Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
EFF: Don't Let Europe Turn Its Citizens into Copycriminals
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sent out an alert concerning the upcoming (April 24) vote on the "intellectual property enforcement directive." "If IPRED2 passes in its current form, "aiding, abetting, or inciting" copyright infringement 'on a commercial scale' in the EU will become a crime. The entertainment industry has made it clear that it sees sites like YouTube, P2P software, and even ISPs as 'inciting' infringement." It is not hard to imagine free software developers being affected by this kind of law.
Gaim becomes Pidgin
The Gaim messaging client has been renamed Pidgin. The announcement says that the name change is the result of a painfully-achieved settlement with AOL which should also unblock the delayed 2.0 release.Harmony sends Sun a letter
The Apache Harmony project, which is working toward the development of a free Java SE implementation, has sent an open letter to Sun Microsystems asking for a license to Sun's Java Compatibility Kit which does not impose field of use restrictions on Harmony users. "As I explain below, these restrictions are contrary to the terms of the Java Specification Participation Agreement (JSPA) - the governing rules of the JCP - to which Sun is contractually bound to comply as a signatory. The ASF has a proud history of support for open software ecosystems in which commercial software can flourish. However, Sun's JCK license protects portions of Sun's commercial Java business at the expense of ASF's open software." There is also an associated FAQ with more information.
LinuxChix announces new leader
The women's technical group LinuxChix has appointed a new international co-ordinator, Mary Gardiner, replacing previous coordinator Jenn Vesperman, who resigned after six years running the organization. "Mary Gardiner's primary focus as coordinator will be on forming a closer relationship with the regional chapters, enabling the LinuxChix community to better reach potential and existing women Free Software users worldwide. Gardiner will also be investigating other ways that LinuxChix can reach a larger audience and help its members engage with the Free Software community. She intends to be coordinator of LinuxChix for two years. Gardiner, a resident of Sydney, Australia and a postgraduate student in computing, has been active as a volunteer in LinuxChix since 2000."
Python opportunities at the Google Summer of Code
A list of Python projects involved in the Google Summer of Code has been announced. "Google recently published the list of mentoring organizations participating in Google Summer of Code 2007. They have accepted Python Software Foundation into Google Summer of Code."
Single-vendor software purchase stopped in Italy
The Associazione per il Software Libero has sent out a press release proclaiming a "historic victory" in its battle to ensure that free software alternatives are considered in Italian government purchases. A request for tenders for €4.5 million in Microsoft licenses has been withdrawn after the Associazione went to court with a challenge. "The most important result is that Associazione per il Software Libero succeeded in monitoring actions of public institutions in a domain -information technologies - that too often responds to pressures of some companies and to mere 'technical' reasons instead of focusing on public benefit: free access to information (free format), adoption of trustworthy technologies (free software) and use of public money for the benefit of the citizens."
Zope Foundation in the Google Summer of Code
The Zope Foundation will participate in the 2007 Google Summer of Code. "This means we're looking for students and more mentors who would like to take on projects, as well as good projects. We have a wiki page about it with project suggestions and prospective mentors; if you're interested in this project, please check it out."
Commercial announcements
Over 100 Post-production facilities Adopt Autodesk's Visual Effects Systems
Autodesk, Inc. has announced new market gains for its video post-production software. "During the past six months, more than 100 additional post-production facilities around the globe have adopted Autodesk, Inc.'s film and television solutions running on the Linux operating system. The Autodesk Linux-based systems provide digital artists and editors with increased speed and interactivity. In April 2006, Autodesk transitioned its visual effects and editing/finishing systems from SGI-based workstations to workstations running the Linux operating system. The Linux-based Autodesk Flame visual effects system renders complex 3D composites more than 20 times faster than on previous SGI-based workstations."
The newly updated 1994-2006 Linux Journal Archive CD-ROM
Linux Journal has announced the availability of a new archive CD-ROM for $26.95. "In easy-to-use HTML format, this space-saving archive CD-ROM offers users the advantage of immediate access to the essential Linux resource: Linux Journal. The Archive CD-ROM contains every issue of Linux Journal, from the premiere March 1994 issue through December 2006."
Nokia Announces Open C SDK Plug-In for S60 Devices
Nokia has announced: "the Open C Plug-In extension for the S60 3rd Edition Software Development Kit, enabling easier porting of Linux-targeted open source projects to Symbian OS- based S60 smartphones and increased productivity for developers of mobile applications running on S60 devices."
Novell Joins The Green Grid
Novell has announced that it has joined The Green Grid, a consortium of information technology companies and professionals committed to improving energy efficiency in the data center. "Novell will help customers reduce the power consumption in their data center through the operating system virtualization built into the SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise platform and the management tools that comprise the Novell(R) ZENworks(R) product suite. As a result, customers can lower the cost of managing their data centers while also helping the environment."
SGI Announces New CEO
SGI has announced that Robert H. "Bo" Ewald, formerly Chairman and CEO of Linux Networx, has been named Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately. Bo replaces Dennis McKenna who has served as SGI's Chief Executive Officer since January 31, 2006. In addition to his role as CEO, Bo will serve on SGI's Board of Directors.SourceForge.net and Krugle bring code search to open-source repository
Krugle, Inc. has announced a partnership with SourceForge.net. "SourceForge.net and Krugle, Inc. today announced that SourceForge.net has embedded Krugle's search engine into the world's largest repository of open source software. The search engine gives developers direct, contextual access to the underlying code of the site's 145,000 open source projects. The announcement addresses the growing importance of specialized search engines as valuable tools to help developers deal with increasing software complexity."
Sun Microsystems donates storage technologies to OpenSolaris
Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the donation the source code to the Storage Community to the OpenSolaris project. "Sun Microsystems, Inc. today announced it is donating storage technologies for storage developers within the OpenSolaris community. This will enable community members to combine OpenSolaris with hardware from any source to create compelling storage solutions at a fraction of the price of traditional proprietary storage vendors. This combination of open source and commodity hardware heralds a new stage in the storage industry."
TransGaming announces Cedega 6.0
TransGaming Inc. has announced Cedega 6.0. "Rich with new features and functionality, ranging from improved graphics and performance to support for many new games, Cedega 6.0 remains the only commercial solution in the world that allows hundreds of triple A games to be played on the rapidly growing Linux operating system."
New Books
Designing BSD Rootkits - No Starch Press's Latest Release
No Starch Press has published the book Designing BSD Rootkits: An Introduction to Kernel Hacking by Joseph Kong.Linux Appliance Design - New from No Starch Press
No Starch Press has published the book Linux Appliance Design by Bob Smith, John Hardin, Graham Phillips, and Bill Pierce.
Resources
The Linux Foundation Announces Linux Standard Base Update and New Testing Tools
The Linux Foundation has announced an update of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) and the release of a new testing toolkit. ""All the moving parts are coming together to give the Linux ecosystem its first testing framework that will coordinate development of upstream code to standards and downstream implementations," said Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. "In order for a standard to be effective, it needs to have a powerful -- and usable -- testing infrastructure. Our testing framework will deliver that functionality and allow the Linux ecosystem to collaborate and test code while it's being developed, improving quality and allowing ISVs to reduce their costs and get their feedback into the Linux ecosystem more effectively.""
Education and Certification
Linux Professional Institute and VCampus launch training portal
The Linux Professional Institute and VCampus have announced a new training portal site. "VCampus Corporation, a leader in certification and professional development training and services, together with the Linux Professional Institute (LPI), today announced the launch of the LPI North America Online Learning Portal. Based on LPI's globally-recognized certification objectives, this portal is poised to meet growing demand for sophisticated, professional Linux programmers, consultants and systems administrators. You can log on to the VCampus LPI Online Learning Portal at http://www.vcampus.com/lpinama."
LPI Offers Certification Exams at Intel Developer Forum
The Linux Professional Institute will hold discounted certification exams at the Intel Developer Forum in Beijing, China on April 17 and 18, 2007.
Calls for Presentations
DEFCON One Five CfP in effect
A call for papers has gone out for DEFCON 15. The event takes place in Las Vegas, NV on August 3-5, 2007. Submissions are due by June 15.CFP: Storage Security and Survivability Workshop
A call for papers has gone out for the 2007 Storage Security and Survivability Workshop. Submissions are due by June 8. "The 3rd International Workshop on Storage Security and Survivability (StorageSS 2007) will be held on Monday, October 29, 2007, in conjunction with the 14th ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security (CCS 2007), which will meet October 30November 2, 2007 in Alexandria, Virginia, USA."
Upcoming Events
Sun Announces CommunityOne Event
Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced the new CommunityOne event, it will take place on May 7, 2007 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA. "CommunityOne is a free, one-day event designed for open source and web developers to gain detailed technical information on free and open source projects including, NetBeans(TM) Software, OpenSolaris (TM), GlassFish(TM), OpenJDK and the Mobile & Embedded Community, as well as interact with other participants to exchange ideas and best practices. In addition, CommunityOne will host talks on topics relating to Web 2.0, James Governor and Stephen O'Grady from the analyst firm RedMonk will moderate an unconference, Ian Murdock will host a session on open operating systems and Sun will host its second Startup Camp event."
The FOSS Symposium (LinuxMedNews)
LinuxMedNews has announced the 2007 FOSS Symposium, which will take place in Houston, Texas on April 24. "IBM's Eishay Smith, Enfold Systems Alan Runyan and a few others will be speaking at a one day symposium in Houston entitled 'Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for Healthcare: Progress and Promise' This will be held at: School of Health Information Sciences, UT-Houston".
The Workshop on GCC Internals
The Workshop on GCC Internals will be held in Bombay, India on June 18-20, 2007. Pre-registration runs from April 9 to May 1.2007 JavaOne Conference opens more possibilities for attendees
Sun Microsystems, Inc. has announced new JavaOne conference tracks. "Sun Microsystems, Inc., today announced that in addition to the 250 conference sessions, 117 BOFs and 15 Hands-on-Labs, the 2007 conference will offer two special one-day tracks -- Java Technology Business Day and Java Technology in TV: Blu-ray Disc and Cable Day." The conference runs from May 8-11, 2007 and takes place in San Francisco, CA.
Linuxfest Northwest 2007
Linuxfest Northwest 2007 takes place at Bellingham Technical College in Washington State, April 28 - 29, 2007. There will be speakers from Red Hat, Google, Novell, OLPC project, MySQL, the Software Freedom Law Center, Linden Labs (Second Life), and many others. Admission and parking are free, and all ages are welcome.Power.org announces Software Summit
The first Power Architecture Software Summit will take place in Austin, Texas on April 19, 2007. "Power.org will host the first Power Architecture Software Summit, a unique opportunity for software developers and development managers to refine Power.org's software strategy. The Power.org Software Summit will focus on identifying solutions to challenges associated with software development on Power Architecture. Discussions will revolve around presentations that address a wide range of topics ..."
Events: April 19, 2007 to June 18, 2007
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| April 17 April 19 |
Embedded Linux Conference | San Jose, USA |
| April 18 April 20 |
CanSecWest Applied Security Conference 2007 | Vancouver, Canada |
| April 19 | Linux 2007 | Lisbon, Portugal |
| April 19 | Power Architecture Software Summit | Austin, TX, USA |
| April 20 April 22 |
International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security | Vienna, Austria |
| April 20 April 22 |
Penguicon 5.0 Open Source Software & Science Fiction Convention | Troy, Michigan, USA |
| April 21 | Romanian Open Source Development Meeting | Bucharest, Romania |
| April 23 April 25 |
Samba eXPerience 2007 | Göttingen, Germany |
| April 23 April 27 |
PostgreSQL Bootcamp at the Big Nerd Ranch | Atlanta, USA |
| April 23 April 26 |
MySQL Conference and Expo | Santa Clara, CA, USA |
| April 28 April 29 |
Linuxfest Northwest | Bellingham, WA, USA |
| May 3 May 4 |
Ubuntu Education Summit | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 3 May 5 |
SugarCRM Global Developer Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| May 4 May 6 |
Libre Graphics Meeting 2007 | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
| May 5 May 6 |
LayerOne Security Conference | Pasadena, CA, USA |
| May 5 | Ubucon - Sevilla | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 6 May 11 |
Ubuntu Developer Summit | Sevilla, Spain |
| May 7 | CommunityOne | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| May 8 May 9 |
World Summit on Intrusion Prevention | Baltimore, MD, USA |
| May 8 May 11 |
Annual Java Technology Conference | San Francisco, CA, USA |
| May 8 May 11 |
OSHCA 2007 | Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia |
| May 9 May 11 |
Red Hat Summit | San Diego, CA, USA |
| May 10 May 11 |
IEEE International Workshop on Open Source Test Technology Tools | Berkeley, CA, USA |
| May 10 | NLUUG Spring Conference 2007 | Ede, The Netherlands |
| May 11 May 13 |
Conferenze Italiana sul Software Libero | Cosenza, Italy |
| May 12 May 13 |
KOffice ODF Weekend | Berlin, Germany |
| May 14 May 25 |
The Pure Data Spring School 2007 | Glasgow, Scotland |
| May 16 May 18 |
php|tek | Chicago, IL, USA |
| May 17 May 20 |
RailsConf 2007 | Portland, Oregon |
| May 18 May 19 |
eLiberatica Open Source and Free Software Conference | Brasov, Romania |
| May 18 May 19 |
FreedomHEC | Los Angeles, CA |
| May 18 May 19 |
BSDCan 2007 | Ottawa, Canada |
| May 19 May 20 |
The 3rd International Workshop on Software Engineering for Secure Systems | Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
| May 19 May 20 |
Rockbox International Developers Conference 2007 | Stockholm, Sweden |
| May 19 | Grazer LinuxDays 2007 | Graz, Austria |
| May 19 May 20 |
Make Magazine Maker Faire 2007 | San Mateo, CA, USA |
| May 19 | Linuxwochen Austria - Graz | Graz, Austria |
| May 21 May 23 |
International PHP 2007 Conference | Stuttgart, Germany |
| May 21 May 25 |
Python Bootcamp with David Beazley | Atlanta, USA |
| May 22 May 23 |
Open Source Business Conference | San Francisco, USA |
| May 22 May 24 |
Linux Days 2007, Geneva | Geneva, Switzerland |
| May 23 May 24 |
PGCon 2007 | Ottawa, ON, Canada |
| May 25 | Linuxwochen Austria - Krems | Krems, Austria |
| May 26 | PAKCON III | Karachi, Pakistan |
| May 29 May 30 |
Where 2.0 Conference | San Jose, CA, USA |
| May 29 May 31 |
European ADempiere Developers Conference | Berlin, Germany |
| May 29 May 30 |
I FLOSS CONFERENCE RESISTENCIA | Resistencia, Argentina |
| May 30 June 2 |
Linuxtag | Berlin, Germany |
| May 30 June 1 |
3rd UNIX Days Conference - Gdansk 2007 | Gdansk, Poland |
| May 30 June 1 |
Linuxwochen Austria - Wien | Wien, Austria |
| June 2 June 3 |
Journées Python Francophones | Paris, France |
| June 9 June 10 |
PyCon Uno - First Python Italian conference | Florence, Italy |
| June 10 June 15 |
DebCamp | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 10 | Pluto Meeting 2007 | Padova, Italy |
| June 11 June 14 |
Third International Conference on Open Source Systems | Limerick, Ireland |
| June 13 June 15 |
Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit | Mountain View, CA, USA |
| June 16 | DebianDay | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 16 | Firefox Developer Conference | Tokyo, Japan |
| June 17 June 23 |
Debian Developer Conference | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| June 17 June 22 |
2007 USENIX Annual Technical Conference | Santa Clara, USA |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Miscellaneous
One time chance to order your own LAC'07 t-shirt!
Conference T-shirts for the 2007 Linux Audio Conference are available. "This is a one-time offer only, and be sure to put in your orders soon, as the offer will only stand up until the 16th of April. We want to have the payment in advance, as we need to pay the cost of printing, packaging and postage."
Page editor: Forrest Cook