LINUX MAGAZINESLINUX MAGAZINES: Open Source News, Articles and Reviews

As we started the project of the electronic auction PoloMercantil.com, we knew that the proprietary software costs would be too high for our financial resources. Our only option then was to make use of Open Source Code softwares.

However, within the Open Source Code there are lots of softwares to choose from, and it´s up to the system analyst/programmer to pick the ones that best suit the project goals.

In our case, we picked Linux as our operating system. However we faced a big question: Which Linux distribution ? There are dozens of linux distributions, each one with specific advantages, sometimes with or without paid services.

We chose linux Slackware because we thought that it would suit better our needs, in terms of stability and reliability. Slackware is a conservative distribution, meaning that it only offers in its distribution package kernel versions and third party libraries, once it´s been proved to be stable and reliable. As a result, Slackware is one the most stable Linux operating system on the market. If the user wishes the most recent Linux kernel and libraries, we recommend to look for a different distribution.

Another reason for us picking Slackware, was because of its text interface, which at the beginning may become a bit difficult, in the long run however it offers a better understanding of the Linux environment. This way most of Slackware configurations are done thru text scripts.

Once it was set the operating system, we picked Apache as our web server. Apache is one of the most popular web server in the internet. For server programming language, we chose PHP. Also, a very popular programming language. Our experience with Apache/PHP proves that this setup is very reliable, working extremely well in our production environment. For workstation programming language, we chose javascript, which besides of having a simple syntax, it offers lots of resources.

Apache web server is really a complete web server. Also, it can become very complex with many configuration setups.

For our database, we picked Postgresql. This database has been made available to the public for more than 15 years, and besides of being well debugged, it offers so many resources that it has become one of the best database options from Open Source Code softwares. Extremely reliable, Postgresql has reported cases where there have been databases in production with over 4 terabytes. Besides all of that, Postresql is not the most popular Open Source Code database. A matter of marketing ? Probably.

As for the programming language PHP, we had to use an object oriented application structure. There are many PHP application structures being offered with Open Source Code license. Object oriented application is very important, because it makes programming very easy and scalable up to the point where the system may grow without many problems. Also, it helps to keep PHP code separated from HTML, with the help of some specific libraries, such as Smarty. We make use of Smarty library and we believe that it is a very important resource, which can even make web pages faster thru the use of its cache functions.

Also a very important set of libraries worth mentioning for PHP systems, is the PEAR libraries. In PEAR web site, among the many libraries being offered, there are the database interface DB and the MAIL_QUEUE, which sends emails thru the use of database.

As we came to the end of the project PoloMercantil, we had to use some sort of real time database replication. For that we chose the DRBD and Heartbeat libraries. The use of database replication is very important and should not be postponed. Just after 3 months our system got into production, our server hard disk became bad. Thru the use of DRBD/Heartbeat we were able to put the system back into production within seconds, without loosing any data. DRBD/Heartbeat replication is done thru the use of a lan network between the server and slave nodes.

Our project also makes use of ImageMagick (enlarge and reduce images), Iptables (firewall), Tsearch2(text search in portgresql) and Mon (linux monitoring tasks).

Also a very important library worth mentioning is the pseudo APC compiler for PHP. Speed is always a critical factor for internet sites.

PoloMercantil is already in production and based upon our experience we can say that the Open Source Code softwares we picked, proved to be extremely reliable and stable. Open Source Code softwares can certainly be an excellent option for developing web sites.

Roberto Sedycias

IT Consultant for PoloMercantil

This article is under GNU FDL license and can be distributed without any previous authorization from the author. However the author´s name and all the URL´s (links) mentioned in the article & biography must be kept.

The open source symposium was held at Taj Residency, Bangalore on 17th and 18th October, 2006. The event was conducted by Red Hat, sponsored by AMD and the research data was based on IDC’s research and surveys. The speakers talked about the trends in the industry, the business and revenue model of Red Hat, how open source can be applied to architecture, software, middleware and hardware.

Right now the open source developer participation from APAC region and India in specific is miniscule. They spread some awareness about Red Hat open source platform and threw some light on how to participate in the open source community and how we all can benefit from this model.

According to IDC’s recent research, enterprise adoption of open source has grown manifold; companies worldwide are increasing investment in open source technologies. Today enterprises have started benefiting from the quality, license cost savings and flexibility of open source. Beyond profit margin of open source adoption, there was also discussion about backing open standards, contributions for open source community.

Some of the interesting topics are given in detail below:

The Power of Choice: Open Source Architecture

The long term vision of Open Source Architecture is built on open standards and interoperability. The Open Source architecture delivers a suite of standards based technologies and services, allowing open source and traditional software applications to be co-existed and can be deployed on reliable, secure, scalable and highly performing platforms. To the enterprise, it is the power to assemble and dissemble the architecture, software, middleware, hardware and applications that fulfill the goals of the business.

Open Source Software (OSS):

With OSS, the code is protected by a special license GNU General Public License (GPL) that ensures everyone has access to code. That means no one company can fully own it. You can see the code, change it and learn from it. Bugs are more quickly found and fixed. And when customers don’t like how one vendor is serving them, they can choose another without overhauling their infrastructure. No more technology lock-in. No more monopolies.

The marriage between SOA (Service oriented architecture or software as a service) and OSS though not revolutionary because of the weight of the IT legacy, is surely evolving gradually. The CEO’s and CIO’s are not happy with the vendor lock-in and the tight integration of their architecture and the prize they pay. This problem is very well addressed by SOA and OSS.
The second day was Red Hat Developer Day; it was aimed to bring together Linux developers and users to help grow open source technologies. Red Hat provides a platform for improving development, techniques, tools and standards through the sharing of technical knowledge and expertise. These efforts are to encourage open source development in India. Red Hat is initiating the Red Hat Developer Program, a community development program in India through Red Hat 108. Red Hat 108 is a community of and for open source developers.
The other topics covered are:-
Virtualization:
Virtualization means the operating system is isolated from the hardware it’s running on. Several operating systems can run on one machine, and different workloads can be easily combined and moved. With virtualization, you can:
Move workloads from server to server.
Change hardware without retesting software
Allows isolation of failures and control access to data.
Manipulate to maximize processing power and capacity
Have a safe, secure space for testing.
Virtualization technology can help lower costs by optimizing and increasing utilization of computing systems. They declined to comment about the licensing of the operating system. They can charge per operating system (if 3 operating system instances are run on one machine, they can charge for 3 licenses) or per hardware (this is independent of how many operating system you have installed in a pc).

Red Hat’s acquisition of JBoss:

This move is strategically poised to improve the presence of Red Hat in the middleware. They wanted to deliver a full server application stack. JBoss provides a very rich set of applications, J2EE server, portal, development IDE, transaction management etc. This gives Red Hat a middleware stack that beats their competition by thousands of dollars. JBoss makes more sense here and it will become their de facto application server. They will be able to do some really tight integration and give their customers an out-of-the-box J2EE solution that should perform really well. It is still not known whether JBoss will be bundled with Red Hat as of now.

SystemTap

SystemTap, a Red Hat utility allows developers and administrators to write scripts for deep examinations of Dynamic Linux Kernel activities. Data may be filtered, extracted, and summarized quickly to enable diagnoses of complex problems.

JBoss Operations Network (JBoss ON)
JBoss ON is a console based advanced management platform for inventorying, administering, monitoring, and updating JEMS applications. Jboss ON is an agent-based platform that is deployed locally.

The most important JBoss ON Modules are:

Inventory, allows you to catalog IT assets spanning platforms (Linux, HP/UX, Solaris, Windows, AIX), servers (Apache Web Server, Apache Tomcat, JBoss AS), and services (EJB, Message Driven Beans, data sources). Assets can be added manually or auto-discovered providing enhanced visibility over your critical business applications including their versions and dependencies.

Administration provides a single location for performing key control functions such as start, stop, and re-start across the entire JEMS platform. Administration functions can be applied to a single application or across an enterprise cluster. Operations can also be scheduled for later dates, on-demand or on a recurring basis. This module also allows you to roll-back to previous versions if necessary.

Monitoring provides extensive monitoring capabilities for the JEMS platform along with supporting components such as operating systems (Windows, Linux, and UNIX), Apache Tomcat, Apache Web Server and any JEMS-based applications. The Monitoring Module continuously builds and updates a model of behavior of every measurement being collected. This allows you to define alerts relevant to the actual behavior of your infrastructure. Baselines are also utilized to identify out of band problems. This allows you to quickly identify resources within your infrastructure that require attention as well as get a historical view of what was happening at the time of the fault.

JBoss portal:

JBoss Portal has a business friendly open source license that makes it free to download, use, embed, and distribute. JBoss Portal provides a framework for centralized and secure access to applications and information, which fosters collaboration, streamlines business processes, and reduces costs. Since JBoss Portal is based on open standards, it can incorporate components into the Portal as standardized and reusable Portlets.

The symposium also included topics about Red Hat Road Map, Lowering TCO and Increasing ROI with JEMS (JBoss Enterprise Management Suite), Security and ID Management, Red Hat Cluster Suite and Red Hat Global File System.

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Tips For Converting Windows User to Linux

A survey reveals that many businesses, governmental agencies, educational institutions and other big organizations are switching over to Linux. What could be the cause of converting Windows user to Linux? These organizations are also switching over to free software for their application programs from the traditional commercial software. Here are some of the plausible reasons for this conversion at such a fast pace.

The foremost reason could be that Linux is available under a free software license and that it is available free of cost. One can easily download it from the Internet and that too for free. Moreover, one can also buy at minimal cost in the form of a disk or box. Another good thing about this operating system is that you can use one copy on as many computers, without any limitation. On other hand Microsoft Windows comes at a good sum of money.

Secondly, Linux is built from open source and free software, which gives its user the freedom to modify it. Even the source can be modified in any way. This again is in contrast with Microsoft Windows that does not permit for the modification of the software. Many organizations prefer Linux because of the freedom given to modify the source code without revealing it to any outsider.

Thirdly, you can easily find high quality support for this operating system on the Internet – for free! Many newsgroups and other forums provide this help. And for commercial needs, you can purchase Linux support at reasonable rates. With this operating system you do not need patches to cope with security threats or to fix bugs

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Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system that is based on the Linux Kernel. Linus Torvalds is the official founder of this operating system; however, a lot has gone into its making. The records reveal that Windows dominates the personal computer market with 90 percent of the share, the server market with 66 percent of the share. Also, Linux is recorded to have powered 85 percent of the globe’s most powerful supercomputers, where the figure has reached just 1.4 percent for Windows. Here is a brief introduction to this mystic operating system called Linux.

The name of this operating has been derived from the Linux kernel, which Linus Torvalds wrote in 1991. The GNU operating systems, originated by Richard Stallman in 1983, is the basis of the rest of the system, comprising libraries and utilities. The GNU contribution also forms the basis for GNU/Linux that is the preferred name of the Free Software Foundation. Recently enough, because of the emergence of the netbooks and the Ubuntu distribution, Linux is being installed on both desktops and laptops. Otherwise, it is used for servers, computer hardware, embedded devices, mobile phones and supercomputers.

The basic design of the Linux operating system is derived mainly from the principles established in Unix, back in the 1970s and 1980s. It uses a monolithic kernel known as the Linux kernel that is responsible for handling control, file system access, peripheral and networking. Additional device drivers are incorporated with these kernels. The higher-lever functionalities of the system are catered by separate projects that interface with the kernel.

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Gadgets Mantra- All new gadgets, cool internet stuff and computer solutions -Computer

A Linux distribution is also known as the GNU/Linux distribution by some. It is basically a family member of the Unix-like software distributions and these distributions are called “distros”. Linux kernel lies as the basis of these distributions. They contain a number of software applications comprising database applications, media players, spreadsheets and word processors. The Linux operating system consists of the Linux kernel along with a set of utilities and libraries from the GNU and the X Window System for graphic support.

Some Linux distributions may be optimized for size and may not come with X. These use compact alternatives to the GNU utilities, which may include dietlibc, uclibc or busybox. At present, there are more than 300 Linux distributions and many of them are in the active mode. This means that these distributions are being constantly studied, and revised to be improved. The Linux distributions are available in different forms because most of the kernels and supporting packages used are combination of open source and free software. They may take the form of a fully featured desktop or server operating system or can also be used in minimal environments. This is the reason why they are widely used in embedded systems and for things like booting from a floppy disk.

Actually, leaving aside the custom software aspect, the word distribution here simply means a specific assortment of some applications that are installed on top of a set of libraries, along with a version of the kernel. This is created in such a manner that the “out-of-the-box” capabilities are met with most of the requirements of its specific end-user base.

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In a never ending battle to ease costs, many hospitality providers today are looking at Linux POS solutions when they embark on their search for point of sale software and operating systems that will benefit the bottom line.  Issues such as cost and flexibility make Linux an attractive choice. However, just as many operators may be asking, “what exactly is Linux anyway?”

Linux is a free Unix-type operating system created by Linus Torvalds. Developed under the GNU General Public License , the source code is freely available to everyone.  According to IBM, Linux is currently the fastest growing server operating system.

Once businesses have decided on an operating system,  the next task is usually sourcing out a POS (point of sale) system.  At the best of times, sourcing out a POS system for your business operation can be a confusing, time consuming and arduous job.  Throw in the added obstacle of having to select point of sale software that can actually run on your operating system, and it’s easy to see why owners and managers often shy away from this difficult task.

Interest in Linux point of sale solutions has grown dramatically in the last few years.  The reason why is simple; Linux, as an operating system, is more cost effective, flexible, and allows for greater freedom of choice in software than more mainstream operating systems.  Linux is also very cost effective in regards to licensing, installation, administrative and support costs. Linux can offer all these features without sacrificing functionality.  For retailers and hospitality/restaurant operators alike, cost and ease of use are king, and reasons such as these can make the difference between a business that succeeds and a business that fails.

POS software providers have been slow, however, to jump on the Linux bandwagon.  Currently, there are few well-known or enterprise-wide POS software packages available for Linux. One company, however, has seen a niche in the market and has embraced it head on. Volanté POS Systems, of Toronto, Canada, offers a POS solution that has been developed entirely in Java.  Java is cross platform compatible and operates in multiple environments – this gives the user freedom to choose Linux, Windows 2000/XP, or Windows and Linux. For many operators, having a choice is key.

Not only does Java provide cross platform compatibility, but like Linux, using Java POS solutions can be cost effective as well, as Java allows users the opportunity to save on additional Windows license fees, as an example. Java’s open standard architecture allows the entire system to be compatible with third party industrial applications. Users are free to choose their operating environment and are not bound to costly proprietary restrictions.

Volanté also offers integration with Windows-based back office applications. This flexibility is rare in the POS industry.  For more information on Volanté’s Linux & Java POS solutions, visit their website at  www.volantesystems.com.

From a retail perspective, Linux is definitely catching on.  Burlington Coat Factory, for instance, has already rolled out Linux in all of their locations, both as a desktop and POS system.  Other retailers/restaurateurs’ currently using Linux in their stores include: Papa John’s, Garden Fresh, Mark’s Work Wearhouse, Home Depot, and Gap, to name a few.

The push for Linux isn’t just in North America, either.  Asian governments are looking closely at Linux, hoping it will lead to the development of a domestic software industry that isn’t hostage to foreign licenses.  According to Linux Insider International, “Asia is emerging as a key battleground for the open-source movement. The Japan-China-Korea (JCK) partnership, is the latest in a string of initiatives to promote Linux.”

So, when choosing an operating system and subsequent point of sale system, consider Linux. Discover for yourself why Linux is the fastest growing server operating system.

If a store opened across the street from Target, same relative inventory, same service, only difference everything was free, would Target survive?
Unlikely.
Yet in software…
“Payware” = “Freeware” (open source)
————————————–
Windows = Linux
Oracle = MySQL
MS Office = OpenOffice
Ultra Edit = PSPad
…the current reality is that payware and freeware compete in the marketplace head to head.
In fact, the “for pay” software continues to thrive in the marketplace despite free software that is in many cases just as good (some might claim better).
Why is this?
When you buy a pair of jeans at the store the total cost is paid in full at the time of the purchase. There are no additional costs involved that directly pertain to the manufacturer. Of course there is the on-going cost of maintaining the pants through washing. This is a totally different market that is wholly agnostic to the brand of jeans. In other words, Tide washes Wrangler’s the same as Levi’s.
With software the game is different. Only a small percentage of the total cost of software can be attributed to its development. Support and maintenance make up a sizeable chunk of the cost. The larger one scales the software the higher these costs go. There is no singular solution like Tide to deal with both Windows or Linux. Sure you copy files in both, and make directories, but the means of doing so is very different and not interchangeable like your detergent. My trivial example has not even exposed the tip of the iceberg!
So this leaves us with the issue of market share. When you have a commodity that requires so much additional and continuing service/support, market share becomes a very important factor.
Support and service for free software is anything but free. Microsoft loves to tell us (and rightly so) that TCO (total cost of ownership) between Windows and Linux is in the same ballpark. They even claim that Linux costs more, all factors considered. But the geeks at Redmond can’t have it both ways. Open Source software that can be obtained for free does not represent communism (Remember Mr. Balmer declaring this?). Communism to my understanding was never a sustaining and growing multi-billion dollar business.
If we look back as to how Microsoft dominated the market we tend to forget some key points.
* The mainframe market viewed Microsoft as a passing fad.
[The CEO of DEC wondered why in the world anyone would every want to own a computer.]
*Microsoft was the only real game in town when it came to PC operating systems.
[Any attempts by others (DR Dos, OS2) were summarily squashed.]
*Microsoft gave away IE in order to squash then leader Netscape.
[Who?]
*Microsoft sold early versions of Office for $99.00 to gain market share.
[Other players at the time were selling there office suites for 3+ times that amount. Microsoft bought market share by thinking long term. After all, changing your word processor and spreadsheet are a bit dicier than changing your undies. Also, think of all of us who make a living off these products.]
While many software vendors have come and gone, it is the open source, “here it is for free” Cowboys and Cowgirls that are here to stay and threaten the very world of “for pay” software. But what the hey, we developers are typically more enthralled by creating things than making money. I know of no other profession on the planet where not taking and reusing other peoples work is considered the sane way of doing ones job. I believe in journalism they call it plagiarism?

PHP-Nuke, PHP PostNuke, TikiWiki, Xoops, b2evo—you can find them everywhere in the web. These are all the open source software solution used in various areas of web applications. These are most of the time free applications released under special licensing terms. This allows the coding to be shared by all and edited to suit the unique needs of the user.

What is the secret behind this immense popularity of all these software? The use of open source software has some practical benefits. Let us discuss about them in details.

You get the core framework for free

For a start up company, budget is a major factor. You can save on your initial investment cost by adopting open source software which comes free of cost.

Modification benefits

With Open Source software, the code is openly available and that enables the users to fine tune the codes to suit their needs. It also contributes to the improvement of a software product by making it adaptable to changing conditions, fixing of bugs, security problems and so on.

Excellent support base free of cost

With open source software you are not tied to a single company or do not need to fall back upon it for fixing all your application related problems. This dependence proves to be very expensive. But with open source software, you get the support of the entire support community on which these applications grow and thrive.

Forking leading to a new product

The open source software keep open the possibility of forking when the existing code base does not work thus leading to the creation of a new software altogether.

The entire online community is indebted to the various open source software for what they have contributed to transform internet into a vast collaborative community that it is today. With an array of open source software, you may conclude that the days of commercial software are numbered. But it requires time for their installation, implementation and trouble shooting. If you lack the time then you have two options—go for the expensive commercial software or hire an efficient and renowned web host who will tackle these problems for you. The second option is definitely better.