Software News

One of the greatest strengths of Linux is the fact that is can be used to enable the smallest embedded devices and scale all the way to literally the most powerful computer on Earth.

Despite valiant efforts by Fedora developers to try and get the Fedora 18 release (aka the Spherical Cow) out before the end of 2012, that's just not going to happen.

The Fedora 18 beta has been delayed again, pushing out the final general availability of the Spherical Cow until January of 2013. Fedora 18 Beta release is now set for Nov 27th with a final release set for January 08, 2013.

On a forward looking basis, the Fedora community is now voting on the Cow's successor name for Fedora 19. There are eight possible choices that the Fedora community will vote on:Cubical Calf, Higgs Boson, Loch Ness Monster Martian Blueberries, Newtonian Dynamics, Parabolic Potassium, Schrödinger's Cat and Tiddalik

Voting for the Fedora 19 name ends on November 15th with the winner set to be announced on November 16th.

Though it doesn't have as funky a name as the upcoming Fedora 18 release, the Linux Mint 14 release is definitely something that many Linux users are looking forward too.

Now at the RC stage, the Linux Mint 14 release, aka Nadia is now out in both MATE and Cinnamon flavors.

"After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience," Linux Mint founder Clem Lefebvre wrote. " We’re very proud of MATE, Cinnamon, MDM and all the components used in this release, and we’re very excited to show you how they all fit together in Linux Mint 14."

Both Fedora and Linux Mint are primarily aimed at modest usage requirements (though modest is difficult to define). Linux can and does scale far beyond its humble community roots to power the most powerful computers in the world.

Not just one or two of them, but nearly ALL of them.

The latest Top 500 Supercomputer list debuted this week and the numbers for Linux are staggering with 469 out of 500 machines on the list are currently powered by Linux.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

View the original article here

Free Newsletters : Server Tech Daily October 22, 2012By Sean Michael Kerner

Ubuntu is one of the most popular Linux distributions in the world today. Depending on who you believe, the number of Ubuntu users could well top 20 millions for both desktop and server installations.

This past week Ubuntu 12.10, the Quantal Quetzal was officially released, marking the second and final major update to Ubuntu Linux this year.

On the server side, the Ubuntu 12.10 release is noteworthy primarily for one key item: the OpenStack Folsom cloud. Ubuntu was the first major Linux distribution to embrace OpenStack and continues to be the core reference implementation for the wildly popular open source cloud platform.

Ubuntu isn't just packaging and supporting Folsom, the Linux vendor is also enabling more robust provisioning and control by way of enhancements to Juju. Juju is the Ubuntu provisioning system and in Ubuntu 12.0 the system has been improved with a new visual interface. The goal of the new interface is to make it easier for system administrator to visually understand, control and orchestrate their environments, physical, virtual or cloud.

On the desktop side, Ubuntu 12.10 take aim at bringing the cloud and its myriad applications down to the desktop level. The improved Dash interface has the ability to search both local as well as cloud storage. Search also includes the somewhat controversial inclusion of Amazon results.

"Ubuntu 12.10 is the operating system for the multi-device era," Jane Silber, CEO at Canonical stated. "It makes life significantly easier for users by adapting Ubuntu to the way people really access their content today: online and on the hard drive, at work and at home, on the phone and, of course, on the PC."

As Ubuntu 12.10 went out the door, Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth announced initial plans for the next major release, 13.04. The first big reveal was the new name – the Raring Ringtail.

"Go read the dictionary. R is just loaded with juicy stuff we can’t use without invoking the radge wrath of the rinky-dink chorus. Sigh," Shuttleworth blogged. "Nevertheless, somewhere between the risibly rambunctious and the reboantly ran-tan, the regnally rakish and the reciprocornously rorty, there was bound to be a good fit. Something radious or rident, something to rouse our rowthy rabble."

While the name of each new Ubuntu release is an interesting exercise, perhaps more interesting this time around was a surprise decision to bring some development in-house instead of doing all the development work out in the open.

"We thought we would extend the invitation to people who trust us and in whom we have reason to trust, to work together on some sexy 13.04 surprises," Shuttleworth wrote. "The projects range from webby (javascript, css, html5) to artistic (do you obsess about kerning and banding) to scientific (are you a framerate addict) to glitzy (pixel shader sherpas wanted) to privacy-enhancing (how is your crypto?) to analytical (big daddy, big brother, pick your pejorative)."

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals Follow him on Twitter @TechJournalist.

View the original article here