NewsFactor Network writes: “Since AOL filed an antitrust suit against Microsoft last week on behalf of its Netscape Communications subsidiary, the possibility of further litigation against the software giant by other companies considered to have suffered similar damages has widened, according to analysts. But which company will be next in line behind AOL is less clear. Among the group are Apple, Intel, IBM and RealNetworks.There does seem, however, to be one particularly strong contender: Sun Microsystems.”

NewsFactor Network writes: “A host of issues regarding open systems must be resolved if open source is to work in the real world. Although licensing is a darn good first step, we can’t put everything under the GPL (General Public License). Many licenses, such as those that several corporate entities have crafted, often benefit only the companies that created them and therefore are legal snafus. What makes a fair and open license? It isn’t just a single document that the parties involved possess and agree to abide by. Rather, it is a process of measurable steps, hereafter referred to as the License Process, with documentation that makes a clear distinction between demander and supplier or all possible sides in a transaction.”

LinuxSecurity: “According to the defacement archive at Alldas.de, the hacker group known as the ‘sm0ked crew’ only terrorised websites
throughout February of last year. But that was maybe enough for one member of the crew, Splurge, who decided to call it
quits and go straight in the security industry.”

PCWorld: “Users wishing to run Word, Internet Explorer, or other Windows applications on non-Microsoft platforms can finally do so with
software that a consortium of open source developers will roll out in the next three months.”

LinuxPR: “With the impending commercial release of the new Sharp Zaurus Linux based
PDA, we have jumped in with both feet and are producing a wide range of
applications for this exciting new device. “

Mozilla.org released 0.9.8; here are the accompanying release notes.

Don Hsi writes: “Halcyon Software announced the beta release of its iNET(TM) technology, the first commercially available Java-based implementation of the Microsoft .NET framework.
The iNET technology offers Microsoft VisualStudio.NET developers an immediate solution to deploy their Client/Server applications and Web Services to any platform. “Develop in .NET, deploy anywhere,” Don Hsi, Halcyon’s President & CEO explained, “is what iNET delivers to the Microsoft .NET developers.” He went on to say, “Our customers need a seamless solution to accommodate their commitment to both J2EE and Microsoft .NET architecture.”

iNET includes an IL2JAVA converter, which generates Java class files or Java source code from the Microsoft .NET Intermediate Language (IL). iNET also provides a full Java implementation of the .NET class libraries that runs on all Java-enabled platforms, including the IBM (NYSE:IBM) eServer platforms, Red Hat (Nasdaq:RHAT) Linux, Apple (Nasdaq:AAPL) MAC OS X, and Sun (Nasdaq:SUNW) Solaris.

The .NET framework, parts of which have been submitted to ECMA — an international standards body — combined with open standards such as XML/SOAP, promises to become a significant Web Services development platform. iNET seamlessly transforms the .NET Web Services to native J2EE objects and enable them to be hosted by J2EE Application Servers such as BEA (Nasdaq:BEAS) WebLogic, IBM (NYSE:IBM) WebSphere, Sun (Nasdaq:SUNW) iPlanet, and Oracle (Nasdaq:ORCL) 9i Application Server.

Pricing for iNET licenses has not been set at this time. A free evaluation download of the iNET beta release is available at http://www.halcyonsoft.com.”

Basis Technology writes: “Basis Technology (www.basistech.com), the leading provider of globalization solutions, today announced that it will offer support services to developers using International Components for Unicode (ICU), an open source project introduced by IBM Corporation (NYSE: IBM). ICU is a C, C++ and Java library that provides Unicode support for a wide variety of platforms. The ICU project is jointly managed by a group of companies and individuals throughout the world and is governed by a team with members from IBM, Lotus, Progress Software, and RealNames.

?As a long-time supporter of the Unicode standard, we are pleased to be working with IBM and the ICU team to bring more value to the international development community with quality support services for ICU,? said Carl Hoffman, founder and CEO, Basis Technology. ?We look forward to working with this group to complement the ICU offering currently available.?

?We are happy that Basis Technology, an experienced industry leader, is answering the need for support that many of our users have expressed,? said Mark Davis, Chief Globalization Architect, IBM Corporation. ?We look forward to working with Basis Technology?s team to assist ICU?s growing user base.?

Basis Technology will back ICU?s robust features, such as calendar support, character set conversions, normalization, and collation, with an annual support services contract. Support will be provided at industry-standard service levels both telephone and online options. Clients will be able to quickly enhance their development efforts with Basis Technology?s expertise in Unicode, internationalization, and localization development projects.

?Trillium has been very pleased with Basis Technology?s active and responsive support team,? said John Nicoli, Senior Vice President, Trillium Software, A Division of Harte-Hanks. ?They are globalization experts with particular expertise in Unicode, which leads to quick resolution of any data quality problems we encounter with our customers.?

This new service offering complements Basis Technology?s existing services and products line. The company provides globalization audits, full consulting and engineering services, a comprehensive suite of products, and expert quality assurance services to companies enhancing their technology to support global goals.

ICU developers interested in learning more about this new support offering can contact Basis Technology at icu-info@basistech.com or +1-617-386-2000.

About Basis Technology
Basis Technology is the leading provider of products and services for companies entering the global economy. Specializing in high-performance software components and rapid deployment engineering services covering all aspects of globalization, Basis Technology solutions address, among other issues, Unicode enablement, linguistic complexities, cultural adaptations, and quality assurance.

Top-tier software developers, Web companies, and multinational enterprises have relied on Basis Technology to develop the core of their globalization strategies. Clients include industry leaders Amazon.com, AOL Time Warner, Google, Lucent Technologies, PeopleSoft, and Terra Lycos.

Company headquarters are located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with branch office in Tokyo, Japan and San Francisco, California. For more information, visit www.basistech.com or call 617-386-2000.

“

– by Tina Gasperson –
China’s Beijing Co-Create Open Source Software Company is working on several Unix/Linux-based commercial products, including CCOffice, CCGUI, and even CCBSD, a high-end server OS based on FreeBSD.

The Beijing Co-Create Open Source Software company was founded in April, 2001, and is making strides as a player in China’s burgeoning software industry, as the nation’s tech interests seek ways to evade the dominating presence of Microsoft.

“Our experts believe that Open Source is a shortcut to China’s future in software development,” says Yao Haizou, Co-Create principal. “The National Hi-Tech Research and Development Program of China advocated setting up the Co-Soft League,” a non-profit organization designed to foster software development based on the Open Source model. The Hi-Tech program has been making recommendations for technological advancements since 1986, in the areas of biology, bioengineering, medicine, communications, high-performance computing, and others–and sees Open Source as the next logical step in those advancements.

The only problem with the Co-Soft league, says Yao, is that it is a non-profit organization and as such is not allowed to create a corporate bank account of its own. For this reason, Co-Create was established as the commercial arm of the league. “Key members of the league, plus 12 leading domestic IT companies invested to set up our company,” Yao says.

The revenues from Co-Create are used to support the Co-Soft league, which enables it to run its commercial training, financial operations, and promotions. In turn, the league supports Co-Create in its development efforts. “For example, CCLinux (an embedded-Linux OS) began its research and development as a part of the Co-Soft league in 2000,” says Yao. “Then, the work was transferred to our company and it has been developed to the point that it is a mature OS.”

CCOffice, announced by Co-Create in a recent press release, claims to be the “first complete embedded Linux-based office suite in China.” The package is supposed to include a word processor, spreadsheet program, and a PDF file reader. NewsForge received a test copy of the software and found it to be incomplete. The word processor and spreadsheet portions of the program were capable of opening and viewing MS Office documents, but did not function in any other way. Yao says that enhancements, such as the ability to export files as text documents, are forthcoming — but it was unclear whether or not the office suite was ever intended to be more than a collection of simple file viewers.

The good news for China is that Open Source development is an avenue to tech independence for a country that has suffered from being tied to Microsoft products. Software “piracy” is common in China and is viewed as a hurdle to technological progress and a roadblock to the advancement in world markets the nation hopes to make upon its ascension to the World Trade Organization. Because of this, Chinese government is encouraging businesses to begin keeping track of software licenses and to include budget money for each copy of proprietary software — and now that companies are feeling the impact of licensing fees, the adoption of lower-cost Open Source alternatives is popular.

Even though it has other projects, such as CCGUI, a graphical user interface, and CCBSD, a server OS based on FreeBSD, Co-Create is keeping a step ahead of the trend by also delving into embedded systems. “In China, there are five Linux distributors now,” says Yao. “With the number of applications for embedded Linux expanding, we believe that segment of the market has very bright prospects.”

Yao says Co-Create has strong financial support and has established a position in the Chinese market. “We also plan to sell our products outside of China, and it is possible that we will have overseas representatives soon.”

Yao hints at future prospects for a Co-Create partnership with China’s government. “Our applications department is working on something called the “E-Government system,” which is an express office automation system,” he says. “Our company will provide Linux-based solutions for Beijing’s upcoming E-Government platform.”

Mozilla 0.9.8 is out! MozillaQuest Magazine has the full story, release notes info, screen shot, & D/L links. MozillaQuest Magazine (MozillaQuest.com) reports: “The Mozilla Organization released the Milestone 0.9.8 edition of its Mozilla browser suite earlier today. [I]t now seems to be less of a RAM pig than what it used to be. There is only one more scheduled milestone release before the scheduled April 2002 Mozilla 1.0 release. Yet there are more than 11,600 targeted-bugs and more than 20,700 open bugs in Mozilla at this time. [R]eleasing a Mozilla 1.0 that is so buggy could be Mozilla’s death knell.” Check this MozillaQuest.com story for the details, download links, and full story!