Linux in the news

Companies

IBM details Blue Gene supercomputer (News.com)

News.com looks at IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer. "IBM has begun building the chips that will be used in the first Blue Gene, a machine dubbed Blue Gene/L that will run Linux and have more than 65,000 computing nodes, said Bill Pulleyblank, director of IBM's Deep Computing Institute and the executive overseeing the project. Each node has a small chip with an unusually large number of functions crammed onto the single slice of silicon: two processors, four accompanying mathematical engines, 4MB of memory and communication systems for five separate networks."

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Composer to get another hearing (News.com)

News.com covers the resurrection of Mozilla's Composer. "Minutes from an April 28 Mozilla staff meeting where Glazman volunteered to take ownership--an open-source development term indicating authority over a project--indicated that Composer would live on as an extension to the new Mozilla browser rather than a standalone application."

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Oracle raises Red Flag Linux over China (ZDNet)

Oracle pushes "Unbreakable Linux" into China, according to this CNetAsia article. "The Oracle China Development Centre and Red Flag have completed certification of Oracle9i Database on the Red Flag Linux operating system, and are now working together on certification of the remainder of Oracle's complete product line on the new Red Flag Data Centre Linux operating system."

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Red Hat, Fujitsu sign partnership (News.com)

News.com covers a partnership agreement that will put Red Hat Linux on Fujitsu's Intel-based computers. "The companies will work to ensure Fujitsu's software and hardware works with the Red Hat Enterprise Linux product family. The agreement involves Fujitsu servers built on Intel Xeon or Itanium processors."

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Linux Adoption

Governments are latching on to Linux (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers Linux adoption in Asia. "In March, Japan, South Korea and China signaled their strong endorsement for open-source with the formation of an alliance to develop a Linux-based OS and related applications. The partnership is made up of IT Associations in the three countries and has received financial backing from Korean and Chinese authorities. One official from the China's Ministry of Information Industry also sits on the board of the new body, lending further weight the pro-Linux stance of the mainland."

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How One Microsoft User Made The Switch To Open Source (TechWeb)

This TechWeb article follows a once-loyal Microsoft user as he switches to open source. "Meanwhile, the open-source community was making products that were growing more stable by the day and at a fraction of the costs offered by Microsoft. Most of the products were running on Linux, using Apache as their Web server. By 2001-2002, they had grown mature enough to be considered enterprise-grade. I decided enough was enough, and it was time to move on over to the open-source world."

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Both sides come out swinging in the open source battle (ZDNet)

Here's an opinionated column on ZDNet about proprietary software companies and how they deal with free software. "Each of the 'open source' parasites is happy to ride on the backs of the millions of developers around the world who worked to create products like Linux, MySQL, and Apache but not nearly as willing to open up their own products to either help these same developers learn about their inner workings or help to enhance them. With all this lip service about openness, it seems that each of the companies playing in open source is basically in it to get a free operating system (Linux) or access to free application software (Apache or MySQL) that helps them sell their proprietary products without having to invest significant money for their own R&D."

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Legal

OpenForum Europe rejects Perens charges (Register)

The Register has an open letter from Graham Taylor, Director OpenForum Europe, clarifying OpenForum Europe's position on software patents. "OpenForum Europe's position is that a lack of clarity about the intent and purpose of software patents would be potentially even more damaging to the interests of European software developers. Our focus is to ensure that as much as possible is done to ensure that any patents are carefully granted and not used in anti-competitive ways; in particular they should not be used to prevent the development of Open Source alternatives to proprietary products. It is this respect that we are supporting the positive revisions proposed in Arlene McCarthy's opinion now being considered by the European Parliament for the granting of patents."

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Interviews

Interview with Eric Pouech

The Wine HQ has an interview with Eric Pouech. "This week's interview is with Eric Pouech. Eric hails from France and has been involved with Wine for a number of years. His involvement has centered around multimedia work, the wine console, and the debugger. Most of the questions below center on one of those areas."

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Interview: SCO's Chris Sontag (vnunet)

vnunet interviews Chris Sontag, the SCO vice president in charge of the whole "SCOSource" initiative. "Finally. Somebody raised a possible problem that you yourselves distribute the infringing code under the GPL licence. Do you see that as a problem from your point of view? No we do not, because you do not have an infringement issue when you are providing customers with products that have your intellectual property in them." But you may have a GPL issue. (Thanks to Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier).

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Resources

Linux Productivity Magazine - Volume 2 Issue 4 & Issue 5

Two issues of Linux Productivity Magazine are available, with a detailed look at securing your system. The April issue focuses on Tripwire. "Tripwire is an Open Source program created to monitor changes in a key subset of files identified by you, and report on any changes in any of those files. When changes are detected, you, as the sysadmin, can determine whether those changes occurred due to normal, permitted activity, or whether they where caused by a breakin. If the former, you can update the system baseline to the new files. If the latter, you can shut down and begin repair and forensic activities."

The May issue is devoted to IPTables. "IPTables is a firewall program. It can restrict access by port, by IP address, or by the properties of packets. Firewalls aren't everything you need for security, but they're an excellent first step."

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Reviews

Visit to a Strange Program (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal takes a walk on the silly side, with several fun programs that run on Linux. "The obvious approach is to showcase some of the marvelous tools used by talented open-source programmers to improve and enrich the Linux landscape. It is on that note that I would like to point out the following: sometimes, those talented programmers are simply playing, having a bit of fun. Sometimes, the programs they turn out are silly, bizarre and, occasionally, plain weird. Those are the people I wish to honor with today's menu."

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Database dichotomy (News.com)

News.com looks at competition in the database arena. "The wild card in the database market is the open-source alternative, MySQL, from a Swedish company of the same name. While MySQL handles relatively simple database applications, other open-source projects, such as the ObjectWeb consortium, are pushing advanced database features into the realm of free software. The combination of MySQL and ObjectWeb's clustering software might be good enough for buyers who otherwise would have bought from the big three database makers."

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Miscellaneous

Csound is now Open Source!

Csound, a C language software musical synthesis package that has been around since 1985, is now available under the GNU-LGPL license.

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Embedded Linux: Semantics and Reality (O'ReillyNet)

Karim Yaghmour writes about embedded Linux in this O'ReillyNet article. "Let's put it bluntly: embedded Linux doesn't exist. Embedded Linux is the stuff of glitzy announcements, hype, and other marketing mumbo jumbo. That is, at least, the conclusion I am forced to reach after having spent two years writing a book about the use of Linux in embedded systems, which is an entirely different subject. For had I written a book about "Embedded Linux," it would most certainly have been prime material for Marketing 101."

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