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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading MPAA’s University Toolkit hit with DMCA takedown notice after GPL violation (ars technica) Those stalwarts of copyright defense, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), were caught distributing Linux without the source code in violation of the GPL. In a bit of irony, Ubuntu technical board member Matthew Garret had to resort to a DMCA takedown notice to get the "University Toolkit" removed from the MPAA website. ars technica has the coverage. "Although the MPAA's failure to comply with copyright law in this case is a delicious irony, it won't permanently prevent distribution of the antipiracy software toolkit. Oster told Ars that the MPAA would make sure that it fully complied with the GPL, and that the software would be available once again in 'short order.'"
One Laptop Per Child orders surge (Boston.com) Boston.com looks at the current state of OLPC orders, noting that Peru has just signed up for 260,000 systems. "Robert Fadel, the foundation's director of finance and operations, said both programs are paying off. Since the Give One Get One program began Nov. 12, the foundation has received about $2 million in orders every day, he said. That works out to 190,000 laptops total, with at least half donated to children in developing countries. Fadel said many customers end up donating both the computers they buy."
Linux Adoption Could Linux Help Bring Both Koreas Together? (Information Week) Information Week reports that South and North Korea are teaming up to develop a version of Linux, tentatively named 'Hana Linux'. "People in South Korea speak of folks in North Korea more as lost brothers than bitter enemies. Over the years the two have made various rapprochements, but now it looks like North and South are teaming up on a whole new kind of joint project: a Korean-language Linux distribution."
Interviews An Interview with Toby Segaran (O'ReillyNet) O'Reilly features an interview with book author Toby Segaran. "Toby Segaran is the author of Programming Collective Intelligence. We recently spoke to him about his new book and why these kind of machine learning techniques are so important in the Web 2.0 era."
Interview with Brian Stevens (LinuxWorld) LinuxWorld has an interview with Brian Stevens, President of Engineering and CTO at Red Hat. "What else can we expect to see from new Red Hat offerings? Should we just watch Fedora or where else can we learn about new stuff coming down the pipe? Everything that we have under development is happening in public. I think that we stand unique in that and that the media and our customers are usually well aware of technology that's going to be coming from Red Hat long before we productize it. So, Fedora 8, just made available in the last week, had 54,000 downloads and installs that we can even measure in the first four days, a vibrant development community around next generation technology whether that be KVM or appliances or spins or network manager improvements. So, Fedora is absolutely the place to watch the OS evolve."
Resources A new GNOME Journal release The occasional GNOME Journal has put out a new issue. There are three articles: an interview with Cheese developer Daniel G. Siegel, a review of Foundations of GTK+ Development, and an interview concerning a library which switched to Linux. "Our requests for help/help desk tickets have dropped by 40% since the Windows NT days. Most customers sit at the machine and work away, requiring no help. Customers who are less comfortable on a computer have questions, but they are not Linux-based. Instead, 'How do I bold text?' or 'How do I add a page break?' The kind we'd get with any application."
Linux Gazette #145 is out! The December 2007 edition of Linux Gazette is out with articles on New Use for Old Hardware: Network RAID Backup, Linux on an ARM based Single Board Computer, Generating Postscript graphs using PyX, Review: User Interface Design for Mere Mortals, and more.
Overcome multimedia hurdles in Linux (Tech Republic) Jack Wallen discusses the playing of proprietary media types on Linux in a Tech Republic article. "Historically, Linux was unable to play files intended to only be playable with the Windows Media Player. However, with the help of codecs, Linux can play both audio and video files that were previously incompatible. Jack Wallen introduces the major players in the Linux multimedia party."
Reviews Review: Asus Eee PC (smh.com.au) The Sydney (Australia) Morning Herald reviews the Asus Eee laptop, which runs with a customized Xandros Linux distribution. "It does mean not being able to use your favourite Windows software but, fortunately, the Eee PC comes with dozens of programs, including the familiar Firefox web browser and Skype for online phone calls. Others on the roster cover email, instant messaging (for Windows Live, Yahoo and Google), playing music, video clips and organising your digital photos." (Thanks to Mark Tall)
Eaton announces UPS support for Ubuntu (Linux-Watch) Linux-Watch reports on a Ubuntu-compatible UPS product from Eaton. "What's important about this is that it shows Ubuntu is being taken seriously by IHVs. Peripheral builders do not go to the trouble of making software for a Linux distribution, much less going to the additional expense and time of getting certification, unless they believe consumers and businesses are going to be adopting it in large, that is to say, profitable, numbers. That is especially true in the small margin, small volume world of less common peripherals such as UPSs."
Nokia N810 review (ars technica) ars technica has posted an extensive review of the Nokia 810 tablet. "Although I'm relatively pleased with the software, I'm still not entirely sold on some of the hardware choices behind the N810. The value of built-in GPS support seems particularly questionable, especially when you add in the cost of the WayFarer software upgrade, which is required to actually use the GPS. One could probably buy an N800 and an external GPS unit with more features for less than the total cost of the N810 and the WayFarer software. The vast majority of users who want GPS functionality will only use it in a vehicle anyway, so is there really a compelling reason to integrate it into a handheld computer?"
RISC/DSP chip comes with Linux, targets HD video (LinuxDevices) LinuxDevices takes a look at Texas Instruments' DaVinci family chip. "Texas Instruments (TI) announced a new DaVinci family chip claimed capable of transcoding high-definition video at line rates. The TMS320DM6467 system-on-chip (SoC) weds a 297MHz ARM9 core with a 600MHz C64+ DSP, and is available with a development board and software stack based on MontaVista Linux."
Miscellaneous Open Document Format Can Evolve Without Foundation Input (eWeek) Peter Galli considers the future of the Open Document Format on eWeek. "The recent demise of the OpenDocument Foundation is not expected to have any impact whatsoever on the progress and adoption of the Open Document Format. While the Foundation's legacy is the subject of much debate, several commentators say its greatest contribution to the ODF movement was its enthusiastic early support for the document format, and little else."
What Not to Buy in 2007 (PC Magazine) PC Magazine has some helpful holiday shopping advice. "Don't buy: Linux. The world's cheapest operating system is the darling of every do-it-yourselfer and the potential bane of every cheapskate user. You'll save money and, I bet, lose your mind if you switch to Linux. Note to DIYers: This advice is intended for middle-of-the-road tech consumers. You, with the screwdriver in your hand, please feel free to download as many copies of Ubuntu as you want."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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