nixCraft Linux Sys Admin Blog

Red Hat Skips Linux Desktop - As It Is Not A Money Maker

Posted: 17 Apr 2008 01:52 PM CDT

Red Hat has no plans to create a traditional Linux desktop software for the end user market, but will continue to place its bets on a desktop for commercial markets as it is not making money from them. From the press release:

An explanation: as a public, for-profit company, Red Hat must create products and technologies with an eye on the bottom line, and with desktops this is much harder to do than with servers. The desktop market suffers from having one dominant vendor, and some people still perceive that todayâ€™s Linux desktops simply donâ€™t provide a practical alternative. Of course, a growing number of technically savvy users and companies have discovered that todayâ€™s Linux desktop is indeed a practical alternative. Nevertheless, building a sustainable business around the Linux desktop is tough, and history is littered with example efforts that have either failed outright, are stalled or are run as charities. But thereâ€™s good news too. Technical developments that have become available over the past year or two are accelerating the spread of the Linux Desktop.

Now I'm just wondering where this leaves Fedora Desktop in the long term? Ubuntu Linux seems to doing well and it is going to lead Linux Desktop market along with other distros. Linux is also getting installed on mobile and many tiny devices.

Whatâ€™s Going On With Red Hat Desktop Systems? An Update

Download of the day: Linux Kernel 2.6.25

Posted: 17 Apr 2008 12:36 PM CDT

Linux kernel 2.6.25 has been released and available for download from the official website. After nearly three months of development and the merging of over 12,000 patches from almost 1200 developers, this kernel is now considered ready for wider use. Highlights of this release include the ath5k (Atheros wireless) driver, a bunch of realtime work including realtime group scheduling, preemptable RCU, LatencyTop support, a number of new ext4 filesystem features, support for the controller area network protocol, more network namespace work and much more. LWN has more information.

Ubuntu Linux Getting Ready For Average User

Posted: 17 Apr 2008 12:25 PM CDT

The latest beta of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution offers updated features and good support for new Linux user. It appears that Ubuntu is getting ready for masses. From the article:

If there is a single complaint that is laid at the feet of Linux time and time again, it's that the operating system is too complicated and arcane for casual computer users to tolerate. You can't ask newbies to install device drivers or recompile the kernel, naysayers argue.

Of course, many of those criticisms date back to the bad old days, but Ubuntu, the user-friendly distribution sponsored by Mark Shuttleworth's Canonical Ltd., has made a mission out of dispelling such complaints entirely.