Free Republic

The European Union insisted Friday that governments and the private sector must share the responsibility of overseeing the Internet, setting the stage for a showdown with the United States on the future of Internet governance. A senior U.S. official reiterated Thursday that the country wants to remain the Internet's ultimate authority, rejecting calls in a United Nations meeting in Geneva for a U.N. body to take over. EU spokesman Martin Selmayr said a new cooperation model was important "because the Internet is a global resource." "The EU ... is very firm on this position," he added. The Geneva talks were...

Unpatched Firefox flaw may expose users By Joris Evers, CNET News.com Published on ZDNet News: September 9, 2005, 3:53 AM PT A new, unpatched flaw in that affects all versions of Firefox could let attackers surreptitiously run malicious code on users' PCs, a security researcher has warned. The problem lies in the way Firefox handles Web links that are overly long and contain dashes, security researcher Tom Ferris said in an interview via instant messaging late Thursday. He posted an advisory and a proof of concept to the Full Disclosure security mailing list and to his Security Protocols Web site....

Firefox's 'retreat' ensures Microsoft excels Open source web browser Firefox has lost the momentum it has steadily gained since it was unleashed last year, according to Web analysts at Net Applications. The online portal’s unique Hit List service reveals a slump in the Mozilla browser’s market share, falling from 8.7% to 8.1 % in July. Coinciding with its demise, was the advance of Microsoft's IE that has gained some of the ground surrendered in June, climbing back from 86.6 % to 87.2% last month. The revival for the dominant browser comes on the back of average monthly losses of between...

A major reorganization is in the works for China's open-source software industry, with discussions under way over how local Linux vendors and industry organizations can cooperate more closely -- including the possibility of a merger between several of the country's top Linux companies. If the discussions result in a merger, it would be one that involves some of the biggest names in China's Linux industry, including Turbolinux China Software, Red Flag Software, and Beijing Co-Create Open Source Software, according to executives involved with the discussions. Closer cooperation among Chinese Linux vendors and industry organizations is essential if the country's software...

Kerala, a tiny coastal state in south India, is a site of significant popularity of free software and GNU/Linux. What lessons can Kerala teach other areas about using free and open source software? Kerala, as a state, is strongly grounded in principles of socialism. Most of the educated middle class is leftist, at least in principle. The state is credited with a near 100% literacy rate and better social statistics than most of the rest of the country. And all this is reflected in a spirit among the people to question any decision imposed on them. They resent lack of...