Linux Group Investigates Microsoft Patents in TomTom Case

A Linux group is hoping to discredit three Microsoft patents that were at the heart of a recent lawsuit with GPS device maker TomTom.

The Open Innovation Network is asking people to examine three patents and submit any so-called "prior art" that might call into question the validity of the patents. Prior art is information published before the patent was issued that describes similar technology.

The patents were at the heart of a lawsuit Microsoft filed against TomTom. As part of a settlement, TomTom agreed to pay Microsoft to license the patents for technologies in its car navigation and file management system.

The settlement worried the Linux community because the patents involve technologies found in the Linux OS that TomTom uses in its portable devices. While Microsoft has recently seemed to ease up on its threats against Linux, it has in the past claimed that Linux violates hundreds of its patents. The TomTom dispute raised fears that Microsoft might pursue other companies using similar technology or start more aggressive action against other Linux users too.

At the time it filed the suit against TomTom, Microsoft said open source was not the focal point of its complaint. The case was about TomTom's specific implementation of the Linux kernel, Microsoft said.

13% of developers picking Linux, outpacing Vista

electronista.com — Despite Microsoft's efforts, the majority of developers still aren't writing with Windows Vista in mind, a new study by Evans Data says. Only 8% are specifically coding with Vista in mind, while Linux is actually higher at 13% -- evidence that Microsoft's new OS isn't catching on.More

13% of developers picking Linux, outpacing Vista

Linux Webhosting: Choice for Small And Medium Businesses

In Large enterprises Linux is adopted, however there are many people who don’t know that there are sizeable numbers of installations in small and medium businesses (SMBs) as well. Now �"a-days use of Linux servers and applications at SMBs is growing.
As per country manager, pSeries & Open power, IBM, “Unlike large enterprises, SMBs do not have to face the challenge of migrating legacy applications. The popularity with SMBs has helped Linux grow at 30 percent globally”.
As per general consensus Linux did better in 2004 than predicted. Director Enterprise Marketing & alliances, Customers solution Group, HP India says, “ As per IDC India, Linux in the server market grew by 48 percent in OND, 2004 over JAS, 2004, while the windows and Unix markets showed a modest 3 percent and 3.4 percent growth respectively during the same period.”
Success of any operating system depends upon the availability of required applications. As such SMBs serves as a boon for Linux servers as it offers them lower TCO and tighter control on their IT spends. However as many SMBs already have home grown applications, a proprietary OS will be the single largest area of spending. This point makes Linux most advantageous.
Vertical scability has grown a lot due to the availability of version 2.6 of the Linux kernel in Red hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Novell’s SuSE 9 .Due to emerging role of SMBs in global supply chain; they demand enterprise applications on Linux to keep their investment low. This helps in enabling Linux server market grows worldwide. Why to opt for Linux Based servers?
Two factors on which Linux serves best are cost and better security as the source code of proprietary software is always kept a secret. Due to the support of community, any security hole in Linux is quickly found and patched.
Linux helps in saving not only software costs but also offers long term saving on hardware. SMB instead of upgrading software with Linux can take control of its IT strategy. Chief technology officer of IDBI bank says, “You decide when you wish to upgrade, not the vendor, hence you get tighter control on your spending.” This is very important particularly for users, such as SMBs that cannot afford to keep up with the pace of change in commercial software.
Business application and Linux
All credit goes to Oracle for driving the linux servers market. In beginning of 2004,Oracle came up with a value offering. Among other features it offered pre- configured Oracle E-Business Suite special edition on Lintel Boxes for a 10 user License for $36,000USD. The traction of this offering was seen towards the end of 2004 when we closed a dozen deals that were in various stages of implementation, says General Manager, Oracle India. This is an authentication that SMBs are opting for Linux servers. In other hand SAP is following Oracle in making application available on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Customized and certified
The importance of Linux is growing as all server vendors including HP, IBM and SGI are opting for Linux and each has a SMB specific business strategy in order to make them grow.
In one its announcements HP told that some of its high end computing tools from the HP-UX environment are ported onto Linux and made available to SMBs.It includes a clustering solution termed as HP service guard for high availability of applications and management tools such as Systems insight Manager (SIM) and open view that offer third party integration. In addition to that HP is creating a reference architecture stack, including hardware, OS, database and Middleware. In order to increase confidence in customers, HP certifies a stack so that customers can confidently deploy their core business application on Linux. Linux servers are quite popular in high performance computing (HPC) environments such as research labs.
Recently IBM has launched a new family of eserver Openpower systems based on its Power5 processor specially designed for Linux. The Power5 comes with a micropartitioning technology called Virtualization Engine (VE) wherein each processor can be sliced into ten virtual partitions with each partition acting as a new server. IBM’s eserver Openpower 710 is a single CPU processor with 3 HDDs and 512 MB memory with RAID level 1 and 5. This eserver offers SMBs an affordable alternative against higher priced entry-level Unix or Linux system. Openpower offers a 64bit platform at a price point of a 32-bit offering. It is believed to be the right product for the mass market. Sun Microsystems has the Sun fire V20 and V40 severs based on the 64-bit AMD Opteron processor, which has been successful with SMBs. It also offers the Solaris 10 Opetron combination. Sun is promoting Solaris 10 to take the fight to commercial Linux by offering several features such as support of email, phone and onsite at a comparatively low price. The list of Sun customers is quite big which includes advanced scientific research, elite foods, Sage Design systems, Centre for DNA fingerprinting and diagnostics etc.
The uses of Linux servers are very much like they are used by SMBs for CAD analysis, CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) and FEA (Finite Element Analysis). Linux systems are rugged as they come with SGI Propack over and above the standard Linux Kernel. This provides the ability to customers to scale there computing environments with independent I/O, memory and power supply.
Banking on Support
Linux is taking place in most of the commercial business applications in verticals like in manufacturing, small banking and hospitality. To add more points to Linux server market now tally o Linux is available .Red hat has 950 ISV partners who are indulged in developing applications that run on its Linux distributions. In order to meet SMB requirements, Linux offers secure and scalable solutions. IBM also has 35 to 40 pure Linux partners offering consultancy and helps it in integrating and implementing services for its customers using Linux.
About the Author
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Help get your Favourite Games ported to Linux.

Tux Games is determined to see all of the major commercial games ported to Linux. Before this can happen, the major game companies must be made aware of the demand. That is where we come in. Tux Games is asking for all of the Linux gaming community to sign our petitions to have games ported. More…

How to Run Windows, Linux on Intel-powered iMac, Mac Mini, MacBook or MacBook Pro?

1. Download Parallels Desktop for Mac, and run it.
2. Create a virtual machine by Clicking Create VM on the main screen. The first option is recommended and will create a blank virtual machine with the default settings. The second option of "custom VM configuration" allows you to select the OS, Memory allocation and create a new virtual hard disk. In my eyes, choosing the second option is very smart as memory allocation and hard disk size/type are the two important factors in performance when it comes to virtual machines.
3. Choose an operating system which you want to run. It's not just for Windows, you can run any variation of Linux on this, or even run out-of-date operating systems like OS/2, Windows 3.1, 95, 98 and others.
4. Memory allocation. Now you can specify how much memory which are allocated for this virtual machine. 512MB is common for computers. You can also allocate it 256MB, or 768MB, or even 1.5GB. But don't give it 32MB, or 64MB, as Windows doesn't like that. In general, the more RAM you assign to your VM, the faster it will be and the slower your host OS (in Mac OS) will, as it has to share with the virtual machine. So if you plan to use Parallels more often, give a lot of RAM in your machine for a smooth experience.
5. Hard Drive selection. The virtual machine needs some form of storage in order for your OS to install on. If you do not want to add a hard disk now, select "Do not add hard disk" option.
6. This is where you can set the size, it can be any number you want, as long as your hard-drive has enough space. There are two types of virtual disks, expanding and plain. I chose plain as the wizard said that it was fast.
7. Here you can specify where you want that virtual hard-disk to be kept. You can put it on a network share, on an external HDD, a USB key, whatever. For best performance, keep it to a hard-drive.
8. Network Selection. There are three types of network to choose. The first allows full access to both the Internet directly and OS X. The second will create an isolated connection between OS X and the guest operating system. The third will turn off network access altogether. I chose the first.
9. You choose which real life network adaptor you want Parallels to be tied to. The connect cable at startup option means that you want Parallels to tell the network card in the virtual machine that a cable is plugged in constantly, or if un-ticked, you can manually set in Parallels when you've plugged in your virtual network cable.
10. Finally, you give it a name (e.g. Windows XP) and the virtual machine is created successfully.
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All about Ogg, WAV, and MP3 under Linux

What is described in the following may be illegal where you live. Where I live, the law permits making a small number of copies of the contents of legally acquired media for personal use as long as this does not involve circumventing copy protection. Strangely enough, "personal use" includes giving a copy to close relatives. And "small number" cert More…

How To Look Like A UNIX Guru

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