Showing headlines posted by Herschel_Cohen

The GNOME desktop has come a long way since a study sponsored by Sun Microsystems in 2001 raised usability issues. Since then, GNOME has learned to take usability seriously, developing its Human Interface Guidelines and making strong efforts to apply them more thoroughly with each release. The GNOME 2.14 release continues this tradition. Although few major innovations are visible to the user, the release includes another round of improvements in usability and the continued development of the desktop administration tools, as well as numerous small improvements in productivity software.

Exclusive We'll see you in hell or at least Santa Clara

IBM and Oracle representatives - backing Eclipse's BPEL designer project - are expected to square off with representatives from Iona, Sybase and ObjectWeb - who are pushing the rival Eclipse STP (SOA Tools Platform) Project - to propose a merging of the teams' initiatives ... is a need for a seperate open source business process execution language (BPEL) environment for SOAs ...

[ED: Important issues, perhaps dealth with too lightly, however, I am predisposed to listen to a Sybase argument given the superiority I have seen in its application syntax over either Oracle or IBM. - Hc]

In essence, of the companies touting open source, IBM is one that has understood it, hence, it will profit from its corraboration efforts in the market. Eventually it will just become a reality instead of a buzz word as it is now employed by many.

You'd think that a man who's got a few billion dollars in the bank, likes to be known throughout the world as someone that is charitable, and who likes to profess that one of his goals was to put a computer in every home -- someone like that wouldn't have a problem with this project.

No, wait, maybe a little insight into that last statement -- a computer in every home, all running Microsoft software, that's what he really said. They kind of edited history recently when they quietly dropped the last part of the quote... Kind of brings the whole charitable aspects of this third-world computing thing into focus.

[ED: Perceptive -real voice of Linux Today as it once was, i.e., without the facts - HC]

[While] Governor Mitt Romney, who recommitted decisively to continue support for ODF ... Secretary of State William Francis Galvin, an announced opponent of ODF, has stated that he will run for reelection ... one candidate – and appropriately enough, a candidate that is challenging Galvin for his job at that – has already decided to make ODF adoption an issue in his campaign.

What? And hell didn't freeze over?

Anti-software patent campaigners had a rare moment of harmony with the European Patent Office yesterday, coming out in support of a European Parliament motion of patent harmonisation between Europe and member states.

[ED: Greed, not the interests of the people seems to be protecting us from European software patents. Who would have believed it? - HC]

The price is right, but it does not run Windows and at least one analyst worries it might not be accepted: "There are a lot fewer applications that run on Linux, and this may affect the acceptance," Don't worry, however, because the price is right in the market segment that is growing the most rapidly. Sorry only in the CCP controled territories.

How can project managers get better control of ongoing software development projects--in other words, improve ''IT governance'' in their organizations? According to Dr. Lee Nackman, VP of product development and customer support at IBM's Rational division, by adopting some of the principles of open-source development.

[ED: Nice words, I just hope the version control system was improved over the one that IBM bought. I cannot comment further - I hated ClearCase. - HC]

Yesterday's online meeting shows support for Shuttleworth's plans for a six-week delay for Ubuntu, although there are concerns over the release schedule of the next version of Ubuntu, Edgy Elephant.

[ED: With a name like Eee, I will wait what ever time it takes for the gestation of an Excellent Elephant. I think the right choice was made, get it right as possible. - HC]

Within the past two years, Oracle, IBM and Microsoft have all released freely available versions of their flagship database servers, a move that would have been unheard of just a few years ago. While their respective representatives would argue the move was made in order to better accommodate the needs of all users, it's fairly clear that continued pressure from open source alternatives such as MySQL and PostgreSQL have caused these database juggernauts to rethink their strategies within this increasingly competitive market.

While PostgreSQL's adoption rate continues to accelerate, why that rate isn't even steeper is somewhat puzzling given its impressive array of features. One can speculate ...

[ED: The points look like an attack, the content gives the facts (real, not the phony sort MS provides) - actual reasons to use these databases. - HC]

No, IBM is not going to replace Windows with Linux on its 300 000-odd desktops. But it has ported its groupware suite, Workplace, to the Linux operating system, according to Joe Ruthvern, IBM SA's Linux and OSS business development manager. He also tells us that about 15 000 IBM employees currently use Red Hat Linux in the company, and that it is available on the IBM intranet.

[ED: Not as positively worded as many here would like, however, were MS to insist on some restrictive conditions IBM might put more effort into making its work force see the advantages of moving to the Linux desktop. Your move MS. - HC]

The great thing about open source software is that it is so malleable. In the Linux space, you can grab a kernel, and bunch of systems and applications software, and throw it all together and make your own personal distribution. But, ... then you have to support it yourself.

... best of both worlds. ... build your own Linux distribution, [add] systems and applications software stack, and punish someone else with ... testing it, and integrating it with your solution.

This is what the founders of rPath have imagined, and what its rPath Linux and rBuilder tool do.

[ED: Alas - I misread this, I thought it was mailable Linux - just think a positive use of SPAM. Aimed at Outlook, Windows Be Gone(r). Sorry got to go to the patent office - bbs - HC]

According to IT services provider, Unisys, open source software is set to have a similar impact on the marketplace as the internet did in the 1990s.

[ED: Nice, but will they being saying this next week when they remember their long lost love for all things MS? - HC]

I am posting this, despite its cynicism regarding even the existence of an Open Source community. This is an opinion piece where even here, despite the view presented imagines a situation where a company officer pays to develop code that is not critical to its business nor even with the code it shares with others using common business software. All parties gain by its release as (free?) open source code.

I have seen companies make decisions based not upon the quality of the product, but upon their estimate of the likelyhood of the vendor surviving to service its needs. Hence, those that are just takers where whatever community existed shrinks to nearly nothing, later they too may suffer lack of competent support.

SSH Tectia(TM) to Deliver Security and Simplicity for Automated File Transfers

[ED: Security and Linux should always be seen with coincident interests - HC]

IBM’s business built around Linux was worth US$16 billion last year and is projected to be worth more than US$50 billion, says the company’s global head of public sector Linux sales, Mary Ann Fisher.

“Governments worldwide are spending more than US$3 billion a year on Linux hardware, software and services, and this is growing at 35% a year,” she says. “But it’s the US military that is spending the most..."

[ED: IBM luxurating in cash from littl' ol Linux - had to censor the quote, had that innovation word. - HC]

Issue number 37 of Fedora Weekly News is out.

In a surprise decision, the developers of Debian have voted that materials released under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) are compatible with the Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG) -- but only if they contain no invariant sections. The decision settles a longstanding dispute within the project about the GFDL. Although the decision continues to separate Debian from other free and open source software (FOSS) projects, most of which accepts the GFDL without reservations, the possibility remains that future revisions to the license could allow Debian accept it fully.

[ED: As the freest of the free(dom) software movement, the concerns of this group must be taken seriously. Note too that some Wikies had to develop monitoring methods to catch flagrant misuse of (too) interested parties in blatant skewing of the meaning of the contents. See for example, the actions of U.S. Congressionial staffs to burnish the image of their local icon. - HC]

Analysis 'Lightweight, high-velocity and very connected' Explaining why she decided to sell the company, whose only product has been in a limited, closed beta for just six months, co-founder Claudia Carpenter wrote -

"We like lava lamps and they're pretty much standard decor at Google."

[ED: A really cynical take on market hysteria where Google is just one of the bad actors. - HC]

As you can see, my experimentation with Linux is not quite over. After writing last week’s column about my troubles installing Skype for Linux, I got an email from a Linux user who knew how to fix the problem. Interestingly, the online version of my column posted by Whistler Question each week (www.whistlerquestion.com) was added to a Linux User’s Group (or LUG), and I got no fewer than seven responses in the two days after publication, all different, on how to fix the problem.

[ED: Here is a salient quote: "I find it very interesting that there is such a fervent and dedicated community of Linux users who want to help each other." Who was it that said LUGs were so yesterday. I hope I never see that day. - HC]