Showing all newswire headlines

Around 20 years ago a programmer at MIT quit his job to develop a complete and free Unix-style operating system--the GNU system. That programmer was Richard Stallman, also known as rms, the founder of the Free Software Foundation.

Since Microsoft released XP three years ago, virus writers have been extremely successful in exploiting embarrassing security holes in Windows. Since then, the company's 57,000 employees have been unable to lock it down and the software giant's home page is now permanently plastered with step by step advice on how to secure your Windows system and guard against the latest security flaws.

Ubuntu Linux has posted a series of international screenshots of their 4.10 LiveCD (thanks to OSDir.com).

This includes Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and French screenshots. Additional languages are soon to be added.

Internet Explorer is insecure junk, and it's time for Windows users to move to Firefox if they want to protect their systems.

OpenOffice.org's Calc isn't only about rows and columns. If you look long enough at the empty spreadsheet, you will soon realise that it looks like a map grid, and, indeed, with a bit of imagination you can use Calc to create a simple yet handy mapping application. This how-to guides you through building a Calc-n-map -- an application for marking points of interest on a city map.

It's been slated as one of the most significant Linux projects in years, but can Mono really succeed in providing an open source equivalent to Microsoft's much-hyped .NET? David Braue separates fact from fiction.

Red Hat yesterday said its sale rose 55 per cent during its third quarter of fiscal 2005, reaching $50.9m from the year-ago total, $32.8m. Q3's sales were ten per cent higher than Q2's.

Unpatched Linux systems are surviving longer on the Internet before being compromised, according to a report from the Honeynet Project released this week.

It's not really as bad as it sounds, but the article does point out some reasons that Free Software and OSS by association may have a hard time staying the course and really "seeing us through."

The BBC has created a network protocol testing platform written in Python and made it available as an open source application

There are several word processors in GNU/Linux, each with different goals and features. Some are free software, some are based on free software, some are proprietary. What do you, as an amateur or professional writer, need to consider in such programs when moving to GNU/Linux? If you're not entirely satisfied with your current word processor or if you're wondering what's available on the GNU/Linux platform in terms of word processors, this article's for you.

Modernization is coming to the General Public License, a legal framework that supports a large part of the free and open-source software movements and that has received sharp criticism from Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates.

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.

This week at OSDir.com we had the following screenshot tours on our agenda Vine Linux 3.1, Overclockix 3.7, Novell Linux Desktop 9, FreeSBIE 1.1, and PCLinuxOS Preview 8. Check it out!

A complete listing of our Linux and Open Source screenshot tours is here: shots.osdir.com.

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.