THE CHRONICLE
MONDAY,
APRIL 25, 2005 3
Linux to replace Unix systems State by
businesses lobby for CAFTA
Peter Gebhard THE CHRONICLE
School is almost -out, and before you know it Duke’s Unix computers will be as well. This summer, the Office of Information Technology’s division of Academic Technology Services will be at work replacing the machines that run with Unix—an operating system commonly used in scientific fields—in labs around campus, including the engineering lab in 106 Teer Library. The current crop ofSun Ultra 10s and Sun Blades will be replaced with new Dell hardware. These new machines will run CentOS 3.3 as supported by Linux@DUKE. CentOS is a distribution of the popular open-source operating system Linux. Linux, a Unix-type operating system, was originally created by Linus Torvalds in the early 1990s and is freely available to everyone. Sarah Roberts, an information technology analyst in OIT, is working with other OIT groups to manage the transition to Linux. “Pragmatic and technical considerations have driven this change, as Linux continues to gain a greater userbase and more third-party commercial software is made available on the platform,” Roberts said. “The availability of software should be a real boon to users. Duke also has a very strong Linux presence and knowledgebase among students and other campus users.” Since Linux and Unix are so similar, all the programs on the computers will stay the same, and students will notice minimal differences. “The project will be put into effect over the summer so as not to disrupt any courses currently using Solaris for coursework, as well as to add it as a part of the normal computer migration schedule that occurs every summer,” Roberts said. Of the 20 labs managed by OIT, seven currently have Unix machines. The labs that will be upgraded include 125 Carr Building, 117 Hudson Hall, 106 Teer Library, 133 Social Psychology Building, 108 House E in Craven Quadrangle and the Perkins Library basement lab. Construction of the new French Science
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PETER
Center will lead to the elimination of the public Unix lab in the Biological Sciences Building. Mechanical Engineering graduate student Howard Conyers uses the labs “three or four times a week,” he said. It is his first year using Unix, and though he said he did not know much about Linux, he found the current setup efficient and its scientific tools useful. Junior Amit Joshipura, who is double majoring in biomedical and electrical engineering, said he is usually in the lab every day. Working on a problem using the engineering math program MATLAB, Joshipura sometimes has a different issue on his mind. “I don’t have a problem with the computers; I have a problem with the
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printers,” he said. “Those printers need
be fixed.” Freshman Aijun Madan-Mohan, a biomedical engineer, uses the labs several times a week during class labs. He uses the lab computers mainly for engineering programs MATLAB and LaTex and was disappointed that they lacked Microsoft Word, Since Microsoft Word cannot run on Unix or Linux machines, the open source alternative, OpenOffice.org, will most likely be included on the new Dell machines, “There is a strong interest in Linux, and it has a wide and far-reaching footprint on campus already," Roberts said. “This new installation of Linux-based labs should just build on that in a posilive way.” to
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Sophomore Keddy Chandran (right) and freshman Dan Coral use Unix computers for their physics class.
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Before it heads to Washington for a month, North Carolina businessmen have been lobbying hard for the Central American Free Trade Agreement —sure to become one of the most influential such pacts Congress has tackled in more than 10 years. CAFTA, like its model, the North American Free Trade Agreement, would clear most trade barriers with Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. As one of the leading U.S. states in trade relations with Central America, North Carolina is home to textile leaders and politicians on the front lines among lobbyists for passing CAFTA. State textile officials stormed Washington this month, claiming that the proposed agreement would boost their staggering businesses. Cass Ballenger, a former Republic Congressman from High Point who chaired the International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, returned to the House for a hearing on the agreement. “CAFTA is created basically to help Central American sewing machines,” Ballenger said. “If we don’t pass CAFTA, [businesses] will go to China.” Ballenger contended that China has an unstable government and that it is in the interest of U.S. trade to invest in Central America. Fabrics produced in textile factories are shipped largely to sewing factories in Central America that stitch clothing for
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