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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Why DRM won't ever work (ZDNet) Samba hacker Jeremy Allison offers his opinion about DRM: "The other party in the transaction, the consumer of the music or movie, is then given the encrypted data, knowledge of what algorithm is used to encrypt the data, and a copy of the encryption key used to encrypt the data. All of these things must be supplied to the consumer in order for them to be able to use the data; without them, there's no way the consumer can listen to or watch the data they've just bought. Yet DRM is supposed to be able to restrict what the customer can do with the data. How can this be done given the fundamental reality of the situation described above? The magic of dilithium crystals?"
DreamWorks Animation 'Shrek the Third': Linux Feeds an Ogre (Linux Journal) Linux Journal takes a look at how Linux helps make movies. "All the big film studios primarily use Linux for animation and visual effects. Perhaps no commercial Linux installation is larger than DreamWorks Animation, with more than 1,000 Linux desktops and more than 3,000 server CPUs."
Companies A fight Microsoft can't win? (LA Times) The LA Times looks at Microsoft and software patents. Little new here for LWN readers, but it is nice to see this sort of article in a mainstream newspaper. "More significantly, the battle raises questions about the value of software patents. One of the rationales for patents in general is that they provide a financial incentive for inventors to reveal what might otherwise be trade secrets for the sake of promoting scientific and technical advancement. But if the invention is something that others in the field could have figured out for themselves — as software engineers frequently do — it doesn't deserve a patent. The free-software movement also challenges the notion that patents create the financial incentives needed to foster invention. Despite licensing rules that make it hard for them to control the fruits of their work, developers of open-source programs have been prolific and innovative, much to the public's benefit."
MS Sees No Conflict with Its Patent/Open Source Initiatives (eWeek) eWeek reports on Microsoft's position on patent infringements by open-source software applications. "Microsoft does not believe there is an inherent contradiction between its recent statements that free and open-source software infringes on 235 of its patents, and the veiled legal threats that go along with that, and its attempts to reach out and build bridges with the open-source community. "In fact, one makes the other possible, especially at a time like this, when interoperability is so important."
Introducing the Palm Foleo Palm, Inc has announced the Palm Foleo mobile companion, a small diskless laptop computer that runs Linux. The marketing blurb says: "With its 10-inch screen and full-size keyboard, the Palm Foleo mobile companion connects wirelessly with your smartphone to help you do more on the go. Unfold it, press a button, and it's on instantly—while just one touch brings your email to the big screen. Use your Foleo to view attachments, type longer emails, or to get a bigger look at web pages and photos you'd normally view on your smartphone. And with up to five hours of battery life packed into such a compact design, you'll do big things wherever you go."
Linux at Work Open source for students: 150,000 laptops may help bridge the digital divide in Brazil (Linux in Brazil) Linux in Brazil looks at the competition for bridging the digital divide in Brazil. "Government-issued laptops for kids are increasingly being offered by international organizations and corporations as a viable shortcut to help bridge the digital divide in developing countries, and the brazilian government wants to start paving this shortcut as soon as possible. Federal authorities are working on an international procurement process and have already earmarked US$ 30 million to buy the first 150,000 notebooks, which will be deployed on a pilot program."
Legal Deposition of Darl McBride in Novell: Dreaming of Billions From Linux (Groklaw) Groklaw has the text of Darl McBride's deposition in the Novell case. It's an interesting view of what was going on back then. If you believe Darl, a number of companies were getting close to paying up when Novell dropped its copyright ownership bomb. "I remember that the models were showing -- we would look at IDC numbers, and there were X millions of servers and growing at a certain rate. And I remember specifically 4 million servers going to 6 million servers over some time frame. I'd have to go back and refresh what the time frames were, but I remember bracketing if you've got 4 million servers against our list price of $700, you multipy that out, you get $2.8 billion. If you go up to the full list -- or the list price against the 6 million then you are talking about $4.2 billion. So it was always -- it's a ridiculously big number. So okay. I guess we could get finite on whether the number is $5 billion or $1 billion or $6 billion. The point is it was a lot of money for the company, and the size of company that we were."
Xandros Deal Isn't Identical to Novell's: Picking One's Way Around the GPL? - Updated 2Xs (Groklaw) Groklaw examines the Xandros/MS deal. "So it's not exactly what Novell agreed to, then, from the sound of it, not to me anyway. Patent covenants isn't the same wording as a patent peace agreement. So this must be an attempt to work around the GPLv3, I think."
Interviews Eben Moglen: Video series (Linux.com) Linux.com presents two more installments of a video taped interview with Professor Eben Moglen at the Red Hat Summit. The videos are in Ogg format.Eben Moglen: FSF - The Next Generation "Professor Moglen explains that it was not because of some rift within the FSF, or between himself and Richard Stallman, that he has decided to leave the board. Rather, it is simply time for the next generation to assume control, and suggests that it is time for Stallman to leave as well." Eben Moglen: How I discovered Free Software and met RMS "Professor Moglen grew up in an era where software was more free than it is today. In this clip he talks about his path eventually crossed that of Richard Stallman, and how they came to work together to make software free once more."
Eben Moglen: How to change the world (Linux.com) Linux.com has another video segment available of an interview with Eben Moglen. "Professor Eben Moglen is a polished speaker, a true orator. It is a real treat to hear him speak, and if you ever get a chance to do so, I heartily recommend that you do. I learned last week that he communicates just as well in one-on-one sessions."
Resources Catching Up With JOST (Linux Journal) Dave Phillips looks at the latest version of JOST on Linux Journal. "Three months ago I introduced my readers to a new system for hosting VST plugins compiled natively for Linux. That system has continued its development and has become a mainstay in the Studio Dave Linux audio arsenal. Here's an update on the system's recent incarnations, complete with the usual multimedia extravaganza of text, screenshots, and sounds."
KeyJnote: A nifty engine for your presentations (Linux.com) Linux.com looks at making presentations with KeyJnote. "If you need to create a presentation every now and then, but you find OpenOffice.org Impress too complicated and bulky, check out KeyJnote, a tool that turns any PDF document or set of graphics files into a professional-quality presentation with impressive transition effects."
Linux Gazette #139 The June 2007 edition of Linux Gazette is out. Articles include Creating an Unkillable Process, dotProject, Installing Perl Modules as a Non-Root User, Writing PostgreSQL Functions in C, and much more.
Reviews Music Player Daemon rocks your net (Linux.com) Linux.com has a review of MPD, the Music Player Daemon. "Licensed under the GNU GPL, MPD has been available for several years, and is packaged for most popular GNU/Linux distributions. Debian, Ubuntu (using the universe repository), Mandriva, and Gentoo users can install the mpd package or ebuild. Fedora and openSUSE don't include MPD, but you can find unofficial RPMs for those distros online. To compile MPD from source, start at the install page on the MPD Wiki and follow the instructions for General Installing From Source."
TreeLine: Outliner meets free-form database (Linux.com) Linux.com takes a look at the Treeline outliner. "TreeLine is a hybrid application that combines the features of a traditional outliner with a free-form database. As such, it offers a unique way to organize heterogeneous data, be it contact information, bookmarks, text snippets, bibliography, task lists, or something else. Moreover, using TreeLine's outlining capabilities you can easily group and manage the mixed data inside the database."
TurboLinux Wizpy Linux MP3 Player Ships in June (I4U News) I4U News looks at the Wizpy Linux MP3 player from TurboLinux. "Japanese company TurboLinux is ready to ship their Linux MP3 player Wizpy this month world-wide. You can already order it in Japan on Amazon.jp."
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