Linux in the news

MS .Net patent--a threat to standards? (ZDNet)

Microsoft is in the process of applying for a wide-ranging patent that covers a variety of functions related to its .Net initiative, say this ZDNet article. "If approved as is, the patent would cover application programming interfaces (APIs) that allow actions related to accessing the network, handling Extensible Markup Language (XML), and managing data from multiple sources. APIs are the hooks in software that allow applications to work with another system."

Comments (9 posted)

Tale of Two Stories (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal looks at Google's success. "But what does "leading Linux company" mean when the real leaders aren't the usual suspects at all? They're the worker bees at companies of all sizes that are shifting IT dependencies from other operating systems and development methods to Linux and open source. They're IT departments embracing a de facto standard. And more, much more."

Comments (none posted)

Red Hat offers Linux exams for schools (vnunet)

Vnunet covers the Red Hat Academy, an academic version of its Red Hat Certified Engineer training program for schools and colleges. "Among the subjects covered will be: systems administration, network engineering, C or C++ programming, databases, web development, PC repair and forensic computing."

Comments (none posted)

Banks Want to Swim With Penguin (Wired)

Wired looks at the financial institutions that are using Linux to run their back-end operations. "Tux the penguin, Linux's beloved mascot, is rapidly becoming the financial services industry's totem animal of choice. In fact, it seems that the only steadily rising statistic on Wall Street these days is the number of companies moving to open-source systems."

Comments (none posted)

Sam's joins $300 Linux PC club (News.com)

News.com reports that Sam's Club will be selling PCs running Red Hat Linux. "The Sam's Club PCs will include a wealth of open-source software ready to run, including the OpenOffice productivity package, Mozilla Web browser, and Evolution personal information manager."

Comments (1 posted)

Pixar switches from Sun to Intel (News.com)

News.com reports on Pixar, which has switched from Unix systems to a Linux cluster for its image rendering. "While the financial impact of the individual contract may be negligible to Sun, the symbolism is tough to ignore. A number of film and entertainment studios in the past year have swapped out Unix computers containing reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processors, like Sun's UltraSparc III, in favor of systems running Linux and chips from Intel or from Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices."

Comments (5 posted)

Sales increase for U.S. Linux servers (News.com)

News.com reports that sales of servers running Linux are up. ""Linux (sales) increased a lot because of IBM," said Shahin Naftchi, server analyst for Gartner. Naftchi said that IBM is now shipping blade servers, 75 percent of which run Linux."

Comments (none posted)

Interview - Dennis Ritchie (unix.se)

Unix.se has published an interview with Dennis Ritchie.

Comments (none posted)

Gates Taking 'Pervasive' Linux Seriously (eWeek)

eWeek is carrying an article on Bill Gates's latest remarks on Linux. "In a way, there's more incompatible versions of Linux than there are of all other operating systems put together. That is, as people do innovations on top of Linux, they don't all get tested together and they're not all consistent with each other."

Comments (9 posted)

IBM's Linux Growth Path (eWeek)

eWeek features an interview with IBM's general manager of Linux, Jim Stallings. "Here are the numbers. Some 15 to 20 percent of our servers [sold] are Linux-driven. So it helps our server business, and we make a lot of money from our server business. There are other companies who don't make any money from their server business. Dell [Computer Corp.] and IBM are the only ones out there making money on their server business. So Linux is important to that business for us. It just so happens we also have a services business, and we make money on that, too."

Comments (none posted)

Linux Productivity Magazine - February 2003

The February issue of Linux Productivity Magazine takes a long look at Perl Tk. "Perl Tk is an excellent choice for GUI apps because of its highly developed Tk widgets, and even more so because of Perl's ubiquity and the incredible power of Perl and its available modules. This Linux Productivity magazine contains details of major Tk widgets, culminating with a GPL licensed speech timer program."

Comments (none posted)

Gnome 2.2 cleans up the Linux desktop (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers the launch of Gnome 2.2. "The Gnome project said that version 2.2 has added support for other Freedesktop.org specifications, including icon themes, recent files and thumbnail management."

Comments (none posted)

Trail of tears: MySQL, ODBC and OpenOffice 1.0 (LinuxWorld.com)

Joe Barr writes about the good and bad parts of working with MySQL, ODBC and OpenOffice 1.0. "I found a wonderful "how-to" piece called "OpenOffice.org 1.0, ODBC and MySQL," by John McCreesh. In the introduction, McCreesh writes about OpenOffice.org 1.0's "best kept secret" — that secret being the fact that hidden away inside, completely unknown to most OpenOffice users, is a user-friendly front end for databases that is "a Microsoft Access (and more) equivalent." That may be so, but there is a very good reason why it's a secret: it's too damn hard getting OpenOffice and ODBC wired up correctly."

Comments (none posted)

KDE 3.1 reviewed (eWeek)

eWeek reviews KDE version 3.1. "In the latest release—KDE 3.1, which became available late last month—the product has seen significant advances since its 3.0 version, which eWeek Labs reviewed last spring, and represents Linux's best hope for becoming a viable desktop contender."

Comments (none posted)

Open-Source GUI Fans: Meet Gnome 2.2 (TechWeb)

TechWeb takes a look at Gnome 2.2. "The upgrade moves toward settling unnecessary differences with its open-source competitor the K Desktop Environment, or KDE. There's a growing trend among developers in both camps to adopt specifications that bring consistency to common functions found in desktops and applications, such as having similar help, file, and cut-and-paste operations."

Comments (14 posted)

Perens throws hat into SPI ring (Register)

The Register covers elections at Software in the Public Interest. "SPI is looking to elect three new board members from a total of eight candidates. Contributing members of SPI are eligible to vote. A contributing member is one who is considered to have made a significant contribution to the Free Software community, as determined by SPI's membership committee."

Comments (none posted)