Showing headlines posted by grouch

Free, Open Source and released under GNU General Public License, Stellarium is an amazing astronomy software for Windows, Mac OS and Linux, that brings the entire sky to our computers. It has been developed by French programmer Fabien Chereau, who launched the project in the summer of 2001.

Doubts have arisen over lines of code an anonymous submitter sent to the Linux kernel mailing list on August 6th, here. The programmer is hiding behind a pseudonym, Shem Multinymous. Fellow Kernel programmers are divided over accepting the code or not.

Two of the driving forces behind the Linux push into the mobile devices market have formalised an agreement to boost the global growth of mobile Linux phones and devices.

Collaboration applications, old and new, are coming to Linux desktops and servers en masse.

And tries to patent it too Amazon.com is investing in IP to create the largest database of personal information ever gathered by an online retailer, according to a report in its local paper.

Wind River Systems, Inc., the global leader in Device Software Optimization (DSO), today announced that Wind River's North America Support Operations Center has achieved certification under the Support Center Practices (SCP) Certification program. SCP Certification quantifies the effectiveness of customer support based upon a stringent set of performance standards and represents best practices in the industry.

According to CNET News.com, Monday will see the Mozilla Foundation and Coverity jointly announce that Coverity tools are being used to scan Mozilla source code for defects. The report quotes Coverity chief technology officer Ben Chelf, who says that the Mozilla Foundation licensed Coverity Prevent, an application that analyses software code for bugs, early last year. The deal was not announced at the time because the Mozilla Foundation wanted to ensure the Coverity product actually got results before going public.

One of a growing cadre of open-source companies, Zimbra will add joint document creation and sharing to its messaging and collaboration software at the LinuxWorld conference on Monday.

Funambol CEO Fabrizio Capobianco is scheduled to announce a draft version of a modified GNU General Public License (GPL) today that would add a provision requiring service providers to distribute changes to code, even if they don't "distribute" the code beyond their own servers. Capobianco calls this the Honest Public License (HPL), and the additional provision could add an entirely new wrinkle to free software.

Besides Red Hat, Suse and a number of smaller Linux distributions HP will also market and support Debian GNU/Linux, the group on the occasion of the Linuxworld Expo event announced.

An open source entrepreneur has published a new 'Honest Public Licence' (HPL) that aims to close loopholes which let firms offering hosted applications escape key stipulations of the General Public Licence (GPL). [Note that the efficiency of the development model of "open source" is brought up in the debate: "Haff questioned the belief that the GPL is a major factor in the success of Linux." If the lure were only that the source is open, why haven't non-GPL, free systems enjoyed the same success? The GPL's protections provides such an environment that a side effect is to attract developers and thereby enhance the efficiency of development. -- grouch]

I'm rather impressed. Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop (SLED) 10 is designed to do just that – impress the user from the start, with a smooth and (mostly) simple experience that will satisfy the secretary through to the MD. It does still have some areas to work on, however.

Microsoft has seven "Microsoft Across America" trucks crusing the country, visiting Microsoft Partners at their request to show off the latest Windows wonders. At last count, there were exactly zero (0) "Linux Across America" trucks.

[What GNU/Linux gives, but which Microsoft takes from users is freedom. Even if Microsoft somehow, magically matched the stability, security and rapid advance of GNU/Linux, the freedom to help yourself and your friends without fear of the BSA kicking down your door is a powerful thing. Word of mouth advertising of such a feature is priceless. -- grouch]

As the landscape of IT careers continues to change, the process of targeting the necessary skills and experience to get ahead grows ever more challenging. While the demand for IT personnel is increasing, it certainly doesn’t touch the hiring boom witnessed in the late ’90s.

Desktop Linux vendors will be prominent among companies showcasing their new wares at LinuxWorld Conference & Expo 2006, to be held Aug. 15 through 18 in San Francisco. Some 15,000 participants are expected to fill the Moscone Convention Center for the event.

Opinion -- What are you going to find, if you're determined enough to make your way through airport security over the next few days to get to the August LinuxWorld in San Francisco?

IBM has published the following new technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . !

[I think many, if not all, of these have already been on the LXer Newswire, thanks to the efforts of IdaAshley and solrac. Here they are collected onto one convenient page, for any who missed them on the Newswire. -- grouch]

This article introduces basic client-side networking using both core Python modules and the Twisted framework. For its example, I will show how to send, receive, and delete emails, and conduct Telnet sessions. I have written two functionally equivalent examples, one using the core modules (mail-core.py) and another using Twisted (mail-twisted.py), with both start, stop, and interact with a server to process emails. These programs work with any standard-compliant SMTP and POP3 servers in sending and retrieving of emails. The starting and stopping of server are specific to the Apache James mail server, which I choose as a local testing server due to its ease of installation and its shutdown procedure in a Telnet session.

SpikeSource, a vendor of business-ready open source products, has announced the addition of Open-Xchange Server to the company's applications lineup, targeted to both small and medium size enterprises and larger companies through authorized channel partners.

Computer Business Review has ranked Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik as the second-most influential mover and shaker in information technology over the past 12 months.