Eugenia writes “Fantastic news for the Linux desktop. This great office suite, gobeProductive, will be releasing all its source code under the GPL in less than 3 months, according to its new owners, FreeRadicalSoftware. They purchased the source code and rights from Gobe Software recently, and their business plan requires them to GPL the code! It seems that StarOffice and OpenOffice.org will get introduced to a very strong contender, very soon.”

LinuxSecurity Contributors writes “LinuxSecurity.com reports on advisories this week including openssl, bind/glibc, libpng, openafs, kerberos 5, wwwofle, tinyproxy, dietlibc, kqueue, ffs, kfs, sendmail, secureweb, and gaim. The vendors include Caldera, Conectiva, Debian, EnGarde, FreeBSD, Mandrake, and Red Hat.”

Matt Wade writes ” Codewalkers.com has released a new programming contest deemed the PHP Open Source Challenge. The purpose of the challenge is to create a real world application that will then be released under an Open Source compatible license. There will be a new challenge released every 30-45 days depending on the complexity of the challenge. The winner of the contest will receive a copy of SourceGuardian, three months of hosting from TheHostingCompany.us, and a choice of any book from Wrox Press. The current, and first, challenge is to create a search engine application. For more information on the PHP Open Source challenge, please visit the website at http://codewalkers.com/posc.php.

“A technology originally developed to link PCs in small, wireless clusters is spurring grassroots efforts to create Internet “clouds” that could eventually bypass the networks of big telecommunications providers.” story at Nando Times.

–By Grant Gross –

The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws, that group of appointed political types who recommend laws to state legislatures, have recommended a series of changes to the controversial UCITA model legislation, including a couple designed to make the law more fair to Open Source software.
But critics of UCITA weren’t exactly celebrating this week. A lawyer working with Red Hat says the changes don’t go far enough, that UCITA still isn’t going to be an Open Source programmer’s favorite law. Red Hat continues to call for states to reject the legislation.

LinuxWorld on the way

And what that means is a bunch of press releases from companies talking how they are embracing Linux. But Robin “Roblimo” Miller looks beyond the press releases and talks to Sun Microsystems insiders, who say that we shouldn’t expect a Sun Linux distribution. Instead, look for Sun to put a rebranded Red Hat Linux on some of its server products.

Robin also delivered an interesting story about the reasons behind RealNetworks’ move to Open Source. It’s mainly about setting a standard for the delivery of wireless multimedia and not letting Microsoft define that standard.

Meanwhile, Microsoft is still planning to be at LinuxWorld, but Linux and Main says to not expect any big surprises.

Desktop debate, Part 1,002,897?

There were a couple of Linux desktop-related articles making the rounds this week. Ximian’s Miguel de Icaza says he remains optimistic about the growth of Linux on home computers. Another column argues that Linux companies’ focus on the server lately is a losing proposition.

Odds ‘n’ ends

C|Net tracks down the people at Linuxcare, which has shifted its focus from services to selling software.

Harmony Central has an interesting article on Final Scratch, an Open Source program that allows DJs to mix MP3s using standard turntables.

Success story of the week

A new airline, appropriately named Penguin Airlines, is using Linux from the ground up, including its desktops and reservations systems. The air taxi service is working with the Lycoris distribution for its computing needs.

Newly released

Qt# 0.4 was released this week.

Newly reviewed

PCMag.com says OpenOffice could challenge Microsoft’s grip on the office suite market.

TuxReports offers several screen shots of the Mandrake 9.0 beta release.

New at NewsForge/Linux.com

Among the other stories we reported first this week:

Tina Gasperson explains how Linux came through for a New York systems integrator and reseller after the September 11 terrorist attacks there.

Open Source advocate Bruce Perens calls the new Microsoft Software Choice campaign a “clever fraud.”

Stock news

Wow! The Nasdaq closed up for the week, only the second time in the last couple of months. The tech-heavy stock index moved from 1.247.92 August 2 to 1,306.12 this last Friday. Is the economy starting to turn around?

Out list of 11 Open Source-related companies followed that upward trend, with only three down for the week, and the three down a combined .09. Several others were up considerably.

Here’s how Open Source and related stocks ended this past week:

Company Name	Symbol	8/2 Close	8/9 Close
Apple	AAPL	14.45	15.00
Borland Software Int’l	BORL	8.58	9.29
Caldera International	CALD	1.15	1.13
Hewlett-Packard	HPQ	12.80	13.41
IBM	IBM	67.88	71.83
MandrakeSoft	4477.PA	e2.20	e2.15
Red Hat	RHAT	4.40	4.94
Sun Microsystems	SUNW	3.66	4.17
TiVo	TIVO	2.67	3.35
VA Software	LNUX	.66	.75
Wind River Systems	WIND	4.60	4.58

Gentu writes “OSNews interviews one of two more influential Free game developers for Linux today, Michael Speck of LGames. Michael talks about the Linux game market, about Linux’s performance as a multimedia platform, his future plans and much more.”

No real news here if you’re a regular Linux.com and NewsForge reader, just a look at how yet another mainstream media outlet views Linux. Read it here.

Biting sarcasm and thought-provoking discussion at advogato.org: “Maybe it’s the sour grapes over spectacular evaluation failings, or maybe it’s just desperation, but it seems hardly a day goes by when there’s not some new item that makes me want to distance myself ever more from the mainstream of the “open source” movement. Today’s nugget was the utter inanity behind the CNET article Open source’s new weapon: The law? and, with apologies to CNET authors Kanellos and Shankland, I offer this fictional retelling of the story, freely transliterating the rosy oss double-newspeak.”

LPH writes “I’ve been sitting here with my arms folded wondering whether there is a solution to the latest problem that I’ve run into lately. Since it is a common problem that I’ve been running into then it seems reasonable to think that others are also running into it.

read more“

Published July 29 at Globes Online: “Israeli start-up Qlusters produces a Linux-based clustering software solution. The company has just completed its first financing round, raising $6.5 million from Benchmark Capital and Israel Seed Partners.”