Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Exclusive rights to stagnate (Financial Times)

The Financial Times is carrying an article by Lawrence Lessig warning against the adoption of software patents in Europe. "Rather than copying a failed American policy, the Europeans could be exploring alternatives to patents that might provide protection without sinking the intended beneficiaries. No doctor would approve an untested drug for his or her patient. Nor should Europe inflict such a remedy on its already weakened software industry."

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The debate about user interfaces (PCLinuxOnline)

PCLinuxOnline looks at the debate about how configurable a user interface should be. "A big debate these days seems to be focused on how configurable the Linux desktop should be. KDE has always taken the approach that users will have different preferences on how they like to work so the UI should be as flexible and configurable as possible. Gnome 2 has taken the direction that "less-is-more" and that the configurability in Linux desktops, including Gnome 1.x, was clutter and confusing to the end-user. This has resulted in some pundits calling for KDE to remove some of it's configurability." Thanks to Ashwin

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Trade Shows and Conferences

Presentations from the NOIE Open Source & Linux symposium

The Australian government's NOIE Open Source & Linux symposium now has most of the presentations available for reading.

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Companies

Mountain View Data Acquires TurboLinux's PowerCockpit (Register)

The Register writes an epitaph for Turbolinux after the sale of PowerCockpit to Mountain View Data. "PowerCockpit, which is proprietary software, allows the management and configuration of clusters of Linux and Windows servers in grid computing environments. Speaking to The Register yesterday, Mountain View Data president and CEO Cliff Miller said the acquisition was a good fit with Mountain View's existing range of products, and positioned the company nicely to take advantage of growth in the Intel-based clustering market."

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Sun shines light on chip plans (News.com)

News.com looks at Sun's processor plans. "Sun has traditionally gone its own way with its servers, forsaking technology such as Intel processors and the Windows and Linux operating systems that most Sun competitors embraced. As that technology has improved and encroached further into Sun's market, many have criticized the company for shunning it or adopting it late." The article is worth a read if you are curious about where the SPARC architecture is going.

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Linux Adoption

Fear holds back Linux adoption (vnunet)

This vnunet article looks at a report from AMR Research that says many companies still have technical and support fears that keep them from adopting Linux. "AMR said that Linux should be considered for non-mission-critical applications where cost and reliability are critical factors, adding that corporate policies should be refined with guidelines for evaluating and using open source software."

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Falling in love with the penguin (stuff.co.nz)

This article from New Zealand looks at the places where Linux is hard at work. "Air New Zealand, meanwhile, is upgrading 4000 Microsoft email applications with open-source versions provided by IBM. "It wasn't a religious decision," said Carl Klitscher, IBM New Zealand's Linux guru. "It was purely pragmatic. They could see cost reductions and improve their bottom line."" Thanks to Kanchana Wickremasinghe

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Linux marches on Whitehall (vnunet)

Vnunet reports that the UK government is seriously considering the use of open source software in a major Whitehall IT project. "A win for open source would boost its credentials as a serious alternative to traditional commercial platforms such as Unix and Windows, but the fact that it is even being considered is significant."

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The Linux Uprising (BusinessWeek)

BusinessWeek examines the ways Linux has become entrenched in the business world. "How did Linux make the jump into the mainstream? A trio of powerful forces converged. First, credit the rotten economy. Corporations under intense pressure to reduce their computing bills began casting about for low-cost alternatives. Second, Intel Corp., the dominant maker of processors for PCs, loosened its tight links with Microsoft and started making chips for Linux. This made it possible for corporations to get all the computing power they wanted at a fraction of the price. The third ingredient was widespread resentment of Microsoft and fear that the company was on the verge of gaining a stranglehold on corporate customers. "I always want to have the right competitive dynamics. That's why we focus on Linux. Riding that wave will give us choices going forward," says John A. McKinley Jr., executive vice-president for global technology and services at Merrill Lynch & Co., which runs some key securities trading applications on Linux." Thanks to Ashwin

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Legal

Compromise copyright bill in works (News.com)

News.com reports that DMCA opponents are mounting a new strategy, that would require labeling of anything that has built in antipiracy technology. "Stanford University law professor Larry Lessig outlined a plan for so-called compulsory licenses for copyrighted works, a strategy that would require movie and music companies to allow other people to use digital works but require payment to artists and other copyright holders. Variations of that idea are gaining traction among legal circles opposed to Hollywood's attempts to strengthen copyright law."

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Trial Near in Patent Case on Key Internet Technology (NY Times)

The New York Times (registration required...you know the drill...) has an article by John Markoff on the upcoming SSL patent trial. Leon Stambler claims to own several patents covering SSL, and is suing VeriSign, RSA Security Inc., and others for infringement. "The patents have infuriated Internet security experts who contend the Stambler patents simply imitate the original work done by cryptographers at Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the 1970's and 1980's."

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Interviews

Swarm Intelligence: An Interview with Eric Bonabeau (O'Reilly)

O'Reilly has an interview with Eric Bonabeau on the topic of swarm intelligence. "Eric Bonabeau, Ph.D, a keynote speaker at the upcoming Emerging Technology conference, is a leader in the field of swarm intelligence and has focused on applying these concepts to real world problems such as factory scheduling and telecommunications routing. The concept itself is borrowed from nature; in this interview, that's where the conversation begins, with ants and other social insects. Dr. Bonabeau takes us from his childhood nightmares of carnivorous wasps to applying the theories of swarm intelligence to solving real problems in the business world."

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Resources

Embedded Linux Consortium releases ELCPS v1.0 (LinuxDevices)

This LinuxDevices.com Special Report includes the full text of the ELC's announcement, a whitepaper about the ELCPS standard, a newly updated "frequently asked questions" document, a roundup of news coverage, a poll, a discussion thread, and the spec itself.

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India Gets Its First Linux Publication (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal reports on the debut of LINUXForYou, India's first print magazine focusing on Linux. "The first issue contains a CD of the popular load-it-from-your-CD Knoppix distribution and news inputs come from a wide range. Responses to the magazine seem to have been mostly appreciative, apart from a few questions asking why it was not being named GNULinuxForYou or something similar."

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Reviews

Open-source audio wins MP3 player support (News.com)

News.com covers an open source-friendly MP3 player that supports Ogg Vorbis format. "The release of the open-source support for the Neuros could be a welcome development for tech-minded audiophiles. Most commercial audio players such as Apple Computer's popular iPod have been released without support for Linux or Vorbis. Enterprising programmers have created tools to let both technologies work with some players, but overall support has been hit-or-miss at best."

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Mozilla upstart looks up to Safari (News.com)

News.com covers a new development project called Epiphany. "While small size and simplicity were two of Galeon's early goals--just as they were initial goals of Mozilla--the breakaway Epiphany project accuses its predecessor of falling into the downward spiral of unnecessary complexity."

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Lindows.com launches Linux notebook (Reuters)

Here's a Reuters article about new notebook computers from Lindows.com. "The company, which already offers a $199 desktop computer running Linux software, introduced its 2.9 pound Lindows Mobile PC computer running a 933 megahertz microprocessor from Taiwan's VIA Technologies Inc. (2388.TW), a small rival of computer chip giant Intel Corp." Thanks to Elijah P Newren

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Lindows Launches $799 Linux Laptop (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at new laptops from Lindows.com. "One show attendee told me, "This is down in the discretionary price range--I look at it as a highly loaded Linux PDA." I'll have more of a chance to kick it around later. But from a quick once-over, it appears to be solid, which is a prime consideration for a laptop (ab)user like me."

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Linux on the desktop (InfoWorld)

Chad Dickerson decides that Linux is further along on the desktop than he thought. "This particular salesperson had not seen Linux in action, and as I turned to demonstrate, he looked at the open spreadsheet on my screen and said, "I didn't know Excel ran on Linux." In one simple sentence, the usefulness of the OpenOffice Calc program was validated -- if my spreadsheets work and a salesperson recognizes (functionally at least) the software at a first glance in the Linux environment, the training is mostly done." Thanks to Max Hyre

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