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Linux.com : News
Happy Independence Day
We're taking the day off to celebrate the US Independence Day holiday. We intend to reflect on traditional American values such as freedom of speech and religion, fairness, justice, respect for the rule of law, the right to pursue happiness, standing up for the underdog, and taking responsibility for one's actions. We suggest other US residents do the same, and hold their elected leaders to the same if not higher standards. Then we suggest everyone have a barbecue and watch some fireworks.
Barracuda launches reluctant legal offensive against Trend Micro
The already vicious lawsuit involving Barracuda Networks and Trend Micro that is currently in discovery in front of the American International Trade Commission (ITC) just turned nastier. Barracuda has filed its own patent infringement claim against Trend Micro, based upon three recently acquired patents. The suit is in response to Trend Micro's allegation that its patent is being infringed by Barracuda shipping Clam Antivirus (ClamAV), the popular free software application, and appears designed to pressure Trend Micro to reach a negotiated settlement.
Open source social networking app thrives in China
The popular social networking site Facebook just announced a Chinese version, but similar Chinese-based Web sites such as Xiaonei and Hainei have been struggling there. However, since April, UCenter Home, an open source social network service based on PHP and MySQL, is pushing open social networking in China.
Big Buck Bunny builds a better Blender
Big Buck Bunny is the colorful product of the Peach open movie project: an animated short released online and on DVD. But in addition to the 'toon itself, Peach has produced an altogether different yield: improvements to the Blender 3-D modeling application. Like its predecessor Project Orange, Peach pushed the open source tool forward with the demands of a real-world media production, in a way that hobbyist usage cannot. Could other free software projects use the same model?
GPLv3, one year later
After 18 months of widespread consultation with community and corporate interests, the third versions of the GNU General Public License (GPL) and GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) were released one year ago on 29 June 2007. In November, they were joined by the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). Looking back at these licenses today, observers of free and open source software (FOSS) judge them a modest success, and credit them with continuing to educate people about free software.
Linux laptop retailers fearlessly face name-brand competition
Linux Certified sells Linux laptops and offers IT training to individuals and organizations. Its product line ranges from small, affordable units to performance laptops that cost well over $2,000. The company's customer list boasts the likes of Boeing, NASA, the US Army and MIT. But if recent trends are any indication, Linux Certified and similar companies that specialize in selling computers that run Linux are about to see some of the world's largest computer companies warm up to the open source operating system. Major manufacturers have begun to take notice of Linux's potential on the laptop.
Nokia buys Symbian, will open Symbian OS
Symbian, the company behind the popular proprietary mobile/embedded operating system of the same name, just turned 10, but it won't see its next birthday. Nokia, which had long owned a substantial portion of Symbian, announced today that it would be buying the rest of the company, 52% for about &euro264 million, or approximately $410 million. In addition to purchasing Symbian, Nokia says it will be open-sourcing the Symbian operating system.
coLinux gets its second wind
Cooperative Linux (coLinux for short) occupies a unique niche in the field of virtualization -- that of running GNU/Linux natively in Windows. Although begun in 2000, the project has only recently released version 0.72, but it has given the underlying technology to several other higher profile projects such as andLinux and Ulteo Virtual Desktop. Now, with the current interest in attracting Windows users to GNU/Linux, as evidenced by such tools as Ubuntu's Wubi and Fedora's Live USB-Creator, the technology behind coLinux seems overdue for a closer look.
Deposition challenges Trend Micro patent on virus scans
Goran Fransson, a Swedish developer and entrepreneur, has given a deposition in the Barracuda-Trend Micro case that appears to seriously undermine Trend Micro's patent on gateway virus scanning.
Gobuntu to become installation option in Ubuntu
According to the Ubuntu development team and Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu derivative Gobuntu has been sucking up too many resources and will therefore be dropped in favour of an installation option in Ubuntu that installs only free software.
Grassroots OLPC Jam scheduled for this weekend
This weekend, the One Laptop per Child movement in New York City is holding an OLPC "Grassroots Jam" at the Manhattan Neighborhood Network. The Jam is a gathering of volunteer educators, content creators, artists, writers, programmers, engineers, and others who want to help create a central server for NYC schools that already make use of OLPC laptops.
Open source project management app hits 500K downloads
Open source application OpenProj, a Microsoft Project replacement, has been downloaded more than 500,000 times, says Marc O'Brien, CEO of OpenProj's sponsoring company Projity.
SELF-made site for courseware
Where on the Web do you go for free education and training materials? A project called Science, Education and Learning in Freedom (SELF) has created a site where educators and students can upload and download courseware without charge, or create courseware collaboratively. It maintains free-as-in-freedom content, and is intended for courses on free/libre software.
Finally, it's time for Wine
Fifteen years in the making, everyone's favorite software to run Windows programs on Linux and Unix, Wine, is almost ready for its 1.0 release.
Open source journalism system Campsite releases version 3.0
Campsite is an open source content management system (CMS) tuned for professional journalists. Like its broadcast radio sibling Campcaster (which we covered last year), Campsite targets independent media operating in emerging democracies and countries in transition. The CMS's latest release, 3.0, is a major update designed to be simpler to install and maintain.
Canonical showcases Ubuntu Netbook Remix at Computex
This week, Canonical announced a reworked version of Ubuntu at the Computex trade show in Taiwan. The new Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) is specifically built for new so-called "netbooks" -- mini laptops with small screens geared towards Web browsing and built on Intel's new, low-power micro-architecture called Atom. The new version will allow users to access email, browse the Internet, and use instant messaging, and provide online access to music, photos, and videos, all in one small, affordable package.
Open standards drive growth of phone backup service provider
SIMchronise, a mobile technologies company based in Ireland, recently launched a mobile data backup service called PhoneBackup.eu that is built on the Open Mobile Alliance's Data Synchronization and Device Management standard (a.k.a. SyncML). SIMchronise principal Philippe Joly says that with the "high number of device models and manufacturers" of wireless phones, open standards make it easier for companies to provide data synchronization services.
RIP, Levanta
It seemed like such a great idea. Linux is moving from edge and departmental servers to the data center, so why not offer Linux data center automation, complete with virtualization Linux lifecycle management? Well, maybe it's still a great business idea, but Levanta wasn't able to make a go of it.
Testing the new SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP2
In Novell's new SUSE Linux Enterprise 10 SP2, announced yesterday, you'll find only small, but useful, improvements, most of them for better interoperability with Microsoft protocols and formats.
FOSS helps Free Geek Vancouver become an ethical recycler
Free Geek Vancouver (FGV) is now certified as the first ethical recycler in western Canada by the Basel Action Network (BAN), and an important part of the certification is the organization's refurbishing of used computers with free and open source software (FOSS).
