Showing all newswire headlines

Tomorrow will be the last day of our huge 50% off sale of Bordeaux for Linux, Mac, FreeBSD, PCBSD and OpenSolaris.

As you've probably heard by now, Oracle has decided to file suit against Google, claiming multiple counts of infringement against Java or JVM patents and copyrights they acquired when they assimilated Sun Microsystems this past year. Since I'm unlikely to keep my mouth shut about even trivial matters, something this big obviously requires at least a couple thousand words.

Adam Leventhal, another one of the three Sun engineers who developed DTrace, is leaving Oracle. Bryan Cantrill, another member of the team, left Oracle in July. This leaves only one of the original DTrace team – Mike Shapiro – still with Oracle. Shapiro is one of the signatories of the leaked memo which announced the closing of the OpenSolaris project.

The OIN's definition of "the Linux System" is controlled only by its six member companies although it also defines the scope of the license agreement between all supporters including licensees (not members) Oracle and Google. I have pointed out the problems with that arbitrary, constantly changing definition (it's simply a web page and the OIN can remove or add whatever it wants, whenever, without any objective criteria for that) in this blog posting. If you want to jump right to my suggestions for how the OIN's definition of "the Linux System" could be improved, you can go right here. If you read those suggestions, think of Oracle vs. Google. Any one of my four alternative suggestions would fix the problem for Dalvik and then Oracle wouldn't be able to sue Google.

Following its decision to end open distribution of source codes for its Solaris enterprise operating system, Oracle now faces backlash from the open source community which is likely to damage its relationship with developers in the long-run, industry watchers noted.

As many learned today, there's been a rather critical bug living within the Linux kernel for several years (as possibly far back as the original Linux 2.6 kernel release) that was finally fixed and this "high priority" bug is now publicly detailed. This issue (CVE-2010-2240), which allows arbitrary code to be executed as root, is easily exploitable by most current Linux desktops via simply running any compromised GUI application that has access to the running X.Org Server.

Future software advancements like cars that drive themselves will trigger a new perspective on whether we can build a space elevator, and in what timeframe.

Caching is a concept used through computing. CPUs have several levels of cache; disk drives have cache; and the list goes on. Adding a small amount of high-speed data storage relative to a large amount of slower-speed storage can make huge improvements to performance. Enter two new kernel patches -- bcache and flashcache -- that leverage the power of SSDs.

HTC is building a Chrome OS tablet for Google, set for a Verizon launch on Nov. 26, an industry report claims. Meanwhile, Pandigital released its second seven-inch Android-based e-reader tablet, with more memory than before plus a smaller, lighter design.

According to a report written by Rafal Wojtczuk, a conceptual problem in the memory management area of Linux allows local attackers to execute code at root level. The Linux issue is caused by potential overlaps between the memory areas of the stack and shared memory segments.

By the standards of previous releases in the KDE 4 series, KDE 4.5 is tame. It has few new applications, and introduces no new technologies. Yet with its combination of small innovations and interface improvements, KDE 4.5 still manages to be a release worth installing. Although it does not try to expand the concept of the desktop, it does make KDE easier to use in dozens of small and satisfying ways.

Microsoft Windows comes pre installed with hardware in most of the cases and hence a vast majority of Windows users probably have't ever seen Windows installer. But that is not the case with Ubuntu. Only a handful of manufacturers sell pre installed Ubuntu hardware and hence the need for down to earth simple and eyecandy Installer. Take a look at the proposed changes with Ubuntu 10.10 'Maverick Meerkat' Installer.

In a study not likely to cause controversy, Christian Perrier has published the results of his analysis of the number of Debian developers per country. He ran the analysis last year for the first time, so one can see the progress or recession in the last year. No matter where you call home, the numbers are quite interesting.

A few months back we reported that the IA64 and SPARC versions of Ubuntu were in trouble and would be decommissioned if no individual(s) were to step-up and maintain these ports of Ubuntu Linux for these architectures that are much less popular and common than x86 and x86_64 hardware. Well, there still is no one backing the Intel IA64 and Sun SPARC versions of Ubuntu Linux so they are being dropped completely.

Intelligent backup of your Linux machine’s valuable data doesn’t have to be complicated. Linux User & Developer’s Sukrit Dhandhania shows you quite how easy and effective rsync tool-based luckyBackup can make the process…

As I've noted, I don't claim to have any insight into how this lawsuit will conclude, whether it will blow up into a long and bloody battle between Oracle and Google, or whether it will be concluded by some quick and relatively amicable solution. But I do believe that whatever happens, whatever it might nominally "win", Oracle has certainly and irrevocably lost more in terms of trust and goodwill within the free software world than it will ever understand. The message is clear: Fork all the main open source projects that Oracle owns or transfer energies to a replacement.

Writing about Ubuntu even a little critically brings out two types of people: those who get their fanboy bat out to beat the crap out of me and those who actually have solutions to the problems I present. Truthfully, I don't mind the fanboy factor; at least you're reading. And I did get help with my Ubuntu 8.04 to 10.04 upgrade problem.

Aquia released the first fully-functional open source social software suite this week. It is built on the Drupal platform and is expected to compete with established, proprietary Enterprise 2.0 software vendors.

A critical vulnerability in the Linux kernel that gives attackers access to root via X server has been patched by Linus Torvalds. Meanwhile, kernel developer James Morris reports on the first-annual Linux Security Summit (LSS), which covered topics including usability, hardening the kernel, and API standardization.

Installing a Linux server is easy, especially if you download one of the latest CentOS ISOs. There’s a nice wizard to walk you through the installation process, and it’s perfectly acceptable to do a standard default install. But, if you intend to do any serious hosting or expect production quality performance out of the system, or if you are just as particular as I am, than a bit of customizing of the install at the beginning could save you lots of time later on down the road.