Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
Firefox downloaded 10 Million times in 32 days
The Firefox browser has passed the 10 million download mark, according to this announcement. "In little more than a month, Firefox has been downloaded more than 10 million times. Take a moment and think about that. If you remember, it took us 10 days to reach 2 million downloads of the Firefox Preview Release. This time, in only 32 days, we quintupled that number".
Global Education and Learning Community Grows
Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced growth in the Global Education and Learning Community, which promotes open-source educational tools. "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced that the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC) is thriving, growing to more than 1330 members with more than 177 projects in less than eight months. Sun convened the first advisory board meeting in September 2004 to gather the key influencers in technology and education to focus on developing the technology community's collaborative open standards-based projects and tools for teaching and learning."
Commercial announcements
Arkeia Announces PostgreSQL Hot Backup Plug-In
Arkeia Corp has announced a new plug-in for performing hot backups on PostgreSQL databases. "The new hot backup plug-in is compatible with the company's flagship product Arkeia Network Backup, as well as Arkeia Server Backup. It allows Arkeia backup solutions to protect the database without interrupting PostgreSQL services."
Bull to build 60 teraflop cluster
Bull has announced that it will be building a 60-teraflop cluster for the French Nuclear Power agency. The system will have 544 nodes, each of which will hold eight dual-core Itanium processors; it will, says Bull, be the most powerful computer in Europe. Yes, it will run Linux.Coverity's kernel code quality study
Coverity is the company which was formed on the work of the "Stanford checker" group; it is selling static code analysis tools. The checker has found large numbers of kernel bugs in the past. Coverity has now put out a press release (click below for the full text) stating that, by their statistics, the kernel has 985 bugs, or 0.17 bugs per thousand lines of code. "Commercial software typically has 20 to 30 bugs for every thousand lines of code, according to Carnegie Mellon University's CyLab Sustainable Computing Consortium. This is equivalent to 114,000 to 171,000 bugs in 5.7 million lines of code."
Cybersource's TCO study
Cybersource has published a new total cost of ownership study (PDF) comparing Windows and Linux deployments. Despite having given several advantages to Windows, the study concludes that switching to Linux is 36% cheaper if existing hardware is used, and 26% cheaper if new hardware is part of the switch. The savings are less (but still significant) if the Red Hat Enterprise products (and associated support contracts) are purchased.LPI Announces Two New Affiliates in France and UK
The Linux Professional Institute has announced the signing of new affiliates, the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) and OpenForum Europe (OFE).OSDL/IDC's Linux market predictions
OSDL has announced the results of a Linux market survey conducted by IDC. The bottom line: in 2008, the Linux market will be $36 billion, of which $14 billion will be "packaged applications and infrastructure software running on Linux." A PowerPoint-style version of the study is available in PDF format.Pillsbury Winthrop on free software and patents
Here's a lawyergram from Pillsbury Winthrop LLP on free software and patents; the clue level is higher than one might expect. "The suggestion that users of OS software are more likely to be sued for patent infringement than those that use proprietary software, like Microsoft's does not appear supported by actual experience. It is interesting to note that while Microsoft has had several dozen patent infringement lawsuits filed against it in the past few years, none have been reported against Linux, the most popular of all [open source] programs."
Professional Support for Firefox and Thunderbird
MozSource has launched an email support service for Firefox, Thunderbird and Mozilla at a rate of $4.99 per incident. "MozSource, the independent company that operates the Mozilla Store and the Netscape Store, today announced the launch of its new high-quality, affordable technical support service for Mozilla Firefox, Thunderbird and Mozilla 1.7. Available from http://support.mozsource.com, end-user email support for the Firefox web browser, the Thunderbird email client and the Mozilla 1.7 Internet suite will be provided by an experienced team of support professionals who have years of experience with Mozilla-based products."
Red Hat and IBM Launch Linux ISV Certification Support Program in Europe
Red Hat and IBM have announced a joint Linux ISV Certification Support Program in Europe. "The programme - fulfilled by the IBM Innovation Centres for Business Partners in Hursley (UK), Moscow (Russia), Paris (France) and Stuttgart (Germany) - provides support for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who wish to certify applications on Red Hat Enterprise Linux running on IBM hardware and IBM middleware."
Xandros PCs available at Walmart and Amazon.com
Wallmart.com and Amazon.com will be selling a series of Microtel PCs loaded with the Xandros distribution, starting at around $200.
New Books
"Jakarta Commons Cookbook" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Jakarta Commons Cookbook by Timothy M. O'Brien.No Starch Press to Release "Silence on the Wire"
No Starch Press will publish the book Silence on the Wire by Michal Zalewski.
Resources
free!music CD 1.0 available for download
Downloadable ISO images of the ALT Linux free!music CD is available. "This CD contains Ogg Vorbis encoded music from 30 groups and individual performers in quite different styles (rock, traditional etc). According to FREE!MUSIC declaration all tracks can be copied, sold, reused in movies etc. -- whatever you like, but you always have to keep name of the authors and their contacts information, so that anyone can mail or phone them and suggest a contract or a gig etc :)"
Contests and Awards
Konqueror wins MozillaQuest Magazine Editor's Choice award
KDE's Konqueror browser has been awarded a MozillaQuest Magazine Editor's Choice award. "The KDE Konqueror browser seems to take less memory than do the Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape browsers. Konqueror seems faster too. Moreover, Konqueror has a very good, open source, rendering engine. In our opinion, Konqueror is more efficient than the Firefox, Mozilla, and Netscape browsers."
Upcoming Events
Evolution EPlugin Hackfest on IRC, December 16
An EPlugin hackfest will be held online. "On Thursday Dec. 16th, 2004 the Evolution Team is going to have an EPlugin Hackfest on irc in #evolution on gimp net. We want everyone to see just how cool EPlugin is, to help shake out bugs and implement those niggly little features you've always wanted. It should start around 10am Perth Australia time and go as long as we can!"
CodeCon CFP deadline nearing
Papers and proposals for CodeCon 4.0 are due in by December 15, 2004. The event will be held in San Francisco CA on February 11-13, 2005.Linux Installfest workshops in Davis, CA
The Linux Users' Group of Davis has announced another Linux Installfest. The event will take place on December 19, 2004 in Davis, California.EclipseCon 2005 Announces Gold-Level Sponsors
The EclipseCon gold level sponsors have been announced. "Six leading technology companies, Accelerated Technology, Inc. a Mentor Graphics Division, Actuate Corporation, Agitar Software, Borland Software Corporation, HP and IBM will be the key sponsors of the conference."
Lightning Talks at FOSDEM2005: Call for Papers
A Call for Papers has gone out for the FOSDEM2005 Lightning Talks. "A Lightning Talk is a very short presentation of a software project in 15 minutes maximum. So the presentation should be very sharp, small and clear. Presentations only about free software projects will be accepted. The presentation should be presented in English." Proposals should be submitted by February 25, 2005.
UK Python Conference call for papers
A call for papers has gone out for the UK Python Conference. The event will take place on April 20-23, 2005 in Oxford, England.The Red Hat Summit
Red Hat has sent out a press release announcing that the first annual "Red Hat Summit" will happen June 1 to 3 in New Orleans. "The Red Hat Summit will blend different views and content into a program useful for attendees building and enabling open source architectures. General sessions will be held each morning of the three-day Summit followed by in-depth sessions grouped into three main tracks for attendees to choose from. Tracks include the Practical, Technical, and Business and Current Issues Tracks."
The LinuxWorld Conference and Expo/Mexico
IDG World Expo has announced a Mexican LinuxWorld Conference & Expo. "LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in Mexico will be co-located with E.J. Krause's EXPO COMM MEXICO, the most important international telecommunications and IT business forum in Mexico. LinuxWorld Mexico is scheduled for February 2006 in Mexico City at Centro Banamex." Preceding the event, the LinuxWorld Mexico Summit will be held on June 9-10, 2005.
Events: December 16, 2004 - February 10, 2005
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| December 16 - 18, 2004 | Ubuntu Conference | Mataró, Spain |
| December 16 - 17, 2004 | JavaPolis 2004 | (MetroPolis Antwerp)Antwerp, Belgium |
| December 16 - 22, 2004 | UMeet Virtual Conference | On the Net |
| December 27 - 29, 2004 | Chaos Communication Congress(21C3) | (Berliner Congress Center)Berlin, Germany |
| January 14, 2005 | PHP West Web Services conference | (HR MacMillan Space Centre)Vancouver, BC, Canada |
| January 28 - February 4, 2005 | Asia Source | (Visthar training venue)Bangalore, India |
| January 31 - February 2, 2005 | OSDL Enterprise Linux Summit | (Hyatt Hotel)Burlingame, California |
| February 2 - 3, 2005 | Solutions Linux 2004 | (CNIT, Paris la Défense)Paris, France |
| February 7 - 11, 2005 | GlobusWORLD | (Sheraton Boston Hotel)Boston, MA |
| February 9 - 11, 2005 | German Perl-Workshop 2005 | Dresden, Germany |
| February 9 - 11, 2005 | Third-Annual Desktop Linux Summit | (Del Mar Fairgrounds)San Diego, CA |
| February 9, 2005 | OOo RegiCon North America | (Del Mar Fairgrounds)San Diego, CA |
Mailing Lists
KDE Graphics Programming (KDE.News)
A new KDE Graphics Programming mailing list has been announced. "The list is developer oriented and will be the central place for all eye-candy development within KDE. Developers and researchers from the computer graphics field are welcomed and strongly encouraged to subscribe. Everything computer graphics related will be on topic - that includes developments within the X.org community, uses of OpenGL within a desktop environment or simply sharing your latest computer graphics research findings with others."
Miscellaneous
DiDio rides again
The Yankee Group has concluded that now would be a good time to put out a scary press release on the dangers of using Linux without indemnification. "A corporate Linux or open source user that lacks indemnification and product warranty will expend its own time, money and resources fighting legal action. In addition to the potential monetary costs associated with protracted litigation, a corporation risks incalculable loss to its reputation, which could deter existing and prospective customers from signing on new business."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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