Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
FSFE becomes the legal guardian of the Bacula Project
The Free Software Foundation Europe is now the legal guardian of the Bacula Project. "Kern Sibbald, the founder and lead developer of the Bacula network backup solution, assigned his copyright to FSFE. "I wanted to underline the commitment of the Bacula Project to Free Software," said Kern. "Bacula has always been a community project and we're just solidifying that for the long-term. I am very thankful that the FSFE is providing this service because it removes an important administrative burden from the project, which allows us to focus on the task of programming.""
GNOME Foundation 2006 election questions (GnomeDesktop)
Questions are being accepted for the 2006 GNOME Foundation elections. "The GNOME Foundation 2006 elections will begin next week. With the final list of candidates announced, it's time to submit questions about the GNOME Foundation and GNOME Project to this years prospective Board of Directors. A list of questions, including best questions from this thread, will be put to the candidates on the public Foundation mailing list."
Open Invention Network on Microsoft/Novell
The Open Invention Network has sent out a press release on the Microsoft/Novell deal. "OIN continues to support the Linux community's ability to collaborate and innovate. Through the accumulation of patents that may be used to shield the Linux environment, including users of Linux software, OIN has obviated the need for offers of protection from others." It would be nice if they had directly addressed the question of whether the patents from Novell are still effective, though.
PSF adopts a trademark policy
The Python Software Foundation has announced a new trademark policy. "The PSF holds a registered trademark on the word "Python". Every few weeks someone writes to the board and asks permission to distribute a program with the word "Python" in its name or to do something with the Python logo. The PSF's board wanted to have a document explaining the PSF's goals for the trademark and discussing common use cases."
Commercial announcements
AVG Security Now for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD
GRISOFT has announced several new versions of its antivirus offerings for GNU/Linux and FreeBSD platforms. The products include AVG Email Server Edition 7.5 for Linux/FreeBSD now with integrated anti-spam as well as new products for the GNU/Linux platform -- AVG Anti-Virus Professional Edition 7.5 for Linux/FreeBSD and AVG File Server Edition 7.5 for Linux/Free BSD.Bull and JBoss Form Strategic Partnership
Bull and JBoss have announced a strategic partnership with the aim of developing interoperable middleware solutions for enterprise service-oriented architecture. "The partnership, which builds on Bull's existing alliance with Red Hat, is JBoss' first strategic partnership in Europe to include open source research and development collaboration and demonstrates both companies' leadership and commitment to open source software innovation."
Linspire Offers Free Services to Desktop Linux Users
Linspire, Inc. has announced the FreeLinuxEmail service. "FreeLinuxEmail, an IMAP email and Net file storage service developed by Messaging Engine of Melbourne, Australia, provides desktop Linux users a free server-based email and file storage service that works with both web-based and client-based email."
Mandriva allies with IBPhoenix to support Firebird 2.0
Mandriva and IBPhoenix have formed an alliance with the goal of supporting the Firebird 2.0 DBMS. "Thanks to a collaboration between IBPhoenix and Mandriva, Mandriva Linux is now the distribution offering the best integrated support for Firebird 2.0. Mandriva now offers the packages for Firebird (Classic and SuperServer versions), the ODBC pilots, Class 4 JCA-JDBC, Python and PHP as well as the administration guide Flamerobin. IBPhoenix is for its part preparing the training material."
Penguin Computing launches new server asset management tools
Penguin Computing has announced their Scyld ControlCenter server management software. "System administrators and key authorized users will have comprehensive but easy-to-use hardware command and control, so organizations can now effectively manage and monitor large pools of server assets with minimal system administration time and cost without compromising security of the overall system."
Red Hat to move to New York Stock Exchange
Red Hat has sent out a press release stating its intent to move its stock market listing over to the NYSE. If all goes well, the stock will trade as "RHT" starting on December 12. "'The move to the New York Stock Exchange is a significant event for Red Hat. We believe that listing on the New York Stock Exchange will increase Red Hat's visibility among investors, reduce trading volatility and offer more efficient pricing,' said Charlie Peters, CFO at Red Hat."
SugarCRM announces Sugar FastStack
SugarCRM Inc. has announced their Sugar FastStack product. "SugarCRM Inc., the world's leading provider of commercial open source customer relationship management (CRM) software, today announced the availability of Sugar FastStack, a software support and delivery service that provides a fast and simple way to install a complete open source software solution, including Sugar software, the Apache Web Server, PHP and the MySQL database."
Toshiba announces single-chip LCD TV solution
Toshiba America Electronic Components, Inc. has announced a second generation system-on-a-chip for mid and low-end television applications, the chip runs Linux. "Available in two versions and designated TC90407XBG and TC90407FG, the new SoCs were specifically designed for North American TV standards, including the Advanced Television Systems Committee (ATSC) standard and digital cable. Compared to the previous generation devices, they integrate more on-chip functional blocks to reduce system cost and support new algorithms that improve picture quality significantly."
New Books
Essential CVS, Second Edition - O'Reilly's Latest Release
O'Reilly has published the book Essential CVS, Second Edition by Jennifer Vesperman.SQL Hacks - New from O'Reilly
O'Reilly has published the book SQL Hacks by Andrew Cumming and Gordon Russell.Sams Publishing Announces SUSE Linux 10.1 Kick Start
Sams Publishing has published the book SUSE Linux 10.1 Kick Start by Jem Matzan.
Resources
First Issue of Amarok Weekly Newsletter Released (KDE.News)
KDE.News mentions the new Amarok Weekly Newsletter. "In the first issue of the Amarok Weekly Newsletter, we talk about Magnatune.com music store integration and security, search inside lyrics, a new GStreamer-based engine, support for user-definable labels and promotional activities."
Education and Certification
LPI Announces New Training Partner Program
The Linux Professional Institute has announced a new training partner program. "The LPI Approved Training Partner program (LPI-ATP) has 124 participating training organizations in 22 countries. "LPI will continue to advocate a neutral approach to the adoption of Open Source Software, training and services. However, we are seeing an increased demand from both employers and exam candidates for recommendations of high quality training materials and programs. In response to this growing global market, we have improved our training partner program," said Jim Lacey, President and CEO of LPI."
Calls for Presentations
DebConf7: registration and call for papers
A call for papers and open registration announcement has gone out for DebConf7. The conference will take place in Edinburgh, Scotland on June 17-23, 2007, submissions are due by January 31.
Upcoming Events
FAVE 2006 final line-up announced
The final line-up for FAVE 2006 has been announced. "FAVE is an event for people who are interested in free and open source creative software on Linux and other computer platforms. It features workshops, talks and performances from free software developers and artists. The 2006 event is taking place at Limehouse Town Hall in London, England on Saturday the 25th of November."
FoSS.IN/2006 talk schedule announced
The talk schedule for FOSS.IN/2006 has been announced. The event will take place on November 24-26, 2006 in Bangalore, India.SCALE Announces Plans To Host Open-Source Health Care Summit
The Southern California Linux Expo will host an Open Source Health Care summit during the SCALE 5x conference. "The focus of this event will be on the use of open-source software in the health care industry. The goal of this event is to foster an awareness of the availability of open-source options to medical organizations, private practices, and hospitals. The Open-Source Health Care Summit will be held on February 9, 2007 at the Los Angeles Airport Westin Hotel."
Events: November 30, 2006 to January 29, 2007
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| November 27 November 30 |
PacSec Applied Security Conference 2006 | Tokyo, Japan |
| December 1 December 2 |
PHP Conference Brasil | Sao Paolo, Brazil |
| December 2 December 3 |
Technical Dutch Open Source Event | Eindhoven, the Netherlands |
| December 3 December 8 |
Large Installation System Administration Conference | Washington, D.C. |
| December 5 December 8 |
Open Source Developers' Conference 2006 | Melbourne, Australia |
| December 7 December 8 |
Desktop Architects Meeting | Portland, OR, USA |
| December 9 | London Perl Workshop | London, England |
| December 12 December 19 |
Virtual Congress UnInet Meeting UMeet'2006 | irc.uninet.edu, #linux |
| December 27 December 30 |
23rd Chaos Communication Congress 2006 | Berlin, Germany |
| January 11 January 12 |
Foundations of Open Media Software | Sydney, Australia |
| January 15 January 20 |
linux.conf.au 2007 | Sydney, Australia |
| January 20 January 26 |
Cell Hack-a-thon | Loveland, CO, USA |
| January 23 January 26 |
Open Source Meets Business | Nürnberg, Germany |
| January 24 | European Patent Conference | Brussels, Belgium |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Audio and Video programs
Questions Please...
Jonathan Roberts has announced the launch of Questions Please..., the site aims to collect questions about free software via email, then produce a podcast with answers. "Richard Stallman, Jeremy Allison and Jeff Waugh have all agreed to take part on a panel answering questions forwarded by members of the community; I will 'chair' and record it, and then post it to here for all to download! We do, however, need your questions to make this work. Just grab the e-mail address from the footer and I'll pick the best to put to our guests."
Zack Rusin interviewed on the Linux Link Tech Show (KDE.News)
KDE.News mentions the availability of an audio interview with Zack Rusin. "Yesterday night Zack Rusin made a guest appearance on The Linux Link Tech Show. He discussed recent developments in the X.Org project, Qt, KDE, his life in Norway and some other Open Source related issues. It is a lengthy interview that should satisfy those who say Zack's not blogging and responding to questions often enough."
Page editor: Forrest Cook