The Linux Executive Report from IBM
February 29, 2012
The Linux Executive Report from IBM: February 29, 2012. A monthly summary of important trends and market research, case studies and information about IBM's Linux initiatives of interest to senior management.
Linux News
Greg Kroah-Hartman is joining The Linux Foundation as Fellow, becoming part of a distinguished group of Linux Foundation Fellows that includes Till Kamppeter, Janina Sajka, Richard Purdie and Linus Torvalds. Separately, The Linux Foundation also announced that the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), a Linux certification organization, has become a member of The Linux Foundation.
A new report on the Linux job market shows that demand for Linux skills is on the rise but finding talent is difficult for employers, thus creating an advantageous situation for Linux professionals. The 2012 Linux Jobs Report shares the results of a recent survey of more than 2,000 hiring managers. The research was conducted by Dice, the career site for technology and engineering professionals, and The Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization dedicated to supporting the growth of Linux.
In addition to announcing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8, Red Hat has extended the production lifecycle of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6 from seven to 10 years in response to enterprise customer demand. According to Red Hat, for some IT environments, upgrading to a new version of an operating system requires detailed advance planning. Red Hat extended the Red Hat Enterprise Linux lifecycle so customers can remain on their current version longer. With the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux lifecycle, customers will benefit from continued feature enhancements while Red Hat's ABI and API compatibility leverages their application investments.
]As virtualization becomes ubiquitous in enterprises, it's important to note that KVM in particular offers advantages that stem from its simple architecture. At its most basic, KVM is a feature added to Linux that allows Linux and other operating systems such as Windows to be virtualized - as opposed to a separate complete virtualized operating system à la the Xen model. This not only simplifies KVM, but allows KVM to leverage the world's largest and best development community (that's the Linux community in case you were confused...) instead of having to duplicate core operating system development work.
Red Hat has announced the general availability of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 operating system with improved functionality for enhanced performance, flexibility, and security. Also introduced is the beta release for Subscription Asset Manager (SAM) that is available as part of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscription. SAM is an application for on-premise subscription management, asset inventorying, and subscription usage reporting.
For the eighth year running, the Red Hat Summit and JBoss World will bring together engineers, developers, enterprise architects, and business decision-makers.
SUSE is planning SUSECon, its first annual global conference for SUSE customers, partners, and community enthusiasts. The conference will be held from September 18 to 21 at the Caribe Royale Hotel in Orlando, Florida. SUSECon will feature technical and business presentations, demonstrations, hands-on labs, advanced technical training, industry partner technology showcases, customer case studies, and keynotes from the brightest experts in the industry. The conference will also include sessions that will instruct attendees of all technical levels on enterprise computing, cloud computing and Linux management technologies.
USE announced the availability of SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 2, offering users improved performance, reliability and efficiency while maintaining enterprise quality and application compatibility. This release marks the first major update to SUSE Linux Enterprise since SUSE began operating as an independent business unit of The Attachmate Group.
The Linux Foundation has announced its 2012 event and onsite Linux training schedule. The organization is also opening the call for presentations for its remaining 2012 event lineup, which includes LinuxCon conferences in North America, Japan, and Europe.
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