Author: JT Smith
Author: JT Smith
Scientists at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France, need to increase the processing speed of their computers in order to keep up with the massive amounts of data produced by the ESRF experimental stations.
In the past, ESRF has had good experiences with Clustor, the predecessor of EnFuzion. Clustor was installed on “matrix”, a 9-machine BeoWulf cluster consisting of 2-processor Linux machines. It was therefore a natural decision to move on to EnFuzion, the latest supercomputing solution from Turbolinux.
One 10-node license was bought for the Joint Structural Biology Group. Initially, it has been used for testing batch processing of protein crystallography data reduction. Already, more than a ten-fold increase in processing speed has been achieved by using multiple computer with multiple processors. “It is difficult to achieve more than this, because the disk access becomes the limiting factor due to huge amounts of processed data,” says Olof Svensson, programmer at the Scientific Software Unit at ESRF. “We intend to include EnFuzion in a web server, which will act as a front-end for data processing,” Dr. Svensson continues, “and EnFuzion will be controlled by the web server for dispatching jobs to other computers.” The Joint Structural Biology Group has around 20 SGIs of the 02 and 0200 series; the majority of these being two-processors, but with some four-processors. The group also deploys a dedicated Linux cluster of six processors plus access to the Computing Services NICE cluster which contains the
above-mentioned “matrix” cluster as well as a 26-processor Linux cluster.
The second 10-node license was acquired for the Scientific Software Unit to help scientists with occasionally large amounts of data to process, but without an everyday need for a full cluster. “After we have installed it on one of our computers, our scientists will be able to access it according to their specific needs,” Dr. Svensson states. The nodes used will be the 26 processors from the Linux cluster.
About ESRF
Operating a powerful source of light in the X-ray range, the ESRF is a large experimental facility for basic and applied research in physics, chemistry, materials and life sciences. The ESRF is a multinational research institute, presently associating 18 participating countries. According to the Convention signed in 1988 by the founding members, the ESRF is operating as a “non-profit” enterprise under French law. Management is supervised by the Council whose delegates are designated by the member parties. The research program of the ESRF is determined by Scientific Review Committees in ranking the experiment proposals submitted. While the use of the ESRF’s experimental facilities is free of cost for scientists from the funding countries, their experimental results must be published in scientific journals. Non-refereed access, usually to perform confidential proprietary research, is possible for a charge. The ESRF staff is recruited mainly from the associated countries. A total of some 500 people are
employed. While the construction of the ESRF started in 1988, the inauguration and opening of the first 15 beamlines to scientific users took place in September 1994. Presently, at the ESRF 40 beamlines are operating 24 hours a day and 7 days a week in User Service Mode. For more information, visit the ESRF Web site at www.esrf.fr.
About Turbolinux, Inc.
Founded in 1992, Turbolinux develops Linux-based software solutions for Internet and enterprise computing infrastructure, including reliable, available and scalable operating systems for workstations and servers and software clustering solutions for computing traffic management and peer-to-peer distributed computing. Backed by more than $95 million in investments from some of the world’s leading technology companies, including Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, NEC, Novell, Oracle, SGI and Toshiba, Turbolinux is headquartered near San Francisco with offices around the world. For more information, visit the Turbolinux Web site at http://www.turbolinux.com.
Author: JT Smith
Court action and threats of court action seemed to dominate the news this week. Bnetd, an Open Source gaming server, was shut down this week because of threats by gaming company Blizzard Entertainment, but there was better news for those who’ve linked to the DeCSS Linux DVD-playing code.
Blizzard threatened bnetd and its Internet service provider by way of the U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Blizzard claimed bnetd was violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the DMCA by not requiring players of Blizzard games to enter their games’ CD keys. Just how that violates Blizzard’s copyright on games, we’re not sure.
In DeCSS news, the California Supreme Court will review the case in which several Web sites were sued for posting DeCSS in supposed violation of a California trade secrets law. These sites, of course, were hosted all over the place, not just California, so the case raises some interesting questions about how widely the state’s laws can be enforced. The trade secret violation itself seems rather dubious, but then, we’re not making the big bucks lawyers do.
In another DeCSS story, the Open Source Directory added DeCSS to its list of software in celebration of a Canadian Supreme Court decision saying customers have a right to post negative reviews of products on the Web.
The U.S. Supreme Court is also getting into the act by taking up a case seeking more fair use rights for the online public in a fight against copyright holders.
Another reason to use an Open Source OS …
It was widely reported this week that Microsoft’s XP media player tracks what music users listen to and what DVDs they play. Microsoft says it has no plans to sell information but we can imagine all kinds of court cases in which the company could be compelled to turn over those lists.
Speaking of Microsoft, NewsForge’s Jack Bryar suggests the company’s secret negotiations with the U.S. Department of Justice over Microsoft’s antitrust punishments may violation an old law requiring disclosure of such talks.
Newly reviewed
Newly released
Success story of the week
IBM reports a huge 800% increase in the number of its business partners supporting Linux during 2001. IBM and its partners say this should lead to more and more adoption of Linux in the business sector.
Other stories that NewsForge and Linux.com reported first this week:
The Nasdaq continued to fall this week, plunging more than 80 points from its Feb. 15 close of 1805.20. It ended the week at 1724.54. Just like last week, all 11 of our Open Source-related stocks fell for the week, even though six of them posted gains, along with the Nasdaq on Friday.
Taking a big hit on Friday was Wind River Systems, which had its stock fall more than 24% after an earnings report that showed a $50 million loss for its last quarter.
Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:
| Company Name | Symbol | 2/15 Close | 2/22 Close |
| Apple | AAPL | 23.90 | 22.74 |
| Borland Software Int’l | BORL | 14.00 | 13.04 |
| Caldera International | CALD | 0.61 | 0.52 |
| Hewlett-Packard | HWP | 20.36 | 19.29 |
| IBM | IBM | 102.89 | 98.45 |
| MandrakeSoft | 4477.PA | e4.50 | e4.20 |
| Red Hat | RHAT | 7.39 | 6.15 |
| Sun Microsystems | SUNW | 8.90 | 8.07 |
| TiVo | TIVO | 5.3987 | 4.82 |
| VA Software | LNUX | 1.98 | 1.725 |
| Wind River Systems | WIND | 16.45 | 11.40 |
Author: JT Smith
Author: JT Smith
Category:
Author: JT Smith
Author: JT Smith
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Author: JT Smith
1. GNU Bayonne for Solaris
2. GNU Bayonne 0.7.5 release
3. GNU Common C++ 2 and beyond
4. New Web Site Proposed
5. Project documentation update
6. GNU Bayonne 1.0 Early Releases
GNU Bayonne for Solaris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
With recent patches submitted by Radu Greab for both GNU Bayonne proper and GNU ccRTP, it is now possible to build and use a GNU Bayonne server under Solaris. This port has been tested with the Quicknet card driver (/dev/phone) that had also been ported to Solaris and the Bayonne phonedev driver interface plugin.
This port supports X86 Solaris and as far as I know has only been tested with the Quicknet linejack card. It may be useful to see if any of the Dialogic Solaris runtime drivers work with GNU Bayonne under Solaris as well.
The changes needed for using Solaris are found in the new release of GNU ccRTP 0.7.3, and in GNU Bayonne 0.7.5.
GNU Bayonne 0.7.5 release
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had been busy in several areas the last month, but this seemed to be a good time to do a new release of the current GNU Bayonne distribution. This new release covers many interesting bug fixes, especially for Dialogic ISDN support. Our goal in the 0.7.5 branch is to increase stability and code quality in the current code base rather than expand features, and this is part of that effort.
Another reason for the new release is that some of the recent changes in GNU Common C++ 1.9.x. Ideally we should have maybe one or two more 0.7.x release, including one for the new Aculab driver. We are looking to continue some development forward on 0.7.x, and bug fixes on 0.6.x production releases.
GNU Common C++ 2 and Beyond
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Development on GNU Common C++ “2” is moving along. A complete prototype of the release has been tested under GNU/Linux. There are still problems with FreeBSD and a few other targets which keep it from general release.
The initially distributed release of GNU Common C++ “2” will be commoncpp2 0.99.1. I have already built a test release of ccAudio (1.0), ccRTP (0.99) and ccScript (2.0) which will become available concurrent with the new release. The Bayonne 1.0 source tree has already been migrated to these.
GNU Common C++ “2” can be installed side by side with GNU Common C++, and all the updated libraries will be able to be installed side by side with the older ones that depend on the older release of GNU Common C++ on the same platform. This will allow one to switch between production releases and soon to be released development releases of GNU Bayonne 1.0.
One thing I have chosen to do is directly “version” the library names themselves based on the major release and a new base include directory. This has made it easier to assure the two families of libraries can co-exist, and is something I have seen others start to do. I also version the package name for RPM builds for the new library releases so one will be able to have RPM’s from the old and current releases loaded concurrently, and this also I have seen others do. Hence, we will have a new set of RPM’s, “commoncpp2”, “ccaudio1”, “ccscript2”, and “ccrtp0”.
GNU Common C++ “2” can be found in cvs from subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/commoncpp under module name “commoncpp2”. The cvs for ccAudio is subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/ccaudio (co ccaudio), for ccRTP is subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/ccrtp (co ccrtp), for ccScript is subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/ccscript (co ccscript), and for Bayonne 1.0 development is subversions.gnu.org:/cvsroot/bayonne (co BayonneNG). With that, by installing GNU Common C++ 2, and ccScript, ccAudio, and ccRTP from current cvs, one can develop on the Bayonne 1.0 tree, and do so without disrupting current stuff.
New Web Site Proposed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To help development and deployment of Bayonne move along faster, we are thinking of redoing the web site. In particular, I would like to see nightly cvs based builds added for snapshot downloads, and to organize the different release families (0.6, 0.7, and 1.0) into easy to comprehend download sets. I also have thought about adding a page that shows the status of each telephony driver, a link for downloading any needed drivers, and a link for who’s working on it or the primary contact for it.
This and other work will depend on the efforts of different volunteers. Jason Spence has indicated he might wish to help with this. We need at least one other person to help with keeping the web site updated.
In about a week or so GNU Common C++ 2 will become available in preliminary form. The initial release will be of GNU Common C++ 2 pre-1.0, and an official 1.0 release of GNU Common C++ “2” (or 2.0 release of GNU Common C++, if one wishes to look at it that way) will be distributed a few weeks after that.
The principle “visible” change in GNU Common C++ 2 is that the entire library has been rewritten to conform to a single set of programming standards that are described with the new package. Other changes are more subtle, and covered in a vast list of bug fixes, portability improvements, and some new and changed classes, as found in the ChangeLog. These changes will mean that ccRTP, ccScript, and ccAudio, will all also be rewritten over a one week period. The result will be GNU ccScript 1.0, GNU ccAudio 1.0, and GNU ccRTP 1.0. All three should be fully portable and compile native under both posix and win32 systems. Another option being considered is absorbing ccAudio, ccScript, and ccRTP directly into the Common C++ 2 package, as this would make setup and deployment simpler.
One reason for GNU Common C++ “2” rather than just GNU Common C++ 2.0 was to make it easier to install both versions on the same target system for both development and runtime. Furthermore, Bayonne 0.7.x (and any 0.8.x) will NOT be rewritten for GNU Common C++ 2. Rather, the 0.9.x/1.0 code base will be changed, before it is distributed. This pushes the initial distribution of Bayonne 0.9 to early March.
Project Documentation Update
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Those that have so far volunteered to help with the new manuals and project documentation have suggested that the new manual be split between a developers guide and an administrators guide. Rich has offered to write a new “INSTALL” file for the current production releases. A few other pieces of documentation might be done by others, but we still need more volunteers for this.
GNU Bayonne 1.0 Early Release
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As soon as GNU Common C++ “2” is ready for release, I am going to release the other updated libraries and shortly thereafter a formal test build of Bayonne 1.0. We may have a new facility in Austria which will be used primarily to develop CAPI support for Bayonne 1.0 (and any improvements in current 0.7 releases) and we will use OSDL for Intel/Dialogic development.
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Author: JT Smith
Author: JT Smith
A glimpse at DaveCentral’s archive of Linux programs shows 11 fax programs for the Linux platform. They range from old standards like HylaFAX to marginal products, many of them in a questionable maintenance and development status. Typically, these are Open Source projects. Many of them have installation problems, complex configuration requirements, and either non-existent or poor GUIs. Documentation is often also poor: HylaFAX’s documentation consists of many pages of technical configuration details, in which the newcomer will look in vain to find simple instructions on actually sending a fax.
Fax2Send, by contrast, is as simple to install, set up and use as most Microsoft programs. It uses a client-server design, with the server component running on Linux, and the clients on either Linux or Windows. The GUIs for the both the Linux server and Windows client components are excellent. Fax2Send perhaps mirrors the current state of Linux on the desktop in that the program’s Linux client component is still command line only, although it is possible, with some command line manipulation, to run the server’s X Window GUI on a Linux client machine.
The server package is downloadable as a gunzipped tar file, which creates its own directory where the install program resides. It can be run within either GNOME or KDE. It uses tcl, and launches an installation wizard (in English or German), a model of its kind, guaranteed to put the Linux newcomer at his or her ease. The free 30-day evaluation copy supports one server and four users. Users and hosts are entered during the installation procedure, as is one of five pre-designed cover sheets. The user is prompted for cover sheet details, and default paper sizes.
When finished, the program puts a cute icon on the server desktop; clicking it brings up a control panel showing at a glance the status of the program, and with buttons to launch composer, configuration or help windows.
The Windows client is even simpler to install — one simply downloads a single dll and a Windows executable, and then executes it. The standard Windows-style installation wizard takes over.
The Windows fax client is well integrated into Windows 2000. It is tedious to constantly enter telephone numbers and contact information every time one wants to send a fax: A necessary feature on the Windows platform is the ability to import contact data from Outlook. Fax2Send doesn’t support importing Outlook data directly, but it can import data from almost any database, including MS Access and Excel files. It is a simple matter to export Outlook contact information as an Access file, for instance, and then import that into the Fax2Send phonebook. Fax2Send has a straightforward import wizard for such files: Within a minute I was able to import all the necessary data from my Outlook contact file.
Fax composition on either a Linux server or Windows client is a breeze, with very usable interfaces, and the ability to drag-and-drop files, copy-and-paste text, or insert attachments. In one experiment from the Windows client, I wrote a brief cover letter, and then inserted a multiple-page contract as an attached PDF file. One click and off it went to the Linux server through the LAN, out through the modem, and was received in perfect order as a multiple page fax.
Two other similar experiments also worked. In the first, I composed a short cover letter on the Linux server, and attached to it, via Samba, a .txt document residing on a Windows client on the LAN. In the second experiment, I sent an MS Word document, also as an attachment, directly from the Windows client. Both made it to California (I live in Calgary, Canada), in good condition as multiple page faxes.
Sending faxes from a Linux client machine, by contrast, is like a chill wind from the past: One is reduced to setting environment variables at the command line, and typing in long strings of header options. Although Fax2Send is an excellent solution for a Linux server/Windows client environment, and is also an excellent solution on a stand-alone Linux machine, it is a questionable solution for Linux workstations on a LAN.
The general scarcity of Linux workstations mitigates this disappointment, as does the product’s pricing model. Below is a comparison of Fax2Send, and Symantec’s WinFax PRO:
Single user license: Fax2Send, $25; WinFax PRO, one copy, $99
License for small number of users: Fax2Send for four users, $99; WinFax PRO five-user pack, $449.95
License for larger number of users: Fax2Send for 12 users, $149; WinFax PRO 10-user Pack, $899.95
Of course the two products are not identical. Fax2Send is a client/server solution; to compete in such a configuration, WinFax PRO, a client only, needs a separate server product like RightFax. The fact that neither RightFax nor WinFax PRO runs on the Linux platform further increases Fax2Send’s cost advantage.
To sum up, this product is significant in three ways:
2.The fact that it is designed primarily to support Windows clients running on a Linux server mirrors the current state of Linux’s impact on the corporate desktop.
3. The product is a perfect example of how the cost and performance of a commercial Linux product could ease a Windows system administrator’s decision to move his or her servers to Linux. Here is a non-Open Source Linux product that takes the place of two competing Windows products; that installs as easily as any Windows program; that works as well as its main competitor, and is only a fraction of the cost.
The author of this review has just published “Linux in Small Business: A Practical User’s Guide” (Apress). His consultancy’s Web site is: linuxleap.org.
“Commentary” articles are contributed by Linux.com and NewsForge.com readers. The opinions they contain are strictly those held by their authors, and may not be the same as those held by OSDN management. We welcome “Commentary” contributions from anyone who deals with Linux and Open Source at any level, whether as a corporate officer; as a programmer or sysadmin; or as a home/office desktop user. If you would like to write one, please email editors@newsforge.com with “Commentary” in the subject line.
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