Linux Installed Base will Double This Year
The success of consumer IT products like the ASUS Eee PC will help provide the leverage needed to get hardware vendors on board with open source, according to Dirk Hohndel, Intel’s chief technologist for open source.He believes the install base of Linux-based desktops could potentially double this year, based just on Eee PC sales..Speaking at open source conference Linux.conf.au in Melbourne yesterday, Hohndel said commercial pressure will be the incentive for traditionally Windows-centric hardware vendors to begin offering open source drivers and Linux-based systems to their customers.
US Department of Justice Keeps Microsoft on The List
a federal judge extended the duration of sanctions imposed on Microsoft by a 2002 consent decree agreement. The sanctions were initially scheduled to expire last month, but have been extended until November 2009….Microsoft failed to provide protocol specification documents to competitors as required by the consent decree agreement. The protocol documentation, which was supposed to be made available by February 2003, still hasn’t been fully published by Microsoft
Major Data Blackout in India, Egypt, Elsewhere
Tens of millions of internet users across the Middle East and Asia have been left without access to the web after a technical fault cut millions of connections.The outage, which is being blamed on a fault in a single undersea cable, has severely restricted internet access in countries including India, Egypt and Saudi Arabia and left huge numbers of people struggling to get online.Observers say that the digital blackout first struck yesterday morning, with the Egypt’s communications ministry suggesting it was caused by a cut in a major internet pipeline linking it to Europe.
Asian Nations Battle for Google Data Center
Reports that Google (GOOG) is considering building a data center in Malaysia are the latest sign that the search giant is pitting Asian governments against one another in a battle for a major data center project.The Prime Minister of Malaysia has announced that Google (GOOG) is interested in building a data center in Malaysia. The announcement comes just days after the economic minister in Taiwan said Google is “leaning toward” developing a major data center in Taiwan. Various other reports suggest Google has also scouted locations in Japan, South Korea, India and even Vietnam
(when are we going to stop saying “even Vietnam”?Microsoft is Buying Yahoo?
Microsoft Corp. has pounced on slumping Internet icon Yahoo Inc. with an unsolicited takeover offer of $44.6 billion in its boldest bid yet to challenge Google Inc.’s dominance of the lucrative online search and advertising markets.
(they deserve each other)
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Python 3.0 will break many things
Virgil: What are you talking about? Please elaborate.
The Python 3.0 thing is basically a non-event. Back when Python 2.0 came out Guido announced plans for Python 3000, which most likely would break some backwards compatibility. Two years ago they started developing 3.0 at the same time as 2.5, with 2.6 planned as a transitional version. 3.0a2 is already out if you want to test, as is a 2to3 script that identifies code that needs to be changed and can automatically convert much of it. Plus most of the new features are already supported as an option in 2.6 (and even some in 2.5) either by default or with the use of __future__.
Andrew: What you are saying is pretty much what I had been hearing.At some point, backwards compatibility = bloat. I’m not sure if you can afford bloat if you are a) a scripting language that is used as though it was a compiled language (in many applications and b) not microsoft.I’m looking forward to 3. I have very little invested in pre-3, and I’m a complete dilettante when it comes to programming. To me, breaking the language means making it lose it’s charm and utility.I don’t think there is a problem with keeping 2.6 (say) installed along side 3.0. It just makes the name of the language longer, and people should be used to that already (invoking Python2.4 vs Python2.6)Anyway, it is interesting, and I’m writing a post about it.G