Showing posts with label trends. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trends. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
Thursday, May 27, 2010
KVM in SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP 1
At Novell BrainShare Amsterdam last week, the Geekos were handing out SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 SP1 (RC4) at IT Central. So off came my DVD drive and I installed it on a separate partition on my Thinkpad.
Since its a Release Candidate (RC4) and not the final GA version due on 2nd June, I wanted to have a quick look at how KVM works since its an officially supported hypervisor in SP1 (other than the very established Xen shipped and supported since SLES 10 back in 2006).
I've been using Xen and helping partners & customers implement it for a few years, without any knowledge of KVM, I wanted to dive right in and see how far I'd go. I am very impressed with the engineering and thought put into how KVM is packaged with SLES 11 SP1. This is truly a fine example of an "Enterprise" grade product. I was able to virtualize an instance of SLES 11 SP1 and MS Windows 7 with no assistance. The KEY is the tools (libvirt & virt-manager) for Xen, which I'm familiar since SLES 10, is now capable of managing both Xen and KVM in SLES 11 SP1. Depending if you boot into the Xen kernel or the default kernel with KVM module loaded, these same tools can be used, thus providing a consistent user interface. This is just brilliant!
For existing users of Xen, should they decide that KVM is a better alternative as it matures further down the road, they could easily switch without much hassle. More importantly, its conceivable that any custom scripts (automation, failover or whatever) developed for Xen can be easily applied to KVM. This is much better than RIP-n-REPLACE in so many other "Enterprise" grade products.
Here are a few screenshots:
Cheers!
Since its a Release Candidate (RC4) and not the final GA version due on 2nd June, I wanted to have a quick look at how KVM works since its an officially supported hypervisor in SP1 (other than the very established Xen shipped and supported since SLES 10 back in 2006).
I've been using Xen and helping partners & customers implement it for a few years, without any knowledge of KVM, I wanted to dive right in and see how far I'd go. I am very impressed with the engineering and thought put into how KVM is packaged with SLES 11 SP1. This is truly a fine example of an "Enterprise" grade product. I was able to virtualize an instance of SLES 11 SP1 and MS Windows 7 with no assistance. The KEY is the tools (libvirt & virt-manager) for Xen, which I'm familiar since SLES 10, is now capable of managing both Xen and KVM in SLES 11 SP1. Depending if you boot into the Xen kernel or the default kernel with KVM module loaded, these same tools can be used, thus providing a consistent user interface. This is just brilliant!
For existing users of Xen, should they decide that KVM is a better alternative as it matures further down the road, they could easily switch without much hassle. More importantly, its conceivable that any custom scripts (automation, failover or whatever) developed for Xen can be easily applied to KVM. This is much better than RIP-n-REPLACE in so many other "Enterprise" grade products.
Here are a few screenshots:
Cheers!
Monday, June 29, 2009
I was at Computex 2009 too!
Yup, I was there from 3-6 June earlier this month... due to my traveling schedule and procrastination, well... mostly procrastination, I end up posting this "me too" post 2 days before the end of June.
Anyway, I hereby present some SUSE highlights, photos and a video of the event from my perspective:
1) With our close collaboration with Intel on Moblin, we are 1 of 2 software vendors allowed to have a booth on the traditionally hardware vendor ONLY show floor.
2) On display are SUSE Studio (beta) and a whole string of Netbooks from Acer, MSI and ASUS loaded with openSUSE 11.1 with Moblin GUI. Really sweet!
3) I found some time to go up to the 83 or 85th floor on the famous Taipei 101... what a view of the city!
4) Finally, a picture of all the hardworking Novell folks (hackers, managers, sales, marketing) who pulled this first-of-its-kind presence at Computex. Also in the picture are attractive promoters and a dude who was in a Geeko suit.
Speaking of mascots, here is a video of a Computex mascot mixing it up with our SUSE Geeko... looks like we'll need to hire the guy (or gal) in the Computex mascot to our Geeko suit for next year... Enjoy!
Anyway, I hereby present some SUSE highlights, photos and a video of the event from my perspective:
1) With our close collaboration with Intel on Moblin, we are 1 of 2 software vendors allowed to have a booth on the traditionally hardware vendor ONLY show floor.
2) On display are SUSE Studio (beta) and a whole string of Netbooks from Acer, MSI and ASUS loaded with openSUSE 11.1 with Moblin GUI. Really sweet!
3) I found some time to go up to the 83 or 85th floor on the famous Taipei 101... what a view of the city!
4) Finally, a picture of all the hardworking Novell folks (hackers, managers, sales, marketing) who pulled this first-of-its-kind presence at Computex. Also in the picture are attractive promoters and a dude who was in a Geeko suit.
Speaking of mascots, here is a video of a Computex mascot mixing it up with our SUSE Geeko... looks like we'll need to hire the guy (or gal) in the Computex mascot to our Geeko suit for next year... Enjoy!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
OSSPAC 2009
I was at the Open Source Singapore Pacific-Asia Conference (OSSPAC) and had the privilege to share the Novell SUSE story at their keynote event yesterday (17th Feb 2009).
In the afternoon, while walking through the various vendor and partner exhibits, I came across these two fellas and just had to take a picture with them...
from left to right: The Duke, MySQL Dolphin and me with SUSE Geeko in tow.
SUSE Linux Enterprise with JAVA and MySQL ... nice
Oh, and here are a short snippet on the contents of my keynote:
In the afternoon, while walking through the various vendor and partner exhibits, I came across these two fellas and just had to take a picture with them...
from left to right: The Duke, MySQL Dolphin and me with SUSE Geeko in tow.
SUSE Linux Enterprise with JAVA and MySQL ... nice
Oh, and here are a short snippet on the contents of my keynote:
- The Novell SUSE history and how SUSE is gaining more than 5000 new customers for Novell in 2007 alone... and growing revenue at 38% from 2006 to 2007 and from 2007 to 2008. We are growing SUSE at a higher rate than the Linux market at 22% year on year
- All these are possible with the strong support from Novell partner ecosystem and it includes our strategic relationships with IBM, Microsoft, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Intel and AMD
- SUSE is important but not the only open source story at Novell. I picked Mono/Moonlight and SUSE Studio as some of the projects that Novell is investing in and hoping to yield fruits down the line
- Mono success at Unity3D and FusionFall MMORPG (other success stories)
- Moonlight bringing equality to Firefox users for President Obama's inauguration
- SUSE Studio and how partners can create custom Linux application appliances in multiple format (disk image, VMware and Xen)... and its still in Alpha!
Thursday, August 7, 2008
IBM promotes Windows-free Desktop PCs
I just have to blog about this one since its been reported virtually (pun intended) everywhere on the WWW.
It appears that Big Blue has announced a partnership with the top 3 Linux distributions (SUSE, Red Hat and Ubuntu) from Novell, Red Hat and Canonical to offer their customers a Windows-free desktop alternative.
Links to the stories:
- MarketWatch.com
- theInquirer.net
- ZDNet.co.uk
- internetnews.com
In my opinion, this has more to do with marketing and awareness. IBM's embrace and support of Linux and open source, where it made sense for them and their customers, is well documented and goes back about 10 years now.
Since 2000, SUSE was the first operational and certified Linux on the IBM System z (aka mainframe). Today, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise enjoys a market share of above 85% in the System z space. Slightly more than a year ago, IBM Lotus announced the Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) with Novell and later with Red Hat. The OCCS is a new suite of collaboration software from Lotus v8. There was even an integrated install DVD of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 with Lotus Notes 8 from Novell.
Check out this video demonstrating Lotus Notes 8 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 from a year back.
The real news is that IBM sees a window (pun intended) of opportunity where it can capitalize on the slow adoption of Vista. IBM demonstrates to the customers the functional parity between Windows and Linux desktops and introduces the math of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). By helping their clients save on fundamentals of computing (ie OS cost), their clients will have more budget left over to spend of value added software (ie Lotus suite of collaboration software).
The most quoted success for IBM and Novell is Peugeot Citroën and 20,000 desktops moving to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. In the Asia Pacific region, we have seen successes in the SMB space with notably references like India's ELCOT and China Meteorological Administration, just to name a few.
So the real question is, will this work? It depends. We know there is potential in this value proposition but there is equally many probable customer scenarios from IT deployment, licensing cost structures to human buying behaviour (ie Toyota is more economical but I WANT a Hummer).
Like the authors from ZDNet who wrote this piece titled "IBM should spend another $1B to sell its Symphony OpenOffice-Linux desktop to the masses", the way to truly engage and win in the consumer desktop space as opposed to the server space, its all a matter of marketing to change user perception. One only needs to look at Apple for a good example. Show us the marketing dollars!!!
As a nod to my good friend and Notes Guru (aka NotesSensei), check out his blog entry where he has skinned his Thinkpad T61 to show his dedication to the cause.
Methinks his newly skinned Thinkpad would look even better when placed right next to mine. 
It appears that Big Blue has announced a partnership with the top 3 Linux distributions (SUSE, Red Hat and Ubuntu) from Novell, Red Hat and Canonical to offer their customers a Windows-free desktop alternative.
Links to the stories:
- MarketWatch.com
- theInquirer.net
- ZDNet.co.uk
- internetnews.com
In my opinion, this has more to do with marketing and awareness. IBM's embrace and support of Linux and open source, where it made sense for them and their customers, is well documented and goes back about 10 years now.
Since 2000, SUSE was the first operational and certified Linux on the IBM System z (aka mainframe). Today, Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise enjoys a market share of above 85% in the System z space. Slightly more than a year ago, IBM Lotus announced the Open Collaboration Client Solution (OCCS) with Novell and later with Red Hat. The OCCS is a new suite of collaboration software from Lotus v8. There was even an integrated install DVD of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 with Lotus Notes 8 from Novell.
Check out this video demonstrating Lotus Notes 8 on SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 SP1 from a year back.
The real news is that IBM sees a window (pun intended) of opportunity where it can capitalize on the slow adoption of Vista. IBM demonstrates to the customers the functional parity between Windows and Linux desktops and introduces the math of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). By helping their clients save on fundamentals of computing (ie OS cost), their clients will have more budget left over to spend of value added software (ie Lotus suite of collaboration software).
The most quoted success for IBM and Novell is Peugeot Citroën and 20,000 desktops moving to SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. In the Asia Pacific region, we have seen successes in the SMB space with notably references like India's ELCOT and China Meteorological Administration, just to name a few.
So the real question is, will this work? It depends.
We know there is potential in this value proposition but there is equally many probable customer scenarios from IT deployment, licensing cost structures to human buying behaviour (ie Toyota is more economical but I WANT a Hummer). Like the authors from ZDNet who wrote this piece titled "IBM should spend another $1B to sell its Symphony OpenOffice-Linux desktop to the masses", the way to truly engage and win in the consumer desktop space as opposed to the server space, its all a matter of marketing to change user perception. One only needs to look at Apple for a good example. Show us the marketing dollars!!!
As a nod to my good friend and Notes Guru (aka NotesSensei), check out his blog entry where he has skinned his Thinkpad T61 to show his dedication to the cause.
Methinks his newly skinned Thinkpad would look even better when placed right next to mine.
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Big Buck Bunny...
Another BIG step (if not LEAP) for Open Source... if you have not heard about Big Buck Bunny... I'm so delighted you get to hear it from my blog... much Thanks goes to Lai Kuan for spreading this wonderful news...
See it at http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/
Big Buck Bunny is a 3D animation movie licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 . This means that the entire movie is FREE for you to Share, to Remix as long as you Attribute the original authors of the work. Also worthy of mention is the 3D content creation software behind the movie... Yes, its an open source software and its called Blender (http://www.blender.org).
For high resolution copies, go to the Download section on Big Buck Bunny site. I'm embedding the smaller YouTube movie below. Enjoy, oh yeah, its wickedly funny too.
See it at http://www.bigbuckbunny.org/
Big Buck Bunny is a 3D animation movie licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 . This means that the entire movie is FREE for you to Share, to Remix as long as you Attribute the original authors of the work. Also worthy of mention is the 3D content creation software behind the movie... Yes, its an open source software and its called Blender (http://www.blender.org).
For high resolution copies, go to the Download section on Big Buck Bunny site. I'm embedding the smaller YouTube movie below. Enjoy, oh yeah, its wickedly funny too.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Linux for housewives; XP for geeks?
No, you did not read the title wrong... This is a sign of the times... very interesting article on ZDNet -> http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=342
It references a quote from Taiwanese retailers from Nikkei Electronics Asia (an online report):
"...novice PC users there, like students and housewives, tend to buy the Linux version of the Eee PC701, while geeks go for Windows XP."
What is even more interesting is one of the comments left a Mr Flude, his research into the definition of the word "Geek" and in relation to the statement above... had me laughing my head off and (seriously) rolling on the floor... here goes:
"geek
Pronunciation: \ˈgēk\
Function: noun
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3 : an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geek
"Retailers and contract manufacturers in Taiwan say that novice PC users there, like students and housewives, tend to buy the Linux version of the Eee PC701, while geeks go for Windows XP."
The Taiwanese are referring to groups 1 & 2."
It references a quote from Taiwanese retailers from Nikkei Electronics Asia (an online report):
"...novice PC users there, like students and housewives, tend to buy the Linux version of the Eee PC701, while geeks go for Windows XP."
What is even more interesting is one of the comments left a Mr Flude, his research into the definition of the word "Geek" and in relation to the statement above... had me laughing my head off and (seriously) rolling on the floor...
here goes:"geek
Pronunciation: \ˈgēk\
Function: noun
1 : a carnival performer often billed as a wild man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken or snake
2 : a person often of an intellectual bent who is disliked
3 : an enthusiast or expert especially in a technological field or activity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/geek
"Retailers and contract manufacturers in Taiwan say that novice PC users there, like students and housewives, tend to buy the Linux version of the Eee PC701, while geeks go for Windows XP."
The Taiwanese are referring to groups 1 & 2."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)