Nothing new here, really. Just another “mainstream” take (from Reuters in the Houston Chronicle) on Linux becoming part of the everyday enterprise IT scene instead of being considered an “upstart OS.”

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: “A former Vancouver, Wash., man pleaded guilty yesterday to theft of trade secrets after selling the exams and answers needed to become a certified Microsoft software engineer.”

In his column today, Dan Gillmor writes, “It’s doubtful that Tara Grubb worries Hollywood’s movie moguls or the people who run the record industry. Maybe she should….

A movement is beginning to stir in America, an overdue reaction to the predations of a cartel that is bidding to control how digital information may be created and used. Grubb, almost by accident, is becoming one of the movement’s new icons.”

Slashdot discussion of “‘LIAP: Linux In A Pillbox.’ It is an interesting recovery distro made in the vein of pharmaceuticals; each floppy based ‘minidistro’ cures one specific Linux ailment.”

Galik writes, “Well maybe I missed this in the News Vac or maybe no one’s noticed but Kylix 3 is out. It supports C++ as well as Delphi and the Open Edition is free if you want to write GPL software.

Find it here:

Borland Kylix,
download it here.

– By Robin “Roblimo” Miller –
Here’s a common statement from sysadmins who have switched part of their corporate networks to Linux: “We’d like to go totally Linux and Open Source, but my [marketing people — engineers — accountants — customer service people] must use [name of application], and there’s nothing like it available for Linux.”
Whenever something like this is said in an email list or public online forum, a whole bunch of people usually chime in with something like, “You don’t really need proprietary SuperProDesigner 6.8. You can use GPLed GnuAmateurDesigner .02 instead. It has a lot of the same functionality.”

“A lot” is in the eye of the beholder. The sysadmin’s engineers do a lot of squiggle creation, and while creating a squiggle only takes one click in the program they’re used to using, the squiggle function is hidden five menu layers deep in the GPL program and isn’t mentioned anywhere in the documentation. Not only that, the proprietary program creates 180-degree squiggles, while the GPL one only creates 90-degree ones. So you can say that both programs create squiggles if you like, but for fast, practical, everyday squiggling, the proprietary program beats the GPL one hollow. The engineers simply aren’t going to change.

Then there’s the “yes, we have a Linux version, but our Windows version has more features” problem that is so common among proprietary software producers. Let’s talk about a hypothetical company we’ll called Undernational Business Machinery, “UBM” for short. This company can talk all day about how much it supports Linux, but people who want to use UBM’s famous WebFootSphere program to build feature-rich WebFoot sites soon find that the latest Linux version is two full waddles behind the Windows version, and is missing much of the functionality and new, ease of use features that are primary selling points for the latest Windows WebFootSphere version.

Hope from the commercial software sector

The “programmers scratching their own itches” style of volunteer Open Source and Free Software development is not going to produce user-level, enterprise-capable applications software. Not many programmers have a great personal urge to produce software that will calculate shipping charges, sales taxes, and VATs for a company that does business in 62 countries. But companies like Oracle, SAP, BEA, and PeopleSoft have a huge motivation to write this sort of boring-but-necessary software — and are highly motivated to port it to Linux as Linux becomes more popular among their Global 1000-level customers. Other, smaller software companies and independent developers are going to find themselves scratching an important itch, namely their desire to earn a living, by producing desktop software for Linux as Linux desktop use grows. And don’t kid yourself: Desktop Linux use is growing slowly and steadily, individual by individual, company by company, month by month.

It would be nice to live in a world where all programmers work for the common good without expecting pay, just as it would be nice to live in a world where I could go to the gas station and pump 15 gallons into my car, then wave and drive off without laying out money or sticking my credit card into a slot. But right now, I pay for gas, and the gas station owner and the oil company both expect to profit from my purchase. There is no reason programmers who write software that helps the gas station owner and oil company earn money shouldn’t get paid for their work, too.

Those programmers can call those earnings “support fees” if this nomenclature makes them feel feel all warm and GPL inside, but they are still writing software someone else wants to use, and getting paid to write that software.

We are going to see more commercial software for Linux. Some of it will be good, and some of it will be lousy. Some — probably the vast majority over the next few years — will be written with enterprise users in mind, but I expect to see a gradual increase in the number of commercial home/small office programs either written for Linux or ported from Windows versions. Perhaps some of the ports will be done by Wine-connected companies like Codeweavers. They are certainly pushing this side of their business hard.

In any case, get ready for more Linux commercial applications. We are inching closer and closer to the point where mass market software houses consider the desktop Linux market worth their time and money, and we have already reached that point for server-based, enterprise-level software packages.

The one thing commercial software publishers that expect to compete in the Linux marketplace must bear in mind is that there is still going to be plenty of volunteer-written Linux software out there, and it is going to improve steadily as the people who write it become more sophisticated and user-oriented. This means commercial software for Linux must offer substantial advantages over the “free competition” if it is going to be successful.

Some commercial software publishers will feel up to meeting this challenge, and some won’t. Hopefully, those who take it up in the future will offer their best software, not half-assed, cut-down versions that insult Linux users’ intelligence — and fail to sell as a result of this stupidity — as so many commercial software vendors have done in the past.

“Commentary” articles are contributed by Linux.com and NewsForge.com readers. The opinions they contain are strictly those held by their authors, and may not be the same as those held by OSDN management. We welcome “Commentary” contributions from anyone who deals with Linux and Open Source at any level, whether as a corporate officer; as a programmer or sysadmin; or as a home/office desktop user. If you would like to write one, please email editors@newsforge.com with “Commentary” in the subject line.

The latest tar file of Security-Enhanced Linux is dated August 23, and includes a 2.4.19-based kernel. Here’s the download info page that gives you the details.

The next version of Red Hat is supposed to feature a custom desktop that is part Gnome and part KDE. Both groups are talking about it. Here’s the dot.kde.org take, and here’s the Gnome FootNotes discussion, which also has 20 screenshots for you to look at.

Slashdot has the links (and plenty of discussion).

–By Grant Gross –

Sigma Designs Inc., accused by the XVID project of pilfering its video codec and violating the code’s Free Software license, has issued a statement, saying the copied code was unintentional.
Much of the statement, released late Friday evening, amplifies a Thursday press release, in which Sigma said it was releasing its MPEG-4 codec under the GNU General Public License. Ken Lowe, Sigma’s vice president of business development, says in the statement that the copied code was the work of one programmer, working without the knowledge of the company’s management. Lowe also says Sigma never intended to profit from the MPEG-4 code.

Lowe had first promised NewsForge an interview, then apparently released the statement instead. The statement doesn’t address concerns from the XVID team that Sigma’s now available source code continues to violate XVID’s copyright by not acknowledging the team’s work. The downloads of Sigma’s REALmagic video codec now include a standard GPL copyright notice instead of Sigma’s copyright, but there doesn’t yet appear to be acknowledgment of XVID’s work.

Following is the entire Sigma Designs statement:

Interested Parties concerning Sigma's MPEG-4 CODEC

Thank you for contacting Sigma Designs and requesting information that
relates to our MPEG-4 CODEC and the availability of its source code. We
would like to take this opportunity to address the relevant issues that have
been raised.

To begin with, Sigma developed an MPEG-4 CODEC to assist in the
proliferation of MPEG-4 content and to ensure that users can create content
libraries compatible with the ISO MPEG-4 video specifications and its
implementation in silicon. Fulfilling this goal was carried out in two
steps. The first was the introduction of an MPEG-4 CODEC, provided free of
charge, so that worldwide users could begin encoding new content. The
second was the release of source code, so that the development community
could continue with technical improvements. Sigma never intended in making,
nor realized, any profits from this code base.

Several weeks after the CODEC was first released, Sigma was contacted by the
XVID development team regarding the use of certain portions of their code.
Upon examination, it was determined that one of our programmers, unbeknownst
to management and contrary to Sigma’s policy, had utilized some routines
posted by XVID as open source. During the past four weeks, Sigma had
communicated with XVID to resolve the situation. As a result, Sigma has
decided to make the current version of the MPEG-4 CODEC available under the
GPL license.

Sigma is a supporter of the Linux operating system, appreciates the work
being done by the open source community, and continues to issue certain
other code under open source arrangements. Though we believe that we have
acted as expediently as possible, Sigma Designs sincerely apologizes to the
open source community for this inadvertent use of GPL code and for the
several weeks it took to resolve the situation.

Sincerely,

Ken Lowe
Vice President of Business Development