Showing all newswire headlines

[Mark Spencer likens Free/Open Source Software to self-service air travel. How would you like to be able to re-arrange your own flight? - Ed]

It's not the community's job to write device drivers for Linux, and yet we're forced to because vendors are just too darn lazy to support this burgeoning operating system.

Version 2.20 of Bugzilla, the Mozilla bug tracking software, has been released. The Bugzilla 2.20 new features page has more details about the improvements in this release, which include experimental support for PostgreSQL (previously only MySQL was supported) and a new user interface style.

This week, advisories were released for mozilla, module-assistant, eric, sudo, libgda2, imlib, koffice, net-snmp, lynx, RTF, Netpbm, cURL, Zope, phpMyAdmin, ethereal, pam, and fetchmail. The distributors include Debian, Gentoo, and Red Hat.

Stephen Shankland wrote an article entitled: 'Desktop Linux 'like teenage sex'. (sic) And while the underlying article appeared up to scale, the headline doesn't belong in the technical press.

It's a given that children need at least basic computing skills. Should you encourage your kids to consider a computing career? What if they turn into fat, nearsighted, socially-impaired, tunnel-visioned geeks?

Buffer overflow in lynx, a text-mode browser for the WWW that can be remotely exploited.

Guest Editor Apostasy has decided to take a look at current distributions and how they perform and install on an older laptop.

IBM's DeveloperWorks has reviewed an inexpensive PowerPC development board aimed at Linux and eCos projects. The $650 TAMS 3011 "Moab" SBC (single-board computer) is a PCI card for use with passive backplanes. It is available with Linux and eCos tools and a powered three-slot PCI chassis.

Bryant University in Rhode Island was ranked the the "second most connected campus in America" by the Princeton Review in October 2004. The school offers a wide variety of Web services, including online registration and course materials, a digital asset library, and a large interconnected campus, and they're all powered by Linux.

Heise Online reports that GlobalWare AG is offering individuals, universities, and public institutions open source translation software that runs on Linux. The software, called OpenLogos, reportedly translates between English and German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian.

OpenLogos requires the presence of a PostgreSQL database and must be currently be run from the Linux command line. The program also supports translation between German and either French or Spanish. Plans are in the works to provide a GUI interface, so that the program does not need to be run from the command line.

A contest to create applications and find bugs in a mobile "Linux desktop server" is underway. Realm Systems will award $75,000 for the best entertainment, security, IT infrastructure, productivity, and "other" applications for its Black Dog Linux device, as well as for "most bug reports."

The Linux kernel may be the star of the show, but like any star, it needs a supporting cast. In this case, the supporting cast is known as a Linux distribution--a useful set of system and application programs bundled with the OS. Edd Dumbill serves up overviews of the major Linux distributions as well as the specialist distros, and for who (or what) each distro is best suited.

Author Ti Leggett presents the first in a series of articles focused on building a secure corporate directory, including support for single-sign-on that's scalable up to thousands of users.

A project to create an open source Linux 2.6 kernel for Linux-based Motorola mobile phones is underway. The "OpenEZX" project aims to allow users to install and run native Linux applications on their Motorola Linux phones

Only the most basic stuff is covered here, the original article was for Oracle Administrators new to Linux.

It's possible that Google may be the largest open source-based company on Earth. I'm guessing at that, and I might be wrong. Several years ago, in a conversation at Google with some of their honchos, one of them told me Google's plan was to have over a million servers behind its search service, all running on LInux. I don't know if that's come to pass yet. Or if it matters, frankly. But it's crossing my mind as I get ready to talk tomorrow (or soon thereafter) with Google's chiefopen source guru (technically, Open Source Project Manager),Chris DiBona.

If any of ya'll have some questions you'd like me to ask Chris, put them below, or

SDK v1.2 is a multi-platform Java software architecture and framework for supporting the development, integration, and deployment of search and analysis technologies.

"In a rare display of indignation, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly demanded an explanation Wednesday from Microsoft's lawyers and told them, 'This should not be happening'." [Is monopolism like alcoholism - once a monopolist, always a monopolist? Let's hope the lesson learned is the right lesson. - Ed]

For this initial column, here is a quick overview of Eclipse and its governing body. I included a snapshot of the members in this issue to point out to those devoted to proprietary solutions to review the tables carefully, as your competitors may be listed.