Showing all newswire headlines

Just yesterday though I found out that it’s possible to easily install a minimalist Debian setup with the fluxbox WM. In fact, this “how to” will be over before you know it.

This interview with lead developer Stefan Kost continues my report on the development of Buzztard. As the interview reveals, Stefan's work on Buzztard represents only one level of his deep involvement in Linux software development.

It's not all about the code in the Linux ecosystem. Any Linux project needs leadership. Markus Rex is one such leader. In an interview with InternetNews.com Rex discusses what working for the Linux Foundation was like, what he's got in the works at Novell and what challenges he sees on the road ahead for Linux and Open Source.

It has been a number of months since CrossOver Games was last updated, but this morning CodeWeavers has issued a new update for this software based upon WINE that allows gamers to run their favorite DirectX and OpenGL Windows titles on Linux.

When will power-saving and affordable ARM netbooks become available? Freescale Semiconductor has ventured into an advanced standard, albeit with their homegrown i.MX515 chip.

At first glance, software as a service (SaaS) and open source are chipping away at Microsoft’s empire. But take a closer look, and there are at least three areas where Microsoft’s dominance remains unquestioned. Skeptical? Take a look

Sun Microsystems and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have announced an expanded partnership in which HP will become a key distributor of Sun's Solaris 10 operating system. According to Jeff Carlat, Director of Marketing in the HP software group for the ProLiant and BladeSystem platforms, "Customers have been demanding increased levels of support for Solaris 10" and this partnership is the result. Sun previously signed distribution deals with IBM and Dell in 2007. HP, certified with Solaris since 1996, will be distributing and providing support for Solaris on its ProLiant server and BladeSystem platforms.

Think Bilski. Are Microsoft's FAT patents *hardware* patents? No? Then what makes you assume they are valid in the post-Bilski world? Don't even get me started on obviousness. Let alone who really "invented" that stuff. This may turn out to be an opportunity, frankly. If you read the ITC complaint, on page 23, by the way, you'll find that Microsoft is currently dealing with a nullity action in Germany regarding a foreign counterpart to the US FAT patents. It's also dealing with a Canadian challenge.

Linux Magazine Online took the opportunity of Fosdem 2009 in Brussels to track down and talk to kernel developer and CTO of the Linux Foundation, Ted Ts'o.

How green is Linux? In my previous post 10 things to tell your kids when you ditched windows for linux One of the comments argued that Linux is no more energy efficient than Windows. So I did a little research. * First of all there's the tickless kernel

Trolling around the Linux blogosphere, one can't help but come across repeated references to this company in Redmond, Wash., that makes a similar operating system. They're putting this Windows thing in dual-boot laptops over at Dell, and Red Hat just signed an interoperability agreement with these Microsoft people.

Microsoft has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against TomTom alleging that the device maker's products, including some that are Linux-based, infringe on patents related to Microsoft's FAT32 filesystem. This marks the first time that Microsoft has enforced its FAT patents against the Linux platform, a move that some free software advocates have long feared could be disastrous.

Microsoft's top intellectual property lawyer said that the company's legal action against TomTom over Linux was specific to that company, but he declined to say whether other suits over the open source operating system might follow. "I wouldn't speculate at this point," Horacio Gutierrez told CNET News in an interview late Wednesday. Gutierrez did add that Microsoft's patent suit against TomTom, which includes three claims related to file management techniques used in the Linux kernel, was specific to that company.

The number of open source projects targeting mobile platforms is rising sharply, according to Black Duck Software, the leading global provider of products and services for accelerating software development through the managed use of open source software. Black Duck spiders the Internet collecting open source and other downloadable code into a repository it calls the Black Duck KnowledgeBase.

In 2007, Fedora, Red Hat's community Linux distribution, hit an all-time low. Users were leaving it behind in favor of Ubuntu and openSUSE. Well-known Linux evangelist Eric S. Raymond, after looking at the latest release, Fedora Core 6, dismissed Fedora as junk. Raymond wrote at the time, "Over the last five years, I've watched Red Hat/Fedora throw away what a near-unassailable lead was at one time in technical prowess, market share and community prestige. The blunders have been legion on both technical and political levels."

Sometimes open source projects "fork." Disagreements over direction cause a splinter group to hive off and maintain their own separate code base. This is going to happen with well-known heavyweight FOSS staple, MySQL, after the original author quit Sun Microsystems earlier this month.

Red Hat's JBoss middleware team apparently has recruited veterans of Oracle/BEA Systems, IBM and Sun Microsystems. Is Red Hat turning mind share into middleware market share? You bet.

Not the longest post of the year, but building up to the longest title ;)

Linux runs on the first e-book reader released this year ... and on the second ... and the third. Just a few days ago, the first Kindle 2s started shipping from Amazon.com, making them the first e-book readers to be released to the public this year -- and you may be surprised to learn that what's inside isn't some proprietary software running on Windows CE, but rather the good old Linux kernel.

I first learned of Microsoft bringing suit against in-car navigation company TomTom NV when I got an email from a journalist asking for comment. Why all the buzz? Because apparently several of the patent claims relate to TomTom's implementation of the Linux kernel - and while Microsoft has made noises publicly and threats privately for years alleging that Linux infringes multiple Microsoft patents, it has never actually brought a suit against a Linux implementer specifically alleging infringement by the Linux portion of their product. The result is that across the industry, everyone is asking the same question: What Does it All Mean? For what it's worth, here's my take. (hint: Don't Panic)