Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

The Hungarian government has announced that it will be modifying procurement rules to allow open source to be used in public sector organisations. Previously, procurement rules had apparently named vendors such as Microsoft and Novell. The new rules, according to Ferenc Baja, deputy minister for information technology, will allocate the same amount of money to acquiring open source products as to proprietary products. The move was announced at a press conference on April 2nd.

John “J5? Palmieri explains how the Fedora community–codename MyFedora–is bringing Fedora users together by integrating self-contained applications into a single framework application. This interface enables Fedora users to see and keep track of what applications other community members are working with.

Conficker seems to be the theme of the week. So, with the crisis abated for the moment, I thought this would be a good opportunity to discuss an issue near and dear to my heart – patch management.

Novell's SUSE Linux Desktop 11 promises support, seamless interoperability with Windows networks, an attractive price tag, and a lot of value. Paul Ferrill takes a close look to see if it lives up to its promises.

Last year, Verizon Wireless said the Linux-based LiMo platform would be its preferred phone OS. However, CEO Lowell McAdam recently downplayed that possibility. LiMo will still be a long-term contender for Verizon phones, but it will not be favored over other platforms. Verizon's goal, he said, is to whittle down the number of OSes it supports from eight or nine to three or four.

Google entered the mobile telephony market with high hopes – now, however, its Director of Mobile Platforms, Andy Rubin, concedes that the company has had a bumpy start. Speaking from Google headquarters in Mountain View, Rubin said the first version of the Android operating system, whose development was spearheaded by Google, was initially a "version 0.8" rather than a full "version 1.0,". The Taiwanese vendor HTC released the G1 smartphone with Android software in the UK in November 2008. The phone is currently available exclusively from T-Mobile. Rubin says that, following several updates, the operating system has become "very solid".

Here's some recent updates for those of you too busy to hit F5 on Freshmeat every 10 seconds. Ardour 2.8 is now available featuring track and bus templates, distributable VST support and AudioUnit state saving -- stuff which has to be cool if you're into digital audio. Gnumeric 1.9.5 brings everyone's favourite non-OOo spreadsheet closer to 2.0 with bugfixes en masse, while HardInfo 0.5 displays a shedload more details about your system, and remains the essential fact-gathering tool when you need to get Linux help. Some more updates after the break.

So the new Sugar on a Stick v0.84 is out and I gave it a try on the XO, installing the suggested Windows XP version.

With its open source operating system, the OpenMoko Project was once the pride of the community. Now, however, development of the new model will cease.

According to Canonical head honcho Mark Shuttleworth, Windows 7 presents the ideal opportunity for Linux to gain significant inroads into the desktop market. He said so in an interview with InternetNews. While I certainly do hope so, an eerie sense of deja vu creeps up on me: isn't this like the 923298th opportunity where Linux is supposed to make inroads into the desktop market?

Now I full well realize that much of the open source software is better than proprietary software, and I know that it can be much cheaper to rely on open source solutions than to enter into a license agreement for proprietary software. But where is that going to lead us? Once mighty Sun Microsystems is hanging on for dear life, and is that who you want to be relying on to provide service for your customized open source solutions? What if Sun simply disappears?

I never liked the terms "upload" and "download". I think "inload" and "outload" might be better, just because they don't carry implications of subordination or unequal required effort. As it happens most of our home connections are asymmetrical: much higher coming in than going out.Om Malik reports how poorly his "high speed" connection works for backup over the Net: approximately 90Kbps on the outbound, even though the inbound is around 9Mbps — the claimed speed for Covad's ADSLs+ connection was "up to 15Mbps". I'm not sure why his connection is so slow. Is all ADSL sucky as well as asymmetrical? I dunno. I've never had ADSL.

According to a report in the New York Times today, Intel's Moblin project is to move under the stewardship of the Linux Foundation. The Moblin project is designed to provide an open source Linux based operating system that supports Intel's Atom processors and that can be used on a variety of hardware from netbooks to in-car systems. Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation says the move is "a departure for Intel" noting that Intel "has the resources and the internal staff to create innovative technology on their own". Zemlin believes Intel sees Moblin as a strategic platform and wants to open up the project by placing it in neutral hands.

As GCC nears its 4.4 release, there are a number of criteria that need to be met before it can be released. Those requirements—regressions requiring squashing—have been met, but things are still stalled. A number of issues were raised with the changes to the runtime library exemption that have caused the release, and a branch that will allow new development into the GCC tree, to be delayed until that is resolved. In the meantime, however, GCC development is hardly standing still, there are numerous interesting ideas floating around for new features.

There’s a dirty little secret to technology conferences: Most of them suck to some degree. It’s about time someone started thinking about how to make conference time more valuable and less stale, especially now that companies are cutting back on travel to shows.

In a surprise declaration, I am still trying to process, President Barack Obama has announced a massive deployment of XO laptops to every public school student in America - to both improve education and stimulate the American economy. While that's game-changing just in itself, here's the real kicker - these will be XO-1.5's made by Intel & Dell!

[I think this is great, if it actually happens.. - Scott]

I.B.M. appears on the verge of acquiring Sun Microsystems, a longtime rival in the computer server and software markets, for nearly $7 billion. The two companies have been negotiating for weeks, ironing out terms of an agreement that would turn I.B.M. into the dominant supplier of high-profit Unix servers and related technology. I.B.M. is offering $9.50 a share, down from a bid of $10 a share, said people familiar with the discussions who were not authorized to speak publicly. The new agreement would restrict I.B.M.’s ability to walk away from the deal, these people said.

What happens when you start using the 'T' word in connection with computer operating systems? All hell breaks loose in the blogosphere, that's what. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer started it, with his assertion that Mac users pay an "Apple Tax." One thing led to another, and now the Linux community is debating whether Linux users pay a "Microsoft Tax."

Only a few days ago, we ran an article on the future of KDE and GNOME, and which of the two had the brighter future based on their developmental processes. Barely has that discussion ended, or the GNOME engineering team comes with a pretty daunting plan to introduce a fairly massive reworking of the GNOME interface for GNOME 3.0 (2.30). Read on for the details.

As of today, the latest version of the KDE desktop and software distribution carries the version number 4.2.2. The release, as is usual for our monthly point-releases does not have a lot of exciting new features, but makes your life just a bit easier. Many bug fixes have been backported from the trunk of KDE development.