Monthly Archive:: January 2008

Large companies typically don't have any idea how much Open Source software they have running on their various systems. This can pose a management and legal problem, so HP has developed software, called FOSSology and FOSSBazaar to help track down errant OSS installs. A Techtarget article notes, "HP gave an example of a recent customer that had three times as many FOSS licenses as originally estimated -- 75 licenses rather than 25. This left customers with a choice: implement governance policies to allow the safe use of FOSS, or replace the software at an estimated cost of $80 million."

Helios Labs was very kind in sending me their H2000 upscaling multi-function DVD player, which is region free. The device playbacks just about anything you can throw at it, and can upscale standard definition content to high definition - functionality you really want when you have a high-definition ready television.

Trolltech, the originator of Qt, which forms the basis of the Linux KDE desktop environment, is being acquired by Nokia, the world's number-one mobile phone vendor. Nokia expects its acquisition of Trolltech to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and to enhance its Internet services business. The original press release is also available. Update: "We will continue to actively develop Qt and Qtopia. We also want to underline that we will continue to support the open source community by continuing to release these technologies under the GPL."

QEmu has been eluding its port to Syllable Desktop, but the Syllable team has gotten this emulator to work now. The port is based on earlier work on QEmu itself and on a number of improvements that are being made to Syllable Desktop. The coming Syllable development builds will have improved support for POSIX threads, timers and async I/O. The newest QEmu version 0.9.1 runs now, although there is still a problem with SDL that prevents the keyboard from working. There is already a binary package of QEmu 0.9.1 for Syllable Server in the downloads section. Other recent ports to Syllable Desktop include LibPurple and Finch, the text mode client of Pidgin (the former GAIM instant messaging application) and the latest version of SaMBa, 3.0.28.

Comic: "Governance".

"Inspired by the command wheel in the Neverwinter Nights online game, Kommando is a floating command panel for KDE. Although Kommando's development is almost as slow as an official Debian release, and is only at version 0.5.2, it is already a configurable and convenient addition to the array of panels available in KDE."

"Looks like Microsoft is not planning to release Windows 7 in 2009. Microsoft's official response, by an email dated 26th January, 2008, to WinVistaClub states that Windows 7 is still in the planning stage and will take approximately 3 years to develop." So there.

The third pre-release of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring has been released. This pre-release brings available KDE 4.0.0 final (in the repositories, not on the discs), a new XML-based package metainformation system, out-of-the-box support for multimedia keys on many common keyboards, new NVIDIA and ATI drivers, kernel 2.6.24 RC8 (with ALSA 1.0.16 RC1), and more. See here for download information. There are screenshots too.

"For years, the poster child of the anti-open source movement was Microsoft, with its proprietary software model. In recent years, however, the company has changed its views, starting an open source software lab to work on interoperability issues. It's even become a purveyor of its own open source-approved licenses. What do these efforts mean? For Sam Ramji, Microsoft's director of open source technology strategy, they indicate the company is 'open' for business."

This article is about new aspects of the never-ending story of how Apple is protecting MacOS X for running on different hardware than Apple's. The keyword is virtualization, which allows running unmodified version of Mac OS X as virtualized instance.

The frequency at which Apple is seeding new pre-release builds of its second update to the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard operating system is increasing rapidly, suggesting an official release may be imminent. Fresh on the heels of build 9C20, which was released as a private distribution earlier this week, the Cupertino-based Mac maker on Thursday issued its latest revision of the software update labeled Mac OS X 10.5.2 build 9C23.

"Internet Explorer 8 is going to be the most standards-compliant IE yet, but it's going about it in a way that has some people scratching their heads. With Internet Explorer 8, you have a choice in standards compliance modes. Sound oxymoronic? Shouldn't there be one standards mode by default? Heck, shouldn't the only mode be standards mode? Ah, idealism." Please note, however, that John Resig of Mozilla Corporation spotted something interesting: "Internet Explorer 8 will support DOCTYPE switching for new DOCTYPEs (like HTML5). This really does change any frustration that someone should have concerning the new meta tag. This means that you can write your web pages in a completely standards-based way (CSS, HTML5, JavaScript) and not have to use a single browser-centric tag in order to do so."

ICANN, the group charged with overseeing the Internet's addressing system, has submitted a report to the US Department of Commerce in which it argues that the time has come to end US oversight. In October 2006, the Department of Commerce and ICANN signed the Joint Project Agreement, a three-year pact that extended Commerce's oversight of the body, while leaving open the possibility that the group would become independent as soon as April of this year. In the new report, ICANN argues that it has already met the requirements for independence and should therefore be freed from oversight.

There's been quite the noise on the internet that Microsoft would be supposedly forcing IE7 on customers via Windows Update. Ars dove into the issue, and hands out milk and cookies to everyone while explaining there's nothing to worry about. "They key to understanding what's happening in two weeks is WSUS. WSUS is not synonymous with Windows Update. WSUS is a management tool that works alongside Windows Update to allow IT admins to control how patches and updates are applied across a deployment. If you're an IT shop, run WSUS and have it configured to install update rollups, then you'll be getting IE7 that day. However, by default, WSUS is not set to automatically approve update roll-ups. Equally as important, users who aren't in tightly managed business environments (e.g., most users) will not wake up to find that Internet Explorer has been installed on their Windows XP SP2 systems without their say-so. Fret not: Microsoft isn't making you do it. They're not making anyone do it, not even WSUS users."