Linux in the news

Linux Is Not Ready For the Enterprise (Opinion) (TechWeb)

Ready for your daily FUD? Try this piece by Rob Enderle in Internet Week. "Clearly any 'alternative' platform that has backers who can't control their language, or worse, use methods which now are classified by several governments as terrorist acts, should be on the list of things you would like your competitors to use but would avoid yourself like the plague." If you respond to this guy, please try to show him that Linux users can use polite and well-reasoned arguments - even if he does not. (Thanks to Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier).

Comments (37 posted)

My Visit to SCO (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal is running a lengthy article by a developer who signed SCO's NDA and looked at some of their evidence. "If this is SCO's only example of Unix code appearing in Linux, I very much doubt there is any real legal liability for Linux users. If the code is indeed derived from Unix, which is unproven, it is roughly equivalent to typing in some code from a basic computer programming text without permission. While I hesitate to predict the actions of the legal system, it is very difficult for me to believe that any judge actually would award damages on the basis of this code."

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SCO smear campaign can't defeat GNU community (ZDNet)

Richard Stallman sounds off on the SCO lawsuit in this ZDNet column. "In a community of over half a million developers, we can hardly expect that there will never be plagiarism. But it is no disaster; we discard that material and move on. If there is material in Linux that was contributed without legal authorization, the Linux developers will learn what it is and replace it. SCO cannot use its copyrights, or its contracts with specific parties, to suppress the lawful contributions of thousands of others. Linux itself is no longer essential: the GNU system became popular in conjunction with Linux, but today it also runs with two BSD kernels and the GNU kernel. Our community cannot be defeated by this."

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Open source's moment of truth (News.com)

Here's a lawyer's perspective on the open source movement in the wake of SCO vs. IBM. "Even if IBM prevails in this case, lingering doubts about future licensing problems could hinder further adoption of open-source software. Corporate IT spending is just beginning to stir after two years of deep sleep, but corporations will be wary of any risky IT investments, especially those that could also bring new legal risks. The open-source community must face these fears directly if it wishes to continue building their relationship with corporate America."

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Hall: Protect open source from 'looters' (ZDNet)

ZDNet covers Jon "maddog" Hall's keynote speech at the Linux User and Developer Expo 2003. "Hall compared the ongoing legal battle between The SCO Group and the open-source community to the looting of Iraq's national treasures following the recent war in the Gulf."

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Start-up launches low-cost Linux PCs (News.com)

News.com covers Linare, a small company that has launched a new line of inexpensive Linux PCs. "Analysts don't foresee an easy time for Linare in mature markets such as the United States but give the company better odds in India. "What they're doing is bottom fishing for consumers who haven't yet bought a PC only because of price point," said IDC analyst Roger Kay. "My sense is that most people who are culturally attuned to the PC market have bought PCs, one way or the other. Of those who have not bought, there are not that many who haven't bought them purely for price reasons.""

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Linux Access in State and Local Government, Part II (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal examines Open Source Software use in the state of Texas. "Key Texans believe state and local governments should embrace Linux and open-source software (OSS) to reduce taxes. The local media decided differently and did not inform the general public about OSS initiatives in the legislature. This is especially odd, as the Houston Chronicle runs Linux on an IBM mainframe and the city administrators made the front page of USA Today for bucking Microsoft. In addition to the Chronicle, the parent of the Dallas Morning News, Belo Corporation, uses Linux to host web sites and invested heavily in :CueCat, a product driven by the Linux operating system. So, advocates of the OSS bill feel baffled."

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The Penguin on the Desktop (IT-Director)

IT Director takes a look at the Penguin on the Desktop. "Interest in Linux is also exploding elsewhere in the third world from Brazil to the Philippines, so the possibility arises that the Linux desktop will proliferate from the ground up, storming the North American and European markets after establishing economies of scale in the third world."

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FLOSS Gives India a Boost in Many Markets and Endeavors (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal finds free/libre and open source software (FLOSS) flourishing in India. "A recent conference in India offered examples of how FLOSS affects everything from education and health services to internal software markets. From banks and hospitals to software houses and prestigious technological institutions, the charm of free/libre and open-source software (FLOSS) is casting a spell in India that is pushing many here to venture into uncharted fields."

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Linux and Microsoft (Yet Again) (IT-Director)

Time for our daily analyst pronouncement: Robin Bloor has a column on IT-Director which looks at several topics, including total cost of ownership, the SCO lawsuit, and the future of Linux. "The current battle being played out is for the desktop. Linux has all the momentum it needs in the server market and it appears to be gaining ground in the third world at a rate that has got major manufacturers creating Linux PC offerings. The next few years will be interesting to watch."

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Airlines starting to fly with Linux (NewsForge)

NewsForge looks at Linux adoption in the airline industry. "Don't expect Linux to take over the aviation industry in the next few weeks or months. It's a conservative, highly-regulated business that does extensive evaluations before making even small changes. Interest and test installations today may not mean full-scale Linux use for at least another year or two by even the most receptive airlines and military aviation administrators. And, according to Berghammer, most of the early "Linux in aviation" adoptors are likely to be in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, not the United States."

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Getting the Desktop Ready for Linux: A Historical Analysis (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal examines the progress of desktop Linux, along with the challenges that remain. "Wal-Mart can cut a deal to get a few hundred PCs with SuSE on them, store them in a warehouse somewhere and ship them onesie-twosie to the oddball cust, err, enlightened individuals who want them. They're not going to ship ten PCs to every Wal-Mart in the country, sacrifice the shelf space, endure the customer confusion when somebody picks one up and takes it home expecting the latest offering from Microsoft to be pre-loaded--you see where I'm going."

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Torvalds Speaks Out on SCO, Linux (eWeek)

eWeek interviews Linus Torvalds. "Linus Torvalds, the founder and lead developer of the Linux open-source operating system, has some strong views about the legal dispute between The SCO Group and IBM, which he shared with eWEEK Senior Editor Peter Galli in an e-mail exchange last week. Torvalds also last week announced he was taking a leave of absence from Transmeta Corp. and becoming the first full-time fellow at the Open Source Development Lab, where he will continue to drive the next version of the Linux kernel, 2.6, due later this summer." (Thanks to Ravi Parimi)

Comments (7 posted)

EuroPython Interviews

EuroPython2003 begins June 25, 2003, and the EuroPython organizers are wrapping the interviews-with-speakers series with this interview with Martijn Faassen and this interview with Tim Couper.

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More EuroPython interviews

Here are two more interviews with EuroPython speakers, but first, to EuroPython attendees: "We try to keep the conference as low-budget as possible. One of the results is that we don't print/handout the brochure. Therefore this small reminder." Find the brochure here and print out the parts you want. Now, meet Nicolas Chauvat and Paul Everitt.

If you haven't been following the comments, then you probably missed the interviews with Phil Thompson and Duncan Grisby.

Comments (1 posted)

The Zen of Python - Part II (artima.com)

Artima.com has published Part II of an interview with Bruce Eckel. "In this second installment, Bruce Eckel explains why he prefers Python's valuing programmer productivity over program performance, Python's you-want-it-you-can-have-it attitude, and Python's zen-like learning curve."

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Secure Cooking with Linux, Part 1 (O'ReillyNet)

This O'ReillyNet article presents selected recipes from Linux Security Cookbook. "Public-key authentication lets you prove your identity to a remote host using a cryptographic key instead of a login password. SSH keys are more secure than passwords because keys are never transmitted over the network, whereas passwords are (albeit encrypted). Also, keys are stored encrypted, so if someone steals yours, it's useless without the passphrase for decrypting it. A stolen password, on the other hand, is immediately usable."

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Linux supercomputer now world's No. 3 (vnunet)

Vnunet covers the TOP500 supercomputing list, and finds a Linux cluster is the third fastest supercomputer in the world. "According to the 21st TOP500 supercomputing list, the Linux Networx Evolocity system, known as MCR, can process 7.6 trillion calculations per second (teraflops) running the Linpack benchmark, and is the fastest Linux cluster in the world."

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WorldWatch Week in Review (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at OSS news from around the world. "This week in WorldWatch, we've seen more government entities making the decision to embrace Linux and Free Software, mainly in Europe but also in South Africa."

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Industry group urges government to think twice on open source (ZDNet)

More FUD for the day, this time from the UK. Intellect is introduced in the article as a group which represents about 1,000 UK IT companies. "Intellect said it has no objection to the use of open-source licences as such, but is strongly opposed to the use of the GPL. The group argued that the GPL's conditions would prevent the government from profiting from its software, and could estrange proprietary software companies. "When the Government decides to develop software using a restrictive licensing base, such as the GNU GPL, (it) should be aware that this would prevent it from deriving commercial gain from any subsequent derivative programs and prevent or severely limit the opportunities to work with commercial companies on such projects," Intellect said in the response paper." (Thanks to Alastair Stevens)

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