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News in General

Linux Foundation User Survey Shows Enterprise Gains

At its recent End User Summit, the Linux Foundation published "Linux Adoption Trends: A Survey of Enterprise End Users," which shares new data that shows Linux is poised to take significant market share from Unix and especially Windows while becoming more mission critical and more strategic in the enterprise.

The data in the report reflects the results of an invitation-only survey of The Linux Foundation's Enterprise End User Council as well as other companies and government organizations. The survey was conducted by The Linux Foundation in partnership with Yeoman Technology Group during August and September 2010 with responses from more than 1900 individuals.

This report filters data on the world's largest enterprise companies and government organizations - identified by 387 respondents at organizations with $500 million or more a year in revenues or greater than 500 employees.

The data shows that Linux vendors are poised for growth in the years to come as large Linux users plan to both deploy more Linux relative to other operating systems and to use the OS for more mission critical workloads than ever before. Linux is also becoming the preferred platform for new or "greenfield" deployments, representing a major shift in user patterns as IT managers break away from legacy systems.

Key findings from the Linux adoption report:

* 79.4 percent of companies are adding more Linux relative to other operating systems in the next five years.

* More people are reporting that their Linux deployments are migrations from Windows than any other platform, including Unix migrations. 66 percent of users surveyed say that their Linux deployments are brand new ("Greenfield") deployments.

* Among the early adopters who are operating in cloud environments, 70.3 percent use Linux as their primary platform, while only 18.3 percent use Windows.

* 60.2 percent of respondents say they will use Linux for more mission-critical workloads over the next 12 months.

* 86.5 percent of respondents report that Linux is improving and 58.4 percent say their CIOs see Linux as more strategic to the organization as compared to three years ago.

* Drivers for Linux adoption extend beyond cost - technical superiority is the primary driver, followed by cost and then security.

The growth in Linux, as demonstrated by this report, is leading companies to increasingly seek Linux IT professionals, with 38.3 percent of respondents citing a lack of Linux talent as one of their main concerns related to the platform.

Users participate in Linux development in three primary ways: testing and submitting bugs (37.5%), working with vendors (30.7%) and participating in The Linux Foundation activities (26.0%).

"The IT professionals we surveyed for the Linux Adoption Trends report are among the world's most advanced Linux users working at the largest enterprise companies and illustrate what we can expect from the market in the months and years ahead," said Amanda McPherson, vice president of marketing and developer programs at The Linux Foundation.

To download the full report, please visit: https://www.linuxfoundation.org/lp/page/download-the-free-linux-adoption-trends-report.

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Conferences and Events

Linux Kernel Summit

November 1-2, 2010. Hyatt Regency Cambridge, Cambridge, MA
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linux-kernel-summit.

ApacheCon North America 2010

1-5 November 2010, Westin Peachtree, Atlanta GA

The theme of the ASF's official user conference, trainings, and expo is "Servers, The Cloud, and Innovation," featuring an array of educational sessions on open source technology, business, and community topics at the beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.

Experts will share professionally directed advice, tactics, and lessons learned to help users, enthusiasts, software architects, administrators, executives, and community managers successfully develop, deploy, and leverage existing and emerging Open Source technologies critical to their businesses.

ApacheCon North America 2010

QCon San Francisco 2010

November 1-5, Westin Hotel, San Francisco CA
https://qconsf.com/.

ZendCon 2010

November 1-4, Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
https://www.zendcon.com/.

9th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2010)

November 7-11, Convention Center, Shanghai, China
https://iswc2010.semanticweb.org/.

LISA '10 - Large Installation System Administration Conference

November 7-12, San Jose, CA
https://usenix.com/events/.

ARM Technology Conference

November 9-11, Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA
https://www.arm.com/about/events/12129.php.

Sencha Web App Conference 2010

November 14-17, Fairmont Hotel, San Francisco CA
https://www.sencha.com/conference/.

Agile Development Practices East

November 14-19, Rosen Centre, Orlando, FL
https://www.sqe.com/AgileDevPracticesEast/.

Devox 2010 (Java Dev Conference)

November 15-19, Metropolis, Antwerp, Belgium
https://reg.devoxx.com/.

Semantic Web Summit 2010

November 16-17, Hynes Center, Boston, MA
Discount Code: SEMTECH
https://www.semanticwebsummit.com/.

DreamForce 2010 / SalesForce Expo

December 6-9, Moscone Center, San Francisco
https://www.salesforce.com/dreamforce/DF10/home/.

CARTES & IDentification 2010

December 7-9, Nord Centre, Paris, Fance
[Use code VCGR01 for 20% off or free expo pass]
https://www.cartes.com/ExposiumCms/do/exhibition/.

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Distro News

Ubuntu 10.10 Released

The latest Ubuntu version, 10.10, was released on 10:10:10 UCT on Oct 10th.

This release is focused on home and mobile computing users, and introduces an array of online and offline applications to Ubuntu Desktop edition with a particular focus on the personal cloud.

Canonical has also launched the 'Ubuntu Server on Cloud 10' program which allows one to try out Ubuntu 10.10 Server Edition on Amazon EC2 for free for 42 minutes. Visitors to the download pages will now be able to experience the speed of public cloud computing and Ubuntu. For a direct link to the trial, please go to: https://10.cloud.ubuntu.com.

Ubuntu 10.10 will be supported for 18 months on desktops, netbooks, and servers.

Ubuntu Netbook Edition users can experience a new desktop interface called 'Unity' -- specifically tuned for smaller screens and computing on the move. Unity includes a brand-new Ubuntu font family, a redesigned system installer, the latest GNOME 2.32 desktop, Shotwell as the new default photo manager, plus other new features.

Find more information on Ubuntu 10.10 here: https://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/1010overview.

Puppy Linux 5.1 released

The new Puppy Linux 5.1, code-name "Lucid" as it is binary-compatible with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx packages, has been released. Lucid Puppy 5.1 is a "full-featured compact distro."

As a Puppy distro, it is fast, friendly, and it can serve as a main Linux desktop. Quickpet and Puppy Package Manager allow easy installation of many Linux programs, tested and configured for Lucid Puppy.

The Puppy UI looks better because the core Lucid team now includes an art director. The changes relative to Puppy 5.0 has been to improve the user interface, both to make it more friendly and to enhance the visual appearance.

Lucid Puppy boots directly to an automatically configured graphical desktop, with the tools to personalize the desktop and recommends which add-on video driver to use for high-performance graphics.

Download Puppy 5.1 from https://www.puppylinux.com/download/.

Ubuntu Rescue Remix 10.10 Released

Version 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) of the data recovery software toolkit based on Ubuntu is out. This is an Ubuntu-based live medium which provides the data recovery specialist with a command-line interface to current versions of the most powerful open-source data recovery software including GNU ddrescue, Photorec, The Sleuth Kit and Gnu-fdisk. A more complete list is available here: https://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/Software.

The live Remix provides a full shell environment and can be downloaded here: https://ubuntu-rescue-remix.org/files/URR/iso/ubuntu-rescue-remix-10-10.iso.

This iso image is also compatible with the USB Startup Disk Creator that has included with Ubuntu since 9.04. PendriveLinux also provides an excellent way for Windows users to put Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix on a stick.

The live environment has a very low memory requirement due to not having a graphical interface (command-line only). If you prefer to work in a graphical environment, a metapackage is available which will install the data recovery and forensics toolkit onto your current Ubuntu Desktop system.

The toolkit can also be installed on a live USB Ubuntu Desktop with persistent data. To do so, add the following archive to your software channels:
deb https://ppa.launchpad.net/arzajac/ppa/ubuntu lucid main

Then authenticate this software source by running the following command:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys BDFD6D77

Then, install the "ubuntu-rescue-remix-tools" package.

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Software and Product News

Novell Delivers SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware

VMware and Novell have announced the general availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware, the first step in the companies' expanded partnership announced in June of 2010. The solution is designed to reduce IT complexity and accelerate the customer evolution to a fully virtualized datacenter.

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware, customers who purchase a VMware vSphere license and subscription also receive a subscription for patches and updates to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware at no additional cost. Additionally, VMware will offer the option to purchase technical support services for SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware for a seamless support experience available directly and through its network of solution provider partners. This unique solution benefits customers by reducing the cost and complexity of deploying and maintaining an enterprise operating system running on VMware vSphere.

With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware. both companies intend to provide customers the ability to port their SUSE Linux-based workloads across clouds. Such portability will deliver choice and flexibility for VMware vSphere customers and is a significant step forward in delivering the benefits of seamless cloud computing.

"This unique partnership gives VMware and Novell customers a simplified and lower-cost way to virtualize and manage their IT environments, from the data center to fully virtualized datacenters," said Joe Wagner, senior vice president and general manager, Global Alliances, Novell. "SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware is the logical choice for VMware customers deploying and managing Linux within their enterprise. This agreement is also a strong validation of Novell's strategy to lead in the intelligent workload management market."

"VMware vSphere delivers unique capabilities, performance and reliability that enable our customers to virtualize even the most demanding and mission-critical applications," said Raghu Raghuram, senior vice president and general manager, Virtualization and Cloud Platforms, VMware. "With SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for VMware. we provide customers a proven enterprise Linux operating platform with subscription to patches and updates at no additional cost, improving their ability to complete the transformation of their data center into a private cloud while further increasing their return on investment."

Kanguru Hardware Encrypted USB Flash Drives for Linux

Kanguru Solutions has added Mac and Linux to the list of compatible platforms for its Kanguru Defender Elite, manageable, secure flash drives.

The Kanguru Defender Elite offers security features including: 256-bit AES Hardware Encryption, Remote Management Capabilities, On-board Anti-Virus, Tamper Resistant Design, and FIPS 140-2 Certification. The addition of GUI support for Mac and Linux opens Kanguru's secure flash drives to a much wider audience, allowing Mac and Linux users to benefit from its industry leading security features.

"Our goal has been to develop the most comprehensive set of security features ever built into a USB thumb drive." said Nate Cote, VP of Product Management. "And part of that includes making them work across various platforms. Encryption and remote management are only useful if they work within your organizations' IT infrastructure."

The Kanguru Defender Elite currently works with:

* Red Hat 5
* Ubuntu 10
* Mac 10.5 and above
* Windows XP and above

Additional compatibility is in development for several other Linux distributions and connectivity options.

Copyright © 2010, Deividson Luiz Okopnik and Howard Dyckoff. Released under the Open Publication License unless otherwise noted in the body of the article. Linux Gazette is not produced, sponsored, or endorsed by its prior host, SSC, Inc.

Published in Issue 180 of Linux Gazette, November 2010

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