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LXer Feature: 30-Jul-2006

LXers attempted to eat high on the hog Saturday while being mobbed by gorgeous women...

For more information about GPLv3 and how to participate, see our GPLv3 project page.

Below shows the combined text of version 2 of the GNU GPL and draft 2 of GNU GPL version 3. Text that was in version 2, but which is not in the second draft, has a line through it. Text which is new in draft two is in bold.

[Interesting technique to see the changes; much clearer than other comparisons I've seen. -- grouch]

Features:

• Clustering Is Not Rocket Science by Rowan Gollan, Andrew Denman and Marlies Hankel
• Getting Started with Condor by Irfan Habib
• DRBD in a Heartbeat by Pedro Pla
• Mainstream Parallel Programming by Michael-Jon Ainsley Hore

Plus In-Depth, Columns and Reviews.

The new draft clarifies that the license only directly restricts DRM in the special case in which it is used to prevent people from sharing or modifying GPLv3-covered software. The clarified DRM section preserves the spirit of the original GPL, which forbids adding additional unfree restrictions to free software. GPLv3 does not prohibit the implementation of DRM features, but prevents them from being imposed on users in a way that they cannot remove.

[The real story takes place in the debate in the comments following the news article. Linus Torvalds and others square off in disagreement with PJ and others, regarding GPL3 vs. GPL2. I think all concerns were well-aired. May a better GPL be the result. -- grouch]

Suddenly, the Web browser is in the spotlight again -- and it's looking better than ever.

[The author presents a nice run-down of the battle of 3 browsers. Firefox is the only one of the 3 with the free (libre) feature. Isn't competition wonderful? -- grouch]

Over the years I have spent as much spare time as I can to get better at writing. I consider myself an adequate writer, not good, but adequate. In the new age of Blogs, e-zines and whatever else is buzzworthy compliant I have tried to find tools specifically for the Unix(like) environment to help out - in other words - I avoid word processors. Suprisingly I recently came across some old Unix tools that run right from the prompt and will not mangle the original text. Diction and style are not grammar checkers but instead, grammar helpers

Virtuas Open Source Solutions, provider of enterprise-level support and enablement services for open source software, announced the releaseof its comprehensive service and support offerings for AppFuse.

(I) A value computed with a cryptographic algorithm and appended to a data object in suc...

The report states that Palm is in negotiations to expand its development and distribution rights to the current version of the Palm OS. This could indicate that Palm desires to further develop the Palm OS itself, picking up where PalmSouce stopped.

Since being acquired by Access PalmSource has abandoned future development on the Palm OS in favor of Access Linux Platform. While ALP will offer Palm OS Garnet compatibility, PalmSource wants developers to move to its new linux based tools and APIs.

work in a house with glass walls. Not literally, of course. The cost to air-condition such a house would be prohibitive. I mean that working on standard in OASIS is a public action, with process transparency and public visibility. The public doesn't see merely the end-product, or quarterly drafts, they can see (if they are so inclined) every discussion, every disagreement and every decision made by the TC, in near real-time. Our meeting minutes for our TC calls are posted for public inspection. Our mailing list archives, where most of the real work occurs, is there for the public to view. The comments submitted by the public are also available for anyone to read. This information is all archived from when the TC first met back in 2002, all the way to the discussions we're having today on spreadsheet formula namespaces.

[ Great blog. Go on and read it if you want to know the difference between ECMA and OASIS! - hkwint]

Everywhere you turn, there's a new open source application or another company adding open source capabilities to existing lines of applications. Guess what? Storage is going open source, too. This CW article points out that open source storage is growing at a pretty good clip. Organizations are turning to open source storage in an effort to cut costs and improve storage usability.

Whether you're a scientist, graphic artist, musician or movie executive, you can benefit from the speed and price of today's high-performance Beowulf clusters.

The important question we must ask is this: Who owns the hardware, and what rights should these owners of tangible property expect to be protected in the law.

Many Web users have turned to Mozilla's Firefox Web browser for its stripped-down, streamlined operation (and because it's less of a target than Microsoft Internet Explorer). One of the benefits is a huge aftermarket for add-ons that extend the open-source browser's feature set.

KeyBank is an example that Linux proponents wish there were more of. The Cleveland-based bank is in the midst of a multiyear upgrade to Linux and expects the open-source operating system to be running on almost 15 percent of its servers, many with mission-critical applications, by 2008.

Mozilla Corp. on Thursday gave users a first look at the next version of its Thunderbird e-mail client by releasing an alpha of v. 2.0.

At last! The answer to why ex-Windows users come to Linux and complain because it isn't just like Windows!

[You want to read this one! - hkwint]

EBay Inc. on Tuesday began providing open source code for some of its search and access applications to expand its external developer community. The software will be available under a new program called Community Codebase, which was announced at the eBay Developers Conference in San Jose, California, on Tuesday.

Chinese Linux distributor Co-Create says it signed a multi-million dollar deal July 25 to use Alacos Desktop Migration Agent -- an automated Windows-to-Linux desktop and user migration suite -- to move 50,000 desktop users from Windows to Co-Create Linux in China and other parts of Asia.

On July 27, the OASIS announced that the first draft update of ODF (version 1.1) had been posted for public comment. This draft is more than usually significant, since it seeks to assist those that implement ODF make their applications more accessible to those with disabilities.