• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Kernel Space

• The Most Successful Open Source Software in the History

  Reason of the first one: Linux + GNU = GNU/Linux. From Linus Torvalds declared in 1991 that he created new OS based on Minix kernel has now been close to 20 years. At that time, most of the web server is Linux system.

• Answers to some common kernel.org account questions

Applications

• The Best Video Chat App for Linux

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How to Protect your Mac & Linux Computers from Hacks by Creating an iptables Firewall

• Games

  • Humble Frozen Synapse Bundle Breaks a Million

    A few other statistics of note: 231, 799 copies of the HFSB were purchased, roughly two-thirds of them by Windows gamers and the remainder split fairly evenly between the Mac and Linux crowds. Linux gamers paid the highest average price at $9.61, followed by Mac owners, who ponied up an average of $6.95, and finally the Windows cheapskates, who as usual brought up the rear with a sub-average $4.13.

Desktop Environments

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • KDE celebrates 15th birthday

Distributions

• Red Hat Family

  • The Best Video Chat App for Linux

  • Red Hat Takes Its Hat Off to Dennis Ritchie

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu 11.10 released today, try it in your browser

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot is now available

      • Ubuntu unveils Oneiric Ocelot update

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Released

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Overview

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot – download live, any problems?

      • Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) released

      • +
        Ubuntu 11.10: A Linux Option for Cloud Services Providers?

        Canonical’s Ubuntu 11.10 debuted today. Best-known as a desktop Linux distribution, Ubuntu 11.10 also has server and cloud aspirations. Indeed, the Ubuntu Cloud Infrastructure effort now leverages OpenStack, LXC, Juju and multiple virtualization technologies. But will cloud services providers (CSPs) and channel partners embrace Ubuntu 11.10 for their public and private cloud efforts? Before you answer that question don’t forget that rival Linux distributions such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, SUSE and CloudLinux are working overtime on their own cloud initiatives.

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Released

      • Ubuntu 11.10, the Linux you’ve been waiting for

      • Linux Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” Available For Download

      • Canonical Lays Ubuntu Cloud Claim

      • Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Server tames cloud with Juju, Openstack, says review

        Ubuntu Server 11.10 is more compelling than as ever as a Linux distribution for cloud deployments, says this eWEEK Labs review. A lack of updated documentation and some other rough edges give pause, but the new Juju cloud deployment framework and tighter OpenStack integration should make “Oneiric Ocelot” a winner when it arrives in its LTS version in April.

      • Ubuntu Linux 11.10 is the “Oneiric Ocelot”

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Puppy Linux 5.2 Wary proves big operating systems come in small packages

          Ubuntu Linux may have grabbed a lot of headlines when version 11.10 was released earlier this week, but it’s not the only Linux-based operating system to get an overhaul this week. Today Puppy Linux 5.2 Wary was released.

Devices/Embedded

• Delta selects Sysgo’s ELinOS Linux product

  The R&D site in Bern develops power supplies for telecom applications. One of the modules developed in Bern is the control and supervision unit PSC 3. For several years, a commercial real time operating system is used. To prepare the upcoming extensions within the next generation of Telecom Power Supplies, Delta has decided to replace the operating system by Sysgo’s ELinOS.

• Linux-based network camera design supports up to 1080p@60fps

  Nexvision announced a Linux-based network video camera reference design with remote accessa dn analytics based on the Texas Instruments 1GHz, DSP-enabled DM8148 DaVinci processor. The CAMSMOOV also integrates an FPGA, as well as a camera with up to four camera processing boards supporting up to 1080p@60fps H.264 video at up to 12 megapixels, plus sensors and a variety of wired and wireless I/O.

• Phones

  • Android

    • Google and Samsung reschedule Android “Ice Cream Sandwich” event

      Google and Samsung have announced a new date and time for their joint Android event; the original event, which was scheduled to take place on 11 October, was postponed by the companies last week. According to AllThingsD, the joint event will now take place on 19 October at 10:00 am HKT (3:00 am BST) in Hong Kong, at its AsiaD conference.

    • Is Android’s bane a boon for Free Software?

      As Android began its remarkably rapid ascent to become the world’s leading smartphone operating system (depending on how and where you measure it), its “almost open” code was widely accepted as good enough, given that what we had before so was so much worse. The idea that a Linux-based offering could not only be taken seriously by ordinary users, but might actually beat everything else – even the near-mythic iPhone – seemed so extraordinary that we were willing to overlook those proprietary blobs floating around in the sea of otherwise free code.

      But as Android woes have mounted, and the spectre of a Microsoft tax being applied more and more widely has loomed ever larger, there is an interesting possibility: that people will start to think more seriously about creating truly free mobile phone stacks. There are already a number of attempts out there, in various stages of completion.

    • Motorola Droid RAZR Specs Said to be Faster Than the iPhone 4S

      A source of BGR has confirmed a few specs of a certain Droid device that Motorola and Verizon are rumored to be launching next Tuesday and they’re quite awesome. We’re still uncertain about the name but we do know that it will be one of the following names:

      * Droid HD
      * Droid RAZR
      * Droid Spyder

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • Latest ‘Cruz’ Honeycomb tablets start at $200

    Velocity Cruz has begun shipping two Android 3.2 tablets, dropping the price of the eight-inch, 800 x 600 Cruz T408 by $40 to $200 and selling the 10.1-inch, 1024 x 600 Cruz T410 for $300. Both the T408 and T410 are equipped with a 1GHz, Cortex-A8 processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage, capacitive touchscreens, and front-facing cameras, says the company.

  • Motorola and Best Buy Announce the XOOM Media Edition

    We can’t say we didn’t see this coming after being leaked a while ago, but the exact specifications and details remained a mystery until todays announcement.

“Open Source Gives Me High-Quality Solutions”

Robert Lemke, lead developer of TYPO3 Phoenix, speaks on how open source has gradually come at par with commercial solutions, won over both government and private organisations and what problems it simultaneously needs to address. He also tells Linux For You, about introducing new techniques ‘Aspect-Oriented Programming’ and FLOW3 at the OSI Days in November.

SaaS

• Cloud, open source, and new network models: Part 1

  What is the network’s role in cloud computing? What are the best practices for defining and delivering network architectures to meet the needs of a variety of cloud workloads? Is there a standard model for networking in the cloud?

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Post-PC LibreOffice heads for Web, iOS, Android

• LibreOffice To Go Online, Will Run On Android

• OpenOffice.org “can’t be allowed to die”

  A major fundraising campaign is starting on 13 October to save the open source productivity suite OpenOffice.org. After splitting with Oracle, its the main sponsor, on 1 June the lead developers behind the software have issued a statement committing themselves to continuing as an association and financing itself through user donations.

CMS

• Agencies see advantages to open source content management systems

  Many people were terrified when the Commerce Department first considered moving to an open source content management system for its main website, the agency’s new media director said Thursday.

Business

• Diaspora Prepares to Launch Open Source Social Network

  Diaspora is most famous — that is, in the geeky contingents where it is known — for the promise it holds as a distributed, open source social network that allows users to control their own data. But 18 months after it began as a project on Kickstarter that attracted donors like Mark Zuckerberg, it has also won a reputation for more promise than delivery.

  After Diaspora emailed its users to ask them to donate this week, having published an expense report that showed its $200,000 in Kickstarter money had all been spent, some assumed the end was near.

• eWEEK Readers Trust Open Source

  Two out of three readers use open source, but some of you don’t trust it. Next: choose a tablet for business!

• Semi-Open Source

  • Q&A: NGINX’s Andrey Alexeev Discusses The Open Source Web Server

Public Services/Government

• Government of Paraguay Going to FLOSS in 2012

• Paraguay aims to switch to open source software

Programming

• “Open Source Gives Me High-Quality Solutions”

  The Apache Subversion (SVN) open source version control system is out with its 1.7 release today. The new SVN 1.7 release adds new features such as HTTPv2 and WC-NG that improve performance and make version control more efficient for developers.

• Key Milestones Over 10 Years of Eclipse

  As we get ready to celebrate 10 years of Eclipse, I thought it would be interesting to look back on the major milestones in the Eclipse community, ie. what were the major events that have helped shape and drive the Eclipse community. Here is my list but please feel free to add your own in the comments. We have also created a slide show of these milestones available at the end of the post.

Standards/Consortia

• Gate One brings open source SSH to HTML5 browsers

  Version 0.9 of Gate One, an open source terminal emulator for HTML5 web browsers, has been released. This is a beta level build – the first public release as the developer works towards a stable 1.0 version. The software makes use of WebSockets to connect a server backend written in Python and a frontend written for modern browsers in JavaScript, HTML5 and CSS. The frontend doesn’t require any browser plug-ins to be installed.

• New ODF 1.2 format

  The latest Open Document Format, ODF 1.2, was finally approved by the OASIS committee. It is a major milestone, as the previous version (1.1) dates back to 2006. ODF is also a standard under the ISO committee, but in its even older 1.0 instantiation.

Google Kills Open Source Code Search, Plus Kills Buzz

Health/Nutrition

• Children Gardening in Sewage Sludge: Los Angeles Schools Alerted

  This week, CMD’s new Food Rights Network sent letters to thirteen schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) that have “organic” school gardens adopted by Hollywood’s Environmental Media Association (EMA). As we reported in May, EMA teamed up with sludge-marketing corporation Kellogg Garden Products, which sells products made from Los Angeles area industrial and human sewage sludge with the label “quality organics” and which used the gardens for photo ops with sludge products.

Security

• WineHQ database breached; Fedora Project forces password change

• Linux System Hardening

Defence/Police/Aggression

• Progressive Group Pressures Major League Baseball To Drop Glenn Beck

Finance

• Protesters plan to ‘Occupy’ London, Rome, Auckland

  That’s the word going out on the Web to rally street protests on Saturday around the globe from New Zealand to London, Frankfurt and, of course, New York.

  Protesters got started early in Italy, where students managed to break into the hall of the Goldman Sachs building in the heart of Milan’s financial district, a few steps away from La Scala opera house, police said. The protesters were quickly dispersed.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• ALEC Politicians Spin Special “Interest” Bill to Protect Corporate Wrongdoers as “Job Creation”

  For years, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), has been itching to protect big corporations from high interest rates charged in cases where corporations have killed or injured Americans. Now, Wisconsin politicians serving on key ALEC task forces are pushing a bill embracing this idea as part of ALEC alumnus Scott Walker’s latest effort to force the ALEC agenda into law based on claims that doing so will help “job creators.”

• Progressive Group Pressures Major League Baseball To Drop Glenn Beck

  The progressive group Americans United for Change is launching a campaign against Major League Baseball (MLB), pressuring the group to cut its ties to right-wing pundit Glenn Beck due to his history of controversial statements.

  Beck recently left his high-profile spot as a host on Fox News to launch his own online network, GBTV. This spring, MLB Advanced Media, the interactive arm of the MLB, teamed up with Beck and agreed to provide him with a streaming video platform. Along with Beck’s show, MLB Advanced Media streams more traditional sports fare, such as baseball games and March Madness.

Civil Rights

• The conference on Technological Surveillance and Free Software

  Yesterday I attended a conference titled “Technological Surveillance and Free Software”, which was organized by the School of Information Technologies of the university where I work. This activity was part of the actions to start the migration to FLOSS in the university.

  The speaker showed a clip from one newspaper displaying the headline “State institutions using more free software everyday”. This piece of news was published yesterday, too. That was something I did not expect!

ACTA

• The European Parliament services denied the existence of ACTA documents four times

  The European Parliament services denied the existence of INTA coordinators’ minutes (regarding ACTA) four times. Under EU law, Institutions can refuse access to documents in some cases. But EU law does not provide a possibility to deny or obfuscate the existence of documents. See our 5 October letter to the INTA secretariat.

• FFII requests European Parliament’s Legal Services’ opinion on ACTA

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Server

• “75 Per Cent Of Stock Exchanges Worldwide Run On Linux”

  Want to know why open source technology could be a hit proposition for your business venture? Kapil Gupta, CEO of OMLogic Consulting and an OSI Days speaker, in an interview with Linux For You, shares interesting facts to highlight why open source technology makes business sense. He also gives a brief synopsis of his upcoming talk at the OSI event that would surely appeal to the open source based businessman!

Audiocasts/Shows

• CAOS Theory Podcast 2011.10.14

Kernel Space

• First Linux Benchmarks Of AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer

  Here’s the first Linux benchmarks of AMD’s FX-Series Bulldozer desktop CPUs that launched on Tuesday. Specifically, it’s Gentoo Linux performance results for an AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer.

  The AMD FX-8150 Linux benchmark results can be found on OpenBenchmarking.org. It’s an eight-core AMD FX-8150 on an ASUS Sabertooth 990FX motherboard with 4GB of RAM. Gentoo Linux was used with the Linux 3.0.6 kernel and GCC 4.5.3. Unfortunately, this system is not under my control and there’s no direct comparisons available for this hardware system to any other AMD processors.

• Utilities for Making and Checking MS-DOS FAT Filesystems

Applications

• Easily Rename Files And Directories With GPrename

• Transmageddon Video Converter

• Proprietary

  • Desktop virtualization: Parallels vs. VMware vs. VirtualBox

• Instructionals/Technical

  • How To Upgrade Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) To 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) (Desktop & Server)

  • Using GeoIP With Nginx On Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 11.04

  • How To Upgrade Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) To 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) (Desktop & Server)

  • First Linux Benchmarks Of AMD FX-8150 Bulldozer

  • Starting Ubuntu in console mode

  • How to Fix Lag Issues with ATI Proprietary Graphic Drivers (fglrx) in Ubuntu 11.10

  • Get the name of the newest file in a directory on the linux shell

  • Ubuntu Tip: Enable synchronizing installed apps with other computers

  • Customizing a package for openSUSE!

  • Ubuntu 11.10 GNOME Shell Guide

  • A Simple User Guide For Ubuntu Oneiric

  • Root-kits: The Enemy Within

  • Linux System Hardening

  • Drawing circles

  • How to show the full URL in Firefox

• Games

  • Much Awaited Game ‘Dungeons of Dredmor’ Released for Linux

    Much awaited game Dungeons of Dredmor from Gaslamp Games is now available for Linux and can be purchased from Desura (Linux client is currently in beta).

  • Alien Arena 7.52 Released with New Levels and Game Mode

    Multiplayer First Person Shooter Alien Arena has just been updated to version 7.52 bringing in lots of new features and fixes.

  • Dungeons Of Dredmor now available!

Desktop Environments

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • KDE Commit-Digest for 9th October 2011

  • Plasma Active Perspective: The User Story

    Plasma Active brings a flexible, elegant, activity-driven user experience to a spectrum of devices. This article is part of a series of articles about different perspectives on Plasma Active. This installment looks at the user story, and aims at answering the questions “what does Plasma Active bring me as a user?”, what are the underlying concepts and how do we plan to achieve these goals.

  • Fifteen years of KDE

    Fifteen years ago Matthias Ettrich started the KDE community. On 14th October 1996 he wrote his famous email to the de.comp.os.linux.misc group on Usenet. He called for other programmers to join him to create a free desktop environment for Linux targeted at end users. Many, many people joined. Thousands of developers wrote millions lines of code. We did 90 stable releases of our core set of applications alone, not counting all additional stuff and the thousands of 3rd party applications.

  • 15 years of KDE

  • Looking for a Polished Linux Desktop? Consider KDE

    In the world of Linux desktops, Ubuntu’s Unity and GNOME have tended to dominate the headlines in recent months, but there’s another contender that many consider an even better choice.

  • KWin on Pandaboard

  • KDE Rekonq Browser Picks Up Many Features

Distributions

• CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) – Digital Forensics LiveCD

  CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution created as a project of Digital Forensics. CAINE offers a complete forensic environment that is organized to integrate existing software tools as software modules and to provide a friendly graphical interface.

• New Releases

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 169

    · Announced Distro: Parsix GNU/Linux 3.7r1
    · Announced Distro: Superb Mini Server 1.6.2
    · Announced Distro: Sabayon 7
    · Announced Distro: Ubuntu 11.10

• PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

  • The ‘restricted’ repository for Mandriva/ROSA 2011 is available for public testing!

• Gentoo Family

  • Sabayon 7 vs. Ubuntu 11.10 Performance

    The release of Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” this week captured most of the Linux spotlight, but also arriving this week was Sabayon 7, the Gentoo-based Linux distribution that’s meant to be easy-to-use and desktop-oriented. In this article Sabayon 7 has been pitted against Ubuntu 11.10 with its stock Linux 3.0 kernel and its new experimental Fusion kernel.

• Red Hat Family

  • Fedora

    • Testers Wanted to Kick Tires on Fedora 16 Beta Release

      The Fedora project rolled out the beta version of Fedora 16 today and invites testers to take it for a spin. Current known bugs are listed in the Fedora wiki, and beta testers are encouraged to provide feedback to help fine tune the operating system before Fedora 16 rolls out in November.

• Debian Family

  • Debian GNU/Linux Point Release

    I know, I know. Everyone who has any interest in this kind of thing is waiting anxiously for the new Ubuntu release. So I will shamelessly exploit that anticipation by mentioning that an updated distribution for Debian GNU/Linux “squeeze”, 6.0.3, was announced over the weekend. Well, announced, but not quite entirely available yet. Most of the ISO images have been updated, but the Live images have not yet.

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Review: For Ubuntu, The Road To 200 Million Desktops Starts With 11.10

      • The Most Beautiful Ubuntu 11.10 Manual Published

      • Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” released

      • Spotify Gets Better Ubuntu Integration In Latest Update

      • How to install Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot – An Ubuntu Installation Guide

      • Ubuntu’s Oneiric Ocelot: Nice, but necessary?

        Oneiric Ocelot, or Ubuntu 11.10 as it is known, has been delivered and refines the core of the Unity environment Canonical built at the expense of GNOME.

      • Ocelots Are Go

      • Ubuntu 11.10 review. Oneiric Ocelot – beautiful, but deadly

      • Now there’s a list of Ubuntu-certified computers

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Review: Incremental Refinement

        As Mac and iPhone users play with their new iOS5 and iCloud, Linux users get to play with a brand new release of the most popular Linux OS. Ubuntu 11.10, also known as Oneiric Ocelot, has arrived.

        Unlike the last release, which featured a switch to an entirely new Unity user interface, this one is a fairly incremental upgrade. What most of us expected were further refinements to this new user interface, and Ubuntu more or less delivered on that, but let’s get into the nitty gritty.

      • Ubuntu 11.10: Word on the Street

      • Ubuntu Spotted at Best Buy, But Not as Something for Sale Though

        And to think, they kicked me out of Bestbuy for wanting Ubuntu on a netbook. This was around…2008? I went in to one of the Bestbuy’s at Tigard, Oregon. Asked for my Windows Refund, or just to get a laptop with Ubuntu installed…got the “lemme ask my manager” response, 30 minutes later the manager “banned” me from the store.

      • Upgrading to Drupal 7, not always easy

      • Ubuntu 11.10 – Oneiric Ocelot Has Been Released

      • Ubuntu 11.10 screenshots

      • Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Post Installation Guide

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Lucid Puppy 5.2.8 released

        • Ubuntu Rescue Remix: Version 11.10

          Version 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) of the very best Free-Libre Open-Source data recovery software toolkit based on Ubuntu is out.

          Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix provides a robust yet lean system for data recovery and forensics. No graphical interface is used; the live system can boot and function normally on machines with very little memory or processor power. Following Ubuntu’s six-month release schedule, all the software is up-to-date, stable and supported.

          Ubuntu-Rescue-Remix features a full command-line environment with the newest versions of the most powerful free/libre open-source data recovery software including GNU ddrescue, Photorec, The Sleuth Kit, Gnu-fdisk and Clamav.

        • An Ubuntu Alternative -or- An Alternative Ubuntu

          For all those who object so strongly to the Ubuntu Unity desktop, I have been thinking this afternoon that I have some time (it’s Friday), and I have a free disk partition (Natty is out, Oneiric is in, and the Ubuntu test partition is free), and I haven’t looked at Kubuntu in quite a long time (it’s been so long that I don’t even remember the last time). So I have downloaded and installed it on my Lenovo S10-3s. Here are the results:

        • Disappointments of Kubuntu 11.10

          There are 2 times a year when all Linux users, and especially Ubuntu users, are excited. They are April and October. These are months when new versions of Ubuntu Linux are released.
          This October is not an exception. 13th of October (sorry, not Friday this time) saw release of version 11.10, nicknamed Oneiric Ocelot. As usual, Canonical, company beyond Ubuntu, releases whole family of systems based on the same core: Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu.

Devices/Embedded

• Linux-based network camera design supports up to 1080p@60fps

  Nexvision announced a Linux-based network video camera reference design with remote accessa dn analytics based on the Texas Instruments 1GHz, DSP-enabled DM8148 DaVinci processor. The CAMSMOOV also integrates an FPGA, as well as a camera with up to four camera processing boards supporting up to 1080p@60fps H.264 video at up to 12 megapixels, plus sensors and a variety of wired and wireless I/O.

• Phones

  • Android

    • One Smart Phone, Two Personalities

      AT&T, the second largest wireless carrier in the U.S., and Qualcomm, which dominates the market for smart-phone processors, want to give your phone a split identity. The companies are separately adopting technology that can make a smart phone secure enough to keep IT bosses happy, but open enough to allow its owner to install apps or surf the Web.

      AT&T will release its version of the technology, called Toggle, for Android phones this year. Someone using a device with Toggle installed taps the home button twice to flip between personal and work modes. The personal mode behaves like a regular phone and is fully under the user’s control. The work mode looks like a separate phone with its own desktop and suite of apps and is secured by a password. Its functionality is constrained by a company’s IT policy; all data stored or created under the work mode, whether e-mail, contacts, or Web downloads, is encrypted and can be remotely wiped if a phone is lost or stolen.

Events

• SCALE Kids Conference announced

SaaS

• X.commerce Joins OpenStack Community

• Cloudera and MicroStrategy Announce Integration Between Business Intelligence and Apache Hadoop

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Oracle v. Google – Google Gets Significant Win on Mitchell Report

• Oracle v. Google – You Can’t Make This Stuff Up (or maybe you can)

  If it weren’t for the potentially serious economic and technological ramifications of this case, some of the filings would be worth their weight in gold with respect to their entertainment value. Such is the case when reading Google’s response (519 [PDF; text below]) to Oracle’s precis letter seeking leave to file a Daubert motion regarding the Google damage expert reports of Drs. Leonard and Cox (See document 511). As I said yesterday, we only read Oracle’s side of the story, and I expected Google’s to be quite different. It is.

  Oracle complained that Drs. Cox and Leonard have no technical background and, instead, relied upon Google employees for technical interpretations. As Google points out, this is the same thing Oracle has done. Pot, meet kettle.1 Google further points out that it intends to make all of those Google employees upon which Drs. Leonard and Cox relied available for questioning at trial before putting either of the doctors on the stand. So Oracle will have ample opportunity to question the merits of the technical observations.

• Oracle v. Google – Google Continuing To Press Hard On Its Positions

  Google is continuing to press Oracle with further motion filings. This time Google attacks Oracle’s claim for past patent damages as outside the scope of the law. (521 [PDF; text below]) Oracle has asserted a claim for patent damages from the year 2007. Oracle, however, did not give notice of infringement to Google until much later, perhaps as late as July 2010. If Google is successful in obtaining leave to file its motion and is successful on the motion, it could preclude virtually all damage claims for past patent infringement. Damages would then only be due from the date of notice going forward, if at all.

• LibreOffice Conference Announcements

• The Apache Software Foundation Statement on Apache OpenOffice.org

  On 1 June 2011, Oracle Corporation submitted the OpenOffice.org code base to The Apache Software Foundation. That submission was accepted, and the project is now being developed as a podling in the Apache Incubator under the ASF’s meritocratic process informally dubbed “The Apache Way”.

  OpenOffice.org is now officially part of the Apache family.

  The project is known as Apache OpenOffice.org (incubating).

  Over its 12-year history, the ASF has welcomed contributions from individuals and organizations alike, but, as a policy, does not solicit code donations. The OpenOffice.org code base was not pursued by the ASF prior to its acceptance into the Apache Incubator.

• Apache Asserts OpenOffice Stewardship

  Despite the growing momentum of the LibreOffice fork of OpenOffice, the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) is urging the community of volunteer developers to rally around the OpenOffice code base as the canonical version of the open source software suite.

• The Document Foundation Thinking Beyond Desktop

  During the LibreOffice Conference in Paris yesterday, The Document Foundation made several interesting announcements. Among them, a new online version of LibreOffice and a port for smartphones are planned for next year or 2013.

  LibreOffice Online appears to be an online application of LibreOffice in the ilk of Microsoft 365 or Google Docs. The new browser-based app, developed by openSUSE’s Michael Meeks, “is based on GTK+ framework and HTML5′s canvas.” There isn’t a lot more detail available right now, but a demo video is available here (requires WebM support).

• Apache vows to develop, protect OpenOffice

  Citing its success with other donated projects, the Apache Software Foundation vowed to protect OpenOffice.org and prevent fragmentation.

  In a lengthy statement issued to naysayers and concerned parties today, the ASF rejected claims that OpenOffice would be neglected and pointed to its success with other adopted open source projects such as SpamAssassin as proof that the “Apache Way” will grow and develop OpenOffice.

  The ASF also noted that the project would be known under the name Apache OpenOffice.org and is officially in incubation status.

• LibreOffice gaining momentum, heading to Android, iOS, and the Web

CMS

• Drupal and WordPress at SchipulCon: One Stage, One Open Source Love

• Upgrading to Drupal 7, not always easy

• Open Source Drupal Marks the Spot for eBay’s X.com

  eBay is the latest tech giant to embrace Drupal, the open source content management system that now runs an estimated 2 percent of all websites on the planet.

  As eBay formally launched its new X.commerce business unit — a sweeping effort to bridge the worlds of online and offline payments — the company revealed it had moved the unit’s X.com website to Drupal, dropping the proprietary Jive Software platform the site previously used.

Business

• Openwave and Open-Xchange Partner to Provide Service Providers with Advanced Email Solutions

• Univa Partners With StackIQ

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Why Stallman is right about Steve Jobs

  An indication of the extent to which people in today’s world are prone to hypocrisy is evidenced by the way they react after someone dies.

Project Releases

• Blender 2.60

Public Services/Government

• PY: Government project targets exclusive use of OSS for all government agency websites in 2012

  The government of Paraguay has embarked on an ambitious project with the aim to implement on an exclusive basis open source software (OSS) in all government agencies in 2012.

• FR: Council of State clarifies right of local government to opt for open source

  In a ruling of 30 September 2011, the Council of State, France’s highest administrative court, clarified the right of contracting authorities to require suppliers to use specific open source software in the context of public procurement.

• PY: Government project targets exclusive use of OSS for all government agency websites in 2012

  The government of Paraguay has embarked on an ambitious project with the aim to implement on an exclusive basis open source software (OSS) in all government agencies in 2012.

  Nicolás Caballero, IT Coordinator for the Office of the President of the Republic of Paraguay was quoted by a local newspaper as saying: “The first and most evident aim is to save resources.” He noted that the saved resources can be allocated to other areas and that assessments performed by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare foresee savings of about $ 4 million (approx. € 2.9 million) for the ministry alone.

X11

Time zone database back online

The time zone reference database used by all versions of Unix and Linux is back online in an updated version, reports Java developer Stephen Colebourne in his blog. Last week, the tz database was taken offline because of a copyright problem. Now, the data is available for downloadDirect download from a new server. Robert Elz will be maintaining the time zone information. The tz database will eventually be posted at the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), where the mailing list for the presentation and discussion of relevant information is already kept.

The computer is dead, long live the computer

After six years of loyal service, I have retired my oldest desktop. Save for an occasional vacation and an unlucky power outage once a year or so, the machine worked 24/7, without any big problems or hiccups. But six years of age for a computer is like three million for a person, so all good things must end and better things come in their stead.

Finance

• Delaware judge dismisses Goldman Sachs pay claims

  The New York investment bank Goldman Sachs is known for, among other things, paying its executives pretty well. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, for example, was awarded a $67.9 million bonus in 2007, the same year the firm set a Wall Street pay record.

• Goldman Sachs Investor Lawsuit Over Pay Plan Dismissed

  Goldman Sachs Group Inc. persuaded a judge to throw out shareholders’ claims that the investment bank’s compensation system improperly rewarded employees for taking risks that hurt the firm’s stock price.

  Delaware Chancery Court Judge Sam Glasscock concluded yesterday that Goldman Sachs’s board acted properly in setting up a pay plan for the fifth-biggest U.S. bank. The judge dismissed a consolidated investor lawsuit claiming the plan wrongly awarded billions of dollars in bonuses to executives and employees, including Chairman Lloyd Blankfein, even as the firm’s market value declined by $50 billion since 1999.

ACTA

• ACTA Signed by 8 of 11 Countries – Now What?