The environment, and global warming in particular, is becoming a hot topic (pun) these days.

Some of the report was quoted in the Fourth Assessment Report “Climate Change 2007″ by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, established by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, said Qin.

Meanwhile we hear about a glacier the size of 11,000 football fields breaking and drifting, possibly about to thaw. A new initiative speaks about labelling of energy-efficient servers, but it won’t be enough. We’re running out of time while islands are sinking under the rising sea level. We need a more radical approach. We need a solution now.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

have used Ubuntu for about a year, at work. Even though I don’t use it anymore, I’d certainly recommend it. I am saddened to see that many people resent Ubuntu. Even some avid Linux users seem to raise a brow and associate Ubuntu with newbies and moochers. Perhaps its because of its popularity, which sometimes helps obscure the role of GNU and the Linux kernel, especially with people who are informed w.r.t. key background yet happily hop on the Linux bandwagon. That snobbery and resentment could also be attributed to the flocking of some long-time Linux users, who are dazzled by this exciting branch of Debian.

It’s amazing how many hungry hounds are barking are out there, either complaining about the ‘Ubuntification’ of Linux or about Linux, as a disruptive technology, in general, having never used even it. But not to worry, GNU/Linux is most definitely taking over, albeit gradually. No disruptive technology could be accepted without resistance, not even cars.

As for ‘Ubuntification’, who cares? People can use any distro once they hop aboard the Linux bandwagon. It’s open. It’s interoperable. The customer, not the vendor is in charge, so one can dance between products at will, or even fork.

If Ubuntu users don’t associate Linux with Ubuntu, that’s fine too. It shows that Ubuntu is not chosen for ideological reasons. In fact, I am rather surprised that many Linux users (especially newcomers) think that Linux is just about freedom (cost), not Freedom (as in control independence, involvement, et cetera). We’ll see more of the latter as ‘Trusted’ Computing, DRM and spying begin their rise, much to humanity’s misfortune. You can either escape to Linux before you get shackled, or struggle later on to break the shackles (it’s possible, but it’s harder). It’s no coincidence either. Products such as Vista and Office 2007 are carefully architectured to master and implement the art of lockins and vendor control over the customer, which essentially raises exit barriers/cost.

Can Microsoft do anything to reverse this trend and further delay the inevitable? Can it stop a community rather than defeat or buy a company (e.g. Novell)? It’s highly improbable. Google is where the talent and passion resides. Microsoft (marketers and lawyers) is the past, not the future (innovation). Same with OpenXML and ODF.

Never underestimate the forces of nature, geology, and climate. Picture from the BBC (2004).

HE article “Disappearing world: Global warming claims tropical island” caught my eye during Christmas (or “holiday period”, if you prefer). As a reminder, there are/were serious floods that cost lives over Christmas—a trend that seems repeatable, especially around Christmas time. This year was no exception. But what happens when a once-vibrant island becomes an underwater site for diver historians? What will the impact of refuge be? Can man battle climate? Does the world intend to take action at all? Or, as my father would say, is it just “busy making money”?

Rising seas, caused by global warming, have for the first time washed an inhabited island off the face of the Earth. The obliteration of Lohachara island, in India’s part of the Sundarbans where the Ganges and the Brahmaputra rivers empty into the Bay of Bengal, marks the moment when one of the most apocalyptic predictions of environmentalists and climate scientists has started coming true.

Season of the playful penguins from Oyonale

Sidling with Open Source software development is sidling with science. To use a parable, people in conferences don’t just show the end products. They often have papers explaining methods, without being restricited by patents, and increasingly some source code is available too. They want to make a difference, not (necessarily just) money.

Linux (and Open Source software) protects its users, which it does not perceive as customer, from technology that only benefits greedy companies. Avoidance of brainwash, abuse and abomination is not only an important factor to so-called technocrats. As more people grasp the value of liberty, accentuated by corporate-centirc products such as Vista, the stampede to vendor-neutral solutions will begin.

Linux with KDE in its Baghira glory

ncreasingly, people choose to customise their GNU/Linux installation so that it mimics Mac OS X. Just have a look at this screenshot to get a taste of one recent example. But is that what it all comes down to? Are looks all that matters? Can it steal customers?

Businesses need brains for productivity, not eye candy for play. This applies not only to the server room and the office. Package management in, e.g. Ubuntu GNU/Linux, is simpler than that which is found in Mac OS X. Cost and endless hardware support is yet another matter. Linux supports merely every architecture and, provided you do not buy Windows-only/exclusive peripherals (or Winmodems), Linux will handle everything without a hardware refresh cycle.

The notion of “appealing” is not synonymous with merits. It’s more related to superficial instincts which will not ensure and excitement that won’t last for long. I personally disable all shadows, translucency and I have no interest in eye candy (e.g. Compiz/Beryl with XGL/AIGLX) that detracts and distracts. Show-ware for the show room; but it’s not long-lasting.

A short essay of mine has been published over at newassignment.net. It is a short writeup which, at least at the time, contained ‘inside information’ from a project that I am involved with. The unedited version lies below:

By its very nature, learning involves exploration. Exploration requires transparency, versatility, and openness. Therefore, one of the areas that benefits education the most is the Open Source paradigm for development, collaboration, as well the widespread use of Open Source software.

There is an ongoing debate in the United Kingdom. The Open School Alliance recognised the fact that an Open Source approach to education would benefit the students not only by providing necessary skills, but also by reducing costs. There is an absurdity which took many observers’ attention. While recommendations are made by a government body called BECTA to acquire Open Source software in schools, facts on the ground suggest that these recommendations are completely ignored. Instead, pricey proprietary software is being acquired. It restricts the scale of knowledge offered to students, as well as leads them to depending on companies.

Members of the parliament have entered this vibrant discussion. They are presently working to reverse the worrisome trend. They wish to introduce more schools Open Source software rather than retain a state of ‘neutrality’ wherein vendors use incentives to promote their closed systems. To date, eighty-six members of parliament have questioned the exclusion of open source software from UK schools. They respond to an early day motion (EDM) tabled by John Pugh.

John Pugh MP has recently said: “In my experience a school is a key part of the community and as such has a role to play in the economy of that community — the emphasis on somethings seems to be local supply but not for information technology.”

In journalism, just like in school and academia, one needs to find a state of independence from industry. This rationalises a symbiotic relationship that exists between the community-oriented approach — that which replaces reliance on products and their vendors — and its appraisal. This culls out the tendency to incorporate bias, whether deliberately or not.

We sent the word out to the press/wires the other morning. We have approached the 100-MP milstone with 97 signatures by now.

Related links:

• egovmonitor.com
• computing.co.uk
• itweek.co.uk
• theinquirer.net
• vnunet.com
• netscape.com
• digg.com

Related articles for some context:

• MS unfazed by OSS schools report
• UK schools ‘wasting millions’ on Microsoft
• MPs: Open source faces exclusion in schools

Let us suppose that Red Hat was right all along. RHEL is Unfakeable, not Unbreakable. Despite the predatory betrayal and the decreased support costs, Oracle can only attract 300 downloads per day.

In the first 30 days, we had 9,000 downloads of Unbreakable Linux from our website and hundreds of customers connecting their servers to our network.

This brings us to Novell’s GPL ripoff/sellout. Novell may suffer from the same PR backlash. It can never use organic surveys to attract informed customers, let alone a few optimistic minds, whose mind is disconnected from that of the beyrayed developers and peers.

Related articles:

Unbreakable Linux still unproven, analyst warns

IT managers running Red Hat Linux should think carefully before making the switch to Unbreakable Linux, the new Linux distribution that Oracle Corp. announced last month.

Our View: Don’t Fear Oracle’s Linux

Opinion: Oracle’s move will actually help Red Hat by boosting Linux’s already-growing presence in the enterprise.

Red Hat Dismisses Threat Posed by Oracle and Microsoft

Red Hat Inc’s executive vice president of worldwide sales, Alex Pinchev, has dismissed the impact that Oracle Corp’s entry into the Linux support business could have on Red Hat, insisting Oracle does not really know what it is doing.

Oracle up to bat: Red Hat bashing possible

The wild-card in all this is Oracle’s take on its Linux support initiative and what that means for Red Hat. Now it is possible Oracle won’t mention Linux, but typically Larry Ellison slaps some rival around and talking trash against SAP has got to be getting old.

Addendum: for the sake of comparison, Novell sees roughly 5,600 downloads a day; RHEL (not Fedora) is donwloaded about 12,500 per day. The moral of the story is that those who play fair certainly appeal to the customer. In fact, based on the latest from MarketWatch, “Red Hat is expected to report earnings per share of 12 cents for the third quarter, according to analysts polled by Thomson First Call.“