Showing all newswire headlines

The HP story just grew again. This is the worst yet. Now it's being reported in the New York Times in an article titled Hewlett Review Is Said to Detail Deeper Spying [sub and cookies req'd] that pretexting isn't the only issue:

The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa has called on African leaders to adopt open source software as a tool to speed up development saying this would reduce costs and enhance opportunities for innovation.

I've been tracking the evolution of Microsoft FUD for nearly 10 years now, and wrote a shorthistory of the subject a few months back.  But even I was impressed when I came across Microsoft's latest effort in this department: it's truly a masterpiece of its kind.

To increase awareness as well as boost the number of Linux users in the CNMI, a faculty member of the Northern Marianas College has set up a showroom that demonstrates the merits of the operating system for those interested in converting their old PC OS to Linux.

[This is just one of the growing number of FOSS related articles coming out of the South Pacific these days. - Scott]

The Alacarte menu editor is one of the major additions in GNOME 2.16. Already previously available in Ubuntu and other distributions, Alacarte adds a degree of customization that has been generally lacking since GNOME dropped its previous menu editor more than five years ago during the early 2.x releases.

The open source software movement has come a long way. A decade ago, nobody but the actual participants in open source projects and other IT enthusiasts gave the movement much chance of succeeding, but today, it's tough to deny the success of open source products. However, when it comes to security tools and antivirus software--the thin blue line separating our computers from certain infection on the Internet--there is less agreement that open source can secure as well as traditionally developed, closed-source products.

[Interestingly, numerous companies are offering ClamAV-based solutions that apparently protect their clients quite well. As always, watch for the Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt. - dcparris]

A 28-page book chapter about loadable Linux kernel modules and device drivers is available for free download. Entitled "Kernel Modules and Device Drivers," the chapter is excerpted from the second edition of Doug Abbott's book, Linux for Embedded and Real-Time Applications.

It looks like Motorola is making another non-RAZR, which in itself is exciting news. The E690 is a PDA/phone that runs on Linux, yes, Linux.

NEC will join IBM, Novell, Philips, Red Hat and Sony as an investor and licensee in Open Invention Network (OIN), an intellectual property company formed to further the Linux environment by acquiring patents and ensuring their availability.

Programmable logic supplier Lattice Semiconductor Corp. Monday introduced a 32-bit soft microprocessor optimized for Lattice FPGAs.

Here are some of the most significant bugs from the past week in the BugBlog:

Robin Miller recently published a story on Newsforge about "Stan"[1], as an example of a situation that demonstrates proprietary software is a danger to business continuity. I found this story interesting since I think Mr. Miller came close to correctly identifying a core issue, which is that the proprietary software business model as it exists today both facilitates and encourages vendors to act in bad faith. However, it did not need to have been this way, and really comes down to misuse of licensing along with some deliberate abuse and exploitation of existing commercial law.

Take a grand tour of the Apache Geronimo 1.1 newly added features, and get expert tips on how to use them. This article gives you an overview of the architectural changes introduced in the latest Geronimo release, focusing on the new and innovative plug-in architecture. You'll also examine enhancements to the Web Console, including the memory utilization graph, thread pool statistics, the JMS resource wizard, and keystores.

Tollef Fog Heen of the Ubuntu development team on Sept. 16 announced the third alpha release (codenamed "Knot CD") of Ubuntu 6.10. The new Ubuntu version features a 2.6.17 Linux kernel and comes with the GNOME desktop environment.

Computer vision specialist Tyzx is shipping a relatively low-cost, standalone, Linux-based stereo 3D vision system targeting high-volume commercial and defense robots, automobiles, and person-tracking security systems. The DeepSea G2 can provide real-time 3D vision processing where traditional workstations can't go, the company says.

JBoss software makes its debut today as a member of the Red Hat Application Stack. Red Hat is also to sell JBoss middleware subscriptions for the first time through its distributors and dealers.

A TEAM OF Open Source engineers from Catania, Italy and Bristol have developed a 64-bit processor design which is free for anyone to play with.

Red Hat last week launched the beta version of Enterprise Linux 5, the first version of the company's enterprise-class operating system to include built-in virtualization technology.

LynuxWorks has revised its commercial embedded Linux distribution, and updated the Linux application binary interface (ABI) in its proprietary RTOS (real-time operating system). BlueCat Linux 5.4 is based on a 2.6.13 kernel, for improved determinism and lower latency, while LynxOS 4.2's ABI is based on glibc 2.2.93.

LynuxWorks Takes Advantage of New Hardware Devices and Increases Linux Application Support in Its Flagship LynxOS RTOS