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Linux in the news
Recommended Reading
A Firm Foundation for the Linux Desktop (O'ReillyNet)
O'ReillyNet looks at the origins of X and the accomplishments of X.org. "X.org has achieved a lot and is poised to achieve a lot more. It has issued two releases of X in the past six months, a feat involving a great deal of testing, management, and weighted decision making. This is an exciting time, where the foundation is still working out a lot of basic procedural issues, such as how to reach the point of making a release. Increased funding would make a huge difference at this critical historical moment in the adoption of desktop systems."
Give me liberty and give me death? (Financial Times)
The Financial Times has posted a response to the "why open source is unsustainable" column. "Global businesses such as IBM have very good lawyers. They are not known for investing billions of dollars into businesses built on licences that are simultaneously vague and imperialistic. (I imagine an absent-minded Genghis Khan.) Unenforceable licences are also unpopular. In his scholarship, Prof Epstein has pointed out eloquently that the market is the best information processing system we have: we should assume that it is incorporating all available information. If we apply his principle here, it indicates that the market has weighed his fears and found them wanting."
Trade Shows and Conferences
KDE at LinuxWorld Netherlands Report (KDE.News)
KDE.News features a report on the recent LinuxWorld event in Utrecht, the Netherlands. "This first LinuxWorld event in the Netherlands was held simultaneously with two other events: 'Storage Expo' and 'InfoSecurity'. Many large companies were present including Sun and Novell. It was styled more as a business event, and because even the penguin in the logo was wearing a tie I decided to do the same."
Dutch EU Presidency holds Open Source in Government conference (NewsForge)
NewsForge covers the upcoming "Open Standards and Libre Software in Government" conference. "The conference will focus on successful implementations and policies on open source in EU-level, national, local and regional government. There will be a presentation of the German Federal Government's Migration Guide and the EU Regional Innovation award-winning policies of Extremadura, Spain from Regional Minister Luis Millan Vazquez de Miguel. There will also be a discussion of EU policies on interoperability and open standards, with speakers from the European Commission."
The SCO Problem
SCO sees a little sense (ZDNet)
ZDNet comments on SCO's backtracking on its scoinfo.com web site. "SCO clearly feels hurt by Groklaw and wants to hit back. Yet in recognising that it has no real case to make against it online, the company is sensibly husbanding its resources to concentrate on its two business plans: litigation and software development. We hope that the company will further realise that Groklaw's unassailable position reflects the strength of the arguments it espouses. Two business plans is one business plan too many: for the good of its customers and the market as a whole, the company should now take the next logical step."
Companies
Adobe dipping toes into desktop Linux waters (News.com)
News.com reports that Adobe is beginning to wake up to Linux. "The San Jose, Calif., company confirmed its OSDL membership but wouldn't comment on most of its Linux desktop software plans. However, Pam Deziel, an Adobe director of product marketing, did say the company doesn't think there are enough customers today to justify selling Linux versions of its flagship Photoshop or Illustrator graphics programs."
Ballmer's Email - Indemnification Comes Full Circle (Groklaw)
Groklaw analyzes the latest letter from Microsoft's Steve Ballmer, and finds the legal equivalent of an infinite loop. "..and then lo and behold, in one section he suggests that indemnification is another fine reason to choose Microsoft over Linux. Obviously, they think we all just fell off a turnip truck and can't connect the dots. Is it legal, I wonder, to help create IP legal issues for your chief competitor, and then use that trouble as a marketing ploy? If it is, somebody pass a law quick, will ya?"
Linux Adoption
Asian states see open source as window of opportunity (IHT Online)
IHT Online reports on the Indian West Bengal Education Ministry's plans to install 10,000 Linux boxes. "Desktop software from Red Hat, a U.S. company that repackages and sells the Linux system, offered savings of 25 percent to 30 percent over Windows, G.D. Gauta, a principal secretary in the information technology department in the West Bengal Ministry of Education, said in a recent telephone interview. But even if Microsoft had dropped its prices, it would not have made any difference, Gauta said, because "the Linux system is a better system."" Thanks to Anand Vaidya.
Open Source ready for prime time in UK.gov, says OGC (Register)
The Register looks at a new report, from the UK's OGC, which gives open-source software a green light. "Open Source Software is now a viable and credible alternative for government, says a report published yesterday by the UK's Office of Government Commerce. The report, detailing the verdict on a series of proof of concept trials of OSS, which were carried out in conjunction with Sun and IBM over the past year, notes that the three main areas of implementation are at different stages of maturity, but notes that cost savings can be achieved, and signposts OSS' attractiveness as a possible escape route from vendor lock-in."
Linux in Government: In Spite of Endorsements, Government Linux Projects Still Treading Water (Linux Journal)
Although government sponsored studies advocate the adoption of open source software actual adoption by government agencies lags behind. Linux Journal takes a look. "Although we have tracked many case studies, wide-spread adoption of OSS within government lacks execution. For example, only a few years ago, Mexico agreed to implement Linux in all its public schools. Vicente Fox introduced an initiative called e-Mexico shortly after he took over the presidency in December of 2000. Funding was scarce and the government began to look at ways to finance the project without using hard currency."
Not So Fast, Linux (Business Week)
Business Week looks at Linux adoption by European governments and Microsoft's response. "Yet over the past 18 months the giant from Redmond, Wash., has unleashed a fierce counterattack, and there are signs that it's working. Paris was only the most recent and important victory. Last January the borough of Newham in London reversed course on a planned change to Linux after a consultant's report said Windows would cost $600,000 less to support each year. To seal the deal, Microsoft offered Newham an undisclosed discount. The Finnish city of Turku also changed its mind about dumping Windows after a three-year experiment with Linux showed employees resisted the switch."
Whatdya Mean, Free Software? (IT-Director)
Robin Bloor lists the factors he sees limiting free software adoption in this IT-Director column. "There is no Standard Open Source License: Actually there is wide variety of Open Source licenses, just as there are a wide variety of proprietary licenses. Small companies may not care too much about this, as they probably have never even read a license, but large organizations do care because they have to. No large organization can afford the risk of not knowing the license terms for the use of key software products."
Legal
Lexmark and the DMCA (Groklaw)
Groklaw has the Lexmark ruling in plain text format, along with some commentary. "I want you please to notice that one of the judges in this case quoted from Larry Lessig's 'Free Culture.' I keep telling you, judges do eventually get it." The ruling by the court was not unanimous; see this article for the dissenting opinions.
Interviews
Groklaw Interview with Sarah Deutsch, Esq. on RIAA v. Verizon (Groklaw)
Groklaw interviews Sarah Deutsch, vice president and associate general counsel for Verizon and lead attorney on RIAA v. Verizon. "Deutsch: This case involved considerable dangers for privacy, safety and First Amendment and anonymous speech because the form subpoena could have been used not only to find out subscriber information for P2P file sharing, but for any website you visited, chatroom you participated in or even an email you sent. Many people do not realize that your IP address is visible everywhere you go on the Internet -- when you send an email, visit a website, or chat room, these numbers are visible. The service provider holds the key to link this IP number with a name, address or phone number."
Resources
Using Unicode in Linux (NewsForge)
NewsForge converts a Linux system to use Unicode. "First of all, check whether you're already using a Unicode locale. The command locale prints out the values of environmental variables that influence the locale settings. A complete description of their meanings is available in locale man pages. Usually, locale names consist of a lowercase language code followed by an underscore and an uppercase country code (e.g. en_US for U.S. English). Unicode locale names that use UTF-8 encoding additionally end with ".UTF-8." If such names are present in the output of locale, you are already using a Unicode locale."
Twenty Third-Party Gnome Apps you Can't Live Without (OS News)
OS News has published a list of 23 useful third-party applications for GNOME. "When on Unix/Linux I mostly use Gnome, and so here are some of the best third party GTK+ applications around I have found."
Linux on your USB Key (Tuxme.com)
Tuxme.com has published an article about installation of Linux on a USB memory key device. "So I've had one of those usb keys for nearly a year now and what's on it? Nothing... so I decided to install Linux on it. 256MB should be more than enough and I would be able to boot it anywhere, use it for troubleshooting and impress my friends and co-workers."
Reviews
1-Box to serve them all (NewsForge)
NewsForge reviews 1-Box, a multi-headed Linux machine that is being sold by a company called Useful. "1-Box uses one tower PC with up to five dual-head video cards driving 10 monitors, and a USB hub to plug in keyboards and mice. Software required includes some flavor of Linux, as well as the 1-Box application. 1-Box supports any software that will run on Linux and costs $99, plus $79 per user."
Miscellaneous
Firefox donations hit $250,000 (News.com)
News.com reports that the Mozilla Foundation has raised $250,000 during the 10 days of its fund raising campaign. "The money will be used to promote the final version of Firefox 1.0 when it is released on Nov. 9. The campaign started two weeks ago with the goal of getting 2,500 people to donate $30 or more to the marketing fund within 10 days, with the aim of placing a full-page ad in The New York Times."
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