01.27.09

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Links 27/01/2009: IBM for GNU/Linux; Tories Support Open Source

Posted in News Roundup at 8:00 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

GNU/Linux

  • Microsoft debunks Linux myths

    Microsoft acknowledges that Windows has a serious security problem, unlike Solaris or Linux systems. In the same sentence they also debunk the myth that Windows problems are solely due to their marketshare. The funny thing is that they try to “fix” their problems by pursuing the perpetrators. Although that is not a bad idea, it won’t make Windows any more secure.

    Linux is not a threat to Windows

    My conclusion: We are not on a path to win against Linux We must change some things and we must do it immediately.

    I have more and more clients asking me about it.

    Is it something to worry about? I believe so.

    We feel a huge threat from Linux.

    I am scared.

    Your honor, I rest my case.

  • FOSDEM 2009 Interviews Published

    Just like in previous editions we have collected a list of interesting interviews with our main track speakers: Rob Savoye (Gnash), Martin Odersky (Scala), Pieter Hintjens (OpenAMQ), Victor Stinner (Fusil), Simo Sorce (FreeIPA v2), and Max Spevack (Fedora).

  • Monopoly Freedom Day

    * Dell Inspiron 530 with Microsoft Vista/Microsoft Office = $818.00
    * Dell Inspiron 530N with Ubuntu/OpenOffice = $428.00

    So the “monopoly tax” in this case is $390, or 48% of the total cost of the system. Now that amount is probably not going to crush you or me. But for a student, a small town library strapped for funds, the recently unemployed, or a family in the developing world, this is a huge difference.

    [...]

    Your wages are going to Redmond, to fatten the stock portfolio of the wealthiest man in America. Think about it. You know that Microsoft has. With the poorest countries in the world being the ones who would benefit most from using open source to avoid paying the Monopoly Tax, Microsoft has started a new “Scramble for Africa” in order lock them into a costly cycle of technological dependency in a new colonialist campaign.

  • HP’s ProCurve Now an Open Network Blade

    HP ramping up its networking efforts with Linux powered application blade.

    [...]

    Like Cisco’s AXP, HP will use Linux as the core underlying operating system on which application vendors will deliver their solutions. A Linux 2.6 kernel will sit on top of HP’s new ProCurve ONE Services zl Module, which is a blade that plugs into the ProCurve Switch 5400zl and 8200zl series switches.

    An HP spokesperson explained to InternetNews.com that the Linux OS is being used as a service OS to provide application installations, diagnostics and the checking of application licensing credentials. The applications themselves bring their own OS, just as if they were an appliance.

  • eyeon Fusion for Linux makes its mark on several films

    Two box office successes, “Twilight” and “Changeling” as well as “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus,” which is scheduled for a March release, relied on eyeon Fusion on Linux to provide a seamless workflow for facilities that have invested in the platform for render farms and other applications.

  • IBM

    • IBM Helps Businesses Cut Cost With Effective Software

      IBM and Red Hat (News – Alert) announced a joint initiative to help clients change from Microsoft-based desktops to Linux-based desktops. It includes tools such as Red Hat’s TCO calculator, diagnostic kit, best practices guide, no charge cost-reduction strategy engagement, and no charge proof of concept/pilot deployment. It also includes Red Hat’s heterogeneous virtualization management capability for the desktop to drive cost-efficiency and user productivity.

    • IBM, Red Hat and Canonical Gang Up Against Microsoft Office

      Lotus Symphony 1.2.1 — IBM’s open source office suite — is now available for Mac OS X, according to a trusted source. The release — along with IBM’s expanding Red Hat and Canonical partnerships – could give Microsoft Office a virtual (and real-world) headache. Here’s why.

  • Lists

    • 12 Wallpapers in which linux criticizes windows.

      Windows is always criticized by linux users i am not 100% sure why linux users criticizes windows some reasons might be windows is not free,can be more easy to attack by virus as compare to linux and so on.I have seen some wallpapers in which linux is criticizing windows so i am posting them here.

    • 10 Things a Power User Will Love about Linux

      If you’re a power user but haven’t yet given Linux a shot, you should definitely try it out. Here are 10 things that you will love about Linux over Windows or OS X.

    • The Linux Alternative Series: Image Editing

      Image editing on Linux is one of the most hotly debated categories. Actually it’s probably one of the biggest stumbling blocks for people who want to convert to Linux. A lot of people got used to Adobe Photoshop and the way it does things, that an alternative is almost blasphemous!

  • Kernel Space

    • Multi-pointer Remote Desktop: Ending the Mouse/Keyboard Wars

      Developer Chris Ball has patched the Vino Virtual Network Computing (VNC) server to display multiple simultaneous mouse and keyboard events. The result could be an end to the battle over mouse and keyboard control among local and remote users in a VNC environment.

    • AMD Releases R600/700 3D Documentation

      In late December, AMD had released open-source R600/700 code used to begin supporting 2D and 3D acceleration for the latest ATI graphics processors under Linux using an open-source stack. This code in its initial form just provided basic but fast 2D acceleration and on the 3D side was only able to draw triangles. This month an AMD Video BIOS Disassembler was released by Novell, which is one of AMD’s open-source partners. This evening, however, AMD has released its R600 3D specifications to the general public.

  • KDE

    • Hands on: testing the KDE 4.2 release candidate on Windows

      Ars takes the KDE 4.2 release candidate out for a test drive on Windows. The popular open source desktop environment has moved beyond Linux and is becoming increasingly robust on other platforms. Even KDE’s Plasma desktop shell is now Windows-compatible.

    • KDE Community Improves User Experience with KDE 4.2

      KDE 4.2 (Codename: “The Answer”) Brings Improved Desktop User Experience, Applications and Development Platform

      January 27, 2009. The KDE Community today announced the immediate availability of “The Answer”, (a.k.a KDE 4.2.0), readying the Free Desktop for end users. KDE 4.2 builds on the technology introduced with KDE 4.0 in January 2008. After the release of KDE 4.1, which was aimed at casual users, the KDE Community is now confident we have a compelling offering for the majority of end users.

  • Distributions

    • Desktop distros inch closer

      MEPIS and Mandriva are moving closer to new releases of their Linux distributions, and a French project called Jolicloud has posted a screen (pictured) from its upcoming netbook distro. MEPIS posted SimplyMEPIS 8.0 RC2, and Mandriva released its second alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring.

    • Penguin In Your Pocket: Running Linux On USB

      There are some very good reasons to create a bootable Linux Live CD using a USB drive or other flash memory device. Many netbook PCs, for example, save space by eliminating a built-in optical drive; this makes it impossible to run a traditional Linux Live CD/DVD.

      A bootable USB stick also gives you the ultimate portable computer: A self-contained Linux desktop system that will run on any PC that supports booting from a USB storage device. And unlike most Live CDs, a USB or flash drive allows you to create persistent custom desktop settings and to store your documents and other files.

    • Wanted: the First GNU/Linux Distro for the Cloud

      Who, then, will come along and similarly stitch the pieces of the cloud together into a cohesive platform? Who, as Tim predicts, will integrate the hodgepodge into a true Internet operating system, with the result neatly packaged for mere mortals who don’t know how to “mash up” XML feeds or tweak their browsers or iPhones to take advantage of the latest innovations? And what will be the equivalent of package management for the cloud, the technology that weaves all the independent pieces maintained by those thousands of hands together in a way that makes it easy for developers and users alike to assemble those pieces together for a multitude of different purposes?

      Perhaps most importantly, will the platform be a silo (or a small number of silos), or will the platform be open, enabling developers and users to combine services no matter where they live?”

    • CrunchBang is a Speedy, Dark-Themed Linux Desktop

      CrunchBang, an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that sports a snappy, low-drag interface and is perfect for thumb drives, live CDs, or speed-obsessed Linux fans. Check out how it looks and runs in our screenshot tour.

      Getting started is pretty simple. Head to CrunchBang’s main site, find the Download section, and grab the main ISO file (from BitTorrent or directly). You can burn it to CD/DVD, load it as a virtual system in VirtualBox/VMWare, or install it on a flash drive with UNetbootin. Put your CD or USB drive into your system, or boot your virtualization tool, and hit Enter at the boot prompt to load the live session of CrunchBang.

    • Red Hat

      • Job announcement

        So, now I’ve checked I’m allowed to announce it. I’m happy to say that, from February 2nd, I’ll be working for Red Hat, as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer (sadly, I can’t have ‘monkey’ in my job title any more). I’ll be working under Jay Turner in the QE department. Initially I’m going to be working on a new community QA system they’re developing. If I’m not misremembering entirely from my interview last month and horribly butchering the concept, it’s basically a system for automated submission and testing of fixes by external contributors. I’m going to be helping to build a developer community around the system. It sounds like a really fun area to work on, and I’m really grateful to the folks at Red Hat for taking me on.

      • A Backup Offering That’s Good Enough for Cisco

        When Bill Yu, an engineer for Cisco’s (NASDAQ: CSCO) development and test lab in Boulder, Colo., was looking for a new a backup solution, he stumbled upon R1Soft at last year’s Red Hat Summit (NYSE: RHT) in Boston.

        The lab had been using an Amanda server to do tapeless backups for four years, but ran into performance and scalability issues with the open source offering. “When I heard the pitch about fast backups, it sounded like the solution for us,” said Yu, who also liked R1Soft’s “pretty intuitive” Web-based interface.

      • Acxiom® Standardizes Its Grid Computing Environment on Red Hat Solutions

        Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Acxiom®Corporation (NASDAQ: ACXM), a global leader in interactive marketing services, has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the standard operating system for its high-performance, cost-saving grid processing environment.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • LCD Touch-Panel Computer Features Dual Ethernet Ports

      Techsol is now offering a cost-effective computer with a Color, TFT LCD and Touch panel and Dual Ethernet ports targeting User Interface (HMI) applications. This is a standard, off-the-shelf, ARM-powered, desktop device. Every unit is tested running Linux before it ships. Single units are available as development kits with full SW development tools and support. Call for pricing. By designing with the Medallion system, you are effectively out-sourcing your CPU design and Linux porting with no up-front NRE fees. That lets your team concentrate on the hardware and software portions of your product that your customers see. The result is that you can create a higher-quality product in a fraction of the time (and cost) of designing everything yourself from scratch. Plus, the interchangeable modules extend product life-cycle times.

    • Phones

      • AD X: Grumbledroid

        Community · I’ve previously written that one of the nicest things about Android is the community, as evidenced by my continued success in simple Web searches turning up working-code solutions to my programming problems.

        But the central Android Developers list over on Google groups, well, it’s not that great. There are a few insiders who try hard and do good work, but there’s a high volume of truly clueless questions that could have been answered by eight seconds’ recourse to that little search window in the top right corner of every bloody application you use.

      • Android Diary I

        Why Not iPhone? · Clearly, at this time, the iPhone hardware and software are slicker, and the ecosystem is bigger. But I just can’t get past stories like Newber. Well, and I already know how to program in Java and don’t feel like picking up Objective-C and Cocoa to earn the privilege of being a sharecropper.

    • Sub-notebooks

      • 35 million netbooks to ship this year?

        Nearly 35 million netbooks will ship this year, rising to 139 million in 2013, predicts ABI Research. Meanwhile, the mainstream media is increasingly reporting on the netbook trend, with a recent New York Times story noting Linux’s role in driving down prices and giving Microsoft fits.

        Two major trends have catapulted netbooks to the fore, says ABI Research: new low-cost, low-power, high-performance processors such as the Intel Atom (and soon, ARM-based processors like Freescale’s i.MX515), as well as a realization that smartphones cannot currently meet all the needs of mobile users. These and other “social and technological factors” have created a “perfect storm” that will lead to a boom in the netbook market over the next few years, says the research firm.

      • Nothing but Netbook: Six Low-Priced, Fast-Selling Laptops

        The unit we looked at came with Windows XP, but you can also get it with a Dell variant of Linux.

    • Small Computing

      • MIDs haven’t made it, but Intel is undaunted

        What is new is that Intel is getting set to release its Moblin 2 operating system for these devices. Moblin is based on Linux (Intel has apparently been hiring some noted Linux developers) and it will be distributed by Canonical (the Ubuntu people) and Novell. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, Intel plans to announce several new MIDs–including ones from new hardware partners–based on Moblin 2, according to the BusinessWeek story.

      • Netbooks: A Subsidized Outcome For Linux And ARM?

        Cellular service providers are likely to go with ARM/Linux-combo netbook designs in striving for lowest-cost hardware (thereby minimizing their upfront losses), as well as to reduce the likelihood of viruses, spyware and other customer-frustrating (and, don’t forget, network bandwidth-consuming) annoyances. And the resultant reduced functionality won’t be the problem it otherwise would be for consumers, both because the cellular service providers will position the subsidized offerings primarily as always-online communications platforms (web surfing, email, chat, social networking, etc), and because the systems’ ultra-low price tags will curb purchasers’ expectations of their capabilities.

F/OSS

  • Bucking the trend, handful of open source players attract VC funding

    Talend, which develops open source data integration software including Open Studio, this week announced it secured $12 million from investors Balderton Capital, an early investor in MySQL, and existing investor AGF Private Equity. This brings the firm’s total funding to more than $20 million.

  • Why DotGNU is Wrong

    I am a fervent believer in the principles of Free Software, and the principles of Freedom in general, but I don’t necessarily support everything Stallman says or does. I am not Richard Stallman, I have my own opinions, and in my opinion Stallman’s support of Microsoft technology via DotGNU is profoundly wrong. I understand his reasons: He merely wants to take something which is not entirely Free, and make it as Free as possible (whereas de Icaza’s motive is to take something he considers “cool technology”, and make it as interoperable as possible), but the use of this technology assists a deeply reprehensible company, and poisons Free Software with that disreputable company’s Intellectual Monopoly.

    [...]

    The pragmatists ignore this criminal behaviour, for the sake of convenience, because they are more moved by their own selfishness than by Microsoft’s outrageous business practises.

    [...]

    Critics are then lambasted by supporters, who marginalise critics by stigmatising them as “haters” and “zealots”, whilst ignoring the fact that this dissent is actually warranted, and is not in fact any form of irrational and unjustifiable hatred, any more than it is irrational and unjustifiable to condemn any other criminal.

  • CIOs

    • Recession Buster: Open Source’s Moment

      With a tough economy forcing organizations to look for ways to cut costs—and with many open source projects reaching a maturity level that IT executives are comfortable with—the technology might be on the verge of making serious inroads into corporate IT environments

      Not that long ago, open source software was regarded by many technology leaders as something to be used in a limited, even experimental way. Even today, some CIOs are skeptical about open source as a viable option for enterprise applications or to support critical business functions.

    • Open Source ERP Applications: They’re Real and They’re Spectacular

      In late 2007, CIO magazine surveyed 400 IT leaders about their ERP systems. Despite innovation, integration and cost issues, CIOs told us they remained committed to on-premise, traditional ERP systems. Just 9 percent of respondents reported using an alternative ERP model. Those models included software as a service, open-source tools and various in-house applications.

    • Oregon CIO Says Shared Ideas and Assets Are Biggest Benefit of Open Source

      Oregon’s CIO, Dugan Petty, says it’s not necessarily the money saved or the flexibility gained from open source that makes it most attractive for use in a government setting — though both of those things are good. What’s most important about open source in government is the opportunity to share ideas and solutions with other states that have similar needs and budget restrictions.

    • Corporations are idiots!!!

      Proprietary software companies in power today will probably tell you just the opposite. “Society can never advance without proprietary software,” they say. “Nobody would pay developers to write the software if money could not be earned directly from its sale.” I could go into how companies have managed to get rich by doing exactly that, but I won’t. Instead, think of it this way. The cost to develop the software is actually very low. Take a look at any company you want. You will see that the actual programmers make up a very very small percentage of the staff. Most companies don’t release enough data about this kind of thing to actually make that well known.

  • Education

    • Involve kids in free software development through play

      I can always count on Miriam for recommendations for games in Debian my kids may enjoy, as she has a passion for finding good games to package for Debian, and in particular, games for children. Over the past few weeks we’ve had some fun with her picks. At the same time, I always have Debian Jr. in mind. How can we ensure kids can have the most fun with this? How do we equip their guides to help them?

    • Teachers Need An Open Source Education

      The problem is that Linux users themselves are seen as a rogue element in a world maintained by Microsoft certified administrators. These admins, often working off of their “vast Linux experience” derived from a twenty minute adventure into some random Linux distro from a few years ago, are choosing to contribute to the misinformation already in existence. Some people have alleged that they are making up half-truths about what happens to those who go “full time” into this platform or even just disallowing any connectivity to use their network at all. This presents a problem should any of these students happen to come from strong Linux-using households, which might translate into bringing their Linux-based notebook to the local community college.

      So is this a worldwide problem or just a problem for U.S. schools? While I have seen reports and article indicating this does happen all over, the bulk of the hot air appears to rise from within U.S. shores mostly.

    • Open textbooks valuable option

      The solution is to approach the problem at the source, for students and faculty alike to exert the market force they are entitled to as consumers and increase the adoption of open textbooks and learning materials. Unlike traditional textbooks issued by major publishers, open textbooks use a unique copyright system that allows students to read them for free online, download copies to print, and purchase bound copies for as little as $20-$30 a copy. Open textbooks also have the advantage of being infinitely adaptable to the needs of the instructor, allowing them to edit the text as the needs of a given course change from year to year, potentially eliminating the need for new editions and the crippling effect they have on the used book market.

  • OpenOffice.org

    • OpenOffice.org Blocked from Microsoft Live Search?

      At least for Italy, this is not true: the search is working without problems, as you can see from the screenshot that I’ve just got from http://www.live.com/, and it’s working also if I use the advanced query “site:openoffice.org”. I hope that the situation is back to normal in Canada as well.

    • 55,000 French Students to Receive OpenOffice

      Open Source Schools (UK) has a discussion thread on the recent announcement that 55,000 laptops pre-installed with OpenOffice.org will be distributed to students in Oise, just north of Paris.

    • The State of ODF in OASIS

      A few statistics you might find interesting on the level of participation in OASIS TC’s related to ODF, based on a tally I did this morning:

      * The three ODF TC’s have 81 members from 28 corporations/organizations, as well as 9 individual members. This count does not include the even larger number of OASIS members who are “observers” in these TC’s.
      * Large companies with participants in these TC’s include IBM, Google, Sun, Microsoft, Nokia, Oracle, Intel, RedHat, etc. a virtual “Who’s Who” of the tech sector.
      * Members reside in 13 different countries.
      * 16 TC members are also members of their JTC1 or JTC1/SC34 NB’s. A total of 7 NB’s currently have members in the ODF TC’s.
      * The TC’s and SC’s had 95 meetings in 2008 and their current schedule calls for a combined 10 hours of teleconferences per month.
      * The main ODF TC had 439 person-hours of meetings in 2008.
      * The mailings lists for the TC’s received 2,594 posts in 2008, including 95 agendas and 95 meeting minutes.
      * ODF’s public comment list received 603 comments in 2008.

      So 2008 was a good year, with robust participation from a wide range of stake holders in the development, maintenance and promotion of ODF in OASIS.

  • Video

    • why open video?

      There’s one exception to this: video on the web. Although videos are available on the web via sites like youtube, they don’t share the same democratized characteristics that have made the web vibrant and distributed. And it shows. That centralization has created some interesting problems that have symptoms like censorship via abuse of the DMCA and an overly-concentrated audience on a few sites that have the resources and technology to host video. I believe that problems like the ones we see with youtube are a symptom of the larger problem of the lack of decentralization and competition in video technology – very different than where the rest of the web is today.

      In my mind there are two things that help drive that kind of decentralization:

      * You should be able to easily understand how something moves from a computer-readable format to something that is presented to a user. For example, turning HTML into a document, turning a JPEG file into a picture on the screen or using HTTP to download a file.
      * You must be able to implement and deliver that technology without requiring anyone’s permission or license. In reality this means that it should be available on a royalty-free basis and without encumbered documentation.

    • Mozilla champions Open Source Web video

      THE MOZILLA FOUNDATION is putting its significant clout and cash behind an initiative to create an open video format on the Web which would let users watch streaming video all over the Internet without having to use a plug-in.

    • Mozilla Goes to Bat for Open-Source Video on the Web
  • United Kingdom

    • Tories consider IT contract cap

      Instead of awarding long-term contracts to large IT companies they could open up the procurement process to smaller firms using “open source” software.

    • Tories Back Open Source Software…They Say

      Fine words butter no cyber-parsnips, of course, and I’ll believe all this when I see it. Still, it’s a start, and it would be good to see Labour finally admitting that its megalomaniacal, monolithic computing projects are failures, and adopting the decentralised, distributed approach the Tories are advocating here.

    • Tories consider open source and limit on size of government IT projects

      Shadow chancellor George Osbourne is considering a report that recommends putting a £100m spending cap on government IT contracts and opening up procurement to small firms using open source software.

    • UK Councils to explore Open Source benefits

      - First-ever UK conference on open source software in local government announced – As new US Govt looks at open source, UK called upon to wake up to opportunity

  • Applications

    • Startup provides commercial support for Lucene-based search

      Startup Lucid Imagination is banking on the belief there’s a market in commercial support for enterprise search applications built with the popular open-source Lucene and Solr projects.

      “Lucene and Solr are probably some of the most underestimated players in this market,” said CEO Eric Gries. The Solr search server provides a front end to the core Lucene search engine library.

    • Open Source Text Analytics

      If you have data mining background, RapidMiner and R are strong text analytics options.

      R is an open-source implementation of the S statistical programming language, which was developed at Bell Laboratories starting in the mid-‘70s. R is available under the GNU General Public License, which allows commercial use. Look in particular for tm, the R Text Mining Package, and for other useful modules and software interfaces listed under the natural-language processing task view. The paper “Text Mining Infrastructure in R” will help you along.

      RapidMiner is commercial open source, available in a free, community edition under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL) (which is similar to the LGPL used by Gate, with adaptations for networked software use) and also a closed-source (commercial) license for those who wish to embed the software into proprietary, commercial products. RapidMiner was developed at the University of Dortmund, Germany, and was formerly known as YALE (Yet Another Learning Environment). The university spun off Rapid-I in 2007 to develop and support the software.

    • Optaros and MuleSource Help Nespresso Meet Massive Growth Needs with Next-Generation SOA Solution

      Optaros Inc., providers of unique, online applications for clients through the Assembled Web and MuleSource, the leading provider of open source service oriented architecture (SOA) infrastructure software, today announced the successful implementation of the new open integration architecture NesOA for Nespresso.

  • Medical

    • Medsphere Successfully Implements Electronic Medication Administration Solution in West Virgina State Facilities

      Medsphere implemented the OpenVista EHR at all eight of West Virginia’s acute, psychiatric and long-term care facilities in 2008. The integration of BCMA is one more step the state is taking to create a secure and nearly paperless system uniting all West Virginia state-owned healthcare facilities to even include outside contractors.

    • THIRD ANNUAL DEMONSTRATING OPEN-SOURCE HEALTHCARE SOLUTIONS (DOHCS) CONFERENCE LAUNCHES ANNUAL LINUX GATHERING

      Join the Demonstrating Open-Source Healthcare Solutions (DOHCS) 2009 conference on February 9 to discuss and learn more about these and related issues. Now in its third year as special lead-in event for the Southern California Linux Expo (SCaLE), DOHCS offers those with an interest in Linux, open source, and healthcare the opportunity to share ideas and organize around achievable projects to address one of the looming concerns of the early twenty-first century. Where proprietary technology has proven itself unable to advance this crucial industry, open source promises the transparency and collaboration on which quality patient care is built.

Leftovers

  • Transparency Not Just About Access To The Press

    There has been a series of complaints from the White House press pool since President Obama was sworn in last week, about the fact that he’s apparently not living up to his promises of transparency — specifically in that he hasn’t been giving those mainstream press members access to certain things.

  • More Civil Liberties Concerns Over Jailed Korean Blogger

    We’ve covered the story of the South Korean blogger who went by the name Minerva, and who was arrested for “spreading false rumors.” The whole episode seemed troubling to us. It seemed as though the blogger was just posting his thoughts online, and the government didn’t like what he was saying.

  • The Pirate Bay Gets Ready for Court Case

    On February 16th 2009, the trial of The Pirate Bay will start in Sweden. Details of the case have been scarce thus far, but one of the witnesses for the prosecution will be a police officer who got a job at Warner Bros. last year. Pirate Bay’s co-founder Peter Sunde promised to bring more competent witnesses to court.

  • EU JURI Committee Go Mad on Copyright

    This is massively retrogressive, and takes no account of everything that has happened online for the last ten years.

    Please write to your MEPs now, asking them to reject the Medina report when it comes up for a vote. I know from personal experience how effective this is.

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

John William Templeton looks at Free Open Source Software and African American culture and innovation 05 (2004)

Ogg Theora

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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  16. [Meme] Sirius 'Open Source' Pensions: Schemes or Scams? Giving a Bad Name to Open Source...

    What Sirius ‘Open Source’ did to its staff is rightly treated as a criminal matter; we know who the perpetrators are



  17. Sirius 'Open Source' Under Investigation for Pension Fraud, Several Pension Providers Examine the Facts

    2 pension providers are looking into Sirius ‘Open Source’, a company that defrauded its own staff; stay tuned as there’s lots more to come. Is this good representation for “Open Source”? From a company that had many high-profile clients in the public sector?



  18. Links 23/03/2023: Sparky 2023.03 Special Editions and SUSE Changes CEO (Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen)

    Links for the day



  19. Links 23/03/2023: Linux 6.2.8 and XWayland 23.1.0

    Links for the day



  20. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 22, 2023

    IRC logs for Wednesday, March 22, 2023



  21. Apple 'Porn' Filter

    Guest post by Ryan Farmer: Apple and US State Governments Developing System to Require People to Report Themselves for Watching Porn.



  22. 3.5 Years Later Gemini Protocol and Geminispace Are Still 100% Community-Controlled

    Community-centric alternatives to the World Wide Web have gained traction; one of them, Gemini Protocol, continues to grow in 2023 and we're pleased to report progress and expansion



  23. Windows Falls to 16% Market Share in India (It was 97% in 2009), Microsoft Layoffs Reach India Too

    This month’s picture from the world’s most populous nation does not look good for Microsoft (it looks good for GNU/Linux); anonymous rumour mills online say that Microsoft isn’t moving to India but is actually firing staff based in India, so it’s a case of shrinking, not offshoring. When even low-paid (much lower salaries) staff is discarded it means things are very gloomy.



  24. Links 22/03/2023: GNOME 44 “Kuala Lumpur”

    Links for the day



  25. Microsoft Has Also Infiltrated the OSI's Board of Directors After Rigged Elections

    Weeks ago we warned that this would happen and for the third or fourth time in 2 years the OSI’s election process broke down; today the Open Source Initiative (OSI) writes: “The polls just closed, the results are in. Congratulations to the returning directors Aeva Black…” (Microsoft employee)



  26. Links 22/03/2023: Official Thunderbird Podcast Starts

    Links for the day



  27. IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 21, 2023

    IRC logs for Tuesday, March 21, 2023



  28. Many More Microsoft Layoffs Later Today

    Yesterday we shared rumours about Microsoft layoffs being planned for later today (there were 3 waves of layoffs so far this year). There are several more people here who say the same. How much noise will Microsoft make in the “media” in order to distract? Will the chaffbot "ChatGPT" help create enough chaff?



  29. Links 21/03/2023: JDK 20 and GNOME 43.5

    Links for the day



  30. Germany's Lobbyists-Infested Government Sponsors the War on Ukraine via the European Patent Office (EPO)

    The chief UPC ‘judge’ is basically seeking to break the law (and violate constitutions, conventions etc.) to start a kangaroo court while dodging real courts, just like Vladimir Putin does


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