11.21.09
Posted in GNOME, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell at 10:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: The road to Mono, courtesy of Novell projects; Moonlight never meant to be Silverlight compatible
BACK in July we showed that Novell was integrating Moonlight and Banshee (also see [1, 2, 3]). This is problematic for many reasons and it leads to more interaction or risky interdependencies in GNOME – ones that involve Mono and "illegal" parts of it in particular [1, 2, 3, 4].
Now we find that Telepathy gets a link to Novell’s Banshee. A similar link to Mono also exists in Evolution, which is a Novell product that falls under GNOME.
Separately, in relation to this report about Windows bias in Silverlight (very much anticipated), Oiaohm tells us: “This here is a pure repeat of what Microsoft did to Java [...] Adding platform depend[dent] extensions to try to limit its range.”
What might Moonlight developers (Novell/Microsoft) have to say about this? █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Humour, Novell at 10:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Humour about Novell as an acronym
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Posted in Dell, Mail, Marketing, Microsoft, NetWare, Novell, SCO, Servers, UNIX, Virtualisation at 9:56 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Despite being a quiet week for Novell, there are items worth highlighting as follows
Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Linspire, Microsoft, Novell, Patents, Samsung, Servers, SLES/SLED, Xandros at 8:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: News catchup with vendors that pay Microsoft for the use of Linux
SUSE (SLES/SLED) hardly appears in the news these days. The exception is stories where RHEL and SLE* are aligned as “officially supported” distributions. Such is the case with SGI news that got covered in:
i. SGI unveils new supercomputer Altix UV
According to SGI, based on open standards, the system’s x86 architecture leverages quad, six or eight-core Intel Xeon processors, codenamed Nehalem-EX. It allows for the use of completely unmodified Novell SUSE or Red Hat Linux operating systems. It is suitable for open source, custom and commercial applications, ranging from technical computing applications like Ansys Fluent to enterprise applications like Oracle.
ii. SGI previews UltraViolet Nehalem EX blade clusters
The Altix UV systems will support Novell SUSE Linux or Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and will run out of the box without any modifications to the Linux code.
iii. SGI Intros Supercomputer With Intel Nehalem EX
The Altix UV’s x86 architecture enables it to run unmodified Novell SUSE or Red Hat Linux operating systems. SGI says the supercomputer is designed for running open source, custom, and commercial applications, ranging from technical applications like ANSYS FLUENT to enterprise applications like Oracle or SAP.
Novell wrote about its relationship with SAP and then there is SEP:
SEP Releases ‘SEP sesam Bare System Recovery for Novell Linux’
[...]
With the release of “SEP sesam Bare System Recovery for SLES Linux” SEP AG further enhances its backup and recovery software portfolio to provide a fast and secure methodology to recover from a major hardware failure.
Novell also wrote about the SUSE Appliance Program, which is related to SUSE Studio.
Today we are introducing the first in a series of podcasts featuring the SUSE Appliance Program and our ISV partners.
Cornelius Schumacher wrote about the versatile SUSE Studio and founder of “Nothing Is Impossible Studio” is supporting SUSE now, along with other GNU/Linux distributions.
Hollar, formerly a systems engineer with BrigTech Consulting of Reston, Virginia, and founder Nothing Is Impossible Studio, a multi-player online game publisher, works with Linux, including Red Hat, Novell and Debian systems.
Open Enterprise Server 2 has its second service pack (it is based on SUSE) while Netware and OES are mentioned for support in this new article about HP.
The software supports HP servers and storage running Microsoft Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE Linux Enterprise Server, and Novell Open Enterprise Server for Netware and Linux.
Linspire
Linspire is part of Xandros now and its founder is still in hot legal water. Linspire/Lindows gets mentioned here, but in general, Linspire is more of a history now. It’s like Napster.
Samsung
Samsung is one of the companies that sold out to Microsoft and helped it apply a “patent tax” to Linux. Samsung is bringing some Linux phones to Europe (where software patents are void), sometimes via carriers like Vodafone, which is run by a former Microsoft executive [1, 2]. We wrote about this before.
Samsung announced an Android-powered “Galaxy Spica I5700″ smartphone, targeting Europe. In other Android news, Dell confirmed Brazilian and Chinese carriers for its Dell Mini 3, Google released a second-generation developers phone, and ZiiLabs is prepping an Android platform, say reports.
Luckily, Samsung’s phones lag behind the Linux competition which is not submissive to Microsoft.
Like the H1, the M1 has an innovative user interface that puts your contacts front and centre, and uses the Linux-based LiMo operating system. It’s a cool idea, but when we reviewed the Samsung H1 we found the whole thing a bit confusing.
To quote The Mirror:
Gadget review: Vodafone 360 H1 by Samsung
[...]
A nice effort, but there’s little to recommend this above HTC’s Hero or an iPhone.
There is also this:
The Vodafone 360 is currently accessible through desktop computer and on the Vodafone 360 H1 and M1 Linux Mobile phones by Samsung.
It is rather surprising to learn that Samsung may be placing its cards on Enlightenment.
Back in June Enlightenment E16 reached version 1.0.0 and then a few weeks later there was an E17 development snapshot released, but there hasn’t been a whole lot of news out of the Enlightenment camp over the past year.
The H (Heise) wrote about it the following:
Samsung may be sponsoring the Enlightenment window manager project and Enlightenment may be a component in Samsung’s bada mobile operating system. The Enlightenment project, which has been around since 1997, announced today that it was working with a “top-tier electronics maker” which “produces millions of mobile phones, televisions, sound systems and more”.
Our reader MinceR has asked, “any info on Bada besides the press release? And that it’s perhaps based on Enlightenment…”
It could be sarcastically argued that “Bada is Ballnux” because Samsung has a Linux patent deal with Ballmer. We continue to remind people not to touch Samsung products. They need to be persuaded to distance themselves from Microsoft and cancel their patent deal that harms GNU/Linux.
Sadly, Samsung receives preferential treatment in its own country, Korea.
LiMo Foundation announced that Korean wireless provider SK Telecom will deploy a Samsung-made “SCH-M510 “phone that complies with the LiMo (Linux Mobile) specification and offers a 3.5-inch AMOLED display. Meanwhile, LG Electronics, Samsung, SK Telecom, and the Korean government have launched the Korea LiMo Ecosystem Association to promote LiMo app development, says the Foundation.
We previously explained what Samsung does to LiMo [1, 2], emphasising the fact that even in Korea, Samsung helps spread Microsoft’s patent abuse against Linux. The least one can do is avoid Samsung and tell others to do the same. █
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Posted in GNU/Linux, Novell, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu at 7:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A roundup of news about OpenSUSE, ranging from the latest release to a new OpenSUSE Board whose tenure duration gets doubled
FOLLOWING last week's announcements of OpenSUSE 11.2 there is still a lot of coverage about it (including belated announcements about the KDE side). More launch parties took place and the mainstream press got around to reporting on the subject.
Upgrade stories are quite a few (mostly from SUSE people like Jörg Reuter), and they are mostly positive (it was smoother a transition than from Ubuntu 9.04 to 9.10 on the face of it). From Tux Machines:
For the first time, openSUSE now officially supports a “dist-upgrade” feature, similar to Debian’s. Which is to say, if you’ve got openSUSE 11.1 installed, you should be able to upgrade to openSUSE 11.2 by updating your list of software repositories to point to providers of software for openSUSE 11.2, doing a distribution upgrade via the Internet, and have a reasonable chance of success.
Another successful upgrade:
Oh, it boots very fast, too. Unless the next revision does something to screw it up, I think I’ve found my winner in the Linux wars.
Here is another praise for OpenSUSE 11.2 as a KDE distribution.
Congratulations to the openSuse community to a solid and beautiful release!
Reviews of OpenSUSE 11.2 soon arrived, including this one from Heise (The H).
A whole series of changes awaits users in openSUSE 11.2, including Ext4 as the default file system, boot loader Grub2 and a big move towards the KDE 4 desktop.
Here is another new review from a GNU/Linux skeptic.
We think visually, this is their best release yet. Usability wise they’ve done a great job simplifying things and making them a bit less overwhelming. Previous YaST versions have been a bit too overwhelming for new users and they’ve done a great job addressing this with the last couple of releases.
The desktop felt fast and responsive and contains all of the applications we would expect. There is also the added benefit of their large repositories which contain pretty much everything one would need.
Caitlyn Martin published her review in the latest DistroWatch Weekly.
While SUSE has never been my favorite I have always found it to be a solid distribution in the past. Sadly, at least on my hardware, that simply isn’t true of openSUSE 11.2. Installation on my netbook, which is extremely well supported by a half a dozen other distributions I’ve tried, was exceptionally challenging with openSUSE.
Jamie reports a “mixed bag”.
I’ve been trying out the new openSuSE 11.2 release for nearly a week now, loading it on everything I have. It’s been a mixed bag of results, starting out very strong, and ending up with several significant disappointments. Here is a summary of the highs (and lows):
The cosmetics look great. I have to say, over the past couple of releases openSuSE has gone from what seemed like a fairly “stodgy” distribution, both in terms of cosmetics and content, to one which I think is right up with the absolute leaders in both of those.
One of the first things I noticed, on the first system I installed openSuSE on, was that they have fixed the problem with non-U.S. keyboard maps not working. Hooray! That one has been a minor pain in the neck since Milestone 5 or so, and when it was still there in the RC releases, I was afraid it wouldn’t get fixed before the final release. Well done!
LWN.net also has a new review.
Overall this version of openSUSE acts more like a point-0 release or even a release candidate. Everything feels rough around the edges and as though lots more work is needed. There’s no dispute that openSUSE developers are the most aggressive between minor version releases, but this is the most dramatic effect I’ve witnessed from them. Polish and excellence have always been trademarks of openSUSE, so much so that I’ve come to expect only that. So, it’s shocking to have seen an openSUSE released in such rough condition.
The reviews above concentrate on the KDE side and they are largely positive. OpenSUSE 11.2 uses KDE4 as the default desktop environment now. Regarding the GNOME side, there’s this:
The Gnome desktop in OpenSUSE 11.2 is beautiful (much nicer than the clunky KDE IMHO), but there are a few things that I don’t like about the default settings. I use 8 virtual desktops to keep my desktop organized but I like the taskbar to show all tasks. By default, the gnome panel’s task bar shows only the windows in the current workspace and for some reason you can’t just right-click the panel to change this setting.
The latest Firebird is entering OpenSUSE and the Reiser4 file system is made available also. OpenSUSE Edu Li-f-e is now arriving based on the very latest release and there are AutoYaST goodies to be shared. Documentation soon follows and the opensuse-guide.org Web site gets created.
The second beta of OpenOffice.org 3.2 has come to OpenSUSE and so has pspi.
Remember my blog post about how pspi, the GIMP plug-in that runs Photoshop plug-ins, works on Linux, too? You can now download pspi binaries built on SUSE Linux 10 and Ubuntu 5.10 here.
There is more to be said about OpenSUSE 11.2 and its repositories, as its kernel too is entering some of these.
Want to help test the openSUSE kernel? Want the very latest and greatest openSUSE Linux kernel sources? We have good news for you!
Looking at the board’s elections, the deadline is near, but the timeline has changed.
Candidates for this election will be voted in for a two (2) year term, ensuring that there is continuity within the Board.
Bryen Yunashko is running again and Pavol Rusnak will join the candidates. There might not be enough candidates yet based on reactions like this. One board member quit the team earlier this year, which is maybe why the tenure is to last two years this time around. OpenSUSE is attempting to increase transparency in the board’s activities. Zonker writes:
Ever wanted to know what the openSUSE Board is up to? Have you always wondered what the Board discusses and how it comes to decisions? Are you interested in how your elected representatives work with each other? Maybe you are even interested in running for a seat in the elections and want to know what duties that would bring with it?
Zonker also gives feedback tips (they try to please everyone), which is particularly important when it comes to security. Someone from the SuSE Security-Team has this to say.
Anyway, there are more items in OpenSUSE Weekly News, which was published some days ago.
In this Week:
* openSUSE 11.2 Released!
* Launch Party Locations
* KDE.NEWS/Will Stephenson: Introducing KDE 4 KNetworkManager
* Joe Brockmeier: Microblogging with Choqok in openSUSE 11.2
* h-online/Thorsten Leemhuis: Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.32 (Part 2) – Graphics
OpenSUSE/Novell has already begun talking about OpenSUSE 11.3. █
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Posted in IRC Logs at 4:55 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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11.20.09
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Patents at 10:23 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Latest evidence that Microsoft is totally out of control as far as software patents are concerned
THE INQUIRER alleges that “Microsoft nicks another man’s patents,” which is a familiar routine.
SOFTWARE MONOPOLIST Microsoft seems to be patenting stuff like crazy.
Volish employees Samuel Chow Radakovitz, Adam Michael Buerman, Anupam Garg, Matthew John Androski, Matthew Kevin Becker and Brian Ruble apparently had a brillian insight one morning and got patent 20090282325.
eWEEK Europe writes about the intellectual monopoly ruling that bans Windows XP in China [1, 2, 3] and from ZDNet UK we have the following comment about the so-called “sudo patent” [1, 2].
As I read it, Microsoft have obtained the patent on Sudo itself but they have also added, or propose to add a GUI.
Either way, surely Sudo is protected by the GNU licence and prior art. Bolting on a GUI must, for sure, be an infringement of the licence. That is unless they continue to licence under the GNU.
Why do Microsoft want Sudo anyway, that’s an interesting question.
As one final item, here is a new post about an apparent rejection of patents at the World Wide Web Foundation, which is not to be confused with the ‘Open’ Web Foundation (OWF) we wrote about this morning.
As the head of the Jordan Open Source Association I have also asked with others, about the openness and royalty-free policy of the foundation. We got very assuring answers as well as plans to promote open content by the foundation, Stephane Boyera wrote:
Another key discussion was around intellectual property, and the importance of open source and free content, not only at the tools level, but also in the different materials and tools developed by the thousands of projects in the field. This is an area we will surely investigate further.
The World Wide Web has traditionally avoided patents as a matter of principle so as to keep the Web safe from proprietors. The World Wide Web Foundation will probably not change this, but there is reason for concern about the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), which got occupied with Apple and Microsoft employees. Microsoft already poisons storage standards with its patents (see Tuxera for example [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]). █
“One thing I find myself wondering about is whether we shouldn’t try and make the “ACPI” extensions somehow Windows specific.
“It seems unfortunate if we do this work and get our partners to do the work and the results is that Linux works great without having to do the work.
“Maybe there is no way to avoid this problem but it does bother me.
“Maybe we could define the APIs so that they work well with NT and not the others even if they are open.
“Or maybe we could patent something related to this.”
–Bill Gates
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