The VAR Guy's Biggest Open Source Stories of 2015
The year is quickly coming to a close, with a whole slew of new technological advancements and innovations waiting on the horizon in 2016. But before we bid adieu to 2015, we thought it was important to recall some of the biggest open source stories of the year.
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While no one can pinpoint exactly why the Linux kernel succeeded where other Unix-like operating system kernels failed, there is no denying that Linux has had a global impact on the development of the open source community.
The VAR Guy's own Chris Tozzi researched some of the theories surrounding the reasons for the Linux kernel's success as well as the viability of those theories in determining Linux' overall longevity.
Read more here.
Microsoft (MSFT) has gradually shown more interest in supporting open source users, with the company's introduction of open source coding for its Visual Studio Code editor as the latest development in its goodwill campaign for the Linux-focused community.
Microsoft also recently partnered with Red Hat (RHT) to make Red Hat Enterprise Linux a native platform for hybrod cloud computing on Azure, another big step in easing the tension between Microsoft and open source developers.
Read more here.
BQ finally launched its first Ubuntu-based Linux smartphone in February, giving fans the ability to bring Canonical's open source platform to their mobile devices for the first time.
The devices, still have a ways to go in terms of functionality and security, but 2015 marked the first time that such a device has ever been available to the public, scoring a major victory for open source users.
Read more here.
2015 marked the release of Liberty, the latest version of OpenStack's open source cloud operating system. The platform included a "Big Tent" governance model, meaning users could obtain select parts of the cloud operating system at will, rather than having to download all of the required components.
While this distribution model is more convenient for open source customers, the Big Tent method also went a long way in decentralizing the open source development of the platform, thus giving developers the freedom to contribute OpenStack components without having to obtain official approval of the project.
Read more here.
Unlike most attempts by hackers to steal personal information or hold users' information for ransom, Linux.Wifatch actually attempts to make Linux-based router firmware and IoT hardware more secure, according to security experts from Symantec (SMYC).
The malware has been around since last year, but current efforts to determine whether or not the software is harmful or not have led to the conclusion that so-called "Internet-of-Things vigilantes" are working to make the web safer for open source users rather than harm them.
Read more here.
In October, Talend announced the integration of Apache Spark integration and real-time big data processing in the release of the Talend 6 platform, which is available in both open source and subscription-based flavors.
The company said the addition of Spark is notable as a way for users to support big data analytics, thus hoping to convince Hadoop customers to try the new platform instead. This story is but one example of the growing presence of Spark in the open source community, signaling that Hadoop is no longer the only framework option for distributed data processing.
Read more here.
In the wake of last year's Heartbleed bug, The Linux Foundation announced the integration of the Internet Security Research Group in April, including the group's open certificate authority platform, called Let's Encrypt.
The addition is notable as The Linux Foundation looks to promote open source web security throughout the community so they can eliminate the possibility of future breaches such as Heartbleed.
User security continues to be one of the biggest talking points of 2015, and open source enthusiasts remain just as concerned with protecting their systems as the rest of the global community.
Read more here.
Docker advanced its Linux-based open source container security technology this year with the launch of several new features, including content auditing and vulnerability scanning, among others.
All of the new features were part of the company's ongoing efforts to make containers safer and more attractive to enterprise users, especially as competing companies like CoreOS worked to make container security more powerful. Even Red Hat released OpenShift 3.1 and a public preview of Red Hat Atomic Enterprise Platform, both of which were designed to drive adoption of Docker-compatible containers in the enterprise.
With the prevalence of threats to enterprise data in 2015, container security was certainly a hot topic for everyone hoping to keep private information out of the hands of bad actors. This trend is likely to continue into 2016 as containerization becomes even more widespread.
Read more here.
Docker advanced its Linux-based open source container security technology this year with the launch of several new features, including content auditing and vulnerability scanning, among others.
All of the new features were part of the company's ongoing efforts to make containers safer and more attractive to enterprise users, especially as competing companies like CoreOS worked to make container security more powerful. Even Red Hat released OpenShift 3.1 and a public preview of Red Hat Atomic Enterprise Platform, both of which were designed to drive adoption of Docker-compatible containers in the enterprise.
With the prevalence of threats to enterprise data in 2015, container security was certainly a hot topic for everyone hoping to keep private information out of the hands of bad actors. This trend is likely to continue into 2016 as containerization becomes even more widespread.
Read more here.
The year is quickly coming to a close, with a whole slew of new technological advancements and innovations waiting on the horizon in 2016. But before we bid adieu to 2015, we thought it was important to recall some of the biggest open source stories of the year.
Click through the gallery below to see some of our picks for the most important open source stories of the year, and let us know what development you thought was the most pertinent in 2015 for the community.
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