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Hewlet Packard has released a custom interface for Ubuntu running on netbooks. DownloadSquad (DS) reports that the interface was designed for HP’s Mini 1000 Mi Edition netbook and is built on an Ubuntu 8.04 base.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) adoption is viewed as a key enabler for the 21st century enterprise due to increased opportunity for productivity and integration, and requires significant changes for both business and IT executives. The goal of the conference, now in its second year, is to raise the dialogue about SOA and its use in healthcare, with a focus on its role as a transformation agent to add organizational value.

"The cloud" is just a new buzzword for an old concept, hosted services. While a number of grumpy old geekbeards swear they will never embrace "the cloud" because they do not trust their data in other hands, it's already happening. Google Mail, for whatever reason, is cool in ways that Hotmail and Yahoo mail never were. Google Apps are also cool. Inexpensive hosting services have been a staple of the do-it-yourself geek since forever. So, does refusing "the cloud" mean that the hardcore refusenik is condemned to a life of isolation? No, because there is a third alternative, and that is the Peer Cloud.

MySQL creator Michael “Monty” Widenius has finally left Sun Microsystems following a long-drawn-out disagreement over what he saw as the firm’s “premature” release of MySQL 5.1. As we reported in September, the MySQL daddy was understood to have quit the company, less than seven months after Sun paid $1bn for the free database outfit. And it turns out the rumours were – sort of – true.

Flying the South African open source flag at this year's IndiaSoft 2009 show as well as at Germany's CeBIT show will be Durban-based OSS company Thusa. Thusa managing director Warwick Chapman will be speaking to the Indian software development community at IndiaSoft about the opportunities available to them on the continent of Africa and in South Africa especially.

Packt is pleased to announce a new book on JBoss. Written by Ramanujam Rao, JBoss Portal Server Development teaches developers how to build portal applications such as B2B and B2C web sites or corporate intranets, and how to develop a professional portal system using the JBoss portal server.

This is WFTL Bytes!, your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Monday, February 2, 2009 (Groundhog Day), with your host, Marcel Gagné. This is episode 49. On today's newscast . . . nature's own weather forecaster tells it like it might be and bites it. Did Linus jump ship too soon? Dept of defense thinks FOSS is cool. Mototala axes Windows, sort of. Going RMS on semantics.

Monty Widenius, the main author of the original MySQL database and a founder of the MySQL AB company, has finally left Sun Microsystems following a falling out with Sun over the status of MySQL 5.1. We reported last year that Widenius was unhappy with the release of MySQL and had told Sun that he was planning to leave the company. Now he has finally announced on his blog that he has done that and has established a new business, called Monty Program Ab.

We've never seen it before. Hopefully we'll never see it again. :) We're going back to the Solaris 10 Unix well, reaching back a little (as opposed to the 14 month reach-back we did yesterday ;) and adding a little something to our posts on adding NFS management to an existing VCS cluster as well as the follow up on how to do the exact same thing without taking your VCS cluster offline.

Mark G. Sobell's freshly revised reference work on Ubuntu Linux may be the most impressive computer book I've seen in the last 10 years. If you are currently stranded with a pile of abandoned computers on a desert isle, I'm telling you, this is the book.

Back at the 2003 OSCON, r0ml Lefkowitz gave a talk called "Six Missing Open Source Projects".The next year he gave a talk titled "More Missing Open Source Projects". At the top of his first list was CRM, or Customer Relationship Management, systems.

Surprisingly, the answer could well be yes. At least if a bunch of computer science researchers at Durham University have anything to do with it. The group have taken the 3D game engine that powers the immersive Half Life 2 game and used it to develop a realistic virtual simulation of the university computer science department. More to the point, they have created a realistic fire drill simulator which might just help save a life or two.

[It is nice to see continued evidence of computer games being used to help people rather than the same old stories being rolled out by the mainstream media trying to convince us that all game developers are evil. - Jen]

Containers provide lightweight virtualization that lets you isolate processes and resources without the need to provide instruction interpretation mechanisms and other complexities of full virtualization. In this step-by-step tour of the container tools called Linux® Containers (LXC), the author introduces you to the tools and shows how to get up and running on them.

Open Source Network Management Project Offers Free Instructor-Led Training. Zenoss Inc., a leading provider of commercial open source IT systems and network monitoring software, today announced its first Zenoss Community Day will take place February 20, 2009, in Los Angeles. The daylong event is a precursor to the 7th annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE 7x), where Zenoss is a silver sponsor and exhibitor.

A draft ISP Copyright Code of Practice, aimed at clarifying sanctions against illicit downloaders of copyright works, has been released for public comment — and internet industry sources are already critical of the effort. The 29-page document (with a further four pages of suggested alternative wording on procedures for disputing an accusation) was drawn up by the Telecommunications Carriers Forum in consultation with internet service providers and organisations representing copyright owners.

With news today of Windows 7 being made available in no less than six different versions, it is getting harder and harder to not move lock, stock, and PGP key to Linux on a full time basis. Except…

Cost savings and improved flexibility are just two of the benefits that can be realized from virtualizing an enterprise infrastructure. However, the transition can sometimes bring about new issues that impact business metrics. Organizations must find the right balance between benefits from virtualizing and their abilities to monitor, analyze and accelerate application performance, writes Aberdeen's Andrew Stamer.

HP has dropped Linux as an operating-system option for its latest netbooks in the UK market. An HP spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Thursday that it will not offer the Linux version of the new HP Mini 1000 in "quite a few of the European markets", including the UK. The netbook, which was launched in October, was planned to go on sale in all versions this month. In fact, British customers cannot buy any version of the Mini 1000 other than the designer, premium-priced Vivienne Tam edition. That version, which comes only with Windows XP, is already on sale for about £450.

Vodafone has picked U.S. software firm Azingo to develop Linux-based applications, the latest sign the world's largest wireless operator by sales is keeping Linux operating system LiMo as one of its key choices. Privately held Azingo unveiled the deal on Thursday. Vodafone, one of the founding members of mobile Linux foundation LiMo, has stressed the importance of cutting the number of different operating systems, raising some media speculation it could dump LiMo support.

For years, linux.conf.au has been one of the best places to go to catch up with the state of the X Window System; the 2009 event was no exception. There was a big difference this time around, though. X talks have typically been all about the great changes which are coming in the near future. This time, the X developers had a different story: most of those great changes are done and will soon be heading toward a distribution near you.