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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Richard Stallman on Software Idea Patents (Groklaw) Groklaw prints Richard Stallman's response to patent alternatives. "The supposition that software idea patents are inevitable is a form of defeatism that is already visibly mistaken. The movement against software idea patents in Europe, led by FFII (fii.org) and supported by organizations as diverse as Deutsche Bank Research and the Confederation of Associations of Small and Medium-size Enterprises, has already persuaded the European Parliament once. The outcome will be so close that it is absurd to think you can predict the winner."
IPac created to lobby for sensible intellectual property policy (NewsForge) NewsForge covers the political action committee, IPac. "Over the past few years, intellectual property policy in the U.S. has shifted dramatically in favor of business at the expense of the public interest. Software patents, automatic copyright extensions that can last as long as Congress wants them to last, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act have all become policy with very little opposition from either Democrats or Republicans. A new political action committee, IPac, hopes to change that by giving a voice to the public interest."
Advice to Microsoft: Learn to love Linux (ZDNet) Disruptive technology guru Clayton Christensen thinks that Microsoft should refocus its market toward Linux on handheld devices, according to this ZDNet article. ""Where Linux takes root is in new applications like Web servers and handheld devices. As those get better, applications will get sucked off the desktop onto the Internet, and that's what will undo Microsoft," he said. The software company can respond to this market disruption by setting up a separate business that will "kill Microsoft," Christensen said. If it doesn't react to the rise of Linux desktops on handheld computers, it will miss a coming wave of new applications and market opportunities, he said."
Trade Shows and Conferences 'Does Open Source Deserve a Place in Your IT Portfolio?' (NewsForge) NewsForge reports from Gartner's Symposium/ITxpo. "[Gartner vice president Mark Driver] said the major change in attitude toward open source over the past few years was recognition that it is an important and recognized part of the software landscape. He said many open source applications are reaching "technical maturity" and that a growing number of people are accumulating experience with open source software, so finding qualified support is no longer a problem. In general, he said, open source "is becoming more institutionalized today.""
KDE at LinuxWorld London Report (KDE.News) KDE.News covers LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in London. "We ran a joint stall with the GNOMEs which gave us one of the biggest spaces in the .org village and was used to jointly promote freedesktop.org and X.org. Only one GNOME turned up so we spread ourselves, and the excellent collection of machines that had been lent to us, along the stall."
Schools, patents and the future of Linux (Register) The Register covers a UK LinuxWorld panel discussion. "Open source activists need to get Linux into schools if Windows' pre-eminance on the desktop is ever to be seriously challenged, a panel discussion at LinuxWorld conference in London last week concluded. StarOffice is offered free to schools and has made significant progress as an alternative to Microsoft Office. But Windows remains "entrenched" in schools, so children have no opportunity to get to know alternatives."
LMN At WONCA 2004 (LinuxMedNews) Tim Cook covers the World Conference of World Organization of National Colleges, Academies and Academic Associations of General Practitioners/Family Physicians (WONCA) conference for LinuxMedNews. "My last station was to chat with the Director of the Center for Healthcare IT (CHIT) at the AAFP, Dr. David Kibbe. I of course asked him about his fray with the open source community and he offered his side of the events. He feels he has “...scares from being burned.” He also stated that the open source community let him down because when he wanted to take the MEDPLEXUS EMR open source, “...they [the open source community] wanted to do it their way and not mine.” I responded by reminding him that there were many people offering to help him understand the open source processes and really wanted to see him succeed."
The SCO Problem Groklaw gets some anti-Linux competition (ZDNet) ZDNet reports on a new web site that SCO is going to launch. "The SCO Group plans to launch a website to chronicle its legal battles relating to Unix and Linux, as part of an effort to counterbalance Groklaw.net - which was set up to poke holes in the company's legal claims. The site, to be called Prosco.net, will feature an archive of legal filings, hearing dates and SCO positions on various matters, spokesman Blake Stowell said Tuesday. The Utah-based company plans to launch the site by 1 November, he said." SCO isn't planning on including any mechanism for posting reader feedback on the site.
Today's Hearing in SCO v. IBM - Eyewitness Report (Groklaw) Groklaw has a report from today's hearing in SCO v. IBM. "The summary is this: each side argued its position, SCO as to why it needed more AIX and Dynix code and remote access to CMVC etc., and IBM as to why it's a needless burden and all a red herring anyway, that IBM has already given them what they need."
Interviews Pete Gordon on Portable Usability Labs (KDE.News) KDE.News has an interview with Pete Gordon, on portable usability labs. "The key is in developing user oriented software. When we are developing software for others besides ourselves, we need to understand others. And, the Usability Engineer or the developer that has a free couple hours and can meet with users, can capture that user experience and communicate it back to others. Now maybe Usability Professionals will frown on me saying developers can do it, but I can't help to say they can do it--I am a developer and I do it--a lot. Granted some people are more suited to do it than others."
Interview: Martin Taylor, Microsoft's Linux expert (vnunet) Vnunet talks with Martin Taylor, global general manager of platform strategy at Microsoft. "How are you seeing Linux in the market? The other thing we're finding is more and more people wanting to deploy a commercialised Linux version. They don't want their own custom configured kernel [or] custom distribution. They want to pick up the phone [and say]: 'Help me this is broken.' So that puts you into Red Hat/Novell-SuSE's ballpark. Both those have pricing models for support and security patches more expensive than Windows Server. So in some cases you could say I am under-priced compared to the marketplace. That's what we're seeing."
Resources The Basics of DNSSEC (O'ReillyNet) Ibrahim Haddad and David Gordon introduce DNSSEC in an O'Reilly article. "Securing DNS is important in order to deal with the various threats originating from the Internet, threats that the original DNS design did not anticipate. One technique for securing DNS is through DNS Security Extensions (DNSSEC), a set of extensions to DNS that provide authenticity and integrity. In this article, we will provide an overview of DNS and DNSSEC and a step-by-step tutorial that gives you the needed instructions to secure your own DNS servers with DNSSEC."
An Introduction to Embedded Linux Development, Part 1 (Linux Journal) Linux Journal examines embedded development with Linux. "Linux, available for many architectures, is an obvious candidate for an embedded system, and it already is being used widely in this area. Its open nature makes it particularly attractive to developers. Development tool suites have begun to appear in response to the perceived need, although one can work without such luxury and employ less integrated tools already available in Linux. New embedded systems companies using Linux have opened for business, and various older embedded systems companies have added Linux to their product line."
Reviews An Introduction to Hydrogen (Linux Journal) Dave Phillips introduces Hydrogen, a drum machine/rhythm programmer. "Hydrogen is endowed with all the features and amenities expected in a hardware drum machine. Like its contemporary software counterparts, it's also blessed with the expanded capabilities of the virtual drum machine. Let's take a look at how Hydrogen is put together, and then we'll walk through a simple example of its typical use."
Seven Cool Mono Apps (O'ReillyNet) O'ReillyNet takes a look at seven applications built on Mono. "[There] are many cool open source programs being built on Mono, even though Mono 1.0 has only been released for a short time. This article provides a tour through some of these programs, along with details about how you can start experimenting with them yourself. Not all of the programs featured here are finished products, but they're all exciting and show off interesting aspects of Mono."
PHP 5's new look (NewsForge) NewsForge introduces some of the new features in PHP 5. "The greatest change in PHP 5 comes with a complete redesign of its object model, and with it, a tighter integration to object-oriented (OO) paradigms. Previous versions' usage of objects had one major drawback: Objects were not tightly aligned with the behavioural patterns observed in other object languages like Java or C++. While PHP offered a simpler approach, the disparity created a considerable chasm for those wanting to use PHP in a truly object-oriented manner -- in the sense of what the industry perceives as object-oriented."
Learning PostgreSQL at the Big Nerd Ranch (Linux Journal) Doug Hall reviews a PostgreSQL training course that was held at the Big Nerd Ranch. "We started each day with breakfast at 8:30. Lunch was at 12:30 and dinner at 6:30. Each day, around 2pm, we took a break from training and took about a 45-minute walk through the woods, exploring the different sites and scenic trails around Historic Banning Mills. This was a good thing, because it helped stave off the afternoon food coma that ordinarily would have set in."
Sharp to ship world's first HDD-based PDA (Register) The Register looks at the new Linux-based Zaurus SL-C3000 PDA from Sharp. "The new model is based on a 416MHz Intel XScale PXA270 processor backed by 64MB of SDRAM and 16MB of Flash ROM. Crucially, the unit also features a 4GB hard drive - the first PDA to do so. The Sl-C3000 sports a 3.7in 640 x 480 LCD mounted above a QWERTY keypad with a five-way navigator control." The device is only available in Japan.
ZoneMinder: Linux home security par excellence (NewsForge) NewsForge looks at ZoneMinder, a free software application for home security. "I recently installed a remote home camera security system using wireless Internet cameras and a fine free software application for Linux called ZoneMinder. The cameras are installed at a friend's house, and the application runs at mine. ZoneMinder is powerful, feature-rich, and sophisticated."
Miscellaneous Silicon.com's Agenda Setters 2004 Silicon.com has posted its list of "agenda setters" for 2004. Familiar names on the list include Linus Torvalds, Lawrence Lessig, Richard Stallman, Marten Mickos, Mark Cox, OSRM's Daniel Egger, and, interestingly, Donald Knuth. "Donald E Knuth's seminal work on computer algorithms has fresh relevance - he's risen 4 positions from last year - in the current software patent debate. Because he has documented so many algorithms and they can be regarded in the public domain, programmers and companies have a defence in fighting copyright infringement suits."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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