Showing headlines posted by dinotrac

LXer Feature: 10-May-2012

So...I'm at a Ruby hack night when a friend tells me that his older Mac Book slowed to a crawl with the new Lion OS, so...he's toying with the idea of putting on Linux. But...

Not a Linux article, but on a topic near and dear to our hearts -- An attack by an IP holding company. In this case, Monster Cable's lawyers sending a Cease and Desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable. Too often, FOSS folk, bless their hearts, panic at the word "patent". This letter from Blue Jeans President and former litigator, Kurt Denke, gives some idea why real companies -- companies with valuable businesses and assets to protect don't just go out and routinely drop "patent bombs".

Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

Prognosticators perennially say Linux is on the verge of gaining desktop traction, yet Linux PCs still represent less than 2 percent of the market. This time, though, there's actually evidence of momentum. While the best features in Vista require expensive top-notch configurations, one of the hottest segments of the industry involves inexpensive computers.

Great! Now that java's finally about to be freed, it's losing ground. According to Bill Snyder, Java is losing ground to Ruby on Rails, PHP, and AJAX for web development and being pushed by .Net in the enterprise.

Forbes writer does post-mortem on his SCO coverage: "Online publications don't typically ask for follow-throughs. But I need to write one. ... I got it wrong. The nerds got it right." A nice read and, oddly, not for "I told you so" reasons. Lyons is fessing up to being suckered. Gotta like that in a journalist. Wish we saw more of it.

Apple has purchased the source code and all IP for CUPS, the prevalent solution for printing under Linux. Michael Sweet, developer of CUPS, will go to work for Apple, though working primarily on projects other than CUPS.

An FAQ has been posted at the cups website:

[url=http://www.cups.org/articles.php?L TFAQ]http://www.cups.org/articles.php?L TFAQ[/url]

OK - Not Linux, but interesting anyway. Google has gone over the heads of the Justice Department and directly petitioned a federal judge to expand the reach of consent decree imposed upon Microsoft as a result of the federal antitrust litigation.

Thomas O. Barnett, top Justice Department antitrust official and former partner at a law firm that representing Microsoft in antitrust disputes, has recently rejected a complaint by Google and is urging state prosecutors to do the same.

[I would love to know how many public attorneys used to work for Microsoft.. - Scott]

Ummm...OK...I don't think I use any meds, but now I think maybe I may just have forgotten to take them. Microsoft and Novell have entered into a cooperative agreement. Patent infringement indemnity, interoperability, supporting users of the other guy's platform. Cats dating dogs and gingerbread men getting into politics. Oh my.

Oracle has announced it's "Unbreakable Linux" program. According to Oracle, they take Red Hat Linux, remove Red Hat's trademarks, add Linux bug fixes and then offer support at prices that undercut Red Hat. Not to say anything, but doesn't that amount to an endorsement of Red Hat by Oracle?

The Linux mention in this blog entry by Adobe's manager for the flash player project is small, but enticing. The Linux Flashplayer 9 beta is in the certification labs at Adobe and it is the same version as the just release flashplayer 9 update beta for Windows and Mac. Not open source, but, as followers of http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/know, far more transparent than we're used to.

AMD has agreed to buy ATI Technologies for a $5.4 billion in cash and stock.

The purchase, which gets AMD into the market for high-end graphics chipsets, as well as chipsets for the mobile phone market, is expected to make AMD more competitive with Intel.

The deal has special interest to Linux supporters as AMD has long been a favorite of the Linux community while ATI has been a something of a pariah, even though it does offer binary Linux drivers

In light of recent stories about the price-performance superiority of Intel's upcoming Core 2 Duo processors, the following line seems especially interesting:

"A.M.D.'s overall gross profit margins, which fell in the latest quarter to 56.8 percent from 58.5 percent in the prior quarter."

Looks like AMD has a little room to maneuver on price.

Microsoft's business practices get it in trouble again, as the S. Korea Fair Trade Commission continues its investigation of Microsoft. Faced with the possibility of unbundling some trinkets, Microsoft is threatening to pull Windows from the S. Korean market. Sure they will. Linux news? Not strictly, but useful knowledge for Linux consultants or others who may sell against Microsoft.