Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
European patent restart request denied
NoSoftwarePatents.com is reporting that the European Commission has turned down the European Parliament's request for a restart of the software patent directive process. There is not a whole lot more information available yet.Join the Fellowship and protect your freedom!
The Free Software Foundation Europe has announced a fellowship program. ""We stand up to protect our freedom to shape and participate in a digital society that respects liberty and privacy." With this slogan, the Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) started its fellowship program at the FOSDEM fair for Free Software last weekend in Brussels."
A new brief in the Grokster case
Ed Felten notes that he and sixteen other CS professors (with names like Abelson, Bellovin, Farber, Kernighan, Rubin, Spafford, Touretzky, etc.) have filed a friend of the court brief in the Grokster case, which may have wide-ranging effects on the sort of software which can be written and distributed. The full brief is available in PDF format. "The very first Internet standards document, dated April 7, 1969 and known as RFC 1, discusses the use of the nascent network to connect any user to any remote computer in what is now called a P2P fashion, and to transmit files between computers via these connections. Indeed, these are the only specific network building blocks (called 'primitives') discussed in RFC 1. Development of P2P interaction and file transfer has continued as the Internet has grown. Accordingly, any rules that might be applied to P2P technologies in general, or to file sharing systems in general, necessarily would apply to the Internet in general."
Russ Nelson proposes new license requirements
Russ Nelson has floated a proposal that any new licenses accepted by the Open Source Initiative must satisfy three new requirements to be added to the Open Source Definition. These terms are that the license solves a problem not addressed by current licenses, that it be simple and understandable, and that it not be tied to any particular group or project. Click below for the full message.
Commercial announcements
IBM contributes 30 projects to open source
Here's a press release from IBM announcing the company's contribution of more than thirty open source projects to SourceForge.net and the launch of new online skills-building programs. "The projects include IBM's Jikes(TM) software, a fast Java(TM) compiler that helps developers speed their development time, and the Life Science Identifier, which helps developers in healthcare build life sciences applications by automatically scanning networks for biologically significant data."
JBoss, Inc. Reports Fourth Quarter Results
JBoss, Inc. has released its fourth quarter financial results. "JBoss, Inc., the Professional Open Source company, today announced fourth quarter results for 2004, which closes out the company's most successful year to date."
Mandrakesoft, Conectiva to merge
Mandrakesoft has sent out a press release announcing that it will be acquiring Conectiva. Mandrakesoft will be paying €1.79 million (in stock) for the acquisition. "Both Mandrakesoft and Conectiva are profitable companies. The resulting corporation will benefit from several synergies by sharing development resources, commercial prospects and larger economies of scale, resulting in improved development potential for both companies."
MP3beamer Makes Personal Music Catalog Available From Any Device
MP3tunes has announced its MP3beamer product. ""The MP3beamer is the jukebox in the sky, but it lives in your computer room," said Michael Robertson, CEO of MP3tunes. "It acts like your own personal digital music recorder [DMR]. Just as a digital video recorder stores video and allows you to play it back on TVs, a DMR lets you add a music track or album to MP3beamer and immediately have it available on your home stereo, iTunes, PDA or portable device -- virtually any device with speakers or a headphone jack.""
OpenIB Workshop Completed
The OpenIB Alliance announced the conclusion of the OpenIB Developer's Workshop. "The OpenIB Alliance announced the successful conclusion of the first OpenIB Developer's Workshop for open source InfiniBand software development. The workshop was organized in response to the Linux community's acceptance of the OpenIB software stack into the 2.6 kernel and focused on accelerating software development and testing for key database, storage and parallel computing applications."
Opera launches Beta 2
Opera Software released the second Beta version of its next browser, which includes an answer to the recent security debate over Web site spoofing. In this Beta, the browser displays security information inside the address bar, located next to the padlock icon that indicates the level of security present on a site.PathScale wins Supercomputing Product of the Year
PathScale has won the 2004 Supercomputing Product of the Year poll. "PathScale, developer of innovative software and hardware solutions to accelerate the performance and efficiency of Linux clusters, has been voted the 2004 Supercomputing Product of the Year in an online reader's poll conducted annually by SupercomputingOnline.com, a leading Web-based news source for high performance computing, networking and communications professionals."
VA Linux and Sun Wah Linux Join Forces Around Debian
VA Linux Systems Japan K.K. has announced a strategic alliance with Sun Wah Linux Limited (SWL) to jointly develop a universal Debian GNU/Linux infrastructure and actively promote the adoption of Debian-based systems in both the Japan and China markets.Win4Lin Pro Ships
Win4Lin, Inc. has announced that they had begun quantity shipments of Win4Lin Pro. The shipping version of Win4Lin Pro fully delivers both the Windows 2000 Operating System and Windows 2000 applications on Linux as well as early support for Windows XP.
New Books
"Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 3rd Edition" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Linux Network Administrator's Guide, 3rd Edition by Tony Bautts, Terry Dawson, and Gregor N. Purdy."Linux in a Windows World" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book Linux in a Windows World by Roderick W. Smith."PC Hardware Buyer's Guide" Released by O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book PC Hardware Buyer's Guide by Robert Bruce Thompson and Barbara Fritchman Thompson."Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion" Released by Pragmatic Bookshelf
Pragmatic Bookshelf has published the book Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion by Mike Mason.
Contests and Awards
aKademy 2005 Logo Contest Launched (KDE.News)
KDE.News mentions a new logo contest, this time for aKademy 2005. "The KDE project is looking for a great new logo for our biggest event of the year: The KDE Developers and Users Conference 2005, also known as aKademy 2005. This logo will be seen everywhere including websites, on t-shirts and in magazines. kde-look is hosting the contest to find the new aKademy logo."
GNOME 2.10 splash screen contest (GnomeDesktop)
A GNOME 2.10 splash screen contest has been announced. "GNOME 2.10 is coming closer and is ready to rock you to the socks. But to make sure everyone gets rocked properly we need a superterrific splashscreen. Now is your chance to join the ranks of the precious few who have had their artwork associated with a major release of the GNOME!"
Upcoming Events
FAVE 2005 - CFP Workshops and Artists
A call for presentations has gone out for FAVE 2005. "FAVE is a get-together for creative people who are interested in free and open source software on Linux and other computer platforms. It's taking place on Saturday August 13th 2005 at the Trinity Community & Arts Centre in Bristol, UK."
ICMC2005 Paper Deadline less than 10 days away!
Papers are due soon for the international computer music conference, ICMC 2005. The event will take place in Barcelona, Spain on September 5-9, 2005.LAC 2005: Conference program online, register now!
The LAC 2005 conference program has been announced. "the conference programme of the International Linux Audio Conference 2005 (LAC2005) in Karlsruhe, Germany, on April 21st-24th, 2005, is now online at http://lac.zkm.de (link broken). Small changes are still possible, though."
linux.conf.au 2005 hackfest
The 2005 linux.conf.au hackfest has been announced. "This is your chance to show how good your programming capabilities really are as well as be in the running for a cool prize. The competition this year has two sections, one similar to last year involves writing an AI to play a game. The second is to build a user interface for humans to play the same game. So those of you with user interface design and artistic skills can also participate."
Announcing Ubuntu Down Under Conference
The Ubuntu Down Under Conference will take place in Sydney, Australia on April 25-30, 2005.12th Annual VistA Community Meeting (LinuxMedNews)
LinuxMedNews has announced the next WorldVistA community meeting. "Per the website, The meeting will be held in Boston, Massachusetts April 7th to 10th, 2005. The conference will offer VistA tutorials, OpenVistA installs on laptops, OpenVistA programming projects, and setting WorldVistA's strategy for 2005."
Events: March 3 - April 28, 2005
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| March 3, 2005 | EclipseCon 2005 | (Hyatt Regency)Burlingame, CA |
| March 3 - 4, 2005 | Security-Enhanced Linux Symposium | Silver Spring, Maryland |
| March 3, 2005 | Asia CodeFest 2005 | Beijing, China |
| March 3 - 4, 2005 | The 5th Asia Open Source Software Symposium | Beijing, China |
| March 3 - 4, 2005 | The Free and Open Source Software Workshop | (Al Assad National Library)Damascus, Syria |
| March 4, 2005 | LPA AGM | Rivonia Sandton, South Africa |
| March 4 - 5, 2005 | Linuxforum 2005 | Copenhagen, Denmark |
| March 10 - 16, 2005 | CeBIT 2005 | Hannover, Germany |
| March 12, 2005 | Gentoo UK 2005 | (University of Salford)Manchester, UK |
| March 12, 2005 | Third Hungarian PHP Conference | Budapest, Hungary |
| March 14 - 17, 2005 | Emerging Technology Conference(ETech) | (Westin Horton Plaza)San Diego, CA |
| March 20 - 25, 2005 | Novell BrainShare 2005 | Salt Lake City, Utah |
| March 21 - 24, 2005 | Bellua Cyber Security Asia 2005 | (Hotel Borobudur)Jakarta, Indonesia |
| March 21 - 24, 2005 | Open Source Modeling and IDEs Workshop | (Caribe Royale All Suites Resort & Convention Center)Orlando, FL |
| March 23 - 25, 2005 | PyCon DC 2005 | (GWU Cafritz Conference Center)Washington, DC |
| March 26 - 27, 2005 | YAPC::Taipei 2005 | Taipei |
| March 30 - April 1, 2005 | PHP Quebec | (Crowne Plaza Hotel)Montreal, Canada |
| March 31 - April 1, 2005 | Black Hat Briefings Europe 2005 | Amsterdam, the Netherlands |
| April 1 - 3, 2005 | Twisted Sprint | Hobart, Tasmania |
| April 5 - 6, 2005 | Open Source Business Conference(OSBC) | (Westin St. Francis)San Francisco, CA |
| April 7 - 8, 2005 | Black Hat Briefings Asia 2005 | Singapore |
| April 10 - 15, 2005 | 2005 USENIX Annual Technical Conference | Anaheim, California, USA |
| April 12 - 15, 2005 | Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference 2005 | (Westin Hotel)Seattle, WA |
| April 18 - 23, 2005 | linux.conf.au 2005 | (Australian National University)Canberra, Australia |
| April 18 - 21, 2005 | MySQL Users Conference and Expo 2005 | (Santa Clara Convention Center)Santa Clara, CA |
| April 18 - 20, 2005 | LinuxWorld Conference and Expo 2005 | (Metro Toronto Convention Centre)Toronto, ON |
| April 18 - 19, 2005 | Debian Miniconf 4 | Canberra, Australia |
| April 19 - 20, 2005 | San Francisco techCongress | (Rickey's Hyatt)Palo Alto, CA |
| April 20 - 23, 2005 | ACCU Conference 2005 | (Randolph Hotel)Oxford, England |
| April 21 - 24, 2005 | 3rd International Linux Audio Conference(LAC2005) | (Center for Art and Media (ZKM))Karlsruhe, Germany |
| April 23 - 24, 2005 | LayerOne Technology Conference | (Pasadena Hilton)Pasadena, CA |
| April 25 - 30, 2005 | UbuntuDownUnder | Sydney, Australia |
Web sites
Rocking Development Action on live.gnome.org
The live.gnome.org site has undergone a content change: "live.gnome.org was originally set up to host live content for GNOME events, but is now the focus of intense developer documentation and collaboration, and today we'd like to welcome all developers of GNOME and related projects to use the wiki for this purpose."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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