Linux In The Spotlight:
OSDL Documents Linux Kernel
Contributions
Red Hat Previews Its Desktop
Linux
Book Review:
Linux For Non-Geeks
Funding Linux With Microsoft
Dollars? PI
OSDL Documents Linux Kernel
Contributions
In the future, every contribution to the
Linux kernel will be certified and “signed,” in a formal
process, assuring the Open Source community of its provenance and
legal ownership.
OSDL, the Open Source Development
Laboratory, provides a home to Linux Torvalds, the creator of Linux
and supports the growth of adoption of Linux through expertise and
services to Linux developers and user organizations.
It has stepped up to the plate and created a way of
certifying every contribution to the Linux kernel.
This will both enhance the accuracy of tracking contributions
to the kernel and insure that contributors receive proper credit.
In the future, any kernel contribution
will be accompanied by a Developer's
Certificate of Origin which certifies that either:
-
the
contributor is the contribution’s creator and owner and is
offered under an appropriate open source license; or
-
the
contribution is based on previous work covered by an open source
license granting the right for the work to be modified and
submitted to the kernel; or
-
the contribution
was provided directly to the contributor
by a person who certified (a), (b) or (c) and it has not
been further modified. In
each case, the appropriate documents will accompany the
certificate.
Torvalds and Linux 2.6 kernel maintainer
Andrew Morton are adopting the revised process, with support from
key kernel subsystem maintainers and others in the open source
community.
While there was always a process that included
transparency, peer review, pride, and personal responsibility in
place behind the open source development method, this adds
documentation to the process.
Stuart Cohen, CEO of OSDL
notes that the new measures will go “a long way toward
eliminating doubt surrounding the origin of Linux code, and does so
without placing any undue burden on the development community."
OSDL will support and insure compliance with the new
certification process.
We asked Cohen whether any attempt would be
made to apply the certification technique (or an alternative method)
to prior Linux code. He
said that the certification process was for new contributions, but
that, of course, OSDL was always exploring ways to assure the Linux
community of the integrity of the kernel.
Red Hat Previews Its Desktop Linux
After a long period of claiming that it
was mainly focused on its server strategy, Red Hat finally gave in
to the increasing interest in Linux at the desktop and announced a
personal desktop offering as a companion to its current desktop
offering, Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS (workstation), which is
intended for technical users such as software developers and
engineers. Red Hat
Desktop is intended for corporate business users.
Red Hat is offering a familiar (to Linux
observers) assortment of software, including OpenOffice 1.1,
Evolution for Email, Mozilla Web browser, the Citrix ICA client, and
a software management module. Users may buy the Red Hat Desktop as
part of a Proxy Starter Pack, including 10 Red Hat Desktop and 20
Desktop Management Module entitlements or as part of a Satellite
Starter Pack with 50 Desktop and 50 Management Module entitlements.
An Extension Pack is available for existing customers who
want to make mass deployments, in 50-desktop units.
The product is shipping now.
Of course, in the desktop market
customers usually acquire operating systems as part of a desktop
hardware purchase. This
means we probably won’t see much Red Hat Desktop deployed until
Red Hat makes OEM deals with major hardware vendors.
That is likely to happen as all of the major corporate PC
vendors now offer Linux as an OS option and are likely to quickly
add Red Hat to their list of alternatives.
Whether volume sales will follow, particularly in North
America, with its heavy penetration of Microsoft Windows and Office,
is another question.
Outside the U.S.,
where Red Hat is now marketing with more enthusiasm than in the
past, a Desktop Linux offering from another major vendor could
receive a much warmer reception.
Book Review:
Linux For Non-Geeks
It is unlikely to come as a surprise to
our readers that we have been fooling around with the idea of
setting up a Linux desktop. In
our case the question isn’t just, “Can we manage Linux with our
in-house skills,” but also, “Which Linux.”
We’ve found a very helpful book you
might like to know about. It’s
a guidebook for new Linux users called LINUX FOR NON-GEEKS, which
the author, Rickford Grant, wrote originally as a set of notes for
his entirely non-technical mother. I can’t imagine a better recommendation than that, if
you’re looking for a non-techie approach.
Be warned.
This is still Linux and there are still Linuxy tasks to
perform, albeit with assistance, pictures, and generally with a GUI
interface. The
book comes with a set of Red Hat Fedora Core CD’s. Some software is included in the CD’s, so you have
something to practice loading and launching with, and you are
directed to download sites for me.
All in all, a nice approach.
We may even try loading Linux on one of our old computer
(we’ve got one we just cleared off for that purpose) as our summer
science project.
Linux for Non-Geeks, Rickford Grant,
(Non Starch Press, San Francisco, 2004), ISBN 1-59327-034-8.
Funding Linux With Microsoft Dollars?
PI
When Paul Maritz was at Microsoft he
made a lot of money. Now he’s running a Linux start-up called PI (for Personal
Information) that means to take advantage of cheap, widely available
connectivity to let users make their PI independent of any physical
device (say, a PC) regardless of what information type we’re
talking about and where it might reside.
This is a very different point of view than the PC-centric
one that’s still popular in places like Microsoft.
PI
intends (its web site says) “to allow users to efficiently create,
repurpose, store, share and access personal information in novel
ways. PI expects to release its software to run on multiple OS
platforms in both free (open source) and licensed forms.”
So there you have it. Microsoft
dollars (or money earned at Microsoft, funding a Linux – or
partially Linux – project.
PI
is also backed by investment house Warburg Pincus and plans to do
development in Bangalore, India with assistance from Aditi
Technologies (another Microsoft alumnus).
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