Showing headlines posted by Sander_Marechal

According to a message posted over the weekend on the Full-Disclosure mailing list, the latest version of Firefox, 2.0.0.5, contains a password management vulnerability that can allow malicious Web sites to steal user passwords. If you have JavaScript enabled and allow Firefox to remember your passwords, you are at risk from this flaw.

A global survey of open-source enterprise users of Alfresco software has found that deployments of Red Hat Linux have grown twice as fast as those for Novell SUSE Linux since Novell signed its controversial patent and interoperability agreement with Microsoft in November 2006. While Alfresco did not specifically ask community members the reason for their Linux choice, the findings are "not a coincidence and, while we can't be certain, customer unhappiness with the Novell-Microsoft deal is probably the most likely reason for that," Howells said. "There was also a backlash against Microsoft about its patent position during this time."

While OpenOffice.org allows you to save multiple versions of a document, that feature has a few drawbacks that limit its usefulness. For starters, saving all versions in the same file equals putting all your eggs in one basket. More importantly, this approach makes it difficult to share versions with other users and let them keep track of changes made to a document. One alternative, a full-blown version tracking system or a dedicated document management solution, is overkill if you only need a simple way to keep tabs on document versions and allow other users to keep track of them. A compromise solution uses OpenOffice.org to maintain an RSS feed of document changes.

If you need a compact, streamlined distro capable of running on an aging machine, take a look at Puppy Linux 2.17, a fresh release containing a number of new features, including seriously upgraded printing capabilities and enhanced modem detection and configuration. New features in this release include CUPS, soft-modem support, full automatic support for MultiMediaCards (MMC) and Secure Digital (SD) cards, better image file and drive mounting, enhanced boot configuration management, Linux kernel upgrade to 2.6.21.5, and a better PDF viewer -- ePDFView, which replaces Gsview.

John Newton, CTO and chairman of open source enterprise content management (ECM) vendor Alfresco, is certainly no stranger to the industry. Two years after cashing out of Documentum, Newton started Alfresco with John Powell, former COO of Business Objects. Activity has ramped up this year with a license change to the GPL and earlier this month a new release that adds a Web-oriented architecture on top of SOA. Newton recently discussed his challenges and outlook for Alfresco with internetnews.com.

Like the Terminator – just when the monster machine seems defeated, it always somehow rises again – Microsoft's push for international standards status for its Office document formats refuses to die. Just last week, a committee charged with deciding whether or not to recommend that the U.S. vote in favor of adopting Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) formats when the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) considers them in September, deadlocked, leaving the formats' future as an ISO standard cloudy at best. Not so, said Microsoft (Quote) officials. Indeed, since the technical committee was unable to hand up a recommendation, the executive committee with responsibility to determine the U.S.'s response has decided to move forward on its own. So Microsoft's aspirations remain alive.

Without question, OOXML falls far short of being a universal office document exchange format. Considering Microsoft's enormous backward-compatibility commitments, I'd go so far as to say OOXML's own authors would probably agree ODF would be a superior format on which to base a new application. But with or without the ISO's blessing, OOXML is substantially more open than are Microsoft's legacy binary formats. As a user of OpenOffice.org on Linux who works in a mostly Microsoft-formatted world, I'm somewhat of a stakeholder in the ODF-vs.-OOXML horse race, and I'd like to see OpenOffice.org take advantage of this marginal boost in openness

It's tax time in Australia. Three weeks into the new financial year, now is about the time when people have all their documentation ready to give the government its yearly pound of flesh. But for Linux users there's no joy again. What greets me at the ATO's website is this information: To lodge tax returns online, one needs a PC running Windows 2000 or XP. And the ATO advises further, "...because Windows uses security components of Internet Explorer, use any version of Internet Explorer 6."

On July 5, Microsoft quietly released a "Covenant to Customers" to clear up how it is handling its patent deal with Linux distributor Linspire. Instead, it did little but puzzle and annoy members of the Linux community. If you read Microsoft's memo, you'll find that Microsoft's patent protection only applies only to "Linspire Five-0 and successor offerings" on a desktop. Server use is specifically forbidden. Microsoft also categorically rules out "Freespire and any other software offerings that include the Linux operating system for which Linspire receives no revenue."

The staging site for the new Firefox Support knowledge base is now up and running, and we’re looking for people to help contribute content. We have an initial list of articles we would like created for the alpha version, so feel free to create an account, assign yourself to an article, and create it.

Battle for Wesnoth is an amazingly addictive 2-D turn-based strategy game with some role playing game elements thrown in for spice. It runs under Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. Wesnoth can be played solo, using one of the several single-player adventures (campaigns) available, or over the Internet with other people.

[I wish I had the time play it more, very cool game. - Scott]

HP and MIT have formed an independent organization to support the work of digital archivists who use the DSpace open source archiving software. Called the DSpace Foundation, the new group will provide a forum and a focus for users of the software - who include over 100 universities, museums and companies - said Nick Wainwright, the DSearch project research manager at HP Labs in Bristol.

[Not directly Linux related, but still of interest I think. - Sander]

SAP AG has certified the SAP NetWeaver platform on RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux) Advanced Platform 5. The two companies say that the combination of RHEL 5 and NetWeaver offers a complete solution stack through the integration of Red Hat Global File System, Cluster Suite, SELinux and further technologies for high availability, storage management and security.

The Pyro project has launched its "Pyro Desktop," a new Linux application with the lofty goal of "true integration between the Web and modern desktop computing." Pyro offers an interesting new approach to deploying Web-based applications on the Linux desktop, reminiscent of Opera's and Vista's widgets.

Neuros Audio reports that a Google Summer of Code project ported UPnP software to its Linux-based "Open Source Device" (OSD). Users hook the OSD to their stereo, network, and TV, and use infrared remote controls to browse and play their digital music collection. The OSD's new UPnP software was apparently created by Pau Minoves "Progeny" Rafanell, with mentorship from Ugo Riboni. The software lets the OSD browse and playback media files on local area network-based UPnP servers -- for example, Windows Media PCs, TwonkyVision servers, and home NAS devices made by Infrant, Buffalo, and others.

Aptly-named Slackintosh version 12, just released, updates this unofficial version of Slackware Linux that targets PowerPC-based Macintosh computers, such as the iBook. Based on a 2.6.21.5 kernel, the distribution's brief release statement noted that version 12 includes KDE 3.5.7 and glibc 2.5.

The Xen virtual machine monitor was recently merged into the upcoming 2.6.23 Linux kernel in a series of patches from Jeremy Fitzhardinge. The project was originally started as a research project at the University of Cambridge, and has been repeatedly discussed as a merge candidate for the mainline Linux kernel.

[First Iguest and now Xen. And there already was KVM in the kernel. How many virtualization techniques does a man need? - Sander]

There's plenty of consternation floating around the Steam forums this morning as open sauce geeks get het up over Valve's persistant refusal to port its popular Steam game-delivery client to something a little more penguin-based. The community is so irate that moderators in the Steam forums are threatening to ban users who consistently whine about the issue. The issue, moderators say, is closed - and so the fan's mouths should be, too, it seems.

Rusty Russell's lguest was recently merged into the upcoming 2.6.23 Linux kernel. The merge comment describes the project, "lguest is a simple hypervisor for Linux on Linux. Unlike kvm it doesn't need VT/SVM hardware. Unlike Xen it's simply 'modprobe and go'. Unlike both, it's 5000 lines and self-contained."

Remember the 1980s worries about how the "forking" of Unix could hurt that operating system's chances for adoption? That was nothing compared to the mess we've got today with Linux, where upwards of 300 distributions vie for the attention of computer users seeking an alternative to Windows. DistroWatch's stats page has as apt an explanation for this phenomenon as you find anywhere: "A Linux distribution is like a religion. If you've ever tried to suggest to another person that his or her choice of a distro might not be the best, then you know what I mean."

[So much FUD this week. Scott should have a field day in his weekly round-up. - Sander]