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Linux In the Family Room?
njcfm writes: "Ok, you've all heard and seen embedded Linux running in all sorts of useful devices; now with the backing of Intel it can run your home network too!" The story is about UPnP [?] for which Intel has released a Linux toolkit.
What percentage of Joe users do you think would be able to install and/or maintain any sort of home network environment with a dozen or more connected devices? Remember: they will probably have all these devices connected to the internet using some sort of TCP/IP protocol as well, so they will have two networks running simultaneously with a number of different devices made by different manufacturers trying to communicate with each other.
haha...HaHa...HAHAHAHAHAHAHA...cough, wheeze...
Sorry...almost hurt myself there. All I know is it was tricky for me to set up a network in my house using four PCs sharing one cable modem. Networking, firewall, cable network connection through a gateway... Now I'm not a systems guy, but I ain't PC illiterate either. Most people can't even figure out how to add some memory to their machines, much less set up a firewall. I can see it now...the kid down the street is laughing his ass off as he turns your microwave on and off at 5 minute intervals and has your refrigerator order four dozen Tombstone pepperoni pizzas!
Protocols and OS network interfaces have a long way to go before more than 1% of US households have the capability to manage any such animal as all these guys are envisioning...
It's not funny till someone gets hurt.
As far as I can tell, the difference here is that UPnP is likely to go somewhere. :)
I think that Sun opened their mouth too soon on some of their favorite technology concepts, like having everything in your house speaking java and doing the Jini thing. They should have come up with a large number of prototype devices and a slick UI before ever saying anything; Microwave (This is the easiest, since controlling a microwave basically comes down to bringing ONE circuit high or not), toaster, oven (Preferrably with a camera in it so I can look at my roast), and so on.
Also, jumping on top of linux support is an excellent move. New JDKs have been slow to appear on linux, I can only assume that new implementations of Jini will be as well. Linux has made huge inroads into the embedded and realtime markets, and ignoring its value as the OS for appliances is too big a mistake to be forgiven. I know that Sun has their own OS to worry about, but they can't make Linux go away, and they had better learn to play well with others.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
See the announcement here, and the meeting publicity material on upnp.org.
This definitely bring linux one more step closer to universal use. Anything that can conceal the underworkings of the OS and network configurations is a definite plus (so long as it can be easily bypassed by those who know what they're doing).
With Gnome and KDE you can have a predefined desktop GUI ready to go on installation. Now you'll be able to get your printers and scanners hooked up automatically. All that's left (if this hasn't been done already) is something similar to MS Internet Connection tool that acts as mini dhcp/dns/proxy server to automatically set up the network.
Realistically, if Corel's office2000 proves itself (or some other similar office product) and network set up becomes transparent, Linux should gain a huge jump in use.
Even the peripheral adding will give many home users a much easier time installing the system (I know I had a heck of a time getting my network card working with linux on my first install...)
Yes, it doesn't do much for people who can already network and do manual installs, but for people who are content with things to just work right with no fuss/no muss, this a *good thing*
Of course I use Microsoft. Setting up a stable unix network is no challenge
Although the names sound familiar, UPnP is not related to Plug and Play.
UPnP is also not a Microsoft technology, there are many companies that support the UPnP forum, and yes Microsoft is one of the bigger supporters.
Similar to both HAVi and Jini, UPnP is just one of the computing industries attempts at simplifying the network of "connected appliances" that will be filling your homes in the future.
Sony pushes HAVi because they want the CE devices to be king.
Sun pushes Jini because they want to make licensing money.
Microsoft and Intel push UPnP because they want an IP based, computer friendly, device discovery and control protocol that doesn't require the fees Sun is demanding.
Intel is releasing this Linux UPnP SDK because they don't want UPnP to be seen (by the world) as MS only, and they don't want to see Microsoft control the spec, by being the only OS that supports it (when Millennium ships).
SLP (Service Locator Protocol) seems to already be a good way to detect and locate services automatically on a network. It is a defined standard in RFC2608 and is used as the basis many networking technologies already (NetWare 5, MS W2K) and can be easily and consistantly configured to support any service type imaginable (it uses URI/URLs as its encoding system). There is already two SLP libraries for Linux, one from Sun under the SCSL and one from Caldera under the GPL.
Actually, in my limited research, this looks like a really neat way to generally advertise services. You would be able to create something like the Network Neighborhood or an NDS tree (Using SLP and LDAP together) for UNIX. Being able to plug into a network and instantly find out exactally what hosts have what services available without any configuration on your part (info for master DA server can be sent via DHCP) without all the messiness that the SMB browser protocol has (SMB, against all odds, is actually considered a protocol! Ha!) is a Really Good Feature(tm).
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