Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Most Linux Twitter clients look pretty much the same; they look like the interface on Twitter.com. Which is all right, but David Harding introduces us to two that are a little different. Twidge is a command-line Twitter client that is perfect for netbooks, for scripting repetitive tasks, and for blocking certain updates from friends that you really don't need to see. Tircd gives you a friendly, familiar IRC-style interface.

The Australian government has ditched its plan to fund a privately built fiber-to-the-node broadband network. Instead, it will directly build an open-access, 100Mbps+, fiber-to-the-home network that will reach 90 percent of Australian homes within eight years.

David Coursey at PCWorld knew full well he'd opened a can of worms when he asked why anyone would want an Android netbook. Personally, I'd rather have an Ubuntu Netbook Remix powered one, or one with an operating system tailored with the latest Moblin Image Creator utility, but I'm sort of one of those types anyway. I love and use open source software, nearly exclusively. I think the last time I really sat down to run Windows was when I transferred Windows XP on to my husband's newly built "mostly playtime" machine. As much as I love open source software, however, I am a stronger advocate for having the right tool for the job, and using the software that works best for the user and the task at hand.

After weeks of private negotiations, IBM was poised to buy rival Sun Microsystems for a reported $7 billion. Negotiations apparently broke down on Sunday when Sun's board rejected a reduced offer. But beyond allowing IBM to reclaim from Hewlett-Packard the title of world's biggest computer company, why would the company even want Sun, a sprawling Unix vendor that has struggled for years to even show a profit? The answer, according to insiders at both companies, lies in Sun's intellectual property.

Google has announced that it has added Java to Python as the supported languages on its App Engine service. Adding Java was the first and most popular request from developers and users that was filed in App Engine's issue tracker. App Engine launched with only Python support with an App Engine API added to access the shared database and other functionality.

Another idea came to me after reading Software AG Deputy CTO Mike Miko Matsumara's blog, who thinks that with this deal collapsing, we might see the return of Sun Co-founder, Scott McNealy. Whether that happens or not, the company should also pursue an option of going private. The four Sun co-founders - Scott McNealy, Bill Joy, Vinod Khosla and Andy Bechtolsheim - swing enough clout in the Valley to help put together a rescue package. Given how easily Palm has been able to raise additional funding, I don't think Sun will have trouble raising the capital. Bad as it is - down 10.7 percent from fiscal 2008 - Sun will post revenues of just over $12 billion. And it still has a few billion dollars in cash.

The Linux Foundation (LF) announced that it will help companies excise the Microsoft FAT filesystem from their systems to avoid the fate of TomTom, which recently settled with Microsoft over alleged patent infringements over FAT. Meanwhile, other open-source leaders are suggesting a standardized FAT substitute may be in the offing.

Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst has issued a statement praising President Obama for bringing a culture of inclusion and transparency to the United States government. Whitehurst also takes the opportunity to encourage broader open source adoption.

President Obama came to office with the promise of change. His administration has pledged to create an environment of openness and participation. Some have already called him the “open source president” such as consultant and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos. There’s no better time than now. Transparency builds trust. Participation solves problems. And we believe that open source provides an answer. Red Hat is excited that the Obama administration recognizes the value of open source beyond software. Open source principles are changing how we learn, how we share information, how developers create, and how companies do business. Now it has the opportunity to change our government.

Europe is opening up by leaps and bounds, from the Gendarme in France to German embassies around the world. There is one more to add to the score, as last week the Hungarian government announced it too will be going Open Source, in a big way.

What Microsoft really wants from TomTom isn't money, but building fear about Linux in other companies. Microsoft wants you to believe you need a Microsoft license to deploy Open Source software. Bruce Perens analyzes the unfortunate outcome of the TomTom/Microsoft patent settlement.

Zend Technologies has built an application server for PHP that it hopes can slowly convert frustrated Java programmers as well as those relying on Java on the web and in the enterprise. On Tuesday, the company is expected to unveil the Zend Server, a paid-for PHP stack that comes with service agreements and support and the free Zend Server Community Edition.

The next step for Sun Microsystems Inc., after its apparent failure to reach an agreement with IBM on an acquisition, is to continue looking for a buyer, change its management — or just keep plugging along and pretend that nothing ever happened. In terms of a sale, it's entirely possible that Sun could attract bids from Cisco Systems Inc., which is trying to move into the server business, or Fujitsu Ltd., which makes servers based on Sun's Sparc technology, or even Hewlett-Packard Co., as part of its perpetual market-share battle with IBM.

Reports surfaced late this evening that computing giant IBM — which has been in talks for some time to buy Sun Microsystems — has pulled its $7 billion offer to buy the struggling company. According to reports, IBM withdrew the offer after Sun's Board of Directors made "onerous" requests following IBM's decision to lower its offer for the firm. IBM initially offered $9.55 per share, but dropped that offer to $9.40 — less than a $1.00 premium on Sun's current stock price — due in part, it says, to the discovery that far more senior employees than originally expected are covered by "change of control" contracts. Such agreements cover senior executives — who often face replacement on acquisition — should the company be bought or otherwise come under the control of someone other than its Board.

Last month, a group called The Author's Guild raised loud objections to the text-to-speech feature in Amazon's new Kindle 2. They claimed that reading a book out-loud is a violation of US copyright law. We had hoped that Amazon would stand up to this legally baseless bullying and support their customers. But, instead, they caved, and allowed publishers to deactivate the Kindle's text-to-speech capabilities using the device's built-in DRM.

The Linux blogosphere had its fair share -- perhaps more than its fair share -- of techie trickery on April Fools' Day, but some of the real news was almost as hard to believe. Citigroup buying Red Hat? Surely, you jest. As odd as that might seem, the prospect of Oracle buying Red Hat might be even harder to swallow. And what's up with Microsoft's latest effort to reach out to losers?

Sometimes, even the best job can call for extraordinary sacrifices. Even grumpy editorial jobs. Let it never be said that your editor is unwilling to take one for his readers; why else would he choose to spend four hours in the company of around 100 lawyers gathered to talk about software patents? This event, entitled Evaluating software patents, was held on March 19 at the local law school. The conversation was sometimes dry and often painful to listen to, but it did provide an interesting view into how patent attorneys see the software patent regime in the U.S. The following is a summary of the high points from the four panels held at this event.

MIDs (mobile Internet devices) may be the channel for Linux to reach mainstream consumers in Asia, according to an analyst. Ian Lao, senior analyst, mobile technologies at In-Stat told ZDNet Asia in an interview, MIDs are expected to do better in the region than in others, and that Linux will likely grow alongside as a result.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" said Dickens, and he could well have been talking about Silicon Valley in 2009 — while some firms are setting up venture capital funds, others are looking for a buoy just to stay afloat. Such is the case for Silicon Graphics, as the once power-player revealed last week it will be sold to Rackable Systems for just half the cost of some of its systems.

Last weekend, the Birmingham Perl Mongers group hosted and was main financial sponsor of the 2009 QA Hackathon, which was held at the Birmingham City Inn. Key developers in the Perl Quality Assurance world flew in from as far afield as Sydney, Portland, OR and Birmingham itself to spend 3 days hacking on all aspects of the Perl and CPAN toolchain. If the hackathon proved anything, it's that while Internet time is fast, face time is faster.