Showing headlines posted by vainrveenr

Version 6.0 of Knoppix is a complete rebuild from scratch and is based on Debian/lenny (draft). It incorporates a new boot procedure with highly parallelised hardware detection and configuration, using LXDE as the default desktop and includes the newly released OpenOffice 3.0.1. Also included in the release is Firefox 3.0.5. Due to space limitations on the CD some applications previously included have now been removed, however these removals are not listed in the change-log.

Microsoft cuts 5,000 jobs. That's the big news of the week. Not just because the layoffs will cut one in 20 of Microsoft's 91,000 employees. Not only because it signals just how hard Microsoft has been hurt by the failure of Vista and by shifts in the way big customers license and use software. Not even because of the grim sign it represents for the rest of the IT industry ...................... No, it's big because it means Microsoft has begun to hit bottom.

OpenTaxSolver (OTS) is a free program for calculating Tax Form entries and tax-owed or refund-due, such as Federal or State personal income taxes. Updating of TaxSolver has begun for the 2008 tax-year. We are awaiting release of the 2008 forms. As in previous years, we expect to cover US 1040 with Schedules A, B, C, & D, and State-Taxes for California, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, New York, and Massachusetts. Contributions of other forms would be appreciated. Special thanks again to all contributors.

How to dual-boot Windows XP and Linux, on a system where you have already installed XP. Easy step-by-step tutorial that doesn't assume prior knowledge of Linux.

Sun Microsystems Inc. plans to cut up to 6,000 jobs, or 18 percent of its global work force, as sales of its high-end computer servers have collapsed. The drastic move announced Friday highlights Sun's desperation to cut costs and survive as an independent company. Sun's shares have fallen so steeply they've crossed an ominous threshold, driving the company's market value below its cash on hand. That means investors believe the company itself is essentially worthless.

I put this article from Law.com's Legal Technology page, "Commentary: The Penguin Doesn't Fly, Avoid Linux" (http://legaltech.law.com/commentary-the-penguin-do.html) in News Picks because I found it hilarious, in the Rob Enderle kind of way. But then I thought I'd look up the author on Google, and lo and behold, I find he said something that appears to be not exactly true. I'm not talking about the FUD stuff. I'm talking about his assertion that he couldn't get any answers to a request for help from Mandriva Forum:

Do you, by any chance, remember the name Victor Raisys? He was a technology analyst at Soundview Technology Group, who predicted difficulties for Linux when the SCO litigation began in 2003. Guess where he worked *before* the stint at Soundview? At Microsoft, and not only that, his job was to keep an eye on Linux, for Microsoft.

Forget fear, uncertainty and doubt. How do Windows Vista and Linux really compare against each other? It's one thing to talk about the familiar applications available to Windows users contrasted with the rich suite of free open source apps for Linux, but something totally different to actually compare the loads of the two operating systems as they perform functionally identical tasks.

Officials have arrested a city of San Francisco IT network administrator for locking up a multimillion-dollar city computer system, according to several reports stemming from a press conference with San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris. The employee, Terry Childs, 43, is accused of improperly tampering with computer systems and causing a denial of service, effectively locking out other top city administrators from the critical network.

Hey! You! Are you sick of letting the big hardware companies, tech blogs, and mainstream media decide which open source projects deserve widespread attention? So are we. That's why we created the SourceForge.net Community Choice Awards, and we need your nominations!

Ramping up its efforts to build search market share, Microsoft signed a deal to embed a Live Search toolbar on all Hewlett-Packard consumer PCs in North America starting next year. In addition, Live Search will be the default search engine on browsers on the computers, the companies said. Both features will be included in HP PCs in January 2009. While the deal could boost use of Microsoft's search platform, it could also boost support of Silverlight, Microsoft's new browser plug-in and development runtime for adding multimedia to Web applications.

Q. I’m planning on reformatting and erasing the hard drive in my old computer before I give it to a friend, but I can’t find the original Windows discs that came with it. I don’t want to pass along a machine with no operating system on it, so what can I do? A. It is a good idea to wipe your data and reformat the hard drive before someone else starts using the computer. You still have a couple of options even if you can’t find the Windows system software discs to reinstall the operating system.

It was just over a year ago that Microsoft Corp. dropped a bombshell of a claim: users of Linux and open-source software were unwittingly violating as many as 235 Microsoft software patents. "This is not a case of some accidental, unknowing infringement," Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft's vice president of intellectual property and licensing, told Fortune magazine at the time. "There is an overwhelming number of patents being infringed."

[Maybe someone needs to look at our list of Patents that Microsoft might be infringing upon. - Scott]

The FreeBSD, GNU/Linux, Solaris, and Windows operating systems have kernels that provide comparable facilities. Interestingly, their code bases share almost no common parts, while their development processes vary dramatically. We analyze the source code of the four systems by collecting metrics in the areas of file organization, code structure, code style, the use of the C preprocessor, and data organization. The aggregate results indicate that across various areas and many different metrics, four systems developed using wildly different processes score comparably. This allows us to posit that the structure and internal quality attributes of a working, non-trivial software artifact will represent first and foremost the engineering requirements of its construction, with the influence of process being marginal, if any.

Details of Microsoft’s recently announced plan to extend the life of Windows XP for ultra low-cost PCs are trickling out. IDG News got its hands on what it says are Microsoft documents outlining the program for PC manufacturers. Until now, the big question was: What exactly defines an ultra low-cost PC?

Yesterday, I wrote in a comment that indeed Sun's performance in 2003 in signing the agreement with SCO, highlighted in the trial testimony, was making it look really bad. The motive in doing it seemed to me to be not just to open source Solaris but to also hobble Linux and promote a competitive product instead, and in the ugliest way possible. And then, when they had to power to stand up to SCO and protect Linux end users, they failed to do so.

HAVANA (AP) — Cubans are getting wired. The island's communist government put desktop computers on sale to the public for the first time Friday, ending a ban on PC sales as another despised restriction on daily life fell away under new President Raul Castro. A tower-style QTECH PC and monitor costs nearly US$780 (euro505). While few Cubans can afford that, dozens still gawked outside a tiny Havana electronics store, crowding every inch of its large glass windows and leaving finger and nose prints behind.

Microsoft PR threw down the gauntlet; “see how Windows Server 2008 stacks up versus Linux,” they say. There’s a “Get the Facts” URL being promoted with claims of direct comparisons between the two operating systems. Anyone reading the headlines alone could be fooled into thinking there’s substance to be found.

I wrote yesterday that RAND terms can be discriminatory, and that in fact due to the Microsoft OSP, OOXML is discriminatory against the GPL and Open Source licenses, despite being made available under RAND terms. Microsoft's Jason Matusow responded with a blog entry suggesting I need to bone up on standards and licenses. Why Microsoft folks can't be polite is a mystery to me, but I persist in responding with decency. He thought it would be helpful to hear from lawyers on the subject. So, I did some research for him, and I find that there are quite a number of lawyers who agree with me. So here you are, Jason: what is wrong with RAND from folks whose credentials you will respect.

Microsoft Corp. has yet to convince Yahoo Inc. to agree to a friendly takeover, but the software company is already hiring lobbyists to help it convince regulators to let the deal _ hostile if it has to be _ go through. Software company Microsoft Corp., bracing for a regulatory squabble in its takeover bid, recently hired Bryan Cave Strategies LLC to lobby the federal government on the proposed multibillion-dollar deal.