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In its ongoing battle against software patents, the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has launched PlayOGG.org, a campaign to promote the use of the OGG Vorbis standard for compressed audio. The patent-free and licence-free standard is being punted as an ethically, legally and technically superior audio alternative to the proprietary MP3 format. The most common music format is currently MP3, but what most people don't realise is that any time a distributor sells or gives away music encoded as an MP3, they are responsible for paying a fee to the owners of the MP3 patents. Any software that runs MP3s is also affected by this. The OGG Vorbis specification, being in the public domain, is free from such restrictions and anyone can use the format or write software to use it without needing permission from a patent holder.

About ten years ago, the first DVD players shipped to the United States. After a slow start, the DVD has almost completely replaced video tapes and has become the de facto standard for the movie industry. Creating DVDs on a Linux machine can be a complex task, but can be made much easier by using 'Q' DVD-Author.

Intel recently released its PowerTOP utility, which builds on work done by kernel developers to make the Linux kernel power-efficient. PowerTOP gives you a snapshot of what apps are consuming the most power. Turn off these apps or modify their behavior, and you'll notice an instant increase in the battery life.

Following the attacks earlier this week by Microsoft on the free software movement the Free Software Foundation has set up a new activist wing to fight back.

In 1950, Sen. Joseph McCarthy said he had the names of Communists in the State Department. They were never named. Fifty-seven years later, Microsoft says GNU/Linux has violated 235 patents. They have yet to be named. See a pattern here?

Ubuntu Studio is a special Linux distribution tailored to the needs of audio, video, and graphic enthusiasts or professionals. Because Ubuntu Studio is based on Ubuntu, you are not limited to this area, but can install any application that is available for Ubuntu, thus turning Ubuntu Studio into a normal desktop for everyday use. This tutorial shows how you can turn Ubuntu Studio 7.04 into a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

GNOME 2.19.2 is the second of nine development releases leading up to GNOME 2.20.0, which is due out this September. GNOME 2.19.2 is being released today and for those of you interested in the latest changes to GNOME, we have included some screenshots taken from GNOME 2.19.2 built this afternoon with GARNOME. In the process of trying out this latest desktop environment we had run into several crashes and bugs -- GNOME 2.19.2 is not for those new to Linux.

BitTorrent clients are all over the place these days. One of the newcomers, FoxTorrent, is a fully functional cross-platform Firefox BitTorrent client created by Red Swoosh, a company that is now part of Akamai. What FoxTorrent lacks in features it makes up for in simplicity.

Mark Mitchell announced the availability ofGCC 4.2 saying,"GCC 4.2.0 is a major release, containing new functionality not available in GCC 4.1.x or previous GCC releases." He then linked theGCC 4.2 Release Series Changes, New Features, and Fixes document for more details as to what is new in this release.GCC is the GNU Compiler Collection which includes C, C++, Objective-C, Fortran, Java, and Ada compilers. Download GCC 4.2.0 from your nearest gcc.gnu.orgmirror.read more

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday accused Dell Inc. and its financial services affiliate of "bait and switch" advertising and failing to deliver on promised customer service. Round Rock, Texas-based Dell lured customers with zero percent financing, then switched them to a higher rate without their knowledge at the time of purchase, according to the lawsuit.

Almost everything that can be said has been said about the latest moves by Microsoft to create Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD) about Linux. Countless pundits and analysts have pointed out that Microsoft threats are toothless. Some have noted that Microsoft has singled out Linux and OpenOffice, the biggest threats to its monopoly on operating systems and office suites. Surely Microsoft could claim that the *BSDs infringe on similar patents if not the same ones. But the *BSDs do not pose as great a threat to the company. Others have pointed out that Microsoft would be insane to pull an SCO and sue its own customers. Still others have noted that IBM and/or OIN could respond to a patent war with a massive retaliation in patent infringement claims.

Get Point-to-Point video, integration with desktop apps, Mac client support, and Linux server support. Sametime is built on the Eclipse, so you can develop plug-ins using the Sametime Software Development Kit (SDK) that lets you enhance, integrate, and extend Sametime to fit your needs.

Clay Claiborne was an early Linux advocate, and his company, Cosmos Engineering, was one of the first computer builders to offer Linux-based PCs and servers. But Clay has never been as much about business as he's been about social activism. He cofounded the Linux Users of Los Angeles (LULA) group back in 1999, but lately he's dropped out of Linux activism and is spending most of his time on social (mostly ant-war) activism. He'll still happily build you a Linux-based entertainment center PC, but his current passion is making a Vietnam War video retrospective he hopes will help Americans remember how poorly that adventure ended, and how the experience we gained in Vietnam should should be applied to our occupation of Iraq.

In my organization, squid runs on the firewall as a transparent proxy and all web traffic goes through it, while squidGuard filters content. The next step was to set up a reporting tool to create useful reports from the log files.

Linux/Java has topped CEO Ed Zander's list of things to look for from Motorola as it attempts a financial turnaround, according to a story at LinuxDevices.com. At a New York press conference May 15, Zander introduced Linux-based "Rokr" and "Razr2" models, along with new top-level executives.

By now you've probably read more than you want to about Microsoft's announcement that it owns 235 patents underlying leading open source software, including many opinions about whether Microsoft's new assertions do, or don't, represent a real threat to Linux, OpenOffice, and other OSS. But you haven't read enough, I expect, about how patent cross licenses work.

A way to use mairix to speed up searches in kmail 100x

Companies announce joint support for customers running SAP on Novell's SuSE Linux. Customers want integrated stack and support, says Novell chief.

Even though I'm a die-hard Emacs user, there are times when I have to use the vi editor -- specifically gVim, the graphical face of the popular vi clone Vim. Since I use gVim so infrequently, I don't readily remember many of the editor's basic commands. Either I muddle through or reach for my well-thumbed copy of the vi Editor Pocket Reference. That was until I discovered Cream. With Cream, gVim becomes an easy-to-use editor -- so easy, in fact, you might not believe that you're using vi.

LXer Feature: 16-May-2007

The technology industry has been in a buzz since last Monday's Fortune article in which Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith claims that the GNU/Linux operating system infringes 235 of Microsoft's patents. Microsoft refuses to tell the community what those patents are, but they told you, Novell.