Author: JT Smith
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Author: JT Smith
First 200 linux workstations can run in autumn 2002 and production of
3000 linux workstations will begin in winter 2003 if pilot studies go well.
Next they will investigate how linux environment works in longer run and
how widely it will be used in other local governments in Finland and in
other parts of Europe. Also the Ministry of Finance in Finland
investigates the possibilities to change system platforms to linux. This
investigation will be ready in March 2002.
People in computer committee of Turku things that users will soon to become accustomed to linux system.
Microsoft replied on wednesday and knocked out the plannings in Turku.
They told about their own investigation in Vaasa (Town in Ostrobothnia,
Finland). According to it they will spare 1/3 of charges using Windows.
Atte Tenkanen
Author: JT Smith
“Beta1 is a stabilized snapshot of the current KDE 3 development branch
and is meant for testers, developers and translators,” explained
Dirk Mueller, the KDE 3
release coordinator. “Users can assist in the development effort
by testing this release and providing constructive feedback or helping
to update or complete documentation. We’re
especially interested in feedback about the support for RTL languages
and about the new KDE 3 features. For developers, now is a great time
to complete porting your applications to KDE 3, or
to pitch in and help implement the still-incomplete
planned
features. In addition, the
KDE translation
project needs new contributors who can translate KDE 3 into their
native language. Translation is another great way for non-programmers
to contribute to the continuing success and rapid improvement of KDE.”
The primary goals of the 3.0beta1 release are to:
Additional information about KDE 3, including
instructions for
setting up a KDE 3 system side-by-side with a KDE 2 system,
a tentative
release
plan,
a KDE 3 info page, a list of
planned
features, as well as a
list of open
tasks containing interesting projects for both users and developers
who wish to contribute to KDE,
is available at the KDE websites.
Please use the KDE bugs database to
report bugs or make feature requests.
KDE and all its components (including the IDE
KDevelop) are available
for free under Open Source licenses from the KDE
ftp server
and its mirrors.
Besides the improvements to the underlying Qt library noted in the
KDE
3.0alpha1 announcement, this release offers the following additional
improvements compared to the KDE 2 series:
Ctrl-x, Ctrl-c) function,Ctrl-x) function(note that the clipboard in Qt 3.0.1 hangs
sometimes; using qt-copy
or upgrading to Qt 3.0.2 when it is released should cure this problem);
(note that a release of KDevelop for KDE 2.2 with these new features is
included in most of the download directories listed below);
Additional improvements to the KDE libraries and applications are planned for
the successive RC releases leading to the first stable KDE 3.0. A
partial list of these planned features is available at KDE’s
developer website.
Since KDE 3 is mostly source compatible with KDE 2, porting applications
from KDE 2 to KDE 3 can usually be done with relative ease and comfort.
The process is substantially easier than the one for porting
KDE 1 applications to KDE 2; even very complicated applications have been
ported in a matter of hours.
Instructions for porting KDE 2 applications to KDE 3 are available
separately for the
KDE
libraries and the
Qt libraries.
Most of the changes required for the port applications pertain to changes
in the Qt API. Although the KDE 3 API is not yet frozen, few changes are
anticipated for the final release of KDE 3.0.
Binary Packages.
Some Linux distributors and some Unix distributors have provided
binary packages of KDE 3.0beta1 for recent versions of their distribution. Some
of these binary packages are available for free download under
http://download.kde.org/unstable/kde-3.0-beta1/
or under the equivalent directory at one of the many KDE ftp server
mirrors, and additional
binary packages, as well as updates to the packages now available, may
become available over the coming weeks.
Please note that the KDE team makes these packages available from the
KDE web site as a convenience to KDE users. The KDE project is not
responsible for these packages as they are provided by third
parties — typically, but not always, the distributor of the relevant
distribution. If you cannot find a binary package for your distribution,
please read the KDE Binary
Package Policy.
Library Requirements.
The library requirements for a particular binary package vary with the
system on which the package was compiled. Please bear in mind that
some binary packages may require a newer version of Qt and other libraries
than was included with the applicable distribution (e.g., LinuxDistro 8.0
may have shipped with Qt-2.2.3 but the packages below may require
Qt-2.3.x). For general library requirements for KDE, please see the text at
Source Code – Library
Requirements below.
Package Locations.
At the time of this release, pre-compiled packages are available for:
(note that some missing KDevelop packages will be available shortly)
All of the above packages can also be obtained from the
/pub/kde/unstable/kde-3.0-beta1/
directory at one of the many KDE
ftp server mirrors.
Please check the servers periodically for pre-compiled packages for other
distributions. More binary packages will become available over the
coming days and weeks.
Library
Requirements.
KDE 3.0beta1 requires the following libraries:
Compiler Requirements.
Please note that some components of
KDE 3.0beta1 will not compile with older versions of
gcc/egcs, such as egcs-1.1.2 or
gcc-2.7.2. At a minimum gcc-2.95-* is required. In addition, some
components of KDE 3.0beta1 (such as the multimedia backbone of KDE,
aRts) will not compile with
gcc 3.0.x
(this problem is being addressed but no time frame is available).
Source Code/SRPMs.
The complete source code for KDE 3.0beta1 is available for
download.
Additionally, source rpms are available for the following distributions:
All of the above packages can also be obtained from the
/pub/kde/unstable/kde-3.0-beta1/
directory at one of the many KDE
ftp server mirrors.
Further Information. For further
instructions on compiling and installing KDE 3.0beta1, please consult
the installation
instructions and, if you should encounter problems, the
compilation FAQ.
KDE is an independent, collaborative project by hundreds of developers
worldwide working over the Internet to create a sophisticated,
customizable and stable desktop environment employing a component-based,
network-transparent architecture. KDE provides a stable, mature desktop,
an office suite (KOffice), a large
set of networking and administration tools, and an efficient and intuitive
development environment, including an excellent IDE
(KDevelop).
KDE is working proof of the power of
the Open Source “Bazaar-style” software development model to create
first-rate technologies on par with and superior to even the most complex
commercial software.
Please visit the KDE family of web sites for the
KDE FAQ, screenshots
(KDE 2,
KDE 3),
KOffice information and
developer
information.
Much more information
about KDE is available from KDE’s
family of web sites.
Besides the valuable and excellent efforts by the
KDE developers
themselves, significant support for KDE development has been provided by
MandrakeSoft and
SuSE. In addition,
the members of the KDE League provide
significant support for promoting KDE and KOffice. Thanks!
Compaq, Alpha, iPAQ and Tru64 are either trademarks and/or service marks or
registered trademarks and/or service marks of Compaq Computer Corporation.
HP is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.
IBM and PowerPC are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation.
Intel, i386 and i586 are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel
Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries.
Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Netscape Communicator is a trademark or registered trademark of
Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries.
Sun is a trademark or registered trademark of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in
the United States and other countries.
Trolltech and Qt are trademarks of Trolltech AS.
UNIX and Motif are registered trademarks of The Open Group.
Zaurus is a trademark of Sharp Electronics Corporation in the United
States and/or other countries.
All other trademarks and copyrights referred to in this announcement are the property of their respective owners.
| Press Contacts: | |
|---|---|
| United States: |
Eunice Kim The Terpin Group ekim@terpin.com (1) 650 344 4944 ext. 105 Kurt Granroth granroth@kde.org (1) 480 732 1752 Andreas Pour KDE League, Inc. pour@kde.org (1) 917 312 3122 |
| Europe (French and English): |
David Faure faure@kde.org (33) 4 3250 1445 |
| Europe (German and English): |
Ralf Nolden nolden@kde.org (49) 2421 502758 |
Author: JT Smith
For more information, see http://freetts.sourceforge.net/.
Author: JT Smith
Several Open Source-in-education projects are joining forces and countering Microsoft’s offer of $1 billion worth of software, hardware and training to 12,500 U.S. schools as part of its antitrust settlement.
A couple of weeks before its official launch, the Schoolforge coalition (no relation to NewsForge or SourceForge.net) already has commitments from more than 15 projects and companies interested in Open Source for schools. The group is creating a “foundry” where users can find the tools and information about using Open Source software and curriculum in schools. The goal is to reduce redundancy between projects and let more people know what Open Source options schools have, says Doug Loss, data network coordinator at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania and leader of the Simple End User Linux/edu project.
Loss says the coalition’s call to action came largely from Red Hat’s offer of Free Software to any school, a counter-offer to the Microsoft billion-dollar proposal. Red Hat is among the supporters of Schoolforge.
“The only way we can compete with Microsoft’s offer (if the donation ever actually materializes) is by publicity, advocacy, and local effort by interested and committed members of the Free/Open Source software community,” Loss says. “One of our ideas is to put together material for LUGs to use in approaching and supporting their local educational establishments. That is still in the formative stages, as we’re concentrating now on getting the coalition itself up and running.”
New software, too
At the same time that Schoolforge officially launches in January, one of its members plans to release a new version of its easy-to-install Linux terminal server package, which lets schools or other organizations run dozens of outdated computers or cheap diskless workstations all powered by a single Linux server. This month, the K-12 Linux Terminal Server Project, which released its 1.0 version in July, also has posted a Quick Tour of a Linux Classroom page to its site, and with K12Linux, is launching K12os.org, which will focus on K-12 distributions and how to install and support them.
Paul Nelson, a leader of K12LTSP, says the new release of the simple-install Linux terminal server will feature a desktop installation of Red Hat Linux 7.2 — KDE 2.2.2 is also included — instead of 7.1 with Ximian updates in the 1.0 version. “7.2 does such a nice job with Nautilus and the Gnome desktop, we left the desktop pretty stock,” Nelson says.
A range of office software, including OpenOffice and the Ximian Evolution email package is included, for both the new version of K12LTSP and a stand-alone K12Linux version that can run on a local computer instead of a thin client.
The new version is updated to LTSP 3.0, which “does a great job of auto-detecting and configuring network cards and video cards,” adds Eric Harrison, LAN/WAN manager for the Multnomah County Education Service District near Portland, Ore. Also included is DHCP 3.0, which lets those installing K12LTSP dynamically boot both BOOTP- and PXE-based clients with the default configuration.
Red Hat and K12LTSP are also working on making the project compatible with the Red Hat Network so that schools have “a very easy way for new Linux users to stay current with updates,” says Nelson, technology coordinator at the Riverdale School District in Portland, Ore.
Microsoft’s offer not so free
Nelson reports that four to five schools a month are signing up to experiment with Linux during the project’s Linux clinics. Nelson’s among the Open Source advocates who suggest Linux is a good fit for schools because of the potential cost-savings, and he predicts more schools will come around even though some will accept Microsoft’s software give-away, if it happens.
“I’m sure that many schools will jump at the chance to get free software from Microsoft,” he says. “Do they realize that it’s not really free though? In five years, they’ll get a bill from Bill … If MS thinks that they can outperform Open Source software in schools by
giving away their products, they’ve misunderstood the movement and they will lose the battle. It’s the freedom of Open Source software and the superior support of the Open Source community that MS has to catch up with. The Open Source development model produces better software. Schools will figure that out in due time.”
Schoolforge happened when a bunch of people advocating Open Source in schools began talking about the Microsoft settlement on the OpenSourceNow list hosted by Red Hat, Nelson says.
From the “about Schoolforge” document, which is still being worked on: “[The foundry’s tools will be] all free for the asking (or download), and, in the future, international
in content and character, Schoolforge is not a place or an organization, but a
cause, and a collection of people and projects dedicated to it: bringing quality,
affordable and dependable software and teaching materials to the people who need
them around the world. As such, it is not a ‘service’ so much as it is a community
focal point, which, as much as anything else, represents an opportunity to get
involved in one of its aspects.”
Organizations making up Schoolforge so far include:
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Author: JT Smith
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Author: JT Smith
These have been fixed upstream in version 2.0.8, and the relevant patches have been backported to version 1.1-10 in Debian.”
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Author: JT Smith
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Author: JT Smith
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Author: JT Smith