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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading A Brief History of Sun by Groklaw's grouch (Groklaw)A Groklaw reader named grouch has compiled a brief history of Sun. "I think Sun is not the same as it was 5 years ago, or even 3 years ago. How long has it been since Schwartz blogged about Red Hat being "proprietary"? Even RMS got tired of all the noise Sun made about setting Java free, someday, but then Sun actually did it. That was shockingly different."
Readers' Choice Awards 2008 (Linux Journal)Linux Journal has announced the results of its Readers' Choice Awards. "In this year's competition, we designated only one winner per category, with strong contenders receiving honorable mention awards. For instance, in the categories where a cluster of formidable contenders followed the outright winner, we designated up to three honorable mentions. However, if one product clearly dominated a category (for example, OpenOffice.org with 85% in Favorite Office Program or Apache with 92% in Favorite Web Server), and the contenders were barely on the radar, there were no honorable mentions."
Trade Shows and Conferences Linuxfest Northwest 2008 reportScott Dowdle has written a report on the recent Linuxfest Northwest. "For those unfamiliar with the Linuxfest Northwest, it is an annual, two-day event held at Bellingham Technical College in Bellingham, Washington on the last weekend in April. It has become a hub of Linux activity in the Northwest with several of the Washington area Linux Users Groups supporting it. Visitors seem to come from all over the country especially those places that don't have a Linux conference anywhere near them. I also attended the LFNW last year so a bit of this review compares this year with last."
Linux Fest Northwest 2008Jesse Keating has a report from Linux Fest Northwest. "In Bellingham we arrive, somewhat late at night. Driving through the downtown area we spot a large banner hanging across the street advertising the Fest. Times have certainly changed. It's certainly fun to see the influx of geeks mesh with the biker bars and the college crowd. At the hotel you can tell it's fest time. Lobby filled with geeks: laptops, ham radios, smarmy t-shirts abound; excited conversations about kernels and desktops, and rpms, and debs, and who's going to win Alpha Geek this year. Snickering comments about whether or not the hotel wireless will withstand the abuse a hotel full of Linux geeks can throw at it, and a bemused rueful grin is the only answer one gets from the hotel staff (turns out that the hotel internet is pretty unusable by the time we arrive, but there is open wireless somewhere near that still works!)."
The SCO Problem Deluded SCO CEO on witness stand: "Linux is a copy of UNIX" (ars technica)ars technica covers the latest news from the Novell/SCO trial. "McBride said that SCO holds the rights to UNIX and that "many Linux contributors were originally UNIX developers." Specifically, he said, "We have evidence System V is in Linux,"—directly contradicting what Sontag had previously testified. Due to the witness exclusion rule invoked by both parties, McBride was not present during Sontag's testimony and wasn't aware of what had been said. McBride's claims also directly contradict internal SCO memos from 2002, which reveal that the company's own extensive source code audits had uncovered no UNIX code in Linux."
Companies Windows-based EeePC cheaper than Linux one (APCMag)Here's an APC Magazine article which proclaims that the Windows-based EeePC 900 will cost less than the Linux version - though the fine print notes that the Linux-based system comes with more storage. "APC played briefly with the machines on show at the launch. The XP version of the Eee boots quite speedily for a Windows box, but is still notably slower than its Linux counterpart. Even Asus' press release promoting the product acknowledges that the Linux machine is faster to get started. 'It provides a fast boot-up time, ideal for quick internet access while waiting for public transport or taking notes on-the-go,' it breathlessly proclaims."
Dell to sell in Officeworks, but no Linux PCs, thank you (APC)APC reports that Dell will only be selling PCs loaded with Microsoft Vista through Officeworks in Australia. ""At this stage it's Vista only," Evan Williams, general manager for consumer sales and marketing at Dell South Asia, said during a telephone briefing on the plans. "We'll evaluate on the XP side." (For its recent revision of its Vestron small business line, Dell is allowing customers to downgrade their licence and purchase a machine with Windows XP already installed.) Nor is Dell planning to extend its Inspiron notebook line featuring Ubuntu rather than Windows, which has been successful in the US and Europe, into Australia." (Thanks to Dan Warne).
Interviews Interview with the Ekiga developers (Free Software Magazine)Free Software Magazine interviews five members of the Ekiga development team. Ekiga is a Voice-over-IP application—and more—as the interview shows. "Matthias Schneider: Actually, Ekiga is not only Voice over IP software, it is also Video over IP software and the beautiful thing is that this additional capability is transparent to the user. When making a call, no thought needs to be given on how you want to communicate with your peers. You only need to dial a phone number or enter a sip address, Ekiga then takes care of negotiating capabilities at the other end. That means when calling a normal phone line it will be a a voice-only call, but if calling another softphone or even a hardphone that has video capabilities, video will be activated automatically (if the user has enabled this function)." (Thanks to Ian Ward).
Resources Linux Gazette #150 is out!Linux Gazette #150, for May 2008, is out. Articles include Deividson on Databases: Stored Procedures, Knoppix 5.3.1, Virtualizing without Virtualizing, Lockpicking and much more.
Reviews Rugged PDA available with Linux (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices covers a Linux port to a PDA. "A value-added reseller of mobile computers and PDAs has ported Linux to a ruggedized, "military-grade" PDA. SDG Systems is offering the "Nomad" from Tripod Data Systems (TDS) pre-installed with Angstrom Linux and Qtopia PDA Edition, and bundled with a toolsuite and build environment based on OpenEmbedded."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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