Linux in the news
Recommended Reading
Death to the Wizards! (OSViews)
Here's an OSViews editorial blasting software "wizards" and other user-friendly GUIs. "The software "wizard" is the single greatest obstacle to computer literacy since the Mac. The wizard's underlying assumption is that the user is incapable of learning how to perform a task and/or should be protected from certain decisions or information."
SCO Linux licensee has second thoughts on deal (InfoWorld)
According to this InfoWorld article, EV1Servers.Net CEO Robert Marsh isn't so hot on the "license" he bought from SCO anymore. "So how does Marsh feel about the deal nearly a month later? 'Would I do it again? No. I'll go on the record as saying that,' Marsh said. 'I certainly know a lot more today than I knew a month ago, in a lot of respects.'"
Marc Andreessen: "Linux Has Matured" (BusinessWeek)
BusinessWeek talks with Marc Andreessen about Linux. "Another key thing to remember is that everyone coming out of college is familiar with Linux. It has overwhelming market share in colleges and universities. In every computer science program I'm aware of, it's the default language people teach on. They like it because it's open-source, and you can look at how it really works. The reason that's important is because those kids leaving college will enter the workforce and bring those skills to their employers."
Trade Shows and Conferences
Want to "Go" to Novell's Brainshare and See Linus? (Groklaw)
Groklaw reports on Novell's Brainshare conference. "I got a real feel for what Novell is doing with SuSE Linux from this conference. They are making Linux easy enough for your mom. That includes the enterprise solutions. Wait until you see their patch demo. So much for retraining costs if you want to switch to GNU/Linux. You don't need retraining to know how to click on an icon. This is the end of Microsoft's FUD about TCO being higher if you switch to Linux, methinks, the lovely and tireless Ms. DiDio notwithstanding."
F/OSS and KDE in Africa (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the African Source conference. "54 people from 15 African countries and 16 facilitators/helpers from outside Africa gathered in Okahandja, a small Namibian town, for African Source from 15th of March to 19th of March 2004. African Source was the first all African conference of Free Software/Open Source Software (F/OSS) developers."
The SCO Problem
The GPL And The Legal Challenge To It (IT-Director)
Robin Bloor comments on the SCO case on IT-Director. "SCO could easily rectify any IP violation at once and this would not prejudice any legal position it has in respect of past violations against any legal entity. In the IT industry, source code and IP is quite frequently abused, but its abuse is protected by companies keeping their source code private (if a good deal of anecdotal information I have been given over the years is true). In contrast, the Open Source community is an honest breath of fresh air."
Companies
Linux move for Itanium (vnunet)
The semiconductor industry must be taking Linux fairly seriously these days, as indicated by this article on Vnunet. "Fujitsu Siemens Computers (FSC) has said it is working with Intel to customise the Itanium 64bit chip for an enterprise Linux server, due in 2006. The duo will add features such as instruction-retry now seen only in proprietary high-end Unix systems."
Being Steve Ballmer: the view from inside (Mercury News)
Dan Gillmor channels Steve Ballmer's reaction to the EU antitrust ruling in this Mercury News column. "Besides, it looks like they might have left us a killer loophole. We can get 'reasonable remuneration' for any intellectual property we're forced to license. So maybe we can prevent the Linux people -- and all those other 'software should be free' communists who give away what they create -- from using or even seeing the programming interfaces that let them interoperate with our software. Your move, Torvalds."
Sun Opens Java Management Process (Wired)
Wired reports that Sun now plans to open up the management of Java. "To date, Sun has made all the decisions regarding the direction for Java. In a major change for the Palo Alto, California-based company, Sun is forming an executive committee that will include 16 members from other Java players. The committee, with executives from Oracle, IBM, and Novell, will decide which proposals for new specs are approved for development."
Linux Adoption
Switzerland approves new open source software strategy (Europa IDA)
The Swiss Confederation has adopted a new open source software strategy, according to this report. "Pointing out that the Swiss Federal Administration must base its software choices on grounds of interoperability and cost-effectiveness, and that open source software stimulates competition in the software sector, the strategic paper defines three priorities for the Federal OSS strategy. The strategic priorities are equality of treatment (both open source and proprietary software must be put on equal footing when evaluated or procured by the Federal administration), sharing of software (federal agencies should whenever appropriate share software developed in-house, according to a licence model similar to the OSS concept), and the implementation of pre-requirements for OSS adoption (federal authorities must work towards establishing certain pre-requirements for successful OSS implementation)." Thanks to Jeroen Baten.
Linux at Work
RIAA site intermittently available, now running Linux (Netcraft)
Netcraft reports that the RIAA web site is now running Linux after having problems with the MyDoom.F virus. "The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA)'s site is now transiently available after an extended outage and now appears to be running Linux. Inevitably, this will lead to speculation that SCO might add the RIAA to the list of Linux using organizations currently receiving attention from its lawyers. Of course, the RIAA is itself well endowed with lawyers should it need to defend itself, and just yesterday announced the latest in its own series of lawsuits against Internet users it believes are improperly sharing copyrighted music files."
Legal
Lindows Judge Proposes MS Suspend Overseas Actions or Lose Permission to Appeal (Groklaw)
Groklaw covers the Lindows hearing in Seattle. "The Lindows hearing yesterday resulted in the judge in Seattle suggesting Microsoft should suspend its overseas legal pursuit of Lindows until the US case is settled, or he will withdraw his permission to let the company appeal his ruling against them in the US and they will have to go directly to trial."
Interviews
Torvalds: Open Source Keeps People Honest (TechWeb)
Information Week interviews Linus Torvalds. "I think the SCO case has made it clear that it's been very useful to have big commercial companies involved, because they do not just [do] marketing and customer support, but they also have lawyers and are able to fight the FUD on that side. So I think we've seen how well the symbiosis between commercial interests and the technical interests of open source can really work."
The People Behind KDE: Till Adam (KDE.News)
KDE.News introduces the next interview in the 'People Behind KDE' series; KMail hacker Till Adam. "- How and when did you get involved in KDE? - About a year or so ago I sent some patches to the KMail list with stuff I missed when switching from mutt. They were warmly received and I kept fixing stuff I came across and adding small features. I got stuck pretty quickly, it's just too much fun."
Reviews
Linux-based handheld debuts in India (News.com)
News.com looks at a new Linux-based PDA. "The Amida Simputer, originally developed as a "poor man's computer," is now being pitched as a device that can handle a wide range of business and personal-computing requirements. The Linux-powered handheld combines the functions of an organizer and an MP3 player and has handwriting recognition capabilities."
Can Kopete replace GAIM and XChat? (NewsForge)
NewsForge reviews Kopete, KDE's instant messaging and chat program. "Accounts and user identities are added through a simple "Wizard" utility that's about as easy to understand as any IM or IRC setup can possibly be. If you don't have an account on a particular network, the wizard even has links to the signup page of each one Kopete supports. I tested this by setting up an MSN messenger account, and immediately had the same access to this popular chat service as any Windows user. It took me less than five minutes to set up access for three IM services and three IRC networks. Another 10 minutes of experimenting with display settings, and I was 100% in business, with everything set to my taste -- and had strangers offering to chat with me through Yahoo Messenger, a service I hadn't used in at least two years."
Linux Kernel 2.6: the Future of Embedded Computing, Part I (Linux Journal)
The Linux Journal looks at how the 2.6 kernel supports embedded systems. "Linux 2.6 introduces many new features that make it an excellent operating system for embedded computing. Among these new features are enhanced real-time performance, easier porting to new computers, support for large memory models, support for microcontrollers and an improved I/O system."
Linux Kernel 2.6: the Future of Embedded Computing, Part II (Linux Journal)
Linux Journal continues looking at how the 2.6 kernel supports embedded systems. "Linux is easily the fastest growing operating system in the embedded world. The introduction of kernel 2.6 has boosted the use of Linux in real-time applications. It still does not come close to a real hard RTOS, and nursing such expectations is incorrect given the vast differences between the characteristics and requirements of general and real-time applications. But it can be expected that RTOSes with kernel 2.6 as the basic kernel now can compete with the biggies of the embedded world and offer the embedded developer community a reliable and free embedded operating system."
Port scanning and Nmap 3.5 (NewsForge)
Joe Barr examines the latest release of Nmap in a NewsForge article. "Inspired by the release of Nmap 3.5, the latest version of the award-winning network security tool, I've been exploring network security issues for a couple of weeks now. Nmap's major skill is port scanning -- learning which ports on a machine are "open" and what applications are using them. Sound network security planning dictates that you take a look at your network machines to see what the bad guys can see from outside."
The article also includes an interesting subtext entitled: Nmap terminates SCO's license.
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