Likewise Identity Service. Likewise-CIFS started as a commercially supported Samba, but is now a CIFS (Common Internet File System) server in its own right. Likewise Identity Service is an Active Directory bridge technology providing authentication of non-Windows systems to Microsoft’s AD (Active Directory).

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April 19, 2010
by sjvn01
2 Comments

Could OS/2 come back from the grave?

OK, hands up, who, like me, was a one time IBM OS/2 user? What? You don’t know OS/2? It was IBM, and briefly, Microsoft’s 32-bit server and desktop operating system that was going to change the world. Then, Bill Gates decided that he’d do better by going it on his own with some operating system called Windows. We all know what the result of that decision was even if you’ve never heard of OS/2.

If you did miss it, that’s something of a pity since it was a fun, remarkably stable and secure operating system that was a real challenger to Windows. Now, after years of soldering on as an obscure spin-off operating system, EcomStation there are rumors that IBM might bring OS/2 back from the dead. Could they? Should they!?

In its day, OS/2 was great. Back in 1993, for example, when I was a contributing editor at Computer Shopper, we decided that OS/2 2.1 was the best operating system over such competition as the newly minted UnixWare, Windows NT, Solaris, and NeXTStep. So what happened?

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