Showing headlines posted by salparadise

Do the companies that benefit the most from open-source code give anything back to the community? That's a provocative question that comes up when you take a close look at how prominent open-source projects actually work. I don't want to point any fingers, but what about the banks and financial services firms? How much do they give back?

Debian, Gentoo, Mandriva, Red Hat, and Ubuntu issued security updates that addressed security problems for the following packages: ClamAV, Dia, the X.org X Server, Ethereal, Asterisk, Mozilla, Thunderbird, resmgr, GDM, LibTIFF, Mplayer, PHPWebSite, and SquirrelMail. Ubuntu also issued a kernel update addressing multiple vulnerabilities.

The Linux Professional Institute's recent decision to globally hike exam prices means SA geeks are running out of time to get certified cheaply. By next year, South Africans could be paying in excess of R900 per exam, about triple the current price.

If open source on its own doesn't prevent vendor lock-in, what's to stop Linux from ending up like Unix?
Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Free Standards Group , is on a mission. He wants to prevent Linux from falling prey to the fragmentation fate that befell Unix.

The Windows on a Mac story just seems to be one that refuses to go away. It seems that the whole world is going cock-a-hoop and doing back flips over the new-found ability of the Intel Mac to run Windows natively. What few seem to be saying is that it’s a crock.

I mentioned yesterday that I was trying out the beta LiveCD of Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake to its friends). First, the good news: Ubuntu LiveCD is a technological marvel, a fabulous achievement. The ability to boot from a single CD into a GNOME-fronted Linux system (packed with productivity apps), and then browse the files on your Windows box, is a tremendous feat.

Last weekend, April 15-16, 2006, the third Install Fest was organized by Free Software Macedonia, at the facilities of “Narodna Tehnika” in Skopje. This year’s edition, in addition to installation of free software for the visitors, indluded several other activities: workshops, lectures, debates...

Review: GNOME Version 2.14 adds compelling refinements to the Linux desktop, including desktop search.
For years now, the Linux and open-source desktop has had the benefit of multiple software projects pushing forward to create nicer-looking, more useful environments. One of the most prominent of those projects, GNOME, recently underwent one of its twice-yearly updates, and the result is a compelling set of refinements.

The Chinese Government ban on the sale of naked computers (computers without pre-installed software) may open the way for Linux distributions loaded with open source applications to increase its penetration of the massive Chinese market.

LINUX distributor Novell has taken a shot at open-source rival Sun, saying the company's moves to open the code on its Solaris operating system had added little to the open-source community.

Fedora Core 5 users now have a way to install and update games, productivity software, and multimedia support applications all at one time, much as Ubuntu users can do with Automatix. The script is called Fedora Frog, and it is available at EasyLinux.info.

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is planning a large-scale campaign against Digital Rights Management (DRM). Peter Brown, the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, said a campaign will be organised to target both consumers and manufacturers after the second draft of GPL 3 is released. GPL 3 will include provisions against Digital Rights Management (DRM) technology.

It has been over a year since UTI Bank set up its call center that handles over 7,000 calls per day. The bank was looking for a robust platform that could guarantee it "high availability of services and uninterrupted call traffic". It had options but finally decided on Linux for its core business applications. "Today, we are really happy with Linux that has delivered 99.99 per cent uptime so far," says Pritesh Thaker, AVP, IT, UTI Bank. The bank, in fact, is now planning to base its credit card-based system on Linux too.

Yes, RealNetworks exec argues at LinuxWorld, pointing out that commercial makers of the OS are open to tech like FairPlay and PlaysForSure. But the Free Software Foundation Europe countered this claim on Thursday, saying consumers have made it clear that they do not want digital rights management, or DRM, restricting their use of digital media.

It is not an impact on the epic scale of an asteroid smashing into the Earth and killing off the dinosaurs, but the collision of technology and media is having profound effects on a more modern ecosystem. Diplodocus The traditional media? Media are becoming democratised, and a global conversation is emerging.

We recently bought a Linux gaming console at work as a prize in a draw. Not thinking too much of it I packed it up and sent it off to the winner. A few days later I got an email claiming the device didn't work. So I emailed the parent company complaining that the instructions were less than clear and this is their reply.

Conventional wisdom says that powerful individuals drive open source by working against the grain to institute a methodology of sharing that would balance the power between software vendors and users.

While this makes for an entertaining narrative, there is quantitative evidence to the contrary. The reality is that placing too much emphasis on individual players in the open source movement ignores overarching economic trends that drove open source development and adoption.

The OpenOffice project vividly illustrates the limitations of open source as a way of producing software

Friday November 18th, 2005, French Department of Culture. SNEP and SCPP have told Free Software authors: "You will be required to change your licenses." SACEM add: "You shall stop publishing free software," and warn they are ready "to sue free software authors who will keep on publishing source code" should the "VU/SACEM/BSA/FA Contents Department"[1] bill proposal pass in the Parliament.

Good bok for developers and admins alike Firefox Hacks is a great collection of information about the Mozilla Firefox browser. While almost anyone who has used Firefox would learn a great deal from reading this book, developers, admins, and advanced power users would benefit most from reading this. The book starts out nicely by going under the hood to look at internal settings, then turns to presentation aids and then to developer tools. I wish I'd had the book several months ago when I was doing more development! From code development the book moves into altering the browser look and feel, and finally into extension development. Although I may never do so, it's nice getting a guided look into areas I don't see on a day to day basis.