Today at Linux World, SAP AG announced it will make the SAP DB database management system available as open-source software under GNU General Public License, reports NewsAlert.

From a Boston Globe editorial: “Jack Valenti Believes in the unlimited right of movie studios to
control the distribution of their work. But professor Lawrence
Lessig says, ‘I believe in the right to hack,’ even if that
results in breaking codes that safeguard new movies on DVD discs.
Somewhere between those positions is a middle ground that fosters
the creation of new intellectual property, while protecting the
public’s fair use of older works.”

Posted at Gnome.org: The first-ever elections for the GNOME Foundation’s Board of
Directors will be held November 1-8. The GNOME Foundation will
coordinate GNOME releases, speak on behalf of the GNOME project and
more. See the GNOME Foundation web site for the foundation’s charter, an
FAQ, a list of registered voters, elections rules and more. Anyone who has
contributed in any way to GNOME is welcome to vote, but first you must
register. Register to vote by October 30 by sending email to
membership@gnome.org with your name, email address, and a short list of
how you contributed to GNOME.

From a LinuxDevices column: ”

In my opinion it’s all MontaVista’s fault! The problem began when they announced a ‘fully
preemptable hard real-time Linux kernel.’

Then came the debate about whether their kernel was or was not fully preemptable, and
whether or not it was truly hard real-time. But that’s not where the debate ends. Nobody
thought of questioning another aspect of MontaVista’s release — namely: had they spelled
‘preemptable’ correctly?”

From an OSOpinion column: “In the real world, reliable and flexible platforms like OS/2 Warp and
Linux are seen by many mediocre programmers and highly-paid but
overrated consultants as threats to their carefully arranged
hegemony of mediocrity. There’s nothing like being able to tell the
client, ‘Sorry we had to come by today and charge you $800 to
restore your data on your PC, but that’s Windows. There’s nothing
we can do about it. Oh, well, too bad.’ There’s nothing like having a
steady stream of ‘maintenance’ income from systems that collapse
like a house of cards when you push them at all. There’s nothing like
the handy treadmill of ever-more-expensive “upgrades” in software,
that coincidentally also require ‘upgrades’ to the hardware.”

From an eWeek story: “Has Dell Computer Corp. painted itself into a corner with its insistence on being judged by its growth rate relative to the PC industry? The point was brought up after Dell said late Wednesday that its sales for the third quarter would come up some 3 percent short of expectations at about $8.2 billion. ‘You seem to be setting a trap for yourself,’ said one analyst.”

The Standard is reporting that two major ISPs are negotiating to buy Napster, which may bring an end to the music-swapping service’s legal problems.

Heavy users of Freeserve are staying online
for an average of 16 hours a day, and even, weirdly, as much as
30 hours in a 24 hour period — accomplished by logging on
several PCs through a single dialup line or linking two lines
together. They’re about to be barred from the service, reports ZDCOUK.com.

Mindful of the city’s history as a place where elections have been bought, Chicago officials are trying to shut
down a Web site that offers votes to the highest bidder. From CNET.com.

The Register reports that

Microsoft is being sued by a black, female former employee who claims
race and sex discrimination. Monique Donaldson, who left the company
in May, alleges that the company’s appraisal system operates according
to the biases of its largely white male managers, rather than on merit.