2012 May 29 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for May 29th, 2012

Another Canadian School Division Does IT the Right Way – GNU/Linux and Thin Clients

Published by Robert Pogson May 29th, 2012 in Linux in Education and technology. 3 Comments

I have long advocated GNU/Linux plus thin clients be the keystone of IT in schools. There are lots of advantages:

easy, centralized control of all software and hardware,
easy and quick software updates,
less money spent on licensing software,
improved performance because of the superior hardware (storage, memory, CPU and networking) on servers,
FLOSS licensing, particularly the GPL, makes it easy to respect copyright while having very flexible IT, and
significant savings on hardware and power consumption.

A bunch of these are mentioned in an article by BC Hydro, but they mostly emphasize reduced power consumption because slowing the growth of electrical energy demand reduced capital outlay for the utility, and preserves the environment. PCs from a few years ago used 100W+ but a modern thin client can run at about 40W.

This is a good news story for FLOSS and education.

see BC Hydro – Saanich schools save big with diskless computers.

- Robert Pogson

Standby for the ARMed Server Wars

Published by Robert Pogson May 29th, 2012 in technology. 13 Comments

Dell has been quietly grinding out a design for a rackmounted server using ARMed CPUs. You can get over 2000 CPU cores in a rack with a ton of RAM and storage for a few watts per core. HP, Calxeda and others are also working on this. The OS, of course, will be GNU/Linux, likely Ubuntu GNU/Linux, because of software already ported to ARM.

Dell is still only shipping to select customers so prices and general availability may be a ways off, but someone has to test them under fire…

I expect some time in 2012 this will be a viable option for all the big guys. I expect prices will fall when volume production ramps up.

see Dell ARMs up for hyperscale servers • The Register.

- Robert Pogson

Samsung Under Pressure to Seek New Growth-engines

Published by Robert Pogson May 29th, 2012 in technology. 0 Comments

Samsung has been growing like Topsy but is running out of opportunities. I have a few suggestions:

Produce GNU/Linux + FLOSS PCs based on ARM. Samsung has all the pieces and the shelf-space to bring it to market in a big way. They had success with Android/Linux on small gadgets. They can extend the technology a bit and do the marketing. They should try Debian GNU/Linux rather than Android/Linux for better performance but keep Android around to run those legacy apps. Add telephony to the PC. Using ARM and FLOSS will provide an advantage over the competition and provide larger margins than Wintel.
Produce a system that will allow a smartphone to be a phone, tablet, server or desktop system. With FLOSS the software is no problem. Create standards for hardware interconnection of gadgets.
Share. Start with a good idea and invite others to contribute. That way you will get to market sooner and under budget.

see Digitimes – Samsung under presure to seek new growth engines, says Research and Markets.

- Robert Pogson