Simon Phipps elected as OSI director (The H)
[Announcements] Posted Mar 11, 2010 20:38 UTC (Thu) by ris
The H reports
that the Open Source Initiative (OSI) has elected Simon Phipps, formerly
Sun's Chief Open Source Officer, to the board of directors. "As a director, Phipps hopes to help the organisation change so that it becomes more member-oriented, more active in promoting open source in education, in policy development and possibly in organisational support for open source projects; "My goal as a Director will be to facilitate that change, a change that is already well under way following recent face to face discussions and the great work that Andrew Oliver and Danese Cooper have already put in"."
Comments (none posted)
Embedded Linux Conference 2010 Program is available
[Announcements] Posted Mar 11, 2010 19:33 UTC (Thu) by jake
This year's Embedded Linux Conference, which will be held in San Francisco April 12-14, has announced that its program is now available. The keynote speakers will be Greg Kroah-Hartman ("Android: a Case Study of an Embedded Linux Project") and Matt Asay ("Embedded in 2010: an End to
the Entropy?") along with a whole slate of over 50 presentations, tutorials, and BoFs.
"This is your chance to meet leading developers from the embedded
Linux community, and learn about the latest changes in Linux.
Also, you can talk to engineers working on real products at
some of the largest CE companies in the world, describing how
they solved real issues in their own development projects." Click below for the full announcement.
Full Story (comments: 2)
Linux Arpeggiators, Part 1 (Linux Journal)
[Development] Posted Mar 11, 2010 19:25 UTC (Thu) by ris
Dave Phillips looks
at arpeggiators for Linux. "An arpeggio is a musical technique whereby the notes of a chord are played in succession rather than all at once. The order of the chord notes in this succession may follow a strict set of rules or they may be played in purely random sequence. A device that acts upon a chord in this manner is known as an arpeggiator."
Comments (3 posted)
Security advisories for Thursday
[Security] Posted Mar 11, 2010 19:24 UTC (Thu) by ris
Debian has updated kvm (multiple
vulnerabilities), dpkg (path traversal),
and kernel (privilege escalation, denial of
service).
Fedora has updated F12: samba
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Mandriva has updated virtualbox
(unspecified vulnerability) and squid (denial
of service).
Slackware has updated pidgin
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Ubuntu has updated apache (multiple
vulnerabilities) and dpkg (path traversal).
Comments (none posted)
Meet Ubuntu Linux's new CEO (Q&A) (CNET)
[Distributions] Posted Mar 11, 2010 16:15 UTC (Thu) by jake
Over at CNET, Stephen Shankland has a fairly lengthy interview with Canonical's new CEO Jane Silber. "But is there more urgency about profit now?
Silber: There is a sense of great opportunity right now. When we started Ubuntu in year one, we didn't put a strong push on trying to sell Canonical services, not because we were not interested, but it's hard to build a business around selling services around an operating system that nobody is using. We knew we needed to gain a user base and momentum before we could sell services. That user base is now there. There is urgency and momentum around that at a level we hadn't necessarily seen in the first couple years."
Comments (5 posted)
[$] LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 11, 2010
Posted Mar 11, 2010 2:52 UTC (Thu)
The LWN.net Weekly Edition for March 11, 2010 is available.
Inside this week's LWN.net Weekly Edition
- Front: Who is Fedora for?; Gnash; Morevna; Mozilla to update the MPL.
- Security: SCALE 8x: Ten million and one penguins; New vulnerabilities in apache, cups, curl, samba,...
- Kernel: Deadline scheduler; 2.6.34 part 2; Nouveau and interface compatibility; 4K-sector drives; Zombie quotes.
- Distributions: Rolling with Arch Linux; Fedora 13 Alpha released; Debian Project Leader Elections 2010; Ubuntu changing its look; MeeGo: Toward Day One; Announcing NEOPhysis; interview with Mark Shuttleworth.
- Development: Bluefish 2.0; Releases from Apache, Mercurial, OpenSSH, Renoise, ...
- Announcements: Magnatune sends check to GNOME Foundation thanks to Rhythmbox; European Parliament pushes back on ACTA; Meanwhile, back in Utah...; Elliott Associates and Novell; Schwartz: Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal; Simon Phipps: Last Day At Sun.
Read more
Meanwhile, back in Utah...
[Announcements] Posted Mar 10, 2010 19:03 UTC (Wed) by corbet
The SCO case has long since dropped off the radar for most. It is worth
noting, though, that the Novell "slander of title" trial is now underway in
Utah. Groklaw has detailed
coverage of the testimony thus far. "Why did Novell slander
SCO's title? Because of Linux. Linux started as a hobbyist tool. It's open
source; 'nobody can be completely sure where the code comes from'. Starting
around 2000, IBM inserted into Linux stuff that belonged to SCO. SCO sued,
and started their licensing program (SCOsource). Novell stated that SCO
doesn't have the copyrights and can't sue IBM."
Comments (12 posted)
Wednesday's security updates
[Security] Posted Mar 10, 2010 18:22 UTC (Wed) by corbet
Debian has updated tdiary
(cross-site scripting).
Fedora has updated samba (F11: filesystem
access privilege escalation).
Mandriva has updated php (two
safe_mode bypass vulnerabilities).
Comments (none posted)
Mozilla to update the MPL
[Front] Posted Mar 10, 2010 15:09 UTC (Wed) by corbet
The Mozilla Foundation has launched a
process to update the Mozilla Public License. The project is described
this way:
We've been using
version 1.1 of the Mozilla Public License for about a decade now. Its
spirit has served us well, helping to communicate some of the values that
underpin our large and growing community. However, some of its wording may
be showing its age. Keeping both those things in mind, we're launching this
process to update the license, hoping to modernize and simplify it while
still keeping the things that have made the license and the Mozilla project
such a success.
While the update process is inspired by the GPLv3 update, the objectives
are far less ambitious: Mozilla would like to smooth various rough edges
without making major changes to the license. They hope to have the process
complete - after releasing three drafts for comments - by November of this
year.
Comments (15 posted)
Schwartz: Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal
[Announcements] Posted Mar 10, 2010 14:34 UTC (Wed) by corbet
Jonathan Schwartz writes about patent attacks, and Apple's attack on Android in particular. "Having watched this movie play out many times, suing a competitor typically makes them more relevant, not less. Developers I know aren’t getting less interested in Google’s Android platform, they’re getting more interested - Apple’s actions are enhancing that interest." He also says that Microsoft tried to shake down Sun with patent claims on OpenOffice.org.
Comments (9 posted)
European Parliament pushes back on ACTA
[Announcements] Posted Mar 10, 2010 14:25 UTC (Wed) by corbet
Swedish MEP Christian Engström reports
that the European Parliament has passed a
resolution coming out against the secretive ACTA copyright treaty
negotiations and demanding transparency in the process. The vote was
rather definitive: 633 for, 13 against. "At last, the elected
representatives in the parliament have sent a strong message. We have shown
that we do not accept secrecy. We have shown that we are prepared to stand
up for a free internet open to everybody."
Comments (9 posted)
[$] Open source and the Morevna project
[Front] Posted Mar 10, 2010 14:08 UTC (Wed) by jake
Konstatin Dmitriev's Morevna
Project is to 2-D animation what the Blender Foundation's Open
movie projects have been for 3-D. The goal is to produce a
production-quality, full-length animated feature, using only open source
software, and license the source content and final product under free,
re-use-friendly terms. Along the way, the work provides stress-testing,
feedback, and development help to the open source software used, while
raising awareness of the quality of the code. Subscribers can click below
for a look at the project from this week's edition.
Full Story (comments: 2)
Texas Linux Fest announces 2010 program
[Announcements] Posted Mar 10, 2010 4:53 UTC (Wed) by jake
Texas Linux Fest has announced the initial list of speakers and
presentations for its inaugural event. Keynote speakers include Joe
"Zonker" Brockmeier and Randal L. Schwartz, with additional presentations by
Linux, free software, and open source experts such as Jon "maddog" Hall,
Amber Graner, Bradley Kuhn, and Max Spevack. The event will take place on
Saturday, April 10th, in Austin Texas. Registration is available online. The complete list of talks is
available as well.
Comments (none posted)
[$] 4K-sector drives and Linux
[Kernel] Posted Mar 9, 2010 23:19 UTC (Tue) by corbet
Almost exactly one year ago, LWN examined the problem of 4K-sector
drives and the reasons for their existence. In short, going to 4KB
physical sectors allows drive manufacturers to increase storage density,
always welcome in that competitive market. Recently, there have been a
number of reports that Linux is not ready to work with these drives; kernel
developer Tejun Heo even posted an extensive,
worth-reading
summary stating that "4 KiB logical sector support is broken in
both the kernel and partitioners." As the subsequent discussion
revealed, though, the truth of the matter is that
we're not quite that badly prepared; click below (subscribers only) for details.
Full Story (comments: 23)
LibrePlanet 2010 conference to feature Women's Caucus
[Announcements] Posted Mar 9, 2010 22:53 UTC (Tue) by jake
The LibrePlanet conference, being held March 19-21 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, will be featuring a day-long Women's Caucus on Sunday March 21st. That track will be
focusing on finding concrete ways to increase women's participation in
free software, including a panel on recruiting and retaining women, a
presentation on mentoring, and a workshop on how non-coders can take up
critical roles in free software projects. In addition, LibrePlanet has keynotes from FSF founder Richard Stallman and EFF founder John Gilmore. More information can be found on the web sites or in the schedule.
Comments (17 posted)
GNOME and KDE: Seven Attractions in Each (Datamation)
[Development] Posted Mar 9, 2010 19:29 UTC (Tue) by ris
Bruce Byfield takes
a look at innovations in GNOME and KDE. "Of course, GNOME and KDE have long had features that Windows lacked, such as multiple desktops and finer controls for customizing the user experience. However, in the last few years, both major free desktops have added features that show not only an interest in usability, but, at times, an effort to anticipate what users might actually want. The focus is by no means consistent, yet scattered here and there are features that can make any user glad that they're using a open source desktop."
Comments (4 posted)
Happenings: FOSS at CeBIT 2010 (The H)
[Announcements] Posted Mar 9, 2010 19:15 UTC (Tue) by ris
The H covers
the CeBIT Open Source Forum. "The CeBIT Open Source Forum, a prominent feature in the Open Source area of Hall 2, featured several lectures, demonstrations and keynote speeches on several topics, from Open Source in data centres and security, to web browsers, mobility and multimedia. The H attended several of the Open Source Forum sessions, including the introduction of the latest 6.3 release of the popular Knoppix Live Linux distribution by Knoppix creator Klaus Knopper."
Comments (none posted)
Simon Phipps: Last Day At Sun
[Announcements] Posted Mar 9, 2010 19:05 UTC (Tue) by ris
Simon Phipps, Chief Open Source Officer at Sun, reminisces about some
achievements during his tenure. "Got some of the most important software in the computer industry released under Free licenses that guarantee software freedom for people who rely on them, regardless of who owns the copyrights. Unix, Java, key elements of Linux, the SPARC chip and much more have been liberated."
Comments (3 posted)
Security advisories for Tuesday
[Security] Posted Mar 9, 2010 18:56 UTC (Tue) by ris
Debian has updated typo3-src
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Fedora has updated bournal (F13, F12, F11: multiple vulnerabilities), F12: curl (arbitrary code execution), and F11: sudo (unintended privilege escalation).
Pardus has updated sudo (unintended
privilege escalation) and firefox (multiple
vulnerabilities).
Slackware has updated httpd
(multiple vulnerabilities).
Comments (none posted)
Fedora 13 Alpha released
[Distributions] Posted Mar 9, 2010 15:36 UTC (Tue) by corbet
The first alpha release of Fedora 13 is out. "We need your help to make Fedora 13 the best release yet, so please take
a moment of your time to download and try out the Alpha and make sure
the things that are important to you are working. If you find a bug,
please report it -- every bug you uncover is a chance to improve the
experience for millions of Fedora users worldwide." There is a
lot of new stuff in this release; see the announcement for a
summary.
Full Story (comments: 13)