News Roundup: Free Software/Open Source Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-03-10 09:33:39 UTC
- Modified: 2014-03-10 09:33:39 UTC
Summary: Reverse-chronological news summary with headlines of interest about Free/Open Source software
-
Deb Cinkus is the CEO of Polished Geek, a Raleigh, NC-based Joomla CMS web development company. Opensource.com community manager Jason Hibbets interviewed Cinkus about project management tips and open source project management tools during the 2013 All Things Open conference in Raleigh, NC.
-
Kickstarter just passed $1 billion in pledges. While it's great that Kickstarter corralled 5.7 million people to help fund a heck of a lot of documentaries, tech startups, and more, $1 billion isn't what it used to be.
-
The applications and benefits of open source will continue to evolve and grow. Educators are using open source programming as a way to interest, involve and inspire up and coming technologists. It enables students to learn by doing and to become more engaged. With a next generation of minds focused on next-generation technology challenges, open source will continue to revolutionise the way we overcome obstacles and create new opportunities.
-
ThoughtWorks has recently open sourced their Continuous Delivery (CD) tool, called Go, having its origins in CruiseControl and providing a pipeline process that covers the entire code development process: continuous integration, testing and deploying.
-
I am aware of situations where Open Source companies based out of US can’t offer free software to those countries which are in US’s embargo list, but something interesting popped out today when FESCo debated the issue whether Fedora should allow ‘contribution’ from such countries. Fedora’s sponsor Red Hat is a US based company and thus has to adhere to US laws so it’s tricky whether they can use the free software contribution from embargoed countries or not.
-
People should be asking why states didn’t partner up on this using an open source model of development. Why do states and cities have to purchase systems for 10s or 100's of millions of dollars? How many water billing systems are out there in the United States? Can't we collaborate and come up with a couple good ones? What did Kentucky do right? These are the questions we should be asking.
-
The Moodle community has a tool called “code checker” which is packaged as a Moodle plugin, and allows developers to analyse their code to ensure it meets the project’s coding style. This allows them to quickly identify and fix any issues before submission, and allows reviewers to quickly direct them to instructions on how to fix any discrepancies.
-
This week during Mobile World Congress 2014, Buffalo Americas launched three high speed AirStation Open Source DD-WRT wireless routers: the AirStation AC 1750 WZR-1750DHPD, the AirStation N600 WZR-600DHP2D, and the AirStation N300 WHR-300HP2D. The AC 1750 model is on sale now, while the other two won't arrive until early March.
-
Cisco has released open source security software designed for building secure corporate Internet firewalls called OpenAppID.
-
Since the OpenNI work was published as open source, it can still be distributed, and as I Programmer notes the files will also be available on GitHub. It's also feasible that other backers of the project will revive it in some form.
-
Getting started with new software can be overwhelming. It's even more frustrating when you transition from one tool to another, because you have to unlearn some habits in order to make room for new ones. But, there are huge benefits to switching from closed software to open source alternatives.
-
Having acquired the security firm Sourcefire last October, Cisco is using this week's RSA Conference as the showcase for how Cisco's security products are being integrated as well as detailing how it will cut an open-source path for the next-generation application-layer firewall/IPS.
-
Graylog2, based on Java and Elasticsearch, provides a increasingly useful alternative to commercial log analysis tools
-
Intrusion detection software is meant to monitor network traffic or host activities for malicious actions, such as successful or unsuccessful intrusion attempts, hostile traffic (i.e., malicious scans and denials of service), unauthorized configuration changes, malware symptoms, and user policy violations. An intrusion detection system (IDS) typically can produce reports describing the details of the potentially hazardous activity which generated alerts. OSSEC is particularly useful in this context for many reasons. First, it is an established, reputable product with a proven track record (OSSEC was first released in 2004 and has been owned by Trend Micro since 2009). Second, it is free and open source. Third, it is compatible with most modern operating systems such as Linux, Windows (Server 2008, Server 2003, 7, Vista, XP, 2000) BSD (Free/Open/Net), Unix (Solaris, HP-UX, AIX), and MacOS.
-
In January 2013, I started exploring open source solutions to help implement my business idea. I used Wordpress, Joomla, and OpenShift to create FilmBoxFestival, a platform for streaming documentary films. Note: It is still in the testing phase.
-
One alternative to buying expensive storage-area networks or other hardware-based dedicated storage is to deploy open source storage software on existing server hardware. For this test, we evaluated three such open source storage products, GlusterFS 3.3, Ceph 0.72 and Apache Hadoop 2.2.0.
-
Open source software in healthcare has been instrumental for sharing common tools and increasing adoption of emerging medical information technology (IT) standards. By leading the effort to digitize health data, imaging informatics has set the precedent for the adoption of the technology industry's best practices and subsequently open source software.
-
What opportunities does Open Source provide if you’re really looking to go big? Aiming to become “the next Red Hat” is an idea flawed from the start, as former XenSource CEO Peter Levine explains in his recent TechCrunch article. So what’s left if business models focussing on selling support and services all have a relatively low limit to their growth?
-
Open Source Security Information Management (OSSIM) updates alongside its commercial cousin for better security visibility.
-
My introduction to open source software began when I was sitting on a server room floor, with my head in my hands, completely frustrated with a Windows 2000 server. Every night there were some services that would crash. Every morning I would get yelled at by my over-bearing boss. I was new to the company, it was my first IT job fresh out of Network Admin college, where I graduated at the top of my class, but I couldn't fix this problem because it was a "known Microsoft issue," and I just had to wait for the update.
-
Imagine what Puerto Rico would be like, if free software could become a movement for social justice on the island. Well, on Tuesday, February 11th, 2014, the Institute for a Free Puerto Rico planted the seed for this movement. In honor of Aaron Swartz, and in conjunction with the world-wide campaign to end mass surveillance, the Institute is happy to announce the creation of the Libre Planet Puerto Rico team.
-
Facebook looks and feels like a single application, like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop. But behind the scenes, in the company’s data centers, you’ll find that the world’s most popular social network is really a multitude of different applications working in concert.
-
A few years ago, a global analyst firm went so far as to describe open source as the ‘hype du jour’ and some people even labelled it as something destined for the student and hobbyist market.
-
Lead developer Gavin Andresen chided the commercial bitcoin community for not getting involved enough in core bitcoin development and testing this week. In a mail to the bitcoin developers list updating the community on some bug fixes in the code, he called companies out for not giving back.
-
There are many open source software projects out there today and any list of open source licenses alone shows you how much project diversity is out there. Just take a look at Github, Apache, Eclipse or The Linux Foundation and you’ll find thousands of developers collaborating on the software that literally runs the world.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Brigading Against Women - Part XXV - No Anonymity for People Who Did Illegal Things
- "Empathy is the sunlight to the vampire of culture."
- Links 09/10/2026: Stranded Busan Shark Still a 'Circus', Endangered Monkey Rescued, BBC Shells Out Money
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Sponsored to Hype Up "Datacenters" and "AI" (Bubble, Pyramid Scheme)
- "Sponsored by Cisco" with "AI" 26 times in this page
- World Mental Health Day is Tomorrow and EPO Staff Talks About What the Job Does to Workers
- In recent years we've written a great deal about mental health consideration in relation to work, with a focus on "IT"
- You Definitely Do NOT Wish to Live Close to a Datacentre
- put aside for a moment the noise, the pollution...
-
- Microsoft Abuses PERM and Lays Off Workers in India
- The US government has made it easier for Microsoft to hide the mass layoffs
- The GAFAM Elections in the United States
- If the election is run by platforms that have back doors "baked-in" and if the communications are overseen by GAFAM, you would not have to be a "nutty MAGAt" to dispute the outcome
- More GAFAM Layoffs (Late on Friday Night)
- They say they are worth trillions, but they don't even make money
- Male-Dominated EPO Fails to Have "Concrete Measures to Support Female Staff"
- Being a female at the EPO is exceptionally hard
- Production Freeze at the European Patent Office (Opposing Monarchy, Institutional Maladministration and Corruption)
- Eight reasons to participate
- Links 10/10/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' Silencing Critics, "Data Centres are the New Front Line in the Russia-Ukraine War"
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 09, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, October 09, 2026
- Gemini Links 10/10/2026: Optimism, Stargazing, "Life Without Smartphone", and Fairphone 4
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/10/2026: Manifesto, Slop, Geminispace, and "Cryptography of the Internet"
- Links for the day
- Betanews is Still a Slopfarm, Articles About "Linux" Are Fake and Plagiarism by LLMs
- Cheaters and plagiarists aren't journalists; they're people who rip off and harm journalists
- James Bottomley Has Promoted Microsoft-Controlled Restricted ('Secure') Boot, His Blog Has Just Been Cracked
- Does this meet IBM's and Microsoft's standards for "distinguished" (in security)?
- Links 09/10/2026: "Internet Archive to Demo Wayback Machine at Friday’s Uniqlo Street Festival", France Wages Censorship War via DNS
- Links for the day
- Controlled Opposition
- The underlying concept is hardly new
- More Stallmans
- We need more Stallmans, we don't need to change Stallman
- SUEPO Munich (EPO Staff Union in the Main Headquarters) Opposes Monarchy ('Cocaine King' Campinos), Plans Online Meeting Next Week
- They may have about 1,000 workers joining in
- GNU/Linux Flirts With 20% "Market Share" in North America Overnight
- Who should we trust on GNU/Linux? Microsofters on an armchair or Cloudflare Radar?
- New Site Makes the Case Against Adoption of Omarchy, But Focuses Almost Entirely on Politics
- Let's examine what the page says and what points it focuses on
- Brigading Against Women - Part XXIV - Nobody's Name is Unspeakable
- Names are not sacred
- Microsoft is in Trouble (With the Regime It Sponsored)
- It seems like Microsoft paying the existing regime/dictatorship wasn't enough
- GGG Pot Calls the Kettle Black
- "It means a situation in which somebody accuses someone else of a fault which the accuser shares, and therefore is an example of psychological projection, or hypocrisy. Use of the expression to discredit or deflect a claim of wrongdoing by attacking the originator of the claim for their own similar behaviour (rather than acknowledging the guilt of both) is the tu quoque logical fallacy."
- In the United Kingdom, Rising Cost of Hardware Benefits GNU/Linux
- GNU/Linux rose from about 4% to almost 6% in one year
- Japanese Targets of Cyber Breaches or Insider Threats
- Japanese government bureau and major firms experience data breaches
- Gemini Links 09/10/2026: Optimism, Stargazing, and Solar MiniServer
- Links for the day
- The Microsoft Ban Should Go Further (Telecommunications Cybersecurity and Resilience Act Incompatible With Back Doors)
- it's not difficult to see where to start
- When Americans Export a 'Suicide Mission' to Other Continents
- I worry that this culture of debt-taking and overconsumption is being spread from the US to Europe
- The Register MS: "AI" Several Times in Same Headline, 31 Times in Page. The Register MS Was Paid to Do This.
- The phenomenon is commercial (paid media), not scientific
- The Outcome of Microsoft Ban Was Predictable
- told you so
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 08, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, October 08, 2026
- Gemini Links 08/10/2026: Economical Thrashing, How I Killed the Earth, and Thoughts on Gemini
- Links for the day
- Links 08/10/2026: Wikimedia Bemoans Chaffbot Slop (Bots Sold as 'Agents') That Sabotage It, ICC's Taliban Warrants
- Links for the day
- Links 08/10/2026: Slop Scammers (Pushers) Inflate Hosting Bills and "YouTube Testing Everything"
- Links for the day
- The Register MS Helps Prove the "AI" Frenzy in the Media is Evidence of Compromised Media, Not Legitimate "Revolution"
- Ignore the hype and carry on
- London Became Synonymous With the Royal Courts of Justice
- London used to be a place where we go on holiday/retreat/break; nowadays we have only one destination there
- Microsoft Insiders on "Effectively Being Silently Laid Off From Microsoft"
- People are laid off by the thousands without the media uttering a word or the companies confirming anything
- Brigading Against Women - Part XXIII - Extremism in the Mix and Getting the Police Involved
- In 2012 I was getting heckled a lot for opposing back doors in Linux; it has not stopped since
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 07, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, October 07, 2026