Linux

Linux has been called the poor man's Windows and the operating system for geeks. But regardless of its nickname, the open-source OS is slowly and steadily gaining steam on the desktop. It may not topple the Microsoft empire anytime soon, but recent offerings indicate that Linux distributors, hardware vendors, and developers are dedicated to making Linux on the desktop a reality. Distributions such as Xandros, Sun's Java Desktop System, and Lindows' Linspire are targeting new users interested in migrating from Windows.

Open Source Development Labs, which promotes adoption of Linux, said Monday it is putting in place a new system to better track and document changes to the operating system's kernel.

The group, which employs Linux creator Linus Torvalds, said the new system will require that contributions to the Linux kernel only be made by developers who agree to submit code under "appropriate" open-source licenses.

It's hard to imagine that Linus Torvalds could have launched Linux without directly using earlier operating system work, according to a report that has become controversial even before its scheduled publication Thursday.

The 92-page report, from a 14-person Washington, D.C., think tank called the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution, suggests more Linux credit should go to Minix. A Unix clone, Minix was designed by Andrew Tanenbaum at Vrije University in Amsterdam for the study of operating systems and software, which Torvalds used before he embarked on Linux development in 1991.

Dan O'Dowd, Green Hills Software founder and CEO, today issued the white paper "Linux in Defense: An Urgent Threat to National Security." This paper can be downloaded from http://www.ghs.com/linux/threat.html.

Novell Inc., which last year bought SuSE Linux and Ximian, is working on a single desktop product to ship before the end of this year. That product will combine the best features from both the Ximian desktop and the SuSE Linux desktop, both of which shipped last year, in a single Novell desktop that will have Novell support, training, channel, partners and global reach.

A lot of people have heard of GNU/Linux (more commonly referred to as just "Linux") and are having trouble finding out what the differences are between different versions -- or distributions -- that are available. This article will outline the differences between several popular GNU/Linux distributions and similar operating systems. In the tradition of Rabbi Hillel: standing on one foot, GNU/Linux is an operating system consisting of several different pieces designed and maintained by the world's largest community of software developers. The rest is commentary.

Even if your work doesn't require you to reboot your Linux machine several times a day, waiting for a system to reboot can be a real drag. Enter kexec. Essentially, kexec is a fast reboot feature that lets you reboot to a new Linux kernel -- without having to go through a bootloader. Faster reboot is a benefit even when uptime isn't mission-critical -- and a lifesaver for kernel and system software developers who need to reboot their machines several times a day. Kexec is currently available on the x86 32-bit platform only.

Operating system virtualization is popular technology these days. People run different operating systems on top of their existing ones not only for experimental purposes but also for production use. Many different virtualization systems exist. VMware, which runs on both Windows and Linux, may be the best-known proprietary example. It can host many operating systems from Win98 to FreeBSD and different flavors of GNU/Linux.

You can easily surf the Web and run a spreadsheet on a Linux-powered PC, but good luck if you want to balance your checkbook. The open-source operating system has yet to attract significant attention from makers of major desktop applications, such as Adobe Systems, Macromedia or Intuit, maker of the popular Quicken personal finance program. This lack of notice is a sticking point even for Linux visionaries such as Bruce Perens. "I admit it--I still have a Windows machine that I use solely to run Quicken and TurboTax once a year," Perens said.

After performing more security assessments than he can count, Gijo Mathew has seen every worst practice imaginable. He's even seen an IT shop replace virus-violated data with an unpatched backup that succumbed to the same virus. A security strategist for Computer Associates International Inc., Mathew has 10 years of experience in software development, computer technology, networks and security.