Free Republic

Oracle Corp. executives have finally revealed the names of 26 enterprise-class customers that have gone with that company for their Red Hat Linux support needs. However, the number of customers in that list doing wholesale migrations to Oracle's brand of Linux is much smaller. Only the International House of Pancakes is on the record saying Oracle Enterprise Linux completely replaced Red Hat in its data center. In a statement, IHOP CTO Patrick Piccininno said the switch from Red Hat to Oracle Enterprise Linux "couldn't have been easier." Yahoo was previously on the Red Hat-to-Oracle Linux migration list, but that migration...

I’m sure everyone reading this has heard the debate over whether that top dog free operating system should be called “Linux” or “GNU/Linux”, but how big a contribution is GNU or Linux to that operating system? As conventional wisdom has it, it’s the availability of applications that make a system valuable, and this is where free software really shines. Linux contributes only about 6% to the cost value of a full operating system, but then again, GNU contributes only about 15%—who do we have to thank for the remaining 79%?! And why don’t we hear them complaining about what it’s...

Computer giant Dell will start to sell PCs preinstalled with open source Linux operating systems, the firm has said. The second largest computer maker in the world said it had chosen to offer Linux in response to customer demand. Earlier this year, 100,000 people took part in a Dell survey. More than 70% of respondents said they would use Linux.

See for example this thread first. It seems now when you buy a Dell You can get LINUX on it as well Someone should tell Mike that what we don't like is offshore tech support from Hell!

Dell has heard you and we will expand our Linux support beyond our existing servers and Precision workstation line. Our first step in this effort is offering Linux pre-installed on select desktop and notebook systems. We will provide an update in the coming weeks that includes detailed information on which systems we will offer, our testing and certification efforts, and the Linux distribution(s) that will be available. The countdown begins today.

FIRMS WOULD LOVE to have you dump your computer every year, and your accesories, and your MP3 player, and your DVD, and your entire movie collection, and replace it with new ones. The software world is getting closer. I think that "Planned Obsolescence" is sadly here to stay; but there's hope, only one: open source. Microsoft has lately perfected the planned obsolescence game with its decision to make flagship products like Internet Explorer 7 not available for previous OS versions like Windows 2000. Cutting updates and no longer releasing patches for insecure products is not enough.

Nero, leader in digital media technology, announced today that Nero Linux 3 will be unveiled at CeBIT. The new version of the definitive burning application for Linux operating systems will feature Blu-ray and HD DVD data recording support as well as an improved graphical user interface that is similar to the look and feel of the current Nero Burning ROM 7 edition.

Youtube links below. Novell's website is very slow

In an effort to cut costs and boost margins, Motorola will reportedly use its Linux/Java based mobile phone operating system across "all mid- and high-tier devices." The beleaguered communications company will fall $1 billion short of analyst expectations this quarter, due to a slump in its mobile phone business.

That Linus Torvalds, creator of the Linux operating system, prefers the current version of the General Public License, GPLv2, over the version in development, GPLv3, is no secret. But in a lengthy E-mail response to questions from InformationWeek, he offers a full explanation of what he thinks is superior about GPLv2. Torvalds says he regrets that the authors of GPLv3 have decided to take aim at political opponents. He has little patience for statements about the "evil and immoral" nature of proprietary code or the "TiVo-ization" of Linux (a reference to set-top box producer TiVo producing a device that runs...

Here is the transcript of the March 7th hearing in SCO v IBM, the last of the summary judgment hearings transcripts. Thanks yet again to Chris Brown for arranging to obtain the transcripts. On this day, Kimball was quite busy. He heard several motions, all the ones left over from the first two hearings on March 1 and March 5: * IBM's Motion for Summary Judgment on its Claim for Declaratory Judgment of Non-Infringement (Tenth Counterclaim) (PDF) -- asking for a judgment that the Linux kernel does not infringe copyrights owned by SCO * IBM's Motion for Summary Judgment on...

Despite years of success Dell has fallen on hard times. The company who practically reinvented the way people buy computers has been under-performing and investors are worried. The company has been losing market share and no longer has the edge it once had over competitors like HP and Gateway. There has been much talk about Dell taking steps to make up lost ground by selling computers that use Linux for their operating system. This is something many people are interested in but unfortunately not something that will turn around the company. As a Linux user (on a few but not...

Dell Inc. began polling customers about their software preferences on Tuesday as part of an effort by the struggling PC vendor to meet a popular request for desktops and notebooks that run on Linux instead of Windows. Dell posted the survey on a company blog, asking PC users to choose between Linux flavors such as Fedora and Ubuntu, and to pick more general choices such as notebooks versus desktops, high-end models versus value models and telephone-based support versus community-based support.

When members of the French parliament and their assistants return from their summer break, they will conduct business on PCs running Ubuntu Linux. Starting in June 2007, 1,154 desks will feature Linux-based PCs. During the latest IT update for parliamentary assistants, the National Assembly decided to switch from Microsoft Windows to Linux, allowing the 577 parliament members to switch to nonproprietary software for the first time.

In last month’s column, I said “I’m more secure on a Mac than I was on Windows XP.” Some of you asked how Linux fares in that comparison. To that, I’ll say I’m marginally more secure on Linux than on a Mac, but I prefer a Mac anyway. I can almost see my inbox filling with flames from you penguin lovers everywhere, but let me explain my opinion. First, though, I’ll again caveat these opinions by saying that I’m not saying Linux is or isn’t more secure than Apple’s OS X. I’m saying that I’m marginally more secure on Linux...

Hewlett-Packard is closing custom deals for thousands of desktop PCs running Linux, which has the company assessing the possibility of offering factory-loaded Linux systems, an HP executive said. "We are involved in a number of massive deals for Linux desktops, and those are the kinds of things that are indicators of critical mass. So we are really looking at it very hard," said Doug Small, worldwide director of open source and Linux marketing at HP. "We are in a massive deal right now for ... multi-thousands of units of a desktop opportunity for Linux. That's an indicator." He declined to...

Red Hat's Fedora Core 6 Linux distribution has reached another big milestone, racking up two million installed users barely two months after tallying 1 million installed users. With the new threshold crossing, it is unclear whether Fedora 6 is the No. 1 Linux distribution in use today, but internetnews.com has learned that preliminary discussions are underway that could see Novell's OpenSUSE Linux distribution partner with Red Hat's Fedora to drive open statistics about Linux use.

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has banned Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 2007 from its offices, and is considering switching its operations to Macs and PCs running Novell's SuSe Linux. The DOT enacted the ban in mid-January, according to one blogger, because certain applications essential to the agency's function can't run on Windows Vista. Microsoft has attracted intense criticism over its new operating system since it began shipping earlier this year, lacking proper driver software for a wide array of devices and utilizing a new user interface that closely resembles Apple's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger system....

How much is the Windows tax? How much is the Vista tax? Microsoft won't let people talk about it under pain of contract violations, but with a little sleuthing, you can find it out.

OK, sorry for vanity. I have been posting on a few threads about help with linux and have gotten great advice. Here is where I am, on my older laptop which was XP, I have run Ubuntu off of the CD. Looks cool, OK, I am ready to go forth and intall it on the hard drive. Of course, no matter how hard linux people claim to be consumer friendly, they all have crap web pages, etc. because they feel the need to prove how smart/superior they are. So, I could use some advice: I want to do the whole...