Robert Pogson

One man, closing all the windows.

Daily Archives / Monday, October 15, 2012

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 44
technology

Asus IS BACK! 8-))

Remember all those who said GNU/Linux was dead on the netbook and the netbook itself was dead? They were premature. ASUS is back in the market. Not only are they shipping a netbookish machine they are selling it side-by-side with GNU/Linux and “8″.

see ASUS Announce 2 New Windows 8 Laptops, Both Available With Ubuntu.

Here are some comparables

F201E “8″ Ubuntu GNU/Linux
white 4gB 500gB

KX066H 359 €

KX066DU 299 €

see ads at Amazon.de

What’s special about this is that a consumer can actually see what the OS is costing by subtracting the prices of two identical models of hardware and it’s 60€ for that other OS more than GNU/Linux. This allows the consumer a choice which has often been denied for more than a decade. It’s about time.

Won’t it be fun to wait until October 26 to see which sells better? Did you notice that the Ubuntu GNU/Linux version will not be sold until “8″ is released? One last nod to M$….

Expect to see more competition for retail space in 2012 and beyond.

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 1
technology

Timeline of open source in U.S. government

I’ve written a few times about FLOSS and GNU/Linux in US government. A clearer picture than snapshots or particular events is revealed in this video from RedHat. It shows first the DoE and years later DoD accepting FLOSS as COTS (Consumer Of The Shelf) software. DoE began using FLOSS rather freely but DoD anguished over the matter for years before publicly stating the obvious, FLOSS is good software. Meanwhile the Whitehouse adopted FLOSS for its website. No hesitation remains.

It is remarkable how different US governments see FLOSS compared to European governments. In Europe there is a whole network set up to facilitate, educate, promote adoption, and sharing of FLOSS. This could even become a campaign issue in the present election. After all, both major parties are keen to balance the budget and to reduce waste. Out of the $5billion IT budget, FLOSS could probably take a good chunk out of $1billion of the deficit. There are feedback effects too, although reducing staff might not go well with present concerns about unemployment.

Meanwhile, Canada still hasn’t published its policy on FLOSS after calling for public comment, which I and many others gave. We could use a little more efficiency in government, too.

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 0
technology

LibreOffice for Munich

LibreOffice for Munich | Munich IT Blog.

I was wondering why Munich seemed to be sticking with OpenOffice.org. I guess they were afraid their work in creating templates for OpenOffice.org might bring new incompatibility issues with LibreOffice. I guess they’ve sorted that out and relish the greater vigour of the LibreOffice ecosystem. Good for them.

Now, if only they would switch to thin clients… ;-)

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 3
technology

Debian Bug Reports – Not Troublesome, Joyful

Recent analysis of the rate of filing bug reports against the Debian repository shows decline. Don Armstrong is troubled by this.

see Bug Reporting Rate in Debian.

There are other explanations besides a decline in participation by the community:

  • the quality of code is improving,
  • the Debian package maintainers are doing a better job, or
  • users have figured out which are the better packages and use them more.

I, certainly, am not worried about the decline in bugs reported. That means the release of Wheezy will happen sooner. I have been using Wheezy for months and have had no issues with it. It feels solid to me. There are no bugs I feel important enough to report. I get my work and play done quickly and efficiently using Debian GNU/Linux.

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 0
technology

Linux 3.7-rc1: 10K Commits

“Of course, despite all the above changes, the bulk of the actual patches are still the usual driver updates, which aren’t even mentioned above. So the "big changes" are actually in reality smaller than the "normal changes we have all the time".

Anyway, the shortlog is much too big as usual for an -rc1 (with over ten thousand commits), but appended is my "short mergelog" that gives at least some high-level view of the merges I did.
Linus”

see LKML: Linus Torvalds: Linux 3.7-rc1.

You know a software-project is on fire when there are even a few hundred tweaks to the code. 10K commits for the release-candidate for Linux 3.7 is amazing. How Linus can herd that much change is beyond me. He handled hundreds per day… I feel really old…

On the bright side, this is a strong indication that the Linux kernel is now, and it has been for years, the world’s kernel. Hardly anything in IT happens without using or tweaking the Linux kernel. Gone are the days when anyone could say with a straight face that this or that hardware does not work with Linux. If it doesn’t work with Linux now people think, “What’s wrong with that manufacturer?”. No one threatens to sue over use of Linux. Everyone’s using it. If something’s not working well with Linux, people tweak Linux or the device or both.

Further, as hard to imagine as it is, Linux keeps getting better, doing more faster and more efficiently. There’s even 64-bit ARM happening. More and better file-systems for every purpose, better ways of doing everything and it still remains rock-solid with all that change going on. Using Linux is the right way to do IT.

I started with a 2.2 kernel many years ago. I was amazed when 2.4 gave huge improvements in performance compared to the already fast 2.2 and then 2.6 was solid and … We used to plod along with the Wintel treadmill for slaves. Now we have the Linux toboggan slide on wet ice with wind in our faces. I have a hard time imagining where this great rate of change will end. Is it possible to continue this indefinitely? Will we not come to a point where all the new hardware has already been invented? With so many choices, is it even possible to optimize a computer-system? All I know is that */Linux works incredibly well anywhere I have tried it and anywhere others have tried it.

I recommend Debian GNU/Linux but I use a more recent Linux kernel… ;-)

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 0
technology

Another Small Victory for Openness in Public Procurement of IT

“The Council of the Polish Region of Lower Silesia corrected its procurement specification following complaints from a civil IT procurement watchdog. In the updated request, published in September, the council no longer asks for a specific proprietary brand of operating system and ditto office suite.”

see Polish Lower Silesia Region corrects procurement following complaint | Joinup.

Chuckle. The days when “PC” meant getting something with that other OS are fading. We are witnessing the end of monopoly. We are witnessing the end of bundling M$’s OS with OEM production. Every small victory is another message to the supply-chain that they will have to compete at every level. There is no free ride for M$’s OS nor its office suite.

If only there was a mechanism to do this in the retail space… There is. Anti-competition and consumer-protection laws are supposed to prevent excluding competition from retail shelves. Governments, do your jobs.

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 7
technology

Digitimes Research: Global notebook shipments decline 4.5% sequentially in 3Q12

The global notebook market suffered rather poor shipment performance – 4.5% drop sequentially and 11.6% drop on year in the third quarter of 2012, according to Digitimes Research senior analyst Joanne Chien.

see Digitimes Research: Global notebook shipments decline 4.5% sequentially in 3Q12.

This is a major blow to Wintel. It’s not just about the economy or “waiting for “8″”. Apple shipped 30% more units in the quarter… and 8% more in the previous quarter. Smartphones and tablets are shipping at a great rate. Wintel’s traditional hot “back to school” season flopped. RAM for x86 PCs is now less than 50% of the market for RAM. It’s about choice. When people feel they have a real choice they will take that choice if they are not happy with the monopoly. This is how monopolies die, one unit at a time.

  • Oct 15 / 2012
  • 0
technology

White-box Tablets From China On A Roll

“Some tablet exhibitors at the ongoing HKEF 2012 (Hong Kong Electronics Fair, Autumn Edition) estimate that China-based white-box makers as a whole are shipping four million tablets a month currently.

Allen Wu, president, ARM China, predicts that shipments of Android-based tablets by China makers are likely to reach 50 million units in 2012 and increase to 100 million units in 2013.”

see Demand for white-box tablets keeps growing despite keen competition.

By comparison, Apple shipped 17 million tablets last quarter, so this is a major piece of the pie and it is competition particularly in emerging markets which are quite price-sensitive.

Also by comparison, shipments of x86 PCs have been down for several quarters so ~100% per annum growth in tablets and Android/Linux tablets is a huge shift in how IT is done. Sooner or later even the naysayers will have to open their eyes and see that the good old days of Wintel are past. In this market, is anyone going to buy a Wintel tablet? A WARM tablet? Some. There’s no way retailers are going to give M$ a monopoly on retail shelves so M$ will be just another player in the tablet arena and a shrinking player in IT overall.

Here’s what $250 will buy you:

The LePan II comes with a 9.7 inch screen , Android/Linux 4.0 and 1.2gHz SnapDragon processor with 8gB built-in storage and 1gB RAM.

Here’s what $56 will buy you:

PanDigital Star 7inch e-Reader with 2gB storage and 256MB RAM

Copyright © 2013 All Rights Reserved