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Trolltech is replacing its Linux embedded product development QT/Embedded with Qtopia Core. The focus of the new product is to make building software faster and to ease the development process.

Former IDC Analyst Dan Kusnetzky Joins Leading Open Source Alternative to Microsoft Exchange

Hewlett-Packard desktop computers in 37 Latin American countries will now be pre-loaded with Mandriva Linux 2006.

IBM trumpets not blowing

DB2 is the most respectable and most powerful database engine in the world: it’s the pinnacle of database development. IBM makes a claim (undisputed to my knowledge) that more structured data is stored in DB2 than in any other database engine.

Technically, this is nothing but good news – a superb database engine is available no matter what platform you use. The problem is that IBM seems to have forgotten to tell anyone about it. Why? My impression is that IBM has become complacent ...

[ED: I wonder if this is the guy we should have interviewed (see link below) in our IBM interview - HC]

Interview with IBM: DB2 in the Mid-Range Market

Last week's newsletter about Linux/Unix vs. Windows vulnerability statistics generated plenty of reader feedback - as such reports often do. The newsletter reported on a year-end vulnerability summary from the quasi-governmental United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S. CERT), which said that there were significantly fewer vulnerabilities reported for Windows than the number of warnings issued for the combined category of Linux/Unix operating systems.

Free and open source software (FOSS) is not a major issue in the Canadian election scheduled for January 23. None of the major political parties -- the Liberals, Conservatives, New Democratic Party (NDP), or Bloc Québécois -- has taken a position on FOSS. The only candidate for a major party who is openly advocating FOSS is Mathieu Allard, the young NDP candidate for the Francophone riding of Saint Boniface in Manitoba. Recently, I talked to him about his advocacy and the role that FOSS plays in his campaign.

DistroWatch states - Dreamlinux is a new desktop-oriented Brazilian distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux and Morphix. Dreamlinux 1.2.1 has been released.

LinShots has some nice shots of Dreamlinux 1.2.1.

A debate sprang up on the Ubuntu developers' mailing list shortly following Fluendo's release of a licensed MP3 plugin for the GStreamer multimedia framework used by Rhythmbox and other media player applications. At issue is whether Ubuntu -- or any distributor -- can ship both the MP3 plugin and a GPL-licensed player that uses it.

Free Software Foundation's Eben Moglen says the updated GPL may put open-source products in conflict with movie studios and Tivo.

Open-Xchange Extends Sales, Services and Training into Eastern Europe and Russia

Splunk (www.splunk.com), creators of the first search software for fast moving IT data, today announced the success of Camp Sys Admin -- the first ever camp for IT system administrators. The first in a series of gatherings to confront the challenges that face systems administrators, Camp Sys Admin was co-sponsored by Splunk and leading IT community ...

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.