Interview: Gael Duval of Ulteo, MandrivaLinux

  Submitted by Valour Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 13 Comments
"Gael Duval, the founder of the popular MandrivaLinux project, was fired from Mandriva last spring in an effort to cut costs. Almost immediately afterward, Duval began work on a new GNU/Linux distribution, Ulteo. As of this writing, Ulteo has not yet released its first beta edition, but it should be available soon. While we're all waiting, I figured I'd ask Mr Duval some questions about Ulteo, Mandriva, and starting GNU/Linux projects in general."
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Plans for gnome-vfs Replacement

  Submitted by Rahul Gnome 29 Comments
Alexander Larrson (Red Hat), developer and maintainer of gnome-vfs and Nautilus has proposed a plan to replace gnome-vfs. "Having spent the last 4 years as the gnome-vfs maintainer, and even longer as the primary gnome-vfs user (in Nautilus) I'm well aware of the problems it has. I think that we've reached a point where the problems in the gnome-vfs architecture and its position in the stack are now ranking as one of the most problematic aspects of the gnome platform, especially considering the enhancements and quality improvements seen in other parts of the platform. So, I think the time has come for a serious look at what gnome-vfs could be."
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Luis Villa: Communities Should Help Small Linux OEMs

Linux 53 Comments
GNOME's Luis Villa has wrote an interesting entry in his blog, explaining why it is in Linux's best interest that distribution communities seek out small Linux OEM companies and help them in providing the best Linux experience possible. "Obviously it is in RH, Canonical, and Novell's interests to actively pursue Big Enterprise Fish like HP and Dell. But I'm really surprised that the communities around these distros haven't sought out the smaller, and potentially growing, companies that are offering computers with Linux pre-installed. It seems like this is a win-win for everyone."
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Solaris 10 with Trusted Extensions Readied for 11/06 Update

  Submitted by anonymous Solaris 12 Comments
"As part of its server and storage announcements last week, Sun Microsystems said that it finally would be delivering the Trusted Solaris Extensions to its Solaris 10 Unix platform. Trusted Extensions is an add-on to Solaris 10 that gives it beefed up security and makes the platform more attractive to defense contractors, financial services firms, and any other organization that is fervent about security."
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Writing Windows CE Device Drivers: Principle to Practice

Windows 1 Comment
Device driver writers possess a special blend of software and hardware skills (among other things). They need to write highly structured and elegant code as well as debug down to the register level of the hardware. They have to do their tasks with less then optimal debug hardware. They often make do without JTAG or Ethernet debug tools and fix tough problems with just their wit and a GPIO line. If you have the tenacity to write device drivers read on.
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GPLViolations.org Wins Case Against D-Link

  Submitted by Ben Jao Ming Open Source 75 Comments
"The gpl-violations.org project prevails in court litigation against D-Link regarding D-Link's alleged inappropriate and copyright infringing use of parts of the Linux Operating System Kernel. D-Link distributed DSM-G600, a network attached storage device which uses a Linux-based Operating System. However, this distribution was incompliant with the GNU General Public License which covers the Linux Kernel and many other software programs used in the product."
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Linux Kernel Developers’ Position on GPLv3

  Submitted by diegocg Open Source 53 Comments
A group of 29 Linux kernel developers have recently come together and produced a position statement on GPLv3 explaining why they don't like the GPLv3. "The three key objections noted in section 5 are individually and collectively sufficient reason for us to reject the current licence proposal. We foresee the release of GPLv3 portends the Balkanisation of the entire Open Source Universe upon which we rely." They've also run a GPLv3 poll.
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Microsoft Taking Vista UI Feedback

Windows 17 Comments
With Release Candidate 1 now out the door, Microsoft is putting what it calls the 'fit-and-finish' on Windows Vista's user interface, and the company is looking for feedback from users testing out the beta release. Dave Vronay, a research manager with the Windows User Experience Compliance team, says Microsoft is taking a lot of time to track down minor UI glitches - something it has never done before. "You can actually participate in this process by providing your feedback on the various pre-release versions of Vista we are putting out," says Vronay. The company is hosting a forum in which users can offer their rants and raves. Also, Microsoft has confirmed all versions of Vista will ship on the same disk.
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NTFS Read, Write for BeOS

  Submitted by Cian Duffy Haiku 18 Comments
3dEyes**, of NaviTracker and Romashka fame, who also did recent ports of SAMBA to BeOS, has released a highly experimental NTFS driver for BeOS. This driver both reads from and writes to NTFS file systems. Currently, it can read files, folders, and symlinks; write to files, create new directories, files and symlinks, deleting files/directories, renaming and moving files, editing of volume labels and free space detection.
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Source Distributions: Their Own Worst Enemies?

  Submitted by danwarne Gentoo 42 Comments
"I love Gentoo, I also hate it with a vengeance. I’m not talking small time peeves here, like the way Krispy Kremes icing gets all over your fingers (and by extension, clothes). I’m talking the type of frustration that is expressed in multitudes of expletives, some of which would make the profinsaurus cry. Why? Because, by definition and by nature, a source-based distribution is its own worst enemy."
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