Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Getting popular software off the Internet can sometimes be a struggle, even with all the mirrors and BitTorrent Samaritans out there. When the Fedora project released Fedora Core 6 last month, for instance, even several dozen mirrors weren't enough to serve everyone, and torrent speeds weren't good enough because of a scarcity of seeders. But thanks to Metalink I was able to sleep while my FC6 ISOs were downloading.

Unless you are living under a rock, you probably know production Ubuntu 6.10 was released on October 26. I'd heard that it was a nice package, but really haven't spent much time with it. SUSE Linux and I have been together for quite a while and when you have something that works, you stick with it. Many readers are probably in the same boat.

I can't find the original GNOME announcement from August 1997 in comp.os.linux.advocacy, but I did find an interesting thread on Desktop Options. My, the changes since then..

Being open to all and for free – these two properties make open source computer software popular in the West. These systems are highly useful in Armenia because, unlike Microsoft programs which rely on closed software, open source enables users to make changes, for example by converting them into the Armenian language. However, they are not in widespread use here and many ordinary computer users are not familiar with such software. Instead, unlicensed, pirate copies of Microsoft programs are used. In an effort to spread awareness, the Internews’ Center for Information Law and Policy (ICILP) conducted a two-day international seminar in Yerevan on the subject of the “Role of Open Source Software in the Development of E-Society”.

Spreadsheets are the do-it-yourself version of financial software. They have all the power of other financial software, but in a less finished package. Instead of wizards and ready-made forms, they offer the raw material of hundreds of functions, only some of which are relevant to personal or business finance, and leave you to arrange them in a meaningful fashion.

We all know that open source is being used to help make movies. Linux and open source software have been used in rendering farms for major pictures like Shrek, Lord of the Rings, and many others. Earlier this year the Blender project released Elephants Dream, the first movie made entirely with open source graphics software. But can the open source methodology be used to create a movie? The folks behind The Digital Tipping Point (DTP) are betting it can.

Adobe Systems is prying open its ubiquitous Flash media player to improve interoperability with the increasingly popular Firefox browser. Adobe announced Tuesday it has released source code for the ActonScript Virtual Machine scripting language engine used in Flash Player to the Mozilla Foundation under Project Tamarin. Mozilla is to administer the project.

AnIndonesean Hacker named Dedi Dwianto has just publicized aVulnerability in OpenEMR. This is a significant milestone for the project. This means that OpenEMR is popular enough for a security researcher to take notice. Open Source has the potential to be more secure, but only if security researchers look for flaws and then the projects respond by fixing the code. (I wish I had hackers studying my code...) I am sure that the OpenEMR folks will be releasing a patch soon. If you are an OpenEMR user, you should upgrade to the soon-to-be-released version ASAP.

Lineo Solutions will bundle a suite of enhanced GNU toolchains with its embedded Linux development kits for ARM-based processors. Lineo's uLinux Elite development kit will use CodeSourcery's G++ toolchain, including its C/C++ compilers, binutils, and gdb, according to CodeSourcery Inc.

Last month, the MIT Media Lab Computing Counter Culture Group and the Harvard Free Culture Group held an "iPod Liberation event" -- a RockBox and iPodLinux "installfest" for Apple iPods. The event was held as a response to the fact that Apple installs iPods with an operating system -- a "firmware" -- that conflicts with the ideals of free and open source software and free culture and treats users parternalistically and adversarially. During the event, dubbed iRony, users were walked through the process of installing flexible and featureful free/open source software firmware -- without DRM -- onto their digital audio players.

Adobe Systems Incorporated and the Mozilla Foundation, a public-benefit organization dedicated to promoting choice and innovation on the Internet, today announced that Adobe has contributed source code for the ActionScript™ Virtual Machine, the powerful standards-based scripting language engine in Adobe® Flash® Player, to the Mozilla Foundation. Mozilla will host a new open source project, called Tamarin, to accelerate the development of this standards-based approach for creating rich and engaging Web applications.

Bob Dylan sang, "The times, they are a-changing", and when it comes to desktop operating systems, times really are. Linux, which was once the choice of geeks, has now undergone considerable changes ? using it on the desktop seems imminent. Gone are the days of grisly hardware compatibility, rudimentary graphic interfaces and negligible vendor support; it's now time to enter the new world of Linux!

Free software tools and committed academics at the University of the Western Cape make learning materials available to learners inside and outside of the campus.

This week is Ubuntu Developer Summit week in Mountain View, California. Posting directly from the Developer Summit is Morgan Collet, one of just two South Africans at the week-long event.

While VMware Player is not designed to create virtual machines from scratch, other tools can help you to build your own VMs in a matter of minutes. You could use VMware's free VMware Server software, but it's overkill if you only need a quick-and-dirty way to build a VM. Instead, consider VMX Builder, an easy-to-use desktop tool for creating VMware virtual machines.

Although it may seem that open source software is a recent buzzword, the South African government has been successfully running open source software for more than 12 years now. Nhlanhla Mabaso looks at how far down the open source road South Africa is.

Only 15 years ago, Linus Torvalds was annoyed enough about the expense of the just-commercialized Unix workstations and systems on the market that he started to create his own operating system, one that had a look and feel very much like Unix. Back then, proprietary operating systems dominated the midrange of the server market, mainframes ruled the high end, and there was no such thing as an entry server, but rather a NetWare file system for file sharing and network printing. How the world has changed.

GnuCash is a personal and small business accounting package that provides true double-entry accounting, the ability to set up automatic recurring transactions, and simple budgeting. The application does not try to hide the complexities of managing your money from you with pretty screens. It does show you where (and how much) you're spending your money. If you're prepared to learn a subtly different way of doing things, you will find GnuCash a very powerful alternative for home or small business use.

Power.org has published a new PowerPC ISA (instruction set architecture) said to integrate and unify general-purpose and embedded PowerPC architectures. The non-profit organization has also published a Power Architecture Platform Requirements (PAPR) specification, aimed at helping PowerPC system vendors and Linux distributors create interoperable products.

Fedora Weekly News Issue 65