Practical Technology

for practical people.

August 6, 2008
by sjvn01
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Ubuntu Goes Enterprise

San Francisco, Calif.—Ubuntu is well known in user circles as the cool kids’ Linux. It’s available pre-installed on PCs and laptops from Dell and from numerous smaller computer vendors. What Ubuntu hasn’t been known as is a Linux distribution that matters to CIOs and IT managers. Things are changing.

Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, is finally taking serious action on its long-announced plans to become a serious enterprise Linux player. The Isle of Man-based Linux distributor isn’t just targeting data center servers, although that’s on its list.

First, Canonical, along with Red Hat and IBM, announced August 5 at LinuxWorld in San Francisco that by 2009 they’ll offer a pre-load software stack of IBM’s OCCS (Open Collaboration Client Solution) to server and desktop OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). With this, enterprise customers can get Lotus Notes, Lotus Symphony and Lotus Sametime, as well as the distributor’s Linux. The plan is for VARs (value added resellers) and system integrators to brand the complete package under their own names.

“The slow adoption of Vista among businesses and budget-conscious CIOs, coupled with the proven success of a new type of Microsoft-free PC in every region, provides an extraordinary window of opportunity for Linux,” said Kevin Cavanaugh, IBM Lotus Software’s vice president. Ubuntu, which may well be the most popular desktop Linux, plans to use this general trend to boost not only its desktop sales but to push into the data center.

Malcolm Yates, Canonical’s ISV (independent software vendor) alliance manager, said in an interview, “A lot of our customers like the Ubuntu desktop and use it for software development. Now, they want to roll it out to the server. We want to make sure that, when they roll out Ubuntu on the server, they find it equally joyous.”

By this, Yates explained, “We want to make it as easy to install software on the Ubuntu server as it is to install the Ubuntu desktop. For example, we’re getting ready to release DB2 and Informix database management systems that come as DEB packages, which will install and do basic set-up with only a couple of clicks or a single command line instruction.”

In addition to databases and the IBM OCCS stack, said Yates, Canonical has partnered with Alfresco, an open-source content management system and maker of a Microsoft SharePoint replacement. The beta Alfresco Labs 3, its SharePoint server replacement, is available for download from the Ubuntu Partner repository. “When Alfresco releases Alfresco Enterprise Release 3 later this year, we will make the entire enterprise solution available through the Canonical Store,” Yates said.

Canonical will also offer Yahoo’s Zimbra Desktop Client to the Ubuntu repository this week, Yates said. Then, “When it is released in a few weeks, we will be offering the Zimbra Collaboration Suite 5.5 later this year, which will be a big boon for our corporate users.”

Last, but not least, Canonical will also be offering Unison. Unison is a combination desktop and server package that provides a combination of telephone system, e-mail and instant messaging. It’s designed to replace SMB (small-to-medium sized businesses) and department server PBXs as well as Microsoft Exchange. On the desktop side, Unison will run on both Linux and Windows.

Bottom line: Canonical is focusing its attention on delivering not just the traditional Linux edge server, but business software stacks ready to drop into SMBs and enterprises.

A version of this story first appeared in CIO.

August 6, 2008
by sjvn01
4 Comments

Back to Debian: Freespire returns to Debian Roots

When Linspire was bought by Xandros, everyone expected changes. No one expected Xandros to decide to switch Freespire back to Debian from Ubuntu but that’s exactly what’s happened.

Xandros, the Linux desktop company that supplies Asus with its UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) Linux,, announced that the next generation of Xandros community-driven Linux Freespire 5 will be based on the Debian Linux 5 “Lenny” release. Lenny is due to arrive in September. Freespire will follow sometime in the fourth quarter of 2008.

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August 5, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Would you buy a Microsoft-less desktop?

IBM, in partnership with Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu; Red Hat; and Novell are hoping that the answer is yes.

For me, that’s a no-brainer. Windows has long been more trouble than its worth. Since Microsoft seems to be seriously considering dumping Windows, it seems they agree with me. So, IBM and Linux friends are suggesting that you stop messing with Windows and go with a business desktop based on one of the three major Linux distributions and an IBM/Lotus software stack instead.

The plan is to put the Lotus Notes client, Sametime IM client and the OpenOffice-based Symphony office suite on top of your choice of Red Hat desktop Linux, Ubuntu Linux or Novell’s SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop). At the same time, on the server side, all three distributions will be offering pre-installs of the Domino Notes Server 8.5 and other IBM server software on their Linux server offerings.

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August 5, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Fedora on a stick

Fedora 9 now lets you create a bootable Linux distribution on a flash drive with persistence. In other words, you can not only boot any PC that will accept USB drive booting into Linux, you can even boot into your own personal desktop. Now, that can be useful.

Perhaps the easiest way to set up your own Fedora desktop on a stick is to use, believe it or not, liveusb-creator on Windows. This program gives you a straightforward GUI for creating Fedora desktop sticks. There is also a version of the program for Linux, but it’s still in beta.

Of course, you can also install the Fedora stick desktop with command-line instructions. I tried both ways, and while the Windows application is mindlessly simple, using the manual way on Linux isn’t going to task anyone with any Linux experience.

Either way you do it, you have the option of installing Fedora as a non-destructive upgrade, so if you already have files on a USB drive you can keep them while still turning the stick into a bootable drive. In practice, however, I found that I got better results by zapping the stick’s files and reformatting it. After all, it is just a USB drive. As far as I’m concerned, they’re meant for temporary storage.

I also found, although Red Hat staffers told me that you can deploy Fedora on USB sticks with as little as 64MB of storage, you really don’t want to do it with drives that hold less than 512MB. Officially, Fedora recommends that you use 1GB or larger USB drives.

The USB stick needs to be formatted in FAT-16 or -32 or the ext2 or ext3 filesystems. Most drives arrive preformatted in Windows’ FAT-32.

There’s a long list of tasks to keep in mind when creating a Fedora USB stick, including making a USB drive bootable and setting a master boot record. I ran into a problem that wasn’t covered though. I discovered that, for me at least, trying to create Fedora desktops on smaller USB drives or with older systems with USB 1.1 interfaces didn’t work. When I tried, the installation either failed or I ended up with a stick that would boot but ran as slowly as if it had one foot in a bear-trap. Once I moved to good-sized drives and PCs with USB 2.0 ports, creating the Fedora desktops went off without a hitch.

I also found that it was almost impossible to boot and run the stick-based Fedora on old PCs with USB 1.1 ports. On systems with 2.0 USB ports, however, everything went well. You should be aware though that, to quote the Fedora scripts page, "This may or may not work on your flash drive or your computer due to different BIOS settings and capabilities. I’ve tested several flash drives on several computers and the results were unexpected and surprising. Flash Drive A worked on Computer X but not on Computer Y. Flash Drive B didn’t work on Computer X but worked on Computer Y." In my experience, using recent Lenovo, Dell, Gateway, and Hewlett-Packard PCs, the USB-stick-based version of Fedora ran flawlessly.

That said, you won’t mistake Fedora on USB for Fedora installed on a hard drive. The system is fast enough to be useful, but it’s not as fast as native Fedora on the same system. On the other hand, I found it to be much faster than using a live CD on the same PC. And, of course, you can save your settings and work on the USB stick.

You can also install additional programs on your portable desktop. To do this you simply use Fedora’s usual System -> Administration -> Add/Remove Programs from Fedora’s default GNOME 2.22 interface. Once you’ve installed them on your stick, you can use the new programs just as you would any other application. This really is a full, no-compromise version of Fedora. It just happens to live on a USB stick.

Once you’ve booted a system with it, you can also use all of the PC’s peripherals. To make full use of a system that normally boots Windows, you’ll want to be sure to install NTFS Config. With this program, you’ll be able to read and write to Windows systems’ native NTFS hard drives. Once installed, you’ll need to set up the drive configuration every time you’re working on a new Windows PC. It’s easy enough to do: pick NTFS Config from the System menu and set the hard drive to read/write. You will need to do this by hand, however, and you’ll need to re-do it every time you switch PCs.

With Fedora on a stick drive, no matter where you go or what PC you’re using, you’ll have your own Fedora desktop already set up just the way you want it. Fedora 9 is an excellent, modern Linux; if you enjoy using it, you’ll enjoy even more being able to use it on almost any PC at hand.

A version of this story first appeared in Linux.com.

August 5, 2008
by sjvn01
4 Comments

What to expect in Debian 5: Lenny

Debian took a giant step forward recently towards releasing the next version of Debian, Lenny, by freezing the codebase. Now, the only major things standing between the next release of the popular Linux distribution are “fixes for release critical bugs” and “fixes for severity.”

There are several hundreds bugs left to smash before Lenny is released, but the fixes are already coming in. Unlike the last Debian release, Etch, which was delayed for several months by internal developer dissension, Lenny, however, has had a smooth development path. With any luck at all Lenny should appear, as scheduled, in September.

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August 5, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Five Things Linus Torvalds Has Learned About Managing Software Projects

Linus Torvalds needs no introduction in operating systems or open-source circles. He’s the creator, muse and chief developer of the Linux operating system. Torvalds started Linux while he was in college in 1991. Today, Linux is the foundation of multibillion-dollar companies including Oracle, Novell and Red Hat. It’s used on computers from small office servers and home office desktops to the New York Stock Exchange.

Torvalds does this by managing a self-selected team of over a thousand developers around the world, united only by a mailing list (the Linux Kernel Mailing List) and a source-code management system (Git). Torvalds herds Linux programming cats from multiple major companies, such as IBM, Intel and SGI, as well as the occasional stereotypical developer programming in a basement.

How does he do it?

Find people you can trust.

My personal guiding principle is that I try very hard to find people I can trust, and then try to get out of their way as much as possible. I don’t mean totally unconditional trust; but on the other hand, once somebody maintains something, he really should be able to make all the normal daily decisions.

Be trustworthy yourself.

I, in turn, try to make myself as trustworthy as I can. And in this context, “trustworthy” is a lot about not surprising people. In other words, it’s not some kind of fuzzy, feel-good Kumbaya trust where we all love each other; it’s more about the fact that people know my opinions and where I stand on things. While they may not necessarily like or agree with them all, at least they can trust me to be reliable.

Be honest—sometimes painfully honest.

Part of that, by the way, is not feeling shy about saying impolite things or showing some emotion. So I’d rather flame people for doing stupid things and call them stupid, rather than try to be too polite to the point where people didn’t understand how strongly I felt about something.

There’s the saying, “On the Internet, nobody can hear you being subtle.” Okay, so the saying is really, “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog” or any number of other things, but my saying is the “hear you being subtle” one. That’s because, to be blunt, subtlety or sarcasm simply doesn’t get through, or it may not translate to other cultures.

You also have to let the others get their say in.

Part of that, of course, is ending up having to sometimes say, “I was wrong.” That can be hard. But I make it easier for me by often writing my flames something along the lines of: “You’re a completely incompetent idiot, and I’m not going to apply this patch because it’s obviously broken and is a total piece of sh*t. And here’s why…” But then at the end I’ll include:

“And hey, maybe I’m just being a d*ck, and you can prove me right, so please explain to me why you did that horrible thing. Please? Hmm?”

This gives people the ability to tell me I’m being a d*ckhead and I was wrong, and that all the reasons I called them idiots were actually bogus.

Of course, it doesn’t happen all that often. Or maybe it does, and people are just too polite to point it out in public. Not that I’ve met all that many polite people in kernel development, but that’s probably because I’ve scared them all away.

A combination of bluntness and honesty leads to the best code ending up in Linux.

Anyway, the theory goes that it’s better that people know how you feel than then to be surprised by it later when you simply refuse to take their code. Or—even worse—if you end up taking crap code because you feel it’s too hard to call it crap and to tell them why you refuse.

Additonal Note: When Torvalds speaks, people listen.

What Torvalds didn’t mention is that many other open-source projects have floundered when they try to get everyone working in the same direction. While Torvalds’ methods may sound harsh, they have also worked for more than a decade.

One reason this is so is because when Torvalds is wrong, he’s willing to admit it. In other projects (not just software development projects), a refusal to ever admit fault decreases confidence in a leader and lowers morale.

Perhaps the most important reason that Torvalds’ methods work is that he commands enormous respect in programming circles. When Torvalds flames someone, developers listen to his specific complaints. They don’t dismiss his comments as mere insults or evidence that Torvalds really doesn’t understand their work. In other development circles, programmers might walk out; in Linux, the best developers stick it out, because they know that Torvalds really does know what he’s talking about.—sjvn

A version of this story first appeared in CIO.