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Samba4 aims to be a drop-in Active Directory server replacement. It's still in alpha, so the easy way to try it out is with Resara Server, which supplies a polished administration console and decent documentation. So grab your Windows peecees and come take Resara for a spin.

In my talk at Linux Fest Northwest — and I say this often to anyone who will listen — I mentioned that there is a “digital Darwinism” at play in the FOSS paradigm. That is, distros and FOSS programs rise and fall depending on the quality of the software and the community that gathers around them. Good distros and programs — the “fittest” — survive, and the others, well, not so much. That’s OK: It may be harsh, but such is the way of the FOSS world. In case you’re wondering why I’ve started off on a tangent instead of going off on one somewhere in mid-blog, I bring this up because I think Fuduntu is one of those distros that can be a strong contributor to FOSS, not to mention a quality distro coupled with a growing community. That said, it has a bright future. In giving the latest version of Fuduntu a ride — Fuduntu 2012.2 — it is a refereshing change of pace. Originally based on Fedora but later forked (and the installer will look very familiar to Fedora users), the distro — as the name Fuduntu implies — ties the...

As the Intel Ivy Bridge benchmarks being delivered on Phoronix and coming up in the coming days are frequently using the latest Intel Linux graphics development stack, for those curious here is a comparison between the stock Ubuntu 12.04 packages and when running the latest Linux kernel / Mesa /...

Windows Phone has inched past the iPhone at ekeing out market share in the lucrative Chinese market. [Read more]...

As if anyone needed any more proof that the Samsung’s Galaxy S III would sell like (slightly more expensive) hotcakes, a report from the Korea Economic Daily reveals that the long-awaited handset racked up over 9 million pre-orders from mobile carriers across the globe. To put that number in a bit of perspective, the tremendously popular Galaxy S II was officially unveiled at MWC in February 2011, and managed to rack up 3 million global pre-orders by the end of April. Its successor, on the other hand,...

No other market debut has matched the frenzy created by Facebook. DealBook’s live blog will be tracking reactions to the company’s I.P.O. throughout the day.

The Facebook IPO is expected to usher in a day of massive trading volumes on the markets, and some believe that might translate to a lift for some tech stocks. But one that could really use some help has just been served another course of bad press: Nokia is apparently burning through its cash reserves — fast. The company, for years the biggest mobile phone maker in the world, has fallen on very tough times, as competition from companies like Samsung, Apple and a barrage of inexpensive device makers, have translated into declines in sales, market share and profitability. That’s now translating into what has been identified as another issue: the burning of the cash pile. In the last five quarters, Nokia has burned through €2.1 billion ($2.7 billion) from its cash reserves. Analysts polled by Reuters on average believe that at the rate Nokia is going, it will go through another €2 billion ($2.5 billion) in the next three quarters, with the total current cash pile of €4.9 billion ($6 billion) gone within two years. To put that in some context, in 2007 Nokia had cash reserves of €10 billion in 2007 ($12.7 billion). That points to its cash pile burn accelerating — a result of...

The retailer is now alerting customers that their orders for the Evo 4G LTE are being delayed indefinitely since Sprint has changed the release date. [Read more]...

The computer is the size of a USB stick and features a 1.5GHz Cortex A8 processor with 512MB of RAM and a MALI400 GPU. It can decode 1080p video via its HDMI output and has two USB connectors...

The Fedora Project has pushed back the final release date for version 17 of its popular Linux distribution by one week while its developers work to fix four blocker bugs...

The two rivaling software giants are rumored to be in a run-off to introduce new Infrastructure as a Service platforms for the cloud, which could mean trouble for Amazon. [Read more]...

In a blog post today Mandriva COO Jean-Manuel Croset announced that the new strategy going forward will be to let "the distribution evolve in and under the caring responsibility of the community." Mandriva SA will, of course, be a part of this entity. Croset continues by saying that "a workgroup of community representatives is...

HTC's One X and EVO 4G LTE are both held up in customs right now. Patent trouble. But according to updates folks who preordered the Sprint phone, the EVO 4G LTE has a tentative date of May 23. More »...

The order comes after two key HTC smartphones are stopped at the border as a result of their ongoing dispute. [Read more]...

There are nearly 4,000 different types of devices running Android, OpenSignalMaps has found. More than 1,300 of them have custom ROMs that tweak the android.build model. Android brands are almost as diverse as the models, OpenSignalMaps discovered. Further, the application programming interface level, meaning the Android version, has also become...

The latest version of Rocks cluster distribution – an open source toolkit for real and virtual clusters – has been released.

This week's open source cloud headlines yielded the not-so-suprising news that NASA will discontinue support for the OpenStack cloud platform it helped engineer. The reason? OpenStack is now receiving commercial support and the agency's funds are best spent elsewhere, according to Datacenter Dynamics. 

Uptime: NASA to cut involvement in OpenStack
Datacenter Dynamics
The agency that was central to developing the OpenStack platform has announced it will no longer be involved in the project. NASA will also stop work on Nebula, the cloud infrastructure developed alongside OpenStack.

OpenShift PaaS Roadmap for Enterprises Outlined by Red Hat
Application Development Trends

Red Hat announced its open source PaaS offering for the enterprise, a competitor to VMWare’s Cloud Foundry. 

How the Growth of Mobile is Driving Cloud Computing (Infographic)
Alltop
This isn't open source specific, but the connection between mobile computing and the growth of PaaS, the third largest cloud category, is interesting. PaaS is expected to grow 232% between 2010 and 2014. Who are the big open source PaaS providers? Red Hat's OpenShift, for one. VMWare's Cloud Foundry is another.

Open Source Cloud Computing: Could It Be Part of Your Next Cloud Project?
Midsize Insider
When does it make sense for mid-size businesses to use open source frameworks for cloud computing? Web and social applications are a good fit. Internal IT skills are a must, according to this article. And for many, it may be too soon. The article argues that security is still an issue for SMBs in cloud adoption, but a Microsoft study on cloud adoption disagrees.

Marten Mickos: Openness is Winning in the Cloud
Linux.com
The CEO of Eucalyptus says open source cloud startups are scaling in size with important customers and a large install base that make them competitive with closed source solutions.

After years of trying and failing to discourage manufacturers from adding user interface (UI) layers to Android, Google appeared destined for success with the visually refined Android 4.0 ("Ice Cream Sandwich"). Despite predictions that ICS would kill off the "skins" for good, however, HTC's Sense and Samsung's TouchWiz have not only arrived in new Android 4.0 versions, but they have met with positive reviews.

This week, these top two skins were joined by LG’s Optimus UI 3.0, yet another feature-rich interpretation of Android 4.0. Debuting soon on the new LG Optimus 4X HD and Optimus LTE II, the latest Optimus skin features great customization and the ability to take photos via voice command. Along with a growing list of third-party launchers and custom ROMs, vendor-supplied UI layers continue to both complicate and energize the Android standard.

Ranging from cosmetic modifications to more fundamental UI modifications and feature suites, UI layers offered some advantages in the early days of Android. Yet, as Android evolved, the skins have hindered more than helped, burdening users with sometimes cartoonish interfaces and awkward feature alternatives. More to the point, the UI layers often reduce performance and battery life, while cluttering the screen and wasting storage with "bloatware." Skins have also been criticized for delaying products and OS updates, and making it harder for Android app developers to reach a broad audience.

Some vendors have retreated from the skin game. Notably Motorola began scaling back its MotoBlur interface in 2010, and the latest, MotoBlur-derived Motorola Application Platform hews close to stock Android. HTC and Samsung, however, have stubbornly pushed out major Android 4.0 updates of their Sense and TouchWiz skins, respectively.

Their persistence was recently explained in a Laptop story by Drew Bamford, HTC's lead designer for Sense 4.0. HTC's goal with Sense, he said, is to "create that continuity of experience and that bridge of an identifiable HTC experience across our products."

Glowing reviews

Although some critics contend the new skins hide ICS' best design improvements, most reviews have been quite positive. Even the techies on the Android forums have had nice things to say, and some have even suggested they may keep the layers instead of rooting and replacing them with custom ROMs.

In the case of Sense 4.0, which debuted on the HTC One X, the praise focuses on the more refined interface. HTC has scaled back many of Sense's previous excesses, removing features that ICS already excels at. Its subtle matte-finish interface is far less cluttered, and new customization features include personalized widget sets, customizable lockscreens, and optional overlays.

Despite Samsung's addition of a nature-themed cosmetic overlay to the ICS-ready TouchWiz Nature UX, the UI layer is less dramatically altered from the previous TouchWiz 4.0 than Sense 4.0 is from Sense 3.5. Yet Samsung has loaded up TouchWiz with a bevy of innovative features, making it more of an application suite than a skin. Like Sense 4.0, Nature UX builds upon ICS enhancements with new lockscreens and improved camera controls, but it goes much further.

As demonstrated on the Samsung Galaxy S III, TouchWiz adds the somewhat Siri-like "S Voice" concierge service, as well as a picture-in-picture function. Various enhancements make use of sensors and cameras. For example, the "direct call" feature lets one switch from a messaging to a voice session by holding the phone to one's face. "Smart stay" uses face recognition to send the phone into a blank power-saving mode when one's glance is averted. And for the ultimate gee-whiz effect, tapping on a familiar face in a photo instantly pulls up the subject's contact info. 

Uninstall isn't an option

Clearly, Sense and TouchWiz have both been greatly improved. Yet, a chief criticism of both UI layers remains the same: neither are easily removed. There's no uninstall function, and especially in the U.S., locked bootloaders dissuade users from modifying the vendors' branded experiences.

This is no big deal for Android techies, most of whom will continue rooting their devices to replace the latest skins with custom ROMs. An increasing number of stock Android 4.0 firmware alternatives are available from CyanogenMod, XDA-Developers, and others, and some let users switch between modded versions of vendor skins in addition to stock ICS.

For most consumers, however, the risk of "bricking" one's device into a coma makes rooting the phone with a new ROM an unwelcome option.

As Ryan Whitwam notes in a May 8 story in ExtremeTech, there are less risky ways to nudge a skinned phone toward Android purity. Installing an ICS-ready launcher like Apex and ADW adds home-screen customization options that approximate a stock Android experience. Whitwam also points to alternative browsers and other apps that can help restore a stock experience. These solutions, however, do not necessarily remove bloatware or address potential performance, storage, or battery problems.

Despite the drawbacks of fragmentation, vendors should be encouraged to make Android anything they want -- even if they go as far as Amazon with its partial fork of Android 2.3 for its Kindle Fire tablet. And in the interest of providing users with an open platform, too, perhaps the next versions could offer the option to uninstall.

It's official: Android smartphones are dominating the overall smartphone market. Researchers from Gartner report that Android phones represented 56 percent of the global smartphone market in the first quarter of this year, while Apple's iPhone was next in line with only 22.9 percent of the market. And, if you've been underestimating Samsung's force in the mobile phone market consider some key data about its leadership in the market for Android phones. According to Gartner: "Samsung became the world’s top mobile handset vendor during the quarter, displacing Nokia which had held the No. 1 spot since 1998. Samsung’s mobile phone sales reached 86.6 million units, a 25.9 percent increase from last year. Samsung took back the world’s No. 1 smartphone position from Apple, selling 38 million smartphones worldwide. In addition, Samsung’s Android-based smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2012 represented more than 40...

It's mid-May -- do you know where your Ice Cream Sandwich update is? Six months after Android 4.0 made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, millions of owners of legacy Android devices are still anxiously awaiting the day the new firmware gets downloaded on their own electronic real estate. At least the scene today is much more pleasant than it was just a few months ago, as ICS is finally rolling out to several popular devices. But if you're...