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Xterasys settles a suit filed by the Software Freedom Law Center regarding GPL violations involving the BusyBox tool set. During the last several months, the Software Freedom Law Center has gone on the warpath to defend the GPL. On Dec. 17, the SFLC announced its second win in its four lawsuits against companies it says have violated the General Public License, as Xterasys, a Wi-Fi OEM, has agreed to settle.

As the tenth anniversary of Sun Microsystems' StarOffice acquisition approaches it grows increasingly difficult to fathom what Sun intends for its suite. Sun this week released a minor upgrade based on the latest iteration of OpenOffice - version 2.3 and unveiled a bunch of plug-in extensions that appear useful enough. One enables StarOffice to be used to prepare blogs, one turns your PC into a fax machine and another compresses ludicrously large presentation files (including Microsoft's Powerpoint format).

When it comes to playing music in Linux, Amarok is one of the best audio players out there. It offers almost everything you need, from a clean, intuitive interface to a range of useful scripts. You can even put it on a server and give it a Web interface.

Linux has so many tools, settings, parameters, and configuration files to learn that administering your box can be a challenge. Webmin, a Web-based comprehensive administration tool for Linux, can help you get on your way. Webmin presents a Web-based interface that allows you to perform system administration tasks in Unix, Linux, and FreeBSD. If your particular distribution isn't included in the list of supported systems, some Webmin modules might not work. Distributions use different locations for their various configuration files, and if your particular choice doesn't keep its files in standard places, Webmin won't be able to function.

As I look back on the past year's worth of Click entries, I see my adoption of Linux play out. The pace of free, open-source software development is so fast that it makes the year seem very long indeed. The most fun I had writing these entries was during the month of the original Thin Puppy Torture Test, in which the converted Maxspeed Maxterm thin client ran on Puppy Linux (I think I was using 2.14 at the time) for a month with no hard drive -- in fact, no storage at all except the onboard RAM. ... I thought it would be a good time for a second Thin Puppy Torture Test. This time, I burned a fresh Puppy Linux 3.01 CD, booted the thin client, and "upgraded" an existing pup_save file on the USB flash drive.

Can a plastic penguin beat a wifi wabbit in a fight this xmas? You betcha!

Getting an IT business off the ground is hard work for anyone. So here's an idea to give your business a power injection: The Cape IT Initiative (CITI) is looking for young IT companies to join its business acceleration campaign, called VeloCITI.

So why does a person install one Linux, then another, and then yet another? Because a person can, of course! Such is the nature of choice, and Linux gives you a choice . . . and what a selection. The trouble, of course, comes when you have to backup, wipe a system, reinstall, over and over. The answer is virtualization. There are many virtual machine tools out there nowadays, but your system probably came with one and in this edition of "Cooking with Linux", I will show you how to work with the software.

The XO laptop intended (of the One-Laptop-Per-Child initiative) uses GNU/Linux as the underlying operating system, and includes an application environment written in Python with a human interface called Sugar. Explore the Sugar APIs and learn how to develop and debug a graphical activity in Sugar using Python.

Adobe Acrobat is a commercial tool for manipulating PDF files. Earlier I was using CUPs - printing system, to export PDF files. I’ve also tried out gv for the same purpose. However, I needed complete editing of pdf documents. My search ended with PDFedit software, which is free and open source editor for manipulating PDF documents. The PDFEdit software available in both GUI and CLI (commandline) interface.

As of today, all new Dell consumer Linux laptops and desktops will be shipping with Ubuntu 7.10 and built-in DVD playback. These improvements will be available on some models in other countries later this week.

Dell has told DesktopLinux.com that it will be announcing later today, Dec. 19, that it will be releasing PCs with Ubuntu 7.10 (aka Gutsy Gibbon) as part of its Dell Consumer Linux lineup along with the ability to legally play DVDs.

The Open Source Consortium has welcomed the BBC's move to make its iPlayer online on-demand TV service available for streaming on operating systems other than Microsoft Windows.

Choice is an important element of free software, so it's perhaps no surprise that even at the level of the desktop environment there is more than one offering. But the main alternatives – KDE and GNOME – represent more than just a way of placing icons on a screen. Nowhere is that more evident than in their respective views on Microsoft's OOXML document standard, which are very far apart – perhaps dangerously so.

I was unable to attend the KDE release party at Google headquarters. I was thrilled to get the invite, but I just couldn't make it. And to be honest, that's a shame because the latest release has impressed me, despite me being seen as a crusty GNOME fan. I guess in the end we are all Linux users at heart.

How to Install Source Files in Ubuntu

XTN will offer advanced support subscriptions for open source ERP users

As part of my year-end planning I look at what charities to donate to, since charitable contributions are tax-deductible. Here's a list of charities with ties to free software, open source, and information technology. Debian is my favorite Linux distribution. You can make donations to it through Software in the Public Interest -- make sure to explicitly set your donation to go to Debian. Debian uses donations to cover things like bandwidth and travel expenses for appearing at conferences.

Lighting up the AMIA os-wg and OpenHealth e-mail discussion lists comes news that the Proteus 'intelligent clinical guidelines' tools are going to be open sourced with an as yet to be announced Free/Open Source license: "...I am on the verge of making Proteus related tools available under an open source license. I need the advice of this community of open source champions on how to go about it and the choice of open source license. I know this has been discussed time and again on this list but I am still unclear about several things.

Jack heard about Linux through one of his employees. I had installed a Komputers4Kids machine next door to the employee ... Of course, the employee then told Jack just why it was Linux that should run his business.