Linux in the news [LWN.net]

The Non-Revocable GPL (Groklaw)

Groklaw has the scoop on the revocability of the GPL. Someone out there has been claiming that they are revoking the GPL for code that has already been released. "If you change your mind and don't want to use the GPL any more, you can stop and use something else on new code going forward, and you can dual license your own code, but you can't redo the past and pull back GPL'd code. That's one of the beauties of the GPL, actually, that even if some individual gets a bug up his nose, or dies and his copyright is inherited by his wife who doesn't care about the GPL and wants to take it proprietary, or just to imagine for a moment, a Megacorp were to buy off a GPL programmer and get him to pretend to revoke the GPL with threats, and even if it were to initiate a SCO-like bogo-lawsuit, it doesn't matter ultimately as to what you can and can't do with the GPL."

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Companies

Barracuda turns to open source users for patent research (LinuxWorld)

LinuxWorld takes a look at Barracuda Networks, and its patent concerns. "Barracuda Networks CEO Dean Drako says his company won't license a virus scanning patent from Trend Micro, and he's going to users to help build Barracuda's case file of prior art—previous software products and documentation that could help invalidate the patent in court. Barracuda is launching a new section of its web site, "Legal Defense of Free and Open Source Software", to document the patent case and the company's prior art research."

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The Complex Crux Of Wireless Warfare (washingtonpost.com)

The Washington Post reports on Boeing's development of a Linux-based combat system. "Future Combat Systems, or FCS, is a roughly $200 billion weapons program that military officials consider the most thorough modernization of the Army since World War II. It all depends on the software, under development by the Army's battalion of contractors, led by Boeing. The software is intended to do what military commanders have until now only dreamed about: give soldiers the power to communicate through a wireless network in near real time with hovering drones; remotely control robots to defuse bombs; fire laser-guided missiles at enemies on the move; and conduct a video teleconference in a tank rumbling about 40 mph in the haze of battle." (Thanks to Philip Webb).

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More Linux-based laptops from Dell (vnunet)

Vnunet reports that Dell is extending sales of computers with Ubuntu preloaded. "Customers in the UK, Germany, France and Spain can purchase pre-loaded versions of Ubuntu Linux 7.10 with built-in DVD playback on the Dell XPS 1330n, in addition to the previously-released Inspiron 530n desktop system, according to an official Dell blog."

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Linux Adoption

23,000 Linux PCs forge education revolution in Philippines (ComputerWorld)

ComputerWorld reports on Linux PCs for high-school students in the Philippines. "Providing high school students with PCs is seen as a first step to preparing them for a technology-literate future, but in the Philippines many schools cannot afford to provide computing facilities so after a successful deployment of 13,000 Fedora Linux systems from a government grant, plans are underway to roll out another 10,000 based on Ubuntu."

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Five reasons not to fear a $200 Linux PC (News.com)

News.com covers the recent availability of $200 Linux PCs. "Linux is not just for computer whizzes. In fact, buying Linux and learning how to use it are easier than ever, thanks to the open-source operating system's expanding presence in affordable computers and mainstream retail outlets. In quick succession, the number of mass-market, sub-$200 desktops has tripled--from one to three--in less than three months. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, small form-factor PC maker Shuttle debuted its $199 KPC. The catch? It's not preloaded with Windows, but an operating system based on Linux."

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Interviews

Beating Colossus: an interview with Joachim Schueth

The NetBSD Project has an interview with Joachim Schueth. "Joachim Schueth has beaten a reconstruction of the famous Colossus Mark II code breaking machine in November 2007. The Colossus computers were used in World War II to break the German encrypted messages. Equipped with a NetBSD-powered laptop and profound knowledge of cryptography and the Ada programming language, Schueth has won the code-cracking challenge. We talked with him about the historical and technical backgrounds of the Cipher Event and the tools he has used."

Comments (10 posted)

Reviews

openSUSE Build Service now supports Red Hat and CentOS (Linux-Watch)

Linux-Watch looks at the openSUSE build service. "The build service enables developers to build programs for different hardware platforms without a "compiler farm" of different hardware. It also provides automatic resolving of dependencies to other packages. If a program depends on another package, say a KDE application on a Trolltech Qt library, the KDE application will be rebuilt automatically if its Qt library is changed and rebuilt. This, in turn, takes much of the donkey work out of building applications for Linux."

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Toybox: Light-weight Linux box very useful (Computerworld NZ)

Computerworld NZ reviews the Asus EEE 701 PC. "I really like this little Linux-based machine, and I would find it very useful in my everyday life for checking email, updating Computerworlds website and subediting stories from home, and writing quick stories from out in the field. But, sure, the keyboard is not designed for longer stints of typing. Weighing less than a kilogram, the Eee 701 is so small and light it fits in my small-to-medium-sized handbag, and that is a definitive plus. The machine features a 4GB solid-state drive, 512MB of memory and an Intel mobile processor. Storage can be expanded by using the SD card slot."

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