Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Ubuntu, recently wrote a post detailing Ubuntu and Canonical’s contributions to the upstream projects that make up their distributions. There he mentioned a challenge he recently issued to the Linux and free software community: build a Linux-based UI and computing experience on par with Apple’s within two years.

This is the free software community’s version of JFK’s Space Challenge that resulted in the Apollo program. In 1961, JFK issued a challenge to the United State’s Congress, our space program and our academic and scientific communities: put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. (It’s also a serendipitous comparison given Mark’s penchant for space travel.) Minus the cold war rhetoric, I was struck by similarities to the open source movement when I re-read JKF’s speech:

I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.

Recognizing the head start obtained by the Soviets with their large rocket engines, which gives them many months of lead-time, and recognizing the likelihood that they will exploit this lead for some time to come in still more impressive successes, we nevertheless are required to make new efforts on our own. For while we cannot guarantee that we shall one day be first, we can guarantee that any failure to make this effort will be our last. We take an additional risk by making it in full view of the world, but as shown by the feat of astronaut Shepherd, this very risk enhances our stature when we are successful. But this is not merely a race. Space is open to us now; and our eagerness to share its meaning is not governed by the efforts of others. We go into space because whatever mankind must undertake, free men must fully share.

Every leader knows that the most important step is defining the goal. Good leaders challenge and push us out of our comfort zone. Mark has spoken much about the importance of leadership in open source projects. I believe this challenge is an example of that leadership. Are there issues with a collective group designing effective UI and user experience? Probably. Does that mean it’s impossible? Certainly not. Just look at the amazing technical achievements by free software communities to see what is possible.

Eight years later, on July 20, 1969, JFK’s vision was made a reality when Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong took a small step for himself and one giant leap for human-kind.

So can we do it? Mark certainly believes it is possible, as I’m sure JFK did before he made that speech. Do you?

The agenda for the 2008 kernel summit has been posted. The summit is an annual, invitation-only event which is typically attended by 70-80 developers. It is a rare opportunity to bring part of the kernel community together for focused discussions on topics which affect the kernel as a whole.

What sorts of topics are those? In recent years, the summit has tended to emphasize process-oriented issues - those are the kinds of discussions which are hardest to have over electronic mail. So, for example, there will be a discussion on just when device drivers should be merged. There is a weak consensus that getting drivers into the kernel early is a good idea, but there are hazards there too: a premature driver merger can freeze a bad user-space API in place, and the UVC webcam driver, merged very late in the 2.6.26 cycle, brought a security vulnerability with it. So the real answer to “when should drivers be merged?” has yet to be found; we’ll see if the summit discussion gets any closer.

One of the reasons why the kernel process works as smoothly as it does is that many of its subsystems are strictly independent of the others. A developer working on sound drivers need not worry about breaking the memory management code, for example. Some subsystems have strong ties with others, though; for example, i2c drivers end up being core subcomponents of video drivers, hardware monitoring subsystems, and quite a bit more. In cases like this, making changes which don’t break other parts of the kernel can be hard; there is a session this year dedicated to figuring out ways to make that interaction have more smoothly.

Other process-oriented discussions include a session on tools, kernel quality (a perennial kernel summit topic), documentation, helping new developers join the community, and the organization of the kernel summit itself.

There will be some more technical sessions as well. The interaction between filesystems and the block layer is one of those; there is a lot happening in the filesystems area currently, and that has implications for how the higher-level code works. Boot-time tools - currently maintained independently by each distributor - will be discussed with an eye toward unifying some of that code. Improving suspend and resume - another longstanding topic - will be back this year. And, of course, there is no escaping a discussion on tracing, an area where Linux should excel but where things have not, yet, come together as they should.

Finally, for the third year, the kernel summit will hold an election for the Linux Foundation’s Technical Advisory Board (TAB). Six of the board’s ten slots will be filled this year; as of this writing, there are ten candidates (including five incumbents). This time around, the election has been made part of the joint reception with the Linux Plumbers Conference, which will allow more people to participate in the process.

It’s worth noting that, among many other things, the Linux Foundation has helped with the organization of both the kernel summit and the Plumbers Conference. There have been few developer-oriented events in the United States in recent years; I’m actually looking forward to going to a conference which doesn’t involve customs formalities. Thanks to the Linux Foundation (and the many other people involved) for helping to make these events happen.

Sometimes a consortium can play a smaller supportive role that is really powerful. Helping people and organizations to pull together in the same direction can accomplish amazing things. It’s very gratifying.

The Linux Foundation, in concert with several well-known industry names (hint: they start with letters like I and G), has hired a key contributor to the Linux kernel development community, the system administrator for kernel.org. It’s an important position. kernel.org is crucial to the Linux kernel’s collaborative development environment. It is the actual physical space — in cyberspace — where kernel developers get their work done. Without it, nothing happens.

What is kernel.org? It’s not for beginners, but it’s an essential resource for those perfecting the current and building the future versions of Linux itself. Keeping the kernel.org site running smoothly is crucial to connecting Linux’s famously geographically dispersed contributors. It is the primary site for the Linux kernel source and git, the distributed revision control / software management project created by Linus Torvalds. The site is mirrored around the world through the help of countless others. From the Kernel.org namespace you can jump to FAQs, mailing lists, site updates, comments, and a lot more.

Making sure that this resource is available is an under-appreciated but essential piece of the puzzle. Others in the industry saw this need and partnered with us to fund this full-time position.

Fundamentally, this is why the Linux Foundation exists: To provide (some of) the services that an open community needs but that no corporation could provide directly. We marshal the forces of our members — they would have a hard time hiring the person directly — who are extremely generous and supportive. That’s putting money where your mouth is. The model works.

John ‘Warthog9′ Hawley joined the kernel.org administrator team in 2005 as one of the five kernel.org administrators. Working on system operations, the wikis, the kernel.org Gitweb, the GeoDNS patches to ISC’s BIND name server and a number of other things for kernel.org. His other OSS exploits include working on Syslinux, OpenSSI, and PXE Knife a set of interfaces around common utilities and diagnostics tools needed by an average systems administrator. In his free time he enjoys cooking extravagant meals and watching bad movies.

I expect now that John is in a full time role there will be a long list of projects coming in from the kernel team.

Incidentally, Linux kernel developers may be flung far and wide around the globe most of the time, but a chunk of them with be in Portland, OR next week for the Kernel Summit 2008. If you are interested in receiving information on the event, please contact angela (at) linux-foundation.org.

Then today, a comment was left by stats-for-all that there is a lawsuit against Norris alleging breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duties, shareholder oppression, and (in the alternative) unjust enrichment and promissory estoppel, Crimson Capital LLC et al v. The Spartan Group Holding, LLC et al. It was originally filed in Supreme Court, County of New York, in New York State, Case Number: 601873-08, at the end of July. That's not "supreme" as in highest court in the state, by the way. It's where you begin a civil action of this type in New York State. I have no idea why they name it that way, but they do.

Then there was an effort to move the case to federal court, specifically to U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where it has docket number 1:08-cv-06554. But on September 2nd, the presiding judge, Judge John F. Keenan, decided his court lacked jurisdiction and remanded it back to state court. I have the documents for you.

This week week we saw news centered around two studies on desktop computing trends: one from Forrester Research and one from IDC. Both reports come from highly regarded firms and both seem to point to contradictory trends.

Bad news first. Linux fans are now being compared to Cubs fans. For you non-sports enthusiasts, the cubs haven’t won a world series since 1908. According to Ben Gray of Forrester, “as optimistic as Linux enthusiasts are and will forever remain, they’re beginning to sound like Cubs fans with the never-ending hope of ‘There’s always next year.’” The report cites survey research showing Windows Vista migrations as “ramping up” in the enterprise while Mac makes inroads and Linux continues to muddle along. The report states that “IT operations professionals need to prepare for a more decisive shift in their desktop operating system (OS) strategy.” In other words, when it comes to Microsoft Vista it is time to fish or cut bait. Tough advice in slow economic times.

Which leads me to the good news. IDC released a report this week citing Linux growth in a sector of computing which I have written about at length for over a year; the low cost netbook. According to IDC, “[the] PC Market Continues To Resist Economic Pressures With A Boost From Low Cost Portable PCs.” Most of these PC’s are Linux based with a smattering of Windows XP based netbooks as well (Vista doesn’t run well on these light weight PC’s). It seems while Forrester is predicting a gloomy future for Linux on the desktop, IDC is reporting on growth in a sector of computing where Linux does very well.

What are we to believe? First, both firms are calling the data like they see it. Forrester did a survey of their clients which are largely enterprise users of technolgy - typically the slowest to change. In fact, they even admit it, “Microsoft released Windows Vista to the general public more than 18 months ago ? which is typically how long IT departments need to test their applications and hardware against any new OS.” IDC on the other hand is looking at quarterly PC tracking data which tends to pick up on rapidly developing trends in the market. IDC’s Loren Loverde, director of IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly PC Tracker states, “We continue to see a rapid transition to Portable PCs around the world, even as economic pressures rise. The trend reflects the increasing importance of computing, not just in the home or office, but as an integrated part of our lives. Falling prices, more design choice and competition for PC makers to capture this market continue to drive a rapid transition.”

According to Forrester there may not be a sea change to Linux desktops in the immediate future in the slower moving enterprise. However, in the broader world of PC sales it is worth noting that Linux based portable netbooks may be a leading indicator of things to come. Plus, from the looks of things the Cubs are having a pretty good year so far.