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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Giving KDE a second chance
11 months, 1 week ago
After years of Gnome I am taking a second look at KDE and I like what I see. -
Open Source Industry Expert Defends Decision to Join Microsoft
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Proving the old adage "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," Microsoft has hired another open source expert whose primary responsibility will be to work on "consumer, enterprise and government identity problems." Dick Hardt, founder and CEO of Sxipper, Inc., will stay on as Chair of the identity management company, and take on the title of Partner Architect at Microsoft. -
HP Opens Up Open Source for Small Businesses
11 months, 2 weeks ago
HP has been quirky over the years when it comes to open source. It has been, traditionally, a company that supports open source -- especially in larger enterprises. While large businesses are a major focus for HP -- and it has supported open source in other ways -- a "smaller business" line of open source products has been a long time coming. -
Whither open source in the land of leeches?
11 months, 2 weeks ago
IBM's Savio Rodrigues sees a lot of benefits from proprietary technology companies like Cisco "leeching" off open-source communities to boost profits and drive top-line revenue growth. I'm inclined to agree, at least with his assessment of IBM's involvement in open source. -
Podcasting and Images in Drupal
11 months, 2 weeks ago
In this article by Bill Fitzgerald we will learn about Podcasting. Podcasting allows you to share audio files over the Internet. In recent years, as podcasting has increased in prominence and popularity, there has been an almost overwhelming amount of information about how to get started with podcasting: the technical requirements, the hardware, the software, and so on. Sharing images creates a variety of ways for students to get involved in the class. In some classes, such as Photography or other Fine Arts courses, images provide a way for students to showcase their work. In other courses, online image sharing can be used to enhance the curriculum. In this article, we will focus on cutting through the noise, and setting up your site to work as a podcasting and image sharing platform. This article will break down the technical aspects of publishing audio and images, along with ways of integrating podcasting into your class. -
Google Squashes the Rumor: Announces Native Client Technology
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Though the majority of companies have policies pertaining to responding to speculation, sometimes it just gets to a point they have to. For instance, say a rumor makes the rounds (with at least some supporting evidence) that Google has something up its sleeve that might possibly have to do with an operating system. Google can keep mum for a while, but it obviously has to be formally addressed, sooner or later. -
Open Source Myths
11 months, 2 weeks ago
We've covered Black Duck Software a few times before. The company offers services for managed and secure implementations of open source software, and maintains a giant knowledgebase of over 170,000 open source projects. It's doing very well even in this economic environment, as seen in the story linked to above. Today, the company sent along a collection of myths about open source, responses for which answer some interesting questions. -
New Funding for Appcelerator and Jaspersoft
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Despite the dire economic times, funding continues to flow toward open source. Appcelerator, which has an open platform for building web, desktop and mobile applications, has announced that it has received $4.1 million in Series A venture funding. Storm Venture managing partner Ryan Floyd will join Appcelerator's board of directors along with Larry Augustin, a noted angel investor. -
The Microsoftie Who Embraced the Dark Side (Open Source)
11 months, 2 weeks ago
At the University of Michigan in the early 1990s, I knew I wanted to go work for Microsoft. I had long been a fan of Apple, but their computers cost so much I felt they would be relegated to a niche in the computer industry. I thought Microsoft had a much more expansive view of the power of the PC. Even on my Mac Plus, I spent nearly all of my time inside Word and Excel. -
The open strategy of the "MySpace Open Platform"
11 months, 2 weeks ago
MySpace introduced the "MySpace Open Platform", a suite of products including the MySpace Application Platform, "MySpaceID" (formerly Data Availability) and Post-To MySpace. MySpaceID enables all global MySpace users to be in control of their personal and portable social identity whenever they travel online. Ushering in the new structure, MySpace announced an additional roster of global partners for MySpaceID - Vodafone and Netvibes, all of which are currently developing MySpaceID implementations. -
Packt Publishing seeks authors for Open Source titles.
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Packt Publishing today announced the subjects on which it will be releasing some books in 2009. Packt is seeking authors interested in writing these books. -
Symbian Foundation Details its Mobile OS Plans--AT&T Buying In?
11 months, 2 weeks ago
The Symbian Foundation has now made its plans clear for the delivery of an open source Symbian mobile operating system. The first version will be ready in the first half of next year. The foundation has also announced a number of new partners, including AOL, Cell Telecom, Intrinsyc, ISB Corporation, Trusted Logic and Xenient. The new partners join 58 others, including AT&T, Texas Instruments, ARM, Broadcom, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, EA Mobile, Freescale, and many more. -
Open Source Vendors Giving to Charity This Season
11 months, 2 weeks ago
Stories of a struggling U.S. economy are on everyone's lips these days but some open source companies are doing what they can to help combat the pain. One vendor has decided to forgo a lavish holiday party this year and donate money to a local charity instead, while another is collecting canned food for the needy. -
Healthcare Pros Heed the Call of Open Source Groups
11 months, 2 weeks ago
If you're involved in healthcare IT and also have a fondness for open source, there's a newly formed group at LinkedIn that you may want to know about. The OpenVista Health Information Technology (HIT) group is looking for healthcare professionals who use the popular electronic medical record system and want to swap implementation and deployment ideas. -
Crooks Deliver Call Blizzards Via a Bug in Asterisk
11 months, 2 weeks ago
How would you like to be on the receiving end of thousands of scam phone calls in an hour? In an auto-dialing nightmare, that's exactly what's happening thanks to a bug in an older version of Digium's Asterisk open source VoIP (voice-over-IP) software. The FBI has warned users of Asterisk to upgrade to the most current version, although it has not specified which version has the bug. - More News
Linux.com : Open Source
openDesktop.org provides super-portal to free software sites
When users want the latest in free and open source software (FOSS), they are likely to think first of sites like freshmeat, or perhaps Softpedia or GnomeFiles. However, as the FOSS community has divided into specialized communities, sites for new releases have proliferated, to the point where it is difficult to keep track of them all. Since 2007, openDesktop.org has provided a portal for many of these specialized sites. Under the slogan "Let's build the desktop of the future," openDesktop.org provides a quick overview of new software that is independent of desktop or distribution.
Ask Linux.com: NAS, Find, Squid, and EFS
Gather round the table for a hearty feast of homemade dishes straight out of the Linux.com forums. All your favorites are here -- heartburn-inducing Windows-to-Linux file permission problems, savory search tips, and little bits of GNOME and Squid for those with an adventurous palate. And, of course, for dessert there's a fresh slice of grandma's old-fashioned unanswered questions.
The tanking economy and OSS
The economy is falling as fast as temperatures in November. Recession seems certain, if it's not already here. The stock market's performance resembles Disney World's Space Mountain roller coaster. And every open source vendor, every Linux project, will be touched in one way or another.
Bug Labs creates open source Lego for software engineers
Most of the new breed of open source hardware centers on specific products. Bug Labs is taking a different approach. Instead of developing particular devices, Bug Labs' goal is to provide a Lego-like collection of open source hardware and software that customers can use to build their own devices. According to CEO Peter Semmelhack, the result should be not only a higher degree of innovation, but also a forerunner of the hardware business of the future.
Ace Suares: A big Linux advocate on a small island (video)
The word "big" has two meanings here. Ace Suares is not only a big-time GNU/Linux and FOSS advocate, but he is close to 2.5 meters tall and built like a football lineman. He lives on the island of Curacao in the Netherland Antilles, where he and his wife run a small Web design and hosting firm that (of course) runs Linux servers. But trying to convert other IT people on Curacao to the FOSS cause has not been easy, and has caused Ace plenty of frustration over the years. Somehow, he keeps going; arranging conferences, holding LPI Certification classes, and generally talking up Linux to his clients, friends, and even to strangers whose businesses or government agencies might be made more efficient by using FOSS instead of proprietary software. Now we'll get out of the way and let Ace tell his story directly to you in the following video. (It's about 13:20 long.)
How to get VC investment for your open source business
So, you've got the greatest open source idea since Firefox. It's guaranteed to be bigger than TCP/IP. All you need now is some scratch to get your project off the ground. Given the genius of your idea, you're sure you'll have to beat off potential investors with a stick. If you think that's reality, I've got some subprime mortgages to sell you. Getting venture capital (VC) to fund your business is hard work, even if you have a commercial product to sell. The degree of difficulty ratchets up many times if you're an open source developer. It can be done, but it takes such single-minded focus that getting turned down multiple -- maybe even dozens -- of times won't faze you.
Indian political party turns to FOSS
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is India's largest political party, with around 20 million Ordinary Members and about 4 million Active Members. In June, BJP announced its goal to become one of the most high-tech political parties in the next two years, and free and open source software (FOSS) will play an essential role in this project.
Manou Chen of Open.Amsterdam (video interview)
Open.Amsterdam (in Dutch; English PDF download available here) is working to convert most of the city of Amsterdam's computers to GNU/Linux and open source software, and to make sure that any remaining proprietary-OS computers owned by the city use open file formats instead of closed, proprietary ones. In this interview, project director Manuo Chen tells us how the project is going and a little about its goals -- and a little about some of the pitfalls it has encountered, too.
Attorney Shaalu Mehra discusses emerging GPL trends (video)
Shaalu Mehra, an attorney with Perkins Coie, spoke at LinuxWorld 2008 about the legal implications of adopting the GPL within one's organization, and about outsourcing and performing due diligence on the software stack. This was a high-level but compelling conversation about legal matters that are important to all open source software developers.
Drupal developer Barry Jaspan discusses Acquia (video)
At the Linuxworld 2008 conference, Drupal developer Barry Jaspan discusses Drupal, development, and the recent formation of Acquia, a software and services company for Drupal. This interview explores the functioning of Drupal and how its development will be complemented by Acquia.
The maturing of the software PBX (video)
Jose Luis Landivar Chavez, vice president of sales and marketiing for Elastix, discusses his company's appliance, which complements its GPL software PBX. Chavez talks about the overall PBX market, how open source is taking it over, and about the innovations that distinguish his company's solution from others.
OpenSolaris 2008.05 is robust and ready
Sun has been getting serious about opening up its software for a few years now. OpenSolaris, an open source Unix operating system like Linux and BSD, released in May, is its latest foray into the open source arena. I found OpenSolaris to be a production-ready OS that works equally well on desktops and servers.
Ask Linux.com: document wrangling, lighter distros, and Boot Loops II
[In memory of Don LaFontaine, please read the following paragraph in as gravelly a voice as you can muster - ed.] In a world where anyone can ask, but few can respond ... they compress standard-out on the fly, impose order on your personal document chaos, and ponder who is the slimmest distro of them all. Plus, an old favorite from a previous week's column returns -- with a vengence. So microwave some popcorn and unplug the phone, because it's time for more tales from the Linux.com forums.
Second Life recognizes open source community with 2008 awards
Linden Lab, creator of the online virtual space Second Life, recognized the accomplishments of outstanding individuals in its open source community this week at its Linden Lab Innovation Awards. Seven winners were announced at a "mixed reality" ceremony held both at a convention center in Florida and simultaneously within the Second Life system.
Linux Foundation to host End User Collaboration Summit
The Linux Foundation plans to hold an End User Collaboration Summit in New York City in October. The press release we received introducing the event said, "It's by invitation, but registration is free, in keeping with the idea of opening it to 'real' end users."
Gerald Carter of Likewise talks about LDAP for Linux (video)
Some GNU/Linux desktop deployments require secure authentication from a Windows Active Directory server. Gerald Carter, a long-time member of the Samba team and an enthusiastic free software developer, now works for Likewise. You can learn from this discussion if you are considering becoming a software developer, are looking for a good business model for your free software-based company, or are looking to manage your network more securely.
Voiceroute execs talk about going (mostly) open source (video)
Voiceroute, a software PBX vendor, originally started as a proprietary software company but went (at least partly) open source earlier this year. In this video, CEO Ming Guang Yong says the company should have moved toward open source "a lot sooner," and explains why. He and CTO Navin Kumar also talk about some of the specific differences between their open source and proprietary versions, including how and where they draw the line between the two, and share their thoughts about dealing with open source developers and building a successful open source development community.
PostPath: Enterprise-strength open source alternative for Exchange
For enterprise system administrators looking for interoperability with Microsoft Exchange, but not the high costs associated with it, PostPath email and collaboration server could be a smart business investment. Boasting interoperability with Exchange environments for a third of the cost, thanks to its use of the Postfix mail server and many other open source components, PostPath provides drop-in capability and compatibility with Exchange environments without the need for making changes to Outlook on the client side. Being compatible with Exchange means that it can be managed using Microsoft's Active Directory infrastructure. The latest version, PostPath v3.1.2, adds support for Blackberry Enterprise Server and ActiveSync, allowing you to use mobile devices to access your email.
A business built on open source, virtualization, and clouds
ReadyTechs provides network support services for companies that don't want the expense of hiring and caring for their own employees. Now CEO Gerry Libertelli says the company is using Linux virtualization to open a new income stream based on cloud computing.
New Scalix open source groupware is competition for Microsoft Exchange
Scalix collaboration platform, with its latest release version 11.4, aims to be a good alternative to Microsoft Exchange. Based on the HP OpenMail platform, discontinued by Hewlett-Packard in 2001, it has been further developed by Scalix and now acts as an enterprise email and group calendar server with the option of integrating systems like ERP, CRM, and billing into the Scalix system using its open API. It is compatible with most LDAP authentication mechanisms, such as those in Windows Active Directory, Novell eDirectory, and Red Hat Directory Server. The most prominent feature of Scalix is its Exchange compatibility; you can use an Outlook client to access the Scalix platform. Scalix also provides an AJAX-based client that is nearly identical to Microsoft Exchange Outlook Web Access (OWA). Aside from Outlook compatibility, Scalix also claims to coexist peacefully with other existing Exchange email systems.
