Showing all newswire headlines

There are some in this world who believe that Linux is the king of all operating systems. In some ways I agree with them because Linux certainly is a big player in the server world. It may lack in market share in the the desktop sector, but that doesn't mean it's a lesser operating system. The GPL has been instrumental in this as Linux has grown, starting with a simple, barely functional kernel, and slowly, patiently evolving into the giant it is today.

LXer Feature: 03-May-2008

In the introductory article for this series I painted my intent out in broad strokes. Now my task is to determine the absolute minimum data set I need to extract from the user input form. That is, what is sufficient to build dynamic content into the Open Source Today (dot) org site. The constraints I use may seem arbitrary, however, you too should use whatever is afforded you to simplify your tasks.

Mozilla Messaging, a subsidiary of the nonprofit Mozilla Foundation, yesterday patched five bugs in its Thunderbird e-mail client to fix flaws that were disclosed more than a month ago. Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 patches vulnerabilities in the Firefox engine, which the open-source e-mailer uses to render HTML. The same holes were closed in late March for the Mozilla Web browser.

I met Black Duck CEO, Doug Levin back in October 2003 at the Enterprise Linux Forum in Washington D.C. I instantly liked him. He was just starting Black Duck Software and as a ex-Microsoftie talking about IP assurance I wasn’t convinced about the bright future of his business. However, I enjoyed meeting Doug and wished him the best of luck and went on my way. It wasn’t long before Doug’s venture received funding and support from Red Hat who also invested in the business, a telling sign. Black Duck has grown to be a leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source and third-party code.

Linux has been described as one of the most secure operating systems available, but the NSA has taken Linux to the next level with Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). In this article explore the ideas behind SELinux and how it's implemented. SELinux takes the existing GNU/Linux operating system and extends it with kernel and user-space modifications to make it bullet-proof.

Adobe is making a couple of big announcements today that relate to our openness and the openness of the Flash Player. Starting today, there will be no restrictions on the use of the SWF specification or the FLV and F4V specifications that make up video in Flash. Previously, in order to look at the SWF specification you had to sign a licensing agreement not to use it to create competing players but in the interest of expanding the reach of the Flash Player we’re removing all of those restrictions as part of what’s called the Open Screen Project.

It is not long now until the first Open Source Grid and Cluster Conference, to be held in Oakland, California from 13-15 May 2008. This upcoming event got me thinking about the role of open source in grid and cluster computing, in the past, present, and future.

The other day, Vincent Untz requested a git repo to house all freedesktop.org specs. I liked the idea a lot. Coincidentally, I was simultaneously involved in a conversation via private email with a few other freedesktop.org people about the processes around creating specifications (or lack thereof), so I took this as a cue to step back and really think about it a bit. freedesktop.org is one of the key points where the the free software world comes together to document the things we share so that integration and consistency (from the user's POV) can be achieved, so keeping it healthy is really important.

Stephen King once observed that the first review of his books was important because later ones often borrowed its opinions. Who did the first review of Ubuntu 8.04 – better known as Hardy Heron – is debatable, but something of the same consensus seems to have hit tech journalists, with the majority proclaiming that the release shows that GNU/Linux has finally producer a challenger to Windows.

This month's Harvard Business Review features a case study of a company debating whether to open source its software. Here's a mini review of the article.

A few days ago I finally got my copy of Running Xen. I was anxious to see how the information would be presented. I can tell you I was not disappointed. I am by no means a Xen master. I have tinkered with it a few times over the past several years but as I am getting ready to use it full time in production I need as much information as I can get. The books authors include Eli Dow, and Todd Deshane who worked on Xen and the Art of Repeated Research, as well as Quantifying the Performance Isolation Properties of Virtualization Systems. Read the full Review: Running Xen a Hands-On guide to the Art of Virtualization.

Kerala is all set to become the first state in the country to completely banish Microsoft and allow only GNU/Linux free software to be used in the mandatory IT test at the state SSLC examinations that half a million students took in March. Till last year, they could take the exam using either free software or the Microsoft platform. Not anymore

Slackware 12.1 is out. See the announcement for the full details.

For years, device and peripheral builders could get away with ignoring the Linux desktop market. It was too small to matter, they would say. Things have changed. At the Linux Foundation meeting in Austin, Texas, last month, major PC vendors ASUS, Dell, Hewlett-Packard, and Lenovo said they would be telling their chipset, component, and peripheral OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) that they were going to demand Linux-compatible hardware from them. It's one thing when Linux users ask for support; it's an entirely different thing when multi-billion-dollar companies demand it. This is an offer that the OEMs can't refuse.

Git is a program for Source Code Management (SCM) whose complexity has been blown out of proportion. This may be due to the fact that early on it was primarily used by Linux kernel hackers who, needless to say, do not represent most users of SCM tools. Regardless of its past, today the UI is quite simple and there are only a handful of techniques a user needs to manage their code base with git–in ways that are nearly impossible to do with the mainstream alternatives. These techniques, which are mentioned in the order of their suggested usage, focus on improving the overall quality of the code base throughout the life of a project.

F-Spot is a graphical photo manager that allows you to tag your image files and search and view images based on those tags. With phpfspot, you can share the photo collection you manage with F-Spot with others through a Web interface and let them navigate through your photos using the tags you have set up. No packages exist for phpfspot for Ubuntu, Fedora, or openSUSE. I built it from source using version 1.4 and installed phpfspot on the desktop machine that I have F-Spot installed on. If you're running Debian Etch you might like to see this HOWTO for installation. phpfspot requires PHP 5 with GD and SQLite3 extensions, as well as the Calendar and HTML_AJAX PEAR extensions and the Smarty template engine.

Last night I went to a presentation/pitch for Vista deployment in the enterprise (there's a Star-Trek joke in there somewhere). It's not that I'm dissatisfied with Linux, but I like to know what's going on with Windows, especially since we do deploy Windows machines at work. At some level I always want to learn something new. What I learned was more pitch than enlightenment. The presenter, Mitch Garvis, did a great job of pitching Vista, though I would disagree with him on several points (which I will below), but my impression (keep in mind most of the room were Windows-centric IT Professionals) was that a few people were buying the pitch, but not too many.

PCLinuxOS Magazine, May 2008 (Issue 21) is available to download. You can find it at the PCLinuxOS Magazine website. If you'd like to be informed immediately about our releases, please signup for the Magazine-Announce mailing list .

Some highlights include:

1. Manage your Ipod with Amarok
   
2. PCLinuxOS Based Distros
3. Quick Fix for Damaged Xorg
4. Don't Complain
5. Something Completely Different

6. And more...

Thanks and enjoy!

PDF Version May 2008 (Issue 21)

HTML Version May 2008 (Issue 21)

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro. A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.

"So how about someone gets a god damn hint here and starts questioning? Are there any geeks out there, who are well versed in the intrigues of “law” and have enough respect for a fellow Free Software supporter to actually care if he is being falsely robbed of his freedom or not?"