Showing all newswire headlines

Getting popular software off the Internet can sometimes be a struggle, even with all the mirrors and BitTorrent Samaritans out there. When the Fedora project released Fedora Core 6 last month, for instance, even several dozen mirrors weren't enough to serve everyone, and torrent speeds weren't good enough because of a scarcity of seeders. But thanks to Metalink I was able to sleep while my FC6 ISOs were downloading.

Unless you are living under a rock, you probably know production Ubuntu 6.10 was released on October 26. I'd heard that it was a nice package, but really haven't spent much time with it. SUSE Linux and I have been together for quite a while and when you have something that works, you stick with it. Many readers are probably in the same boat.

I can't find the original GNOME announcement from August 1997 in comp.os.linux.advocacy, but I did find an interesting thread on Desktop Options. My, the changes since then..

Being open to all and for free – these two properties make open source computer software popular in the West. These systems are highly useful in Armenia because, unlike Microsoft programs which rely on closed software, open source enables users to make changes, for example by converting them into the Armenian language. However, they are not in widespread use here and many ordinary computer users are not familiar with such software. Instead, unlicensed, pirate copies of Microsoft programs are used. In an effort to spread awareness, the Internews’ Center for Information Law and Policy (ICILP) conducted a two-day international seminar in Yerevan on the subject of the “Role of Open Source Software in the Development of E-Society”.

Spreadsheets are the do-it-yourself version of financial software. They have all the power of other financial software, but in a less finished package. Instead of wizards and ready-made forms, they offer the raw material of hundreds of functions, only some of which are relevant to personal or business finance, and leave you to arrange them in a meaningful fashion.

Two very popular and widely used languages for building dynamic web sites are Perl and PHP. They make up two thirds of the "P" in the Linux Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python (LAMP) stack. How does their performance, using mod_perl and mod_php, compare for everyday web programming? I attempted to find out, throwing in a dash of CGI for comparison.

Microsoft Corp has denied that its patent deal with Novell Inc is in breach of the GNU General Public License or will automatically spread Microsoft's patent protection to other Linux distributions.

We all know that open source is being used to help make movies. Linux and open source software have been used in rendering farms for major pictures like Shrek, Lord of the Rings, and many others. Earlier this year the Blender project released Elephants Dream, the first movie made entirely with open source graphics software. But can the open source methodology be used to create a movie? The folks behind The Digital Tipping Point (DTP) are betting it can.

Adobe Systems is prying open its ubiquitous Flash media player to improve interoperability with the increasingly popular Firefox browser. Adobe announced Tuesday it has released source code for the ActonScript Virtual Machine scripting language engine used in Flash Player to the Mozilla Foundation under Project Tamarin. Mozilla is to administer the project.

AnIndonesean Hacker named Dedi Dwianto has just publicized aVulnerability in OpenEMR. This is a significant milestone for the project. This means that OpenEMR is popular enough for a security researcher to take notice. Open Source has the potential to be more secure, but only if security researchers look for flaws and then the projects respond by fixing the code. (I wish I had hackers studying my code...) I am sure that the OpenEMR folks will be releasing a patch soon. If you are an OpenEMR user, you should upgrade to the soon-to-be-released version ASAP.

Lineo Solutions will bundle a suite of enhanced GNU toolchains with its embedded Linux development kits for ARM-based processors. Lineo's uLinux Elite development kit will use CodeSourcery's G++ toolchain, including its C/C++ compilers, binutils, and gdb, according to CodeSourcery Inc.

AptonCD is a GUI tool which allows one to create a backup of all the packages and their dependencies to a CD/DVD. This article takes a good look at this unique program which eases the lives of Debian Linux loving people who have a slow internet connection.

Last month, the MIT Media Lab Computing Counter Culture Group and the Harvard Free Culture Group held an "iPod Liberation event" -- a RockBox and iPodLinux "installfest" for Apple iPods. The event was held as a response to the fact that Apple installs iPods with an operating system -- a "firmware" -- that conflicts with the ideals of free and open source software and free culture and treats users parternalistically and adversarially. During the event, dubbed iRony, users were walked through the process of installing flexible and featureful free/open source software firmware -- without DRM -- onto their digital audio players.

The more you learn about the technologies around Ajax, the more careful you have to be about your decisions. When you realize that there's no standard way for a server to respond to clients with name/value pairs, the reasoning behind using XML becomes pretty clear. This article shows you the pluses when your server sends XML back to a client.

Have you ever wondered why Windows rose from the ashes while other operating systems of yesteryear fell behind and eventually disappeared for good? Money and the distribution of generated revenue, of course. Not just in capital funds to make Microsoft's R&D a reality mind you, but the mindset behind a system of voluntary servitude based on people rushing to what turned out to be a virtual gold rush.

The Open Source Development Labs, today announced the first fellowship grant from its Fellowship Fund announced earlier this year. The one-year fellowship grant will sponsor a technical writer, whose work will be targeted at Linux kernel documentation, further accelerating and maximizing Linux development.

Adobe Systems Incorporated and the Mozilla Foundation, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today announced that Adobe has contributed source code for the ActionScript™ Virtual Machine, the powerful standards-based scripting language engine in Adobe® Flash® Player, to the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla will host a new open source project, called Tamarin, to accelerate the development of this standards-based approach for creating rich and engaging Web applications.

Bob Dylan sang, "The times, they are a-changing", and when it comes to desktop operating systems, times really are. Linux, which was once the choice of geeks, has now undergone considerable changes ? using it on the desktop seems imminent. Gone are the days of grisly hardware compatibility, rudimentary graphic interfaces and negligible vendor support; it's now time to enter the new world of Linux!

Free software tools and committed academics at the University of the Western Cape make learning materials available to learners inside and outside of the campus.

This week is Ubuntu Developer Summit week in Mountain View, California. Posting directly from the Developer Summit is Morgan Collet, one of just two South Africans at the week-long event.