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"ANY rule which reduces your rights is unacceptable," explained Theo de Raadt [interview] in a brief discussion on theOpenBSD -misc mailing list,"especially when the full consequences of such a set of rules may be unclear -- which it always is." The comment was in response to a query about why Intel's firmware was considered non-free. Theo went on to explain:"Normal free software has no'contract law' issues, because it is simply given away under'copyright law with almost all author's rights revoked'. Contract law works differently, because it is based more on the principle of'you got something, now you have to give something back'. The minute you see a URL like that explaining things in such a way, you should realize that the addition of'rules' means you are in a different legal system."Copyright has no way to apply such rules, therefore [the Intel firmware] is not free."read more

The recent survey of Associate Professor Alan D. MacCormack proves again statistics are lies with his study "Developers Do Not Want GPL 3 to Police Patents". Still, eWeek found it important enough to mention. Knowing a thing or two about statistics and how to manipulate them, I thought let's see how well the professor does.

... it's just a subset of the overall Dell forum, but it has a Linux logo, complete with Tux (that's it above). And here's the Dell Linux Engineering Web Site, where the project's Wiki lives.

Last week you may have read a number of articles quoting Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, responding to a Fortune article appropriately titled Microsoft Takes on the Free World. The big news in that article was to be found in the gnomic statements by Microsoft's General Counsel, Brad Smith, in which he articulated (after a fashion) its current patent intentions in relation to Linux and other important open source software. You can read the Foundation's formal response now in a Viewpoint piece written by Jim and just posted at the Business Week site.

The Helsinki District Court has ruled that de-encrypting CSS protection encoding used to prevent the copying of DVDs is not illegal.

The start-up focused on e-mail and calendar software for servers adds support for the up-and-coming version of Linux.

A long coming interview between the Libervis Community and Sun Microsystems representative is finally here. We have asked Patrick Finch, the leader of the OpenSolaris Content project and one of the guys working on FLOSS within the company, questions which we collectively believe might be of interest to anyone who uses or values Free Software.

As you're reading this, there are fewer than 24 hours left to donate to the Tux500 project! Donations end at Noon EDT (UTC-4) on Saturday, May 26. If you've been waiting to donate, don't wait any longer... Let's make that Linux logo as large as we possibly can!

Agreement applies to use of Linux in IBM's System z mainframe systems, which currently use software from Red Hat rival Novell.

The law school professor says he'll continue his advocacy of open source, but wants to step out of the limelight.

LXer Feature: 25-May-2007

Visit Dell's home page. Click either the desktops or laptops option. Now tell me if you see anything at all about Ubuntu or GNU/Linux. No? Why is it that Dell hides their Ubuntu option in a menu bar?

Update - Midnight 26 May 2007: Dell's website shows the Open Source PC's listed under "Essential Links" on the left side of the web pages for notebooks and desktops respectively. - dcparris

What do you need to know to get the most out of this book? Practically nothing. What will you learn by using this book? Practically everything about JavaScript and AJAX. Ok, I'm exaggerating... but let me explain. You will need to know basic HTML but if you are planning to use JavaScript to liven up your tired, static website, that's a given. No, you won't learn everything there is to know about JavaScript, but you will learn more than the basics and in fact, if you are patient and stick with the book to the end, you'll be building JavaScript applications by the time you hit the appendix.

How to use Jailkit to create jails quickly and easily.

Red Hat Global Desktop, the company's latest PC-oriented Linux product, is aimed for users in developing nations.

Linux seller bands with open-source allies to sell wide range of server software on the Red Hat Exchange.

A reliable source says the days of Linux sysadmin books have ended. If you can barely sell 5,000 copies, then why bother? Programming books continue to sell at a fast pace, so you can guess where job demand in IT has gone.

The company is trying new tactics in its efforts to scare businesses away from open-source products.

[If he hadn't referred to these old claims (at least as far back as 2004, if not earlier) as 'new' tactics, I wouldn't think he was new to the field. But you still might enjoy reading what he has to say about 'little brother's' tantrums. - dcparris]

Analysis -- Long expected, Dell finally officially released its first line of consumer PCs with pre-installed Linux, Ubuntu 7.04, on May 24. Here's a closer look at exactly what's what in Dell's initial line of Ubuntu-powered desktops and laptops.

Disagreements between developers from the G Palmtop Environment (GPE) project and the administrators of the mobile Linux portal Handhelds.org now include a trademark dispute. Handhelds.org claims trademark ownership of the name GPE, and has demanded control over the GPE IRC channel.

One of my users complained today that automount for USB devices wasn’t working on his machine (running Debian etch). I did a little light Googling, & came across this article on the subject. Which seemed horrendously complicated for something that (surely?) should Just Work out-of-the-box. Hmm. Messed around a bit with the suggestions there, but to no avail. Further googling produced this blog post which suggested a much more simple solution - add the user to the plugdev group. This worked like a charm. My thanks to Matt! I note in passing that this is one of the downsides of central auth - the “emergency” local user is automatically added to this group (& also part of the audio group), but Kerberos/LDAP users unsurprisingly aren’t.