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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading Linus Torvalds' Benevolent Dictatorship (Business Week)Business Week interviews Linus Torvalds. "I am a dictator, but it's the right kind of dictatorship. I can't really do anything that screws people over. The benevolence is built in. I can't be nasty. If my baser instincts took hold, they wouldn't trust me, and they wouldn't work with me anymore. I'm not so much a leader, I'm more of a shepherd."
John Perry Barlow 2.0 (Reason)Reason interviews John Perry Barlow. "Trying to own intellectual products and creating an economy of scarcity around them as we do with physical objects is very harmful to the development of culture and the ability to speak freely, and a very important principle not talked about much, which is the right to know. I think we have a right to know. It shouldn't be something we have to purchase."
Why India is struggling with localized language computing (NewsForge)NewsForge takes a look at localization efforts in India. "Developers can localize only programs which are internationalized, explains Dr. Nagarjuna G, Chairman FSF-India. Internationalized programs encode their messages and names of commands in a standard such as Unicode and follow a framework, so that the core program works completely independent of the natural language."
The SCO Problem An Enderle Blow by Blow (Groklaw)Groklaw features some comments about Rob Enderle's controversial keynote speech at the SCOForum conference. "So, bottom line: why all the attacks on Groklaw all of a sudden? And why no Enderle apology? He didn't even apologize for his foul language. I will give you my theory. I noticed that Darl McBride in his speech at SCOForum made some predictions, after he took a jab at Groklaw too. He said he commended "open blogs" and sites like Slashdot, where everyone is free to say whatever they wish. He falsely claimed that any time anything positive is left as a comment on Groklaw, I remove it. Actually, I have no recollection of ever seeing a positive comment about SCO here on Groklaw and I certainly haven't removed any as a result."
AutoZone Order - PDF and text (Groklaw)For those interested in the details, the full text of the order from the AutoZone case is now available on Groklaw, along with extensive commentary from PJ. "The judge has clarified some things and added some items that were not mentioned at the hearing. It isn't open-ended discovery. It's a really fast track, but the judge has given SCO a little more time. All discovery must be done by 90 days from the date of the order."
That SCO Case Drags On (IT-Director)Robin Bloor catches up with SCO in this IT-Director article, with a side trip into software patents. "As for SCO, sadly Linux doesn't seem to infringe any SCO patents. So this third legal possibility for SCO seems doomed. Indeed it looks to me as though SCO is not going to have much of a Christmas. Perhaps Santa Claus has decided that SCO CEO, Darl McBride, simply has not been a good enough child this year."
Companies BBC sees possibilities with online archive (vnunet)Vnunet looks at efforts by the BBC to produce an online archive site. "The BBC is doing some other navel gazing as its Charter comes up for review, and radical ideas are being thrown about. It is developing an open source video codec, called Dirac, to replace the Real Networks software currently used to stream video from the BBC site. This could challenge other commercial formats, including Microsoft's Windows Media Player 9."
Motorola picks Linux for HP mobile gear (Silicon.com)Silicon.com covers a collaboration between Motorola and HP that puts carrier grade Linux into mobile phones. "Joy King, director of worldwide marketing for HP's network and service provider business unit, believes that Linux is evolving into the standard to use. While Motorola isn't ready to dump its own software just yet, she said, through this partnership, it has started down that path." Here is the press release.
Linux Adoption Asian govt Linux alliance close to software launch (Hindustan Times)The Hindustan Times reports on a North Asian government alliance to promote the Linux operating system. "Lu said the topic was complicated by Oracle, which along with Chinese software firm Red Flag is developing "Asianux", a standard Linux operating system designed for Asia. The national alliance was not involved with that project, he said. In China, the firm overseeing development of the official software was Beijing Co-Create Open Source Software Co Ltd."
China's OSS alliance is founded to withstand Microsoft (China Economic Net)China Economic Net reports on efforts to upset Microsoft's dominance in China. "It will be possible for Thiz Technology Group Limited, who focuses on personal desktop operating systems, to make its assault on Microsoft in the desktop field. The first step that they choose to take is talent cultivation, which has never happened before. It is well known that at present there are two mainstream computer operating systems in the world, namely Microsoft's Windows and the globally open Linux. Among them, Windows that is familiar to personal computer users has been monopolizing the computer desktop market for almost 10 years, while Linux, which has been forced to simply cooperate with some corporate users, has failed to get the correct approach to cut into the personal computer desktop market." Thanks to Chel van Gennip.
Munich OSS switch to go ahead, patents or no patents (Register)The Register reports that the city of Munich is moving ahead with its switch to Linux. "Patent fears will not derail Munich's move to Linux, city mayor Christian Ude has told a press conference. Earlier this month the city put the brakes on its Windows to open source migration while the implications of pending EU patent legislation could be examined, but Ude has now said that the project will go ahead, and that the city administration is merely pausing to consider matters for a few days."
Munich Posts Want Ad -- Seeking Linux Experts for LiMux (Groklaw)Groklaw mentions a new job opening for a Linux expert in Munich. ""At the online job fair of the Bavarian State Capital 'talented and motivated staff' are wanted to maintain and administer the future Linux-based clients. The job ad underlines Major Christian Ude's announcement yesterday that the migration to Linux will be continued." I like this mayor. He has courage."
Vienna to offer workers Linux desktop option (Computerworld)Computerworld reports on a user-optional Linux migration plan in Vienna, Austria. "Next year, users of 7,500 of the 16,000 desktop workstations in the municipality of Vienna will have the choice of moving to Linux, according to Erwin Gillich, head of the city's information services. An evaluation of the test will follow in 2006. Vienna is one of several European cities and organizations to switch to the open-source operating system. Compared with the decision made by the city of Munich, which plans to fully replace Microsoft Corp. operating systems with Linux, the municipality of Vienna is opting for a slow transformation."
Linux at Work Most Reliable Hosting Providers during July (Netcraft)Netcraft looks at the most reliable hosting providers during July. Of the top ten systems, 4 use Linux and 4 use FreeBSD.
Legal Lawyers Weigh In on Linux Patent Threat (eWeek)eWeek talks with a few lawyers about Linux and software patents. "Kelly Talcott, an intellectual property partner in the New York office of the national law firm of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart LLP, agreed. 'OSRM's announcement simply puts a number to a fact that the software industry has been living with for years. With the increasing number of issued software patents comes the increasing possibility of being sued for infringement. This affects all flavors of software, not just Linux.'"
Torvalds trademark looms over Australian Linux industry (ZDNet.com.au)ZDNet Australia covers Linux Australia Inc., a company that has secured Linus Torvalds' support to register the word "Linux" as a trademark with Australia's intellectual property regulator. "The move is designed to prevent local companies attempting to claim the word as their own, but it will also throw open the possibility that local Linux vendors will start paying royalties to trade on the term for the first time."
A Big Fly in the Open-Source Soup (Business Week)Here's a strange article in Business Week on "intellectual property uncertainty" in Linux. SCO is not a problem, says the author, and neither are patents (for now). The "murky" GPL is the big issue. "Bright as it is, the future of commercial open source might be considerably brighter if Linux and other programs went to a more commerce-friendly license with fewer complexities and ambiguities than the GPL. There's plenty of precedent. The BSD license, the Mozilla Foundation license used for browsers, and the Apache license all provide for free distribution of code and source code with fewer restrictions than the GPL."
The MySQL License Question (OfB.biz)Open for Business examines MySQL's license. "The big question we wanted to know was if MySQL was adding restrictions to the GPL or if the terms on the site were simply a broad overview that represents suggestions that in no way alter the permissions given by the license. Urlocker confirmed to us that MySQL did not consider the page to be an addition to the GPL, but rather information for those attempting to understand -- in simple terms -- why they might need a MySQL commercial license."
Interviews Sneak preview of KDE 3.3: Q&A with developer George Staikos (NewsForge)NewsForge talks with George Staikos about KDE 3.3. "Staikos: Actually KDE PIM (Personal Information Management) was one of the big focal points of this release. An incredible amount of work has been done on all of the PIM components -- KOrganizer, KAddressBook, KMail, Kontact, groupware, resources, and more. We have definitely seen speed improvements, too, especially in Konqueror file browsing, KMail, and the IMAP I/O slave. Optimization work for 3.3 is still ongoing, and I expect to see more."
Anonymous, Open Source P2P with MUTE (O'ReillyNet)O'ReillyNet looks at MUTE, an open-source P2P application. "[Jason] Rohrer, a 26-year-old programmer from Potsdam, New York, found inspiration in the way ants stream toward a food source. From observing the creatures' behavior, he mapped out a networking method that functions similarly -- essentially, a shared file is the food source, and clients on the network are the ants seeking the food. He then wrote his own P2P program putting this theory to practice and christened it MUTE. Developed entirely in C++ and released as open source, the program runs on Linux, Win32, and Mac OS X."
Interview with Bruce Schneier (Netcraft)Netcraft has put up an interview with Bruce Schneier. On product liability for software bugs: "I presume there would be some exemption for open source, just as the United States has a 'good Samaritan' law protecting doctors who help strangers in dire need. Companies could also make a business wrapping liability protection around open source software and selling it, much as companies like Red Hat wrap customer support around open source software."
Linux clusters outshined by supercomputers in HPC (Search Enterprise Linux)Search Enterprise Linux talks with Paul Terry, CTO of Cray Canada. "Terry: The Cray XD1 system, together with Cray's Red Storm platforms, will be the first Linux system purpose-built to handle HPC workloads. It uses a new architecture that presents a real alternative to clusters, while preserving the economics of commercial components. The Direct Connected Processor architecture breaks the communications bottleneck by embedding the interconnect and removing the PCI bottleneck to directly connect processors to each other and memory. The Cray Red Storm system, designed for Sandia, take this same direct connect approach.
Resources OOo Off the Wall: Getting in the Frame (Linux Journal)Linux Journal takes a look at frame styles in OpenOffice.org Writer. "The more complex your documents, however, the more you should know about how to use frame styles. The number of options available are extensive enough that you can fine-tune a frame's look and behavior almost as much as you can in a desktop publishing program. You even can add blank frames (also called text frames) and arrange them so that text flows automatically from one frame to another. This feature allows the automation of complicated layouts, such as folded brochures or newsletters in which a story begins on one page and ends on the next. Beyond a doubt, knowing how to format text frames can give your document design an extra edge."
Linux in Government: LAMP Solution for the '9/11 Commission Report' Recommendation (Linux Journal)Tom Adelstein counters terrorism using open-source software, in this Linux Journal article. "Fortunately, a viable Linux solution to the task of connecting disparate databases over the networks is in existence today. This extant system connects a variety of government databases with a LAMP Web services application that is freely downloadable from the Internet. It allows one to search disparate databases in disparate geographical locations."
PHP as a General-Purpose Language (Linux Journal)This Linux Journal article says that PHP isn't just for web scripting any more. "Although most people use PHP primarily as a Web development scripting system, it possesses all the characteristics of a proper general-purpose language that can be useful in a variety of other environments. In this article, I illustrate how it's possible to use the command-line version of PHP to perform complex shell operations, such as manipulating data files, reading and parsing remote XML documents and scheduling important tasks through cron."
Reviews Mail Server Performance Monitoring with Mailgraph (O'ReillyNet)O'ReillyNet looks at a mail server using Mailgraph. "In a nutshell, installing Mailgraph will allow us to see how our mail server performs through neatly laid-out graphical and numerical representations of mail traffic flowing through a particular mail server. If you've ever used a similar tool that can display graphs, such as MRTG, you know that graphs often speak volumes of invaluable information when trying to diagnose a problem quickly. Graphs can portray information about the past, present, and sometimes even the future."
At the Sounding Edge: LilyPond, Part 2 (Linux Journal)Linux Journal takes a dip in the LilyPond. "Last month we looked at some of the the basic operations of the LilyPond music typesetting software. We saw that LilyPond is a TeX-based language specifying the complexities of Western music notation and capable of producing excellent PostScript printable output. This month, we look at three GUI front-ends for LilyPond: the Rosegarden sequencer, the NoteEdit music notation editor and the Denemo LilyPond file preparation utility. I've also appended a brief account of the music and sound topic presentations made at this year's Libre Software Meeting."
Miscellaneous DVD Jon cracks Airport music streaming (Register)The Register examines the latest efforts by Jon Johansen. "Norwegian programmer Jon Lech Johansen has decrypted and published the key that Apple's wireless hi-fi bridge, Airport Express, uses to protect music streams. He's also released the source code to a small Windows command-line tool he calls JustePort. In essence his crack opens the door for other applications to broadcast music to your hi-fi over a home WLAN network using Express, rather than just iTunes 4.6. For users on Linux machines, or with WMA or OGG format files, this could be a boon, as iTunes supports neither format out of the box."
Perens readies old-school Linux, but who wants it? (vnunet)vnunet has posted an article suggesting that uptake on UserLinux will be small. "HP and IBM have no plans to support the distribution. According to HP, too many distributions could confuse users. 'Having too many competitors is not good for the market,' said a spokeswoman for the company. IBM said it already offered users plenty of choice by supporting and providing certification for Red Hat and SuSE. Oracle declined to comment."
Linux Games Drive Linux Desktop Growth (LinuxWorld.com)LinuxWorld Magazine takes exception to Linux Journal's choice of "Best Game". "Trying to get major game publishers take Linux gamers seriously is a difficult task, and when publications that much of the Linux community reads such as yours basically blow games off and give a game award to a non-game, you make the task far more arduous."
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