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Colocation America Blog
showing 111 - 120 of 271 post(s)
on: 11-09-2011 / By:
The popularity list at Distrowatch.com ranks the linux distributions by analyzing the amount of page hits on their respective sites and pitting the numbers up against each other. For the first time in years, it seems Ubuntu has started to lose ground. Linux Mint has taken the top of the leader board in terms of traffic, and has been making a strong run as of late.
In the wake of the Ubuntu Unity uproar, Linux Mint has taken the top spot, which comes as a surprise because Linux Mint 12 RC has not been released yet. It is speculated that once the twelfth release candidate is distributed, it will have an even stronger holding on the top position. According to the Linux Mint blog, their traffic has seen a remarkable 40% increase in just one month. While this says relatively little about the quality of their products, Ubuntu dedicated server owners should take a look at Linux Mint in the coming weeks to see what all the fuss is about.
on: 11-07-2011 / By:
Linux and UNIX-based operating systems have used the same traditional way of organizing files ever since 1979. Fedora is planning to change this for the better with the release of a new hierarchal file system. A drastic modification to the way the file system stores binary applications could revolutionize file storage, if they manage to pull it off successfully.
The idea started as a proposal by Red Hat developers Kay Sievers and Harald Hoyer in order to clean up their sbin and bin directories. By splitting up the directories and directing them into a single mounted volume, it will be far easier to execute multiple instances of the operating system using multiple machines on the same network. If Fedora can manage to complete this proposal, we will be seeing a lot of performance improvements as to how all Linux dedicated servers operate.
on: 11-04-2011 / By:
Processor producer AMD started a new restructuring plan in their company infrastructure yesterday, which includes a 10% cut from their workforce. These layoffs will affect all global departments of AMD and across all functions. Through this move, AMD hopes to save 10 million dollars in the fourth quarter, and approximately $120 million in the next year. The figures were stated in the company news release, in which CEO Rory read stated, "Reducing our cost structure and focusing our global workforce on key growth opportunities will strengthen AMD's competitiveness and allow us to aggressively pursue a balanced set of strategic activities designed to accelerate future growth." AMD hopes to offer a more competitive cost structure through this restructuring plan, which can translate to great news to anyone running a dedicated server using AMD processors.
on: 11-02-2011 / By:
Mark Shuttleworth praised the Ubuntu One team and its Windows launch at the Ubuntu Developer Summit this week. Ubuntu One spreads the linux experience to users on Windows platforms and offers the ability to sync files onto the users personal cloud. Ubuntu One was previously only available for Ubuntu Linux and Android users, but has recently made the successful jump over to Windows.
Just in this month alone, there are over 100,000 new users for Ubuntu One, and a quarter of them had never used Ubuntu before. Does this translate to new adopters of Linux? No one can be sure yet, but what it does tell us is that there is an interest. We're excited about the possibilities for a cross Windows and Linux dedicated server platform, and will be following Ubuntu closely in the next coming weeks.
on: 10-31-2011 / By:
The group behind the popular linux distribution Ubuntu has announced their plans of expansion toward the smartphone and tablet industry. Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth will go into detail at the Ubuntu Developer Summit, which is being held in Orlando this week. Shuttleworth made it clear that he and Canonical want to "bring Ubuntu to all the personal computing form factors, on phones, tablets, and smart-screens."
This is a bold but not surprising move from Canonical, who faces tough competition in the tablet and smartphone markets. Android is used by almost 40 percent of all smartphones in the U.S., and Windows 8 OS is on the horizon. Shuttleworth believes that Ubuntu can offer a developer and user friendly environment that the others cannot. These plans are following the controversial transition over to the Unity interface, which was done to provide more flexibility on platforms. Time will tell if this will impact Ubuntu dedicated server and desktop users, and we're hoping for the best.
on: 10-28-2011 / By:
The official tenth version of Asterisk released today, showing just as much potential and functionality as its predecessors. The key new feature is support for media codec which is referred to as "the wide-band media engine" by its creators. Asterisk 10 improved its video aspects, implementing a high definition conferencing bridge called ConfBridge that has video support as well. Essentially, Asterisk is spreading its wings and branching off from solely telephony and is transitioning into a full featured unified communication platform.
At center stage, the founder of Digium has commented on this latest transition. "Working with the open source community, we've added a wide range of capabilities that enable Asterisk to provide outstanding support for more types of media," remarked Mark Spencer. With the release of Asterisk 10, Digium will not turn more attention to its other project, Asterisk Scalable Communications Framework (SCF). SCF focuses on building a more scalable VoIP infrastructure.
on: 10-26-2011 / By:
We had wrote earlier about the unusually long 3.1 release cycle compared to the typical release cycle with fewer release candidates. Having gone through ten release candidates, Linux 3.1 kernel should be ready and released by as early as next week. Unfortunately, it is no time to celebrate for Linus Torvalds, who fears that the successor to this latest kernel, Linux 3.2 kernel, may end up being inconveniently large and troublesome.
As a response to discussion on the mailing list for Linux kernel releases regarding the future Kernel Summit in Czech Republic and if the event is going to halter progress on development for 3.2, Linus states that it should not be a problem. For him, the summit is merely a four day period and then the kernel merge process will be open for two weeks per release cycle again. He instead worries about the size of the newest kernel, rather than the timing on releases. Torvalds shows a rare hint of vulnerability in this statement, but having identified the problem and addressing it will only mean improvements for 3.2 before it is released to the public. Linux dedicated server owners should keep an out of on the developments for this new kernel and its size.
on: 10-25-2011 / By:
Drew Leonard, VP of Colocation and Product Management for Savvis, recently shed insight on the current position of the colocation market in the United States and the world today. Within the United States, Leonard feels the colocation market is thriving, driven by high demand and activity in key cities such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, and a recent growth in northern California metropolitan areas. On an even brighter note, newer hotspots for colocation have begun to spring up such as Seattle and Atlanta, in order to compensate the demand for colocation in large metropolitan areas with smaller data infrastructures compared to cities such as Los Angeles.
As for the international colocation scene, the United Kingdom is enjoying continous growth as well, despite troubles in the financial services sector in the region. Meanwhile in Asia, Singapore is a front leader for colocation, along with Hong Kong and promising growth in mainland China.
Overall, the tone of the market has shown that there is more support and confidence in the reliance on colocation and managed services. Businesses recognize the economies of scale when regarding IT and data infrastructures and are opting for colocation as a means of cost effectiveness. Leonard shed light on other topics such as shifts in market trends, but the overwhelming message is that colocation is still on the rise even in tough global economic times.
on: 10-24-2011 / By:
Ubuntu started nearly seven years ago and is still going strong, releasing updates at a decent pace as one of the mainstream Linux distribution. Also known as "Precise Pangolin", Ubuntu is releasing the successor to last week's release dubbed 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot". Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical, has noted in a blog post that the newest release is going to be both beautiful and memorable. The most notable aspect of this new release is Ubuntu's fourth LTS (Long Term Support) release.
The new operating system will implement minimal infrastructure or platform-visible updates. Instead, the development team has turned their interests to the stability of the platform, and long term hardware scalability. Desktop interface is another large focus point of the release, with the transitions to Unity and GNOME 3 already finished in recent patches. Overall, Ubuntu's Precise Pangolin seems to be great news for anyone operating an Ubuntu dedicated server and desktop users alike.
on: 10-19-2011 / By:
Fedora Project has recently released the preliminary beta for their new distribution Fedora 16. Also known as Verne, named after their desktop artwork theme based on Jules Vernes, author of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The latest beta release is looking to be a serious competitor to the other major recent Linux distribution in Ubuntu 11.10, which has swept up some controversy over its Unity changes. As for Fedora 16, big changes include the inclusion of GNOME 3.2, the latest update to GNOME 3 shell.
This is important to note as Ubuntu abandoned GNOME in lieu of their new Unity system. Unofficially, Fedora's mainstream success as a linux distribution makes it a flagship for GNOME 3 desktop. Anyone running a Fedora dedicated server or is a fan of the GNOME 3 shell should look into the specific features of the latest Fedora beta, which is looking to be a great distribution in the future.
