Showing headlines posted by dcparris

Firefox users are being urged to update their browsers in the wake of a new, malicious code set to attack compromised PC's.

HP South Africa is planning to launch a range of its notebooks pre-installed with the Linux operating system later this month. The machines will run the Linspire version of Linux and include the ThinkFree office suite.

I'm not sure if anyone or anything can kill anything music-related from Apple right now--or even give it a serious flesh wound. But Songbird is a new open-source music player, built on some of the same code as Firefox, that aims to change how people think about online music. This Windows-based program is rather iTunes-like in look, feel, and functionality. (Actually, it's incredibly iTunes-like: Sometimes, imitation is the sincerest form of open-source development.) But rather than hooking into one online music source--Apple's iTunes Music Store--Songbird aims to talk to lots and lots of them.

Computer code that could be used in cyberattacks on Firefox users has been released, increasing the urgency for people to upgrade to the latest version of the Web browser.

Message Partners has selected Protagon, a Brazilian security software company based at Belo Horizonte - Minas Gerais, and Yellow Cube, a IT security and messaging company based in Budapest, Hungary, as distribution partners for its Message Processing Platform (MPP).

Intel helps fund European Linux company

The Metasploit Project site has published a hacker's code for exploiting a vulnerability in Mozilla's Firefox 1.5 browser.

Recently I posted about the Fallacy Of Composition (which says that an advantage shared by everyone is not an advantage) and how it applies digital music: If everyone can make and distribute music cheaply, the price they can charge goes down and they all make less money. It should apply to open source as well. Is there an escape route?

[Ed: Just 10 years ago, I predicted that there would be fewer big enterprises and more "mom & pop" shops. In some ways, that seems to be playing out today, especially in the libre software community. Mind you, I see a return to the Middle Ages, not a whole new way of doing business. - dcparris]

Alfresco Software has closed US$8 million in Series B venture capital (VC) funding, the open-source ECM (enterprise content management) software startup announced Wednesday.

Russell Shaw has some great analysis on what Google could be up to. It seems logical based on his analysis that we will soon see Google competing with Microsoft Office. It would further seem that this software could indeed be free meaning Microsoft’s cash cow is in jeopardy of being slaughtered.

Like many features in free and open source software, OpenOffice.org's spellcheck, hyphenation, and thesaurus dictionaries are based on code from earlier projects. You can learn the basics about them from the Lingucomponent Project, but detailed information is difficult to find. Thanks to an email message from a reader and a discussion on the OpenOffice.org mailing lists, I realized that no one had prepared instructions on how to edit the dictionaries. I began to investigate, using nothing but a file editor and persistence. The investigation was a mixed success, but I did learn enough to make some basic hacks and to note where more advanced methods were needed.

As you may know, Google is close to making a deal with Dell in which the search giant will get to preinstall its software package on Dell PCs. What you may not know is that Google may be spending a billion dollars over three years for the privilege.

SheepShaver is an open source PowerPC MacOS run-time environment. That is, it enables you to run PowerPC Classic MacOS software on your computer, even if you are using a different operating system. However, you still need a copy of MacOS and a PowerMacintosh ROM image to use this program. SheepShaver is distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Ken Fisher writes: "Stallman recently decided to do an e-mail interview with LinuxP2P.com, touching on P2P, DRM, the GPL, Creative Commons, and a handful of other topics primarily relating to the world of intellectual property. The interview touches on a number of topics that I won't repeat here, but I do want to just briefly comment on one trend that I see solidifying in discussions of intellectual property law that is coincidentally represented by Stallman's comments."

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) announced in a press release that the Office’s representatives will hold a meeting on February 16, 2006 focusing on open source software.

Asterisk got the nod over a traditional PBX system because of its lower cost and richer features

In 2003, the Meraka Institute's Digital Doorway project switched to free open source software to power its educational computer kiosks throughout South Africa. Lunga Madlala caught up with project leader, Ronel Smith, to ask how the project is progressing.

Sun Sees Huge Demand for 'Galaxy' Sun Fire(TM) Servers Powered by AMD Opteron(TM) Processors

THERE is now a brewing issue on whether government should use Microsoft or open source-based software in the second phase of the "PCs for Public Schools Project" of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), says a government source privy to the bidding.

[Ed: This article focuses on the battle for educational institutions in the Philipines. - dcparris]

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