Software / Operating Systems

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:

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.

If you're not at the show, be sure to follow us @DellatVmworld on Twitter

The VMworld show is next week at the Moscone Center in San Francisco and we've got quite a show planned this year. We'll be there showing how our virtualization optimized solutions can help customers ‘Get More Virtual,’ meaning faster speed time to deployment for new projects and more value out of existing virtualization investments. 

Inside the booth, Dell will be demonstrating solutions for IT consolidation, data protection, disaster recovery, virtual desktops, data deduplication and systems management– All integrated with the latest VMware vSphere 4.0 cloud operating environment. 

The lab environment will include the latest vStorage enabled EqualLogic and CX4 offerings with 10GbE along with the virtualization optimized 11G servers for the efficient enterprise.  New this year will be a full DR site hosted at the Intel Booth (#1602)to show automated DR failover with vCenter Site Recovery Manager and we’ll also be cooperating with VMware on a technology demonstration in our booth of emerging PCoIP and CVP capabilities based on VMware View on Dell’s OptiPlex clients.

Besides all the latest gear, we will be presenting over 40 technical sessions inside the booth presentation theatre over 3.5 days and our Global Infrastructure Consultants  will be staffing the ‘ask-the-experts’ area to whiteboard your solution at the show. And of course, what would a VMworld be without Mini 10 Netbook giveaways every day; it’s a simple as collecting raffle tickets at the Dell Keynote, breakout session and from Dell Reps at the show – the more tickets the better are your chances!

Here’s a few of the breakout sessions that Dell is participating in and gives you an idea of some of the areas of our focus and energy.

• Dell Keynote Presentation: How to Get Ahead in the Cloud With Your Feet Planted Firmly on the Ground (SS5000)
• Amplify the Economic Benefits of Virtualization  (VM5040)
• Data Center Optimization through Virtualization:  Compute More, Consume Less  (VM5560)
• Advanced Data Protection for Microsoft SQL and Exchange Server in a VMware Environment  (BC3387)
• How DELL Uses Virtualization: Paving the Path to Large-scale Distributed Computing (TA3402)

A couple of interesting notes on a few of these breakout sessions.

• SS5000 In the keynote, Praveen Asthana, VP of Storage and Networking, will be discussing how Dell’s efficient enterprise strategy can help you get into the cloud, simply and cost effectively;
• BC3387 is effectively a free hour of data protection consulting from myself and Darren Miller to provide a framework for deploying and protecting your Tier-1 apps in a Virtual Environment.  Due the high levels of pre-registrations, VMware has added a second session! Be sure to come by.

In addition, here are a couple of breakout sessions by Dell customers and partners.

• Building a High Availability and Disaster Recovery Solution with VMware (V12226). This session is being delivered by Justin Lauer from Campbell Clinic highlighting how he is was able to build a highly available and resilient virtualized environment with Dell EqualLogic equipment and vSphere 4.0. For more on his implementation, check out our webcast.
• Protecting the Corporate Infrastructure: Leveraging Site Recovery Manager for Multi-Site DR Protection (BC2760). This break-out features Tim Antoniwicz from Mosaic Technologies, a Dell PartnerDirect reseller, and William Perault from Crane & Co. They will discuss their methodology to implementing VMware’s vCenter Site Recovery Manager on Dell server and storage platforms to provide automated disaster recovery for Crane & Co’s data center.

And of course we’ll have a whole slew of virtualization experts on hand to consult with VMworld attendees.  In fact, there will be presentations on a variety of topics all day long right in our booth.  So please stop by the Dell booth (#1801) and be sure to check your bag insert and show guide for complete details.

And if you can’t make it to the show, our TechCenter has put up a Dell site at the VMworld virtual exhibitor booth so keep tabs on us there. Also be sure to follow @DellatVmworld on Twitter and tune into our YouTube channel for videos directly from the show.

Since Brandon LeBlanc blogged on the topic of the Windows 7 RTM yesterday, there's been some buzz in the the blogosphere. There's even more now that Microsoft has made the Windows 7 RTM date official. In another blog post, Brandon confirms that today's the day for the Windows 7 RTM.

So, what does the RTM date mean to consumers?  Essentially, nothing new. It's a necessary step in the process of making Windows 7 will be available to you on October 22. That's when you'll be able to buy a new Dell machine with Windows 7 installed. It's also when you can go to your favorite retailer to purchase a copy. We'll continue testing lots of different Dell systems with the OS to deliver the best Windows 7 experience we can.

The Windows 7 RTM has more ramifications for corporate customers. That's why Jeremy Bolen published his thoughts on the Windows 7 RTM on Inside Enterprise IT.

While the 'CSI effect' has glamorised and highlighted the importance of forensics to the public, it bears little reality to the hard work, long hours and challenges faced by the analysts who extract evidence from digital devices. In the real world, police forces are experiencing major problems when it comes to ingesting, storing and analysing digital evidence. The amount of digital evidence that needs to be reviewed is growing at a huge rate, and this is putting forensic experts under pressure to analyse data quickly and accurately to help secure arrests and convictions. Rather than CSI, the issue reminds me of the scene in Jaws, where - after seeing exactly what they were up against - Brody (played by Roy Scheider) decides that they're "gonna need a bigger boat."

So it was good to be talking about the 'bigger boat' at this year's ACPO conference in Manchester, UK. I was there to launch Dell's digital forensics solution, which I believe will truly transform the digital forensics analysis process. Instead of saving suspect evidence on individual PCs, which can take between 24-48 hours, analysts can save time by storing the evidence directly in the data centre, so that multiple people can access the information. Analysts will be able to multitask as they can work on several cases simultaneously, while running different versions of forensic software from their own individual workstations. A "Google- like" tool will allow analysts to easily search through evidence, link to previously unrelated cases and, because evidence will be available at the touch of a button, it will allow them to share information with other countries, agencies and forces. More details on the benefits can be found in our Digital Forensics Solution Blueprint.

We had lots of people visit the stand to find out more about our solution. We also announced it to the media, and seeing the news travel around the world online was fantastic - as was the amount of tweets, which seemed to go on for days!

We performed three live demos for delegates on our stand. The demos went through how our solution works and what benefits this new approach can yield such as increased productivity, better storage and being able to share data quickly.

You can see highlights from the demos and learn more about the solution by watching the video below: