Announcements
Non-Commercial announcements
FSFE: EC caves in to proprietary lobbyists on interoperability
The Free Software Foundation Europe has issued a press release regarding EU government software interoperability. "The European Commission (EC) has given in to the demands of lobbyists for Microsoft and SAP when it revised a key document on interoperability between electronic government services. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) has analysed the evolution of a new version of the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), showing that Commission has based its work on the input of the Business Software Alliance (BSA), a lobby group for proprietary software vendors, and ignored the voices of a large part of the European software industry. At the same time, remarks by the EC's Vice President about Free Software point to a worrying lack of awareness within the Commission."
Commercial announcements
CELF looking to fund embedded development projects
The Consumer Electronics Linux Forum is looking for ideas for improvements to embedded Linux that they can fund. "The CELF Open Project Proposal is a process whereby members of the public submit to the CE Linux Forum ideas and proposals for projects that they think should be worked on to enhance embedded Linux. The plan is to solicit ideas for our 2010 contract work projects. Areas of work can include the Linux kernel, graphics systems, toolchain work, or anything else that will help enhance Linux for use in embedded systems." See the open project proposal page for more information.
rPath offers management solution for Red Hat
rPath has announced its new release automation platform for Red Hat Enterprise Linux. "rPath, an innovator in automating application deployment and maintenance, today announced enterprise-focused productivity and management enhancements to the rPath release automation platform. The upgrades refine the functionality and user experience of the industry's first fully version controlled release automation solution, meeting the needs of each stakeholder in the enterprise release management process."
Thunderbird Connector for Open-Xchange is available
Open-Xchange has announced the availability of a free Open-Xchange connector for the Mozilla Thunderbird e-mail client. "The "Community OXtender for Thunderbird" software connector gives users full access to appointments and contacts stored in the Open-Xchange Server and enables them to use Thunderbird as a rich PIM (Personal Information Management) client to access data online and offline."
Articles of interest
Dell releases unofficial Chrome OS Linux desktop (ComputerWorld Blogs)
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports that an unofficial build of Chrome OS is available for Dell's Mini 10v. "The Mini 10v is, as you might have guessed, one of Dell's PCs that already comes with Ubuntu as an option, but this is a very experimental release [of Chrome OS]. Still, as a USB-based distribution, it can't harm your 10v - if something goes wrong or it doesn't work you just remove the USB drive and reboot - so it's worth playing with if you like experimenting with Linux's newest bleeding-edge distribution."
Senators Nudge EU On Sun (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal reports that the U.S. Senate is now involved in the acquisition of Sun Microsystems by Oracle. "Despite having issued it's formal objections, the European Commission continues to investigate the matter, and according to Oracle officials, it's costing Sun some $100 million per month. Given that Sun is a sizable employer, concern has grown that layoffs and possibly worse may be on the horizon, leading US officials to step in. Following the lead of high-profile senators Orrin Hatch and John Kerry, some fifty-nine members of the Untied States Senate — more than half — joined in sending a letter to the European Commission, asking that it complete its investigation ASAP. Citing the threat to American jobs, Senator Kerry told reporters that the senators "felt compelled to ask for a speedy resolution" to the seven-month saga."
Sun Leaves License Behind (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal reports that Sun will remove one license from its X.org contributions. "One project with a proliferation of licenses though thankfully compatible is X.org. We count some seventy-six separate licenses in the xorg/xserver's COPYING file, most of which are derivatives of the "standard" license, itself an MIT license. Most derivatives bear roughly the same language along with a single distinguishing feature: '...and that the name of [the copyright holder] not be used in advertising or publicity pertaining to distribution of the software without specific, written prior permission.' That file will soon have one less license, however, as Sun Microsystems' Alan Coopersmith announced yesterday that the company will begin licensing its contributions under the "standard" license, which does not bear the advertising/publicity provision. Further, Sun will re-license all of its prior contributions some twenty-one years of substantial contribution under the "standard" licenses, ridding the code entirely of its derivative license."
New Books
Crafting Digital Media book from Apress
Apress has published the book Crafting Digital Media by Daniel James. "It covers Free Software audio applications including ALSA Modular Synth, Ardour, Audacity, Hydrogen, Jamin, Mixxx, and Seq24."
New revision of "Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program" book
A new revision of the book Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program has been announced. "The print version of Tavmjong's book "Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program, 3rd Edition" is now in stock at a number of on-line bookstores. The book had been updated to cover Inkscape release 0.47. It is also available as a PDF download and for free on the web."
Resources
CE Linux Forum Newsletter
The November, 2009 edition of the CE Linux Forum Newsletter has been published. "In this month's CE Linux Forum newsletter: * Call for Presentations: ELC 2010 * CELF announces plan for "Open Project Proposals" * 31st Japan Technical Jamboree Announcement * Embedded Technology (ET) 2009 * 5th CELF Korea Technical Jamboree Report * New release of SMEM tool available!"
Interstellar overdrive - Linux and astronomy (The H)
The H has posted a lengthy look at Linux and astronomy at both the professional and amateur levels. "Perhaps the most impressive astronomy software on Linux for the impressionable layperson with a passing interest in science fiction and the stars is Celestia. Celestia is an interactive 3D application for astronomical visualisation, and is free software, licensed under the GPL. Unlike most planetarium software Celestia allows the user to travel across the universe, seeing objects as they would be seen from a spacecraft, and is the perfect way to forget your responsibilities in front of your computer as you set your controls for the heart of the sun."
The December Linux Gazette is out - sort of
The December issue of the Linux Gazette is out, but it consists only of one "back page" article bemoaning the lack of submissions and asking for more participation. "Because you - you, our readers, our authors, the participants in this process, the people who get involved and passionate and interested - you are the reason for the continuing existence of LG. If you're not there, not involved, and not interested... then LG has outlived its usefulness to the community, and all that's left is to thank everyone who has contributed, publish a wrap-up issue, turn off the lights, and go home. I can only hope that things have not reached that state - and I hope to see those articles, those questions, that commitment to tell me so."
Calls for Presentations
Linux Audio Conference 2010: Call for Papers now open
The call for papers has gone out for Linux Audio Conference 2010, submissions are due by February 14. "The next Linux Audio Conference (LAC#8) will take place at the HKM in Utrecht, Netherlands, from May 1st - 4th, 2010"
PGCon 2010 call for papers
A call for papers has gone out for PGCon 2010, Submissions are due by January 19. "PGCon 2010 will be held 20-21 May 2010, in Ottawa at the University of Ottawa. It will be preceded by two days of tutorials on 18-19 May 2010."
Upcoming Events
GUADEC to be held July 24-30 in The Hague
The GNOME Foundation has announced the location and dates for its annual conference GUADEC. It will be held July 24-30, 2010 in The Hague, Netherlands. "'Free Software is of great importance to culture in the digital age,' said Kees Vendrik, Green MP and advocate of open source and open standards in the Dutch public sector. 'It offers a fertile feeding ground for education, innovation, and the economy at large. My party is delighted that the GNOME conference is coming to The Netherlands and we believe it will inspire our governmental bodies to put policy into practice.'" Click below for the full announcement.
L2Ork Debut Performance at Virginia Tech
A free performance of the Linux Laptop Orchestra will be held at Virginia Tech. "On December 4th Virginia Tech DISIS Linux Laptop Orchestra will hold its first sneak preview debut performance on Virginia Tech (VT) campus, Squires Studio Theatre, starting at 7pm. Admission is free. At noon on the same day, L2Orkists will also host a demo booth outside the Commonwealth Ballroom in Squires Student Center (VT campus) demoing how L2Ork works."
UKUUG Spring 2010 Tutorial and Conference
The UKUUG Spring 2010 Tutorial and Conference has been announced, it will be held in Manchester, UK on March 23-25.Events: December 10, 2009 to February 8, 2010
The following event listing is taken from the LWN.net Calendar.
| Date(s) | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| December 7 December 11 |
Annual Computer Security Applications Conference | Honolulu, HI, USA |
| December 7 December 13 |
Make Art 2009 | Poitiers, France |
| December 12 December 13 |
Django Development Sprint | Dallas, TX, USA |
| December 12 December 17 |
SciPy India 2009 | Kerala, India |
| December 12 | BSD community day | Utrecht, The Netherlands |
| December 19 | New Mexico Linux Fest | Albuquerque, NM, USA |
| December 27 December 30 |
26th Chaos Communication Congress | Berlin, Germany |
| January 13 January 15 |
Foundations of Open Media Software | Wellington, New Zealand |
| January 15 January 22 |
Camp KDE 2010 | San Diego, CA, USA |
| January 18 January 23 |
linux.conf.au | Wellington, New Zealand |
| January 23 | Workshop on GCC Research Opportunities | Pisa, Italy |
| January 23 January 24 |
DrupalSouth Wellington 2010 | Wellington, New Zealand |
| February 2 | Prague PostgreSQL Developers' Day 2010 | Prague, Czech Republic |
| February 5 February 7 |
Frozen Perl 2010 | Minneapolis, MN, USA |
| February 6 | Super Happy Dev Castle #0 | Belfast, N. Ireland, United Kingdom |
| February 6 February 7 |
Free and Open Source Developers' European Meeting | Brussels, Belgium |
If your event does not appear here, please tell us about it.
Miscellaneous
The Mysterious Disappearance Of Phil Agre (NPR)
Here's an NPR article on Phil Agre, who has not been heard from in over a year. "Agre's online influence reaches far and wide - which makes it all the more surprising that he could have gone missing for such a long time without more people noticing. He was the publisher of the Red Rock Eaters News Service, an influential mailing list he started in the mid-1990s that ran for around a decade. A mix of news, Internet policy and politics, RRE served as a model for many of today's political blogs and online newsletters." LWN was certainly influenced by RRE, and your editor still misses it. (Thanks to Jay Ashworth).
Page editor: Forrest Cook