Resumen: La desconcertante situación de Microsoft en lo que se refiere a las patentes de software, basada en el caso i4i y más allá, el caso de Apple en contra de Linux sobre todo se cae a pedazos, por el momento.
Hace varios meses (3 para ser precisos) Grant Gross afirmó que los EE.UU. “Los jueces de la Suprema Corte cuestionarón el lunes si deben ayudar a Microsoft a debilitar las normas legales necesarias para invalidar una patente, con algunos jueces que sugiere que hay alternativas para cambiar la que la ley establece.”
Esto fue escrito en referencia al caso i4i [http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/I4i_vs_Microsoft] – “un caso que podría hacer más fácil para los acusados en los juicios de infracción para invalidar las patentes”, afirmó el autor.
“Microsoft, que perdió una decisión de EE.UU. de $ 290 millones en un tribunal de distrito de EE.UU., ha argumentado que i4i empezó a vender un producto con el editor de XML incluidas ayear antes de que se solicitó la patente. La Oficina de Marcas y Patentes de los EE.UU. (USPTO) no consideró esta técnica como previa en la concesión de la patente, pero el tribunal de distrito debería haberlo hecho, dijo el abogado de Microsoft Thomas Hungard el pasado lunes”.
Por lo que incluso Microsoft reconoce que hay un problema en el sistema de patentes de EE.UU., sobre la base de este tipo de artículos [http://www.cfoworld.com/operations/7474/justices-question-microsofts-vision-patent-law], sin embargo, Microsoft está muy feliz de aprovechar este sistema para fines/razones anticompetitivas.
“No vendía Microsoft sus antiguos productos con el formateo del disco mucho ante de patentarlo?” –Anónimo
“Parece que otro giro legal por los artistas de los giros legales”, comentó alguien en USENET. “Por lo tanto, si uno vende una invención antes de patentarla, no tienen derecho a los frutos de su trabajo?”
“Absurdo, por supuesto, si uno fuera a examinar la validez de las llamadas patentes de software.
“No vendía Microsoft sus antiguos productos con el formateo del disco mucho ante de patentarlo?”
Y agregó: “Yo diría que si alguien copia tal invento llamado antes de ser patentado, entonces sí, es la técnica anterior.
“No hay necesidad de las patentes de software cuando el derecho de autor es todo lo que se requiere”, agregó otra persona. “Usted va a encontrar la técnica previa en un cierto nivel en todos el SW por lo tanto, SW no deben ser patentables. Los litigios sobre patentes absurdas que estamos viendo hoy es, en general, de las empresas que no pueden competir en igualdad de condiciones “.
“De acuerdo”, dijo la persona anterior, “por lo tanto, yo estaba bromeando. SW no tiene por qué ser patentado sin ser un componente integral de una única invención física. Que debe excluir en general los sistemas operativos como Linux y Microsoft Windows, para nombrar unos pocos.
“El mercado de teléfonos inteligentes es un claro ejemplo de ello. Microsoft, que no es capaz de producir un teléfono inteligente, recurre a la extorsión. Apple, que se produjo el primer verdadero smartphone, recurre a los juegos de patentes porque los teléfonos Android son simplemente un producto mejor y Apple no pueden competir en igualdad de condiciones”, añade la segunda persona a la que la respuesta fue:” Microsoft no es más que una máquina de mantenimiento de monopolio de comercialización con grandes PR Relaciones Públicas y base legal. Ellos no pueden competir en los méritos de sus productos, y por lo tanto tienen que recurrir a otros medios para la rentabilidad.”
Apple y Microdoft está a la vez recurriiendo a las patentes de software, simplemente porque no pueden ganar la batalla, no con una victoria a largo plazo de todos modos. Con razón el Sr. Pogson explica [http://mrpogson.com/2011/07/16/itc-finds-htc-not-guilty-of-violating-8-of-apples-patents/], la verdadera noticia es que el caso de Apple contra Android se está desmoronando en algunos aspectos, mientras que quienes están detrás de la estrategia de patentes de Apple abandonar la empresa [http://techrights.org/2011/07/13/liaising-vs-all-software-patents/].
Algunas personas ven el vaso medio vacío. Otros ven medio lleno. El caso de Apple v HTC sobre Android/Linux es un 80% vacío y en mi humilde opinión en un terreno inestable.
HTC es acusado de violar 10 patentes de Apple y la decisión inicial es que los dos fueron vulnerados … Imagínese a un ciudadano reclamar que su vecinos le robaron sus 10 Rolls-Royces y la policía le notifica que el autor sólo tiene propiedad de dos … Eso resultaría en cargos de daño en contra del demandante en donde yo vengo. Las dos patentes restantes son realmente inestables y también es un tema en Apple v Samsung.
Hemos escrito mucho sobre el caso de Apple contra HTC [http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Apple_vs_HTC] – más que el litigio posterior contra Android debido a que la demanda de HTC fue la primera de su tipo y simboliza el asalto de Apple contra Linux como parte de su alineación con el mismo cartel de patentes. Con suficiente tiempo investigando los programas antiguos y la presentación de más mociones en la corte, todos los supuestas “patentes que Linux infringe” probablemente puede ser inválidadas. El caso de Oracle contra Google ayuda a demostrar esto.
Mr. Twitter dijo:
Yo diría que la corona por el primer teléfono inteligente puede pasar a finales de los 90. Hubo un módulo de teléfono disponibles para el Handspring Visor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handspring_(company)], por ejemplo, y esto fue una parte tan importante del diseño que todas las unidades viene con un micrófono. Estos fueron seguidos por el Treo, el cual fue paralizado por desgracia, por las patentes que excluyen la escritura de graffiti método de reconocimiento del mercado. Podemos estar seguros de que esta idea tan obvia era perseguido por otros, como el fabricante de Danger.
La breve subida de Apple y su corto dominio del mercado de los “teléfonos inteligentes” fue más el resultado de la exclusión de todos los demás de lo que fue algún tipo de innovación por parte de Apple. Groklaw está llamando la atención sobre el daño causado al mercado de EE.UU. por las patentes [http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20110717140031881].
Summary: The passage of wealth from scientists to litigators, whose confiscation of a once-thriving industry leaves Linux in a bit of a limbo
FOLLOWING our polite proposal/message to Google (thanks to all those who helped) we have received DiBona’s response, which we haven’t asked for permission to quote here, so we won’t. But the general message is that Google is unable to distance itself from reports about intentions to buy software patents. it is probably just a matter of time. DiBona, for those who do not know yet, is their FOSS manager, so asking others in the company is unlikely to give more reassuring answers. It is a little troubling. There is more business forming around software patents because companies like Google offer top bucks for these. Who is left then to fight the good fight and actually do what’s right about patents? The legalese folks are marching in to the sound of software patents (going where they smell money). FUD about licensing tends to come from these people too. FUD and confrontation is a gold mine to them (copyright disputes).
The Aptimize assets that will pass into the hands of Riverbed include patents and at least one software development going through application for patent in New Zealand. The latter is in a race against the New Zealand Patents Bill, which is set to ban patents on software in this country.
“Riverbed has acquired all the assets of the company including the patents,” says a Riverbed spokesman. “Further patent processing will be handled at corporate level.”
The patents relate to software for improving the efficiency of web-page access.
The present text of the bill says “a computer program is not a patentable invention”. A finer series of tests are being crafted by the Intellectual Property Office of New Zealand according to which patents may be granted for software that has a “physical effect” outside the computer on which it runs; but it is doubtful that a patent would be granted for software to improve the efficiency of the computer it runs on.
The Riverbed takeover is likely to pitch the patent application into the equally uncertain territory of US law. This has no explicit exclusion or inclusion of software in the realm of patent, while the relevance of recent decisions on patentability of business methods to general software patent criteria is disputed.
The spokesman offers no comment on whether Riverbed will consider it worth pursuing more New Zealand patents.
Commentators on previous Computerworld stories have questioned both the existence of prior art (the previous development of a similar idea by someone else) and the obvious process of the innovation claimed in Aptimize’s existing patents.
“Aptimize’s patent #566291 represents a simple compilation of existing techniques such as JavaScript aggregation, CSS aggregation and CSS sprites into a convenient proxy server,” wrote Jonathan Hunt, in response to a story earlier this year.
“Each of those [is a] well established technique. Adding them together is not inventive, and should not be worthy of a patent,” he further claimed, in a comment on the Computerworld website.
Is that not amazing? Some companies would rather disregard the law and pretend that their asset is a mere idea written on paper. Isn’t that what trade secrete are for? Implementations are already protected by copyrights.
We previously wrote about the state of software patents in India as well. It is reassuring to learn that patents are generally declining over there, which doesn’t mean that Indian firms won’t file for patents in the USPTO and then troll a lot of companies as we saw last week. Anyway, in India developers seem to be safer:
The Indian patents system, having its seeds laid in the British era (1852) and undergoing sporadic replantations (the 1912, 1970, 2005 Patents Act & amendments), was appearing to grow tall and bear fruits until a noticeable downfall last year. It was surprising and interesting to note the sudden decline in the patents filed, examined and granted with the Indian Patent Office as highlighted in the Annual Report 2009-10 of the Intellectual Property Office India.
This might further justify hiring Indian software developers. The USPTO is just doing harm to north America.
Going back to Google, although it expands in India (I was interviewed for a Google job in India or Ireland 5 years ago), the headquarters are still in the US, so Google is being attacked from many directions for selling a Dalvik/Linux distro. Groklaw has this update on the case and IDG claims that there is breakthrough as both companies get criticised for the following reasons:
According to a Reuters report, the judge also criticised Oracle when it appeared hesitant about discussing financial details in court. “This is a public proceeding. You lawyers and companies are not going to handcuff the court. This is not a wholly owned subsidiary of Oracle Corp”.
The court has also been hearing about various deals that were on the table between Sun and Google. In 2006, Google says it rejected a $100M three year deal to work with Sun to jointly build Android. Judge Alsup asked why the company had discussed a licence with Sun and was told by Google’s attorney, Robert Van Nest, that there was no specific discussion of patents. Van Nest also noted that while a few lines of code in Android are “identical” to Java, that code probably came from a third party. A 2007 letter from a Google executive to Andy Rubin, Google’s Android project leader, was cited by the judge as saying “We conclude we need to negotiate a licence for Java”. Van Nest said Google’s position remained that there was no infringement and therefore no wilful infringement.
More links derived from the above are to be found here and here. We may expand on that over the weekend, time permitting (I will be away most of next week). The short story is, Sun wanted to be paid for something it oughtn’t be paid for. In the world of software patents, making something which merely resembles another (in software) can be viewed as a violation that merits a fine. We must reverse those ludicrous laws. █
Posted in Novell at 4:55 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: BrainShare and Xamarin in the news, or at least in paid press releases
WE have been advised to keep an eye on Novell and SUSE for a while longer. Based on the VAR Guy, who attended some Novell events where he helped promote the company, the BrainShare affair goes on for a while longer but not with the usual attendance. “Many of the Novell leaders who led BrainShare 2010 won’t be on hand for BrainShare 2011,” he explains. “Gone are former Chief Marketing Officer John Dragoon — who was last year’s master of ceremonies — and former Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian, who led Novell’s sale to Attachmate. Hovsepian, Dragoon and other Novell executives exited the company when Attachmate completed the Novell acquisition.”
Novell is still crumbling (more on the in an imminent post). Recently we saw one of the remnants, Xamarin, targeting proprietary platforms with Microsoft’s .NET, showing to us quite clearly why the loss of Novell is not much of a loss at all. It’s proprietary. █
Posted in Microsoft, Novell at 4:32 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Analysis of the latest news from SUSE, which is by far dominated (in the news) by the phenomenon of ‘cloud’ computing
THE OPENSUSE project carries on and we tried hard to find news about it. We do not turn a blind eye to any of it, but it is hard to find press coverage about the project, so we must rely on blogs and technical sites for the most part. We never use Sascha Manns’ weekly news (not even the latest) as it would just result in replication. So anyway, what have we found?
The OpenSUSE news blog speaks of another milestone (more here or here) and Henne provides an update on what the OpenSUSE Boosters are doing (not much based on what we can see on the Web). He writes:
This time around the Boosters took on a milestone for the benefit of the Membership Officials team. To explain who they are and what they do we have to look a bit further into the openSUSE Project. Because of its history and relatively young age the project is trying very hard to avoid hierarchies, policies and rules. It emphasizes the creative, a bit chaotic, side of the FOSS ways for openSUSE to get things done, quickly. Everyone that is participating is equal, everyone that is participating is following the same Guiding Principles. The only formal structure is a a group of “Primus inter pares”, that is elected to provide guidance according to the principles: The Board.
We must remember that OpenSUSE is still mostly managed by SUSE, which is in turn managed by Attachmate. The Desktop Summit is partly sponsored by SUSE, along with other parties that we are not big fans of (even Intel). OpenSUSE’s Community Manager, Jos, helps organise a conference for later in the year — one that concentrates just on OpenSUSE.
We realise that SUSE means a lot to some people who are associated with the project, but our action against Novell is nothing personal. Novell helped rationalise the patent attacks on GNU/Linux, so the action is reactionary. When people are having problems with OpenSUSE (like in this new case) we advise people to steer away from Novell’s OpenSUSE and go to alternatives that are free from Novell’s deal with Microsoft and all those liabilities (see the list of affected companies).
Andreas Jaeger Has an update on Factory, which is generally not receiving much coverage anymore (except in blogs) and OBS too gets coveragefrom OpenSUSE people, not from the press.
Most of the SUSE news we found this week was about “cloud” (Fog Computing), which is perhaps where the project is heading for a business model. Here is one example and here is Novell’s PR from IDC, which is a brand to distrust because it says what it is paid to say. The rest of the PR is about Studio in the context of “cloud” and there is press coverage about it as well, even in blogs masquerading as “news” (ZDNet) and smaller news sites that are Linux-friendly. Novell’s blog network gives that a push and we also happen to have noticed an OpenSUSE-derived appliance making it into the news early in the week:
NetSecL 3.2 comes with a brand new XFCE which increased dramatically the performance experience, we closed many bugs and also gained more compatibility to OpenSuse 11.4 – most packages are 11.4 compatible. GrSecurity kernel is updated to 2.6.32.8 please check installation instructions if you wish to use GrSecurity.
Novell’s account in YouTube is using the “private” cloud buzzterm, or “OnPrem”, which is promoted whenever Novell is releasingVibe promotion and ‘success stories’ [EN | DE]. If Fog Computing (suitable name for “cloud”) is what Novell promotes these days, then there is no FOSS future in Attachmate at all, just as we argued all along. It’s proprietary with a new marketing strategy. █
Summary: Amid more downtimes we learn that Microsoft’s Windows franchise keeps declining, based on Microsoft’s own figures (which may be highly biased in its favour)
A RATHER SHORT WHILE ago Microsoft reported (although it is not yet audited) that the division responsible for Windows saw a decline in business (year-to-year), which must mean that Apple and GNU/Linux are probably gaining (along with new form factors that gradually displace the desktop). But Windows is also sold for the lucrative market of servers and according to recent statistics that we saw and shared, the real market share (not revenue) of Windows in Web servers is somewhere around 30% if not less. It is not hard to see why. We have gathered many stories on the subject. See some in the wiki and BPOS downtime posts going quite a way back. No wonder its boss left the company.
Microsoft has apologised for yet another Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) outage that left customers across the pond struggling to access email.
Only last month, the software firm was forced to say sorry after its troubled online service crashed for three hours, which followed problems in May.
Microsoft confirmed the problem in a statement sent to The Reg: “On 19 July beginning at approximately 8:30 am Pacific Daylight Time (PDT), some BPOS customers in North America began experiencing intermittent access to email”.
This was reported by other sources, but we no longer cover Microsoft as closely as we used to to as the threat from Microsoft is lower (Microsoft is smaller and weaker than it used to be). In fact, it is rather hilarious to see Microsoft racing to vapourware post-Windows 8 (looking at some imaginary point some time around 2015 or simply never).
Based on Microsoft’s own documents we know that this is a sign of weaknesses. Windows just isn’t selling well, so Microsoft is busy selling dreams, not products (to OEMs, not actual users). █
“In the face of strong competition, Evangelism’s focus may shift immediately to the next version of the same technology, however. Indeed, Phase 1 (Evangelism Starts) for version x+1 may start as soon as this Final Release of version X.”
Linux Australia, the umbrella group for Linux user groups in the country, plans to make some changes to its constitution, according to its president, John Ferlito.
The major change will be moving the organisation’s financial year from one that is the same as the calendar year to one that begins on October 1.
“We need to change our financial year so we have time to put an audit together as we are now required to by NSW Fair Trading,” Ferlito told iTWire.
[...]
Last year, the organisation conducted an online survey of members to find out what functions they expected the body to perform.
Summary: In the last edition of TLWIR, I discussed Toyota’s recent embrace of the GNU/Linux operating system. In this week’s edition, I will expand on this theme of organizations embracing the concepts of openness and freedom.
The transition to the Linux kernel’s ‘third decade’ sees numerous changes to the Btrfs filesystem. The kernel now includes all the major components needed to host guest systems under Xen and includes many new and revised drivers.
Linus Torvalds and his collaborators have taken just two months to complete the latest kernel. The most notable change, however, is cosmetic rather than technical – the transition from version 2.6.39 to 3.0. This not been taken as a cue to insert major changes, however, and the new kernel is in fact a perfectly normal version increment, following the pattern set for the 2.6 series.
Supercomputers are computers that offer more processing capacity as compared to current processing capacity, particularly in calculation speeds. They are used in various fields be it research, aerospace or accurate weather forecasts. As of now, more than 90% of supercomputers run a Linux-based operating system.
We have here a “top 10 list” of the fastest Linux-based supercomputers in the world.
Oracle announced that it has acquired Ksplice, Inc., the creator of innovative zero downtime update technology for Linux. The transaction has closed. Ksplice’s management and its highly-regarded team of engineers bring significant domain expertise to Oracle.
Oracle announced today that it had bought Ksplice Inc., the company behind the software that allows a rebootless kernel change. This exciting technology was welcomed by the Linux community and was even provided free of cost to Fedora users. Knowing Oracle’s track record, this will undoubtedly cause worry throughout the community.
Oracle isn’t planning on shutting this one down, although the ksplice.com blogs are currently down, but is planning on using it to offer zero downtime guarantees. In fact, the very wording of their press release almost comes out and states that this technology willl no longer be available to other distribution makers.
Make no mistake about it, Oracle is serious about its Linux business. Today Oracle announced what I consider to be a significant addition to that business with the acquisition of Ksplice.
Ksplice is this really neat tech that lets Linux admins ‘hot patch’ that is patch an in-use system without the need for a reboot. For a mission critical system, that’s a big deal.
As everybody knows by now, not only did I do an -rc7 last week instead of releasing 3.0 (due to some worries about the RCU code), but I ended up also not doing the 3.0 on Monday because of a pathname lookup bug and then some _more_ RCU issues.
Linus Torvalds is expected to release the Linux 3.0 kernel today. He has announced that the last-minute bugs that held up the Monday release should be addressed and he’s preparing for the Linux 3.1 kernel merge window to be opened.
Prey is an open source application that will help you track and find your device, let it be your Ubuntu powered laptop or Android smartphone, if it ever gets stolen. Ofcourse the person who stole the device will have to boot and connect it to the internet somehow for Prey to work.
General relativity, along with quantum mechanics, describes the world as we know it at its most fundamental level. The problem is there is a very small set of solutions to Einstein’s equations. And, they are all solutions for idealized situations. Here are the most common ones:
Gaming is always a passion for many in the world. Users of all age groups and gender play games. So the concept of gaming has reached new heights in the recent past. Popular games are available for download in the internet, some for free and some with premium rates. The concept of online game stores for games that are compatible with Windows has been around for some time now. Ubuntu lovers had also wished for a Store especially for games that run on Ubuntu. Well the wait is finally over.
Helena the 3rd is now in the final production stages, we have started work on our final world (Lava World). Lava world will feature fiery projectiles that will shoot from the lava bed. A new power-up for our hero a rocket pack, which gives our hero a fun double boost to his jump. The final showdown with our as of yet unnamed end of game boss.
GTK3 will slowly replace the “old” gtk2, and of course, if we don’t want to be left behind we have to move to gtk3 eventually.
Even if slowly (we need horse power! –> yes we need you too!!) LXDE is being ported too. Nothing has been released yet, but a good deal of work is actually into git repositories.
The following comes from Jim, a member on the PCLinuxOS forums.
I thought I’d share it with my blog readers. It points out how new users immediately see Linux as being attractive, powerful , and easy to set up and use. Once you see Linux is action, your curiosity level spikes!
The last time I tried out PCLinuxOS was at version 2010.07, and I tried the KDE version then too. I didn’t particularly it then because I felt it dropped a lot of useful applications from the 2009.2 release (which I tried out before I started this blog), and because it was pretty slow on my computer. Then again, my perspectives and desires have changed a little bit since then, so don’t read too much into that.
[...]
So what’s the deal? I really liked the applications, and other applications installed and worked well. After much struggle with getting PCLinuxOS to start X/11 properly, my laptop’s hardware was detected fine. Another strong point is PCLinuxOS’s reputation as being stable, yet having access to the latest software through its rolling-release nature. Finally, it’s configuration tools are still really good and really handy. But as with SimplyMEPIS 11.0, because I had to type GRUB commands to get it to work correctly in the live session, I can’t recommend this to total newbies to Linux, at least based on my own experiences. Plus, even the positive part of the experience was marred by that lone KDE Plasma crash, which I am not used to seeing much anymore. I would recommend this more to slightly more experienced Linux users who aren’t afraid to tinker and troubleshoot.
The second beta release of Kororaa 15 (codename “Squirt”) has been released and is available for download, in 32 and 64 bit with KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3.
This release fixes the black screen issue that some users were reporting, as well as having the desktop theme customisations for KDE (as well as GNOME) correctly applied. The usual Kororaa goodies apply.
The range of features in Fedora 16, which is scheduled to be released at the end of October, is becoming clearer now that the deadline for submitting new features has passed. Late submissions are accepted on rare occasions, but the “feature freeze” is planned for next Tuesday – by then, all major advancements on the Linux distribution’s feature list are planned to be largely complete and ready for testing. The first and only alpha version is to be released three weeks later – on 16 August.
I’ve been a die-hard Debian fan for about 10 years, and I’ve written several articles on the subject. That said, most of our Linux-savvy readers are Ubuntu users, so that’s been my main desktop OS for as long as I’ve been a MakeTechEasier writer. Ubuntu has always been fine, and generally got the job done without hassle, however this past release (11.04, Natty Narwhal) has been the cause of a rift among many Ubuntu users. This release pushed Unity, their homegrown desktop environment, front and center. Like many others, I’ve never managed to get a feel for Unity. After weighing my options, I decided to jump ship and try out Fedora 15. It’s the first Fedora I’ve tried since Core 1, and things certainly have changed.
Martin Michlmayr is a Debian developer since 2000 and I share quite a few things with him, starting with his age and involvement in the quality assurance team. He managed to be elected Debian Project Leader in 2003 and 2004.
He’s no longer as active as he used to be but his input is always very valuable and he continues to do very interesting things in particular concerning the support of NAS devices. Read on for the details.
A Linux desktop that’s easy to use for people who don’t have a Ph.D. in computer science has been a holy grail. But a new release, Elementary OS, comes pretty close.
While the Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP stack powers many of the Web servers bringing you your pages, as a quick check of Netcraft shows (yes, even Walyou!) it’s success on the desktops of non-techies has been more limited. Some Linux partisans entertain Microsoft conspiracy theories, but the simple fact is that Linux has traditionally been rather difficult to set up. A few distributions, notably Ubuntu, have come fairly close to making Linux mainstream for ordinary computer users.
The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 10.04.3 LTS, the third maintenance update to Ubuntu’s 10.04 LTS release. This release includes updated server, desktop, alternate installation CDs and DVDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures.
The Kubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Kubuntu 10.04.3. This release includes updated images for the desktop and alternate installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures.
Ubuntu 11.10, which also goes by the somewhat ridiculous code name of Oneiric Ocelot, is anything but ridiculous if you’re a power desktop user — judging by its early “alpha” version. It has the fastest boot-time we’ve seen on an HDD-based PC, shows snappy performance between applications and just may be the easiest PC operating system in the world to navigate.
A change under the hood seems to have made all the difference in the world.
When Ubuntu 11.04 met the world earlier this year, it provided a new “Unity” interface that looked cleaner and friendlier but many complained that it acted clunky and slow at times. Developers of the Linux distro then jumped into action like the pit crew on a NASCAR team; they swapped out the Gnome Desktop Manager (GDM) with a newer, lighter LightDM. From what we’ve seen, what that did was, essentially, remove legacy code with code that was built to be less complex and faster.
You can argue all you want about the merits of the various mobile operating systems but it’s undoubtedly Android that has put smartphones into the hands of the impecunious masses and in numbers that would have been inconceivable just eighteen months ago.
It’s been a year now that I’ve replaced my old Sony Ericsson with a brand new HTC Desire! I have to admit that I am amazed by this excellent Android mobile phone. 1GHz Snapdragon processor, 576MB RAM, 5 Megapixel camera with 720P video recording and Android 2.2 Froyo along with HTC Sense UI. For those who hear the word Android for the first time I will say that Android is Google’s operating system for mobile devices such as mobile phones and tablets. And of course it is based on Linux!
Android tablets took a 30 percent share of global tablet shipments in the second quarter, compared to 61 percent for Apple, as part of a 331 percent growth in total sales since Q2 2010, says Strategy Analytics. According to a Good Technology study, however, Android tablets still trail the iPad significantly in the enterprise — where Apple represented 95 percent of second-quarter sales.
And what if other things become more sexy? Exactly. If a free software project is not seen as innovative, as ‘doing cool things’, it loses momentum. Which, due to the high turnover in free software, quickly leads to a project’s end. This might indeed be the effect of being able to write software for mobile phones which everyone can get their hands on. It is far more cool if you can do that, get your ‘app’ out there, even make a buck.
The obvious answer to the question you don’t even have to ask is then obvious: yes, to make free software grow, it needs to be more interesting. We need to talk about technology. Not talk down new initiatives, but be excited about them! This is why I applaud GNOME for the work on GNOME Shell. This is why I think what KDE is doing with Plasma Active is awesome. Such projects bring energy, excitement and, most importantly, new contributors! New people in free software!
Nina Paley has certainly stirred things up with her recent “rantifesto” on free culture and free software. It has spawned numerous responses on various blogs, both from supporters and those who disagree with her contention that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is being hypocritical in its licensing of its web pages and other non-software works. For some people it is a bit galling to see an organization that is set up to ensure the right to create and distribute derivative works (subject to some conditions, of course) of software, be so steadfast in its refusal to apply those same freedoms to text and other works.
Here is a list of all PPAs for different Firefox and Thunderbird Channels which you can add to your sources list and always have up to date packages. We have covered PPA instructions all for all these channels in different articles but now you can find them all at one place.
PPA instructions for Stable, Beta and Aurora channels will upgrade your existing Firefox/Thunderbird installation while instructions for Nightly channel will install a new daily build trunk version side by side to your existing Firefox/Thunderbird installation. Please note that other than Stable channel, all other channels have beta/development builds not suitable for production purposes so use them at your own risk.
Firefox 8 recently found its way into the nightly build channel. According to a recent study by extremetech.com, Firefox 8 is already 20% faster than Firefox 5 in almost every metric and has got a drastically reduced memory footprint as well.
I am Tor Lillqvist. On LibreOffice IRC I am known as tml_ . I live in Helsinki, Finland, with my wife and our 10-year daughter. My son has already grown up and moved out. Some of my passions are trains (modern and recent electric and diesel technology, I am not that much into steam nostalgia), reading good books, listening to challenging and/or good music, the visual arts, architecture, and travels.
Most recently I have read “The Evolution of Bruno Littlemore” by Benjamin Hale, “Hitch-22″ by Christopher Hitchens and “Homage to Catalonia” by George Orwell. Among art museums that have impressed me are the Guggenheim Bilbao and ICA Boston. I love the music of for instance David Sylvian, Nico, Steve Reich, Sigur Rós, Erik Satie, rechenzentrum, Emilie Simon, Carnatic and Gamelan music.
Advanced Clustering Technologies announces the latest version of its open source stress test and diagnostics tool, breakin. The new release offers UI improvements and bug fixes, and new utilities in the rescue environment, including: blockdev, numastat, and bonnie++. SSH and SCP clients are now included in the boot image environment, and the 3.20 release easily builds under Red Hat/CentOS 6. Upgrades to testing procedures also provide improved processor stress testing.
As we have highlighted on numerous occasions, we are seeing growing focus on corporate-led open source communities. A prime example would be the Eclipse Foundation, which is clearly dominated by corporate interests but encourages a community effort to work together to with a joint purpose – to deliver the Indigo release for example.
Relations between Washington and Islamabad deteriorated further when the US justice department charged two men alleged to have been in the pay of the Pakistani intelligence service.
A new film by Israeli director Ra’anan Alexandrowicz tackles the issue of military courts in the West Bank like it has never been investigated on film. Israel’s military legal justice system in the West Bank has been treated on +972 in relatively great detail especially in reference to the unarmed demonstrations which have spread through border villages for the past eight years. According to the press release for the film,
In 2009, stock owners, bankers, brokers, hedge-fund wizards, highly paid corporate executives, corporations, and mid-ranking managers pocketed—as either income, benefits, or perks such as corporate jets—an estimated $1.91 trillion that 40 years ago would have collectively gone to non-supervisory and production workers in the form of higher wages and benefits. These are the 88 million workers in the private sector who are closely tied to production processes and/or are not responsible for the supervision, planning, or direction of other workers.
When U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Greece, she praised the Greek government’s austerity measures to reduce deficits and cut spending. The U.S. and Greece face a common challenge of dealing with soaring deficits, but they also face something else in common: a refusal to deal with out-of-control military spending. And given that the United States is a major arms seller to Greece, Hillary Clinton will encourage the Greeks to slash workers’ wages and pensions, but not its enormous military appetite.
The EU Parliament just published a study assessing ACTA in view of its upcoming ratification vote. Most of the report includes the typical copyright extremism nonsense, especially when it comes to the digital environment. However, this scholarly study cannot but recognize that ACTA contains serious legal flaws and brings nothing to EU citizens. Despite trying hard to help the Commission, it is forced to conclude by suggesting that the EU Parliament should reject ACTA.
When you use Google, the proxy forwards your query to the real Google servers to fetch the search results. If our system detects that a search came through one of these proxies, we display the warning.
I doubt the proxy sites will forward the warning along. Google should stop trying to support Windows and support users instead.
If your site has vanished mysteriously, you might want to check if this has been done. Hopefully, Google will have kept track and be able to undo the damage.
The illegal censorship in Germany of Nina Paley’s multi-awarded movie “Sita Sings the Blues” by YouTube shows how corporate enforcement of an obsolete copyright regime is bound to harm culture and freedom of expression.
[this was not a violation] to the judge, who refused to order and injunction on the grounds that the family was no longer in possession of the laptop so no further harm could come to them, as for everyone else still using their Aaron’s laptops, the judge had this to say to them, “Moreover, it is purely conjecture that the other members of the putative class will be subjected to remote access of personal information.”
US courts continue to interpret computer laws in ways that benefit large companies at the expense of citizens but this decision is especially brazen and poorly informed. All non free software has the ability to do what Aaron’s did to users. People forced to rent laptops should pave over the OS with gnu/linux to the prevent routine abuse which will inevitably follow. See the charges against Aaron Swartz for an example of computer laws being used against people.
Today, European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, met1 with the CEOs of corporations acting towards more control over internet communications, to discuss the future of Internet policy. After misleadingly pretending there is no problem with operators restricting Net neutrality, and her choice not to protect freedom of information online… will Mrs. Kroes let dominant actors alter Internet’s architecture?
in the 182 cases involving challenges on the grounds of non-statutory subject matter, the decisions rejecting patentability outnumbered those finding statutory subject matter by 2.5 to 1.
This is good news but the title of the article implies the existence of “good” software patents.
As best as we can tell, he is being charged with allegedly downloading too many scholarly journal articles from the Web. The government contends that downloading said articles is actually felony computer hacking and should be punished with time in prison.
The archive in question is jstor which was set up by the Federal government to lower journal costs for libraries. The New York Times has another one of their smear pieces saying he had “the intention of making the papers available on P2P file-sharing sites”. Forbes and other big publishers have similar smear stories. Sharing should not be a crime and the intention to share is a ridiculous extension of an oppressive set of laws.
Resumen: Refugio de leyes absurdas es ofrecido por los países que a su turno están siendo dañados (a través de politicos corruptos y sus socios de hecho) de tal manera que las patentes de software “son” ineludibles.
Hace unos años, cuando el segundo mayor colapso financiero (del siglo pasado) que ocurrió en los Estados Unidos, muchos estadounidenses emigraron a lugares como Australia y Nueva Zelanda. En medio del auge de Bush y la guerra que produjo, algunas personas abandonaron el país en señal de protesta y se trasladarón a Nueva Zelanda, que es también donde un antiguo colega mío se mudó con su esposa, en parte por razones ideológicas. Si el objetivo es alejar a la gente con talento (incluyendo a los profesores veteranos y estudiantes inmigrantes), entonces parte de la administración está haciendo un buen trabajo. Para todos los demás en los Estados Unidos este debe ser motivo de preocupación y alarma, ya que esto pone en peligro el estado de la nación como un líder en la innovación (marcado por los logros de la NASA, por ejemplo). Cuando las patentes se convierte en una norma y trolls de patentes un hecho de la vida, seguramente hay un elemento de disuasión que puede suprimir la absorción de “reales” científicos – los interesados en la investigación de la paz. Colegas en mi campo no puede obtener las patentes de software, por lo que sólo puede aplicarse a los monopolios como en la USPTO (Oficina de Patentes y Marcas de los Estados Unidos). Y ¿para qué? Trabajamos para el departamento de Ciencias de la Computación que ocupa el puesto 15 del mundo y las patentes no eran necesitadas para llegar a todos. De hecho, ocupa sugieren que para los investigadores, los Estados Unidos se convierte en una vocación menos deseables. ¿En qué medida la USPTO ha sido el responsable de esto? Es difícil de medir con precisión porque, como se dijo anteriormente, es un problema multi-factor que incluye la deuda, el militarismo, las tendencias de la competencia (en particular el surgimiento del Lejano Oriente), e incluso el efecto de red que impulsa a los ganadores del premio Nobel países en los que están mejor financiados (que a su vez lleva a sus grupos de investigación a otros países). Las patentes de software realmente puede deprimir un campo y limitar la propia libertad de exploración. ¿Quién en la Tierra se dedica a esta práctica de auto-castigo por llevar la legitimidad de las patentes de software? Como el Dr. Richard Stallman explicó hace unos años, los europeos deberían derogar y repeler cualquier intento de legalizar las patentes de software, ya que coloca a Europa en una ventaja considerable sobre sus vecinos al otro lado del Atlántico (considerar el desarrollador europeo que estaba a salvo de intimidación de las patentes de software de Shazam [1[http://techrights.org/2010/07/10/hartmut-pilch-on-swpats/], 2[http://techrights.org/2010/07/09/speaking-with-code/]]). Huelga decir que si el lobby EE.UU. se las arregla para convertir a la UE en un centro de las patentes de software, por ejemplo, a través de la patente unitaria, entonces instantáneamente menosprecia Europa, que casi no tiene patentes de software y por lo tanto “comienza detrás”, por así decirlo. Sustituir “la Unión Europea” con “Nueva Zelanda (NZ)”, “China”, “India”, “Sudáfrica”, y así sucesivamente, entonces se dan cuenta que lo mismo se aplica a todos los países, donde las multinacionales estadounidenses con la asistencia de su gobierno (que que financian a través de contribuciones de campaña) están tratando de corromper a sus políticos electos – algunos de los cuales hemos llamado aquí antes – con el fin de esclavizar a la población extranjera por el brazo de la “propiedad intelectual”, y la bota de los pleitos judiciales. Tratados pueden dar paso a la intimidación, incluso si la intimidación es silenciosa y, a menudo atribuidos a los ilusorio culpables. También político? Muy bien. Acostumbrarse a él, ya que es cómo las políticas de patentes están escritas en piedra. No se trata de la perfección técnica, pero sobre aquellos que se inclinan hacia el green (el dinero).
Con esa larga introducción a un lado, vamos a centrar nuestra atención en el hemisferio sur. Nueva Zelanda está teniendo los mismos problemas que Europa está teniendo en este momento y no es este nuevo [http://twitter.com/jmcesteves/statuses/83140534369140736] “podcast en el software de la legislación de patentes en Nueva Zelanda” (enlaces directos a las patentes de software-gravados archivo, irónicamente). Bueno, el archivo es un MP3 [http://95bfm.com/assets/sm/199897/3/podcast-davelane.mp3], por lo que por el bien de los que no tienen licencias de patentes MPEG-LA que hemos hecho una versión Ogg (enlace directo) y esperamos que alguien puede transcribir.
“Una y otra vez esta nación isleña ha demostrado una comprensión racional de la innovación en software como algo que puede y debe tener derechos de autor pero no patentada.” –ClearFoundationNueva Zelanda está cosechando los beneficios de los grupos de defensa del código Libre/Abierto como NZOSS (que recientemente alejó las patentes de software de Microsoft [1[http://techrights.org/2011/06/18/simon-power-on-swpats/], 2 [http://techrights.org/2011/06/16/nzoss-milestone/]], siendo informado por los vecinos en Australia también [http://www.itwire.com/business-it-news/open-source/47944-microsoft-forced-to-withdraw-xml-related-patent-application]) y la política general en esta gran isla, que es admirablemente hostil hacia las patentes de software. En nuestra NZ/kiwi software patentes wiki [http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Software_Patents_in_New_Zealand] proporcionan algunos antecedentes cronológicos para los no iniciados y que son habitualmente conseguir algunos comentarios de los lectores gratificante con sede en Nueva Zelanda. Ayer mismo, Aaron Bylund [http://aaronbylund.blogspot.com/], me escribe en Twitter [http://twitter.com/abylund/status/82918356168093696], explicó que “[porque] ClearFoundation (entidad sin fines de lucro de apoyo ClearOS) se incorpora en Nueva Zelanda.” Él nos va a conectar con el ClearFoundation. Él enlaza a esta post [http://www.clearfoundation.com/ClearFoundation-Blog/412-theres-no-place-like-home.html] que dice: “A medida que nuestra participación con el equipo Clarkconnect creció más y más fuerte, nos dimos cuenta de que para proteger algo que es fundamental protegido por derechos de autor solo (como debe ser) que necesita para mantenerlo a salvo y sin olores. En nuestra búsqueda hemos considerado algunos buenos lugares como Canadá, Australia, Suiza, Singapur e incluso el Principado de Hutt River. Al final nos decidimos por Nueva Zelanda. Una y otra vez esta nación isleña ha demostrado una comprensión racional de la innovación en software como algo que puede y debe tener derechos de autor pero no patentada.. Además, otorga las libertades a las empresas mejores que casi cualquier otra nación. Por lo tanto, damos un grito de hoy y animamos a Nueva Zelanda. Que aquellos que tratan de aplicar las patentes de software no unirse a las filas de aquellos que han decidido dar marcha atrás. Larga vida a Nueva Zelanda, hogar de ClearFoundation! Hip Hop Huzzah! Y gracias NZOSS y NZCS por todo su trabajo duro. ”
Pues bien, ayer explicamos [http://techrights.org/2011/06/24/lobbying-against-linux-with-swpats_es/] como el lobby de Microsoft usa las patentes de software como un arma de FUD contra Linux y Android y en base a esta buena fuente de NZ [http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/5164732/Flaw-in-patent-reforms-may-force-rethink] Microsoft está enojado y sus ejecutivos ni siquiera lo ocultan. Citando el artículo en cuestión:
El Gobierno puede tener que volver a la mesa de dibujo sobre la forma de las patentes de software serán tratados conforme a su Ley de Patentes propuesta, después de las directrices elaboradas por las autoridades para salvaguardar la alta tecnología de los fabricantes, fueron designados por los expertos legales.
Los parlamentarios están encantados por el movimiento del software de código abierto y dando problemas grandes a empresas como Microsoft el año pasado mediante la inclusión de una cláusula en la Ley de Patentes que se afirma que el software no es una invención patentable.
Microsoft Nueva Zelanda asesor legal Kuipers Waldo espera insatisfacción con las directrices separadas, que están diseñados para acompañar a la legislación y abordar la cuestión específica de software embebido, abriría la puerta a un replanteamiento fundamental.
Una portavoz de la ministra de Justicia, Simon Power, dijo que había recibido el asesoramiento del Ministerio de Desarrollo Económico, pero ya era demasiado pronto para decir si el Gobierno considere la modificación de la Ley de Patentes, que está a la espera de su segunda lectura.
Los críticos de las patentes de software han argumentado que han sido utilizadas principalmente para reclamar derechos sobre las ideas evidentes o para obtener dinero, la creación de una molestia y frenar la innovación.
Intel también se nombra allí por el periodista BusinessDay.co.nz, Tom Pullar-Strecker. Se “olvida” mencionar a quien en realidad sirve NZICT (que es un grupo de presión de la talla de Microsoft, pretendiendo defender a “Nueva Zelanda” [http://techrights.org/2010/08/25/nzict-and-microsoft-gold-partner/] por extra credibilidad) y hay también el Instituto de Abogados de Patentes. No hay necesidad de decir el sesgo esperado allí, ¿verdad? Ninguno de estos está interesado en los intereses de Nueva Zelanda, pero sólo en su beneficio, por lo general para algunos multimillonarios en el extranjero (los abogados también los necesitan como clientes).
“No hagas caso a Estados Unidos y las multinacionales, que están dispuestos a mentir por su propio bolsillo”Si Mirosoft no está satisfecho, entonces significa que es bueno para la libertad del software y de la libertad de la población en Nueva Zelanda. No hagáis caso a las multinacionales con sede en EE.UU., que están dispuestos a mentir por su propio bolsillo. Es su obligación ante sus accionistas, en su mayoría estadounidenses. Por ejemplo, Intel participa en esta FUD [http://techrights.org/2011/06/13/intel-for-swpats/] y debe ser deshonrado por esto. En otro artículo de Nueva Zelanda (esta vez de IDG, que se basa en los EE.UU. -y que siempre aboga por Microsoft), hay una queja sobre la política de Nueva Zelanda de patentes vigentes [http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/guideines-do-not-clarify-software-patent-question-say-submissions]. Dice: “La mayoría de las presentaciones en las directrices formuladas por la Oficina de Propiedad Intelectual de Nueva Zelandia (IPONZ) sobre la patentabilidad del software sugieren las directrices no han logrado el esclarecimiento deseado de la legislación propuesta y pudo haber servido para enturbiar aún más la cuestión de qué es el software o no es patentable.
“Artículo 15 (3A) de la Ley de Patentes – actualmente en espera de su segunda lectura en el Parlamento – se limita a establecer” un programa de ordenador no es una invención patentable “. Esta cláusula se introdujo por el Comité de Comercio de Select, en la fuerza de una serie de presentaciones “.
“Muéstranos el camino, Nueva Zelanda, y demuestar al mundo que incluso los países pequeños pueden hacer frente a máquinas de coerción de varios billones de dólares (capitalización de mercado agregada) que engrasa a los políticos y toma represalias contra sus críticos.”Bueno, lagunas utilizando el incorporado ” “o” dispositivo “truco, empresas como Microsoft, probablemente se puede burlar la ley (hacking es), tal como lo hacen en Europa ya (no la piratería” como tal “), IDG parece faltar a este importante punto, pero de nuevo, IDG es, por lo que no lo tome demasiado en serio. Se trata de ‘Noticias’ de Fox de la TI [http://techrights.org/2010/06/11/idc-idg-and-propaganda/].
Con todo, la prensa en Nueva Zelanda por lo general da una lección a la prensa estadounidense, que no hace lo suficiente -ni tiene cojones – (si acaso) para oponerse a las malas leyes que permiten las patentes de software. La prensa de vigilancia está muerta, como lo señaló hace unos días en relación a la cobertura de EE.UU. sobre patentes de software (demasiado conformista, demasiado obediente a la legislación vigente y con miedo a la exposición). Muéstranos el camino, Nueva Zelanda, y demuestar al mundo que incluso los países pequeños pueden hacer frente a máquinas de coerción de varios billones de dólares (capitalización de mercado agregada) que engrasa a los políticos y toma represalias contra sus críticos. █
Dr. Roy Schestowitz Roy is a Software Engineer, interdisciplinary researcher, and an advocate of fair competition. He holds a doctoral degree in Medical Biophysics. Contact us (encrypted/PGP)
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