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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Is Linux Desktop Better Than Windows? (LinuxPlanet)LinuxPlanet compares Linux to Windows in the educational arena. ""Using Windows ME, we've had lots of problems with popups and spyware. There's been none of that with Linux," says Subroto Mukerjea, a site director for the Computer Learning Center in Fairfax County, VA. Mukerjea oversees one of 14 sites within an after school program for children and teens aged six to 16. "Windows 95 was always going down," maintains Paul Mundell, national director of canine programs at Canine Companions for Independence, Santa Rosa, CA. "The problem with Windows 2000 isn't 'crashing.' It's just that, after a while, applications start running more slowly and features don't work as well unless you say to yourself, 'Maybe it's time to rebuild your hard drive.'""
Linux now a corporate beast (GCN.com)Government Computer News notes that the Linux kernel has become a corporate effort. "About 1,000 developers contribute changes to Linux on a regular basis, Morton said. Of those 1,000 developers, about 100 are paid to work on Linux by their employers. And those 100 have contributed about 37,000 of the last 38,000 changes made to the operating system."
Trade Shows and Conferences Java on eWeekeWeek covers a JBoss announcement that the JBoss Application Server has passed the compatibility test suite for the Java 2 Enterprise Edition platform Version 1.4.
eWeek interviews
Java creator James Gosling. "With NetBeans day occurring at
JavaOne this year, I have to ask about Eclipse. Is the possibility of a Sun
membership still on the table?
The SCO Problem Another SCO Memo, Reply Memorandum Re Discovery (Groklaw)Groklaw takes a look at the latest long memo from SCO in the IBM case. "SCO repeatedly argues that it needs all this discovery so it can 'streamline, narrow and prioritize its searches for code and non-literal elements in Linux that originated in UNIX.' If they get every version of AIX and Dynix that there ever were, how will that streamline the search? It's silly to say that, but they are trying to tell the judge that it will speed the process up and increase efficiency, because judges like to hear that."
AutoZone Hearing Transcript (Groklaw)Groklaw now has the transcript from the AutoZone hearing. "You will see that many of the stories you have been reading in the press about what happened at the hearing were not accurate. Well, what else is new? That's what transcripts are for."
Eyewitness Reports from the DC Hearing - SCO Trounced (Groklaw)Groklaw is carrying a pair of reports from today's hearing in the SCO v. DaimlerChrysler case. All of SCO's charges got thrown out except one: whether DC should have responded in less than 30 days. "What that means is SCO's action against DC is over in all meaningful senses. I can't believe they will wish to spend the money to litigate over something so trivial with no conceivable damages or useful relief, even if they were to prevail, and I doubt they could anyhow. Still, this is SCO, so we will have to wait and see." Lesson: if you get a "certification demand" from SCO, be sure to tell them to take a hike within the 30 day deadline.
Companies Will the first Linux carwash clean up? (Register)The Register takes a look at a Linux-only computer store and carwash. "Sub500.com is the brainchild of Marc (32) and David Silverman (37), carwash owners, computer parts brokers and online retailers. They have opened a small Linux-only computer store in a room at the front of their carwash on Dufferin Street, in the northern suburbs of Toronto, a neighbourhood of large malls and offices cheered only by a few friendly Italian restaurants and cafes."
IBM tries to hook computer science students (News.com)News.com reports that IBM is offering free (as in beer) software and discounted hardware to universities. "Announced Tuesday, the IBM Academic Initiative is designed to create computing science curricula around IBM-backed technologies, notably the Java programming language and open-source software such as Linux."
JBoss airs expansion plans (News.com)News.com covers JBoss plans to get into the middleware business. "The company is evaluating a plan to purchase an existing infrastructure software, or middleware, company and make its product available for free under an open-source license, Bob Bickel, JBoss' vice president of corporate development and strategy, told CNET News.com."
World's best-dressed Linux backer leaves Sun (Register)The Register's reports that Peder Ulander is leaving Sun to work for MontaVista Software. "Ulander is easily the best-dressed member of the Linux community - think a young open source-leaning Jerry Sanders. And, hey, he can afford nice clothes. Ulander arrived at Sun following its $2bn buy of Linux appliance-maker Cobalt Networks."
Red Hat hit with class-action lawsuits (Triangle Business Journal)Yesterday, Red Hat said it would make minor tweaks to the way it accounts for subscription revenue. Today, the Triangle Business Journal reports, at least two law firms have filed class-action shareholder lawsuits against the company. "The precipitous drop didn't escape the attention of Atlanta-based Chitwood & Harley LLP and New York-based Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow LLP, which announced in separate press releases Wednesday that they had filed class-action suits against Red Hat and some of its executives. According to the press releases, the law firms accuse Red Hat of defrauding its investors by reporting false and misleading financial information."
Sun may put Java server on open-source table (ZDNet)ZDNet covers an announcement from Sun Microsystems concerning the possible release of the Java Enterprise System as an open-source project. "The company on Thursday issued a statement saying, "Sun is considering open sourcing Java Enterprise System, but no final decision has been made." A Sun representative attributed the statement to Stephen Borcich, executive director of Sun's Java Enterprise System, and offered no other details. Sun has faced pressure to release the Java language and associated programming software to the open-source community, though it has indicated that it is reluctant to do so. Sun has also said that it will eventually make its Solaris Unix operating system open source, but has not offered details on timing or licensing changes."
Linux Adoption In the beginning was Word (Independent.co.uk)Independent.co.uk has published an article that looks at how the Microsoft legacy in the school system affects the adoption of Linux. "But can schools move away from Microsoft, as some in the business world are doing? There, the Linux operating system (which can be installed on a standard PC) is stirring things up: a typical Linux distribution contains OpenOffice - which is based on StarOffice, and compatible with Microsoft Office - along with other word processors. In the right hands, Linux pushes Microsoft off the desktop along with the most common viruses, worms and spyware. Linux, the argument goes, might help children to grow up to be computer-literate rather than Microsoft-literate." Thanks to Philip Webb.
Interviews More than an open-source curiosity (News.com)News.com features an interview with Miguel de Icaza.Q: "Now that Mono 1.0 is done, what can you do that you couldnt do before?" A: "Oh, Unix is a world of pain for developers. Now, basically what we got is very modern IDEs (integrated development environments) for developing software on other platforms."
The downlow on Mono (NewsForge)NewsForge talks with Erik Dasque, the senior project leader for Mono. "Dasque: I think a lot of people view Mono as a .Net clone, and I think it goes well beyond that. I think the fact that it's a .Net implementation is great. It's a means to an end. But our goal was not to create a .Net implementation. Our goal is to deliver a development platform that works for Linux, that is what Linux needs to kind of go beyond what it has achieved to date."
Mozilla and the future of the Web (NewsForge)NewsForge is running an interview with the Mozilla Foundation director of engineering, Chris Hofmann. "The issue of security is one that has got out of control for Microsoft, and that has benefited Mozilla. Every day people migrate to Mozilla and Firefox to get away from the spyware and security issues of Internet Explorer, and Microsoft isn't doing anything to change that. Hofmann says, "Microsoft seems unlikely to do a major PR campaign advising developers to move away from ActiveX until they have another proprietary solution in place to lock up the migration. I'm guessing that will come with Longhorn. If I was running a Web site or IT department, I'd be making plans to do this migration from ActiveX on my terms, and I'd be doing it as rapidly as possible."
Resources Picking Your Lightweight Linux Desktop (eWeek)eWeek looks at a the thin client approach to lightweight Linux desktops. "[L]et's say you want more control over your desktops. In that case, what you want is a Linux-based, thin-client approach. If that's you, you can also put together your own Linux thin-client solution with LTSP (Linux Terminal Server Project)."
Boot Linux from a FireWire device (developerWorks)This IBM developerWorks article walks through a Gentoo install on an external FireWire drive. "Once you have booted with the install CD, with a bit of luck it should have recognized your drive. The drive should appear as a disk under /dev/sdX, where X is a lowercase letter starting at "a." On my system, the external drive was detected as /dev/sda, but this will vary if you have other SCSI disks (or emulated SCSI disks); in that case, it might be /dev/sdb or some other letter. If your drive is not detected automatically, some further steps may be required -- for instance, you might have to pass boot options to enable FireWire or PCMCIA, or you might have to manually load some kernel modules, or other things of that sort."
Go Straight To The Source with CTrace (Linux Journal)Linux Journal looks at CTrace. "My article details the use of an open-source multithreaded trace/debug library called CTrace. It also presents a method of remotely tracing a running application by using the SSH protocol."
Reviews CodeWeavers CrossOver Office 3.0 (vnunet)Vnunet takes a look at CrossOver Office. "Available since last month, CrossOver Office 3.0 will suit Linux users needing to open or create Word documents and view web content that only displays correctly in Internet Explorer. One of the most useful features in the Professional version is the ability to build a configuration with specific Windows applications installed, and then replicate it and deploy it to other systems using Red Hat Package Manager tools."
Wrangle digital photos with imgSeek (NewsForge)NewsForge reviews imgSeek, an open source photo organizer. "Back in the Bad Old Days we kept our photos crammed into shoeboxes in the closet, to be pulled out once every few years for a halfhearted attempt at assembling an album. With the onset of the digital era, that should be a thing of past, right? Yet most of us have simply replaced the shoeboxes with overcrowded folders on our PCs, and because our digital cameras tend to slap on unhelpful names like DCS00032.JPG, we still have to browse through them all manually to find the ones that are of interest to us. But one particularly good open source program, imgSeek, can help you get organized."
Device Profile: IntelliReach MessageScreen email filter appliance (LinuxDevices)LinuxDevices.com looks at the MessageScreen appliance from IntelliReach. "MessageScreen is available with either SuSE Linux, or Solaris; however, according to [director of product management Jeff] Coveney, 'Linux allows throughput increases of up to 8x from a standard Solaris implementation.' Coveney adds, 'We realized early on that Linux will also give our users the lowest total cost of ownership.'"
KDE 3.3 Beta 1 Experiences (OSNews.com)OSNews shares one person's experience upgrading KDE 3.2.3 to KDE 3.3 Beta 1. "When I started KDE 3.3 Beta1, I was presented with KDE's Desktop Configuration. What I liked in this wizard was that Plastik is now presented as one of the style choices (which I think is the best among the styles that come with KDE). Nice. Unfortunately, it is not the default but it should be. I also noticed that the startup speed has improved. The "aKademy" splash screen is new and looks cool! Also, everything feels more snappier and quicker. Applications seem to launch faster. If you configure to preload an instance of Konqueror at the start up time; all subsequent launches of Konqueror are lighting fast." (Found on KDE.News)
Why PHP 5 Rocks! (O'ReillyNet)Here's an O'ReillyNet article on the more interesting features in PHP 5.0. "PHP 5 fixes the major problems in PHP 4's XML extensions. While PHP 4 allows you to manipulate XML, its XML tools are only superficially related. Each tool covers one part of the XML experience, but they weren't designed to work together, and PHP 4 support for the more advanced XML features is often patchy. Not so in PHP 5."
Open source Photoshop alternatives (NewsForge)NewsForge looks at GIMP, SodiPodi and Inkscape. "The GIMP is great for raster graphics, but what about vector editing? That's a big part about what you have to do in Photoshop, right? The GIMP has one filter, called G-Fig, that gives you some limited vector editing capacity, but if you want to do very stylish graphics, you need a vector graphics package. In this area, the open source user turns to Sodipodi or Inkscape."
New SGI supercomputer to scale Linux to 1,024 CPUs (Computerworld Australia)Computerworld Australia takes a look at new supercomputer under construction at SGI. "Silicon Graphics is building an Altix supercomputer for the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) that will run a single Linux operating system image across 1,024 Intel Itanium 2 processors and 3TB of shared memory."
Thinking XML: Harold's Effective XML (IBM developerWorks)Uche Ogbuji reviews the book Effective XML by Elliotte Rusty Harold. "Noted XML expert Elliotte Rusty Harold's book Effective XML offers best practices for users of XML technologies. Much of the discussion in the book touches on issues of XML design that have also preoccupied Uche Ogbuji, and in this article he discusses the book as the thread for further observations on XML design and best practices."
Sharp's Zaurus SL-6000L: A Free Software PDA (O'ReillyNet)Here's an O'ReillyNet article on the Sharp Zaurus SL-6000L. "The SL6000L is a great machine. It may not look as sexy as the clamshell Zauruses, but it's very functional. I quickly discovered it was the tool for the job after carrying it with me along my Palm. It is rough, it has lot of battery life, a nice keyboard, and all sort of ports one may need. Best of all, there's wifi included and it runs Linux."
Miscellaneous Toward true open source (NewsForge)Tom Walker shares his opinion that the GPL has unintentional harmful side effects in this NewsForge article. "When I buy music protected by DRM, the seller intends is to stop me from making copies of songs. When I use software that is licensed under the GPL, the developer intends to stop me from making the software "closed," or non-free. The intentions obviously aren't even slightly similar, but the consequences are."
Surviving in a world full of software patents (NewsForge)NewsForge presents an editorial on the merits of obtaining software patents. "If you are an open source developer you are probably less motivated by profit (though certainly you want to be fed), and more motivated by the hope of making the world a better place through cooperation. This is a noble position, but don't be played for a fool. The lack of a patent on your work gives free rein to people with PROFIT on their minds who want to steal your inventions from you and use them for their own gain instead of the gain of all. The next thing you know, you will be facing patents based on something that incorporates ideas that you pioneered."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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