Linux hits the iPhone

We knew this day would eventually come, but somehow we're still misting up a little -- Linux has been ported to the iPhone and iPod touch. Dev Team member planetbeing is the mastermind in charge of bringing everyone's favorite open-source OS to Apple's handhelds, and while it's a little rough around the edges (read: no touchscreen drivers, sound, or WiFi / cell radio support), it's definitely the first step on the road to hacking nirvana. The team is hard at work, and it even sounds like they're thinking about porting Android in the near future (!), so hit the read link to try it out and lend a hand if you can -- or just head on past the break for a quick vid of the port in all its text-scrolling glory.

Resource - Engadget

First Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04) alpha hops into view

The Ubuntu developers have announced the availability of Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 1, the first prerelease for this version. Ubuntu 9.04 is codenamed Jaunty Jackalope and is scheduled for official release in April.

The initial plans for Jaunty were published in September, prior to the release of Ubuntu 8.10. Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth aims to boost the software experience and make the popular Linux distribution more competitive with Windows and Mac OS X on the desktop. Canonical intends to push the platform into the mainstream by putting its resources into upstream usability improvements.

In addition to the ongoing long-term usability enhancement efforts, Canonical and the Ubuntu development community are focusing on several specific technical goals for 9.04, including improving performance and boot time and integrating web services more tightly with the desktop.

A particularly exciting community-driven effort for Ubuntu 9.04 is the jump to Mono 2.0, a major update of the open source .NET implementation that was recently released by Novell. The Mono stack comes with some very complex dependencies that make it a bit challenging to package properly. Members of the community have responded by proposing a Mono 2.0 transitioning initiative that will involve close collaboration between Ubuntu and upstream Debian packagers. The goal is to transition all of the major Mono packages to 2.0 dependencies—a move that will help save space on the installable Live CD image.

Ubuntu 9.04 is still at a very early stage of development and little of that work has fallen into place yet. More specific timelines should emerge next month during the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Mountain View. The big priority during the first part of a new Ubuntu development cycle is merging in new and updated packages from Debian—this step has already been completed.

According to developer Colin Watson, who announced the alpha release on an Ubuntu mailing list on Saturday, progress has also been made on the new Ubuntu ARM port. Canonical's ARM porting effort was revealed earlier this month; it will be used to bring Ubuntu to mobile Internet devices and upcoming ARM-based netbook products. It is still a work in progress, however, and no ARM installation images are available yet.

Ubuntu 9.04 alpha 1 is available for download from the Ubuntu web site, although only the server CD image and the text-based "alternate" CD image were built for the release. If you want an installable Live CD, you can get the latest daily image. I tested the alpha by installing the alternate CD image in a VirtualBox virtual machine. The differences between 8.10 and 9.04 alpha 1 aren't really going to be apparent to regular users at this stage and it isn't ready yet for production use—it's primarily offered for testing purposes and for developers.

"This is the very first roughly working set of images off the production line, and they haven't all been tested, so you should expect some bugs," wrote Watson in the release announcement. "Prominent among these are that some of the images are oversized and can only be tested using a DVD or a virtual machine, and that the desktop CD isn't ready yet!"

The next major alpha release is scheduled for December 18, shortly after the developer summit. The final Debian package import freeze for 9.04 will be on Christmas day. Additional prereleases will follow until the final release arrives on April 23.

Resource - Ubuntu

Ubuntu aims at mobile computing, netbooks with ARM port

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has collaborated with ARM to produce a complete Ubuntu port for the ARMv7 architecture. Canonical aims to bring the Ubuntu experience to ARM-based mobile devices. This announcement comes only one month after ARM publicly revealed plans to enter the netbook market.

The new ARM port is expected to be made available in conjunction with the official launch of Ubuntu 9.04, codenamed Jaunty Jackalope. Improved netbook support was one of the primary development goals leading up to the release of Ubuntu 8.10 last month, and that trend is set to continue with Jaunty, which developers say will offer better performance and faster boot time. Canonical is clearly pushing hard to make Ubuntu a top choice for consumer netbook products.

Ubuntu is already well supported on Intel's Atom processor, which is currently the dominant chip for an emerging class of mobile Internet devices and small form factor laptops. Adding support for ARM will ensure that Ubuntu can reach a broader selection of devices, including upcoming ARM-based netbooks.

"

This is a natural development for Ubuntu, driven by the demand from manufacturers for an ARM technology-based version," said Canonical COO Jane Silber in a statement. "Joining the considerable community of free software developers working on the ARM platform ensures that a fully-functional, optimized Ubuntu distribution is available to the ARM ecosystem, providing wider choice for consumers looking for the best operating system for their digital lifestyles."

In addition to working with chip makers to ensure robust hardware support, Canonical has also hired some talented programmers and designers to build unique and visually rich user interfaces that are ideally suited for netbook devices. The company lifted the curtain earlier this year on its Netbook Remix, which includes a customized version of the Ubuntu Mobile Edition launcher and several GNOME modifications that make the desktop environment more comfortable on small screens.

Although this is the first time that Ubuntu has been officially supported on ARM, it is predated by an unofficial ARM port that was released earlier this year by the community-driven Handhelds Mojo group. The community port, which was sponsored by Nokia, targets ARMv5 and 6. In a response to Canonical's announcement that was published on the Handhelds Mojo web site, the group welcomes the news.

"We're delighted to note that Canonical has announced it will officially support ARM v7 with the April 2009 release of Ubuntu," one member of the group wrote in a statement. "I admit, I had hoped that they would also support the ARM v5/6 variations of the ARM processor, but this is a first step in the right direction."

Ubuntu is already shipping on Dell's Mini 9 netbook, which launched in September. It is likely that Ubuntu will reach consumers on many more devices as Canonical continues to make significant investments in mobile hardware support.

Resource - Ars Technica

Adobe answers cries for 64-bit Flash on Linux

Starting to answer the clamorous demand from open-source fans, Adobe Systems plans to release an alpha version of its Flash Player technology on Monday for those using 64-bit Linux software.

Linux has moved more rapidly than Windows or Mac OS X to support 64-bit processors, in part because the developer-friendly compile-your-own-software ethos that prevails makes it easier for the technically savvy to make the switch. But one of the obstacles in the switch is that people could only use the 32-bit Flash plug-in, which meant that they only could use the 32-bit version of Firefox.

The company plans to release the software at its Adobe Max conference in San Francisco.

The 64-bit support will arrive on other operating systems later, Adobe said, but Linux fans get it first because they were the most vocal in their desire for it.

"Release of this alpha version of 64-bit Flash Player on Linux is the first step in delivering on Adobe's plans to make Flash Player native 64-bit across platforms," Adobe said in a statement. "We chose Linux as our initial platform in response to numerous requests in our public Flash Player bug and issue management system and the fact that Linux distributions do not ship with a 32-bit browser or a comprehensive 32-bit emulation layer by default. With this prelease, Flash Player 10 is now a full native participant on 64-bit Linux distributions. We are committed to bringing native 64-bit Flash Player to Windows and Mac in future releases. We expect to provide native support for 64-bit platforms in an upcoming major release of Flash Player. Windows, Macintosh and Linux players are expected to ship simultaneously moving forward."

Resource - CNET

Linux boots in 2.97 seconds

apanese embedded Linux house Lineo has announced a quick-start technology that it claims can boot Linux in 2.97 seconds on a low-powered system. The technology appears similar to but much faster than Linux's existing "suspend-to-disk" capability.

(Click for larger view of Lineo's fast-boot Linux demonstration)

Warp 2 comprises a bootloader, Linux kernel, and a "hibernation driver," says the company. The driver takes a snapshot of RAM when hibernation is launched, saving the contents into flash memory, optionally compressing the data. On start-up, the contents are quickly returned to RAM, so that the system resumes its previous running state.

In addition, Warp 2 is touted for its ability to support multiple snapshots, presumably to allow booting to either a pristine or resumed state.

Warp 2 boasts a smaller memory size for hibernated data, compared to the original version, Lineo said. The improved snapshot compression can squeeze the image filesize to about half, depending on the contents of RAM. In one Lineo demo, for example, RAM image size was reduced from 32MB to 19MB, it said.


Warp 2 loads RAM contents into flash and vice-versa
(Click to enlarge)

The 3.17 second boot-up time was achieved on an Atmark Armadillo-500 evaluation CPU module powered by an ARM11-based Freescale i.MX31L processor clocked at 400MHz. Typical start-up time for booting the Armadillo-500 without Warp 2 is said to be 31.11 seconds.

The benchmark used NAND flash memory, saving and loading a running system state comprised of Xorg, twm, xlogo, and three xterms. Without compression, the resulting 18.3MB RAM image loaded in 2.97 seconds, according to Lineo. With compression, a 6.8MB image reportedly loaded in 3.17 seconds. A video showing the feat can be found on the company's product page, here (Japanese).

Warp 2 requires Linux, and is said to operate on the following platforms:

• ARM -- Cortex-A8 / ARM11 / ARM9
  
• SuperH -- Renesas SH-4 / SH-4A / SH-4AL
  
• Power Architecture -- Freescale PowerQUICC II Pro
  
• MIPS -- MIPS32R2 (available soon)

Meanwhile, two Intel engineers recently demonstrated a five-second boot of a Fedora Linux distribution on the Asus Eee PC netbook -- some nine times faster than a typical Fedora boot. And, Linux's ability to boot rapidly could result in Linux outshipping Windows on notebooks next year, according to one pundit. Embedded Linux vendors such as Lineo have played a role in at least one Linux fast-boot scheme for Windows laptops, with MontaVista supplying its stack to Dell for the Latitude ON technology shipped in some recent Dell Latitude notebooks. And, near-instant boots have long been important to solar-powered remote-sensing applications, where the boot process represents the bulk of the power budget, and some boards are claimed to boot Linux inunder a second. 

Lineo's current products include a uLinux ELITE distribution and cross-compiling toolchain. The company also offers software reference designs and professional services to OEMs developing systems and products, and has been an active, contributing member to the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF). Its recent product announcements include Linux BSPs for the MIPS Malta dev board, MIPS64 Toshiba set-top box design, and SuperH boards from Renesas. It also recently announced plans to offer CodeSourcery G++ tools with its BSPs for ARM-based boards.

Availability

Warp 2 is available to OEMs now, says Lineo, which will hold a demonstration of the technology at Embedded Technology 2008 at Pacifico Yokohama in Yokohama, Japan, on Nov. 19-21. More information on Warp 2, including a video, may be available on this translated Lineo page.

Resource - LinuxDevice.com

Everything you Need to Know about Ubuntu 8.10 - Intrepid Ibex

Ubuntu 8.10, named Intrepid Ibex, is scheduled for release next week, so we figured it's time to run down the checklist of improvements, fixes, and enhancements since Hardy Heron came out earlier this year. The last six months of development have brought tons of new functionality that make running Linux easier for all users--power users and neophytes alike.Oh, and there's a new wallpaper.

The biggest changes to Ibex over Heron are, as always, the addition of the latest version of GNOME, X.Org, the Linux kernel. Ibex includes Gnome 2.24, X.Org 7.4, and version 2.6.27 of the kernel. We'll talk about each one as well as show you some of the Ubuntu-specific apps that you can expect to see.

GNOME 2.24

GNOME is the desktop environment of choice for Ubuntu, and is responsible for most of the user interface elements that users actually see. Everything from the login screen to the system's application launching menus and file browser are a part of GNOME.

The Deskbar applet gives a context-sensitive search, accessible with a hotkey, similar to Spotlight on OS X or Windows Desktop Search on Vista.

GNOME 2.24 includes many new applications, including a time-tracking application, a SIP-based audio/visual conferencing client called Ekiga, and a whole lot of sweet applets that add advanced functions to your desktop. GNOME also includes an enhanced tab-based file browser, a smart search utility that solves basic math and allows you to search popular sites directly, and more advanced resolution controls for X.Org. Gnome 2.24 also includes much needed enhancements for mobile users, with better Bluetooth support and support for Offline access to Exchange servers using the Evolution application

Ekiga is a SIP-compatible A/V messaging app, which works with USB webcams and headphones and is compatible with any SIP-compliant service.

X.Org 7.4

X.Org is the software that actually draws the graphical UI. X.Org offers all the features you'd expect in a modern renderer, like support for 3D-composited desktop and even hardware-accelerated video playback.

While the basic resolution switcher has been around for a while, now it supports multiple monitors and more hardware. Unfortunately, the proprieary Nvidia drivers are still incompatible.

X.Org 7.4 doesn't include a ton of sexy enhancements like GNOME, but it does offer a few very noticeable performance and compatibility improvements, namely in boot time improvements and support for a wider variety of input devices. Hotplugging support for input devices actually works now, so you can plug in mice and tablets and use them without having to reboot. Improvements to X.Org also allow for the easier to manage display control panel, which allows users to adjust resolutions and screen placement for single and multiple monitor displays easily.

Linux Kernel 2.6.27

The Linux kernel handles the basic functions of the operating system, from managing memory allocation to support for hardware like IDE controllers and mice, the kernel is the underpinnings for the entire operating system.

The 2.6.27 kernel offers the usual mix of performance enhancements, power user features, and support for new hardware. We're especially excited about the speed enhancements to the Ext4 file system, better support for USB webcams, and some significant gains in battery life for mobile users.

Other Big Changes in Ubuntu Ibex

The stuff we've talked about previously isn't exclusive to Ubuntu. Any Linux distro that uses the same versions of GNOME, X.Org, or the kernel will see the same benefits. However, Ubuntu developers also add a fair amount of their own secret sauce to each Ubuntu release, and Ibex is no different. Here are the big improvements Ibex upgraders can look forward to.

Network Manager

Getting networking in Linux working has long been a challenge, especially for wireless connections. The new Network Manager is a great improvement over the previous release. It allows your Ubuntu machine to connect to the network before a user logs in, supports 3G connections, multiple simultaneous connections, and PPPoE.

While it was never particularly hard to get EVDO or 3G cards working with Hardy Heron, it did require mucking around with config files. The new Network Manager puts wired, wireless, and cellular data connections in one handy place.

Guest Account

One of our favorite PC security tips for Windows is to create a limited user account for other people to use. Ibex adds a default Guest account with limited write support and no access to user files stored in the home directory.

It's never a good idea to give other people access to an admin or admin-enabled account. The new Guest account, which is accessible through the User Switching applet, prevents write access to your computers drive, for those times when a friend needs a computer.

Better Support for Web Video and Audio

Ubuntu now supports the high-quality setting in YouTube! We shall celebrate by watching videos of other people's animals at a better quality level. Additionally, now Ubuntu users can view the programming the BBC puts online in Totem. That's right, you can enjoy fine shows like Scotland Outdoors and The Archers from your Linux PC.

With support for BBC content and higher-quality YouTube videos + existing support for Hulu.com, there's a lot of TV-type content that works great on Ibex.

Secret Hidden Folders

Type ecryptfs-setup-private in the Terminal, and you can hide and encrypt a folder in your Home directory. The process is seamless, and ties into your user login, so when you're logged in, you see the contents, but any other users won't even see that the file is there. This folder gives a secure location that you can use to store sensitive files, without paying the performance penalty that full-disk encryption incurs.

Config-less X.Org

OK, so this is kind of an X.Org feature, but it's incredibly handy for normal users. Anyone who's delved into the xorg.conf file in the past, which stores all the settings for your Linux install's graphical configuration, including specifics about your videocard, mouse, monitors, and other peripherals, knows what a hassle it is to get everything working. With the new release, most users will be able to operate with an empty xorg.conf, letting the OS detect and choose the proper driver, and detect monitor resolutions and input devices automatically, without requiring user input.

Want to Take Intrepid Ibex for a Test Spin?

There are the high-points of the next release of Ubuntu, which is scheduled to be launched by October 31. If you want to take a sneak peek at Intrepid Ibex, it's easy. You can download the ISO file, then follow our instructions here. Alternately, if you're already running Ubuntu, press Alt+F2, and run "update-manager -d" without the quotes. Click the Upgrade prompt, and your existing Ubuntu install will upgrade to Intrepid Ibex.

Resource - MaximumPC

New Palm OS: ALP 3.0

Alright, folks. Here we go. This is the new Palm OS, fresh out of Access, the company that bought PalmSource during the Great Post-.Com Boom Palm Upheaval. The OS supports Linux applications along with classic Garnet apps from the previous generation.

Access has published PDFs on the OS and framework and there is some expectation that the OS will be hit Japan sometime this year and, if the angels smile down upon us, we too will be able use this new OS.

I’m more excited about ALP 3.0 than Android. Palm OS has skin in the game, as they say, and has to win on this or it’s toast. I’ve been waiting for this day for years, friends, and I’m quite excited.

UPDATE - As many have noted this isn’t what you’ll be seeing on upcoming Palm devices. Palm writes:

I know that you never come right out and say that this is Palm’s official new OS, but just to be clear, the new Access OS is not the same as the OS we are developing. The development of our next OS is being handled all internally, and we are on track to introduce products based on that OS in the first half of 2009.

Resource - ACCESS

Is Linux really worth USD $10 billion?

Just how do you put a value on an open source, free for all, piece of code such as Linux? The Linux Foundation has attempted to do just that, and valued just one single distro at more than USD $10 billion.

The nonprofit consortium charged with fostering Linux growth, the Linux Foundation , was only founded last year. It sponsors the work of Linux creator Linus Torvalds and has support from Linux and open source companies around the world.

The Linux Foundation dedicates itself to 'accelerating the growth of Linux' but what if you wanted to build a Linux distribution yourself, right now? Something like Fedora 9, for example. How much money would that need given software development costs today?

Amanda McPherson, Brian Proffitt and Ron Hale-Evans put their collective heads together and did the math in a newly published paper title "Estimating the Total Development Cost of a Linux Distribution."

So, did the intrepid trio really discover that the true value of Linux code is USD $10 billion? No, of course not. They discovered that it was USD $10.8 billion!

What's more, they say, it would take USD $1.4 billion just to develop the Linux kernel on its own. Which is more than the USD $1.2 billion David A. Wheeler reckoned it would take for a fully blown Linux distro (Red Hat Linux 7.1) when he did a similar study back in 2002.

How did the authors come up with those figures? Well they examined the Fedora 9 distribution using the same tools and methods as Wheeler before them, specifically the SLOCCount tool that estimates value and effort of software development based on the COnstructive COst MOdel (COCOMO).

What about the Fedora code and the Linux kernel itself, and what conclusions can we draw from the figures when it comes to monopolistic software companies and the development of proprietary code?
The Fedora 9 distribution contains 204.5 million lines of code in 5547 application packages, and in terms of development the authors estimate would require some 60,000 man years to complete. Using 2008 salary figures, they came up with the USD $10.8 billion number.

The Linux kernel as included in Fedora 9 has 6.8 million lines of code, and would need more than 7500 man years to develop, hence the USD $1.4 billion figure.

But does this really mean the same thing as putting a real world value onto Linux itself? The study makes it very clear as to the enormous economic value that a collaborative development of this nature can attract.

You only have to look at the last couple of years worth of Linux kernel development with some 3200 developers spread across 200 companies making a contribution to get a glimpse of the scale of effort involved.

Oh, and don't forget to then scale it ever upwards when talking about a full Linux distribution.

The conclusions are made all the more relevant after a year in which we have seen Linux increasingly bursting into the public consciousness courtesy of the netbook explosion, for example, which quite simply would not have been thought possible a couple of years back.

These devices, that market success, would not have been possible without Linux and without the collaborative development model behind it.

Report author Amanda McPherson, also a Vice President at the Linux Foundation, says "Monopolistic software companies used to be able to fund heavy R&D budgets, keeping out competition. Given the cost associated with building an OS like Linux, one wonders if proprietary companies will ever go it alone again.”
Resource - iTWire

Wikipedia adopts Ubuntu for its server infrastructure

The Wikimedia Foundation, the organization behind the user-driven Wikipedia project, is in the process of migrating its servers to the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Wikimedia's move to Ubuntu is part of an effort to simplify administration of the organization's 400 servers, which previously ran a mix of various versions of Red Hat and Fedora.

Ubuntu has achieved an unprecedented level of success in the desktop Linux market, but the distribution has been slow to gain acceptance on servers. Wikimedia's adoption of Ubuntu could help increase the distribution's visibility in the Linux server market and demonstrate its viability in large-scale deployments.

Although the Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit organization that is primarily funded by donations, the organization's technical requirements are significant. Wikimedia CTO Brion Vibber published some statistics in the slides (PDF) from his presentation at the Wikimania conference which took place in July at the new Library of Alexandria.

Wikimedia's entire collection of web sites—which includes Wikipedia, Wikisource, Wikiquote, Wikinews, and several others—serves up roughly 10 billion page views per month. At its peak, traffic can sometimes reach 50,000 HTTP requests per second. The organization's hardware budget to date is roughly $1.5 million, and it spends $35,000 per month on bandwidth and physical hosting. All of its technical infrastructure is managed by a small IT staff consisting of only four paid employees and three volunteers.

In an interview with Computerworld, Vibber provided some insight into some of Wikimedia's technical challenges and discussed the benefit of migrating the entire set of servers to a single distribution.

He says that the original Wikipedia site grew from 15 servers to 200 servers within the first 18 months. Replacing their previous mix of distributions with a consistent and uniform Ubuntu solution has simplified administration considerably for the organization. "We can run the same combination everywhere, and it does the same thing," Vibber told Computerworld. "Everything is a million times easier."

Canonical initially announced the availability of Ubuntu for servers in 2005 and has taken several major steps since then to boost its popularity, including a partnership with Sun and several certification initiatives for major enterprise software packages. At the Ubuntu Live conference last year, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said that the company will increasingly fund server improvements and also announced Landscape, a server management tool.

Despite these efforts to push Ubuntu in the server market, Canonical has had difficulty competing with Red Hat and Novell for enterprise server marketshare. Some changing trends could, however, soon give Ubuntu an advantage. Organizations are increasingly turning toward free, community-driven Linux distributions as in-house Linux expertise becomes more accessible. During a presentation at the LinuxWorld conference earlier this year, 451 Group analyst Jay Lyman said that Ubuntu and CentOS will both gain enterprise acceptance as a result of this trend.

Wikimedia's adoption of Ubuntu is a reflection of the distribution's growing strength and popularity as a server solution, but it doesn't appear that it will translate into revenue for Canonical because Wikimedia will be maintaining its systems largely without commercial support. Now that Ubuntu is gaining traction with large-scale free deployments, the next challenge for Canonical will be getting some mindshare with enterprise adopters who are willing to sign up for support contracts.

Resource - ArsTechnica