Free Republic

Have you ever wanted to take a look at FreeBSD without having to actually install anything on your hard disk? FreeSBIE, developed by Gruppo Utentia FreeBSD Italia, is a live CD based on the FreeBSD operating system, similar to the Knoppix and Mandriva Move Linux live CDs. The current version 1.1 is based on FreeBSD version 5.3. It works directly from the CD without altering any data on your hard disk, but version 1.1 also offers the option of a hard disk installation using a feature borrowed with permission from the BSDinstaller team. FreeSBIE support several types of desktop environments....

Open source software gets bureaucratic backing Simon Jeffery Tuesday June 28, 2005 The use of open source software on public sector IT networks was today endorsed by a report from the parliamentary office of science technology. It said the use of open source alongside existing proprietary systems was increasingly accepted and had the potential to "stimulate creativity and innovation". The differences between the two systems are down to who has rights over software and the operating system. In the closed model, where Microsoft is the biggest player, customers buy a product but are forbidden from improving it by making alterations...

AUSTIN, TX and ROME, ITALY – Win4Lin, a leading supplier of enterprise virtualization solutions on Linux, announced today a strategic partnership with NoMachine, the makers of NX Server remote access and management software. The partnership will develop and offer a Linux hosted alternative to Citrix. Win4Lin and NoMachine will develop a Windows and Linux hybrid terminal server solution that can be used for desktop productivity, line-of-business and legacy Windows application access. The solution will be based on the NoMachine NX Distributed Computing Architecture and Win4Lin Terminal Server™. "Win4Lin Terminal Server is the best way to serve up real Windows sessions...

Many people take as a given that the desktop computer market is ossified and completely dominated by Microsoft. But, taking the global view, the PC market is anything but saturated. Some huge, untapped markets will ultimately decide how the market share pie will ultimately be divided. There will be room for Microsoft, Apple, and Linux, but how will it shake out? Page 1 Before I begin outlining why I believe Linux is not threatened by Apple's move to use Intel processors, let me tell you a bit about myself. My entire life I was surrounded by technology. As my father...

A totally new release of Knoppix was unveiled at LinuxTag 2005, Knoppix 4.0. This is the release that introduces the split between "maxi" DVD and "mini" CD releases. I've tried out the 4.0 DVD and let me tell you, I'm like a kid in a candy store. Note: This DVD is not yet available for download. Klaus often creates a special version of Knoppix for LinuxTag that then gets released to the general public (often with some updates) a few weeks afterward. In the case of Knoppix 4.0 I imagine the DVD being handed out at LinuxTag will be pretty...

On presenting his new plan for information technology in Norway - "eNorge 2009 – the digital leap", Norwegian Minister of Modernization Morten Andreas Meyer today at a press conference in Oslo declared "Proprietary formats will no longer be acceptable in communication between citizens and government." Taking great care not to mention the name Microsoft directly, but rather referring to "the spreadsheet almost everyone use" or saying this is the last time I will present a plan for information technology being broadcast on the net in Windows Media, the Minister sent strong signals in the direction of Redmond to open up...

Sun Microsystems (Quote, Chart) is quietly releasing the source code to the upcoming Java System Application Server, Platform Edition 9, under the GlassFish project, named after a semi-transparent aquarium fish. The company is expected to release the source code for its Java-based application server under a new open source license as it kicks off its JavaOne conference in San Francisco today. Now developers will be able to view and use the app server's innards under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL), approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI) in January, said Joe Keller, Sun vice president of Java Web...

The LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP/Perl) software stack is emerging as a popular and cost-effective Web development platform. This is understandable given that it comprises a free operating system, Web server, database, and scripting language. However, a problem with having a number of separate open source components is integration. The XAMPP project aims to eliminate this problem. With XAMPP, there is no reason for developers to skip over an open source solution when considering Web development platforms. The XAMPP download includes more than just Apache, MySQL, PHP, and Perl. It also includes a number of related open source packages. Included...

A battle for software supremacy within the public and private sectors of Ukraine has begun. Recently, the Ukrainian Parliament registered a "project of law" (the equivalent of a bill in U.S. terms) that may radically alter the manner in which the Ukrainian government procures software. If adopted, it will require government agencies, along with all state-owned or state-controlled companies, to give preference to open source software. Click here! However, the proposed legislation still offers ample opportunity for competition by legitimate proprietary software. It requires giving preference to an open source product only when the open source feature set is analogous...

Motorola is set to ship another Linux/Java phone in Q4 2005. The E895 is a tri-band GSM cameraphone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, large LCD display, Bluetooth, and rich Internet, multimedia, video, and web capabilities, Motorola says. The company is demonstrating it at JavaOne this week. The E895 is the sixth in Motorola's line of Linux-based phones, which includes business-oriented phones as well as multimedia-oriented phones for consumers. Previous models in the business line include the original A760, the video- and VPN-enabled A768, and the quad-band A780. Multimedia-oriented phones include the original E680 and its Bluetooth-enabled followup, the E680i. Motorola...

In an effort to turn around its dwindling Unix revenue, SCO introduced a new version of its OpenServer product Wednesday along with a new open-source-friendly attitude. OpenServer 6 is based on the same software core as the company's other operating system product, UnixWare, a later arrival that the company and its predecessors have emphasized for years but that never was adopted as much as OpenServer. The new OpenServer can run software for both operating systems, improves performance by a factor of two to four, and can be used on 32-processor machines with as much as 16GB of memory, SCO said....

In preparation for this column, I have strapped on the White Beard of Infallible Punditry. I remind you all that when I am wearing the WBoIP, all of my pronouncements are absolutely flawless from all conceivable logical angles, and are not to be questioned. Pronouncement the First: As a user-level operating system, Linux is a cruel and tawdry lie. Bigfoot will fly to your house and personally deliver a $30,000 tax refund before there's a Linux that can challenge Windows or MacOS in terms of usability. If anyone tells you otherwise, your only rebuttal should be to administer that thing...

eBay has begun providing open-source code for some of its search and access applications to expand its external developer community. The software will be available under a new program called Community Codebase, which was announced at the eBay Developers Conference in San Jose, California, on Tuesday. With just over 20 per cent of the listed items on eBay coming in through applications and tools provided by external developers, the auction giant is hoping to encourage developers to find new ways of using the online marketplace. "We’ve seen lots of great examples of open-source applications, clearly; Linux, Apache and Firefox just...

Several years ago, I wrote "Opening Up to OpenOffice.org: Finding an Alternative to Microsoft Word" -- my most quoted article. At that time OpenOffice.org (OOo) was barely known, so I confined myself to highlights. Now that OOo is starting to be used in business, a more detailed look seems overdue. Accordingly, I compared the beta of OOo Writer 2.0 with Microsoft Word 2003. Both are adequate for most users' purposes, so I focused on functions that power users are likely to want: Click here! * Styles * Templates * Outlining * Bulleted and numbered lists * Tables * Headers and...

NEW YORK - Marc Fleury is shocked--shocked!--that IBM would use the same tactics to attack him that he's been using to attack IBM. "Frankly, it leaves us scratching our heads," he says. For the past two years Fleury's company, Atlanta, Ga.-based JBoss, has been stealing business from IBM (nyse: IBM - news - people ) by giving away a set of open source programs that do the same work as IBM's WebSphere software. Fleury claims JBoss shipped more copies last year than IBM did. IBM apparently has grown tired of having a freebie program eating away at its sales. So...

Something's Amiss in the Linux Communityby Walter V. Koenning for the Reallylinux.com OPINION/EDITORIAL section. Maybe something is amiss in our beloved Linux community? This is the same unique self sufficient, self sustaining realm where I can sit behind my monitor at 2am and immerse in the concerns regarding Bitkeeper, getting intimately close to the thoughts of Linus and Andrew. I don't know either personally, but that's the amazing thing about this community. It is tight, it is personal and it is greatly beneficial. It is also the realm where the support so many keep pressing as a Linux weakness exists...

Silicon Valley Watcher: Early next week IBM will introduce the largest ever corporate blogging initiative in a bid to encourage any of its 130,000 staff to become online evangelists for the company. Tom Foremski's report today in Silicon Valley Watcher makes for very interesting reading. He says IBM's plan comes hot on the heels of their Q1/05 financial results, which missed financial analysts' expectations and led to IBM announcing layoffs of up to 13,000 employees, with the majority of those lost jobs in Europe. Also see this ZDNet report with additional commentary. Tom's report says that IBM hopes blogging could...

Ditching Microsoft can save millions PA News Published: 06 May 2005 Primary schools could cut their computer costs by nearly half if they stopped buying, operating and supporting products from the world’s largest software company, government research has found. Secondaries could also slash their information technology overheads by a quarter if they moved away from Microsoft and other commercial programs, according to an analysis carried out by the British Educational Communications and Technology Association, the Government’s ICT agency. The findings could undermine Microsoft’s hold on the education market, but they raise the prospect of millions of pounds of savings for...

In the mid 1990s, when I first began running into open source in my practice, I noticed that open source had a very strange effect on intellectual property lawyers. It was a Chicken Little situation, but instead of crying "the sky is falling" they were crying "the code is infringing." Nearly ten years later, very few intellectual property lawsuits have actually been filed relating to open source. Roughly, the scorecard looks like this: Trademark infringement suits: 1 (MySQL-NuSphere)Copyright infringement suits: 1/2 (SCO, after modifying the complaint)Trade secret infringement suits: 1/2 (SCO, original complaint)Patent infringement suits: 0 The sky did not...

Industry experts who have taken a look at the OpenOffice.org 2.0 said new database functionality included with the open source personal productivity suite will go a long way toward making the system a viable alternative to Microsoft Office -- especially in the all important small and medium-sized business (SMB) market. OpenOffice 2.0, which is still in the beta testing phase, includes a new database creation application called Base that is similar to Microsoft Access and rounds out an offering that already includes alternatives to Microsoft's Excel, PowerPoint and Paint applications. Base allows users to create standalone databases and related data...