Showing all newswire headlines

Rumors and speculations have been flying around for months about ATI/AMD opening up the source-code to their Linux display driver or providing their GPU specifications to community developers. This for the most part had started after Henri Richard's statement at the Red Hat Summit earlier this year. Well, those rumors can finally be put to rest. AMD will be providing NDA specifications, an open-source library, and there is a new open-source graphics driver as a result. AMD will continue producing a closed-source proprietary driver; however, they are opening the source-code to a critical library with accompanying GPU specifications for X.Org developers. To get the ball rolling, AMD is also funding the development of a new open-source R500/600 driver.

When the BBC announced it's intention to develop the iPlayer as the intended method of viewing online content there was an outcry from non-Windows users who were outraged at being left out. An "e-petition" was put up on the UK Gov's (originally started by a certain Mr. T Blair) website asking the government to intervene. Read on for the response.

Innotek rolled out a significant update to its VirtualBox open source virtualization software this week. According to Achim Hasenmueller, managing director of innotek, the release of VirtualBox 1.5.0 for Windows and Linux marks the first time seamless windowing -- the ability to display a single Windows application on a Linux desktop -- is available for Linux systems.

IBM and Novell have announced an integrated open collaboration client for SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop that includes IBM Lotus Notes, IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM productivity tools to deliver advanced email and calendar capabilities, unified communication & collaboration and lightweight yet powerful word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation capabilities with OpenDocument Format support.

In an effort to fully understand the math proposed by Roman Zippel in his Really Fair Scheduler, Ingo Molnar implemented a simplified version of the logic on top of his Completely Fair Scheduler code which he then humorously labeled the Really Simple Really Fair Scheduler, "could you please confirm whether the math algorithm you are suggesting is implemented by this patch roughly correctly?"

BugnuX is the first linux distribution for software testing, that is also installable, packaged with useful Testing Tools to help testers and quality assurance personnel. Open source Tools for testing web application, Java, load and performance are provided by default. BugnuX is a PCLinuxOS based distribution that uses Enlightenment 0.17 and Fluxbox as the window manager that has tools specially for software testing, and all the applications necessary for a common user (Browser, media player, office tools, etc.).

The French Ministry for Education has migrated 2,500 servers to Red Hat Enterprise Linux in a growing trend for Europe's public sector.

[Check out the last sentence, interesting way to end it don't you think? - Scott]

Mark Shuttleworth, the self-made millionaire and leader of the Ubuntu project, has been very vocal about the adoption of free software and that "the free software approach is a better device driver development model." But what does Mark think about AMD's announcements this week with the 8.41 display driver and the just-announced program where AMD will be handing out specifications under NDA and helping out the open-source community? Mark Shuttleworth has provided Phoronix some of his initial thoughts on ATI/AMD's new Linux push.

This document describes how to integrate ASSP (Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy) with embedded ClamAV into a mail server based on Postfix featuring virtual users and domains, i.e. users and domains that are in a MySQL database.

What is The Linux Vault? The Linux Vault is a new wiki project founded with the mission of creating a centralized GNU/Linux information website. It has just been created, so we are begging everybody to take part of it and make it the place for writing guides, how-tos, configurations, administration tips, tricks, tweaks or whatever else related to the GNU/Linux system. We are currently setting things up, and we still have yet to explain what's the difference between our project, and all the others, like http://www.howtoforge.com.

The numbers, clearly, point to a major industry trend. Take a look: Dice, the tech jobs site, reports that it had 9,631 Linux job listings in August. While this is a big number, what's truly eye-catching is the percentage growth since January: Linux job listing are up a robust 30 percent--three times the increase of overall tech job listings. (Since January, Dice job listings have grown by 10.2 percent, to a total of 96,548 tech jobs.)

If you want the old-time GNU/Linux experience, try configuring a Web camera. Unlike most peripherals, webcams are generally not configured during installation. Moreover, where printers have the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) and its interfaces, with webcams you are generally thrown back on whatever resources you can find on the Internet and your own knowledge of kernel modules and drivers. These obstacles means that configuring webcams can be a challenge -- but with determination and thoroughness, and maybe a little luck, you can get your webcam running in less than an afternoon.

The story has a familiar ring. A vendor offers powerful, reliable new appliances to go with the open-source IP PBX (Private Branch eXchange) software it provides and supports. The new boxes make it easier for users to turn the software into business phone systems that are significantly cheaper than proprietary solutions. Given the enthusiastic reception small companies have been giving similar efforts, it might seem this idea can hardly miss.

HP selling Linux PCs? Surely this must be a mistake? Not necessarily, as Dell has demonstrated that there is a niche market of people who are full-time Linux users, but the lack of time to 'test out' various hardware with a Live CD, configure wireless cards and so on can be too much. Considering the enormous amount of competition between Dell and HP, seeing HP jump on the Linux bandwagon only makes sense for them. I guess that means they will hopefully stop using those awful Broadcom wireless chipsets they are so fond of.

Yesterday my brother Willi called from a friend’s place. He had called me a few days ago already, and asked my opinion about an all-in-one printer/copier/scanner/fax machine from HP, and I showed him the tests from the OpenPrinting database, which say about the HP OfficeJet 5610: “works Perfectly “.

KDE 4.0 continues to edge closer to completion with today's announcement of the Beta 2 release. Improvements have been made to Bluetooth support and blogging functions, and a freeze is in place so developers can begin working on bug fixes. Beta 2 also includes KOffice 2.0 Alpha 2 and a complete overhaul of remote desktop client KRDC.

Get a chance to meet the man in charge of managing government's free and open source software (FOSS) migration at this month's Open Tuesday event in Joburg. Arno Webb will talk on the opportunities that this migration will open up for those involved in open source.

Xandros has received a fair share of grief from the community who was not thrilled about the strong arm, er, I mean IP protection payments to Microsoft. As I have explained in the past, I understand Xandros' concerns over a potential legal battle, in addition to the issues of selling a product to customers when you have a constant legal threat to worry about. In that aspect, I 'get' why they gave in to the Redmond giant.

Today marked the mildly delayed new release of X.org version 7.3, which corresponds to server version 1.4. The X.org community has been working out the last of the bugs since their code-base became semi-frozen on August 1st (which they refer to as "Code Slush") and are now confident that the release will be worth the wait. The so-called killer feature of this version of X is the new support for hotplugging of input devices (such as keyboard, mice, touchscreens) as well as output devices (monitors, projectors, and so forth).

Mandriva readies for full release later this month by announcing Mandriva 2008 RC1, codenamed "Copernic". Mandriva 2008 RC1 is available as a three CD or one DVD Free edition (containing no non-free software or drivers) for the x86-32 and x86-64 architectures, with a traditional installer, and as a mini-CD edition for both x86-32 and x86-64 architectures.