11.18.08
Posted in News Roundup at 6:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
GNU/Linux
- The Super Windows That…Couldn’t
One of the more bizarre accusations flung by Microsoft at GNU/Linux over the years is that it doesn’t scale. This is part of a larger campaign to portray it as a kind of “toy” operating system – fine for low-end stuff, but nothing you’d want to run your enterprise on.
Sadly, that narrative has been rather undermined by the independent Top500 supercomputing sites ranking. Five years ago, the GNU/Linux family ran 36.80% of the top 500 supercomputers; worse, Windows ran on precisely one supercomputer.
- SAP and Microsoft, Watch Your Back
A lot of large companies are tapping these technologies to good advantage. Walt Disney (DIS), for example, uses Linux open-source software on its animated movies.
- is there a long-term future for the netbook?
The retail impact of Linux in the netbook market has been huge, with many retailers reporting that Linux based netbooks were taking up 40% or more of their notebook class shipments.
- Giving Thanks to Linux and Open Source
- Linux Community’s unoffical mascot taken by Microsoft
Microsoft has now successfully claimed the penguin as their “symbol”. Yep, I see it coming…”What’s the big deal helios? So they use a flock of penguins to advertise.” If those words come out of your mouth, I would make certain they weren’t heard too loudly. Ask yourself this. Why penguins? How many tens of thousands of other animals could they have chosen?
- Internet Café Invaded by Linux Desktop
You may ask why I’m happy about this recent experience. —Well, I really want Linux to succeed, and seeing it now being used in a Windows-dominated Internet café business is a telltale sign that the Linux desktop is geared up for the mainstream crowd. So, cheers to that!
- Linux Makes the Grade
In 2001, Indiana officials at the Department of Education were taking stock. The schools had an excellent network infrastructure and had installed significant numbers of computers for 1 million public school enrollees. Yet students were spending less than an hour a week on the computer. Why?
Shuttling students to and from computer labs and managing their time there restricted computer use so much that, analysis showed, certain students had access cut to less than 35 minutes a week. It was then that state officials knew each student needed a computer, and Indiana’s one-to-one initiative was launched. But how were they to pay for such a huge project that would have cost $100 million a year in software licensing alone?
- Dell’s Linux Ads: Microsoft’s Nightmare Before Christmas?
- The Bizarre Cathedral – 31
- Flickr Uploaders for Linux: Secretive, But Not Endangered Beasts
- Windows App Alternatives For Linux: MSPaint
- Lockheed Martin to Migrate to LynuxWorks’ Latest Operating System and Developer Toolkit for Medium Extended Air Defense System (MEADS) Program
- Power PMAC motion computer provides easy configuration
- Eyeing Open Source OS, VDEL Launches SoftwareUnited
- Open Source Portable Firewall Debuts
- The benefits of Linux in the law office.
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Desktop Environments
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Adobe
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Kernel Space
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Distributions
F/OSS
- XMind goes open source
- oDesk says PHP development outstrips demand for all other programming skills
- Engine Yard Introduces Developer Support for Merb
- Freedom OSS Announces ‘Freedom Open Source Survey’
- ACM selects Motama’s software as the final winner of Open Source competition
- Django 1.0.1 released!
- What’s new in LyX 1.6?
- Open Source BI Fights For Its Share
- Open Source Lets Developers Speed SOA Development Despite Economic Slowdown
- Open Source and Sustainability, Updated
- Way of Life
- Rule #2: Create a community
- Open source questions answered and myths debunked
- Collaboration Is At The Heart Of Open Source Content Management
- Mozilla Thunderbird using Drupal
- Oscommerce Shopping Cart Customization and Integration Services
- Open Source Code For The Virtualized World
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NASA
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OpenOffice.org
- Presenting with Linux – Impress with Success
- Norway encourages use of open source software
- Another day, another Microsoft lie
This time around it’s a study by ClickStream Technologies, which found Microsoft Office, to be far more popular than OpenOffice.org, which in turn was far more popular than Google Docs. What Microsoft doesn’t mention is that ClickStream is headed by Microsoft’s former head of Microsoft Office research. Very independent, eh?
Boycott Novell did some digging about this latest Microsoft study, and found, just underneath the dirt’s surface that ClickStream’s senior research analyst is also a former Microsoft Corporation researcher and strategist for the Office product. If you buy that this study will say anything except what Microsoft wants it to say, I have some early-release, Detroit Lion SuperBowl tickets you might also want to buy. Cheap!
- So you thought OpenOffice.org controlled ODF? Think again…
These news are a week old, but I thought it would be wise to have the dust settle a bit before writing about them.
What was announced last week? The OpenOffice.org project had opened a project called the ODF Toolkit. What this project was all about, really, was to design a toolkit for ODF Documents. It included, obviously, the capacity the create applications producing ODF. But the goal was much broader than that; the ODF Toolkit was and is a piece of the essential “plumbing” for processing ODF documents.
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Interviews
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India
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GPLpedia
MAFIAA
Internet/Net Neutrality
Leftover
Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day
Victor Stone talks about music, Free Software, Creative Commons and life at Microsoft 04 (2004)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
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What Else is New
EPO's Board 28 Notes Battistelli's “Three Current Investigations/Disciplinary Proceedings Involving SUEPO Members in The Hague."
The attack on SUEPO (EPO staff representatives) at The Hague appears to have been silently expanded to a third person, showing an obvious increase in Battistelli's attacks on truth-tellers
Links 28/9/2016: Alpine Linux 3.4.4, Endless OS 3.0
Links for the day
Cementing Autocracy: The European Patent Office Against Democracy, Against Media, and Against the Rule of Law
The European Patent Office (EPO) actively undermines democracy in Europe, it undermines the freedom of the press (by paying it for puff pieces), and it undermines the rule of law by giving one single tyrant total power in Eponia and immunity from outside Eponia (even when he breaks his own rules)
Links 28/9/2016: New Red Hat Offices, Fedora 25 'Frozen'
Links for the day
Team Battistelli Intensifies the Attack on the Boards of Appeal Again
The lawless state of the EPO, where the rule of law is basically reducible to Battistelli's ego and insecurities, is again demonstrated with an escalation and perhaps another fake 'trial' in the making (after guilt repeatedly fails to be established)
After the EPO Paid the Financial Times to Produce Propaganda the Newspaper Continues to Produce UPC Puff Pieces, Just Ahead of EU Council Meeting
How the media, including the Financial Times, has been used (and even paid!) by the EPO in exchange for self-serving (to the EPO) messages and articles
Beware the Patent Law Firms Insinuating That Software Patents Are Back Because of McRO
By repeatedly claiming (and then generalising) that CAFC accepted a software patent the patent microcosm (meta-industry) hopes to convince us that we should continue to pursue software patents in the US, i.e. pay them a lot more money for something of little/no value
The US Supreme Court Might Soon Tighten Patent Scope in the United States Even Further, the USPTO Produces Patent Maximalism Propaganda
A struggle brewing between the patent 'industry' (profiting from irrational saturation) and the highest US court, as well as the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
Patent Trolling a Growing Problem in East Asia (Software Patents Also), Whereas in the US the Problem Goes Away Along With Software Patents
A look at two contrasting stories, one in Asia where patent litigation and hype are on the rise (same in Europe due to the EPO) and another in the US where a lot of patents face growing uncertainty and a high invalidation rate
The EPO's Continued Push for Software Patents, Marginalisation of Appeals (Reassessment), and Deviation From the EPC
A roundup of new developments at the EPO, where things further exacerbate and patent quality continues its downward spiral
The Battistelli Effect: “We Will be Gradually Forced to File Our Patent Applications Outside the EPO in the Interests of Our Clients”
While the EPO dusts off old files and grants in haste without quality control (won't be sustainable for more than a couple more years) the applicants are moving away as trust in the EPO erodes rapidly and profoundly
Links 27/9/2016: Lenovo Layoffs, OPNFV Third Software Release
Links for the day
The Moral Depravity of the European Patent Office Under Battistelli
The European Patent Office (EPO) comes under heavy criticism from its very own employees, who also seem to recognise that lobbying for the UPC is a very bad idea which discredits the European Patent Organisation
Links 26/9/2016: Linux 4.8 RC8, SuperTux 0.5
Links for the day
What Insiders Are Saying About the Sad State of the European Patent Office (EPO)
Anonymous claims made by people who are intimately familiar with the European Patent Office (from the inside) shed light on how bad things have become
The EPO Does Not Want Skilled (and 'Expensive') Staff, Layoffs a Growing Concern
A somewhat pessimistic look (albeit increasingly realistic look) at the European Patent Office, where unions are under fire for raising legitimate concerns about the direction taken by the management since a largely French team was put in charge
Patents Roundup: Accenture Software Patents, Patent Troll Against Apple, Willful Infringements, and Apple Against a Software Patent
A quick look at various new articles of interest (about software patents) and what can be deduced from them, especially now that software patents are the primary barrier to Free/Libre Open Source software adoption
Software Patents Propped Up by Patent Law Firms That Are Lying, Further Assisted by Rogue Elements Like David Kappos and Randall Rader (Revolving Doors)
The sheer dishonesty of the patent microcosm (seeking to bring back software patents by misleading the public) and those who are helping this microcosm change the system from the inside, owing to intimate connections from their dubious days inside government
Links 25/9/2016: Linux 4.7.5, 4.4.22; LXQt 0.11
Links for the day
Patent Quality and Patent Scope the Unspeakable Taboo at the EPO, as Both Are Guillotined by Benoît Battistelli for the Sake of Money
The gradual destruction of the European Patent Office (EPO), which was once unanimously regarded as the world's best, by a neo-liberal autocrat from France, Benoît Battistelli
Bristows LLP's Hatred/Disdain of UK/EU Democracy Demonstrated; Says “Not Only Will the Pressure for UK Ratification of the UPC Agreement Continue, But a Decision is Wanted Within Weeks.”
Without even consulting the British public or the European public (both of whom would be severely harmed by the UPC), the flag bearers of the UPC continue to bamboozle and then pressure politicians, public servants and nontechnical representatives
Released Late on a Friday, EPO Social 'Study' (Battistelli-Commissioned Propaganda) Attempts to Blame Staff for Everything
The longstanding propaganda campaign (framing staff as happy or framing unhappy staff as a disgruntled minority) is out and the timing of the release is suspicious to say the least
Links 23/9/2016: Latest Microsoft and Lenovo Spin (Now in ‘Damage Control’ Mode)
Links for the day
White Male-Dominated EPO Management Sinks to New Lows, Again
Benoît Battistelli continues to make the EPO look like Europe's biggest laughing stock by attempting to tackle issues with corny photo ops rather than real change (like SUEPO recognition, diverse hiring, improved patent quality, and cessation of sheer abuses)
Journalism 102: Do Not Become Like 'Managing IP' or IAM 'Magazine' (the Megaphones of the EPO’s Management)
Another look at convergence between media and the EPO, which is spending virtually millions of Euros literally buying the media and ensuring that the EPO's abuses are scarcely covered (if ever mentioned at all)
Journalism 101: Do Not Believe Anything That Benoît Battistelli and the EPO's Management Say (Also Don't Fall for the UPC Hype)
A survey/review (or an overview) of recent articles about the EPO and why they're wrong (mostly because they parrot the official lies from Battistelli's department)
Patent Law Firms, David Kappos, and IAM 'Magazine' Still Shelter Software Patents by Cherry-Picking and Lobbying
Amid the gradual collapse of software patents in the United States there are disingenuous efforts to bring them back or maintain a perception that these patents are still potent
Microsoft-Connected Patent Trolls Going Places and Suing Microsoft Rivals, Microsoft Wants More 'Linux Patent Tax'
Microsoft-connected patent trolls like Larry Horn's MobileMedia are still attacking Microsoft rivals and Microsoft wants more money from Korea, after it attacked Linux with software patents over there (notably Samsung and LG)
Links 22/9/2016: Linux Professional Institute Redesign, Red Hat Upgraded
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Links 22/9/2016: Red Hat's Latest Results, GNOME 3.22 Released
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David Gerard said,
November 18, 2008 at 8:10 am
The netbook form factor has a future because they’re real computers that are ridiculously convenient and handy. No-one could use one and think otherwise.
Victor Soliz said,
November 18, 2008 at 2:38 pm
yes, they are freaking awesome.
Unfortunately, it turns out the eee has a deadly battery issue that makes it waste battery when turned off, making it quite useless. It seems this was fixed for later versions, but that made me sure not to ever purchase an ASUS computer anymore. I hope there better netbooks in the future.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 18, 2008 at 2:42 pm
ARM has got some good things coming. It’s also Intel-free, not just Microsoft-free. It’s more energy-efficient.
David Gerard said,
November 18, 2008 at 3:15 pm
There’s any number of netbook makers, not just Asus. The competition is vicious and effective, and Microsoft can’t take ‘em all out but it can sow the seeds of disaster with $0 OEM licenses it’s not legally allowed to make nontransferable in many countries. And they’ll still use half the battery under Linux. It’s a great time to be a computer buyer.