Practical Technology

for practical people.

September 8, 2009
by sjvn01
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Microsoft’s latest Linux lies

If you can’t beat ’em, cheat, has long been Microsoft’s philosophy, which has lead to the Department of Justice and the European Union swatting them with restrictions and hundreds of millions in fines over the years. But, that hasn’t stopped them. In our latest example, an anonymous blogger who goes by GodofGrunts at OverClock.net, a site for people who want the fastest possible PCs, reports on his Microsoft ExpertZone training at Best Buy. What he ‘learned’ from Microsoft isn’t ‘exactly’ true.

Before I launch into this, here are some caveats. Microsoft ExpertZone is to help retail people learn how to sell Microsoft products. You can’t really expect to find fair and balanced coverage here of desktop Linux or Macs. I would, however, expect to find objective observations about both so that sales people can try to sell Windows without lying about it. I was disappointed.

I should also note that the guy who reported this is a self-proclaimed Linux lobbyist. So, clearly, he has an ax to grind too. But, we don’t need to take his word for it.You can see the ExpertZone’s screen shots fir yourself.

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September 7, 2009
by sjvn01
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Why the EU should block Oracle/Sun

Last week, I argued that the European Commission, the European Union’s top competition authority, was wasting its time delaying Oracle’s acquisition of Sun. Since then, I’ve heard from Henrik Ingo, the COO (chief operating officer) for Monty Program Ab, the MySQL fork headed by MySQL’s founder Michael “Monty” Widenius. He has a different take on the EU’s opposition to the deal, and I thought it worth sharing his viewpoint with you.

First, Ingo notes that “While it’s true that many use MySQL for free [under the open-source GPL license), and some even hack on the GPL’d source code, most of MySQL’s paying customers use MySQL under a commercial license which has nothing to do with Open Source. It is in this market that MySQL competes against Oracle and for those customers the GPL version of MySQL offers no consolation. This is the main reason why the EU is concerned.”

He’s correct; MySQL is a dual-licensed product. Anyone can use MySQL as an open-source program, but, to quote Sun’s description of the license, “OEMs, ISVs, VARs and other distributors that combine and distribute commercially licensed software with MySQL software and do not wish to distribute the source code for the commercially licensed software under version 2 of the GNU General Public License (the “GPL”) must enter into a commercial license agreement with Sun.”

This is a different model than that say used by Red Hat. Anyone can use the latest RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) . Indeed companies like CentOS and Oracle produce near-identical twins to RHEL and it’s all quite legal. Where Red Hat makes it money is with support contracts.

That’s not the case with MySQL,

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September 4, 2009
by sjvn01
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EU takes on Sun/Oracle

The European Commission, the European Union’s top competition authority, has opened an in-depth investigation into Oracle’s planned $7.4 billion takeover of Sun, and, until they’re done, it won’t approve the Oracle/Sun acquisition. Are you kidding me?

This is so wrong-headed in so many ways.

First, the commission’s reason for doing this, explained Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes in a statement is to “examine very carefully the effects on competition in Europe when the world’s leading proprietary database company proposes to take over the world’s leading open source database company (MySQL).”

On the surface that sounds good. But, if you know open source and you know what’s happened to MySQL you know it’s an argument with no merit. Oracle could kill MySQL the second it has control over Sun, and it wouldn’t matter a bit. MySQL’s code is already out there and anyone can reproduce, support, and improve it. Oracle can’t put the open-source genie back in the bottle. No company can.

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September 3, 2009
by sjvn01
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New Red Hat Linux’s top five features

Red Hat has released its latest version of its flagship operating system RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) 5.4 and there’s a lot to like in this new business Linux.

I’ve been using RHEL, and its twins, CentOS and Oracle Unbreakable Linux since day one, and I like them a lot for business server use. Of all these releases, I think RHEL 5.4 is the most impressive of the lot. Why? Well, I’ll tell you.

1) Baked in virtualization. This edition of RHEL incorporates KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine). KVM, unlike VMware or Citrix Systems’ XenServer, isn’t an add-on virtualization program. It’s actually part of the operating system. Indeed, as the name suggests, it’s built right in the Linux kernel.

As Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s CEO told John Fontana of NetworkWorld, “KVM makes RHEL Linux deployments look the same whether they are virtual or physical.” So, “All of those thousands of man years of work put into processes and management for Linux can be applied to virtual instances.”

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September 2, 2009
by sjvn01
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Even Microsoft wants you to get rid of IE 6

Internet Explorer isn’t anything like as popular as it used to be. Many users of Internet Explorer have moved from IE to Firefox or other browsers. In fact, in July 2009, Internet Explorer fell to an all time low of 66.6% But, even so, 24.8% of people are still using IE 6, a real contender for the planet’s most insecure Web browser. Come on people!

Don’t believe me? Would you believe Amy Bazdukas, Microsoft’s general manager for Internet Explorer then? Bazdukas recently said, “Friends don’t let friends use IE6.”

I’d say that’s a pretty clear sign that’s it’s time to get rid of IE6. Personally, I think Firefox is the best choice for most users. I can also recommend Google Chrome, and the latest version of Apple Safari.

On the other hand, I’m not happy at all with Opera’s security. But, some users think Opera’s security is just fine. I think these people are confusing security by obscurity with real security.

Be that it may, even Internet Explorer 8 is much, much better than IE 6. It’s a quick download and it works fine with any modern version of Windows.

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September 1, 2009
by sjvn01
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Linux powers world’s fastest stock exchange

Day trading is so passe. Today’s sharp traders make their cash by trading milliseconds ahead of the other guy. To do that you need really fast stock exchanges, which is where Linux comes in.

The Deutsche Borse Group manages the International Securities Exchange, an equity options exchange in New York, as well as the Eurex and Deutsche Borse’s own Xetra cash exchange. The Xetra stock exchange platform is also used by the Irish Stock Exchange, the European Energy Exchange, and the Shanghai Stock Exchange among others. It has long used Linux as the basis of these high-speed stock exchanges. Later this year, it is launching a next generation. The new trading infrastructure will use IBM WebSphere MQ Low Latency Messaging and Linux to make it the fastest stock exchange software on the planet.

How fast is it? A Deutsche Borse representative claimed that their Linux-powered exchange software can "easily execute more than a million trades per second, dwarfing even the mighty NY Stock Exchange."

This isn’t speed just for the sake of speed. The Deutsche Borse spokesperson told me, "As the financial markets continue their recovery efforts, the world’s stock exchanges — 161 in all — are in a fierce battle to win and keep clients by delivering what customers want most: the fastest, most secure and highest reliability trading possible. This has led to a technology ‘arms race’ among the exchanges who are using computerized algorithms to bundle hundreds of thousands of stocks into single, split-second transactions."

He continued, "Speed, or ‘low-latency,’ is everything for these exchanges. A fraction of a second can mean mega gains or losses to investors. Transactions that once took minutes and seconds to complete are now processed in thousandths and millionths of a second, with the fastest trading engines reaping the biggest benefits."

He’s not making that up to puff up his company. As the New York Times recently reported, this new high-frequency trading "enable high-frequency traders to transmit millions of orders at lightning speed and, their detractors contend, reap billions at everyone else’s expense."

The flip side of being plugged into a high-speed exchange is you can make billions. The NYT quoted Joseph M. Mecane of the New York Stock Exchange Euronext, another Linux-based exchange, who said it best: "It’s become a technological arms race, and what separates winners and losers is how fast they can move."

If you fall behind this race, you’re at a competitive disadvantage. It’s like running a race with one foot in a bucket. As the Deutsche Borse spokesperson pointed out, "for exchanges who lose the latency race, failure can be disastrous, as the London Stock Exchange learned last September when a much-publicized glitch in its Windows-based system shut down trading for a full seven hours, leading to enormous losses for listed companies, investors and the exchange itself."

What’s true for exchanges is also true for investors. If you’re not invested for the long-term and you’re trying to day-trade or invest in the short run, you’re quickly falling behind investors who use high-frequency methods on the high-speed, aka Linux-based, exchanges.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is leaving Windows behind. The exchange hasn’t announced yet what it will be moving to. If I might suggest that if Linux is good enough for the Deutsche Borse, the NYSE, and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, it’s good enough for the LSE.

Deutsche Borse’s new system will become the backbone for all the Xetra-based exchanges. The International Securities Exchange will be the first to make the switch. The others will then quickly follow.

The system itself is built primarily on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux). IBM’s MQ Low Latency Messaging is also an important part of the package. Indeed, according to Dr. Michael Kuhn, CIO of Deutsche Borse. Version 2.2 of this low-latency, high-speed messaging protocol includes new features designed specifically for the demands of high-frequency traders.

Don’t blink, but Linux, the "free" software darling, is what is powering the meteoric rise of the new world of capitalism. We’re in for some interesting, and very fast, times ahead.

A version of this story first appeared in ComputerWorld.