Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Release-critical Bugreport for November 3, 2006

This week in my random survey of activity on the mail-lists for Linux sound& music software I'll look at two very different software drum machines and a keystroke macro that enters LilyPond music notation into an Open Office text document. And if that isn't enough I've included four thrilling screenshots and links to three entertaining audio files to entice and maintain your interest.

Bernie Brennan, formerly the CEO of retailer Montgomery Ward, confesses he didn't know much about open source software before he took over as chairman of the board at Tomax and eFashion Solutions. Both of these companies rely heavily on Linux, on their own shop floors and those of their customers. Now that Brennan has learned about the advantages of open source, he says he'd never invest in a company that didn't use it.

On Tuesday, upwards of 100 IT managers and administrators attended Penton Media's TechX World conference in Dallas -- the third of four such one-day seminars this fall. Server room strategies were the main agenda, with particular emphasis placed on interoperability in a mixed Linux and Windows environment.

The popular free Linux computer operating system being co-opted by corporate technology titans was born of a Finnish university student and a group devoted to no-cost software. The software, and its most widely known distributor Red Hat, has open source coding allowing anyone with the skill to modify it at will.

Questioning the hub-based approachComment At IBM's recent Information on Demand conference (which was excellent, incidentally) the company presented its view of master data management (MDM). I am glad to say that this has advanced significantly since its Barcelona conference in May and the company has now recognised that you need to take a flexible approach to MDM.

Terra Soft says the company responsible for Yellow Dog Linux will launch its operating system (OS) for Sony’s upcoming Playstation 3. Cesar Delgado, system administrator for Terra Soft, says the company worked closely with the E17 desktop team to develop the OS.

Here in the UK, there is a saying that was a quote from Virgil that was often quoted in the original Latin, “Timeo Danaos et dona ferentis”, which is usually mistranslated into the phrase “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts”. It refers to the incident where the Greek troops hid inside a large wooden horse and gave it to the Trojans as a gift who promptly accepted it, then in the night the Greeks broke out of their hiding place, went to the city gates, and... Well, you probably know the rest.

Just in time for 30 November releaseMicrosoft has backed down to fierce criticism over proposed licensing terms for Windows Vista to allow users to uninstall the forthcoming operating system and install it on another PC.

HTML in easy steps is a great book for getting started on web design. Aimed at the novice, it provides a comprehensive introduction to HTML and the workings if the Internet.

Sun Microsystems and Canonical have nearly completed work to certify the Ubuntu version of Linux runs smoothly on Sun's x86 servers, sources familiar with the situation said. The companies are expected to announce details of the partnership Monday in conjunction with the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Mountain View, Calif., from Nov. 5 to 10, according to sources familiar with the plan. Canonical helps develop Ubuntu and sells support.

"Ours is more free than yours," war of words looms as foundation sponsors GNU/Linux distribtion based on Ubuntu Linux but without the proprietary bits.

Prominent embedded Linux companies, standards organizations, and mobile carriers will attend the inaugural "Open Source in Mobile" conference next week in Amsterdam. Sponsored by Trolltech, the event features presentations from MontaVista, Motorola, Panasonic, Purple Labs, a la Mobile, Nokia, VirtualLogix, Access/Palmsource, Orange, BT, Vodafone, Neuf Cegetel, Navica, Sun, and others.

Symbol Technologies will soon release a Linux powered, multi-protocol, multi-frequency wireless switch. The RFS7000, expected early next year, aims to help business deploy and centrally manage devices throughout the RF (radio frequency) spectrum, Symbol says.

While this may sound as likely as George Bush and John Kerry singing a duet together, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft will be announcing that it will offer sales support for Novell's SUSE Linux family. In addition, it said, the two companies will work together on technologies that will make it easier for users to run both SLED (SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop) 10 and Windows XP and Vista on the same desktop.

Righteous Software, has launched an all-Linux version of its backup server offering. The new product, primarily developed in response to industry leaders demand, offers nearly continuous backups for Linux servers. According to the company, the technology remains unmatched in the industry, running on a standalone server, to provide simultaneous disk-based backup services for up to three hundred Linux servers.

In this two part series Jon Hall, president of Linux International, speaks at length on the progress and challenges for open source, and on the need to recapture a purer vision of education, consumerism, and more.

The term "continuous integration," commonly attributed to Martin Fowler, who first wrote about the software development practice back in 2000 (see Resources for a link to the article), is one of the pillars of modern programming techniques. CI involves automatically building and testing an application at frequent intervals on a dedicated integration server. Developers regularly commit small updates and are notified rapidly if their changes cause the build to fail.

But the Norwegian company, which in July became only the second Linux operation after Red Hat to float its shares publicly, had already played its part in developing some of the world's best-known software brands, including Adobe Photoshop Elements, Skype and Google Earth. And these are just a few of the thousands of applications using Trolltech's Qt cross-platform application development tool or its mobile spin-off Qtopia; others include NASA (for flight simulators), Volvo (for its human-machine interface for bus drivers) and Sony (for the Mylo personal communicator).

Red Hat has revealed that the Red Hat ISV Partner Program has experienced record growth, posting an increase in certified software partners by 122 percent in the last six months, April through October 2006. The company targeted application providers in industry verticals where open source adoption is happening rapidly, healthcare, telecommunications and financial services.