Microsoft Strikes Linux Patent Deal With LG Electronics

Under a deal with LG Electronics, Microsoft will forego any Linux-related patent claims and in return gain access to certain intellectual property produced by LGE.

By Paul McDougall
InformationWeek
Jun 7, 2007 10:00 AM

In its second such agreement this week, Microsoft has struck a deal under which it will extend amnesty to a company that's using what the software maker claims is patented Microsoft intellectual property embedded in the open-source Linux computer operating system.

Under a deal with LG Electronics, disclosed late Wednesday, Microsoft will forego any Linux-related patent claims against the South Korean electronics manufacturer. In return, Microsoft will gain access to certain intellectual property produced by LGE.

Microsoft insists that the Linux kernel infringes on 42 Microsoft patents, and that other open-source software programs violate an additional 193. LGE uses Linux in a number of its consumer-electronics products, including smart phones.

In a statement, Jeong Hwan Lee, executive VP for intellectual property at LGE, said the intellectual property that his company is licensing to Microsoft concerns "patents directed to computer architecture utilized in game consoles and other products."

The deal also gives Microsoft access to technology used by LGE that's patented by MicroConnect Group.

Specific financial terms of the cross-licensing pact weren't disclosed, but Microsoft said the arrangement calls for it to make "net balancing" payments to LGE. That implies that the two companies have agreed that the technology to which Microsoft gains access is more valuable than the Microsoft technology claimed to be part of Linux.

Earlier this week, Microsoft announced a cross-licensing agreement with Linux distributor Xandros. That pact also includes a provision under which Microsoft pledges not to pursue patent claims against Xandros arising from its distribution of Linux.

Last November, Microsoft reached a similar accord with Novell.

The deals are controversial. The Free Software Foundation, which governs open-source software licensing, denies Microsoft's contention that Linux and other open-source programs contain Microsoft intellectual property.

The FSF is in the midst of updating its open-source license in ways intended to make it more difficult for Microsoft to strike patent-protection deals with Linux distributors and users.

Among other things, the forthcoming third version of the General Public License, expected to be released this summer, is backdated to forbid Linux distributors from entering patent protection deals with commercial software developers as of March 28.

It would also force participants in prior agreements to extend patent protection to all Linux users. The FSF is hoping the latter provision will convince Microsoft to exit the Novell deal.

Ironically, LG Electronics is a member of a group called the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum. The group comprises a number of electronics manufacturers that embed Linux into their products. On its Web site, CELF says part of its mission is "to operate completely within the letter and the spirit of the open-source community."

The FSF and other open-source advocates are likely to question whether LGE's tie up with Microsoft is part of that mission.

Source: www.informationweek.com

Red Hat author dishes on RHEL 5

Tammy Fox has worn many hats...


By Jack Loftus, News Writer
23 Apr 2007 | SearchEnterpriseLinux.com

Tammy Fox has worn many hats in the past for Red Hat Inc., including technical writer, lead of the documents team and founding editor of Red Hat Magazine. She has also been a professional Linux writer for the past seven years. In other words, she knows Red Hat Linux.

Fox's latest work, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Administration Unleashed, arrived this month intended as a tome of knowledge for intermediate to advanced Linux system administrators. Before it was published, Fox sat down with SearchEnterpriseLinux.com to provide some insight on the latest version of the Linux community's leading commercial distribution, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL 5).

What general best practices or tips can you share to make an upgrade to RHEL 5 a smooth one?

Tammy Fox: Performing an upgrade with the installation program basically updates any existing RPM packages on your system. If the new version of the package includes changes that make your existing configuration invalid, some packages will try to migrate your existing data, but it is not required.

The best practice is to have your data on a dedicated storage system that does not get reformatted during a fresh installation. Depending on the size of your organization, this can be a SAN, a data cluster, or just a set of dedicated hard drives in the system. Back up any existing data and configuration files, and perform a fresh installation. Restore your configuration files one by one, testing each program. Be sure to pay close attention to whether or not the software version has changed from your previous version of RHEL to RHEL 5. Finally, reconnect your data storage solution and perform any additional tests necessary.

Of course, all of these steps should be performed on a test system before the plan is implemented on a production system.

What are some key differences between what administrators see in RHEL 4 deployments, and RHEL 5 ones?

Fox: The most immediate change they will notice is the introduction of installation codes. During installation, an installation code must be entered. These codes are generated by Red Hat. Depending on what services you purchased, they unlock different RHEL 5 components such as virtualization and high availability. RHEL 5 also uses new RPM GPG keys. If upgrading, you will need to install the new keys before updating packages.

The next big noticeable change is the move to YUM for software management and maintenance. In previous versions of RHEL, the up2date command could be used to download and install software updates from Red Hat Network. It has been replaced with the YUM command, and all the up2date graphical program has been replaced with a graphical program that use YUM as well. If you schedule package updates and installation with the RHN Web site, you will not notice a difference.

Administrators must also consider whether to use the virtualization feature in RHEL5. (Editor's Note: Due to trademark issues, Red Hat currently refers to Xen-based hypervisor technology as virtualization.) If your hardware is supported and you have systems with enough resources to share between the host system and the virtual machines, virtualization can help reduce the number of physical machines that need to be maintained. If you are a hosting service or allow your customers shell access to their Web site, virtualization can be beneficial.

Administrators should read the release notes for a complete list of caveats and known issues with RHEL 5. For example, dual-booting with Windows Vista requires additional steps for GRUB to boot Windows Vista.

Has SELinux become any easier to use with RHEL 5?

Fox: As with any developing open source technology, SELinux is improving with each release and version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. Of course there will be IT managers who continue not to use SELinux, but the version in RHEL 5 has improved significantly.

With the introduction of the SELinux Management Tool and the SELinux Troubleshooter, it is much easier to determine which services and programs are protected by SELinux. It is also much easier to customize the policy without having to write your own policy. SELinux booleans are used for this and can be enabled and disabled with the SELinux Management Tool.

The SELinux Troubleshooter alerts administrators of when a service has failed to start due to SELinux. It also provides suggestions on how to work around the issue without just disabling SELinux protection for the service.

How has the typical Red Hat Linux administrator's job changed with the introduction of Xen to RHEL 5?

Fox: With the introduction of virtualization in RHEL 5, administrators must now consider whether to continue using individual physical servers for each operating system instance or whether the performance of a virtual machine (VM) will suffice. Certainly, Web hosting companies who offer dedicated Web servers will benefit from virtualization since each client can have their own IP address and guest OS. The VMs on a host system can't access the data on the other VMs or the host, so client data is separated, yet one physical server can serve multiple clients.

IT managers should know that there are hardware requirements for virtualization. Currently, virtualization on RHEL 5 is only supported on x86 and x86_64 systems. It is offered for the Itanium2 but only as a technology preview. In addition to the obvious need for enough processors, memory and disk space to dedicate to each VM, the processor must have Physical Address Extension support. To use full virtualization -- the guest OS does not have to be aware of the VM layer -- the processor must be 64-bit and must have a hardware virtual machine layer.

An eWEEK review of RHEL5 said the Xen support is "half-baked" -- what are your thoughts on this?

Fox: As with SELinux, you will see the virtualization support improve over time. The basic functionality is there. You can create a virtual machine, install a guest OS on the VM, and connect to the guest OS as if it is a OS running on a separate set of hardware. The VM has its own IP address, doesn't have access to the data on its host system, and so on.

There are still parts that can be greatly improved, as with any software when it is first introduced. Because it is open source, it is important to provide these types of new technologies so that they can be used by the masses and so other developers and companies will get behind it. A few of the known issues such as the virtual Machine Manager not being able to start the VM are listed in the RHEL 5 release notes. However, this particular issue has a workaround by starting the VM from the command line first. This issue is also discussed in my book.

Have a question or a comment about the article? Email Jack Loftus, News Writer or visit our new blog at the Enterprise Linux Log.

Pre-loaded Linux = Increased adoption?

> QUESTION POSED ON: 25 April 2007
Do you think Dell's idea to pre-load Linux on PCs will increase adoption or will people stick with what's familiar (e.g. Windows)? How can they overcome the usual hurdles of driver incompatibility and hardware issues?

> EXPERT RESPONSE

I think Dell pre-loading Linux will have a significant impact on Linux adoption, although not necessarily because so many end users comfortable with Windows will decide to switch. Rather, Dell's involvement will motivate many hardware manufacturers to make reliable Linux drivers available, the lack of which has significantly retarded the adoption of Linux by many individuals and organizations interested in trying out Linux.

By reducing the barrier of drivers and thereby enabling these trials, Linux will start to achieve some momentum, which will in turn increase its adoption rate. So, I applaud Dell for moving forward on this initiative.

Microsoft Windows ousted at California school district

By Jack Loftus, News Writer
28 Feb 2007 | SearchOpenSource.com

By all appearances, the migration from Microsoft Windows to Novell SUSE Linux on the server and the desktop at the Windsor Unified School District in Northern California has been almost as pain-free as any IT professional could hope for.

By this summer, all 5,000 students and 250 teachers will be working off of a Linux-based thin client running OpenOffice.org, and the majority of the district's servers will be running Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Server.

Closing Windows

Heather Carver, brought on as the director of technology and information services at Windsor in August 2006, said her hiring was a result of the district's desire to vet alternatives to a Windows upgrade for its network of seven schools.

When Carver arrived, Windsor had an aging Microsoft Windows environment running on 70 Hewlett-Packard and Dell servers spread across seven schools. Upgrades would have meant purchasing more powerful hardware and additional licensing costs totaling $100,000 – far too expensive for their limited IT budget, she said.

That said, Carver still investigated ways to remain on Windows, but an upgrade proved impossible. "We looked at keeping the physical environment, and how we could accomplish that. But in that scenario, if we could afford the software upgrades, then we could not afford the new hardware required to run it and vice versa," she said.

With Windows ruled out, Carver decided to standardize on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server with thin-client desktops running SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop. Novell won out because of what Carver perceived as better support for the thin client desktops she planned to use in the classrooms and faculty areas.

Using Wyse terminals, the district also planned to offer students and staff thin-client desktops running OpenOffice.org. Ericom software – a Citrix alternative -- enabled the terminals to run the district's existing and irreplaceable Microsoft Windows educational applications, including Type to Learn, Reading Counts and Kid Pix.

The migration officially began in January at the Brooks school building, one of seven schools in the district that would serve as the testing environment for the project. ZENworks, Novell's systems management product, was also installed to serve as a central management and monitoring hub for the other six sites when they go online this summer.

Identity hiccup

Windsor did go over a few speed bumps in the migration to Linux involving managing user identities and authentication. For Carver, the ID issues were not debilitating enough to deter her from making the switch from Windows to SUSE, but the issue was still noticeable.

Specifically, custom scripts had to be developed to perform tasks such as granting faculty access privileges to student grade information, for example. These tasks had to be completed locally on a server-by-server basis. "We had to add all the system's users one-by-one," Carver said. "That's a pain when you have 500 users."

This problem was especially apparent on the thin clients she had set up in classrooms and teacher workstations. "At our Brooks facility, the OS wasn't that easy to manipulate for our thin clients," Carver said. "I love the OS, but it is not built for the thin client."

Carver said Novell promised more identity support during the summer in the form of a software update.

Linux thrives

Ultimately, though, the migration from Windows to Linux progressed quite smoothly.

"Each site has a server room with 10 servers," Carver said, for a total of 70 servers running applications like file and print, plus Novell's ZENworks and GroupWise for collaboration.

In particular, implementing ZENworks as a help desk for teachers and staff has resulted in a 90% reduction in the amount of time it takes IT staff to resolve problems. "We basically had no help desk before, but in the new system, each user has a distinct name and log-in credentials. Most places have that already, I know," she said.

The new setup also allows for better remote management. "[With Windows] we had spent half our time driving around; we had to touch every machine," Carver said. In a school system like Windsor, all that driving was costing an already strapped IT department too many resources.

Carver said it cost the district about $2,500 per school to migrate to Linux, compared with the estimated $100,000 it would have cost to upgrade their Windows infrastructure. In addition, buying more Microsoft Office licenses would have cost the district $100 per license, she said, whereas OpenOffice was free.

Linux as a learning tool

Ultimately, moving to Linux has enabled the Windsor School District to build out technology capabilities that wouldn't have been possible with Windows.

"[The students] are able to do more because Linux cost less," Carver said. "Our new computer lab [at Brooks] was set to cost $35,000 and ended up costing us $16,000 with Linux [on thin clients]."

And the kids love it too. "The kids think Linux is cool because it's new, but what they're really doing is stepping into the 21st century," Carver said.