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News in General

Next Ubuntu will shed 'Netbook' Edition

The next release of Ubuntu, code-named Natty Narwal, is expected in the next few weeks, but there will be only 2 major platforms targeted.

The development of future Ubuntu distributions will merge into a single version of Ubuntu for desktops and netbooks, known simply as "Ubuntu" for Version 11.04. See more details in the Distros section, below.

20th Anniversary of Linux Celebrations Kick Off at the LF Summit

The Linux community will come together to celebrate 20 years of Linux. In August of 1991, Linux creator Linus Torvalds posted what today is a famous or infamous message to share with the world that he was building a new operating system. The Linux Foundation will kick-off months of 20th Anniversary celebrations starting at the Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, April 5-8. Attendees will learn what else is in store for the months leading up to the official celebration in August of 2011.

The Linux Foundation invites everyone in the Linux community to participate in celebrating this important milestone. There will be a variety of ways to get involved, including an opportunity to record a personal message to the rest of the community about Linux' past, present and/or future in the the "20th Anniversary Video Booth." The Booth will be located in the lobby area of the Collaboration Summit, and the messages will be compiled into a display to be shared online and at LinuxCon in August.

"The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit continues to be one of our most important events of the year.," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "The Summit will showcase how Linux is maturing while kicking off an important year for the OS that will include 20th anniversary celebrations where people from throughout the community can participate online or at our events in a variety of different ways."

Android Developers Confident about Oracle-Google Litigation

Attendance at AnDevCon in March was almost a sellout and indicative of the rapid growth of Android in the Open Source Community. Google IO did sell out in less than an hour of open registration. At this event, 36% of attendees came from organizations with more than 1000 developers and about 50% came from organizations with more than 100 developers.

Oracle sued Google in August of 2010 over its possible use of Java source code in Android without licensing.

During the conference, representatives from Black Duck and competing firm Protocode both told LG that most large firms involved in developing Android apps seem relatively unconcerned about the legal battle between Oracle and Google. Many of these issues have played out before for Linux veterans and a relative calm pervades the Android community.

Said Peter Vescuso of Black Duck software, "Google is the goat to sacrifice at Oracle's altar", meaning that most developers do not expect any serious legal threats to be directed at them.

He added that many of their customers were using Android, including 8 of 10 biggest hand set makers. "The most shocking thing about the law suit is that there is almost no reaction from customers; it's not their problem."

Black Duck made an analysis of 3800 mobile open source companies in 2010. This has been roughly doubling every year since 2008. When Black Duck looked at development platform, 55% listed Android, 39% listed IOS, which was not surprising as even iPhone apps use chunks of open source code. Android has the advantage of being GPL-based, while IOS is not.

According to Protocode's Kamil Hassin, some of their smaller Android customers have been hesitant about the potential outcome of Oracle's litigation but many are now moving more into Andriod development.

He noted that Black Duck focused on bigger companies with large code bases, while Protocode's products were lighter weight and focused more on where FOSSw occured internally, especially code from Apache Ant, Derby, MySQL, and even more on PostgreSQL.

Google Delays Honeycomb Delivery to Open Source

Google will delay releasing its Honeycomb source code for the new series of Android-based tablet computers as it works on bugs and hardware compatibility issues. Honeycomb is called Android 3.0, while mobile phone developers are expecting the release of Android 2.4 shortly.

Google has indicated that some UI improvements will be back-ported to Android phones in 2.4.

Speaking with Bloomberg News on March 25th, Andy Rubin, Google's top honcho for Android development, said that they would not release the source code for the next several months because there was a lot more work to do to make the newer OS ready for "other device types including phones". Instead, source code access will remain only with major partners such as HTC and Motorola.

Developer blogs initially showed mixed opinions of the delay, with a few developers recognizing that Google was trying to get a better and more consistant user-experience for future Android tablets, especially less expensive models that will come from small third world manufacturers.

Oracle dropping future Itanium development for its Database

In March, Oracle announced that it would discontinue development work for future versions of the Oracle database on Intel Itanium RISC platform. In a press statement, Oracle said, "Intel management made it clear that their strategic focus is on their x86 microprocessor and that Itanium was nearing the end of its life."

Oracle added, "Both Microsoft and RedHat have already stopped developing software for Itanium."

Oracle pointed to trends that show no real growth in Itanium platforms, which are almost exclusively sold by its rival HP. Intel publically defended its chip platform and said work would continue on the next 2 generations of Itanium - Poulsen and Kittson, but did not state clear support for the future of Itanium after that.

Oracle support would continue for current versions of its database running on Itanium for the next several years, but would be stopping development on new versions. This would have a negative effect on future sales of HP SuperDome servers and force current customers to reconsider strategic vendor relationships.

According to a blog at Forrester Research, "Oracle's database is a major workload on HP's Itanium servers, with possibly up to 50% of HP's flagship Superdome servers running Oracle. A public statement from Oracle that it will no longer develop their database software will be a major drag on sales for anyone considering a new Oracle project on HP-UX and will make customers and prospects nervous about other key ISV packages as well."

For more Forrester analysis of this development, go here.

Oracle revenues and profits were up for the first quarter of 2011 and exceeded analysts' expectations. Total revenue for the quarter ending Feb. 28 gained 37 percent to $8.76 billion.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that the products and IP acquired from Sun Microsystems get the lion's share of the credit. Ellison noted that revenue from the Sun-built Exadata database server - which he claimed was the fastest database server in the world - has doubled to $2 billion.

APT Breach at RSA may undermine SecureID

Security stalwart and edifice RSA, the home of the ubiquitous RSA algorithm and provider of 2-factor security devices, announced that it had been breached by sophisticated attackers who were after the Intellectual Property used in such devices. RSA has filed an 8-K SecureCare document and the Federal Government is investigating the incidents. In the first few days that followed, RSA did not offer details about the exploit or the specifics of what was taken.

The announcement of the breach came on St. Patrick's Day and led to a lot of reflection by network and systems security experts. In the forefront of many on-line comments is concern for the very large customer base around the world using RSA's SecureID products.

RSA said: "Our investigation has led us to believe that the attack is in the category of an Advanced Persistent Threat (APT). Our investigation also revealed that the attack resulted in certain information being extracted from RSA's systems. Some of that information is specifically related to RSA's SecurID two-factor authentication products. While at this time we are confident that the information extracted does not enable a successful direct attack on any of our RSA SecurID customers, this information could potentially be used to reduce the effectiveness of a current two-factor authentication implementation as part of a broader attack. We are very actively communicating this situation to RSA customers and providing immediate steps for them to take to strengthen their SecurID implementations."

LG spoke with Steve Shillingford, president and CEO, Solera Networks, who pointed to the value of Network Forensics in this type of attack and explained that, "RSA is able to say specifically what happened - Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) - and what was and was not breached - SecurID code, but no customer records. Compare RSA to the many companies breached in the Aurora attacks, and the difference in insight is striking. Intel had stated that though they knew they had been breached they had no specific evidence of IP taken - very different than the evidence that RSA cites."

Shillingford also told LG: "Many companies and organizations are using NF for complete network visibility and situational awareness, to limit the kind of exposure RSA is noting. NF enables superior security practice, which is especially important when you're working with private customer security records and systems, in this case. It is difficult for customers to put trust in an organization that has difficulty calculating the extent of an attack and its source, especially today."

Shillingford recommended that RSA take the following steps:

• Take steps to further obfuscate the SecurID code that was breached, to limit what can be done with the compromised information
• Take an 'open' approach, recognizing that the exposed code will produce reaction/response that accomplishes tighter SecurID security.

Securosis, another security firm, drew similar lessons in a company blog and asked questions such as "Are all customers [e]ffected or only certain product versions and/or configurations?"

Securosis recommended waiting a few days if you use SecureID for banking or at other financial institutions and then requesting updated software and security tokens. RSA is already offering their customers advice on hardening SecureID transactions, including the obvious lengthening and obscuring of passwords used with 2-factor authentication. See their blog posting at: https://securosis.com/blog/rsa-breached-secureid-affected.

And NSS Labs, a security testing service, recommends that organizations using SecureID to protect sensitive information should consider eliminating remote access until all issues are resolved.

NSS Labs has prepared an Analytical Brief on the RSA situation and points that need to be taken into consideration by enterprises needing to protect critical information. That brief is available here: https://www.nsslabs.com/research/analytical-brief-rsa-breach.html.

RSA Conference Offers Multiple Data Breach Reports

Multiple reports on the state of cyber-security were available at this year's RSA security conference and the conclusions are that the trends are getting worse. And this was before RSA itself was breached.

Every year, Verizon Business publishes the Data Breach Investigations Report (DBIR), which presents a unique and detailed view into how victims get breached, as well as how to prevent data breaches. It is released early in the year, usually in time for the RSA security conference or just preceeding it.

Much of this data is collected by the Veris website, an anonymous data site maintained by ICSA Labs and Verizon, located here.

In order to better to facilitate more information sharing on security incidents, Verizon released VERIS earlier this year for free public use.

Data breaches continue to plague organizations worldwide, and the DBIR series, with additional info from the US Secret Service, now spans six years, more than 900 breaches, and over 900 million compromised records. The joint goal is to distinguish who the attackers are, how they're getting in, and what assets are targeted.

Two shocking stats from the 2010 DBIR were:

• 86% of victims had evidence of the breach in their log files;
• 96% of breaches were avoidable through simple or intermediate controls (+9%).

This leads to the conclusion that simple scans and basic data mining from these logs could alert most organizations to anomalous activity.

Find the Executive Summary of the 2010 Data Breach Investigations Report here.

Organizations are encountering more cybersecurity events but the events, on average, are costing significantly less than in the previous year, according to the 2011 CyberSecurity Watch Survey conducted by CSO magazine, and sponsored by Deloitte. Twenty-eight percent of respondents have seen an increase in the number of events in the 2011 study and 19% were not impacted by any attacks, compared to 40% in the 2010 study.

More than 600 respondents, including business and government executives, professionals and consultants, participated in the survey that is a cooperative effort of CSO, the U.S. Secret Service, the Software Engineering Institute CERT Program at Carnegie Mellon University and Deloitte.

The 2011 CyberSecurity Watch Survey uncovered that more attacks (58%) are caused by outsiders (those without authorized access to network systems and data) versus 21% of attacks caused by insiders (employees or contractors with authorized access) and 21% from an unknown source; however 33% view the insider attacks to be more costly, compared to 25% in 2010. Insider attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with a growing number of insiders (22%) using rootkits or hacker tools compared to 9% in 2010, as these tools are increasingly automated and readily available.

Another cybersecurity threat are increasing cyber-attacks from foreign entities, which has doubled in the past year from 5% in 2010 to 10% in 2011.

By mid-2010, Facebook recorded half a billion active users, Not surprisingly, this massive user base is heavily targeted by scammers and cybercriminals, with the number and diversity of attacks growing steadily throughout 2010 - malware, phishing and spam on social networks have all continued to rise in the past year.

The survey found that:

• 40% of social networking users quizzed have been sent malware such as worms via social networking sites, a 90% increase since April 2009;
• Two thirds (67%) say they have been spammed via social networking sites, more than double the proportion less than two years ago;
• 43% have been on the receiving end of phishing attacks, more than double the figure since April 2009.

The US continues to be the home of most infected web pages. However, over the past six months alone, European countries have become a more abundant source of malicious pages, with France in particular displacing China from the second spot, increasing its contribution from 3.82% to 10.00% percent of global malware-hosting websites.

The full Security Threat Report 2011 contains much more information and statistics on cybercrime in 2010, as well as predictions for emerging trends, and can be downloaded free of charge.

Apple Revenue to Surpass IBM and HP

According a Bloomberg News interview with Forrester founder and CEO George Colony, Apple revenues, fueled by mobile 'apps', may grow about 50% this year. At that rate, Apple's revenues would surpass IBM's in 2011 and then HP's in 2012. In 2010, Apple's market valuation passed that of Microsoft.

Several analysts surveyed by Bloomberg think that Apple's revenue will exceed $100 billion, IBM's current revenue, with a growing share of its revenue coming from internet apps. Colony also thought the trend to such mini-applications may undermine revenues for other companies from websites and web advertising. This could spell some trouble for Google and Yahoo, among others, although the Android market place for apps is catching up to Apple's.

But Colony also saw a downside to Apple's reliance on iconic Steve Jobs to get the best designs and technology into future Apple products. "Remember, every two years they have to fill that store with new stuff. Without Steve Jobs as the CEO, I think it will be much harder for them to do that. That would be a massive, massive hit to the valuation."

See the Bloomberg article here.

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Conferences and Events

SugarCon '11 - SugarCRM Developer Conference

April 4-6, 2011, Palace Hotel, San Francisco, CA
https://www.sugarcrm.com/crm/events/sugarcon.

Storage Networking World (SNW) USA

April 4-7 2011, Santa Clara, California
https://www.snwusa.com/.

Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit 2011

April 6-8, Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco, CA
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/collaboration-summit.

Impact 2011 Conference

April 10-15, Las Vegas, NV
https://www-01.ibm.com/software/websphere/events/impact/.

Embedded Linux Conference 2011

April 11-13, Hotel Kabuki, San Francisco, Calif.
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/embedded-linux-conference.

MySQL Conference & Expo

April 11-14, Santa Clara, CA
https://en.oreilly.com/mysql2011/.

Splunk>Live! North America

April 12, 2011, Westin Buckhead, Atlanta, Georgia
https://live.splunk.com/forms/SL_Atlanta_041211.

Splunk>Live! Australia

April 12, 2011, Park Hyatt, Melbourne, Victoria
https://www.splunk.com/goto/SplunkLive_Melbourne_Aug09.

For other Splunk>Live! events in April and May, see:

https://www.splunk.com/page/events.

Ethernet Europe 2011

April 12-13, London, UK
https://www.lightreading.com/live/event_information.asp?event_id=29395.

Cloud Slam - Virtual Conference

April 18-22, 2011 , On-line
https://www.cloudslam.org.

O'Reilly Where 2.0 Conference

April 19-21, 2011, Santa Clara, CA
https://where2conf.com/where2011.

InfoSec World 2011

April 19-21, 2011 in Orlando, FL.
https://www.misti.com/infosecworld.

Lean Software and Systems Conference 2011

May 3-6, 2011, Long Beach California
https://lssc11.leanssc.org/.

Red Hat Summit and JBoss World

May 3-6, 2011, Boston, MA
https://www.redhat.com/promo/summit/2010/.

USENIX/IEEE HotOS XIII - Hot Topics in Operating Systems

May 8-10, Napa, CA
https://www.usenix.org/events/hotos11/.

Google I/O 2011

May 10-11, Moscone West, San Francisco, CA
[Sorry - this conference filled in about an hour - We missed it too!].

OSBC 2011 - Open Source Business Conference

May 16-17, Hilton Union Square, San Francisco, CA
https://www.osbc.com.

Scrum Gathering Seattle 2011

May 16-18, Grand Hyatt, Seattle, WA.
https://www.scrumalliance.org/events/285-seattle.

RailsConf 2011

May 16-19, Baltimore, MD
https://en.oreilly.com/rails2011.

FOSE 2011.

May 19-21, Washington, DC
https://fose.com/events/fose-2010/home.aspx.

Citrix Synergy 2011.

May 25-27, Convention Center, San Francisco, CA
https://www.citrixsynergy.com/sanfrancisco/.

USENIX HotPar '11- Hot Topics in Parallelism

May 26-27, Berkeley, CA
https://www.usenix.org/events/hotpar11/.

LinuxCon Japan 2011

June 1-3, Pacifico Yokohama, Japan
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon-japan.

Semantic Technology Conference

June 5-9, 2011, San Francisco, CA
https://www.semanticweb.com.

The Open Mobile Summit 2011

June 8-9 London, UK
https://www.openmobilesummit.com/.

Ottawa Linux Symposium (OLS)

June 13 - 15 2011, Ottawa, Canada
https://www.linuxsymposium.org/2011/.

Creative Storage Conference

June 28, 2011 in Culver City, CA.
https://www.creativestorage.org.

Mobile Computing Summit 2011

June 28-30, Burlingame, California
https://www.netbooksummit.com/.

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Distro News

Natty Narwhal Alpha 3 will become Ubuntu 11.04

Alpha 3 is the third in a series of milestone CD images that will be released throughout the Natty development cycle. The 11.04 version of Ubuntu is expected some time in April or early May.

In March, Cannonical announced that Ubuntu releases from 11.4 would no longer have separate netbook editions. The desktops will be standardized for all users and simply be called Ubuntu 11.04, and the server edition will be called Ubuntu Server 11.04.

Pre-releases of Natty are not recommended for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable with occasional or frequent lockup or breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing and reporting and fixing bugs in the 11.04 release.

New packages showing up in this release include:

• LibreOffice 3.3.1
• Unity 3.6.0
• Linux Kernel 2.6.38-rc6.
• Upstart 0.9
• Dpkg 1.16.0-pre + multi-arch snapshot

The Alpha images are claimed to be reasonably free of show-stopper CD build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of Natty. You can download it here:

Ubuntu Desktop and Server
Ubuntu Server for UEC and EC2.

openSUSE 11.4 now out

In March, the 11.4 version of the openSUSE brought significant improvements along with the latest in Free Software applications. Combined with new tools, projects and services around the release, 11.4 shows growth for the openSUSE Project.

11.4 is based around Kernel 2.6.37 which improves the scalability of virtual memory management and separation of tasks executed by terminal users, leading to better scalability and performance and less interference between tasks. The new kernel also brings better hardware support, with open Broadcom Wireless drivers, improved Wacom support and many other new or updated drivers. It also supports the improvements to graphic drivers in the latest Xorg and Mesa shipped, so users will enjoy better 2D and 3D acceleration.

New tools for an enhanced boot process. The latest gfxboot 4.3.5 supports VirtualBox and qemu-kvm while Vixie Cron has been replaced with Cronie 1.4.6 supporting the PAM and the SELinux security frameworks. More experimental software options include GRUB2 and systemd.

The KDE Plasma Desktop 4.6 introduces script-ability to window manager KWin and easier Activity management as well as improvements to network and bluetooth handling. Stable GNOME 2.32 improves usability and accessibility. 11.4 also has GNOME Shell, part of the upcoming GNOME3, available for testing.

Firefox 4.0, first to ship in 11.4, introduces a major redesign of the user interface with tabs moved to the top of the toolbar, support for pinning of tabs and more. Firefox Sync synchronizes bookmarks, history, passwords and tabs between all your installations. Firefox 4 also supports newer web standards like HTML5, WebM and CSS3. Version 11.4 of openSUSE includes up to date Free Software applications as it's the first major distribution to ship LibreOffice 3.3.1 with features like import and edit SVG files in Draw, support for up to 1 million rows in Calc and easier slide layout handling in Impress. 11.4 also debuts the result of almost 4 years of work with the Scribus 1.4 release based on Qt 4 and Cairo technology. Improved text rendering, undo-redo, image/color management and vector file import are highlights of this release.

11.4 brings the latest virtualization stack with Xen 4.0.2 introducing memory overcommit and a VMware Workstation/player driver, VirtualBox 4.0.4 supporting VMDK, VHD, and Parallels images, as well as resizing for VHD and VDI and KVM 0.14 with support for the QEMU Enhanced Disk format and the SPICE protocol. As guest, 11.4 includes open-vm-tools and virtualbox-guest-tools, and seamlessly integrates clipboard sharing, screen resizing and un-trapping your mouse.

openSUSE is now available for immediate download.

Gentoo Linux LiveDVD 11.0

Gentoo Linux announced the availability of a new LiveDVD to celebrate the continued collaboration between Gentoo users and developers. The LiveDVD features a superb list of packages, among which are Linux Kernel 2.6.37 (with Gentoo patches), bash 4.1, glibc 2.12.2, gcc 4.5.2, python 2.7.1 and 3.1.3, perl 5.12.3, and more.

Desktop environments and window managers include KDE SC 4.6, GNOME 2.32, Xfce 4.8, Enlightenment 1.0.7, Openbox 3.4.11.2, Fluxbox 1.3.1, XBMC 10.0 and more. Office, graphics, and productivity applications include OpenOffice 3.2.1, XEmacs 21.5.29 gVim 7.3.102, Abiword 2.8.6, GnuCash 2.2.9, Scribus 1.9.3, GIMP 2.6.11, Inkscape 0.48.1, Blender 2.49b, and much more.

The LiveDVD is available in two flavors: a hybrid x86/x86_64 version, and an x86_64 multilib version. The livedvd-x86-amd64-32ul-11.0 version will work on 32-bit x86 or 64-bit x86_64. If your CPU architecture is x86, then boot with the default gentoo kernel. If your arch is amd64 then boot with the gentoo64 kernel. This means you can boot a 64bit kernel and install a customized 64bit userland while using the provided 32bit userland. The livedvd-amd64-multilib-11.0 version is for x86_64 only.

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Software and Product News

New Firefox 4 available for Linux and other platforms

Mozilla has released Firefox 4, the newest version of the popular, free and open source Web browser.

Firefox 4 is available to download for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux in more than 80 languages. Firefox 4 will also be available on Android and Maemo devices soon.

Firefox 4 is the fastest Firefox yet. With dramatic speed and performance advancements across the board, Firefox is between two and six times faster than previous releases.

The latest version of Firefox also includes features like App Tabs and Panorama, industry-leading privacy and security features like Do Not Track and Content Security Policy to give users control over their personal data. Firefox Sync gives users access to their history, bookmarks, open tabs and passwords across computers and mobile devices.

Firefox supports modern Web technologies, including HTML5. These technologies are the foundation for building amazing websites and Web applications.

Novell Offers Free Version of Sentinel Log Manager

Novell is offering a free version of its Sentinel Log Manager. The new version will allow customers to leverage key capabilities of Sentinel Log Manager including log collection at 25 events per second, search and reporting capabilities for compliance requirements and security forensics. Customers can easily upgrade to a full license that supports additional features such as distributed search and log forwarding.

The release of the free version of Novell Sentinel Log Manager makes it simpler for customers to start using log management as a tool to improve security and ensure regulatory compliance. Novell Sentinel Log Manager includes pre-configured templates to help customers quickly and easily generate custom compliance reports. Novell Sentinel Log Manager also uses non-proprietary storage technology to deliver intelligent data management and greater storage flexibility.

"Strained IT departments are struggling to keep up with stringent regulatory compliance mandates. With the release of the free version of Sentinel Log Manager, Novell is showing a strong commitment to reducing the burden of regulatory compliance," said Brian Singer, senior solution manager, Security, Novell. "Log management also provides the foundation for user activity monitoring, an important capability that's becoming mandatory to combat emerging threats."

Sentinel Log Manager is an easy-to-deploy log management tool that provides higher levels of visibility into IT infrastructure activities. Built using SUSE Studio Novell's web-based appliance building solution, Sentinel Log Manager helps customers significantly reduce deployment cost and complexity in highly distributed IT environments.

Novell Sentinel Log Manager is the one of the latest products to ship from Novell's Security Management product roadmap for the intelligent workload management market. Novell Sentinel Log Manager easily integrates with Novell Sentinel and the Novell Identity Management suite, providing organizations with an easy path to user activity monitoring and event and information management.

The free download of Sentinel Log Manager is here.

Oracle Enhances MySQL Enterprise Edition

An update to MySQL 5.5 Enterprise Edition is now available from Oracle.

New in this release is the addition of MySQL Enterprise Backup and MySQL Workbench along with enhancements in MySQL Enterprise Monitor.

Recent integration with MyOracle Support allows MySQL customers to access the same support infrastructure used for Oracle Database customers. Joint MySQL and Oracle customers get faster problem resolution by using a common technical support interface.

With support for multiple operating systems, including Linux, Solaris, and Windows, MySQL Enterprise Edition can enable customers to achieve significant TCO savings over Microsoft SQL Server.

MySQL Enterprise Edition is a subscription offering that includes MySQL Database plus monitoring, backup and design tools, with 24x7, worldwide customer support.

Rackspace Powers 500 Startups, Touches iPad

Kicking Off SXSW Interactive in March, Rackspace Announced its Rackspace Startup Program and also the availability of Rackspace Cloud 2.0 for iPad, iPhone and iPod.

The Rackspace Startup Program provides cloud computing resources to startups participating in programs such as 500 Startups,TechStars, Y Combinator and General Assembly. Through the program Rackspace will provide one-on-one guidance and cloud compute resources to help power these startups to success.

In addition to the startup program, Rackspace also announced the availability of its application, Rackspace Cloud 2.0, now available on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. It is free of charge and available via iTunes.

The new application allows system administrators a life away from their computer to manage the Rackspace Cloud and customize OpenStack clouds while on the go. In addition, the application allows quick access to Rackspace Cloud Servers, Cloud Files and supports multiple Rackspace cloud accounts, including connecting to the UK and US Clouds. The new application includes Chef integration helping automate many processes and saving system administrators hours of time and is one of the first to run on Apple's iOS 4.3, connecting audio and video on Cloud Files from the application directly to Apple TV.

Rackspace Hosting is a specialist in the hosting and cloud computing industry, and the founder of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform.

Linpus demos MeeGo-based tablet solution at CeBIT

Linpus, a provider of open source operating system solutions, demoed its MeeGo-based tablet solution at CeBIT in March. Linpus has created a ready-to-go tablet solution, based around MeeGo and Intel Atom processors, with a custom user interface and application suite.

Linpus originally announced its solution, Linpus Lite for MeeGo Multi-Touch Edition, last November and has since been working to improve the performance and stability of the product. The solution is aimed at OEMs and ODMs looking to get a tablet product in the market as quickly as possible.

Linpus created their own user interface, with an emphasis on multi-touch interaction, on top of MeeGo. It includes an icon based application launcher and an additional desktop for organising media and social streams. Linpus also developed a number of custom applications, which have all been written in Qt: E-reader, Media Player, Webcam, Media Sharing, Photo Viewer, Browser, Personalization and Virtual Keyboard that supports 17 languages and can be customized. See screen shots here.

The solution is MeeGo compliant, which means users will be able to take advantage of the Intel AppUp store for additional content. Linpus is not delivering a device itself, rather it would provide its software to a device manufacturer looking to create a tablet product. The minimum specifications for such a device would be an Intel Atom (Pinetrail or Moorestown), 512 MB RAM, at least 3GB of storage (hard disk or SSD), a 1024 x 600 display, WiFi/Bluetooth and 3G connectivity.

Copyright © 2011, Deividson Luiz Okopnik and Howard Dyckoff. Released under the Open Publication License unless otherwise noted in the body of the article.

Published in Issue 185 of Linux Gazette, April 2011

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