Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Clearing up anti-GPL3 FUD (Linux-Watch)

Bruce Perens looks at some common misconceptions about the GPLv3. "There's been a lot of talk about GPL version 3: whether it goes too far to be acceptable to business, whether the Linux kernel developers will ever switch to it, whether our community will fork or undergo unrest over it. Much of that talk is based on a poor understanding of the GPL3 terms, and with release of the new license imminent, it's time to clear that up."

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Ian Murdock: Making Solaris more like Linux (ZDNet)

ZDNet attended a talk by Ian Murdock shortly after his move to Sun. "You can make a real argument that Solaris innovated more than Linux in the last few years—such as DTrace and ZFS—but usability stands in the way of appreciating that,' Murdock said. 'Part of what we are working on is closing the usability gap so that it doesn’t stand in the way.'"

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Trade Shows and Conferences

Open source at CeBIT 2007 (Linux.com)

Linux.com has this report from CeBIT 2007. "Traditionally, most companies that work with open source software cluster at the Linux Park in Hall 5, and this year was no exception. Nor was there any exception to another CeBIT tradition, namely the release of a new version of Knoppix, which is now at version 5.2. However, this time Klaus Knopper -- Mr. Knoppix himself -- wasn't handing out free disks and answering visitors' questions. Instead, German publisher Heise was selling copies of its C't magazine containing the latest version of Knoppix."

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Report from the Decibel Hackathon (KDE.News)

KDE.News has a report from the Decibel Hackathon. "At the Decibel Hackathon sponsored by NL.net and basysKom GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany last weekend, hackers from the KDE community met to discuss the handling of contact data in KDE 4. Read on for a summary of the event."

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Guademy 2007 Event Report (KDE.News)

KDE.News covers GUADEMY 2007. "The first Guademy event finished yesterday at the university of A Coruña, Spain. Organized by the GPUL (Grupo de Programadores y Usuarios de Linux), the Linux User Group of A Coruña, it was an event which brought together people from the GNOME and KDE camp (thus the combination of "GUADEC" and "aKademy" that forms the name of the event)."

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News And A Review: LAC2007 & Rosegarden 1.5 (Linux Journal)

Dave Phillips looks at the annual Linux Audio Conference and Rosegarden 1.5. "The review: The developers at 64Studio recently announced the release of version 1.2 of my favorite audio-optimized Linux distribution. Among its many additions and improvements this update brings Rosegarden 1.5 to the 64-bit desktop studio. It's been quite a while since I considered the program in detail (I profiled a much earlier version in my Book Of Linux Music And Sound), so I decided the time had come for me to spend some quality time with the latest Rosegarden."

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Companies

Emulex driver shipping with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (CTR)

Computer Technology Review reports on support for RHEL 5 by Emulex. "Emulex Corp. has announced the availability of its Linux driver for Emulex LightPulse HBAs (Host Bus Adapters) as part of the new Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution from Red Hat Inc. Emulex LightPulse HBA customers will as a result benefit immediately from the new virtualization, clustering, and manageability enhancements available in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 distribution, the company added last week."

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Novell details new Linux and management offerings (Computer Business Review)

Computer Business Review covers Novell's latest announcements. "Novell Inc has unveiled a new thin client desktop Linux offering and started the beta testing for SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 Service Pack 1 as part of a slew of announcements made at its BrainShare user conference. The Waltham, Massachusetts-based company also detailed new groupware, and systems, security and identity management products, as well as customer momentum for its Open Workgroup Suite."

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Oracle claims Yahoo as Linux convert (ZDNet)

ZDNet reports on a deal between Oracle and Yahoo. "Oracle Chief Executive Larry Ellison announced the company's first prominent Linux customer Tuesday: Yahoo. But Red Hat hasn't been pushed aside at the Internet company. Ellison cited the Yahoo deal as the first real evidence of progress from Oracle's high-profile attack on Linux leader Red Hat that began in October. Oracle is cloning Red Hat Enterprise Linux, selling support for less than Red Hat's list prices."

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Oracle joins Linux patent commons (Linux-Watch)

Linux-Watch reports that Oracle will become a licensee of the Open Invention Network. "By doing this, Oracle opens the doors to making some of its patents available royalty-free to any company, institution, or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against Linux."

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Legal

Can You Legally Rip a DVD? Trial to Test 'Fair Use' (PC Mag)

PC Mag covers a trial between the DVD Content Control Association and the Kaleidescape regarding the copying of DVDs. "On Wednesday, a key copyright trial began in San Jose, as Kaleidescape Systems and the DVD Content Control Association went to court in a case expected to test the concept of "fair use". Kaleidescape manufactures the Kaleidescape System, essentially a DVD jukebox, connected via Ethernet to a separate player box. Users can insert a DVD and rip it to the installed hard drive, for later viewing upon a television screen. To the DVD CCA, the suit is a simple breach of contract of the terms of the Content Scrambling System, the encryption method that secures the millions of standard-definition DVDs sold worldwide."

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Victims fight back against DMCA abuse (ars technica)

ars technica investigates efforts to combat DMCA abuses. "DMCA takedown notices: sure, they provide an easy way for companies or individuals to get copyrighted information pulled from sites like YouTube, but what happens when the process is abused? The DMCA does require takedown notices to be made under threat of perjury, and damages are possible against those that abuse the takedown process by using it for frivolous or fraudulent purposes. The EFF has recently filed two cases against alleged DMCA abusers, and may be prepping a third against Viacom."

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The Strange History of Linux and Trademarks (Tux Deluxe)

The Tux Deluxe site has a history of trademark-related hassles with an emphasis on the Mobilix case. "Over the years Linux International has spent over $300,000 defending the Linux trademark, $250,000 of which has come from maddog's own pocket. In 2005 maddog founded the Linux Mark Institute, with support from Linus Torvalds, with the objective of protecting the Linux mark for the community and against the prospectors of the future."

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SIL Open Font License revised (Linux.com)

Linux.com covers the latest revision of the SIL Open Font License. "SIL International, a nonprofit organization whose concerns include literacy and the study and preservation of minority languages, has announced the release of version 1.1 of the SIL Open Font License (OFL). The revision, which follows months of discussion and review on several mailing lists, including OFL-Discuss, clarifies the language of the license, especially about embedding fonts and allowing reserved font names."

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Resources

PHP Search Engine Showdown (O'ReillyNet)

Here's an O'ReillyNet article about the benefits of adding a search engine to your website. "When you choose to incorporate a local search service, you install the search engine on your server and customize the tool yourself. The advantages of using the local approach are that you can ensure the privacy of your data, you can control the indexing process and search results, and that you have the freedom to implement new features. The disadvantages of installing a local search engine are that indexing and maintenance is your responsibility, and that the index and installation files will use space on your hard drive. You may also incur costs associated with software acquisition--although free, open source software is available."

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Building the XO: The Anatomy of an Activity (Red Hat Mag)

Red Hat Magazine has published a tutorial on the creation of activities for the OLPC XO machine. "Activities should be designed to be shared, and the process for sharing should be trivial. If a child sees a friend playing a neat new game, she should be able to click on that friend in her neighborhood view, receive her game code, and join in the game, immediately."

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Reviews

Chess engines for Linux (Linux.com)

M. Shuaib Khan looks at Linux-compatible chess engines on Linux.com. "Chess engines for Linux are comparable in strength to commercial chess engines available for other platforms. Here's a look at the features of half a dozen of the most well-known chess engines for Linux. A chess engine is the actual program against which you play the game. A chess engine can take a move as an input, and after analysis, generate a move of its own as an output."

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Bake-Off: 4 Linux Desktops Tackle The Enterprise (CRN)

CRN reviews four "enterprise" desktop distributions. "Surface-deep features are not enough anymore, as more companies than ever before are seriously considering migrating to Linux. However, the UI and navigational changes that Linux vendors are making in Linux desktops to improve the user experience are still far behind Windows. Simple routines such as adding a Flash player or Java plug-in on Firefox can be a tedious experience. The Linux File Manager is not as intuitive as Windows Explorer."

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RaveHD uses Linux to help movie studios process raw video (Linux.com)

Linux.com looks at RaveHD. "SpecSoft's Linux-powered RaveHD DDR-VTR system is not a video editing tool for home users or small-time professionals. It's a system that stores, manipulates, and plays back uncompressed video that can be turned into film clear enough to fill a Hollywood movie theater's wide screen. It's what you need when the file size of each frame in your video is measured in gigabytes and your whole project takes up multiple terabytes of storage, and you have not just one or two but 100 or 200 animators and post-production people working for you. At this level of video and film production, says SpecSoft co-founder Ramona Howard, the question isn't why you develop your utility programs in Linux, but why you would even consider using a proprietary operating system."

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Start-up Zimbra takes Web e-mail offline (ZDNet)

ZDNet looks at an alpha version of the Zimbra Desktop. "E-mail software company Zimbra on Sunday released an early version of Zimbra Desktop, Web e-mail software that will run online and offline. The company has built an open-source, Web-based alternative to existing mail servers and clients such as Microsoft Exchange and Outlook. Zimbra uses Ajax, a Web development technique that runs across browsers and operating systems."

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Miscellaneous

Gentoo attempts to deal with developer conflicts (Linux.com)

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier looks at the Gentoo Project and its recently adopted Code of Conduct. "If the idea is to stem the tide of "retiring" developers, it's not working yet. After the vote to adopt the CoC on March 15, Gentoo developer Alexandre Buisse turned in his resignation, saying that the adoption of the Code of Conduct by the Gentoo Council was "stupidly fast" and that he's tired of "endless fights" over "who gets a tiny bit more" power over parts of the project."

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