March 27, 2008
by sjvn01
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When Will We Get Our Own WiMax Links?

Wi-Fi networks freed us from having to wire our offices and homes. Now WiMAX may free us from needing any wired connection to the Internet.

If you want broadband Internet connectivity, chances are you use a DSL, or cable-modem-based landline connection at home or a T1, T3 or frame-relay at the office.

WiMAX technology promises to replace that last mile connection with a point-to-multipoint wireless connection in the same way that 802.11 Wi-Fi has replaced the wired LAN.

WiMAX, the commercial name for a variety of technologies that use the IEEE 802.16 standard, promises an open wireless standard that can deliver, in theory, up to 70M bps data throughput at ranges of up to 31 miles. As the IEEE is quick to point out though, those kinds of WiMAX ranges and speeds are myths. A more practical line of sight range might be 10M bps at 10 miles. In a city environment, realistically you’ll be glad to see 10M bps at a mile range.

However, to get away from the line of sight requirements, when vendors today, such as the recent alliance of Sprint and Clearwire, talk about WiMAX, what they’re actually thinking about deploying is Mobile WiMAX.

Mobile WiMAX is based on the IEEE 802.16e-2005 standard. This technology, in practice, should deliver 1 to 5Mbps throughput at a range of about a mile. Higher, burst rate speeds, up to its maximum of 40M bps, may also be possible.

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March 25, 2008
by sjvn01
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Vista Works! (After 16 Months of Trying)

If I know anything, I know operating systems. My first one was CICS/MVS on an Amdahl mainframe, followed by VAX/VMS, CP/M-80, TOPS-20, more Unix and Linux variations than you could shake a stick at, every version of DOS and Windows from 1.0 on to today. For sheer annoyance value, Vista takes the prize.

There have been far poorer operating systems. Windows ME is the Windows’ family bottom of the barrel, and let’s not even think about MS-DOS 4.01 shall we? But, nothing else except Vista promised so much, delivered so little and was such a pain in the rump about it all.

Still, after months of trying, I’m proud to say that I actually have a fully functional version of Vista SP1 running on a PC at last.

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March 21, 2008
by sjvn01
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Windows is caught between Mac and Linux

For the first time in ages, the sale of new PCs with Windows as a percentage of the PC market is declining sharply. The new winner is the Mac, but, while no one does a good job of tracking the still-new, pre-installed Linux desktop market, it’s also clear that Linux is finally making impressive inroads into Windows’ once unchallenged market share.

The Mac numbers are especially revealing. NPD, a global market research company, has revealed that Apple’s share of the U.S. computer market jumped to 14 percent in February 2008. This was up from 9 percent in February 2007.

In comparison to the overall market, U.S. PC retail shipments only grew 9 percent in units shipped and a mere 5 percent in revenue in the last year. Macs, in the meantime, saw a 60 percent growth in unit sales with an even more impressive 67 percent gain in revenue growth over the same period.

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March 17, 2008
by sjvn01
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Bear Stearns` Collapse Means Trouble for IT

Forget about whether we’re in a “recession” or not, the truth of the matter is the economy is in real trouble, and that means IT is as well.

Over the weekend, the IT world was transformed. Chances are you didn’t notice. No, Vista SP1 wasn’t released, neither was XP SP3, nor the beta of Ubuntu 8.04. What did happen was that on Friday, March 14, the major Wall Street bank Bear Stearns collapsed.

Bear Stearns has invested billions in two hedge funds that were built around sub-prime mortgages. Even as it became clear that holding onto sub-prime mortgages was like hanging onto an anchor, Bear Stearns decided to pour even more money into its sub-prime mortgage funds.

To put it another way, with only a pair of twos in its hand, Bear Stearns decided to go all in. They lost. Even on March 14, when it was becoming clear that Bear Stearns was in real trouble, CEO Alan Schwartz was swearing that the company would show a profit in the first quarter. Sure it was.

At the beginning of that week, Bear Stearns was selling for $70.28 a share. By Friday evening, it was selling for $30 a share. Over the weekend, with the U.S. government giving JP Morgan Chase a $30-billion guarantee it would make up any of Morgan’s losses, Morgan agreed to rescue Bear Stearns from bankruptcy for… $2 a share. For those keeping score at home, a company worth more than $8 billion Monday a week ago was just sold for $236 million.

Now, what does all that have to do with our cozy world of IT? Everything.

Everyone needs money to make money. Even Microsoft, if it’s successful in buying Yahoo, may need to borrow money. Now Microsoft can find a bank willing to loan it a billion here or there. What about your company?

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March 17, 2008
by sjvn01
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Biggest legal victory ever for GPL

For decades, almost no one challenged the General Public License in legal matters. In fact, no one has even dared to try to break it in court. That record remains unsullied as the biggest company to date–Verizon–that had been accused of a GPL violation opted to settle out of court.

The Software Freedom Law Center filed a copyright infringement lawsuit on Dec. 6 against Verizon Communications on behalf of its clients, the two principal developers of BusyBox. The suit alleged that Verizon violated the GNU GPLv2 by distributing Actiontec MI424WR wireless routers–which contained unsanctioned GPLv2 code–that were used with Verizon’s fiber-optic Internet and television service, aka FiOS.

On March 17, the SFLC announced that Verizon has come to an agreement with the SFLC and the BusyBox developers, which enables them to dismiss the GPL enforcement lawsuit. BusyBox is a lightweight set of standard Unix utilities commonly used in embedded systems. The popular development tool kit is licensed under GPL. Verizon and Actiontec violated the GPL condition that redistributors of BusyBox are required to ensure that every user of the code, or a device containing the code, must be provided access to the program’s source code.

In return for the SFLC and the BusyBox developers dismissing the lawsuit and giving Actiontec and its customer, Verizon, the right to distribute BusyBox, Actiontec will appoint an open-source compliance officer; publish the BusyBox source code on its Web site, and, according to the press release, “undertake substantial efforts to notify previous recipients of BusyBox from Actiontec and its customers, including Verizon, of their rights to the software under the GPL. The settlement also includes an undisclosed amount of financial consideration paid to the plaintiffs by Actiontec.”

“We are happy to have settled this matter in a way that upholds the GPL and the interests of our clients,” said Dan Ravicher, the SFLC’s legal director, in a statement.

“Actiontec takes great pride in providing innovative, quality products to its customers, while respecting the intellectual property rights of third parties,” said Dean Chang, Actiontec’s president and CEO, in a statement. “We appreciate the value of the technological contributions of the open-source community, and look forward with renewed commitment to working cooperatively with them.”

In an interview with Linux-Watch, Jim Garrison, the SFLC’s public relations coordinator, added, “The settlement also includes an undisclosed amount of financial consideration paid to the plaintiffs by Actiontec.”

A version of this story was published in Linux-Watch.

March 14, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

One-third of Asus Eee PC users to run Linux

It’s funny how some people are so stuck on the idea that Windows, and only Windows, is the one true operating system that they can’t even hear their own words. That’s the case with a recent news story with the headline, “Windows XP Will Fill Two-Thirds of Asustek Eee PCs.”

OK, I know almost none of you are journalists, but what’s wrong with that headline?

That’s right. You didn’t need to do paste-up classified ads for your high school newspaper to figure out that the news here is that Linux will be running on a third of Asustek’s Eee PCs. Windows being installed on PCs is no more news than “Dog Bites Man.” It’s “Man Bites Dog” that’s interesting.

So, the main news, buried under that misleading headline, is that Asustek plans to sell 5 million Eee PCs in 2008. Which — let’s do the math here — I think means that the Taiwanese company plans on selling 1.66 million Linux PCs.

Now, that’s impressive!

If you actually read the article, you’ll also see that the Asustek chairman said the company expected to sell 60 percent, not 66.6 percent, of its Eee PC line with XP. So, we’re actually talking about 2 million new Linux PCs landing in customers’ hands in 2008.

If Asustek sells that many, it’ll have sold more Linux PCs than all other Linux PC vendors combined up until 2008. That, my friends, is the real news here.

The company also revealed that in 2007 it sold 300,000 units. All of those systems ran Linux.

Take a look at Amazon’s list of top-selling computers. Earlier in March, seven of Amazon’s top 25 were Asus Linux laptops.

Need I say more? Well, actually there is one thing. There is one element of news to the original headline. Asustek is selling Windows XP, not Vista. Interesting, isn’t it?

A version of this story first appeared in DesktopLinux.

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