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NTT Joins OSDL
craigoda writes "NTT, the world's largest telecommunications company has joined the Open Source Development Lab (OSDL) (Japanese) to focus on increasing the availability, clustering, and performance of Linux for use as the infrastructure OS in next generations telecommunications systems. NTT's work on Linux will be done through OSDL's Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) working group. Here is a Dow Jones Business story was released yesterday based on the rumour that NTT was joining. Looking at the OSDL web site, the rumour appears to be true."
I used to work as consultant for NTT back in the mid-80s and they've always supported innovative strategies within the company. The folks at OSDL will be able to tap in large talent pool within the company.
Which is nice.
Note it says "possibly". Also, Linux migration is going to take a long time, and they probably will support multiple operating systems anyway.
First, the Japanese gov't supports a Linux-based OS, now this. Gotta hand it to the Japanese! yokkatadesuyo!
#define DRM chmod 000
Here's the babelfish translation:
No wait, it's here.
... which is basically big "Fu.., sorry, Thank You, but No, thank you" to SCO even after memorable trip of McBride to Japan
Bell Labs develops UNIX as a development environment for next generation telecommunication systems. It grows to encompass a myriad of applications over the years. One day a bright young Finn hacks a derivative to run on commidity computing hardware. This derivative "Linux" is embraced first by hard core geeks for their own use (and as an expression of independence from various monolithic computing behemoths) and eventually, through the coding and evangelizing efforts of this user community, gains acceptance in enterprise level computing environments. Now NTT wants to use Linux as a platform for next generation data/telecomm applications...
But why are there not any American telecoms...?
Proud patriot and republican voter.
Trolling is a art,
Slashdot needs to provide a list of corporations approved by the geek collective, so I can skip reading and get right to the knee-jerk reaction.
You can read the translated Japanese site here.
Having lived in Japan a few years this does not suprise me. NTT always had excellent phones for the end users, with features that I still have not seen over here. Back in 1996 I was connecting at 56k through a cellphone, something we just barely are starting to see over here. Another nice thing was that half the payphones had built in data ports and ISDN connections.
And I know I shouldn't feed one. But just in case you're serious, everyone of the points you list, are things that I hope won't change because Linux already has them.
Right now, as it stands, linux barrels forward with a world wide array of projects, with each project getting it's own evangalist to promote it, (it has a rhyme and reason, just not yours). It has legions of well paid and highly talented programmers and developers in the mix, as well as legions of hobbists as well. The cream rises to the top. We will see linux break new ground, as we have for the last decade.
1) What were the alternatives?
:)
2) How much money will this save? I imagine into the billions, especially if it extends to a US telecomm switch to Linux. This is just one more step to open-source acceptability!
stuff |
45 minutes and only 37 comments, you can tell we really give damn about this post.
What is slashdot?
Linux will need to task switch in microseconds
rather than milliseconds before it can become
usable as a platform.
This pleases me greatly. Does this mean we can expect to see NTT's TwinVQ (ie, VQF as popularized by the Yamaha encoder but technically belonging to NTT) made open source sometime in the near future?
For those unaware of VQF, it performs noticeably better than MP3 at compressing audio (at 96Kbps, it perorms better than even MP3Pro, though takes about 10x as long to encode). For some reason (cough cough money cough) only a 96Kbps encoder ever made it out to the general public, but many people who used and loved it have long awaited a higher bitrate version.
C'mon, NTT, you've got an otherwise dead and useless code base. Let us play!
Further, NTT joining the OSDL is extremely bad news for Sun Microsystems. NTT currently uses Solaris to run its group servers, but NTT is clearly committed to migrating all its servers from Solaris to Linux. NTT is the beginning of the Linux avalanche that will lock Sun computer systems out of the telecommunications market. (reference: " NTT Mulls Joining Global Consortium For Linux Development")
The cost of Sun's telco gear, with Vertas clustering and journalling software borders on insane for a large installation, so the long term economic benifits for NTT are obvious.
However, in my experience, a company as large as NTT would have signed NDA's with both Sun and Veritas to see what was coming in the next releases of their software, and to provide input into the design features.
I wonder if these agreements will allow NTT to do anything but help fund development of these features.
I've hacked my Aibo and installed a computer-controlled fleshlight in it!
From your link "Asian trio to replace Windows":
(emphasis mine)
So, I'd say NTTs involvement in OSDL seems quite in line with the govermental involvement of China, Japan and Korea.
"Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
[My comments are in square brackets. I didn't translate portions that explained what Linux is, and what OSDL is, because we're all clued in about that by now.]
NTT group plans to deliver a high-performance OS, capable of various telecommunications services, in three years. It will reduce the cost of development and operation of basic telecommunication. Linux, which has previously seen action in the public sector such as Denshi Seifu ["Electronic Government" -- some sort of Japanese buzzword] has also begun to spread in the telecommunications field [huh? the journalist got the order wrong].
NTT Group joins OSDL on the 25th. Including IBM, the organization is formed by 30 IT companies. Of the Japanese companies participating, there are NEC, Fujitsu, Toshiba, etc. totalling five companies.
NTT, like other participating companies, intends to use Linux in such things as system maintenance and managing literally millions of customers' account data and balance.
Currently, other OSes such as UNIX hold the majority of the market share. NTT plans to improve Linux's reliability and functionality for use in telecommunications.
-- 9/25 Nippon Kezai Shinbun Morning Edition
bah, i was one of the first to help suport vqf back in the day, i had the third largest collection on the IRC network we traded on... i listen to them comparied to an average MP3 and they sound like ass compaired to the highest quality encoded MP3.. MP+ sounded better then VQF, and most mp3s (different form of vairable bitrate mp3)
Not a troll or flamebait but VQF quite honestly sounds like trash through anything but a 5$ set of speakers...
i listen to them comparied to an average MP3 and they sound like ass compaired to the highest quality encoded MP3
And MP3 sounds like crap compared to the highest quality PCM (ie, a raw CD rip). I certainly won't disagree with you there, but I think you make an unfair comparison. No, a 96Kbps VQF doesn't sound like a 384Kbps MP3. But I'd certainly like to hear what a 384Kbps (possibly VBR?) VQF would sound like...
Otherwise, the Chinese would stick with Linux.
erm, sorry i didnt mean highest quality, highest was supposed to be normal (128-192)
sorry =\ i knew i should have previewed *kicks self*
arg, actually i didnt even mean that, the word that was wrong was the last MP3
to the highest quality encoded VQF!!!!!
there i finnaly got it!!! yay me...
arg, was that a sorry attemp for disagreeing with someone =( at least this wasnt front page news =P
About the Open Source Development Lab
OSDL - home to Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux - ...
For some reason I find this funny. Do they have Linus stuffed in some rack unit there? Maybe Finland should change it's name to "Finland - Linus Torvalds was born here".
Just a side note. The Tokyo Linux Users Group's server is currently being hosted by OSDL. Thank you OSDL guys. We just changed the network settings yesterday since they shifted to a new ISP. From this report I guess it's NTT.
Gee, another hardware company weighs in behind Free Software. The folks who crank out millions of blinkey-light boxes see hard economics at work here: Use Linux, don't have to hire expensive code-boys to worry about which O(1) scheduler to use. Can even afford to pitch in to the effort through places like OSDL with the MILLIONS saved in software development costs.
SATPO*: Solaris coders are a dying breed, costing their mother company big bucks to produce something that can be had for free, and they can't even think about dragging their company to the Linux bandwagon until SCO self-immolates. Solaris will take big hits when 1) some Linux or *BSD gets a DII-COE certificate (DoD apps), and 2) CGL turns 1.0.
I think the NTT support of OSDL is great, but I'm not going to pat them on the back for being philantropic - they did this for cold, hard economic reasons.
*SATPO - Someone Arbitrary To Pick On