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Some time ago I wrote an article about Jim Kent, an American biologist who used free and open software to race Craig Ventnor to the finishing line, sequencing the human genome. That was very big, cutting edge science with a global audience and reach. We live in an age when big science is done, overwhelmingly, in big businesses, universities, research labs and government laboratories. In Eric Raymond’s paradigm it is the culture of the Cathedral. Hierarchical, big, controlled and funded by taxpayers, venture capital or shareholders. The time of the amateur dilletante scientist seems to be over. It takes the huge, collective organisation of private individuals to challenge this monopoly. GNU/Linux has managed to make a significant challenge but what of open science, not just the actual use of free software as practised by CERN but utilizing the whole philosophy of organizing scientific endeavour on the principles of open source? Some amateur biohackers think they have the answer. Read the full article at Free Software Magazine.

Embedded Alley (EA) announced it is has completed its port of the Linux/Java-based Android platform to the MIPS architecture. The Embedded Alley Development System for Android-based Devices initially targets devices ranging from set-top boxes (STBs) to industrial equipment running the MIPS-based RMI Au1250 processor.

As promised by its CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, Sun Microsystems has announced the Java Store at JavaOne 2009. The service, previously code-named Project Vector, is billed as a "consumer-facing store front enabling the discovery and purchase of Java and JavaFX applications". The service as launched at the developer conference is currently in private beta and is only available to US developers. According to a FAQ on the store, there are no plans to expand the Java Store outside the US before 2010.

Under Oracle's charge, Sun Microsystems will fuel PCs and phones with Java and JavaFX, challenging Google's Android on netbooks, Oracle's chief Larry Ellison has said. The CEO has also made it clear he expects the Sun-backed OpenOffice project - and potential challenger to Microsoft's Office - to dump AJAX and switch to Sun's JavaFX for its web interface. Ellison declaration means he's backing an emerging and largely Sun-only technology, while the majority of the web and the industry uses AJAX. Unlike the rest of Sun's Java language and platform, JavaFX has not gone through Java standards body the Java Community Process (JCP).

This two-day introduction to Linux broadens attendees horizons with a detailed overview of the operating system. Attendees learn how to effectively use a Linux system as a valuable tool. They get familiar with the architecture and various components of the operating system, learn both graphical and command line tools, and learn to do basic networking. This class is scheduled for June 18th - June 19th, 2009.

A CentOS newsletter was what I wanted to have for a long time. It finally materialized the past week and was published today.

As expected, there's a flood of Linux netbook announcements at the Computex trade show in Taipei, Taiwan. What wasn't expected was for one of the top netbook companies, Asus, to turn its back on one of its own netbooks running Android Linux. I'm sorry I'm not in Taipei for the show. It must have been quite the sight.

From the 'membership has its privileges' files: If you've ever wanted your very own Linux.com email address (and didn't work for SourceForge/OSDN) - you too can now get one. All you need to do is join the Linux Foundation.

Conferences are one way that women can be drawn into the free/libre and open source software (F/LOSS) ecosystem. Many different approaches are needed to increase women's participation in F/LOSS, but face-to-face interaction has proven to be a critical part of the way the technology community in Portland, Oregon has thrived. This article describes the successes of this community, and suggests how other communities could benefit from Portland's experience.

Computex starts on June 2 in Taipei and, as every year, sees the world’s PC industry come together to discuss the development of the next generation of notebooks, netbooks and soon-to-be-released products. Canonical has been attending for the last three years and now, if the announcements are any indication, is very much at the centre of things. We will be demonstrating the Moblin v2 version of the Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR), which is based on the current beta code from Intel. We are also announcing our intention to develop a version based on the full release of Moblin v2, which we expect will be available very shortly.

In a previous tech tip, we saw how to use kill to monitor processes. Another option is to use ps. With both methods, you can check $? for success/failure. However, note that kill -0 may return failure even if the process actually exists. This happens when the current user has no permission to the process in question, for example: kill -0 1.

Xandros today announced it is developing software products based on the recently released Moblin Version 2 project for Intel® Atom™ processor-based platforms. The new version of Moblin will enable Xandros to provide customizations with advanced Internet, media, social networking and graphics capabilities for the ASUS Eee PC. A turnkey Xandros software solution employing new Moblin v2 technologies will be demonstrated for the first time at the Intel booth at Computex, Taipei, Taiwan, June 2-6, 2009.

There seems to be something of a military campaign afoot. One that surely shows signs of desperation and anxiety on behalf of the instigator. First we had Asus telling it’s potential customers that “It’s Better With Winblow$” using phraseology such as:

“Windows helps you easily get online and connect to your devices and services - without dealing with an unfamiliar environment or major compatibility issues.”

And now we hear that PC World (IMHO probably the worst place to buy a PC or get technical advice anywhere in the UK) are dropping Linux netbooks too.

Robust development from outside the Sun/MySQL sphere, new storage engines and the return of Monty are just some of the signs that MySQL is healthy, despite may reports to the contrary.

A day after an Asus Eee PC running Google's Android operating system was shown at Computex Taipei, top executives from the company said the project will be put on the backburner.

The Eee PC with Android is not ready yet because the technology is "not mature," said Jonathan Tsang, vice chairman of Asustek, on the sidelines of a press conference at the show Tuesday.

While there are over 60 names on the list of women in open source on the Geek Feminism wiki, there are far more than 60 women making their mark in open source. I work with talented people every day in my role as Vice President of Marketing and Developer Programs at the Linux Foundation, and see first-hand the contributions women make at the technology and business levels.

KDE hackers are working on a netbook user interface for KDE 4. First results are evident.

For over 20 years, Microsoft and Intel have partnered to grow the PC industry. Now, Intel is launching a netbook that will use the Linux operating system and not Microsoft. Could it be the economy and the need for more revenue? Or could it be such a huge revenue opportunity for Intel that they can not let the high price of an operating system slow them down?

An Open XML Validator and a Document-Library are in the making courtesy of Fraunhofer FOKUS. With Microsoft as a development partner supporting its activities, Fraunhofer FOKUS is gearing up to introduce a new Document-Interoperability-Lab focused on ISO/IEC 29500 (also referred to as Office Open XML) and ECMA-376 (Ecma Office Open XML). The Document-Interoperability-Lab is designed to permit organizations to test documents in order to assess whether the development was based on the two Open XML internationally standardized formats.

At Computex, both Novell and Xandros have announced plans to base future operating systems for netbooks on Moblin 2, the Intel developed Linux for Atom processors, recently moved under the aegis of the Linux Foundation. There are also reports that Canonical will announce a Moblin 2 based Ubuntu Netbook Remix. Moblin 2, which was recently released as a "user experience" beta, has won praise for its user interface, based on work by Opened Hand (an Intel 2008 acquisition) and for its rapid boot times.