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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Open Document Foundation closes up shop (Linux-Watch) At Linux-Watch, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols has a wrap-up of the rather bizarre Open Document Foundation tale. The Foundation came about to promote Open Document Format, but gradually became disenchanted with it, eventually switching to a W3C format on its way to shutting down. The article quotes from Andy Updegrove, ODF supporter and standards process watcher: "'What I think that Gary, Sam and Marbux are missing is that standards are, by definition, consensus tools. No one has to adopt them, so they have to work well enough for enough people that enough vendors actually implement them. Gary and company didn't get what they wanted, and decided to back another standard instead. There's nothing inappropriate about that, but there is something very unrealistic, as I doubt anyone sees CDF the way they do. Standards are one string that you can't push, unless you've got monopoly power--and needless to say, that they don't have.'"
Can a small business afford not to run Linux? (iTWire) Stan Beer of iTWire offers a counterpoint to the plethora of "Why Linux won't make it on the desktop" articles. He looks at small business owner complaints as well as his own experiences trying to get reasonable performance from Windows. "'As a small business owner I can afford the cost of Microsoft, I just can't afford the time anymore. I've had the host running QB go down, get new hardware installed, only to not be able to 'activate' Windows. Can't run a business that way! I don't mind paying for Windows, I just can't have it prevent me from doing my business. I'm switching everything to SuSE Linux. I'm pushing all my clients that way too!'"
Trade Shows and Conferences Report: KDE at The Italian Linux Day 2007 in Rome (KDE.News) KDE.News has a report from KDE Italia on the Italian Linux Day. "For the people that have never attended to these kind of events, it is important to remember that the Italian Linux Day is a day dedicated to spreading Free and Open Source Software and specially the GNU/Linux Operating System and its software components such as KDE. The talks for the day were at different levels of difficulty and you could find widely accessible talks or talks for an expert audience with more technical and specific topics."
The SCO Problem SCO found guilty of lying about Unix code in Linux in Germany (Linux-Watch) Linux-Watch reports that SCO Group GmbH, SCO's Germany branch has been found guilty of lying about Linux containing stolen Unix code. "In the first case, reported on by Heise Online, the pro-Linux German companies, Tarent GmbH and Univention found that SCO was once more making claims that Linux contained Unix IP (intellectual property). Specifically, SCO GmbH made the familiar claims that "As we have progressed in our discovery related to this action, SCO has found compelling evidence that the Linux operating system contains unauthorized SCO UNIX intellectual property (IP)." This was followed by the usual threat "If a customer refuses to compensate SCO for its UNIX intellectual property found in Linux by purchasing a license, then SCO may consider litigation.""
Companies Dalvik: how Google routed around Sun's IP-based licensing restrictions on Java ME (Betaversion) The Betaversion blog has an interesting discussion on Dalvik, the not-a-Java-VM which will run on Google's Android platform. "So, Android uses the syntax of the Java platform (the Java 'language', if you wish, which is enough to make java programmers feel at home and IDEs to support the editing smoothly) and the java SE class library but not the Java bytecode or the Java virtual machine to execute it on the phone (and, note, Android's implementation of the Java SE class library is, indeed, Apache Harmony's!)"
Red Hat and Amazon make RHEL available online (Linux-Watch) Linux-Watch reports on Red Hat's release of a beta version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux that supports Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). "EC2 is a Web service that provides resizable server capacity in the cloud. This collaboration makes all the capabilities of RHEL 5.1, including the Red Hat Network management service, technical support and over 3,400 certified applications, available to customers on Amazon's network infrastructure and data centers. Together, RHEL and Amazon EC2 enable customers to pay only for the infrastructure software services and capacity that they actually use. RHEL on Amazon EC2 enables customers to increase or decrease capacity within minutes, removing the need to over-buy software and hardware capacity as a set of resources to handle periodic spikes in demand."
Red Hat announces ISV appliance platform (Linux-Watch) Linux-Watch covers Red Hat's announcement of a new appliance version Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1: Red Hat Appliance Operating System. "With RHAOS, and its associated SDK (software developer kit), ISVs will be able to minimize their development and support costs by writing once for RHEL and then being able to run the application on any physical, virtual, appliance or cloud version of RHEL. The company claims that this will allow applications that are certified on RHEL to be deployed as software appliances on the broadest range of servers in the industry. With RHAOS as a virtual machine, these RHEL-certified applications will also be able to run on VMware ESX and Microsoft Windows Viridian platforms."
Fedora 8 sees strong adoption in first week (Ars Technica) Ars Technica reports that Fedora 8 is off to strong start. "The latest version of Fedora--codenamed Werewolf--was released last week. According to statistics released this morning by Red Hat, Fedora 8 has been already been installed over 54,000 times in only four days."
Linux at Work Nigeria Favors Mandriva Over Microsoft Once More (PCWorld) PCWorld reports that Nigeria now plans to keep Mandriva on its Classmate PCs. "Now, however, a government agency funding 11,000 of the PCs has overruled the supplier: Nigeria's Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF) wants to keep Mandriva Linux on the Classmate PCs, said an official who identified himself as the program manager for USPF's Classmate PCs project. "We are sticking with that platform," said the official, who would not give his name."
Interviews Interview with Linux-VServer Project Leader (MontanaLinux.org) Scott Dowdle talks with Linux-VServer project leader Herbert Pötzl (Bertl). "ML: How long have you been working on Linux-VServer and how did you get started? Bertl: I started as an simple user back when the project was called 'Linux Security Contexts', maintained by Jacques Gelinas. Everything back then was very rough and edgy, many possible exploits, no resource management, no SMP support. But I liked the idea of the Project and soon I had a bunch of patches sitting on my desk, improving this behavior or adding that feature."
10+1 Questions on Innovation to Bjarne Stroustrup (ODBMS Industry Watch) Roberto V. Zicari asks Bjarne Stroustrup some questions about innovation. "One of the main driving force which influenced the introduction of new generation database systems, such as ODBMS, was Object Oriented Programming (OOP). C++ is notably one of the most important. I had the pleasure to interview Bjarne Stroustrup who invented C++."
Resources Introduction to Amazon S3 with Java and REST (O'ReillyNet) O'Reilly has published an introduction to S3. "S3 is a file storage and serving service offered by Amazon. In this article, Eric Heuveneers demonstrates how to use Amazon S3 via its simple REST API to store and serve your own documents, potentially offloading bandwidth from your own application."
Reviews Google Calling: Inside Android, the gPhone SDK (O'ReillyNet) Brian DeLacey has an in-depth look at the newly released Android SDK, over at O'ReillyNet. He looks at the Open Handset Alliance, the SDK itself, application development for the platform, and the $10 million Developer Challenge. "Consistent with the design goal of making the platform as open as possible, all Android code is being released under the Apache license. Anyone who wants to can extend, modify, or enhance the platform. (One adoption-accelerating consequence of using the Apache license is that handset manufacturers can write their own device-level drivers or make other customizations without being forced to release this intellectual property to competitors. In addition, third party developers can extend the object oriented user interface and add in their own suite of applications without running the risk of license infractions.)"
Low-cost board runs Linux, Google Apps (LinuxDevices) LinuxDevices reviews an inexpensive Linux-compatible motherboard from Everex. "For $60, developers and Linux hackers can now buy the guts of the recently unveiled $200 Everex TC2502 Linux PC. The compact, ultra-efficient, x86-compatible "gOS Dev Board" comes with "gOS," a lightweight Linux-based OS meant for use with Google Apps. The gOS operating system was initially created for use in Everex's TC2502, a $200 Linux-based PC available for $200 at Walmart.com and at select Walmart locations. The gOS Developer Board product lets developers and Linux hackers buy just the TC2502's motherboard, along with a CD of the gOS distribution."
Miscellaneous Top-10 gift ideas for the Linux Gadget Geek (LinuxDevices) There are rumors of a gift-giving holiday in the not-too-distant future, so LinuxDevices has a list of Linux gadgets that might fit someone on your list. "Got a Linux Gadget Geek on your shopping list? You can't fail with a gift from this guide to the ten hottest Linux-powered devices gleaned from LinuxDevices.com's news throughout 2007. There's something for everyone, at prices from $150 to $1,000, organized from least to most expensive."
CCHIT begins next phase of EHR testing: LAIKA (LinuxMedNews) LinuxMedNews reports on the CCHIT testing of LAIKA. "The Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology has entered into the next phase of building software capable of testing the Interoperability capabilities of electronic health record systems, officials reported today. CCHIT is collaborating with the MITRE Corp. on an open source, software-testing framework called, LAIKA, which will make it possible for vendors to test and verify whether their products meet CCHIT certification."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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