Linux in the news

Bettering the Linux desktop -- Portland progress (DesktopLinux.com)

DesktopLinux.com covers the Portland Project. "Six months ago, architects from two dozen desktop-oriented Linux projects gathered in Portland, Ore. to work together on creating the best possible Linux desktop. Thus was born the Portland Project. Now, in Mainz, Germany, the expanded group is meeting again on May 8 and 9 to see how far it's come and to look at what's ahead."

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FreeBSD vows to compete with desktop Linux (uk.builder.com)

uk.builder.com covers FreeBSD's desktop plans. "FreeBSD developer Scott Long told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the operating system, descended from the Unix derivative BSD, is "quickly approaching" feature parity with Linux. "Lot of work is going on to make FreeBSD more friendly on the desktop," said Long. "Within the year we expect to have, or be near, parity with Linux.""

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Sun flirts with Ubuntu (ZDNet)

ZDNet reports on the joint Sun/Ubuntu event at JavaOne. "'Ubuntu is gaining a ton of momentum,' [Sun CEO Jonathan] Schwartz said in a meeting with reporters after his keynote presentation. 'It is arguably one of the most important--if not the most important--Linux distro out there.' That's a poke in the eye for Red Hat and Novell, the other two major Linux distributors."

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Office ODF Support: Bad for Business!? (Linux-Watch)

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols analyzes some corporate FUD about adding OpenDocument Format support to Microsoft Word. "You've got to love Microsoft's sloppy way of opposing Linux and open-source some days. In Microsoft's latest FUD move, as reported in Linux Pipeline, Melanie Wyne, executive director of the ISC (Initiative for Software Choice), has accused the Massachusetts Information and Technology Division of having "a biased, open source-only preference policy." Their crime? Requesting a plug-in for Microsoft's Office Suite that can save and read to the ODF (OpenDocument Format). Horrors!"

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Open Source Software: Who Gives And Who Takes (InformationWeek)

InformationWeek looks at volunteers and big companies in open source software. "This spirit of volunteerism is alive and well in the world of open source software. Thousands of people donate their time and expertise to the benefit of all. But not everyone is giving as much as they're getting. Large companies, those with the greatest wherewithal to help, are surprisingly minor players in the roll-up-your-sleeves work of open source development." (Thanks to Peter N. Lundblad)

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Linux System Administration: Growth in the Enterprise (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at an online Linux training course offered by SpiderTools of Trout Creek, Montana. "Linux has gained market share quickly and many companies say they cannot find enough people to handle the work. So, they attempt to convert Microsoft trained engineers to work on Linux. That confirms a statement Mike Weber made to me when he said, "We see a number of young administrators who have new jobs that require a larger skill set than what they had to get the job". When administrators suddenly find themselves needing to perform tasks on a new Linux server, Mike Weber's team can provide rapid training. According to Mike, "the availability of broadband has allowed people to connect and use interactive multimedia for training now. We have students all over the world who can access our training because of broadband."

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India lays down 'open' challenge (BBC)

Here's a BBC article from a columnist who thinks that Asia will come to dominate the free software community. "Free software provides a bridge between the affluence of the West and the poverty of most of the world's population, and amounts to a massive flow of intellectual capital into the developing world. And as they reshape it to meet their needs it will stop being just another US import and become a resource that can be used in brand new ways. Once the people on the receiving end make it their own they will change the world." (Thanks to John Rigg).

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Out the Window (WSJ)

A Wall Street Journal reporter tried out six Linux distributions on his laptop and reported on the results. "For me, though, using the Linux systems didn't make sense. I often send documents and spreadsheets between my home PC and the one at work, which uses Microsoft Office. And the files are sometimes complex. Meanwhile, for both personal and professional computer use, I want access to all multimedia functions. While solutions may exist to almost every problem I encountered, I was willing to invest only a limited amount of time as a system administrator. Claims by some Linux publishers that anybody can easily switch to Linux from Windows seem totally oversold."

Comments (20 posted)

Samba Helps Enable Exchange Alternative

News.samba.org mentions a new Samba-based replacement for Exchange. "PostPath has created a protocol-compatible drop-in alternative to Exchange. It provides granular backup and restore, on or offsite redundancy, 5X Exchange performance, and AJAX web access."

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Enforcing the GPL (NewsForge)

NewsForge looks at GPL enforcement. "Dan Ravicher, legal director of the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC), says that most companies violating the GPL are "not doing so because they're evil, but because they don't know. The managers and businesspeople don't know that's in there.""

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New Zealand SSC Releases Revised Guidance on Open Source (Groklaw)

Groklaw reports that thoughtful and polite input can make a difference. "You'll remember in March when New Zealand's State Services Commission posted a paper providing "guidance" to departments regarding Open Source. The paper, prepared by a law firm that lists Microsoft as a client, used such controversial terms as "infectious" when discussing the GPL. A revised document is now available, which has been improved markedly."

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GPL concerns halt Kororaa live CD (NewsForge)

NewsForge notes that the Kororaa Live CD project has been temporarily shut down. "The Kororaa Live CD project has been temporarily shut down by questions over the legality of its distribution. The highly popular Live CD included the Xgl features which apply 3-D eye candy to the desktop. It also included binary only versions of Nvidia and ATI drivers, and that is the bug in the ointment."

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Fedora Board chair looks ahead (NewsForge)

NewsForge talks with Fedora board chair Max Spevack. "Even more importantly, Spevack wants to encourage a closer coordination of efforts between Fedora Core, the main package repository for the project, and Fedora Extras, the community-based repository that complements Fedora Core. Although he downplays the divisions that others see between the two repositories, Spevack considers Fedora Extras a main source of fresh ideas for the project, praising what he calls 'an explosion of leadership out of Fedora Extras.' In particular, he cites the fact that the Fedora Extras package guidelines are now being used within Red Hat."

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KDE and Business: AEI Interview (KDE.News)

KDE.News has an interview with Caleb Tennis, a design engineer Analytical Engineering, Inc. "How is KDE helping AEI meet its IT needs, and how long has AEI been using KDE? CT: Having a very easy to use GUI for the test cells is very important to us. Our test cell computers operate in what I call "pseudo-kiosk" mode. That is, most of the desktop features of KDE aren't used much, but they are available. Instead, all of the operation is done via a few custom written applications. The widgets that are available, and the ease of customizing new widgets, is a huge plus."

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Writing PostgreSQL Functions with PL/pgSQL (O'ReillyNet)

O'ReillyNet looks at the PL/pgSQL language for PostgreSQL. "PL/pgSQL is a procedural language similar to Oracle's PL/SQL. It's much more powerful than pure SQL in that it supports variables, conditional expressions, looping constructs, exceptions, and the like. Because it natively supports all of PostgreSQL's SQL syntax, you can consider it a superset of PostgreSQL SQL. It also respects all data types and their associated functions and operators, and is completely safe for use inside of the server."

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My sysadmin toolbox (NewsForge)

Here's another edition of the sysadmin toolbox. "Cryptcat comes in handy when I am working on a system that does not have SSH on it. I can open up two shells on my workstation with Screen or Konsole and begin listening with Cryptcat. Then I can log in to the remote system and run an instance of Cryptcat there, but pipe it through bash, then back out to Cryptcat. The end result is a lower-security makeshift SSH."

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Panda DesktopSecure for Linux beta launched (net-security.org)

net-security.org covers the latest release of Panda DesktopSecure for Linux. "Panda Software has launched a new beta version of Panda DesktopSecure for Linux. The Panda Software solution for protecting workstations in Linux environments includes notable improvements, for example, in the generation of reports on the detection of malicious code. Similarly, it is now compatible with more kernels in the Linux distributions supported by DesktopSecure for Linux."

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