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Working with free and open source software, one frequently hears terms such as bugs, updates, and patches. When developers come across shortcomings in their software, instead of repackaging the software with the changes, they can provide a patchfile that contains details of all required changes. Two important tools used in the process are diff, which creates a patchfile, and patch, which applies it. You can use both tools with text or HTML files. User Level: Intermediate

Quest last week added single sign-on application support to its software that integrates Active Directory with Unix and Linux platforms.

TSX Venture - EPT

SANTA CLARA, CA – Tensilica has introduced the Diamond Standard 232L processor core, the lowest power processor capable of running the Linux operating system on the market. With more features, better performance and lower power dissipation than the ARM926EJ-S, Tensilica’s Diamond Standard 232L stands ready to take over new system-on-chip (SOC) designs requiring Linux support.

FEBRUARY 20, 2006 (IDG NEWS SERVICE) - The Minimo Project, the group developing a shrunk-down version of the Mozilla open source browser for handheld devices, released a new version of Minimo on Saturday. The announcement is the latest indication that mobile phones will increasingly be used to access any content that is available on the Internet, analysts say.

Commercial software giants such as Oracle and IBM are moving deeper into and changing the face of the open source community by snapping up start-ups.

The Supreme Court and your local telephone company have decided to hose everyone on the Internet. Meanwhile, Congress is trying to figure out how to stop it. Where's the media? Hey, WAKE UP!

PalmSource has announced its Access Linux Platform, designed to be an integrated, open and flexible Linux-based platform tailored for smart phones and mobile devices.

Speaking to a standing-room only crowd of open source startups, investors and lawyers, Bill Hilf, director of platform technology strategy at the company, outlined why, from a business perspective, Microsoft is involved with open source. Microsoft views open source through the lens of "coopetition from commercial and open-source strategies at the same time," Hilf said.

Coopetition, or simultaneously cooperating and competing with rivals, has long been Microsoft's broader business strategy. But Hilf gave an insight on how open source fits into this plan.

"Making money matters. More importantly, making money sustainably matters. Being a successful commercial software company is very hard ... staying successful is even harder," Hilf said. "Developing coopetition strategies is a great way for growth in this environment and we're seeing that today."

Rackspace Managing Hosting inked a new partnership agreement with JBoss Inc. that will allow Rackspace to create a new managed-hosting service for the Linux operating system.

Welcome to our issue number 34 of Fedora Weekly News.

CHICAGO, Feb. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- IFS announced today that Unico, Inc., a global manufacturer of drive products and systems for the motion-control market, has signed a contract to implement IFS Applications(TM) business software. The Franksville, Wisconsin-based company will deploy the full IFS Applications suite, including applications for supply chain management, financials, engineering, and asset management, on a Linux(R) platform. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030320/IFSLOGO)

A nice article describing the purpose of /etc/fstab file in GNU/Linux.

Open Source Version Will Greatly Increase Appeal for Non-Profits, Developing Nations

If you have multiple servers with similar or identical configurations (such as nodes in a cluster), it's often difficult to make sure the contents and configuration of those servers are identical. It's even more difficult when you need to make configuration modifications from the command line, knowing you'll have to execute the exact same command on a large number of systems (better get coffee first). You could try writing a script to perform the task automatically, but sometimes scripting is overkill for the work to be done. Fortunately, there's another way to execute commands on multiple hosts simultaneously.

Aventail last week rolled out an SSL VPN package for Macintosh and Linux platforms.

Well, that didn't take too long.

Dave Miller, the lead programmer for Linux on Sun's Sparc processors, wrote on his blog on Friday he has fired up the open source operating system on Sun's new UltraSparc T1 Niagara-based server. The move is an early milestone in Sun's effort, not just to make Linux functioning on its Sparc-based computers, but also to foster a useful software environment for Linux on Sparc.

From the dumb and dumber department:

After wasting much of my weekend trying to burn a simple Linux Ubuntu installation disk and posting a story to tell the world about how Ubuntu's documentation sucks, what I predicted would happen did in fact happen.

The emails came flooding in. A couple were semi-abusive but most were helpful and encouraging. The problem it seems is that you need CD-ROM burning software that can handle the ISO images that you download for your Linux distribution. Oh gee, I wish Ubuntu would have written that somewhere visible on their site - like where they talk about downloading images.

Microsoft has launched a campaign targeting software piracy in the UK. Called 'Keep IT Real', the campaign aims to reduce the UK piracy level for Windows by five per cent to 11.7 per cent within three years. The company says its goal would help the UK economy. "Keep IT Real will help us to address the problem in a number of ways," Microsoft UK head of anti-piracy Michala Alexander said. "By educating customers on how to purchase legitimate software, we can protect them from the risks associated with piracy. And by closing down channels for the sale of pirate software, we can reduce the impact of illegal trade on Microsoft's UK partners."

I've recently written two articles on this topic for Database Journal, the earlier, written after the InnoDB purchase, entitled Oracle's purchase of InnoDB, their release of Oracle Express, and the effect on MySQL, and the most recent, just after the Sleepycat purchase, entitled Pressure on MySQL increases as Oracle purchases Sleepycat, with more to come. Since I only do a monthly column for Database Journal, and things change quite quickly, I thought I'd post a few more thoughts on the topic.