Node.js, the widely-used open-source and cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment for executing server-side JavaScript code, is now officially available as a Snap package for the Linux platform.
Now that Linux is the preferred development platform for developers visiting Stack Overflow, the need for running the latest versions of your favorite programming languages, frameworks and development environments has become more and more important, and Canonical’s Snappy technologies are the answer.
NodeSource, the organization behind Node.js, announced today they made a Snap package to allow Linux developers to more easily install the popular JavaScript runtime environment on their operating systems. Snap is a containerized, universal binary package format developed by Canonical for Ubuntu Linux.
As this week’s Open Network Summit gets underway, The Linux Foundation has debuted the LF Deep Learning Foundation, an umbrella organization focused on driving open source innovation in artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning.
The goal of the LF Deep Learning Foundation is to make these new technologies available to developers and data scientists.
Founding members of LF Deep Learning include Amdocs, AT&T, B.Yond, Baidu, Huawei, Nokia, Tech Mahindra, Tencent, Univa, and ZTE. Through the LF Deep Learning Foundation, members are working to create a neutral space where makers and sustainers of tools and infrastructure can interact and harmonize their efforts and accelerate the broad adoption of deep learning technologies.
In tandem with the launch of LF Deep Learning, The Linux Foundation also debuted the Acumos AI Project, a platform that will drive the development, discovery, and sharing of AI models and AI workflows. AT&T and Tech Mahindra contributed the initial code for the Acumos AI Project.
The 2018 Open Networking Summit is happening this week in Los Angeles. Just prior to opening day, we talked with John Zannos, Chief Revenue Officer at Inocybe, to get his view on the state of open networking and changes in the foreseeable future. Zannos, is on the governing board of the Linux Foundation Networking effort, and has formerly served on the OpenStack and on the OPEN-O boards.
Inocybe has been involved with OpenDaylight since the beginning. The company is one of the top five contributors, and its engineering team is involved in helping solve some of the toughest questions associated with SDN and OpenDaylight. For example, company engineers lead the community effort focused on solving the problems associated with clustering, security, and service function chaining.
John Zannos, Chief Revenue Officer at Inocybe
Previously, Zannos ran Canonical’s cloud platform business and helped drive the NFV and SDN strategy within the company. “I have seen the evolution of disaggregation, automation of open source in compute and we are seeing those same elements migrate to the network,” he said. “And, that’s what I thought we should talk about — how SDN and open networking are combining to deliver the promise of automated and intelligent networks.” Here are some insights Zannos shared with us.
Linux.com: What is the state of open networking now?
John Zannos: Open networking is here now. Over the last 10 years, there has been open source in the compute space: Linux, virtual machines, OpenStack, Kubernetes. We learned a lot over those 10 years and we are bringing the experience and hard learned lessons to open source in the network.
In the networking space, we have seen NFV as a way to bring virtualization to networking. And we are at a point now that there is leadership from large service providers like AT&T, China Mobile and Deutsche Telekom, and smaller ones like Cablevision in Argentina to name a few. Different members of the vendor community, like Nokia and smaller ones like Inocybe, are navigating how to incorporate open source into the network in a way that it helps accelerate end user adoption with service providers and enterprises, with the goal of achieving the end state of an intelligent and automated network.
At Inocybe, we are accomplishing this through our Open Networking Platform. The Open Networking Platform simplifies the consumption and management of open networking software such as OpenDaylight and OpenSwitch. It helps companies consume just the right amount of open source components they need for specific business use cases (ie Traffic Engineering). We create a purpose built open source software stack that is production-ready for the specific use case. It helps organizations automate the build, management and upgrade process, ultimately putting them on a path to automated and intelligent network.
At Open Networking Summit, we’ll be demonstrating how our Open Networking Platform can deploy a fully integrated OpenSwitch-based NOS and OpenDaylight-based SDN Controller on a variety of hardware platforms, eliminating the complexity from the controller down the stack, while preserving the ability to disaggregate the solution (Dell’s booth, number 43).
Linux.com: What are the evolutionary steps taken, and still ahead for Open Networking?
Zannos:The first step of this journey was disaggregation of network appliances, separating network hardware and software. The next step was to incorporate automation. An example of that is the use of SDN controllers, such as OpenDaylight, an open source project which automates the deployment and management of network devices.
The next two steps are a combination of data analytics and machines learning/AI. We are moving from collecting data to determine what is happening in the network and what will happen next, to machine learning/AI that will consume that information to determine what action to take. With these two steps we move from analysis to action to autonomous networking. We see open analytics projects like PNDA, which is part of the Linux Foundation Networking effort, moving us in this direction. In the machine learning and AI space, AT&T and Tech Mahindra with the Linux Foundation have announced Acumos, which will enable developers to easily build, share, and deploy AI applications.
Ultimately, we are using collaborative innovation to help service providers and enterprises be able to use automated and intelligent networks quicker. What’s interesting is that open source creates a framework for companies that compete to collaborate and share information in a way that accelerates adoption to an intelligent, automated network. We are now at a point where we are starting to see those benefits.
Think of software-defined networking (SDN) as allowing for automation and flexibility, and open networking as allowing for collaborative innovation and transparency. When you combine SDN and open source networking you begin to drive the acceleration of adoption.
Linux.com:You said the open networking community could learn from open source adoption in the compute space. What are those lessons to be learned?
Zannos: There are two things to be learned from the compute experience. We don’t want to create too many competing priorities in open networking, and we want to be careful not to stifle innovation. It is a tricky balance to manage.
There was a moment in OpenStack that we had too many competing projects and that ultimately diluted the impact of engineering resources in the community. We want to ensure that the developer and engineering resources that companies big and small bring to the open source communities, can stay focused on advancing the code base, in way that helps drive end user adoption. Competing priorities and projects can create confusion in the marketplace, and that slows down adoption. Companies weren’t sure if all these projects were going to survive. I believe we have learned from that experience. We are trying to be more thoughtful about helping projects form with a focus on accelerating time to adoption by end users where they can actually reap the benefits. That’s exactly what we are trying to do with OpenDaylight, let it to continue to evolve, but also let it stabilize so customers can actually use it in production.
The second thing is to be sensitive of the fact that you don’t want to stifle competition. You do want to allow for innovation that comes from different and competing ideas. But, I think we have an opportunity to learn and improve from our experience to date.
I am optimistic that our experience as an industry and a community is building a strong foundation for open source adoption in the network. It is exciting to be part of what Inocybe and The Linux Foundation are doing in networking, because it’s an opportunity to collaborate and prioritize the efforts that will help drive adoption.
This article was sponsored by Inocybe and written by Linux.com.
Managing an infrastructure of servers is a non-trivial task. When one cluster is misbehaving, logging in to multiple servers, checking each log, and using multiple filters until you find the culprit is not an efficient use of resources.
The first step to improve the methods that handle your infrastructure or applications is to implement a centralized logging system. This will enable you to gather logs from any application or system into a centralized location and filter, aggregate, compare, and analyze them. If there are servers or applications, there should be a unified logging layer.
Thankfully, we have an open source stack to simplify this. With the combination of Elasticsearch, Fluentd, and Kibana (EFK), we can create a powerful stack to collect, store, and visualize data in a centralized location.
After a series of release candidates, Linus Torvalds could well be ready to unleash version 4.16 of the Linux kernel onto the world at the weekend. That is unless he changes his mind about the RC build: “rc7 is much too big for my taste,” he says in his weekly update to the kernel mailing list.
Torvalds says that while he’s not planning for there to be an eighth release candidate, the current size is causing him to think about the best course of action. For those who have not been following the story, he also details what’s new in Linux 4.16.
As the lines blur between traditional workloads and new applications like deep-learning, containers becoming are a hot topic in enterprise HPC as well. Not surprisingly, like their internet colleagues deploying cloud-scale services, HPC architects see value in cloud-native approaches. HPC developers have been building distributed applications since before clusters were cool, open source is in their DNA, and they also appreciate the elegance of parallelism, resilience and horizontal scaling. While the term CI/CD didn’t originate in HPC, some HCP admins face the same challenge as their DevOps colleagues, needing to deploy new functionality quickly and reliably.
Barriers to Adoption
So why don’t we see a mass migration to the cloud and widespread availability of containerized HPC applications expressed as Kubernetes YAML templates? As is often the case, the answer is complicated.
There are several issues, but we explore two in more detail below.
Significant investments in certified and trusted application workflows
Technical considerations related to workload management
No one ever became a programmer so they could mange open-source licenses. But, that’s what many developers must do these days. Black Duck Software, the open-source software logistics and legal solutions provider, and North Bridge found in 2015 that 66 percent of companies create open-source software. That’s great, but all that code comes with a wide variety of licenses, each with its own set of requirements. What’s a developer or company to do?
There have long been corporate programs, such as those from Black Duck Software, White Source Software, and Sonatype, which provide code scanning and open-source licensing management. This isn’t a small job. According to Sonatype, the average application contains 106 open-source components.
That’s pretty much it at this point. So when I learned a relatively new company was shipping laptops pre-installed with Linux, I jumped at the chance to review one. The company in question is Purism.
Does the name sound familiar? It should. This is the same company behind the Librem 5 phone, a mobile device that promises to bring Linux to mobility, on a level that might lend a modicum of relevancy to Linux in the smartphone landscape (and not just as a kernel on the world’s most popular platform).
Purism is now shipping a line of laptops: the Librem 11, 13, and 15. The hardware can be configured all the way up to an i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 2TB SSD internal storage. So Purism isn’t skimping on power.
There’s more. The Librem 13 and 15 laptops now ship with the addition of the Trusted Platform Module (TPM). This module is a specialized computer chip dedicated to enabling hardware-based security. With this addition, users can secure the operating system and boot process at the hardware level. And that, my friends, is the driving force behind the Librem laptops … security. In fact, you’ll find features in the Librem line that you won’t with many other laptops. But, are those features enough to make what many might consider a steep price point worth it (Librem 11 starts at $1,199, the Librem 13 at $1,399, and the Librem 15 starts at $1,599)?
Let’s take a look and see.
NOTE: The laptop shipped to me for review (Librem 13 with 16GB RAM and 250GB SSD) retails for $1,707.00.
The hardware
The second you open up the Librem laptop, there is no doubting the quality in the build. The chassis is aluminum and the tolerances are spot on. The sleek look-and-feel of the case screams quality. The only issue to be found with the case is that it is a fingerprint magnet. You will spend a good amount of time wiping the matte finish of prints. There’s no way around that.. Smudges aside, the hardware is quite nice.
If you look at the left side of the laptop, you’ll notice a couple of interesting switches (Figure 1).
Figure 1: An interesting feature to be found.
The switch on the left is a killswitch for wireless and Bluetooth. The killswitch on the right is for the camera and microphone. A killswitch for wireless is actually fairly common on laptops. Traditionally, it was thought these switches made it easier for laptops to conserve battery. If your battery was dangerously low, you could switch off the wireless to make those last dregs of power last. On the Purism Librem laptops, these switches are all about privacy. If you’re working remotely, and you suspect the slightest bit of impropriety, quickly move both switches to the off position and your wireless, Bluetooth, camera, and mic will no longer function. But, unlike some other laptops you’ve installed Linux on, when you move those switches back to the on position, the hardware actually functions as expected.
That’s yet another bonus of the Librem laptops—the hardware works out of the box. You close the lid, and Linux suspends. The backlit keyboard works perfectly. Shut off wireless and (when you turn it back on), the laptop doesn’t require a reboot to get wireless working. Although that should be a given, with many laptops, it’s not the case.
Purism has done a great job of putting these laptops together. The company works closely with hardware suppliers to minimize the possibility of chip and component compromise. This goes a long way to support Purism’s dedication to consumer privacy.
One of the most important aspects of a laptop to me is the keyboard. I spent a long, long time writing every day, and I cannot be hampered by a poorly designed keyboard. My primary laptops are a MacBook Pro 2017 edition and a Pixel 2 Chromebook. Both of these devices have very distinct keyboards. I tend to prefer the keyboard on the Pixel over the MacBook, as it has the perfect travel and resistance for my needs. I’m happy to report, the keyboard on the Purism leans toward the Pixel. The Librem 13 keys are nowhere near the poorly designed “butterfly” keys on the MacBook, so you can expect actual travel (and to not have to keep the keys perfectly clean in order for them to function).
The trackpad, on the other hand, is one of the weak points for the Librem. However, Purism is not to be faulted for this. Linux has a long way to go with trackpads. Every laptop I have ever installed Linux on has suffered from either either a jittery or inaccurate cursor. Even when you do get the trackpad customized (by installed third-party software like touchegg), it’s still not near the experience found on a MacBook or Pixel.
Software
Let’s talk software. The Librem laptops ship with PureOS. PurOS opts for the GNOME desktop, so out of the box it’s sleek and user-friendly. There are, of course, a few unique aspects to PureOS. When you first take the laptop out of the box and start it up, you will be required to walk through the process of installing the OS. This is incredibly simple. However, there is one caveat. During the installation, the trackpad doesn’t work. So you have to use the Tab button to reach the necessary installation buttons and then hit the Enter key to accept.
During the installation, you will be prompted to configure a password for disk encryption. You are not offered the option for disk encryption … you have no choice. This means, every time the laptop boots, you will be required to type your encryption password; otherwise, the boot process will not continue.
Purism has also done some work on the kernel level. They’ve done the following:
Included a patch for Meltdown and Spectre
Neutralized Intel’s Management Engine
AppArmor activated by default
Even before the kernel boots, Purism has opted to use Coreboot, for a fast and secure booting process.
Out of the box, the Librem laptop makes use of Purism repositories. Although I don’t mind this one bit, I have found that updating and upgrading software is significantly slower than it is on other machines on the same network. Also note: those out of the box repositories don’t include the likes of Firefox. Why is that significant?
Pure Browser
The only other (obvious) user-facing change to be found is within the web browser space. The Librem ships with a fork of the Firefox browser (developed by the Trisquel development team), called Pure Browser. This take on Firefox does the following:
Blocks third party trackers and advertisers by default.
Uses HTTPS where ever possible by default.
Is Free/Libre Open Software (F/LOSS).
Never “phones home” any personally identifying information surreptitiously.
One interesting feature is that, if you open up about:config, you’ll instantly see that Purism hasn’t locked down a single option. That means, if you’re willing to take the time, you could bypass any security option set in the browser.
If you open up the About dialog in Pure Browser, you’ll find it out of date. If you want to run the latest release of Firefox Quantum, do the following:
Create a symbolic link from /opt/firefox/firefox to /usr/bin
These steps would allow you to run the firefox command globally on the system. Do understand, however, that bypasses the security measures put in place by Purism. So, if you’re looking to keep the Librem as secure as possible, stick with Pure Browser.
The conclusion
I have to say, I came out of my Librem 13 experience really impressed. Not only is the laptop top notch, the PureOS distribution does an outstanding job of adding to the security features baked into the hardware. If you’re seriously concerned with mobile security, the Purism Librem 13 or 15 would serve you well.
Learn more about Linux through the free “Introduction to Linux” course from The Linux Foundation and edX.
This week in open source and Linux news, The Linux Foundation’s new ACRN (yes, pronounced acorn) project offers a hypervisor designed for IoT, Sony owes disgruntled PS3 owners $65… because of Linux, and more!
1) “The Linux Foundation has released details of one of its open source projects, ACRN — a hypervisor designed for the Internet of Things and embedded devices.”
As open source technology has become more strategically important for organizations everywhere, many tech workers are choosing to or being asked to build out and oversee their own open source projects. From Google, to Netflix to Facebook, companies are also releasing their open source creations to the community. These efforts require more management than may seem apparent at first, and there is also a particular kind of “nice problem to have” that can arise. Specifically, a new open source project can suddenly take on a life of its own, growing far faster than ever imagined.
That nice problem to have was the subject of an Open Source Summit 2017 session presented by Matt Butcher, Principal Software Development Engineer at Microsoft. We covered some of his advice for open source projects in a previous post. And, here, we discuss specific project management issues Butcher has faced.
