Linux Becoming Mainstream?
Posted on May 9, 2008
Filed Under Business Computing, Internet, Open Source/Freeware, Software | Leave a Comment
Pre-installed Linux has been available on servers for some time now but for the first time ever, a major manufacturer will be offering Linux pre-installed on consumer products. Dell announced late in March that it would be offering Ubuntu Linux 7.04, codenamed ‘Feisty Fawn’, on selected desktops and notebooks.
You can love or hate Dell but there’s little denying that it is a major player in the PC market. Dell shipped 8.7 million PCs in the first quarter of this year, a 7.8% decrease from 2006, and it is only overshadowed by HP who saw a 28% increase in the number of PCs shipped. Acer saw an incredible 46% increase in PCs shipped and there’s no doubt some of that gain was at Dell’s expense.
Dell has been getting beaten up and this move is seen by analysts as a way for Dell to demonstrate that it is still an innovator.
For an innovative standpoint, Dell is the only major manufacturer to sell directly to consumers, bypassing the reseller channel altogether. Dell was founded on the model and continues to sway toward direct sales. Dell does sell some products for resale but I can tell as a reseller that they don’t make it particularly painless or lucrative to be a Dell reseller.
In addition to the move to provide Linux on consumer products, Dell also appears to be rethinking the direct to market sales approach. Dell founder Michael Dell said in a memo April 27th that “direct model is not a religion” and that Dell is pursuing “new manufacturing and distribution models to address the unique needs of customers in all our markets.”
If Dell’s plans are successful, Linux may just be poised to help a hardware giant regain market share and on the flipside, Dell may just help Linux finally become more mainstream.
Ubuntu Linux has only been around for 3 years but in that short time, it has generated a great deal of buzz. Like many other Linux distributions, Ubuntu is a free operating system that competes with Microsoft Windows. Linux has traditionally been seen as complex and difficult to use and has never really been able to make a dent in the Windows market. With a bit of a push from Dell, that may change if even only a little.
Ubuntu is derived from Debian Linux and has shined in the desktop operating system foray. There is a server version of Ubuntu but what has really made it stand out is the clean desktop it offers and the relative ease of use it provides. Out of the box it supplies Office.org for word processing and spreadsheets etc, Firefox for web browsing, and Evolution, an email client that competes well with Microsoft Outlook.
Linux has long suffered from the stigma of being ridiculously complex when it comes to installing and managing software. Debian is known for its software management capabilities with its APT program, and Ubuntu too makes installing and managing software easy with a simple click and install tool.
Dell stands to gain from an underdog operating system and Ubuntu stands to gain recognition and to get in front of a wider audience. It will be fascinating to watch this relationship unfold!
Traffic Shaping a la Bell
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Internet, Networking | Leave a Comment
In the past few weeks, “traffic shaping” has hit the news with Bell being in the midst of trying to limit peer-to-peer file sharing on its network. Traffic shaping is a technology that limits how much bandwidth (bandwidth can be loosely thought of as the speed of an Internet connection) a certain application can use.
For example, on your computer at home you have Bell High Speed and you browse the web, check your email, and on occasion download MP3 music. All three activities use your Internet connection but the MP3 music downloads use more of that connection than do the email or web surfing.
“So? I have High Speed Internet, who cares if I download a few music files?” you might ask. Well, that question opens a rather large, and particularly ugly, can of worms.
The Internet is at its foundation, an interconnected network of networks. That is, there is no single “Internet” but rather a bunch of networks – many of them privately owned – all connected together. Data on the Internet can travel through individual networks on its way to its destination and while data is traversing an individual network, that networks owner can potentially control how the data moves through his or her network.
That’s what’s happening with Bell. You see, Bell owns the high speed network that many Ontario and Quebec residents directly or indirectly connect to. And, Bell has elected to limit the amount of bandwidth that file sharing programs can use during peak hours on that network. In our case then, while your web browsing and email checking may be happening at the full High Speed as advertised, your MP3 downloads have been throttled back and capped at an artificially low speed.
Interestingly, Bell has been doing this for over a year now. What’s changed is that Bell is now shaping the traffic that smaller ISPs (Internet Service Providers) buy from Bell. ISPs buy bandwidth and resell it to their own customers and until now, Bell hasn’t tampered with the bandwidth they provide them. Some of those ISPs aren’t happy that Bell’s tampering with it now.
Bell claims that the measure is necessary to prevent file sharing programs from overwhelming its network. File sharing does indeed use a lot of bandwidth (comparatively speaking) and Bell claims that if left unmanaged, a flood of downloads by many users could affect the web browsing and email downloading for the rest of the users.
So the question that arises is, should Bell be allowed to arbitrarily decide what Internet traffic should be allowed and what should be throttled?
And that of course is the can of worms; historically the Internet has been a free, for the most part uncensored place. Attempts to censor or shape portions of the Internet have been met with opposition and the principle of “Network Neutrality” or Net Neutrality has grown from them. Google describes Net Neutrality as:
“Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet. The Internet has operated according to this neutrality principle since its earliest days. Indeed, it is this neutrality that has allowed many companies, including Google, to launch, grow, and innovate. Fundamentally, net neutrality is about equal access to the Internet…”
Vint Cerf, the CIO of Google and the co-developer of the Internet Protocol (IP) – which is the foundation of Internet communications – takes it one step further by saying:
”Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success…A number of justifications have been created to support carrier control over consumer choices online; none stand up to scrutiny.”
I’m not going to enter the debate – at least not here – but that’s what Bell is doing. Knowing the facts, we can all make up our own minds on its merits.
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