Linux in the news

Recommended Reading

Sun's Linux desktop off to flying start (Register)

The Register looks forward to Sun's Linux desktop offering. "Sun is batting around the idea of teaming with service providers to rent out applications such as StarOffice and also hardware such as online storage. The service provider could theoretically ship a thin client or white box to a consumer and then charge for various products. Do you want browsing, StarOffice and storage? Well, that's x dollars per month."

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Interview: SCO's Darl McBride and Chris Sontag (CRN)

CRN has posted a lengthy interview with Darl McBride and Chris Sontag. Reading it is a trying experience, to say the least, but it gives an insight into the thought processes of SCO's management. "Our belief is that SCO has great opportunity in the future to let Linux keep going, not to put it on its back but for us to get a transaction fee every time it's sold. That's really our goal. To the extent that we have to take it down and put it on its back, we're fully prepared and willing to do that." Or... "The interesting scenario is, do you go after an HP customer or an IBM customer? That's what David [Boies] is the master of. That's his final decision.'

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Trade Shows and Conferences

On the Scene at the Boston Desktop Linux Consortium (Linux Journal)

Here's a Linux Journal report from the Desktop Linux Consortium conference. ""The Open Desktop: Freedesktop.org", a presentation given by Havoc Pennington (from Red Hat, but he was presenting as a member of freedesktop.org) was most interesting. This site is hosting some intriguing technology specifically geared toward solving basic issues, including integrating applications with differing toolkits and developing specs and recommendations for common technology. The idea is all of this can be shared by GNOME, KDE, other window managers and toolkits. Freedesktop.org has become the host for many stable projects, including fontconfig. Keith Packard's fontconfig has done wonders to bring badly needed sanity to font management in XFree86. Freedesktop.org also is hosting other, more experimental software."

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IBM keynote presentation from Desktop Linux Conference (DesktopLinux.com)

DesktopLinux.com has announced the availability of the slides from the IBM keynote presentation at the Desktop Linux Conference. "The first presentation in our series is from IBM's Sam Docknevich, Linux and Grid Services Executive for IBM Global Services. His presentation discusses IBM's push into the Linux desktop market, an initiative from inside "Big Blue.""

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Linux Lunacy 2003: Cruising the Big Picture, Part I (Linux Journal)

Doc Searls presents part 1 of his Geek Cruise trip report, on Linux Journal. "The Linux Lunacy III curriculum stretched across the greater Linux platform--LAMP for short. (That's Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Perl, Python and everything else that fits in the suite.) Ted T'so gave a whole day (two long sessions) to the Linux kernel and added another lecture on filesystems. David Axmark gave sessions on MySQL. Randall Schwartz did Perl. Guido van Rossum did Python. Karen and Steven Pritchard gave LPI certification courses and tests. Bruce Perens covered Linux in tiny embedded applications, plus international wireless connectivity. Mick Bauer taught classes on Linux security. David Fetter taught Linux databases. Greg Haerr taught programming, and Keith Packard taught about graphics in X and fonts in Linux."

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Linux Lunacy 2003: Cruising the Big Picture, Part II (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal has posted the second part of Doc Searls' "Linux Lunacy" travelogue. "Although Linux and LAMP are handy as can be, they have not established themselves fully in the habitats left bare by the retreating glaciers. Watching the rocky shore go by in Glacier Bay, I decided that we are somewhere between the horsetail and alder stages of plant succession in the marketplace. We will know the marketplace has reached maturity when everybody once again feels free to ply and sell their talents and crafts, with or without the assistance of large industrial manufacturers, distributors and retailers."

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The Path to Ruby2 (a.k.a. "Rite")

The Ruby Garden has coverage of Rubyconf 2003. A report on Ruby 2.0 (a.k.a. "Rite"), and presentation slides are available.

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The SCO Problem

SCO Targets Torvalds, Stallman (Forbes)

Here is a Forbes article on the SCO Group's latest round of subpoenas. There's not much that's new here, but it is amusing to see reporter Daniel Lyons, who has bought almost everything SCO has said without question, begin to notice that the company is not being entirely straightforward with him. "Oddly enough, on Nov. 11, SCO Executive Vice President Christopher Sontag complained to Forbes about IBM's decision to send subpoenas to investors and analysts who supported SCO.... So why didn't Sontag mention that, uh, SCO itself was about to target Torvalds and Stallman with subpoenas? SCO's spokesman says Sontag and Darl McBride, SCO's chief executive, did not know that SCO's lawyers were planning the move. But the 'Who's on first?' act is tough to swallow since it turns out SCO notified IBM of its plans to seek discovery from these parties more than a month ago, on Oct. 5."

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Two analysts on SCO (Groklaw)

Groklaw has taken a look at two analyst reports on SCO's stock. Deutsche Bank's Brian Skiba is making a truly impressive attempt to hype that stock ("We believe that a number of high-profile legal moves could bring to the forefront the IP issue around UNIX and Linux which would likely result in some monetization on the part of SCO in the form of IP licenses. We believe these events, should they occur, will be a positive for the stock, which has otherwise been in a relative dearth of news flow over the past several months.") while Dion Cornett of Decatur Jones Equity Partners disagrees.

Comments (9 posted)

SCO CEO: Novell-SuSE breaks SCO contract (InfoWorld)

According to InfoWorld, SCO is now threatening to sue Novell. "The non-compete agreement was only one of several legal avenues that SCO is considering, should the SuSE acquisition be competed. according to McBride. SCO also believes that Novell does not have the right to distribute Linux, which SCO alleges to contain intellectual property that has been derived and copied directly from its Unix System V code, he said. Novell greatly enhanced its legal risks 'by getting into this Linux game,' McBride said.

Comments (38 posted)

Innovation Loses If Open Source Wins (LinuxInsider)

In the interest of knowing what the other side is saying: here is an impressive Enderle column on LinuxInsider. He says that open software will destroy innovation, and that SCO will win. "Why this is interesting is that SCO appears to be attempting to prepare for trial, while IBM appears to be trying to destroy SCO's ability to sustain the fight. With SCO's legal team still on contingency, it still looks to me like SCO is more confident of winning in court than IBM is." Of course, SCO's legal team has worked a deal where it wins whether SCO does or not.

Comments (64 posted)

Companies

IBM sees growing Linux programmer community (ADTMag)

ADTMag.com looks at how IBM helps developers create applications for Linux. "The new wave of Linux development includes applications that "span all major industries, including government, finance, retail, automotive and manufacturing," according to a Big Blue spokesperson. Specifically, IBM claims its Linux developer community is working in all sizes of businesses building applications for e-commerce, payroll, inventory tracking, CRM, small business accounting, financial analysis software and even "pattern discovery in genome sequences.""

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Red Hat subscriptions beat expectations (News.com)

News.com reports that the renewal rate for Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscriptions is over 90% - significantly higher than had been expected. "Red Hat's challenge now is to put its new revenue to judicious use, such as investing in a new call center in Australia to support Asian customers. The company can't simultaneously tackle major new initiatives such as pushes into China, the embedded computing market or desktop computer software..."

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SGI Japan wins order for Linux supercomputer (Asia Times Online)

Asia Times Online reports that SGI Japan has received an order from the government-affiliated Institute of Statistical Mathematics for a high-end Linux supercomputer. "The Altix 3700 supercluster will boast a numbers-crunching capability of 1.3 teraflops, and will use shared memory helps to save time by eliminating the need to write programs that tell the microprocessors how to apportion computational tasks."

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Sun Strikes Huge Linux Desktop Deal With China (TechWeb)

TechWeb reports on Sun's deal with the China Standard Software Company (CSSC) which, it seems, will lead to the deployment of its Linux-based "Java Desktop System" on a million systems. "The licensing agreement, which will start at the end of this year, allows the CSSC to deliver its own branded products using the Java Desktop System as the foundation for a nation-wide standard."

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Linux Adoption

Formula 1 racer's secret: 1,000 horsepower and a Linux cluster (NewsForge)

NewsForge looks at the role supercompters play in Formula 1 racing. "Aerodynamics are as important to modern Formula 1 race cars as they are to jet fighters. That's why the BMW Williams F1 team turn to a Linux cluster when they need to get a bit more out of their 3-litre, 1,000-horsepower, 1,320-lb. FW25 car."

Comments (3 posted)

Legal

Judge shuts garage opener copyright suit (News.com)

News.com reports that the Chamberlain v. Skylink DMCA case (having to do with the making of garage door openers that "circumvent" Chamberlain's encoding scheme) has been dismissed. "The judge's reliance in her decision on Chamberlain's lack of notice to consumers left that core issue untouched, however. Lawyers said that the ruling would allow Chamberlain to create a new variety of garage door opener, include a label that says it can't be used with other products--just as a DVD says it can't be copied--and then try to block a company such as Skylink again."

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Interviews

Jan Varga's Root Interview in English (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine has posted an english translation of an interview with Mozilla developer Jan Varga. "Since you mentioned Firebird, how do you see the new concept of Mozilla. What does it take from you and bring to you as a programmer?"

"I must confess that I did not like it very much at the beginning. I later realized that it was good idea (except for the controversial name :)). There is no doubt that it will bring a faster development because the individual products are developed independently. Furthermore I would like to mention the stability of the product. If the browser crashes accidentally, this will not affect your e-mail client and so forth."

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Interview with LimeWire COO Greg Bildson (O'Reilly)

O'Reilly's OpenP2P site features an interview with Greg Bildson. "Greg Bildson is the COO of LimeWire and president of P2P United, a consortium of P2P software companies created to help educate Congress and the public about peer-to-peer software, technology, and culture. P2P United is the organization that paid 12-year-old Brianna LaHara's $2,000 RIAA settlement after the RIAA served her with a Digital Millennium Copyright Act subpoena."

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Resources

Make your own brushes with The GIMP (LinuxFocus)

LinuxFocus presents the various brushes found in GIMP, and how to create your own. "A pipe - or animated brush - is a brush which contains several images. The image of the brush varies at the same time as one draws: it is the experiment we did with the brush "Vine" in the first part. In GIMP, the creation of a brush of this type is an image with several layers." (Found on Footnotes)

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The State of Home-Brew PVRs on Linux (O'ReillyNet)

O'ReillyNet looks at how to build a Personal Video Recorder. "If you wish to record a show and watch a live TV show at the same time, you will need two TV cards: one for recording and one for watching TV. I would highly recommend using one of the many cards supported by the bttv Linux drivers. If you wish to listen to FM radio, you can pick up one of the WinTV cards that include an FM tuner as well."

Comments (2 posted)

Reviews

Linux on Pocket PCs (O'ReillyNet)

Here's an O'ReillyNet article looking at various handheld computers. "An iPAQ running Familiar will have a selection of apps and the X Window System. If you add Intimate, you will have a full Debian setup, again running X (or just a console, if you wish). Another option is to take advantage of all of the writing and porting that's been going on for the Zaurus."

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Introduction to Mozilla Firebird (Nidelven-IT)

Nidelven-IT has published two more articles in Kay Frode's series on the Mozilla Firebird browser. The articles look at the download manager and printing.

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Miscellaneous

Many Organisations Employing Mozilla Contributors (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine reports on Mozilla developers who are employed by outside companies. "For many years, Netscape provided several full-time employees to work on Mozilla. Since AOL pulled the plug on Netscape's contributions to the project in July, many have assumed that all the work is now done by volunteers. However, that is not the case and a variety of organisations have either expanded their Mozilla workforce or started hiring lizard-friendly employees for the first time."

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Mono project announces new roadmap to completion (NewsForge)

NewsForge covers a new roadmap for the Mono project. "The new roadmap calls for Mono 1.0 to be completed in Q2 of 2004, and Mono 1.2 to follow by the end of the year. Mono 1.4 is scheduled for the middle of 2005 and Mono 2.0 early in 2006."

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