Linux in the news
Business
Linux Expected To Thrive As Economy Recovers (Information Week)
Information Week covers predictions made by IDC analyst Al Gillen at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit. "Companies simply aren't investing in new initiatives. In the recession, they will "fall back on existing skills" to get them through a downturn, and part of those existing skills include more use of free Linux, he said. Nevertheless, Linux will emerge as the fastest-growing operating system, post downturn, because of the underlying trends in the market. By 2013, IDC expects revenue from Linux software, servers, and services to equal about half those of the lucrative Unix market, or $35.5 billion versus $74 billion."
IDC: Linux to benefit from recession (The Register)
The Register looks at an IDC prognostication. "Economic turmoil has always driven change (and sometimes innovation) in the data centre, and this global recession will be no different. This time around, like the recession that started in 2001, it looks like Linux is going to be one of the big beneficiaries."
Linux Adoption
Government sticks to proprietary line: leaves Linux in the dust (Technology & Business)
Technology & Business takes a look at the Australian government's decision to use proprietary solutions in schools. "When the NSW Department of Education and Training put out a tender for its $150 million 'netbooks for schools' contract, the opportunity for Linux to be used in the State's education system was looking quite possible. The tender specified that all proposed devices must be able to run either Windows or Linux and many of the vendors submitting proposals had been using Linux to some extent. The final decision to use Lenovo Laptops powered by Microsoft's operating system and running proprietary software was a blow to the open source community, and also a blow, say some people to education." (Thanks to Dahna McConnach)
Another Look At Linux Netbook Return Statistics (bMighty.com)
Matthew McKenzie questions statistics on Linux netbook returns. "Last year, for example, the director of U.S. sales for MSI told Laptop Magazine that customers return Linux netbooks four times as often as Windows netbooks. As Computerworld.com contributor Eric Lai pointed out, however, such claims can be misleading. According to Lai, MSI's numbers weren't based on the company's actual netbook return rates. In fact, at the time, MSI wasn't even shipping a Linux-powered netbook model. So, where did MSI get its information? From third-party market research."
Legal
Should an Open Source Licence Ever Be Patent-Agnostic? (Linux Journal)
Glyn Moody covers a new license that is being submitted to the Open Source Initiative. "Sharing lies at the heart of free software, and drives much of its incredible efficiency as a development methodology. It means that coders do not have to re-invent the wheel, but can borrow from pre-existing programs. Software patents, despite their name, are about locking down knowledge so that it cannot be shared without permission (and usually payment). But are there ever circumstances when software patents that require payment might be permitted by an open source licence?"
Reviews
Enter gNewSense - the free Ubuntu (FSM)
Free Software Magazine has posted a review of gNewSense for those of you wanting to live a firmware-free life. "Considering the explanations above it is no surprise that using gNewSense is more restricting than using Ubuntu. Missing support for many WLAN cards, missing GLX as well as no Firefox do not make gNewSense more attractive for the user. In order to prevent disappointment it is strongly recommended to read up on hardware support and provided software before the installation."
Miscellaneous
New Attack Sneaks Rootkits Into Linux Kernel (Dark Reading)
Dark Reading reports on a "new" way to install rootkits on a Linux system. "At Black Hat Europe this week in Amsterdam, Anthony Lineberry, senior software engineer for Flexilis, will demonstrate how to hack the Linux kernel by exploiting the driver interface to physically addressable memory in Linux, called /dev/mem." Of course, this attack would be blocked by the STRICT_DEVMEM configuration option, introduced into the mainline kernel in 2.6.25 (and by some distributors prior to that).
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