Showing all newswire headlines

WE REPORTED PRE-YULE that Dell UK was trying out shipping Firefox on desktop and notebook PCs. Blake Ross has confirmed that on his Firefox blog, if you hadn't already noticed. But according to news.com, that's not what Australia plans to do.

Many times, you want to execute a command not only on one server, but also on several servers. Here is an article that explains how to use distributed command execution.

tentakel' tool you can is a program for executing the same command on many hosts in parallel using various remote methods. With the help of tool called tentakel, you run distributed command execution. It is a program for executing the same command on many hosts in parallel using ssh. Main advantage is you can create several sets of servers according requirements. The command is executed in parallel on all servers in this group thus result into time saving.

Peter Quinn has announced to his employees that he will be resigning as CIO of Massachusetts, in the wake of continuing political in-fighting and unfounded (and publicly refuted) accusations over travel improprieties in the Boston Globe

As Linux Users, we may take for granted our immunity to certain "nasties" which Windows Users are subject. It looks like the state of Texas is "saddlin' up" to ride against Sony. Of course, it's Windows Users that will gain from this.

Have Americans become lazy when it comes to technology? We think so and offer a brief example as to why. Agree or not, one thing has become obvious...some of us are just plain lazy.

Why didn't I think of this? Bundle OpenOffice.org, TurboCASH, the GIMP, and some installation scripts on a CD. Round out the package with Gaim and Firefox, and sell it in retail stores to Windows users for $20.

Winona Area Public Schools plans to pilot a computer system next year that could save it from having to continually update or replace desktop computers.

Flies said the district has studied two common software systems, Linux and Citrix, that operate thin clients. It plans to test Linux, free “open source” software that has its own generic version of Microsoft Office, at the learning center.

In the article "My sysadmin toolbox" NewsForge asked readers to "let us know about your most valuable utilities." Well, here are mine.

Dear Massachusetts (Governor Romney, Secretary Galvin, Senator Hart, et al):

Are you watching this?

Microsoft, as you may have heard, has been under pressure in Europe to make their APIs available to its competition for interoperability purposes. Now, so far, that has meant only that they have to do so for non-Linux competitors, as they were able to achieve a carve-out that leaves Linux and all FOSS out in the cold during the appeal. For all their other competitors in the server space, they were ordered "to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation which would allow non-Microsoft work group servers to achieve full interoperability with Windows PCs and servers". Of course, they claim they have, and they did turn over documentation.

But Professor Neil Barrett, the Monitoring Trustee, monitoring their compliance with the EU order says, according to the EU Commission press release, the technical documentation Microsoft submitted is "totally unfit at this stage for its intended purpose":

Since the 24(1) Decision, Microsoft has revised the interoperability information that it is obliged to disclose. However, the Commission takes the preliminary view that this information is incomplete and inaccurate. This view is supported by the report of the Monitoring Trustee, which concludes that, “any programmer or programming team seeking to use the Technical Documentation for a real development exercise would be wholly and completely unable to proceed on the basis of the documentation. The Technical Documentation is therefore totally unfit at this stage for its intended purpose.” The report also states that, “the documentation appears to be fundamentally flawed in its conception, and in its level of explanation and detail... Overall, the process of using the documentation is an absolutely frustrating, time-consuming and ultimately fruitless task. The documentation needs quite drastic overhaul before it could be considered workable.”

Ask yourself this: is it because Microsoft doesn't know how to write clear documentation?

And why not ...Last week Progress Software announced it will acquire Neon Systems and merge that company with its DataDirect operating division. Simple question: why? For those of you unfamiliar with either DataDirect or Neon, a brief exposition may be appropriate. First: DataDirect.

When compared to their Window's equivalents, the names of many Linux programs are difficult to recognize and even tougher to remember. This may seem like splitting hairs, but it is actually an important usability issue.

This article at XYZ Computing takes a look at Linux's strange naming practices. When compared to their Window's equivalents, the names of many Linux programs are difficult to recognize and even tougher to remember. This may seem like splitting hairs, but it is actually an important usability issue. Just think, if you had to do a bit of graphic design which would be easier to pick out of the menu, GIMP or Photoshop? Or if you wanted to play a song, Media Player or xine?

[ED: While there is a certain logic to the complaint, it fails to recognize where copyright infringement plays a role. Moreover, the extreme methods some companies have used to protect the names of their products. Furthermore, on the chat tool how much more information does one see in aim over gaim or how hard is to guess what mplayer does? - HC] [ED: It will all be moot once Linux pushes Windows aside and the new ISV have brillIant naming. Sal just a bit of patience is needed - HC]

How might it have gone if SCO had stayed with Linux?

You know what the sad thing about this whole affair has been?

If SCO has only stuck to doing Linux, they'd be a winner.

They, and not Red Hat, might have been the ones reporting great financial results. They, and not SUSE, would likely have been the company that Novell picked up to jump-start its operating system business.

Sound unlikely? I don't think so.

LXer Day Desk: 12-26-2005

Linux represents a computer technology designed from the bottom up rather than a copy cat. As long as people compare it to Windows, they cannot grasp its power and uniqueness. Simply put, Linux isn't Windows.

In January and February of 2006, Canonical representatives will be travelling to Asia. Our main goals for this tour are to increase awareness for Ubuntu in Asia; introduce Ubuntu to governments, hardware providers, and system builders across the region; and to meet members of the Ubuntu local communities. In each location listed below we plan to host a business breakfast/lunch with local companies, and then hold in-depth meetings with selected companies, as time allows. We would like to reach out to our local community in each location to help us build relationships with various entities, including government, technology companies, universities, and anyone who you can think would benefit from Ubuntu and what it has to offer.

[Ed: From the Interesting if Not Linux News Department -tadelste]

This brave lady - Patricia Santangelo - a single mom with five children is fighting the Recording Industry Association of America by herself. She's accused of downloading songs like ncubus'"Nowhere Fast," Godsmack's "Whatever" and Third Eye Blind's "Semi-Charmed Life," and others. But she barely knows how to retrieve email.

Jon Newton, founder of an Internet site critical of the record companies, said by e-mail that with all the settlements, "The impression created is all these people have been successfully prosecuted for some as-yet undefined 'crime'. And yet not one of them has so far appeared in a court or before a judge. ... She's doing it alone. She's a courageous woman to be taking on the multibillion-dollar music industry."

Thanks mom!

Emmy Huang, Product Manager of the Flash Player, explains what the plans concerning the Linux version of Flash Player 8 are. Instead of releasing a 8.0 version we will directly move to 8.5 on Linux. This will avoid even more delay after we ship Flash Player 8.5 for Windows and Mac. That will also make sure that the new virtual machine works using gcc from start. I see that as a big benefit as gcc is a more strict and standards compliant compiler than Visual Studio or CodeWarrior.

[Ed: From the "I don't know if I really care Department" - an article submission about OS/2]

Yesterday saw IBM cease the sale of the OS/2 Operating system. Come the 31st of December, standard support for the OS will end also. However, a significant number of companies and people continue to use it, and they are finding ways for OS/2 to live on. OS/2

Back in April of this year, OS/2 website OS2 World started a petition. It's aim was to get IBM to release OS/2 as an open source piece of software, so that existing users could continue to use and develop it, should they wish. In November, after nearly twelve thousand signatures had been collected, the petition was sent to IBM's CEO, Sam Palmisano. As of yet there has been no response from IBM.

DD-WRT is a 100% free firmware for the Linksys WRT54G/GS and the Asus WL-500 deluxe 802.11g wireless routers (which run off a minimalist Linux OS).

The firmware is maintained by BrainSlayer (mailto:brainslayer@braincontrol.org) and is hosted at dd-wrt.com (http://www.dd-wrt.com/). The first versions of DD-WRT were based on the Alchemy Firmware (http://www.wrt54g.com/) from Sveasoft Inc (http://www.sveasoft.com/), which is in turn based on the original GPL'd Linksys Firmware and a number of other open source projects. DD-WRT exists as a direct result of Sveasoft's demand for $20 in order to be able to download their firmware.

The newer version(s) of DD-WRT- v23 (currently in beta development)- are a complete new project. DD-WRT offers many advanced features not found in the original Linksys firmware, or even firmware purchased from Sveasoft. It is also free of the product activation or tracking found in the Sveasoft firmware.

Digg Story

Happy Holidays from the release team!

Hi, In the recent 10.X series, kernel package has started producing image packages whose maintainer scripts use debconf for user interaction. Unfortunately, this meant that any hook scripts called in the maintainer scripts for the image package (update-grub comes to mind), if they wrote anything at all to the STDout, would cause debconf to throw hissy fits, since it was expecting commands on STDOUT, not random chatter from the hook scripts.