Showing headlines posted by dcparris

Simon Burns writes: As regulators from the Korea Fair Trade Commission (KFTC) met to discuss a ruling in an antitrust case aimed at Microsoft, the president of Microsoft Korea, Yoo Jae-sung, said that if the KFTC urges Microsoft to remove bundled applications from Windows, it would be "difficult for us to do business in Korea". The comments, reported in the Korea Times, appear to represent a strengthening of Microsoft's position, after a Korean official scolded the company earlier today.

[Microsoft is reiterating their stance on Korea. Promises, promises. - Ed]

Years removed from the original release of Postfix, the Unix-based mail server is still serving oodles of people every day. As a great alternative to Microsoft Exchange and the predecessor to crazy uncle Sendmail, Postfix is becoming the Linux mail server of choice, and is the SMTP mail transfer agent for Mac OS X Server. Sendmail may have a larger market share in the Linux community, but Postfix has a much simpler setup and is good for users who do not want to spend a lot of time configuring a mail server.

Community participation will be encouraged in the further development of the open-source license, although the FSF says the rewrite is"not an election."

N. Sanders writes: "Just two months ago, Novell opened the development process behind SUSE Linux, creating the openSUSE project. Novell's move gave developers a chance to be involved in SUSE, which previously had been developed privately without community input. In the short time since openSUSE was unveiled, developers have begun work on several new and interesting SUSE derivatives."

[There's even SUSE Performance Enhanced Release (SUPER) for you bleeding edge types. - Ed]

Yesterday's hearing at the Massachusetts State House was clearly an attempt to delay adoption of OpenDocument Format (ODF) --- delivering a swipe at Peter Quinn, CIO and Director of the state's Information and Technology Division.

["...No comments or questions were allowed from the large audience, and there was frustration that written testimony delivered to the hearing, and in support of Massachusetts adopting ODF, went unmentioned." Imagine that! Squashing public testimony in American politics? Say it ain't so! - Ed]

Rhea Davis writes: "As Hurricane Rita bore down on the Texas coast, two Gentoo penguins were locked in the rapture of love. Now, five weeks later, the product of their hanky-panky filled weekend has hatched. The first Gentoo chick ever to be born at Moody Gardens pecked out of its egg around 5 p.m. Tuesday, according to Moody Gardens. The fluffy baby penguin weighs a mere 90 grams and can fit into a tea cup. " [O.k., so it's not Gentoo Linux. It's a real Gentoo penguin! -Ed]

A recent post on OSNews.com raised questions about the availability of GPL'ed source code from the former Lycoris distribution. Accusations have flown both ways and much confusion has ensued, leaving many concerned about whether the source code will ever be made available.

Free software developers from around Africa have developed a hospital pharmacy management system to replace existing proprietary systems. The system was developed after a request by a pharmacist who needed to replace his outdated Access-based system.

[And it's almost complete! - Ed]

Jack Loftis writes: Open standards and open source software (OSS) got political on Monday when Linda Hamel, the general counsel for the Massachusetts Information Technology Department (ITD), suggested that groups that oppose the OpenDocument file format standard might be influenced by Microsoft.

[The comment about going from open source to OpenDocument is either intentionally misleading or ignorant. It would be good to know which. - Ed]

At least one open source software project is still using the proprietary BitKeeper source code management system, after it went commercial and stopped producing a free version.

Deborah Rothberg writes: "Microsoft Works Suite 2006 also replaces the 2005 versions of Money, Encarta and Streets & Trips. It also replaces Picture It! Premium with Digital Image Suite 2006. One feature in the new Works Suite that is leading many to scratch their heads, however, is the inclusion of Word 2002 rather than a more current version, such as Word 2003."

[Leave it to Microsoft to downgrade your upgrade! - Ed]

Robert Vamosi writes: ...it didn't surprise me to read last week that a new buffer overflow vulnerability was found within the very popular Skype VoIP service. But what will make or break VoIP will be how this very young industry handles emerging security issues and whether the public eventually puts its trust in the new technology. Judging by the way Skype has handled its recent vulnerabilities, I think the prognosis is good for VoIP in the long run.

[A positive prognosis for Skype and VoIP, generally speaking. Oh what fun it is to defend your Skype calls from Internet-based attacks! - Ed]

On Tuesday Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski announced the contribution of $350,000 by search technology leader Google Inc. to a joint open source technology initiative of Oregon State University and Portland State University. With the grant, the universities will collaborate to encourage open source software and hardware development, develop academic curricula and provide computing infrastructure to open source projects worldwide. The universities will also help provide a bridge between Oregon's universities and Oregon's growing open technology industry.

Jennifer Mears writes: "Best known for its grassroots environmental protection activities, the Sierra Club also helps thousands of members get outdoors each year with trips that span the globe. Sierra Club has offered these worldwide adventures for more than a century, but in recent years its IT team has focused on streamlining the trip-reservation process by enabling members to sign up online."

Mark Brunelli writes: The days leading up to this week's Open Source Business Conference (OSBC) bore witness to an influx of announcements from open source companies and projects looking to make headlines ahead of the show.

[This article highlights some of the big announcements leading up to the Open Source Business Conference - Ed]

Jonathan Riddell writes: "Two recent articles cover the success of Trolltech and their product Qt 4, on which KDE 4 will be based. Trolltech: A case study in open source business looks at the continued growth of the company based on dual licenced Free Software. The article describes what KDE and Trolltech gain from each other, including user feedback to Trolltech and sponsored developers for KDE. The Australian Computerworld declairs that Qt 4 raises the bar for cross-platform app dev tools. They cover the separate modules of Qt 4 and the cross-platform quality, giving it a 9.2 out of 10 approval rating."

[As pointed out in the KDE News post, the Computer World article erroneously refers to software in the public domain. This stuff has been around for over 22 years. Seems like professionals in the field would have some concept of this by now. - Ed]

ReactOS is an open-source Operating System designed to be compatible with Windows NT. Version 0.2.8 sees the culmination of months of work since 0.2.7, and sees the project coming closer to the long-awaited 0.3.0 release.

[For those of you who just can't do without your Windows NT. The psyche_eval package is sold separately. Hey, at least ReactOS is libre! - Ed]

It may not have quite the same thrilling finish, but you need wait no longer for a new Triple Crown winner--we've just published the third jewel in our Linux Triple Crown: What Is a Linux Distribution, which follows the publications of What Is Linux and What Is a Linux Desktop, respectively. Each article is intended to introduce your friends, family members, and co-workers to the world you know so well, and maybe enlighten you in some untold way as well.

After 15 years, the Free Software Foundation is just weeks away from announcing the roadmap for a rewritten GNU General Public License. Software developers and vendors are eager to know how this significant update to the license will impact the industry.

[This is an excellent article foreshadowing, not only the development process, but also some of the key issues to be addressed. The open process is in keeping with the spirit of the libre software spirit. -Ed]

The State of Massachusetts' plan to adopt the OpenDocument file format as the standard for its office documents looks set to become the center of a political tug of war after Massachusetts's Secretary of State voiced opposition to the plan.

[Microsoft's stated grounds for objecting are, as reported here, are so obviously bogus it's pathetic. How does adding support for OpenDocument into their office suite affect anyone's backwards compatibility? -Ed]