Showing headlines posted by tadelste

This article concludes "Companies find that their Linux server setups are less hardware-hungry than Windows-based systems, if the results of a recent survey are to be believed." The poll favors Linux and the author of this article misleads readers. Perhaps the title should be "Shilling for Microsoft". -ED

Linux and open source win the race against Microsoft for Kinetic, a start-up business that develops sports performance technology. Co-director of the company, Rob Shugg said he uses Linux wherever he can to save money, and attract the quality developers and community support required to create powerful tools and applications. "We started the company with our own savings and some money from Business ACT's Knowledge Fund, so there was no way we could afford anything else, but in truth, we never even considered buying any software, everything we needed was available on Linux," he said. "We use Linux where ever we can."

“Using open source is not just a matter of being against any proprietary system, but rather one of overall development. We also need to move into developing practical projects that will help develop skills, core competencies and allow for cost-effective solutions to some of local government's needs,” he says.

Two serious security flaws have turned up in software widely distributed with Linux and Unix. The bugs affect Electronic Mail for Unix (Elm), a venerable e-mail client still used by many Linux and Unix systems administrators, and Mplayer, a cross-platform movie player that is one of the most popular of its kind on Linux. The Elm flaw involves a boundary error when the client reads an e-mail's "Expires" header. A specially crafted e-mail could exploit the bug to cause a buffer overflow and execute malicious code on a system, according to security researchers.

I accept fully that many sites, including some I run, need advertising to operate. My Wi-Fi Networking News site has Flash ads on it right now, for instance. But I am, unfortunately, finding that Flash ads are now often highly intrusive even on sites I trust. They cycle endlessly. They use visual effects to knock my eyeballs on the floor. They play audio without my permission (even more annoying when I'm already playing music in iTunes or using voice over IP via iChat AV or Skype).

Launched in January 2004, OSCAR looks at developing an open source weed identification software for the major weed species of Rice-Wheat crop systems which can be deployed on Simputers. The application will address extension workers, farmers/farmer groups, students in the Indo-Gangetic plains. The application will have 50 weed species in the database, their botanical characteristics, their incidence and ways to control them on field. It will also be ported in local languages like Hindi, Urdu and Bangla (if necessary in Punjabi and Nepali). The activities are designed in such a way that on one hand, the botanical/taxonomic work proceeds to enrich the database of weed species by collecting photographs for each character of every species, drawing the identikit and on the other hand, the development work progresses simultaneously benefiting from the botanical work.

Palm may buy back software spin-off PalmSource, according to rumors that have caused a 20 percent spike in the company's stock price, BargainPDA says. Unclear is how such an acquisition would affect PalmSource's focus on Linux mobile phones. PalmSource has struggled for the last year, after failing to interest PDA and phone vendors in Cobalt, its attempt at a multi-tasking successor to the venerable Palm OS. Long the marketshare leader for PDA OSes, Palm OS was supplanted in 2004 by Microsoft Windows CE in 2004, according to Gartner. At the same time, Palm OS benefits from a robust third-party software ecosystem and a tremendous amount of legacy vertical market software -- the single most important factor in PDA buyer considerations, according to Handango. Another bright spot for PalmSource has been industry reaction to the news that the company would embrace Linux, transitioning its Garnet and Cobalt APIs to libraries running on top of Linux. PalmSource executives Michael Kelley and John Cook said that the news actually increased interest in Cobalt, as well as doubling the number of attendees expected at the company's annual developer conference this year.

The European Parliament should pass a resolution urging the European Patent Office to ensure that it complies with the existing rules on the patentability of computer-related inventions, according to leading campaigner Florian Mueller. Mueller, founder of Nosoftwarepatents.com, was prominent in the debate over Europe's proposed patent Directive earlier this year. In an guest column today on EUobserver.com, he argues that the Parliament should also call upon the European Commission to start a new legislative process on the controversial issue.

Microsoft's annual Form 10K, filed late last week with the Securities and Exchange Commisson, included this new addition in a passage on the competition faced by the company's PC Windows division: "Competitors such as Mozilla offer software that competes with the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products." For the record, that appears to be the first reference to the Mozilla Firefox browser as a competitive risk factor any Microsoft SEC filing. See Microsoft's 10K from last year for comparison. Also note that it's no longer plain old Internet Explorer -- it's "the Internet Explorer Web browsing capabilities of our Windows operating system products." That follows the trend seen with the recent unveiling of the new "Windows Internet Explorer" logo. Having survived its U.S. antitrust case without unbundling the browser from Windows, the company is apparently trying to drive home its controversial position that the browser is not a separate product but rather a Windows feature. (See also Mary Jo Foley's earlier post on that topic.)

Columnist Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols makes no bones about it: he loves Linux. "But Linux isn't for everybody," he says. In fact, he concedes, there are reasons to avoid a switch from Windows to Linux. "I use it on my servers, I use it on my desktops, and I use it on my entertainment center, where it powers my HDTV TiVo and my D-Link DSM-320 media player, which turns my network into a media library with terabytes of storage," Vaughan-Nichols writes at Linux-Watch.com. "Heck, I even run Linux on my Linksys WRT54G Wi-Fi access points, which hook the whole shebang together. "But Linux isn't for everyone. Seriously. Here are my top five reasons why you shouldn't move to Linux . . ." Huh? Yes, Linux-lover Vaughan-Nichols states it clearly: Linux is too complicated. It is a pain to set up. It doesn't have enough applications. It isn't secure. It's more expensive. But wait! There's more to the story than this. To find out how Vaughan-Nichols explains himself, read the full column at Linux-Watch.com, here.

In a timely -- and enlightened -- move, Novell (Nasdaq: NOVL) Latest News about Novell has expanded the OpenSuSE project and increased investment in the China market. With the launch of opensuse.org.cn, Novell signals a commitment to build a strong developer community in what is potentially the largest global market for their Linux platform. According to an article at VNUNet.com, Novell claims OpenSuSE will be the only fully localized project for a global Linux distribution in China. Well, they may be for now, but they won't be for long, you can bet on that. Novell also unveiled plans for the opening of a research and development center in Beijing, a move bound to fan the flames of the Beijing/Shanghai IT rivalry.

For those of you don't know about Rosegarden, it is an integrated audio/MIDI sequencer with advanced features, including extensive system control and impressive notation facilities. The program has been in development since the early 1990s, beginning with a GUI based on the Xaw widget set and coming at last to a beautiful Qt interface. But Rosegarden is not only a pretty face, and McIntyre is an excellent guide to what's behind the program's good looks.

Novell's recently released ZenWorks 7 adds some major new Linux functionality--but a long-term product redesign is also under way, and the first overhaul of Novell's multiplatform systems administration package could hit the streets as early as next year. Taken as a whole, ZenWorks 7 brings new support for Linux-based administration of Windows desktops through its Desktop Management component, and for Linux-based administration of Linux servers and desktops through its Linux Management component.

The next stable update of the Linux kernel has been released. It was announced by an e-mail from Linux creator Linus Torvalds to the Linux kernel mailing list. The 2.6.13 release comes after a series of release candidates were being tested, a process that uncovered several problems. The release updates the kernel's file system event monitoring -- a set of system calls that lets users load another kernel from a current kernel -- and advances in the Xtensa instruction set architecture designed for embedded applications.

There's been a substantial drop in the number of companies outsourcing application development in order to utilize external skills, as more companies instead turn to outsourcing for cost savings. Just 19 per cent of those companies polled are outsourcing to tap their suppliers' expertise, down from 44 per cent in the year 2000, according to Evan Data Corp (EDC). Twenty eight per cent said cost savings was their main reason for going out of house - up from 15 per cent. Evans, who polled 400 developers for its Summer 2005 enterprise development survey, said there has been a transition in needs from firefighting to solve the year 2000 problem to on-going, low-cost management of corporate systems like enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM).

After carefully reading Clarence Ladson Jr.'s story of 18 August 2005, I realized Flexbeta and the author may have tricked me and other readers. Ladson's story had little, if anything to do with a GNU Perspective. So what exactly would you call it?

XenSource said Tuesday it accomplished the feat using an Intel processor equipped with VT, or virtualization technology--a feature scheduled to begin shipping in new chips later this year. The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company is demonstrating the software this week at the Intel Developer Forum here. Xen, which is designed to let multiple operating systems run on the same computer, is almost always is used with Linux. But running Windows as well is useful in the real world, where both operating systems are widely used atop the powerful networked computers called servers.

The open source task team, a collection of government, private and technology experts with an interest in promoting open source, wrapped up its conference in Sandton, Johannesburg, yesterday with a finalised open source action plan which it hopes will be presented to South Africa's government. The document's goal is to affect policy and legislation regarding open source software in the public sector. Spearheaded by Mark Shuttleworth and the Go Open Source campaign, the action plan contains recommendations for both implementing open source software as well as licensing government software and information under open source licences. Skills development and education are also covered.

A partnership of companies from Japan, China and South Korea will unveil a new Linux-based operating system for local markets later this week in Beijing to challenge Microsoft Corp.'s dominance, a news report said Wednesday. The new software, called Asianux 2.0, will be introduced Thursday and was developed by Japan-based Miracle Linux Corp., China's Red Flag Software Co. and Haansoft Inc. of South Korea, the Nihon Keizai newspaper said.

This might seem strange as Vole has spent a fortune on an aggressive ‘Get The Facts campaign’ claiming that Windows is much better than Linux. Now, either Microsoft is supremely confident that any research will prove that Windows is much better than Linux, or it has another cunning plan which we are not aware of.