Linux Solutions

PC and Laptop manufacturer Lenovo have entered the Server market with the focus being on SMB rather than the higher end enterprise products which their competitors focus on. The Servers come as either Tower or Rack Mounted and have both single and dual processor options making them a good fit for almost any size of SMB.

The new range of servers from Lenovo are named “ThinkServer” and comprise of the following model ranges:-

TS100 – Tower, Single Processor server
TD100(x) – Tower, Dual processor capable server
RS110 – Rack Mounted, Single Processor Server
RD120 – Rack Mounted Dual processor capable server

As you might expect there are many options available within the ranges including varying levels of RAID etc…

As the new Lenovo Servers are aimed at the SMB market Lenovo have made sure that they are certified to run both Novell SUSE Server 10 & Red Hat v5.x. It is good to see that Lenovo have had the foresight to include these certifications for their new range of ThinkServers. Although we haven’t tested them yet we believe that the servers will operate with other versions of Linux aswell (e.g. ubuntu etc..) which will open up the market even further.

If you are planning on adding a new one or two processor Linux Server into your network the Lenovo Range is really worth a look as they are well engineered, have a great range and are available at a cost effective price.

For more information on Lenovo Servers contact www.lenovo-laptops.co.uk by calling 0845 094 8895, they will be able to help you with information on the models available, special offers, pricing and installation services.

Ask yourself this: How many times have you lost, or misplaced your keys? I’ve done it more times than I care to remember, and I’m sure you have too. The problem, if you are one of the many people who need to have data on them all the time, was solved by the invention of thumb-sized portable storage USB memory sticks. I’m looking at my car keys right now, and my 2GB memory stick is sitting there attached to it, but until this point I’ve never considered the impact of losing my keys – and the data stored in it.

You’ve all heard the horror stories of people leaving hard copies of military files on trains – MoD I’m looking at you… but how can you ensure your precious data is secure? Well there are a new breed of flash drives that are more secure than Fort Knox that involving password encryption and keypad combinations that need to be entered before you can gain access.

Take IronKey for example. At $149 (£85) this is one of the most secure flash drives on the market. With a built in Firefox browser, large storage space and industrial strength password protection, the 4GB model offers an all round solid option.

Set up is easy enough. You create a username and password the first time you use it, and subsequently every time you connect it to your computer you will be asked for the password again to allow access to the storage space. You can make a backup of the IronKey’s contents on your computer as well. You need to be hella careful however, because part of the security of the device is a ten password tries to get into the device – fail to insert the correct password and the unit automatically deletes everything stored on it…don’t forget it!

IronKey works well with Linux, as well as Windows XP and Mac OS.

TrueCrypt is free open source software that promises to turn any flash drive you have in to one that will conceal your data. The software creates and then hides a password-protected partition on the drive. Then TrueCrypt asks you to choose between creating a file container on a portion of the flash drive or encrypting the entire drive.

If someone happens to find your drive, they will only be allowed access if they install TrueCrypt and know the password, otherwise the data remains cloaked. The system seems flawless.

The best advice I can give is to just be careful you don’t lose your flash drive. If you don’t need to carry it around – and believe me when I say this – no-one thinks it makes you look cool, intelligent or otherwise. If you really must carry your data then either invest in a solid and secure drive, or hit up the open source software option.

On Thursday it was announced that Amazon will be selling the G1G1 v2 laptop by late November.

And to be honest, that’s all anyone knows. The major question of what is the price? Remains unanswered, but most relevant is the announcement those laptops available from Amazon will be using Sugar, and there will be no dual boot or Windows XP version.

The details came out in an announcement posted to wiki.laptop.org by OLPC’s (one laptop per child) Product Manager Kim Quirk on Saturday:

“As it has been reported, One Laptop per Child will sell its XO Laptop on Amazon.com in late 2008 as part of a global ‘Give One, Get One’ (G1,G1) program. Although the first iteration of the ‘G1,G1′ program was extremely successful and sold more then 185,000 laptops, the delivery of the laptops in the USA did not run as smoothly as we anticipated.

“Selling the laptops on Amazon.com will provide us with the resources to process and ship the laptops globally in a timely fashion.

“In addition, contrary to some media reports, it will be a Linux-based XO Laptop that will be offered as part of the global initiative and not a dual-boot machine running both Windows and Linux.”

And that’s you lot I’m afraid, not a great deal of information, but you can expect bits and pieces to emerge in the run up to the product launch, leaving just enough time for the rumour mill to start spinning.

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On Wednesday Both Novell and Red Hat updated their Linux operating systems, adding improvements to desktops, networking, virtualization, management and hardware support.

We spoke about Red Hat’s RHEL 5.2 yesterday, so it’s only fair Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 service pack (SP2) gets a look in.

Novell has added support for Xen 3.2 to its server platform, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), and support for fully virtualized Windows Server 2008 and 2003 platforms. In addition, Novell now supports live migration of Windows guests across physical machines.

Novell’s support of the Windows platform is due to the cross-licensing patent deal it signed with the computer giants in 2006 and an interoperability lab the pair opened in 2007.

Novell has also updated its YaST (Yet another Set-up Tool) to ease boot-ups and add network module support for new devices.

The desktop’s had an overhaul too. Novell has added local NTFS file support to improve interoperability with Windows and Office, improved integration with Active Directory and upgraded Open Office.org 2.4 Novell Edition, a set of productivity applications. This now includes a technical preview of an Office Open XML (OOXML) translator.

Novell have also added plug-and-play support for wireless broadband (UMTS, 3G) and Network Manager enhancements.

To help users manage distribution of updates, Novell has added a new tool called Subscription Management Tool for SUSE Linux Enterprise. The SP2 release also includes updates to Heartbeat2 and OCFS2 for high availability and storage management, support for IBM cryptographic hardware, support for IPv6 and enhancements to network, storage and other drivers for better hardware compatibility.

New real-time support features include OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution 1.3, adaptive locking and the Precise Timing Protocol.

Novell also updated several tools in its SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit, including KIWI, YaST2 Product Creator, YaST2 Add-on Creator and YaST2 Image Creator.

Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) version 5.2 was released yesterday with six areas that have been given a major overhaul; Desktop, Security, Virtualization, clustering and storage, networking and Ipv6 and serviceability.

Not only that there is now broader hardware and architecture support. In particular, RHEL v5.2 provides enhanced capabilities for x86/x86-64, Itanium, IBM POWER and S/390 architectures. These improvements are mainly in the performance, power usage, scalability and manageability. For example, Red Hat claims that RHEL will support Intel’s Dynamic Acceleration.

RHEL v5.2 can support virtualization on systems with up to 64 CPUs and 512 GB of memory per CPU. Virtualization support for Non-Uniform Memory Access (NUMA) is also included. The new virtualization features also include virtualization-aware, PV (para-virtualized) device drivers. This gives the VM more direct access to the hardware, which in turn gives improved I/O performance.

This can only be used by guest instances of RHEL on the x86 and x86-64 architectures. Still, on these systems, if Red Hat is correct, administrators will see better overall throughput. To manage all this, RHEL 5.2 uses an improved version of Libvirt, a Red Hat-sponsored open source hypervisor-agnostic virtualization management framework.

Besides including newer versions of common desktop applications like Evolution 2.12.3 for email and groupware, Firefox 3 for Web browsing and OpenOffice 2.3 for office work, Red Hat has also added Suspend/Hibernate/Resume enhancements for laptops. Finally, Red Hat has updated many of its graphic drivers.

For better security, Red Hat has backported the new asynchronous kernel crypto hardware driver APIs from the upstream 2.6.22 Linux kernel into RHEL 5.2’s 2.6.18 kernel. This will enable developers to create drivers for cryptographic hardware devices. Red Hat has also added SHA-256/SHA-512 password encryption support and RFC4303 compliant auditing support.

On the clustering and storage front, Red Hat Cluster Suite, which comes with the RHEL 5 Advanced Platform, now has a Resource Event Scripting Language. RHEL 5.2 also has better iSCSI support for storage area networks (SANs).

In networking, Red Hat claims it has greatly improved its IPv6 support. In particular, RHEL 5.2 now supports OpenSwan 5.2. This means users will be able to run IPv6 IPSec virtual private networks (VPNs).

Last, but not least, RHEL v5.2 also fully supports SystemTap kernel tracing for developers. SystemTap user-space tracing is also available but only as a technology preview. In addition, all earlier individual software fixes have been consolidated into the RHEL 5.2 release.

RHEL v5.2 became available on May 21st. Red Hat Network subscription owners will automatically get this update.

DeviceVM have announced that its quick-booting Splashtop Linux implementation is being installed in ROM (read-only memory) of four new Asus motherboards. Asus claims it will be shipping over a million Splashtop-ready motherboards a month – which makes this one of the largest Linux deployments ever.

Branded by Asus as, “Express Gate”, Splashtop stores a lightweight Linux environment in flash ROM that enables PC users to instantly and securely browse the web without booting Windows. It is said to boot up a prompt within five second, letting users either continue booting Windows or load a stripped-down Linux environment featuring the Firefox browser, Adobe Flash, Skype and a photo viewer.

After the initial five-second boot-to-prompt, the technology allows the user to enable Firefox browser within a few seconds. Asus hope’s that the ten second from ‘off-to-online’ inspires users to switch off their computers to reduce power usage. Since Splashtop uses less power than Windows, the technology should offer another way to extend battery life, DeviceVM claims.

According to a company blog, DeviceVM recently demonstrated a future version that offers a virtualization option that loads Windows in the background while also quickly starting and using Splashtop. DeviceVM positions itself as a virtualization company, so it seems likely the company is moving toward a truly virtualized environment that lets users quickly switch back and forth between the two operating systems. Potentially, the technology might also be modified to support storage via a USB storage key when wishing to transfer files between the two environments.

According to DeviceVM, Asus is not an exclusive provider of the technology, and further announcements should be forthcoming. The company has received $10M in Series A funding, from investors that include AsusTek, Storm Ventures, DFJ DragonFund China, Tim Draper, iD Innovation (described as a “venture arm started by Acer Group founder Stan Shih), Harbinger Ventures, and “angel investors affiliated with major PC manufacturers Lenovo, Foxconn, Quanta, Compal, etc.”

Joe Hsieh, the general manager of Asus Motherboard’s Business Unit said, “In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month. Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible.”

Puppy Linux 4.0 was released recently, but what changes have been made since Version 3.01?

Made by Australian developer Barry Kauler Puppy 3.01 was built from Slackware-12 binary packages. Puppy Linux 4.0 has been totally compiled from source utilizing the so-called T2-project. Because of that, this latest edition of Puppy is even smaller in size at 87.1MB (before 98.6MB).

Puppy Linux 4.0 is still using the very lightweight window manager called JWM (Joe’s Window Manager) and ROX-Filer as its file manager.

It abandoned GTK1 and Tcl/Tk in favour of GTK2-based system. This change was made to achieve user-interface consistency and to reduce the size even more. The wallpaper or desktop background is also new.

This latest version of Puppy now includes some valuable GTK2 applications.

There’s Fotox image viewer, Gwhere disk catalogger, Prename batch file renamer, gFnRename batch file renamer, Pburn CD/DVD burner, MTR traceroute, Pnethood Samba client, Pwireless wireless scanner, Pfind file search, Pprocess process manager, Chtheme GTK theme chooser, Pidgin multiprotocol chat client, Gadm-Rsync GUI for rsync, Wireless Autoconnect, Gtkam digital camera interface, Xsane scanner interface, ePDFView PDF viewer, Pschedule cron GUI, Osmo personal organiser, Pcdripper audio CD ripper, RipOff audio CD ripper, mhWaveEdit audio editor and more.

Abiword word processor and SeaMonkey web browser is still included as well as other important applications that were available in the previous version.

Installing additional packages is still handled by the much-improved PETget. The GUI window is fully refurbished, which now features categorized packages and allows easy access to multiple repositories. Puppy Linux 4.0 also worked well on the VM environment, with properly detected and fully working Ethernet, USB, CD ROM, audio and display

It would appear Puppy Linux 4.0 has had quite a major overhaul - even its distro logo is changed. The speed and responsive have improved considerably, and those added applications and features have really made Puppy Linux deserving to be among the best mini Linux distribution out there.

The release of Linux XP 2008 has highlighted an interesting opportunity for the open source code which might see it eventually crack the mass market after a number of false starts. Linux XP 2008 offers an interesting backdrop to Windows XP and gives users the opportunity to use what is fast being recognised as a more flexible and user friendly system. But can it work in the long term?

While this is probably one of the areas of Linux which has annoyed Microsoft, the Linux system allows information to be converted from Microsoft Windows XP and used within their own add-on operating system. Even though there are no legal issues with these methods (they are used throughout the industry) it does show how Linux may well be able to benefit from the association with Windows XP in order to increase the profile of Linux XP in the mass market.

Many people seem to forget that Linux is already used to great success in a number of highly visible, highly commercial ventures such as the Playstation to name but one. However, the majority of people who are actually using a Linux based system are unlikely to be aware of the fact with very little promotion of the name. It would be interesting if the Linux Foundation were able to arrange some kind of deal to make the name more visible, but why would you wish to deflect attention to the operating system if you had invested hundreds of millions of dollars into your product, as Sony have into the PlayStation brand.

Linux has long suffered from a lack of market penetration in the mass market, due mainly to the problems associated with lack of direct marketing and the fragmentation of the open source community – something which can work for and against an open source system. However, having secured a reasonable share of the server market, Linux seems very much set for the next stage, whatever that may be!

A quick search for Linux on Google will show you that there are literally hundreds of millions of pages dedicated to the open source code which is becoming so large a part of our everyday lives. While Linux does not receive the recognition of perhaps better known operating systems, it is something without which many of our systems today could not operate. We hereby list a number of areas of industry which have been touched by Linux :-

In Flight Entertainment

Virgin Airlines are a heavy user of the Linux operating system which is used to control passenger in flight entertainment, computing and music services. While it was not the first choice of the airline it soon became apparent that it offers some what more flexibility than a number of competing codes.

Film Animation

It will perhaps surprise many that a lot of the leading animation companies actually use Linux operating systems for their animation networks. It has been shown to be very reliable, quick and scalable – meaning that the size and depth of the users of the network can be increased with very little extra work. In an industry where computers need to react at lightening quick pace to ensure motion shots look correct, it seems that Linux has no competitor at the moment.

Wikipedia

Many surfers will also be interested to know that one of the open source giants, Wikipedia, actually uses a version of the Linux operating system. The Wikipedia system holds literally hundreds of millions of pages and it seems very apt that the largest open source information exchange should use the most popular open source operating system!

This is just a snap shot of some of the areas of industry which Linux has touched and while we may not always be aware of its existence, it really is everywhere around us.