The Latest Open Source Software Available and the latest Development in ICT

Name: SOH LI XUAN Class: 4s2 I/C Number: 950511-14-7135 Teacher: Teacher Nor laila

1.0)Introduction

This folio titled:The Latest Open Source Software Available and the Latest Development in ICT.In this folio,i will talk about following aspect:The Latest Open Source Operating System(OS),Example of Open Source,The latest open source application software,meaning of open source application software,The Latest Development in ICT,Hardware,Software,Pervasive Computing,Meaning of Pervasive Computing,Example of Pervasive Computing and Conclusion.This folio is intended for student to know more about latest development in ICT.This is an interesting folio as I could observe the future direction of ICT.

Open Source Software

Open source software is software that is available in source code form.The license of open source allow user to modify,optimize but it is not subjected to copyright protection.

Software
Software is defined as a set of program which contain the instruction to tell computer what to do.

Hardware
Hardware is physical component of a computer.

2.0)The Latest Open Source Operating System(OS) 2.1)The Meaning Of Open Source Operating System(OS)
Open Source Operating System is define as an Operating System which is open source.In other word,this os is free of copyright and the source code could be downloaded and modified/optimized as user desire.For this part of assignment,i will talk about two Open Source Operating System which in my opinion is very interesting and might proved to be future direction of computing.The Open Source OS I will talk about today is Linux MCE and Google Chrome OS.They both are os which is coded for very specific purpose.

2.2)Two Example Of Open Source Operating System(OS)

1.)Google Chrome OS(Chromium OS)

Google Chrome OS is currently in development state.The current name is Chromium OS.Chrome OS Source Code was released on November 19,2009.Without further delay,let me show a screenshoot of this OS:

There are plenty of reason to get excited about this OS.I will talk about the selling point of this OS.When development is done,this will be an open source OS.This OS is mainly design to be run on netbook and as secondary computing device.This is an OS which will have simple GUI and feature a browser and some basic tool like calculator and media player.It is not design to be a full fledge OS

which can run productive application you can see in the picture,it will feature link to Google online service mostly.Google also promise fast boot time with this OS.It will boot in 10 seconds.For comparison,a Windows 7 System typically boot roughly 1minute on desktop with a 7200RPM Hard Drive.One more interesting aspect about this OS is it will support both ARM and x86.In other word,it can be adapted into a wide array of device,such as netbook,tablet which the former typically run a x86 based processor such as Intel Atom while the later tend to run on ARM processor such as Qualcomm based processor. This OS will mainly feature Cloud Service.It will also support HMTL 5.Adobe Flash will be integrated into this OS by default.One worrying aspect of this OS is how Google would market it.Google have Andriod Mobile OS as well.Andriod is designed to be run on mobile devices.They might potentially have over lapping OS.I am looking forward to this OS release and see how market response to it.

2.)Linux MCE
Unlike Google Chrome OS which I feature above,Linux MCE is a finished product.There are different reason why I will show enthusiasm in this OS.This OS,unlike the Chrome OS above,is not an independent OS.It is design to run on top of an OS,for instance ubuntu,much like Windows Media Centre.Linux MCE is a Home Theater PC(HTPC) Centric OS,as are Windows Media Centre.The major different is this is an open source OS and secondly,it feature way more feature then Windows Media Centre.Without further ado,here a screenshoot of Linux MCE homescreen:

We will now go slightly more in-depth on this OS.First,it is a x86 OS unlike Google Chrome OS.As I mentioned above,it is an alternative to Windows Media Centre.This is an immensely powerful OS.Other then basic feature,there are plenty of advance feature.Feature such as Telephone Control,A/C Control,Light Control

etc.In other word,you can integrate your home various control into this OS.Other then those mentioned above,you can even went as far as integrating surveillance and alarm into this OS! In other word,this OS is far ahead of Windows Media Centre as a HTPC OS.Also,there are dedicated remote control unit for this OS.So it sounds Good ,right???Well all these level of sophistication of course come with some drawback .In fact the drawback that is it's own enemy. First Linux is not a simple OS to use as after all these GUI overlay ,the backbone is still command line. Or put it this way,an os for mostly hobbisits.Typical end user of course will find this os complicated to setup.As such,it is an OS that serve as a backbone to a lot of commercial home automation product.All in all,this is a great OS for those who know how to integrate and operate it but it won't be a mass market os like Google Chrome OS.

3.0)The Latest Open Source Application Software

For this part of folio,i will be talking about Open Source Application Software.I hope this section will increase awareness of the superb open souce application software that is out there.From what I observe,Malaysian in general

don't have the habit of trying alternative way of doing stuff.They prefer to go to proven way,it is the same with their computing habit.For this topic,i will feature Mozilla Firefox and Handbrake Video Encoder.

3.1)The Meaning Of Open Source Application Software

Open Source Application Software is the software which provide source code for download,hence the term open source.User can modify/optimize the software but it is not subjected to copyright.

3.2)Example Of Open Source Application Software 1.)Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is one of the good internet browser out there.I had been an user of this software since 2005/Mozilla Firefox 1.Here is a screenshoot showing

Mozilla Firefox 3.6.4 with Mozilla.org page loaded on my pc.

According to research,Mozilla Firefox is the 2nd most market share internet browser,in the range of 25-32% after internet explorer mentioned above,i had been an user of Mozilla Firefox since 2005/Firefox 1.If I remember correctly,i know this software in the way of a magazine application software disc.Back then,i am

impressed by its tabbed browsing.Unlike Crazy Browser,which is essentially a Multi Tab overlay on Internet explorer 6 as 6 does not support tabbed browsing,Firefox is a ground up build multi tab Internet browser. The Latest Build of this Browser is 3.6.6 at the time of writing.Firefox 3.6.4 feature the latest Gecko layout engine.The main change to build 3.6.4 is the out-ofprocess plug-ins (OOPP) which isolates execution of plug-ins such as Adobe's Flash or Apple's QuickTime into a separate process. This is a significant improvement say,for argument sake,a plugin crash,on the older build,firefox will just terminate itself and I experience that couple of time before.With current build,it will just show error on the plug-in page.So,avoid that page and you can continue browsing other tab.As of 3.6.6 build,there are no official 64bit version yet. In couple of months,Mozilla will introduce Firefox 4.The main revamp for this time is newer GUI and official 64bit support.Personally,i am looking forward to that as I had been 64bit user for a while and I find application support for 64bit is lacking.

2.)Handbrake Video Encoder

Handbrake Video Encoder is an Open Source Video Converter.The most latest build at the time of writing is 0.9.4.Here is the screenshoot of Handbrake Video Encoder:

Handbrake Video Encoder is an open source video converter that is coded to convert video.The supported container is x264,.mkv and .mp4.It is quite an advance video encoder support majority of file format on market as input source.The latest build have feature such as pass-through DTS from a source when video is being encoded into .mkv container,Live Preview,New Build System for 64bit support.Other then these major change,they also drop 3 outdated video container which is avi,XviD and ogg/ogm.

4.0)The Latest Development In ICT

For this topic,i would like to talk about the latest development of ICT.This topic will cover both development of hardware and software.This is an interesting topic as it shows how fast does the computing world move.I am glad to be a

hardware enthusiast as I witness the rapid development of hardware side for the past 3years or so.After consider all the possible topic to talk about,i deci on what I think is one of the most important can be make on hardware side,SSD and I will compare it to traditional HDD.For software side,i will talk about a famous overclocking/system information utilities,CPUZ.

4.1)Hardware
For this bit of assignment,I would like to talk about storage.But why storage???Weren't 1TB HDD can be had for sub RM200 at the time of writing??So what so interesting about the development???Well,for the past 2-3years,there are a new technology,it is SSD.You will ask:What is SSD??To put it in very simple term,SSD is a storage which is base on flash chip.It is akin to USB Flash Drive but the controller used is much more complicated.The reason why I want to talk about this is because right now,HDD is the bottleneck of computer system.Other parts is very welldeveloped but HDD are not.A.For this bit,i will quote heavily from my favorite tech site,anandtech.com as they had been at the forefront of promoting SSD storage to the mass for a while.

Firstly,let us start with a picture of SSD:

To start off,i quote this from anandtech.com article-The SSD Relapse:Understanding And Choosing The Best SSD: 'In todays world of netbooks and nettops where performance is cast aside, weve let far too much slide. The bar of acceptability is too low. A good SSD is the anti-netbook, it is the most believable proof that PCs arent fast enough today. We dont need good enough, we need orders of magnitude of performance improvement. And that's exactly what a good SSD can deliver today.' As you can read from above,a good SSD will make system 'feel' much much faster.The reason why SSD will make a system feel faster because a good SSD excel in Random Read/Write.SSD is picking

up the point from where HDD left. Again,from the same article,here is an example of why:

This is what the article call 'fresh test' which is a very very good example of how SSD would benefit consumer.As you can see,the test involve timing the time to load Photoshop,World Of Warcraft and Mozilla Firefox immediately after boot.This is a very real world test.As you can see,SSD is faster by roughly 4 times.In other word,it will make a PC feel much 'swifter'.And that,in today marketplace,is just what needed.Other component have gotten so fast that you can't feel the difference,save for some ultra intensive task but this will.This will make your pc feel faster in doing anything,anytime.That is the reason why SSD,despite the ultra high cost,is worth the entry price.

HDD Price Capacity Heat Power Consumption Chance Of Failure(Drop) Cheap(Roughly RM0.20 per GB) Big(~2TB) Higher Higher Higher

SSD Expensive(Roughly RM9 per GB) Small(~500GB) Lower Lower Lower

Technology Used Suitable Usage

Mechanical Platter Storage

Flash Memory Boot&Application Drive

As you can see from above,i have make a simple table which compare the main storage technology on the market today,HDD & SSD.First,let us talk about price.A 1TB HDD(Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB) retail for roughly RM200 which work up to be RM0.20 per GB while a good SSD(Intel X25-M G2 80GB) goes for RM750 or so which work out to be roughly RM9 per GB.As you can see,the price difference is extremely big.Capacity wise,HDD is available on capacity of up to 2TB while the biggest SSD on the market is 500GB.The heat output of HDD is Higher while SSD is lower because HDD use mechanical platter while HDD use Flash Memory.Then,power consumption of HDD is higher then SSD because again,HDD use mechanical platter while SSD use Flash Memory.In the case of dropping your computing device,SSD have lower chance of failure due to the usage of Flash Memory.And as stated above,the technology HDD used is Mechanical Platter and SSD use Flash Memory. Finally,the suitable application for HDD on a desktop is data storage drive while SSD is more suitable as Boot&Application Drive due to the high price of SSD.The ideal solution is one fast SSD and one big capacity HDD for a desktop at the time of writing. SSD price will be getting cheaper and cheaper in the future with the advancement in fabrication process.Currently,Intel used 34nm for its SSD with 25nm coming out in roughly Q4.This will more or less bring the price of SSD down by 50% so it might be about RM5 per GB.Hopefully by then,I will be a proud user of a SSD.

4.2)Software
For this topic,I would like to talk about a software which I believe whom is involved in overclocking will be very familiar with.The software in question is CPUZ. Here a screenshoot showing cpuz with all tabs open:

As you can see from the picture,I open CPUZ with all the possible tab shown.It consist of 7 tabs.The upper left tab is showing the processor speed/info,the upper middle tab is showing the cache information of processor,the upper right tab is showing the motherboard info,the lower left tab is showing memory configuration info(Speed,Channel,Total Memory),lower center showing the SPD of RAM,the lower right shows the graphic card info and the tab in between the graphic card tab and motherboard tab is CPUZ info tab.As you can see from the screenshoot above,CPUZ is a small and handy utilities of showing various system information.

Other then showing information about PC,CPUZ also have the facility of validating a system information. Here is the screenshoot of a validation page:

The above screenshoot show this system information in question is validated. And now,i want to talk about the revision of 1.53 version to 1.54 version,the following function had been introduced: Able to take more accurate information ofIntel Core i7-880, Core i5-680, Core i3-550 processors,Intel Xeon 5600 line (32nm) processors,AMD Phenom II X6, Sempron II, Turion II, Turion II Ultra and Athlon II Mobile "Caspian" processors NVIDIA GeForce 320M chipset,AMD 870/880G/890GX + SB800/SB850 chipset. Is supported Introduction of validation rooms. As you can see,this is a minor revision release which introduced support for newer processor.And the feature introduced is Introduction of validation rooms.

5.0)Pervasive Computing

5.1)Meaning Of Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous connected computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly,wireless - technologies and the Internet.In layman term,it mean that computing have been tightly integrated into our daily lives.Sometime we are using it without our own realization.This is all possible thanks to advancement in technologies of various aspect such as Internet connection,hardware,battery and mobile software/OS.The most common example of such device is smartphone and MP3 player of which I am going to talk about.

5.2)Two Example Of Pervasive Computing

1.)HTC HD2 Smartphone

I want to talk about HTC HD2 smartphone.It is a good example of pervasive computing because it represent the crme of the crop of smartphone hardware wise that is on market at the time of writing. First,let us start with a picture of HD2:

This is currently the flagship of HTC devices for Windows Mobile OS.Let us talk about the specification for a bit.First,it is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional and come equip with HTC Sense GUI which is an overlay on top of stock windows mobile interface.Let's move on to the hardware,shall we?The processor feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor,576MB of RAM(Custom ROM only),512MB ROM.The screen is a 480x800 4.3 Screen which is one of the best on market.This phone have all the connection that is needed currently-GSM(850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 ),HSDPA(HSDPA 900 / 2100 ),Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g reciever,Wi-Fi router in built,V2.1 Bluetooth with A2DP.Lastly,it also have GPS with aGPS support.This phone weight 157g and dimension is 120.5 x 67 x 11 mm which make this phone extremely wide and long to hold.

2.)Apple Ipod Touch MP3 Player

The second example I am going to show is the highly successful Apple hit product,Ipod Touch.

This had been the benchmark for MP3 player pretty much since its release.The current gen Ipod Touch is based on Iphone 3GS as far as hardware go.It comes in 32 and 64GB capacity.The latest OS supported for 2nd and 3rd generation Ipod Touch is iOS4.iOS4 introduce many feature such as multitasking,revamped GUI.Ipod Touch come with wi-fi as well.At the September 9, 2009 keynote presentation at the Apple Event, Phil Schiller announced total cumulative sales of iPods exceeded 220 million.This device,In My Opinion,is one of the best example of successful pervasive computing solution.

6.0)Conclusion

As you can see from the folio I had done above,the world of computing is still moving at a rapid rate after so many year of advancement.Just that,in some aspect,the development have moved into a different direction.Google Chrome OS clearly reflect the change in direction.Other then that,computing solution(Pervasive Computing) as I shown in topic 5 had come a lot in the past few years.It is now tightly integrated into our life thanks to advancement of various aspect of mobile technology,like connection speed,battery life and software improvement.As far as desktop concern,it is quite interesting to observe.I might went as far as say right now,desktop is moving at a faster pace then moore law.To me,that is very very good news.At the other spectrum(netbook etc) is not moving at this fast pace.It is still in advancement but in a slower pace.This is due to the mass consumer,as mentioned in anandtech.com quote,the bar of acceptability have been lowered.Lowered to a point where there are not much need for huge performance advancement. Software wise,i think it need to catch up.There are still a lot of room for catchup.Hardware is developing at a very rapid rate but sofware are not.Development as in the ability to take advantage of the rapid hardware development.Software maker need to move quick and implement feature,like 64bit and quad core multi threading support.As of now,there are not a lot of software is being released in 64bit.However,mass consumer machine is starting to be shipped with 64bit OS installed. As a tech enthusiast,there never been a better time to be one.Right now,technology is moving at very rapid rate.I am glad to see that.

Reference

1.)http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z/versions-history.html 2.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system 3.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Software 4.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware 5.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software 6.)http://www.linuxmce.org/ 7.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxMCE 8.)http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os 9.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS 10.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS 11,)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox 12.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbrake 13.)http://handbrake.fr/index.php 14.)http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829/20 15.)http://www.anandtech.com/show/3756/2010-value-ssd-100-roundup-kingston-and-ocz-take-onintel/7 16.)http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci759337,00.html 17.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ipod 18.)http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hd2-2957.php