Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

In a perfect world, you could compile a brand-new Linux kernel without the need for much configuration and without error. According to Linus Torvalds, the new 2.6.19 Linux kernel is such an entity. "It's one of those rare "perfect" kernels," Torvalds wrote in a Linux kernel mailing list posting announcing the new kernel. "So if it doesn't happen to compile with your config (or it does compile, but then does unspeakable acts of perversion with your pet dachshund), you can rest easy knowing that it's all your own d*mn fault, and you should just fix your evil ways."

For all the efficiency and continued evolution of Debian's APT tools, some gaps in package management functionality remain. One of the largest ones is that, when a package is removed, any other packages that depend on it are not removed. The result is a growing number of orphans on the system -- that is, packages that serve no purpose for the system as a whole, although in some cases they continue to be useful individually. Similarly, while you can keep track of security announcements for Debian or distributions derived from it, the basic package system has no way of telling you which vulnerabilities might affect your system.

The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) announced today that it is asking the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to re-examine Blackboard's patent on a technology used for Internet-based education support systems, in an attempt to invalidate the patent. SFLC's action comes on behalf of the Sakai Foundation, Moodle, and ATutor.

A lot has been said about the hows of the Novell-Microsoft deal, but what about the whys? What motivated Novell CEO Ron Hovsepian to initiate a deal with Linux's No. 1 Enemy? In this interview, Hovsepian reveals the business realities behind the move, and that when it comes to Microsoft, Novell knows full well who it's dealing with.

Until now, there hasn't been a really good Linux distribution for digital content creation. Debian-based 64 Studio, which has just achieved its 1.0 release, is described by some as "the best distribution ever created for multimedia workstations, such as digital audio recording and video editing."

A standard Java scripting engine API to play withOver the years there have been several times where I've had to implement a mini-language and language processor for some specific requirement or another.

Memory is a precious commodity in computers. Generally the more you have, the better. Yet your application has to run alongside other applications, and each wants its own area of memory. What happens when there's not enough to go around? Mulyadi Santosa explores the memory management principles in the Linux kernel to explain how the Out of Memory killer works--and how to avoid it.

3DLabs is sampling a unique mobile applications processor supported initially under Linux 2.6. The DMS-02 combines a pair of ARM9-EJ cores with 24 FPUs (floating-point units). It targets portable digital entertainment, portable navigation, video conferencing, automotive infotainment, video surveillance, and high-end mobile handsets.

You may have noticed that I don't cover news about the never-ending SCO vs. IBM, Linux, Novell, et al much anymore. There's a reason for that: SCO doesn't matter anymore.

Adobe skipped a version of Flash for Linux and released stable versions of the Flash 9 player for Windows and Mac OS X long before the beta of Flash 9 to Linux users. Paul Betlem, senior director of engineering for Adobe, explained why the process is taking so long.

Linus Torvalds announced the release of the 2.6.19 Linux kernel, following the previous stable kernel release by two months [story]. "It's one of those rare 'perfect' kernels," Linus joked, "so if it doesn't happen to compile with your config (or it does compile, but then does unspeakable acts of perversion with your pet dachshund), you can rest easy knowing that it's all your own d*mn fault, and you should just fix your evil ways."

UK-based Canonical Ltd, parent of the popular Ubuntu Linux family, is currently hosting Ubuntu Open Week, which began Monday and continues through Saturday. Open Week consists of a series of free workshops and discussions being held via Internet relay chat (IRC) with Ubuntu developers and managers.

Alfresco Software Inc., the first and leading provider of an open source enterprise content management solution, today announced results for the first open source JSR-170 benchmark. The results were based on a 10 million document repository and validated by 3rd party open source Enterprise Content Management (ECM) experts Optaros to assure compliance with pre-determined benchmark rules.

Novell has abandoned an open source project hyped as challenging Microsoft Outlook and Exchange by becoming the "Apache" of email and collaboration software. The company has pulled full-time engineers off project Hula following lacklustre demand. Engineers are "moving to other roles", according to the Hula mailing list.

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose text markup language often used for data storage or passing messages between applications. There are a number of libraries available for processing arbitrary XML within programs, but fewer options to translate XML it into professional printed documents. Here is one way to get from XML to PDF.

Corel announces that it will start supporting ODF in WordPerfect as well as Microsoft's Open XML document format in 2007.

The Optical Disk labeling tech called Lightscribe just came out with a new twist, a Linux SDK. Now you can slowly burn pretty, low-contrast pictures on the flip side of your latest distro ISOs on your Linux box instead of your Windows box.

In a development that has the potential to shake and crack censorship measures such as “the Great Firewall of China”, Canadian researchers have created software that enables web surfers to circumvent internet roadblocks and have open access to the web.

The Linux Professional Institute invites all Linux professionals to participate in the creation of LPI's enterprise level LPIC-3 certification. The Linux Professional Institute (http://www.lpi.org) invites all Linux professionals to participate in the creation of LPI's enterprise level LPIC-3 certification. The contest asks for IT professionals to complete a Job Task Analysis survey which will assist in the creation of a psychometrically-valid certification program.

Open source business process management vendor Intalio Inc announced it has donated its BPMN process modeler to the Eclipse Foundation, a move likely to accelerate commoditization of the business process modeler category. Intalio's news follows hot on the heels of Tibco's announcement earlier this month that it has made the latest version of its Eclipse-based Business Studio business process modeling tool available free of charge.