Direct2Dell : Linux

Dell Linux Engineering to participate in UDS-L (November 16-20)

DELL-Amit B — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I'd like to announce that Dell Linux Engineers will hit the road to Dallas, TX to participate in the upcoming Ubuntu Developers Summit for Lucid Lynx (UDS-L) from December 16 - 20 Correction: November 16 - 20.

Lucid Lynx is the code name for the upcoming release of Ubuntu, versioned 10.04. This is a significant release for Canonical and Dell as this it will be an LTS (Long Term Support) meaning it will be supported by Canonical for three years on the Desktop and five years on the Servers. UDS is the forum where the Ubuntu Linux Community Developers and System Integrators (like Dell) come together to discuss and hash out the feature roadmap for the next release of Ubuntu Linux. Issues that need fixing, features that need developing are all spec'd out, prioritized and based in this week-long marathon of discussions and brainstorms. At the end of the summit, the final Blueprints are published. These Blueprints are reflective of what to expect in the next release of Ubuntu Linux. This sort of "transparent" planning is what differentiates the open-source projects such as Ubuntu Linux from their "closed-source" counterparts.

Mario Limonciello will be hitting the road with me. We both work in the core Ubuntu Linux engineering team at Dell responsible for delivering Ubuntu Linux on various desktops, notebooks and netbooks globally. Making guest appearances on random days of the summit will be Doug Anson who works for the Office of the CTO responsible for architecture of Client Linux across Dell as well as John Hull who is the Engineering Manager for the Linux team at Dell.

I will be leading a plenary on "Preloading Ubuntu" on the second day of the summit right after lunch hour. In addition, we will all be participating in many different sessions that span across several different tracks such as Desktop, Kernel, QA, Community etc. So, come out and join us or remotely participate.

Dell Recovery Tool Enhancements

DELL-Mario L — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Today I'd like to announce some new features that have been introduced to the dell-recovery tool that we are shipping with Ubuntu machines. As you might have been aware, the dell-recovery tool takes the content of a Linux Dell recovery partition and builds it into a bootable ISO image that can be burned using usb-creator or CD image burning software. When booted up, this image emulates a run through the open source portions of the Dell factory process.

This new enhancement is an optional image builder mode. The image builder mode allows you to build recovery media with these same customizations, but with content that is not necessarilly shipping from Dell factories.
This means that even if you didn't purchase a machine with Ubuntu, you can still build an image that is representative of the (open source) content you get from a Dell factory install of such a machine.

Of course due to the nature of the tool and Ubuntu variants being so similar, you can even generate media for other remixes or derivatives of Ubuntu such as Kubuntu with a few small modifications.

I've set up a wiki page on the Dell Community wiki that explains the current usage of the tool. Feel free to add comments to the comments section or make modifications to the page if you can improve to it.
The updated tool can be found at the dell-recovery product page on launchpad. Feel free to raise any questions about the tool on the dell-recovery mailing list on launchpad.

Ubuntu Linux 9.04 - Technical Details

DELL-John Hull — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 06:05:00 GMT

Note from Lionel: It's been a while since I've talked about Linux on Direct2Dell. Shortly after Ubuntu 9.04 was released in April 2009, we had a request from IdeaStorm user Shannon VanWagner to start pre-loading 9.04. Though it's late, we're now offering Ubuntu 9.04 on a few more Dell machines to customers in the United States. Specifically the Studio XPS 13, Inspiron 15, and the Inspiron 537 desktop. The Mini 10 and the 10v are still running a customized version of the 8.04 version of the Ubuntu OS. And the Mini 10v can be ordered with Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition.

To see all the systems we're offering with Linux, go to www.dell.com/ubuntu.

With that context, I'll turn things over to John Hull so he can shed light on what to expect from Ubunu 9.04.

--Lionel

----------------------------------

I'd like to give a quick update on the technical details for what we have added with our 9.04 release. We have continued to build and improve upon on what we did for our previous Ubuntu offerings, and here are some of the highlights:

We now provide Cyberlink's PowerDVD application for DVD playback (instead of LinDVD which we previously shipped). We also continue to provide Fluendo GStreamer codecs for mp3, wma, and wmv playback, which will work with your favorite Linux media player.
We created and provided a new GUI tool for creating recovery/restore media for the OS
We provide a new method to recover your Ubuntu preload from the hard drive
We have chosen to use GRUB 2 bootloader instead of the Ubuntu default GRUB 1 (a.k.a. GRUB legacy) bootloader. We have been testing GRUB 2 for over a year now, and feel it is ready for general use. The Ubuntu community has decided to make GRUB 2 the default in Ubuntu 9.10, so our customers will already have that feature enabled.
A common complaint we heard a few years ago was that there were no Linux drivers for Dell wireless cards. As of the date of this blog post, all currently-shipping Intel- and Dell-branded wireless cards (as well as most from the past several years) are now supported natively in Ubuntu 9.04. These drivers should also be included in most other newer Linux distributions as well.
Our Ubuntu 9.04 offering is still the 32-bit version and not the 64-bit version ("amd64" architecture). We continue to evaluate when to make the transition, and the main sticking point continues to be solid, stable Adobe Flash support for 64-bit. There are currently options
available in the community, including a beta of a native 64-bit Flash
plugin. However, none of these have proven to be reliably stable, so we'll continue working with Adobe until a viable option is available.

For more information, our Dell wiki page for 9.04 can be found at the previous link. If you would like to download and install 9.04 with our custom Ubuntu ISO, it can be downloaded here.

As always, please report any OS issues in Launchpad, or you can always ask any general questions to our linux-desktops mailing list..

Update: Fixed broken links

Latitude ON Arrives

Lionel_Menchaca — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:05:00 GMT

Latitude ON is a concept we've mentioned during the introduction of our Latitude E family of business laptops last year. You may have seen posts from sites like Engadget that discussed it in more detail. We figured the introduction of the Latitude Z was a good reason to start shipping the full hardware plus software version of Latitude ON.

Latitude ON is basically a system on a system. It's based on a dedicated low-voltage ARM processor (Texas Instrument's OMAP 3430 processor) that runs a slimmed-down version of a Linux OS. It allows a user to boot into the contained OS environment to give you always-on access to an Firefox-based Internet browser (without Flash support) and critical business information while using a fraction of the battery power your laptop uses when it's running a full OS. Essentially, you can quickly access all the information you're used to accessing on a smartphone using the larger screen and keyboard that your laptop provides.

To see what I mean by quick access, take a look at this boot comparison video:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Here's a more detailed look at the features:

Instant access (about 2 seconds) to business information
(E-mail, calendar, contacts, Internet browser & Citrix Receiver client)
MS Exchange integration or POP e-mail Access
Always on/connected - the module continues to run regardless of the state of the main OS
Ability to view MS Office and .pdf document attachments
Long battery life (about 17 hours on a 6-cell battery)
Designed for the future with upgradable infrastructure (flash-based software updates)

Here's another StudioDell video which features a good overview about how the full version of Latitude ON works:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Latitude ON allows you to connect via Wi-Fi or embedded mobile broadband. I say embedded because in Latitude ON mode, the external ports aren't active. We've been shipping Latitude ON-ready Latitude E4200 and E4300 systems for a while now. Essentially, that means they can run the Latitude ON Reader software. In contrast to the full version, the Reader software resides on the main partition of the hard drive and provides access to e-mail, calendar and contacts from the last synched version of your Outlook data.

We will offer the hardware upgrade option to existing Latitude E4200 and E4300 customers via a customer kit for purchase. I'll update this post with more details about the kit when I have them. All Latitude Z systems will feature the full version of Latitude ON, complete with the processor hardware.

Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition Available on Dell's Mini 10v

DELL-John Hull — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 18:00:00 GMT

Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition for the Inspiron Mini 10v is here. As we shared at the Intel Developer Forum today, Dell and Canonical have worked closely to ensure good hardware/software compatibility, and seamless integration between Ubuntu and Moblin. For those not familiar, Moblin is an open source project, created by Intel and hosted by the Linux Foundation, focused on building a Linux-based platform optimized for mobile devices. It has a unique user interface focused on using the Internet, social networking activity, and media consumption, and is optimized for small screens. The Moblin project recently released version 2.0, which includes many new features such as the myzone home screen panel, aggregation of social networking content (such as Twitter, last.fm, and instant messaging), a web browser optimized for the user interface, a "zoomable" media player, and an updated connection manager with a new user interface.

For a bit more, watch this demo from Doug Anson:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Canonical, the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution, has combined the core Moblin Version 2.0 interface, libraries, and applications with the internals of Ubuntu Linux 9.04 to create a new Linux distribution, Ubuntu Moblin Remix. We have labeled this distribution as a "Developer Edition", as it is still a work in progress at this time. We are currently targeting developers, Linux enthusiasts, and early adopters who want to get an early look at the software and begin developing for Moblin, participating in the community, and using new technology.

Ubuntu Moblin Remix Developer Edition can be purchased factory-installed on an Inspiron Mini 10v on from www.dell.com/ubuntu. To download the Ubuntu Moblin Remix installation image, or for more information, please visit our Moblin wiki page

Dell Announces Masters Program for Dell TechCenter

DELL-Bruce Eric — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Earlier this week I blogged about my data center colleagues over at Dell's Enterprise Technology Center (aka Dell TechCenter). They are a community of system-admins, data center managers and other technical people that are on the hunt for new ways to get more out of their data center servers, storage and networking equipment.

This week, Dell TechCenter launched the Dell Masters Program, a network of technical superstars within Dell TechCenter who create and contribute community content (scripts, whitepapers, videos etc.) based on their own experiences, ideas and innovations.

Take a look at a post written by Dell-Scott H (aka @dellservergeek or Scott Hanson by his wife, colleagues and friends) on the Dell TechCenter blog announcing the new program. He walks you through how to get registered and why stinkin' badges are not part of this program.

Editor-in-Chief Tom Kolnowski sums it up nicely, "The Dell Masters Program is all about using deep peer-to-peer networking."

Dell @ the Red Hat Summit This Week

DELL-John Hull — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:05:00 GMT

The Red Hat Summit is taking place September 1-4 in Chicago, and Dell will be an active participant in the activities. We're an "Enterprise Sponsor" of the event, and we'll have a both in the partner pavilion, showing off our latest and greatest servers as well as giving away flashlights and USB keys for those that come by.

We also have two Dell engineers leading technical sessions during the summit. The first session is on Wednesday at 1 PM, titled "Simplifying Linux iSCSI Management with iSNS", and is lead jointly by Dell's Shyam Iyer along with Mike Christie from Red Hat. They'll be discussing simpler, faster ways to achieve storage LUN/volume provisioning through a single management console. The second session is lead by one of Dell's Linux Technology Strategist in the Office of the CTO, Matt Domsch. His session takes place on Friday at 11 AM, and is titled "Simplifying New Server Deployment." Matt will be discussing how Dell and Red Hat are simplifying new server deployment using Red Hat Enterprise Linux's device driver update model and Dell's built-in systems management features.

Click here to find more details on the Dell sessions and a complete list of all the other sessions going on during the Red Hat Summit.

If you're attending the Red Hat Summit, please stop by the both and/or the technical sessions to meet us. We'd love to hear any feedback you have around running Linux on Dell systems.

Dell on Google's Chrome OS and More

DELL-Doug A — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:00:00 GMT

There's been a lot of buzz in the blogosphere since Google announced the Chrome OS last week. For those of you who didn't follow the discussions, the Chrome OS is an experience-targeted cloud OS that has the potential to push the boundaries and definition of the alternative operating environment. According to Google's blog post, the Chrome OS is specifically targeted towards the netbook class device. While there's still lots of questions about the OS, the idea has potential. I think it will be interesting to see what the interaction between Chrome OS and Android will ultimately be within the cloud. Given that Google has made it clear that the Chrome OS will be available in the second half of 2010, there's still a lot of time to see how this will develop. As with most new technology, Dell plans to evaluate the Chrome OS and other alternative operating environments, like we've done in the past. Luckily (for me!), Dell enjoys a great relationship with Google. As we have more details to share on the topic, we'll do it here.

Alternative operating systems, continue to evolve, flourish and prosper. Over the last 18 months, we have seen Linux and its derivatives make their way into the hands of consumers (hooray!!). We have also seen smartphone and MID operating systems such as Android and the Palm Pre's WebOS showing signs of enthusiasm and prosperity. It's a wonderful time to witness and participate in such a renaissance within the PC and small device industry. These alternative operating environments are truly "different" from the traditional Windows platform - they don't attempt to simply "mimic" Windows.

Alternative operating system provide users with an focused experience: highlighting a particular feature - such as web browsing, email, or media consumption. Within Dell, we call this an "experience-targeted" platform as it represents the primal focus of the alternative environment: direct and focus the user towards a specific set of features (or "experiences" in marketing terms). Most alternative operating environments also come with this "focused" feature. As is typically the case, these alternative operating environments are not Windows compatible - they do not run the standard Windows/Win32 applications that are so common. This can be seen as a disadvantage. However, these alternative operating environments attempt to address this shortcoming by focusing their feature set with a self-directed experience: entice and direct the user to its strengths.

Moblin is the next evolutionary step of the traditional Linux environment where focus on smaller devices and small screens is a requirement. It takes a different approach to its user experience from either Dell's current offering or Ubuntu Netbook Remix by further simplifying the self-directedness of the desktop - no user guide should be needed to learn how to use Moblin. Additionally, Moblin replaces some of the traditional Linux applications, such as media players, browsers, etc..., with equivalent versions that have been specifically optimized to align with this new design behavior/look and feel of Moblin. Applications take up the entire desktop in Moblin (because screen real estate is a premium in these kinds of devices). Hence, applications that are optimized around that behavior provide a greater user experience over the traditional Linux version of the same application. Moblin continues this theme by providing a new simplified network connectivity manager - one that again, looks and behaves like a more integrated application within the Moblin desktop. Like our Linux offering on Mini netbooks and UNR, simplicity is a key design element in Moblin. Users of Moblin see a targeted feature set (browsing, social networking/email, media) and the entire Moblin desktop directs and focuses the user on those features. Dell is very interested in Moblin at present and is working very closely with its key Moblin partners (Intel and Canonical) investigating potential offerings.

Add this all up, and down the road this means that customers will have all kinds of choices on the OS side. If you're into open source options, I predict lots of exciting times ahead for us all!

Dell Mini 10v and Other Operating Systems

Lionel_Menchaca — Tue, 19 May 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about netbooks via IdeaStorm and through @Dell_Mini on Twitter since we asked you to join us last week. Since then, we've received lots of ideas and have over 150 followers on Twitter. We look forward to your continued feedback.

One of the first things we noticed at our @Dell_Mini Twitter account was that some of you are interested in running Android on a Dell Mini. I went looking for Doug Anson who’s one of our software gurus in the Office of the CTO to get his thoughts. He and other folks at Dell like him are responsible for investigating future technology options in our products.

Update: Just saw a tweet from Doug that he's kicking the tires on Moblin.

In this video, he shows off a couple of Mini 10v systems running Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Android where he had network and browsing functionality without too much of a fuss.

For more, take a look:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Wolfram Alpha -- "An Invention That Could Change The Internet Forever"

DELL-Bruce Eric — Tue, 12 May 2009 22:56:00 GMT

There's been a fair bit of discussion recently about Wolfram Alpha's upcoming launch of what they are calling their "computational knowledge engine."

The Independent wrote a lengthy article on the capabilities of the new search tool, suggesting that it is "an invention that could change the Internet forever." They summarize what they consider to be the major milestones of the Internet with Wolfram Alpha's launch as one of seven events that are remarkable.

Worldwide network: A brief history of the internet (source: The Independent, May 3, 2009)

1969 The internet is created by the US Department of Defense with the networking of computers at UCLA and the Stanford Research Institute.
1979 The British Post Office uses the technology to create the first international computer networks.
1980 Bill Gates's deal to put a Microsoft Operating System on IBM's computers paves the way for almost universal computer ownership.
1984 Apple launches the first successful 'modern' computer interface using graphics to represent files and folders, drop-down menus and, crucially, mouse control.
1989 Tim Berners-Lee creates the world wide web – using browsers, pages and links to make communication on the internet simple.
1996 Google begins as a research project at Stanford University. The company is formally founded two years later by Sergey Brin and Larry Page.
2009 Dr Stephen Wolfram launches Wolfram Alpha.

Other's haven't lacked opinions and reviews of the service. Cnet's Rafe Needleman and Stephen Shankland got an inside look and have given their thoughts in this article and in this one, as have ZDNet's Sam Diaz and Larry Dignan.

Just when everyone had become overly fixated on who would acquire Twitter, along comes a company from Champaign, Illinois, to shake things up. For those under the age of 25, Champaign is home to the University of Illinois and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), where the NCSA's Marc Andreesen and Eric Bina created Mosaic, considered to be the first popular graphical browser for the World Wide Web.

Wolfram Alpha published a blog post today outlining the two companies they are working with to bring their new service to market. R Systems Inc. has built the 44th fastest supercomputer (per the June 2008 TOP500 list) known as the R-Smarr powered by a Dell Data Center Solutions (DCS) server solution. Dell DCS also provided another supercomputer based on quad-board, dual-processor, quad-core Harpertown servers for their data center.

There are many more details on Wolfram Alpha to come soon.