Linux in the news [LWN.net]

Donald Knuth: Mathematical Ideas, or Algorithms, Should Not Be Patented (Groklaw)

Groklaw reports that Donald Knuth is petitioning the EPO to disallow software patents. "Donald Knuth, distinguished computer scientist, recipient of the Turing Award, creator of the TeX computer typesetting system, and author of The Art of Computer Programming, which some call the Bible of computer programming, has submitted a letter to the European Patent Office for submission to the EPO's Enlarged Board of Appeal considering the question of software patents and whether they should be allowed in Europe. Here's his view: 'Basically I remain convinced that the patent policy most fair and most suitable for the world will regard mathematical ideas (such as algorithms) to be not subject to proprietary patent rights.'"

Comments (58 posted)

Its time for the community to take charge of its brand (freedom bits)

The Free Software Foundation Europe's George Greve blogs about free software branding. "There are a couple of beginners mistakes when thinking about Free Software in general and its commercial application, in particular. One is to believe there was a substantial difference in the software referred to by the terms Free Software and Open Source. There isnt. As far as the actual software is concerned, both terms are as synonymous as things get in real life, with experts debating about details around the fringes. The differences between the terms lie in framing and brand. From the perspective of brand management, Open Source is a failed re-branding effort over which its creators lost control, followed by brand degradation through abuse and over-extension into areas such as business and development models."

Comments (14 posted)

Unix turns 40 (ComputerWorld)

ComputerWorld looks forward to the 40th anniversary of the invention of Unix (which is in August). "A lot of others got hooked as well. University researchers adopted Unix in droves because it was relatively simple and easily modified, it was undemanding in its resource requirements, and the source code was essentially free. Startups like Sun Microsystems and a host of now-defunct companies that specialized in scientific computing, such as Multiflow Computer, made it their operating system of choice for the same reasons."

Comments (14 posted)

Trade Shows and Conferences

Moblin Linux boosters go global (The Register)

The Register takes a look at Moblin based devices at Computex. "Intel also released a list of OSVs (operating system vendors) who have committed to Moblin. The global gathering comes from Europe, the US, South America, and Asia, and includes the Asianux Consortium and its founding company Red Flag, Canonical, CS2C, Good OS, Linpus, Mandriva, MontaVista, Novell, Pixart, TurboLinux, and Xandros."

Comments (13 posted)

Companies

Intel to Acquire Wind River Systems

Intel has announced plans to acquire Wind River Systems Inc. "Intel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wind River Systems Inc, under which Intel will acquire all outstanding Wind River common stock for $11.50 per share in cash, or approximately $884 million in the aggregate. Wind River is a leading software vendor in embedded devices, and will become part of Intel's strategy to grow its processor and software presence outside the traditional PC and server market segments into embedded systems and mobile handheld devices."

Comments (12 posted)

SAP: Open Source's Friend or Foe? (Linux Journal)

Glyn Moody questions SAP's open-source motives in a Linux Journal article. "On the positive side, SAP has invested in many of the top open source companies, through its SAP Ventures arm. Well-known names it has backed include Alfresco, GroundWork, Intalio, JasperSoft and Zend; earlier investments included MySQL and even Red Hat. Just recently, it announced that it was increasing its participation in the Eclipse Foundation".

Comments (9 posted)

The USB Penguin: For the Linux Nerd in Your Life (I4U)

I4U reports on a new penguin-shaped USB memory stick. Partial proceeds of the sales go to the World Wildlife Fund. "Do you know someone who hates every commercial operating system with a passion that borders on the manic? Do they own a fleet of laptops, netbooks, and desktop PCs all loaded up with different Linux distros? If so, your holiday shopping just got a heck of a lot easier. Active Media Products just released the perfect gift for Linux nerds young and old."

Comments (none posted)

Reviews

Review: Acer Aspire One D150 and Linux (Montana Linux)

Scott Dowdle reviews the Acer Aspire One D150 netbook. "MontanaLinux [a Fedora remix] from LiveUSB worked great. The funky resolution of 1024x600 came up automatically and I didn't have to fuss with the wireless card at all, it just worked. I clicked on the "Install to Hard Drive" icon on the desktop and it let me install from the LiveUSB. USB2 is fast.. and even though I had to take the step of resizing the existing Windows setup to make room for Linux... the entire install took about 10 minutes."

Comments (1 posted)

CrunchPad Almost Ready for Prime Time (PCWorld)

PCWorld looks at the soon to be released TechCrunch CrunchPad web tablet. "There are no physical models of the product yet, but TechCrunch plans on having prototypes of the final device within the next few weeks. There isn't a lot of information on the device, but based on what we know the CrunchPad will have an Intel Atom chipset, two USB ports, a Webcam and microphone. The CrunchPad operating system is custom-built Linux software that boots directly into a Web browser based on the open source browser engine, WebKit."

Comments (none posted)

Red Hat's Fedora 11: So easy you'll forget it's Linux (CNet)

Matt Asay looks at Fedora 11 and the Linux desktop in general. "This is the state of "desktop" Linux today: it really has nothing left to prove. It took years to become user friendly, but it has arrived, helped along by the world's move to browser-based computing. At this point, the only thing that Fedora and the other Linux distributions can do is embrace and extend the Windows or Mac computing experience, because they've largely matched them (especially Windows)."

Comments (11 posted)

Judgement Day: Studio Dave Tests Ubuntu Studio 9.04 (Linux Journal)

Dave Phillips tests the latest version of Ubuntu Studio. "Performance-wise this system is now a beauty. Alas, the hoops I jumped through to get it into this condition were many and formidable. The solutions to my problems were not too difficult to find or implement, but they would be extremely challenging for users unfamiliar with the inner workings of Linux. In my opinion the Ubuntu Studio installer needs to go further in its preparation of the system for pro-audio needs, perhaps offering the user a choice between a high-performance desktop media playback system, a low-latency pro-audio production environment, or some stable mixture of both. The Pulseaudio problem ought to be easily resolvable by the user, and more system probing might be able to spot and resolve problems such as needless HAL polling."

Comments (none posted)

Miscellaneous

Rob Weir Exposes an Anti-ODF Whisper Campaign (Groklaw)

Groklaw looks into an anti-ODF campaign on Wikipedia. "Alex Brown, the convenor of the OOXML BRM, has been editing Wikipedia's article on ODF. That strikes me odd, like finding out Steve Jobs had been editing the Microsoft Zune page. Some things are simply inappropriate. It puzzles me why Wikipedia allows it, frankly. If you read the talk page on ODF, you'll see that there are others there trying mightily to spin the article on ODF more negatively than is factual."

Comments (4 posted)

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