Linux in the news

Tiemann: Open Source Incentives

Michael Tiemann reports on his recent trip to Brazil for FISL 10. He notes that free software adoption is growing rapidly within the Brazilian government. He also describes an effort by the Malaysian government to reward use of free software, rather than the development of it, because that rewarding development can lead to multiple, competing solutions that don't necessarily solve the users' problems. In addition, he also noted a barrier to free software adoption: "On the alarm front, I heard specific confirmation of a storyline I've been following, which is that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is basically telling governments: if you want contributions/investments from us, then you'll give Microsoft cabinet-level access to inform policy, and you'll use Microsoft products. For example, donations to educational initiatives require installing and teaching Microsoft products."

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Gran Canaria Desktop Summit Opens (KDE.News)

KDE.News has a report on the first day of the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit. This is the first time that GNOME and KDE have combined forces for their yearly conferences (GUADEC and Akademy). The conference started on Saturday, July 4, with a number of keynotes, and runs through July 11. "After a break, one more keynote was held by Quim Gil from the Maemo community. He made a very surprising announcement. Showing an architecture diagram with the current stack for Maemo with Qt in the community supported area. Then a button was pushed, and Qt moved to the foundation stack and the old toolkit moved into the community support area. In a later interview, Quim Gil and Aron Kozak from Nokia expanded on the plans. The upcoming release of Maemo, Maemo 5, will be based on GTK. It is currently being stabilised and finished. The following release, codenamed Harmatan, will be build around Qt."

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Day 2 at Gran Canaria Desktop Summit (KDEDot)

KDE.News reports from the Gran Canaria Desktop Summit. "The Desktop Summit is continuing with talks in the Cross Desktop tracks and the start of the Akademy tracks. Between the talks developers can be spotted huddled in groups discussing everything from problems with their code to building community. The tracks covered metadata, community, infrastructure and multimedia. Read on for some of the talks."

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Linux desktop adoption boosted by economy (SearchEnterpriseLinux)

SearchEnterpriseLinux looks at the increasing use of Linux on the desktop. "While hard numbers remain elusive, business adoption of Linux on the desktop appears to be growing, motivated at least in part by the need to stretch IT budgets during the current economic slump. Linux currently has a tiny but rapidly growing toehold in the overall desktop market. The upside, according to Open Road blogger Matt Asay, is that Linux desktop systems grew 62% from 2007 to 2008. The downside: even that tremendous expansion only brought Linux desktops to 2.02% of the market."

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Virtual Linux is the prescription for hospital patients (iTWire)

iTWire reports on a new Linux installation by a Glendale, California hospital. "Adventist Medical Center (GAMC) has installed thin clients running Linux virtual desktops in 65 patient rooms in its new West Tower. "Just as easily as the hospital provides patients with TVs in rooms, now we provide personal computing," said Roger Pruyne, senior programmer/analyst and project manager for the GAMC Patient Computing project. The system combines NoMachine's NX remote access and virtualisation software, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, and an IBM System x3650 server. GAMC estimates that this approach saves 98 percent of the cost that would have been involved if conventional PCs had been selected."

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Would You Like Linux With Your Jello? (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal takes a look at a hospital with Linux thin clients for patients. "The happy healers at Glendale Adventist Medical Center, in conjunction with Linux luminaries IBM and Novell, as well as the networkers at NoMachine, have found a way to insert Linux into the lives of its patients. Rather than blank walls and bad TV to stare at, patients in the new West Tower at Glendale Adventist have access to the outside world, via Linux-based thin clients available right in the patient's room. The setup utilizes servers from IBM, the networking and compression expertise of NoMachine, and SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop to provide patients with access to the internet, where they can do everything from learning about their condition and treatment to keeping family and friends abreast of their progress via the standard cast of internet characters: Twitter, Facebook, and the omnipresent blogs."

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Fellowship interview with Smári McCarthy (FSFE)

The Free Software Foundation Europe presents an interview with Smári McCarthy. "Stian Rødven Eide: One of the most profiled projects you have been involved with is the Fab Lab, having headed the Icelandic branch for over a year now. While best known for its use of 3D printers, the Fab Lab is actually a much broader concept that goes far beyond technical innovation. Can you tell us a bit about your work there, and what you hope to achieve? Smári McCarthy: There are two sides to the Fab Lab story. On the one hand, there’s the research side, which is all about developing the universal constructors, figuring out the hard science of digital fabrication. In that realm I think our work is done when we can download chicken sandwiches off the Internet."

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SUSE 11 takes off faster than 10 (The Register)

The Register talks with Justin Steinman, director of marketing for Linux and open platform solutions at Novell, about SUSE Linux 11 and other topics. "Steinman did want to talk a bit about clouds and Novell's place in them. And even while no one has been talking about Novell building a cloud of its own, he put the kibosh on the idea. "We are not going to launch the Novell Cloud," Steinman says. "We are not going to be a hosting provider. Our core competency is making heterogeneous environments work together, and that is what we plan to focus on." That's not to say that Novell does not expect its products - Linux and its PlateSpin management tools in particular - to have some play as companies build clouds."

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Pianoteq3 For Linux: A Product Review (Linux Journal)

Dave Philips reviews the Linux version of Pianoteq (commercial software) on Linux Journal. "On the 15th of May 2009 the Modartt company announced the release of version 3.0.3 of their award-winning Pianoteq, a professional-quality digital keyboard instrument created by an audio synthesis method known as physical modeling. The program is vastly praised by its users, but in order to feel the love you've had to run a Windows machine or a Mac box. Until now, that is. The latest release introduces various new attractions, and the one that interests me the most is support for a native Linux version."

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iPhone Dev Team Releases 3GS Jailbreak (Washington Post)

The Washington Post reports that a hack is available to unlock the iPhone. "The Dev Team also released a new hack codenamed "redsn0w," which is a Linux version of the program. But right now, redsn0w should work on OS X, Windows, and Linux."

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