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Linux in the news
Recommended Reading
Darl McBride doesn't understand Linux (NewsForge)
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller looks for insight in Darl McBride's resume, in this NewsForge article. "In any case, McBride is obviously no adamant Open Source booster. If anything, he's been so steeped in competition based on proprietary, patented, copyrighted, and trademarked products that I doubt he can think of any other way to do things."
Linux hacks hit all-time high (vnunet)
Vnunet reports an increase in the number of cracked Linux boxen. "Security analyst mi2g has released research claiming that hack attacks against Linux are exploding, while attacks on Windows-based servers are dropping off. May saw the highest number of attacks ever, according to mi2g, with 19,208 successful breaches worldwide recorded against Linux based systems."
Embedded Systems, Linux, and the Future (O'ReillyNet)
Here's an O'ReillyNet article looking at the future of embedded Linux systems. "Before anything useful is said about this market, one has to keep in mind that for a long time, 50 percent of embedded systems were running custom-made, in-house operating systems. That's an important figure, as many of the engineers deploying a "roll your own" OS are increasingly attracted to Linux. So beyond grabbing market share from established embedded OS vendors, Linux is also penetrating the "last frontier" of the embedded OS world."
Trade Shows and Conferences
CeBIT America 2003 show preview (NewsForge)
NewsForge takes a look at Linux and Open Source software offerings at CeBIT America 2003. "CeBIT's Linux/Open Source offerings are not huge, to be sure -- eight or nine sessions throughout the program, and a small number of booths (plus, presumably, some Linux/Open Source within other exhibitors). But on the other hand, there are fewer instances of "Microsoft" and "Windows" in the programs than one might expect."
Report from Brazil's Software Livre Forum 2003
KDE.News has this report by Helio Chissini de Castro of Conectiva, who recently gave a KDE speech at Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil. "First, a little explanation on what this conference represents to Brazil itself. Since the collapse of Comdex Brazil and Fenasoft, this conference has become the major computing conference in Brazil, and in the last two years has gained strong political backing, ever since Brazilian government made a serious turn towards Open Source Software."
Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies sponsors Open Source Conference (NewsForge)
Robin 'Roblimo' Miller prepares for a trip to the Caribbean for the first Free, Libre and Open Source (FLOS) Software Conference, sponsored by the Caribbean Centre for Monetary Studies (CCMS) and the Trinidad and Tobago Linux Users Group (TTLUG). "Interest in Open Source is accelerating at a fantastic rate in countries where the license fee for a single copy of the most-used proprietary operating system's server version exceeds a sysadmin's monthly earnings. Trinidad and Tobago (TnT) is one such country, even though unlike most Caribbean nations it has oil to export and, as a result, is financially healthier than most of its island neighbors."
Companies
Free Software Foundation probes Linksys (Register)
The Register covers accusations made in the Linux Kernel Mailing List that Linksys has Linux code in its proprietary software. "The Free Software Foundation says that the copyright issue is "under investigation" but it would appear that any action on this would be contingent on goodwill from Linksys, rather than legal repercussions; FSF isn't wealthy, and has little clout apart from the mind-share amongst a section of the developer community."
Ballmer targets Linux in annual memo (ComputerWorld)
ComputerWorld takes a peek at memo from Ballmer to all Microsoft employees. "The memo came on the heels of an annual retreat that Ballmer spent with other top Microsoft executives. Although the document covered several issues, ranging from innovation and product development to people and productivity, it clearly identified Linux and open-source as a growing threat to the company, requiring action at the highest level." (Thanks to Jay R. Ashworth)
SuSE: Ballmer gives Linux 'credibility' (ZDNet)
ZDNet talks with SuSE CEO Richard Seibt about Microsoft's Steve Ballmer. "Seibt also took issue with Ballmer's assessment, in his memo, that Linux has no "center of gravity" contributing to its ongoing development and improvement. "The people contributing to Linux are working for Oracle, IBM, SuSE, Daimler Chrysler," he said. He pointed out that Linux developers become influential in the community due to their programming abilities. "It is based on skill, knowledge and creativity," he said."
A Baby Database's Chance to Grow Up? (BusinessWeek)
BusinessWeek investigates the alliance between MySQL and SAP. "In this light, SAP's deal with MySQL is a natural. Under its terms, the German company will pass development of SAP DB to MySQL. The Swedish company then picks up commercial rights to SAP DB. Mickos plans to merge SAP DB's code with that of MySQL. And he hopes to incorporate heavy-duty computing features into MySQL's next release."
Contract illuminates Novell, SCO spat (News.com)
News.com got a copy of the 1995 contract between Novell and SCO. "According to a copy of the contract obtained by CNET News.com, Novell sold 'all rights and ownership of Unix and UnixWare' to the SCO Group's predecessor, the Santa Cruz Operation. However, the asset purchase agreement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically excludes 'all copyrights' and 'all patents' from the purchase."
Lessons from the SCO/IBM Dispute (Freedom To Tinker)
Here is Ed Felten's take on the whole SCO thing. "More likely, though, the fact that SCO's story involves their code ending up in an open-source IBM product, rather than a closed-source one, is just a red herring. IBM would have had just as large an incentive to copy code into a closed-source product, and doing so would have reduced the chance of getting caught. Nobody has offered a plausible reason why the open-source nature of the end product matters."
SCO might recycle ATT's Unix blunder (Inquirer)
The Inquirer looks into the allegations that SCO used Linux kernel code to implement its "Linux Kernel Personality" in UnixWare. "But the bottom line is that SCO seems to have made the same mistake that AT&T made long ago, that is, copying 'free' source code into its product and stripping away the copyrights. That loose practice is precisely what spannered the Unix Systems Labs (USL) lawsuit against BSD Unix, about a decade ago."
SCO shows Linux code to analysts (InfoWorld)
InfoWorld reports on SCO's NDA code show. "Specifically, SCO claims that IBM's 1985 Unix license, originally signed with AT&T but subsequently transferred to SCO, prevents IBM from distributing software derived from the Unix code base. IBM's contributions to Linux in the areas of non-uniform memory architecture (NUMA), symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), and a journaling file system all constitute breaches of that contract, [SCOsource manager Chris] Sontag said." (Thanks to Peter Link and Ulrich Kunitz).
Sun: Linux Users Don't Actually Want Linux (TechWeb)
TechWeb is covering a talk by a Sun executive which, perhaps, sheds a bit more light on that company's view of Linux. "'Why do we think enthusiasm for Linux exists in the first place?' said Robert Youngjohns, executive vice president for global sales operations for Sun, speaking at the Bear Stearns 14th Annual Technology Conference here on Tuesday. 'The enthusiasm isn't about Linux, it's about access to Intel and the ability to run Unix on what seems to be a cheaper platform.' But, while the platform is cheaper, Linux brings with it its own costs, including fragmentation of the operating system into multiple distributions, and cost of supporting the systems, Youngjohns said."
Linux Adoption
Merrill Lynch: Linux will save millions (ZDNet)
ZDNet reports on an internal study at Merrill Lynch (a large U.S. brokerage firm) showing that large amounts of money could be saved by moving over to Linux. "In fact, [Merrill VP Mark] Snodgrass found that, while the software licensing costs of Windows was higher than Linux, the highest cost was in managing traditional Windows infrastructure."
Linux Goes Ka-Ching (eWeek)
eWeek covers Linux adoption in retail businesses. "Retailers of all sizes are investigating the use of Linux on POS, or point-of-sale, systems to provide some flexibility in their software deployments and lower operating costs by avoiding licensing fees. Cost savings is crucial in the world of retail, where life is lived on razor-thin margins." (Thanks to Ashwin N)
Linux Access in State and Local Government, Part I (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal takes a look at open source in government. "Depending on your worldview, we could say the Open Source community made important strides or failed miserably in the past year. Regardless, we gained extensive knowledge of our situation in state and local government. This discussion covers specifics of our overall findings."
Interviews
Interview with Michael Hudson (EuroPython)
EuroPython presents the second in a series of interviews with some of the EuroPython speakers. This interview with Michael Hudson looks at what to expect from the Python Language Track, PyPy and other topics. "PyPy is an attempt to implement Python in Python, which is an idea that appeared from time to time. The current project apparently emerged from a discussion on the German Python list, particularly between Christian Tismer and Holger Krekel -- both of whom I met at EuroPython last year."
Reviews
GNOME 2: A Year Later (OSNews)
OSNews reviews GNOME 2.2.1. "The absolutely great thing about the HIG on Gnome is that it has won the hearts of all its maintainers, so when people are suggesting applications to become part of the main distribution of Gnome, they are instructed to HIG-ify their applications. It is absolutely imperative that developers read, understand and comply with the HIG as it is for the good of the platform in the long run. I like that."
Nukes: the Open Source Java CMS (O'ReillyNet)
O'ReillyNet looks at Nukes, an open source Java content management system based on PHP's PostNuke. "Because we mostly steal concepts from PostNuke, skip this section if you are already familiar with that PHP framework. PostNuke is based on a lightweight component model. In JBoss, we leverage the JMX packaging and microkernel approach to provide a truly dynamic environment for Nukes. Like PostNuke, we have three different components: modules, blocks, and themes."
The handheld that will make you like Linux (ZDNet)
ZDNet reviews the Zaurus SL-5600. "As I said, I'm not a geek. But I have associates who are. One is a programmer, and he loves his Zaurus. He claims he uses it less like a handheld and more like a little Linux desktop. He can program it. He can program with it. And therein lies the reason that the Zaurus also deserves serious consideration from business users. Because the Zaurus uses Linux, companies can adapt their enterprise-level apps to work, if not on it, then with it. While nobody would actually want to do so in real life, Sharp has run the Linux-based Apache Web server and mySQL on the Zaurus, just to prove that it can be done."
Miscellaneous
Bell tolling for PNG graphics format? (News.com)
News.com predicts the future of the png image format as the gif format's LZW compression patent expires. "A patent underlying one of the Web's most popular graphics formats is set to expire later this month, raising the question of whether a rival, open format, created as a royalty-free alternative, will become obsolete."
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