2005 Linux and free software timeline: January

[Posted December 20, 2005 by corbet]

There are already free programs that do the same basic job. Linus Torvalds feels they are not convenient enough, and he values convenience more than he values standing firm for freedom. I think that is leading the community in the wrong direction.

--Richard Stallman

Four-level page tables are merged into the 2.6 kernel. This fundamental change shows how well the 2.6 development process can work (LWN coverage).

The second edition of Linux Application Development is released (review).

IBM makes 500 patents available for open source projects (announcement). The move is seen as a good - if small - start.

However, you guys want the freedom to ship software that sucks - or, more to the point and more likely, want to be able to easily give your software to other people and allow them to make it suck and then ship it. If that software ships using our trademarks, then that is incompatible with our trademark goals.

--Mozilla Foundation to Debian

The Debian Project and Mozilla Foundation clash over the proper licensing and naming of Firefox in Debian.

61 members of the European Parliament move to restart the software patent directive process (release).

The Fedora Legacy project stops issuing updates, leaving users of older Fedora releases vulnerable for almost two months (article).

California considers an anti-peer-to-peer law which would effectively outlaw any network operating system (article).

Verizon blocks email from Europe thinking that it will help with the spam problem.

Given that base 2.6 kernels are shipped by Linus with known unfixed security holes anyone trying to use them really should be doing some careful thinking. In truth no 2.6 released kernel is suitable for anything but beta testing until you add a few patches anyway.

--Alan Cox

[PostgreSQL] PostgreSQL 8.0.0 is released (announcement).

XenSource raises $6 million in venture funding (press release).

Andrew "Tridge" Tridgell joins OSDL (press release).

Sun releases 1600 software patents but only for use with CDDL-licensed software (press release). The DTrace code is also released.

The EFF Endangered Gizmos list highlights the destructive effects of the entertainment industry's legal attacks (list).

Russ Nelson becomes the new Open Source Initiative president (announcement).

Ralph Yarro and others are kicked out of the Canopy Group, SCO's corporate parent. They file suit, of course.

Timeline home

February ==>