Google Chrome OS
Google Chrome OS is an open source lightweight operating system (OS). It uses one-sixtieth as much hard drive space as Windows 7 and is intended for netbooks or tablet PCs that access Web-based applications and stored data from remote servers.
The Chrome OS is so lean that boot time is about seven seconds. Google released the source code for Chrome OS in July 2009 under the BSD license as part of a larger project called Chromium. The operating system is built on top of a Linux kernel and runs on Intel x86 and ARM chips.
The only software application Google Chrome OS runs locally is Google’s browser, which is also called Chrome. Both the Chrome OS and browser share an auto-update feature that allows Google to push updates by using secure sockets layer (SSL). The end user is not able to refuse a security update or change back to a previous version.
Chrome OS is not available for download. Instead, Google is partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) including Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and Intel to manufacture hardware devices capable of using the OS. Although Chrome OS will support hard disk drives, Google is encouraging its partners to use solid-state drives, which have no moving parts.
Apache
Apache is a freely available Web server that is distributed under an "open source" license. Version 2.0 runs on most UNIX-based operating systems (such as Linux, Solaris, Digital UNIX,and on other UNIX/POSIX-derived systems (such as Rhapsody, BeOS, and BS2000/OSD), on AmigaOS, and on Windows 2000. According to a Netcraft Web server survey 60% of all Web sites on the Internet are using Apache (62% including Apache derivatives), making Apache more widely used than all other Web servers combined.
According to the Apache Software Foundation:
The name 'Apache' was chosen from respect for the Native American Indian tribe of Apache, well-known for their superior skills in warfare strategy and their inexhaustible endurance. It also makes a cute pun on "a patchy web server" -- a server made from a series of patches -- but this was not its origin. The group of developers who released this new software soon started to call themselves the "Apache Group".
ATA over Ethernet (AoE)
ATA over Ethernet (AoE) is an open source network protocol designed to connect storage devices and servers in a storage area network (SAN). ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) is a standard interface for communication between storage devices; it is known in the computer industry as Integrated Drive Electronics, or IDE. In AoE, the ATA commands are transported directly over Ethernet. That makes AoE an inexpensive alternative to Fibre Channel SANs, which require costly dedicated networks.
AoE is also a simple alternative to iSCSI SANs, which must use significant processing power and TCP/IP offload engines to administer commands. In addition, because AoE is not routable, storage devices do not require IP addresses. Administrators can create Ethernet subnets that connect servers and their storage devices exclusively to greatly reduce security risks.
AoE is included with Linux 2.6 and drivers are available for the Linux 2.4, FreeBSD and Solaris operating systems. The protocol was developed by Sam Hopkins and Brantley Coile, programmers at Coraid Inc., a manufacturer of storage devices.
Android OS
Android OS is a Linux-based platform for mobile phones. Android was released under the Apache v2 open source license.
Android was developed by Google and the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), a coalition of hardware, software and telecommunications companies. More than 30 companies were involved in the OHA, including Qualcomm, Broadcom, HTC, Intel, Samsung, Motorola, Sprint, Texas Instruments and Japanese wireless carriers KDDI and NTT DoCoMo.
Android began its life as a Palo Alto-based startup company, founded in 2003. That company was subsequently acquired by Google in 2005. The Android platform includes an operating
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* Enterprise applications for Linux
* Linux
* Open Source Mobile Platforms
system based upon Linux, a GUI, a Web browser and end user applications that can be downloaded. Although the initial demonstrations of Android featured a generic QWERTY smartphone and large VGA screen, the operating system was written to run on relatively inexpensive handsets with conventional numeric keypads.
Android runs on both of the most widely deployed cellular standards, GSM/HSDPA and CDMA/EV-DO. Android will also support:
* Bluetooth
* EDGE
* 3G communication protocols, like EV-DO and HSDPA
* WiFi
* SMS messaging
* MMS
* video/still digital cameras
* touchscreens
* GPS
* compasses
* accelerometers
* accelerated 3D graphics
BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless)
BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) is Qualcomm's open source application development platform for wireless devices equipped for code division multiple access (CDMA) technology. BREW makes it possible for developers to create portable applications that will work on any handsets equipped with CDMA chipsets. Because BREW runs in between the application and the chip operating system software, the application can use the device's functionality without the developer needing to code to the system interface or even having to understand wireless applications. Users can download applications - such as text chat, enhanced e-mail, location positioning, games (both online and offline), and Internet radio - from carrier networks to any BREW-enabled phone.
BREW is competing for wireless software market share with J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), a similar platform from Sun Microsystems. The initial version of BREW is solely for CDMA networks; later versions could be enabled for time division multiple access (TDMA) and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) networks.
boot loader (boot manager)
A boot loader, also called a boot manager, is a small program that places the operating system (OS) of a computer into memory. When a computer is powered-up or restarted, the basic input/output system (BIOS) performs some initial tests, and then transfers control to the master boot record (MBR) where the boot loader resides. Most new computers are shipped with boot loaders for some version of Microsoft Windows or the Mac OS. If a computer is to be used with Linux, a special boot loader must be installed.
For Linux, the two most common boot loaders are known as LILO (LInux LOader) and LOADLIN (LOAD LINux). An alternative boot loader, called GRUB (GRand Unified Bootloader), is used with Red Hat Linux. LILO is the most popular boot loader among computer users that employ Linux as the main, or only, operating system. The primary advantage of LILO is the fact that it allows for fast boot-up. LOADLIN is preferred by some users whose computers have multiple operating systems, and who spend relatively little time in Linux. LOADLIN is sometimes used as a backup boot loader for Linux in case LILO fails. GRUB is preferred by many users of Red Hat Linux, because it is the default boot loader for that distribution.
MySQL Connector/ODBC (Connector ODBC or MyODBC)
MySQL Connector/ODBC (sometimes called just Connector/ODBC or MyODBC) is a driver for connecting to a MySQL database server through the Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) application program interface (API), which is the standard means of connecting to any database. Users can connect from within common applications and programming environments, such as Microsoft Access or Excel or Borland Delphi.
MyODBC is available for most major operating systems, including Windows, Unix, Linux, Solaris, AIX, and OS X either under the free software/open source GNU General Public License (GPL) or under a commercial license.
database-agnostic
Database-agnostic is a term describing the capacity of software to function with any vendor’s database management system (DBMS). In information technology (IT), agnostic refers to the ability of something – such as software or hardware – to work with various systems, rather than being customized for a single system.
Database-agnostic software can be useful in an environment where data must be sourced from heterogeneous databases. On the other hand, because a database-agnostic product isn’t customized to work with a specific DBMS, it typically can’t benefit from any special features that system offers.
Database-agnosticism is often offered as a feature of business intelligence (BI) / business analytics (BA) and enterprise resource planning (ERP).
Eclipse
Eclipse is a Java-based open source platform that allows a software developer to create a customized development environment (IDE) from plug-in components built by Eclipse members. Eclipse is managed and directed by the Eclipse.org Consortium.
Eclipse got its start in 2001 when IBM donated three million lines of code from its Java tools. The original goal of Eclipse was to create and foster an open source IDE community that would complement the community that surrounds Apache. Rumor has it that a secondary goal was to "eclipse Microsoft Visual Studio" which is how the platform got its name.
In the enterprise, a major advantage to an open source development platform is that it allows an IT department to mix and match development tools rather than being committed to a single vendor's suite of development products. Although the Eclipse Platform is written in Java, it supports plug-ins that allow developers to develop and test code written in other languages.
Eclipse is released under the terms of the Eclipse Public License.
Firefox
Firefox 3.5
Firefox 3.5 is a version of the Mozilla Foundation's Web browser that was released in June 2009. This version of the browser is said to be twice as fast as Firefox 3 and up to five times as fast as IE8. Other reported improvements include enhanced security measures, better support for third-party add-ons and increased implementation of HTML 5.
New features for this version of Firefox include:
* Integrated video and audio so no external players or plugins are required.
* Local storage to enable working in Web applications offline.
* Geolocation for location-aware browsing.
* Downloadable fonts.
* Private browsing and the ability to "forget" specified sites.
* The ability to select which tabs to restore after a browser crash.
Firefox uses the open source Gecko layout engine and is based on the Mozilla browser from which much of its code was originally derived. The source code for Firefox is free, open source software (FOSS) and is released under a tri-license GPL/LGPL/MPL. Mozilla has released Firefox 3.5 for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X in a variety of languages.
As of June 2009, Firefox controlled 22.5 percent of the browser market, worldwide.
