Aliyah Marr

Fix Linux bugs. Get free cookies

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-21T09:47:09-05:00

From the "Cookie Monster is not a toy story character" files:

Every Linux distribution (and open source project) has an ongoing challenge to resolve bugs. Fixing bugs becomes increasingly important at release time - which is where Debian is now at with the upcoming "lenny" release. Debian is gearing up for a bug sprint to fix remaining bugs (about 100 key ones) and is offering a unique incentive to developers - free cookies.

"The one who Fixes a RC bug that is more than 3 months old by writing a patch shall become a WINNER. WINNERs and release managers will be eligible to receive home-made cookies from volunteers and from those who are not able to fix their RC bug in 5 days," Josselin Mouette wrote in an email to Debian developers.

I think it's a great idea. Sure free beer and the admiration/respect of peers is good thing too but home made cookies? Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

Linux Ecosystem worth $25 billion

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-20T09:55:35-05:00

From the "not bad for Free" files:

The Linux Foundation is set to release a report on Wednesday estimating that the Linux ecosystem is now worth $25 billion. The $25 billion figure is one that I'm surprised at because its lower than other forecasts I've seen over the years.

Or is it? I'm not sure how the Linux Foundation has compiled their numbers as I have not seen their report. The only tidbit of info I have so far is that the LInux Foundation has valued Google's use of Linux for Android at $1.3 billion worth of R&D. I would assume that the forecast also includes direct revenues from Linux vendors as well as hardware revenue derived from Linux server sales. A really accurate forecast would also include revenues from routing hardware (from Cisco, Juniper, Nortel and others) that is all powered by a Linux OS.

So why do I think the $25 billion figure is a bit low?

In 2008, IDC forecast that the Linux ecosystem would be worth $49 billion by 2011. That report coincidentally was sponsored by the Linux Foundation as well. IDC pegged the value of the 2007 Linux ecosystem at $21 billion. At that point (2007) IDC noted that Linux only accounted for 4 percent of the $242 billion spent annually on all software.

So yes I suppose that $25 billion is an accomplishment that needs to be recognized. But take it with a grain of salt. If IDC's 2008 projection was accurate 2009/2010 will see some massive growth - then again maybe IDC was just wrong. In the context of the overall software market it's also clear that Linux is a player but it certainly has alot of room to grow.

FCC sponsoring NASCAR driver for DTV awareness

Kenneth Corbin — 2008-10-17T18:27:51-05:00

As the digital television transition approaches, the Federal Communications Commission is going to great lengths to ensure that you would have to be living in a cave somewhere on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border not to get the message that you might lose your signal if you're still working off a rabbit ears.

The five commissioners and their staffers have been crisscrossing the nation on an ambitious education tour, alighting on towns deemed at risk of seeing a significant number of people lose their ability to watch shows like "Hole in the Wall" and "Punk'd."

At the FCC's prompting, broadcasters have been devoting a significant portion of their ad inventory to public-service announcements about the switch.

The commission has been coordinating one-day tests in numerous markets, and recently flipped the switch in Wilmington, N.C., the only city in the country that was willing to play the role of guinea pig.

Now they're getting really creative. The FCC is going to sponsor the NASCAR No. 38 entry car for three races in the current Sprint Cup Series in the hopes that the DTV-branded car will boost awareness among fans of what apparently is "the leading spectator sport in the country," according to the press release.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin:

"NASCAR fans are known for their avid interest in this sport. Their awareness and responsiveness to NASCAR sponsors is also exceptionally high. I believe this sponsorship is an extremely effective way for the FCC to raise DTV awareness among people of all ages and income levels across the United States who loyally follow one of the most popular sports in America."

Driver David Gilliland:

"This is a very big undertaking to convert the entire country to digital services, but the end result will be improved picture and sound quality and those are definitely important factors to NASCAR fans. Yates Racing has had a tremendous 2008 season which allowed us to have a variety of important partnerships, and our No. 38 Digital TV Transition Ford will be another great example of partners who believe in the reach that we have. I am honored to help promote the Digital TV Transition messaging."

This seems a shrewd move on the FCC's part. They've already been under pressure from lawmakers nervous about how many people in their districts will go dark. Call it due diligence. The headlines are gloomy these days. The mood is grim. Probably not the time when people will take well to the perception that their government sandbagged them by stealing their television signals.

Linux to get a new numbering scheme?

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-17T16:13:35-05:00

From the "whatever happened to the dewey decimal system" files:

Linux kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman is leading an effort now that could possibly end up changing the way the Linux kernel is numbered.

Currently kernels are on an x,y,z scheme where the latest point release is 2.6.27 while the bug fixes and security updates are 2.6.27.1. Kroah-Hartman is proposing a calendar based system that will help identify the aging of the kernel.

In a posting to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, Kroah-Hartman wrote:

So, as someone who constantly is dealing with kernel version numbers all the time with the -stable trees, our current numbering scheme is a pain a times. How about this proposal instead?
We number the kernel based on the year, and the numbers of releases we have done this year: YEAR.NUMBER.MINOR_RELEASE

Under Kroah-Hartman's proposal the first release of 2009 would be 2009.0.0.

I haven't yet seen Andrew Morton or Linus Torvalds weigh in on an opinion on this either way. In my own personal opinion, I can certainly see benefits in a calendar approach and as a journalist (rather than as a user) it would save me the grief of looking up when a kernel came out. As a user, frankly, I don't care. The current numbering system is logical and systematic so I have no problems with it.

That said, every Linux vendor that doesn't use kernel.org kernels always appends the suffix of a kernel number a bit anyways and that's where I tend to get confused.

Mozilla's mobile browser Fennec hits Alpha

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-17T10:00:22-05:00

From the "but what about WebKit?" files:

The first alpha of Mozilla new Fennec mobile browser is now out, though its mobile platform availability is extremely limited. Fennec only works on Nokia N810 Internet Tablets currently, though efforts are ongoing for a Windows Mobile version.

But don't worry - if you've got a Windows/Mac/Linux desktop you too can download Fennec to try it out on your local desktop.

"That's right, you can install Fennec on your Windows, OS X or Linux desktop too! We want you to be able to experiment, provide feedback, write add-ons and generally get involved with the Mozilla Mobile project, even if you don't have a device," Mark Finkle Mozilla Platform Evangelist blogged.

While I definitely agree that mobile is a place where Mozilla should be, I also know that Mozilla is at a distinct disadvantage in mobile for a number of reasons.

First off both Google Android and Apple iPhone use WebKit based web browsers. Fennec (unless i'm totally mistaken) uses Gecko. As well Nokia owns Trolltech, developers of the qtopia mobile develpoment suite which also leverages WebKit. I would strongly suspect that Nokia will also standardize on its mainstream Symbian OS phones with WebKit as well.

The simple fact that bleeding edge app developers are targetting WebKit means that Fennec will face an uphill battle. Then again, Mozilla has been facing an uphill battle on the desktop side for years so what else is new right?

Google updates Chrome so plugins will work better

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-16T09:58:51-05:00

From the "bug swatting" files:

Google's Chrome browser is now better at handling plugins. That the big thing I take away from the the new Chrome 0.3.154.3 update release.

The new update is tagged by Google as containing mostly bug fixes as well as a new download behaviour - which is also an important thing to note. Security researcher Aviv Raff had alleged that Chrome was at risk from a Carpet Bombing flaw that would let downloaded files execute on a users desktop - the 0.3.154.3 update changes download behaviour. According to Google's release notes:

Changes the download behavior for files that could execute code (exe, dll, bat, etc.). These files are now downloaded to unconfirmed_*.download files. In the browser, you're asked if you want to accept the download. Only after you click Save is the unconfirmed_*.download file converted to the real file name. Unconfirmed downloads are deleted when Google Chrome exits.

The big thing for me though is really one bug that is fixed dealing with plugings. Google notes that in the new update Chrome runs plugins at a normal priority so that they do not cause the browser to become unresponsive. That's a huge thing. In my experience with Chrome thus far it is typically a plugin (often Flash) that becomes unresponsive crashing the browser. Putting the plugin at the same priority is an interesting fix - though i'm not sure how that relates to Google's idea of sandboxing processes.

Their is also a really interesting JavaScript bug fix here too.

Change the minimum timer resolution for setTimeout() to 4 milliseconds (up from 1ms). At 1ms, some pages would spin in tight loops and consume 100% of CPU.

Intuitively I would have thought that a lower timer resolution would have meant better performance - but that's apparently not always the case.

Open Source IS a business model

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-15T17:46:19-05:00

From the "cool titles bring $$'s" files:

Analyst group 451 Group has a non-public report out titled, "Open Source is Not a Business Model." To put my views front and center - this report title is clearly an attempt to generate interest with what some might think of as a controversial view. I have somewhat different views than 451.

In a blog post by 451 Group analyst Matt Asslett he wrote that:

Open source is a business tactic, not a business model. Open source is not a market in and of itself, nor is it a vertical segment of the market. Open source is a software development and/or distribution model that is enabled by a licensing tactic. There is very little money being made out of open source software that doesn't involve proprietary software and services.

Bottom line in my view is that open source IS a licensing approach and it IS a development methodology. It's also used as a marketing strategy sometimes too. That said many millions have been made from open source technologies - like Linux. Mozilla's Firefox open source browser generates more than $50 million a year for Mozilla. I could go on, but you get the point.

There is also a move by some (governments and others) to specify open source software as part of the procurement process. I'd say that qualifies as a category.

Saying that open source is not a business model is sort of like saying that search is not a business model. Search itself (Google or otherwise) is of course a vehicle on which a business model can be built (in Google's case a very good one). The same is true for open source - it is the medium/methodology - on top of which money is made.

The fact that many open source vendors have a dual-licensing model should not be seen as a failure of open source to be a business model in and of itself which is kinda/sorta what 451 Group is implying. Every time I've ever spoken to any open source vendor with a dual license strategy the reason why they have one always has to do with choice and policies at the end user enterprises. Open source can co-habitate with proprietary solutions and the fact that the two can co-exist is a sign of strength not weakness and doesn't mean that open source is not the basis for a business model.

Understanding how to make money from open source software is an important thing and that's what I see as the key issue that needs to be understood. Understanding that it's a balance of open/closed and free/paid is critical to success. But that's nothing new is it? Hasn't Red Hat been grappling with that issue since its creation? Isn't Red Hat an Open Source vendor?

Is Opera's MAMA the best search for developers?

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-15T13:03:05-05:00

From the "everything I ever learned about programming came from View Source" files:

Most search engines search for content. Opera's new MAMA search ("Metadata Analysis and Mining Application") is searching for what's behind the content. It's all about figuring out what websites are made of in terms of markup and technologies. Sure you can easily find that stuff out today without MAMA on a site by site basis (view source/page info etc) but looking at all that info in the aggregate as a search is something that I personally have not seen in the way that MAMA provides.

"Say you want to find a sampling of Web pages that have more than 100 hyperlinks or for pages that use the Font-size CSS property that also use the FONT element with a Size attribute? Many parties would be interested in such a service, even if the market would be smaller than for a "traditional" search engine," Opera's Brian Wilson wrote. "For browser makers and standards bodies, the structure and composition of the Web is a more pressing issue than its content."

Beyond just being a search tool, Opera has also already done some aggregate analysis based on an initial analysis of 3.6 million URLs. Among MAMA's findings is that the open source Apache Server dominates with nearly 68 percent as compared to Microsoft's IIS which had a 26 percent share.

Flash is also represented though the penetration is less that I might have guessed. According to Opera, the total number of MAMA URLs using the Flash plugin is 1,176,227 (33.5 percent).

AJAX relies on XHR (XMLHttpRequest) so I would have expected to see it heavily represented as well. Opera reported however that XHR was used in 112,277 of MAMA's URLs 3.20 percent of all its Web pages.

The only other stat from MAMA that if found a tad surprising was the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) penetration. Opera reported that they found CSS iin 2,821,141 MAMA URLs 80.39 percent. I guess the other 20 percent are still using .

Overall, this is definately a valuable tool for looking at broad trends. But I'd caution individual site owners/developers to always place more faith in their own log file analysis as experience has taught me that individual experiences always vary.

Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 shows some neat features

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-14T17:57:32-05:00

From the "Chrome who?" files:

Mozilla Firefox 3.1 Beta 1 is now out and its got what Mozilla claims to be ,"..a huge pile of new features for developers." It's a claim that I personally won't argue against.

There is the geolocation spec support which is a JavaScript API that lets a web page query the browser's location via JavaScript.(A neat idea though i'm still not so sure how this differs wildly from a simple IP geotargetting http header thing).

There is also support for a CSS property called CSS @font-face which lets designers specify specific true type fonts.

Then there are the HTML 5 elements - and . Since the beginning of the web, embedding audio and/or video has also been an exercise. The new HTML 5 tags supported in Firefox 3.1 make it dead easy to include audio/video (though at this point it looks like the default is OGG (and not a Windows Media or QuickTime).

On the security front, Firefox 3.1 includes support for the W3C XHR (XML over HTTP Request) access control. Mozilla's dev specs note that:

Web developers have long wanted to be able to get data from one site on another but same-origin restrictions on many types of requests prevent many developers from mashing up content. This new access control mechanism offers the ability for servers, content and web clients to cooperate to make a lot of new things possible on an opt-in basis.

But wait there's more!

Tracemonkey - Mozilla's superfast, Google Chrome trouncing JavaScript engine has finally landed! So Firefox 3.1 may well be the fastest Firefox yet.

Lots of stuff and I've barely scratched the surface -

Linux Standards Base (LSB) 4.0 hits Beta

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-14T16:21:40-05:00

From the "standardization prevents fragmentation" files:

The first Beta of LSB 4.0 (Linux Standards Base) is now out, so get ready to start standardizing your Linux apps/distros!
I first wrote about LSB 4.0 in July when Linux Foundation exec Jim Zemlin told me he had 50 people in Russia working on it.

My former Jupitermedia colleague and now LInux Foundation community manager Brian Proffit wrote about the LSB 4 beta today. One of the key things that is part of LSB 4 is the Application Checker which is supposed to help devs target Linux accurately.

"The Application Checker draws on the extensive testing framework developed by the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Linux Foundation to examine the binary files of an application to determine how it will run on all LSB-certified distributions. Not only does this assist application developers work towards LSB certification, it also greatly enhances the general portability of any application that's tested."

The overall goal of the LSB is all about portability - write once for LInux and have your app run on any distro. It's a worthy goal for sure though a difficult one. That said, the Linux Foundation is already claiming a degree of early success with the LSB 4.0 beta. They claim that there are already some 234 applications that are at or nearly ready for LSB 4.0 certification..not too shabby.

The final LSB 4.0 release is expected by the Linux Foundation to be out in the fall of this year (so that means soon!).

Mozilla launches new developer tools lab with Ajaxian vets

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-13T15:58:23-05:00

From the "this is how we spend our millions" files:

Mozilla is starting up a new developer tools lab that will be run by Dion Almaer and Ben Galbraith who are best known as the co-founders of the popular Ajax site Ajaxian.

Developer tools are an area that Mozilla itself specifically has not been engaged in too heavily, which frankly has been a bit of shame since it's something that Netscape definitely was engaged in. Almaer has not yet laid out a plan with specifics but he does have some ideas that he blogged about.

As we ramp up this new group, we will be looking at the problem and seeing where it makes sense to step in. We are going to be experimenting, and thinking about how to make developers lives better in different ways. so we aren't expecting to see traditional tools come out of this group. Also, we don't want to do this alone. We want to involve the entire community which is one reason that we are so excited to kick off this work at Mozilla. We believe that we have a unique opportunity to put developers first. We can build these tools in the open, with total transparency; the Mozilla way.

I'm going to put in a request right now. I want to see a full featured Mozilla Web Editing Tool - not Firebug, but a bona fide full development suite. Now i know that there is the Mozilla Composer Effort but it's high time that there is an open source project that can compete against Adobe Dreamweaver. Yes I know that's a bit low-level for some developers, but it's a level that I personally think is important. Almaer does note however in his blog post that traditional tools aren't what his group is going to be focused on (but hey doesn't mean you can't put in a request).

Beyond that Firebug is awesome (i have it installed myself) and if that team does get the full power and resources of the new Mozilla Developer Tools Lab - then wowza - watch out!

No Press at Linux Foundation End User Summit

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-13T11:24:36-05:00

From the "sour grapes" files:

There is a big Linux event in NYC today and tomorrow - but I won't be there. The Linux Foundation's End User Collaboration Summit has some big names presenting including Novell's CEO Ron Hovsepian, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth, Red Hat EVP Paul Cormier and an impressive list of financial industry executives from UBS, NYSE, Credit Suisse, CME and AIG.

But I won't be there to hear any of them in person. The Linux Foundation has decided to keep the End User Collaboration event as a closed event without press (at least that's what they told me).

"While we very much appreciate your interest in attending the 2008 End User Summit , I am afraid that attendance is limited to end users, kernel developers and LF member vendors only," Angela Brown of the Linux Foundation wrote in an email to me. "We have decided that press will not be allowed to participate in the event. After the event, we will issue a summary to press and be available for questions."

To be fair, the Linux Foundation has always been very responsive to me overall and Jim Zemlin the Exec Director of the LInux Foundation is an excellent person to interview anytime. The Linux Foundation also has a new conference called LinuxCon set for 2009 which hopefully will allow for press.

While I understand that there are times when closed door sessions are necessary - as a technology journalist I also must always see openness and transparency as being of paramount importance. With a closed door event, my first question will always be - what aren't they telling me?

Mandriva Linux 2009.0 is out - but do you care?

Sean Kerner — 2008-10-10T11:06:34-05:00

From the "you might want to check this out" files:

The first time I ever saw Mandrake Linux (now Mandriva) was on a retail store shelf. That was probably 9 years ago and to be honest in the last few years I personally haven't seen Mandriva running much (as I shoulder surf desktops at conferences) - though it's hard to tell. Mandriva Linux 2009.0 is now out and it might help to improve the adoption numbers, especially for those who prefer the KDE Linux desktop.

Mandriva 2009.0 includes KDE 4.1 (a whole lot more stable than KDE 4), a new GUI installer and improved boot times according to the release notes. Mandriva also claims that its installer is now capable of detecting low-resource systems or netbooks, and installing an appropriate environment.

Linux bloat is a real problem for low resource systems. In my own experience I tend to spend the first hour (or more) of any new release installation turning off services that are installed by default that I'm likely to never need or use. Having an installer that can detect a low-resource system is a positive step forward overall in helping to make for faster and more efficient systems.

Mandriva at this stage in its maturity faces more than just technical challenges - there are significant marketing challenges too. Traditional competitors like Red Hat, SUSE and Debian are still there and the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution is also grabbing a lot of mind and market share. It's not just good enough anymore (if it ever really was) to just be better than Windows - for Mandriva to make a dent it need to be better and somehow differentiated than other Linux distros as well.

XBox 360's UI gets a facelift

Andy Patrizio — 2008-10-09T19:32:21-05:00

The user interface in the XBox 360 was ahead of the game when the console shipped in 2005, and XBox Live did set the standard for the online experience on consoles. But since then, Sony has come out with a beautiful new interface for the PlayStation 3 and even Nintendo managed something nifty for the Wii.

So today, Microsoft announced it's getting with the program and plans to release "New Xbox Experience" or NXE on November 19th. The announcement came today at the Tokyo Game Show. NXE will be a free download for all XBox 360 customers, eventually launching in 26 countries.

NXE is a total overhaul of the UI, dumping that clunky, full screen tabbed interface for something sleeker and more accommodating to widescreen. Now you switch between menu items similar to Vista's Aero task switcher, since Vista was such a rousing success.

You can flip through menus like a rolodex and this will likely give Microsoft the flexibility to add as many top level menus as it wants. Currently, the XBox 360's dashboard is limited to five top level menus.

One of the new menu items will be for Netflix support. Microsoft is adding the ability to stream over 10,000 movies and TV shows from Netflix direct to your 360. It's a good thing the XBox 360 sports a bigger hard drive these days. When it launched, it had a 10GB drive. Today, 60, 80 and 120GB drives are available for the console.

Another feature taking advantage of the larger hard drives is the ability to copy whole games to the hard drive. The hard drive will be faster and quieter than the DVD drive in the console, which will be popular with a lot of gamers.

For chatting and other online social activities, Microsoft is replacing the flat, static pictures people use to represent themselves with avatars, allowing for humanoid figures instead of an icon.

As part of this, Microsoft will introduce Xbox Live Primetime, a gaming channel for Live members. Microsoft will launch with an adaptation of the TV game show "1 vs. 100," where one person competes against 100 others for prizes.

Is Linux necessary on the desktop?

Christopher Saunders — 2008-10-09T14:59:54-05:00

A conversation I had this weekend with the head of a branding and creative agency here in the city got me thinking. How well is Linux positioned to convince users at the small business or consumer levels to switch?

That's right. I'm talking about the other "Switch" here -- not the Windows-to-Mac one. I mean the big one: from proprietary to open source, which very easily may be the harder of the two Switches.

His take: Why switch to Linux at all? After all, it will require giving up a number of apps he and his coworkers are already expert with. He balked at switching to alternatives like GIMP and OpenOffice -- neither of which he had heard of -- and doubted that open source apps could measure up to the proprietary applications he uses daily. He was concerned at the thought of how he might go about getting support for open source applications -- and how much he'd have to pay.

Of course, there's the dissenting opinion. Open source software advocates point to environments like Wine, which, despite a performance hit, enables you to still run many proprietary applications, including older versions of Photoshop -- thanks in part to the efforts of Google in prodding Wine along. And, yeah, there are GIMP and other free alternatives to handle graphics-editing needs that many cite as suitable replacements.