Showing headlines posted by dave

This essay describes the surprising results of a brief trial with a group of new computer users about the relative ease of the command line interface versus the GUIs now omnipresent in computer interfaces. It comes from practical experience I have of teaching computing to complete beginners or newbies as computer power-users often term them.

VMEbus and CompactPCI specialist General Micro Systems (GMS) has released a single-board computer (SBC) that supports Linux and measures just 2.8 x 1.9 inches. GMS says its "Spider" SBC is based on an IBM PowerPC chip running either 400 or 800 MHz, and targets distributed control,

Following in the footsteps of the Linux operating system, open-source databases are moving toward mainstream use and threatening proprietary software alternatives, according to a new survey.

From a strictly technical standpoint, Red Hat ES isn't particularly noteworthy: It's a collection of software compiled and packaged up, given a few management tools of varying quality, and pushed out the door. We did not notice any functionality unique to this Linux distribution, and there are certainly others out there that could fill the role of "departmental server" with equal facility for a lower price.

In this issue: * Top Story -- Mandrakelinux '10.0 Community' Preview * Sponsor of the Week -- Thawte * Mandrakesoft Call for European Partners * Mandrake in the News -- Linux.com * Mandrakeclub -- 9.2 for AMD64 & PowerPack '9.2.1'; Welcome Pascal Joly * Mandrakelinux Screenshots -- Request for Submissions * 9.2 Software Updates -- kernel, XFree86, mtools, mailman, more

According to the most recent Evans Data Corp. survey of Linux developers...people are more interested in free beer than they are in free speech. Given human nature, that shouldn't be surprising, but it runs contrary to the original philosophy of open-source software.

Tim Bogart, a mainstay of the Northern Virginia Linux Users Group (NoVaLUG), is getting ready for the group's fifth annual appearance at FOSE, the Federal Office Systems Exposition.

Reality check: Microsoft is not on the verge of getting swept away by a Linux tsunami, as some open-source software enthusiasts have suggested. But Linux is a small wave slowly building every day, and threatens to dampen Microsoft's higher-growth server business.

"There are definitely a lot of people anxious to have PHP 5 get out the door," says George Schlossnagle, a principal at OmniTI, which builds high-speed Web and e-mail architectures. "But there are other people -- more conservative -- who are interested in it being stable before they adopt it."

[Australian computer retailer] Dick Smith Electronics’ test marketing of a laptop sold without an operating system generated enough interest that the company has started placing the computers in its bigger stores.

"New Version of High-Performance RDBMS Delivers Unprecedented Functionality"

Speaking to CXOtoday, L. Gopalakrishnan, Director-Platform Technologies Group, Oracle India, said, “Enterprises commonly gain anywhere between 20-30% in terms of cost benefits on using Linux. Migration from Unix to Linux is simpler, as skills are easily transferable. Currently, we always offer our customers a Linux option, without which a database strategy is incomplete.”

[A good story and worth posting, despite LXer's position on posting SCO-related news.] ...NewsForge has learned that U.S. federal regulators may have begun investigating the relationship between the two companies -- and may also be looking closely at a number of other people and companies connected to them through stock or other business transactions.

LynuxWorks(TM) Inc. introduced today the industry's first pre-configured board support package (BSP) based on the Linux 2.6 kernel for the Apple PowerPC G5, the world's first 64-bit desktop processor.

According to a posting on Bugtraq [0], an issue regarding the insecure creation of a temporary directory exists in GNU libtool [1] versions before 1.5.2. Use of mkdir(1) along with option "-p" makes libtool vulnerable to symlink attacks. Stefan Nordhausen commited a fix that removes the use of option "-p" in version 1.5.2. Discussion on Bugtraq further indicates that an additional race condition issue exists in the same context using chmod(1), reported by Joseph S. Myers back in March 2000 [2]. The updated OpenPKG versions of libtool contain fixes for both issues.

Our stock analyst, Melanie Hollands, believes that Advanced Micro Devices is one of the best names to own at this time in the semiconductor group, and that the major catalyst to propel the stock upward is continued OEM wins for its new 64-bit MPUs. Why? Read on ...

This is to announce the release of Trustix Secure Linux 2.1, nicknamed "Horizon". It is the second release in the Trustix 2 series.

A total of 312 billion VND (20 million USD) will be injected into the application and development of open source software in Viet Nam covering the 2003-07 period... By 2007, open source software will be installed in computers at the State agencies and education and data establishments. It will also be applied in the defence and security services.

In my view--and I said so at the event--our governments at all levels should be looking at all alternatives and considering OSS options as they have the potential to create local ICT jobs and reduce the ICT trade deficit of $14.4 billion.

"A major IT overhaul of payroll, human resources and finance starting this month at the University of Technology, Sydney (UTS) will help boost its status as one of Australia's top technology institutions."