Showing headlines posted by henke54

More than one-fourth of defective implantable medical devices discovered this year were probably the result of bugs in the software used to control them, a group advocating open source software claimed in a report that argues against the use of proprietary code in the life-saving products.

8. In terms of spending less - what about migrating the whole of government (the NHS, Education etc) from Microsoft products to Linux and open source software like Openoffice.

A security consultant has released a Ubuntu-based Linux distribution specifically designed to help analyze and re-engineer malware. Lenny Zeltser on Thursday released REMnux on Sourceforge and it has already been downloaded nearly 2,000 times. malware detectionREMnux is not a brand-new distro built from scratch but really a stripped down version of Ubuntu distributed loaded on a VMware virtual machine and stuffed with hand-picked analysis tools. Explains Zeltser on his blog,

When Canonical unveiled Ubuntu's branding overhaul and new desktop theme earlier this year, the company also revealed that it had commissioned well-known type foundry Dalton Maag to design a new font specifically for Ubuntu. The font will likely be used by default in Ubuntu 10.10, which is scheduled for release in October. Today Canonical launched a closed beta for the new font, making it available to testers and Ubuntu contributors. I tested it on my desktop computer, running Ubuntu 10.04. After installing the package, I enabled it in the GNOME appearance preference dialog. It matches the new Ubuntu logo font, but it's designed for optimal screen readability. It looks very smooth on my LCD monitors and is very easy on the eyes. I think it's a big improvement over Bitstream Vera Sans, the font that currently ships by default in Ubuntu.

GUADEC pre-conference: July 26 With the upcoming release of GNOME 3.0, software development interests will focus increasingly on improved user experience, accessibility and application use. While the GUADEC 2010 conference aims to prmote all of these ideals through the work of the GNOME Foundation, the GNOME Open Desktop Day will place important attention on the desktop in education and government. The GNOME Open Desktop Day is a preconference to GUADEC 2010. It is organized in association with Programme Office NOiV — 'the Netherlands in Open Connection' — and Open DWR. In line with the NOiV's action plan, the preconference will focus on the 'New Forerunners' (action line 9, page 19 of the action plan) and other organisations in the public/private sectors interested in open desktop development.

We live in a new world. We can change things through technology. We can change things through social interaction. I write this entry so you have some idea of where things are with me and with kane|box. I also write this so you know where my head is at and (hopefully) realize I have not gone raving mad. You see, kane|box is not like other products or technologies or companies. It is open source software. It is inexpensive, custom, bad-guy-ass-kicking hardware. It is the result of 20+ years of me thinking about network security problems and how to solve them. It is a big, fat, fiery comet raining down from the sky and smashing into the network security space, knocking everyone else on their collective fat, lazy asses. It is cheaper than any "similar" solution, by tens of thousands of dollars. It does things that it takes 10 other products combined to do -- and it does those things better and faster. In other words, I am starting a revolution.

To critics like Florian Mueller of FossPatents, all this sounds more like Skull & Bones than Semper Fi. “Canonical is known for being a strategic partner of IBM, and since IBM is the most influential force behind the OIN, that’s probably the reason why its membership status was upgraded,” he wrote me. While Bergelt said the group’s definition of the Linux System is clearly listed on the group’s Web site, Mueller called those definitions arbitrary. “It seems to me that the OIN is basically a strategic patent troll, a non-practicing entity owned by a small group of companies that can use it for its purposes against their competitors whenever they elect to do so, and the protection of Linux is just a pretext,” he wrote. Most open source advocates disagree with Mueller. Pamela Jones of Groklaw believes it is Mueller who is engaged in FUD:

If you believe that corporations would be willing to make a little less money in order not to put the nation -- their nation -- at risk, you should read Richard Clarke's excellent, just-issued book, Cyber War.

BRUSSELS—The European Union's top Internet official took aim at Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, warning that governments can accidentally lock themselves into one company's software for decades by setting it as a standard for their technology systems. EU Internet Commissioner Neelie Kroes, in her previous post as EU antitrust chief, fined Microsoft hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in a lengthy row over the company's refusal to share some data with rivals and the tying of a Web browser to a best-selling operating system. She now says she wants to draw up detailed guidelines for European governments to encourage them to require other software, especially programs based on open source code that is freely shared between developers.

Summary: The scandalous company decides not only to support Microsoft’s ‘Linux tax’ but also to help legalise software patents in Germany THE LEGALITY of software patents in Europe is an issue that we covered this morning. Recently, Microsoft had its FAT software patent approved in Germany (by the court even) and now we find its close German partner (Siemens is a Windows shop) achieving the same thing. Here is an automated Google translation of the article from Heise:

When Sony issued a recent PlayStation 3 update removing the device's ability to install alternate operating systems like Linux, it did so to protect copyrighted content—but several research projects suffered collateral damage. The Air Force is one example.

I spoke to Jeff Teper, Microsoft’s Corporate VP of the Office Business Platform, who runs the SharePoint engineering group. I asked him to clarify something has puzzled me: the licensing for Office Web Apps. From a technical point of view, Office Web Apps is an add-on for SharePoint; it does not require the paid-for SharePoint Server (success to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server), but neither is it free – you may only install it if you have a volume license for Microsoft Office.

If there's one Linux company that has seen lots of ups and downs it's the Paris-based Mandriva S.A. They have a great distribution, but as a company, they've always been on shaky grounds. First a rumour, now confirmed: the company has put itself up for sale - which, as the community points out, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Joystiq contacted Amanita Design founder Jakub Dvorský for to clarify the situation. "They told us, 'It's not Microsoft-exclusive, we don't want it.' They didn't cite the Mac and Linux versions [as reasons for the refusal] but it's quite clear that's the reason," Dvorský told Joystiq via email. As it did with Toki HD, Microsoft recommended Amanita Design pursue other publishers, an idea the team doesn't appear intent on exploring. "It means if we want to release the game on XBLA we must throw, probably, most of the profit out of the window -- to the publisher. Just because we created Mac and Linux versions."

File sharing just became legal in Spain, changing the rules on what is legal, and what is fair. In a court ruling that will surely shake the Spanish and European legal scene for years to come, a Spanish judge has today declared not only that sites containing links to copyrighted information are legal, but that torrenting copyrighted information for non-profit reasons is also inside of the law. If you think that we are in some way confused, or kidding, here is a quote from the judge in question: “P2P networks are mere conduits for the transmission of data between Internet users, and on this basis they do not infringe rights protected by Intellectual Property laws” It is hard to confuse what that means. Provided that the sharer of the information is not profiting (garnering any revenues whatsoever), off of the transfer, then the action is legal now in Spain according to this new precedent.

I am tickled pink to announce the details of the next Ubuntu Developer Summit taking place at Dolce La Hulpe Hotel and Resort in Brussels, Belgium from the 10 – 14 May 2010. The Ubuntu Developer Summit one of the most important events in the Ubuntu calendar and at it we discuss, debate and design the next version of Ubuntu. We bring together the entire Canonical development team and sponsor a large number of community members across the wide range of areas in which people contribute to Ubuntu. This includes packaging, translations, documentation, testing, LoCo teams and more. UDS is an incredible experience, filled with smart and enthusiastic people, fast paced and exhausting, but incredibly gratifying to be part of the process that builds the next Ubuntu

Since its’ release on January 21st, the newest version of the Firefox web browser has received a great deal of attention. In just a short time it has achieved over 30 million downloads. Adware pushers are capitalizing on the success of Firefox, packing ad serving software in with the program in an effort to increase their reach. Purveyors of spyware and adware will try to take advantage of well known programs, illegitimately bundling their software into the install of the popular software. These programs are also commonly referred to as Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) whose content is not necessarily malicious, but is almost never wanted by the user. These types of software are often used to collect information about the user without the users’ knowledge or consent. The latest example is found on the fake Firefox download site below.

As the Android kernel code is now gone from the Linux kernel, as of the 2.6.33 kernel release, I'm starting to get a lot of questions about what happened, and what to do next with regards to Android. So here's my opinion on the whole matter...

The GNU/Linux systems have reached an important level of maturity, allowing to integrate them in almost any kind of work environment, from a desktop PC to the sever facilities of a big company. In the module called "The GNU/Linux operating system", the main contents are related with system administration. This book is the main documentation for the module. We will learn how to install and configure several computer services, and how to optimise and synchronise the resources. The activities that will take place in this module cover the studied topics in a practical approach, applying these concepts in real GNU/Linux systems.

A European IT consulting firm is warning large enterprises and government entities not to deploy OpenOffice.org until Oracle Corp. shows proof that it will invest as heavily in the development of the open-source productivity suite as project champion Sun Microsystems Inc. did. According to a 12-page report published earlier this week by Amsterdam-based Software Improvement Group, the main risk is that OpenOffice.org's code may get buggier if Oracle pulls personnel and resources from OpenOffice.org after finalizing its acquisition of Sun.