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12.22.11

IRC Proceedings: December 21st, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 7:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#boycottnovell-social log

#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

Techrights Interview With Jim Whitehurst, Red Hat’s President and CEO

Posted in Interview, Red Hat at 6:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Jim Whitehurst

Summary: A short interview with Jim Whitehurst, who spoke to us about Red Hat’s performance

A

COUPLE of days ago a company working on behalf of Red Hat contacted us, whereupon we asked for some answers from Red Hat. We are pleased to have received them from the company’s CEO, Jim Whitehurst. Here is the quick Q&A.

How has the economic climate affected Red Hat’s performance? Has it been beneficial?

Year to date through November 30, 2011 (three quarters) we have experienced rapid growth; revenue 26%, income from operations 42% and net income 50%. Historically, we have performed well in both up and down economic cycles.

There have been numerous reports recently about Red Hat’s expansion and relocations. How does Red Hat view the prospect of expanding in Europe, where software patents are less of a problem?

Red Hat is expanding globally, including in Europe, with more than 70 offices now in over 30 countries. Software patents are not a criteria in our expansion plans.

How can a community of Free/open source software enthusiasts ensure that Red Hat — a key developer of pertinent components of the GNU/Linux operating system — maintains growth?

Red Hat is responsible for Red Hat’s growth based on our own strategies and business plans. The open source community is important to us and we actively work to encourage, cultivate and grow the community, but only Red Hat can drive its growth.

Have CentOS, Scientific Linux, and Oracle had any noticeable impact on Red Hat’s ability to sell support contracts?

No. █

Links 22/12/2011: 700,000 Android/Linux Activations Per Day

Posted in News Roundup at 12:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Twitter Buys Crypto Tech, Then Open-Sources It

    Twitter has released the source code to TextSecure, the encrypted SMS messaging application created by Whisper Systems, which it acquired earlier this year, and promises more releases to come.

  • Twitter to Open Source Android Security Tech
  • GitHub’s Janky Goes Open Source

    With little fanfare, GitHub has released Janky under the MIT license. Janky is a continuous integration (CI) server that runs on top of Jenkins and Hubot, designed to work with projects hosted on GitHub.

  • Open Source Projects Focus on a Greener, Safer Planet

    Ecobot. One way to start contributing to a more sustainable planet is to keep track of your own carbon footprint. Do you track how much fuel, power and paper you use, for example? If not, Ecobot is a free, open source Adobe AIR application that tracks your fuel consumption, paper consumption, and much more. It also directs you to green resources that you can leverage. We covered Ecobot in this post.

  • AZIZ: a new open source home automation solution for Linux

    In case you didn’t know yet, CocoonTech has been tracking all home automation software available to the general public, all compiles in a nice and easy to search home automation software list. This list is updated on a regular basis, and today, AZIZ has been added to the list.

  • Introducing Palantir’s first open source releases

    We’re big fans of open source. Libraries from Apache, Google, and various projects hosted on SourceForge.net make up a significant fraction of the third-party code we use to build our products.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

    • Mozilla

      • Test driving Firefox 9

        Following a rapid release schedule that has upset several people, Firefox 9 was made available yesterday. Although it has been said that Google Chrome has taken the #2 browser market share position, I will continue using the Mozilla browser because, to be honest, none of the arguments against Firefox has been heavy enough for me to drop it. In addition, I like Mozilla’s open Web philosophy and the useful extensions that can be incorporated to “the little browser that could”.

      • Firefox Add-On Bypasses SOPA DNS Blocking

        The pending Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) continues to inspire opponents to come up with creative solutions to circumvent it.

      • Mozilla’s Renewed Deal with Google Showcases Google’s Real Priorities

        As December began, it was unclear whether Mozilla would renew its long-time deal with Google, through which Mozilla gains the lion’s share of its revenues by steering users of the Firefox browser toward Google’s lucrative search/ad ecosystem. For those who favor Mozilla’s browser and other tools, the issue was an important one, because Mozilla’s deals with other search-focused companies don’t provide anywhere near the amount of money that Google kicks in. Now, in a blog post, Mozilla has announced a new, long-term deal with Google that will last for at least three years. Above all, the renewal of the deal shows that Google cares more about steering the maximum number of users toward its search engine than it does about absolute dominance for its own software tools.

  • Databases

    • JDBC driver for Neo4J bridges the SQL/NoSQL divide

      NoSQL databases such as the graph database Neo4j don’t normally work with common database tools which are typically tailored for SQL databases. Rickard Öberg, a developer from Neo Technology, thought this wasn’t right, and now in a blog posting he has described a JDBC interface he has created which forwards database queries to Neo4j and allows common applications to access the NoSQL database without modification.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice Backers Want Community to Join ‘bug Hunt’

      The organization behind LibreOffice is hoping community members will help it uncover problems with an upcoming release of the open-source office suite via an international “bug hunt” next week.

    • Hunt Bugs For LibreOffice 3.5

      The Document Foundation, the body behind LibreOffice, has announced the first LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session. The session will be held in a virtual environment on December 28 and 29, 2011. Volunteer bug hunters will gather on the Internet from the five continents to spot software problems of the upcoming new major release, featuring a large number of improvements and new functions, in order to make LibreOffice 3.5 the best free office suite ever.

    • VirtualBox 4.1.8 Fixed 3D Support
    • In progress : native support of the SVG graphic format in Apache OpenOffice.org

      Apache OpenOffice.org is gradually recovering from his transfer to the Apache Foundation. Until the release of the first version, new features appear. Here’s one: the native support for graphics files of type .svg (for Scalable Vector Graphics)

  • CMS

    • Newscoop 4.0 Beta adds new community features to open source news CMS

      Newscoop, the open source content management system for online news media, has a new major release out in beta. Newscoop 4.0 adds the possibility to build a community platform into a news website, allowing newspapers to grow and manage vibrant communities around their content.

  • Education

  • Business

  • Funding

    • Cloudant claims $2M funding

      The company also offers an open-source version of CouchDB in BigCouch. NoSQL is a catch-all term for developers who reject the popular open-source database software MySQL.

  • Project Releases

    • Ceylon language reaches first milestone

      Red Hat has released a first milestone of Ceylon, its open source alternative to Java. The milestone allows developers to access the compiler, language module and runtime of this statically typed language. A total of five such milestones are scheduled in the development roadmap to version 1.0 – according to the developers, around 80 per cent of the planned functionality has already been made available in the now released version.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Brazilan State Mandates Preference To ODF

      The government of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest state in Brazil, passed a new law which mandates public entities and companies in Rio de Janeiro to give preference to open document formats, in particular ODF. The publication of Law #5978/2011 was celebrated in an official event with representatives from the government, several state companies, and the FLOSS community.

  • Licensing

    • Self-regulation event in the European Parliament

      I posted a week or so ago about the latest round of discussions hosted by DCMS regarding ‘self-regulation’ and Internet policy. In addition to ongoing discussions about a new, faster scheme for website blocking, there are now plans proposed by rights holders for search engines to ‘self-regulate’ in the name of copyright enforcement too.

  • Openness/Sharing

Leftovers

  • Security

  • Finance

    • IMF calls Irish rescue ‘fragile’

      Ireland’s lauded rescue program is at risk of falling off track as a slowing European economy cuts into the country’s exports and sparks concern about the nation’s banking system, the International Monetary Fund reported Tuesday.

    • Top business story in ’11: Europe financial crisis

      Europe took the financial world on a stomach-churning ride in 2011.

      The rising threat of default by heavily indebted European countries spread fear across financial markets and weighed on economies worldwide. As the year came to a close, banks and investors nervously watched Europe’s political and financial leaders scramble to prevent the 17-nation eurozone from breaking apart.

    • Break Up Bank of America Before it Breaks Us

      On Monday, Bank of America (BofA) stocks briefly traded for under $5. Yes, you could buy a share of BofA for less than the noxious debit card fee they tried to force down your throat.

    • Who Owns Our Politicians? Goldman Sachs

      Corporations are people too. So says our supreme Supreme Court. As such they can donate as much as they want to politicians. Does this sound right to any of you?

    • E-Mail Clues in Tracking MF Global Client Funds

      Federal authorities investigating the collapse of MF Global have uncovered e-mails that detail the transfers of money in the firm’s last days, including transfers that contained customer money, according to people close to the investigation.

    • Scott Brown, Elizabeth Warren now dueling populists

      In a fierce fight to keep his job in deep-blue Massachusetts, the freshman GOP senator is shunning tea party Republicans who helped send him to Washington and embracing the same populist fervor that’s made Warren, his likely Democratic rival, a hero among liberals.

    • Calif. AG sues Fannie, Freddie demanding answers

      California’s attorney general filed lawsuits against mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on Tuesday, demanding that the companies that own some 60 percent of the state’s mortgages respond to questions in a state investigation.

    • The Wall Street Journal Has Not Heard About the Housing Bubble

      The housing bubble apparently still has not gotten word about the housing bubble. Of course it is easy to see how an $8 trillion bubble whose collapse wrecked the economy could escape the attention of the nation’s premier business publication.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Upcoming American Petroleum Institute ‘Vote 4 Energy’ TV Campaign Disrupted by Undercover Activists

      Late in the morning, the API Edelman team filmed three unexpectedly honest ‘citizens’ who made clear the script did not represent their real opinions on energy. Greenpeace researcher Connor Gibson of the PolluterWatch project repeated their scripted line, “I vote,” then declared, “But I am a clean energy citizen. I will not believe the lies and influence peddling of the American Petroleum Institute, which would leave you to believe that I am a citizen that is okay with giving my tax payer dollars to billionaires and millionaires that run oil companies, the most profitable industry on the planet.” Gibson stressed movement

  • Privacy

    • Privacy rights

      With justification, Ontario’s privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian continues to point out that Ottawa’s planned “lawful access legislation,” targeting the Internet, smartphones and other mobile devices, really amounts to a blatant infringement of our privacy rights.

  • Civil Rights

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • CRTC’s Net Neutrality Rules in Action: Bell To Drop P2P Traffic Shaping

      Bell advised the CRTC yesterday that it plans to drop all peer-to-peer traffic shaping (often called throttling) as of March 1, 2012. While the decision has been described as surprising or as quid pro quo for the usage based billing ruling, I think it is neither of those. The writing was on the wall in October when Bell announced that it was dropping the traffic shaping for wholesale traffic, citing reduced network congestion from P2P. At the time I wrote that the Bell move:

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Swiss Government Says Copyright Enforcement Rules Sufficient

        Switzerland has completed a major government study on whether new measures are need to address online copyright infringement. The study concludes that no new legislative action is needed, citing the high costs and negative effects of three strikes and you’re out policies. It is noteworthy that Switzerland participated in the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement negotiations and has enacted digital lock rules that link circumvention to copyright infringement.

      • Why Spotify can never be profitable: The secret demands of record labels
      • Are programming languages subject to copyright protection?

        Intellectual property law was created to protect the rights of creators over products of the mind. Speaking loosely: Patents protect inventions. Trademark protection covers names, images, and designs used in commerce. Copyright covers literary and artistic works, including both tangible artifacts and intangibles such as performances. Trade-secret protection is for information that owners keep secret to maintain competitive advantage.

      • ACTA

        • Last Parliament Standing: Europe Final Stronghold Of ACTA Critics

          With a recent decision by the Agriculture and Fishery Council of the European Union, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) seems to have made a big leap forward. And with recent breakthroughs in other countries, ACTA’s final hurdle may be in the European parliaments.

          Late last week, officials who might not have previously heard a lot about the much-debated agreement authorised the European Commission to sign ACTA on behalf of the Union. With this, ACTA reaches its final phase in Europe, which consists of 28 ratification processes, including the one involving the European Parliament (EP).

        • Shoving ACTA down the throat of the European Parliament

          As ACTA D-day approaches the debate heats up in Brussels. Today French Sarkozyist MEP Marielle Gallo started leading the forward charge of the music and entertainment lobbyist light brigade. MEPs are already being bullied into rushing into parliamentary approval of ACTA within 3 or 4 months without even seeking the opinion of the European Court of Justice. Ms. Gallo ended the today´s presentation of her enthusiastically pro-ACTA opinion in the Judicial Affairs Committee by warning of the dire consequences of “losing 2 more years” waiting for a European Court ruling on how the implementation of ACTA could affect fundamental rights, as requested by Green and Liberal MEPs.

        • EU Council Quietly Adopts ACTA, By Hiding It In An Agriculture And Fisheries Meeting

          So, continuing the tradition of denying European citizens any opportunity to offer their views on ACTA, the Council of national ministers employed the shabby trick of pushing the treaty through by adopting it without debate at a meeting whose main business had nothing to do with international trade.

          Interestingly, this is not the first time European politicians have used this subterfuge. In 2002 the European Commission presented a proposal that would allow software patents in Europe (currently, the European Patent Convention forbids patenting programs for computers “as such”).

          This saga was still going on in 2005 when the software patent proposal was added to the agenda of a fisheries meeting – just like ACTA. On that occasion, the ploy failed, but the Council Presidency went on to adopt the agreement in violation of the procedural rules. The proposal was then passed to the European Parliament, where it was definitively rejected.

        • FFII provisional note on the Legal Service’s Opinion on ACTA

          On a request from Members Lichtenberger and Engström, the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee decided to release the Legal Service’s Opinion on ACTA. You can find the documents here.

          The FFII published a provisional note on the Legal Service’s Opinion on ACTA, see below or the pdf. Due to the limited time available, it is limited to border measures and damages.

        • Will the European Parliament Public Health committee formulate an opinion on ACTA?

          As things stand now, the European Parliament committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety will not formulate an opinion on ACTA. Despite all the analysis work done on the effects ACTA will have on access to medicine, and despite health groups informed the Parliament, no Member of Parliament has asked the committee to formulate one.

        • EP Legal Affairs Committee newsletter very positive about ACTA

          The JURI Report, the newsletter of the European Parliament Legal Affairs Committee, is a very positive about ACTA.

          “Thus, it will provide benefits for EU exporting right holders operating in the global market who currently suffer systematic and widespread infringements of their copyrights, trademarks, patents, designs and geographical indications abroad.”

          Not a word about all the civil society and academic criticism on ACTA. The critical European Parliament INTA study is not mentioned.

        • Letter to EP Legal Affairs Committee

          The world faces major challenges: access to medicine, diffusion of green technology needed to fight climate change, and a balanced Internet governance. While flexibility is essential to solve these major issues, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) codifies draconian measures. ACTA’s predecessor, the 1994 WTO TRIPS agreement, still hampers fair trade, even in life saving generic medicines. The EU should have chosen to further balance, in the World Trade Organization, the TRIPS agreement.

          It is not too late. ACTA goes beyond US law, the US will not ratify ACTA. The Mexican Senate urged the government not to sign ACTA. India, Brazil and China have turned against ACTA. The EU can and should reject ACTA, and seek a balanced solution in WTO and WIPO.

12.21.11

Merry Xmas

Posted in Site News at 11:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Xmas at Boycott Novell

Ron Hovsepian and Steve Ballmer with red hats

Our posting volume will decrease in the coming days. There is not much to report on.

Latest Patent Attacks on Linux/Android and Why They Matter

Posted in Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, Patents at 11:20 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Multinational proprietary cartel taking turns in Linux smackdown

Volley

Summary: Updates on the Oracle, BT, and Apple actions against Android

FOLLOWING some delays at the US-based embargo agency known as ITC, the word came out about yet another example of anti-competitive tactics, this time from Apple. This affects Linux/Android in a very concrete way as we shall explain in this post.

“All that proprietary giants like Apple and Microsoft can do is throw patents at the ‘problem’ and occasionally use some patent trolls from the outside, adding wood to the fire.”As a bit of background, consider the fact that Linux/Android is gaining in the mobile market and figures from yet more analyst groups say that the same is about to happen on tablets. All that proprietary giants like Apple and Microsoft can do is throw patents at the ‘problem’ and occasionally use some patent trolls from the outside, adding wood to the fire. Steve Jobs’ close friend, Larry Ellison, sure throws a lot of lumber into this fire, but it gradually backfires. One patent at a time, Oracle’s case against Google is disintegrating. One ally of Microsoft, BT, is also throwing some wood into the fire with this new patent lawsuit that runs to the core. The British press wrote a lot about it, whereas, putting Bill Gates-funded publications aside, here at Techrights we wrote about BT for years, also in relation to patents and its relationship with Microsoft (I also wrote about BT in my personal blog [1, 2, 3, 4]). We basically saw that coming. Here are the latest details:

British Telecom is claiming billions of dollars of damages from Google in a lawsuit filed in the US which says that the Android mobile operating system infringes a number of the telecoms company’s key patents.

What motivated BT to sue? The company knows it is bad for PR, but perhaps causing damage to Android/Google was of interest and priority. BT would not have done this to Microsoft/Windows. Remember how hostile Nokia became towards Android after Microsoft had infiltrated it. Patent aggression became part of it and clues of it persist in existence. Apple and Nokia opposed open/free Web video and Apple paid Nokia, only to further harm the Web:

Apple has been garnering quite a reputation for itself as a patent bully, for example using patents around the world in an attempt to stop Samsung competing in the tablet market, and bolstering patent trolls. But that’s not enough for the company, it seems: now it wants to use patents to block open standards.

So much for innovation, eh? As this legal fight between Apple and Samsung continues we learn that:

KOREAN ELECTRONICS GIANT Samsung has entered more claims against Apple in their patent battle in Germany.

The two firms are locked into a war over software and hardware patents and are taking their battles to courts across the globe.

According to Reuters Samsung has filed additional claims in Germany that allege four more patent infringements in the ongoing case there. A spokesperson confirmed this to the news agency.

Remember that Apple started this whole feud.

The ITC, which based in the US, harms companies from Asia at Apple’s behest (yet again) and Rupert Murdoch’s press says that “Apple Ruling Hits Android” (remember that Murdoch and his press hate Google [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13] and embrace DRM/Apple):

…it found that some HTC smartphones using Android violated only two claims of one Apple patent related to extracting information such as phone numbers from emails and doing something with the information, such as making a phone call. That invention, sometimes described as covering “data tapping,” allows users to grab data embedded in an unstructured form, like an address, and use it in another phone application, such as mapping.

This patent is a joke. It’s about software patents again. Groklaw has this to say:

We often hear a comparison between the cold war and the large accumulation of patents and their use in the information technology sector. Terms like “mutually assured destruction,” “throw weight,” and others have been in vogue for some time. But I have often viewed the actions of some large IT players and their assertions of infringement of trivial patents as being more akin to sprinkling nails on the highway. That is, just like a driver in a race throwing nails on the road to puncture the tires of following competitors, some of these large patent holders sprinkle their trivial (and worthless?) patents around to slow down their technology competitors. That’s my view of what Apple has been doing of late, particularly in its action before the International Trade Commission against HTC.

Apple innovation means embargo and unfair competition. Against Monopoly called it “another example of why we need to get rid of patents on software.” Android Guys shrugs it off by saying that the “victory means little” because:

So what exactly does this mean for U.S. users? Well, nothing really…

Actually, we beg to differ because unless this systemic malfunction is addressed, customers and developers will continue to suffer. Tyrants and lawyers are taking over the industry. It’s a class war between power/greed and labour. The corporate press — Murdoch’s included — almost always takes the side of tyranny. The Wall Street Journal, for instance, exists around greed. It helps the paper-pushers beat producers. █

From SUSE and Novell Straight to Fog Computing

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE at 10:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Looking for new cash cows

Cows

Summary: Products that are ‘cloud’ based take priority in Novell and SUSE circles

NEWS about “Novell” is very scarce by now. The company was sold earlier this year and many of its products are unheard of by now. Some got axed.

Regarding Vibe, which Novell tries to promote in YouTube, abeNd.org (another Novell watcher) explained to us that “vibe on-prem wasn’t declared dead, it was the free hosted version that novl dropped,

“[T]he vibe product mentioned, the “hosted” version was killed earlier this year, but the “onprem” version is still being developed, 3.2 came out about a month ago & there have been minor patches just the last week.”

We appreciate this clarification, which will prevent uncertainty or inaccuracy in the future. Later this month we will catch up with some Novell and OpenSUSE news, which recently announced its new board, comprising the following folks.

The votes are as follows:

Pascal Bleser (172 votes) – 79%

Will Stephenson (104 votes) – 48%

Andrew Wafaa (90 votes) – 41%

Pavol Rusnak (81 votes) – 37%

Manu Gupta (60 votes) – 28%

Richard Brown (43 votes) – 20%

Marcus Moeller (42 votes) – 19%

Chuck Payne (16 votes) – 7%

“It should come as no surprise that the 12.1 release of OpenSUSE delivers a polished, high-performing operating system fit for just about any task,” writes Paul Ferrill, so perhaps OpenSUSE will keep a bit of a niche there. As we showed before, OpenSUSE lost a lot of valuable people, including one who gets a shoutout from the Community Manager owing to his SUSE ties (shown here). SUSE brain drain/loss is unlikely to facilitate growth and our prediction is that SUSE will become increasingly dependent on Microsoft over time. Attachmate sure isn’t helping.

SUSE does not fulfil the vision of Free/Open Source software. It’s about something else altogether. █

The Old Novell Sheds Light on Microsoft Abuses

Posted in Antitrust, Microsoft, Novell at 10:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Ray Noorda

Summary: The Novell vs. Microsoft case in a nutshell

THE NOVELL of Noorda claims that Microsoft misled and still pursues in damages just about as much as the ‘new’ Novell is worth, based on this article which says:

Microsoft deliberately misled Novell in a bid to steal a march on the company with Windows 95, according to lawyers pursuing a $1 billion lawsuit against the Redmond-based software giant.

This trial is also covered by Groklaw, which says that:

Microsoft and Novell each summed up its case for the jury yesterday in Utah, in the antitrust trial Novell brought against it regarding WordPerfect and Quattro Pro. Yes, it’s almost over. We had a reporter there for part of Microsoft’s closing statement today, and Bloomberg fills in the rest, along with the Salt Lake Tribune. TechFlash has coverage as well. And we also have most of the latest documents for you.

Since we last looked in, Microsoft’s motion for judgment as a matter of law was denied, but Novell’s motion to reopen the case to present more evidence was denied. I confess I have been disturbed by reports of this judge’s conduct at this trial, but the thing about juries is that they are not predictable. So, we’ll see. Maybe they feel the same way I do about the judge. But one thing is for sure, whoever loses will almost certainly appeal.

This ended up as a mistrial with a hung jury, but Pamela Jones had claimed that the “Holdout Juror Was Convinced Microsoft Was Guilty of Anticompetitive Behavior”. To quote:

The one holdout juror, Corbyn Alvey, in the Novell v. Microsoft antitrust trial over WordPerfect and Quattro Pro has now spoken. And it’s extraordinary. In an interview by KSL-TV, he says that he was convinced that Microsoft was guilty of anticompetitive behavior. His doubt was whether Novell was damaged by it, so he voted no on the marketplace issue, but yes on the allegation of anticompetitive behavior.

Wow. That means that all 12 jurors found Microsoft guilty of anticompetitive behavior. The video is extraordinary. Alvey even says that, while he’d not wish to call Bill Gates a liar, he certainly saw that his testimony on the stand did not match up with his emails from the 90s that Novell presented.

The case was eventually dismissed and the Microsoft booster spoke of retrial:

Novell’s reanimated antitrust case against Microsoft’s Word is reported to have hit “hopeless” deadlock, with Novell pushing for a fresh trial.

A jury in Salt Lake City hearing the $1bn case can’t make up its mind whether Microsoft broke the law, according to The Wall St Journal.

According to the WSJ, after a brief examination of the case the jury became quickly and “hopelessly” deadlocked. Jurors received the case Wednesday and on Friday morning told Judge J Frederick Motz they were deadlocked.

According to the VAR Guy, “Microsoft, Novell [may be] Negotiating WordPerfect Settlement” because according to sources:

Attorneys for Microsoft and Novell apparently are trying to negotiate a settlement to address Novell’s $1 billion lawsuit against Microsoft. The negotiations started after Novell’s case against Microsoft ended in a mistrial/hung jury. The big question: Will Microsoft write a big settlement check to Novell, or will Novell seek a retrial?

For the time being, there is only a mistrial:

A seven-year-old antitrust case brought by Novell against Microsoft has ended in a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

The unfortunate thing is that no matter what happens, by breaking the law Microsoft repeatedly crushed competition and by the time there was a trial and even a settlement Microsoft had already established a position that abuses customers (e.g. overprices and under-delivers), destroys many jobs (so money goes to very few people), and demonstrates to us that crime pays off. █

Links 21/12/2011: Munich Migration to GNU/Linux a Success, Apache Promises OpenOffice.org 3.4

Posted in News Roundup at 3:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • #noapple – or There and Back Again

      The TL;DR version is that I used Ubuntu 11.04 (Naughty Nightnurse) and liked it okay, then was excited to upgrade to 11.10 (Onanistic Oedipus) only to be somewhat disappointed with many of the changes. So I tried out Kubuntu, got frustrated and ran screaming back to Apple. I upgraded to Lion, realized that Lion really, truly sucks – sucks enough to make me rethink my decision to switch back. Then I find out that Debian testing (wheezy) now supports Gnome 3, so I loaded it up.

    • Why The Linux Desktop Still Rocks

      I needed that peace of mind that I never got with Windows, viruses always crashing my PC. I would have liked to get a Mac at some stage but the cost of it was a problem. Then I settled on Linux, and haven’t looked back since.

    • Munich has Migrated the 9000th PC to GNU/Linux

      The meaning is clear: the end is in sight. It has been a long haul but Munich will finally have a GNU/Linux system working for them instead of Munich working for M$. While there has been much cost and pain in the process, the future is forever and the benefits from switching to GNU/Linux, open standards and more efficient organization will continue to roll in. If there is one lesson learned from the process in Munich it is that the sooner migration is started the better. Otherwise, you’re just digging a deeper hole. While that other OS can form a basis for IT it is an unstable one designed to bring profit to M$ above all else. With GNU/Linux, FLOSS and open standards, an organization has much more control over its destiny. Almost every “feature” that M$ created served to lock-in Munich more strongly. They recognized that and took action.

    • Walmart Sells Linux Online

      So, they’re selling desktop boxes on the small side and the other 70 items? Mostly books and courses on GNU/Linux.

    • The Linux Setup – Jonathan Roberts, TuxRadar Podcast

      I run Arch Linux, and I love it. It’s fast, always up to date and is actually the most stable Linux distribution I’ve ever used. It takes a little while to get set up, but thanks to the amazing Beginners Guide anyone can do it and it’s well worth the investment.

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux Kernel Milestones in 2011

      The Big 3.0 and 20th Anniversary

      Granted, the jump to 3.0 wasn’t a technical achievement so much as Linus giving in to the voices in his head. Still, the 3.0 milestone is pretty nifty.

      The version bump went hand in hand with the 20th anniversary of Linux, of course. As Linus wrote when the 3.0 kernel went out, “it’s simply a way to drop an inconvenient numbering system in honor of twenty years of Linux. In fact, the 3.0 merge window was calmer than most, and apart from some excitement from RCU I’d have called it really smooth.”

    • Kernel Log: Multitouch for X.org and new graphics drivers

      X-Server 1.12 will include proper support for touch screens with multitouch capabilities. All three major manufacturers of graphics hardware for PCs have released new drivers. Linux 3.0 is still being maintained even though Linux 3.1 has already been out for a few weeks.

    • Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris i7-3960X Scaling Performance
    • The Linux Kernel vs Commercial kernels

      What exactly is the Linux Kernel and what makes it different than, say Windows or Mac System X? I’m not going to get too deep into the weeds on this one because, quite honestly, I’m not qualified to discuss Kernels beyond the basics. I’m really going to focus on the hardware/software interface aspects of the kernel pros and cons.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Nouveau Commits: Fermi Reclocking, PM, MXM, Etc

        Last week there were a number of commits to the Nouveau DRM kernel tree by Red Hat’s Ben Skeggs, several of these commits bring interesting new features and support.

        With the Linux 3.2 kernel reaching the end of its development and the merge window for the Linux 3.3 kernel opening in January, it’s time for kernel developers to get ready.

  • Applications

  • Distributions

    • Linpus Lite 1.6 desktop edition screenshot preview

      The last edition of Linpus Lite that was reviewed on this website, was Linpus Lite 1.4, and that was in September 2010 (see Linpus Lite 1.4 review). That edition was good in some ways, bad in others, but in general, was usable, though it lacked basic security features that I expected to see in a modern Linux distribution.

      The latest release, therefore, provides an(other) opportunity to see what, if anything, has improved in this RPM distribution. But while the review is being readied, here are a few screen shots from a test installation. If you would like to take it for a spin yourself, you may download an installation image here.

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

      • CentOS and Oracle release their Red Hat 6.2 clones

        Only a week after releasing CentOS 6.1, the CentOS project finished up version 6.2 of its CentOS community version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), while Oracle launched Oracle Linux 6.2 — a RHEL 6.2 clone that adds the company’s Unbreakable Enterprise Linux kernel. Meanwhile, Red Hat released a beta of its long-lifecycle RHEL 5.8 platform and announced strong third quarter earnings.

      • Red Hat Revamps JBoss Portal and Operations Network

        According to Red Hat, there is a misconception in the marketplace that middleware can be difficult to use for content creation. It’s a misconception the company aims to challenge with the new JBoss Enterprise Portal Platform 5.2 release. Red Hat is also tackling the issue of middleware server management with the new JBoss Operations Network 3.0 release.

      • Minimal Desktop Install on CentOS 6

        This example of a minimal desktop shows how to manually create partitions using ext3 and ext4 for a server that has a minimal desktop for a graphical interface. Here are the choices to complete that install.

      • Fedora

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 12.04 Developer Week 2012 Announced

            Daniel Holbach from Canonical proudly announced a few minutes ago, December 19th, the dates for the next year’s first Ubuntu Developer Week event.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Mint Cocktail: Mojito or Molotov

              Unlike Ubuntu, Linux Mint does not keep the size of their distribution’s ISO image to 700 MB. The latest release “weighs” about 1Gb. It is larger than a CD, so you need either a DVD-R(W) or a USB stick to get this operating system booted or installed.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Android

        • Review: Galaxy Nexus is top Android phone, but you’ll need big hands

          Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus is now the “king fish” of Android communicators in screen size, speed, and operating system functionality, according to this eWEEK review. But, its 4.65-inch screen makes the $300 device a challenge to hold by those whose hands are average-sized or smaller, the author adds.

        • Cricket unveils contract-free, four-inch Huawei Mercury

          Cricket Communications announced its most powerful Android smartphone, a four-inch Android 2.3 handset with a 1.4GHz processor and an eight-megapixel camera. Priced at $250 without contract and $55 per month in fees, the Huawei Mercury is the first U.S.-destined variant of the Huawei Honor, being released this month in a variety of global markets.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Kindle Fire, Nook Tablet pushing Android tablet share to 40 percent, predicts IDC

        Android tablet computers will grow from 32 percent global market share in the third quarter to an estimated 40.3 percent through the fourth quarter, reducing Apple’s iPad share to 59 percent, projects IDC. The growth in Android tablets is due largely to the popularity of the low-cost Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet, says the study.

      • Archos Honeycomb tablet to debut at under $200

        Archos announced a seven-inch Android 3.2 (“Honeycomb”) tablet due to ship in January for under $200. The Archos 70b is equipped with a 1.2GHz processor, and offers a 1024 x 600 capacitive touchscreen, 8GB of storage, HDMI output, and support for Google apps and Android Market, says the company.

      • Review: Mot’s Xyboard tablet rocks, but its stylus doesn’t

        Motorola Mobility’s Droid Xyboard 10.1 tablet brings the iPad some solid competition thanks to its Android 3.2 Honeycomb operating system, thin profile, HD display, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, and compatiblity with Verizon’s 4G LTE network. Yet, Motorola should take the hardware button design and new stylus option back to the drawing board, this eWEEK review adds.

      • Is Google prepping a Nexus tablet?

        Might Google be preparing to enter the Android tablet game with an officially-backed tablet much like the Nexus handset series? Depending on how much you read into the context and translation of the following, the answer is yes. According to Google’s own Eric Schmidt, the company plans to rally behind a top-notch tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

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