LXer Weekly Roundup for 29-Jul-2007

LXer Feature: 29-Jul-2007 This week we have some details about the Linspire-MS deal, a great article by Danijel Orsolic, Open Source in Outer Space, my Interview with Dave Wreski, a short list of good command line tools and much more.

This week we have some details about the Linspire-MS deal, a great article by Danijel Orsolic, Open Source in Outer Space, my Interview with Dave Wreski, a short list of good command line tools and much more.

What Linspire Agreed To: We can read the Linspire-Microsoft patent agreement now, and I thought it would be worthwhile to give it a close, line-by-line reading. I'll explain it as best I can, but ask your lawyer if it matters to you in a real-world sense. For our purposes here, let's just have fun with the worst deal I've seen yet in this category.

Ubuntu’s best move ever: Olivier Cleynen writes, "Was it the Dell laptops deal? The costless CD shipping from Shipit? The launch of the fully-free Gobuntu? Or will it be the liberation of the proprietary Launchpad platform? No, good people. Ubuntu’s best move ever has happened quietly, and it’s on its homepage."

E17 as a Desktop — don’t try this at home!: E17 is a still being developed version of a graphical environment called Enlightenment. E17 has been developed for a long time already. Updates have been appearing often, but they used to become obsolete in a few weeks after releases. Has anything changed suddenly? No, nothing really. Stable release of the environment is not planned anytime soon, but this of course isn’t a problem for us to have a glance at what Enlightenment has to offer at the moment.

Study: Red Hat Benefiting from MS-Novell Deal Fallout: A global survey of open-source enterprise users of Alfresco software has found that deployments of Red Hat Linux have grown twice as fast as those for Novell SUSE Linux since Novell signed its controversial patent and interoperability agreement with Microsoft in November 2006.

The LXer Interview: Dave Wreski of EnGarde Secure Linux: An interview with Dave Wreski CEO of Guardian Digital, makers of EnGarde Secure Linux. I ask him how EnGarde came about, what makes EnGarde different and the effect if any, of the GPLv3 on the software in EnGarde. He answers all these questions and more, in The LXer Interview of Dave Wreski.

Linux: Unified x86 Architecture: Thomas Gleixner described an effort to create a unified x86 architecture tree, "the core idea behind our project is simple to describe: we introduce a new arch/x86/ and include/asm-x86/ file hierarchy that includes all the existing 32-bit and 64-bit x86 code and allows the building of either a 32-bit (i386) kernel or a 64-bit (x86_64) kernel."

Pyro: Fire up your desktop with web apps: Pyro is a new desktop environment for Linux which utilizes Firefox to run web applications alongside native desktop applications.

Eben Moglen challenges Tim O'Reilly to "join the conversation": At the O'Reilly Open Source Convention today, Software Freedom Law Center director Eben Moglen threw down the gauntlet to O'Reilly founder and CEO Tim O'Reilly. Saying that O'Reilly had spent 10 years making money and building the O'Reilly name, Moglen invited O'Reilly to stop being "frivolous" and to join the conversation about software freedom.

Why Linux has failed on the desktop: kernel developer Con Kolivas: Prominent Linux kernel developer Con Kolivas recently quit and left it all behind. According to Kolivas, Linux is burdened with "enterprise crap" and the kernel developers are oblivious to the performance problems of Linux on the desktop. In this interview, he talks about what pushed him to quit and how Microsoft has succeeded in crushing innovation in personal computing.

Learn the Linux command line: Its never to late to help someone learn a few commands that can make the shell useful for someone new to Linux. Here are eight must-know Linux commands that will turn any Linux novice into an apparent command line guru. Go on. Impress your friends and family.

Fork a kernel, kill an "OS" and revolutionize the desktop: Danijel Orsolic writes, "The news of Con Kolivas, a Linux kernel developer, quitting that role, along with an interview in which he explains why, could and should make loud noises around the Free Software community which is often touting GNU/Linux as the best operating system one could use, and not just because of freedom you have with it. In the interview he says certain things which should cause tectonic shifts in the mindset that we have all been having. Why didn't we realize these things before?"

Rocket scientist: Outer space exploration should be open: Space enthusiast and engineer Paul Wooster wants to open the source code for outer space, because, he says, it should be easier for everyone who wants to contribute to human activities in space to do so, not just people with advanced degrees in rocketry.

Spread the word, share this ODF artwork.: Red Hat graphic designers are no strangers to the pains of proprietary formats. Over the years, many have lost photographs, archived projects, and important portfolio work when formats have been changed. They’ve been forced to upgrade before they’re ready, too. That’s why they’re interested in open source design tools, like Inkscape and Scribus, which are becoming more popular and widely used. And when Red Hat offered to create a logo, t-shirt, and poster to raise awareness for ODF, it wasn’t hard to motivate Red Hat designers to get involved.

ODF: The inevitable format: In 1999, a scientist wanted to look at some data from soil samples collected on Mars in 1975 by the Viking lander. He wanted to test a theory about detecting the existence of Martian bacteria and microbes–in other words, finding life on Mars. The scientist thought he would find what he needed on a NASA website somewhere, but it wasn’t that easy.

Linspire Joins Interop Vendor Alliance Program: "Linspire has always been about choice and this alliance fits into that key philosophy," said Kevin Carmony CEO, Linspire, Inc. "By broadening our relationships through participation in the Interop Vendor Alliance, we're able to make our products interoperate better with a wider variety of software and hardware, which benefits our customers."

Linux Companies That Didn't Deserve to Die: SJVN writes, "A recent story entitled, "Dearly Departed: Companies and Products That Didn't Deserve to Die" didn't cover Linux or open-source companies. That got me to thinking. So here, without further adieu, is my list of five Linux companies that died before their time."

T-Dose (International) Dutch Open Source Event 2007: In the weekend of 13th and 14th October 2007 the free Open Source Event T-DOSE (Technical Dutch Open Source Event) will take place at the Fontys College of Applied Science in Eindhoven, ,The Netherlands (GoogleMaps) . During this event there are 2 central tracks an open source market and several developer or community rooms. There is still room for more Open Source projects and Talks.

The envelope, please . . .: In our dual purpose, its about FUD and could be FUD at the same time article.. We have The Oscars. The Emmys. The Grammys. And the award for excellence in promoting FUD? The Elmers, of course. Larry the Open Source Guy makes his nominations, and more are requested.

Why Microsoft Should buy Red Hat: In another of our "Lost Touch with Reality" articles we have an author who really, really tries to make a case for Microsoft buying Red Hat a good idea, for the market and Microsoft. Whew! and I thought I was living in my own little world..:-)