Emerging Linux Filesystems talk – LUV October meeting – 2nd October 2007

Recently LinuxWorld commissioned me to write an article on Emerging Linux Filesystems (the formatting is a bit different from the original I sent, but the slideshow of graphs now works) and have kindly given me permission to present a talk based on my work at the October Linux Users of Victoria (LUV) meeting.

So if you can make it you can hear about my experiences with ChunkFS, btrfs, NILFS, ext4, Reiser4 and ZFS/FUSE, as well as with ZFS under OpenSolaris (in this case Nexenta).

I’d also like to thank Dragan at Xenon Systems for the loan of a shiny, Linux friendly, test system!

Bip is no more – RIP Marcel Marceau (1923-2007)

In 2003 Donna and I had the rare privilege of watching Marcel Marceau perform in Melbourne, and so it is very sad to hear that he has passed away today, aged 84. This former resistance fighter was a true artiste who could move an entire audience with the smallest of gestures and expressions. He, and his troupe, got a standing ovation that night.

The ABC has a transcript of a wonderful interview that Kerry O’Brien did with him in 2003 during that same tour, it is well worth a read, and ends with this wonderful quote:

The rest, as Hamlet said, is silence.
And I will do for the public this.

If only the video was there to watch what that last mime was..

SCO files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy Protection

From Groklaw:

Here’s the title of the press release: “The SCO Group Files Chapter 11 to Protect Assets as It Addresses Potential Financial and Legal Challenges”, which you can find here. They say reorganization “ensures business as usual.”

It may also act as a useful extra delaying tactic in the determination of how much they owe Novell in their trial..

Some of SCO’s remaining claims were yet to be decided at trial, which was to begin Sept. 17. The trial will be stayed under bankruptcy law, according to Novell public relations director Bruce Lowry. “We’ll be looking at our options,” he said.

MSOOXML rejected as ISO standard

Groklaw quotes ISO as saying:

A ballot on whether to publish the draft standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats, as an International Standard by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) has not achieved the required number of votes for approval.

The official ISO press release is now available.

It’s good to see that trying to rort the standards process hasn’t worked this time, and a badly broken standard has not been foisted upon ISO through dubious means.