Xen is a tool that allows a computer to run multiple instances of an operating system.

This means Windows and Linux can not only run on the same PC (they can since almost the beginning). This means that they can run at the same time. This technology is truly amazing!

This allows you, for example, to write an article with Microsoft Word in Windows, to release the cursor, to switch the window just as if MS Windows was a simple application of your operating system and to go on your work with Ubuntu or any Linux flavour (that supports Xen, however).

Basically, Xen is based on a guest OS (the dom0). It is in general a GNU/Linux distribution, but some other operating systems (such as NetBSD or OpenSolaris ) supports it. This dom0 is modified, so that it can welcome the guests (the domU’s).

If your hardware is good enough, the domU’s will not have to be changed. You can boot your MS Windows as you ever did (this is the so called full-virtualization – the guests are absolutely not aware that they are running virtually). If not, you’ll have to find a suitable modified distribution (most Linuxes for example) that will allow you to run multiple instances. This is called the para-virtualization.

Even though the performance is a little reduced, it remains excellent (especially for the para-virtualization, because the guests are designed for this technology). Moreover, you can determine what hardware you will assign to which virtual machine VM. Your Windows need a new network card? Just add one! You need to add a hard drive to one of your VM’s? No problem!

This sounds great. Ok, the reality is not as simple as I described above (especially if you have a PC with multiples network interfaces), you will have to find some tricky solutions, work with the command line and edit files, but it the end, it works ! As soon as the Xen developers will build an intuitive graphical interface, this technology will become one of the killer-features of GNU/Linux for the desktop.

The desktop market is the ultimate goal for Linux. But behind the lights, where Linux is not an exception anymore (and little people are aware of that fact), Xen is going to be one of the reasons why system administrators should leave, for example, Netware.

The most striking argument in favour of Xen on the server market is the cost: why should companies continue to pay for 6 average servers when they can build 6 virtual machines on top hardware. This can cut costs in energy, administration, and networking.

Last but not least, Xen is Free software. It means that the basic version is free (whereas Xen Enterprise and Xen Server are not) and you can get the source code, modify it, and adapt it to your needs.

To me, Xen is the ultimate example of how innovative and attractive free software can be. VMware, the proprietary solution is also a good product, but as Xen respects the GNU General Public License, it will be included in a lot of Linux distributions (it is already part of openSUSE) and thus, its community will grow very quickly. It will so benefit from the feedback of millions of the users and developers.

Free software (I will try to give my point of view on it later) does not necessarily mean software communism: XenSource (the company behind it) sells its enterprises versions. I hope they will make money with it and will continue to improve their product -with the support of the open-source community- so that end-users and companies can improve their productivity or have simply have fun with it!

This weekend, I go to Berlin to the LinuxTag, a fair where geeks meet geeks and/or IT professionals

It will be a great opportunity to meet the people of Ubuntu-de again and of other open-source communities, to discover new projects and to attend interesting conferences. Moreover, I will write there the second exam (LPI102) of the Linux Professional Institute (LPI) to obtain the first level of the Linux certification. Last but not least, I come right for the OpenSolaris love day!

I also have been in Wiesbaden last year for the LinuxTag 2006 and I hope this event will be at least as good as the previous one !

This meeting, which slogan is “where .org meets .com”, is traditionally put under the patronage of the… German minister of Interior Department, Wolfgang Schäuble ! (see my last article). I wonder how he will be accommodated by the open-source and Free software supporters, who do not seem to appreciate his will of supervising people’s computers…

Since Sun decided to move toward Open Source (by releasing a free version of the Java Development Kit, or hiring Ian Murdoch, the founder of the Debian Project), my interest for this company’s products is growing (even though I write some programs in Java for about two years). Moreover, Solaris is installed on most of the computers of my University and my teachers seemed to enjoy working with it.
So when Sun announced to ship DVD-kits of the free version of Solaris, I ordered a kit and tried it on my machine.

The distro I chose is Belenix and, well the result is not bad, but it is not very good either !

First of all I must admit that my hardware is a little exotic. I have a Shuttle SK22G2 which is very practical, but almost all components are integrated on the mainboard and I can add no other one (except graphic cards), so that when my computer does not detect some chips (such as my sound chip or my network interface) I can do anything but searching some drivers on the web…

OpenSolaris detected almost all my hardware, except my my webcam, sound chip and my network card which did not work out of the box, but I fortunately found some drivers for the two latter. Nvidia propretary drivers allowed me to have a decent graphical interface and as soon as I get an Internet connection, I will even install Compiz on it !

Fact is, that I enjoy discovering a new environment (even if it is not a radical change as a switch from Windows to a *NIX system) and I learn a lot of things about this operating system, which is pretty popular in a professional environment.

I created a OpenSolaris category, so, I will probably write other articles about it

I have been using Ubuntu for three years and since then, this operating system has fully been meeting my expectations such as programming, listening to music, watching movies chatting, browsing the web, administrating my remote server, and so on…
However as soon as I use the proprietary Nvidia drivers in order to benefit from Beryl and its great 3D-Desktop effects, the sound drivers ALSA release an error :

[17183700.972000] codec_ready: codec 0 is not ready [0xffffffff]

and the loudspeaker makes awful random sounds !

I will write a report on this issue to the Linux kernel team, so that they fix this bug.
Anyway, this little problem has been interesting, because I tried OpenSuse 10.2, which is a very good Linux distribution as well. The RPM package management is not as good as the Debian system but it worked fine… and Beryl also let the sound server crash !

I am now back to Ubuntu -in 2D though-, I wait for its next release (codename : Feisty Fawn) and I hope the integration of the Nvidia drivers will be better on the next version of the kernel

PS : This article must not prevent you from using Linux ! Just be sure of what you do and if there is any risk to try something on your operating system and everything will work fine ! Keep also in mind that Beryl has been released as a beta version and is not supposed to be stable !

As Vista’s release, the new Microsoft operating system, had been several times postponed, some observers noticed it could benefit Linux and increase the number of users of the free OS : it is now clear it didn’t and the monopoly of Microsoft on the market still remains.

Microsoft takes advantage of its market domination and, above all, of the pre-installation of Windows on new computers (75% of all new PC’s have Windows pre-installed on it). If only the real price of the operating system was clearly written on the buyer’s bill, a lot of consumers would think twice before paying 150$ and not having the choice at all.

The advantages of Linux are well known and for something you don’t have to pay charges for, this operating system is simply great. Distributions such as Suse or Ubuntu can technically obviously compete with Microsoft Vista but it is actually not the problem. It is somewhere else.

If you compare the show paid by Microsoft for Vista’s release and what happened for the release of, for instance, Dapper Drake, you just become aware of how big the advantage of Microsoft is. The strength of MS is its impressive marketing power : people who just do nothing but using their computers (and not living through it ) will know about Vista. CNN offered a 15 minutes show to Gates (with some soft criticisms though). The day Mark Shuttleworth will get 5 minutes on television for the release of the next Ubuntu has not come…

Such a marketing campain is precisely what Linux companies can’t afford : if Canonical could pay for it, the whole world would talk about Edgy Eft, Beryl or Compiz and how innovative those softwares are.

The life cycle of XP is still not over (its support has been stretched until april 2009), but during this time, there has been no revolution in the way people use their computers, even if new technologies (many of them supported first by open-source and free softwares) appeared.

The only way analysts think the RSS feeds will become popular is their introduction into Internet Explorer 7, even if Thunderbird and Firefox (which are also available for Windows) already propose this feature. It is nothing new that Microsoft picks up the best of the other’s technology, integrates it in its products and spreads it everywhere as if it was their own.

But this time, open source and free software companies are supported in their development by giants of the sector (IBM, Sun, …), what should be a good source of income through support and services.

Moreover, the main strength of the free softwares is their communities. Thousand of involved users bring a lot of innovation : all the employees of the Redmond’s firm cannot be as inventive as hundred of thousand involved users who can directly communicate with the developpers.

Now that Linux is accepted as a competitive solution for servers and enterprises, it has to become popular on the desktop’s markt and need a powerful marketing campain in order to compete with Windows.It may have to get rid of this geeky image and show the consumers it is an innovative and professionnal product that anyone can use.

We have seen it since the beginning of the software industry : not the best product wins, but the one which has the best advertising campain.