Open Source

At the LinuxTag conference, the leader of Munich's Linux migration project, Peter Hofmann, emphasised that the City of Munich has no intentions to switch its Linux desktops to Windows

Yahoo recently purchased Tumblr for a cool $1.1 billion. Tumblr pushes some surprisingly high numbers through their service, so aninside look at the architecture that Yahoo bought is well worth the read. The portion I found most interesting are the details on the MySQL database setup, and how Tumblr uses MySQL to scale massively, and keep the service available. High Scaleability interviewed Blake Matheny, Distributed Systems Engineer at Tumblr, who summed up their views on MySQL best: MySQL (plus sharding) scales, apps don’t. Nowhere in the discussion is mention of master-master replication, DRBD, or database clustering. Data in the database is replicated using standard master-slave MySQL replication, and, as quoted above, split between servers using sharding. Sharding, to grossly oversimplify, is the splitting of data between physical machines. In one example, Database A might hold all the user accounts for last names starting with letters A-M, and Database B might hold all the user accounts for last names starting with letters N-Z. The application would then need to look up in an index which database server would hold the account they were looking for. To scale this setup out horizontally from two servers to four, the database would be split four ways instead of two: A-G, H-M, N-T, U-Z, or something similar. Sharding provides a form of high availability in that even if one database server goes down, the entire application stays up, and only the users who’s accounts reside on the broken server would be affected. If you couple sharding with MySQL replication slaves for doing reads off of, it is even more likely that the application will “appear” to be up when a single database server is down. Appropriate error handling in the application could convey a message to the user indicating that something is wrong, and that the hosting company is working on it. Tumblr’s setup has survived more traffic than most sites will ever have to endure, and at a very high standard. When discussing Tumblr’s decision to move to a Java Virtual Machine and the Scala language, Blake said: …they target 5ms response times, 4 9s HA, 40K requests per second and some at 400K requests per second. The stats section towards the top of the article says the rest: 500 million page views a day 15B+ page views month ~20 engineers Peak rate of ~40k requests per second 1+ TB/day into Hadoop cluster Many TB/day into MySQL/HBase/Redis/Memcache Growing at 30% a month ~1000 hardware nodes in production Billions of page visits per month per engineer Posts are about 50GB a day. Follower list updates are about 2.7TB a day. Dashboard runs at a million writes a second, 50K reads a second, and it is growing. For many of us in smaller data centers, these numbers are pretty far out of our reach. Dumping “Many TB/day” into anything could cause a major problem with disk space. What fascinates me about Tumblr’s architecture is that 1) it is built entirely off of open source code, and 2) if Tumblr can scale their infrastructure with 4 9’s requirements and 500 million page views per day with MySQL, I think most of us can too. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software MySQL (14 alternatives, 9 reviews) Related Blog Posts Unix Architecture Showing it's Age (16 comments) Wikipedia Migrates to MariaDB (2 comments) Common Themes in Scaling (post comment)

It was just last week we looked at some of the proposed features for upcoming KDE 4.11 as it neared soft feature freeze. Well, today some new information about KDE 4.11 came to light. Aaron Seigo said today that 4.11 would be a "long term release." A long term release means a particular version will be kept up to date with stabilization and security updates for an extended period of time; in this case, two years. This will give distributions that skate safely in the well-worn groove of stability a chance to have a longer term plan and more stable offerings. Seigo said, "no new features [will be] added after 4.11.0 to Plasma Desktop and Netbook, though the code will be adjusted as needed to maintain and improve existing functionality." He believes this will help developers and distribution developers a chance to focus on polishing. For those that like upgrading each release Seigo said: This does not effect, in any way, anything other than the code currently in the kde-workspace repository. Applications are not affected, kdelibs and kderuntime will continue on as they currently are (with kdelibs in a feature freeze of its own already). I fully expect there to be a 4.12 and likely a 4.13 release of the applications, and how long that goes on will be up to the application developers and release team. Seigo continues as if this news will get ruffle some feathers. I suppose they've come to expect that any announcement will. He said focusing on stabilization and security for so long helped KDE 3.5 become so successful, but hopes any updates to 4.1x won't be overlooked when KDE built on QT5 and Plasma Workspaces 2 appear. So, hold on to your socks boys and girls, announcing a LTR is actually announcing KDE 5. It'll be here within two years if all goes as planned and distributions will begin including it. Additionally, Seigo took the opportunity to speak of "decoupling the Software Compilation" from the KDE base. He feels a longer release cycle than is the norm now would help developers make better apps. He said it's just getting too hard to get every little sub-project all ready to release at the same exact time. So, perhaps more independent development of the application stack would promote stability and less stressed developers (and release managers). Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Blog Posts KDE 4.11 Beginning to Take Shape (9 comments) LibreOffice, Blender, and KDE, Oh My (post comment) Mageia 3 Delayed Again a Bit (1 comment)

The Red Hat-sponsored Fedora operating system has a bit of a checkered history with the Raspberry Pi. It was originally the recommended operating system for the device before being stripped from the Raspberry Pi Foundation's downloads page, replaced by a version of Debian optimized for the Pi's ARMv6 chip. But Fedora is back on the Pi in the form of a new build developed by the Seneca Centre for Development of Open Technology in Toronto. It's called "Pidora." "It is based on a brand new build of Fedora for the ARMv6 architecture with greater speed and includes packages from the Fedora 18 package set," the Pidora team said today. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Project Hosting on Google Code provides a free collaborative development environment for open source projects. Each project comes with its own member controls, Subversion/Mercurial/Git repository, issue tracker, wiki pages, and downloads service. Downloads were implemented by Project Hosting on Google Code to enable open source projects to make their files available for public download. Unfortunately, downloads have become a source of abuse with a significant increase in incidents recently. Due to this increasing misuse of the service and a desire to keep our community safe and secure, we are deprecating downloads. Starting today, existing projects that do not have any downloads and all new projects will not have the ability to create downloads. Existing projects with downloads will see no visible changes until January 14, 2014 and will no longer have the ability to create new downloads starting on January 15, 2014. All existing downloads in these projects will continue to be accessible for the foreseeable future. If your project is using downloads to host and distribute files and has a need to periodically create new downloads, we recommend you move your downloads to an alternate service like Google Drive before January 15, 2014. If you choose to move your files to Google Drive, check out our help article. By Google Project Hosting

Similar in many ways to Dell's 'Project Ophelia' PC, this new device targets businesses with full-fledged manageability. read more

Chrome 27.0.1453.93 closes 17 security vulnerabilities for which Google has paid out almost $15,000. The newest version of the browser also improves page load speed for pages with many assets

In the growing world of online learning, Moodle has carved out a niche for itself. Moodle is a free, open source course management and webinar-production platform that we've written about many times on the OStatic blog. It provides a reat way to reach large online audiences for interactive events on topics ranging from marketing to tutorials, and there is a mobile app for it. Now, the Moodle community has announced version 2.5, adding hundreds of improvements that may be of special interest to teachers, students and administrators. Moodle 2.5 is available now for free download from the community site at http://moodle.org. Upgrades are supported from any previous version of Moodle, and if you don't have any experience with this e-learning platform, a certified Moodle Partner (http://moodle.com/partners) can help with upgrades, installation or customiing online coursework. Among many universities that use Moodle to deliver online courses, U.C. Berkeley offers Moodle-based, free online courses and lectures.  You can use Moodle to produce podcasts, include videos in online events, or deliver online presentations. According to the announcement, new features include: Use it on mobile: Moodle themes can now utilise the popular Bootstrap framework from Twitter. This means the appearance of Moodle can be attractive, flexible and responsive, allowing the site to perform equally well on desktops and mobile touch screens without additional work. In addition Moodle 2.5 supports the latest Moodle Mobile app for iOS and Android, which provides additional features for offline access to Moodle content and easy uploading of photos and videos from mobile devices. Improved usability: Moodle 2.5 has a host of smaller improvements for usability. Forms now look a lot simpler, with advanced settings being collapsed by default. Drag and drop images and text straight into a course page from the desktop or another browser window. Display course folders directly on the course page. Jump quickly between course sections, and more. This continues Moodle’s focus on usability improvements in every release. In this post, we also covered free online resources for getting started with Moodle. HowtoMoodle.com, in particular, is an excellent resource for people who would like to delve into this platform or perhaps build a quick online course. Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Software Moodle (add alternative, 2 reviews) Related Blog Posts Stanford's Class2Go to Offer Free Courses This Fall (post comment) MIT and Harvard Team Up on Open Source-Driven Online Education (post comment) Mobile Moodle App Arrives for Open Source e-Learners (post comment)

If you've been in the market for a portable computer, you may very well have considered buying a Chromebook. And, if you favor a particular Linux distro, perhaps Ubuntu or Mint, you may be interested in buying a $200 or $250 Chromebook only to put your favorite flavor of Linux on your new system. (The Acer system shown here sells for $199.) As we've reported, many OStatic readers have expressed interest in buying a Chromebook to run Linux. Now, there are very simple instructions for doing so online and a growing body of evidence that people are having good experiences with their Linux Chromebooks. The trend toward slapping Linux on Chromebooks will only pick up now that the latest version of the Linux kernel includes code for running Linux on the devices. You can read more about modifications to the Linux kernel for Chromebooks in Wired's story here.  But right here on OStatic, we've seen lots of evidence that readers are interested in buying inexpensive Chromebooks only to run Ubuntu, Mint or other Linux flavors on the systems. Here is one reader comment from this recent post:  "The only redeeming value of Chromebooks, the the ability to install Linux on them, in place of ChromeOS." There are videos on YouTube and other sites that show how easy it is to put a favorite Linux distro on a Chromebook, but one of the most straightforward tutorials appears on Lifehacker. In this post, you'll find a step-by-step guide to how to install Ubuntu and get a lot of extras out of a Chromebook. According to Lifehacker:  "[We] use a tool called Crouton to install Ubuntu (hat tip to our friends at the How-To Geek), which uses the chroot command to run Ubuntu on top of Chrome OS, which is already based on Linux. Unlike dual-booting, that means you can switch between Chrome OS and Ubuntu with a quick keyboard shortcut, no reboots necessary, which is awesome." One other OStatic reader wrote the following in response to a recent post: "In terms of size and weight, this is my dream computer; I tested it at Best Buy and fell head over heels in love. But agree with the comments above on Chrome OS. The question is, does it excel at running "standard" linux distros like Mint or Fedora? Can you post the link? If this runs Mint well, I would buy it today." The fact is, the low cost Chromebooks come with pretty solid hardware resources, and it's easy to run both Chrome OS and your favorite Linux version on a Chromebook. Look for this trend to continue as Google woos more hardware partners into producing Chromebooks at competitive prices.  Related Activities Comments (0) Post a Comment Ask a Question Related Blog Posts OpenMandriva Picks Name, Releases Alpha (post comment) Raspberry Pis Chained Together Provide Massive Computing Muscle (post comment) Mageia 3 Released with Steamy Goodness (post comment)

I recently spoke to Samsung's Ibrahim Haddad who is the head of the company's Open Source Group in Silicon Valley. He is leading efforts to find the best Linux and open source sofware talent to help Samsung maintain its market position and shares with us why this is a priority for the company, how they're finding this talent and what they're doing to attract and retain open source developers. Samsung is investing resources in setting up a Silicon Valley presence to attract  leading open source developer talent. Why is this a priority for the company? Haddad: It is not a secret to anyone how important open source and its ecosystem are to Samsung. During his keynote at The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit on April 15, 2013, Sang-bum Suh (VP, Software Platform in the Software R&D Center) emphasized the role and importance of open source at Samsung. I’d also like to stress that this goes beyond just communities such as Android and Tizen. As Dr. Suh alluded to, there are open source components in use across several Samsung product lines.  As a company, we realize that we need to move beyond just being good consumers of open source, and being a contributor to a few select projects, to being very active and strong contributors and thought leaders in the component communities that are the foundation for our software platform and used in many products. Why are Linux and open source developers in such high demand by Samsung? Haddad: Samsung uses Linux and open source software in a wide range of products: mobile phones, tablets, TVs, home appliances, cameras, etc. Software is a key differentiator and having great software talent is a significant added benefit that compliments the great hardware design talent that Samsung is famous for. Across Samsung, including at the Open Source Group, we are looking to hire Linux and Open Source developers to help drive innovation and collaboration within the company. We heard Samsung say at The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit that it has more than 20,000 developers. That's amazing. What does that mean to the company?  Haddad: In today’s technology environment, all kinds of companies are becoming software companies. Samsung is not very different from that perspective. We are very well known as a company that drives for innovation on the hardware side and creates great products across a wide range of consumer verticals. Software is a great differentiator and open source software is a core component of any software strategy. Having said that, Samsung is very much engineering-driven and we are looking for developers who can advance that function within the company. As for developing competence, there are several ways that include new hires, promoting internal developers with proper training and mentoring, and doing small acquisitions when appropriate. As part of the Open Source Group, our goal is to build a very positive image for Samsung in the open source space as a great place to work if you are an open source developer. We are creating the environment that will allow us to hire and retain talent. Internally, we are in the process of creating mentorship programs that will allow us to propagate that knowledge (not just technical, as there is an abundance of that) but also the open source development and collaboration know-how. Hiring top-tier development talent that already is used to working ‘The Open Source Way’ helps us with that goal of mentoring our existing developers. What does "talent" mean to Samsung? What kinds of people are you looking for to work in the open source community on behalf of Samsung? What skills are most important? Haddad: Great question and very timely as we are ramping up our open source group and we are in hiring mode now and for the next few years. I can speak to what talent means to the Open Source Group. We are looking for individuals who have strong technical competence in several open source technology areas (system, cloud, web, virtua