Microsoft Releases Linux Drivers For Virtual Linux OS On Windows Server

Redmond, Washington-headquartered Microsoft Corporation has announced the release of source code for Linux drivers. These drivers are for environments which want to virtualize Linux Operating system on Microsoft’s own windows server products.

Embedded in Microsoft’s hierarchy is a separate team christened “Open Source Technology Center” (OSTC), dedicated to work on Linux, UNIX and open source technologies. This team tries to make it easy for Linux and UNIX diehards and aficionados to continue working on their favorite OS even while they have to deploy Microsoft’s products in the background because of its ubiquitousness. There is a huge Linux community that enjoys the open-source aspect of the OS to keep their costs down.

Presently three different device drivers have been developed and launched. They will come handy for Linux OS when it is virtualized on Windows Server 2008 flavors of Hyper-V and R2 Hyper-V. It is expected that these drivers will enhance the performance level of Linux when it runs on top of these Server products, such as by making more efficient use of server resources. The code is being released under the GPLv2 license.

Read more about the tacit support provided by Microsoft to Linux to boost the acceptability of its own products, here.

Linux Developers Can Now Use Adobe AIR 1.5

Linux Developers can now use the graphic capabilities of Adobe AIR 1.5 technology to design and develop their applications for their favorite operating system.

Adobe AIR 1.5 is a cross operating system runtime that enables developers combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash and Flex technologies to deploy internet applications outside the browser and onto the desktop. The software is a product of San Jose, California-based Adobe Systems Incorporated, and can be downloaded free of cost from this site: http://get.adobe.com/air/.

Besides Linux, Adobe AIR has been hithertofore available on Windows (all flavors) and Mac OSX versions 10.0+.

Using Adobe AIR, Linux developers can deliver applications built with web technologies, without the need for a browser having to run in the background. Programs can be coded using any IDE of their choice, including ones provided by Adobe such as Flex Builder, Flash and Dreamweaver. Alternatively, any text editor can be used with the AIR SDK to build an application. Frameworks that can be used to create an AIR application include Dojo Toolkit, Ext JS, jQuery, MochiKit, MooTools, and Spry Prerelease.

Because AIR applications are desktop-centric, Linux developers will find it easier to couple the desktop’s powerful security features with their applications, as compared to web-based applications which have to contend with unpredictable attacks, including anonymous or untrusted websites.

Read more about Adobe’s new offering to Linux developers here.

Apple’s iPhone To Run Linux

iPhone, a revolutionary internet-connected multimedia smartphone that used disruptive technologies to create its own niche in the cellphone market, will soon have a new operating system to run on.

iPhone, a product of Cupertino, California-based Apple Inc, will soon be available running with a version of Linux operating System.  The company has not released it officially, but an unofficial blog posted here claims that the Linux 2.6 kernel has been ported to the iPhone platform. The OS is presently capable of supporting the earlier generation of iPhones and the first generation of iPhone touch.

According to the post, several features of the iPhone, such as touchscreen, sound, accelerometer and baseband support are still in the process of being built up.

Hitherto fore, Apple has been running OS X operating system on iPhone, which is a scaled-down version of MacOS X and is proprietary material. Apple has been reticent in allowing third-party softwares to be developed on the iPhone.

One implication of the Linux becoming available for iPhone is the possibility that Google’s Android operating system, which itself is based on Linux, will begin to run on the iPhone. The future may yet see iPhone being sold in two versions – Apple’s own OS X and Google’s Android.

Read more about the interesting development around the iPhone here.