LXer Weekly Roundup for 01-Nov-2009
Open source? No good for cost cutting, say CIOs: Because it lacks the expensive licensing that is often the hallmark of proprietary software, open source is regularly touted as a way for IT departments to make their budget stretch a little bit further and it has already enjoyed considerable success in certain areas of the enterprise, such as web servers. However, when asked if they had chosen open source software as a way of cutting their costs during the recession, just two of the 12-strong jury said yes. In contrast, several CIOs said the costs of migrating to open source and the associated expenditure on retraining staff serve as a disincentive for adoption. Windows 7 may stop the bleeding, but won't change the endgame: It goes almost without saying that the release of Windows 7 is important for Microsoft to stem the tide of customer dissatisfaction with Vista, which has been extremely damaging to the Microsoft brand, and has caused it to lose users to both the Macintosh and Linux. Linux frequently asked questions for newbies: Many Linux users pride themselves on being highly technical geeks. And, while that's great for finding people to contribute code patches to projects, it means that a lot of first-time Linux users get branded a "newbie" and are made to feel stupid when they ask fundamental questions about things we take for granted. To be blunt, that situation sucks. If people have honest questions about Linux, we need to be helping them find answers, and we need to do so without sarcastic comments, without "RTFM" and without telling people "just use Google." Mark Shuttleworth: 10 Thoughts On Ubuntu 9.10: During an Oct. 26 phone briefing today, Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth described the Ubuntu 9.10 desktop, server and cloud strategy to members of the IT media. WorksWithU tuned in and posed some key questions to Shuttleworth. Here are 10 highlights from the call. In Industry First, Voting Machine Company to Publish Source Code: Sequoia Voting Systems plans to publicly release the source code for its new optical scan voting system, the company announced Tuesday — a remarkable reversal for a voting machine maker long criticized for resisting public examination of its proprietary systems. Android ported to PowerPC: Freescale Semiconductor says it is now accepting orders for a hardware/software platform for developing Android applications on Power Architecture PowerQUICC and QorIQ processors. The initial MPC8536E-ADK Android platform, which combines an Android runtime developed by Mentor Graphics and a board based on the PowerQUICC III MPC8536E, appears to be the first Android port to the PowerPC. Linux gaming: It’s not all bad: Linux users deserve gaming love too. Linux users are often given the cold shoulder by gaming companies, and have to resort to running emulators to play most titles. There are however numerous examples of successful mainstream titles that have found a happy home with Linux gamers. F-Spot Considered Harmful: There is a good possibility that every photo you've imported to F-Spot has had its EXIF date tags altered without your permission and without F-Spot informing you that it has done so. Ubuntu "Stick" Blues - or USB for short: There could be several reasons why your PC doesn't have a CD-ROM. For example, the next scenario:
OK, your reasons will probably be different, but these are mine. "Not a problem" I thought. "After all, it's 2009. Who needs CD-ROMs anyway?" The answer is: Mandriva, Gentoo, Tinycore and even Windows 7 don't, but Debian derived stuff does. It makes your life really hard, while Ubuntu is meant to make your life as a human being simple. 2009 Linux Graphics Survey: For the past two years we have hosted an annual Linux Graphics Survey in which we ask well over 20,000 users each time their video card preferences, driver information, and other questions about their view of the Linux graphics stack. This year we are hosting the survey once again to allow the development community to get a better understanding of the video hardware in use, what open-source and closed-source drivers are being used, and other relevant information that will help them and the Linux community. Linux frequently asked questions for newbies: Many Linux users pride themselves on being highly technical geeks. And, while that's great for finding people to contribute code patches to projects, it means that a lot of first-time Linux users get branded a "newbie" and are made to feel stupid when they ask fundamental questions about things we take for granted. To be blunt, that situation sucks. If people have honest questions about Linux, we need to be helping them find answers, and we need to do so without sarcastic comments, without "RTFM" and without telling people "just use Google."
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