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  • Zaine Ridling - Making the switch: My journey from Windows to Linux >> Part-01: My journey from Windows to Linux >> Part-02: Which Linux distro to choose? >> Part-03: First impressions and first problems after installation >> Part-04: The "User Guide" as life raft, more n00b problems - Part-05: Ten Great Ideas of GNU/Linux - Part-06: Software Management is not that different
     
  • APC Magazine's definitive dual-booting guide: Linux, Vista and XP step-by-step
     How to dual-boot XP and Vista (with XP installed first) - How to dual-boot Vista and XP (with Vista installed first) - How to dual-boot Linux and XP (with Linux installed first) - How to dual-boot XP and Linux (with XP installed first) - How to dual-boot Vista and Linux (with Linux installed first) - boot Vista and Linux (with Vista installed first) - Preparing for dual-booting by doing an image-based backup - Why Vista's such a pain to dual-boot - How Vista screws dual-booting nirvana
     
  • CIO Magazine online >> Windows vs. Linux vs. OS X - Windows vs. Linux vs. OS X: CIO John Halamka Tests SUSE - Windows vs. Linux vs. OS X: CIO John Halamka Tests Ubuntu
     
  • Linux Client Migration Cookbook, Version 2 -- A Practical Planning and Implementation Guide for Migrating to Desktop Linux - the goal of this IBM Redbook is "to provide a technical planning reference for IT organizations large or small that are now considering a migration to Linux-based personal computers. ... the overall focus of the content in this book is to walk the reader through some of the important considerations and planning issues you could encounter during a migration project. Within the context of a pre-existing Microsoft Windows-based environment, we attempt to present a more holistic, end-to-end view of the technical challenges and methods necessary to complete a successful migration to Linux-based clients."

  • OpenReports - "a flexible open source web reporting solution that allows users to generate dynamic reports in a browser."
    • It is based on JasperReports, a full featured open source reporting engine that has the ability to deliver rich content onto the screen, to the printer or into PDF, HTML, XLS, CSV and XML files.
       
  • freedesktop.org - "open source / open discussion software projects working on interoperability and shared technology for X Window System desktops. The most famous X desktops are GNOME and KDE, but developers working on any Linux/UNIX GUI technology are welcome to participate."
     
  • The Xiph.Org Foundation - "a non-profit corporation dedicated to protecting the foundations of Internet multimedia from control by private interests. Our purpose is to support and develop free, open protocols and software to serve the public, developer and business markets.
     
  • Annodex.net - Open standards for annotating and indexing networked media ... The Annodex technology will create a Continuous Media Web (CMWeb): a massively multi-user, distributed hypermedia environment that works in both streaming and disk contexts. Annodex is an open standards based technology that extends the World Wide Web's hyperlinking, searching, and compositing infrastructure to time-continuous data, enabling video surfing, searching for clips of audio and video files using ordinary Web search engines, and on-the-fly composition of a video on a Web server from previously annodexed clips.
     
  • ConsortiumInfo.org - a "comprehensive source of information on the Internet regarding standards, standard setting, and open source software, and on the role that these essential tools play in business and society.
     
  • OpenVZ - an Operating System-level server virtualization solution, built on Linux. OpenVZ creates isolated, secure virtual private servers (VPSs) or virtual environments on a single physical server enabling better server utilization and ensuring that applications do not conflict. Each VPS performs and executes exactly like a stand-alone server; VPSs can be rebooted independently and have root access, users, IP addresses, memory, processes, files, applications, system libraries and configuration files. (OpenVZ is a subset of Virtuozzo - a commercial virtualization solution offered by SWsoft.)
     
  • The Linux Desktop Distribution of the Future -- some thoughts into how a future Linux Desktop might work:
  • Is Open Source Really a Development Model? - "If someone offered to sell you a new car without a warranty (so feel free to tinker at will) for free in hopes to make their money maintaining the car, what would you know about the design of the car? ... What is important is to remember that you can't tell anything about software from how it's licensed.  ... You know nothing more about how well it performs, how closely it matches your requirements, how secure it is or frankly even what it will cost you to use it after you take everything into account."
     
  • Linux, outside the (x86) box - What is it about Linux that makes it so attractive for non-x86 platforms? ... Linux has become an attractive option for non-x86 platforms. The author examines the reasons for this, including the fact that Linux on non-x86 enables affordable, easy-to-do virtualization; provides for better reliability, power consumption, and extended memory support; covers the lower and upper ranges of machines, giving users options outside of the middle range; revitalizes older hardware; and drives innovation.
     
  • The Plex86 x86 Virtual Machine Project - "a very lightweight Virtual Machine (VM) for running Linux/x86 ... Eexecutes x86 code as-is but inside a virtualization container ... Linux requires extremely few modifications to make it execute within the plex86 VM, and can be configured easily to trim out unnecessary IO hardware and CPU support which would otherwise require a heavy VM."
     
  • Palamida - Intellectual Property risk management and compliance (to help mitigate the business and legal risks associated with third party component-based software development). ... "Putting someone else's code in your IP base can also leave you exposed if related licensing obligations go unaddressed. Off-shoring and global development teams make this even tougher to control."
    • Palamida IP Amplifier - automatically detects, manages and reports on the third party, commercial and open source components that may exist in a software code base.
       
  • Black Duck Software - "software compliance management solutions that help companies govern how software assets are created, managed, and licensed." ... "building on code from third parties injects business and licensing issues into the software development process — issues that can put software assets at risk."
    • Black Duck protexIP suite - to "enable companies that develop software using third party and open source components to catch and resolve intellectual property issuesas they occur in development, instead of in the market or in court."
       
  • The Open Group -- a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium, whose vision of Boundaryless Information Flow™ will enable access to integrated information within and between enterprises based on open standards and global interoperability.
    • The Jericho Forum - an international forum of IT customer and vendor organisations dedicated to the development of open standards to enable secure, boundaryless information flows across organisations.
       
  • Proprietary vs. Standard Solutions - Not Always a Clear Choice - is the standard approach always better, and proprietary approach always bad? The author finds this attitude "somewhat foolish and dangerous, for a variety of reasons. ... There is a tradeoff in choosing a proprietary solution over a standard one, and it is my belief that the pro-standards group often oversells the "standards-based" approach, particularly in areas that are technically complex and in need of continuing innovation. No one would question that standards can be sources of tremendous value, particularly by refocusing R&D efforts on areas in greater need of innovation. But premature standards can cause tremendous strife in delivering quality software ..."

  • Novell
    • Linux University for Developers - "a collaborative initiative by developers, designed for developers to share their knowledge on how easy it is to create software on Linux. The content on this open community site is geared towards showing and doing using flash-based, interactive lessons, rather than articles or lengthy documentation."
    • Novell to Linux a saver - Moving the entire Novell organisation to Linux and open source began a year ago and immediately produced savings in proprietary licence fees of more than $US1 million ($A1.298 million) across the global operations. There were also significant gains brought about by Linux's "improved security and robust system management capabilities". ... "Within a year Novell has restructured its entire IT foundation by implementing its own products on top of Linux. It has moved core services, such as Web and firewall, in addition to print and file services, to Linux, has replaced MS Office with OpenOffice across 800 data centre servers and 5000 desktop systems and reports a highly positive migration experience."
       
  • Linux University - a free community based educational effort started by the Nashville Linux Users Group to promote more effective use of Linux and the software that runs on top of it.
     
  • Linux appeal grows as applications flourish - Open-source operating systems will not spread unless users have applications to run on them. As Linux matures and customers more seriously consider adopting it and its cousins, developers are constructing programs that increase the operating system's appeal.

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  • SourceLabs - Mission: "to free customers from software lock-in, while providing the integration, dependability and support required for real world systems."
    • CERT7 system testing - dependability tests in seven key certification areas
    • Slew of Fears Slows Open-Source Uptake - difficulty in acquiring technology; concerns about licensing constraints; and a lack of integration, testing and support all contribute to the slow adoption of open-source technology.
     
  • Security research suggests Linux has fewer flaws - The Linux operating system has many times fewer bugs than typical commercial software, according to an upcoming report by code-analysis company Coverity.
  • e-fense (computer forensics specialists)
    • Helix - live CD for forensic esaminations -- "Helix is a customized distribution of the Knoppix Live Linux CD. Helix is more than just a bootable live CD. You can still boot into a customized Linux environment that includes customized linux kernels, excellent hardware detection and many applications dedicated to Incident Response and Forensics. ... Helix has been modified very carefully to NOT touch the host computer in any way and it is forensically sound."
       
  • Open Source and Open Standards - It's not enough to just have the software code be open source -- the standards themselves need to be open, too.
  • The Free Standards Group
  • Open Source Middleware ... Breaking the rules with open source and Open source's next frontier - Open source software, increasingly popular with budget-conscious companies, is beginning to expand into a new area: The lucrative infrastructure-software market dominated by industry giants such as Microsoft. Individual open-source database and other applications are already popular. Now two open-source projects have launched efforts to assemble "stacks" of software applications that offer an open-source equivalent to commercial software from Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, BEA Systems and others. ... Though it's too soon to tell just how much these new stacks will shake up the multibillion-dollar market for back-end software, it's clear there's a growing number of open-source alternatives to commercial software makers' most profitable products.

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  • Linux at IBM
    • Linux Executive Report - Desktop: the new Linux frontier
    • IBM Advanced Projects Team Uses iSeries Running Linux - The IBM Internet Technology Team lab is responsible for accelerating the adoption of advanced Internet technology applications throughout IBM. A part of the WebAhead unit, the team does prototype and development work designed to keep IBM ahead of the technology curve. Over time, the IBM eServer iSeries running Linux has come to play a major role at the lab and emerged as the platform of choice for several complex applications. The strength of the iSeries running Linux is the ability to create multiple partitions, and consequently run multiple servers on one piece of hardware. "Something that we were running on eight servers could be on one machine."

  • The $100 PC?  No Chance in Hell Without L - "It's quite hypocritical of Microsoft to call for a $100 PC, when what we really need is $10 software. ... When the world sees a $100 PC, it will be running Linux, not Windows XP, just as the first ready-to-use $200 PC was running Linux."
     

  • Reverse Migration: From Linux to Windows - Problems with application incompatibilities, poor performance, escalating support costs and an immature Linux ecosystem lead the list of complaints executives at two companies that have completed the switch from Linux back to Windows cited recently.
     

  • Open Source Technology Group - "OSTG sites provide a unique combination of news, original articles, downloadable resources, and community forums to help IT managers, development professionals, and end-users make critical decisions about information technology products and services."


  • Netscape Co-Founder Marc Andreessen's 12 Reasons for Growth of Open Source

    1. "The Internet is powered by open source."
    2. "The Internet is the carrier for open source."
    3. "The Internet is also the platform through which open source is developed."
    4. "It's simply going to be more secure than proprietary software."
    5. "Open source benefits from anti-American sentiments."
    6. "Incentives around open source include the respect of one's peers."
    7. "Open source means standing on the shoulders of giants."
    8. "Servers have always been expensive and proprietary, but Linux runs on Intel."
    9. "Embedded devices are making greater use of open source."
    10. "There are an increasing number of companies developing sofware that aren't software companies."
    11. "Companies are increasingly supporting Linux."
    12. "It's free."
       
  • Patents and the Penguin - "The software patent is viewed by both proponents and detractors of Linux as a serious threat to the well-being, and perhaps the survival, of the Linux community."
  • Government banks on White-brand Linux apps - Australian federal government agencies are developing their own open source-based applications and will make them available for re-use across the whole of government in the form of generic software application held in code banks (known as "White-branding").
  • the implementation of Linux open source code, along with IBM's prowess, is gaining ground in government around the world.
     

  • Six barriers to open source adoption - they provide a good framework for discussing the roadmap for open source software:

    1. Lack of formal support
    2. Velocity of change
    3. Lack of roadmap
    4. Functional gaps
    5. Licensing caveats
    6. ISV endorsements

      7.  
  • There's so much more to open source software than just Linux - "There is still a perception in many quarters that open source software is nerdy, techy stuff with plenty of rough edges. That is often the case but it is not always so. There is also a perception that it is immature software that is not ready for serious mission-critical applications. That is also not always the case." ... "Open source software is not the same as free software. It is not for everyone. It requires a certain level of technical expertise but there are many advantages. Your vendor cannot hold you hostage, and the software is much cheaper. But to use it in production you need support services, just as you do with any other piece of software."
     
  • Weighing the costs of open source MySQL database/b> - Figuring the costs of MySQL open source software is more complicated than you might think, especially because it's free. ... While MySQL passed performance tests, the IT staff at a credit card processing company became concerned that MySQL didn't have enough formal support backing it up. "The cost of ownership isn't just the cost of acquisition or maintenance; it's also the vendor responsiveness when you've got a critical issue and downtime. The cost of dollars to a company that has a database down can be staggering. ... The up-front cost savings for open source products didn't even out the long-running support costs. Implementing the open source binaries is a little cheaper on the initial purchase, but now you have to engage support contracts at levels that seem quite high. ... In the end, the managers were not prepared to jump to the unknown, who praised Microsoft's support and overall vision for its [SQL Server] DBMS."
     
  • ComPiere (an open source ERP and CRM solution) - "Open Source Solutions are advantageous if you have the skills required to maintain the application in house. When problems occur, you need to be able to tolerate downtime until a solution can be found. Sure, you’ll get some help from the community, but you need to be able to maintain the system in house for maximum efficiency."
  • Victoria IT leaders deem open source laws unnecessary- The Victorian government's newly appointed chief technical officer Tony Aitkenhead is standing firm and refusing to buckle to demands from industry body Open Source Victoria (OSV) to adopt ACT-style open source procurement legislation. ... "Open source is not excluded and each business area makes its own decision. ... The amount that could be saved by open source is definitely on the lower end of IT budgets. During procurement, any sensible person would look at all technologies, including open source, so it doesn’t need to be mandated.”
     
  • Linux vs. Windows: Who's More Secure Than Whom? - "So whatever your operating system, the real issue is not the software [distributor] company. The issue is how much time you have to deal with security, and how important it is to your company."
  • Linux vs. Windows: Which Is More Secure? - Forrester Research finds that both Windows and Linux can be deployed securely. Microsoft Corp., however, fixes security problems the quickest—which is a good thing, since it also has the most major security holes.
     

  • Sun Microsystems >> Throughput Computing and CMT (chip multithreading) - Sun is focusing on what's really important - not clock speeds or megahertz, but the amount of work a processor gets done. The result: computing power that will eclipse today's processors by a magnitude of 15 to 30 times. - Throughput Computing White Paper
     

  • Skipping Dot Net >> About Skipping Dot Net
    "Open Source / Free Software is better, more powerful, more reliable, and more usable than you think. And using it is the right thing to do.
    It is a near-term and long-term mistake for your business to choose closed, proprietary entries in commoditized areas like operating systems, database servers, application servers, office suites, graphics tools, programming languages, or email and instant messaging clients and servers. These and more are all already freely available, free in terms of both finances and liberty.
    None of these commodities are the things that give your business any competitive advantage: it is what you do with them, what you build on those foundations, that counts. What matters is the knowledge and skill of you and your staff. That forms your custom business processes, which can then be automated, distilled into custom software that lets you build long-term business advantage."
     

  • OpenGroupware.org >> Open source Groupware Project to compete with Exchange
     

  • Evaluating Time to Payback - Open Source vs. Proprietary development - Assess whether it would be more valuable to use proprietary software to develop new applications rather than an open-source development language such as Java. The key concern: The lines of new code his staff would have to create in each case. Will the proprietary software significantly reduce the amount of code your staff have to write and support?


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  • Wizards and Windows - Windows XP and Linux Go Head to Head, and the TCO of each is discussed

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