Ubuntu and Its Leader Set Sights on the Mainstream
Now it has been written up by
The New York Times
- see
so it has really arrived. The Times tells us that:-
QUOTE
Microsoft had an estimated 10,000 people working on
Vista, its newest
desktop operating system, for five years. The result of this
multibillion-dollar investment has been a product late to market and widely
panned.
Canonical, meanwhile, releases a fresh version of Ubuntu every six months, adding features that capitalize on the latest advances from developers and component makers like Intel. The company’s model centers on outpacing Microsoft on both price and features aimed at new markets.
“"It feels pretty clear to me that the open
process produces better stuff,” Mr. Shuttleworth said. Such talk from a man
willing to finance software for the masses — and by the masses — inspires
those who see open source as more of a cause than a business model.
UNQUOTE
Not a bad endorsement. Gates is widely loathed by men who
understand his offerings; shoddy goods, grossly over priced and an abuse of
monopoly power. Yes Vista is vile. A write up from Peter Gutmann who is seriously
in the business tells us that it might be the longest
suicide note in history
PS Vista is on the skids. Microsoft are selling Windows 7 on the basis that
it can be like XP.
PPS You can now buy laptops with XP and Linux so you can ease your way into
the operating system of the future.
PPPS Gates is down to his last $50 billion or so.
Linux ex
Wiki
Linux (pronounced
i/ˈlɪnəks/
LIN-əks[9][10]
or, less frequently,
/ˈlaɪnəks/
LYN-əks[10][11])
is a
Unix-like computer
operating system assembled under the model of
free and open-source software development and distribution. The defining
component of Linux is the
Linux kernel,[12]
an
operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by
Linus Torvalds.[13][14][15]
The
Free Software Foundation uses the name
GNU/Linux to
describe the operating system, which has led to some
controversy.[16][17]
Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture, but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system.[18] Because of the dominance of Android on smartphones, Linux has the largest installed base of all general-purpose operating systems.[19] Linux is also the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers, and is used on 99.6% of the TOP500 supercomputers.[20][21] It is used by around 2.3% of desktop computers.[22][23] The Chromebook, which runs on Chrome OS, dominates the US K–12 education market and represents nearly 20% of the sub-$300 notebook sales in the US.[24] Linux also runs on embedded systems – devices whose operating system is typically built into the firmware and is highly tailored to the system. This includes TiVo and similar DVR devices, network routers, facility automation controls, televisions,[25][26] video game consoles and smartwatches.
Many smartphones and tablet computers run Android and other Linux derivatives.[28]
The development of Linux is one of the most prominent examples of free
and open-source
software
collaboration. The underlying
source code may be used, modified and distributed—
Desktop Linux distributions include a windowing system, such as X11, Mir or a Wayland implementation, and an accompanying desktop environment such as GNOME or the KDE Software Compilation; some distributions may also include a less resource-intensive desktop, such as LXDE or Xfce. Distributions intended to run on servers may omit all graphical environments from the standard install, and instead include other software to set up and operate a solution stack such as LAMP. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any intended use.
Ubuntu ex Wiki
Ubuntu (/ʊˈbuːntʊ/
uu-BOON-tuu,
stylized as ubuntu)[11]
is a Debian-based
Linux
operating system for
personal computers,
tablets and
smartphones, where
Ubuntu Touch edition is used; and also runs
network servers, usually with the
Ubuntu Server
edition, either on
physical or
virtual servers (such as on
mainframes) and/or with
containers, that is with enterprise-class features; runs on the most
popular architectures, including server-class ARM-based.
Ubuntu is published by Canonical Ltd, who offer commercial support.[12] It is based on free software and named after the Southern African philosophy of ubuntu (literally, 'human-ness'), which Canonical Ltd. suggests can be loosely translated as "humanity to others" or "I am what I am because of who we all are".[13] It uses Unity as its default user interface for the desktop.
Ubuntu is the most popular operating system running in hosted environments, so–called "clouds",[14] as it is the most popular server Linux distribution.
Development of Ubuntu is led by UK-based Canonical Ltd., a company of South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Canonical generates revenue through the sale of technical support and other services related to Ubuntu.[15][16] The Ubuntu project is publicly committed to the principles of open-source software development; people are encouraged to use free software, study how it works, improve upon it, and distribute it.[17][18]
BIOS ex
Wiki
The BIOS (/ˈbaɪ.ɒs/,
an acronym for Basic Input/Output System and also known as the
System BIOS, ROM BIOS or PC BIOS) is a type of
firmware
used to
perform hardware initialization during the
booting
process (power-on startup) on
IBM PC compatible computers, and to provide runtime services for
operating systems and programs.[1]
The BIOS firmware is built into
personal computers (PCs), and it is the first software they run when
powered on. The name itself originates from the Basic Input/Output System
used in the CP/M
operating system in 1975.[2][3]
Originally
proprietary to the IBM PC, the BIOS has been
reverse engineered by companies looking to create compatible systems and
the
interface of that original system serves as a
de facto standard.
The fundamental purposes of the BIOS in modern PCs are to initialize and test the system hardware components, and to load a boot loader or an operating system from a mass memory device. The BIOS additionally provides an abstraction layer for the hardware, i.e., a consistent way for application programs and operating systems to interact with the keyboard, display, and other input/output (I/O) devices. Variations in the system hardware are hidden by the BIOS from programs that use BIOS services instead of directly accessing the hardware. MS-DOS (PC DOS), which was the dominant PC operating system from the early 1980s until the mid-1990s, relied on BIOS services for disk, keyboard, and text display functions. MS Windows NT, Linux, and other protected mode operating systems in general ignore the abstraction layer provided by the BIOS and do not use it after loading, instead accessing the hardware components directly.
Most BIOS implementations are specifically designed to work with a particular computer or motherboard model, by interfacing with various devices that make up the complementary system chipset. Originally, BIOS firmware was stored in a ROM chip on the PC motherboard; in modern computer systems, the BIOS contents are stored on flash memory so it can be rewritten without removing the chip from the motherboard. This allows easy updates to the BIOS firmware so new features can be added or bugs can be fixed, but it also creates a possibility for the computer to become infected with BIOS rootkits.
Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) was designed as a successor to BIOS, aiming to address its technical shortcomings.[4] As of 2014, new PC hardware predominantly ships with UEFI firmware.
