Linux in the news

Rediscovering Bluetooth (O'ReillyNet)

O'ReillyNet looks at Bluetooth on Linux. "This article shows you how to play with Bluetooth, not buzzwords. If you are not familiar with Bluetooth, I hope to introduce you to such a nifty technology, and guide you through my wonderful world of Bluetooth, with wireless gizmos everywhere!"

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Why Torvalds is sitting out the GPLv3 process (Linux.com)

Linux.com talks with Linus Torvalds about GPLv3. "Why isn't Linus Torvalds involved with the drafting of the third version of the GNU General Public License (GPL)? Torvalds has frequently criticized the process and the drafts of the GPLv3, and recently voted against the license in an informal poll of kernel developers, so it seems obvious to question why he chose to sit out the process. Torvalds gives his reasons as a dislike of committees, an inability to contribute in his preferred way, and philosophical differences with the Free Software Foundation (FSF), which he suggests is trying to absorb other licenses under the GPL."

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aKademy 2006 Kicked Off (KDE.News)

KDE.News covers the start of the aKademy 2006 conference. "aKademy 2006 has been kicked off at the Trinity College in Dublin. The first two days consist of the contributors conference with a fully packed programme of presentations on aspects such as the community, KDE 4, cross-desktop collaboration and KDE & the Free Desktop in Asian countries."

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The future of the Linux Terminal Server Project (Linux.com)

Linux.com covers a recent meeting to discuss the Linux Terminal Server Project. "Distributed development makes open source tick, but sometimes you just have to get people together in a room -- which is what the Linux Terminal Server Project did last weekend. Members of the project, and developers for several distributions, gathered in Clarkston, Michigan last weekend to plot the future of LTSP -- and it looks good."

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IBM Asks the Court to Throw Out SCO's Entire Case (Groklaw)

Groklaw reports that September 25 was the last day for summary judgment motions in SCO v. IBM, and that both companies filed a few of them. "What does that mean? That if IBM were to prevail on all its motions (of course that is a rare event indeed) then the only thing left to bring to a jury would be IBM's counterclaims. That has to be SCO's worst nightmare. That would mean the only questions for the jury to decide, if they found for IBM on the rest of IBM's counterclaims, would be how bad was SCO and how much do they owe IBM?"

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Linux Spreads its Wings in India (BusinessWeek)

BusinessWeek looks at Linux adoption in India. "Although Kerala is the first to introduce such a program statewide, 18 of India's 28 states either are using Linux or have pilot projects for its use in various government departments and schools. The education ministries in most states, and in Delhi the federal ministries of defense, transport, communication, and health, are all using the software on server computers. And eight state governments have put their treasury operations on Linux, while the western state of Maharashtra is using it to revamp health-care systems."

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Microsoft sues over source code theft (News.com)

According to this News.com article, Microsoft has taken a new approach to dealing with the ongoing cracks of its DRM system: claim that the developer stole Microsoft's code and launch a lawsuit. "'Our own intellectual property was stolen from us and used to create this tool,' said Bonnie MacNaughton, a senior attorney in Microsoft's legal and corporate affairs division. 'They obviously had a leg up on any of the other hackers that might be creating circumvention tools from scratch." How this theft is said to have happened is not made particularly clear.

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What Would You Like to Ask Open Invention Network CEO Jerry Rosenthal? (Groklaw)

Groklaw is looking for a few good questions. "A lot of legal brainpower has been going into trying to figure out solutions to the patent threat hanging in the air. We all assume that Microsoft will kill Linux if it can ever find a way, and heaven only knows Steve Ballmer has made veiled threats about using patents. Lawyers on the Linux side understand that language and some real creativity has gone into devising some ways to block, such as the OSDL's patent commons and FOSS search engine project to make it easier for the USPTO to find FOSS prior art and NYU's Open Source prior art project. I believe these are helpful projects. One of the most creative ideas, in my view, is the Open Invention Network, which launched in November of 2005. I know some of you have issues with any strategy that involves patents, so I asked OIN'S CEO Jerry Rosenthal if he would answer your questions, and he has agreed. It's an opportunity to get a firm grasp of what the strategy is, how it is working or not, and what the future might be."

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Europe's software patent war ignites again (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers the latest developments in the European patent debate. "Three political groups in the European Parliament have warned that the possibility of introducing software patents is re-emerging. Last year, the Parliament derailed a proposed directive that, critics argued, would have legitimized software patents in Europe. On Thursday the PES, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL parliamentary groups said that a measure facing a parliamentary vote on Oct. 11 or 12 could take up where the failed software patent directive left off. Internal market commissioner Charlie McCreevy plans to deliver a speech next week promoting the measure, called the European Patent Litigation Agreement."

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Interview: Elizabeth Krumbach of LinuxChix (KDE.News)

KDE.News has an interview with Elizabeth Krumbach. "As women become more involved with open source communities, it's important that their voices be heard. The dot is beginning a new series of interviews with women who contribute to F/OSS. Our first interviewee is Elizabeth Krumbach, who is the coordinator for the Philadelphia area LinuxChix chapter. Read on to find out how she became involved with computers, why she likes to buy equipment online, and her advice for women contemplating involved in open source communities."

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Interview with Ryan Loebs (ObsidianMusic) (LinuxInterviews.com)

LinuxInterviews.com has an interview with Ryan Loebs, creator of ObsidianMusic. "ObsidianMusic (formerly Amarok Web Frontend) is a script written in PHP that reads entries from a database connected to Amarok and displays the results in a web page for online viewing. The generated webpage allows browsing the albums, artists and song that Amarok has stored in its playlist, displays cover art, allows streaming and downloading if MP3/OGG files."

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Free Software's True Believer (Red Herring)

Red Herring interviews Richard Stallman. "The biggest problem in the world of free software is the tendency to introduce non-free programs in the GNU operating system, which defeats the purpose. The whole point was so that we can use the computers and have freedom. If you install the non-free program, then you give up the freedom."

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Interview: NIIBE Yutaka, Chairman, Free Software Initiative of Japan (Linux.com)

Linux.com has an interview with NIIBE Yutaka, chairman of the Free Software Initiative of Japan (FSIJ). "NY: FSIJ is the Free Software Initiative of Japan, a non-profit organization, registered with Tokyo-metropolitan Government. It is run by individual members (about 40 members) along with the help of cooperate members. Although it is a legal entity, there are no employees, and all activities are by volunteers. FSIJ promotes the Free Software movement in Japan and Asia. FSIJ activities include organizing CodeFest, a 24-hour hacker gathering event, playing the role of mentor organization to Google Summer of Code, hosting monthly meetings, etc."

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OpenOffice plug-in plan set for debut (ZDNet)

ZDNet looks at plug-in extensions for OpenOffice.org. "The current OpenOffice software can accept some extensions, but the upcoming 2.0.4 version will have new extension format, OXT. That format can accommodate extensions written in a variety of programming languages, Charles Schultz, who leads the effort to adapt OpenOffice to numerous local languages, said in his blog. It also will become easier to choose, manage and configure extensions, he added."

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Open source search technology goes beyond keywords (NewsForge)

NewsForge looks at search technology. "For several years a group of academic researchers has been quietly working on a new kind of search engine -- one that recognizes the semantic meaning of a query instead of only taking input as a keyword to be literally matched. The technology is licensed under the GPL, and a desktop version is imminent."

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A survey of open source cluster management systems (Linux.com)

Linux.com explores five open-source cluster management systems. "In computing world, the term "cluster" refers to a group of independent computers combined through software and networking, which is often used to run highly compute-intensive jobs. With a cluster, you can build a high-speed supercomputer out of hundreds or even thousands of relatively low-speed systems. Cluster management software offers an easy-to-use interface for managing clusters, and automates the process of queuing jobs, matching the requirements of a job and the resources available to the cluster, and migrating jobs across the cluster. Here's an introduction to five open source CMS applications."

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The New Wish Book: IBM's Linux Migration Guide (ComputerWorld)

David DeJean looks at IBM's Linux Client Migration Cookbook, Version 2 in a ComputerWorld blog. "I must own half a dozen volumes devoted to leaving Microsoft operating systems behind and converting to Linux. For me it's the same sort of fantasy as people who buy travel guides and dream of moving to Bali. Someday, I keep promising myself, I'm really going to do it. The latest book in my collection is the biggest yet. In fact, if it were printed it would probably outweigh an old Sears wish book. Fortunately, it's a PDF file, but at 339 pages its still a tome. But I mean that in a good way.""

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Website Review: The Family Guide to Digital Freedom (Linux Journal)

Bruce Byfield reviews the Family Guide to Digital Freedom website. "The Family Guide to Digital Freedom is a website and an accompanying book created by Marco Fioretti, a part-time journalist who writes about free and open source software (FOSS). The site is interesting for its attempt to do things at once: to provide a guide for non-technically inclined computers users to the advantages of open standards and free software, and a critique of the FOSS communities. Both goals are overdue for widespread attention, although they sometimes sit uncomfortably beside each other on Fioretti's site."

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Good bits in GNOME 2.16 (Linux.com)

Linux.com reviews GNOME 2.16. "The GNOME Project recently released GNOME 2.16. While the latest release doesn't offer any breakthrough features, it does include a wealth of minor tweaks and improvements. Ironically, the most intriguing improvement is the one you probably won't notice, unless you explicitly enable it. Metacity, GNOME's default window manager, now features several 3-D extensions to its composite engine. These extensions allow you to add some eye candy to your desktop by enabling window effects and different types of transparency. This feature is not enabled by default, though, and you have to compile Metacity with the --enable-compositor option to get it to work. For the time being, the new compositing effects can only be used with a handful of graphics cards."

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Review: Mesk Audio Player 0.2.1 (polishlinux.org)

polishlinux.org reviews the Mesk Audio Player. "There are numerous audio players designed especially for GNOME. Single GnomeFiles repository lists over 60 of them. However, the problem lays in quality rather than quantity. Recently I’ve been looking for an audio player that would resemble the famous Windows player called Foobar 2000. I have found a lot of clones, and just a few original applications. Mesk audio player was among the latter."

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First look: Scalix 11 Community Edition messaging server (Linux.com)

Linux.com previews the new open source Scalix 11 Community Edition messaging server. "While the release of the new open source Scalix 11 Community Edition messaging server is still a few months away, the binaries have been brought out in a preview package that is, according to the license that comes with it, "pre-release software with known issues and is not suitable for production use." We tried it out, just to see where Scalix is heading. The good news -- it's heading in the right direction for small and medium-sized businesses."

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Smalltalk for Everyone Else (O'ReillyNet)

Keith Fieldhouse takes a look at Smalltalk and Squeak on O'ReillyNet. "Smalltalk, an influential language with deep roots in software development practice, offers an outstanding opportunity for stretching your mind and exercising your development muscles. The only drawback is that once you try it, you may never go back. This article will help you get started."

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