Linux in the news [LWN.net]

Linux out-Googles Microsoft (ZDNet)

ZDNet searches the search engines for what's hot.. "The top technology search term for 2002 was MP3, indicating a continued demand for the compression technology. The mobile phone texting format, SMS, was in second place, followed by the compression tool Winzip, and Linux at number four, beating ninth-placed Microsoft in the Google stakes."

Comments (10 posted)

Companies

Mandrake flirts with non-open source (News.com)

MandrakeSoft releases a firewall product with a non-open source license, according to this News.com article. "It's not the first time an open-source company has made philosophical adjustments for pragmatic reasons. The fervor for the collaborative-programming model has yielded to bottom-line concerns at many companies. Indeed, as the Internet mania of the late 1990s was replaced by recession pessimism, many free-lunch ideas expired."

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Microsoft set to reveal Windows source code in India (The Inquirer)

The Inquirer reports that Microsoft is thinking about opening up Windows source code to a select band of government bodies in India. "Other sources indicate that Microsoft is already engaged in working out the logistics of sharing the code and that Jason Matusow, the Vole's worldwide program manager for shared source program, has been in India to work out the details of the arrangement." Thanks to Jaye Inabnit

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Business

Open-source group broadens its reach (News.com)

News.com covers the latest members of the open source Eclipse project. "Eclipse members, which now number 30, operate on under an open-source model of a common public license, in which the software is developed in a sort of communal effort rather than behind closed doors. New board members include heavyweights Hewlett-Packard, SAP and Oracle, as well as smaller companies such as AltoWeb, Parasoft, Flashline and MKS Software."

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Linux Adoption

Linux is Microsoft's biggest competitive challenge ever (The Inquirer)

The Inquirer talks with Rick Belluzzo, a former Microsoft exec now with Quantum. "Asked if he's now a Linux advocate, Beluzzo responds: "I consider myself an advocate of whatever allows us to achieve our goals most effectively. And today, for us, that certainly is Linux because it's free; it has a good modular design; you can modify it to meet your needs. There is nothing else that can meet our needs like that."" Thanks to Alexander Stohr

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Legal

Deadline nears for DMCA exemptions (Register)

Here's a Register article about an upcoming deadline for challenging the DMCA. "One of the quirks of the Act is that the Library of Congress provides administrative oversight. A strange decision, since this is a job usually left to the courts. But every three years the Librarian gets to review requests and decide which cases are causing serious harm."

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DMCA critics say reform still needed (News.com)

News.com talks with congressman Rick Boucher who will try again this year to push through legislation that would rescind parts of the DMCA. Referring to the ElcomSoft case: "While this jury reached a commendable decision, another jury in a future case that involves similar facts could well convict. The law clearly contemplates conviction in circumstances where no infringement occurs, but the technology facilitates bypassing a technological protection measure."

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Racing Against Time (CIO Insight)

CIO Insight has an article by Lawrence Lessig on copyright law. "Copyright law is a crucial part of the system of incentive necessary to spur creative work. But the law affects creativity differently in cyberspace than in real space. Content owners have been quick to argue that cyberspace weakens copyright protection, since digital copies are so easy to make and distribution costs are so low. That may be true. But it is also true that the Internet can strengthen the power of copyright owners far beyond anything imagined by the framers of our copyright act."

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ElcomSoft Case in Jurors' Hands (Wired)

Wired covers the ElcomSoft trial, where the jury is in deliberations. "Jurors are being asked to render a verdict in five separate counts against ElcomSoft. The first is that the company "willfully conspired" to provide a technology that would allow users to circumvent protections on copyrighted works."

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ElcomSoft verdict: Not guilty (News.com)

News.com reports that ElcomSoft has been found Not Guilty in its DMCA trial. "After much wrangling among attorneys over the definition of the word 'willful,' the judge told jurors that in order to find the company guilty, they must agree that company representatives knew their actions were illegal and intended to violate the law. Merely offering a product that could violate copyrights was not enough to warrant a conviction, the jury instructions said."

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Copyright verdict, new technology are reasons to hope (SiliconValley)

Here is Dan Gillmor's take on the ElcomSoft verdict. "Judge Ronald Whyte, presiding over the case, upheld the U.S. government's right to prosecute the Russian company. His holding that the law itself was constitutional, despite its killing of fair use rights, was even more disturbing. But he was following Congress' dictates -- or, to be precise, Congress' enacting of what it was told to do by the entertainment and software barons. That's the biggest shame of all, and we should all be grateful that the San Jose jury did its duty." The column also talks a bit about the Creative Commons project.

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DVD-copying program sets stage for legal showdown (Daily Camera)

LWN's hometown newspaper (the Daily Camera) has an article about a completely different DMCA case: 321 Studios is suing the MPAA for the right to sell "DVD X Copy," a (proprietary) DVD copying utility. "Seldom does a new product land in court before it lands on store shelves. But that's the case with DVD X Copy, a new software program that gives consumers a relatively easy way to burn a backup copy of a prerecorded, copy-protected DVD movie. What's even more unusual is that the lawsuit was brought by the program's maker, Missouri's 321 Studios Inc., in an attempt to get a definitive ruling that making personal copies of DVDs is a legal activity under U.S. copyright laws."

Comments (6 posted)

Interviews

An interview with Jim Kent (O'Reilly)

O'Reilly has an interview with James Kent, developer of GigAssembler. "Stewart: What is your view on open source in bioinformatics?

Kent: Yea! Go. The genome is hard enough to decompile. Don't make me have to decompile your source as well."

Comments (none posted)

Resources

LinuxDevices.com Newsletter for Dec. 12, 2002

LinuxDevices.com has just published its weekly Embedded Linux Newsletter, with all the latest news and info from the world of Embedded Linux and Linux-based gadgets.

Full Story (comments: none)

EJLonline publishes 10 additional embedded Linux articles

LinuxDevices.com has announced that that ten new articles have just been added to its Embedded Linux Journal Online ("ELJonline") repository for your reading pleasure.

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Pick up a penguin - Linux explained (vnunet)

Vnunet has a lengthy article on Linux, with plenty of resources to help people get started. "In this feature, we'll be reporting on the background and history of Linux, and showing you how it looks and works. If you fancy having a go, we'll also be telling you how to get it and install it, and how to find your way around it."

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Advantages of OpenMosix on IBM Linux xSeries (IBM)

IBM is running a 3-part series on the advantages of OpenMosix on IBM Linux xSeries. Part 1 provides an introduction to the current clustering technologies available for Linux and and an introduction to openMosix. Part 2 shows how to get a fully-functional openMosix cluster configured and running. Part 3 shows some ways to use openMosix to tackle computing challenges with clusters built on IBM xSeries servers running Intel Xeon, making use of performance-enhancing technologies such as Intel's Hyper-Threading Technology.

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Reviews

Alternative Web Browsers: Revenge of the Lizard (NewsFactor)

Yahoo has picked up this NewsFactor article which explores the features of Mozilla. "Mitchell Baker, Mozilla's chief lizard wrangler, told NewsFactor that the software's open source nature also helps the browser development team avoid Internet Explorer's many security issues. "We've learned that openness makes our product better, and that includes security. We benefit enormously from community involvement in identifying possible security issues, in tracking the progress of those bugs, and in implementing fixes."" Thanks to Elijah P Newren

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CodeWeavers targets Citrix with CrossOver Server Edition (Register)

The Register covers CodeWeavers CrossOver Office Server Edition. "While version 1.3.1 of CrossOver Office Server Edition enables applications to be hosted on Linux and deployed on Linux or Solaris, an interesting turn of events will see a later version of CrossOver Office Server Edition supporting Windows as a thin client operating system. This could see users deploying Microsoft applications on Windows-based thin clients via Linux-based servers."

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The Web Wizard's Guide to PHP (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal reviews "The Web Wizard's Guide to PHP" by David A. Lash. "If you're looking to learn PHP or to teach a course on PHP, check out The Web Wizard's Guide to PHP by David Lash. This is an excellent book for learning PHP, even if you have no programming skills. If you're like me and have experience in another language, such as Perl, you'll find that Lash's book makes it easy to rapidly get up to speed in PHP."

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The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source: a Book Review (Linux Journal)

Here is a book review on Linux Journal for "The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source" by Martin Fink. "The Business and Economics of Linux and Open Source is written for executives whose companies produce software and for IT managers who must choose and/or deploy this software within their companies. It introduces both free and open-source software (OSS), but predictably, the book focuses mostly on the latter. In spite of this, actually, for these reasons, I'd also recommend the book to hackers, for reasons that will be clear later in this review."

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