05.21.12
Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 6:42 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Covering what’s right/correct — not what’s wrong/incorrect — about the Microsoft case against Motorola/Android
THE patent assault launched by Microsoft against Android is a really big deal. One of the fastest-growing platforms (ever!) is coming under constant extortion from an ageing monopolist. Need we stand aside helplessly while this is happening?
Apple’s continued patent hoard aside for a moment (Apple does malicious things too), Microsoft the acquirer/developer-turned-troll is hoardingpatents on tablets and software. Microsoft is trying to take Android apps (with a patent) while attacking Android, taxing it, and removing features from the platform (see this disturbing article. We’ll keep this post concise by citing, not quoting or rewriting).
“Both Apple and Microsoft like to pretend to be the victims, even when it’s Apple which is the litigator and Microsoft is the aggressor (or interchangeably so).”Microsoft seeks a restraining order in the patent case against Motorola, which will soon be part of Google (at least the relevant division). The response to Microsoft’s aggression can be seen as Google fighting against Microsoft’s extortion against Android as a whole (granted, resistance to aggression is not aggression). Some recent articles say that it’s only a matter of time before all green lights are shown for Google to indeed occupy Motorola’s seat in this court case and in the process there might be offloading. As Microsoft essentially bribed B&N to stop fighting for justice this case is very important and Microsoft goes to great lengths to dodge a loss, pretending it (Microsoft) is the victim in all this storm that it, itself, started. Both Apple and Microsoft like to pretend to be the victims, even when it’s Apple which is the litigator and Microsoft is the aggressor (or interchangeably so).
Sometimes Microsoft gets its way by removing deterrence like an embargo (after action in Germany, such as this or even this), but amid this legal fight we also find disinformation. Here is one failed embargo attempt, hardly at all reported while in the US we find that: “In a Seattle court hearing Monday, attorneys for both companies disclosed talks occurred shortly after Microsoft filed a lawsuit in October 2010 alleging that Motorola was unfairly charging the software company to use its video-streaming and WiFi technology. The talks may have continued as recently as February, according to statements in court and filings.”
Notice what Microsoft is doing here. While trying to extort Motorola it ensures it has some sob story, pretending to be on the defensive side (the Microsoft PR machine amplifies this to gain sympathy). As a matter of strategy, Microsoft also moves software distribution to the Netherlands, dodging a platform which is more likely to serve justice for Android:
What makes Germany hub of tech patent battles
Is Germany’s system of litigating disputes over patents bad for business? Microsoft’s decision to move its European logistics and distribution headquarters to the Netherlands from Germany has generated a debate over patent law here, where it is easy to block the sale of a rival’s product even before an infringement claim is verified.
Recently, an ITC ruling against Motorola was made publicly known and as Microsoft loves to use lobbyists such as Microsoft Florian we were showered with flagrant misdirections. The boosters are using Slashdot for their deception and one Microsoft booster wrote a deceiving article, ensuring it gets promoted in Slashdot (after being submitted by the booster himself), under a similarly misleading headline and description. Passive Slashdot followers further amplified it in other sites, perhaps not realising that they got bamboozled somewhat.
As one reader told us, “Groklaw didn’t seem to pick up this one. Slashdot tries to spin it as pro-M$ but the following comment has some good points: http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=2860233&cid=40048505.”
Microsoft boosters keep seeding the press with Android-hostile coverage and even in the Apple vs. HTC case we see spinners making an appearance (without disclosure):
Apple v. Google Case May End Patent Gold Rush
Since the Supreme Court refused to narrow patents on software and business methods two years ago, there has been a patent market boom.
Watch Microsoft lobbyists interjecting themselves into articles. From CNET:
At least, that’s according to the U.S. District Court of Delaware, which ordered the two companies to discuss a potential settlement. The talks would be moderated by Judge Sherry Fallon, Foss Patents reported today.
This is why Microsoft will continue to use lobbyists. It gets to distort press coverage, so trial by press is subjected to deception by people like Microsoft Florian as a source, briefed by paying clients like Microsoft and given instructions, then proceeding to ‘spamming’ journalists (spam by proxy). Well, another longtime Microsoft booster is relaying Microsoft propaganda for phones as though CNET is just becoming a Microsoft platform for whatever agent to pin ads/press releases onto. Bloomberg covered this better.
The bottom line is, the Motorola-Microsoft case is an important one for the freedom of Android and Microsoft keeps using lobbyists and boosters to misinform the public about it, having recently paid B&N to also stop exposing Microsoft abuses. This is a serious problem which should worry everyone. For development, I consider buying ANDROID+TABLET.htm”>this tablet later in the week because it seems like Motorola is the main company with enough of a nerve/guts to stand up to Microsoft and keep Android free. Being careless about what Microsoft is doing is the path to disaster. █
‘The only thing necessary for the triumph [of evil] is for good men to do nothing.’
–Edmund Burke
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Microsoft, Mono, Novell, SLES/SLED, Ubuntu, Wine at 6:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
A matter of protectionism
Summary: The company which hardly pays any tax is busy trying to tax GNU/Linux, Android, and all hardware in the OEM channel
THE OTHER day somebody told us that Wine had been put in bed with Mono — a move which can raise all sorts of flags. Following the "sabotage" of Android as a Java-like or Java-oriented platform we are seeing development — not runtime — being tilted in Microsoft’s favour (with Microsoft patents as opposed to Oracle’s). Phoronix noticed the Wine move as well as the Android move from Xamarin. It also made apparent that Ubuntu developers started talking about Mono after they had dumped Mono from the default installation:
Ubuntu developers are currently exploring the possibility of using Mono AOT to reduce start-up time, allow for better memory sharing, and for greater performance optimizations.
It is worth noting, however, that this need not affect the installed-by-default software, so the risk of patent tax on Ubuntu is not quite there. The cause for alarm comes from elsewhere. Compare that to Dell's odd situation (deal with Microsoft/Novell and odd “Ubuntu tax” [1, 2]). Also reconsider Wyse’s relationship with SUSE [1, 2, 3] and notice the fact that Dell recently bought Wyse (and some patents too along with the bundle). What this can lead to is Dell paying more money to Microsoft for the use of GNU/Linux. In Indonesia, Ballnux entered education, meaning that there too the problem exists:
This program was initiated by the Government of Indonesia with the objective to introduce the open source and e-learning method to student and teacher. So three years ago I was contacted to help them to realize their dream, and here I’m now reporting that there are around 7300 openSUSE installation in 350 elementary and junior-high schools. We also use SLES in servers to provide repositories and e-learning materials in SCORM using Moodle. This is work in progress. We educate teachers to use openSUSE and also creating learning material so it is always in beta stage I think 
We recently explained why this helps SUSE, which pays Microsoft for GNU/Linux. Some distributors of Android do the same thing, which is why Motorola tablets are the only ones I consider buying right now. It’s part of the need to reward those who stand up for what’s right. It’s worth noting that some people care about what’s just, not what’s “legal” (e.g. software patents in the US), whereas others care about what’s in law and not about what’s just, ethical, and reasonable. In later posts today I shall deal with the Motorola case in isolation and say more about the changes of laws by corporations, not people (democracy derailed).
As Adrian Kingsley-Hughes shows, Microsoft is also trying to tax OEMs right now:
So, the OEMs make money from installing crapware onto PCs, and now Microsoft is making money removing it. Makes you realize why more and more people are buying Apple hardware.
Microsoft cannot really sell physical products (it tried Zune, phones, etc, but failed), so it focuses on trying to tax everything. People need to take a stance and actively work to save IT from Microsoft. Scapegoat is not what Microsoft is, scapegoat is the Free software community which gets damonised for merely standing up for justice, just like Wikileaks and others. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
05.19.12
Posted in News Roundup at 10:43 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
-
-
I spent some free time today getting caught up on the large backlog of phonon-gstreamer bugs. Towards the end, I started to have delusions of grandeur: Imagine a phonon-gstreamer codebase that doesn’t require supporting a zillion different audio frameworks, and instead belays that task to something that I don’t have to maintain.
-
Desktop
-
Just read another “forget desktop Linux” piece by a writer trying to cover Free software on a sight ostensibly doing the same. This is exactly the sort of thing I wrote about in a recent blog entry, and it’s sad to see it continue.
-
-
The argument goes something to the affect that “since there is a movement towards enabling more devices at work and schools, the desktop no longer really matters.”
I understand my colleague Andrea’s passion for mobile devices and social media, but her conclusions seem seriously flawed. The reason I am writing this article is to ensure people understand the great value of Linux on the Desktop.
-
In it Maria Korolov trots out a long list of “problems” with GNU/linux for large businesses. Here’s an example: “a typical organization will have one application for every 10 users, and, today, about half of those applications require the Windows operating system”
That makes no sense at all. It means businesses, money-making organizations, are foolishly paying for far too many applications. The largest organizations on the planet are governments and as we saw in Munich, it is worthwhile to shed unnecessary applications and rationalize the rest.
-
-
I did some very simple timing of several different Linux distributions on this system before I changed the disk drive, and found that they all took about one minute from the GRUB menu to a ready.-to-use desktop. I repeated those tests with the SSD, and found that the average boot time had been cut to 30 seconds or less! The overall impression of using the system is faster with the SSD as well.
-
Clearly, GNU/Linux works for them. It’s just silly that some commentators here cling to the idea that nothing can be done without that other OS. There is clear evidence to the contrary.
-
Server
-
nginx saw its 9th consecutive month of increased market share, gaining 894k hostnames and increasing its share to 5.48%, more than double the value it held a year ago. Apache fared the worst this month, losing 17.5M hostnames. However, it remains far ahead of the competition with two out of every three hostnames being served using Apache.
-
Kernel Space
-
-
Graphics Stack
-
After David Airlie brought up the new DDX driver API for the X.Org Server, a new discussion was born concerning the lack of patch review taking place for the X.Org Server.
David Airlie commented on the developers’ mailing list about the lack of patch review for the new API patches, he wonders how he’s “going to get the next 50 patches in at this rate some time this year.” Alan Coopersmith then responded with how there seems to be a harder time overall in getting patch reviews done. Coopersmith says, “I’ve got no ideas how to fix this quickly, but we need to get it fixed.”
-
-
The new driver API for the X.Org Server that would finally allow for the X.Org stack to better compete with modern desktop drivers on Windows and Mac OS X, may actually see the light of day, prior to the Wayland push.
-
Applications
-
File compression is still the best way to send a huge bunch of photos to your dearest friend. It is one of the most important operations on almost every operating system, and is, therefore, inundated with a barrage of apps concerning it. On Windows too, file compression comes built-in, and so does on Linux. That said, the default compression method isn’t always the best one, and even if it is, there are people who are looking to trying out new tools for the same operation.
-
-
Scalado Album correctly classifies images based on location and date, it provides only a placeholder, rather than a thumbnail, for some images. That was a disappointment. Images shot with app HDR Camera, for example, showed as a placeholder in the album, while images shot with the stock camera and others, including Vignette, showed successfully as thumbnails.
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Games
-
Wildfire Games has released the tenth alpha version of 0 A.D., an open source, historical real-time strategy game which features excellent graphics and sound. The new alpha brings Hellenic factions, basic technologies, civilization phases, click-and-drag wall building functionality, healing and more.
-
Desktop Environments
-
The Xfce 4 desktop offers a vast array of customization options that will leave your desktop looking nothing like the default. Take advantage of all the excellent graphical user interfaces offered for all of your options, settings, and preferences.
-
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
-
Video editing is one of the few areas where GNU/Linux is behind Windows and Macs. There are no professional grade video editing software for Linux. However, there are many honest attempts to bring quality video editing to the Linux platform. Kdenlive is one such project.
-
Dave Edmunson, one of the lead developers behind KDE LightDM recently published an UPDATE describing some of the features (and shortcomings) already part of the first KDE LightDM release, as well as explaining a bit of what´s coming along in the next few months for the 0.2 release. Dave explained how some KDM features are still missing in KDE LightDM-0.1, but in turn, some of the screenshots he´s sharing look very promising. Among others, the benefits of using LightDM is, as its name rightly points out, its relatively low weight when compared with GDM or KDM. On top of that, there are obvious gains in terms of looks and flexibility. To give an example, changing the login screen wallpaper and/or welcome image will be very simple. Along the same lines, things like having the login screen and KSplash incorporating the same wallpaper the user has in her/his desktop should be easier. Inconsistencies between login screen and KSplash in terms of resolution and things of the like should also be out of the way thanks to the common QML thread. Here´s a picture of the Login screen control module, as it looks today. Note these are early days for this piece of functionality, so chances it may not look exactly like this come future releases:
-
-
I’m pleased to announce our Kolab 2.4 product series can now be labeled 2.4.1!
-
-
GNOME Desktop
-
John Stowers has announced yesterday, May 14th, the release of GNOME Tweak Tool 3.4, an utility popular among users of the GNOME 3 desktop environment.
-
-
You may have heard of ROSA before, but you may not be sure where. Almost 9 months ago, I reviewed Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen”, and that version of Mandriva was developed in conjunction with ROSA Labs, a Russian Linux development group. Since then, Mandriva seen quite a roller-coaster ride and is now essentially on life support. It is all but certain that there will be no new releases of a distribution with the name “Mandriva” (or “Mandrake” for that matter). One fork appeared over a year ago, and that is called Mageia; that aimed to replicate and build upon the traditional KDE desktop that Mandriva used before the year 2011. The other fork is ROSA, and it is essentially a continuation of the novel desktop introduced in Mandriva 2011 “Hydrogen”. It seems like ROSA will become the haven for all Mandriva users that had not already gone to Mageia.
-
A new version of the Parted Magic open source, Linux-based, multi-platform partitioning tool has been released. Labelled “2012_05_14″, the update is based on the 3.3.6 Linux kernel and includes version 1.12.1 of X Server.
-
Linux is the operating system of choice for those who decide to go their own way. The open source model means the building blocks are there for you if you decide that you need your very own operating system.
-
New Releases
-
The latest version of Rocks cluster distribution – an open source toolkit for real and virtual clusters – has been released.
-
PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family
-
In a blog post today Mandriva COO Jean-Manuel Croset announced that the new strategy going forward will be to let “the distribution evolve in and under the caring responsibility of the community.” Mandriva SA will, of course, be a part of this entity.
-
After months of prevarication, and announcements that sounded as though they were emanating from a publication like Pravda, the company now says it will turn over development of the distribution to the community.
The man who made the announcement, chief executive Jean-Manuel Croset, appears to have a poor memory. The horse bolted some time ago – a goodly portion of the development community, fed up with the company’s dithering, forked the distribution in 2010 and created the Mageia GNU/Linux distribution.
-
-
-
Mageia is a Linux distribution forked from Mandriva Desktop. Mageia 2 is the upcoming release, which is slated to be made available for public download just four days from today.
-
Jean-Manuel Croset, CEO of Mandriva SA, announced last evening, May 17th, in a blog post, that the company decided to cease the Mandriva Linux operating system and transfer the responsibility to an independent entity.
-
-
-
Red Hat Family
-
Fedora
-
Fast forward one day, it seems like trying Fedora 16 Live was a failure: he gets a wallpaper and a mouse cursor, nothing else. I am showing a random screenshot from the web, trying to understand if he has a normal GNOME Shell empty desktop or is a deeper problem and this drives me to a large explanation on what GNOME, Unity, KDE, Xfce, LXDE are (and a statement of my desktop preference). I am asked again about my phone number and ignore the question. Then he wants to give Ubuntu a try, I don’t have a problem with that but he has: the same empty desktop with no panel, no right-click menus, no nothing. If is not the display, then it may be video drivers (ATI), so I recommend either a newer Fedora (F17 RC1 is online) or VESA parameters for boot (me blaming AMD).
-
The Fedora Project has pushed back the release of the Fedora 17 Linux distribution by a week, from 22 May to 29 May. The main reason is that the project wants to take care of four bugs classified as blockers in the current release candidates; if possible, the developers will also use the extra time to fix a dozen other problems.
-
-
Debian Family
-
In my continued look at out of the ordinary Linux distributions, I installed Crunchbang Linux. Crunchbang’s main version is a distribution based on Debian’s stable branch (known as “squeeze”). This review is based on the 32-bit version of Crunchbang Linux. At this time, Crunchbang offers a regular version and one with backports installed (for the new kernel, among other things). I chose to use the regular version, R20120207 “Statler”.
-
The move from Gnome 2 to Gnome 3 resulted in varied emotions with many people liking the much needed change and for many, lets just say that they felt devastated.
The Linux Mint team, after waiting out the initial change with Mint 11, released Mint 12 with Gnome 3 and now they have their work cutout with the Gnome 2 fork MATE and the Cinnamon Shell.
-
-
Derivatives
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
FXI’s Cotton Candy, A $200 USB stick size PC running Ubuntu and Android 4.0 will start shipping at the end of this month to anyone who has pre-ordered the device in back in February.
These devices were supposed to ship in March but a number of new changes had delayed the manufacturing process. New features include a more durable casing, a micro USB port and improved Android 4.0 support.
-
This is a guest post by Tom Slominski, a 15 year old Ubuntu user who ‘loves Linux, open source and web development with a tad of alternative rock sprinkled on top.’
-
Are you looking for a job? Well, if you’re a good designer, live in London, UK, and you want a job at Canonical, now it’s the right time to apply for one of the many positions offered by the company behind the popular Ubuntu operating system.
-
-
-
Flavours and Variants
-
LinuxMint13 RC is available for testing, this release comes with 2 versions in a separated dvd`s: Mate and Cinnamon. For LinuxMint13 Cinnamon, apart of being very light offers some customization and integration of new applets, extensions and themes that can be found on the official website of Cinnamon. for Linux Mint13 Mate, also offers a version with the desktop environment that brings the user experience of Gnome Gtk 2 +3, this version is stable, fast and well integrated with Gnome 3.
-
Xubuntu is a community-developed Xfce-flavored version of Ubuntu. It is supposed to be elegant, lightweight and easy to use. Reading my previous reviews of Xubuntu Karmic and Natty, you will find my experience to differ from the supposed mission statement. In the best case, Xubuntu was adequate but nothing more. Not quite the replacement for Gnome as some would claim.
-
In my talk at Linux Fest Northwest — and I say this often to anyone who will listen — I mentioned that there is a “digital Darwinism” at play in the FOSS paradigm. That is, distros and FOSS programs rise and fall depending on the quality of the software and the community that gathers around them. Good distros and programs — the “fittest” — survive, and the others, well, not so much.
-
-
Linux Mint 13 has jumped straight to a release candidate, hot on the heels of Ubuntu 12.04s release, and with a controversial switch to Yahoo search…
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
The World at Work is powered by GE. This new series highlights the people, projects and startups that are driving innovation and making the world a better place.
-
Phones
-
-
Android
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
FXI’s Cotton Candy created a market for Android powered USB PC. FXI is selling its Cotton Candy for US $200, and now there is a competitor.
-
If you thought the Raspberry Pi was the only tiny, ultra-inexpensive, pocketable computer running an open source operating system, think again. Not only is the OLPC effort showing signs of new life, but a number of Chinese web sites are now offering Android-based MK802 computers in thumbdrive-style form factors (shown here) for under $75. The prices even earn you free shipping if you happen to live in one of several Asian countries. Is there a market for these?
-
Google plans to take another shot at direct sales for its line of Nexus phones — Android smartphones that offer an unadulterated strain of the mobile OS. The plan would cut carriers out of the distribution loop, and it’s similar to something Google tried years ago. That plan flopped. This time, Google will have more manufacturers as partners and more devices, but will consumers accept unsubsidized prices?
-
According to a report from The Wall Street Journal, Google wants to work more closely with smartphone manufacturers for the next version of Android – believed to be code-named “Jelly Bean”. The report says that up to five manufacturers will receive early access to the new mobile operating system in order to be able to launch phones carrying Google’s Nexus branding. The phones could be available in shops as early as late November this year. Google also wants to reverse its recent policy of selling largely through phone network channels, and to once again focus on selling Nexus phones directly; the newspaper cites sources familiar with the matter.
-
-
-
-
As if the current share were not large enough, HTC and FaceBook are rumoured to be getting together on a smart phone to be released in time for Christmas. FaceBook has a huge opportunity for advertising the new gadget. Rumour has it that it will run Android/Linux. Between all the OEMs making Android/Linux smart phones, service providers promoting them and “Big Brothers” like Samsung, Google and now FaceBook promoting them globally, no consumer will be able to hide from Android/Linux smart phones. Share of shipments now is well over 50%. The only question is how large the share will become. There does not seem to be any limit yet. At the present rate of growth everyone on the planet could have one within a few years. Will people ever have a need for two?
-
It’s mid-May — do you know where your Ice Cream Sandwich update is? Six months after Android 4.0 made its debut on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, millions of owners of legacy Android devices are still anxiously awaiting the day the new firmware gets downloaded on their own electronic real estate. At least the scene today is much more pleasant than it was just a few months ago, as ICS is finally rolling out to several popular devices. But if you’re shopping for a phone or tablet, how can you possibly keep track of which device has what version?
-
-
After years of trying and failing to discourage manufacturers from adding user interface (UI) layers to Android, Google appeared destined for success with the visually refined Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”). Despite predictions that ICS would kill off the “skins” for good, however, HTC’s Sense and Samsung’s TouchWiz have not only arrived in new Android 4.0 versions, but they have met with positive reviews.
-
Sub-notebooks/Tablets
-
Retail outfit ZaReason has built a reputation over the years for offering quality Ubuntu-powered desktops and laptops at reasonable prices. It’s a bit of a surprise, then, to see that their latest offering — the ZaTab — is going to ship with Android pre-installed instead.
-
-
-
Recently, it appears that the program offering paradigm is the virtual store front so to speak. Google’s play or Apples App store, to name the two most well known ones for mobile devices. Linux distributions have always had a form of application store where they are commonly known as repositories. In essence these ‘stores’ all work the same way. A single access point to all programs available for that operating system.
Shall we play a game? Just imagine you have written the program to end all programs and want to get this program into an application store for XYZ operating system. Which one do you think is the hardest to get into?
For your program to get into a Linux distribution it has to be already popular enough for someone to decide to do the work necessary so it can be included in the official repository. That someone can be you so I would say it is very easy for your program be become part of an official distribution.
I think we can discount windows for this exercise as it does not have an application store as such. Although there are rumours that they are working towards creating one.
-
There are a lot of excellent reasons to get involved with an open source project. You can learn a new language, improve your existing skills, be challenged by a community that is at the top of their field or even get better at managing complex distributed projects. There are also dozens of ways to participate. Open up a project’s bug tracker and find an issue that needs to be fixed. Write a useful new extension or plugin. Even if you don’t code, just about every open source project out there could use more testing, more documentation and tutorials and help handling the load on their support forums and mailing lists. If you are a heavy user of open source software it feels great to give something back to the community that has contributed so much.
-
There has never been a better time to be interested in digital photography. Not only do inexpensive digital cameras offer great high-resolution photos, but they come with very advanced feature sets. Over the years on OStatic, we’ve also covered a huge number of open source applications that can make editing, organizing and adding effects to digital photos much easier. If you’re under the impression that you must have Photoshop to be a top-notch photo editor, think again. The open source applications that are available are beyond robust. Here is our updated collection of great tools for the digital
-
-
The OpenFlow open source protocol for software defined networking (SDN) took a big step forward today with the approval of the OpenFlow 1.3.0 specification.
-
In the metaphorical space between the two worlds, there were opportunities to play with Lego bricks, try a Chaos Machine, listen to nerd comedy, and talk zombies. You could learn about Camp Luminous, which arguably teaches open source principles, or learn to build a TARDIS from open plans.
-
Web Browsers
-
Chrome
-
Mozilla
-
Mozilla has introduced a new feature into the Firefox 13 betas called Reset Firefox which allows users to reset browser settings while retaining personal data.
-
SaaS
-
The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is going to stop active participation in the open-source infrastructure cloud project OpenStack – something the agency’s employees were deeply involved in creating.
-
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
-
“I wouldn’t count OO out just yet simply because of ONE reason… the license,” said Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. “It’s common knowledge that NOBODY in business will go near GPL after the V3 debacle. Apache on the other hand is MUCH more business-friendly, and the Apache server is used all across the business landscape, so I can see businesses getting behind OO for that reason alone.”
-
Donald Harbinson, Program Director for Open Standards/Open Source at IBM, noted the official beginning of the transition on the [ooo-devel] mailing list on Tuesday.
“A few minutes ago, I submitted the IBM Software Grant Agreement and Corporate Contributor License Agreement for IBM Lotus Symphony contribution. This action means infra can begin to prepare to receive the ‘Contribution’ into svn when they’re ready,” Harbinson wrote.
The move was hardly unexpected, since IBM announced last January that the last release of Symphony, 3.0.1, would be the final one for IBM’s version of the OpenOffice.org suite.
-
-
On the 7th of May 2012 The Document Foundation has announced its first certification program. This certification is aimed at professionals who are interested in having their skillset certified in order to provide professional services to their customers. The program is currently being rolled out, in fact the first official certification meeting will take place at the LinuxTag next week. I would like to explain what we are trying to achieve in a bit more details by shedding some light on the reasons such a program came into existence.
-
IBM has begun the process of contributing code from Symphony, its office automation suite, to the Apache OpenOffice project, saying: “This ends the Symphony fork here with Apache OpenOffice”. Earlier in the year, the company announced its intention to make the contribution, as it plans to move customers to Apache OpenOffice. Historically, Symphony has been based on a combination of Eclipse Rich Client Platform and OpenOffice.org code that was acquired when the OpenOffice.org code was under a dual-licence which allowed IBM to use the code and not release its changes.
-
Funding
-
In April 1982, exactly 30 years ago, the European Internet was launched by the Dutch researcher Teus Hagen, at a European Unix User Group conference in Paris. EUnet was the very first European Internet backbone. NLnet Foundation subsequently took the lead of this initiative, and not only helped shape the European Internet, but was fundamental in establishing the currently biggest Internet exchange on the planet, and also built out a market leadership. In September 1997, so 15 years ago, it was acquired by UUnet, now Verizon. All money was put in a fund with the sole purpose to make the Internet better.
-
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
-
-
Darned if one of the in-laws hasn’t figured out how to lose weight… So, now “the little woman” is on my case to eat right. In the North I did eat right because I had only lean meat, fruits, vegetables and cereal to eat, you know, nutritious, filling stuff.
-
Public Services/Government
-
A few Members of the European Parliament started a Written Declaration for open and collaborative government. Gianni Pittella, Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Marisa Matias, Katarína Neveďalová, Marietje Schaake. Written Declarations are documents which could get co-signed by other Members of Parliament. They get adopted when they reach a majority. Written Declarations could be perceived as petitions within the European Parliament and civil society groups often pressure MEPs to sign a Written Declaration that suits their interests. Here it would be rather difficult to get them to endorse the document WD 0019/2012. The reason is simple: instead of “unrestricted” they drafted “current”. That single phrase makes the declaration appear like a Trojan horse.
-
Licensing
-
At the end of April, I wrote about the idea that usage of the GNU General Public License (GPL) is declining and concluded that although new, commercially initiated open source projects were indeed tending to adopt other licenses, the use of the GPL itself is still growing — especially among projects in its core community of GNU platform development. This article explores why commercial projects pick particular open source licenses and what might happen in the future.
-
Programming
-
Asked on the developers’ mailing list last week was whether LLVM could be used for a decompiler, which an independent developer is working to construct.
-
Finance
-
After a winter lull, food stamp participation in Los Angeles County picked up again in March, to rise to a new all time high of 1,036,078 persons. Other economic data points to weakness in the nation’s largest state economy, as well. Indeed, falling tax collections are largely behind the recent budget deficit blowout of 16 billion dollars. And to think: many thought the years of California’s “budget crisis” were behind us. | see: Los Angeles County SNAP Users vs. Price of Oil 2007-2012.
-
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and Merrill Lynch & Co. employees discussed helping naked short-sales by market-maker clients in e-mails the banks sought to keep secret, including one in which a Merrill official told another to ignore compliance rules, Overstock.com Inc. (OSTK) said in a court filing.
-
It doesn’t happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week, he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank’s darker secrets into the hands of the public.
-
Pundits and Wall Street reforming politicians are crowing: Wowie! Jamie D has fought for weak regulations, especially a weak Volcker rule, but now Wall Street’s goose is cooked! We’re going to get a strong Volcker rule!
-
Privacy
-
What a surprise: the U.K. government was forced to reveal under Freedom of Information laws more than 1,000 civil servants have ’snooped’ on British citizens’ private data.
Don’t worry about hackers illegally accessing government systems. It turns out government workers and civil servants who are trusted with private citizen data are more likely to access your data illegally.
-
DRM
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
Copyrights
-
Geek TV star uses Ubuntu 12.04 download as example of legal BitTorrent use.
Wheaton, actor on Star Trek: The Next Generation, The Big Bang Theory, and Eureka, is deep into the geek life and has been blogging for years. He may be the most prominent geek advocate in Hollywood, which he says gets him in trouble when he argues in favor of network neutrality and against ill-considered piracy crackdowns, like ignoring legal uses of BitTorrent.
Using his download of Ubuntu 12.04 as an example, Wheaton argues that BitTorrent saves time and resources. The direct download would take an hour, but the torrent feed did the job in six minutes. Piracy legislation that would shut down or hobble BitTorrent protocol traffic would not stop file sharing, but would ruin a good protocol.
-
ACTA
-
There is a major problem with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) that has little to do with IP or the internet: how does international law get made—by the President alone, or with Congress’s involvement? ACTA’s key problem in the United States is a Constitutional question that turns on the separation of powers. The President, or an office of the executive branch like USTR, can negotiate treaties that fall within presidential powers. But for topics that fall within Congressional powers, like IP law, the Constitution requires that Congress be involved in the process.
The most obvious and difficult way to involve Congress is through Article II of the Constitution. Under Article II, a treaty negotiated by the executive branch is presented to the Senate for ratification. The process is notoriously difficult, because it requires two-thirds of the Senate to approve. So USTR, almost understandably, wants to avoid the Article II process if at all possible.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 4:46 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Original photo by Matt Buchanan; edited by Techrights
Summary: Bits of patent news regarding Apple and its patents
THE tales of HTC versus Apple are further complicated now that HTC removes features to dodge Apple patents. As one site put it:
The HTC One X for AT&T and Evo 4G LTE for Sprint already bear the distinction of being the first Android devices to face an import block at US Customs for potentially infringing an Apple patent, but the ignominy may be fleeting: sources tell us that HTC’s US devices use a customized version of Android that removes the offending “data tapping” feature. That’s confirmed by our own examination of an AT&T One X and Sprint Evo 4G LTE, neither of which exhibit the key behavior excluded from importation into the US by the International Trade Commission, and which both include a new settings screen not present in the international One X.
The customer clearly won’t benefit from this. Oracle in the mean time is fighting against the very heart of the platform and its mind is changing;
Both legal teams in Oracle’s lawsuit against Google had recently seemed determined to end the case as efficiently as possible; however, things took a turn for the complicated during the latest proceedings. When the final statements in the patent portion of the suit were concluded, Oracle’s team of lawyers went back to discuss the issue of damages once again, with Judge William Alsup surprising attendees by revealing that he had, in fact, spent time programming before.
The Oracle case against Android helps Apple and the longer it goes on for, the less confident developers will feel about developing for Dalvik. Apple is the mean time is hammering on HTC, which received patents from Google:
In its latest legal salvo, the iPhone maker has asked the ITC to dismiss five patents that Google issued to HTC last year.
All those patent fights among giants are harming everyone. Google ought to just do more to squash all software patents. Its current approach leads to the perception that software patents can be balanced. As this new post puts it:
Big Player Patent Battles Trickle Down to Everyone
[...]
When you look around at the news these days, you know that IP law is having a big impact on how big companies are spending their money. It seems that every company is playing defense with patents instead of taking the time innovate. High profile purchases such as Google buying Motorola Mobility was probably driven more by the company’s patent cache more than its technology holdings.
It has become clearer that all software patents — no matter whose — need to go. They in no way serve the common good. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Europe, Patents, Ubuntu at 4:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
India too is fighting against software patents
Summary: Wise words from a prominent Linux figure and news from the UK
UBUNTU FOUNDER Mark Shuttleworth recently said that innovation is impeded in countries that have too many patents. To quote an analysis of his words:
Of course, this is the exact opposite of what the patent system is supposed to do — but pretty much everyone who’s actually innovating these days seems to recognize the same thing. What amazes me is that we haven’t seen more of what Mark hints at towards the very end: countries providing explicit safe havens around patents. We have examples of this in the past — perhaps most famously, the Netherlands and Switzerland in the latter half of the 19th century. The Netherlands dumped patents entirely, while the Swiss limited what was patentable massively (to the point that very little was considered patentable at all). And both countries saw economic growth as a result — where industry and innovation flocked to both countries because they weren’t being held back by patent disputes.
Over in the UK, where Shuttleworth’s Canonical is based, software patents have just lost: [via Glyn Moody and the Open Source Consortium]
The UK Intellectual Property Office Hearing Officer rejected the application, concluding that it consisted of a ‘program for a computer…as such’ and did not meet the patentability criteria of Article 52, inorporated into the UK legislation by s.1(2) of the Patents Act 1977. If that wasn’t enough, the invention disclosed in the application consisted of a ‘scheme, rule or method for …doing business…as such.’
For the UK to thrive it needs to forbid patents on software. My current development project is a car navigation system for Android (with camera) and when I search the web for information about similar work I am seeing quite a few patent applications that restrict implementation. How does that help innovation when my project is research-oriented and ERC-funded? Patents do nothing but limit people’s creativity and freedom of though/exploration. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Deception at 4:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: IDC and the Business Software Alliance (BSA) liaise once again in order to give ammunition to lobbyists of proprietary and copyright conglomerates
THERE is some annual lie coming from partners or front groups of Microsoft. As one author put it: “Today the Business Software Alliance (Wikipedia) released their 2011 ‘Piracy Report’. What a doozy. Their methodology alone really speaks to why they are less and less legit.” (source)
This annual lie from the BSA and IDC was rebutted here several times before and Mike Masnick tackles it again:
For the 9th year in a row, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an organization that mainly represents Microsoft’s interest, has put out its ridiculous “Global Software Piracy Study”, which argues that tons and tons of software is being pirated, and if only people paid for it, there would be $63.4 billion more going to software companies. We’ve been criticizing the ridiculously laughable methodology of the report since it began, and even have seen the company that does the research, IDC, admit that the BSA exaggerates what the report actually says. We’ve done multiple detailed analyses of how the BSA’s stats are misleading (or just flat out bogus). And yet, because there are magical numbers involved, the press just loves to parrot the claims without any skepticism.
IDC, being a media entity (IDG), is able to publish those lies over and over again. It’s unclear why some good people lend credence to the typical BSA propaganda and this is why year after year we need to repeat ourselves. It’s like watching people paying money to Peter Popoff after he was exposed as a scammer so many times. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
05.17.12
Posted in News Roundup at 8:53 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
-
-
Desktop
-
Now is as good a time as any to say goodbye to Linux on the desktop as a focus, and to emphasize the power and ROI gained from using Linux and Open Source solutions on devices.
-
Thanks to ongoing advances in multi-seat Linux development, manufacturer Plugable was able to base its machines on Fedora, rather than proprietary software, though it also works with Windows Multipoint Server. By doing away with licensing costs, Plugable founder Bernie Thompson says the company can ensure an attractive price. The Kickstarter effort is in place to help the company realize “economies of scale” necessary to drive the cost down.
-
Server
-
HP has unveiled its first public cloud services in a late answer to rivals Amazon Web Services, Rackspace, Microsoft and Verizon’s Terramark.
-
Kernel Space
-
-
-
Graphics Stack
-
Following up on the performance comparison earlier this month of comparing Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge graphics between Windows and Linux, up today are the results of a comparison of Windows 7 to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS when using a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 “Kepler” graphics card.
-
Applications
-
-
-
Proprietary
-
Skype’s presence on Linux has never been really all that accepted… many in the community resented its proprietary nature, and only grudgingly installed it if they had to. As Michael Larabel recently pointed out on Phoronix, the Free Software Foundation is trying to shepherd free-software Skype replacement projects, but with little success thus far.
-
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Games
-
Thus, in direct practical terms, this development can do both harm and good. It might encourage GNU/Linux users to install these games, and it might encourage users of the games to replace Windows with GNU/Linux. My guess is that the direct good effect will be bigger than the direct harm. But there is also an indirect effect: what does the use of these games teach people in our community?
-
-
Desktop Environments
-
Newly released Ubuntu based distribution Hybryde allows you to switch between desktop environments without even logging out, and comes with Unity, KDE, and LXDE by default
-
K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
-
Version 0.9 of the Kdenlive open source video editor has been released, bringing usability enhancements and improvements to the effects workflow. According to its developers, the effect stack has been completely rewritten and now allows users to adjust parameters for multiple effects at the same time. These can then be grouped and the groups can be saved for use on other video clips.
-
GNOME Desktop
-
The GNOME Shell Window Buttons extension has been updated for GNOME Shell 3.4 and is now available in the WebUpd8 GNOME 3 PPA.
-
-
New Releases
-
-
-
Today we are pleased to announce the general availability of the 32 bit and 64 bit releases of OS4 Workstation 12.1.1. In this release we include a host of security and bug fixes as well as application updates.
-
Red Hat Family
-
Debian Family
-
Derivatives
-
Canonical/Ubuntu
-
With the x32 ABI for Linux finally coming together, Ubuntu developers are making plans to support this interesting ABI in the future.
The Linux x32 ABI is intended for x86_64 hardware, but rather than simply targeting x86_64, it attempts to blend the best of IA32 and x86_64. With x32 there is a 32-bit pointer size rather than 64-bit, which drops the memory usage and could yield performance improvements, while still allowing the x32-compiled code to take advantage of 64-bit registers, a larger register file, and other x86_64 features.
-
Mark Shuttleworth is the founder and former CEO of Canonical, the commercial company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution. Today he holds the position “Lead Product Design”, a role in which he shapes desktop and cloud product strategy. I spoke with him recently by phone about the increasing role of Linux in the enterprise, and the shift from traditional enterprise computing to cloud computing.
-
-
Customizability has always been one of Linux’s best defining features, and the newly released Ubuntu Linux 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” is no exception.
I’ve already written about a few different ways to tweak Ubuntu’s Unity desktop generally, and last week one of those tools–Ubuntu Tweak–was updated to support the latest iteration of Canonical’s popular Linux distribution.
-
-
-
Hands up if you have used Linux in one of its various incarnations for the desktop. Well if you are reading this blog, chances are you have done that. Like many other geeks and aspiring geeks I have dabbled with using Linux specifically Ubuntu and I must say after the initial novelty of using something other than Windows, or Mac OS for that matter, I have been rather casual about it.
-
-
It is hard to estimate how many Linux boxes are out there -speaking about Desktop. Statistics shows 1%-5% of all computers run Linux. An average would be 3%. This can be true, this can be false, but it doesn’t really matter a lot as it is low number anyway. What really matters is the growth of Linux.
-
-
It’s not very easy to find Ubuntu pre-installed PCs as Microsoft still dictates the traditional PC market.
System76 is one such company which offers Ubuntu only PCs. The company has launched two new laptops pre-loaded with Ubuntu 12.04 — 14.1″ Lemur Ultra and 15.6″ Pangolin Performance.
-
With the release of Ubuntu Linux 12.04 “Precise Pangolin” less than a week ago, there’s still plenty of excitement and discussion about this latest iteration of Canonical’s popular Linux distribution.
-
Move forward to April 2012 and Ubuntu 12.04 – codenamed Precise Pangolin – has been released. As we noted in our post detailing the new features themselves, there are lots of them. And, quite frankly, they have worked incredibly well. That’s not to say it’s perfect, as such, but it’s a vast improvement, which is what I like to see.
-
Smartphones and the technology that powers them continue to evolve at an incredible rate. Year after year, phones have continued to close the power gap that separates them with their traditional PC counterparts. Taking advantage of the latest in mobile processors, Canonical is set to release Ubuntu for Android. The OS effectively turns your phone into a full Ubuntu desktop computer when docked and connected to a monitor, meaning the day your smartphone could act as your primary computer is drawing nearer.
-
-
Having just launched Ubuntu 12.04, Canonical is bullish about its future, with Chris Kenyon, its VP of sales and business development forecasting that the firm’s operating system will ship on 18 million machines in 2013. According to Phoronix, Kenyon claimed that will amount to five per cent of worldwide PC shipments.
-
-
Linux has the tendency to get no love from the major video game publishers. Well today we get news that the Free to Play games Lord of Ultima and Command and Conquer Tiberium Alliances are coming to the Ubuntu Software Center. The titles run in your default browser and installing the games through the Software Center adds handy Dash launchers in the Dash and Unity Launcher.
-
-
-
The easiest way to install Ubuntu is to use the Wubi installer from within Windows. You won’t have to partition your hard disk and it can be easily removed if you change your mind.
-
Six months have passed since the last release of Ubuntu, and that means it’s time for a new version – complete with a new smarty-pants zoological codename (the “Precise Pangolin” this time, better known as a scaly anteater).
This release is more significant than most. As the “LTS” indicates, this is a long-term support release, meaning it will receive updates and patches for a full five years, while more experimental releases continue to appear to a biannual timetable. The idea is to encourage businesses to install Ubuntu without fear that it will quickly become obsolete – indeed, this version ups the ante on that front, as previous LTS releases offered only three years of support on the desktop.
-
-
-
One of the big advantages of Wubi is that it is much easier to remove Ubuntu installed in this way than it is if it was installed with the traditional partitioning of disks.
-
-
Ubuntu is a very popular operating system and a Linux distribution. A large percentage of the Linux user base across the globe use Ubuntu. And many of the power users of a computer use Ubuntu as their primary operating system, including me and many of my friends. The freedom you get when you are using Ubuntu and the speed of the operating system, the ability for you to customize it the way you want, all of these factors add up to the fact that it is one of the best Linux distro there is. And support from the Ubuntu community is simply awesome.
-
-
When Canonical launched its Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix back in February, it was based on Ubuntu Linux 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot,” which was then the most current stable version of the free and open source operating system.
-
Flavours and Variants
-
Clement Lefebvre, father of the Linux Mint project, uploaded a few minutes ago, May 16, the Release Candidate version of the upcoming Linux Mint 13 operating system.
-
-
-
-
A Raspberry Pi enthusiast has managed to get Windows 7 on the cheap Linux computer using Citrix XenDesktop, a sign that the device could bring savings to businesses, according to the foundation behind the device.
-
-
Phones
-
He noted how Linux is running beneath the shiny apps and interfaces of just about every smart phone and how, therefore, every vulnerability found in Linux has direct implications for the “computers in our pockets.”
-
OpenMobile says it is looking for device manufacturers to add its proprietary software to their future Tizen devices so they can run Android applications. The company showed Facebook and Guitar Hero running on an Exo PC at the recent CTIA conference, though not apparently under a Tizen UI. A video of the apps running was recorded by The Handheld Blog.
-
Android
-
It was all the way back in August when Google announced plans for its biggest acquisition ever, agreeing to buy Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion. Since then, shareholders and regulators around the world have signed off on the arrangement, but China has remained the sticking point for Google to move ahead with the final deal. One thing that every analyst agrees on once the deal goes through is that it will kick Google’s true, long-term strategy surrounding the Android mobile OS into high gear. Now, there are reports coming in that imply that Google’s long-term Android strategy may include some surprises.
-
For the third year in a row, mobile open source software projects have more than doubled in number, with the current count at around 18,000, up from around 8,000 in 2010. The rise of mobile computing in the enterprise, coupled with the Android’s rapid adoption worldwide, contributes to the trend as developers race to be the first to market with mobile innovations.
-
-
Of the trio of Huawei’s Diamond-class smartphones announced at Mobile World Congress in February, the dual-core Ascend D1 got the least amount of buzz.
-
-
-
-
Sub-notebooks/Tablets
-
At about $125 or less, the Zenithink C71 is already one of the cheapest tablets available that can run Google Android 4.0. But today Pandawill is selling the tablet for even less.
-
Given time and the efforts of some very bright and altruistic people, an open source solution can be highly competitive. The good news for Sugar and its customers is that they have been down the curve with their open source solution. As open source rises in prominence, established players face painful changes, but for new entrants like Sugar, there is little or no transition.
-
FuseSource advanced its “Integration Everywhere” strategy with Fuse ESB Enterprise 7.0 and Fuse MQ Enterprise 7.0, two new open-source integration and messaging platforms announced at its CamelOne 2012 conference.
-
For many, the name Apache is synonymous with the most successful open source project of all time – the Apache HTTP Web Server. The Apache Web Server has dominated the web server landscape for the majority of the Internet Era, even as rivals (open source and otherwise) have attempted to make in-roads.
-
The Apache Software Foundation has declared the first quarter of 2012 a quarter of “unprecedented growth” – it now has 104 current top-level projects (TLP) and 51 projects in the incubator, the largest number for either count. Jim Jagielski, the ASF’s president, said the “success can be attributed to Apache’s longstanding commitment to providing exceptional Open Source products, each with a stable codebase and an active community”.
-
Web Browsers
-
Chrome
-
-
Google plans to give multiple mobile-device makers early access to new releases of Android and to sell those devices directly to consumers, said people familiar with the matter. That is a shift from Google’s previous practice, when it joined with with only one hardware maker at a time to produce “lead devices,” before releasing the software to other device makers. Those lead devices were then sold to consumers through wireless carriers or retailers.
-
-
-
Mozilla
-
Clearly, loyalty for Firefox is obviously high among Linux users–which I suspect is why there’s been so much vocal opposition to Mozilla’s plan.
-
SaaS
-
As part of our ongoing focus on open source cloud, we talked with Eucalyptus CEO Marten Mickos about the commoditization of hypervisors, what’s driving his company’s growth and its plans to release Eucalyptus 3.1 soon, marking the company’s shift to a much more open development model. The interview is presented in two parts. Yesterday’s post covered the open cloud, the role of APIs and where open source cloud computing is headed.
-
FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
-
On announcing the release of GIMP 2.8 the developers claimed that the update introduced ‘important changes to the user interface’. Is this the case or are there still issues to be found? 2.8 is available on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, making it widely available and it is of course still completely free and open source. The new release has been in development for three years, meaning GIMP 2.8 boasts 36 notable improvements to it’s interface and a number of updates beneath the surface supporting these. At times I have avoided using GIMP because it was cumbersome and disorganised, so I am interested to find out if my opinion will change with the new release.
-
Programming
-
-
-
-
-
Nvidia has continued its series of almost consecutive product announcements and updates this week by announcing the Nsight Eclipse Edition IDE for programmers. Nvidia is looking to develop GPU-accelerated applications on Linux- and Mac OS X-based systems.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in IRC Logs at 3:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
IRC Proceedings: May 11th, 2012
IRC Proceedings: May 12th, 2012
IRC Proceedings: May 13th, 2012
IRC Proceedings: May 14th, 2012
IRC Proceedings: May 15th, 2012
IRC Proceedings: May 16th, 2012
Enter the IRC channels now
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
