Linux in the news

Christmas Comes In July For An Open ATI (Phoronix)

Phoronix reports on developments with ATI Radeon R500 support. "This kernel mode-setting support is currently being housed in separate code branches, but will be merged to master and enter the Linux kernel in the future. David Airlie mentioned in the Radeon IRC channel that the Radeon KMS support will hopefully be merged right behind the Intel KMS support, but before that of course will be GEM going to master. David also hops to ship this ATI support with the Fedora 10 Beta."

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Ubuntu Founder Plans to Rival Macintosh with Linux Desktop (Palluxo.com)

Palluxo.com covers an OSCON talk by Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth. "Mark Richard Shuttleworth, CEO of Canonical Ltd and a founder of Ubuntu Foundation, spoke at the O’Reilly Open Source Convention earlier this week. He announced plans to compete with Apple and talked about development of the Linux desktop (Ubuntu OS), as well as the integration of Linux into mobile development. He sees Linux and Windows linked up together., “Linux is the platform of the future. But I think it’s essential that we learn how to work with Windows.”"

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Linux smartphone axed (the Inquirer)

The Inquirer reports that the Access Linux Platform (ALP) smartphone will not be released as planned. "In case you are left wondering what killed the first ALP smartphone, all clues point towards LiMo, the Linux Mobile Foundation and its pet project. The reply came from Edelman, Orange's PR firm, which also told us to contact Samsung and Access directly, but stated: "just so you know the Samsung i800 has been withdrawn. Since the original project was defined back in February there have been a number of advances in mobile technology.""

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Re-jigged Intel mobile Linux stack dumps Ubuntu (The Register)

The Register notes Intel's change of Linux distribution on its Moblin mobile device platform. "Intel's project to put a Linux and open source stack on mobile devices is getting overhauled to attract developer support, having failed to generate much interest. A year after launching Moblin, Intel plans a second version of its open source stack in the next three weeks, sporting a new operating system, middleware, tools and graphical user interface (GUI). Under the changes, the existing Ubuntu-based kernel is out and Fedora is in, along with a set of Gnome-compatible mobile components that updates Moblin's previous Gnome implementation." (Thanks to Rahul Sundaram).

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Microsoft to sponsor the Apache Software Foundation (ars technica)

ars technica reports that Microsoft will be contributing $100,000 annually to the Apache Software Foundation. "Microsoft's interest in funding Apache projects is likely driven by consumer demand for interoperability. A growing number of companies are deploying Apache-based technologies on top of Windows servers. Microsoft's understanding of enterprise open source adoption is evolving and the company has slowly been taking steps to foster its own community of Windows-based open source software developers."

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Interview with Helio Chissini de Castro (How Software Is Built)

How Software Is Built interviews Mandriva's Helio Chissini de Castro. "Sean: Would you tell me a little bit about how Mandriva’s maintained? ... Helio: Our repository, our packages, and everything we do centralizes in the supervisional server. it’s one of the largest supervisional servers ever–around a hundred gigabytes of database. It has the history of all packages and patches and branches and solutions, and it’s open for everyone that’s using the computers, so they can see what is changing in every part, every time. The most amazing thing is that you can easily port and push patches and make it available for everyone without having the harsh part of, “OK, You need to pick the package that others wish and unpack it and see what is inside and then do the patch and apply for it.” It’s open, and it’s easy to see." (Thanks to Adam Williamson).

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Interview: Michael Meeks (der Standard)

der Standard interviews Michael Meeks, desktop architect at Novell; the main topic is OpenOffice.org. "In terms of [Sun] reducing contribution: Yeah I think they still have a bunch of engineers on OpenOffice.org - but they are fewer than they were, it's clear that they are redeploying people internally. And that's fine, Sun can do with it's resources as they like, you can't criticize that per se. But the sad thing is their failure to build a community around it, getting other people involved. And that's tied to Sun owning OpenOffice.org. It's a Sun project. They own all of the code, they demand ownership rights, and that just really retards developer interest."

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Red Hat's new CEO aims Linux at the cloud (News.com)

Here's an interview with Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst on News.com. "As a company gets more sophisticated, one can argue the value of the support is less, but as companies get more sophisticated, the importance of the thing we provide goes up. So for instance, if Amazon wants to get something upstream into the (Linux) kernel because they need some functionality for EC2 (the Elastic Compute Cloud Web service), who can get it upstream? We can."

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Linux-friendly Beagle fetches $150 (LinuxDevices)

LinuxDevices looks at the Beagle board, a 3-inch-square board with ARM's Cortex A8 and TI's OMAP3 architectures. "Jason Kridner, director of open system design at TI, says the Beagle board offers a very user-friendly way to explore the capabilities of the A8 architecture, as well as the C64x DSP, for which a free compiler and open source codecs are available. For development on-the-go, the board can be powered by a laptop's USB port, and it comes with an "unbrickable" boot ROM, he observed. "There are four boot options supported in the OMAP ROM itself. The default is to boot from NAND flash, MC/SD, USB, then serial. But, the 'user' button boots from NAND flash last," Kridner said."

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KDE 4.1 delivers a next-gen desktop Linux experience (ars technica)

ars technica reviews KDE 4.1. "The initial doubts and skepticism I experienced when using 4.0 are completely gone. This is, frankly, what 4.0 should have been. The question now is whether users who were burned by the inadequacies of the 4.0 release will give KDE 4 a second chance."

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Will freedom ring on LiMo's Linux-based mobile platform? (ars technica)

Over at ars technica there is a look at the LiMo mobile phone platform based on some comments by ACCESS open source director David Schlesinger at OSCON. "Schlesinger noted that LiMo's dependence on community-driven technologies gives open source software contributors a unique opportunity to take an active role in shaping the platform. He encouraged those who are interested to work directly with the GNOME Mobile and Embedded community. LiMo's 'unique collaboration between commercial and community interests,' he said, 'allows developers to participate in architecting the platform itself.'"

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The open source jobs boom (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld covers on the improving open-source job market and examines an O'Reilly report on the subject. "Looking for a good job in IT? Sharpen your knowledge of open source development frameworks, languages, and programming. A just-published study of available IT jobs found that 5 percent to 15 percent of the positions now on the market call for open source software skills. Written by consultant and author Bernard Golden in conjunction with O'Reilly Media, the 50-page report attempts to document the spread of open source in the enterprise. Although the study did not quantify the actual percentage of open source products used in the enterprise, the strong growth in available jobs -- in a period when overall IT job growth may be slowing -- points to a surprising breadth of adoption. Indeed, the recession may be pushing budget-strapped IT execs to examine low-cost alternatives to commercial software."

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