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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Microsoft Open to New Yahoo Talks
1 hour, 18 minutes ago
As a critical shareholder vote nears, the software giant signals a new deal may be in the wings -- if Carl Icahn gets his way. -
Is Gentoo Ready for Latest Linux Release?
3 hours, 18 minutes ago
Linux distributions often live and die on the strength of their respective communities. Such is the case with the Gentoo Linux distribution, which canceled its last release in 2007 but has now emerged in 2008 with a new release. -
Former HP open-source exec hired by GNOME Foundation
5 hours, 18 minutes ago
As its open source desktop software grows in popularity across a wider range of electronic devices, the GNOME Foundation has decided to hire a new executive director to continue its spread. -
Wife-killer leads cops to body in deal with D.A.
7 hours, 18 minutes ago
Convicted killer Hans Reiser led police Monday to what he said was the body of his wife in the Oakland hills just two days before he was to be sentenced for first-degree murder, authorities said. -
Study claims Windows usage market share could fall below 90% soon
9 hours, 18 minutes ago
Chicago (IL) – A new study released by Net Applications indicates that a decreasing percentage of the Internet population is using Windows as their operating system. It appears that Mac OS X could soon be listed in the double digit-range, while Windows could fall below the 90% mark. -
Move your business from Windows to Linux
9 hours, 48 minutes ago
Windows Vista debuted to muffled applause, followed by lackluster sales. Up until June 30, cash-strapped businesses looking to avoid the cost of upgrading to new Vista-compatible hardware could still purchase trusty Windows XP. Now, however, Windows XP is available only as a costly "downgrade" from Windows Vista--if you buy a copy of Vista, you can install the 6-year-old XP operating system using the Vista license. -
Linux - Still chasing that elusive 1% market share
10 hours, 18 minutes ago
While I was trawling through Net Applications operating system share trend data for the past 24 months, something struck me. June 08 market a big month for Linux because the OS saw the largest increase in market share for the whole 2 year period - a growth of 0.12%. -
Five ways Microsoft could change after Gates
10 hours, 48 minutes ago
Bill Gates has left the building and the question on many people's lips is: will Microsoft change as a result? What influence will Steve Ballmer have and how will the company's strategy alter without Gates? -
Windows PowerShell
11 hours, 18 minutes ago
Marcus Nasarek did a nice comparison of Bash vs PowerShell in Linux magazine HERE. It is only 2 pages but he covers the key elements and has been very fair to it. I appreciate the fact that he took the time to clearly understand PowerShell. In the past, a number of people in the Linux community have assumed they knew what we were doing and did comparisons based upon their assumptions. Those weren't very interesting. -
Acer's Linpus Linux Lite (Fedora) ultra portable laptop piles the pressure on Microsoft
11 hours, 48 minutes ago
First Asus , then Dell, then MSI , Elonex, the Cloud and all their clones. Now Acer has entered the fray and it is all, at least initially, good news. It looks like they’ve all found a bit of Dutch courage and started to turn on the schoolyard bully from Redmond. -
BSD or GPL: Choosing an open source license
12 hours, 18 minutes ago
If you ever plan on writing an open source program, then you must make an important decision, selecting a program license. Generally for open source programs, there are two main licenses that most developers take into consideration. These licenses are the Gnu General Public License, and the BSD license. This article will explain the fundamentals of each license, and will help you in choosing the right license for your open source project. -
What Hath Open Source Wrought?
12 hours, 48 minutes ago
Blaise Zerega prefers bazaars to cathedrals. Five years ago this month, economist Brad DeLong asked a question central to the value of information technology. If the industrial age yielded the assembly line, what, he pondered, will the information age yield? "From a historical perspective," wrote DeLong in a Wired magazine column, "it's not at all surprising that we are thrashing about, still trying to figure out how to use these new tools most effectively." By tools, he was referring to computers, software, and of course, the web. The answer, he hinted, was to be found in open source software. -
Who Will Win As Linux Market Consolidates?
13 hours, 18 minutes ago
Two small Linux companies are merging. What does it mean to Linux market leaders like Red Hat, Novell and Ubuntu — and Linux customers? Here are some clues from The VAR Guy. -
Variable MultiLine Spacing With Sed On Linux Or Unix
13 hours, 48 minutes ago
Today's post is going to be on a relatively basic subject that can elude a lot of folks who use sed casually. -
Developing for Linux netbooks
14 hours, 18 minutes ago
Most all readers will be well aware of the ASUS Eee Linux PC. Other vendors now seek to achieve similar success, the latest being Acer’s Linpus device. Yet, a common complaint is that traditional software doesn’t necessarily translate well to the smaller screens. Here’s my tips for developing software for the emerging and widely popular netbook market. - More News
Linux.com : Features
Alfresco founder says open source makes software better
In 2005, Alfresco was the first open source software company in the UK to capture venture funding, for its collection of enterprise document management applications. John Powell, formerly the COO of Business Objects, and John Newton, founder of Documentum, got together to launch Alfresco because they wanted to create a business that would have "global reach," according to Powell. Right from the start, Powell and Newton knew that the best way to do that was to create and market an open source product.
Patches coming today for DNS vulnerability
Whether you're running Linux, Windows, Cisco, Sun, or other DNS servers, you are at risk from a newly discovered vulnerability. So says Dan Kaminsky, head of penetration testing research at IO Active, who accidently discovered the DNS "design flaw" earlier this year.
Maemo 4.1 bring mail and packaging improvements to Nokia's Linux-based tablets
Nokia released version 4.1 of it's Linux-based Internet Tablet platform Maemo last month. 4.1 is a minor update to the operating system, but it boasts two important features that answer long-held complaints: an improved open source email client, and migration to a package updating system more like that of a desktop Linux distribution.
A case for text-based DVD rippers
At a time when graphical DVD rippers and encoders propose to make the backing up of your movies just a click away, a text-based application may actually be the best tool for the job.
Protecting against evil code fragments with HTML Purifier
HTML Purifier is a project that helps you ensure that HTML is valid and does not contain cross-site scripting attempts or other nasty attacks. With HTML Purifier you can allow users to post HTML content without letting them insert nasty code that will run in the browser of anyone viewing that HTML. An assortment of plugins let you use HTML Purifier with CodeIgniter, Drupal, MODx, Phorum, Joomla!, and WordPress. To get an idea of the cleanups that HTML Purifier can perform, head over to the demo page.
Looming IT talent shortage sidesteps FOSS folks
A Gartner study from earlier this year suggests that a skills shortage will leave companies scrambling in vain to find qualified help. However, open source developers say there's an adequate supply of potential employees with the skills they have.
Book review: Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery
You probably know the open source 3-D modeler Blender for its animation tools, which have brought audiences short films Elephants Dream and Big Buck Bunny. But Blender can create realistic 3-D models for any purpose, as Allan Brito's Blender 3D: Architecture, Buildings, and Scenery (Packt Publishing, $45) presents. This book approaches Blender as an architecture visualization tool, detailing the features built in to the editor and the techniques that make architectural modeling differ from crafting game or video effects.
Stormy Peters joins the GNOME Foundation as Executive Director
Open source technology luminary Stormy Peters has been appointed executive director of the GNOME Foundation, effective immediately.
AltSearch for OOo Writer functionality trumps first impressions
Alternative Find and Replace for Writer (AltSearch) has the ambitious goal of replacing and enhancing one of the most basic pieces of OpenOffice.org functionality. It's undermined by a chaotic interface, but if you have the patience to continue past first impressions, you will find AltSearch comes far closer to fulfilling its promise than you might initially imagine.
Mozilla officially scores a world record
They did it -- Mozilla now holds the world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours, according to Jamie Panas, press and marketing assistant at Guinness World Records.
Happy Independence Day
We're taking the day off to celebrate the US Independence Day holiday. We intend to reflect on traditional American values such as freedom of speech and religion, fairness, justice, respect for the rule of law, the right to pursue happiness, standing up for the underdog, and taking responsibility for one's actions. We suggest other US residents do the same, and hold their elected leaders to the same if not higher standards. Then we suggest everyone have a barbecue and watch some fireworks.
How to write a thorough review of a Linux distribution
I have never written a review of a Linux distribution, but I've read more than I can count, and many of them have been maddeningly incomplete and not worth the time it took to read them. Here's a list of items you need to talk about in order to write a thorough review, covering every aspect of the distribution from the initial download to the final recommendation and everything in between.
OpenOffice.org extension will add PDF editing
Easy PDF editing is coming to OpenOffice.org, but you'll have to be patient for a few months. Recently posted to the OpenOffice.org Extensions site, the Sun PDF Import extension (SPI) is only in beta, and only works with recent developer builds of OpenOffice.org 3.0, which is scheduled for September release. Right now, the quality of the final release is anybody's guess, but the beta's capabilities fall squarely in the middle of the available PDF import tools.
An introduction to the Kismet packet sniffer
Kismet is a wireless "detector, sniffer, and intrusion detection system," and one of the growing list of essential open source tools for computer network security professionals. Kismet runs on any POSIX-compliant platform, including Windows, Mac OS X, and BSD, but Linux is the preferred platform because it has more unencumbered RFMON-capable drivers than any of the others.
IOzone for filesystem performance benchmarking
IOzone lets you benchmark your filesystem performance, seeing how well record IO occurs for files of various sizes. With IOzone you can see more detailed information than the read, write, and rewrite figures that Bonnie++ reports. IOzone is great at detecting areas where file IO might not be performing as well as expected.
Barracuda launches reluctant legal offensive against Trend Micro
The already vicious lawsuit involving Barracuda Networks and Trend Micro that is currently in discovery in front of the American International Trade Commission (ITC) just turned nastier. Barracuda has filed its own patent infringement claim against Trend Micro, based upon three recently acquired patents. The suit is in response to Trend Micro's allegation that its patent is being infringed by Barracuda shipping Clam Antivirus (ClamAV), the popular free software application, and appears designed to pressure Trend Micro to reach a negotiated settlement.
Portrait: Louis Landry of Joomla! finds direction in FOSS
For Louis Landry, a member of the core team for the Joomla! management system, free and open source software (FOSS) is not just a hobby, nor just the technology behind Jxtended, the consulting business in which he is a partner. For Landry, FOSS is also the movement that gave him direction in life, and provides both the rationale and the outlet for his diverse interests. In fact, he is so enthusiastic about FOSS that he sounds like an evangelist for the community whenever it is mentioned.
Banshee 1.0 is more than an audio player (video)
Banshee 1.0 is finally here, and the development team has added a truck load of new features; making it not only an audio player but a full blown media player and manager. This video discusses all of the new and improved features of version 1.
Expert tip: Print booklets in Scribus
Scribus, a free, open source desktop publishing application, offers a wide range of page layout features, but one thing it lacks is the ability to print booklets. Fortunately, I've come across a simple procedure that lets you work around this issue. Here's how to do it in Linux; Windows users should be able to follow along too.
A new utility for quickly interpreting multiple Bonnie++ benchmarks
Yesterday I discussed the Bonnie++ tool, which can be used to benchmark filesystem performance. When you are tweaking a RAID and filesystem combination, you generally want to see whether your changes work in a positive manner across the board, and by how much. I created a utility called bonnie-to-chart to show the results of multiple Bonnie++ runs in either absolute or relative performance terms. It's primarily a Perl script that can be used together with the Open Flash Chart component.
