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Linux Pipeline Newsletter www.LinuxPipeline.com WEDNESDAY, May 03, 2006 In This Issue: - Mozilla Pulls Major Firefox 2.0 Feature - U.S. Wants AT&T Lawsuit Dismissed On Security Grounds - VMware Leads Desktop Virtualization Push - More News... - Internet Explorer 7: Has Firefox Met Its Match? - New Sun CEO's Plan: Cut Costs, Stay The Course - Sourcefire Still On a Roll With 'Snort' - More Picks... Rackspace: Managed Hosting Solutions backed by Fanatical Support? Sign a 13-month contract by May 15, 2006 and get your first 45 days FREE! Rackspace is different from other hosting providers. We are a service company that supports you and your people, not just the technology we provide-your servers, operating systems, data centers and network. It's a distinction that we call Fanatical Support--that will change the way you do business every day. And it's why our customers trust us to manage more than 20,000 servers. Click here to get your first 45 days free! "http://www.rackspace.com/promo/may13month45day.php?CMP=May_LinuxPipeline_Nwsltr" ----------------------------------------- Editor's Note: Flying Air Linux Would Bill Gates bet his life on a Linux PC? Actually, he'll have to entrust his safety to hundreds of them, every time he steps onto an airplane. Here's the story, from the current issue of FCW (which presumably stood for "Federal Computing Weekly," back in the good ol' days): The Federal Aviation Administration has saved $15 million by migrating computers that manage air traffic flow to Linux, according to an announcement issued last week. The upgrade is part of a broader service-oriented architecture initiative that will replace proprietary traffic management systems with applications using Java, Web services, open-source software and Oracle products.Traffic management sounds important -- the "people die like flies when we screw up" kind of important. That seems to be the case here: The air traffic flow system, called the Enhanced Traffic Management System, predicts traffic surges, gaps and volume across the national airspace. The FAA tracks about 8,000 airplanes at any given time. The agency uses the real-time analysis system to keep the skies running smoothly. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is on all traffic management systems at the traffic flow central processing facility, located at the Transportation Department's Volpe Center in Cambridge, Mass. More than 100 sites rely on the system for air traffic management, including military facilities and international sites.There's another interesting angle to this story: Unlike most government IT projects, this one won't end with anyone's head on a platter. After switching from a proprietary Unix system to Red Hat Linux, the cost of upgrading the traffic flow system dropped from $25 million to $10 million. The FAA also cut the time required to complete the project from 18 months to just six months. I know what you're thinking -- but there's no reason to go there. The article doesn't say a word about Microsoft or Windows, and without knowing a lot more about the project, it's unfair to read anything between the lines. More than anything else, I wanted to share this story because it shows just how far Linus Torvald's crazy science project has come over the past decade: Lives depend on Linux, and that idea is not even close to controversial anymore. In any case, it's hard to imagine Microsoft vilifying Linux the way it did not so long ago, while its employees log millions of miles traveling air routes where Linux plays the traffic cop. Or are Greyhound tickets about to become a very hot commodity? Have a good week, and stay in touch!
Matt McKenzie
Don't let future editions of Linux Pipeline Newsletter go missing. Take a moment to add the newsletter's address to your anti-spam whitelist: linuxed@techwire.com If you're not sure how to do that, ask your administrator or ISP. Or check your anti-spam utility's documentation. Thanks. Top Linux News Mozilla Pulls Major Firefox 2.0 Feature Mozilla Corp. developers yank one of the most prominent features from a planned Firefox 2.0 release -- a decision Mozilla staff members immediately played down, although some users are questioning whether the next Firefox release still deserves its "version 2.0" label.
U.S. Wants AT&T Lawsuit Dismissed On Security Grounds
VMware Leads Desktop Virtualization Push
Google Places Firefox Ad On Home Page
IBM Acquires BuildForge, Expands Rational Toolset
Sun Rolls Out New Storage Products, Solaris Focus
Group Seeks To Begin AT&T Depositions In Spy Case
Google Knocks Microsoft Over IE 7 Search Box
RIM Gets Sued--Again--As Mobile E-Mail Wars Rage On
MySQL Launches Community Development Site
Yahoo Implicated In Jailing Of Fourth Chinese Advocate Editor's Picks Internet Explorer 7: Has Firefox Met Its Match? The new public release of Internet Explorer Beta 2 is, according to Microsoft, more stable and ready for the general public to use. But is it ready to go up against Firefox?
New Sun CEO's Plan: Cut Costs, Stay The Course
Sourcefire Still On a Roll With 'Snort'
Sun's ZFS: Size Matters, But So Does Accuracy
JBoss: Red Hat's $350 Million Ticket To Ride Cast Your Vote Now! Red Hat and Novell aren't the only two enterprise Linux vendors -- but they are the only two that most people can name. That market dominance, however, may not be enough to allow either company to survive on its own. Can Novell and Red Hat survive the enterprise software jungle? Will Oracle turn either of them --or both of them -- into open-source roadkill? Let us know, cast your vote! Get More Out Of Linux Pipeline Try Linux Pipeline's RSS Feed Linux Pipeline's content is available via RSS feed: Get RSS link. The feed is also auto-discoverable to many RSS readers from the Linux Pipeline home page. Note: RSS feeds are not viewable in most Web browsers. You need an RSS reader, Web-based service, or plug-in to view RSS. Find out which RSS readers the Pipeline editors recommend.
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Rackspace: Managed Hosting Solutions backed by Fanatical Support? Sign a 13-month contract by May 15, 2006 and get your first 45 days FREE! Rackspace is different from other hosting providers. We are a service company that supports you and your people, not just the technology we provide-your servers, operating systems, data centers and network. It's a distinction that we call Fanatical Support--that will change the way you do business every day. And it's why our customers trust us to manage more than 20,000 servers. Click here to get your first 45 days free! "http://www.rackspace.com/promo/may13month45day.php?CMP=May_LinuxPipeline_Nwsltr" ----------------------------------------- We take your privacy very seriously. Please review our Privacy Policy.
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