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With much feedback on the lkml, Ingo Molnar has continued to improve his voluntary kernel preemption patch . Testing the patch has revealed a number of areas in the 2.6 Linux kernel that were causing high latency. Fixes have been created and merged as these areas have been located. For example, following Ingo's release of the -R6 version of the patch, Lee Revell reported that he was still able to cause measurable latencies by driving the server to swap. Ingo acknowledged that this was do to the get_swap_page() function which he described as, "pretty stupid, it does a near linear search for a free slot in the swap bitmap - this not only is a latency issue but also an overhead thing as we do it for every other page that touches swap." He went on to add, "this is pretty much the only latency that we still having during heavy VM load".

An exciting project that made a splash in the open source community recently is an open source project known as PearPC. PearPC is a PowerPC emulator for x86 computers. The software allows its user to emulate PowerPC-based systems so that you can run operating systems such as OS X, GNU/Linux for PPC and other OSes that were designed for PPC on x86. osOpinion/osViews had the opportunity to speak with the the lead developer of the project, (Sebastian Biallas) to answer some questions about its ongoing development.

A report published this week says that Linux is now a credible alternative for the core of the data centre, and will be one at the client end within two years.

By now, most Java™ programmers have heard of Eclipse, the extensible open source development platform that is rapidly becoming the most popular IDE for Java programming. If you are considering a move to Eclipse and are currently programming with Netbeans, this article is for you.

Novell became a major Linux promoter worldwide with the acquisition of the Ximian and SuSE Linux operating systems in the second half of 2003. Alan F. Nugent, CTO of Novell, explained that the open-source operating systems have not only seen broadening acceptance in server applications, but also in a wide range of other IT applications.

After storming into the Linux software market with its acquisition of Ximian and SUSE Linux, Novell decided it's finally time to show off. The Novell Linux Day roadshow began its 11-country tour in India last month, sending a clear signal of the South Asian country's importance to big open source players like Novell.

About a year ago, Scott McNealy said something that struck me as subtly wrong. I didn't think much about it at the time, but as I've been helping SDForum put together this year's Distinguished Speaker Series, I've been thinking about it more and more.

Microsoft's E-mail-filter technology, Sender ID, is unpopular with open-source advocates but popular with spammers, who are using it to bypass other filters.

In an effort to vault its Power processors into more widespread use, IBM plans to announce Monday a new, inexpensive server line called OpenPower that can run just the Linux operating system, CNET News.com has learned.

An obvious question to consider before getting into the details of installing and using Linux on your iPAQ is, why switch to using Linux from PocketPC 200x? Avoiding the vastly overused "because you can" response, there are actually a number of valid reasons.

IBM and the Brazilian government announced Thursday that they have signed a cooperation agreement to establish a knowledge and technology center, known as CDTC, which will promote and develop open-source and Linux solutions in Brazil. The first fruits of IBM and Brazil's partnership is a new technology center that will provide open-source software educational support.

The Brazilians have done it again. This slick Portuguese distribution is sure to please.

IBM Corp. will spend more than $1 million to help fund a Linux technology center in Brazil. The center, created in conjunction with the Brazilian government, aims to train 700 public service professionals on the use of Linux by year's end.

ShaoLin Microsystems is now offering a free download of its "Fit Client" enterprise Linux desktop network computing environment, ShaoLin Aptus. The software offers a simplified deployment and management approach to running Linux for businesses, according to the Hong Kong-based company.

IBM has rolled out a new version of its database software aimed at users of Linux and Unix that it hopes will help the company take away market share from Oracle. IBM said the latest version of its DB2 software that runs on Linux and Unix automatically self-manages databases, allowing companies to better manage, process and retrieve data such as product pricing.

Finnish software maker Lineox now includes the latest source code updates from Red Hat. As part of its mission to provide the latest software, Lineox's "Always Current Linux" program is touted as offering a migration path for IT administrators who want to upgrade their legacy Red Hat systems.

Australia's Open Source industry body, Open Source Industry Australia, today said it was pleased that all the major parties had made significant open source announcements within a week of a survey request from the organisation.

Hawaii schools, affected by lean budgets like many other US states this year, have upgraded their computer systems through the help of the open source community and Linux. A local nonprofit, the Oahu-based Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation (HOSEF) has supplied over a dozen Hawaiian schools with computers "recycled" with the Linux operating system and raised awareness of OSS.

Software patents are the software project equivalent of land mines: Each design decision carries a risk of stepping on a patent, which can destroy your project.

Linux vendors get failing grades in Linux community relations.