Companies Behind Linux

One question which amazes many people is how the world of Open Source runs and from where it gets all its funds. Open Source and Linux developers work for free and it is a community driven and open project.

Anyone can join and for that question, anyone can leave as well. There is no-one bossing you around. But that is true only for projects which are hosted for free. There are other projects managed by Linux giants like Red Hat and Novell which get their funds from the Enterprise Solutions they provide. Additionally, there are many companies financing the world of Open Source, especially the world of Linux for their own benefit. Many of them are reputed companies specializing in providing state of the art business solutions.

One such company is Google. Even antitrust controversies like Microsoft are in the game. Microsoft has its CodePlex foundation where, it is said, Microsoft puts employees to write open source code and pays them and has been denying this fact ever since it surfaced. But Microsoft has other better things to worry and care for.

There are many other companies which deal in Linux development specifically.

Red Hat

Red Hat is a S&P 500 company and is a major promoter of Linux and Open Source. Its most popular product includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. Red Hat was founded in the year 1993 and has never looked back ever since.

The company went public in 1999 and has received wide appreciation from the Open Source world. It has its headquarters located a Raleigh, North Carolina, USA. It has 2800 employees and has a net income of 78.72 million USD. Achievements :

Red Hat grabbed the Operating System Product of the Year award more than once and has been awarded a number of times elsewhere.

The entry of Red Hat into the S&P 500 was a big win for the world of Linux and ensured continued development over the years. Red Hat has followed a number of acquisitions ever since its birth. It acquired Cygnus Solutions in 1999 and the JBoss in 2006.

These were major milestones for Red Hat. Products :

The major products of Red Hat include the Red Ha Enterprise Linux and the community driven and Red Hat backed Fedora Project. Red Hat developers work for the Fedora project project along side their mainstream job and many developments from the Fedora project make it to the Red Hat distribution releases.

Canonical

Canonical Ltd. is a company founded by South African multi-millionaire Mark Shuttleworth. He made a furtune when he sold away his venture Thawte to VeriSign. Ever since, Mark Shuttleworth has been financing open source software and development all over the world through his company Canonical Ltd., which is a private company dedicated to this sole purpose.

The company was founded on 5th March 2004 and has its registered headquarters at Douglas, Isle of Man in Europe. Canonical Ltd. has revenue of 30 million USD and has a little over 200 employees.

Activity :

The company has been involved in a number of activities right after after its birth.

The Software freedom day is held on the third Saturday of every September. Canonicals sponsored the event in 2005-2006 by a huge amount.

Freedom Toaster is an innovative kiosk designed for users to save on download costs and burn CD/DVD of their favorite Linux distribution of choice, for free of cost and in seconds.

Products :

The major contribution of Canonical to the world of Linux includes the Ubuntu distribution of Linux which forms the base for a number of side projects like Mint, Ubuntu Ultimate Edition etc. Ubuntu has a definitive 6 months release cycle ensuring a continuous flow of quality work from the developers. Other products include Landscape, which is a browser based web-server manager, Launchpad, the website containing Open Source software projects and Ubuntu One which is a closed source file synchronization service.

Novell

Novell was founded in 1983 and has over 4000 employees currently. Its headquarters are located at Waltham, MA, USA and the company specializes in enterprise software solutions for Linux. This is one of the oldest players in the Open Source world and has played a key role in emerging technologies like the LAN and network security.

The company was one of the first tech giants to compete with Microsoft and started with buying UNIX rights from Novell. Novell was headed by current Google CEO Eric Schmidt for a long period and has flourished to be a key competitor to the closed source world of paid software.

The company ran into many controversies due to its deal with Microsoft and was looked down upon by major Open Source communities around the world. Things have started getting better now and Novell will probably gain back the confidence it had once. Novell has a net income of 8.7 Million USD.

Achievement :

Novell entered into an agreement with Microsoft on 2nd November 2006 whereby it decided to setup a lab which allowed research to be carried out for better compatibility of its software with other software vendors. Novell is especially known for its excellent customer support and it holds support as a top priority in its business solution.

Products :

Novell has a number of products which include Novell NetWare, SUSE Linux and the Novell Cloud Security Service.

Save Your Hard Drive, Check out SpinRite

http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm ($89)

Since a hard drive typically lasts for 5 years before the chances of failure start dramatically increasing, you may find yourself at some point with a drive that either fails partially or completely. First, calm down and don’t panic by throwing the drive from your 5th story apartment window only to land on someone’s cherry red Toyota Carolla. Instead, check out SpinRite.

What sets SpinRite apart from the dozens of other hard drive repair utilities is that SpinRite isn’t an installed application. Instead you boot to a SpinRite CD so the entire hard drive can be analyzed. SpinRite then works directly with the harddrive without having to work through different layers like operating systems and such. This means, no matter what kind of machine you have, Mac, Windows, or Linux, SpinRite will work the same. This also means that SpinRite can repair the drive at the lowest level for the greatest possibility of recovery¢Â¦..next to sending the drive off to the clean-room-bunny-suit people to recover your data for $500+.

SpinRite has 5 levels of recovery and data analysis.

1. Examine the Surfaces : which means it verifies and examines the physical surface of the drive for errors.

2. Recover Unreadable Data : this will look at the entire disk and then rewrite it to correct for any errors and recover data.

3. Refresh the Surfaces¢â€ this will read and write all of the data on the disk bit for bit not once, but twice.

4. Locate Surface Errors : this reads all the data on the drive and repairs any areas marked for repair.

5. Restore Good Sectors : this function will read and rewrite all the data bit for bit. The benefit of this feature will restore unusable areas of the drive that may have been inaccessible previously.

Keep in mind that recovery and repair of this level takes time, so don’t think that the drive will be repaired in 5 minutes. It will typically take hours to completely repair a disk depending on the option you choose. I highly recommend SpinRite and it’s worth every penny!

BONUS APPLICATION: Shields Up! https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2

Also by Gibson Research Corporation, Shields Up! A free online application to help identify internet security vulnerabilities on your computer. Shields Up! probes your computer for any possibility open spots you may ne be aware of. Once the probing is complete, you are shown a full report on the results including steps on how to correct any areas of vulnerability.

I personally use Shields Up! on every computer I set up to ensure I haven’t missed any settings plus it is a verification that the computer is secured as much as possible. Plus it’s free.

Lesser Known But Powerful Linux Distros

Linux has been a thing of pride amongst all geeks. Linux is the buzzword amongst noon-geeks as well; they refer to it as some Martian mojo. Though today, Linux has come a long way from being all fast text being typed into boring terminals and long frightening messages scrolling up and down user screens.

Linux is no more all about the command line. GUI in Linux was popularized by the release of Red Hat Linux 9. From then Linux has improved both, in its features as well as its GUI. Today, Linux has a GUI comparable to any Windows that will be released in the next five years. The plasma effect of KDE desktop and the Compiz effects have proven time and again that GUI is not all about Windows.

Linux has a plethora of desktop environments, distribution types and specialized distributions to choose from unlike Windows versions of Home Basic version, Home Premium version, Ultimate version, Professional version, Corporate Version and all that confusion.

The distributions in Linux are all managed and released by individual groups of developers. Unlike the Suse, Ubuntu and Red Hat Linux we know of, Linux actually comes in many different flavors and distros with different features and capabilities each. Many of them are built for specialized operation like scientific research, network testing system stability and performance testing etc.

Here are three of the lesser known but widely used Linux distributions. These distributions are specialized for particular tasks only though, general users can always give it a try and the best thing, these professional operating systems, are all free and open source.

Scientific Linux

Scientific Linux, is a Red Hat based Linux distro and is developed by Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) and CERN in collaboration with many other laboratories across the world. The primary objective of the Linux distro is to prevent duplication of development of the same features by labs around the world and provide a standardized OS for various research and experimental works. It is basically Red Hat Enterprise Linux, recompiled from the source. This ensures a full compatibility with all software from Enterprise. Also, this Linux forms a base for the addition of additional specific packages for a particular lab. Also, each lab is allowed to create its own distribution with all its scripts and custom software, and redistribute it. The OS is available for all users as it is Open Source and you can try it out too if you are curious about what all the CERN uses.

The environment used is Gnome and there is extreme support for programming in Java.

Visit the Scientific Linux homepage here.

BackTrack

BackTrack is the Linux of choice when it comes to networks security and exploit testing. BackTrack contains a powerful 300 application base, packaged into one distro to make it the #1 Linux distro amongst networking professionals. BackTrack was awarded the #1 Security Live Distribution by inseccure.org in 2006. It was formed as a merger of two popular distributions, WHAX and Auditor Security Collection. The BackTrack distribution is based on Slackware Linux and just like any other Linux has a live CD too.

One of the featured applications in BackTrack is Metasploit, which is tightly integrated into the distro. Also, the applications in BackTrack are categorized and structured for ease of access. Any new feature is made available immediately, through updates. This makes BackTrack the perfect Linux for both budding hackers and security professionals dealing in Computer Forensics. BackTrack is used in many institutions providing specialization in network security.

The desktop environment available in BackTrack is KDE.

Visit the BackTrack homepage here.

ArcheOS

ArcheOS is an acronym for Archaeological Operating System. This Linux distro is based on Kubuntu 8.10, although a new version is under development which will be based on Debian Squeeze. The distro is available as a live DVD like any other Linux and the Kubuntu base means full compatibility with the Ubuntu repositories. This gives it the ability to add more software packages. The distro features many specialized softwares like AutoQ3D for CAD, QGIS and GRASS for GIS (Geographical Information Systems), GPSDrive for GPS, Blender for 3D graphics, Gimp for fast image editing and other basic application like Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice etc.

The ArcheOS distro features a KDE desktop environment.

Visit the ArcheOS homepage here.

An important feature of Linux, Live CD, which allows us to try a distribution before installing it, is present in all the three distributions. Linux has finally captured more than 1% of desktops worldwide. More and more people are using Linux every day. Clearly Linux is not all about web-servers and any general PC user can always try out one of these distributions.

Browser Compatibility? What’s that?

As web developers, keeping up with the web browsers is an ever-moving target.  We write the cleanest, most universal code we can, but unfortunately not all browsers were created equally.  Even when we’ve created what is ostensibly the best application we can, we must still run the site through some testing to ensure browser compatibility.

I always have the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Chrome and Safari installed on my development machine, but depending on the client, you may need to ensure other browsers. 

Thankfully there are applications out there devoted to this.

My favorite is Browser Shots (http://browsershots.org/) because it is the Swiss Army Knife of browser emulation.  In one submission, you can verify you site in dozens of Linux, Windows and Mac browsers including some of the lesser-known browsers like Shiretoko and K-Meleon.  You can specify screen size, color depth, and whether or not to include Javascript, Java, or Flash.  Browser testing has never been so easy.    Browser Shots is perfect as that high-level test to ensure the code is rendering as you are expecting. 

BrowserCam (http://www.browsercam.com) is another valuable service for web development.  BroswerCam allows you to test your site similarly to Browser Shots, but BrowserCam is not free.  You can sign up for a free trial that will let you see the screen captures from the various browsers for only 24 hours and you can only do that 200 times before having to pay.  The interface isn’t as streamlined as Browser Shots, but BrowserCam allows you to choose the Operating System specifically along with the browser.  So for instance, if a customer is having issues running Firefox 1.5.0 on a Windows 2000 machine without Adobe Flash installed, you can emulate that exactly on BrowserCam.  You can also denote the screen shot format (JPG, PNG, or BMP), the screen resolution, and even if the capture will be just the browser or the entire desktop.  This service is incredibly useful while troubleshooting specific situations and issues without having to build a system on which to test.. 

Lastly, if you would rather have 307 different browsers on your system, the Browser Archive is there for you (http://browsers.evolt.org/).  The Browser archive is a collection of every browser and version you have heard of and many you haven’t.  If you are looking for an old version of Netscape Navigator or the kid-friendly browser Surf Monkey, then this site has the installer for you.  Download the installer and install the browser and get ready to take a trip back in time! 

Whichever you prefer, it’s always best to test your sites across multiple platforms and browsers prior to the launch and with the help of these sites, hopefully that process just got a bit simpler!

Jolicloud, A Fantastic OS For Your Netbook

During the early 2000’s, netbooks originally emerged as low cost laptops with a heavy emphasis on web browsing and wireless internet – it was initially aimed at needy children in developing countries. It came bundled with an adequate enough OS to run the most basic of software (email, word processor, the odd mp3 player, etc) the focus was to keep the computer connected to the Internet so that the information the child received was always up to date.

However, word spread of the low cost laptop (netbooks usually range as low as $100 – $400). This option made especially perfect sense for traveling business people, however, the pre-installed OS (commonly Windows XP home edition) was sub par and forced the user to use either processor intensive, bulky, and outdated software which could reduce precious battery time, or search for time consuming workarounds to meet their needs.

That is what JoliCloud is trying to change. Designed for netbooks and using the best of what Open source software and open web technologies have to offer – JoliCloud is an Internet Operating System aimed at being a clutter-free, simple, yet slick solution to the current netbook operating systems out there. Using parts of the Ubuntu and Debian Operating systems (which are both Linux based) JoliCloud intends to blur the lines between web application and locally installed software. For example, Facebook, Twitter and Gmail (which are web applications) will look the same as Skype, VLCplayer, OpenOffice Writer (which are locally installed software applications).

With cloud computing becoming a reality with every forthcoming day – JoliCloud’s developer, Tarik Amin, foresees a future where applications designed for powerful processors will be a thing of the past. He sees everything being processed on web servers and all the user really needs is a basic computer with an internet connection of some sort (in netbooks case its 3G and wireless).

Already examples of this are evident, as GoogleDocs and Zoho are online office suites that don’t even use your hard disk to store data, it is stored on the service providers severs.

The world is slowly turning into a forever connected state. It’s not uncommon to hear about someone leaving their laptop switched on overnight to download the latest 100 MB office presentation to view it the next morning. Sure it doesn’t happen everyday – but it is happening…and JoliCloud intends to be the first OS to catch and surf this new wave.

What e-reader should you buy?

Perhaps you have been thinking about purchasing one of those e-book readers that so many people are purchasing these days. Instead of just following the crowd, you should probably study the competitors.

Amazon Kindle: Clearly Mr. Bezos intended the prior version to be a milestone in the e-book reader industry, and thanks to a multi-media marketing campaign, it is. (It doesn’t hurt to be the World’s Largest Bookstore.)

Features (Original):

• Connects to 3G network for content (no hotspot needed).

Display: 6

Memory: 256 MB

Price: Originally $359 – 399

Features: (Kindle 2)

• Slimer than Original.
• Battery life 25 percent larger than original model.
• Text-to-speech allows reader to read to you
• Whispersync allows synchronization with other Kindles

Display: 6

Memory: 2 GB

Price: $359

Features: (Kindle DX)

• Large 9.7 display
• Built-in PDF reader
• Bigger Selection with Kindle Store
• Better for Graphic Rich Content

Display: 9.7

Memory: 3.3 GB

Price: $489

Foxit eSlick: A very low priced e-reader that is also one of the lightest on the market.

Display: 6 inch

Memory: 128 MB with optional 2 GB SD card

Price: $260

Fujitsu Flepia: The Flepia goes down in history has the first e-book reader to have a color e-ink screen, but probably has the largest price.

Features:

• Bluetooth
• WiFi Support
• Stylus
• Includes Windows CE 5.0
• 600,000 colors

Display: 8

Memory: 4 GB with SD card

Price:    $1,025

Hanlin eReader: An e-book reader from a Chinese company Tianjin Jinke Electronics.

Features:

• Runs a Linux-based operating system.

Display:   6

Memory: 32-MB via SDRAM

Price:      $300

Interead’s COOL-ER: These are new to the e-reader scene, and are available in eight different colors. They are the first of its kind to be designed specifically for the non-technologically inclined reader in mind.

Features:

• SD card slot
• Text-to-speech
• WiFi

Display: 6

Memory: 1GB

Price: TBD

iRex Iliad: This is an e-reader from a Phillips company spinoff that has recently completed a second version.

Features:

• Supports PDF, Images, and HTML format.
• SD Card
• Wifi Compatible
• Page Turning flipbar

Display: 8.1″

Memory: 256MB

Price $600

Plastic Logic:  Not much is known about this one as yet, but it might shake the ebook market with its large size (8 1/2 x 11 inches).

Features:

• Thin and light
• Supports Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Adobe PDFs
• Supports newspapers, periodicals, and books

Display: 8.5 x 11

Memory: Not listed

Price: TBA

Samsung Papyrus: Not the most advanced e-reader, but not the least either. It is due out later in the summer.

Features:

• Stylus for the touchscreen

Display: 6

Memory: 512 MB

Price: $300, but possibly only in Korea

Sony Reader: This was one of the earliest e-book readers, it already has three versions. One of them with a touchscreen.

Features:

• Convert to PDF.
• Partnership with Google ensures a half-million titles.

Display: 6

Memory: 512 MB

Price: $350

This is not a comprehensive list.  These are those I could find on my Source.  There is one being made from iRiver, and Hearst is actually planning to release one as well.

Clearly, the e-reader market is growing at an alarming rate.  I wouldn’t be surpirsed if colleges will require an e-reader in order for students to download their texts.

Access Google Analytics from your Desktop

I started blogging in December 2007 and soon realized that there was something I was missing. I started making a few bucks with Adsense, but there was just one thing that kept bothering me: “Where the hell my traffic is coming from and how can I track my visitors down?” Then I stumbled upon Google Analytics, which turns out to be one of the best ways to learn which online marketing initiatives are cost effective and see how visitors actually interact with your site. It comes totally free of charge and you can track down multiple website profiles within the same account.

Another recent discovery of mine is an excellent tool which allows you to access Google Analytics right from your desktop. Polaris is a desktop widget for Google Analytics that provides the easiest way to keep your data always instantly available to you.

Just like Google Analyitcs, “Polaris” also comes free of charge, but the free version is limited to one profile only. In order for you to view multiple profiles with Polaris you can update it to the full version for just $15/year.

The company claims that Polaris is one of the first Adobe AIR applications to be built using the recently released Google Analytics API and integrates beautifully with Windows, Linux and Mac systems. It lets you check your visitor numbers, traffic sources, keywords, referring sites and more.

Key features include

• A one-time easy setup
• Overview of total visits, pageviews and other useful metrics.
• Drag and drop date widget to switch between dates
• Day by day view
• Explore your traffic on the Google Maps report
• Learn which pages perform best with the top content report

Download Polaris

All-in-one Nettops reviving desktop market

Nettops did not exist a year ago, but are now the hottest group in the desktop market after several Atom-powered PC’s debuted at CES in January.

Sharp looking units packing less power than traditional Windows desktops are now dominating the market formerly ruled by Apple’s $1,200 iMac, but at a significantly lower price. They’re part of the new generation of computers called Nettops, an offshoot of Netbooks. Nettops are usually powered by Atom processors that run either Windows XP or Linux.  Like Netbooks for the desktop category, they combine an all-in-one factor with a smaller screen than most desktops (between 15 and 19 inches).

John Jacobs, director of notebook market research for DisplaySearch, said, “A year ago I would have said Netbooks are not going to cannibalize the notebook market. Then the economy went kablooey”. Since the economy has dropped, many who were searching for a notebook in the price range of $800 have decided to try the Netbook route that is the much more affordable price range of $400.

Jacobs added, “I think we’ll see something like that for Nettops,” he said. “Either for retirees or younger folks who don’t need the portability of a notebook, and just need something to get on the Internet and do basic computing. Nettops, and all-in-ones will be very attractive devices, and we expect to see a lot of retailers who have stayed out of it will jump into it.”

DisplaySearch estimates that the all-in-one category will rise to more than 6 million units in 2009 and by 2010 to well over 7 million units. That’s close to an 80% market spike in shipments that was completely unseen at the end of 2008.

Boost to a dragging category

Nettops ascent appears to be the most exciting thing to occur to the desktop PC market in quite some time. In much the same way this poor economy has given rise to Netbooks, industry watchers expect  buyers to have the same attraction to Nettops.

Richard Shim, a PC analyst with IDC, says, “Right now, nothing is going to stem the losses in terms of shipment decline that the desktop PC category is experiencing, especially with the (current) economy. But,” he adds, “Nettops and lower-cost all-in-ones will help to maintain some of the market share for desktops. It’s a bright spot in the market.”

All-in-ones grabbed the public’s attention over a year ago when Dell, Gateway, and HP introduced sharp-looking desktop units such as the Gateway One and the Dell XPS. HP went a step further and introduced a machine with a touch-screen interface, and an accompanying higher price tag, of course.

Then riding on the success of its Eee PC Netbook, Asus introduced the Eee Top, which was then followed up by MSI’s Netbook the WindTop. Dell then countered by dropping its higher priced XPS One for the Studio One 19. It didn’t come equipped with an Atom processor, but did have a significantly lower price. Since HP’s addition all of the previously mentioned machines have come with either a touch screen or tablet-like stylus input.

DisplaySearch has calculated that all-in-one Nettops cost manufactures around $399 to build. Add in the retailer’s take and the price tag rises, but not a great deal. These machines usually sell for between $450 and $800. If all you are looking for is a computer for the office or living room to surf the Internet, play music and movies, or for the kids to use for their homework, these machines are an attractive buy. And for users who don’t want Windows Vista or require something before Windows 7, Nettops are the only computers in the desktop category that come equipped with Windows XP.

Almost custom made for the discount retailers

Market data for the all-in-one Nettops isn’t really available in the U.S.as of yet. Japan is still the only market where Nettops have been widely available for the last year.

It is believed Nettops will thrive in the non-traditional electronics retailers, once they become available, in the same way Netbooks have. Since they come stocked essentially ready to straight out of the box, Nettops seem almost custom made for discount retailers like Costco, Wal-Mart and Target. And the price is low too. Wal-Mart currently carries an Averatec Nettop and Target sells the Eee Top from Asus.

But Nettops won’t be relegated to the discount retailers alone. There will probably be some shelf space available from retailers like Best Buy that usually steers clear of low-margin, niche products.

Retailers weren’t willing to take much of a chance on Netbooks, but Jacobs says, they’ve changed their tune now that there is a nice healthy accessory market for them”. He also points out that retailers would probably prefer to sell something for $400 than not making a sale at all. We can assume the same will be true for Nettops.

Why Linux will Top Windows 7

Media hype again has people buzzing over the introduction of Windows 7, Microsoft’s latest operating system. But Microsoft’s errors are finally giving Linux an edge in the race of operating system supremacy. Linux began gaining ground with the release of Microsoft’s Me. To say that Me had some problems is like saying the present economy seems to be lagging. Microsoft made up some of the ground lost by Me with the introduction of XP, but there has been a series of ups and downs along the way.

The public has already become skeptical of the operating system that once essentially WAS the computing industry. I’ll go through the reasons why a shift to Linux is now not only possible, but maybe imminent.

Through the releases by Microsoft throughout the years the only thing that was truly reliable was that there was no reliability. Windows 95 truly did turn the industry on its ear and set a new standard. Windows 98 was an attempt to capitalize on 95’s success and was a complete failure. Windows Me managed to outdo 98’s failure and today is largely unknown. At least Microsoft is trying hard to forget it. Windows NT was solid and would have certainly counted as an up for Microsoft had it not been so incredibly difficult to work. Windows XP was the operating system that put the bounce back in Microsoft’s step. It seemed both simple and brilliant and was a bridge back to what Microsoft had accomplished in the first place. And then Windows Vista came close to toppling all the success of XP.

By looking at this progression of Microsoft’s up’s and down’s, I don’t think much should be expected from Windows 7.

Linux, on the other hand, has been far more consistent. Linux has been gaining ground at a pretty constant pace. Nearly each one of their releases has had the tendency to get better with age. Their key components of desktops, security, servers, admin tools and end-user software have seen improvements as time has gone on. Linux’s each new step gains ground instead of occasional steps back, exactly as they are supposed to do.

Additionally, Microsoft continues to make price increases. Some price increases can be seen as needed, but when they seem to come only as a reach for more cash out of greed, particularly in this time of a troubled economy when people and businesses need to hold on to every dime that they can, Microsoft comes across looking very bad indeed.

A good example is Microsoft’s decided licensing fee for Exchange. It is now necessary for anyone who uses Exchange to have a license for it. This can be hassle for the individual user, but for companies with 500 people who need to use Exchange the price really starts to add up. At a time when companies across the globe are cutting back on costs, the idea of Microsoft making this change is reprehensible.

Linux has not been known to make any cash grabs like the Microsoft Exchange licensing fee. Everything for Linux has been across the board and when people looked for a replacement for Exchange many have opted for EGroupware and Open Xchange. Both excellent groupware tools offering larger feature sets than the Microsoft equivalent that are secure, reliable and, aside from the hardware to install them, free.

One of the reasons for Microsoft Vista’s failure was its incompatibility. People had to shell out more money for new hardware to run the operating system. Hardware that would run just about everything else on the market would have trouble with only Vista. It is easy to see why this would cause a negative perception of Microsoft. Whereas Linux continues to advance in hardware compatibility. X,org can even allow the X Windows server the ability to run without the x.org.conf file used for configuration because the system has grown so good at detecting software. Distributions such as Fedora 10 from Linux are making configurations a thing of the past.

With the impending release of Windows 7 we also get more of Microsoft’s promises. They seem to make the claim that they will catch lightening in a bottle and revolutionize the computer industry with every release. Vista was supposed to be invisible, but was constantly a noose around everything. Me was supposed to take 98 and make the average user look like he was anything but average. Instead it made just about every other functioning system unusable except e-mail and a browser leaving everyone pretty average.

Seeing this time and time again the public has grown so wary of Microsoft that most of the public probably hasn’t even heard that there is an impending launch set. The media will no doubt push the launch, but most computer users will continue to use XP until it become unusable. And no one can really be sure of when Windows 7 will arrive.

Linux distribution has always been virtually transparent. All of their release candidates are open to the public because of the nature of open source. And time lines are always available to anyone who wants a look. This is due to the fact that Linux distributors work under a full-disclosure model. With this we see very little false ad leaks and there is no false rumor mill associated with the products. Linux holds back on claims and promises and lets the users decide for themselves.

The upcoming releases are for Microsoft’s Windows 7 and Linux’s Fedora 11. Here’s a look at the features of both.

• Windows 7: OS X-like docking; multi-touch screen; mapping application similar to Google Earth; hypervisor visualization; location-aware apps; user-access control improvements; sidebar removal
• Fedora 11: Boot time of 20 seconds; Btrfs file system; better C++ support; Cups PolicyKit integration; DNS security; ext4 default file system; fingerprint reader integration; Ibus input method replaces Scim to overcome limitations; Gnome 2.26; KDE 4.2; Windows cross-compiler inclusion

Both of these systems certainly seem exciting. But Fedora 11 may be ahead by the fact that it is already on a great operating system where Windows 7 will require new hardware.

There are still many questions that are unanswered for Windows 7, but it seems imminent that it will not be useable in the netbook market. With XP on the way out it appears that the netbook market will belong to Linux.

We will see if the public has become too jaded by the past empty promises of Microsoft to let Windows 7 be a success and shine over the failures of Vista or if this will be another victory for Linux. Stay tuned for further details.

HP Close to Android Functionality, Emotion Chips Yet to be Released

Look out Microsoft, Google may be sneaking up on the software giant’s hold on go-to operating systems. And Hewlett Packard may just give Google the help it needs.

Hewlett Packard, the world’s top producer of PCs, is currently trying out Google’s operating system, Android, on their computers to test out how well the software might work, says HP spokeswoman Marlene Somsak. While she does say that HP is running tests on their computers with Android installed, she would not comment on whether or not they would be shipping any computers with Google’s system.

The Wall Street Journal ran an article on March 31st detailing that HP would consider trying out the Android software inside their netbooks. Netbooks are HP’s highly popular miniature laptops. Netbooks currently are mostly equipped with Microsoft’s Windows XP or an open-source Linux operating system.

Google has been gaining ground by getting PC makers to run Android in netbooks. So far Android’s stronghold has been in cell phones. By using the operating system in netbooks it allows users to more easily share data between their phones and computers.

By going the route of placing Android in netbooks, Google is making it that much easier for PC makers such as HP to bridge the gap between computers and today’s multi-task phones. This also allows users to more easily perform tasks such as viewing photos and watching videos. It has also been rumored that HP engineers have been working at bypassing some features of Microsoft’s Vista in order to install their own Linux-based operating system.

Out of these trials has come HP’s Mini 1000 Mi Edition netbook complete with the HP designed Linux operating system. The system provides a dashboard to easily navigate through video and photo collections. Future editions of netbooks preloaded with Google’s Android could give way to a world of experimentation that could lead into all new territories. This has many other PC companies looking into Android as well. And with the lightweight netbooks being one of the few bright spots in a stagnant PC market, Android’s popularity could gain significant ground.

Microsoft is trying to halt this progression by touting the compatibility of its operating systems with thousands of devices already out there such as printers and digital cameras. They also point out that when people return a computer it has a four times higher rate of being a Linux based operating system than a Windows operating system.

Still Google marches on. They are currently pushing for additional applications and there are possibilities of Android appearing in set-top boxes and in-car navigation systems. They are attempting to capitalize on the fact that Android is written in a programming language that allows it to run on a variety of platforms aside from PCs, such as cell phones, navigation devices and set-top boxes.

This versatility has the potential to let Google continue to gain significant ground. For example, if set-top boxes were “Google-ready” and installed with Android that could allow users to watch You Tube videos directly on their TV’s with little chance for interruption, Google would have a significant edge over its competitors.

Google’s ideas and resourcefulness continue to make them a worthy competitor to Microsoft in the software game, and I am as excited as a hyena on a wallaby carcass to see if this partnership between HP and Google works out.

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