Linux in Government

http://www.linux.org/info/linux_govt.html

Linux is now more than a decade old. Throughout its history there have been many government entities that have decided that Linux was the ideal operating system to handle their mission-critical computing needs. This list gets larger every day. Here are a list of some of the more notable migrations to the Linux platform in the public sector.

Government/Public Sector
Entity	Background
French Ministry for Education	The ministry has migrated over 3,000 servers to Linux - nearly all of their servers - with the majority running Red Hat.
Library of Congress, USA	Thousands of rare historic documents housed by the Library of Congress are being digitalized using Linux clusters and other Linux-based systems and the open source Scribe system.
Portuguese Ministry of Justice	The Ministry of Justice of Portugal is implementing a plan called LISA to incorporate Free and Open Source software into their IT infrastructure as a way to be innovative while also cutting costs.
Swedish Armed Forces	The Armed Forces of Sweden announced in February of 2007 that they would be migrating their servers from Windows NT to Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Government of Switzerland	In mid-December 2005, the Swiss government announced that it would be carrying out a large-scale migration of servers to Novell's SUSE Linux.
Berlin, Germany	The city government of Berlin announced in early December, 2005 that they would be migrating most of their 58.000 Windows desktops to Linux.
New Zealand's Inland Revenue	The Inland Revenue Department of New Zealand announced in late October 2005 that they would be migrating 7,000 desktop systems to Linux.
Munich, Germany	Munich's city government announced it was migrating its entire IT operations to the Linux platform in 2002. Despite a personal visit from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, the German city is continuing with its plans to switch 14,000 desktops to Linux.
The Government of Japan	The Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications announced in early October 2005 its plans to key government systems to Linux in order to decrease its dependency on Microsoft products.
Junta de Extramadura, Spain	The Junta de Extremadura, the regional government of Extremadura, is a pioneer in the use of Linux in the public sector. They have also developed their own Linux distribution called LinEx. The have embarked on a large-scale migration of their IT infrastructure, which includes switching 14 hospitals and over 400 local health care centers to Linux. The have also installed Linux in 80,000 computers in their public schools.
Vienna, Austria	Officials in Vienna's city government announced at the beginning of 2005 that they would be migrating one third of their desktops to Linux. Other desktops, though still running Windows, would be using OpenOffice. They are also reportedly developing their own Linux distribution, called Wienux.
Bergen, Norway	Norway's second largest city announced in June, 2004 its plans to migrate its core IT infrastructure to Linux. A combination of Unix and Windows servers will be phased out and replaced with servers running Linux.
South African Revenue Service	The South African Revenue serviced announced in April of 2005 that it was moving its SAP system on to Linux servers running Novell's SUSE Linux.
Ministry of Health, New Zealand	New Zealand's Ministry of Health announced in February 2005 that they were migrating servers running Windows to Linux.
Largo, Florida, USA	The city of Largo, Florida was one of the first high-profile migrations to Linux in the public sector. The switch began in 2000 when David Richards, the systems administrator for the city began switching webservers to Red Hat Linux. He followed in 2001 by beginning the change to thin clients running Linux.
Pinellas County, Florida	Public access to county court records database is provided by servers running Linux.
Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana	The city of Bloomington's emergency dispatch system runs on Linux. Police and fire crews are managed by the system.
United States Postal Service	One of the earliest known Linux adoptions was the U.S. Postal Service's switch to Linux in 1997. A Linux-based system was set up to run OCR equipment that recognizes the destination addresses on letters.
Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts	It was announced in November of 2003 that PEC Solutions of Fairfax, Virginia would be taking on the task of migrating the Federal Judiciary's entire national IT infrastructure to Linux. The system will handle case management, finance and accounting, probation and pretrial services, and case-tracking management.
The Federal Government of Brazil	Linux and Open Source software will be mandatory for government agencies in Brazil according to a presidential decree being drafted in early 2005.
Mexico City, Mexico	The capital of Mexico has been migrating its IT infrastructure to Linux since the election of Mayor Andrés Manuel López Obrador in 2000.
National Security Agency, USA	One of the pillars of the intelligence community of the United States, the NSA developed its own custom enhancements to the Linux kernel, known as Security Enhanced Linux or SE Linux.
Department of Human Services, New Jersey, USA	State IT officials migrated the Child-Welfare Implementation System to Linux, greatly speeding up the time it takes case workers to access records.
The State of Nebraska, USA	The State of Nebraska has migrated some of its key IT infrastructure to Linux.
United States Census Bureau	The Fast Facts website is a Linux-based web application.
United States Department of Energy	Pacific Northwest National Laboratory uses a Beowulf cluster powered by Linux servers. In 2002, it was the most powerful Linux-based system in the world.
Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), USA	The FBI's Dallas, Texas office uses a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP/Perl/Python) solution to provide an Emergency Response Network. The system links federal, state and local agency and insures fast response times in the event of emergencies.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA	NASA has been a long time user of Linux and Open Source software. Debian GNU/Linux was used to control experiments on the Space Shuttle mission STS-83 in April, 1997
State of Mississippi, USA	The state's Automated System Project, which runs on Linux servers, coordinates state, local and federal law enforcement agencies' access to information. The project, funded by the US Department of Homeland Security, serves as a model for a future nationwide system.
Ministry of Information and Communication, South Korea	The ministry is funding projects within the South Korean government that use Linux and Open Source.
The Government of Venezuela	President Hugo Chavez issued a decree in December 2004 that calls on the Minister for Science and Technology to draw up a national plan for transition of Venezuela's public administration to Open Source software. The Ministry of Sports and Education, which has already made the switch, saved up to 4 billion Bolivares in 2004 on their IT costs.
Government Open Code Collaborative, USA	The states of Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia share Open Source applications through a repository at the University of Rhode Island. GOCC hosts these applications for sharing among government entities and non-profits.
Central Scotland Police, Scotland, UK	Central Scotland Police have developed a Linux-based system to facilitate the public's access to government data as mandated in the Freedom of Information Act.
Centrelink, Australia	Centrelink is the government agency that distributes social security payments in Australia. The agency's 27,000 staff will use a Linux-based system to distribute $55 billion AU to over 6 million users.
Ministry of Finance, Denmark	The Ministry uses a JBoss application server running on Red Hat Linux to exchange XML data among ministries in Denmark.
United States Navy	The US Navy employs Linux clusters to run sonar systems on nuclear submarines.
Federal Ministry of Education, Nigeria	Education officials in Nigeria had migrated 35 high schools to Linux in 2003.
Northern Territory, Australia	The government of the Northern Territory has pledged to increase the use of open source technologies. As of May 2005, $35 million AU has been spent already migrating desktops to Linux.

If you know of any government or public sector Linux deployment that we haven't listed here, please contact the webmaster: webmaster**AT**linux.org

Linux Creeping into Mainstream Computing

The Asus eee PC (below.)

Linux is all over the place. It’s in servers, cell phones, and even the PS3. However, most people don’t use linux for desktop computing. Why? It’s different and it requires some learning. The possibility that someone might have to use the command line is enough to scare most people away. (We do not miss you DOS). It seems like every year- every day?- linux users suggest that it will be ”The Year of Linux” when the computer users of the world come to their collective sense and start using linux. I’m not going to make that claim, but I will make the claim that linux is making some serious inroads and it might not be where you think.

Cheap PCs. Linux runs great on all kinds of hardware and better than XP, Vista, or OS X on old or slow hardware. Couple that with the fact that linux is also free and suddenly there’s reason to think that linux might have a formula for success. Recently many major manufacturers, including Dell, have started selling computers with Linux installed, but I believe the real revolution is taking place in the low-end of the PC market. In comes Everex and ASUS.

Everex is a company that makes ultra-cheap computers. How cheap? How about $200? The Everex TC2502 is a $200 linux computer that you can buy at Walmart. (Yes, I just made a plug for a corporation I deeply loathe). Do they sell? When they were released, they sold out immediately and they continue to sell with a return rate lower than Windows Vista computers. This phenomenon isn’t relegated to the desktop either. The hottest notebook news is not about the Macbook Air. It’s about the ASUS eee PC.

The eee PC is tiny. When I say tiny, it’s about the size of a paperback book. It runs linux and retails for $200-$500. There are no laptops in this ultra-compact market, besides the eee PC, that cost less than $1000. Of course, that will change in two weeks when Everex releases the Everex Cloudbook. For $399, the cloudbook competes head-to-head with the eee PC and that can only be good news for linux. Furthermore, the Cloudbook will be selling at, you guessed it, Walmart. If that’s not mainstream, I don’t know what is.

Is it the year of Linux? Probably not. Yet, it seems like Linux is becoming more mainstream. People are starting to opt out of using expensive proprietary software and rely on free internet-based and open source software for web browsing, email, maps, calendars, documents, social networking, and entertainment. Everex’s distribution of Linux, called gOS, seems to point to exactly that. I’ll be doing a review of gOS in the near future (I’m using the Beta version as I type this) and I hope to take a look at the Cloudbook hands-on after it hits Walmart stores.

http://nkelber.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/linux-creeping-into-mainstream-computing/

Police in France say au revoir to Microsoft, bonjour to Linux

February 1, 2008

In a pistol-whip to Microsoft corporation, the French paramilitary police force announced in Paris on Wednesday that it is abandoning the Microsoft operating system it currently uses in favor of the free Linux operating system.

Unlike in the U.S., there is a national police force in France, rather than a collection of local police entities or precincts. The French gendarmerie is one of the biggest official entities in the world to break away from the pay-per-license Microsoft environment. The nightstick fell on Microsoft at the Solution Linux 2008 conference.

The move completes the French police force’s divorce from Microsoft that began in 2005 when police in France moved to open sourcing for office applications such as word processing. They switched over to open-source Internet browsers in 2006. Linux, once the exclusive system of computer geeks, has become an easy-to-use system aimed at average users. It is an open system, meaning its access s free to all, both for use and for development. Scientists from all over the world have cooperated to make the system what it is today. Until now, it was too technical to be a threat to Microsoft in the consumer or everyday business arena. Those days are over.

The French gendarmerie’s 70,000 desktop computers currently use Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. But these will migrate over to the Linux system distributed by Ubuntu, explained Colonel Nicolas Geraud, deputy director of the gendarmerie’s IT department. Geraud said that the French police would introduce Linux every time they replaced a desktop PC. The gendarmerie expects to transfer between 5,000 and 8,000 desktops to Ubuntu this year, with 12,000-15,000 more making the switch over the next four years. The goal is to have every desktop in the French gendarmerie running Linux by the year 2014.

The reasons behind the move are tri-fold, explained Geraud: first, to reduce the force’s reliance on one company and offer more choice by diversifying IT suppliers; second, to give the gendarmerie control and oversight of the operating system; and third — cost. This last might have been reason enough all by itself. The move away from Microsoft licensed products is saving the gendarmerie about seven million euros (10.3 million dollars) a year for all its PCs.

Microsoft claims that running Windows is actually cheaper overall than running Linux despite the cost of Windows license fees, hinting at possible integration issues and the fact that there are fewer experts trained to service open source applications as compared to Windows. But it would be hard for these issues to offset $10 million in bottom-line savings.

The French police official added that Linux was not only cheaper but more advanced than other operating systems currently on the market, a thinly veiled swipe at Vista, Microsoft’s latest operating system. Vista has been roundly panned by consumers. They complain about Vista’s high price and resource requirements, and especially about its incompatibility with their existing applications. Many in the industry as well as consumer advocacy groups are seeing Vista as a major blunder, some citing Microsoft’s arrogance as the company that has held a virtual monopoly for over a decade on PC operating systems and software programs.

Vista’s reputation for incompatibility and bugs has become a major public relations headache for Microsoft, whose popularity in France has already taken heavy hits due to widely publicized and drawn-out legal proceedings. Losing the French gendarmerie as a client is certain not to help.

Geraud explained that the move to an open source operating system was logical after the police switched in 2005 to open sourcing for its office applications and in 2006 for its Internet browsers and its email.

This latest announcement by police in France has been hinted at in recent years.

In 2005 the gendarmerie switched from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice — a collection of applications such as a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation program similar to Microsoft Powerpoint. But unlike Microsoft Office programs, all of these software suites can be downloaded free.

A year later it abandoned Microsoft’s Internet Explorer for the Mozilla Foundation’s browser Firefox and its email client Thunderbird. OpenOffice and Firefox are both on the open source platform, so moving to a Linux operating system won’t be the culture shock for the French police force as it might be in some organizations that have yet to try open-source products and systems.

With its 100,000 employees, the French gendarmerie is the largest administration to shift to open sourcing for its operating system, but not France’s first. The National Assembly adopted Ubuntu’s version of Linux for its 1,200 desktop PCs last year.

The announcement by the French police force came on the very same day that Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was also in Paris, meeting with Bernard Delanoe, the Mayor of Paris, to discuss far-reaching partnerships between Microsoft and the city, including Microsoft-base training for public officials, boosts for business start-ups and the building of a new digital sports arena in the Montreuil area of Paris.

Was this a move calculated by Gates or Delanoe to offset the French gendarmerie’s announcement? If not, it would seem a very ironic coincidence. In any case, the move by the French police dealt a body blow to the mood of those celebrating the Microsoft-Paris alliance.

http://www.webinfrance.com/police-france-microsoft-linux-201.html

Cool new features in Ubuntu 8.04

These features are showcased for your attention. Please test them and report any bugs you find. If you want to see what the developers have cooking for the next alpha release, take a look through the Hardy blueprints page: https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/hardy

Upgrading from Ubuntu 7.10

To upgrade from Ubuntu 7.10, run "update-manager -d" using the update-manager package from Gutsy.

Xorg 7.3

The latest Xorg is available in Hardy, Xorg 7.3, with an emphasis on better autoconfiguration with a minimal configuration file.

Linux kernel 2.6.24

Alpha 4 includes the 2.6.24-5.8 (2.6.24-rc8-based) kernel. This brings in significant enhancements and fixes that have been merged in the last few months into the mainline kernel. Among these is the introduction of dynticks support for amd64, bringing the same power savings already available on 32-bit systems to 64-bit laptops and desktops.

PulseAudio

Alpha 4 includes PulseAudio enabled by default. Some non-GNOME applications still need to be changed to output to pulse/esd by default and the volume control tools are still not integrated. https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+spec/cleanup-audio-jumble

PolicyKit

With Alpha 4, PolicyKit integration is visible in the administrative user interfaces. PolicyKit makes it possible to run administrative applications as a normal user, and have them get a particular set of extra privileges for certain operations, which allows fine-grained control over user permissions and enhances usability, as well as eliminating the security implications of running the whole application as root.

For details of PolicyKit integration in Hardy, refer to the policykit-integration blueprint.

Firefox 3 Beta 2

The latest Firefox 3 beta is packaged in the repositories, bringing much better system integration including icon and colour theming that matches the system, as well as GTK2 form buttons and open dialog.

You can read more about the work on the Fox and Penguin blog post by Michael Ventor, a Mozilla intern.

Transmission

The GTK version of the popular Transmission BitTorrent client comes with Alpha 4. It's set to replace the Gnome BitTorrent downloader.

Vinagre

The new Vinagre VNC client is installed by default in Alpha 4, replacing xvnc4viewer.

Vinagre allows the user to view multiple machines simultaneously, can discover VNC servers on the network via Avahi, and can keep track of recently used and favorite connections.

Brasero

The Brasero CD/DVD burning application, which will complement the CD/DVD burning functions of Nautilus and replace the Serpentine audio CD burning utility, is installed by default in Alpha 4.

World Clock Applet

Integrating the features of the intlclock applet, the GNOME panel clock in Alpha 4 can display the time and weather in multiple locations.

GVFS

Nautilus 2.21.6 in Alpha 4 uses GVFS, the virtual filesystem abstraction layer that's set to replace the aging GnomeVFS in GNOME 2.22, as its backend. In the near future, GVFS will make it possible to fix shortcomings of Nautilus such as the inability to restore files from trash, pause and undo file operations, and make it possible to escalate user privileges for certain operations using PolicyKit for authentication. It also brings a significant performance boost to many operations.

You can read more about the transition to GVFS at Nautilus developer Alexander Larsson's blog.

GNOME System Monitor

The GNOME System Monitor has a revamped "Resources" tab, with Cairo graphs that scroll and scale smoothly, and brand new widgets.

Virtualization

• KVM is now officially maintained within the Ubuntu kernel.

• libvirt and virt-manager have been adapted to Ubuntu. They allow for easy guest creation and basic management out of the box. Virt-manager can be used to remotely administer guests on a remote server. They also work with XEN, even though it is not officially maintained.

• The kernel also includes the virtio modifications which should greatly improve guest I/O access.

Firewall

ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is a new firewall application designed to make administering a firewall easier for end-users while not getting in the way of network administrators. Currently, ufw is a command-line interface for administering host-based firewalls.

For more details, read the UbuntuFirewall specification.

23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines

Linux still cheaper than heavily-subsidized Microsoft products

Rodney Gedda 29/01/2008 10:53:27

http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1163450117;fp;;fpid;;pf;1

Providing high school students with PCs is seen as a first step to preparing them for a technology-literate future, but in the Philippines many schools cannot afford to provide computing facilities so after a successful deployment of 13,000 Fedora Linux systems from a government grant, plans are underway to roll out another 10,000 based on Ubuntu.

Visiting Australia to discuss Linux and open source software in education at this year's linux.conf.au in Melbourne, independent open source consultant Ricardo Gonzalez, said there were a number of factors that led to Linux being chosen over the venerable Microsoft Windows.

Gonzalez, based in Manila, told Computerworld Linux became popular in the Philippines soon after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when open source was investigated for its value proposition to organizations.

"Open source was a viable business alternative because no one was doing it commercially," Gonzalez said.

While Gonzalez was teaching the IT dealer network how to profit from open source, Microsoft launched its anti-piracy policy in the Philippines, so he told the government there was an alternative.

Also at the time, the Department of Trade and Industry and the Department of Education launched the PCPS program, or PCs for Public Schools with the aim of providing one PC for each of the 10,000 public high schools in the country.

With funding from the Japanese government, the PCPS program started around the 2000 timeframe when the contractors installed Windows PCs, but five years later it was discovered a lot of the computers were not being used because nobody knew how to use them.

A company by the name of Advanced Solutions Inc (ASI) asked Gonzalez to come on board as a consultant as it was preparing to do bids for 1000 schools. However, this time it would not be only desktops, but one server, 10 desktops, and Internet connectivity in every school.

"We wanted to use Fedora 5 and it went all the way to office of [the Filipino] President and they kept passing it around saying 'why would they offer something for free, and how would they support and teach it'," Gonzalez said. "The project dragged on for four to five months to a point where Microsoft matched the price by offering Windows XP for $US20 a copy and throwing in Office for $US30, but we still came out cheaper. Microsoft was also providing free training to high school teachers."

---

After "jumping through all the hoops", including having the Department of Science and Technology evaluate the Linux solution for its usefulness, ASI got the contract and all 10,000 computers were delivered at the end of December, 2007.

"Because we saved so much we gave the government 3000 additional units, so now another 300 schools have Linux networks," Gonzalez said.

However, the Philippines' Linux education story is just beginning and the "reward" for the successful initial deployment was before Gonzalez left for linux.conf.au, the company got the contract to do another 1000 high schools over the next 12 months.

"The flavour this time is Kubuntu and Edubuntu," he said, adding the old questions about Linux's suitability aren't being asked any more. "They have also asked us to install the Joomla! and Drupal content systems on the server so students can create content," he added.

People in the government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay

ASI had initially requested the then IBM, now Lenovo, to factory-install the Linux images, but Gonzalez said since IBM had no experience with Linux deployments, and there were too many errors, some 60 percent of the operating system images had to be deployed after the PCs arrived.

"We were only three people, but during the next contract they put in more people to make sure it gets out the door faster - they doubled it to six people," he said. "There will be a phase four, five and six -- it just depends on funding."

With 7000 islands in the Philippines, the task at hand is no mean feat as the team had to install the systems, test them, do integration work, ship the computers out, ensure it was installed correctly, and provide training to the schools' principal and head of IT.

"If you look at it from a third-world perspective I'm very pleased," Gonzalez said. "For us it's one of the biggest Linux installations in the Philippines. The question is if it's free does it work, but with Linux it does work and it's free."

Gonzalez believes the project has helped begin a mindset revolution for accepting the power of free software.

"People in the government now understand Linux can do so much for so little outlay," he said. "In a brand new computer 50 percent goes to the operating system and office suite, so how many people can afford that?"

---

When asked why the popular One Laptop Per Child, which ships with Linux, was not used instead, Gonzalez said at the time it was not feasible due to the sheer number of units that needed to be purchased all at once.

To analyze the results of the program, Gonzalez is conducting a survey and he intends to study the flow-on effects to people's home computers, which may take some time to eventuate.

"There are 80 million Filipinos who are sending 20 million text messages so I'm thinking how to get SMS into the education market and tie it down with open source," he said. "I'm looking for the guy who has already done that."

Regarding the country's universities, Gonzalez said they are very much "tied down" to Microsoft, and course material is still tailored for the proprietary world.

"If Linux and open source wants to take hold in the education market it must deliver course material for high schools and elementary schools."

A Guide to Ubuntu Linux

'Open source' means lots of people and resources can help, but here's a reference for both beginners and the experienced.

Don Marti, LinuxWorld

Sunday, January 27, 2008 7:00 AM PST

From

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,141752-c,linux/article.html

With all the people out there willing to offer help on Linux, getting started should be pretty easy. But with many options in introductory books and easy-to-install distributions, choosing a place to start can be the hard part.

Where to Find Support

Picking a distribution gets a lot less challenging when you remember to choose based on where you plan to go for help. Your local user group mailing list will be a lot more useful when other members know the locations and utilities you're talking about. Just subscribe to your local user group mailing list, and lurk for a while to find out what distribution the most helpful people there use. Then pick up a copy of a good Linux book, burn an install CD, and jump in.

There is lots of useful online documentation for specific tasks. But so far, books offer the best introductions to basic concepts such as file permissions or working with the shell. And looking for the distribution's name in the title of your first Linux book can be a time and frustration saver for new users. Instead of telling you to do things this way on one distribution, that way on another, or worse, telling you to find things for yourself, a book that concentrates on one distribution can point you straight to the file, tool or feature you need.

Lately, though, there's been a catch. The most helpful introductory books for beginners, Mark G. Sobell's "Practical Guide..." series, cover Red Hat Linux and its descendants Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but many of the participants in user groups and mailing lists that offer the best help for new users are running Ubuntu. Sobell's new "A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux" closes the gap.

Ubuntu's Advantages

Part of Ubuntu's popularity among user group members is because it nails down and documents many of the best system adminstration practices. For example, many administrators recommend that you never log in as root. Just log in as yourself, and use a properly configured sudo to run individual commands as root when needed. Ubuntu actually disables the root account, and forces you to use sudo.

A new user who installs Ubuntu and does things the Ubuntu way will find himself or herself acting in many ways like a cautious, experienced sysadmin without realizing it. Now, in A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux, you can get a thorough Linux intro book that works the Ubuntu way, while still drawing on the author's long experience with old-school Unix and older Linux environments to cover the basics that haven't changed.

Philippine Construction Company Shifts to Linux

Philippine Construction Company Shifts to Linux for Cost-Effective Infrastructure

From http://www.theopenpress.com/index.php?a=press&id=26917

(OPENPRESS) December 30, 2007 -- EEI Corporation, one of the Philippines' leading construction companies, has opted to shift to Linux for their operating system (OS), joining several other industry giants in the country who have already turned to open source.

The firm initially used proprietary systems for both OS platforms and various application packages utilized in its operations. However, due to increasing costs of licensing, the company started considering open source applications in order to minimize expenses.

“Other concerns, such as virus infection and the increasing cost of hardware also became factors as to why we decided to use Linux,” said Mr. Andy S. Sarmiento, assistant vice president for the MIS department.

EEI Corporation is only one of several industry giants in the Philippines which are already using Linux and open source software. Other firms include Jollibee Foods Corporation, Mercury Drug Corporation, International Family Foods Services (Shakey’s) and Nippon Paint Philippines Inc. Several schools, notably the University of the Philippines, are also making use of open source in place of proprietary systems.

To ensure smooth transition with no major disruptions on daily operations, EEI sought the expertise of local Linux solutions provider IPSYSTEMS Inc (www.ipsystems.ph).

“As one of the country’s leading enterprise, EEI needed a system which it could trust to be stable and scalable. We therefore transformed the company’s enterprise level systems to make use of Linux as their operating system. At the same time, we introduced making use of several other software and applications also based on open source,” said Mr. Carlo Celis, systems administrator of IPSYSTEMS.

Free and open source software (FOSS) is called such because its source code is made freely available for modification and redistribution by anyone – thus the term “free” software. An example of such free software is Linux, which is an open-source operating system and is one of the alternatives to the Windows operating system. Linux is distributed under the GNU General Public License which guarantees the freedom to distribute copies of free software.

This freedom allows for the software’s cost-effectiveness, as compared to proprietary ones. For example, commercial software licenses such as Microsoft Exchange 2003 server today have an initial cost of around Php 69,000.00 (approximately USD 1,600.00). This price allows up to five licensed computers to connect to the server, while additional computers will need additional licenses (called Client Access License or CAL) to be legally connected to the server. This price also only covers the initial software license cost, and does not include the cost for the hardware or its yearly license maintenance.

The cost of having a file server system based on Linux, on the other hand, will cost only a one-time payment of roughly Php 25,000.00 (about USD 580.00), with no other recurring costs for CALs or for license renewals.

Since turning to Linux, EEI has experienced improved performance due to the system's increased stability. “Linux has proven itself to be a fast, reliable and stable operating system. The shift has also required our systems to consume fewer resources and much cheaper licensing costs,” said Mr. Sarmiento.

About IPSYSTEMS Inc
IPSYSTEMS Inc is a Linux solutions provider specializing in Open Source technologies for the server requirements of Philippine enterprises and organizations. Incorporated in April 1998, its technical team consists of seasoned experts in systems integration, development and maintenance, with over ten (10) years of experience in open source.

IPSYSTEMS provides the Linux advantage – the benefits, convenience and security of a Linux server - along with the appropriate Linux-based solutions that best answer customers’ communication and network needs.
For further details, please visit: www.ipsystems.ph

Top Linux Headlines of 2007 - A Year In Review

From http://www.fsckin.com/2007/12/28/top-linux-headlines-of-2007/

Looking back at 2007 and seeing this website as a fruit of the cesspool that we affectionately call Vista really warms my heart.

I started using Linux as a full-time operating system in September, because I was really fed up with Microsoft. As an experiment, this website was launched simultaneously to document my adventures in Linux.

If you told me that when I started this blog that this site would see a half-million visitors in four months and be featured on sites like Lifehacker, TechCrunch, TechMeme, Linux Journal, Linux Today, OSNews, LXer, Webb Alert, etc, etc…. and have near every social news media website feature fsckin.com on their respective front pages… I wouldn’t believe you.

When the Metapixel article became popular this website used 60GB of bandwidth in a day (Note to Self: DON’T post gigantic image hyperlinks on website in future). The original article was Dugg, then hours later, Lifehacker’s article linking back to me was Dugg as well!

It is a miracle Dreamhost (bless their heart) hasn’t terminated my account. I contacted their support about some unrelated issue, and in their response they mentioned reading the Orange Box / Team Fortress 2 article, which helped them get the game running under WINE. Perhaps the fact that my hosting company actually reads my content helps out a little bit.

Let’s just say that fsckin w/ linux is the kind of accident that turns out not being bad at all, kinda like my little brother.

I hope you all had a great chrismahanukwanzakah and enjoy the New Year. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, let’s take a look back at some of the headlines this year.

January
Novell sues SCO for $26 Million Dollars!
OpenMoko Struts It’s Mobile Linux Stuff
Linux Foundation Formed
Microsoft FAT Patent Upheld
Fluendo Snatches Hard-Earned Cash with Proprietary Format Licensing
Adobe Exposes Naughty Bits with Flash Player 9 for Linux
Microsoft Tries to Pay For Edits to Wikipedia ODF/OOXML
Nokida N800 Internet Tablet is Bigger Hit Than Moses’ Tablets
Install Debian From Inside Windows
Windows Vista Released to Unwashed Masses

Febuary
SCO Tries to subpoena Pamela Jones of Groklaw
Nominations for Debian Project Leader
Steve Ballmer Blows Smoke Up Collective Asses Regarding Software Patents
Dell Gets Hint About Linux
NTFS-3g version 1.0 Released
Sweaty Steve Ballmer Rents Smoke Generator and Mirrors
Show Us The Code Brings IR Goggles To Ballmer’s Party
Dell Listens to Linux Consumers
Shuttleworth: Ubuntu is NOT a Charity

March
Linux is Desktop Ready?
Free Software Foundation Asks Sun, HP and Dell to “Check Yes or No” after Vista is “Rejected”
Novell releases Office Open XML translator for OpenOffice.org
Xbox Live Patch for 360 Stops Linux Installations
Hans Reiser Will Goto Trial For Alleged Murder of Ex-Wife
German Patent Federal Court Dismisses Microsoft’s FAT patent
Open Office.org asks Dell to Pre-Load Software on Their Computers
Dell Asks Which Gnu For You
Linus Torvalds Blasts the GPLv3
HP Exec: “Linux Desktop is nearing critical mass”
Robert Scoble, Microsoft Technology Evangelist says Nasty Things
Bruce Perens Doesn’t Care For Novell/Microsoft “Protection Racket”
Microsoft FoxPro goes Open-Source, Nobody Cares
Novell Spoofs “Get a Mac” Ads… Badly

April
Microsoft Sued for “Vista Capable” Marketing
Sam Hocevar is Next Debian Project Leader
Cnet Hints About “Web OS”, Foreshadows gOS
Tux500 Has Eye on Indy 500
Microsoft Admits Vista’s Horizon Cloudy
One Man, 250 Webcam Drivers, Insert Cam Whore Joke Here

May
Ubuntu & Dell Join Forces
Microsoft Siverlight For Linux by “End of Year”
Tux500 Grabs $10,000 in Donations!
Microsoft Patents “Sudo” Command (aka User Account Control)
Zimbra Runs on Linux
SUSE Asks 27,000 Linux Users To Share Porn Thoughts
Microsoft Coupons Have No Expiration Date
Digg Censors HD-DVD, BluRay Decryption Key Needed For Playback On Linux
Microsoft Still Pushing the Patent Button, Bloggers Push Back
Microsoft Wont Sue End Users of Linux
Try To Save A School District $$$ By Switching to Linux, Loose Your Job
Motorola Releases ROKR and RAZR2 Powered By Really Small Mice Linux
Creative Labs: Vista Drivers Really Hard To Figure Out… Linux Pushed to Back Burner
Microsoft Becomes “Linux Distributor”, Liable Under GPLv3
Shuttleworth Debunks Microsoft Patent Claim Threat
Sun CEO Will Use Their Patents To Help Linux
Groklaw Tells Us What We Already Know: Microsoft Cherry-picks Sponsored Survey Results
VA Software Becomes Sourceforge
Ironically The Tux500 Indy Car Crashes First

June
Google Has Microsoft In Half-Nelson, Puts Pressure on Desktop Search Functionality
GPLv3 Released via Carrier Pigeons
Xandros Joins the Dark Side With Microsoft Patent Protection
TiVo complains about GPLv3 “hurting business”
Emacs Version 22 Released, Six Years Since Last Update
Nero 3 Provides HD and Blu-Ray Disc Burning Capabilities to Linux Users
Parallels Ships Supporting Linux, Fake Steve Jobs Dies A Little Inside
LG Signs Patent Pact with Microsoft, Celebrates with Kool-Aid
AppleTV Runs Linux
Politics Plays Part in Google vs. Microsoft Antitrust Dealings
OpenOffice.org Worm hits Linux, Mac OSX, Windows
Linus: Kernel Under GPLv3? Over My Dead Body! Or When OpenSolaris Pisses Me Off, Whichever Comes First
Microsoft Hires Director of Linux Interoperability
Microsoft Patent FUD Debacle
Linspire Signs Microsoft Patent Deal
Google Linux Released is a 9/11 Conspiracy
Motorola Expects 60% of Mobile Phones Will Use Linux
Ubuntu and Redhat Refuse Patent Deal with Microsoft, Kool-Aid Tastes Funny
Vista is Number 1 Reason For Emo Culture
Windows is “More Secure” Because Fewer Vulnerabilities Are Patched
Songbird Sings First Tune
Firefox, Google Team Up for Offline Applications
OpenMoko Promises “Mass Market” device by October
Redhat Talks Dirty With Microsoft for a Year

July
No Joy For Google Desktop Search vs. Microsoft
Nokia Gives Skype & Flash Lovin to N800 Internet Tablet, Biblical Moses Sues
Samba Moves to GPLv3
IBM Releases 150+ Upset Vista Users Patents Into Wild
Apple Buys CUPS Source Code, TUMBLER is Next
OOXML Format Slapped About With A Large Trout
Asus Eee PC Will Run Xandros
Walmart gOS PC Rumors
Skype Convicted of Violating GPL
Businesses Don’t Tango With Vista
Torvalds Sucker Punches Con Kolivas

August
Fewer Companies Planning Move to Vista, Nobody Surprised
Fake Steve Jobs Real Identity Revealed as Batman Forbes Journalist
SURPRISE! UNIX Belongs to Novell, Not SCO
SCOX Stock Plummets
Best (Possibly NSFW) Bug Report Ever!
Novell Wont Sue Over UNIX
Google Pack Adds BitTorrent RSS Downloader StarOffice
Gnome Turns 10, Wants a Skateboard for Xmas
Richard Stallman: Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
Convicted Pirate Forced to Use Windows by Court Order
Microsoft “Get The Facts” Campaign Isn’t Working
Windows Genuine Advantage Not So Advantageous
Microsoft Apologizes About Cheating on ISO for OOXML’s Approval
More Evidence of Microsoft Playing Games
Super-Duper New Improved ATI Drivers (Still Not as Good As nVidia)

September
Microsoft Looses ISO OOXML Vote, Ballmer Whines Like Little Baby
Eric Raymond May Reveal He Is a Ninja Loosing Patience with Microsoft Over OOXML
Richard Stallman Taunts Torvalds Regarding GPLv3 Adoption
Linux Voids Laptop Warranty
SCO Files for Chapter 11 Bankrupcy
Creative X-Fi Soundcards Supported. In Other News, Hell Freezes Over
Donate Linux PCs, Get Investigated by California Government
Darl McBride Blames Imaginary Friend Linux For SCO Failure
Gnome 2.20 Released
First Ever GPL Lawsuit in USA
WSU Linux User Group Auctions Off Nerds
Microsoft Pushing Vista, Businesses Demand XP
First Ever GPL Lawsuit Settles, Pontius Pilate Upset!

October
Novell Thanks Microsoft for Patent Agreement
Novell Uses Microsoft FUD as Marketing Material
Linux Journal Runs Offensive Blowjob Ads
Linus Torvalds Gets Pissed Off And Kills People About SMACK
Skype 1.4 Goes Gold
Linux Doubles Market Share
Ballmer Steamy About Patents (Again)
Ballmer Wants Redhat Users to Pay Up
IP Innovation Files Patent Suit Against Redhat & Novell
Mark Shuttleworth Fires Back. Ballmer Quoted as Saying, “You Sunk My Battleship!”
Nokia 810 Internet Porn Device Tablet Released
Oh SNAP! TurboLinux signs with Microsoft
Mandriva Club Isn’t A Champagne Room
Linux Loosing Market Share
Linux Not Really Loosing Market Share
NY Times Publishes Swimsuit Edition Opens Up Codebase
Microsoft Really Wants Windows on XO PC
Laptop Magazine Reviews Eee PC Laptop, 4/5 Stars

November
Turn Webapp Monster into gOS
Mandriva Upset with Microsoft/Nigeria 419 scam Classmate PC Linux Reversal
Microsoft Denies Involvement in 419 Scam
Say Hello to Chumby, the Linux Clock!
IBM & Novell Block Sale of SCO Assets
Google’s Android (aka gPhone) Gives Street Cred to Mobile Linux
Symbian CEO LOLs When He Heard About Google’s Android
Novell Sells Bunch More Microsoft Support Coupons
Six Floor Labs LLC Launches (Hoax?) Ransom Model for Linux Video Games
OMG! New Theme for Hardy Heron!
Only 600 UK Visitors to BBC Website
BBC Rethinks Linux Visitor Numbers
Mandriva Wins Back Nigerian Classmate PCs
OLPC Forgets Simple Math.. Buy Two One, Get One,
Walmart gPC Sells Out
Walmart Will Restock gPC at “Really Low Prices”
OpenMoko Pushes Mass Market Date Back
Obama Supports “Open” Document Format
Amazon’s Kindle Launches
Torvalds: Strength of Linux Lies in Contortionist Ability Flexibility
BusyBox Sues Xterasys and High-Gain Antennas
Asus Eee PC Laptop Violates GPL
One Year In, Vista Still Not Budging in the Business Market
Cheap Laptops Perfect Fit For Linux, Vista Miffed
Torvalds: Microsoft Can’t Stop Linux
One Laptop Per Child Sued for Patent Infringement
Asus Releases GPL Code
Lucky Fresno Kids Get Asus Eee PC Laptops

December
nVidia and ATI Users Green With Envy
KDE 4 Is Late To Dinner
Verizon Sucks Down GPL Lawsuit, Belches Loudly
MPAA University Toolkit Violates GPL
OLPC Does the Needful in India
OpenOffice.org in a Browser
Bazaar Version Control System Released
Opera Thinks Microsoft Should Distribute Their Browser
Dell Offers Ubuntu with Legal DVD Playback
Xterasys Settles GPL Suit
BBC Website Compatible With Linux
Schestowitz Interviews StallmanMicrosoft Hands Over Protocol Documentation to Samba
Redhat CEO Removes Red Hat
Ex-Delta COO Has Redhat Flying High Again
350,000 Tiny Eee PC Laptops Sold This Year

Linux or Windows

Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Author: Tolga Tohumcu, Information Technology Professional

A comparison of Linux and Windows

Everyday people ask me the same question over and over again. What is the difference between Windows and Linux? I’ve decided to write this article so people can read this and decide. If it was up to me, I would change the whole world computers to Linux base operating system as this article posted on a powerful Red Hat Enterprise Server.

Windows and Linux are operating systems. And in many respects, from a user point of view, they are quite similar or at least offer much of the same functionality. Both of these operating systems offer file management, memory management, control of peripheral devices, communication with other computers, and both run a range of user software.

Linux was originally built by Linus Torvalds at the University of Helsinki in 1991. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License. Technically we can say that Linux is a Unix-like, Kernel-based, fully memory-protected, multitasking operating system. So what do we mean by that? Basically, Linux is a powerful, robust, compact, and most notably, free operating system. It runs on a wide range of hardware from PCs to Macs.

Windows is a GUI based operating system. It has powerful networking capabilities, is multitasking, and extremely user friendly. Built by Microsoft, it also offers an operating system which most PC users will already be familiar with if they have used other Microsoft products such as Windows 3.1, 95, 98, 2000, XP and Vista.

Indeed, Linux and Windows have been around for many years, yet, during these years Windows has been enjoying an overall advantage over Linux due to Microsoft’s market success because of its broad focus aimed at beginner users as well as advanced, while Linux has been primary used by advanced computer users – programmers and developers.

Indeed, many beginner users find Windows easer to use than other operating systems; however, usually this is said by an individual who did not try other operating systems, or who was simply influenced by a friend or colleague.

One fundamental difference between the two systems is the fact that Linux is "open source". This means that unlike Windows where you only get access to the compiled programs that you run on your machine, with Linux you also get the original computer code to examine and tweak (modify) at your leisure. This may not seem a big deal to many people, but it allows unlimited possibilities to anyone with the knowledge and courage to get into the driving seat of the operating system and point it in their own specific direction. This also goes to show that Linux users are more advanced.

So, what makes one operating better than other? Well to answer that question, many things need to be taken into consideration. Perhaps the first one to start from will be the list of applications available for an operating system as well as hardware that would support the following applications.

Currently, Linux falls short in the number of different applications available for it. The reason for it is Microsoft’s success. There are much more various applications available for Microsoft since the population of Windows users is greater than Linux. Also, since Microsoft is more popular, the Hardware products are aimed at the biggest market – Windows, such that the product would be sold and used widely. Indeed, that is the only reason, since Linux has a different advantage. Linux programs are distributes freely since they are not developed by commercial software companies, but instead are created under the GNU Public License, which makes the software free. Yet, most of the Linux software lacks the GUI and is therefore not “liked” by many users. However, Windows has its own share of problems – the fact that some software is not compliant for different versions of windows (i.e. Windows 98/XP/Vista) and that many times the GUI concept is overused such that command arguments cannot be passed to the program.

Another aspect of this comparison is the cost of the purchase of the new PC with preinstalled Windows operating system, and acquiring a Linux operating system for an “empty” machine. The fact is that the biggest portion of the price for the PC with Windows is the cost of the preinstalled applications such as Office, Outlook, IIS, etc..., yet buying a Linux operating system, only the redistribution cost is charged.

As was said earlier, Windows is a fully GUI based application, however, Linux also contains a GUI – it is called X-Windows. There are two different types of the GUI interfaces available for Linux – Gnome and KDE, which both contain a different style. Also, Linux offers a choice of four desktops thus allowing the user to work in different windows on different desktop for convenience. Windows, on the other hand, is limited to the way the application windows are laid out on the screen. Windows GUI also has been known for its large memory requirements, where it usually uses a huge chunk of RAM for visual components.

Kernel and the operating system environment is also an important part of an operating system. Linux has some real good advantages over Windows in these criteria. Linux requires 386 architecture to run. Thus, it is compatible with any improved architecture such as 486, Pentium, Pentium Pro, etc. Also, there are drivers available for much many types of hardware devices. Linux program installation seems to be easier since it only requires a restart when hardware device has been changed, while Windows requires a restart on software installation. Linux supports multiple copies of the Kernel on the system such that if an error is encountered and the Kernel becomes corrupted, a different copy of the Kernel can be used to boot up the system.

A very important aspect of security is another basis of Linux and Windows comparison. Though it is possible to break into virtually any system if special considerations are not taken, Linux seems to be more prepared for protecting itself because of the beginning developments of Linux, UNIX, and FreeBSD which were aimed at top notch security, while Windows is often known for a large amount of loop holes. Linux allows does not create registry keys in a way Windows does allowing a user to browse installed components registry keys, which contain important information. Also, Linux is more virus proof since viruses – malicious programs either cannot be run automatically on the Linux machine, or simply are not capable of being executed on a 386 architecture.

The most important functionality of an operating system, it of course an operating system must be reliable - it must not crash, even under extreme loads. Second, availability services must be in place to let clients continue to have their processing requests satisfied, even when the operating system or hardware fails. Unfortunately for Windows, it seems to be less stable even though the latest versions of Windows XP are far more improved than the incredibly buggy Windows Vista.

So, what is better Linux or Windows? That questions can only be answered by an individual from his/her own view, depending on what the users needs to do with the operating system since Linux does not have any sufficient test benchmarks that can compare its performance with Windows. However, one thing is for sure, Linux technology use is currently on the rise. This can be seen by various Windows/Unix/Mac OS products ported to Linux over the years. Widening use of Java also contributes to this uprising. The use of the “.php” technology, which is a Linux type of active server page, has also increased. The only thing left, is to wait and see, whether Windows will be overcome by Linux, or not. I think it will.

Choosing Linux vs. Windows

On the Personal Computer show in December 2003 John C. Dvorak predicted a bright future for Linux. His main points being: it's free, the applications are getting more mainstream, Open Office is a "fabulous" product, the GUI is pretty much like Windows, it's high quality, bullet proof and resistant to the thousands of Windows viruses and worms. If he owned a company with thousands of PCs, he would put everyone on Linux.

To date the only organizations (that I've heard about) using hundreds or thousands of Linux based computers are government agencies in countries all over the world. They may be driven by cost and/or security concerns (practically speaking there are no Linux viruses). Some countries also may not like being beholden to a U.S. based company for so much of their software.

Is Microsoft finally about to face real competition in desktop-computer software? This article raises a point I agree with. The next version of Windows, the one that will replace XP (which is here today as Vista), is not going to be delivered for a long time opening up a window of opportunity for Linux. In addition, the upcoming version of Windows is likely to be expensive and require new hardware, two other areas where Linux competes well. It may also involve too many changes. By the time it's delivered, more and more Linux distributions will look more like Windows, just as Microsoft rolls out a new user interface. People accustomed to the current Windows UI may resist the change.

Read all articles at http://newyorktechnologies.blogspot.com/

- Tolga Tohumcu
Author, Technology Today
Tolga@lieconomy.com

N.Y.S.E. Places Buy on Linux, Hold on Unix

New York Times
December 14, 2007

N.Y.S.E. Places Buy on Linux, Hold on Unix
By PATRICK THIBODEAU, Computerworld, IDG

The New York Stock Exchange is investing heavily in x86-based Linux systems and blade servers as it builds out the NYSE Hybrid Market trading system that it launched last year. Flexibility and lower cost are among the goals. But one of the things that NYSE Euronext CIO Steve Rubinow says he most wants from the new computing architecture is technology independence.

"What we want is to be able to take advantage of technology advances when they happen," Rubinow said. "We're trying to be as independent of any technologies as we can be."

The Hybrid Market system lets NYSE traders buy and sell stocks electronically or on the exchange's trading floor. The NYSE has been turning to x86 technology to power the trading system, largely using servers from Hewlett-Packard Co., the two companies announced this week.

The NYSE has installed about 200 of HP's ProLiant DL585 four-processor servers and 400 of its ProLiant BL685c blades, all running Linux and based on dual-core Opteron processors from Advanced Micro Devices Inc. In addition, the stock exchange is using HP's Integrity NonStop servers, which are based on Intel Corp.'s Itanium processors and run the fault-tolerant NonStop OS operating system, as well as its OpenView management software.

Rubinow said that Linux is mature enough to meet his needs. The open-source operating system may not have all the polish of Unix technologies with 20-plus years of history behind them, "but it's polished enough for us," he said.

The NYSE's shift toward Linux and x86-based hardware illustrates why consulting firm Gartner Inc. is predicting a slight decline in Unix server revenues over the next five years. In comparison, Gartner forecasts strong sales growth for both Windows and Linux servers.

Although Rubinow has the option of using HP-UX, HP's version of Unix, he said that he'd prefer not to. "We don't want to be closely aligned with proprietary Unix," he said. "No offense to HP-UX, but we feel the same way about [IBM's] AIX, and we feel the same way to some extent about Solaris."

The NYSE still runs numerous Unix systems, especially ones with Solaris, which is Sun Microsystems Inc.'s Unix derivative. Rubinow acknowledged that Solaris has the ability to run on multiple hardware platforms, including x86-based systems from Sun server rivals such as HP. But he added that he thinks Linux "affords us a lot of flexibility."

One technology that the NYSE isn't adopting so eagerly is server virtualization, which comes with a system latency price that Rubinow said he can't afford to pay. In a system that is processing hundreds of thousands of transactions per second, virtualization produces "a noticeable overhead" that can slow down throughput, according to Rubinow. "Virtualization is not a free technology from a latency perspective, so we don't use it in the core of what we do," he said.

Charles King, an analyst at Pund-IT Inc. in Hayward, Calif., believes there is a broader concern among IT managers about virtualization overhead and its impact on transaction processing. "It's one of the reasons why even the staunchest advocates of x86 virtualization recommend extensive testing prior to moving systems into production," King said.

Copyright 2007 IDG News Service. All Rights Reserved.

Linux vs BSD

Nov 20, 2007

Linux vs BSD

What is BSD?

BSD family of Unix systems is based upon the source code of real Unix developed in Bell Labs, which was later purchased by the University of California - "Berkeley Software Distribution". The contemporaryBSD systems stand on the source code that was released in the beginning of 1990's (Net/2 Lite and 386/BSD release).


BSD is behind the philosophy of TCP/IP networking and the Internet thereof; it is a developed Unix system with advanced features. Except for proprietary BSD/OS, the development of which was discontinued, there are currently four BSD systems available:FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD and Mac OS X, which is derived from FreeBSD. There are also various forks of these, like PC-BSD - a FreeBSD clone, or MirOS, an OpenBSD clone. The intention of such forks is to include various characteristics missing in the above BSD systems, on which these (forks), no matter how well they are designed, only strongly depend. PC-BSD, for example, has more graphical features than FreeBSD, but there are no substantial differences between these two. PC-BSD cannot breathe without FreeBSD; FreeBSD or OpenBSD are independent of one another.


What is Linux?


Albeit users like to use the term "Linux" for any Linux distro including its packages (Red Hat Linux, Mandrake Linux, etc.), for IT professionals Linux is only the kernel. Linuxstarted in 1991, when its author, Linus Torvals, began his work on a free replacement of Minix. Developers of quite a few Linux system utilities used the source code from BSD, as both these systems started parallelly in about the same time (1992-1993) as Open Source.


Today, there are a few, if not many developers of their own kernels/operating systems (FreeDOS, Agnix, ReactOS, Inferno, etc.), but these guys simply missed the right train in the right hour. They did not lose anything except for the fact that they may be even better programmers, but without the public opinion acknowledging this at large. Linus built his fame also from work of many developers and he went on board in the right time. Linus deserves a credit as a software idea policy maker and he helped very much in this respect.


(Open)BSD vs Linux


It is often difficult to say what is better if you compare two things without regarding the purpose of their use. Mobile Internet may appear better for someone who travels often, but for people working at home such mobility is not necessary. In this view, it is a stupid question when someone asks: "What is better, a mobile or static Internet?" It all depends...


If you compare Linux and OpenBSD in their desktop environment features, Linux offers more applications than OpenBSD; but in a server solution BSD systems are known to be robust, more stable and secure, and without so many patches distributors release soon after their new version of Linux slithered to light.


BSD systems are based upon real Unix source code contrary to Linux, which was developed from scratch (kernel).


Differences between BSD and Linux

1. BSD license allows users/companies to modify a program's source code and not to release changes to the public. In other words, BSD licenses allow commercial use and incorporation of a code into proprietary commercial products. This is how Microsoft incorporated BSD networking into their products and how Mac OS X earns money through muscles of FreeBSD.



2. Linux uses GPL license for most of the time (applications in Linux can also have a BSD license - or any license; it is up to developers how they decide). With a GPL-licensed program anybody can change the source code, but he or she MUST share it with the Open Source community to make sure that everybody will benefit from such a change.



3. BSD has the so-called "core system" (without packages). The core system consists of basic utilities (like ssh, fdisk, various commands like chmod or sysctl, manual pages, etc.) and anything beyond this is strictly seen as an add-on. Linux (not only the kernel, of course) is usually packaged as the whole system where this difference is not seen.



4. On BSD systems, all add-on packages are strictly installed into the /usr/local directory: documents to user/local/share/docs/application_name; themes and other things to /usr/local/share/application_name; binaries to /usr/local/bin/application_name. By application_name we mean a program's name, so if you install IceWM, for example, its binary will be here: /usr/local/bin/icewm. With Linux, on the other hand, all applications get mostly installed into the /usr/bin directory.



5. BSD systems use the system of "ports", which are fingerprints of applications in the /usr/ports directory, where a user may "cd" and execute a make command, which will download, via a directive contained in such a fingerprint's code, the application's source and the system will compile it as well. "Ports" are actually add-on packages for BSD systems and they are also packaged in packages repository of a concrete BSD system. They can be installed as binaries, too, with use of the "pkg_add" either directly from the Internet or locally. But "ports" have that advantage that if an author of any package makes a new version, a user can immediately get its newest/updated version. Packages released for a particular BSD version (like OpenBSD 4.1) are not updated and users have to wait for a new BSD release (like OpenBSD 4.2).



6. BSD systems have also their stable version. With FreeBSD, for example, you have a FreeBSD-Release (a version that can be used normally), FreeBSD-Stable (system more profoundly audited for bugs and security holes), and a development version - Current, which is not stable and not recommended for a regular use. Some Linuxdistributions started to imitate this philosophy, but with BSD systems this way of making distributions has become a rule.



7. Of course, the kernel is absolutely different.



8. BSD has FFS file system; it is the only file system on BSD's contrary to Linux, where you can use dozens of file systems like ext2, ext3, ReiserFS, XFS, etc.



9. BSD systems divide their partitions internally. This means that after installing a BSD system to a hard disk, programs like fdisk, Partition Magic, Norton Ghost and many others will not see this internal division of a BSD (FFS) disk; thus, repartitioning of a disk is not such a pain when administrators require a rigorous partitioning (for /home, /tmp, /var, /etc directories). As a consequence, the naming convention also differs a little: a disk - /dev/ad0s3b in FreeBSD indicates that you deal with "slice" 3 ("s3"), which is the equivalent of Linux /dev/hda3; the internal "partition" has the name of a letter: "a", "b", "e", etc. ("b" is a swap partition). BSD systems also use different naming conventions for devices (disks, etc.).



10. Unless you make a good kernel hack, BSD systems can only be installed into the primary partition. This is not the rule with Linux. However, as BSD systems offer the above-mentioned internal division of partitions, this is not any pain. PC architecture for disks (IDE) follows the rule that you can have only four primary partitions. We will illustrate this on Linux: /dev/hda1 (note: first partition on master disk on first IDE channel), /dev/hda2 (second partition), /dev/hda3 (third partition), /dev/hda4 (fourth partition). PC architecture allows creation of the so-called logical disk on a physical disk (/dev/hda5, /dev/hda6, etc.). You can have as many logical disks/partitions as you wish and you can also install Linux into these "logical disks". On the other hand, installing a BSD OS into such a "logical partition" is not normally possible.



11. System configuration is manual for most of the time, but various clones like PC-BSD break this convention. The manual approach is a very good thing, as administrators have everything under control without being pushed to waste time in a labyrinth of bloated configuration menus. A good comparison is to imagine a car mechanic repairing the car's engine covered by a thick blanket. To give you even a little better example - you will hardly find a Linux distro that does not have a default X startup (graphical environment). Of course, you can switch off the X environment during the installation configuration, but if you keep forgetting like me and forget to switch this off, or you have difficulties to find it in the menu somewhere, you realize that most Linux distributors do indeed impose on us only one approach - to put our fingers first on the thick blanket, then on the engine. If you are a good administrator, you do not usually trust vendors who program you how to use Linux - you are the boss and you must have your own freedom. However, in most cases you lose few hours instead by deactivating various services, which are, unfortunately, not even necessary but almost always activated by default. Linux is praised both for being a good desktop and server, but administrators of a good server do not need X. The more software is stored on your hard disk, the more security problems you will face, because it is impossible to audit every package in every unthinkable situation. Good and secure systems are always tight, light and simple.



12. All BSD systems have a Linux emulation support. Running BSD binaries on Linux is a little harder.



13. BSD systems have less support from driver vendors, thus they lag behind in this view (they are not worse, but many vendors support only Microsoft and Linux). With a BSD system you must carefully research the Internet for supported products/chipsets before purchasing any hardware.



14. BSD systems do not use the Unix System V "runlevel scripts" (initialization startup scripts) like Linux.



15. BSD kernels can be set to several security levels. This is also possible with Linux, but BSD's have taken a very good care of this kernel-tuning feature, which makes it even impossible to change something in files in higher security levels - you cannot delete them.



16. BSD's have everything under one ROOF. Various Linux programs are often not even compatible with other Linuces. For example, if you install a SuSE RPM package on Mandrake, it may not work. BSD's have one solid crown of power. If you move from Linux to FreeBSD, you will soon find out that you got out of this chaos. Do you want a package? Just visit: http://www.freebsd.org/ports/ and download it. Unless its developer made some programming errors, it will always work.



17. Generally, BSD systems boot and reboot faster than Linux. Linux can do this, too, but it must be tuned. It is very surprising that Linux is shipped, on the one hand, on huge DVD's and, on the other hand, it has a compressed kernel. BSD systems do not use (but they can) a default kernel that is compressed, thus the system boots always faster. As I mentioned earlier in this article, Linux vendors program users to use various, often unnecessary services. I do not need SAMBA (file and print services) and many other things as well. Linux reboot process takes longer because various services running on Linux need time for deactivation. Many Linux users do not even know what is the purpose of these services.



18. In comparison to BSD, most Linux distributions are overbloated. Few good users noticed this some time ago and a new trend in the Linux world started with ideas to get closer to a BSD-style use. One of such distributions is Gentoo Linux, but also Slackware Linux, which has preserved a very good shape since its first release (1993). The Gentoo "About" page (http://www.gentoo.org) says that, "Gentoo is a free operating system based on either Linux or FreeBSD..." Therefore, if you use Slackware or Gentoo, these Linuces will always reboot faster than any other Linux.



19. If you compile programs from ports, you will not stumble into compilation errors. BSD packagers prepare their packages carefully, so that users will always compile them successfully. This does not always happen with Linux.

Conclusion


I really like all BSD systems. If you are interested, look into FreeBSD documentation, which is one of the best. It will give you a very good overview of history and hard work done in the development of these robust systems. Today, BSD Unices are the only quality alternative to Linux in the Open Source world.


Author:Juraj Sipos


Author's website about FreeBSD and OpenBSD
Article Source: articlebase.com