News Roundup: Free Software/Open Source Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-10 09:33:39 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-10 09:33:39 UTC
Summary: Reverse-chronological news summary with headlines of interest about Free/Open Source software
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Deb Cinkus is the CEO of Polished Geek, a Raleigh, NC-based Joomla CMS web development company. Opensource.com community manager Jason Hibbets interviewed Cinkus about project management tips and open source project management tools during the 2013 All Things Open conference in Raleigh, NC.
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Kickstarter just passed $1 billion in pledges. While it's great that Kickstarter corralled 5.7 million people to help fund a heck of a lot of documentaries, tech startups, and more, $1 billion isn't what it used to be.
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The applications and benefits of open source will continue to evolve and grow. Educators are using open source programming as a way to interest, involve and inspire up and coming technologists. It enables students to learn by doing and to become more engaged. With a next generation of minds focused on next-generation technology challenges, open source will continue to revolutionise the way we overcome obstacles and create new opportunities.
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ThoughtWorks has recently open sourced their Continuous Delivery (CD) tool, called Go, having its origins in CruiseControl and providing a pipeline process that covers the entire code development process: continuous integration, testing and deploying.
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I am aware of situations where Open Source companies based out of US can’t offer free software to those countries which are in US’s embargo list, but something interesting popped out today when FESCo debated the issue whether Fedora should allow ‘contribution’ from such countries. Fedora’s sponsor Red Hat is a US based company and thus has to adhere to US laws so it’s tricky whether they can use the free software contribution from embargoed countries or not.
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People should be asking why states didn’t partner up on this using an open source model of development. Why do states and cities have to purchase systems for 10s or 100's of millions of dollars? How many water billing systems are out there in the United States? Can't we collaborate and come up with a couple good ones? What did Kentucky do right? These are the questions we should be asking.
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The Moodle community has a tool called “code checker” which is packaged as a Moodle plugin, and allows developers to analyse their code to ensure it meets the project’s coding style. This allows them to quickly identify and fix any issues before submission, and allows reviewers to quickly direct them to instructions on how to fix any discrepancies.
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This week during Mobile World Congress 2014, Buffalo Americas launched three high speed AirStation Open Source DD-WRT wireless routers: the AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD, the AirStation N600 WZR-600DHP2D, and the AirStation N300 WHR-300HP2D. The AC 1750 model is on sale now, while the other two won't arrive until early March.
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Cisco has released open source security software designed for building secure corporate Internet firewalls called OpenAppID.
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Since the OpenNI work was published as open source, it can still be distributed, and as I Programmer notes the files will also be available on GitHub. It's also feasible that other backers of the project will revive it in some form.
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Getting started with new software can be overwhelming. It's even more frustrating when you transition from one tool to another, because you have to unlearn some habits in order to make room for new ones. But, there are huge benefits to switching from closed software to open source alternatives.
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Having acquired the security firm Sourcefire last October, Cisco is using this week's RSA Conference as the showcase for how Cisco's security products are being integrated as well as detailing how it will cut an open-source path for the next-generation application-layer firewall/IPS.
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Graylog2, based on Java and Elasticsearch, provides a increasingly useful alternative to commercial log analysis tools
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Intrusion detection software is meant to monitor network traffic or host activities for malicious actions, such as successful or unsuccessful intrusion attempts, hostile traffic (i.e., malicious scans and denials of service), unauthorized configuration changes, malware symptoms, and user policy violations. An intrusion detection system (IDS) typically can produce reports describing the details of the potentially hazardous activity which generated alerts. OSSEC is particularly useful in this context for many reasons. First, it is an established, reputable product with a proven track record (OSSEC was first released in 2004 and has been owned by Trend Micro since 2009). Second, it is free and open source. Third, it is compatible with most modern operating systems such as Linux, Windows (Server 2008, Server 2003, 7, Vista, XP, 2000) BSD (Free/Open/Net), Unix (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX), and MacOS.
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In January 2013, I started exploring open source solutions to help implement my business idea. I used Wordpress, Joomla, and OpenShift to create FilmBoxFestival, a platform for streaming documentary films. Note: It is still in the testing phase.
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One alternative to buying expensive storage-area networks or other hardware-based dedicated storage is to deploy open source storage software on existing server hardware. For this test, we evaluated three such open source storage products, GlusterFS 3.3, Ceph 0.72 and Apache Hadoop 2.2.0.
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Open source software in healthcare has been instrumental for sharing common tools and increasing adoption of emerging medical information technology (IT) standards. By leading the effort to digitize health data, imaging informatics has set the precedent for the adoption of the technology industry's best practices and subsequently open source software.
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What opportunities does Open Source provide if you’re really looking to go big? Aiming to become “the next Red Hat” is an idea flawed from the start, as former XenSource CEO Peter Levine explains in his recent TechCrunch article. So what’s left if business models focussing on selling support and services all have a relatively low limit to their growth?
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Open Source Security Information Management (OSSIM) updates alongside its commercial cousin for better security visibility.
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My introduction to open source software began when I was sitting on a server room floor, with my head in my hands, completely frustrated with a Windows 2000 server. Every night there were some services that would crash. Every morning I would get yelled at by my over-bearing boss. I was new to the company, it was my first IT job fresh out of Network Admin college, where I graduated at the top of my class, but I couldn't fix this problem because it was a "known Microsoft issue," and I just had to wait for the update.
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Imagine what Puerto Rico would be like, if free software could become a movement for social justice on the island. Well, on Tuesday, February 11th, 2014, the Institute for a Free Puerto Rico planted the seed for this movement. In honor of Aaron Swartz, and in conjunction with the world-wide campaign to end mass surveillance, the Institute is happy to announce the creation of the Libre Planet Puerto Rico team.
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Facebook looks and feels like a single application, like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop. But behind the scenes, in the company’s data centers, you’ll find that the world’s most popular social network is really a multitude of different applications working in concert.
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A few years ago, a global analyst firm went so far as to describe open source as the ‘hype du jour’ and some people even labelled it as something destined for the student and hobbyist market.
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Lead developer Gavin Andresen chided the commercial bitcoin community for not getting involved enough in core bitcoin development and testing this week. In a mail to the bitcoin developers list updating the community on some bug fixes in the code, he called companies out for not giving back.
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There are many open source software projects out there today and any list of open source licenses alone shows you how much project diversity is out there. Just take a look at Github, Apache, Eclipse or The Linux Foundation and you’ll find thousands of developers collaborating on the software that literally runs the world.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- At Microsoft, "Firing People is a "Cheat Code" to Pump the Stock Short-term But They Are Literally Destroying the Company's Soul Long-term."
- They frame layoffs as a "success story"
- Google News Poisons Its Own Index With More Slopfarms (Including "filmogaz")
- Naming and shaming lazy slobs who rip off other people using LLMs can work, eventually
- Naming Culprits in Switzerland
- Switzerland is highly secretive about white-collar crime
- Sanitised Plagiarism as "AI" (How Oligarchy Plots to Use Slop to Hide or Distract From Its Abuses, or Cause People Not to Trust Anything They See/Read Online)
- This isn't innovation but repression
- Recent Layoffs at Red Hat (2026 the Year of Ultimate Bluewashing)
- I found it amusing that Red Hat's CEO has just chosen to wear all blue, as if to make a point
- Team Campinos Talks About SAP Days Before EPO Industrial Actions and a Day Before the "Alicante Mafia" Series (About Team Campinos Doing Cocaine)
- EPO staff that isn't morally feeble will insist on objecting to illegal instructions
- Stack(ed) Rankings and Ongoing Layoffs at Red Hat and IBM (Failure to Keep Staff Acquired by IBM)
- IBM is mismanaged and its sole aim is to game the stock market (by faking a lot of things)
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- Great Reset at IBM, the Company That Pulps Red Hat
- In 2026 many workers are RTO'ed, PIP'ed, and at Red Hat many have effectively 'left the company' and now start afresh as "IBM" staff
- The "Alicante Mafia" - Part II - Breakout of Discontent This Winter in Europe's Second-Largest Organisation
- So far we've caused a lot of panic and stress inside Team Campinos
- The "Alicante Mafia" - Part I - An Introduction to the Mafia Governing the EPO
- Are some people 'evacuating' themselves to save face?
- J.H.M. Ray Dassen & Debian, Red Hat, GNOME unexplained deaths
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gemini Links 16/01/2026: "Porting My Main Website Over to Gemini" and Seeed Studio DevBoard
- Links for the day
- IBM Stacked and Ranked Badly, Maladministration Dooms the Company
- Now they stack people up for PIPs and layoffs ("RAs")
- Links 16/01/2026: UK Royal Family's "Legal Team Accused of Dishonesty, Fraud and Misconduct", OSI Still Controlled by Microsoft (the OSI's Spokesperson is on Microsoft's Payroll, Not Interim Executive Director, Deborah Bryant)
- Links for the day
- Writing About Corruption
- Fraud is everywhere
- The B in IBM is Brown-nosing and Buzzwords (or Both)
- International Buzzwords Machines
- IBM's 'Scientific-Sounding' Tech-Porn Won't Help IBM Survive (or Be Bailed Out)
- Who's next in the pipeline?
- IBM Was Never the Good Guy
- its original products were used for large-scale surveillance, not scientific endeavours
- The Bluewashing is Making Red Hat Extinct (They All Become "IBM", Little by Little)
- IBM does not care what's legal
- Slopfarms Push Fake News About Microsoft Shutdown, 30,000+ Microsoft Layoffs Last Year Spun as Only "15,000"
- The Web is seriously ill
- Countries Take Action Against Social Control Media and 'Smart' 'Phones', Not Slop (Plagiarised Information Synthesis Systems or P.I.S.S.)
- None of this is unprecedented except the scale and speed of sharing
- Sites That Expose Corruption Under Attack, Journalism Not Tolerated Anymore (the Super-Rich Abuse Their Wealth and Political Power)
- Sometimes, albeit not always, the harder people try to hide something, the more effective and important it is for the general public
- Links 16/01/2026: Social Control Media Curbs in Australia Underway, MElon Still Profiting by Sexualising Kids 'as a Service'
- Links for the day
- More People Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux"
- We still see many distros and even journalists that say "GNU/Linux"
- LLM Slop on the Web is Waning, But Linuxiac Has Become a Slopfarm
- I gave Linuxiac a chance to deny this or explain this; Linuxiac did not
- More Signs of Financial Troubles at Microsoft, Europe Puts Microsoft Under Investigation
- The end of the library is part of the cuts
- Pedophilia-Enabling Microsoft Co-founder Cuts Staff
- Compensating by sleeping with young girls does not make one younger
- Microsoft Shuts Down Campus Library, Resorts to Storytelling About "AI" to Spin the Seriousness of It
- Microsoft is in pain
- Free Software Foundation (FSF) Back to Advertising the Talks of Richard Stallman
- A pleasant surprise
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, January 15, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, January 15, 2026
- Gemini Links 16/01/2026: House Flood and Pragmatic Retrocomputing Dogfooding
- Links for the day
- Links 15/01/2026: Starlink Weaponised for Regime Change (by Man Who Boasted About Annexing South American Countries for Tesla's Mining), Corruption in Switzerland Uncovered by JuristGate
- Links for the day
- Linuxiac May Have Reverted Back to LLM Slop (Updated Same Day)
- Is he back off the wagon?
- GAFAM and IBM Layoffs Outline
- a lot of the layoffs happen in secrecy and involve convincing people to resign, retire, relocate etc.
- Links 15/01/2026: Internet Blackouts, Jackboots Society in US
- Links for the day
- Coming Soon: Impact With EPO Cocainegate
- Will Campinos survive 2026?
- The Last 'Dilberts' or Some of the Last Salvaged (Comic Strips Which Disappeared Shortly After They Had Been Published)
- Around the time the creator of Dilbert went silent he published some strips mocking TikTok and usage of it
- The Creator of Git Probably Doesn't Know How to Install and Deploy Git
- Nobody disputes this: Mr. Torvalds created Git
- Slop is a Liability
- Slopfarms too will become extinct because people aren't interested in them
- GAFAM is a National and International Threat to Everybody
- GAFAM is just a tentacle in service of imperialism
- EPO People Power - Part XXXVI - In Conclusion and Taking Things Up Another Notch
- They often say that the law won't deter or stop criminals because it's hard to enforce laws against people who reject the law
- Running Techrights is Fun, Rewarding, and Gratifying
- In Geminispace we are already quite dominant
- Red Hat is Connected to the Military, Its Chief Comes From Military Family (From Both Sides)
- The founder of Red Hat's parent company literally saluted Hitler himself (yes, a Nazi salute)
- Don't Cry for Gaslighting Media in a Country Which Loathes the Press
- my wife and I received threats for merely writing about Americans
- Red Hat (IBM) is Driving Away Remaining Fedora Users
- I've not used Fedora since Moonshine
- Robert X. Cringely Has Already Explained IBM's Bullying Culture (Towards Its Own Staff)
- IBM is a fairly nasty company
- Proton Mail compromise, Hannah Natanson (Washington Post) police raid & Debian
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, January 14, 2026
- Gemini Links 15/01/2026: "Ode to elinks", envs.net Pubnix and Downtime at geminiprotocol.net
- Links for the day
- Still Condoning Child Labour and Exploiting Unpaid Children Developers as PR Props (to Raise Monopoly Money)
- These people lack morals. So they project.
- "Security, AI or Quantum" on "the IBM Titanic"
- Who's RMS?
- Hours Ago The Register MS Published Microsoft Windows SPAM "Sponsored by Intel." The Fake 'Article' Says "AI" 34 Times.
- The Register MS isn't a serious online newspaper
- EPO People Power - Part XXXV - Where Else Will Corruption and Substance Abuse be Tolerated?
- We need to raise standards
- Status and Capital
- People who do a lot are too busy to boast about it and wear fancy garments
- IBM Paying the Price for Treating Workers Badly and Discarding Real Talent (Because It's "Expensive")
- IBM is dead man walking
- Turbulence Ahead
- I last rebooted my laptop in 2023
- Google News Rewards Plagiarism With LLMs (About Linux, Too)
- Google is in the slop business now
- Links 14/01/2026: Failing Economy and Conquest Abroad as a Distraction From Domestic Woes
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 14/01/2026: The Ephemerality of Our Digital Lives and "Summer of Upgrades"
- Links for the day
- Projection Tactics - Part III: Silencing Inconvenient Voices Online
- If X gets banned in the UK, it'll be hard to see what the spouse says in public
- Outsourcing on Microsoft's Agenda, Offshoring Also
- "In some cases, India hiring is poised to replace certain roles previously based in the U.S."
- Links 13/01/2026: 'Dilbert' creator Scott Adams Passes Away With Cancer, Ban on X/Twitter Considered for CSAM Profiteering
- Links for the day
- The Goal is Software Freedom for All
- Anything to do with "Linux Foundation" is timewasting
- Reminder That Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Is Not Free, And It's Because of IBM
- software freedom just 'gets in the way'
- Under IBM, in Order to Game the Stock Market, Red Hat Resorted to Boosting the Biggest Ponzi Scheme in Human History
- This is what IBM turned Red Hat into
- Revision handed Microsoft the keys to the distortion of the past/history
- This isn't the first time The Register MS rewrites computing history in Microsoft's favour, as we pointed out several times in past years
- What Will Happen to GAFAM After the US Defaults Rather Than Bails Out the Market?
- Or tries to topple every government that doesn't play by its rules?
- EPO People Power - Part XXXIV - Bad Optics for the European Union (for Failing to Act and Tolerating Cocaine Use in Europe's Second-Largest Institution)
- There are principles in laws which tie awareness with complicity
- EPO's Central Staff Committee is Now Redacting (Self-Censoring) Due to Threats From the EPO "Mafia"
- "On the agenda: salary adjustment procedure for 2025 (as of January 2026)"
- "AI" (Slop) 'Demand' Isn't Growing, It's Fake, It's a Pyramid Scheme
- They try to resort to 'creative' accounting (fraudulent schemes like circular financing)
- Difficult Times at IBM and Microsoft Ahead of Mass Layoffs (Probably Before This Month's Results Unless Postponed to 'Prove' Rumours 'Wrong')
- IBM and Microsoft used to be tech giants. Nowadays they mostly pretend by pumping up their stock and buying back their own shares.
- Canonical: Make Ubuntu Bloated (Debian With Snaps), Then Sell the 'Debloated' Version for a Fee
- If people want a light distro, then they ought not pay Canonical but instead choose a light (by design) GNU/Linux distro
- People Don't Want "Just Enough", They'll Look for Quality
- That's why slopfarms will go away or become inactive
- Gemini Links 14/01/2026: 3D and Tiny Traffic Lights Pack
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, January 13, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 13, 2026
- Slop Waning Whilst Originals Perish
- Slop is way past its "prime"
- XBox's 'Major Nelson' Loses His Job Again, This Time in a Microsoft Mono Pusher
- Microsoft hasn't much of a future in gaming. XBox's business is in rapid decline and people who push Mono to game developers are the same