Showing all newswire headlines

According to a recent report by Gartner 10% of companies require employees to purchase their own notebooks by 2008.

Free Software is about freedom. Most people get that, but it is frustrating that most people think it is about cost or about getting a free lunch...and a large number of those people are the supporters!! I believe that the use of language is to blame. The right language can change the way a person thinks about an issue. An example would be the use of the word "commercial" to describe non-Free software. If you accept that use of the word, you assume that Free Software can't be commercial software, which is a wrong assumption. Now you've changed the argument to commercial vs Free, which only serves to confuse.

Head teachers from across the country are visiting a school in Essex to see its IT infrastructure, which includes a fully open source computer suite that was built for under £1,000

An Essex junior school that has used open source software to cut the cost of setting up and running its computer room was showing off its IT infrastructure to a group of UK head teachers on Wednesday.

...According to Attorneys

Wasabi Systems Releases a New Study Analyzing Sarbanes-Oxley Risks Associated with Linux

NORFOLK, Va.--Jan. 18, 2006--Many companies using Linux for embedded applications may be unwittingly violating the Linux license and even breaking federal securities laws, according to a white paper released today by Wasabi Systems, a leading embedded operating systems provider. The white paper, When GPL Violations are Sarbanes-Oxley Violations, is the first in a series of legal studies analyzing the common misperceptions and risks associated with Linux and its license, the GNU General Public License (GPL). Future white papers will look at the GPL implications of Loadable Kernel Modules (LKM) and how upstream GPL violations impact VARs and end users.

PALO ALTO, Calif., Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- WCC Services U.S. Inc., a software company dedicated to delivering faster, more meaningful match results, today unveiled an important upgrade of its high-performance search and match system -- ELISE. Now available for the Linux environment, ELISE 5.2 enables businesses to perform complex searches and find the most meaningful information. The product is used primarily in the staffing, e-commerce and security industries to find the people, products, or services that best match the user's requirements.

Expect to see a lot more interoperability work between Microsoft Corp. and some of its open-source competitors over the next year—like the agreement struck with JBoss Inc. last year—as well as more participation by the Redmond, Wash., software maker in preventing interoperability problems earlier in its product cycle and providing potential fixes when issues arise.

[Ed: QAIX is a new developer community aimed at providing a sensible balance between "gurus" and "newbies". - dcparris]

QAIX: Questions. Answers. Insights. EXamples.

Traditionally, graphics applications have been divided into raster image and vector image editors, based on the primitives that each category uses. By that logic, the open source world needs only one of each, or it gets accused of wasting "resources" through duplication. But there's another way to look at graphics applications -- by usage. The painting program Krita takes a different approach to working with pixels, which can lead to a very different raster imaging experience.

Edubuntu.org states - The Edubuntu Linux distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to schools, through its customised school environment. Edubuntu Linux 6.04 Flight 3 is now available for testing.

LinShots took a look at the latest Alpha.

Unix vendor SCO Group Inc has begun shipping MySQL AB's Network database update service with its OpenServer 6 Unix operating system, following up on an agreement struck between the two companies in September 2005.

A new South African eSecurity policy - currently in draft form - will contain a set of guidelines and minimum standards that Government departments will have to adhere to in order to secure their information systems.

For small businesses, the move to a free desktop is hampered by the lack of viable accounting software. Whatever the benefits of switching away from Windows, most businesses can't ignore the convenience, management information, and reduced accountants' fees they enjoy by using the likes of Sage or QuickBooks. While free software fans are able to restrict their software choices in the pursuit of ideological purity, the typical small business owner has to be more pragmatic.

HP is considering selling services designed to ease customer participation in the open source programming community, the company's new open source boss said.

"Across HP, there are thousands of people who contribute to open source. We have a number of processes and tools we've developed to allow different folks in HP to interact with the open source community that protects our intellectual property and is done in a community-friendly way," ...

[ED: Pretty effective argument free software does not mean no cost. I like the message - HC]

[HP and Mandriva:] The companies will work together on sales, support and marketing in all Latin American territories, including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

The partnership has already started to take effect. The first pre-loaded machines - one targeted to the consumer market and one for the enterprise - are shipping in Brazil. ...

Hello, Mandriva today announced a new agreement with HP to distribute Mandriva Linux 2006 pre-loaded computers in 37 countries in Latin America. The deal confirms the momentum built by Mandriva in Latin America, following its acquisition of Conectiva, the number one publisher in this region. It further demonstrates Mandriva's position as a global player.

Tonight on The Linux Link Tech Show, episode 119:
We talk to Matt Mullenweg, founding developer of Wordpress
Dan finally gets his hands on his GP2X
Linc does a video blog
Pat gives VMware Workstation/Player a spin
And much, much more

Be sure to check us out live every Wednesday night at 8:30 PM, EDT
Just point your favorite media player to any of the following streams:
http://www.binrev.com:8000/main
http://media.sysop.ca:8000/techshow
http://wdsmn.com:8000/techshow


You can also check out previous episodes from the download section of our home page

Effort is under way to get virtualization into the Linux kernel, so it can catch up with rival OSes in server efficiency.

PLEASANTON, CA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 01/17/2006 -- Wright Williams & Kelly, Inc. (WWK), a cost & productivity management software and consulting services company, announced today the availability of COOLSoft™ v2.0, its latest generation software development cost estimating tool. COOLSoft™ utilizes a hybrid approach of intermediate and detailed versions of the Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO). This allows for the reuse of existing code, development of new code, the purchase and integration of third party code, and hardware integration. The output is then displayed as man-months of programming effort, calendar schedule, support costs, and hardware costs.

[Ed: Sadly, this software appears to be proprietary. - dcparris]

Your business application project turned out to be less successful than it should have been, and you're not sure why. The project had a seasoned project manger and a strong, carefully developed project plan. The project team used a good methodology and adhered to it rigorously. Senior management was solidly behind the project. There was adequate funding for the effort. Yet the project did not deliver all it should have delivered. Is it possible that the project failed because someone wanted it to fail?

[Ed: Considering my personal experience with a supervisor who kept my partner and I at odds with our subordinates, and literally cut my feet out from under me, I agree that this is an issue that people need to take into consideration. - dcparris]

DistroWatch reports - The second test build of Fedora Core 5 has been released: The Fedora Project announces the second release of the Fedora Core 5 development cycle, available for the i386, x86_64, and PPC/PPC64 architectures. Notable Features of FC5 Test2: new logo; package selection within the installer has been reenabled; based on GCC 4.1 for performance and security; GNOME 2.13.4; Pirut (pronounced like a pirate): Package Installer, Remover, Updater Tool; includes pup, the Package Updater Program.... LinShots has a nice selection of screen shots of this fresh new release.