NEC shows off Linux mobile phones

NEC has thrown its weight behind mobile Linux with the introduction of four handsets based on the LiMo specification.

LiMo is a the result of a push towards a shared, hardware-independent mobile phone operating system by several handset manufacturers including Motorola, LG Electronics and Panasonic.

NEC describes its handsets as the world's first LiMo-compliant mobile phones, even though several of its partners in the LiMo Foundation have already released details of compatible handsets, including Motorola and Panasonic.

"The breadth of the initial generation of LiMo handsets consolidates LiMo's role as the unifying force within mobile Linux and highlights the strong momentum established in the 12 months since LiMo was launched," said Morgan Gillis, executive director of the LiMo Foundation.

Among NEC's new phones is the N905i, a 3G/GSM phone with HSDPA for data connectivity, mobile TV reception, GPS and support for wireless payment services.


Source :http://www.vnunet.com

Azingo introduces new mobile Linux platform

Another mobile Linux platform, this time from Azingo, hit the market on Wednesday, joining an increasingly crowded market of Linux phone software.

Formerly called Celunite, Azingo aims to differentiate itself from the crowd by offering phone makers an entire package, including kernel, middleware, applications, development tools, and integration services.

"Mobile Linux has failed because there's a big integration problem," said Michael Mclaughlin, marketing director at Azingo. "People come with piece parts."

For example, companies such as MontaVista and Wind River make mobile Linux kernels, while others such as Trolltech, purchased by Nokia just this week, make application development environments. Phone makers typically must buy the different components, then struggle to integrate them. That puts mobile Linux at a disadvantage against some other mobile platforms, such as Windows Mobile, which comes complete, he said.

Azingo is offering a complete suite of mobile Linux software but will also help customers integrate different pieces if they choose components from different vendors, said Mclaughlin.

The applications Azingo offers as part of the platform include Web widgets that can deliver information such as weather and traffic, entertainment applications such as video and audio players, and productivity software such as e-mail.

Azingo hasn't announced any deals with handset makers planning to use its software. Mclaughlin said the company has been working with some of the well-known vendors and expects handsets running its software to ship in the fourth quarter.

The company isn't the only one offering the market a complete suite of mobile Linux software. A La Mobile has a similar approach, using some of its own software and integrating components from other vendors, including Trolltech. GUPP Technologies, a Malaysian company, announced in 2006 that it would use A La Mobile's platform.

Azingo will also compete against Android, Google's high-profile Linux-based mobile phone operating platform, which includes an operating system, middleware, and applications. Android phones are expected to become available in the second half of this year.

Source : http://www.infoworld.com

IBM adds Linux apps support to Unix servers

IBM has added a new capability to its virtualization platform that will allow Linux applications to run on IBM's Unix servers, the company announced Tuesday.

The "Lx86" capability, to be included in IBM's PowerVM virtualization software, allows x86-based Linux applications to run on IBM's System p and Power-based Unix systems without modification, according to IBM. The systems will automatically detect and run Linux-based binaries designed for x86 environments.

"Lx86 is a way to say, 'Whatever you have, it can run," said Scott Handy, vice president of marketing and strategy for IBM Power Systems.

The capability will simplify the consolidation of Unix and Linux server sprawls, Handy said. Running Linux applications in the Unix environment can reduce the cost of server consolidation and energy consumption and increase asset utilization, he argued.

Lx86 will be a useful tool for people looking to migrate from Linux systems to other IBM systems, IBM said. The company offers both Unix and Linux operating systems on its servers.

The capability will be included in all editions of IBM's PowerVM platform, which it also renamed Tuesday from the Advanced Power Virtualization platform.

The software now includes an Express edition targeted at SMBs. It allows customers to create up to three partitions on a server and control the use of processor cycles to get optimal performance. The Express edition will be shipped to customers soon, priced at $40 per core. PowerVM is also available in Standard and Enterprise editions.

IBM also announced that it will update its i5/OS operating system with support for Power6 processors. The update, called V6R1, includes improved performance, storage and security features, according to IBM.

The update supports IBM's Power6 EnergyScale technology for controlling energy use. The company also updated its Rational software tool set for the i5/OS, Handy said.

The i5/OS V6R1, for IBM's System i servers, will ship in March. It will also work with the company's new BladeCenter H server chassis, Handy said.
Source :http://www.infoworld.com

Nokia plays strong Linux hand withTrolltech buy

Analysis Nokia may be strengthening its ties with major internet brands to boost its Ovi web services portal, but for a company of this scale, there must also be an agenda to set its own standards in the evolving mobile internet market on which it has staked its future. The Finnish giant's latest software acquisition, of Norwegian Linux player Trolltech, gives it a strong vehicle to launch its own bid to dominate mobile open source standards, an area where Google and Intel have already made aggressive moves. This sees the handset giant making its strongest commitment yet to Linux in its Series 60 smartphone market, and setting Trolltech's Qt platform against other would-be dominant mobile web systems like Google Android and Intel Mobilin.

Nokia is given to acquiring small, clever companies - especially as it builds up its software and web services capabilities - rather than going for the high profile, difficult merger, and Trolltech is no exception. The smaller company is mainly known for its Linux-based Qt (Qtopia) user interface and mobile software development framework, which has recently become closely associated with the OpenMoko Linux initiative and which is an alternative to the widely used Gnome GTK technology, a key technology for Motorola and Intel, but one in which Nokia may now become less interested.

Trolltech

The handset leader has got itself a bargain – NKr 843m (just $153.3m) for a mobile Linux platform that could give Nokia a viable position against Google Android and give it the chance to regain the initiative in mobile Linux and web interfaces, both vital technologies for companies looking to dominate the mobile internet agenda. The acquisition, which has been recommended by the board, is likely to close in the second quarter, and 66 per cent of the shareholders have already accepted the NKr16 per share offer (these include founder Haavard Nord; Vuonislahti Invest, controlled by fellow founder Eirik Chambe-Eng; Teknoinvest; and several funds managed by Index Ventures). Trolltech is publicly listed on the Oslo stock exchange.

Trolltech brings a well-respected software development framework geared to mobile devices, open source and web services. Tactically, its technologies could strengthen the competitiveness of Nokia's Series 60 and Series 40 development and user interface platforms, especially in the web services and Linux areas. The Finnish giant has been pushing its frameworks in these directions, and has open sourced part of S60, but is aware that these products come from a heritage of closed development environments and the Symbian OS operating system rather than Linux, and so could be presented as being less web-optimized than a system created from scratch for the open internet, like Android. Trolltech will help answer some of those criticisms and boost the capabilities of S60 on open platforms, as well as underpinning development of new services related to the Ovi mobile internet push. "Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time to market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40," said Kai Oistamo, executive VP of devices at Nokia.

Source :http://www.theregister.co.uk

Nokia spends €105m on mobile Linux developer

Finnish handset giant Nokia is buying mobile Linux developer Trolltech, in an all-cash deal valuing the company at about €105m.

Nokia is offering 16 Norwegian Kroner per share - about £1.47 - for the company. Trolltech shares were are up 56 per cent today at 15.6 Norwegian Kroner. Over 66 per cent of shareholders have already accepted the offer.

Trolltech's cross platform development software will help Nokia, and its partners, write applications which will run equally well on different mobile devices.

Kai Öistämö, Nokia's executive vice president of devices, said: “Trolltech’s deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40."

Nokia said it would continue to develop Trolltech products and support new and existing customers.

Trolltech is based in Oslo in Norway, but also has offices in Beijing, China, Brisbane, Australia, Berlin and Munich in Germany and Redwood City in California. It floated on the Oslo Stock Exchange in 2006.

In the third quarter of 2007 Trolltech made revenues of 60.8m Norwegian Kroner(£5.6m) and Ebitda of 0.3m Norwegian Kroner (£27,000), driven mainly by development tools Qt and Qtopia.

The deal is subject to the usual regulatory and shareholder acceptance
Source :http://www.theregister.co.uk

IBM Turns To Linux In Desktop Campaign Against Microsoft

IBM (NYSE: IBM) has increased support for Linux with the introduction of versions of its Lotus Notes collaboration suite and Symphony productivity tools built to run on the open source OS -- and it's hoping the effort will help unseat Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) as the king of desktop software.

The company this week said it plans to ship what it calls its "Open Collaboration Client," made up of Lotus Notes 8 and Symphony, for Canonical's popular Ubuntu Linux distribution.

Lotus Notes 8 includes e-mail, calendaring, and contact management modules, while Symphony -- available as a free download -- features word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation applications build on the open source OpenOffice.org standard.

IBM also said this week that it's working with Red Hat to develop a version of the Open Collaboration Client for small and midsize businesses, which are increasingly a focus for IBM.

Under the plan, Red Hat will offer to its customers a version of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform packaged with Lotus Notes, Symphony, and IBM's Domino messaging server.

Red Hat also will offer technical services to help resellers implement the package for customers.

IBM last year said it would offer versions of Lotus Notes and Symphony for Novell's SUSE Enterprise Linux distribution.

By porting key software to Linux, IBM is looking to give businesses one less reason to buy products from rival Microsoft -- which IBM said offers "a proprietary desktop model."

IBM's Linux efforts will "further address customer demands around choice," said Inna Kuznetsova, an IBM executive with responsibility for Linux, in a statement.
Source :http://www.informationweek.com

Linux Kernel Hits 2.6.24

The first new Linux kernel of 2008 is now out, showcasing improvements that run the gambit of bug fixes to new performance and feature enhancements.

One addition found in the new 2.6.24 Linux kernel is the new ability for write-throttling code.

"This prevents one heavily-used block device from starving the other devices. so it's great for throughput enhancement," Joel Berman, director of marketing at Red Hat, told InternetNews.com.

Berman also said the new kernel's inclusion of what are known as kernel markers would prove very useful for developers. Kernel markers are used for deep tuning and debugging.

"This gets us closer to Dtrace, and makes SystemTap easier to use," Berman said. Dtrace is the Sun Solaris technology that uses dynamic probes to monitor system performance. SystemTap is a similar approach for Linux.

The Linux 2.6.24 kernel also improves kernel utilization by way of new group scheduling technology. Berman explained that new approach fairly allocates groups' CPU usage.

For example, if there are four active groups, each group gets 25 percent of the CPU. If one group is made up of 10 users, another group has 100 and the other two have one each, the 100 in one group share their 25 percent of the machine.

Berman also noted that i386 and x86-64 sources for the kernel have been merged into one pool. That effort will help in quality assurance and removing duplication in patching.

Linux 2.6.24 also makes improvements for embedded developers. Jim Ready, CTO of MontaVista Linux, told InternetNews.com that that the inclusion of high-resolution and tickless timers for processors such as ARM MIPS should bode well. Both features are key components of a real-time Linux kernel.

"This is important for consumer and mobile devices that cannot run on Intel architecture," Ready said.

While the 2.6.24 Linux kernel has some specific areas of interest for Red Hat and MontaVista, a number of other other interested parties also made contributions.

According to the Linux Foundation's Linux Weather Forecast, more than 10,000 individual changesets were included during the 2.6.24 development cycle. Those changesets resulted in almost 300,000 lines of code being added to the kernel.

While Linus Torvalds is officially responsible for releasing the 2.6.24 kernel, the Linux Foundation Forecast noted that the new version's contributions came from 950 developers representing over 130 companies.
Source :http://www.internetnews.com