I found a hilarious Southpark clip on YouTube titled as “South Park Mac vs. PC vs. Linux”. Check it out, it’s very funny It’s an argument between Mac, PC and Linux in SouthPark character style about who is “better” amongst them

The ready version of Ubuntu 9.04 aka “Jaunty Jackalope” is set to release tomorrow. The release candidate (preferred by testers only), is available for download on the Ubuntu website. I’ve been a Ubuntu user since the release of Gutsy Gibbon and have been quite impressed with the constant development efforts put into by the Open Source community. The most recent version of Ubuntu, Intrepid Ibex was a disappointment for me the OS failed to startup the desktop even after fresh installations, but i am expecting the new version to work *fingers crossed*

Lets check out what the users can expect with Jaunty Jackalope:

GNOME 2.26

Ubuntu 9.04 RC includes the latest GNOME 2.26 desktop environment with a number of great new features, including:

• brasero, version 2.26.0, developed by Philippe Rouquier and Luis Medinas, as an all-in-one CD burning application. Brasero is now the default disc burning utility in Nautilus.

• Improved handling of multiple monitors with an updated gnome-display-properties by Federico Mena Quintero.

X.Org server 1.6

The latest X.Org server, version 1.6, is available in Jaunty. The latest Mesa 3D DRI, version 7.4, is also available. A number of video cards have been transitioned to free drivers as part of these updates.

The -ati driver has received numerous fixes and performance improvements. It now uses the EXA acceleration method by default. 2D acceleration support for the newest R6xx/R7xx family of cards is also available. 3D support is available up to R5xx cards for -ati. An updated -fglrx proprietary driver is available for R6xx/R7xx users who need 3D support.

The -intel driver now uses GEM for memory management. The new UXA acceleration architecture and DRI2 is available as an option.

Wacom tablet hotplugging

Wacom tablets now are enabled automatically when attached, no longer requiring xorg.conf modification. Button mapping configuration is not yet supported, but can be set manually by adding an fdi file to /etc/ha/fdi/policy/.

New style for notifications and notification preferences

Included in Jaunty is a simple menu which can be used to set preferences for notification icons, such as where they pop up on the taskbar. Ubuntu 9.04 beta also includes a whole new notification system, as shown in the Flash movie here: link

Boot performance

A number of improvements to the Ubuntu start-up process bring significantly improved boot performance to Ubuntu 9.04 RC. Please open bugs if you experience any degradation, and tag them with boot-performance.
Linux kernel 2.6.28

Ubuntu 9.04 RC includes the 2.6.28-11.37 kernel based on 2.6.28.8.

Ext4 filesystem support

Ubuntu 9.04 RC supports the option of installing the new ext4 file system. ext3 will remain the default filesystem for Jaunty, and we will consider ext4 as the default for the next release based on user feedback. There has been extensive discussion about the reliability of applications running on ext4 in the face of sudden system outages. Applications that use the conventional approach of writing data to a temporary file and renaming it to its final location will have their reliability expectations met in Ubuntu 9.04 beta; further discussion is ongoing in the kernel community.

Ext4 support in GRUB was provided by Colin King. If you choose to upgrade your / or /boot filesystem in place from ext2 or ext3 to ext4 (as documented on the ext4 wiki), then you must also use the grub-install command after upgrading to Ubuntu 9.04 RC to reinstall your boot loader. If you do not do this, then the version of GRUB installed in your boot sector will not be able to read the kernel from the ext4 filesystem and your system will fail to boot.

Ext4 support in gparted has been provided by Curtis Gedak.

Cloud computing

Ubuntu 9.04 Server Edition makes it easy to experiment with cloud computing. Eucalyptus, an open source technology which is included in Ubuntu as a technology preview, enables you to use your own servers to deploy, experiment and test your own private cloud that matches the Amazon EC2 API. You can dynamically create virtual machines, configure multiple clusters into a single Cloud and even provide an EBS (elastic block storage) equivalent and an S3 compatible storage manager.

Turn-key mail servers

The dovecot-postfix package in Ubuntu 9.04 RC provides an easy-to-deploy mail server stack, with support for SMTP, POP3, and IMAP with TLS and SASL.

dovecot-postfix was packaged by Ante Karamatić.

Larry Dignan writes,

Oracle said Monday that it will buy Sun Microsystems for $9.50 a share in cash, or about $5.6 billion excluding debt, in a deal that plunges Larry Ellison & Co. into the hardware market. The company added that the acquisition of Java “is the most important software Oracle has ever acquired.”

Sun Chairman Scott McNealy (left) with Oracle chief Larry Ellison

With the move- valued at $7.4 billion including Sun’s debt – Oracle also becomes a full-fledged hardware player. Oracle has been dabbling with the storage appliance with HP, but the acquisition of Sun puts the company in an entirely different realm. Oracle and Sun have been long-time partners.

On a conference call with analysts, Ellison said that Oracle’s acquisitions to date have been market leaders – PeopleSoft, Hyperion and Siebel. With Sun, Oracle said Java and Solaris are the keepers in the deal.

“More Oracle databases run on the Solaris Sparc than any other system,” said Ellison, noting Linux was second. “We’ll engineer the Oracle database and Solaris operating system together. With Sun we can make all components of the IT stack integrated and work well.”

Regarding Java, Ellison said it wanted Sun so it could own the building blocks for its middleware. Oracle’s middleware is built on Java and the applications giant said it will continue to invest in the software.

Ellison said in a statement:

“The acquisition of Sun transforms the IT industry, combining best-in-class enterprise software and mission-critical computing systems. Oracle will be the only company that can engineer an integrated system – applications to disk – where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves. Our customers benefit as their systems integration costs go down while system performance, reliability and security go up.”

That pitch sort of sounds like Apple’s approach on the consumer side. Apple’s strategy is to integrate hardware and software to make things easy. Oracle with Sun appears to be the Apple of the enterprise. Indeed, Oracle President Charles Phillips noted that the company is looking to offer everything from apps to the disk.

The data center gets (more) interesting

It’s clear that Oracle is targeting the next generation data center—as is the rest of the industry. Here’s the list of tech titans looking to remake the data center:

• IBM;
• HP;
• Cisco;
• Dell;
• Oracle;
• And a bevy of other players—Juniper, EMC, VMware—from various angles.

The technical side of this Oracle-Sun deal also is notable. Oracle’s stack of IT stuff now includes:

• Java;
• Solaris;
• Enterprise applications ranging from CRM to ERP to business intelligence;
• The database (Oracle and MySQL);
• The middleware;
• The storage hardware;
• Cloud computing services;
• And servers.

Oracle’s initial game plan is to focus on existing joint customers. That base represents a large data center pie. My hunch is that Ellison saw the possibilities of integrating hardware and software with Oracle’s Exadata database machine. Ellison boasted that the Exadata machine has seen strong demand on Oracle’s earnings conference call.

In the end, Oracle’s acquisition of Sun won’t change the company’s overall game plan: Offer the customer a lot of product—apps, languages, middleware, databases—lock that enterprise in and collect the dough.
The art of war

So what does Oracle really want with Sun?

If you subscribe to the art of war approach to the tech sector, Ellison’s move to buy Sun makes a lot of sense. To wit:

• Oracle gets to annoy IBM—and own Java—over a few pennies a share more than Big Blue was willing to pay.

• Oracle gets to kill MySQL. There’s no way Ellison will let that open source database mess with the margins of his database. MySQL at best will wither from neglect. In any case, MySQL is MyToast.

• Sun has a big installed base. All the better to upsell applications into.

• Oracle’s database runs on Solaris systems. Oracle fine tunes the systems, charges a premium and ditches the low-margin hardware.

• And speaking of hardware. Sun’s manufacturing is outsourced so there isn’t a lot of baggage—real estate, equipment and labor—to worry about. If Oracle decides to milk then wind down the hardware business it’s relatively easy.

And Sun was relatively cheap compared to Oracle’s other acquisitions. The price was above the Hyperion buyout but below PeopleSoft and Siebel.

Making Sun more efficient

As with Oracle’s other acquisitions, Ellison plans to make its target more efficient and squeeze better profits. Oracle said the Sun deal will add at least 15 cents a share in non-GAAP earnings in the first year of the deal closing. That equates to $1.5 billion in Oracle’s non-GAAP earnings. Oracle president Safra Catz said the Sun deal will “be more profitable in per share contribution in the first year than we had planned for the acquisitions of BEA, PeopleSoft and Siebel combined.”

Catz said Oracle will fund the Sun purchase with a mix of cash and debt. Catz added that Oracle will “run Sun at substantially higher margins.”

That statement is pretty heady given that Sun is losing money

For Sun, Oracle provides an exit from troubled negotiations with IBM. Big Blue was interested in Sun but bailed when the two sides couldn’t agree on price. Oracle stepped up and was willing to pay the $9.50 a share Sun wanted. Meanwhile, regulatory concerns won’t be much of an issue since Oracle hasn’t been a hardware player—until now.

In addition, Oracle saves Sun management from what could have been a complete debacle following the IBM takeover talks. The Sun board had been split on the IBM deal. Today, it’s all roses. Sun Chairman Scott McNealy said the Oracle-Sun marriage was a “natural evolution” and noted he was “thrilled” about the deal. Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz added that the Oracle takeover will advance innovation in the marketplace.

It’s needless to say, but Sun’s board approved the Oracle purchase unanimously. The deal is expected to close in the summer.

Source: Zdnet Blogs