Linux in the news

Linux's lucky lawsuit (National Post)

This National Post column says that the SCO case is a good thing for Linux. "Open-source advocates are outraged at the audacity of the lawsuit. They should instead be thankful. Linux must inoculate itself against the nasty legal toxins that are endemic in the corporate environment. And if we were to perversely pick a poison, the SCO suit has a lot going for it. SCO is strong enough to provoke a strengthening of Linux's defences but not so strong that it poses any real danger."

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Open Source "State of the Union" address

Bruce Perens has sent in the notes from his Open Source "State of the Union" speech at the LinuxWorld Conference, where he discussed the SCO case. "What would the Free Software developers ask for damages? The only salable asset of SCO, the Unix copyrights. This is something that Red Hat or others who sue SCO could ask for, as well. Now, we already own a superior product to any SCO Unix that has ever been shown, so we don't consider this an extremely valuable asset. But it would be a suitable close to the SCO story for the Unix copyrights to be transferred to the Free Software Foundation."

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KDE at LinuxWorld Expo San Francisco Report

Here's a look at LinuxWorld from the KDE booth, with pictures. "Users were continuously impressed by KDE, for obvious reasons. But easily the most often-asked question was "What the latest version is" (3.1.3), and the cool new features in the upcoming KDE 3.2."

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Red Hat CEO Rallies Open-source Troops At LinuxWorld (TechWeb)

TechWeb covers the LinuxWorld keynote by Red Hat CEO Matthew J. Szulik. " Keynote attendees showered applause on Red Hat's Szulik as a defender of the cause at LinuxWorld where some developers prowled the show floor selling T-shirts with logos deriding SCO.Szulik took the high ground in his keynote referring only twice, indirectly, to the SCO suit. "At a time when our conversation was framed around technical improvements we have devolved to speak about litigation," Szulik said. "You should be able to look at source code without fear of being arrested," he added later, sparking wild applause."

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Pundits analyze state of open source (NewsForge)

NewsForge examines a roundtable discussion that was held at LinuxWorld. "A roundtable of analysts from Forrester, DH Browne, Gartner, and IDC pondered the state of Linux and open source before a large audience at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo Wednesday. The consensus: Lack of a few key components make Linux a weaker alternative than it might be."

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Linux Robot: Could Be A Hero, Could Be A Toaster (TechWeb)

What Linux trade show would be complete without a robot that runs Linux? InformationWeek takes a look at the Centibots. " At LinuxWorld in San Francisco this week, scientists from SRI International's Artificial Intelligence Center demonstrated Linux-based robots that can search for objects and people in environments unsafe for rescue workers, such as the site of a chemical spill or an earthquake-damaged building. The research project is sponsored by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Linux was chosen for the robots, called Centibots, because they require a small, reliable operating system that has drivers for a variety of devices, can be automatically installed, and have a journaling file system, says Regis Vincent, a scientist with the nonprofit research institute."

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Def Con 0xB (Linux Journal)

Here's the Darth Elmo Def Con Dispatch from Linux Journal. "Def Con, of course, is the biggest and best annual hacker convention in the US. Def Cons take place in Las Vegas, Nevada, and span a three-day weekend in early August or late July. The convention is attended by thousands of information security professionals, hackers of all shapes and UNIX affiliations, law enforcement officers both federal and not, and journalists both clueful and clueless. Def Con is part security convention, part family reunion, part flea market and 100% party. This year's Def Con, the eleventh, didn't disappoint in the fun or socializing departments, and it delivered pretty well on interesting ideas and discourse, too."

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HP to take care of Unix, Linux and Windows with Nimbus (Register)

The Register examines the Nimbus project from HP. "According to the docs, HP has started calling on its user base to begin beta-testing the Nimbus software. The app set is basically a souped up version of Insight Manager that lets administrators manage Unix, Linux and Windows servers from one place."

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IBM files countersuit against SCO, SCO shares drop (Reuters)

IBM has filed a countersuit against SCO, according to this Reuters article. "IBM, in its countersuit filed in federal court in Utah, alleged SCO had breached the general public license for Linux and infringed on IBM patents, according to the court documents. SCO is based in Lindon, Utah. SCO shares, which have gained sharply from about $3 since it announced its suit, fell $1.27, or 10.6 percent, to $10.73 in morning Nasdaq trading. IBM gained 42 cents to $80.13." (Thanks to Robert Steinfeldt).

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Big Blue files counterclaims against SCO (News.com)

News.com has some info on IBM's countersuit. "IBM said that four SCO software packages violate four of IBM's patents. The patents cover a data compression technique, a method of navigating among program menus using options arranged in a graphical tree, a method for verifying that an electronic message was received and a method for monitoring computing systems linked in a cluster." Most people will certainly welcome a counterstrike from IBM, but the deployment of software patents to shut somebody down is always a bit of a cause for concern.

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SCO vs. the Linux world…what's a Linux user to do? (ZDNet)

ZDNet is running a column by lawyer Thomas Carey on SCO's case. "Any plaintiff complaining that it is being injured by wrongful conduct has a duty to mitigate its damages. In order for SCO to assert claims against Linux users, it has to take reasonable steps to lessen the harm that it is suffering. This means giving Linux users the opportunity to remove the infringing code from Linux. SCO's refusal to identify the Linux code in question is hard to defend." This is a good article to show to worried bosses.

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SCO not exactly the lovable little guy (Salt Lake Tribune)

The Salt Lake Tribune is carrying a Wall Street Journal article on the SCO affair. "SCO says it won't identify all the infringing code in Linux because Linux developers would quickly replace it. But isn't that exactly what someone alleging a legal injury should, for starters, want -- to stop being injured? Damages for past injuries can always come later. Or maybe SCO knows that if it laid out its cards, people would just walk away from the table laughing at its hand -- rather than pay a license fee." The Tribune also has an article on insider trading of SCO shares.

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SuSE backs rival Red Hat in SCO fight (vnunet)

Vnunet reports that SuSE backs Red Hat against SCO. "In an official statement, SuSE said: "We applaud [Red Hat's] efforts to restrict the rhetoric of the SCO Group, and the fear, uncertainty and doubt which they are trying to instil.""

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Lindows continues its PC push (ZDNet)

ZDNet looks at the latest hardware offering from Lindows.com. "The company, best known for its consumer-oriented version of the Linux operating system, on Thursday launched a $449 desktop computer with a flat-panel monitor. It's the second such announcement from Lindows in just a few weeks."

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SuSE Supports RedHat's Open Source Initiative

SuSE has put out a press release, stating that it stands behind Red Hat in the SCO case. "SCO has already been halted in Germany and we applaud Red Hat's actions to help end their activities in the US -- and beyond. We applaud their efforts to restrict the rhetoric of the SCO group -- and the FUD they are trying to instill -- and will determine quickly what actions SuSE can take to support Red Hat in their efforts."

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Making Linux more gadget-friendly (News.com)

News.com reports that TimeSys has joined the CELF. "TimeSys, a seller of Linux designed to be embedded into various computing devices, has joined the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, and its competitor, MontaVista Software, plans to announce a similar move next week."

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Navy to draft Linux-powered Macs (News.com)

News.com reports on the sale of 260 Apple Xserve servers to the US Navy by Terra Soft Solutions. "Terra Soft Solutions said the machines will be used as part of a sonar imaging system that defense contractor Lockheed Martin is building for the Navy. Rather than using the Mac OS, the Apple servers will run Terra Soft's Yellow Dog Linux operating system."

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The penguin road patrol (smh.com)

SMH.com has published an article that describes a linux-based video road inspection system that is being used to map road defects in Australia. "What Viner and his team have ended up with today is a system that uses Linux to run five video cameras from the same kind of van used as an ambulance. It is all done at a speed ranging from 80kmph to 100kmph. The cost of the annual survey has, in the process, fallen from $1.2 million to $850,000. And the system which was devised has so far generated about 1.3 terabytes of video footage with few problems."

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Oracle's Infrastructure Now Fully Linux-ized (TechWeb)

TechWeb looks into Oracle's conversion to Linux. ""We run our business on Linux," Rozwat said at the LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. "If you look at any IT company, Oracle is by far the leader at running Linux." Oracle chose the platform because of its strengths in security, scalability, and performance, he said. In the coming year, Oracle will move its base development platform to Linux, including putting the open-source operating system on the workstations of 8,000 developers."

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Usability Study: KDE Suited for Corporate Desktop

KDE.News covers a Linux Usability Report that was performed by Relevantive AG. "The study is based on a broad test conducted with 60 people who had previous Windows knowledge but had never used Windows XP. For comparison, 20 other people were asked to try Windows XP for the first time. Both are possible migration scenarios as support for Windows NT is being dropped. The study is independent, as it was conducted without a client order."

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Indian software developers adopt Linux

ZDNet is carrying a Reuters article on increasing adoption of Linux in India. "About 10 percent of India's personal computers will be sold with Linux rather than Microsoft operating systems by March, 2004, says Linux distributor Red Hat, up from nothing in January. Besides the switch of desktop operating systems to Linux, analysts say the bigger worry for Microsoft is the growing use of Linux among India's pool of an estimated 400,000 software developers, many of whom churn out code for giants such as General Motors and American Express."

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GPL may be unenforceable under German law (InfoWorld)

InfoWorld reports on a study that claims that the GPL may be unenforceable under German (or perhaps EU) law. The main issue seems to be with the warranty disclaimers. "Regarding such legal principles as liability and warranty, the GPL clauses have absolutely no legal validity. Under the license, developers and distributors of open software are not liable for any problems with their products. The GPL avoids any wording that could imply liability. Such a license is simply unenforceable under German, or even European Union law for that matter." As the article notes, the study was performed for a closed-source lobbying group. (Thanks to Yusuf Goolamabbas).

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Mad as hell and not going to take it (News.com)

News.com interviews Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik on the topic of the SCO suit. "We would like very much to see the court system provide the facts as soon as possible. We just want to know the truth. Let the facts be put on the table so they can be dealt with honestly. That's the goal. We want to see this resolved as fast as possible."

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'Maddog' Bullish on Open Source (eWeek)

eWeek has posted an interview with Jon "Maddog" Hall. "I talk a lot with governments, for the most part industry has gotten it. The next really big scene will be the bulk of the independent software vendors [ISVs], and what they'll have to do to meet that marketplace. At the same time, there's a large group of the mom-and-pop businesses I call the "great unwashed." We're trying to interact more with local user groups and give them the marketing ammunition to go out and talk to business, educators and government."

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George Staikos on Linux Drivers and KDE (LinMagAu)

In this LinMagAu article John Knight interviews George Staikos about the state of video and audio drivers for Linux. "Linux users need to demand drivers or hardware documentation for the hardware they buy, or do what they have a right to do - buy elsewhere. Promote the competitors' products. I think we've seen this repeatedly in the Linux world already. More Linux users demanding open specifications or drivers will mean more drivers in the end. Eventually it will become profitable." (Found at KDE.News)

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Novell's Stone: NetWare's Linux future (ZDNet)

ZDNet talks with Novell vice-chairman Chris Stone about Linux, NetWare, Ximian, and more. "Mono is great. I like the idea very much of being able to run .Net applications on Linux and recompiling things written in C# to run on Linux. We will become a big advocate for Mono. I hope Microsoft views it as a good thing."

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Government, ICT and Open Source Software in South Africa (OpenSector)

OpenSector talks with Nhlanhla Mabaso, the Open Source Manager at the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). "A question was recently asked on one of the mailing lists about the possibility of Nigeria's elections being conducted on an OSS platform. This raises important questions about the transparency of election processes. Will citizens, in the future, be content with a major company, aligned to some political parties, having their results counted on this company's software without being able to freely audit the software used?"

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Animation in SDL: Hardware Surfaces (O'ReillyNet)

Bob Pendleton discusses SDL on O'Reilly. "SDL, the cross-platform multimedia toolkit, is powerful enough to have brought over 40 commercial games to Linux. It's also portable enough to run just about anywhere that has graphics and an operating system. In the second of a series of articles, Bob Pendleton demonstrates how to use hardware surfaces in your SDL programs."

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Ultimate Linux Box: A Work in Progress (Linux Journal)

The Linux Journal continues the long process of building the 'ultimate Linux box'. "Well, I tried what passes for a downloadable x86_64 distribution. It shall remain safely nameless, to avoid embarrassing the vendor. I couldn't get X to run at all. A lot of stuff was broken. In short, it was totally unsuited to be associated with the Ultimate Linux Box. So we're going with SuSE, and pay the price for being on the leading, bleeding edge."

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An introduction to open computing, open standards, and open source (IBM)

IBM's E-Zine, the Rational Edge has an introduction to all things open. "The IT industry is going through major changes. New concepts in technology, such as Web services and grid computing, are opening the door to tremendous opportunities for taking e-business to the next level of profitability. The potential of these technologies to transform business is truly remarkable, and open standards and open source software will play increasingly critical roles in this new world".

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Opinion: Reasons To Shun Open Source-ry (TechWeb)

Rob Enderle strikes again on TechWeb. "The SCO lawsuits, at the very least, show that discovery is incredibly easy with an open source product. In order to sue for intellectual property violations, you often have to get your hands on the source code of the defendants' products. That requires convincing a court to force the defendant to turn over the source code in a process called "discovery"; that process can be difficult. The pain associated with getting hold of proprietary source code is one of the things that limits intellectual property lawsuits for commercial software. But with open source software, the code is already available, out in the open." You have to admire the honesty of it: the risk with free software is that plagiarism is easier to discover.

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