Spanish region saves a fortune by moving to open source - Linux for 40,000 government PCs. In a victory for the free software movement, the Spanish autonomous region of Extremadura has started to switch more than 40,000 government PCs to open source.
All the computers will be migrated this year. Extremadura estimates that the move to open source will help save € 30 million per year. It is Europe's second largest governmental desktop migration, after the French Gendarmerie, which is migrating some 90,000 desktops. Europe's third largest project is the German city of Munich, which has to date switched 13,000 PCs. Most of the software will be based around a Linux distribution, Sysgobex, which has been tinkered with to meet the majority of requirements of government tasks. At a press conference, Extremadura's CIO Theodomir Cayetano announced that the government's Linux desktop includes an open source corporate email system and office productivity suite. The Extremadura region has been a poster child for the open source movement. CentOS penguins maul Oracle's Linux migration pitch. Understanding successful VDI implementation Having tried, and failed, to kill Red Hat Linux with Unbreakable Linux, Oracle is now sneaking up on CentOS.
Larry Ellison's database giant is now touting a piece of code it claims will let you convert your CentOS machine into Oracle Linux systems with no strings attached. Well, there is one catch: switching actually provides little discernible advantage over CentOS, except the opportunity to give Oracle your money for its support. And it's a prospect CentOS users are widely turning down, saying they won't switch to Oracle Linux because they don't trust Oracle and also because of the company's poor standing as a member of the open-source community. Oracle's Larry Ellison launched Unbreakable Linux in 2006 to squeals of delight – his own – at OpenWorld, with the plan to swap out Red Hat Enterprise Linux by offering binary compatibility wrapped with Oracle's support.
Oracle has now switched its attention to CentOS, the RHEL derivative.
Ubuntu. Welcome to the graphical world of Linux - Bootsplash. "Cloudbook" UMPC to run Googlish Linux. Everex has confirmed plans to ship a UMPC (ultra-mobile PC) with a 7-inch screen, similar to competitor Asus's EEE PC.
A source close to the company revealed that the device -- codenamed "Cloudbook" -- will ship with the Google Apps-oriented "gOS" Linux distribution early next year. According to our anonymous source, the initial Cloudbook model will be powered by a Via C7 ULV processor clocked at 1.2GHz, and come with a 30GB hard drive. It will ship in mid-January in two models, one of which will have a 1.2MP webcam. In general, the hardware appears to closely resemble Via's Nanobook design. Preceding the Cloudbook's mid-January launch, Everex plans to ship a "Developer" version equipped with a touchscreen, our source revealed. Everex itself officially confirmed the Cloudbook's existence Tuesday, when a press release on another topic alluded to a "Cloudbook" UMPC with a 7-inch screen.
The Developer edition will launch earlier -- possibly on January first. "Standard" Cloudbook Availability.