Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

First International Computing (FIC) is to ship a completely open, Linux based, ARM powered GPS-equipped quad-band GSM/GPRS mobile in the first quarter of 2007. The Neo1973 is the first phone based on the open-source OpenMoKo platform and is expected to ship direct, worldwide, for around $350. OpenMoko is an integrated open source mobile communications platform which its developers claim will create an explosive growth in mobile applications to rival the diversity and size of the ringtone market and foster new income models for carriers.

Lineo Solutions has confirmed that it will begin including CodeSourcery's Sourcery G++ development tools in Lineo ELITE development kits for the ARM architecture. Sourcery G++ includes the entire GNU Toolchain, including the GNU C and C++ Compilers, GNU Binary Utilities, and GNU Debugger.

Funambol, an open source Java-based SyncML application, reached a milestone in September with the release of v3.0. The software provides calendar and address book linkage for groupware and mobile devices. Funambol started out more than three years ago as Sync4j, with a project on SourceForge.net. From humble beginnings, Funambol has today become a company that sells commercial support contracts, but still makes its software available under the GPL.

Depending on who is commenting, the recently announced agreement between Microsoft and Novell is either the ultimate victory or the beginning of the end for Linux. If there is anything that is clear about this new arrangement, it's that nobody really understands what it means yet. Perhaps, in the end, it means less than most people hope or fear.

Toshiba America Electronic Components (TAEC) is sampling its second-generation processors for mid-range and low-end digital TVs having single-chip designs. The TC90407XBG and TC90407XFG chips feature 64-bit MIPS-based host processors and dual DSPs, along with on-chip function blocks aimed at supporting the North American ATSC standard, and come with Linux support.

One of the first POS (point-of-sale) equipment vendors to adopt Linux will now become one of the first to offer solid-state storage. Wincor Nixdorf's new X-Series, due in January, will be offered with an Msystems mModule uDOC embedded flash disk.

Mayix XLiveCD 2006.2, a Gentoo-derived Linux distribution, was released last weekend by its Guatamala-based project team. Mayix, which is produced only in Spanish, includes the so-called "stage 4" binary Gentoo packages and sports a 2.6.17 Linux kernel, X.Org 7.1, and a GNOME 2.14 default desktop.

According to Forrester Research, open source databases can lower an enterprise's database total cost of ownership (TCO) by fifty percent. This finding and others were presented in an online seminar delivered on Oct. 12, 2006 titled "Realizing the Value of Open Source Databases: How Sony Online Entertainment Replaced Oracle with EnterpriseDB."

The "Slug" has gained much-improved Linux support, thanks to a new Debian installer that targets the device. The first release candidate of the debian-installer for Debian's forthcoming "Etch" distribution was released yesterday, offering nearly complete support to the Linksys $99 NSLU2 NAS gadget.

Sun Microsystems move on Monday to make Java open source code under the General Public License will not deter an Apache Software Foundation project that promised an open source Java implementation on its own. The Harmony project, started May 18, 2005, moved out of its incubation phase and into full-fledged project status at the end of October. Moving out of incubation is a sign within the Apache Software Foundation that an open source project is organized and has a critical mass of contributors. It's expecting to produce its 1.0 implementation of Java Standard Edition in mid-2007.

Casual Ubuntu users may have registered surprise when they first booted the distribution's Edgy Eft release this past October. Back at the beginning of the Edgy development cycle, much was made of the formation of a new, dedicated Art Team to develop a fresh look for the backgrounds and splash screens of the startup process. But when Edgy hit the shelves, the artwork was scarcely different from that of its predecessor, Dapper Drake.

A new preliminary version of the Slackware-based STUX GNU/Linux live CD, version 0.9.2, was released Monday, featuring a 2.6.17 kernel and the KDE desktop environment. STUX is touted as a live CD distro that can automatically load and save main configuration and personal files on a writable partition.

Open Shakespeare is a UK-based project to publish a fully open edition of Shakespeare's works. It's not trying to be another "Shakespeare on the Web," just providing an HTMLized copy of the plays and works. Its goal is to produce a reusable package of free and open material, including the main source texts, encodings in various open formats including XML and PDF, ancillary material, a Python API, and other documentation and tools.

As we prepared to open a new Freedom Technology Center in a rehabilitated site in New Jersey, I came to learn that Verizon was capable of offering fiber service at our location. Officially, they only claim to support those using Microsoft Windows and Mac OS/X with their service. In fact, with a little foreknowledge, you can have installed, activated, and use your FiOS service with an entirely free operating system such as GNU/Linux.

The city of Vienna has migrated more than 100 servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, principally deploying Red Hat Enterprise Linux ES and AS on HP hardware.

The free Java community reacted positively, but cautiously, to the news that Sun Microsystems has released the code for Sun Java under the GNU General Public License. While community leaders showed appreciation of the news by cooperating in the announcement, developers in the free Java community reacted more tentatively, and at least some projects seem likely to continue development of their own implementations of Java.

Red Hat, a leading provider of open source, will introduce its newly integrated JBoss solutions to its Middle Eastern partners and detail the company's plan for partner activities in the region at the Gitex 2006. At the event will be held at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from November 18 to 22.

This month's tasty installment explores the world of Roll-Your-Own Linuxes. Why would you want to assemble your own customized Linux image? Well, why not? For one thing, it's just plain fun. For another, despite the fact that there are hundreds of existing Linux distributions of all shapes and sizes, you might still find yourself wanting something that doesn't exist.

Underscoring the supercomputing market's move toward clusters, the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory just got the first of four Linux-based clusters that researchers plan to put to work doing climate studies, astrophysics and tracking the lifespan of the country's nuclear weapon stockpile.

It was a split decision this year. Both Nancy Anthracite and Will Ross are recipients of the 2006 Linux Medical News Freeodm award, co-sponsored with the International Medical Informatics Association. Ross and Anthracite have worked tirelessly to advance the cause of software freedoms in medicine: Anthracite through many activities through the VistA community and Ross through his work with Mendocino County Health Records Exchange and grant funding of important FOSS development.