LXer Weekly Roundup for 24-Jun-2007

LXer Feature: 24-Jun-2007 The big stories this week include Bolivarian Computers made in Venezuela, an illuminating comparison of ODF and OOXML, Mandriva's CEO says publicly that they will not sign a cross licensing deal with Microsoft, Miguel de Icaza shows off Microsoft's Flash replacement and an "expert" on Innovation vacillates on his own definition in reference to Open Source software. All these stories and more for your reading enlightenment.

The big stories this week include Bolivarian Computers made in Venezuela, an illuminating comparison of ODF and OOXML, Mandriva's CEO says publicly that they will not sign a cross licensing deal with Microsoft, Miguel de Icaza shows off Microsoft's Flash replacement and an "expert" on Innovation vacillates on his own definition in reference to Open Source software. All these stories and more for your reading enlightenment.

New Google Linux Apps Coming Soon: During their presentation at this years Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit the Google Linux Client Team announced that there are going to be new Google desktop applications coming out this year for Linux.

Venezuela Launches Sale of "Bolivarian" Computers: The Venezuelan government or should I say, The right arm of Hugo Chavez announced the launch of their "Bolivarian Computers" made with combination of Venezuelan and Chinese technology . Four different models that will all have Linux preinstalled. Hugo Chavez may be a power hungry dictator but at least he like Open Source software. Its not much, but its something.

Achieving Openness: A Closer Look at ODF and OOXML: Sam Hiser compares ODF and OOXML and discovers the difference between actually being open standard and saying its an open standard. Just because Micorsoft says its an open standard doesn't necessarily mean it is, why am I not surprised.

Interview With Fred Miller - GNU/Linux Evangelist: Don Parris interviews Fred Miller, a prolific GNU/Linux evangelist and active member of the OpenSUSE community.

CEO of Mandriva: We will not go to Canossa - No deal with Microsoft: The CEO of Mandriva goes on record to say that his company will not sign a cross licensing deal with Microsoft and in the process earns some respect from the Open Source community.

Ubuntu'd, you're getting a Dell: Our own Lane Beneke (aka NoDough) writes about his experience of buying a new computer with Ubuntu preinstalled from Dell to give to his Daughter for college.

Adventures in Digital Photography With Linux: Carla Schroder shares some of the new tricks, tips and more that she learned from the Don Parris article From the Camera to the Web With Konqueror.

Silverlight To Run On Linux This Week: In Microsoft's continuing onslaught on Adobe, VP of Novell Miguel de Icaza will demonstrate Microsoft's Flash replacement at the Mix07 conference this week in Paris. I guess some of the money they gave to Novell gets you a couple of "stand next to our product" sessions by a VP too.

Don't wait for Vista SP1, pleads Microsoft: I couldn't help but post this story. It seems that the uptake of Vista is so bad that Microsoft has had to create a Vista version of the "Get The Facts" website to convince people to upgrade to Vista and not wait for an SP1 update because there will not be one. Vista is so good it doesn't need an update, ever. Yeah, right.

Bad, Bad Reasons Not to Buy Open-Source Software: Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols responds to the eWEEK slide show, Ten Reasons Not to Buy Open Source which was based on "Microsoft.Net Creates End-to-End Framework That Offers Lower TCO". The funny thing is, I cannot find either the slide show he references or the Microsoft article anywhere. If someone does, please let me know. I would love to read them.

What the "ultimate filesystem", Sun ZFS, means for your desktop, in Plain English: Ashton Mills translates Sun's ZFS filesystem jargon into plain English for the rest of us.

Xandros and Microsoft to build Open Source translator: Xandros announced this week that it will join Microsoft and others to build and ship open source translators between documents stored in Ecma Office Open XML and Open Document Formats. The translators will be made available to Xandros users via the Xandros Networks update facility.

Laura and Me - Updated: Pamela Jones talks about some of the history involving her, SCO, Laura DiDio and some of the things that have been said and done since she worked at SCO and the ensuing trial that Groklaw covers.

Will The Real Open Source CRM Please Stand Up?: Michael Tiemann responds to the many people who have asked "When is the OSI going to stand up to companies who are flagrantly abusing the term 'open source'?" The answer is: starting today.

Open Source is Not Innovative: In the first of our two FUD articles this week Dr. R. Keith Sawyer who in his own words is "one of the country's leading scientific experts on creativity" gets his definition of "Innovation" a little mixed up and decides that Open Source Software is, and is not innovative. Read for yourself and decide if he knows what he is talking about. Just how does someone become an expert on Innovation if they don't know what it means anyway?

Is Open Source Dying?: Michael Hickins does his best to sow the seeds of despair in trying to convince us that despite the ever present and growing success of Open Source that it is actually slowly winding down and dying. And I thought I was crazy..