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Ubuntu , the open source operating system, is ditching the system tray, the bar at the bottom of most browsers that is supposed to act as a notification area. The rationale for the change, according to Matthew Paul Thomas , an Ubuntu contributor, was "its ineffectiveness at notifying people of things, and its inconsistent behavior." The proliferation of notification icons, that are not really associated with the delivery of any kind of notification, has added to the ineffectiveness, junking up the tray and making it harder to read at a glance. Sponsor The move away from what they believe is an over-use of this feature has been a development through several iterations. It's replacement idea is that of the menu. "In Ubuntu 10.10, we plan to introduce a power menu, which replaces the Gnome Power Manager applet; a network menu, which replaces the Network Manager applet (nm-applet); and a clock menu, or time and date menu, that replaces the Gnome clock applet. We'll also be extending the sound menu, to replace the notification area items for music players...The pattern here is that everything is becoming a menu...Our roadmap is that in Ubuntu 11.04, one year from now, there will be no notification area." Discuss
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Ubuntu Discards System Tray
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IBM, Canonical and Simmtronics will offer emerigng markets a fully loaded, cloud-connected Netbook for $190. It's a clear example of how a cloud-based approach fits with the emerging Netbook market and its importance in the global marketplace as a channel for enterprise collaboration technologies. The Simmtronics Simmbook will initially be available in South Africa and emerging markets. In addition to African countries, the Simmbook will also be available in India, Thailand and Vietnam. Sponsor The Simmbook will come preloaded with IBM Client for Smart Work , which includes IBM software like Lotus Symphony and access to IBM LotusLive cloud collaboration services. The Simmbook will run Ubuntu from Canonical as its operating system. The Simmbook is one of the first Netbook to provide direct access to the cloud by offering a package of online collaboration tools. The OS is not cloud-based but LotusLive is a robust enough application suite to give customers a cloud environment that should prove useful and less expensive than the costs of a Windows-based operating system. Simmbook launched in India at the beginning of the year. Simmtronics is an electronics company with a 20-year history developing motherboards, memory modules and graphic cards. Leadership By Numbers explains how Simmtronics competes at such a low price point: "The Simmbook is where they have put all the pieces together, to enter the laptop market with a low-cost netbook....Managing Director, Indrajit Sabharwal of Simmtronics pointed out that "because the motherboard and memory is 25% of overall cost," Simmtronics has a competitive pricing edge. By removing the expense of a Microsoft operating system, and relying on Ubuntu (Windows XP is an option, at an increased expense), Simmtronics has created a mobile computing device with 1 G of RAM, Intel Atom processor and a 160 HD that will be selling in the neighborhood of $250 US. " Simmbook has another edge to it. It's OS is open-source. The IBM software is built on open standards. Earlier this week we discussed LotusLive and its strong growth . We got a little grief from our commenters. So, how do you view this? At this point it seems plausible that Google Apps and Lotus Live will compete to some degree in the Netbook market channel. Part of the strategy here is to convince IT managers in emerging markets that the Netbook is a legitimate alternative to the PC, especially when it comes pre-loaded with Ubuntu and productivity applications with no custom work required. Our biggest question concerns the availability of broadband to take advantage of cloud-based collaboration services. A Netbook is viable due its low cost and capabilities compared to a PC. Reliable broadband? That seems to be a challenge well out of the control of IBM and its partners. Discuss
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IBM Partners To Offer $190 Cloud-Connected Netbook For Emerging Markets
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We store music on iTunes despite its stringent DRM, preventing us from freely sharing music. But like any innovation in the marketplace, it takes time for us to determine what is acceptable and what is not. The promise of cloud computing and the ability to store limitless amounts of music may perhaps be that turning point. But it could also mark a more stringent time than we have ever known. Sponsor Canonical has unveiled the public beta of its Ubuntu One music store that gives a glimpse of what cloud computing may offer as an alternative to storing music on our hard drives or a proprietary service like iTunes. This is new territory. As Canonical point out, integrating a cloud service like Ubuntu One with buying music is new for digital music stores. Ubuntu One serves as a desktop music service that stores the music in the cloud and syncs it with your computer. It allows someone to purchase music and then store it in their Ubuntu One account . Ubuntu One also serves as a service to store other kinds of information such as images or documents. The service will go live in late April to coincide with Ubuntu's new release . In the meantime, Canonical is looking for beta testers to give it a try. Helpful infomation is on the Popey blog : As with everything in Ubuntu Lucid, the developers are keen to get people testing the store before Lucid is shipped at the end of April. If you're running Ubuntu Lucid either on bare metal or inside a Virtual Machine, it would help greatly if you could take some time to test this new functionality. So far only a very limited number of beta testers have been using the store, so opening up the store to public scrutiny should generate plenty of feedback to the developers. These are the early days of music services that allows you to purchase, store music in the cloud and sync with your computer or smartphone And it comes with definite kinks. The Ubuntu One service is free for up to 2 gigabytes of storage. If you go beyond that you start to pay. That could happen pretty quickly as people can use the service to store any kind of information they want. Plus, there are the copyright laws that have had to be taken into consideration for the service. Music, in some respects, defines how we view the ways we store information. Music is deeply personal. We want easy access to it. We want it always to be there. Cloud services may provide this capability but they also run the risk of acting as walled gardens that can be controlled perhaps even more easily than a service like iTunes. Discuss
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Canonical Ubuntu One Music Service Goes Into Public Beta
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Marten Mickos move to become CEO of Eucalyptus Systems puts more shine on open-source cloud efforts. In particular, it drives discussion around open-source efforts such as Reservoir , Nimbus and Open Nebula . But most of all, the attention of the market is now on Eucalyptus, the cloud fabric technology created in the labs at the University of California at Santa Barbara. It has since been adopted to create what we now know as private clouds. Sponsor Mickos has a storied past in the world of open-source. He played a lead role at MySQL, helping grow to a company that reached $65 million in sales before being sold to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion. Krishnan Subramananian makes a good point in his analysis of Mickos move. Mickos proved to the world how giving away its software could be a business model that works. Mickos steered MySQL into the enterprise. Its push into the enterprise made MySQL a threat to companies such as Oracle and IBM, which considered it a threat to their long-term hegemony. For its part, Eucalyptus Systems has done very well with a simple free, plus services model. Eucalyptus gives away its software and then charges to integrate proprietary systems. The company garners additional revenue through support. Last September, Eucalyptus began offering an enterprise service in September, 2009 by offering integration with VMware and other hypervisors typically found in a data center, such as Xen and KVM. Eucalyptus supports a number of third-party tools including RightScale. They partnered with Canonical to support Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. What will Mickos do with Eucalyptus? He will likely help steer the company deeper into the enterprise. And perhaps even finding a buyer for Eucalyptus, much like he did for MySQL. Discuss
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Marten Mickos Goes For Two In New Role As CEO At Eucalyptus
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