Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

"Siag, it sucks less!" This is the slogan for Siag Office. This and the self-effacing name for the Siag Office Word Processor, Pathetic Writer, might leave you thinking that this office suite is a mere plaything, a university student's cobbled-together programming assignment. But don't be fooled by first impressions. Siag Office is a lightweight suite of applications which might be just the right set of office tools for you, especially if you have older hardware.

Following the release of the 2.6.22 kernel [story], Andrew Morton [interview] posted a list of a wide range of patches that are in his -mm kernel, summarizing for each his plans as to whether or not they will be pushed upstream for inclusion in the upcoming 2.6.23 kernel.

We've just completed the first Fedora Board succession process, and I wanted to take a moment to share the results with everyone.

An early version of the Linux-based OpenMoko NEO 1973 has been released to allow developers to begin writing applications and device drivers. Although dubbed by some as an iPhone killer, without the same multi million dollar hype, it is unlikely to leave the iPhone completely dead in the water. But it may just earn the title of the iPhone 'injurer'.

New Federal Communication Commission rules say open-source code for next-generation mobile tech has high burden to show it's secure.

Today, Sunday, is the first day of Red Hat High, and I’m expecting 47 kids. It’s 4:00 in the afternoon, and orientation starts at 4:30. Of those 47 kids, how many have arrived so far? Three, that’s how many. Three anxious middle-schoolers and their families, all milling around the huge, empty meeting hall at Red Hat headquarters.

Sun Microsystems in the next few days plans to issue an update that plugs a serious security hole in the most recent version of its Java Runtime Environment, more than a week after providing a fix for the same vulnerability in an earlier version of the program. The lag has prompted a prominent security researcher to lambaste the effectiveness of the company's security team.

Businesses in Asia are not zealots when it comes to open source, as many are adopting it for practical reasons like cost, security and support.

In the ongoing effort to reduce the power consumption of the linux kernel and take better advantage of the tickless kernel patch, Stephen Hemminger posted a patch to make it possible to unload the keyboard blink driver, "the blink driver wakes up every jiffy which wastes power unnecessarily. Using a notifier gives same effect. Also add ability to unload module." The blink driver was only recently merged, described as a "simple driver that blinks the keyboard LEDs when loaded. Useful for checking that the kernel is still alive or for crashdumping."

FIC's fully hackable Neo1973 handset officially launched for developers;"mass market" launch of its OpenMoko OS to follow.

In this week's KDE Commit-Digest: Akademy 2007 draws to a close. Dolphin embedded as the file management view in Konqueror. Plasma continues to mature, with new data engines for Tasks and Bluetooth, and EBN and Task Manager Plasmoids making an introduction. Further progress in Javascript bindings through QtScript; import of Kimono (C#) classes. More basic functionality added to Kollagame, a game development IDE. Initial work in the KWin/Xinerama and 2d Projection for Marble Summer of Code projects, with continued progress in the Icon Cache, KOrganizer Theming, KRDC and Music Notation projects...

Today I tried to help a Mac user save some pictures to a DVD. There were more than 1GB of photos, so it made more sense to use a DVD than two CDs. Unfortunately, Mac OS X thinks that you need to make movies when you insert a blank DVD disc -- it has no idea that you want to save data to it. What you, the user, want to do does not matter. All that matters is that you do what Apple says a computer should do. This is "the Apple way," and some people find it enjoyable.

Today Guardian Digital announces the launch of the next generation of EnGarde Secure Linux, the first secure pure open source platform for managing the threats of the Internet in enterprise-class environments.

Hit-a-Hint (HaH) is a Firefox plugin that aims to create a faster Web surfing experience by letting you use the keyboard to click links.

With little fanfare, Nokia released the latest upgrade for its N800 Internet tablets this weekend. Known officially as Internet Tablet OS 2007 Edition version 4.2007.26-8 and to open source patrons as Maemo 3.2, the new download features long-awaited changes to the Linux kernel, improved battery life, and some flashy updates to the application software -- including the popular Skype softphone.

Despite Microsoft's attempt to dissociate itself from GPLv3 software, Novell is embracing the new licence.

As its name implies, Mail Notification is a utility for keeping track of incoming mail and reading it in a popup window without activating your mail reader or moving other open applications. Simple to configure and easy to use, it is especially useful for watching multiple mailboxes.

As market watchers have predicted, Sony has dropped the price of its Playstation 3 console by US$100 ahead of the E3 expo in Santa Monica this week. The cut was widely expected but some had thought Sony may wait until closer to the holiday shopping season. The price cut has taken the PS3 60GB down to US$499 while a new 80GB model will fill the previous US$599 slot.

[Considering that it comes with Yellow Dog Linux on it I thought it would be of interest to our readers. - Scott]

Redmond says it's not a party to the new license. And those Suse Linux coupons won't get you any support guarantees.

Linux creator Linus Torvalds announced the official release of the 2.6.22 kernel, "it's out there now (or at least in the process of mirroring out - if you don't see everything, give it a bit of time)." He summarized the changes since 2.6.22-rc7]: "Not a whole lot of changes since -rc7: some small architecture changes (ppc, mips, blackfin), and most of those are defconfig updates. Various driver fixes: new PCI ID's along with some ide, ata and networking fixes (for example - the magic wireless libertas ioctl's got removed, they may be re-added later, hopefully in a more generic form, but in the meantime this doesn't make a release with new interfaces that aren't universally liked)."