07.28.09
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, GPL, Kernel, Microsoft at 9:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Image from Wikimedia
Summary: A red-handed Microsoft did after all violate the GNU GPL, according to the SFLC
Microsoft’s rather belated claim that its self-serving [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] loadable module for Linux was in compliance all along is more or less being refuted or at least contradicted by the SFLC.
Kuhn had a few words to say on the subject:
Microsoft violated the General Public License v2 (GPLv2) when it distributed its Hyper-V Linux Integration Components (LinuxIC) without providing source code, says the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC).
The violation was rectified when Microsoft contributed more than 20,000 lines of source code to the Linux community last week. The drivers are designed to improve the performance of the Linux operating system when it is virtualized on the Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V hypervisor-based virtualization system.
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“It seems to me that Sam [Ramji] is likely correct when he says that talk inside Microsoft about releasing the source was under way before the Linux developers began their enforcement effort,” said Bradley Kuhn, a policy analyst and tech director at the SFLC.
“However, that talk doesn’t mean that there wasn’t a problem. As soon as one distributes the binaries of a GPL’d work, one must provide the source for those binaries, so Microsoft’s delay in this regard was a GPL violation.
“The important thing to note from a perspective of freedom is that this software, whether it is released properly under the GPL or kept proprietary in violation of the GPL, is a piece of software designed to convince people to give up free virtualization platforms like Xen and KVM, and [to] use Microsoft’s virtualization technology instead,” Kuhn added.
Almost a week after the initial announcement, two pro-Microsoft journalists from IDG are still pushing this old news as though it is an endless PR campaign which struggles to portray what Microsoft did as an act of goodwill. It was a selfish deed. Get over it. The GPL was a requirement, neither a privilege nor choice. And it’s all about selling Windows. █
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Posted in News Roundup at 9:19 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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Linux is a fantastic platform for audio production. Find out how to build the perfect production environment.
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ALSA, or the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, sits within the Linux kernel itself as a series of hardware drivers. Audio data is passed from ALSA to the user-level applications that manipulate the audio. But despite this low level integration and a built-in potential for good low latency performance, most default Linux installations make poor audio production computers. That’s because there’s still too much going on in the background, and too many throwbacks from the time when Linux was designed primarily for server installation.
Luckily, Linux is a highly configurable operating system, and this means that you can create the perfect audio platform just by making a few tweaks. We’ve chosen the latest version of Ubuntu to be our guinea pig.
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The Linux Foundation, the non-profit that supports the growth of the Linux kernel, is today announcing an affinity Visa Platinum credit card for people who want to contribute to advancing the OS through the organization’s initiatives. Reading the press release announcing the new credit card made me raise my eyebrows, but after giving it a bit of thought I think that this is actually not that bad an idea.
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But I highly doubt that! Simply, GNU/Linux equates to Communism and we have to be aware of this.
Also, if you think even for a second that I am being serious, then you might have some serious issues…
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And now in 2009, their conclusion still holds true, I guess. You can run all the applications that a normal user will want to run – be it in Windows or Linux, in a PC or laptop which sports just 1 GB memory. Windows Vista doesn’t count, as it is an aberration.
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This future in automotive linux is a possible reality. Fast booting and reliable embedded systems, hardened open source linux and willing manufacturers will make it work.
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Desktop
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It’s typical, sensible, and useful for a conference wrap-up keynote address to look at the big picture, with session descriptions like, “Where Linux has been and where it’s headed.” At last week’s Open Source Convention, the role of identifying the major Linux trends and challenges was given to Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation.
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There are essentially two types of software: proprietary and open source. Proprietary software may be sold (Microsoft Windows comes to mind) or given away (shareware or freeware). In either case, the source code behind proprietary software is subject to legal protections. Programmers are not to access, modify or redistribute proprietary code. Open source software, on the other hand, is has completely “open” (accessible) code which can be manipulated and shared freely. It is my opinion that although much of what is in common use today is proprietary, such will not always be the case.
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Rather than buy proprietary software, companies can (and should) grab open source software and either use it as is or pay developers to tailor it to specific business needs. This, I think, is the future of software.
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There are four different app bundles to choose from, depending on the age level of the user: Tertiary for university-level students, Secondary for 13-18 year-olds, Primary for 6-12 year-olds, and Preschool for the five and under set. Alternatively, you can download the complete educational desktop and receive all four bundles at once.
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If you are going to wipe your hard drive, but before you pay a dime for Windows 7, try a Linux desktop distribution. If you don’t like it, what’s the worst that’s going to happen? You spent no money other than for a burnable CD or DVD, a little time, and you just have to wipe your disk again before installing Windows 7.
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Linux does not lack user friendliness any more. Ubuntu. openSUSE. Try them out.
Linux does not lack quality software. Openoffice.org. Firefox. Pidgin. Thunderbird. They all run on Linux.
Linux does not lack power. It runs on the widest range of hardware.
Linux does not lack company backing. Novell. Canonical. Red Hat. They are large corporations.
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Server
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The new offering is available as a standalone product or in an Enterprise package. Both packages include Sun Grid Engine software. The Enterprise package also includes Oracle VM, Oracle Enterprise Linux and a version of Reliance, which is reportedly Univa’s proprietary infrastructure and application service governor.
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Applications
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# Patches rarely receive feedback – positive or negative – on the wine-patches list
# Patches that are rejected aren’t labelled as such, or publicly given a reason for why they were
# Hundreds of patches don’t get in, that just need a tweak or two, that would REALLY improve the wine experience
# These failed patches can’t easily be seen by anyone unless they know exactly what to Google for
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Gnaughty is a program to automatically download adult sex content, i.e. porn movies and pictures, from a known Internet porn directory.
Providing a friendly interface, users who feel like having some porn can have it served fastly and directly to their desktop.
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Celtx is a media pre-production editor that allows you to easily create screenplays and storyboards for your next movie. You can use it to create a whole assortment of media, including theater, comics, advertising, and video games.
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The game is set in the not too far future of London 2099, where climatic catastrophes have changed the Earth’s climate permanently. In this interactive novel, bionic beings and complex technologies, clash with complicated relationships and even more complicated romance. Wise decisions build relationships with other characters, but one wrong move could ruin a friendship forever.
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K Desktop Environment 4.3
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Overall though, KDE 4.3 is shaping up to be a nice release, and it brings some much-needed fit and finish to the KDE4 desktop environment.
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With KDE 4.3, I think I will start using KDE part-time again, so congrats to the KDE team for their bold move to rebuild their desktop from scratch! I hope Gnome 3 brings an equal amount of innovation.
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Hannah Montana Linux is clearly geared toward those who are, in fact, Hannah Montana fans. I’m guessing that this group must be comprised mainly of very young people. I can’t imagine adults really being fans of this obnoxious little TV pop tart.
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An update of the noteworthy Cooker changes was long overdue. Here’s a short, incomplete summary:
* KDE is now at version 4.2.98 aka KDE 4.3 RC 3. Other KDE related updates include KOffice 2.0.1, Amarok 2.1.1, Digikam 1.0 beta 3, Kipi plug-ins 0.5.0. The KMess MSN Live instant messenger had its first stable KDE 4 release with version 2.0.0.
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Africa
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The Linux4Afrika development help project that is active in a number of east African countries has released the next verson of its software distribution. The donated used hardware will be expanded by new functionality.
The newest version of the Linux4Afrika terminal server solution will no longer require interested parties to buy from One Laptop per Child (OLPC) to test its Sugar learning interface. The GUI can be installed optionally and, after registration, started simply from the dropdown menu.
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Ubuntu comes on a live CD which you can try without having to touch your existing installation. And if you like it, there is an icon right on the desktop where you can install the system as you are testing it.
These are just a few of the reasons why I would very much encourage my African brothers and sisters to give Ubuntu Linux and other Linux distros a try. After all, they are free, great, safe and you become part of a worldwide community.
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Red Hat
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Red Hat, a leading provider of open source solutions, will host a series of sales enablement boot camp sessions by Red Hat’s worldwide sales trainer, Brian Cole.
The camps are available to Red Hat Ready Partners and Red Hat Advanced Business Partners across Australia and New Zealand.
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Going back to May before the release of Fedora 11, features that were planned for Fedora 12 (the release that’s codenamed Constantine) began to get laid out. Among these features were LVM enhancements, replacing nash/mkinitrd with Dracut, and using Empathy as the default instant messaging program. With time more features have come about for Fedora 12, such as re-basing the desktop environments to KDE 4.3 and GNOME 2.28, updating the kernel, etc. Over the weekend though, the Fedora Project Wiki was updated to reflect a whole batch of new features that are now planned for Fedora 12. Below are some of these new features.
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Ubuntu
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Canonical has organized its Ubuntu partner program into three segments — business partners, technology partners and training partners. But to spot the next generation of potential Ubuntu channel partners you need to check out two areas: Cloud computing and the so-called Ubuntu Marketplace. Here’s the scoop from The VAR Guy.
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Dig a little deeper and you’ll find a new segment listed as Cloud Partners — a critical area that could make-or-break Canonical’s server strategy. Early cloud partners include Eucalyptus Systems, Amazon Web Services, Cohesive Flexible Technologies and RightScale.
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READY: One thing we underestimated was the number of semiconductor engineers and partners working on Linux to enable Linux on chips. That happened faster and at a larger level than we thought. When we started out building MontaVista Linux earlier in the decade, we had to make the assumption that Linux may not exist on a given piece of hardware, or that if it was available, the kernel version might be four or five rev’s back. Beyond that, Linux was still somewhat unstable. So we developed a set of requirements and industrial processes to produce a commercial quality Linux that could go into any device. But now Linux has gotten really deep into the fabric of the chip business, and we are now adjusting to that reality with our new MDE approach in MontaVista Linux 6.
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Two versions will be available, the Linux-based G60 and the Windows Mobile 6.1-based M20, both of which have touch-screen displays that feature three primary icons: Call, Search and View Map. All other features are available through a gesture-based interface.
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It’s got an HDMI port, though don’t expect to be pumping out lots of HD without that Ion chip, and it’s got a very low energy consumption, as well as recyclable packaging materials. It comes pre-installed with Vista, XP or Linpus Linux.
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Active Media Products (AMP), manufacturer of SSDs and WWF series USB drives, today announced immediate availability of a bootable Linux USB (BLU) drive that is compatible with Windows® 7 and benefits WWF. These new penguin BLU drives are preloaded with the full installation of Ubuntu Linux 9.0.4.
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Phones
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Meet Proxoid, a proxy server application that lets you use your phone as a modem without hacking its system. Making Proxoid work does require a few steps, but the entire process is simple enough even for uninitiated users. Here is how to make Proxoid work with an Ubuntu-based system.
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The move is another sign that the Linux-based OS is picking up some steam, and Google said it expects up to 20 handsets to be released by the end of the year. Because it is a free OS, some of these handsets will be from relatively unknown manufacturers, but Android has drawn interest from top-five cell phone makers like Samsung, Motorola, and Sony Ericsson.
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While Android has enjoyed the lime-light of being the “open source, linux based” mobile platform — and it is all of that and more, the Palm webOS is heavily invested in Linux
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Sub-notebooks
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The $499 version of the Mini 110 weaves its wallet-friendly magic by opting for the free Linux operating system instead of Windows XP. HP has done much to make Linux a doddle to use, including a customised home screen that looks slicker and more professional than anything we’ve ever seen out of Microsoft. You’ll also find some bespoke programs, such as a multimedia player that resembles Apple’s Front Row.
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Zimbra, a Yahoo company, offers next-generation open source e-mail and collaboration. With this partnership, Linux Warehouse hopes to satisfy the local market’s growing demand for more sophisticated and cost-effective collaboration tools, says Linux Warehouse MD, Johnny Martins.
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Wookie, a Java based server application which eases deployment of Web widgets, such as the W3C Widgets, has begun incubating at the Apache Foundation. The Wookie project started life at the University of Bolton, where a team, supported by the TenCompetence EU project and supported by the CETIS Widgets Working Group…
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Browsers
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The new Chrome with the 3D acceleration features is all set to be introduced in the second half of 2010.
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Mozilla
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Mozilla has released mockups that show how Firefox 4.0 conceivably might look, and two words spring to my mind: Google Chrome.
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Last week we took a look at initial design mockups for Firefox 3.7, and now the busy designers at Mozilla are back with some theme mockups for the even-further-into-the-future Firefox 4.0.
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Keeping up with the evolution of Mozilla platform, Thunderbird 3 Beta 2 was released a few months ago with a number of cool features and massive bug fixes. Mozilla’s desktop email client includes archiving like Gmail and a new Activity Manager that helps you get a clearer idea about what Thunderbird is doing. Further, Thunderbird 3 beta includes new Add-ons Manager, improved address book and more. For Mac users they’ll be able to see better Growl notification and have more keyboard shortcuts.
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OSCON 2009
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I’d be hard-put to say whether OSCON or RubyConf is my favorite conference of the year; when I miss either I’m grumpy. Here’s a brief report from the latest San Jose instalment, with pictures.
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If you weren’t at OSCON this morning, here is what I spoke about in my keynote, Standing Out in the Crowd. I’m including most of the key visuals, so my apologies for the image-heavy post. I’ll also be uploading to slideshare.net (with voiceover I hope) and I’m told there will be video up at the OSCON blip.tv channel in due course. (ETA: it’s up.)
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Funding
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The initial round of funding was also used to create the Schooner MySQL appliance. This unit puts a highly optimized version of the InnoDB 1.0.3 transactional storage engine in a System x box equipped with solid state disks and an OEMed version of Sun’s MySQL 5.1 Enterprise Edition database, which Schooner has shown in benchmark tests can deliver about eight times the oomph of a plain vanilla x64 server running Linux and MySQL. The MySQL appliance costs $45,000 as well.
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Government
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It began at the dinner table with two software engineers at a VistA Community Meeting and ended 3 weeks later with Graphic User Interface Scheduling for VistA.
While coming equipped with powerful text-based scheduling capabilities, the private-sector VistA and WorldVistA(tm) Electronic Medical Record system communities have long wanted but lacked a Graphic User Interface scheduling front end. Ignacio Valdes, MD, MS reports “The wait is over. Sam has done it.”
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Standards/Consortia
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Last week, at OSCON, a San Jose startup known as Cloudkick unveiled an open source project that hopes to provide a single programming interface for a host of so-called infrastructure clouds, including Amazon EC2, Rackspace Cloud Servers, Slicehost, and GoGrid. Dubbed libcloud, the project reaches for a world where developers can build an app that’s easily shuttled from one cloud to another.
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Over in Russia, for example, it appears that a bunch of telco execs are complaining about Skype. They at least try to pass off a plausible non-save-our-asses reason: mentioning security, but they don’t do a very good job hiding the truth.
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Censorship/Web Abuse
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A few folks have submitted the news that, apparently, AT&T is blocking access to a certain subdomain of 4chan. I just checked on my own AT&T DSL account and it’s true that I can’t get there (I can get there if I don’t go via AT&T). That doesn’t mean that AT&T definitely is blocking it, but there are reports that folks at AT&T have admitted that it’s true. If you don’t know what 4chan is, the 4chan Wikipedia page is probably the best way to understand it.
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Those designing the DRM “simply refuse to face reality,” he concluded. “I have a machine with an AMD 7550 Dual Core, a ton of RAM, and most importantly nearly a TB of hard disc space, and yet I am supposed to keep my games and my movies piled around my machine so I can stuff in a disc every time I want to use them? What good is all that space for if DRM won’t let me use it?”
In short, “and it pains me to write this,” hairyfeet said, “I have to agree with RMS for once. DRM is simply too nasty to allow it to infect Linux.”
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Intellectual Monopolies
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It’s becoming more and more and more clear that the Associated Press does not like the rules of the Internet and intends to resist them. That’s actually pretty predictable when you think about it, because the Internet doesn’t like the AP either.
Luis Casas Luengo, Director of Extremadura’s Fundecyt foundation 06 (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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Posted in Finance, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 3:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“Before I turn and talk about how all of that then can amount to growth, I do want to talk a little bit about the fact that there are risks in our business. We have risks, people love to talk about them. Challenges: People talk about the challenge we have from open source software. Yes, we do, and we’re focused in on it.”
–Steve Ballmer, 2005
Summary: The impact of GNU/Linux on Microsoft’s profitability becomes more evident
Microsoft’s stock collapsed after very disappointing results that were partly caused by Free software and GNU/Linux. All of these are issues that we addressed before and last night a reader brought to our attention this article about Microsoft’s shrinking margin.
CEO Ballmer is increasingly willing to accept lower margins in exchange for higher overall profits
Microsoft has long enjoyed Olympian profit margins, using its monopoly power to maintain prices on its software even in tough times. But now, amid a terrible downturn and rising competition, CEO Steven A. Ballmer is shifting to a scrappier approach. He is cutting prices on a variety of fronts, from flagship Windows and Office products to newfangled Internet services.
It is no secret that Microsoft would rather give Windows for free than lose market share to GNU/Linux. According to some, Microsoft would even pay people/companies to use Windows, but this is not a sustainable strategy. █
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”
–Bill Gates
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Posted in Site News at 3:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Site milestone
This is post #7000. The many previous posts vary in terms of length and quality, but nevertheless it’s a milestone. Our longtime opponents will try to cherry-pick some of the weaker posts among this very large set and then use a tiny percentage of accidental errors (usually corrected) to dismiss the Web site as a whole. Why? Because they don’t like the message, that’s why. They prefer marketing and PR, not reality.
Thanks to all those who contribute to our posts and discussions. Post #10000 is not so far away. █
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Posted in Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, GPL, Kernel, Microsoft at 3:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Setting the record straight on news that’s not news
SEVERAL years ago, Microsoft was accused of spreading the false rumour that Linux had been derived from Minix. It was a lie, and some people still think it is true.
Microsoft’s loadable module for Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6] has demonstrated the strengths of the GPL, but Linus Torvalds continues to disrespect those who made the GPL possible. This is not news. FSF disdain from Torvalds has lasted an eternity, yet some people try to characterise his latest interview with Linux Magazine as some sort of change of heart; it’s not. As I pointed out 3 years ago, Torvalds even had a comment deleted for cursing Richard Stallman in Groklaw.
Regarding Microsoft’s loadable module, Free Software Magazine has just written an article explaining why Torvalds’ attitude is wrong.
Torvalds seemed to express indifference to the submission which he dismissed as only being about device drive code. If he looks at it at all it will be after it has been filtered through others, and even then only out of a sense of “morbid curiosity” apparently. The code is concerned with virtualizing GNU/Linux as a guest in Windows. That tells you a lot about Microsoft’s motives. If clients can’t run GNU/Linux on Hyper-V, Windows’ virtualization software, it makes it more likely that they would migrate to wholly free and open source systems running on wholly free and open systems.
Torvalds does the right thing by accepting Microsoft’s code (he hasn’t a choice), but the dismissal of the vigilant as irrational Microsoft Haters© is very unproductive but also very typical. █
“Giving the Linus Torvalds Award to the Free Software Foundation is a bit like giving the Han Solo Award to the Rebel Alliance.”
–Richard Stallman
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Posted in Antitrust, Europe, Interoperability, Microsoft, Office Suites, OpenDocument, OpenOffice, RAND, Standard at 2:54 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
The Rand Tower, downtown Minneapolis
Summary: Microsoft’s promise of so-called ‘interoperability’ leaves much to be desired
Microsoft very well understands that RAND terms are incompatible with Free software, but in its latest overture with the European Commission Microsoft offers exactly that. Andy Updegrove looks at the general details and provides cursory background.
If you’ve been reading the reams of articles that have been written since then, you may have noticed that the vast majority of the virtual ink spent on the story has been directed at the terms relating to browser choice. Typically, and as an afterthought, most of these stories have added a brief mention that a settlement has also been provisionally reached relating to “another” dispute, this one relating to interoperability.
And indeed, when it comes to “interoperability” (not the same as open standards), Microsoft has the usual gotchas. As Glyn Moody notes:
Now, as I’ve noted several times before, such “reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms aren’t necessarily much use to free software, since they can be both and still incompatible with major licences like the GNU GPL.
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This seems to mean that free software projects will be able to pay a relatively small upfront fee, with no per copy licensing – necessary to allow copies to be made and passed on without worrying about such fees.
Heise’s coverage of this references Moody.
Moody believes that, given the detail of these proposals, Microsoft already had these plans in place before they made the original proposal and that it was “being as awkward as possible”. Despite the commitment to ODF as a document format, there are still issues over interoperability with Microsoft applications and other applications which produce and consume ODF documents.
This is a subject that we wrote about in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]. Microsoft is harming rival office suites, aided by hypocrites.
Essentially, the news are about Microsoft discussing OpenOffice.org as a competitor. That’s interesting, usually Microsoft does not like to speak about competitors coming from the Free Software Community, except when it’s about patents on code it allegedly infringes.
Patents too are a last resort to Microsoft (against OpenOffice.org). █
“In one piece of mail people were suggesting that Office had to work equally well with all browsers and that we shouldn’t force Office users to use our browser. This Is wrong and I wanted to correct this.”
–Bill Gates [PDF]
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Posted in Microsoft, Office Suites, Open XML, OpenDocument, Security, Windows at 2:18 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
• Smut page ransomware Trojan ransacks browsers
Russian cybercrooks have come up with a variant of ransomware scams, which works by displaying an invasive advert for online smut in users’ browsers that victims are extorted to pay to remove.
• The Business of Botnets
Kaspersky Lab released some interesting statistics recently in a technical whitepaper. As part of its research into the cyber-underground, the company took a look at how botmasters are pricing the networks under their control.
• Microsoft to fix critical hole in IE
In a rare move, Microsoft on Friday said it would be releasing security updates on Tuesday–outside of its monthly patch cycle–for a critical vulnerability in Internet Explorer and a moderate vulnerability in Visual Studio.
• Microsoft to Issue Emergency Patches Next Week
The advance notification advisory that Microsoft released about these upcoming patches doesn’t say so explicitly, but a spokesperson for the company confirmed that the updates will address a critical security flaw in collection of code that Microsoft uses in a number of places in Windows. Having a vulnerability in this so-called “code library” is especially dangerous because Microsoft also provides this library to third-party software makers to help them build programs that can leverage certain built-in features of Windows.
• Insecure by design: MS Office formats
You see, when you’re opening an Office document today, you’re not just opening static words, images, or numbers. You’re actually starting a program that uses Microsoft Office as its interpreter. And, no matter whether you’re using Word 2,0 formats or the 2008′s 7,000+ pages mis-mash of ‘standard’ ECMA-376 Office Open XML file formats, there is no built-in network security layer. Instead, there is a mis-mash of fixes for one problem or the other.
Also see: Emergency, Botnets, and No Remedy
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Posted in IRC Logs at 1:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Read the log
Enter the IRC channel now
To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.
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