Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

The Simplified Mandatory Access Control Kernel is a security module designed to harden Linux systems through the addition of mandatory access control policies; it was covered here last August. Like SELinux, SMACK works by attaching labels to processes, files, and other system objects and implementing rules describing what kinds of access are allowed by specific combinations of labels. Unlike SELinux, though, SMACK was designed specifically for simplicity of administration.

When Red Hat announced its upcoming Linux desktop at its annual summit in May, the company predicted the Red Hat Global Desktop would be out by September. Now, delayed a bit, the new desktop Linux will be appearing in November, company executives are saying.

Who says you have to give up all your Windows programs to use Linux? Not CodeWeavers, with its latest version of CrossOver Linux 6.2. With this new version of CrossOver Linux, you can run more Windows programs on Linux than ever and such Windows mainstays as Microsoft Office--from 97 to 2003--Internet Explorer 6, and Quicken run better than ever. Even programs like Adobe Photoshop are coming along. At this point, I'd recommend that only people who are interested in helping to debug Photoshop on Linux give it a try, but I can see Photoshop running well on Linux sometime soon.

Rick Ross, founder of Javalobby, a popular site among Java developers, recently wrote an article about the One Laptop Per Child project and how cool it is. Ross also noted that OLPC does not appear on Sun Microsystems 2007 Corporate Social Responsibility Report, which outlines that company's social responsibility obligations. Ross thinks it's time to change that.

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading commercial provider of open source-based electronic health record (EHR) systems and services, today announced an agreement to implement its OpenVista® EHR platform at Century City Doctors Hospital (CCDH) in Los Angeles. The 120-bed acute care facility, located in the west side business district adjacent to Beverly Hills, is implementing the OpenVista platform as part of an integrated information systems initiative established by the physician group that acquired, renovated, and opened the hospital in 2005.

This tutorial explores a few simple techniques to improve a portrait using GIMP. In particular, you’ll see a couple of new features introduced in the new GIMP 2.4, the Healing Tool and the Red Eye Removal filter.

Mandriva Linux 2008.0 comes in three editions. Mandriva One is a free single-CD live version that contains a choice of KDE or GNOME. It allows users to test their hardware and see how it looks before making any permanent changes to their hard drives. It includes an easy graphical installer. You can add software repositories to the software manager and customize it to your liking. This is a good choice for anyone who needs a live CD or those who aren't sure if they'd like to install Mandriva yet.

Ten funny quotations by Linus Torvalds collected from various sources all over the Web.

Today, COR Entertainment is scheduled to release version 6.10 of Alien Arena 2007, the popular free software, 3-D, first-person shooter built atop id Software's Quake II engine, which was released under the GPL in 2001. The new release of Alien Arena comes with seven new arenas, a better arsenal of weaponry, and a new game mode for one-on-one duels.

If you spend most of your time in OpenOffice.org, you might want to be able to manage to-do lists and tasks without leaving the comfort of the office suite. Since Writer doesn't have such a feature, you can create your own no-frills task tool and at the same time sharpen your OOoBasic skills. In a previous article, we covered how to build a handy basket tool. You can use the same techniques when creating a simple task manager. The one we'll build offers only three basic commands: add a task, view all tasks, and purge tasks.

In spite of a bitter battle between Novell and Sun developers, OpenOffice won’t fork – at least for now. That’s the consensus among several OpenOffice developers who are locked in a bitter dispute with Sun over how the open source project is governed but who nevertheless agree that a fork would be the worst outcome for a project that has enough difficulty competing against Microsoft Office let alone Google Apps and other online services in the future.

Can't wait for Gutsy Gibbon, the next release of Ubuntu Linux? Then get downloading the next best thing. The Ubuntu team last night released Gutsy Gibbon release candidate, the closest thing to the real release due out next week.

CEO Michael Dell says Microsoft's patent-infringement claims have not affected sales of its Linux servers. Speaking to CNET News.com sister site ZDNet UK at a conference Thursday, Dell's chief executive said his company has seen Linux uptake for servers increase faster than Windows server products, despite Microsoft's claims.

Steve Ballmer, the Sopranos and the protection racket. I was walking down the street when a limo pulled up beside me and Big Steve Ballmer emerged. "I need to talk to you Vaughan-Nichols," he said, as two large men in expensive, but badly fitting suits, followed him out. "Hey, anything the Redmond Mafia wants to say to me, they can call me about. You know the number."

Company reduces AppArmor work, relying instead on the open-source community, but project leaders launch a new company for the open-source Linux security project.

Apprehension on the part of Red Hat could force it into a license agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft's scare tactics in what could be considered an attempt to coerce Red Hat into a patent agreement similar to one Novell penned last November are not unusual for this early stage in the process, according to a patent attorney.

The GPL says that you must provide source code to the recepients of any application you distribute under that license. This is really meeting the legal requirements of that license. However, is that"all" that is needed? If you say that you have an open source application (especially in healthcare) but you do not attempt to engage the wider community to get feedback on your application or allow other developers to review the data structures and application code. Is it really an open source application? As I stated above. It is clear that all you"have" to do (legally) is give the source code to the recipients of the application.

OpenStreetMap (OSM) is a collaborative project in the process of building a free, Web-accessible, user-editable map of the world. So far, most of its map data has come through user-contributed GPS traces, but OSM has recently undertaken the bulk import of government-collected data covering the entire United States. The massive import will jump-start OSM's US map coverage, but its sheer size poses an interesting challenge to the project's resources.

LXer Feature: 12-Oct-2007

It has been over four months since Dell started shipping computers preloaded with Ubuntu GNU/Linux to home consumers in the United States. Lets take a moment to look at the progress that has been made so far. John Hull, manager of the Linux Engineering team in Austin was kind enough to let me interview him by e-mail. Besides commenting on the current state of affairs with Ubuntu on Dell machines, he also offers some insight in how the Linux team at Dell works and opens a small window into the future of Linux at Dell.

Open source has changed operating systems, application servers and databases. Now, the benefits of open source are being realized in content management systems (CMS), traditionally a vendor-controlled world of expensive licensing and closed APIs. Open source is putting CMS into the hands of developers and organizations previously unable, or unwilling, to use CMS. Early adopters include national and local governments and media companies.