On Monday, I comment on reports of Lenovo dropping support for Linux.
System Administrators Toolkit: Monitoring a slow system
When your Unix/Linux system starts going slowly, you need to find out why, and quickly, what is going on. That’s the focus of my new SAT piece: Monitoring a slow system.
From the intro:
When your UNIX system runs slow, it is vital that you discover what the problem is as quickly as possible so you can get your system back into the normal operating mode. There are many causes for a slow system, but actually identifying the problem can be exceedingly difficult. In this article, study examples of how to identify and diagnose the cause of your slow running UNIX system to get your machine running properly again.
Read the full article.
RoHS Compliance Program
I like to think that I keep up the current news and trends, but just sometimes I come across something that I'm sure I should have noticed.
This week, that was the RoHS Compliance Program. The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive comes from the European Union and, to quote the site:
“Member States shall ensure that, from 1 July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).”Basically, it's an attempt to clean up a business which is very damaging to the environment. Silican chip production is a toxic process, which they are trying to offset by removing other nasty chemicals and compounds from the manufacturing process.
RoHS Compliance Program
I like to think that I keep up the current news and trends, but just sometimes I come across something that I'm sure I should have noticed.
This week, that was the RoHS Compliance Program. The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive comes from the European Union and, to quote the site:
“Member States shall ensure that, from 1 July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).”Basically, it's an attempt to clean up a business which is very damaging to the environment. Silican chip production is a toxic process, which they are trying to offset by removing other nasty chemicals and compounds from the manufacturing process.
RoHS Compliance Program
I like to think that I keep up the current news and trends, but just sometimes I come across something that I'm sure I should have noticed.
This week, that was the RoHS Compliance Program. The RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive comes from the European Union and, to quite the site:
“Member States shall ensure that, from 1 July 2006, new electrical and electronic equipment put on the market does not contain lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE).â€
Dell: Solaris not a standard
Judy Chavis has stated that Dell won’t look at supporting, or providing, Solaris on their equipment until Solaris becomes the next industry standard OS - I quote from here:
“Is it the next industry standard around operating systems? That’s what it would take for us to do that,” she said. So far, the answer is a definitive no. “Since the year started, I haven’t had a Solaris x86 customer come into the briefing center,” Chavis said.
Solaris may not be the next industry standard around operating systems, but it’s hardly a small player in the market. I’d very surprised if Dell don’t have to compete head on with Solaris in the datacenter, whether you are comparing Linux on both platforms (and I include Sun’s AMD platforms in that comparison).
Ironically, the article goes on to say:
Dell evaluated Unix years ago, including Solaris, but eventually chose to stick with Linux.
Dell, however, have hardly made their love of Linux hugely public. For months, possibly years, after their decision getting Linux for your Dell was hard. Getting Linux on your desktop on Dell can be even harder.
Still, the real issue is how seriously companies are willing to take Solaris. It’s still popular in the datacenter, albeit on SPARC or dedicated Sun x86/AMD hardware. Although Solaris x86 - almost dumped by Sun - is proving to be very popular, especially with the release of OpenSolaris.
Solaris is obviously not a standard, but as I’ve argued before, Solaris has a lot more standardization, and for a lot longer, than Linux.
Standardization or not, it seems odd that Dell do not wish to support an OS that would enable them to compete on at least similar terms with Sun’s own hardware, although Dell don’t yet like AMD.
Macs at work
One of the complaints often levelled at Apple's and Mac OS X is that they cannot be used for a variety of business.
Some of this is historical - for years Apple's were seen as the only choice for publishing and graphic design. Unfortunately they were accused of only being capable of doing these tasks.
As a user of Macs for the last 16 years, I can tell you that there are few things they are not capable of. I was IT administrator for an advertising agency and for years we survived without ever needing Windows. We handled all our communication, email, accounts and project management.
Macs at work
One of the complaints often levelled at Apple's and Mac OS X is that they cannot be used for a variety of business.
Some of this is historical - for years Apple's were seen as the only choice for publishing and graphic design. Unfortunately they were accused of only being capable of doing these tasks.
As a user of Macs for the last 16 years, I can tell you that there are few things they are not capable of. I was IT administrator for an advertising agency and for years we survived without ever needing Windows. We handled all our communication, email, accounts and project management.
Macs at work
One of the complaints often levelled at Apple's and Mac OS X is that they cannot be used for a variety of business.
Some of this is historical - for years Apple's were seen as the only choice for publishing and graphic design. Unfortunately they were accused of only being capable of doing these tasks.
As a user of Macs for the last 16 years, I can tell you that there are few things they are not capable of. I was IT administrator for an advertising agency and for years we survived without ever needing Windows. We handled all our communication, email, accounts and project management.
How Apple has developed a website designed to highlight exactly what Mac OS X is capable of, and where it is and can be used. Called Mac at Work it contains examples, online seminars and information on applications and environments where Macs can be just as capable a solution as any other alternative.
Chinese government wants Linux-compatible computers
The Chinese government has decreed that they want Linux compatible computers. That's a fairly strong sign that the Chinese want to embrace open source software. Behind the headline though is an interesting snippet:
Thirty-three desktop models from hardware vendors including Acer, Asustek, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard Taiwan, were certified Linux-compatible, while four models each from Gigabyte Technology and Synnex Technology International were still under evaluation, according to the newspaper report.There are some interesting missing names there, and the names which are there focus on the big far-east companies (Acer, Asustek, Gigabyte).