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Open Source
Oracle gives open source a patent pass
Computer Business Review
Oracle has vowed not to assert its patents against open source projects such as the Linux operating system kernel and the MySQL and PosgreSQL databases by entering into a licensing agreement with the Open Invention Network.
Why does Microsoft fear OpenOffice.org?
ComputerWorld / Preston Gralla
It’s well-known that Microsoft worries that Google Docs may eat into the profits of the Microsoft Office cash cow. But Microsoft also appears to be extremely worried that an unlikely source may be a major threat as well — OpenOffice.org. At least that’s what a recent job posting at Microsoft shows. And market share numbers back it up.
Open Source
Is OpenOffice.org a Threat? Microsoft Thinks So
ComputerworldUK / Glyn Moody
This confirms what many of us have been warning about for some time: that Microsoft’s new-found eagerness to “engage” with open source has nothing to do with a real desire to reach a pacific accommodation with free software, but is simply a way for it to fight against it from close up, and armed with inside knowledge.
More than ever, saving is in vogue
Baltimore Sun / Gregory Karp
Don’t forget Lotus Symphony as well.
Also popular was a column on free software. Best advice? Use free antivirus programs, such as Avira AntiVir Antivirus Personal (free-av.com) and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition (free.avg.com). And try the OpenOffice.org, instead of paying for Microsoft Office.
Open Source
Red Hat Revenues Up 18 Percent in Q3
eWeek / Darryl K. Taft
Red Hat reported financial results for its fiscal year 2010 third quarter, showing revenues up 18 percent.
For its third quarter ended November 30, 2009, Red Hat reported revenues of $194.3 million, up 18 percent over the same period a year ago and beating expectations. Meanwhile, the open source software company reported that subscription revenue for the quarter was $164.4 million, up 21 percent from last year.
Novell stacks Linux and Mono for mainframes
The Register / Timothy Prickett Morgan
Novell doesn’t just want mainframe shops to put SLES 11 on their boxes and run Linux workloads, it wants them to take the commercially supported Mono clone of the .NET runtime environment and use that to move Windows workloads over to mainframe boxes. So Novell’s SUSE Linux Enterprise Consolidation Suite (SLECS) bundles roll Linux and Mono software together and provide a single support package for the stack.
openSUSE News
Linux for Education Updated / Joe Brockmeier
The openSUSE Education team is proud to announce the availability of the updated Li-f-e hybrid ISO. Unlike the official openSUSE release, the Edu project’s Li-f-e flavor will get updated almost on a monthly basis. These minor releases will contain all the official openSUSE 11.2 updates, some important package version updates and may be addition of new features too. With these gradual improvements we are hoping to make one of the best Education OS even better.
Open Source
A Concise Introduction to Free and Open Source Software
Consortiuminfo.org Consortium Standards Journal — August – September 2009 / Andrew Updegrove
Abstract: In the early days of information technology (IT), computers were delivered with operating systems and basic application software already installed, without additional cost, and in editable (source code) form. But as software emerged as a stand-alone product, the independent software vendors (ISVs) that were launched to take advantage of this commercial opportunity no longer delivered source code, in order to prevent competitors from gaining access to their trade secrets. The practice also had the (intended) result that computer users became dependent on their ISVs for support and upgrades. Due to the increasingly substantial investments computer users made in application software, they also became “locked in” to their hardware and software vendors’ products, because of the high cost of abandoning, or reconfiguring, their existing application software to run on the proprietary operating system of a new vendor. In response, a movement in support of “free software” (i.e., programs accompanied both by source code as well as the legal right to modify, share and distribute that code) emerged in the mid 1980s. The early proponents of free software regarded the right to share source code as an essential freedom, but a later faction focused only on the practical advantages of freely sharable code, which they called “open source.” Concurrently, the Internet enabled a highly distributed model of software development to become pervasive, based upon voluntary code contributions and globally collaborative efforts. The combined force of these developments resulted in the rapid proliferation of “free and open source software” (FOSS) development projects that have created many “best of breed” operating system and application software products, such that the economic importance of FOSS has now become very substantial. In this article, I trace the origins and theories of the free software and open source movements, the complicated legal implications of FOSS development and use, and the supporting infrastructural ecosystem that has grown up to support this increasingly vital component of our modern, IT based society.
Open Source
WordPress 2.9, Now with Built-in Image Editor and Delete Undo
Softpedia / Lucian Parfeni
The latest version of the world most popular self-hosted blogging platform, WordPress 2.9, is now out and available for everyone to download and install. It’s been quite a while since the last major update, more than six months actually, and the latest version comes with a few big new features and a bunch of smaller ones as well as updates, bug fixes, the works. The biggest feature is likely the new image editor which allows users to do basic photo editing inside the post editor without having to rely on third-party tools.
The Five Distros That Changed Linux
Linux Magazine / Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Linux’s history can be measured in both releases 2.0, 2.6, and so on, and in its major distributions, which brought these releases to the masses at large. Here’s my list of the top five major Linux distributions that had the most impact in the operating system’s brief history.
Standards
Netherlands helps Denmark with open IT
The Industry Standard
The Dutch government has provided Denmark with information regarding the Dutch national plan Heemskerk for open government IT.
In Denmark, there is heated debate about the approach for open IT usage by the government. One of the obstacles is the open file format for mandatory use by the government and government organizations. ODF (Open Document Format) and OOXML (Open Office XML), originally developed by Microsoft, are the candidates for use.
Open Source
IBM Sala de Prensa – 2009-12-15 IBM presenta en Madrid el Open Company Center
IBM
IBM (NYSE:IBM) ha presentado en Madrid el Open Company Center. Se trata de un centro de prueba, ubicado en el IBM Forum, donde clientes y socios comerciales de la Compañía podrán experimentar con diferentes alternativas de sistemas de escritorio independientes y de arquitectura abierta.
Open Source Group Sues Consumer Electronics Companies
InformationWeek / Antone Gonsalves
Best Buy, Samsung, Westinghouse, JVC and 10 other consumer electronics companies were named Monday in a lawsuit accusing the companies of license infringement in the use of open source software.
The Software Freedom Law Center filed the suit in federal court in New York on behalf of the Software Freedom Conservancy. The latter group claims the defendants sold products containing its BusyBox application in violation of the terms of the software’s license, the GNU General Public License version 2. The GNU GPL v2 governs the use of many open source technologies.
Open Source
Linux Foundation Announces “Get One, Give One” Holiday Membership Program
The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that for every new individual member who joins the organization between today and January 31, 2010, the Linux Foundation will give a free membership to a student for one year.
Fedora 12 – A Visually-Pleasing, Highly-Configurable Linux Distro You Might Want To Try
makeuseof.com / Susan Linton
In addition to Fedora’s commercial uses, it remains a favorite of many desktop users. The latest hardware support and software innovations go into Fedora making it one the most desirable distributions for those who regularly update their hardware or crave the latest in software goodies.
Cloud
IBM: LotusLive paying subscribers go from 0 to 18 million in a year
ZDNet / Larry Dignan
That LotusLive tally at the beginning of the year was nil so the growth is stunning. I double checked with IBM to make sure that those 18 million client seats were actually paying with a price of more than zero. I was told there are no asterisks here.
Open Source
Red Hat Makes Move That Will Allow Open Collaboration With Partners to Drive Virtualization Innovation
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that, in an effort to openly collaborate with partners to drive the future of virtualization, it has open sourced its SPICE (Simple Protocol for Independent Computing Environment) hosted virtual desktop protocol. SPICE is a core component of the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Desktops product that is currently in beta. Through the Spice project, Red Hat will collaborate with its partners and the open source community to expand the development of the protocol in an effort to help break down barriers to virtualization adoption.
Ubuntu-ready Dell desktop looks like a nettop
DesktopLinux.com – eWeek
Dell announced new Ubuntu Linux-ready OptiPlex desktop PCs, including a power-efficient model claimed to be the “world’s smallest fully functional commercial desktop.” In addition to the 9.4 x 2.6 x 9.3-inch OptiPlex 780 USFF desktop, Dell announced a 13-inch Vostro V13 laptop that also offers Ubuntu.
Politics / Government
Public Access Policies for Science and Technology Funding Agencies Across the Federal Government
With this notice, the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President, requests input from the community regarding enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from research funded by Federal science and technology agencies. This RFI will be active from December 10, 2009 to January 7, 2010.
Open Source
Chromium Blog: Google Chrome for Linux goes beta!
But bringing Google Chrome to Linux wasn’t just a straight port — it was a labor of love. Google Chrome works well with both Gnome and KDE, and is updated via the normal system package manager.
Mozilla’s Thunderbird E-mail Client Comes With Tabs
PC World / Mikael Ricknas
Mozilla Messaging on Tuesday released version 3 of its Thunderbird e-mail client. It comes with a tabbed user interface and improved search features.
IBM Unveils Mainframe Bundles
InformationWeek / Antone Gonsalves
The two new System z configurations for application consolidation can run hundreds of Linux virtual servers on IBM’s z/VM virtualization platform. The systems come with a “save-as-you-grow” pricing model in which incremental capacity is priced significantly lower as the configuration size increases, IBM said.
Macintosh
Official Google Mac Blog: Google Chrome for Mac goes beta!
Official Google Mac Blog
73,804 lines of Mac-specific code and 29 developer builds later, we’re excited to finally release Google Chrome for Mac in beta. We took a hefty dose of goodness from the Windows version to build a fast, polished browser for Mac — with features such as the Omnibox (where you can both search and type in addresses), themes from artists, and most importantly, speed. Try downloading Google Chrome for Mac and see what you think.
Open Source
Five Reasons Why Android Could Kill Windows Mobile
eWeek / Nicholas Kolakowski
Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system could be the product in the smartphone space that is most vulnerable to the rise of Android, whose market share has steadily climbed over the past year. A variety of factors, ranging from a pairing of the Android OS with the solidly selling Motorola Droid to a positive trend line in Android OS adoption, suggest that Windows Mobile could be squeezed out of the multiple-mobile-device ecosystem unless Mobile 7, rumored to be released sometime in 2010, proves to be the substantial improvement that Microsoft promises.
Joe Brockmeier talks open source and social media
DaniWeb / Ron Miller
It’s been almost a year since I last interviewed Joe ‘Zonker’ Brockmeier, who is the community manager at openSUSE. I sent him several questions to answer by email. I was curious about the new version of openSUSE, 11.2, along with his increasing use of social media to promote it. I also wanted to know how people curious about open source operating systems could get started.
10 open source projects worth checking out
ZDNet Asia / Jack Wallen
The open source field is pretty crowded, but certain projects stand above the rest. Here are 10 tools and solutions you don’t want to overlook.
Software
Microsoft to randomly generate EU browser ballot list
Ars Technica / Emil Protalinski
The previous method had them listed in alphabetical order, putting Apple’s Safari first. Complaints from Opera, Google, and Mozilla resulted in the change, and also pushed Microsoft into moving the ballot screen from Internet Explorer into a standard webpage format, according to Bloomberg, which cites two unnamed people familiar with the case. The browser ballot screen will let European PC users download a third-party browser without having to use Internet Explorer.
Open Source
10 Linux features Windows should have by default
ZDNet / Larry Dignan
In my next two 10 Things articles, I am going to take pieces of each operating system and place them in the other. In this first article, I am going to share 10 features from the Linux operating system that should be in the Windows operating system.
New Linux kernel boosts graphics support, enhances KVM
DesktopLinux.com – eWeek
Linus Torvalds announced the release of a stable Linux 2.6.32 kernel. Major additions include kernel-based mode setting (KMS) and 3D graphics support on select Radeon cards, plus new kernel shared memory (KSM) technology for KVM virtualization, power-saving and performance improvements, and a faster “Devtmpfs” boot technology.
Open Source
An Open Source Tool for Every Task
School Library Journal / Steve Hargadon
Following are some of the most popular OSS applications for schools. All are freely available, requiring no license fees, and can be loaded on an unlimited number of computers or distributed to students for home use.
Dell releases unofficial Chrome OS Linux desktop
ComputerWorld / Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Of all the big computer companies only Dell really supports desktop Linux and, in particular Dell offers a nice selection of PCs running Ubuntu Linux. What Dell hasn’t done though is come out and announce that they were working on Google’s beta Chrome OS. Other vendors, such as Acer, HP and Lenovo are on board with Chrome. Regardless of that, Dell is actually the first big-time vendor to have released a version of Chrome OS designed to work with one of their netbooks.
Software
Microsoft investigates Windows 7 ’screen of death’
BBC News
Microsoft confirms that it is investigating a problem that affects Windows 7 users described as the “black screen of death”.
Virtual Worlds
Social OpenSim grids gain over 1,000 regions
Hypergrid Business / Maria Korolov
The growth in the social grids is particularly interesting in that the social aspects are the ones most lacking in OpenSim. Where OpenSim excels is in enterprise integration tools and the ability to fully control the environment. OpenSim also has a significant cost advantage — the server software is free to download and can run on almost any spare computer. And professional hosting starts at around $25 for a full region — compared to $300 with Second Life.
Standards
No shocker: Google prefers HTML5 to Gears | Deep Tech – CNET News
CNet / Stephen Shankland
Google sees HTML5 as a more logical future for Web improvements than its own Gears software. No surprise, given its work on the standard and dislike for plug-ins.
Open Source
Open Source Proves Elusive as a Business Model
The New York Times / Ashlee Vance
The grass-roots nature of open source has led advocates to view the projects as a populist foil to proprietary software, where a company keeps the inner workings of its applications secret. But in the last decade, open-source software has become more of a corporate affair than a people’s revolution.
Is Open Source as a Model for Business Really That Elusive?
Redmonk / Steve O’Grady
Where you come down on the open source and business question, then, may simply depend on what you consider an open source business. At least until open source vendors begin aggressively realizing their next, largely untapped revenue source: data. Once that happens, we’ll all have to reexamine the economics of open source models.
Enabling Compiz Fusion On An Ubuntu 9.04 Desktop
HowtoForge – Linux Howtos and Tutorials
Works for Ubuntu 9.10 as well.
This tutorial shows how you can enable Compiz Fusion on an Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) desktop (the system must have a 3D-capable graphics card – I’m using an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 here). With Compiz Fusion you can use beautiful 3D effects like wobbly windows or a desktop cube on your desktop.
Software
Celtx – #1 choice for media pre-production.
Multi-Media Friendly
Celtx helps you produce all types of media – film, video, documentary, theatre, machinima, comics, advertising, video games, music video, radio, podcasts, videocasts, and however else you choose to tell your story.
All In One
You can use Celtx for the entire production process – write scripts, storyboard scenes and sequences, sketch setups, develop characters, breakdown & tag elements, schedule productions, and prepare and circulate informative reports for cast and crew.
Software
Kindle 2 finally gets native PDF support, screen rotation
Ars Technica
Newly sold Kindles will come with an expanded battery, and those with the Kindle 2 will get a holiday gift as well: native PDF support and screen rotation.
Music library disaster? How to rip songs from your iPod
Ars Technica
Admit it: you or someone you know has had at least one disaster in which you have lost your entire music library, didn’t have backups, and needed to rip it back off of your iPod. Here, we look at our favorite solution for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux users that let you do just that.
Games
3d-place winner disqualified in Sudoku scandal
Philadelphia Inquirer
Officials of The Philadelphia Inquirer National Sudoku Championship have disqualified the third-place winner of the Oct. 24 tourney after an investigation, which included a retesting at The Inquirer last week.
Cloud
Roll Your Own Ubuntu Private Cloud
InformationWeek / Serdar Yegulalp
Conventional wisdom has it that if you want to make use of “the cloud,” you’ve got to use someone else’s service — Amazon’s EC2, Google’s clouds, and so on. Canonical, through its new edition of Ubuntu Server, has set out to change all that. Instead of using someone else’s cloud, it’s now possible to set up your own cloud — to create your own elastic computing environment, run your own applications on it, and even connect it to Amazon EC2 and migrate it outwards if need be.
Open Source
Novell Sponsors Open Source Research Group
Novell, provider of the community open source project openSUSE and the commercial open source product SUSE Linux Enterprise (Desktop/Server) is sponsoring the Open Source Research Group of the University of Erlangen Nuremberg.
Open Source
Microsoft delays open sourcing Windows 7 tool
Ars Technica / Emil Protalinski
After committing to making the source code and binaries for the Windows 7 USB/DVD Tool available under the terms of the GNU General Public License v2 (GPL) last week, Microsoft has pushed back its schedule a bit. The company is blaming testing for the delay, meaning it isn’t simply rereleasing the tool under the open source license; it’s actually modifying and removing some of the code (likely proprietary code the software giant doesn’t want to be available freely).
Software
For Search, Murdoch Looks to a Deal With Microsoft
The New York Times / Ashlee Vance and Tim Arango
News Corporation, the media conglomerate controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has engaged in early stage discussions with Microsoft about a pact to get paid from Microsoft to remove its news content from Google’s search engine.
Open Source
Good Karma: An In Depth Review Of Ubuntu 9.10
Ars Technica / Ryan Paul
Ubuntu 9.10, codenamed Karmic Koala, was officially released last month. In this comprehensive review, Ars takes you under the surface for an in-depth look at the new features and major architectural changes.
Obama Team Challenges Web Developers
InformationWeek / J. Nicholas Hoover
In developing WhiteHouse.gov on Drupal, the Obama team used mostly available code, but it wrote some custom code to meet scalability and security requirements. The new media team is now working with the White House legal counsel to determine how to contribute that code back to the community. “I can’t promise a time line, [as] it’s somewhat unprecedented for our organization to take that on, but we feel strongly about it,” Cole said.
Word Count Plus :: Add-ons for Firefox
Word Count Plus sits unobtrusively in the status bar of the active window, where it shows you the number of currently selected words. You can choose to add that number to a counter, in which case you will also see a running total.
Language
Wordiness, Wordiness, Wordiness List
Kim Blank
Think of your writing in the same way you think about all the stuff you own. Now think of having a yard sale. What you put into your yard sale is the useless junk that has been hanging around for a long time. At first you feel a little remorse in seeing it all go, but then, with your new, uncluttered world, you feel light, clean, and fresh, just like they say in the soap commercials. Apply this to your writing. Keep the good stuff, and get rid of the useless clutter that’s been cluttering your writing.
Open Source
What’s New in openSUSE 11.2
Linux Magazine / Joe Brockmeier
openSUSE 11.2 is finally out after 11 months of development. The openSUSE Project released openSUSE 11.2 with a bevy of updates and improvements over last year’s 11.1 release, including KDE 4.3, GNOME 2.28, a new Linux kernel, as well as the latest and greatest of your favorite open source applications. What’s in this release? Let’s take a look at the highlights.
Novell targets netbooks with latest OS
Channel Register / Kelly Fiveash
The latest version of the operating system clearly signals Novell’s intent to scoop up some share of the nascent netbook market. OpenSUSE 11.2 comes loaded with version 2.6.31 of the Linux kernel, while the default file system of the OS has been switched to the new Ext4. However, support for Ext3 and other file systems is available, too.
Virtual Worlds
North Wales village of Portmeirion has been recreated on Second Life
WalesOnline
The virtual resort includes all the landmarks of the real site, from the medieval castle, woodlands and Victorian mansion Castell Deudraeth to the tollgate and even the ominous giant ball that dominated the village in The Prisoner.
Second Life withdraws from Korean market
The Korea Herald
As with other social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter that have proved hugely popular in the global market but failed to establish a significant presence in Korea, Second Life appears to have failed to adapt to the characteristics of the local market.
Macintosh
Microsoft exec: Mac OS inspired Windows 7
CNet / Chris Matyszczyk
Simon Aldous, Microsoft’s partner group manager, says the company looked at the Mac’s graphical nature and ease of use and tried to create a ‘Mac look.’
Open Source
Windows 7 on netbooks: Maybe it’s not a Linux killer
ComputerWorld / Preston Gralla
I’ve frequently written that Windows 7 will kill Linux on netbooks. But given that most Windows 7-equipped netbooks ship with the underwhelming Starter Edition, I may well have been wrong. And new evidence shows that Linux on netbooks is alive and well, no matter what pundits like me have said in the past.
Open source tries to save the world
SmartPlanet / Dana Blankenhorn
By announcing first as an open source company, People Power was able to secure, not only start-up capital, but firm alliances with UC Berkeley and Stanford University. That’s a lot of brainpower.
People Power plans to launch a project dubbed the Open Source Home Area Network (OSHAN), which can be embedded in any device, essentially acting as the commercial arm of a project to be housed at Stanford and Cal.
Software
Google hopes to remake programming with Go
CNet / Stephen Shankland
So far, Google’s Go project consists of the programming language, compilers to convert what programmers write into software that computers can run, and a runtime package that endows Go programs with a number of built-in features. It’s most similar to C and C++, but, Pike said, it employs modern features and has enough versatility that it could even be used within Web browsers.
Open Source
Did Microsoft Windows 7 download tool violate the GPL?
ZDNet / Mary-Jo Foley
Microsoft has pulled an update tool for Windows 7 from the Microsoft Store site after a report indicating that the tool incorporated open-source code in a way that violated the GNU General Public License.
Where is the Linux desktop going?
ComputerWorld / Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
Windows 7 gets the headlines, Snow Leopard gets the praise, but the Linux desktop actually seems to be, ever so slightly, growing.
Virtual Worlds
How Useful Is Second Life For Architects?
New World Notes / Wagner James Au
Older piece, but interesting.
However, that’s not to say this makes SL an ideal virtual world platform for architects, at least not yet. In recent months, as it happens, Brouchard has started doing more architecture work in realXtend, the OpenSimulator virtual world, using Visibuild, a new service that enables the importation of 3D StudioMax, SketchUp, and other industry standard 3D authoring files.
Going to the virtual office in Second Life
CNN / Mark Tutton
As travel budgets are squeezed and slashed in the recession, companies are increasingly seeking innovative ways of bringing employees together for conferences and meetings remotely.
Open Source
Ubuntu: the complete beginner’s guide
Times Online / Jonathan Richards
Ubuntu, if you’re not familiar with it, is one of many varieties of a broader, open-source OS called Linux.
It looks and feels a lot like Windows (more or less), but, being very lightweight, it runs very quickly, and – especially if you mainly use the computer to browse the web – it’s a really great way of giving an older machine a new lease of life.
We thought we’d compile a beginner’s guide to installing it. The main thing is: don’t be afraid. It’s much easier than you think. And the satisfaction once you’ve done it is…well, you be the judge. But we were punching the air for hours.
Macintosh
Mac OS X 10.6.2 out now along with Leopard security update
Ars Technica / Chris Foresman
Apple released several updates Monday afternoon, including the second point release of Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Updates move the version of Snow Leopard client and server to 10.6.2, while the security fixes that are part of that update are packaged for Leopard (10.5.8) as Security Update 2009-006.
Games
Warhammer Online’s free trial now endless
examiner.com / Pamela Blalock
I’m a WoW guy, not a Warhammer guy, but I’m willing to try it when they have a first class Mac implementation.
Free trials are a great way for you to try out an MMO and decide if you want to pay for it every month. Usually these trials last from around 7 to 14 days. That’s usually an ample amount of time for most people to decide. But if you need more time Warhammer Online has the answer.
WAR’s free trial is now endless. You’re restricted to a level cap of 10 and you can only experience tier one in the Empire vs. Chaos zones of Nordland and Norsca. This does include access to the scenarios of that area as well as the dungeon Hunter’s Vale. You can keep playing under these guidelines as long as you want.
Macintosh
Switchers Guide: Moving from Windows to the Mac
Macworld / Harry McCracken
Moving from a Windows PC to a Mac–at the office or at home–presents the same kinds of opportunities and challenges. It requires some up-front effort: Transferring your data from your old machine to your new one, getting your hardware and software to run, and learning your way around OS X, the Mac’s operating system. (For the purposes of this story, when I say “OS X,” I mean OS X 10.6, also known as Snow Leopard.)
But the move doesn’t have to be that hard. In the stories that follow I’ve assembled a quick guide to making the switch as easy as possible. Don’t worry: it doesn’t have to be onerous or time-consuming. And the quicker you get it out of the way, the sooner you’ll be able to get to work on your new Mac.
Open Source
Google opens up its JavaScript development toolbox to all
Ars Technica / Ryan Paul
Google is providing the web development community with an intriguing glimpse under the hood at some of the fundamental building blocks of the company’s most popular web applications. The search giant has opened the source code of its comprehensive JavaScript library collection and is making it available to third-party developers for widespread adoption. Google also opened the source code of its own JavaScript compression tools.
Virtual Worlds
Feeding Edge
Feeding Edge is a consulting company. Founded by epredator (Ian Hughes) metaverse evangelist, tribal leader and public speaker and developer with over 18 years experience in a single large corporation. Half of that time has been spent on leading edge, initially scary, technology and solutions in customer facing engagements.
Second Life Steps Into The Enterprise
InformationWeek / Mitch Wagner
The company plans on Wednesday to launch open beta for Second Life Enterprise, a $55,000 hardware appliance that enterprises can install in their data centers. The appliance allows companies to run Second Life on their own networks, behind the company firewall. Linden Lab expects beta to continue through the fourth quarter, and plans to announce general availability by March.
Second Life offers an advantage over conference calls and online conference apps such as Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO)’s WebEx, in that it creates the illusion that participants in an event are sharing the same place and time. “What you’ve got with a virtual environment is that it’s completely immersive. There’s depth to what we’re doing,” said Chris Collins, general manager for the enterprise for Linden Lab.
Second Life Takes Virtual Reality Behind the Firewall at IBM, Navy
eWeek / Clint Boulton
Linden Lab Nov. 4 launched Second Life Enterprise, a behind-the-firewall version of its 3D virtual world software. Linden Lab has loaded Second Life on a server for IBM, Northrup Grumman and the U.S. Navy to test in a beta. Second Life Enterprise includes LDAP integration, intranet-grade authentication and central access controls for protecting proprietary information and managing content created in the 3D worlds. Linden Lab is also building a marketplace to let its third-party programmers sell their enterprise applications and virtual goods.
Open Source
Red Hat Rolls Out Virtualization Platform for Heterogeneous Servers and Clouds
Reuters
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers, the newest product set in the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization portfolio. Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization for Servers is designed to enable pervasive adoption of virtualization, with a comprehensive end-to-end solution combining a standalone hypervisor and powerful virtualization management.
Red Hat delivers stand-alone hypervisor, management tools
Network World / John Fontana
Red Hat Tuesday made good on its promise to deliver a stand-alone hypervisor and a set of management tools as its gears up to go toe-to-toe with VMware and Microsoft to become a top-tier provider of virtualization and cloud computing infrastructure.
Red Hat Takes on VMware, Microsoft in Server Virtualization
eWeek / Jeffrey Burt
Red Hat is rolling out its Enterprise Virtualization for Servers platform, which is aimed at heterogeneous server environments and cloud computing deployments. Red Hat officials said the platform–which includes a standalone hypervisor and management software–offers users better performance at a lower cost than competing products from VMware and Microsoft. A management solution for virtualized desktop environments will be available in early 2010, they said.
Red Hat pitches x64 virtualization with KVM rollout
Channel Register / Timothy Prickett Morgan
Red Hat announced its intentions to go up against VMware, Citrix Systems, Microsoft, and Oracle in the race to deliver commercial-grade server virtualization for x64 iron back back in February, five months after shelling out $107m to buy Qumranet, the company behind the open source KVM project and one that was creating a stack for serving up virtual PCs. In mid-June, the standalone Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, or RHEV, hypervisor went into beta and in early September, an embedded version of the RHEV hypervisor was buried in the guts of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.4 release.
Books
Caught in the Middle: Publishing’s Other Customers
Digital Book World / Don Linn
The publishers’ author/customers I worry about are those who fall between these two groups. They are the people who write for a living and who bring us the workhorse books in their categories (from literary fiction to genre fiction to all manner of non-fiction). Their advances have historically been relatively low and their sales relatively modest. They write for major publishers and independents. They write books that backlist and, in a small but very important number, they write really important books that either break out commercially, or say something significant that might not otherwise get said.
Sports
Late Bedtimes and Cranky Kids: How the World Series Affects My Juggle
The Wall Street Journal Online / Jennifer Merritt
It’s World Series time and my 4-year-old is obsessed with the Yankees, but the games start after his bedtime, causing debates in our household.
Software
Microsoft to indirectly fund L.A.’s switch to Google Apps
Seattle Post-Intelligencer / Nick Eaton
Talk about irony. Of the $7.2 million the Los Angeles city government will be spending to switch its e-mail system to Google Apps, $1.5 million of it will come from Microsoft, according to City Council meeting minutes.
Is The Desktop PC Doomed?
InformationWeek / Serdar Yegulalp
The rise of Web-based apps, virtualization, and a crop of powerful mobile devices have the traditional PC desktop on the run.
Open Source
Red Hat Executives to Present Live Technology Webcast on November 3
Reuters
Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that members of Red Hat`s executive team will host a press conference that will be broadcast live via webcast on November 3, 2009 at 11am EST.
Red Hat share price passes Microsoft’s
The Inquirer / Ed Berridge
LINUX VENDOR Red Hat hit a milestone yesterday when its share price rose above Microsoft’s.
True, Microsoft has a hell of a lot more shares out there in the marketplace and its own share price has not been that healthy over the past year, but this is being seen by analysts as a great day for the free software outfit.
Software
Product Quality
Novell / Jeff Jaffe
It is useful to review our comprehensive approach to quality. Quality is not a single process. It is baked into everything we do: before and during development; after products are shipped in the field; with maintenance provided to customers well after products have been shipped. Due to this breadth I will “fishbone” our activities and address this topic over several postings.
Open Source
The Silent Number: Top things to do after installing Ubuntu Linux 9.10 Karmic Koala
Danny Piccirillo
So you’ve just installed Ubuntu 9.10, the cute and cuddly Karmic Koala, but now you’re confronted with a most pertinent question, “What do i do now?” Ubuntu is a very complete and full-featured Linux distribution, but no operating system can come with everything you want. There’s much more fun to be had in what comes after installing the OS on your machine: now you get to set it up with all the best software it didn’t already come with!
Open Source
The quest for a truly open smartphone: can it be done?
Ars Technica / Ryan Paul
Although a growing number of smartphone makers are embracing Linux and open source software, the dream of a fully open phone remains elusive. Advocates of software freedom are looking for solutions.
Apple abandons ZFS on Mac OS X project over licensing issues
Ars Technica / Chris Foresman
If there was any remaining doubt about ZFS support in OS X, Apple officially killed it last Friday. Licensing concerns ultimately may have doomed the project, but open source developers still hope to keep the dream of ZFS on Mac OS X alive. Meanwhile, Apple is hiring filesystem engineers of its own.
Everything You Need To Know about Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
Maximum PC / Will Kraft
On October 29, Canonical is set to release Ubuntu 9.10 (codenamed “Karmic Koala”), the newest installment in the Ubuntu product line. In anticipation of this release, we took the release candidate (RC) for a test drive. Ubuntu 9.10 RC comes on a LiveCD just like its predecessors and allows you to test a fully-functional installation of the operating system without installing it.
DOD open-sources more than 1M lines of code
LinuxWorld / Patrick Thibodeau
In short, the DOD is making use of open-source applications a two-way street, and there may be more DOD-funded open-source software on the way. There’s evidence of a new, aggressive tone being set by the department’s top CIO, David Wennergren, on open source use. A memo he wrote this month encourages adoption of open source and pointedly said that open source can “provide advantages” to the department’s need to update its software “to anticipate new threats and respond to continuously changing requirements.”
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