Linux in the news

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The Linux developer lifestyle, exposed (ZDNet)

ZDNet examines the "typical" Linux hacker. "According to a new survey, open-source software developers are mostly men in their twenties, and they vastly favor the Debian operating system distribution. The "Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS)" report also found that although many might not make a living from their open-source activities, they spend a serious amount of time on them."

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UK's DMCA: there ain't no sanity clause (Register)

The Register reports on a critique of the European Copyright Directive. "The UK's take on the "European DMCA" - the European Copyright Directive - will make criminals out of ordinary computer users, according to a new critique by the UK Campaign for Digital Rights. And it will also fail to protect researchers, says Julian Midgley who penned the report."

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Study: Governments need open source (ZDNet)

This ZDNet article follows up on the FLOSS report, showing why governments need open source. "The FLOSS report argues that open-source software, by its nature, better fulfils certain governmental responsibilities than software to which source-code access is restricted. These responsibilities include the public's right to public information and to know how that information is processed; the permanence of public data; and the security of that data."

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XVID GPL violation issues resolved

Apparently, there was a recent GPL license violation involving a company known as Sigma Designs' and the XVID video codec project. The issue centered around code that was modified, but was not released, as per the GPL licensing requirements. The XVID designers reacted by freezing development of the project. After a period of silence, Sigma Designs' eventually complied with the request to release the code. This is one example of how the GPL was successfully used to protect open-source code.

Thanks to Mike Hopper.

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Trade Shows and Conferences

More Business, Less Boothness (Linux Journal)

Doc Searls gives his views on the recent LinuxWorld Expo in a Linux Journal article. "We have an interesting irony here: while Linux gets bigger than ever, and its leading tradeshow gets more popular than ever, the show itself gets physically smaller. So where did all the old booths go? Well, a lot of companies went out of business with the dot-com crash. A few more left Linux altogether. A few more moved into the Big Boys' booths, which was the case with Ximian and Linuxcare."

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Companies

AMD pushes ahead with new server chips (News.com)

News.com covers AMD's release of two new Athlon processors, which are aimed at the server market.

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A Rose by Any Other Name--Is It Still the Same? (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal reports (from GeoFORUM) on the Caldera name change. "Now for the the simple financial facts. Say your company has no debt to speak of. You have a distribution channel of 14,000 SCO dealers. These dealers are on target to sell $60 million (US) for the year 2002. SCO products generate positive cash flow, while Linux products cost $2.00 of marketing for every $1.00 of sales. Maybe these facts are enough collectively to make you rethink your business plan."

See also this followup article on where Caldera/SCO is going from here. "Well, if you are Darl McBride, the new CEO of The SCO Group, you use Harley-Davidson as a model."

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Caldera name change puts Unix first (News.com)

Erik Ratcliffe pointed out that Caldera International is now called SCO Group. News.com covers the name change. "Analysts said the name change reflects simple market economics: Nearly 95 percent of the company's revenues come from its Unix products, not from Linux."

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Russian Coding Firm Back for More (Wired)

Wired News looks at what Russian software firm ElcomSoft has been up to lately. "But despite the courthouse angst, ElcomSoft plans to continue to market exactly the sorts of products that led to their entanglement with the U.S. legal system."

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Lindows faces a reality check (News.com)

News.com reports on a change of corporate strategy for Lindows.com. "A representative for Lindows.com confirmed that while some Windows applications will run on LindowsOS, this compatibility is no longer the company's top priority. "Our product does not target the user who wants to save a few dollars on the operating system, but then still run out and spend thousands of dollars on Microsoft Office, Photoshop, etc," she said. Instead, Lindows.com will focus on making Linux applications easy to download and install. However, where there is no Linux-based alternative to a Microsoft application, LindowsOS will support "some 'bridge' programs, file types and network devices to help people interact with the legacy Microsoft world," the representative said."

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MandrakeSoft to warrant holders: Show us the money (News Forge)

News Forge reports on efforts by MandrakeSoft to raise capital. "MandrakeSoft CEO Jacques Le Marois says it is hard to raise money these days. "The biggest challenge we face is the current depressed state of the financial markets." In fact, since MandrakeSoft introduced the increase of capital initiative in May, the Nasdaq has dropped from around 1700 to 1395, a decrease of about 18%. "Even with MandrakeSoft's recent positive financial results and an attractive valuation, most people are difficult to convince. Just two years ago, we could have raised all the necessary funds in only four days with a similar operation.""

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Fighting Linux the Microsoft way (iTnews)

The Australian publication iTnews covers various strategies used by Microsoft to convince its customers not to switch to Linux. "At Fusion 2002, Microsoft’s partners and resellers forum, principal technology specialist for Microsoft, Mark O’Shea, outlined strategies for fending off the Linux threat. O’Shea highlighted to the assembled resellers, recent research by IDC showing Windows to be cheaper to maintain and manage despite Linux’s perceived lower acquisition cost." Thanks to Con Zymaris.

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Business

Landscaping the server OS field (ZDNet)

This ZDNet article looks at the Gartner group's predictions of change in the server OS market. "Linux will impede the progress of Windows in the midrange (up to at least 16 CPUs during the five-year period). By 2006, Linux will be a key foundation for a strategic, cross-development-platform development environment, accelerating Unix server consolidation, while creating a powerful alternative to Windows .NET."

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Swedish government mulls Linux (Register)

The Register reports on the consideration of open-source software by Sweden. "Despite signing a recent deal with Microsoft, Sweden has become the latest country to investigate the benefits of free software. In a report entitled "The state wants to save money" in Swedish magazine Ny Teknik, the Statskontoret, (Swedish Agency for Public Management) is setting up a working group to investigate the value Linux could provide."

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AUUG calls for adoption of open-source software by the Australian Government

The Australian Unix and Open Systems Group has sent out a press release calling for the adoption of open-source software by the Australian government sector. "AUUG is calling on the Government sector to review all areas of IT procurement and information standards to ensure that there is no bias against Open Standards based Open Source solutions. This would allow government IT managers to calculate the true ROI for each software acquisition and deployment - enabling the comparison of open and closed solutions on an equal footing. A comparison that AUUG believes Open Source will win. Ultimately delivering major savings to Australian tax payers."

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Linux, StarOffice in frame for 45k Oz desktop deal? (Register)

The Register writes about a possible platform change at Australia's Telstra telecom company. "Australian telco Telstra is looking at Linux as a possible new standard platform for its 45,000 desktops, according to a report by ITnews Australia. Telstra at the moment is just considering Linux and Sun StarOffice as possible candidates for its corporate standard, but a deal of this size would be a major boost for open source on the desktop, particularly as, ITnews reports, Telstra is Microsoft's biggest Australian customer."

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Interviews

Pouring over the Facts: Andreas Pour on KDE (Open for Business)

Open for Business interviews KDE hacker Andreas Pour. "Governments, of course, need also worry about national security, and it is hard to see how they can be fulfilling their obligations with reliance on a monopolist's proprietary computers and networks. Being totally dependant on one vendors' systems - systems which can be disabled remotely or possibly simply by the absence of remote commands - is a most serious national security threat."

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Unplugged: Sun chief engineer Rob Gingell (ZDNet)

ZDNet interviews Sun chief engineer Rob Gingell. "Gingell talks about his desire to open source Solaris and intermarry it with Linux. He also discusses his focus on other parts of the software stack, especially Java, and why he believes Sun will succeed at a time when Solaris and SPARC are no longer the company's crown jewels."

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Resources

Embedded Linux Newsletter for August 22, 2002

The August 22, 2002 edition of the Linux Devices Embedded Linux Newsletter is out with the latest Embedded Linux news.

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Linux, the GPL, and a new model for software innovation (LinuxDevices)

LinuxDevices.com is carrying a white paper with a detailed look at the GPL. "This license 'promises' cannibalization of intellectual property, but does not quite deliver on this promise, and so has attracted the affection of mammoth electronics companies (normally IP-protective) who see Linux as their key to the future. In turn, this most 'anti-IP' of licenses is arguably doing more to foster innovation than patents or copyrights ever have."

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Reviews

Mozilla upgrade sees need for speed (ZDNet)

ZDNet reviews Mozilla 1.1. "The release of Mozilla 1.1 comes relatively quickly after Mozilla 1.0, which arrived in June after years in development. The browser is the result of an experiment by Netscape Communications, now part of AOL Time Warner, in which the company released its next-generation software to the open-source community in exchange for the volunteer efforts of developers around the world."

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Miscellaneous

Briefing Book: Development Tools (TechWeb)

Tech Web has a story about the rise of open-source development tools. "The development tool market is going through an interesting transition. Just as browsers, Web servers, and operating systems have been reinvigorated by the introduction of open source alternatives, so has the development tool market. It makes sense; IDEs, editors, and other tools lie closest to a developer's heart; it's not surprising they are looking for -- and of course in some cases creating -- the tools they themselves would like to see."

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Why Larry Lessig gets an 'F' in software (News.com)

Here's a News.com article about free software advocate Lawrence Lessig. "But Lessig is also going further. In his latest book, "The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World," he draws a distinction between the intellectual property developed by, say, an Ernest Hemingway, and the intellectual property created by a code jockey."

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Dot Compost and the Danger to Your Privacy (Linux Journal)

In this Linux Journal article Dave Sifry looks inside some computers he bought on eBay. "I pulled out my Linuxcare Bootable Business Card, a disk I helped develop that I often use when doing forensics of unknown systems. It's a utility that allows me to quickly and easily bypass the operating system and retrieve data, a task critical for performing data recovery of corrupted systems or for performing forensic analysis of systems that have been compromised by intruders. Within 45 seconds I was looking at the data on the computer's hard drive, and what I saw shocked me. It turns out that the first computer I bought used to be the main e-mail server for a highly visible startup."

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Linux and the corporate desktop

Several of this morning's articles have focused on getting Linux onto the corporate desktop. ZDNet says Desktop Linux is for real and talks with industry analysts about corporate adoption of desktop Linux. ZDNet also takes a look at how Ximian Evolution fuels interest in desktop Linux.

On the practical side, Linux Journal looks at Creating Web Pages with OpenOffice.org.

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