Showing all newswire headlines

Let me issue a disclaimer right off. Before I ever typed my first GNU/Linux command in a terminal the Free Software Foundation was fighting the good fight for free software and all the issues surrounding individual freedom and privacy both on and offline. All of us owe it a debt of gratitude for the work is has done and continues to do on behalf of the principles of a free society and free computing. It’s commitment to these things is unswerving but one of the down sides of this unremitting focus is the danger of a loss of perspective on certain campaigning issues. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

Open-Xchange, which positions itself as an open source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, has a message for solutions providers: Yes, you can make money by blending open source applications with software as a service (SaaS). In fact, Open-Xchange is nearing 10 million paid users, and the company has a few surprises in store for 2009. Here’s the scoop.

World of Goo has finally been ported to Linux. We have now a chance to show that this was a worthwhile endeavour and hopefully show to other Publishers that there is an incentive to do the same.

As most any user can tell you, Linux systems think of time in terms of the number of seconds, not counting leap seconds, since the beginning of the UNIX epoch: Jan. 1, 1970. For most readers, that number will reach 1,234,567,890 this Fri. the 13th. Psyche!

Sun Microsystems has upped its ante in the rich internet application battle for mobile mind-share, just as Microsoft and Adobe Systems traded shots at each other. On Thursday, the systems and server company released a version of JavaFX for mobile devices here, branded JavaFX Mobile by marketing types but known to coders as JavaFX 1.1.

Cuba released its own distribution of the free Linux operating system this week, as the communist island seeks to wean its citizens and institutions from what it says is insecure, capitalist-produced Microsoft Corp. software, according to a report. The Reuters news service reported Wednesday that the new version is called Nova, and was introduced at a technical conference in Havana. Based on a Linux variant called Gentoo that is popular with highly technical users, Nova has been in development since 2007, according to the Associated Press, after Free Software guru Richard Stallman visited the island and persuaded government officials to move off Windows.

Sometimes I don’t see eye to eye with the Ubuntu user community. I think Ubuntu Server Edition should be Canonical’s top priority for 2009. But only 8 percent of Ubuntu users agree with me, according to a reader poll on WorksWithU, the independent guide to Ubuntu. Here’s why I’m right and 92 percent of Ubuntu users are wrong. Take a look.

In November 2008 the Buzztard project maintainers announced the public release of version 0.4.0 of their flagship application. This version of Buzztard brings new features and performance enhancements, including expanded support for original Buzz songs and machines and an impressive make-over of its GUI.

Microsoft Corp. said it hired a former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. executive to help the company open its own retail stores, a strategy shift that borrows from the playbook of rival Apple Inc. The Redmond, Wash., company said it hired David Porter, most recently the head of world-wide product distribution at DreamWorks Animation SKG, as corporate vice president of retail stores for Microsoft. In a statement, Microsoft said the first priority of Mr. Porter, who is also a 25-year veteran of Wal-Mart, will be to define where to place the Microsoft stores and when to open them. A Microsoft spokesman said the company's current plans are for a "small number" of stores.

[Oh my, this is going to be good. Popcorn anyone? - Scott]

The Symbian Foundation is limbering up to face the Open Handset Alliance next week, announcing a raft of new members to take on the Android threat, while LiMo and Access Linux lurk nearby looking for scraps. Realizing that the battle of operating systems is all about applications, Symbian has announced a load of new members including MySpace, Bank of America, and Omron Software - though most of the new members have something to gain for their $1,500 membership fee and there's a remarkable degree of infidelity with companies betting each way.

Anyone that carries confidential data around on their laptop has probably considered encryption at some point or other. However, the typical methods seem to generally entail either manual mounting of your encrypted volume (a pain) or volumes that automount when you login based on your login information (not exactly secure as anyone who forces you to login will have access).

We need to give up the notion that such computer users can be rescued by Linux-- we don't WANT them using Linux. "It is impossible to make anything foolproof, because fools are ingenious".

If you thought installing Linux on a laptop was a fun discussion, have I got a new one for you. This comes straight out of the really, it should not be this hard category…the server side.

Do you need 10 reasons to use Linux-based virtualization? Linux is the chosen virtualization platform for Cloud vendors, virtualization software companies and the largest IT companies in the world. What do they know that you don't?

As these words are being written, the US Congress is debating the final terms of a stimulus bill that will result in the expenditure of almost $800 billion of public funds on a wide array of initiatives intended to address an equally challenging goal: resurrecting an economy that seems inexorably headed towards its worst performance since the Great Depression. Whether that fortune gets spent wisely or not will depend a lot on open source, and open standards.

Bruce Perens reports that Linux is a natural for embedded systems. That's why it's popping up in more cell phones, often without the customer even realizing it's there. But cell phone manufacturers, and the broader sector of embedded systems, must cope with the problem of how to combine the GPL Linux kernel, and software that isn't Open Source. How does one do that legally?

S3 Graphics has announced this afternoon the release of the Chrome 540 GTX, which they advertise as "The World's Most Connected Hi-Def Card" with its HDMI, DisplayPort, and DVI connections. The Chrome 540 GTX runs at 850MHz, uses GDDR3 memory, and shares other features to the Chrome 530 GT that was introduced in the fourth quarter of 2008. In the press release announcing the S3 Graphics Chrome 540 GTX they once again mention Linux support... But is there any Linux support?

This posting is targeting install stubdom binaries at Xen-Unstable Dom0 with pv_ops enabled kernel and testing pv-grub and virtual frame buffer functionality in mentioned environment. Setup VNC at Dom0 exactly as on Ubuntu Intrepid Server with Ubuntu Desktop installed via “tasksel” to manage Dom0 remotely via Gnome Desktop interface.

Jeff Soble, Neil Cowles, and Edmund Billings have a response reproduced after the break to HIMSS "Call to Action". This is a sobering look at the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which looks poised to result in the demise of real competition, medical data in the hands of a cartel or monopoly for a few wealthy corporations, loss of privacy and the loss of the physician as the traditional custodian of medical data.

From the 'what? Linux isn't American??' files: Reuters has an interesting story today titled, "Cuba launches own Linux variant to counter U.S." The gist of the story is that Cuba is now going to produce their own Linux distro called 'Nova' in some sort of attempt to not have to use American software. Nonsense.