Practical Technology

for practical people.

July 19, 2008
by sjvn01
6 Comments

Dell adds Ubuntu 8.04 to expanded Linux desktop line-up

As promised, Dell is bringing the latest Ubuntu Linux, Ubuntu 8.04, to its line-up of Linux-powered consumer desktops and laptops.

Starting on Friday, July 18th, 2008, Dell started offering Ubuntu 8.04 on its XPS M1330N and Inspiron 1525N laptops and its Inspiron 530N desktop.

That’s just the beginning though. Dell will also shortly be offering Ubuntu on its forthcoming UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) line, the Dell E series. According to a blog posting by Daniel Judd, Dell product group manager, Dell will also be offering its XPS M1530n and Studio 15n with Linux in early August.

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July 18, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

VMware exec says Windows days are numbered

Seriously.

In an ITWire tale, Paul Harapin, VMware’s managing director for Australia and New Zealand said Windows is already being replaced by virtual appliances running on Linux. In ten-years, there will be no more Windows.

OK. I know people at Red Hat who would say that that’s exactly what will happen. That’s right out of the new Red Hat KVM-based virtualization playbook. But, someone from VMware saying this? Wow.

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July 18, 2008
by sjvn01
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Is SCO finally dead?

Even though SCO has suffered another legal defeat, the company looks like it has enough willpower, if not sense, to keep its legal losing streak going.

On July 16th, Judge Dale Kimball ruled in favor of Novell in SCO vs. Novell and said that the maverick Unix company owed Novell $2.5-million for its Unix deals, and, oh, by the way, Novell, not SCO, really owns Unix. With no IP rights to Unix, it would appear that SCO’s lawsuits against IBM, Novell, and Linux were done. Alas, the experts say “no.”

Eric S. Raymond, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative says, “Sad to say, it ain’t over. SCO is already saying it’s going to appeal on a theory that it was entitled to a jury trial. Clearly, they think trying to get Judge Kimball reversed is an option.”

So far, SCO hasn’t officially appealed, but a SCO press release stated, “We are reviewing today’s ruling by Judge Dale Kimball with our counsel and will be assessing the next steps over the coming days and weeks. This ruling is an important step in our ability to pursue the appeals to try to get all of our claims heard by a jury as soon as possible.”

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July 16, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

SCO: The zombie flick’s final scene

You know zombie movies. You chop ’em. You set ’em on fire. You machine-gun ’em and they just keep coming.

They’re scary at first, but then, except for the very best zombie movies – Night of the Living Dead, 28 Days Later – the zombies get to be pretty darn boring. SCO, the zombie that wanted to gack Linux, had gotten to be really, really boring.

But, even the longest zombie film finally comes to an end, and it looks like SCO’s day has finally come to a close. On July 16th, Judge Dale Kimball of the U.S. District Court ruled in Novell’s favor in SCO vs. Novell.

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July 16, 2008
by sjvn01
4 Comments

SCO goes down and Sun’s in Trouble

The decision is in, and SCO has gone down in defeat. The U.S. District Court in Utah has ruled in favor of Novell in SCO vs. Novell, the keystone case in SCO’s long, and ultimately unsuccessful war against Linux.

The foundation of Judge Dale Kimball’s decision, that Novell, and not SCO owns the IP (intellectual property) rights to Unix, remains as solid as ever. Instead of showing that Linux violated SCO IP rights to Unix, SCO’s actions has lead to the revelation that it never owned the IP rights to Unix in the first place.

This, within the narrow confines of this trial, means SCO owes Novell over $2.5-million for its Unix deals. In a larger sense it underlines that SCO never had a leg to stand on its case against IBM and Linux.

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July 16, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Sun Set?

Sun has been a company in trouble for years now. Until recently, I was never really worried about it going under. Now, I’m worried.

Now, I have a love/hate relationship with Sun. I love many of their products like the SPARC workstations and much of the goodness in first the SunOS and now Solaris/OpenSolaris operating systems. I hate the results of their internal civil wars, which has made Sun shift like a snake in desert noon-day light from hardware to software company and from proprietary to open-source company.

I felt like I never knew which Sun I’d be meeting: the good Sun, the one that was open-standard and open-source friendly, or the bad Sun, the company that wanted iron-control over every product that it ever touched. I wasn’t the only one that was confused by Sun. With every switch back and forth it seemed to me that they lost ground.

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