The Linux world is abuzz with controversy as IBM Red Hat puts the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) behind a paywall, leaving CentOS Stream as the only accessible option. Meanwhile, Oracle emphasizes its commitment to Linux freedom, offering open access to binaries and source code for their RHEL-compatible distribution, Oracle Linux. On the other hand, SUSE takes a bold step by forking RHEL and investing millions in developing their own RHEL-compatible distribution, free from restrictions. The battle for Linux supremacy is heating up, with each company vying for dominance and championing their respective visions of openness and innovation.
0:39 – Intel Shucks NUC Products
It’s a sad day for fans of small desktop systems. Intel announced this week that they are no longer going to be selling the Next Unit of Compute, or NUC, small form factor machines. This comes on the heels of Intel selling their server business to MiTAC, which we covered back on the Rundown in April. The NUC has been a popular platform for home labs as well as production environments with large numbers of remote branches, such as chain restaurants. Per an email sent to Intel partners they will be relying on third-party manufacturers like ASRock to continue to make smaller boards for these systems in the future. Stephen, you saw the writing on the wall here. Is this more of Pat’s cost cutting?
Read More: Intel Exiting the PC Business as it Stops Investment in the Intel NUC
7:18 – Kentik Announces Azure Observability
Cloud network visiblity just go a lot less hazy thanks to Kentik. The company announced last week that they’re offering the ability to see into Azure infrastructure such as Firewalls, VWANs, and Express Routes. The enhanced capabilities of Kentik allow you to understand the path your traffic is taking, interrogate that traffic across branches and core networks, and tag traffic to ensure properly delivery and classification. These features allow Kentik to continue to be one of the leaders in enterprise network traffic visibility. Tom, how will this change help Kentik users?
Read More: Announcing Complete Azure Observability for Kentik Cloud
10:18 – El Capitan Reporting for Duty
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s “El Capitan” supercomputer is set to become the world’s most powerful system even as hyperscalers, cloud builders, and AI startups are developing AI systems that may outperform traditional HPC machines in low-precision AI training work. These AI systems, such as the one being built by Inflection AI and the rumored GPU cluster by Microsoft for OpenAI, are expensive but offer significant FP16 matrix math performance. Although El Capitan looks to be an amazing accomplishment, are we nearing the end of laboratory dominance, and benchmark supremacy, for supercomputing?
Read More: Lining Up the “El Capitan” Supercomputer Against the AI Upstarts
15:39 – Microsoft Issues Patch Targeting Malicious Drivers
Microsoft has taken action against malicious drivers by revoking their signatures in the recent Patch Tuesday update. The discovery of over 100 malicious drivers, some dating back to April 2021, prompted Microsoft to issue a security advisory in collaboration with Sophos. Many of the malicious drivers had been signed using Microsoft’s Windows Hardware Compatibility Publisher (WHCP) certificate, while others were signed by companies based in China. The drivers posed a threat to endpoint protection and included rootkits capable of monitoring network traffic and disabling User Account Control features.
Read More: Microsoft Revokes Malicious Drivers in Patch Tuesday Culling
18:53 – InfluxData Sees Influx of Angry Customers
InfluxData, the parent company of InfluDB, is in hot water today. They violated the first rule of storage: Never Lose the Data. The issuse stems from them shutting down two regions of their InfluxDB Cloud service. AWS Sydney and GCP Belgium got the axe on June 30. InfluxData reportedly sent emails to the affected customers on February 23, April 6, and again on May 15. They even updated their webpage to note that the services were being discontinued in these regions. However, the final customers did not move their data off by the deadline. Belgian customers may have lucked out because there is an effort underway to try and restore the last 100 days of data but Syndey is gone forever. Stephen, how could InfluxData have prevented this entirely foreseeable disaster?
Read More: InfluxData apologizes for deleting cloud regions without performing ‘scream test’
23:01 – Vector Capital Acquires Riverbed Technology
As we discussed on June 7, private equity firm Vector Capital has successfully completed its acquisition of Riverbed Technology, provider of secure networking and performance products for the enterprise. With the completion of the transaction, Dave Donatelli, former EVP of the Cloud Business Group at Oracle, has assumed the role of Chief Executive Officer, while John Theler, previously CFO at MarkLogic, is returning to Riverbed. The acquisition marks a new chapter for Riverbed, which acquired a number of other products and technologies in its quest to become a one-stop shop for enterprise application acceleration.
26:52 – The Battle Over Red Hat Enterprise Linux
The Linux world is abuzz with controversy as IBM Red Hat puts the source code for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) behind a paywall, leaving CentOS Stream as the only accessible option. Meanwhile, Oracle emphasizes its commitment to Linux freedom, offering open access to binaries and source code for their RHEL-compatible distribution, Oracle Linux. On the other hand, SUSE takes a bold step by forking RHEL and investing millions in developing their own RHEL-compatible distribution, free from restrictions. The battle for Linux supremacy is heating up, with each company vying for dominance and championing their respective visions of openness and innovation.
Read More: Keep Linux Open and Free—We Can’t Afford Not To
Read More: SUSE will fork Red Hat Enterprise Linux
39:11 – The Weeks Ahead
Networking Field Day 32 – July 26-27
Tech Field Day Extra at VMware Explore – August 21-23
The Gestalt IT Rundown is a live weekly look at the IT news of the week. Be sure to subscribe to Gestalt IT on YouTube for even more weekly video content.
