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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Federal Circuit Says Open Source License Conditions are Enforceable as Copyright Condition (New Media and Technology)The New Media & Technology weblog covers a new ruling in the model train case; it reaffirms that free software license terms are, in fact, license terms. "The central issue in the case is whether the conditions in the open source Artistic License limit the scope of the license (in which case a failure to comply with those conditions constitutes copyright infringement) or whether those conditions are in fact merely covenants, the breach of which gives rise only to a cause of action for damages.... The appeals court concluded that the Artistic License 'on its face ... creates conditions.' The court pointed to the literal language of the license, which expressly refers to 'conditions under which a Package may be copied,' and the use of traditional language to create conditions, i.e., the use of the term 'provided that,' which creates a condition under California law." (Via Groklaw).
Editor's Note: Open Source Is Not Going To Sue You (Linux Today)Because of the scary article about open source licensing, that we reported on last week, Linux Today editor Carla Schroder tracked down Stormy Peters to get her side. As one would guess, Peters did not think she had been quoted quite correctly. Schroder looks at the five steps Peters outlines without seeing anything too terrifying. "See anything radical here? Seems pretty common-sense to me, and a lot friendlier than having to install a licensing server to calculate how much you will be bled for eleventeen different types of server, user, CPU, per-node, per-host, per-seat, per-core, and so on licenses. Or having software that phones home to the mothership, and is always looking for excuses to not work. Not to mention giving a green light to the BSA (Business Software Alliance) to audit you at any time, at your expense, to make sure you aren't in compliance so they can whack you with massive fines."
Trade Shows and Conferences IBM To Linux Desktop Developers: 'Stop Copying Windows' (InformationWeek)InformationWeek covers the LinuxWorld keynote by IBM's Bob Sutor. "Bob Sutor, VP of open source and standards at IBM, told attendees of the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco, that what the open source community needs to make Linux popular as a desktop OS used by consumers and businesses are "some really good graphic designers." "Stop copying 2001 Windows. That's not where the usability action is," Sutor said during his afternoon keynote."
From Lego robots to hammers and nails, Linux gets embedded (Network World)Network World visited the "garage" at the LinuxWorld expo this week to look at various gadgets running Linux. Several different devices are highlighted including the Talking Book digital audio recorder, Linuxstamp and Tin Can Tools boards for embedded hobbyists (as well as developers), OpenMoko, and more. "The device, which will cost under $10 and is slated for production in mid-2009, is targeted at developing countries where aid workers must pass on critical and often life-saving information to local people who have no way of taking notes. The Talking Book provides a library of easily retrievable recordings on such topics as helping mothers recognize the symptoms of TB or explaining how best to treat dehydration in their children."
Outsider No More: Linux Critical In Many Data Centers (ChannelWeb)ChannelWeb reports on the increase of IT applications for Linux at LinuxWorld. "In a sign of how much Linux has become a core element in many corporate data centers, many of the new products making their debut at this week's LinuxWorld show focus on such critical IT operations as data integration, disaster recovery and security management. That's a marked change from the past when a new Linux-related product was measured more by its "cool factor" than its utility."
The best news Linux could ever receive: LinuxWorld's a bust (C|Net)C|Net's Charles Cooper reports from LinuxWorld. "The relatively sparse turnout reflects that change in perception. Some parts of the floor at San Francisco's cavernous Moscone convention center were so thinly populated that you could have run a pickup game of Frisbee football without risk of smacking into bystanders. Ubuntu's booth was the big exception to that generalization--and it was packing them in without needing to toss away any tchotchkes! Watching the scene from a less crowded vantage point, Cluster Resources President Michael Jackson found an inverse correlation between the dwindling number of people attending LinuxWorld and the spread of Linux into the mainstream."
Akademy 2008 - Day 1 (KDE.news)KDE.news has a report of the first day of Akademy the annual KDE desktop summit. Akademy is being held August 9-15 in Sint-Katelijne-Waver, Belgium. The report covers various talks from day one, including the keynote by Frank Karlitschek: "After this history lesson, Frank started to talk about our project - KDE. And our community. He argued our community should be what makes us special - after all, it's what drives us. If you look at the default KDE desktop - you can't help but wonder: where is the community? Why isn't there a 'KDE users nearby' Plasmoid? Could the agenda in Kontact be filled with local KDE and F/OSS related events? Brainstorming further, Frank talked about many other parts of KDE which could be improved to facilitate involvement from the community."
Akademy 2008 - Day 2 and the Akademy Awards (KDE.News)KDE.News covers day 2 at Akademy. "The NEPOMUK talk was given by Laura Josan, and she mentioned the recent improvements to NEPOMUK. Dolphin already had NEPOMUK integration, and Konqueror has followed, allowing you to tag and rate websites. Amarok and Gwenview also support NEPOMUK these days, and a KIO slave for NEPOMUK search has been implemented. This allows you to rate a music file in your file browser and see the changes in Amarok. Laura presented a compelling vision, talking about how Marble and Amarok could work with NEPOMUK to show artists from a certain area in the world using Last.FM information. If you want to know more about NEPOMUK and how to integrate it in your application, there is a website, a mailing list and an IRC channel: #nepomuk-kde."
Legal Linux patent pool to push for 'defensive publication' (Network World)Network World looks at a push from the Open Invention Network (OIN) to publish details of new and innovative techniques used in free software. The idea is to defensively publish the information so that patents will not be granted or can be invalidated. "In coming weeks, OIN will reveal more details of the site, which Bergelt described as 'a production environment where we educate and train people to do this. We'll work with them to make sure it's put in a form that is acceptable.'"
The Pitfalls of Open Source Litigation (InternetNews.com)InternetNews.com attended a free software licensing talk by Stormy Peters at LinuxWorld; the result is a scary article hyping the threat of being sued. "Enterprises have no clear guidelines as to what constitutes violation of open source licenses because most actions are settled out of court, Peters said. That 'leaves a lot of ambiguities about open source because a lot of things haven't been settled in court, so your attorneys can't give you definitive advice,' she added."
Interviews Interview: MarkMail Indexes KDE Mailinglist Archives (KDE.News)KDE.News features an interview with Jason Hunter. "Several weeks ago MarkMail, a project sponsored and run by Mark Logic, started indexing the KDE mailinglist archives. After about a week of hard work, the KDE archives are now directly searchable from MarkMail. Besides interesting analytics, this brings some powerful search capabilities to the table. Read on for a short interview with Jason Hunter who was responsible for engineering on the project."
Interview: Qt Comes to Mozilla and Firefox (KDE.News)KDE.News has an interview with Oleg Romaxa about porting Mozilla to Qt. "Developers from Nokia and Mozilla have been working hard to port the Mozilla Platform and Firefox to Qt and there are now some solid results available. An experimental build of Firefox Qt is available, and you can download the sources from Mozilla's mercurial repository. The plan is to merge the Qt branch into the central Mozilla branch to make the port official. KDE Dot News spoke to developer Oleg Romaxa from Nokia who came to Akademy 2008 from Finland."
IBM VP: Office OpenXML a dead end, Microsoft will back ODF (ars technica)Over at ars technica, they talk with Bob Sutor, IBM's vice president of open source and standards about document formats. Sutor sees OOXML, Microsoft's standard, as being on the decline in favor of ODF. "Sutor acknowledges that ODF lacks support for some of Office's functionality, but he is convinced that the gaps can be filled if Microsoft is willing to collaborate with OASIS and propose improvements to the format. His chief concern is that suspicion and distrust of Microsoft could undermine any collaboration, so he strongly encourages ODF advocates to keep an open mind and give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt if the company makes a bona fide effort to participate in the evolution of the standard."
Resources Building an Open Source Community (fossbazaar)Fossbazaar is carrying a set of suggestions for those who seek to jump-start a community project. "Get ready to relinquish control of 'your' product. The most successful communities form around things they can influence and drive. The more control you hand over, the more chance your community will form, and the more chance someone will come up with an idea you haven't thought of." (Thanks to Martin Michlmayr).
Reviews Linux Application Checker Brings Distro Help (Application Development Trends)Application Development Trends takes a look at the Linux Application Checker (AppChecker). The tool, which has been beta released by the Linux Foundation, tests application compatibility with various distributions. "According to Amanda McPherson, vice president of the Linux Foundation, AppChecker is not meant to give a 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' on a particular distro. Instead, it provides information needed to get the program running on each Linux version. Packages are checked against the Linux Standard Base (LSB) for each distro, and if the check is successful, developers are able to apply for LSB certification."
At last -- native apps for Motorola Linux phones (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices takes a look at Motorola's release of Eclipse-based development tools for mobile phone applications. "In addition to native Linux applications, Motorola's next-generation MotoMagx Linux platform will also bring the first support for Web 'widgets' to the platform. Written using common web standards such as xhtml and css, and rendered via an integrated webkit engine, the widgets can put frequently updated information directly onto the phone's background. Because of the low barriers to development (lots of folks know how to develop web apps), community interest in Widgets has run high, Wyatt said. However, widgets could also enable operators to deliver new services to phones in the field without the risk of a firmware upgrade."
Sun's FOSS VirtualBox hits the sweet spot for Linux (ITWire)ITWire reviews VirtualBox relative to VMWare and Xen. "VirtualBox was released in its 1.6.4 version just recently, on August 1st. It has the competition in sight and points out that it specifically will allow an unmodified operating system to run in its virtual machines. By contrast, Xen mandates the guest operating system be modified to suit. Where VirtualBox really comes into its own is that it is the only professional virtualisation solution that is freely available as open source software under the GNU General Public License (GPL.)"
Anyone can play guitar...or hack the Linux kernel (C|Net)Matt Asay covers the Linux Foundation's publication of a guide to Linux kernel development. "Well, perhaps not anyone, but navigating kernel development just got easier thanks to the Linux Foundation's publication of a guide to Linux kernel development. I don't think this means that I'm going to become the Linux kernel's top contributor anytime soon (unless, of course, they start accepting blog entries as code submissions), but it hopefully will make Linux kernel development easier to understand."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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