Linux in the news

Windows Refund Day II: a Call for Action (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal calls for a Windows Refund Day, a second WRD event to coincide with LinuxWorld Expo New York, January 2003. "Why is there a call for action: Computer manufacturers must be held accountable for their refusal to provide consumers with a refund for unused copies of the Windows operating system shipped with today's computers."

Comments (none posted)

Group urges limits on open source (News.com)

News.com looks at the latest round of FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) from the MS-backed Initiative for Software Choice. "This week, the Initiative for Software Choice counterattacked, telling the Defense Information Systems Agency that the Pentagon should not "openly promote the use" of open-source software, arguing that proprietary products are not inherently less secure."

Comments (2 posted)

A Losing Bet: the Last Days of Comdex, Part 2 (Linux Journal)

Comdex was not well attended this year, but Doc Searls went and has written a report for Linux Journal. "I hadn't planned on being at Comdex this year.... But a few months ago I was approached by some of the folks at Key3Media, the company that puts on the show, about participating in a new Comdex feature--a Great Debate. The bait was terrific: somebody had to take on Steve Ballmer of Microsoft. There might be a couple other people in the debate, I was told; but it would probably be something of a Microsoft vs. Linux thing. I was selected to hold up the Linux end of the contest. How could I refuse?"

Comments (none posted)

The Real Battle at Comdex: Intellectual Property vs. Internet Protocol (Linux Journal)

Doc Searls continues his Comdex coverage in this Linux Journal article. "As I said in my first show report, this year Comdex was mostly a Microsoft show, a place where the company and its most compliant hardware OEMs could showcase the new Tablet PC. But in a larger sense, it also was an arena where marketing fought markets, where the hares of intellectual property raced the tortoises of internet protocol, where those that want to own the world confronted those that want to make a world that can't be owned."

Comments (none posted)

Guess Who's Coming to Speak (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal covers LinuxBangalore/2002, where computer scientist Tarun Anand, of Microsoft, is a surprise entrant among the dozens of speakers that take the podium. "Special focus at the event will be given to Indianisation efforts for GNU/Linux, a field lacking the progress made by other non-English, non-Latin script languages. Progress in this field could take affordable computing to possibly hundreds of millions of people in this talent-rich, resource-poor nation."

Comments (none posted)

Father of Java Sounds Off (eWeek)

eWeek covers Java inventor James Gosling's keynote at the Software Development Conference and Expo East 2002. "Following his stint with the press, Gosling delivered his keynote on "The Future of Open, End-to-End Software Systems, where he highlighted a few of his favorite Java systems. One was for the Brazilian National Health system, which Gosling said contained "a big pile of Enterprise JavaBeans." He said the system runs on five national server farms that look at 12 million people in 44 cities, he said. The Brazilian National Healthcare system has about 10 million lines of code, Gosling said, and the organization plans to turn its software over to the open-source movement."

Comments (none posted)

Computing Pioneer Joins HP Labs (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers computing pioneer Alan Kay, who has recently become a senior fellow at HP Labs. "Kay, 62, will research and develop new software platforms, the company said Tuesday. Underlying code will be shared in the same fashion as the open-source Linux operating system."

Comments (none posted)

MandrakeSoft looks for ''Refugees'' (OfB.biz)

Open for Business covers a new offer from MandrakeSoft. "The developers of Mandrake Linux have announced a new offer targeted directly at those using proprietary operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS, or BeOS. The "Operating System Refugee Offer," as it is known, is reminiscent of proprietary competitors' competitive upgrade offers, only it boasts an even more dramatic discount."

Comments (none posted)

MS targets Linux defectors with 'special' price discounts (Register)

Here's a Register article about Microsoft's next campaign against open source - discounts. "Savage discounts and easy payment terms available on Microsoft software, should you look like you're about to jump ship for Open Source? We all know that this kind of thing happens, but from what a Yankee Group analyst has been telling Newsfactor, this semi-ad hoc procedure has been formalised as part of a new 'Open Value' licensing programme, to be launched next year."

Comments (2 posted)

Server market stabilises (but competition is fierce) (Register)

The Register covers the latest IDC report, which says Unix-based machines are losing ground to Linux and Windows-based boxes. "IDC found the strongest growth in the entry lever server market, where sales were up 5% both sequentially and on the year. At the same time, Linux machines grew 26.7% year on year, while Windows servers grew 3.2%, largely on the back of Intel-based shipments. Unix servers slipped 10% on the year."

Comments (none posted)

TCO - How low can you go?

Here's a Yahoo article about a Microsoft funding study by IDC, which predicably finds that Windows has a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) than Linux. Thanks to Elijah P Newren

The Register examines the study, and comments on the findings.

Meanwhile, this article in ZDNet Australia finds that the TCO depends on many factors and should be determined on a case by case basis. Thanks to Con Zymaris

Comments (3 posted)

PostgreSQL, MySQL Tweak Their Wares (eWeek)

eWeek covers new features and support from MySQL and PostgreSQL. "Jason Jacobs, CEO of CoreSense Inc., a New York company that makes e-business software for resellers and manufacturers, said that even though he's not running MySQL on IBM hardware, the IBM support is still welcome because it broadens the pool of users contributing to open-source enhancements. "The larger the user group, the better for all of us," he said. "[Enterprises are] going to look for something to be supported, in order to bet their business on it."" Thanks to Ashwin N.

Comments (none posted)

Linux Is Launchpad For Boeing's Simulations (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers Boeing's Expendable Launch Systems division in Huntington Beach, Calif., as they keep costs down by using a 96-node cluster of PCs with Advanced Micro Devices 850-MHz Athlon processors running Red Hat Linux.

Comments (none posted)

File swapping in the legal crosshairs (News.com)

Here's a News.com article on today's preliminary arguments in the latest file swapping case to hit the courts. "Any outcome will help shape the future of the file-trading world. The copyright holders' case against Streamcast, Grokster and the successive parent companies of the Kazaa software is widely viewed as potentially even more influential than the suit against the now-defunct Napster, and a full trial could be an important legal milestone for the technology community."

Comments (none posted)

No future in proprietary software (ZDNet)

Here's an interview with Richard Stallman on ZDNet. "I don't know what Microsoft might do in the many situations that might develop. What I can say is that Microsoft has enough cash on hand to pay 5,000 programmers to write free software for about a century. There is clearly no need for the proprietary software model."

Comments (31 posted)

A CTO gives thanks (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld CTO Chad Dickerson shares some things he is thankful for. "Open-source development continues to make my job easier by providing solid solutions that work both technically and financially. During the boom times, a common job benefit and recruiting tool of the CTO was to sanction work on open-source projects during company time. Now that the economy has tightened, I don't hear much about this kind of arrangement any more, yet the quality of work in the open-source community continues to be impressive because of the passion of developers committed to improving technology despite a harsh macroeconomic environment. Linux may be old hat, but the kernel continues to improve in important ways for large businesses." Thanks to Lenz Grimmer

Comments (8 posted)

Tiemann steers course for open source (ZDNet)

ZDNet interviews Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann. "The key discriminating function of the main Linux maintainers--which include Linus Torvalds--is their absolute no-compromise position on clean interfaces and forcing people who want to go two steps forward to not go one step back. What this means is, in many kernel mailing-list discussions I've seen over the last 12 months, when somebody proposes a solution that solves some problems but brings with it other problems, generally that solution is rejected until the other problems are addressed."

Comments (1 posted)

How To Get Hired As An Open-Source Developer (TechWeb)

TechWeb has some advice for job seekers in open source development. "What was Todd Cranston-Cuebas, prolific Senior Technical Recruiter for Ticketmaster, doing at the recent Apachecon technical conference in Las Vegas? Searching for open source talent, endearing himself to the Apache technical community and engaging in his own sort of "passive" recruitment. Todd has sage advice for both open-source recruiters and job seekers -- straight from the trenches."

Comments (none posted)

An Interview with Tim O'Reilly

O'Reilly's OpenP2P.com interviews Tim O'Reilly, a variety of topics are covered.

Comments (none posted)

LinuxDevices.com Newsletter for Nov. 28, 2002

Here's the Embedded Linux Newsletter from LinuxDevices.com, with pointers to the Fall 2002 Embedded Linux Market Survey and much more.

Full Story (comments: none)

LJ Index (Linux Journal)

Doc Searls presents some statistics for all you number crunchers. "Euros the European Union is spending to study migrating EU government computers to Linux and open source: 249,000"

Comments (none posted)

Tools for Linux Clusters (IBM alphaWorks)

IBM alphaWorks covers two tools to help build Linux clusters. The xCAT (Extreme Cluster Administration Toolkit) can be used for the deployment and administration of Linux clusters. ECT for Linux is a set of additional tools for the enhancement of Cluster Systems Management (CSM), which assists an administrator in managing a whole set of Linux machines.

Comments (none posted)

Linux in Government (Linux Journal)

In this Linux Journal article, Phil Hughes discusses how Linux is used in goverments around the world, and what can be done to facilitate the spread of Linux in government. "As in most of the world, Linux has made its presence known in Costa Rica. My interview with Guy de Téramond, which appeared in the January issue of Linux Journal, detailed one example of Linux at work in Costa Rica. It also is running on servers at the Casa Presidential (the Costa Rican equivalent of the White House) and CIPET, a branch of the Ministry of Education that provides technical training for teachers."

Comments (none posted)

Linux Gazette #85 (December 2002)

The Linux Gazette for December 2002 is now available. "Linux Gazette is a freely available, WWW e-zine that includes short articles giving tips and tricks, ideas and suggestions for customizing and running Linux. It is a member of the Linux Documentation Project."

Full Story (comments: none)

Hooray for Bluecurve (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal reviews the Bluecurve desktop that ships with Red Hat Linux 8.0. "Personally, I am happy Red Hat melted the two environments together. If nothing else, this could be an excellent opportunity to realize that decently functional, good-looking desktop interfaces can be built on the assumption that KDE and GNOME themselves aren't really necessary and important in the first place."

Comments (4 posted)

Red Hat preps Linux for technical workstations (Register)

The Register reports on the upcoming "Red Hat Technical Workstation" distribution. "An early version of Technical Workstation has been used by animation film company Dreamworks LLC as part of its Linux animation and rendering platform, which was used to produce films such as 'Shrek' and 'Spirit, Stallion of the Cimarron'."

Comments (none posted)

Hackers Fight Censorship, Human Rights Violations (eWeek)

eWeek looks at the Hacktivismo Enhanced-Source Software License Agreement (HESSLA). "Under the HESSLA, users are free to make changes to applications covered by the license and redistribute them, but the agreement also gives them the right to sue if they find someone using the application for malicious purposes. There is also a provision that dictates if any government uses the software as part of a scheme that violates human rights, the government thereby waives its right to sovereign immunity from prosecution in foreign courts."

Comments (14 posted)

Mozilla pulls latest browser downloads (News.com)

News.com reports on a bug in Mozilla 1.2 that cripples dynamic HTML coding on some sites. "The bug surfaced on Mozilla 1.2, the latest version of the AOL-supported browser that was released Nov. 26. The notice on Mozilla.org was brief, noting developers would release Mozilla 1.2.1 with a software fix "shortly.""

Comments (14 posted)