Showing headlines posted by dave

Linux seller Red Hat reported on Wednesday that its third-quarter net income jumped 155 percent year-over-year to $10.8 million as its software business matured.

Microsoft today lost its appeal of the European Union ruling which requires it to -- among other things -- unbundle the Windows Media Player in order to level the playing field with other firms offering the same functionality for streaming audio and video. It must also make public the information required to allow others to interoperate with the Windows platform. But don't break out the champagne just yet. According to Jeremy Allison, the lead Samba.org developer, if the ruling doesn't preclude royalties then the whole effort by the EU will turn out to have been a waste of time.

If it's your first time with Linux, you want it to be with someone who is gentle, someone who really cares about you. Yet, the gruffness of a good number of Linux pros is enough to scare off all but the most ardent Linux pursuers. Maybe that's Linux's way of ensuring survival of the fittest. Not everyone who's experienced with Linux is rough and rude, though. Michael Davis knows what it's like to be a Linux virgin who needs to be treated with tenderness. With that in mind, Davis created LinuxVirgins.com, a gentle guide for first-time Linux users.

Looking back at all the Linux stories in 2004 still elicits eye-popping, head-scratching and, sometimes, fist-pounding reaction. So as the year closes, here's a rundown of some of the biggest stories in Linux and open source

US software giant Microsoft Corp scored a victory against open source software in India after the Indian state of Karnataka chose its software to power a major e-governance initiative.

The investment is part of the company's - Japan's biggest mobile phone carrier - plans to assist Japanese handset vendors develop more models that use the Linux OS, said spokeswoman Tomoko Tsuda. "The investment will help us have a direct relationship with MontaVista so they can help mobile phone makers get products to the market faster," she said.

A number of European research institutions and open source software companies have launched a project to manage complexity in open source software. Called the Environment for the Development and Distribution of Free Software or EDOS, it will research and implement new ways to manage the complexity. The team includes six research and academic institutions and four software and services companies.

Welcome to this year's 50th issue of DWN, the weekly newsletter for the Debian community. The Oxford University's computer centre will complete its move to PostgreSQL running on Debian as the back-end database over the next year. The next stable update is being prepared and expected before New Year's eve. For those of you who celebrate Christmas we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Open source software will influence the VoIP market in a big way next year, according to VoIP pioneer Jeff Pulver, who released his predictions this week. Pulver, who heads the industry standard VON (Voice on the Net) conferences and publications, said open source software for VoIP PBXs is progressing at a rapid rate. "It will continue to gain momentum, the effects of which will be felt in the next 12 to 18 months," he said.

Imagine a Web site that has over 4,000 links to sites of interest to Linux enthusiasts. Forget about dead links, because this site would be vigilantly maintained by a small group of people totally committed to the work of providing useful content. Instead, expect fresh links several times a week with handy accessories like quick links to related pages.

It's easy to crank out a slide show, using OpenOffice.org Impress, that can be uploaded to your Web site. Impress also builds a basic start page, with a slide index, summary, and navigation buttons. Best of all, it's quick and there's no HTML programming needed.

Most of the big guys know the value of forums, regularly updating content, community building, and contributing writers, but how does the new guy keep up with such large promotional software budget wielding companies already entrenched in the market? Enter our superhero, the open source software community.

The latest prebeta edition of the open-source office suite is feature-complete. The suite will boast a new database application and improved Microsoft Office compatibility.

NTT DoCoMo Inc, Japan's largest mobile phone operator, said on Tuesday it would invest $3 million in US Linux software developer MontaVista Software Inc, aiming to improve its Linux-based handsets.

I just can't see too many people abandoning Microsoft's Outlook, if they use it. Outlook is the gold standard in e-mail programs, despite its $109 list price. Among other things, Thunderbird lacks a calendar application, and its tools for sorting your incoming messages are rather rudimentary.

Cyclades is distributing a free development kit to help open source developers create interoperable proxies, gateways, and managers for IPMI-enabled devices. IPMI is an open standard from Intel that provides a remote interface for system monitoring and recovery. High-availability telecom and enterprise Linux servers are increasingly IPMI-enabled, Cyclades says.

When Linus Torvalds successfully harnessed the talent of thousands of programmers to create Linux, the operating system that arguably suffered most was Sun Microsystems' Solaris. Torvalds discussed Solaris, his improvisational programming style and other issues in an interview with CNET News.com.

Sub300 Will Install Linspire, Firefox and OpenOffice Free of Charge to Any System

Scott Wheeler and Sirtaj Singh Kang with much appreciated help from Kabir Husain represented KDE at this year's Linux Bangalore, India's largest Linux and Open Source event.

Alternative platforms are still struggling to reach critical mass due, in part, to a lack of enterprise-ready applications.