Showing all newswire headlines

Summary: The scandalous company decides not only to support Microsoft’s ‘Linux tax’ but also to help legalise software patents in Germany THE LEGALITY of software patents in Europe is an issue that we covered this morning. Recently, Microsoft had its FAT software patent approved in Germany (by the court even) and now we find its close German partner (Siemens is a Windows shop) achieving the same thing. Here is an automated Google translation of the article from Heise:

When we think of free operating systems we tend to think overwhelmingly of the big hitters (all GNU/Linux) like Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and Mandriva and then of those niche distros that have been designed for low end systems or for specialist purposes like security and forensics. But Oranges are not the only fruit. There is a hinterland out there called Unixland, populated by other less well known systems whose roots are firmly Unix too. BSD for example, famed for its rock-like security. OpenSolaris is another one, perhaps less well known, but it has features that are well worth a punt. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

Puppy Linux's latest release may be based on Ubuntu but it is still as small as ever. Puppy Linux, a long-time maker of ultra-compact versions of Linux, has released Lupu, its first release based on Ubuntu Linux.

Novell has unveiled SUSE Linux Enterprise 11 Service Pack 1. The service pack brings with it ‘enhanced virtualization’ and ‘high availability’ but also better support and easier maintenance for customers, Novell claims. Here’s a closer look at the effort.

In the wake of Google Chrome's increasing market share, and doubts from some about the future prospects for Firefox growth, Mozilla needs to do something bold to regain the initiative. How about forking Firefox? If Mozilla doesn't do it, someone else probably will...

As you probably know, a Google I/O conference was held today and a lot of blogs said they will announce big things. And big it was: Google officially announced the release of an open source, royalty-free video format called WebM which will be using the VP8 codec Google aquired from On2 as well as Vorbis audio.

Commercial Linux distributor Novell is hoping that the delivery of the first service pack update for its SUSE Linux 11 operating system for servers and desktops will give the software a bump. And not just because SP1 has support for lots of new hardware. According to Kerry Kim, senior product marketing manager at Novell in charge of its Linux lineup, no matter how good a new version of an operating system is, there are IT shops that simply will not install the code until it gets its first dot release. (Which is why the R2 update for Windows Server 2008 last fall was similarly important for Microsoft.)

Often when we are preparing for cross-distribution comparisons or benchmarks of different operating systems (like our recent Mac OS X 10.6 vs. Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 10.04 benchmarks) we are often asked to include Arch Linux in the mix. This is usually on the basis of including a rolling-release distribution to provide a performance look at a constantly evolving distribution with many of the most recent open-source packages rather than a traditional distribution with packages that may be months older. Many of those requesting Arch be included in our testing mix also claim that Arch performs significantly faster than Ubuntu and our usual test candidates. The main reason we do not deliver many benchmarks of Arch, Gentoo, or other distributions that use a rolling release approach is that they are not very reproducible with their results since their packages are frequently changing and there are more end-user customizations going on compared to most other distributions.

The organizers of the 2010 SouthEast LinuxFest (SELF) have announced new speakers for the second annual event, to be held June 11-13 in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Some 30 speakers have been announced for the Ubuntu-heavy show, including Jon "Maddog" Hall, Wietse Zweitze Venema, and Keith Bergelt. The Southeast LinuxFest is billed as a community event for anyone who wants to learn more about Linux and free and open source (FOSS) software. Attendees of all skill levels are invited, say the SELF 2010 organizers.

Apparently some of the folks at Mandriva were not too thrilled with the way matters surrounding Mandriva have been presented. The issue of Mandriva being up for sale was addressed on their official Blog.

So, I just got my Android upgrade for my HTC Droid Eris phone. It upgraded from 1.5 (Cupcake) to 2.1 (Eclair). I must say that I am happy with the update. Although there were a couple of annoyances that had to be dealt with.

Just shy of 2000 different licenses cover the 230,000+ projects in the Black Duck Knowledgebase. It's important to note that the top 10 licenses cover 93% of all projects and the top 20 almost 97%. Well over 60% are GPL. So, the vast bulk of projects are under a small number of well-known licenses, and that's a good thing. But the other 3% of projects and 1980-odd licenses (and there are some odd ones!) clearly constitute a "long tail." Join me, won't you, for a journey to the outer reaches of that tail.

In addition to Ubuntu, Canonical also produces or recognizes a number of Ubuntu derivatives such Kubuntu and Edubuntu. These derivatives offer different desktop environments or a more focused selection of software, geared toward a particular purpose. But Canonical has a big problem with these derivatives. Ever hear the phrase “red headed stepchild?”

General Motors (GM) announced that version 2.0 of the Android version of its OnStar Mobile app for the Chevrolet Volt will feature Google Maps integration. The voice-enabled feature, which shows a Volt's location on Google Maps, may only be the first step in Android integration with OnStar, say reports.

After using Outlook/Exchange since 1997 and RIM/BlackBerry devices since 2004, I recently spearheaded a move to migrate TPC Healthcare (the boutique healthcare technology firm that I founded) to Google Apps and to Google's Android devices. For a long time I considered myself to be a big Microsoft/RIM guy, but over the last couple of years something really shifted for me, not the least of which was spinning off my business into its own entity.

Bittorrent is the clear leader when it comes to efficiently distributing large files online. Just about any media site or Linux distribution offers files as torrents, and there are several options when it comes to the client you use to download those files. So many, in fact, that it can quickly become overwhelming when you attempt to find the “best” one. As with most software, “best” can mean different things for different people. Today we’ll round up X of the top clients for Linux and compare features to help you decide the right one for you.

Acer has moved to deny that it will show off the first laptop to use Google's Chrome OS at Computex in June. It had been suggested that the laptop giant was poised to use the Computex show to put a Chrome OS device on show, but the company has insisted that this is not the case. "Despite recent rumours in the press regarding the launch of Chrome OS based netbooks at Computex, Acer confirms that it has no short-term plans for such a product," said a hastily written statement from the company

It's always fun to see that the books from Packt start with a tagline on the cover of the book. I was wondering if the contents of this book could live up to the tagline: Over 50 simple and incredibly effective recipes to take control of dynamic Flash content in Wordpress.

Yahoo has really done it (or undone it) this time by removing Linux/Open Source from its Tech links list.

While it's pretty painless to convert from commercial office software to an open source version, if you'd like to replace commercial security products with open source counterparts, you'll likely have to do some work. You may need to combine several open source tools to get the functionality you get from a single commercial product. Or you may need to educate yourself about underlying technology before you find the open source applications usable.