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Links 18/3/2010: Many IBM Headlines, Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 88
    €· Announced Distro: PCLinuxOS 2010 Beta 1 Has KDE SC 4.4.1 and Plymouth €· Announced Distro: Frugalware 1.2 Comes with KDE 4 €· Announced Distro: SME Server 7.5 RC1 and 8.0 Beta 5 Are Ready for Testing €· Announced Distro: Fedora 13 Alpha Released €· Announced Distro: Available Now: VortexBox 1.2 €· Announced Distro: PC/OS 10.1 OpenWorkstation Final Released €· Announced Distro: Mandriva Linux 2010.1 Alpha 3 Is Here


  • Will The Linux Desktop Soon Be Irrelevant?
    Some of us are still waiting for the year of the Linux desktop. Some think it’s already here. One thing is certain however, Linux does not have a majority desktop market share. By the time we get there, perhaps the entire idea of what a Desktop is will have been re-defined, thanks to “The Cloud”.


  • Cloudy Times


  • LPI partners with Portuguese government agency on Linux certification and training
    The Linux Professional Institute (LPI), the world's premier Linux certification organization (http://www.lpi.org), announced that its affiliate organization LPI-Portugal (http://www.lpi.com.pt) has signed an agreement with UMIC (http://www.umic.pt/), the Knowledge Society Agency of Portugal's Ministry of Science, Technology and Education to promote training and certification of professional skills in the use of Linux, open source technologies and free software in higher education institutions in Portugal.


  • LinuxCertified Announces its next Linux System and Network Administration BootCamp


  • Thoughts on Mainstream Linux Acceptance
    What I do see being good for Linux is the growing size of the Linux community. Eventually, a software vendor will decide to start releasing its software for the Linux platform as well as x86-64 Mac and Win32. A company such as Adobe or Microsoft would then be dictating which distribution became dominant, but you would see other vendors follow that lead, and Linux would come screaming into the mainstream rather quickly, and I would talk to my boss, and I would start recommending Linux machines. I have a feeling that others in my position would do the same. The money to be made would be in keeping these commercial applications running. As an update broke the app, I would be called upon to fix things so that the application would once again run. I can see that being very lucrative indeed. How often is that cry of distress heard by Ubuntu users?




  • Health

    • Panel PC has antimicrobial case
      Datalux announced an 19-inch panel PC intended for medical applications that runs Ubuntu Linux.


    • Share your experiences with FLOSS in health care
      Are you a practice, clinic or any other health care institution that is using medical open source software in daily routine? And wasn't it quite hard for you to find the right software, to get it up and running and to finally customize it to your needs without having any experienced users or reference sites at hand?

      Even a high number of downloads or a strong 'activity percentile' of an open source software project doesn't tell you anything about the suitability for your purposes and in general about the stability and efficiency that are required for successful clinical practice.






  • Desktop

    • Why we love the HP Mini?
      The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC also features a choice of 4GB SSD (Solid State Drive) flash module with Linux as well as standard hard disk drives for a superior computing experience.


    • Laptop rental hits record
      The library purchased 50 laptops with a Linux operating system. He said library officials are deciding whether the check out duration will be three days, seven days or a month.

      “Right now [laptops] go out for four hours and you can’t check them out over night, which is not because we don’t want to, but the campus Microsoft license restricts how it can be used,” Tyckoson said. “Linux is an open source competitor to Microsoft.”






  • Server







  • Graphics Stack

    • NVIDIA Pre-Releases Its 195.xx Linux Driver
      While NVIDIA has been working on the 195.xx Linux driver since before last November, they have yet to officially release a stable driver in this series as of yet. Betas have been available and they even had to recall their recent drivers over a fan speed issue that could damage the system, but now they are finally getting ready to push out a stable release.






  • Applications







  • GNOME Desktop

    • The GNOME Census project
      We will be launching a survey this week asking GNOME developers who they work for, and whether they have worked for other companies previously – because of the widespread use of gnome.org email addresses in GNOME, unfortunately it has not always been easy to identify companies behind the people. We also want qualitative information on projects you work on, whether you work on GNOME in your free time, and more. We are be breaking down GNOME development by core platform, external dependencies, GNOME desktop, GNOME hosted applications and other GNOME applications. Vanessa will be sending out a very short survey to everyone who has committed to GNOME, and we need your help to make the census as useful as possible to the GNOME project.


    • Deconstructing Nautilus and rebuilding it better
      Well, if you follow the active development of GNOME as much as I do, you may have heard of two recent technologies actively being developed. They are Zeitgeist and the GNOME Activity Journal. What are they? Well, Zeitgeist is a little, unobtrusive daemon that ticks quietly away in the background and records every file you access, every image you edit, essentially every event you perform on your computer and keeps a chronological Journal of this information for other applications to use. This is the core engine that runs quietly in the background. The frontend to this is the GNOME Activity Journal – an application that allows you to browse and search through Zeitgeist’s recordings of your activities and interact with that information. One of the developers of the GNOME Activity Journal posted a very handy video showing it in action. I use it myself and it is very handy. I also use Docky2 on my desktop that has Zeitgeist interaction. One of the options when you right-click on a launcher in Docky2 is the Journal entry, that allows you to browse through recent events and files accessed in that particular application. A stroke of genius. Again here’s a handy little video demonstrating Docky2 with Zeitgeist integration.








  • Distributions

    • The State of the Distributions
      There is usually no distribution that will perfectly fit everyones needs. Each one has its own strengths and weaknesses which will vary from person to person. This article covers all the major advantages (and disadvantages) each of these distributions have to offer and will hopefully give you enough information to help guide you in choosing which Linux Distribution is right for your computer.


    • Ebox platform - A powerful linux server that act as gateway, infrastructure manager, unified threat manager, office server and more
      The latest release is eBox Platform 1.4-1, the new release fixed a lot of bug and comes with some small improvements since.




    • New Releases

      • Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 released
        Mandriva has announced the availability of the first point update to version 5 of its Enterprise Server commercial Linux distribution. Mandriva Enterprise Server 5.1 includes all of the distributions previous updates and a number of improvements.


      • GeeXboX 2.0 Alpha 2 released
        The GeeXboX developers have announced the availability of the second alpha of version 2.0 of their small embedded Linux distribution aimed at Home Theatre PCs (HTPC) and media centres. The latest development release addresses a number of bugs from last month's first alpha and includes several changes.


      • Announcing Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition
        After the announcements of KDE, KDE64 and Fluxbox editions of the current Linux Mint 8 (Helena) operating system, Clement Lefebvre and the Linux Mint community are once again proud to present today the first release candidate of the upcoming Linux Mint 8 LXDE Community Edition. Being powered by Linux kernel 2.6.31, the new edition includes X.Org 7.4, Openbox 3.4.7.2 and PCManFM 0.5.2. The Linux Mint 8 RC1 LXDE Edition has been created for people who want a fast, lightweight and good-looking operating system, for their antique hardware.


      • Berry Linux 1.01 Is Based on Fedora 12
        Berry Linux is a Live CD Linux distribution based on Fedora and aimed mostly at the Japanese market.








    • Red Hat Family

      • Symbian taps Red Hat for developer server
        THE SYMBIAN FOUNDATION has turned to the open source outfit Red Hat as the basis for a new private, cloud-based developer website and server.


      • Symbian Foundation Builds Cloud Platform on Red Hat Enterprise Linux
        Red Hat, Inc. /quotes/comstock/13*!rht/quotes/nls/rht (RHT 30.72, +0.05, +0.16%) , the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that the Symbian Foundation, a global non-profit organization formed to foster an open source community around its mobile device software, has adopted Red Hat Enterprise Linux to provide a scalable, high-performance base for its private, cloud-based developer website and server.


      • IBM announces test and development cloud
        The company has surprised some commentators with the decision to base the system on virtualisation software from enterprise open source vendor Red Hat, rather than the more commonly used Xen open source hypervisor.


      • Red Hat KVM underpins IBM test-and-dev cloud
        Red Hat's implementation of KVM is the virtualization underpinning of the new software test and development service for the IBM Cloud. Red Hat hopes that vote of confidence will persuade enterprises to try KVM in their own IT shops.


      • Red Hat announces EMEA partner summit details
        Open source solutions outfit Red Hat will host its third annual EMEA partner summit in Valencia, Spain from May 2nd to 5th 2010. This year’s event will focus on open source middleware, cloud computing and virtualisation, while highlighting the strength of the Red Hat partner ecosystems and its potential for growth in the EMEA market.

        "The technology landscape is constantly evolving. With the introduction of cloud computing and virtualisation coupled with a full portfolio of open source middleware, we want to ensure that our partners are equipped with the latest training and information on these offerings to help them deliver better solutions and higher value to their customers," said Petra Heinrich, senior director, partners and alliances EMEA region at Red Hat. "The Red Hat and JBoss EMEA partner summit will address these current market trends."


      • Red Hat CEO: Open-source economics key to innovation
        At the inaugural Open Source Business Conference in 2004, the discussion centered on how to fund open source's survival. Just six years later, the OSBC conversation has taken a 180-degree shift to focus on whether proprietary software's shelf life is nearing its end as open-source software economics increasingly drive technology innovation.






    • Debian Family

      • Debian Project Pleased with Ten Times Faster Build Server
        The Debian project was given a new server from Thomas Krenn AG, Intel and Adaptec for its image building. With the Dual-Xeon computer the build process was reduced from 20 to two hours.

        New in Debian's infrastructure is the SC846 server with a 4-unit height and two Intel Xeon E5540 processors. While the previous five-year-old system took 20 hours for a build, the new one took less than two hours, according to the project and its benefactor, Thomas Krenn AG, in a joint press release.


      • RC3 Brings SimplyMEPIS 8.5 Close to Final Release
        MEPIS has released SimplyMEPIS 8.5.00, RC3 of MEPIS 8.5, now available from MEPIS and public mirrors. The ISO files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.5.00-rc3_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.5.00-rc3_64.iso respectively. Deltas are also available.




      • Ubuntu

        • Lucid Community Progress
          One thing that we have been really keen to facilitate in Ubuntu is an ethos of just do it. I really believe our community should feel engaged to be creative in their ideas and be able to get out there and do it, with plenty of support resources so others can help them achieve their goals. I am keen that we don’t have a bottleneck where creativity is limited. Of course, this happens from time to time, but we are always keen to resolve it where possible.


        • Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) daily build for March 15, 2010 runs with nomodeset on Intel 830m video!!!
          I thought Linux in general and Xorg in particular were throwing those of us with "older" Intel video chips under the virtual bus. I couldn't even get Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) Alpha 3 to boot on my Intel 830m (aka i830m and in my case Intel 82830 CGC)-equipped laptops, where my old standby of dropping i915.modeset=0 or nomodeset on the boot line would clear things up.




        • Variants

          • Linux Mint 8 LXDE CE Review: LXDE Done Right
            Trent and I were both looking forward to the release of the Linux Mint LXDE Community Edition for various reasons. Luckily for us, Kendall (maintainer of the Linux Mint Fluxbox CE) pointed us to the .iso for RC1, which is what we’re using as the basis for this review. Since we both have feedback on this CE, we’re trying a Trent Says/Joe Says model. Enjoy!

            [...]

            The installer was the familiar Ubiquity installer used by Ubuntu and Linux Mint alike, which was not an issue on my hardware — though Ubiquity can be an issue if you’re running less than 256 Mb of RAM. While you may scoff at that, some people are looking to lighter weight releases like this one as an option for resurrecting old hardware, so keep that in mind if you’re thinking about giving this or any other distro which uses the Ubiquity installer a try.


















  • Devices/Embedded

    • More Details Leak Out About Google’s Plans For The Set-Top Box
      The NYT says the service—with the apropos name ‘Google TV’—is being developed in conjunction with Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Intel; (NSDQ: INTC) the testing, meanwhile, is being done with the Dish Network.


    • Cool: smallest Linux desktop PC, smaller than an apple (fruit)
      Measuring at just 2 x 2 x 2.2 inches this is the smallest Desktop PC. And it's running Linux, one more point for Linux coolness.


    • NAS reference platform builds on Pineview Atoms
      Intel announced a SOHO-oriented network-attached storage (NAS) reference platform based on its D410 and dual-core D510 "Pineview" Atom processors and 82801R I/O controller. NAS vendors LaCie, LG Electronics, Qnap, Synology, and Thecus will incorporate the Linux-compatible platform in upcoming NAS devices, starting with the Blu-ray burner-equipped LG N4B2, says Intel.


    • DIN-rail PC runs Linux on 150MHz SoC


    • IP set-top features secure USB key
      AccessKey IP is shipping a Linux-based IP set-top box (STB) and related secure USB key for viewing encrypted IPTC broadcasts. The AccessKey Home STB offers a security-enabled HD IPTV service that can be combined with digital terrestrial, satellite, or cable reception, while the USB key can bring the same secure IPTV service to PCs, the company says.


    • 6WIND boosts packet-processing on Intel's new Xeon 7-10X
      The "6WINDGate SDS" profile is optimized for platforms in which the networking Fast Path runs on dedicated cores without the overhead of a Linux-based Slow Path.

      Carmes said 6WINDGate's architecture removes the complexity of integrating high-performance packet processing with the Linux environment, because it fully synchronizes the Fast Path and Linux, while preserving Linux APIs.


    • MathWorks aims tools at embedded Linux
      The MathWorks has announced the latest release of its MATLAB and Simulink product families, writes Richard Wilson, which include new streaming capabilities for signal processing and video processing in MATLAB and nonlinear solvers for standard and large-scale optimisation.


    • Carrier-grade distro supports HP BladeSystem
      Wind River announced that its Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) operating system, development tools, and build system now supports HP BladeSystem carrier-grade and enterprise server blades. Wind River Linux 3.0 is the first registered CGL 4.0 distribution supported on HP ProLiant server blades for the HP BladeSystem, claims Intel subsidiary Wind River.


    • Networking appliance taps Freescale's QorIQ processor
      The CAK-2000 supports Linux, and is available with an optional copy of Freescale's Vortiqa, a Linux-based software development platform for optimizing firewall, IPSec-VPN, IPS, anti-virus, and anti-spam software for multi-core QorIQ and PowerQUICC SoCs. The network appliance is said to comply with FCC/CE, UL, and RoHS/WEEE.


    • Conceptronic Grab'n'go CH3MNAS early review: Compact home for your data
      If you're a really hardcore techie, you'll be able to use the 'Fun Plug' system to install apps on your NAS to add functionality. Be warned though, this isn't a beginner feature and requires at least some technical understanding of Linux.


    • Configurable RISC controller offers Linux-ready MMU
      Standard controllers for dataplane applications, including one Linux-optimized model. Based on Tensilica's configurable, 32-bit RISC "Xtensa" architecture, the five upward-compatible processor cores include a Diamond Standard 233L processor with a Linux-optimized MMU, and are claimed to be 15 percent faster and more power efficient than earlier models.


    • ATCA blade cranks it up with six-core Xeon
      GE Intelligent Platforms announced a Linux-ready AdvancedTCA single board computer with an option for Intel's new Xeon 5600 processors. The dual-Xeon A10200 offers up to six cores clocked to 2GHz, plus 12MB of L3 cache per CPU, and offers dual 10 gigabit Ethernet interfaces and four gigabit Ethernet interfaces, says the company.


    • MIPS-based networking processor gains Linux support
      Timesys announced that its LinuxLink commercial software development framework for building custom embedded Linux based products now supports the latest networking processor from Wintegra. Now shipping in volume, the dual MIPS 34K core "WinPath 3" IP packet processor is designed for 2G, 3G, and 4G mobile and fixed wireless base stations, says the company.


    • MontaVista

      • MontaVista’s Alexander Kaliadin on the instant shutdown of a Linux OS
        I had a great interview with the architects of MontaVista Software's 1-second boot-time real-time Linux. After the interview went to press it occurred to me to ask Alexander Kaliadin a related question. If smart people like him can figure out how to boot a computer in less than a second, is it also possible to turn the computer off in a short time? His answer was that you could possibly just flip the power switch, if the hardware was designed to allow this. His response and elaboration are below.

        [...]

        I mentioned to Alex that I would like to publish the above comments in my blog and he was nice enough to elaborate on them in the following communication:

        In a typical desktop box, the proper Linux shutdown process will involve flushing disk caches, closing multiple files and un-mounting drives (local or networked). Depending on the use case, certain daemons or processes may wait for various operations to complete in order to proceed with the shutdown process.


      • MontaVista Software is Elected to the GENIVI Alliance Board of Directors
        MontaVista€® Software, LLC, the leader in embedded Linux€® commercialization announced it has been elected to the Board of Directors of the GENIVI Alliance, an automotive and consumer electronics industry association driving the development and adoption of an open In-vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference platform. MontaVista was a Core member of GENIVI in it's inaugural year, and now assumes a seat on the board as GENIVI enters it's second year. Dan Cauchy, vice president of Marketing at MontaVista will sit on the GENIVI board.








    • NanoNote







    • Phones

      • IP phone runs Linux on ARM SoC
        STMicroelectronics announced a design win for its new ARM-based SPEAr 300 SoC, which it says drives the Linux-based Snom 870 VoIP phone. The Snom 870 offers a 4.3-inch color touchscreen, gigabit Ethernet and USB connectivity, plus an integrated XML browser, says Snom.




      • Nokia

        • Nokia Unsure on N900 Software Upgrade
          Following the release of MeeGo, a software platform resultant from the partnership between Intel and Nokia, and also the successor to the Linux-based Maemo operating system, Nokia seems to be undecided on whether its flagship smartphone N900 will receive the upgrade.


        • N900 gains VoIP service -- and will soon offer MeeGo
          VoX Communications announced it will resell Nokia's Maemo Linux-based N900 smartphone with a mobile VoIP plan offering unlimited data and voice service. Meanwhile, Nokia confirmed that the N900 will be the first smartphone to run the Moblin/Maemo mashup, MeeGo, when a preliminary version of the operating system debuts at the end of the month.






      • Android

        • Google spins new Nexus One model
          Google has released an unlocked version of its Android-based Nexus One phone that's compatible with the 3G networks of AT&T and Roger Wireless. Meanwhile, a Flurry report claims that the Nexus One sold far fewer units in its first two months than the iPhone and the Motorola Droid did in theirs, says eWEEK.


        • How the Google-China conflict could hit open source
          Google insists its pull-out won’t impact Android, but can we really be certain? Can Google really be certain?

          Hassling HTC, quietly putting out the word to others not to support Android, could delay Google considerably. If China wanted it could tell its courts to encourage Apple to file suit there, saying it was only seeking to protect patent rights. It could tell Taiwan that Android is provocative.


        • Google expects Android to 'flourish' in China: CFO
          Google expects its Android mobile operating system to "flourish" in China, Google's chief financial officer said Monday amid a two-month standoff with Beijing over Web censorship and cyberattacks.


        • What Is the Top Mobile Platform for Open Source Developers?
          Mobile platforms like Apple's iPhone and Google's Android have become a key focus for open source developers. And the trend is only increasing, though new research has found that over the course of the last year, there has been a shift in which mobile platform has the most open source development activity.


        • Motorola Droid's Android 2.1 update to be rolled out OTA starting Thursday
          And just like that, we now have the date for the official Motorola Droid's Android 2.1 update. It was just approved today and will be rolled out in batches of 250,000 starting this Thursday, March 18, at high noon (EDT). So if you don't get it in the first batch, hang on for a little bit. Or, even better, once we have the download link it should be no problem to apply the update manually, just as we did for Android 2.0.1.












    • Tablets

      • iPad jailbreak for OS 3.2 coming soon with GreenPois0n
        The iPad isn’t even out yet, and a jailbreak is already in the works for its OS version 3.2 by Joshua Hill, member of the Chronic Dev team. According to BlogsDNA, Joshua has tweeted some images of the GreenPois0n (running on Linux) and asked for donations from those who are interested in the iPad jailbreak.












Free Software/Open Source

  • OSGEO Approves Geomajas As Incubation Project
    The Open Source Geospatial Foundation, or OSGeo, is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to support and promote the collaborative development of open geospatial technologies and data. OSGeo also serves as an outreach and advocacy organization for the open source geospatial community, and provides a common forum and shared infrastructure for improving cross-project collaboration.


  • WANdisco to Play Key Role in TortoiseSVN Open Source Project
    WANdisco, a leading provider of infrastructure software for replication, scalability, high availability and commercial sponsor of the Subversion open source project, today announced that Stefan Küng, the lead developer for TortoiseSVN has joined the company. Mr. Küng, who has been working on TortoiseSVN since its inception, will lead WANdisco’s efforts to support and enhance this popular Subversion client for Windows as part of its sponsorship and support of the Subversion open source project.


  • Open Source Collaboration: The Right Solution in a Tight Economy?
    So, like investing, one must weigh risk versus monetary reward. Though these- and other- open source software providers can offer many of the same services as the higher priced options, you will likely have to pay something and must make an educated estimate of the level of risk associated with use.


  • Should You Customize Open Source ERP?
    When I first found out about open source software, I felt the sky was the limit — with the source code, I could do anything now! But after working on open source ERP for the last seven years, I’ve come to realize that customizing software, even open source software, should not be taken lightly. I recently spoke with Phil Simon, long-time enterprise software veteran and author of The Next Wave of Technologies and Why New Systems Fail, and asked him for his thoughts on when you should customize open source software such as ERP and CRM.




  • Google





  • Servers

    • Rackspace Launches Media Services Solution
      This Enterprise-level solution will provide an open source, direct-to-consumer (D2C) web infrastructure for music recording labels and other media segments that need to accelerate content delivery online, scale rapidly to respond to fan demand, and create new revenue streams.


    • Weekly Poll: What Companies Will Be at the Top of the Cloud in the Next 5 Years
      This past week, we had 93 people respond to the question: 'Is There A Place For Open-Source in the Data Center?" The respondents were pretty much in full support of the open approach. Of the 93 people who responded, 83 said, yes, there is a place for open-source. But we wonder what it will take to get such a movement to a pace of note. We do have faith in the open-source way but how will this effort transfer to the data center?


    • Seeding the Cloud with Open Source, Standing Cloud Makes It Easy
      By the end of April, Standing Cloud will be offering its "community edition" which will allow you to install and operate open source apps permanently for a very reasonable fee. Standing Cloud will be offering other cloud based, open source packages throughout the year.








  • Education

    • Cloud-Based, Open-Source Future For Teachers?
      A computing device for every teacher and student so they can access the Internet at school or at home? That, along with an embrace of cloud computing, Creative Commons, and open-source technologies is part of a new set of recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.


    • Becta's Home Access Scheme...not really a scam
      We have long complained that Becta's very public conversion to the virtues of Open Source software is a little longer on words than it is on action.

      The suspicion is that they are playing 'lip-service' to FOSS while the edu-world continues to spend millions of pounds of money they no longer have (sacking staff as a result..oh the crocodile tears) on expensive proprietary products... exactly as before.








  • Events

    • Flourish Conference 2010 is This Weekend!
      Welcome to the Flourish 2010 Open Source Conference site! Our goal is to promote the use of open source and provide a gathering place for open source enthusiasts in the Chicagoland area. This will be our fourth Flourish Conference, and although times are tough, this year we're working even harder to make this conference the best one yet!


    • Free tables available for embedded open source showcase
      The CE Linux Forum (CELF) is once again sponsoring a free technical demonstration room for embedded open source projects at this year's Embedded Linux Conference (ELC) on Apr. 13 in San Francisco. Demonstrations should cover embedded technology that offers software available under GPL or LGPL compatible licenses, says CELF.


    • rSmart Champions Open Education Agenda at The Chair Academy's 19th Annual International Conference
      rSmart, the provider of enterprise support for open source application software in education, today announced its participation in The Chair Academy's 19th Annual International Conference for Post-Secondary Leaders being held this March 15-18, 2010 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.


    • HUBzero Workshop to Unveil Open Source Release of Core Software
      The workshop will include three hands-on breakout sessions, one aimed at new users interested in starting a hub with the open source release, as well as current users who want to learn more about the hub technology. The other two breakout sessions will focus on research software developers and on Web developers working with hubs.


    • Ingres to Share How Open Source Drives a $1.2 Billion Market
      Ingres Vice President Deb Woods to Discuss How Appliances are Changing the Face of Software and Technical Account Manager Tyler McGraw to Shed Light on New Partnership








  • Open-Xchange

    • Hosted Unified Communications Meets Open Source
      Now, Open-Xchange, the open source email specialist, is making a similar move. Open-Xchange expects more than 15 million users to run its software by the end of 2010. At the same time, Open-Xchange is partnering up with 4PSA to introduce a unified communications bundle.


    • Open-Xchange Adds Integration With VoIP
      Open-source collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has integrated VoIP (voice over Internet Protocol) and social networking sites in the latest version of its e-mail server and client.


    • Latest Open-Xchange Groupware Offers Integrated VoIP
      Open-Xchange, a provider of business-class open source collaboration software, today announced enhancements that give users telephone and fax integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information.


    • Open-Xchange, 4PSA Team on Open-Source UC
      Open-source e-mail and collaboration software vendor Open-Xchange has done a little collaborating itself to offer an enhanced unified communications product set that includes telephone and fax integrated with e-mail, contacts, calendar and task information.








  • Mozilla

    • Firefox 3.0 approaches end-of-life
      Firefox Logo Mozilla has confirmed that version 3.0 of its popular open source Firefox web browser is approaching its end-of-life (EOL).


    • Firefox, Gecko, HTML5 and more: An (Email) Interview with Mozilla’s Asa Dotzler
      If it were not for Mozilla and its numerous open source projects that saved us from the IE Dark Ages, the browser market today would definitely be very different. In 2010, the Firefox browser is facing some pretty tough competition from the likes of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 8 (v9 is actually good), Safari and Opera, all modern and feature-packed web browsers. With Windows’ new ballot screen, things might become even more interesting.

      The Web Browser is evolving at a mind-bogglingly rapid pace, and the changes it went through in 2009 only are incredible. That is why I was really happy for a chance to talk to Asa Dotzler, community coordinator for Firefox marketing projects, who has been with Mozilla for 12 years. This is my first interview and I hope you’ll enjoy reading Mr Dotzler’s answers as much as I did. We cover Firefox, Mozilla and the new Web. Don’t forget to check out Asa’s blog for even more on the topic.


    • Internet Explorer 9 vs Firefox 3.7 : Open beats Closed
      Currently Mozilla has a Firefox 3.7 developer preview available, testing all kinds of new features including out-of-process plugins (something that IE 9 isn't currently testing). It's a real browser with back button, tabs and address bar and it resembles the real world modern browser. It enables developers to actually see how the browser will work and doesn't try to hide its flaws by limiting critical functions.








  • Databases

    • SXSW: When it Comes to Web Scale Go Cheap, Go Custom or Go Home
      Dealing with the terabytes of data generated by users online and serving up relationships tied to that data quickly are forcing web-scale sites like Twitter, Reddit and Facebook to investigate a variety of home-built, open sourced and hardware solutions, and reject as many closed-source software (such as Oracle) and specialized hardware solutions as possible.








  • Sun

    • An example of the awesomeness of the open source community
      OpenSSO is one of the best (if it isn't the best one) open source web Single Sign On projects out there. Sun Microsystems on 2008 open-sourced one of their products called Access Manager, and rebranded it as OpenSSO. But it's sad to see how Oracle after Sun acquisition, is slowly shutting down this amazing open source project, marking it as "not strategic" and dismembering the few parts they think are worth for their own SSO product. They started on December by freezing the next express release, and during the last few weeks they have slowly started to remove all the open source downloads from OpenSSO website. Last but not least, they have also started to remove content from the wiki. Now, the only download available is the enterprise version, which is buried very deeply at Oracle's website (it took me like 15 minutes to find it, it isn't even listed as an Oracle product),and the patch sets that also were free to download, are now only available to paying customers with a valid support contract.

      [...]

      But here it comes the awesomeness of the open source community: A Norwegian company called ForgeRock has stepped up to give OpenSSO a new home and continue developing OpenSSO under a new name: OpenAM (because of copyright issues with the name). They claim they will conitnue with Sun's original roadmap for the product, and they have started to make available again all of the express builds, including agents, that were removed from OpenSSO's site, and a new wiki with all the content that once was available at dev.java.net.


    • Open source SSO lands in spotlight
      Last week was a really big week -- perhaps the biggest ever -- for open source simplified sign-Ope on in general and OpenID in particular.

      [...]

      Not quite as momentous, and having nothing to do with OpenID, another SSO service was released into the wild as open source. I was really amazed by MetaPass SSO when I saw it two years ago ("MetaPass' single sign-on package enables administrators to create scripts visually") and now it's open source. Windows, Mac, and Linux executables and source-code of MetaPass SSO are available for download on the MetaPass Web site and on major open source Web sites (such as SourceForge). MetaPass is definitely an enterprise (not a consumer, or "user-centric") SSO solution. If you are friendly with "roll your own" software for your organization it's definitely worth a look.


    • Non-Profit Open Wonderland Launches
      With the news last month that Oracle would be shutting down development resources for Project Wonderland, the open-source virtual world platform originally supported by Sun Microsystems, associated developers began looking for alternatives. Last week saw the launch of the Open Wonderland Foundation, a non-profit devoted to providing a free and open-source platform for virtual worlds based on Project Wonderland.








  • CMS

    • WordPress: A Web Developer's Tutorial
      I chose WordPress as my general-purpose framework, even though it's theoretically a blogging platform, for a number of reasons. First of all, it's backed by a company, yet still has a large number of independent contributors. This is probably the best way of keeping code up to date and viable commercially, while still using the Open Source model. New features, bug fixes, and security patches are thus released relatively often, and it doesn't hurt that you can now update WordPress with a single click. Secondly, there are a phenomenal number of freely available, high quality themes and plugins that allow you to easily customize not only the look and feel, but also the functionality of your WordPress site. Finally, the total interoperability of WordPress with other platforms is second to none, so your site will be able to handle everything from Google Maps to SEO to AdSense to iPhone capability from day one. Don't believe it? That's why I'm here to teach you how to do it all.


    • Matt Mullenweg, WordPress founder: Why it pays to stay faithful to open source
      As an open source project, WordPress is licensed under the General Public License (GPL). The code for WordPress is created both by Automattic developers as well as a community of hundreds of third-party developers. The open source nature of the product means it can be used by anyone and for anything without paying a licence fee.


    • Worldly wealth
      A little later Matt Mullenweg took to the stage. Matt is the charismatic and high-profile founder of Automattic Inc and WordPress, the world’s most successful open-source blogging software, powering over 200 million websites.

      He chatted intimately with the audience about the founding of his company and the driving philosophies behind its success. He also shared his views on the future of blogging and open-source software development. One interesting story was that he founded Automattic with three other people from around the world, including another Irish developer. These four people had never met physically but knew each other via their web-based interactions. This created enough of a bond for them to start a company together, one that has been very successful.


    • Open Source Delivers Enterprise-Class Website on Shoestring Budget
      We also use open source throughout our production and testing environments. The Verical Marketplace is deployed on servers running the Linux operating system. This open source operating system is of high-quality and performs better than most of the operating systems available for purchase. In addition, we were able to use commodity hardware that further reduces our cost of deployment. Testing is aided using open source products including JUnit and Apache JMeter.


    • Hosted Drupal CMS Planned for Midyear
      The service, called Drupal Gardens, is in beta testing now with a "couple of thousand" users, said Dries Buytaert, who created Drupal and cofounded Acquia to build a commercial business around it. The service will be based on Drupal 7, an upgrade to the CMS software that will be released at about the same time, Buytaert said at the Open Source Business Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday.

      Drupal is a software platform for publishing Web sites and managing text, images and other content on those sites. It has been used by individuals to publish blogs and by larger organizations, including the White House and NASA, to run their Web sites.








  • Funding

    • Magento Scores $22.5 Million For Open Source E-commerce Platform Play
      Magento currently has over 60,000 merchants using its software, which was downloaded about 1.5 million times as of January 2010. The company also says they’ve registered over $15 billion in transactions to date. The roadmap for the future is apparently paved with additional products, with a number of “Mobile Commerce, Saas offering and other products/services” coming later this year.






  • Security

    • Firewall Configurations Can Be Hard To Manage, Sounds Like A Job For Open Source
      For many people network security starts and stops with firewalls. The foundational technology of perimeter based security, firewalls have grown more complex and sophisticated over the years. Today keeping your firewall rule set tuned and managing complex firewall configurations is a job often best left to experts. A new open source tool, Flint offers help though.


    • Commtouch to present Open-source Email security
      Open-source security infrastructure can be taken to the next step by augmenting it with commercial solutions, according to Gabriel Mizrahi, vice president technologies at Commtouch.


    • Indian Security Startup Offers Free Software
      The UTM (unified threat management) offering, called Ubiq-Freedom, is available under an open-source license, and includes popular open-source software such as Squid caching proxy for the Web and IP tables for the firewall, said Debasheesh Bagchi [CQ], Wep's program head for Ubiq-Freedom.






  • Releases







  • Government

    • More than 100 candidates to Italian regional elections support Free Software
      At least on paper, thanks to CaroCandidato, Free Software may have a voice this year in many of the regional councils assisting the governors. As of March 17th, the 2010 edition of the campaign has already enlisted more than 100 candidates from all parties. Citizens visiting the website can easily find, sorted by party or electoral district, which regional candidates have signed the Pact for these elections.








  • Licensing

    • The need for an Open Source license
      You DO NOT need permission to access it, modify it and/or distribute it. However, depends on the open source license, commercializing it may or may not be restricted.

      Without a defining open source license that the government can slap on each software project, there is no option but to revert back to the old ways of protecting intellectual property.

      The problem is this - the government can claim that the software source code is freely available to the public, but you need permission. Here’s the twist, there is NO guarantee that permission will be granted.








  • Openness

    • Applying Best Practices to Open Data
      Some of that is already going on. In a follow-up, Torkington links to a few posts from the Open Knowledge Foundation, which has come up with a Open Knowledge Definition (OKD) taken from the Open Source Initiative's Open Source Definition. This includes everything from content like movies and books to government info, and sets 11 criteria that a work has to meet to be considered "open."


    • SXSW: Bug Labs Says Content Will Drive Open Source Hardware
      That’s the viewpoint of Peter Semmelhack, founder and CEO of Bug Labs, whose modular, open source hardware company aims to fix that shortcoming by making it easier for people and companies to create their own electronics products using a Linux processor module, a camera module, a touchscreen LCD module and so on.


    • Open source: the way forward in the search for new treatments for the infectious diseases of poverty?
      Probably the best known open-source software is the Linux operating system but this is only one example. The mountain of software that open-source developers have created is robust enough to be used by big corporations and cutting-edge enough to have become incorporated into the latest mobile phones and laptops. But importantly, it has saved on development costs. It has been estimated that producing the open-source software we have today, using traditional means, would cost $387 billion and take 2.1 million people-years of development.








  • Programming

    • Benchmark of Python Web Servers
      The above results show that as a Python web developer we have lots of different methods to deploy our applications. Some of these seem to perform better than others but by focussing only on server performance I will not justify most of the tested servers as they differ greatly in functionality. Also, if you are going to take some stock web framework and won’t do any optimizations or caching the performance of your webserver is not going to matter as this will not be the bottleneck. If there is one thing which made this benchmark clear is that most Python Web servers offer great performance and if you feel things are slow the first thing to look at is really your own application.






Leftovers



  • Playboy accidentally played out on children's TV
    TV bosses in the US have apologised after preview clips of the Playboy channel were accidentally played out on two children's channels.




  • Science

    • U.S. sits on rare supply of tech-crucial minerals
      China supplies most of the rare earth minerals found in technologies such as hybrid cars, wind turbines, computer hard drives and cell phones, but the U.S. has its own largely untapped reserves that could safeguard future tech innovation.


    • Planck sees tapestry of cold dust
      Giant filaments of cold dust stretching through our Galaxy are revealed in a new image from ESA’s Planck satellite. Analysing these structures could help to determine the forces that shape our Galaxy and trigger star formation.


    • NASA finds shrimp dinner on ice beneath Antarctica
      In a surprising discovery about where higher life can thrive, scientists for the first time found a shrimp-like creature and a jellyfish frolicking beneath a massive Antarctic ice sheet.








  • Security

    • 7 Cool, Free Security Applications
      Encrypt or create a hidden OS with TrueCrypt

      Even if Windows is password protected, thieves can still access all your files, for example, with a Linux-based LiveCD. To protect your documents and privacy, you can encrypt your data. TrueCrypt is a great open source solution.


    • U.S. Civil Liberties Group Questions 'Legal Basis' Of Using Drones To Kill
      The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit Tuesday demanding that the government disclose the legal basis for its use of unmanned drones to conduct targeted killings overseas.

      In particular, the lawsuit asks for information on when, where and against whom drone strikes can be authorized, the number and rate of civilian casualties and other basic information essential for assessing the wisdom and legality of using armed drones to conduct targeted killings.


    • Hacker Disables More Than 100 Cars Remotely
      More than 100 drivers in Austin, Texas found their cars disabled or the horns honking out of control, after an intruder ran amok in a web-based vehicle-immobilization system normally used to get the attention of consumers delinquent in their auto payments.








  • Environment

    • 'Milestone' for wave energy plans
      Ten sites on the seabed off the north coast of Scotland have been leased out to power companies in an effort to generate wave and tidal energy.

      In the first project of its kind in the world, areas in the Pentland Firth and around Orkney have been leased to seven companies by the Crown Estate.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Jim Gettys, HP computer scientist (2004)

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Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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