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As most of the technology world knows by now, Oracle has brought a suit for patent infringement against Google, asserting that the Java elements incorporated into Google’s Android operating system infringe patents that Oracle acquired when it took over Sun Microsystems.  What no one yet knows for sure yet is why?

You all expected it, and now it has come to pass: Oracle has killed off the OpenSolaris development project. There was never any need for the OpenSolaris governing board to commit ritual suicide — they were going to be ignored to death just the same. A lengthy email sent out to the Solaris development team by Mike Shapiro (distinguished engineer, Solaris kernel development), Bill Nesheim (vice president of Solaris platform engineering), and Chris Armes (director of Solaris revenue product engineering software) of Oracle was outted in an abridged form here by OpenSolaris kernel programmer Steve Stallion. Subsequently, Alasdair Lumsden, one of the key members of the OpenSolaris community, posted the full internal message on the OpenSolaris forums.

A lot of changes with this release of the one and only graphics program I maintain. No remarkable user changes though so if your installation still uses the epeg library then there is no need to upgrade. That said, if you are tracking enlightenment then the current version will not deal with jpeg image formats at all and may be using legacy libraries (if it actually works).

First, the complaint. We'll have to wait for the answer to know specifically what Google's defenses are, but I know some of you are asking why the GPL isn't blocking Oracle's copyright claims, at a minimum, let alone the patents. Because Google apparently didn't use the GPL'd version. We'll see if Google's clean room workaround stands up. I'm sure they considered their steps super carefully, but as we saw in the SCO saga, you can still get sued even if a plaintiff is pretty sure he'll lose in the end. I am puzzled why corporations that understand so much about openness still struggle with the GPL. It would protect you, you know. Oracle distributes Linux, after all. Think about it.

In what is supposedly a leaked internal memo to Oracle staff, the adoptive parent company of Sun’s OpenSolaris had announced the fate the project’s (and binary release’s) future. That is, they will support it no more outside of CDDL’d package updates for future Solaris (i.e. Solaris 11) releases.

Just as LinuxCon ended, Oracle announced that it has filed suit for patent and copyright infringement against Google for its implementation of Android; as an Oracle spokesperson said, “In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle’s Java-related intellectual property. This lawsuit seeks appropriate remedies for their infringement … Android (including without limitation the Dalvik VM and the Android software development kit) and devices that operate Android infringe one or more claims of each of United States Patents Nos. 6,125,447; 6,192,476; 5,966,702; 7,426,720; RE38,104; 6,910,205; and 6,061,520.” (some more details in the copy of Oracle complaint). Apart from the slight cowardice of waiting after LinuxCon for announcing it, the use of the Boies Schiller legal team (the same of SCO) would be ironic on its own (someone already is calling the company SCOracle).

Today we had the pleasure of playing a little with the new Ubuntu installer, present in the latest daily build of the upcoming Maverick Meerkat (Ubuntu 10.10) operating system, due for release in October 10th, 2010. The installer is completely revamped and accessible (by Linux beginners) installer.

The latest release of Puppy Linux, version 5.1, is codenamed "Lucid Puppy" as it is now binary compatible with the packages available for Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx. The announcement and release notes say that because of this compatibility the time now taken to produce "packages that are tested and configured for Lucid Puppy is extremely short". Lucid Puppy can now be downloaded (direct download) as a 130MB Live CD ISO file. Work on Puppy Linux 5.1 has focussed on improving the "lean and fast" distributions user interface, with friendlier dialogues and enhanced graphics, along with upgrading the many packages and tools of the distribution.

Over the past few days there's been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon. On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue, and we think it could help move the network neutrality debate forward constructively.

For system administrators shell scripting can be a very useful way to drastically improve workflow. Join Swayam Prakasha to find out how you can employ some fundemental tips and techniques to make your life easier…

Some aspects of this are unclear, so I believe this is mostly the time to ask the right questions, and time will provide the answers, probably sooner rather than later.

Jeremy White, founder and CEO of gadfly software developer CodeWeavers, Inc., announced today he is the firms Employee of the Month for the 175th consecutive month, an accomplishment unmatched by any executive in corporate America.

We saw the quiet evolution of GNOME Shell aka the next generation GNOME desktop environment. Now lets do some GNOME Shell theming. Hope you guys are familiar with Elementary and Ambiance GTK themes. Now they have these stunning GNOME Shell variants which are absolutely beautiful.

Voice Actions makes your life easier in many ways to have fun with your phone, write text message, email, recognitions for navigation GPS system, search for Music using Pandora, lastfm, mspot, Radio,..

The impending final release of Firefox 4 is something of a big deal for the Mozilla Foundation. Over the past year the popular open source browser has been facing some stiff competition from the likes of Google's Chrome and, even, Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser.

Today Oracle sued Google over Java patents and copyrights that they claim Google's Android OS infringes. The lawsuit claims that Google knowingly infringed on those patents, and that the continued distribution of Google's Android is harming Oracle's Java Business.

As the kernel and user space exist in different virtual address spaces, there are special considerations for moving data between them. Explore the ideas behind virtual address spaces and the kernel APIs for data movement to and from user space, and learn some of the other mapping techniques used to map memory.

As a society, we are all about numbers -- How much, how far, how fast. In IT, it is all a numbers game. Teraflops to compare computing power, TPC results to compare databases, analyst numbers to compare penetration -- We are all about the numbers. And as a wise man once said, there are lies, damn lies, and statistics. And after sitting through not one but two presentations about the numbers, I am more convinced than ever that numbers are best left to the accountants.

In this article , we'll take a look at designing higher-level objects; the kind of objects that manage other objects. The objects that tie everything together.

Do I want 32 bit or 64 bit? This is a question I have fielded many times, it is one most new Linux users ask before they even download their first Linux ISO. There is a short answer and a long answer to this question. The short answer: You want 32bit.