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The attack was front page "news" in the Boston Globe. The exoneration of Peter Quinn, whose only "sin" was wanting to use OpenDocument Format instead of Microsoft's solution, is now complete. The bogus investigation is over, and they couldn't find any dirt.

[ED- Covered by Oram earlier today but more details at Groklaw bstadil ]

Red Hat will compete with Spikesource and SourceLabs, who are in the business of validating, integrating, productizing, certifying and supporting LAMP stacks, by early 2006 with three certified open source software stacks through the Red Hat Network that are production-supported.

Each stack will be certified and supported on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and delivered in a subscription model. Pricing will start at $599 per server.

Three weeks ago I editorialized about a controversy stirred up by the Boston Globe and sources in Massachusetts about the state government's adoption of the OpenDocument format. I'm happy to say the whole matter has blown over, now that the facts are in.

The Globe reports today (not on the front page, but where such news is normally reported--in the City & Region section) that a review of IT director Peter J. Quinn is finished and that no wrong-doing was found. The findings match the analysis I presented in my blog, with minor updates. Quinn was told to finish the paperwork for his trips, which his boss Eric Kriss had waived.

It's nice for the government in Massachusetts to recognize that officials can meet with relevant experts and communities in the course of decision-making.

Andy Oram is an editor for O'Reilly Media, specializing in Linux and free software books, and a member of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility. His web site is http://www.praxagora.com/andyo.

Digg Story

LXer Day Desk: 12-09-2005

So, everyone one forgot that Mozilla got its code from Netscape. A Press Release back in January 1998 said, "The company plans to post the source code beginning with the first Netscape Communicator 5.0 developer release, expected by the end of the first quarter of 1998. This aggressive move will enable Netscape to harness the creative power of thousands of programmers on the Internet by incorporating their best enhancements into future versions of Netscape's software".

So, maybe those folks who say the code endures while companies come and go - have a point. Whatever, Netscape's browser is back.

Mozilla Corp's recent release of its new Firefox 1.5 sparked new user adoption, putting the browser on track to reach the 10% market threshold, according to NetApplications, which tracks these things.

The GStreamer developers have just released version 0.10 of the GStreamer multimedia framework into the wild, and their coders' fingers will never be the same. Thread-safety, RTP/VoIP support, automatic registry maintenance, twice the performance, and a whole lot more...the best just got better. A highly flexible, cross-platform, and GUI-independent multimedia framework, GStreamer takes your media, chews it up, and spits it out into aural and visual paradise. Especially targeted at GNU/Linux and Unix operating systems, the GStreamer team has been working with members of the KDE community for a long time. With this release we have a stable, extendable and robust multimedia solution. Together with KDE MM GStreamer is set to be the multimedia framework for KDE 4.

7,000 Employees of the "Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois" (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland entrust Open-Xchange Server for their communication platform.

PORTOLA VALLEY, Calif. - November 21, 2005 - Writely (www.writely.com), The Web Word Processor, today released support for OpenDocument Format (ODF), the open standard document format backed by Sun Microsystems, IBM and Adobe. Starting today, Writely users can upload documents into Writely from Microsoft Word and Sun Microsystems' OpenOffice.org, as well as save the documents back into either of those formats. Sun and Google announced last month their intention to explore jointly enhancing and promoting OpenOffice.org.

Osaka, Japan – (NYSE: MC) Matsushita Electric has said that one of its subsidiaries, Panasonic Mobile Communications (Panasonic Mobile), will phase out overseas 2.5G GSM mobile terminal operations due to severe global competition. By concentrating resources into next-generation mobile terminal technologies, as well as unifying platforms and core technologies for the Japanese and overseas markets, Panasonic Mobile aims to improve development efficiency and product competitiveness. Sales and service activities for the current GSM products will continue.

SyncML Technology Enables Smooth Interface With Most Mobile Devices; Major Swiss Hospital Chooses Open-Xchange Server for Latest Innovation

Given that Firefox has already entered double-digit market share territory in just one year, grabbing users from Microsoft's Internet Explorer, is it logical that hackers will increasingly target Firefox with a whole host of exploits?

"Dig into the details of existing Firefox issues and you'll find threats that allow remote users to access and control your system, launch denial-of-service attacks, leave you vulnerable to phishing, and even spoof dialog boxes to trick you into performing unintended actions. These are similar to the issues that have put IE users at risk for years," writer Dan Dinicolo asserts in a new PC Magazine article.

Matt Asay, the founder of the Open Source Business Conference, discusses his views on the conference and open source businesses and products. Matt works at Novell as director, Open Source Strategy. Prior to Novell, he worked with Lawrence Lessig at Stanford and subsequently at Lineo.

The OpenOffice project vividly illustrates the limitations of open source as a way of producing software

Linux is often thought to be inferior to Windows and Mac OS when it comes to multimedia applications. However, by using open source software and a few simple tips, one can easily turn a simple Linux box into a multimedia powerhouse, according to Kyle Rankin, author of the newly published Linux Multimedia Hacks.

Mandriva Linux, known as Mandrakesoft eight months ago, has had quite a year. The Paris-based company believes it's ready to bounce back into the race to capture international market share from competitors such as Red Hat and Novell. Only 18 months ago, the company was in the throes of bankruptcy.

There's no chance of the Sony BMG rootkit DM spyware debacle going away. It will echo loudly down many corridors and the University of Calgary's Greg Hagen believes its existence should make anyone thinking about supporting Canada's Bill C-60 copyright act, think again.

[Ed: Canadians in particular may want to pay attention to this one - dcparris]

TARRYTOWN, NY, December - Open-Xchange Inc., the maker of the world's leading open-source alternative to Microsoft Exchange, announced today that Germany's Green Party has selected Open-Xchange Server 5 for e-mail, contacts and calendaring for its Berlin headquarters.

What new economy does syndication suggest? And does Linux point the way?

Don't believe Christmas greetings-by-email is huge business? Google it. Every sleazebag outfit on the web offers them. Some even throw-in spyware and rootkits or links to phishing sites, free of charge. That's why so many network managers do everything they can to block the traffic. Email Battles invents a way to make everybody happy. Sadly, nobody's using it.

[Ed: And don't you just love those greeting card e-mails from some anonymous person? Frankly, I like the idea thes folks suggest. It's sooooo simple! - dcparris]

As further evidence of the expanding role of open source applications in enterprise data centers, Pentaho, a start-up that builds open-source business intelligence software, announced this week that it has received $5 million in series A funding.

[Ed: If business intelligence is anything like military intelligence, I'm scared! - dcparris]