Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Has anybody noticed that TV is no longer an over-the-air medium? Mostly it's over-the-wire, meaning cable. Some of it is over glass, meaning fiber optics. And some of it is over satellite, which is Xtreme Air — bouncing off a satellite 24,000 miles over the equator. But both fiber and satellite are just other ways of delivering TV by cable. What connects to the back of your set is still co-ax. And what you watch are a line-up of "channels", which are nothing more than names and numbers given to branded data sources.

The number and gee-whizness of features Sun Microsystems is putting into updates to both the Solaris 10 commercial operating system and the related OpenSolaris development release of Solaris are slowing. That's the best indication that Nevada - the code name for Solaris Next or Solaris 11 or whatever you want to call it - is getting closer to release. Closer doesn't mean close, however. According to sources speaking to The Reg, Sun is quietly telling customers that Solaris 11 is targeted for launch sometime around the middle of 2010.

The messaging and groupware landscape has altered significantly in the last few years with, like it or loathe it, Microsoft’s Exchange Server now firmly ensconced as the number one solution regardless of customer size or industry sector. There are alternatives, of course, but rival developers have more or less given up on trying to beat Microsoft at (what’s now) it’s own game. Instead most now concentrate their efforts on developing alternative messaging and collaboration servers which to end users, and their applications, look and behave just like the Exchange they’re hoping to replace.

Remember Office Open XML – a name chosen to be as confusingly close to OpenOffice XML as possible – better known as OOXML? Remember how just over a year ago this and many other blogs and news outlets were full of sound and fury, as OOXML slouched its way through the ISO standardisation process, finally staggering across the finishing line at the beginning of April 2008? I certainly do, but it's extraordinary how things can change in a year.

Given the ubiquity of Git as a version control system throughout the free software community, one would expect there to be more books about it. So far, that is not the case—though there are indications that is changing—so Travis Swicegood's Pragmatic Version Control Using Git is welcome for those trying to come up to speed on Git. Overall, the book provides a nice starting point, though there are some rough spots.

The guys and girls behind the NetBSD project have released version 5.0 of their BSD operating system. NetBSD is a highly-portable operating system, the second open-source BSD implementation (after 386BSD). Naturally, version 5.0 comes packed with a whole boatload of improvements.

It's just possible that Motorola might finally be getting over the Razr. However, it's highly questionable whether its plans to build an Android -- or several -- will be enough to hoist the company out of the deep well of red ink it's drowning in. Motorola's Q1 revenue slid by 28 percent compared with the year-ago quarter, and it posted a $231 million net loss.

The problem for netbooks is that most run Intel Corp.'s Atom N270 processor, which lacks Intel's VT hardware virtualization. The same goes for the N270's successor, the N280, which only recently began shipping. Lack of hardware virtualization support is also a problem for Intel's Atom CPUs for so-called net-top minidesktop PCs, the 230 and the dual-core 330.

When netbooks first came along, they almost all ran Linux. Microsoft, which was stuck with the resource pig known as Windows Vista, simply couldn't compete. So, reluctantly, Microsoft gave Windows XP Home a new lease on life and sold it below cost to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) to kill the Linux desktop at the root. For this cost, Microsoft was successful, but now Microsoft is about to blow it by replacing XP Home with Windows 7 Starter Edition, which is crippleware by any other name.

Open Invention Network (OIN) announced that three of the eight patents cited in Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom have been posted for prior art review by the Linux community. The evidence is being compiled to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the patents are invalid. Patent holding company OIN was established by IBM, Sony, Philips, Novell, and Red Hat back in 2005, and has since been joined by NEC. The company acquires patents and licenses them royalty-free to companies that agree not to enforce their own patents against Linux and "certain Linux-related applications," says OIN. In December, OIN launched its Linux Defenders portal, co-sponsored by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and the Linux Foundation (LF). The program is designed to make prior art more readily accessible to U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) examiners, said OIN.

The Open Invention Network is making good on its pledge to try to overturn the Linux-related patents that were contained in Microsoft's recently settled litigation against TomTomNV. OIN announced today that three patents in the lawsuit - including those the deal with the creation of long and short file names - have been named for prior art review on the Post-Issue Peer-to-Patent website linked to the Linux Defenders portal.

Ultraportable laptops – netbooks such as the Eee PC – are becoming increasingly popular. A computer that’s small enough to live permanently in your bag without giving you backache can be incredibly useful, especially as wireless connectivity and 3G hardware are growing in ubiquity. Netbooks aren’t just consigned to disposable web surfing, though – they can rely on cloud computing services to provide you with a host of additional functionality. If you’ve never heard of cloud computing before, the idea behind it is that you’re able to store and use your data online, rather than on a local computer. That may sound confusing, but for commonly used examples of online apps that save data to remote servers, you need look no further than Google’s range of apps. The upshot of this is that all you require is an internet connection to have access and control over all your data, regardless of where you are.

Mandriva has released the final version of Mandriva Linux Spring 2009. The new version offers KDE 4.2.2 as the default desktop, delivers up to 25 percent faster boots, supports additional netbooks, and provides enhanced networking and security tools, says the French software company.

International Business Machines Corp., the world's biggest computer-services provider, increased its dividend by 10 percent to expand shareholder returns after scrapping a bid to buy Sun Microsystems Inc. The quarterly payout will rise 5 cents to 55 cents, IBM said today in a statement before its annual shareholder meeting in Miami Beach, Florida. The company also boosted its stock repurchase plan by $3 billion.

There has been some discussion in recent days in the Rails community about appropriate conference presentations, whether women feel welcome in the Rails community, and related issues....But unfortunately for me, in parallel to the public discussion there have been private ones. I can't reveal details without breaking confidences, but suffice it to say that a significant number of Rails core contributors - with leadership (if that's the right word) from DHH - apparently feel that being unwelcoming and "edgy" is not just acceptable, but laudable. The difference between their opinions and mine is so severe that I cannot in good conscience remain a public spokesman for Rails. So, effective immediately, I'm resigning my position with the Rails Activists.

[I commend you for why you are doing it Mike, speaks to your character fortitude. - Scott]

Does Oracle+Sun spell dream come true or disaster for the open source movement? The blogosphere has been ringing with opinions left, right and center on the topic, and perhaps just one thing is certain: The times they are a-changing.

The Open Invention Network has launched a project to find prior art for Microsoft's patents on the FAT filesystem. The OIN believes that the FAT patents will not hold up to scrutiny and the organization hopes that the Linux community will assist in an effort to have it invalidated.

Thanks, in large part, to a little company called Standard Oil, Open Source isn't necessarily the first term to come to mind when one thinks of the name Rockefeller. However, that's exactly the term Mr. Rockefeller's great-grandson, Senator Jay Rockefeller, is pushing in Congress — attached to a bill to strengthen Open Source in health-care.

Installing Linux is pretty easy, but what options are there for users who want Linux already installed on a computer? Carla Schroder reveals several excellent, affordable options, plus tips and tricks for learning Linux quickly.

Igel has released an add-in card that enables old desktop PCs to be turned into Linux thin clients on the cheap. The "Igel TC Card" costs $100 and requires a computer to have an available PCI slot and an IDE interface, the company says.