A recent whitepaper from the Linux Foundation called Linux Kernel Development: How Fast it is Going Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It reveals the state of the Linux kernel. Some snippets:

"The kernel which forms the core of the Linux system is the result of one of the largest cooperative software projects ever attempted. Regular 2-­3 month releases deliver stable updates to Linux users, each with significant new features, added device support, and improved performance. The rate of change in the kernel is high and increasing, with approximately 10,000 patches going into each recent kernel release. These releases each contain the work of over 1000 developers representing around 200 corporations.
    Since 2005, over 6100 individual developers from over 600 different companies have contributed to the kernel. The Linux kernel, thus, has become a common resource developed on a massive scale by companies which are fierce competitors in other areas."

"...there have been 1.5 million lines of code added to the kernel since the 2009 update. Since the last paper, additions and changes translate to an amazing 9,058 lines added, 4,495 lines removed, and 1,978 lines changed every day -­ weekends and holidays included."

According to UK site The Register:

"In the past 20 years Linux has moved from Linus Torvalds' personal hobby to an industry-dominating force, reshaping the server, embedded, and mobile markets. Linux's growth wasn't fueled on the fumes of peace, love, and late-night pizza orders. It has been driven by the collective efforts of many corporations, each intending to bludgeon each other by co-creating a rock-solid operating system.
    No matter the diversity of the companies involved, from IBM to Wind River to AMD to Qlogic, the purpose was largely the same: to create an open-source complement to drive paid product offerings. Indeed, this collaborative development effort was largely possible because product value shifted up the stack, away from the operating system and into middleware, databases, applications, and more."

And according to this blogger who's been analysing industry figures, Linux may actually have as much as 13% of PC market:

"... Apple states unit shipments in it filings with the SEC. 4.143 million Mac shipments per quarter. The world is shipping 90 million personal computers in a quarter. That comes to 4.6% while NetApplications claims 5.25%. Similarly Forbes claims M$ has only a 72% attach rate these days. That leaves 13% for GNU/Linux."

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:03 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 2 )

It's deja vu all over again. Telecom convicted of anti-competitive behaviour. Who'd've guessed? Well me for a start.

For those with short memories, a little history:

* June 2010 - 1300 broadband customers to get refunds following Commerce Commission investigation.

* January 2010 - Telecom admits breaching Fair Trading Act - pays back $9.5m to customers. "In a settlement with the Commerce Commission, Telecom New Zealand Limited and Xtra Limited (Telecom) has admitted breaching the Fair Trading Act by misleading more than 130,000 broadband customers."

* February 2008 Telecom to be prosecuted over Go Large promotion. (Remember that campaign? They promised "unlimited data usage and all the internet you can handle" and "maximum speed internet". Yeah, right!)

* September 2007 - The Commerce Commission's quarterly Telecommunications Key Statistics showed Telecom's Go Prepaid Mates' Rates mobile package was 198% more expensive than the OECD average price.

You see the common thread here? The Commerce Commission can't actually prevent monopolists from rorting competitors and the public, but they can seek redress when they do. That's what the latest $12 million fine is all about. But under the government's proposed Ultra-Fast Broadband (UFB) plan, the Commerce Commission will be locked out from making recommendations about the pricing of and access to UFB services until the end 2019. So we give them $1.5 billion of taxpayers' money to set this up, and they can charge us whatever they like without regulatory oversight. Great!

That's just one disturbing aspect of this ridiculous plan. You'll find more in my column in the May print issue of PC World.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 12:48 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

I recently added Lubuntu to my Asus Eee 1005PE netbook. It's an excellent, lightweight distribution but, like practically all the other Linux distros I've tried on the Asus, the backlight control is flaky. Adjusting brightness via the keyboard's Fn+F5/F6 keys works, but in a non-linear fashion, and I could never seem to set it to maximum brightness unless it was plugged in.

This is a pretty common problem with netbooks, but it occurs to me the solution isn't well known. Here's the fix:

1. As root, edit /etc/default/grub and find the line begining GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=

2. Add the commands acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor to the end of this line and save the file.

Before:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"

After:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash acpi_osi=Linux acpi_backlight=vendor"

3. Run the command update-grub to rebuild the boot configuration.

4. Reboot. You should find you keyboard backlight controls work smoothly!


What it's doing

According to the Linux kernel parameters documentation:

acpi_osi=Linux
Tells the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) that the Operating System Interface (OSI) is Linux.

acpi_backlight=vendor
Tells the system to use the vendor-specific driver for the backlight instead of the system's default driver.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 7:06 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 0 )

There's plenty of good stuff available from PPAs, and they're easy to incorporate into your regular updates. PPAs, or Personal Package Archives, may simply be one-off applications that haven't (yet) made it into the official distribution, or whole suites of software such as KDE 4.6 that come out after the official six-monthly distro release cycle.

(A word of caution: some PPAs may be 'bleeding edge'. If you're leery of this, stick with the official distribution.)

Ubuntu have a great guide to the whole repository schtick, but if you're in a hurry there's really only one command to remember ...

sudo add-apt-repository

Tack the repository name to the end and you're done. For KDE 4.6 for example, we're told to use the Kubuntu Backports which is listed as "ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports", so ...

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kubuntu-ppa/backports

... will set up the PPA and fetch its key to verify the software hasn't been tampered with since it was built. Then it's just a matter of ...

sudo apt-get update

... to update your package repository, followed by ...

sudo apt-get upgrade

... in the case of something like KDE 4.6, or simply ...

sudo apt-get install package_name

... in the case of a non-distro package.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 10:34 PM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )

Windows users are being warned to be on the lookout for a new virus sweeping through all variants of the operating system. "This one's big," a Microsoft spokesman advised early this morning. "It affects Windows 7, Vista, XP and all Server editions."

Known as RioPalof-2011, the virus is believed to affect a section of the operating system's Hypervisor known as the System Obstruction Layer - a management control routine concerned with CPU governance. According to researchers at Symantec Antivirus, the entire SOL just gets "blown away".

The results have been frightening.

"I usually switch on in the mornings, make a coffee, chat with workmates and read the paper while my computer boots," a user identified as AF told one of the many online support groups already srpinging up, "but today it was just ... there. Oh man, I'm going to have to do some work now."

Commented another: "It's like my PC was suddenly running Linux or something."

It's not just the threat to productivity that's disturbing. Even old machines are vulnerable. PC resellers across the States have suffered a marked a drop in sales as a result of the virus. "This is a disaster," commented one. "The economy's already in a tailspin and sales are down. The last thing we need is consumers discovering Windows 98 machines are still usable."

Microsoft have yet to officially comment on the virus alert other than hinting that this month's Patch Tuesday might become Patch Monday Evening, Latish.

Posted by Geoff Palmer at 9:29 AM | Permalink | Comments ( 3 )