Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Could your business be paying for a proprietary program when an open source alternative exists? Take a look at our guide as we count down the most popular open source products. Much of the software suggested in this round-up came from sourceforge.net, known colloquially as the open source "phone book". Alternatively, you might want to look at Wikipedia's Free Software Portal. If you need software, it's well worth a look.

SuSE was founded in Nuremberg, Germany in 1992 when the Linux kernel was still almost new. by Hubert Mantel, Burchard Steinbild, Roland Dyroff and Thomas Fehr, with the objective of distributing Slackware (based on the earlier SLS Linux from Soft Landing Systems), in sets of 40 floppies, translated into German, with the approval of Patrik Volderding, the guiding light and sole developer of Slackware. The SuSE organisation began life as Gesellschaft für Software-und Systementwicklung mbH, which later became Software und System Entwicklung (Software and System Development), from which sprang the friendly acronym SuSE. SuSE's own distinctive version of Linux came into being with the absorption of Florian LaRoche’s Jurix Linux and the development of the SuSE installer YaST in 1995, and but for a mild stutter after the collapse of the NASDAQ, has never looked back since.

It has been two years since Linux Format magazine last reported on Ulteo. Back then, we all thought it was going to be a standard new Linux distribution created by Gaël Duval, the founder of Mandrake Linux. If you take a look at Ulteo.com today, you won't find any mention of Linux on the home page. Not only that, but everything about the Ulteo site is slightly confusing. It's very difficult to understand what Ulteo is and what it might do, thanks to some rather vague statements and the use of some very stylised 'lifestyle' illustrations. But Ulteo is actually four distinct technologies.

The year 2008 showed open source -- both in the form of Linux specifically and as a software development model generally -- coming into the mainstream like never before. When it wasn't powering new hardware niches like the netbook, it was forming the core ofGoogle (NSDQ: GOOG)'s new Android mobile operating system or its Chrome browser, and sitting at the center of legal wrangling with wide-ranging repercussions.

You've all heard a major new flaw has been found affecting Internet Explorer all the way back to version 5. Microsoft pushed out a fix out of their regular "patch Tuesday" monthly schedule. The flaw has prompted some commentators to call for the replacement of IE with alternate browsers like Firefox. Just what was so serious? And what do Microsoft say that show Linux has the superior design?

Increasingly, people are finding that much of open source development is actually being directed and supported by companies like IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and others — rather than being the exclusive domain of unpaid volunteers. Though, the effect of the volunteer contributors should not be overlooked, either. It was the volunteers, early adopters, and early commercial supporters that put FOSS on the radar.

The technology landscape is changing, says Novell CEO Rob Hovsepian. On-premise installations are giving way to Software as a Service, Microsoft is distributing Novell's version of Linux for servers and social networking is gaining acceptance for its business value. Novell and other companies must adapt to this new ecosystem, he said.

What can you do to stand out from the hundreds of other Linux distros that already exist? There are a number of angles you can explore for this – choose one, two or all of them if you want!

Science fiction writer Vernor Vinge is best-known for novels like A Fire Upon the Deep and Rainbows End, as well as the concept of The Singularity -- the idea that, in the next couple of decades, humans will become or create a super-human intelligence. What is less well-known is that Vinge has been a free software supporter since the earliest days of the Free Software Foundation (FSF). He has served several times on the jury for the FSF Awards and spoke at an FSF-sponsored event held last month in San Diego to coincide with the LISA conference. As someone who deals regularly with large scale speculations, Vinge places free software in a larger historical context. He even speculates that free software may be one of the factors that will shortly bring about the Singularity.

openSUSE 11.1 is now out (screenshots), featuring KDE 4.1.3 and a string of KDE improvements. The release brings back the much-loved KDE-PIM suite, and includes new games, the KSCD CD player, KSystemLog to keep track of system changes, improvements to Dolphin, Konqueror (including Webkit part), Plasma (including auto-hide panel, folder view), Marble integration with OpenStreetMap, and much more. The release is available as an installable live CD, or on a DVD with KDE 3.5.10, GNOME, Xfce, and many more applications.

IBM delves into what's new in PHP 5.3: Part-1 shows you the changes to the object-orientated capabilities, and Part-2 shows you the exciting new possibilities with real closures and lambda functions. ["Read more" for Kroc's personal commentary] PHP is a language I dislike, but am good at. It is a language that, as long as you stay away from certain parts of it, you'll be safe and it works well. It can even be beautiful in some rare instances.

As I listened to David Mihelcic, CTO with the U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency talk about the benefits of open source on Federal News Radio's presentation of "Open Source Solutions - 2 Years In Review," I couldn't help but be impressed with just how far open source has come in the past decade.

SymphonyOne is a distribution designed in a way that's uniquely different from other distributions. Its key focus is ease of use and simplicity. This is perfect for kiosks, new users, or technological neophytes who don't use a computer much, or simply don't like complicated interfaces. This distribution would be good for more senior users to choose when picking a Linux distro to give to family members or friends with limited needs or computer skills. Why? Let's have a look.

An open source project has released a new, more "hackable" Debian-based Linux distribution for the Openmoko NeoFreerunner phone. The Hackable:1 group hopes to build a well-maintained, developer-friendly codebase for use by VARs (value-added resellers) building products on top of Openmoko's open hardware designs.

I love working with the Ubuntu community. I love the opportunities, challenges and people that occupy it. Each day is filled with a diverse tapestry of challenges, be it growing new teams, refining governance, developing strategy, or simply chewing the fat with Ubuntu and upstream contributors from around the world. No day is ever the same. Something has been bothering me though recently. On my team we work on a huge range of different topics and ideas. We work closely with our community to identify areas of focus and scale, and we indulge in a raft of technical and social puzzles. Despite the hundreds of emails and hours of discussion, I have recently felt like something was missing. It was if we have overlooked something; the small detail in the painting that makes it all make sense.

In no less than two days I've read a flurry of articles pooh-poohing the Linux desktop as a veritable delusion and a fairy story -- something to tell young GTK+ coders before you tuck them in at night. It isn't the year of the Linux desktop; it's the year of the Linux catfight.

Long-time developer Manoj Srivastava has resigned as the secretary of the Debian GNU/Linux Project and is thinking of leaving the project altogether. In a message posted to one of the project mailing lists, Srivastava said he had taken the step of quitting the post of secretary due to the dissatisfaction over the options offered in a recent vote about the release of the next version of Debian, Lenny. The voting process ends on December 21.

After years of suing thousands of people for allegedly stealing music via the Internet, the recording industry is set to drop its legal assault as it searches for more effective ways to combat online music piracy. The decision represents an abrupt shift of strategy for the industry, which has opened legal proceedings against about 35,000 people since 2003. Critics say the legal offensive ultimately did little to stem the tide of illegally downloaded music. And it created a public-relations disaster for the industry, whose lawsuits targeted, among others, several single mothers, a dead person and a 13-year-old girl.

[Its my guess that the ISP's will be able to determine if the person doing the "illegal downloading" is actually alive or above the age of 12 before suing them. - Scott]

I love books. I read books, write books, and collect books. After years of too-small homes I finally have a house big enough to hold all my books. Yes, the bookworm's dream come true, a whole room dedicated to a book library. It's not a huge room, just a small bedroom, but it holds all of my books and there is room for future acquisitions. It even has stylish pine bookcases that I built myself. Straight and true, though I did skimp on the sanding, which makes splinters a bit of a problem. But it's a small price to pay for the luxury of having all of my books on actual shelves, and organized so I can find what I want.

The latest version of Novell’s Linux distro, openSUSE 11.1, has been released, with 230 new features, improvements to YaST, major updates to GNOME, KDE, OpenOffice.org, a new license and plenty more.