Linux -- the free open source operating system for enterprise, small business and home computing use -- is not used everywhere yet. However, its user base crosses nearly every industry.

Linux is in many places today. It's in consumer products like TVs and computer networking gear. Linux drives services that users do not even know run Linux. Think in terms of servers, Big Data farms and cloud storage facilities. The analytics and Big Data marketplaces host and run platforms and applications on top of Linux in data centers and in the cloud.

The Linux OS certainly is evolving in the connected car space, for example. Linux also is embedded in many appliances. It often controls the sensors in industrial machines, navigational gear and medical instruments.

"Increasingly, I see Linux used in a wide range of industries and quite a wide range of use cases. As companies continue to become aware and comfortable enough with it, Linux adoption will continue," said Kerry Kim, open source software marketing and product management professional at Suse.

Often people in enterprise are more familiar with the concept of open source technology -- but they are less informed about the power and greater flexibility that the Linux operating system brings compared to other platforms.

The word is spreading about the reliability of open source. Many of the early concerns about Linux and open source have subsided, as companies have learned about the successes others had in using them to improve their competitive position, Kim told LinuxInsider.

"Companies are becoming more willing to try Linux and open source technology. We still see companies that have never tried Linux. Some are just very conservative. Some companies do not think they need it," he said.

Other companies just need more time and exposure to discover the power of Linux. Often that happens slowly and in partial migrations.

Kim recalled a recent technology gathering in Boston, where he met with the CIO of Welch's, the company that makes all those juice products. The CIO mentioned that he was thinking about trying Linux.

"We were all surprised that he had not tried it yet," Kim said, but "seeing a company like Welch's get to that step is encouraging."

Originally posted here:
The Power of Linux (Almost) Everywhere

Learn about Project MarilynDNAutics

Isaac Yonemoto is a chemist, but he's been writing software code since he was a kid. He calls himself a "semi-recreational" programmer, and now, he's running an experiment that combines this sideline with his day job. In short, he's using open source software techniques to kickstart the world of cancer research.

Patent-free and crowd-funded by the bitcoin digital currency, Yonemoto's project seeks to resurrect work ona promising anti-cancer compoundcalled 9-deoxysibiromycin, or 9-DS. Early tests indicated it could provide a treatment for melanoma, kidney cancer, and breast cancer, but then, for various reasons, research on the compound was abandoned. So Yonemoto stepped in and restarted the project online, as if it was an open source software project, raising money for additional research through an online fundraising campaign.

Although the stakes are different, Yonemoto compares his gambit to previous efforts to resurrect abandoned video games such as the classic versions ofCommand and Conquer-- one of his favourites. "Here we have this abandonware compound," he says, "and open-sourcing is a way of resurrecting abandonware."

9-DS was developed by Barbara Gerratana, a professor with the University of Maryland, College Park. Back in the 1970s, Russian scientists thought that its parent compound might be useful as a cancer treatment, but they found that it stressed the heart and shelved their work. Decades later, Gerratana discovered that by loping off an oxygen molecule, she could not only avoid the coronary side-effects but also create a more effective drug.

The rub is that Gerratana took a job with the National Institute of Health and was unable to pursue the work. And because she had already published her research without patenting it, drug companies were unlikely to sponsor the work. The good news is that because it was never patented, it's in the public domain. Anyone can work on it, kinda like open source software. Yonemoto, who had worked on the project under a grant, jumped in.

Last week, he launched a fund-raising campaign for the research, and so far, he has taken in $12,000 (7355) of the $50,000 (30646) he'll need to test the compound on mice. About $2,000 (1226) of that comes from bitcoin donations. He calls the campaign Project Marilyn, and it's just one fundraising up and running on his websiteIndysci.org, which you can think of as a kickstarter platform for open scientific research that will publish its data openly. "We're going to push the data to a decentralised server -- possibly GitHub," he says, referring to the popular service for hosting open source software projects.

His fundraising technique that's very much at odds with the way that most drugs are researched these days, but in a sense, it's also a return to the roots of mid-century drug research, when the polio vaccine, for instance, was developed and distributed patent-free. "I've never been a big fan of patents and this seemed like good opportunity," says Yonemoto, who unlike most chemists, constantly nods to things like bitcoin and free software pioneer Richard Stallman in the course of conversation.

What we're seeing here is the result of a decade long cross pollination between the biology and computer science, kicked off by the computerised sequencing of the human genome. The computer science world's open source ethos is starting to rub off, Yonemoto says. "Biology is becoming more like a computer science discipline," he says.

The question is whether this will actually work. Yonemoto may be able to continue the research. But turning this into a mass produced drug would take some serious money -- more than you can likely raise online. The hope is that his small project can attract more researchers -- and larger investors -- to the problem. "Biological processes are primarily stochastic, and computer processes are supposed to be deterministic," he says. "But I think there is going to be a convergence to some degree."

Original post:
Chemist's crusade for open-source cancer research

Nate Swanner

Android is open source software, but if you want to run Googles version of it, there are rules. Now it sounds as if those rules are getting a bit more stringent, as Google aims to tighten their grip on the platform just a bit. A new report details just how much more Google your Android handset might be.

When an Android OEM signs on to produce an Android handset that runs google services, there are certain rules they must follow. The search bar must be on the home screen toward the top, and Googles apps must have upfront placement on the home screen. Thats why, when you get a new handset, there is typically that Google folder of apps on the home screen.

There are about 9 apps in that folder now, but soon there could be 20. The Information claims to have viewed documentation outlining these changes, which seem to be for all OEMs across the board.

The other change noted was a more prominently placed Search, though its not exactly clear what that means. Its not known if that means a stagnant Search bar up top, or one on every screen. It could also detail a pop-up screen detailing how to use Search when you fire up a new device.

More Google-y apps and a featured Search sounds like Google is ready to take the reigns of their open source offering and run. The only problem wed have is if these 20 apps cant be removed. Currently, Google makes it next to impossible to take their apps off a device, and some like Google+ just go unused for most Android users.

Source: The Information

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Report: Google taking tighter control of Android