As with all big conferences, LinuxWorld Boston earlier this year had a few
broad themes that you couldn't help be exposed to just by walking the floor.
One that caught me by surprise was the excitement around thin client Linux.
At first I attributed it to a combination of the big vendors pushing blade
computing and the malaise that had developed around desktop Linux. For the
past few years the battle cry had been "This is the year of Linux on the
desktop." Linus Torvalds himself made the assertion in a few interviews.
Well...Windows hasn't been crushed in an avalanche of Linux adoption on the
desktop. I personally believe that desktop Linux is going to be less of an
avalanche and more like the buildup of sand on the beach - gradual, constant,
and imperceptible to the casual onlooker. The lack of widespread adoption
however had people like Jeremy White of Codeweavers... (more)
Over the last few years, we've seen and heard some pretty visceral reactions
from the Linux community to Microsoft-funded reports about Linux. Rightfully
so - some of the "facts" in Microsoft's "Get the Facts" campaign have been
outright false and most have been misleading at the very least.
Perhaps no studies have drawn more ire from the Linux community than the
total cost of ownership ("TCO") studies by Laura DiDio at the Yankee Group
and the community also had a strong collective outcry against some very
one-sided Microsoft "facts" about Linux security.
But one particular foca... (more)
For the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC), using technology to
further the education of its 21,000 graduate and undergraduate students is
nothing new.
In 1983, UNCC became the first U.S. university to electronically categorize
its library, and for the past 10 years the school has offered numerous degree
programs online.
A benefit of this commitment to technology is that members of the entire
campus stays closely connected to each other and to the community-at-large.
UNCC's 49er Express portal lets students access course information, grades,
registration, financia... (more)
Customers have high expectations that their software solutions have been
stress-tested thoroughly in advance for every conceivable combination of
events that might occur in production and that vendors who put out buggy
products are exposed quickly.
Unfortunately, inadequate infrastructure for software testing is said to cost
approximately $59.5 billion annually, according to a 2002 study, "The
Economic Impacts of Inadequate Infrastructure for Software Testing,"
conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. This cost
reflects, in part, the extra resources expen... (more)
International Data Corporation (IDC) released a study in December 2004 noting
that the worldwide Linux market for PCs, servers, and software will hit $35
billion by 2008. There's a general industry consensus that we're at the brink
of a major Windows-to-Linux migration. However, with all the high-level
discussion, there has not yet been much attention paid to the practical steps
of moving from a Windows desktop to a Linux desktop. This article serves as a
road map, outlining how to perform both a manual and an automated desktop
migration. Prep Steps: Advance PlanningIn planning a... (more)