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Apache 2 offers a number of new features and improvements over the Apache 1.3 series, but the upgrade can seem daunting to those who haven't had much (or any) experience with Apache 2. I recently had to go through an upgrade from Apache 1.3 to Apache 2.0 on Debian Sarge, and it's not as difficult as you might think.

Fulfilling an earlier promise to release the source code for their Plone-based laboratory management system, Bika Lab Systems has open sourced the code under the GNU GPL. The Bika laboratory system is already in use at a number of organisations including a bottling co-operative in the Western Cape.

More than at any other time, database professionals are being aggressively challenged by mushrooming volumes of data in corporate business systems. While some industry analysts project data growth at an average rate of 42% a year, that figure is conservative in some installations where growth rates are several hundred percent, with no end in sight. What's to blame for sky-rocketing data volumes? First, corporations have realized the golden nugget potential of all the data floating around in their transactional systems and are utilizing data warehousing more than ever before. The strategic use of data is high on the mind of nearly every CIO and business executive, so in response, transactional data is stockpiled into data warehouses where business intelligence users constantly aim their analytic queries to produce forecasts that are used to make key business decisions.

Version 2.12 of the GNOME Linux desktop will be released on Wednesday, featuring two new applications, a new theme engine, and improved authentication, according to project director Davyd Madeley. What's more, the look and feel of the desktop is vastly improved, thanks to the new Clearlooks-based theme engine, Madeley said in a pre-release "tour" on the GNOME website.

Leslie Franke writes: "I recently created a Rapid Web Development and Testing with Mozilla Firefox presentation. The S5 slide show is a basic overview of Firefox's built-in web development tools, as well as some useful web developer extensions that are available."

More coverage and deeper insight on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' declaration to standardize on the OpenDocument file format...

The Boston Globe
Why OpenDocument Won (and Microsoft Office Open XML Didn't)
why-opendocument-won
by David Wheeler

Integrating Fedora Linux into a Windows network is reasonable and easy as long as you use the SAMBA utilities. This article includes the necessary steps for implementing a SAMBA server in a Windows environment. Once integrated, a Linux server looks and acts exactly like any other server on a Windows intranet... Complete article

Linux needs anti-virus? As malware writing gains more of a profit motive, according to one security exec, that improbable future may yet come to pass.

Here's a new series of tutorials, recently released, to help you learn Linux fundamentals and prepare for system administrator certification Exam 201. These eight tutorials cover the Linux kernel, file and service sharing, system customization and automation, and more.

Uganda's first ever Software Freedom Day celebration is set to take place on Saturday, with a focus on the use of (Information and Communication technology) ICT in development.

Lately, certifications seem to have lost some of their allure. A study by Foote Partners LLC, a research firm in New Canaan, Conn., shows that for the 12-month period that ended April 1, noncertified workers received a larger average pay increase than those with certifications -- 3.6% compared with 2.9%. Some say the study shows a shift in the value IT executives place on certifications. "It's being put in its right place," says Robert Miano, president and CEO of Harvey Nash USA, the U.S. arm of London-based Harvey Nash PLC, a global recruitment company. "Certifications are going to stay, but they're not as highly regarded as they have been in the past."

The sponsored research approach may not have played well for Microsoft, but IBM wasn't deterred this week as it trotted out two new sponsored reports heavy with praise for the total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits of Linux over Windows and Solaris. The two reports, one of which was an update to a Robert Frances Group TCO report penned in 2002, were conducted by RFG and Hayward, Calif.-based Pund-IT Research. Overall, the reports showed Linux had continued to lead in TCO benefits over the competition and that it had expanded into new roles in companies that had previously allocated Linux to so-called "edge" uses like e-mail and Web serving.

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - The free software foundation said on Tuesday it would start adapting rules for development and use of free software by including penalties against those who patent software or use anti-piracy technology. Free software needs to be licensed under specific rules to guarantee that it can be freely studied, copied, modified, reused, shared and redistributed. The Linux operating system kernel is one of the best known examples of free software.

The free software association said on Tuesday it would start adapting rules for development and use of free software by including penalties against those who patent software or use anti-piracy technology.

There's a fundamental barrier between fans of open-source software and the world of Microsoft Windows, and no, it's not the $299 list price of Windows XP Professional. It's actually a very real communication problem based on differences between Windows and Linux's file systems—the structures that operating systems use to file away data on a computer. Think of the file system as a simple spreadsheet: It associates a filename with an index in a file allocation table. When you ask your computer to open a document, the OS checks this table to determine where on the hard drive it stored the file, down to the precise sector on your disk. Windows uses a file system called NTFS, today's Linux distributions primarily use ext3, and like two warring tribes, the two barely speak. Fortunately, there's a handy tool from Paragon Software Group called NTFS for Linux, which acts like an interpreter for these battling nations.

The free software foundation said on Tuesday it would start adapting rules for development and use of free software by including penalties against those who patent software or use anti-piracy technology. Free software needs to be licensed under specific rules to guarantee that it can be freely studied, copied, modified, reused, shared and redistributed. The Linux operating system kernel is one of the best known examples of free software.

Just like in other towns across the region, volunteers from the Austin Linux Group are pitching in to help in the recovery from the devastation of Katrina. People displaced by Katrina began showing up in Austin on Wednesday of last week. By the weekend, there were thousands in the Austin Convention Center, and perhaps as many as 5,000 total in Austin. Volunteers eager to help Katrina's victims turned out in droves from the start -- although the frustrations of the chaos attendent with a half-bureaucratic, half-volunteer effort of this scale have taken their toll. Above all else, volunteers have needed to bring patience and creativity with them as they arrived at the convention center.

Adoption of Linux on the desktop may begin in basements and bedrooms throughout the world, and gradually trickle up to large enterprises, says Matt Asay, a Novell Inc. technology evangelist and one of the people behind that company's Linux and open source strategy. SearchEnterpriseLinux.com recently spoke with Asay about his predictions for the path of Linux desktop adoption. Asay also offered some insights into Novell's desktop Linux strategy. Here are some excerpts from that conversation:

The Free Software Foundations are proud to announce the creation of the global "GPL Version 3 Development and Publicity Project". The project will bring together thousands of organisations, software developers, and software users from around the globe during 2006, in an effort to update the world's most popular Free Software licence. The GPLv3 promises to be one of the largest participatory comments and adoption efforts ever undertaken. The sister organisations in the United States and Europe are also happy to announce a total grant of 150,000 EUR from Stichting NLnet to support this truly-unique project. The global process will be overseen by the Free Software Foundation with support from its legal counsel the Software Freedom Law Centre (SFLC). Free Software Foundation Europe will be coordinating the European activities closely with both organisations and contributing to the global communication effort.