http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2012, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Wed, 15 Feb 2012 04:10:37 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/25469/Richard_Stallman_Was_Right_All_Along/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25469/Richard_Stallman_Was_Right_All_Along/ Late last year, president Obama signed a law that makes it possible to indefinitely detain terrorist suspects without any form of trial or due process. Peaceful protesters in Occupy movements all over the world have been labelled as terrorists by the authorities. Initiatives like SOPA promote diligent monitoring of communication channels. Thirty years ago, when Richard Stallman launched the GNU project, and during the three decades that followed, his sometimes extreme views and peculiar antics were ridiculed and disregarded as paranoia - but here we are, 2012, and his once paranoid what-ifs have become reality. Mon, 02 Jan 2012 19:12:50 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) GNU, GPL, Open Source 177 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 Editorial http://www.osnews.com/story/25244/FSF_Warns_About_the_Danger_of_Secure_Boot/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25244/FSF_Warns_About_the_Danger_of_Secure_Boot/ "The Free Software Foundation released a statement open for public signing, titled 'Stand up for your freedom to install free software'. The statement is a response to Microsoft's announcement that if computer makers wish to distribute machines with the Windows 8 compatibility logo, they must implement a system called 'Secure Boot'. The FSF statement warns against the danger that, if done wrong, this system would have to be called Restricted Boot, because it could make computers incapable of running anything but Windows." Signed. Tue, 18 Oct 2011 21:03:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) GNU, GPL, Open Source 57 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News Dirge http://www.osnews.com/story/25095/Rapid7_Commits_100_000_to_Open_Source_Security_Projects/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25095/Rapid7_Commits_100_000_to_Open_Source_Security_Projects/ Rapid7 created a $100,000 investment fund to support up to seven promising open source projects in the security industry. The "Magnificent7" projects will be identified and supported through the remainder of 2011 and into 2012. Any security-related open source project - with a preference for BSD-compatible licensing - is applicable and encouraged to submit a "Magnificent7" application. Tue, 23 Aug 2011 21:12:31 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) GNU, GPL, Open Source 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News HAL2001 http://www.osnews.com/story/25060/Android_Is_Not_Open_Source_And_Why_That_s_Good/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25060/Android_Is_Not_Open_Source_And_Why_That_s_Good/ Google has finally acknowledged that its characterization of Android as open source is false and, in the end, this can only make the mobile platform stronger, InfoWorld's Galen Gruman argues. 'It's hard for believers to accept that open source brings with it difficulties, but look at the consistent failure of the other open source mobile platforms -- Moblin, Maemo, and MeeGo -- that all devolved into grad-student-like thought experiments and personal pet projects. Users don't want that, and ultimately products are sold to users.' Instead, Google has been quietly taking parts of Android back in house to develop them purposefully and deeply, and as Google has asserted more control over Android, it's improved. Fri, 12 Aug 2011 19:05:09 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 85 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News snydeq http://www.osnews.com/story/25028/A_New_Way_of_Measuring_Openness_The_Open_Governance_Index/ http://www.osnews.com/story/25028/A_New_Way_of_Measuring_Openness_The_Open_Governance_Index/ "Much has been said about open source projects - and open source platforms are now powering an ever-increasing share of the mobile market. But what is 'open' and how can you measure openness? As part of our new research report, VisionMobile Research Partner Liz Laffan introduces the Open Governance Index - a new approach to measuring the 'openness' of software projects, from Android to WebKit." Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:33:32 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 6 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News RichterKuato http://www.osnews.com/story/24610/Of_Open-Source_and_Openness/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24610/Of_Open-Source_and_Openness/ In a recent article Thom contributed his opinion to the discussion about the openness of Android that started when Google choose to withhold the source code for honeycomb, here are my 2 cents. In the article the obligations GPL puts on Google are made very clear. This makes it clear that Android is indeed an open-source project. However being open-source and being open aren't always the same thing. Wed, 06 Apr 2011 22:13:38 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 58 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News AcacioMartins http://www.osnews.com/story/24576/Yahoo_Plans_To_Open_Code_for_Non-core_Technologies/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24576/Yahoo_Plans_To_Open_Code_for_Non-core_Technologies/ Yahoo plans to release some technologies, including storage technologies, to the open source community, a senior executive of the company said. These are systems that Yahoo built to help it handle large numbers of users on its websites, but that don't necessarily give it a competitive advantage, said David Chaiken, chief architect at Yahoo, in an interview in Bangalore on Friday. Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:11:31 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 9 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News Amy Bennett http://www.osnews.com/story/24550/Open_Source_Skype_Alternative/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24550/Open_Source_Skype_Alternative/ The GNU Project has announced a new project called GNU Free Call, an open source Skype alternative that will offer anonymous VoIP and will use the GNU SIP Witch server as the back end. GNU SIP Witch requires a minimum of system resources so it can be used on cell phones too so it seems the goal is to provide a cross-platform application, the immediate target most probably being Android. Mon, 21 Mar 2011 20:14:11 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (David Adams) GNU, GPL, Open Source 38 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News Anonymous http://www.osnews.com/story/24516/Choosing_Between_Portability_and_Innovation/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24516/Choosing_Between_Portability_and_Innovation/ "Now that Linux is the most popular free Unix-like operating system, it shouldn't be a surprise that some projects have begun treating non-Linux operating systems as second-class citizens. This isn't out of contempt for the BSDs or OpenSolaris, it's just a matter of limited manpower: if almost all the users of the application have a Linux operating system and if all the core developers are using Linux themselves, it's difficult to keep supporting other operating systems. But sometimes the choice to leave out support for other operating systems is explicitly made, e.g. when the developers want to implement some innovative features that require functionality that is (at least for now) only available in the Linux kernel." Fri, 11 Mar 2011 23:32:13 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 120 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News Oliver http://www.osnews.com/story/24447/Australian_Telco_Telstra_Complies_with_GPL/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24447/Australian_Telco_Telstra_Complies_with_GPL/ Late last year Australia's biggest telco Telstra was sharply criticised for using GPL'd code in several of its new products - but not publicly distributing changes it made to the code when doing so. However, it looks as though the company has now come clean, publishing a source code CD of the files changed in its development effort and acknowledging the GPL and Lesser GPL. It's good to see companies responding to the open source community this way and engaging - makes a change from the past! Mon, 21 Feb 2011 23:22:22 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News rlem6983 http://www.osnews.com/story/24413/Man_Decides_to_Open_Source_His_Genetic_Data_Using_GitHub/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24413/Man_Decides_to_Open_Source_His_Genetic_Data_Using_GitHub/ "Manu Sporny, founder and CEO of Digital Bazaar, has decided to use GitHub to store a project of a[n unusual] nature. Rather than a piece of software, he is listing his own genetic data as an open source project. He has released all his rights to the data and made around 1 million of his genetic markers public domain." Tue, 15 Feb 2011 09:01:34 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Hadrien Grasland) GNU, GPL, Open Source 27 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News sawboss http://www.osnews.com/story/24384/Increasing_Adoption_of_Open_Source_Software/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24384/Increasing_Adoption_of_Open_Source_Software/ "A recent survey by Gartner found that more than half of organizations surveyed have adopted open source software (OSS) solutions as part of their IT strategy. Nearly one-third of respondents cited benefits of flexibility, increased innovation, shorter development times and faster procurement processes as reasons for adopting OSS solutions. However, the survey revealed that only one-third of responding organizations had a formal OSS policy in place." Tue, 08 Feb 2011 14:10:51 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 40 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News HAL2001 http://www.osnews.com/story/24380/European_Parliament_Starts_Free_Software_User_Group/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24380/European_Parliament_Starts_Free_Software_User_Group/ "One member of the European Parliament and a handful of their advisors and assistants started a free software group last Saturday, aiming to increase the use of Free and open source software in the European Parliament's IT infrastructure. The user group is open to all who work in the European Parliament, including staff and assistants working in political groups." Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:37:02 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (OSNews Staff) GNU, GPL, Open Source 18 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News jonas.kirilla http://www.osnews.com/story/24301/Sun_s_Open_Source_Legacy_Code_and_Compromises/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24301/Sun_s_Open_Source_Legacy_Code_and_Compromises/ Richard Hillesley has written about the fate of various Sun open source projects since that firm's acquisition by Oracle. He noticeably quotes Oracle CEO Larry Ellison as having said "If an open source product gets good enough, we'll simply take it." Fri, 21 Jan 2011 17:34:25 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Hadrien Grasland) GNU, GPL, Open Source 40 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News jimmy1971 http://www.osnews.com/story/24290/LibreOffice_proposed_UI_Mock-ups/ http://www.osnews.com/story/24290/LibreOffice_proposed_UI_Mock-ups/ The fork of OpenOffice called LibreOffice is going to have its first official release soon. This version is primarily a code cleanup, and so it will not be much different to OpenOffice 3.3, which is also about to be released soon. For the subsequent release of LibrOffice, however, there are proposals starting to emerge which are quite interesting. Tech Drive-in reports on a mock-up of a proposed overhaul of the LibreOffice UI. Thu, 20 Jan 2011 20:51:43 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Hadrien Grasland) GNU, GPL, Open Source 13 http://www.osnews.com/topics/62 News lemur2