Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

SimplyMEPIS 6.5 Release Candidate 3 (RC3) today was uploaded to the MEPIS subscribers' pool and propagated to the public mirrors -- only nine days after RC2 was released. It features a 2.6.15 kernel, a KDE default desktop, and Beryl 0.2.0 Final.

You can't always take everything you hear in the technology industry at face value. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said on his company's Q3 2007 conference call today that Oracle has displaced Red Hat at Yahoo. Officials at both Red Hat and Yahoo, however, see it differently.

Bug stamp-out list for March 23, 2007

Although CeBIT has been shrinking steadily for the past few years, there were still plenty of interesting things and exciting products on display at the big trade show earlier this month, especially if you are interested in open source.

As we reported last week, KDE will be taking part in Google's Summer of Code again. The deadline for student applications is approaching now, so be quick sending in your ideas before March 26th. If you are a student and would like to spend the summer on a cool Free Software project, do apply for one of the scholarships.

Load balancing software uses multiple hardware devices to spread work around and thereby speed performance. While Linux Virtual Server may be the best-known option for Linux networks, another alternative, BalanceNG, a simple, lightweight utility, may be a better choice for some organizations.

There's been a lot of talk about GPL version 3: whether it goes too far to be acceptable to business, whether the Linux kernel developers will ever switch to it, whether our community will fork or undergo unrest over it. Much of that talk is based on a poor understanding of the GPL3 terms, and with release of the new license imminent, it's time to clear that up.

Linux server and workstation integrator Pogo Linux has launched a line of Linux-based appliances that combine iSCSI SAN (storage-attached network) with typical NAS (network-attached storage) functionality. The StorageDirector 3000-series appliances run Pogo's Linux-based StorageDirector OS, and target the SMB (small- to medium-sized business) market.

Community. Free Software. Openness. All of the values of the Free Software movement are totally violated by O’Reilly publishing’s conferences. These same values are what has made internet culture exciting and vibrant and an important social force, and they are also the words that O’Reilly uses to market its $1500 per seat ETech conference.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison stated this week that his company has taken on Yahoo as its biggest Linux client. During the announcement, Ellison fanned controversy by claiming his company had replaced competitor Red Hat at Yahoo. Both Yahoo and Red Hat have adamantly denied that the leading Linux operator has been displaced.

SAM Linux 2007, a light-weight PCLinuxOS-based live/installation CD featuring the Xfce 4.4 desktop and a 2.6.18.6 kernel, was released for free download today. SAM 2007 is positioned as a complete desktop environment that is suitable for older hardware.

Last month Eric S. Raymond made a public announcement on the Fedora developer’s list that he was giving up on Fedora Core and that from now on Ubuntu is his distribution of choice. Actually it was more of a rant than an announcement. ESR’s scatter shot attack on Fedora was wrong in more ways than I care to comment about here. Chromatic did a nice job of attacking the rant on several key points. He also pointed out quite correctly that ESR’s accomplishments as an Open Source activist didn’t make his changing distributions newsworthy.

The Sweden-based CRUX project team this week announced the release of CRUX 2.3, an independent, lightweight, i686-optimized Linux distribution designed for advanced Linux users. The latest version features a 2.6.20.3 kernel and the WMaker desktop environment.

China consumed 15 million smartphones in 2006, up from 10 million units in 2005, resulting in more than doubling of smartphone revenues, according to Chinese market research firm CCID Consulting Company. Symbian controlled 63.2 percent of the market, followed by Linux (30.3 percent) and Windows Mobile (5.4 percent).

One registry setting to rule them all. Changes in US government purchasing policies due to come into effect this summer could have a huge effect on computer security, particularly for Windows desktops.

In 1996, Curt Finch realized that simple time management could make or break a company. He'd seen something as simple as a timesheet help the small business he cofounded make millions and compete with much larger competitors. And since he'd "grown up" with open source, he was confident he could use it to create a timesheet application based on the software-as-a-service model.

Domain registrar and Web hosting provider Go Daddy (godaddy.com) announced on Thursday it is supporting open source applications by giving cash donations totalling $20,000 to assist in further development of their applications. The company has donated $10,000 each to content management system Joomla and online community forum Simple Machines Forum.

SpecSoft's Linux-powered RaveHD DDR-VTR system is not a video editing tool for home users or small-time professionals. It's a system that stores, manipulates, and plays back uncompressed video that can be turned into film clear enough to fill a Hollywood movie theater's wide screen. It's what you need when the file size of each frame in your video is measured in gigabytes and your whole project takes up multiple terabytes of storage, and you have not just one or two but 100 or 200 animators and post-production people working for you. At this level of video and film production, says SpecSoft co-founder Ramona Howard, the question isn't why you develop your utility programs in Linux, but why you would even consider using a proprietary operating system.

A couple of times I’ve had users complaining about cursor “ghosting” problems while running Gnome - that if typing something, the cursor seems to rewrite itself as it normally would (to move along the line) but not to delete the old cursor positions. So you wind up with a line of cursors. Admittedly this is not disastrous but it is irritating.

The2007 MountainWest RubyConf (MWRC) has come and gone, leaving onlypictures, memories, and a promise of videos to come. Of course, this isn't the end of regional Ruby conferences in 2007. TheGotham Ruby Conference (GoRuCo), andSDForum are both coming up in April, while theMichigan Ruby Conference, and the2007 Ruby Hoedown both look like great opportunities to mingle with Rubyists.