Showing all newswire headlines

The purpose of a Linux distribution is to deliver a Linux-based operating environment with a useful set of applications in a single, well-integrated package. Two of the best such distributors, MandrakeSoft S.A. and Novell Inc.'s SuSE Linux division, recently shipped new versions of their respective mainstream Linux distributions, both based on the new Linux 2.6 kernel.

May 10 2004 - The Shuttleworth Foundation, HP, the CSIR, and Mark Shuttleworth have jointly announced the commencement of the Go Open Source Campaign. Go Open Source is a nationwide awareness campaign promoting the adoption of Open Source Software (OSS) in South Africa, and will run for the next two years.

Linus' announcement and the official Linux kernel announce list is posted here.

Buried in recently published financial documents is the news that Lindows, Inc., has been engaged in a lawsuit with rival and one-time partner Xandros, Inc. since the middle of December 2002. Lindows claims that Xandros failed to repay a $750,000 loan, and that the company and other defendants engaged in fraud and criminal misrepresentation during the negotiations leading up to Lindows' investment in Xandros.

IBM on Monday is expected to announce new software intended to take on Microsoft in the market for desktop business applications. The new software, which falls under IBM’s Lotus Workplace strategy, is a bundle that includes e-mail, word-processing, spreadsheet and database applications aimed at business users.

Open Source Risk Management (OSRM), the only vendor-neutral provider of Open Source risk mitigation and coordinated legal defense services, today announced the appointment of Bruce Perens to its Board of Directors. Creator of the Open Source Definition (OSD), the Open Source movement's founding manifesto, Perens is a recognized leader in the Free Software and Open Source community and an expert in the technical and legal issues surrounding the use of Open Source software.

A sneak peak at what's inside this year's dream machine. It's about that time of year again. Time to do the always-controversial, ever-contentious and "what do you mean you didn't include my favorite hardware, you fools" project, otherwise known as the Ultimate Linux Box.

After five years in development, the time is right for the company's Linux desktop software to take on Microsoft, its boss tells Stephen Pritchard

Apparantly VA Linux Systems in Japan is busy collaborating with NTT Data Corporations to develop a Linux crash analysis tool. Most interesting to this editor is that the company is named "VA Linux Systems". Perhaps they never got around to changing the name of their Japanese office?

Linux Gazette #102 is published.

Hacker, open-source advocate, venture capitalist, company man, pundit: Bruce Perens has worn a lot of hats over the last few years, building up a unique combination of hacker credibility and business know-how. These days, when he's not fielding press queries about the ongoing dispute between The SCO Group Inc. and the Linux community, Perens spends his time speaking about Linux and open source software and providing consulting services for technology companies.

I had a note from a reader last week with a question that hadn't occurred to me. Daniel Blake asked: "Will Novell's Linux servers be able to run NLMs? We have a great deal of money invested in software that runs on NetWare that we can't just throw away and start over again." Read on, Daniel, I gave you misinformation!

The organizing team for the KDE Community World Summit is asking for submissions of talks and presentations to the big KDE event in August. Deadline is 30th of May.

Stephen Hemminger recently posted to the lkml in frustration, asking which Linux distributions support a stock kernel. He specifically listed problems between the stock kernel and Mandrake, do to its use of supermount, and SuSe do to its usage of ReiserFS attributes. He explained, "When running a non-vendor kernel, I need to reasonably expect that the system will boot and all the filesystems and standard devices are available."

Extreme Networks has released the ExtremeWare XOS operating system, which is Linux-based. The software runs Extreme’s line of BlackDiamond 10K Layer 3 Gigabit Ethernet switches, and is used to control services, protocols and applications running on the switch.

Ingenient Technologies has ported its CODEC set for embedded Linux to the Texas Instruments (TI) DM342, a programmable digital media processor that targets IP (Internet protocol) set-top boxes and digital media adapters. Ingenient also offers a DM342-based hardware reference design that supports Linux.

Bruce Perens, the Linux developer and advocate who helped coin the term "open source," has joined the board of directors of Open Source Risk Management, a company that sells insurance-like protection for Linux use. Perens' cooperation with the New York-based start-up was predicted, but OSRM expects to formally announce his association Monday.

Linux is going to be handling a third of all travel bookings in the world now that IBM has persuaded Cendant Corporation to switch its Galileo 360 eFares engine to Linux-based xServers.

Open Source software continues to make inroads across all verticals, and with the latest release of the tool Blender3D, it looks like animation may be next. Blender3D version 2.33, released this week, includes numerous significant enhancements, most notably the restoration of some of the core functionality it had when it was a proprietary, closed source program. Blender began its life as a closed source program and officially became open source under the GPL license in October 2002.