Linux

Were it not for Windows' long-standing installed base and overwhelming market dominance, it seems unlikely that anyone would argue seriously for the merit of the operating system, plagued as it is by high prices, security problems and vendor lock-in.

Apple OS X, however, is another matter. Though certainly a minority, Mac fans are passionate and vocal enough to make it clear that Apple must be doing something right--whether that "something" has anything to do with the technology or not.

MeeGo is a light weight Linux environment designed to run on netbooks, smartphones, in-car computers, and other devices. The source code for the smartphone version of the OS was released a few months ago, but you still can’t actually walk into a store and buy a phone running MeeGo yet. A small group of hackers, on the other hand, are working on getting the OS to run on existing handsets including the Google Nexus One.

Oracle has spun a new version of RHEL called Oracle's Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel, claimed to be more than 75 percent faster at OLTP tasks. The Oracle-optimized Linux kernel was announced at Oracle World, which also debuted Oracle Fusion Applications, MySQL 5.5, new Java enhancements, and a Linux-ready Exalogic Elastic Cloud.

If you find that running Windows makes a GRUB 2-based system unbootable (Debian bug, Ubuntu bug), then I'd like to hear from you. This is a bug in which some proprietary Windows-based software overwrites particular sectors in the gap between the master boot record and the first partition, sometimes called the "embedding area". GRUB Legacy and GRUB 2 both normally use this part of the disk to store one of their key components: GRUB Legacy calls this component Stage 1.5, while GRUB 2 calls it the core image (comparison).

On June 17th, the X.org team was notified by Invisible Things Lab of a critical security flaw that affected both x86_32 and x86_64 platforms. The flaw deals with escalated privileges of a user process that has access to the X server.

Organizations that are interested in using open source in their own products but are wary of intellectual property issues might want to examine a new, mostly free, assistance program just launched by the non-profit Linux Foundation. The Open Compliance Program includes an assessment checklist, training programs and software tools to monitor open source software usage.

What defines an operating system isn't a geeky label or a collection of ramblings from the mouths of its community members. Nor is it some empty and pointless certification offered up by an obscure group of malcontented purveyors of "standards."

An operating system is a kernel, a supporting cast of programs, and a concept. For certain commercial entities, it’s also a marketing campaign, hype and profit. But, is the Linux operating system just another flavor of the Unix operating system? Yes. But, it’s also much more.

Now is a particularly good time to ditch Windows for good, for workstations as well as servers. For instance, now that Microsoft stopped supporting Windows Server 2003 on July 13, you'll need to find something different to use for your servers. Whether it's switching from Windows Server 2003 to 2008 or to Linux-based servers--or changing out tired and faulty Windows Vista desktops for the alien Windows 7 or something more user-friendly--Linux provides you with freedom and freedom of choice.

Do you remember a time when Linux was a niche OS? Beyond college kids and a few converted Unix nerds, Linux was something for hackers, Ham radio operators and ivory tower dwellers. No one would ever put a Linux-based computer into a data center. How times and attitudes have changed. Once known as the "little OS that could," today Linux could take over your data center. No bands will play. No tickertape will fall. And, no pomp or circumstance will surround the event. Linux will seep quietly into your data center through the "cracks" other OSes leave agape.

There are many things that are possible at a click these days, thanks to the services of the internet. But along with this, there are also a number of risks and crimes related to the internet that have now increased and one of the most serious ones is hacking.