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As described in Plugging into GCC last October, the runtime library code used by the GCC compiler (which implements much of the basic functionality that individual languages need for most programs) has long carried a license exemption allowing it to be combined with proprietary software. In response to the introduction of version 3 of the GPL and the desire to add a plugin infrastructure to GCC, the FSF has now announced that the licensing of the GCC runtime code has changed. The FSF wishes to modernize this bit of licensing code while, simultaneously, using it as a defense against the distribution of proprietary GCC plugins.

I recently completed reading of the Packt Publishing book Expert Pyton Programming by Tarek Ziadé. Overall, as a Python developer, however not quite an expert yet (but working on it), I did find that the book was not quite on the “Expert” level as much of the topics I know as being an intermediate Python programmer.

"Wicked Cool Ruby Scripts", by Steve Pugh, is a wicked cool book for noob-and-up Ruby users. Ruby is a modern, elegant interpreted programming language. This means you don't need to compile your Ruby programs, but simply write and run them, just like you do with Bash, Python, or Perl scripts.

As it continues to develop and polish Windows 7, Microsoft has made three fatal mistakes that will kill the operating system’s chances for success on Netbooks -- and open the door even wider for Linux. Skeptical? Here's the scoop.

In 2007 we ran a story on the tiny linux PC The Linutop. Now the diminutive system has hit version 2.4 and with it an official launch in the UK. The pint-sized, open source Linux PC is designed to run silently and is highly energy efficient at just 8 watts.

Today, we live in a world of rapidly diminishing privacy. If you use your employer's email system, it is possible that every message you send or receive is logged and intercepted without your knowledge. This may have unintended or even disastrous consequences if an intercepted email message contains sensitive personal information. Unless your email goes through Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protected connections, your email is vulnerable to what is known in the IT security field as man-in-the-middle attacks, where an attacker can intercept your message as it flies to its intended recipient.

In the near future, the semantic web data will be precisely tagged and thus a whole lot easier to find. This will further spur the trend of the web and global society becoming tight networks that are increasingly interdependent and transparent. Do we have to sacrifice anonymity on the web in order to retain trust for collaboration? Or could we see a web emerge that functions as a kind of operating system with different users and permissions to run this global machine which we call the internet? Read the full article at http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/articles/semantic_web_op...">Freesoftware Magazine.

Hoping to give their respective research efforts a shot of adrenaline, Microsoft and Brother Industries have agreed to a broad patent licensing deal that gives Microsoft access to Brother's embedded Linux printing products. The agreement, which includes compensation paid to Microsoft by Brother, gives Brother access to Microsoft's patents for Brother's current and future products, including multifunction products and "certain Linux-based embedded devices." Microsoft in turn gains access to Brother's patents for Microsoft's current and future products, including Windows and Office and a number of other unspecified IT products.

Enterprises are increasingly looking at open source for critical enterprise date integration projects, according to a global survey of more than 1,000 respondents. The survey, conducted by open source data integration provider Talend, said organisations trying to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for data integration software, were considering OSS.

Unemployed? Take a lead from the great open source entrepreneurs, and have a slice of open source cake, suggests Sramana Mitra in an interesting Forbes article that goes on to profile Apache and CollabNet Founder Brian Behlendorf, SugarCRM Founder John Roberts, and SpringSource Founder Rod Johnson.

Sometimes I get frustrated with Linux, this happens mainly while installing. Installing is often one of the most frustrating experiences with Linux. I remember a time where this kept me from using Linux at all. Today I had such a day again after a long time, I was installing Ubuntu on a laptop which had a harddisk replaced and for the second time in a row the installation hanged suddenly. This kind of things always happen when I'm in a hurry. And you know why? Such a thing most of the time is related to hurrying!

Writing computer-related tutorials, documentation, articles, etc., is virtually impossible without a good utility for taking screenshots -- and Shutter (formerly known as GScrot) has all the features you could possible need.

Do a search for Linux applications on Freshmeat and you’ll get around 11,828 hits. (As of January 12, 2008, that was the tally.) Of those 11,828 applications, which ones are worth using? Not 100 percent of them for sure. Still, buried within that grand total you will find a few gems that get zero publicity but are worth giving a go. This article will highlight some these little-known apps, which range from multimedia to certificate authority tools and anything/everything in between.

The Internet gives nuclear powers to both good and evil, and the conscientious Web admin budgets a fair bit of time to securing Apache against abusive spiders and flies. Ken Coar shows how to protect your sites from abusive crawlers and hijackers.

"At 11:31:30pm UTC on Feb 13, 2009, Unix time will reach 1,234,567,890. Where will you be at this momentous second?" - from Bell Labs. This will be Friday, February 13th at 1831 and 30 seconds EST. If you want to find out what time it will be in your local time, try this Perl script courtesy of Matias Palomec: perl -e 'print scalar localtime(1234567890),"n";' Now if there was any reason to fear Friday the 13th, I think this is it.

A little birthday post, loosely related to Linux and Unix ;)

Nothing could say plainer that Microsoft now fears for the desktop. You don't appoint someone whose job is to lead a "global desktop competitive strategy" that embraces PCs, netbooks and mobile internet devices after years of assuming the desktop was yours forever unless you have a clear and vivid idea that there is a new and real threat in this sector. And you don't have to be a mind-reader to guess that Microsoft is thinking of GNU/Linux here.

At first glance, SugarCRM has launched new programs to train customers on open source CRM (customer relationship management). But take a closer look and you’ll see the continued evolution of SugarCRM’s channel partner program and SaaS (software as a service) initiatives. Here’s the scoop.

Virtualization specialist VMware has released a free Linux client for its VMware View desktop solution.

Camp KDE, the KDE community event of North and South America, has finished. Similar to the European KDE meeting, Akademy, the first two days were based around a series of talks on various topics. After that we moved towards BOF sessions, local discussions and programming. We had a trip to the Appleton Estate, visited Rick's café and had a lot of fun. The following article details some of the things that kept us busy.