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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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OLPC's capitulation to Windows: A community failure?
31 minutes ago
Basically, Negroponte's decision to embrace Windows comes down to a belief that when community fails, default to whatever proprietary vendor makes the best interface. (If this is the case, Negroponte would have done well to choose the Mac's interface, but I digress...) -
Microsoft to limit capabilities of cheap laptops
2 hours, 31 minutes ago
Microsoft is launching a program to promote the use of its Windows OS in ultra low-cost PCs, one effect of which will be to limit the hardware capabilities of this type of device, IDG News Service has learned. -
Wine 1.0-rc1 Released
4 hours, 31 minutes ago
This is release 1.0-rc1 of Wine, a free implementation of Windows on Unix. -
Phoronix Test Suite 0.6.0 Released
6 hours, 31 minutes ago
For those of you interested in trying out new open-source software this weekend, Phoronix Test Suite 0.6.0 has been released with an arsenal of new features for this Linux benchmarking platform. There are new and updated profiles with this release, new test suites, support for backing up downloaded tests, and much more. Since Phoronix Test Suite 0.5.0 are 48 official changes in the past week, which reinforces our plans on having a 1.0 release ready by early June. -
Free software great and small
8 hours, 31 minutes ago
The OOXML document format war is over, and the good guys lost. The world will be a worse place because of it, for a long time to come. After being a lobbyist for many months, it was a great relief to get back to being a Samba coder. At least that's something I feel I have some competence in. The jury is still out on my lobbying career. -
451 CAOS Theory
10 hours, 31 minutes ago
We’ve recently seen the popular EeePc in Windows XP form. There are even concerns that Linux in the EeePC ultra-portable computers — or indeed Linux in the larger subnotebook, mini-notebook or whatever you want to call this emerging category — is now likely to evaporate in the face of Windows versions. -
Moonlighting Linux: the future of rich web apps
12 hours, 31 minutes ago
As we know, static HTML web sites are passé. Yet, Java applets never turned out to be the killer online application platform they possibly could have been. The modern introduction of Ajax has undoubtedly improved the web experience but it’s not a panacea. Here’s how to get started using the Moonlight development technology from the Mono Project. -
Samba 3.2 reflects open source project’s ambivalence toward Microsoft
14 hours, 31 minutes ago
Samba’s forthcoming version 3.2 release capitalizes on Microsoft’s interoperability commitments while also guarding against patent covenants that threaten the GPL. -
JavaFX: A Bright Future on Open Source-Based Mobile Devices?
16 hours, 31 minutes ago
Sun Microsystems is out with an answer to Adobe's AIR and Microsoft's Silverlight Rich Internet Application tools: JavaFX. At the JavaOne show in San Francisco today, Sun's head of software, Rich Green, discussed what to expect from the new offering. Green claims JavaFX will arrive on 91 percent of desktops, 85 percent of cell phones, and 100 percent of Blu-ray players--no small claims. While I'm not positive it will have that bright a future on so many platforms, Green showed JavaFX running on Google's Android mobile platform, which is Linux-based. Here, there could be promise. -
Millionaires, Billionaires, and Open Source
18 hours, 31 minutes ago
Thanks to a recent column by my friend Andy Patrizio, I found out that there’s “been an ongoing debate among bloggers and industry observers over one simple question: Where are the open source billionaires?” OK, I’ll buy that some people think that’s a real question, but I think it says more about they don’t understand the connection between software development genius and what it takes to become a billionaire. -
Senior Debian developer quits core teams
19 hours, 31 minutes ago
A senior Debian developer, Australian Anthony Towns, has left some core teams of the project and gone quiet in the last couple of weeks, according to project sources. -
OpenOffice.org Beta Fails the Office 2007 Test
20 hours, 31 minutes ago
I'm not embarrassed to admit it: I'm a big fan of Office 2007. I think Microsoft got a lot right with its latest release, starting with the ribbon interface and including any number of tweaks and improvements that make my day easier. I can't say I'm thrilled about the price of the suite, however; nor the countless SKUs to choose from. Plus, I'm also a big Linux fan. That's why I always try to keep my eye on the current state of OpenOffice.org, the open source office suite founded by Sun Microsystems. -
VIA Gives 16,434 Lines Of OSS Code
21 hours, 31 minutes ago
Back at the Linux Foundation Austin Summit, VIA had announced plans to develop a new open-source initiative in a similar fashion what AMD has been doing. However, in the weeks following that they haven't done much for the open-source community. As was highlighted in VIA's Open-Source Efforts A Bluff?, their Linux website just contains two binary drivers right now and not much of anything else -- not even bug tracking software or a mailing list. This has upset some, but fortunately VIA has stepped up to the plate and shown they are actually doing more than a media blitz. -
How one vendor learned to stop worrying (about open source) and love Microsoft
22 hours, 31 minutes ago
Aras Corp. was a small, struggling software maker that stirred up a hornet's nest early last year, when it made a pair of seemingly contradictory decisions. First, the Andover, Mass.-based company made its expensive — we're talking up to a million dollars for a single license — product life-cycle management (PLM) software available on a free and open-source basis. Second, rather than trying to curry favor with the mainstream open-source community by making even a vague commitment to port its software to Linux, Aras said outright that it would continue developing only for Windows. And instead of distributing its wares through a mechanism such as the GNU General Public License, the company decided to use one of Microsoft's so-called shared-source licenses, which at the time had yet to be accepted by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) as legitimate open-source licenses. The reaction, unsurprisingly, wasn't favorable. -
SaaS, Open Source and the Migration of Burden
23 hours, 31 minutes ago
Last week, I recorded a podcast with Dennis Byron, analyst at eBizQ. Dennis wanted to talk about how open source is the fundamental enabler of Software as a Service, an idea he started writing about after a conversation with some guy named Jim Zemlin. ;-) - More News
Linux.com : Features
Ask Linux.com: Prepping for updates, GRUB versus LILO, and forum tools
In this week's peek inside the Linux.com discussion forums, we find some advice on safely updating your Linux distribution, and how the GRUB and LILO bootloaders differ, along with a primer on the built-in tools that you can use to get more out of forum participation (hint: look in the top right corner of each page).
Meet Karl Paetzel, HP marketing manager for Linux and open source (video)
Karl Paetzel is quoted frequently about Hewlett-Packard's ever-increasing Linux and open source efforts, which now include open source licensing detection and governance tools. Here's a chance to see and hear him a little more "up close and personal" than in a traditional text interview.
Review: Hardy Heron converts an Ubuntu skeptic
I have to disclose that I have never been a real fan of Ubuntu. I've tried it about every release and had more than my share of issues with it. Ubuntu 8.04 was released last month, and the first reviews mostly spoke of how nice this version was, so I downloaded the i386 version to test. Sigh -- it's rough when you have to change a long-standing opinion.
Ubuntu Open Week unites community and developers
What's the next best thing for Linux users who can't attend an open source community conference in person? Online workshops like last week's Ubuntu Open Week, where upwards of 300 participants per session showed up to learn more about the popular Linux distribution, the community, and its teams.
Using a wiki for FOSS application documentation
For a lot of programmers, writing an application is fun, but writing its manual is not. Adding new features, refining the product, and responding to users' input are all more rewarding than writing instructions on how to use the software. However, good documentation is necessary to have happy, informed users who can contribute meaningfully to future development. A few months ago, Gilbert Ashley, the author of src2pkg (Slackware's "magic package maker") invited me and two other people to help him manage the user documentation for his program. The process we used to create the src2pkg wiki may be a useful example for other free and open source software (FOSS) application developers.
Book review: The power of group sharing
Clay Shirky's book on what information technology is doing to our world, Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations, has important things to say to anyone interested in open source software (OSS). His thoughts on the evolving effects of the technological revolution we are all living in make for a fun way to spend a few hours.
Ubuntu 8.04: Upgrade or clean install?
Which path should you follow? Should you take advantage of Ubuntu's package manager and use it to upgrade your system to the latest 8.04 Hardy Heron release, or should you download a CD or DVD ISO image and do a clean install? Common wisdom says that doing a clean install is the better, safer course of action. There may be a little extra work involved configuring everything once the latest and greatest is installed, but that's nothing compared to the pain of an update gone wrong, according to traditional thinking. But that cautious approach may no longer be necessary.
Synchronize your databases with SqlSync
SqlSync lets you compare two databases to see which tuples have been added, removed, and changed. You can also use SqlSync to make one database a clone of another and maintain its contents to be that way. One benefit of using SqlSync to perform synchronization is that you can perform heterogeneous syncs -- for example, from MySQL to PostgreSQL.
Tomboy note-taker keeps you organized
I use Tomboy, an open source notetaking app, to cull and organize the hundreds of bits of information I track, and to prioritize it on to-do lists on the fly. When we first reviewed Tomboy 0.3.5, it had some obvious flaws. The project has had a number of updates since then, and the newest version, 0.10.0, really makes the grade.
Interview with Bluewhite64 creator Attila Craciun
Slackware Linux has stood strong for more than a decade by refusing to compromise. There was a time when people used to say, "If you want to learn Linux and learn it well, give Slackware a try." Attila Craciun, a Romanian software developer and Linux enthusiast, has ported the Slackware tree to the AMD64 architecture to create the Bluewhite64 distro. We spoke with him to find out about Bluewhite64, where it came from, and where it's going.
Creative Commons promotes standard license expression
If Creative Commons (CC) has any say in the matter, the Web will soon have a standard machine-readable notation for licenses. Named the Creative Commons Rights Expression Language (ccREL), the notation has been under development for the last few years, partly with the cooperation of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3). It is described in a paper by four Creative Commons employees and published by Communia, a European site that explores the relationship between technology and the public domain. Creative Commons plans future presentations of ccREL, and is also actively explaining the need for it -- which is what CC's Chief Technology Officer, Nathan Yergler, was doing when Linux.com caught up with him at the recent Open Web Conference in Vancouver.
Play multimedia content with style using Entertainer
Every major operating system has more than one media center solution for users who can't spend a day without watching a movie or listening to music. In Linux we're all familiar with MythTV and Freevo, two media center applications that are so appreciated they even have got their own distributions. Freevo is highly configurable, and Freevo 2 SNV builds look promising. MythTV has everything a personal video recorder needs, from scheduled recordings to weather plugins. The thing is, many people need a media center application just to watch Xvid files, listen to their favorite music, and watch family pictures on their television. If this is the case for you, give Entertainer a try.
FusionCharts Free: Cross-platform charts that rock
It has been said that the best things in life are free. While this isn't always true, it applies in this case. If you've struggled with GNUplot, JPgraph or other charting applications, FusionCharts Free is a breath of fresh air. Have you dreamed of finding a charting and graphing application that is simple to install, easy to configure, and drop-dead gorgeous? Stop dreaming and download a copy of FusionCharts Free. You'll be producing professional quality charts and graphs in no time.
Meet Inna Kuznetsova, IBM's Linux Strategy Director (video)
I always ask people who market (as opposed to develop) GNU/Linux and open source products or services what Linux distribution they use on their own computers. More often than not, the answer is along the lines of, "I'm a marketing person so I use Windows. The techies use Linux." Inna, on the other hand, uses not one, not two, but three different Linux distributions on her home computers. When she tells an IBM client Linux is the way to go, she obviously means it, and this surely makes a difference -- even if it's only a subtle one -- in her work.
Free Flash community reacts to Adobe Open Screen Project
From the presentation, you might imagine that Adobe's announcement of the Open Screen Project was major news. According to the news release, the project's goal is "to enable a consistent runtime environment" by relaxing some restrictions on the Flash format and releasing some specifications. However, in the free Flash community, the small group of developers dedicated to producing non-proprietary Flash tools, the reaction to the news was polite at best -- and serves as a much-needed reality check to the over-enthusiastic announcement.
What can you do with a second Ethernet port?
Purchase a new PC or motherboard soon, and the chances are good that it will come with two built-in network interfaces -- either two Ethernet jacks or one Ethernet and one Wi-Fi. Tossing in a second adapter is an inexpensive way for the manufacturer to add another bullet point to the product description -- but what exactly are you supposed to do with it? If you are running Linux, you have several alternatives.
OfflineIMAP makes messages and attachments available locally
OfflineIMAP allows you to read your email while you are not connected to the Internet. This is great when you are traveling and really need an attachment from a message but cannot connect to the Internet.
Tim Bray provides a bridge between Sun and developers
"I'm a genuine old fart," says Tim Bray as he looks back at his three decades in computing. Widely known for his standards work on XML and the Atom syndication format, at an age when many former developers have moved entirely into management, he seems to have found a niche that takes advantage of his experience. As director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems, his job is to keep current with Web and general programming and to encourage adaptation of new developments within the corporation. At the recent Open Web Vancouver conference, Bray talked to Linux.com about how he fills his role at Sun, and the trends he sees in computing.
As the SCO rolls
Reality, as good writers know, is sometimes stranger than fiction. SCO's recent performance in the U.S. District Court in Utah is a perfect example. With years to prepare, SCO executives made some remarkable statements in their attempt to show that SCO, not Novell, owns Unix's copyright.
Korn -- an extended shell
Everyone knows what a Linux shell is -- you open up a Linux terminal window (such as Konsole or xterm), type in some commands, and there you are, using your Linux shell. Write your commands to a file, make it executable, run it, and you're a shell programmer. But did you know that there are different shells that you can use, and that each shell operates in a slightly different way? My personal favorite is the Korn shell; by the end of this article, it may be your favorite as well.
