Podcasts
LinuxWorld.com > LinuxCast
LinuxCast
Don Marti brings you the latest Linux news and interviews with Linux insiders.
August 14, 2008
Connecting with kernel developers: Jon Corbet
Need a feature in Linux, and don't want to face the firehose of information on linux-kernel? Jon Corbet, author of the Linux Foundation's new kernel contribution guide, explains where to go to get started, what the kernel developers are looking for from a new contributor, and how a hardware vendor can develop an open source driver while keeping hardware data confidential. (11:27)
July 31, 2008
Riding the rails with Chris DiBona
Don Marti and Jeremy Allison corner Chris DiBona, Google's open source program manager, about his role as software license gatekeeper, the politics of network neutrality and Thomas the Tank Engine, a couple of annoying bugs, and of course the upcoming Golden Penguin Bowl at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. (49:19)
July 30, 2008
New Samba offers encryption, Vista compatibility: Jeremy Allison
We're splitting the LinuxWorld podcast into two: the existing interview series, plus a new talk show with Jeremy Allison and Don Marti. In the first episode of the new show, we discuss the latest release of Samba, SMB encryption, Linux hatred, why Vista can catch the blame for Samba bugs, Microsoft OOXML, and the upcoming LinuxWorld Conference and Expo. (49:05)
July 18, 2008
A lighter, simpler MySQL: Brian Aker
Brian Aker, a principal engineer for MySQL at Sun, explains the Drizzle project: a new, stripped-down derivative of MySQL that relies on best-of-breed internal libraries, eliminates support for obsolete platforms, and has already attracted contributors from outside Sun.
July 17, 2008
Scavenging code: Ken Krugler
This podcast covers an essential skill for the modern developer: scavenging code. Whether it's using open-source components in their entirety, grabbing a line or two, or anywhere in between, the more you can borrow from others the more you can get done. Just how many quiet code-borrowers are there? Can embedded devices borrow from the Linux desktop? And what do the company lawyers think of all this cutting and pasting? (17:28)
July 08, 2008
Virtualization becoming a checkbox item
Virtualization is becoming a feature, not a product, with OS vendors bundling it in new releases. Brian Stein, director of engineering for virtualization at Red Hat, explains the company's new oVirt project, which includes power-saving features and web-based management that lets users request their own virtual systems. (11:16)
June 19, 2008
Mobile Linux consolidation: Bill Weinberg
Fragmentation on mobile phones is a fact of life -- one mobile application developer might have to build 200 to 300 SKUs for a single application. But carriers, hardware vendors, and software developers are increasingly cooperating on a common set of open source infrastructure, including Linux, Qt, and gstreamer. Bill Weinberg explains where the mobile phone market is going.
June 12, 2008
Comparing Linux and Windows power draw: Tom Henderson
Tom Henderson tested Linux vs. Windows power consumption on several modern servers with power-saving hardware and firmware features. Result: A Linux mail server, running sendmail and procmail, beat Microsoft Windows running Exchange. But was the Linux box accepting mail at the same rate as the Windows box? And were both OSs syncing the incoming mail to disk? Linux users had questions about the test on LinuxWorld.com, blogs, and LWN, and Tom answers them. (17:39)
June 10, 2008
Easy podcast tool for Linux: Laszlo Pandy
If you're planning to record a simple podcast on Linux, Jokosher is a way to get started without all the confusing on-screen doo-dads. Developer Laszlo Pandy talks about the features, the Python code under the hood, and the Linux podcast that started it all. (12:49)
May 05, 2008
Router/server consolidation: Dave Roberts
Modern hardware is more than capable of handling routing and other networking tasks along with VoIP, file and print, and other server workloads. Can you get your branch offices down to one box each? Plus, music from MC Frontalot. (15:18)
April 24, 2008
Putting web developers to work on devices: Benoit Schillings
The new release of Trolltech's Qt toolkit incorporates the KHTML-derived Webkit browser functionality seen in Apple's Safari browser. The new Qt makes it possible to create a single interface that combines conventional UI widgets with a Webkit-based view onto a DHTML page, and to divide development tasks between C++ coding and the HTML and scripting work that a web developer can do. (24:49)
April 17, 2008
The next generation of IT media: Julie Bort
Most real-world IT professionals have to deal both with Linux and Microsoft Windows, but the IT Media has been divided right down the middle, with some titles seeing the Linux light and others, well, maybe a little behind. Network World's "Microsoft Subnet" is the first of a new generation of media sites that's helping to bring interoperability and open source to Microsoft professionals. We talk with editor Julie Bort about where Microsoft professionals are looking for ideas, and the prospects for Linux desktops at their companies. (11:36)
April 03, 2008
Git for small projects: Jon Loeliger
Don't let the kernel elite bamboozle you with their fancy merges, rebasing, and project history tricks. The kernel's revision control system, git, actually turns out to be just the right tool for a small software project, web site, or even as the back end for an application or to track changes to your config files. LinuxWorld Conference and Expo speaker Jon Loeliger explains how to put the "IT" in git. (11:04)
March 27, 2008
Open source monitoring: Thomas Stocking
Getting started with monitoring software will take you up the hierarchy of needs, from getting alerts about the things users complain about before the users complain about them all the way up to advanced warnings that will let you know long enough to plan to avoid trouble. And you can do it all with open source. Groundwork founder Thomas Stocking explains the steps for getting started (16:58).
March 19, 2008
Google Summer of Code: Leslie Hawthorn
Google has announced the open source projects participating in the fourth season of its Summer of Code program, which gives $4500 grants to students to work on software. Program manager Leslie Hawthorn explains what Google is looking for in an applicant, how the process works, and tells one notable Summer of Code success story. (10:17)
March 13, 2008
Web tools behind the 2008 campaigns: Tony Steidler-Dennison
Why do you get Barack Obama campaign calls from live people, but dialer robots from the Clinton and McCain campaigns? That Obama volunteer is using a web application that lets him or her take on a short assignment from anywhere there's a computer and a phone. The Howard Dean and Wesley Clark campaigns took some pioneering steps in Web-based volunteer networking back in 2004. Today, the Barack Obama campaign is refining the open source and Web 2.0 approach. Tony Steidler-Dennison, a podcaster and veteran of the Clark campaign, looks at the technology behind this year's politics. (24:05)
March 06, 2008
A better hypervisor than a hypervisor? Andrea Arcangeli
The best hypervisor could be the one that you don't have to write. KVM for Linux treats the Linux kernel itself as the hypervisor, instead of developing core features such as power management both at the hypervisor and the kernel level. Kernel developer Andrea Arcangeli explains core kernel features that make Linux function as an effective hypervisor. (13:10)
February 28, 2008
A new storage engine for MySQL: Monty Widenius
The originator of MySQL is introducing a new storage engine, one that takes a classical approach in contrast with the high-performance, high-memory-usage Falcon. The new engine, "Maria" is based on MySQL's original MyISAM engine. What impact do advances in hardware and OS design have on the database? What does Sun's acquisition of MySQL mean for MySQL's performance on Solaris and Linux? And how can you name a software project to help people remember it? (11:27)
February 20, 2008
Web 2.0, social sites, and advertising: Doc Searls
The current Internet boom depends on ad revenue, but is there a better way to connect buyers and sellers than ads everywhere? Is Microsoft overpaying for Yahoo? Is Facebook overvalued as an ad medium? Can necessary information sources such as the local newspaper survive the changes in online business? Doc Searls of Harvard University's Berkman Center takes on some of the toughest questions about the future of online media. (48:51)
February 14, 2008
Open Source 747 simulator: Jack Wojnaroski
At this year's Southern California Linux Expo, LFS Technologies demonstrated a Boeing 747 simulator, complete with working glass cockpit and simulated mechanical displays, along with a vast array of working mechanical controls -- all backed by the Open Source flight simulator software, Flightgear. LFS Technologies' president, Jack Wojnaroski, explains the role for open source simulator technology in aviation research. (7:38)
February 06, 2008
OpenSUSE and the community: Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier
S.u.S.E, one the first Linux distributions, has gone through generations of changes and is now available in a free-of-charge community edition, OpenSUSE. But it now faces a variety of free alternatives. The distribution's new community manager, Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier, wants to take OpenSUSE's hunt for growth outside the Linux scene, and reach Microsoft users. But what's the "elevator pitch" that can convince a non-Linux user to try it out? (16:37)
January 31, 2008
Hypertable: Doug Judd
Zvents, a local events search site, needed a massively scalable database system -- think 1000 nodes. The solution? A design based on Google's BigTable, which the company is now releasing as the open source project Hypertable. Software architect Doug Judd walks us through a short code example to learn the basics of Hypertable, and discusses the system's goals, strengths, and limitations. And, since Hypertable is starting from the ground up, we'll look at the state of the art in project infrastructure, including git for revision control, cmake for build, and Google Code for issue tracking. (26:25)
January 28, 2008
Black Duck Code Center: Doug Levin
Black Duck Software's business is checking companies' codebases for open source components that they might not know about. A new product, Code Center, gives developers a catalog to shop for software, and managers a filtering and reporting tool to control and keep track of which software and licenses are in use where. (12:29)
January 17, 2008
Securing the Microsoft desktop with virtualization: Rami Tamir and Navin Thadani, Qumranet
Outsourcing key development projects presents a whole list of management and security problems. A new startup, Qumranet, offers a solution that moves the customer's Windows desktop, complete with confidential data, to the data center, while using a fast new protocol to connect to the hardware on the users' desks. Rami Tamir and Navin Thadani explain the management, power savings, and security implications of switching Windows users to virtual desktops. (15:47)
January 11, 2008
Using Active Directory to manage Linux systems: Barry Crist, Likewise Software
Mixed Windows/Linux environments can be a hassle, when users need to get authentication both on Microsoft Active Directory and on the Linux system. Barry Crist, CEO of Likewise Software, explains how his company lets IT managers use existing Active Directory infrastructure to control user rights on Linux servers. Plus, we talk to the organizers of the Southern California Linux Expo about this year's event. (24:39)
• Torvalds: Fed up with the 'security circus'
• Dell Latitude ON - big win for Linux
• Open source advocates hail appeals court ruling
• VMware joins Linux Foundation
• Linux preinstalls rocket to three per cent
LinuxWorld Conference and Expo San Francisco, August 4-7, 2008.
Linux Plumbers Conference Portland, OR, Sept. 16-19, 2008.
FreedomHEC Santa Monica, November 8-9, 2008.
