Linux in the news

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DRM Is Theft: New Yorkers for Fair Use Go to Washington (Linux Journal)

Linux Joural has an article by Ruben I Safir, President of New York Linux Scene, as he and others took political action at the Department of Commerce, which was holding its second Digital Rights Management (DRM) Workshop. "Once the decision was made to go ahead with the plan, several goals were agreed upon by the NY for Fair Use management, including Seth, cofounder Brett Wynkoop, Jay Sulzberger, our general public relations manager, and myself. NYLXS also geared into action by providing network services and funding for the trip. NYLXS members, as usual, sprang into action in support of the NY Fair Use activity. In particular, Micheal Richardson, the NYLXS Membership Chairman and Journal Editor, designed buttons and helped drive everyone down to Washington. Kevin Mark contributed to the PR material, Vinnie alerted as much of the press as possible and Joe Maffia offered technical support. Even with large numbers of NYLXS on vacation, the organization worked admirably according to its charter, to support and educate the public about issues that affect Free Software in business, education and the home."

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Analysis: Case of the [c]ompressed image- II (Newsalert)

The mainstream press looks at a number of intellectual property issues. "But the inane expansion of intellectual property rights may merely be a final spasm, threatened by the ubiquity of the Internet as they are. Free scholarly online publications nibble at the heels of their pricey and anticompetitive offline counterparts. Electronic publishing poses a threat -- however distant -- to print publishing. Napster-like peer-to-peer networks undermine the foundations of the music and film industries. Open source software is encroaching on the turf of proprietary applications. It is very easy and cheap to publish and distribute content on the Internet; the barriers to entry are virtually nil."

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ACLU lawsuit targets copyright law (News.com)

News.com covers the new suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union. "The suit asks a federal judge to rule that the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is so sweeping that it unconstitutionally interferes with researchers' ability to evaluate the effectiveness of Internet filtering software. By suing on behalf of a 22-year-old programmer who's researching the oft-buggy products, the civil liberties group hopes to prompt the first ruling that would curtail the DMCA's wide reach."

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San Jose Mercury News, Calif., Dan Gillmor Column

The San Jose Mercury News features an editorial by Dan Gillmor on the Peer to Peer Privacy Prevention Act. "If you or I asked Congress for permission to legally hack other people's computers, we'd be laughed off Capitol Hill. Then we'd be investigated by the FBI and every other agency concerned with criminal violations of privacy and security."

"Then again, you and I aren't part of the movie and music business. We aren't as powerful as an industry that knows no bounds in its paranoia and greed, a cartel that boasts enough money and public-relations talent to turn Congress into a marionette."

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Microsoft's Big Stick in Peru (Wired)

Wired looks at the latest developments with Peru's proposed free software law. "Wired News has obtained a copy of a letter sent by U.S. Ambassador John Hamilton to the president of the Peruvian Congress, expressing his dismay at the proposed legislation."

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Companies

Cisco's Linux project a marriage of gluttonous execs (Register)

The Register examines possible corporate trouble within router company Cisco. "According to employees, Grennan and Company (i.e., numerous other Borg engineers on leave) enjoyed office space, work space and phones at Cisco's expense during the project. Were their Cisco options still vested, people wonder? Couldn't the company have done this in the traditional in-house manner and saved a bundle? One employee remarked that the project could have been done by ten people in a year for $10 million. The whole thing stinks of favoritism, especially as, according to several Borg drones, the Linux angle was already being pursued in-house."

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IBM to offer software for new AMD chip (News.com)

News.com looks at the latest news from IBM and AMD. "IBM will offer a new flavor of its DB2 version 8 for Linux operating systems that will allow companies to run the database software on multiprocessor Opteron servers in the future."

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IBM to keep AIX releases rolling (Register)

The Register covers the next release of IBM's AIX operating system. "There has been some talk about IBM executives wringing their hands about what to do with AIX, and some have even been suggesting that IBM might be thinking about dropping AIX and focusing solely on Linux. This is hogwash. What IBM is working is a Power-based platform that uses a variant of OS/400 logical partitioning technology to create a line of servers that can support AIX, Linux, or OS/400 equally well within its partitions or as a standalone operating system on those Power machines."

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IBM and Linux our biggest threats - Microsoft (Register)

The Register reports on comments made by Microsoft executives regarding the threat of Linux and IBM. "Paul Flessner, senior vice president .NET enterprise servers, called IBM and Linux a "formidable" challenge. "It's not just IBM alone, it's not just Linux alone," he said.

This interesting point was also mentioned: "We need to build a vibrant and healthy developer community. That's the lesson Linux has taught us. Having people to help. Knowing where to get questions answered," Rudder said.

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Opera releases new browser (Composer) for Linux (News.com)

Here's an article from News.com on Opera's new browser composer application for Linux. "Norwegian Software maker Opera Software released the second edition of its Composer browser-customization application for the Linux operating system and expanded its sales referral program to include Linux."

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Real embraces open-source Ogg Vorbis (ZDNet)

ZDNet writes about RealNetworks' incorporation of the Ogg Vorbis audio compression CODEC in the Helix DNA client software. ""The fact that the user will almost automatically get Ogg on their desktop means that there is a patent-free and royalty-free audio format that everyone can play on every computer," said Bruce Perens, co-founder of the Open Source Initiative. "This means that MP3 may become a little less popular over the long term because there are patent issues on MP3.""

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Red Hat waxes optimistic (News-Observer)

The (Raleigh) News & Observer reports from the Red Hat shareholders' meeting. "But at the company's third annual gathering, held Thursday at the Linux company's headquarters in Raleigh, corporate officials were finally able to talk about a stock price that finished the past 12 months above where it started, customers with real name recognition, and mainstream software and hardware partners."

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Veritas expands Linux software line (News.com)

News.com covers announcements from Veritas as the company expands its Linux software line. ""We view Linux as a strategic platform with immense growth opportunity," Veritas Chief Executive Gary Bloom said in a statement. The support comes through Red Hat's Advanced Server version of Linux running on Intel-based servers from HP, IBM and Dell. Partnerships with high-end software companies is a central part of Red Hat's Advanced Server plan."

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Business

Will Real feast where Apple failed? (News.com)

News.com compares RealNetworks to Apple in open source offerings. "The track record of open source in reviving flagging corporate software products is not encouraging. Mozilla in four years has failed to stem the tide away from Netscape, and Sun Microsystems hasn't dented Microsoft's dominance with its open-source version of StarOffice."

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Chinese developers place confidence in open source (ZDNet)

ZDNet reports on the shift of Chinese software developers toward open-source. "One of the world's first surveys of Chinese application developers has provided data supporting indications that the country's infant software industry is turning to open source solutions."

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Interviews

An Interview with Joshua Drake: Coauthor of Practical PostgreSQL (O'Reilly)

O'Reilly has an interview with Joshua Drake on the future of PostgreSQL. "Recently, Jonathan Gennick sat down with the coauthor of Practical PostgreSQL to talk about the future of this open source database. In this in-depth interview, Joshua Drake, who is also the cofounder of Command Prompt, and a project leader for Mammoth PostgreSQL, touches on everything from a Mac OS X distribution of PostgreSQL to LXP, the XML application server that runs as an Apache module to XML support in PostgreSQL."

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Resources

LinuxDevices.com Embedded Linux Newsletter for July 25, 2002

LinuxDevices.com has published its weekly Embedded Linux Newsletter, with all the latest news and info from the world of Embedded Linux and Linux-based gadgets.

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OfB Open Choice Awards 2002

Open for Business has announced the winners for the 2002 Open Choice Awards. KMail 1.4.1 won best email client; Mandrake Linux 8.2 won Best Linux Distribution; and much more.

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Reviews

Linux takes the game to Microsoft (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers ongoing efforts to get Linux running on the Microsoft Xbox gaming console. "The Xbox Linux Project, drawing on the skills of programmers in the UK, Germany and the United States, released a pre-alpha version of the new BIOS on Sunday. When complete, the BIOS will give programmers control over the Xbox's components and peripherals and allow the rest of the Linux operating system to boot."

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Device profile: i3 micro Mood Box (LinuxDevices)

The latest LinuxDevices.com device profile looks at the i3 micro "Mood Box." "Based on a Linux-based operating system and open multimedia standards, the Mood Box can be used as part of an i3-provided total 'Mood solution' which includes the set-top box along with streaming servers (for IP TV and video-on-demand) plus systems management servers. Alternatively, the device is available as a standalone component for use with various 3rd-party products and services."

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Miscellaneous

Pirate this, go to jail (News.com)

News.com reports on the latest anti-copying bill from Senator Joseph Biden. ""The world is moving toward closed digital rights management systems where you may need approval to run programs," says David Wagner, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of California at Berkeley. "Both Palladium and TCPA incorporate features that would restrict what applications you could run.""

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