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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading GPL 3: An Open-Source Earthquake? (CRN)CRN has published a lengthy look at the GPLv3 debate. "An eventual detente is what open-source evangelist Bruce Perens predicts. 'There's usually about a two-year cycle where Linus [Torvalds] and some people have trouble with something, and then they work it out,' said Perens, who co-founded the Open Source Initiative. 'Despite their kicking and screaming, they eventually will go to GPL 3.'"
Fedora's metrics have ripple effect (Linux.com)Linux.com looks at Fedora's efforts to collect data from its users. "Fedora announced this month that by using a tracking tool to monitor unique IP addresses, it was able to determine that Fedora Core 6 now has more than one million users. What does all this metric gathering mean for future Fedora releases? Moreover, what does it mean for the Linux community at large? The answer on both counts: plenty."
PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access (Nature)Here's an article in Nature on how the scientific publishing industry is reacting to the open access movement. It seems they have hired Eric Dezenhall, a media consultant known for his attack-oriented tactics. "In an enthusiastic e-mail sent to colleagues after the meeting, Susan Spilka, Wiley's director of corporate communications, said Dezenhall explained that publishers had acted too defensively on the free-information issue and worried too much about making precise statements. Dezenhall noted that if the other side is on the defensive, it doesn't matter if they can discredit your statements, she added: 'Media messaging is not the same as intellectual debate'."
Trade Shows and Conferences Regional Ruby Conferences Are Taking Shape (Linux Journal)Pat Eyler's Ruby blog looks at regional Ruby conferences. "Last summer, I wrote about local Ruby events and the RubyConf*MI event that was (at that time) just announced. Since then, I've taken some time to write about regional conferences, and to encourage people to check out the Ruby Central grant program."
Companies PDF to become an open, ISO standard (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch reports that Adobe is hoping to make PDF an ISO standard. "Adobe Systems Inc. on Jan. 29 announced that it has released the full PDF (Portable Document Format) 1.7 specification to AIIM, the Association for Information and Image Management. AIIM, in turn, will start working on making PDF an ISO standard."
Whatever happened to Diebold's brazilian Linux distro of choice? (Linux in Brazil)Linux in Brazil covers an attempt by Diebold to sell Linux PCs to the Brazilian government. "Dazed and confused? The brazilian Linux community was surprised this week with news about Diebold trying to sell Linux-running PCs to the brazilian government. And boy, Diebold seems to be having a hard time selling those "Flux Linux" based PCs to the Ministry of Communication."
IBM donates new privacy tool to open-source (ZDNet)ZDNet looks at Identity Mixer software. "IBM has developed software designed to let people keep personal information secret when doing business online and donated it to the Higgins open-source project. The software, called "Identity Mixer," was developed by IBM researchers. The idea is that people provide encrypted digital credentials issued by trusted parties like a bank or government agency when transacting online, instead of sharing credit card or other details in plain text, Anthony Nadalin, IBM's chief security architect, said in an interview."
Linspire's Linux software service goes cross-distribution (Computer Business Review)Computer Business Review reports on Linspire's plans to expand its Click and Run software delivery system to other Linux distributions. "CNR was originally designed to enable users of San Diego, California-based Linspire's Linspire OS to find, download, and install desktop applications and drivers, and was made available free of charge in August 2006 under the company Freespire community-led distribution. Via the new CNR.com web site, it will now also be made available as a service to users of the Debian, Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu distributions during 2007, with other distributions expected to be added in 2008."
Business What's the best Linux for resellers? (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch looks at Linux distributions for resellers. "I recently was contacted by a major Unix reseller. The company had a very simple question: with the writing on the wall for Unix growing bigger and bigger with every quarter, which Linux should they adopt? It's a good question, and the answer depends not just on the pluses and minuses of each Linux distribution, its distributors, and its channel programs, but what you bring to the table."
Interviews Liberty Alliance is alive and kicking (ZDNet)ZDNet interviews Roger Sullivan, president of the Liberty Alliance. "Q: What is the simple four-line definition of Liberty Alliance today? Sullivan: Liberty Alliance is an assembly of both enterprise customers as well as vendors from all around the world. We have come together to develop open standards for identity management. Historically, all of those standards have focused on federation protocols, one enterprise interacting with another enterprise in a secure way and being able to exchange identity credentials from one enterprise to the other."
Portrait: Rosegarden's D. Michael McIntyre (Linux.com)Linux.com interviews D. Michael McIntyre. "If there is anything like a "typical" member of the free/open source community, that template is probably nothing like D. Michael McIntyre. By profession a truck driver, McIntyre holds a bachelor's degree in Foreign Languages, and he's used his facility with words to document the popular Rosegarden project. He's since gone on to do whatever he sees that needs to be done on the project, and has become an integral part of the Rosegarden team."
Resources Desktop Linux 2006: The Year in Review (DesktopLinux.com)DesktopLinux.com has a report written by OSDL on the state of the Linux desktop. "This report will spotlight several of the most important advances for the Linux desktop in 2006, including improved desktop functionality, new applications, standards and interoperability, Linux distribution activities and market growth."
Reviews Denx rev's free embedded Linux distro (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices covers an embedded Linux development kit. "Denx Software Engineering has updated its free embedded Linux distribution and development tool suite. "Embedded Linux Development Kit" (ELDK) Release 4.1 is based on a 2.6.19.2 Linux kernel and Denx's freely licensed U-Boot 1.2 bootloader, and features support for the Xenomai 2.3 real-time extensions."
New Drupal 5 shines (Linux.com)Linux.com reviews Drupal 5. "It's been five years since Drupal, the popular GPLed Web development framework, has had a major version release. The new Drupal 5, which debuted in earlier this month, was eight months in development and incorporates more than 1,000 patches from nearly half as many contributors. It also features overhauls and updates in system performance, usability, user interface, and theming."
IBM tunes up for Jazz open-source project (ZDNet)ZDNet looks at Jazz. "IBM is working on an open-source project called Jazz to promote programming tools for globally distributed teams. Set to launch in June at Jazz.net, the project will be based on work from IBM Research and its Rational tools division around geographically distributed collaborative software development."
A handful of reviews for the Nokia N800 (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org has assembled a list of reviews of the Nokia N800. "A lot of reviews online these days for the recently released Linux/GTK-based Nokia N800 internet tablet: C|Net's review, MobileCrunch's, Brighthand's, MobileBurn's, NYTimes', ToughtFix's and my own at OSNews. There is also an interesting usability/comparison study, the N800 vs the Apple Newton!"
SourceKibitzer tracks open-source Java apps (Linux-Watch)Linux-Watch looks at SourceKibitzer, a website that tracks open-source projects written in Java. "SourceKibitzer is a group of Estonian-Russian-Swedish developers who together decided to create a knowledge base that adds transparency to open-source Java projects through analysis, benchmarking, and criticism. According to their estimates, there are already some 5,000 active Java open-source projects. At the site, the company has already checked into the Java projects of Apache, Codehaus, JBoss, and ObjectWeb and counts more than 500 projects."
Miscellaneous The cost of monoculture (Gen Kanai)Gen Kanai looks at technology decisions by South Korea's government which have led to an absolute Microsoft dominance there. "This nation is a place where Apple Macintosh users cannot bank online, make any purchases online, or interact with any of the nation's e-government sites online. In fact, Linux users, Mozilla Firefox users and Opera users are also banned from any of these types of transactions because all encrypted communications online in this nation must be done with Active X controls." (via BoingBoing).
A visual timeline of the Microsoft-Novell controversyArs Technica has some fun with a review of the Novell/Microsoft deal. "For your edification and amusement, we have translated the entire debate into the colorful patois of the average Internet message board and produced an informative visual guide that will illuminate the facts and show you what our favorite confrontational corporate executives are really saying."
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