Ars technica has a brief look at the world’s fastest x86-based supercomputer and Europe’s fastest supercomputer—not to mention the 4th most powerful in the world. The SuperMUC, which runs SUSE Linux, is located at the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences. “A statement issued by SUSE says that the supercomputer has a unique cooling system inspired by human blood circulation that significantly reduces energy consumption. The supercomputer is reportedly designed so that some of the energy can be recaptured and used to heat buildings at the LRZ campus. The statement also says that the SuperMUC has 155,000 processor cores capable of delivering a total of 3 petaflops of processing power. A report on Slashdot indicates that the computer has 324 terabytes of memory.“
From Windows to Linux In No Time
There are countless users of Microsoft’s Windows operating system who become Linux users each year–an important part of the engine that drives the popularity of Linux. In some cases, these migrating users want to escape the malware storm that afflicts the Windows ecosystem; in some cases they want to run Linux alongside Windows (a dual-OS strategy that has its advantages; and in some cases they want to use specific applications that are available for Linux.
For those who want to make the switch from Windows to Linux, there are a lot of good free resources that can help. There is also a lively, and pretty funny, discussion of the topic going on online. Here are the details.
Slashdot has a good discussion up on what the best Linux setup is for the user migrating from Windows. There are several informed users posting in the discussion thread who are recommending the Zorin Linux distro, which is specifically designed to cater to the Windows audience. It offers a Windows-like interface and actually lets you flip between different interface types on the fly.
Other commenters in the discussion have snide comments. Here’s a good example: “I suggest giving showing them Windows 8 first. After that, the change to any of the major Linux distributions will seem trivial.”
There are actually a number of free resources available for Windows users who want to take the Linux plunge, as we covered here. Here is a concise collection of these resources:
PC World has a good Getting Started Guide for Windows users who are interested in Linux. The guide discusses benefits of Linux, what you need to get started, and how to turn a Windows PC into a dual-boot computer, which can be one of the best ways for Linux newbies who are used to Windows to get started. Users can also brush up on the most popular Linux distributions here.
CM10 Preview Builds Out for Nexus 7 and Galaxy Note: Official but Experimental
Ready for the latest bout of XDA Recognized goodness? If you own a Nexus 7 or Galaxy Note (oh yeah) then you’ll find official preview builds of CyanogenMod 10 for each device at the source links below. They’ll bring some added sparkle, like an almost-buttery version of Jelly Bean on the Note and USB storage on the Nexus 7, but neither build is ready for daily dependence — so tread carefully or just consider them proof that the CM and Team Hacksung folks are almost there.
Apple Buys Samsung’s Android Security Partner AuthenTec For $356M
Amid fierce smartphone competition between Samsung and Apple that has spilled into a multinational patent battle, it looks like Apple may have opened yet another front on the M&A side: it is buying mobile security company AuthenTec — which had only just signed a deal with Samsung for Android devices — for $365 million.
AuthenTec, among other things, makes fingerprint sensor chips that are used for security and identification purposes; these are embedded in computing devices. The news was first reported by Reuters; the full announcement was filed with the SEC.
Just earlier this month AuthenTec had inked a deal with Samsung to cover security and device management services to cater to the “BYOD” trend — that is, workers taking their own handsets into their enterprise environment. The AuthenTec service would let IT managers quickly secure and authenticate those devices.
Reuters reported the deal as $356 million — $8 per share of the company. But that’s actually a pretty cheap price, considering that before the company went public it had raised some $600 million (yes, million) in funding.