Free device driver development for Linux - courtesy of Linux kernel community

Here is an interesting news fresh out of the oven ... The Linux kernel community is offering all companies free Linux driver development. The modus operandi is perceived to be as follows :

Suppose company A has a device which it needs to work in Linux...

The company sends the specification of the device to the kernel development team. If they do not have the specifications, they may also send the contact mail of their engineer who knows about the device and is willing to answer an occasional question about the device.

Once the device driver has been developed, it is incorporated into the main Linux kernel source tree so that all Linux users who own the device will benefit from it. This driver will work with all of the different CPU types supported by Linux.

This is what the article has to say about non disclosure agreements (NDAs) and I quote :

If your company is worried about NDA issues surrounding your device's specifications, we have arranged a program with OSDL/TLF's Tech Board to provide the legal framework where a company can interact with a member of the kernel community in order to properly assure that all needed NDA requirements are fulfilled.

Apart from the original article, you can also read an FAQ about the declaration here.

News: Richard Stallman convinces Cuba to embrace GNU/Linux

When you hear the name Cuba, it concocts in your mind a picture of bankruptcy, food shortages, drug shortages, rampant unemployment et al, at least some of them a direct side effect of the US trade sanctions [source BBC]. But one thing the Cubans can be proud of is their excellent health care system which rivals even that in the US. Believe it or not, Cubans boasts of a better life expectancy than the North Americans and Cuba has better infant and adult mortality rates than the US.

Being a communist state, it was only natural for Cuba to embrace GNU/Linux as the official OS of choice for all governmental departments. But what surprises me is why it took so long. AP news reports that in a recent visit to Cuba, Richard M Stallman was able to convince the Cuban government the advantages of using a Free OS in all government offices - definitely a big feather in the cap for RMS. He was visiting Cuba to speak at an International Conference on Communication and Technologies in Havana.

It might seem that RMS is only successful with governments which are predominantly socialist in their beliefs. But the fact is, many reasons he lists in favor of supporting Free software are valid and make perfect sense for all the governments the world over irrespective of their ideologies - including (I may add) the US government. The prominent reason being :

The inherent security threat in using proprietary software for mission critical situations or in matters of state security, for the simple reason that without being able to examine the code, users can't know what it's doing or what "back door" holes developers might have left open for future entry.

I feel happy that one more country has decided to embrace GNU/Linux in a big way. Kudos to the Cubans for their foresight.

Eric.S.Raymond forsakes Fedora Linux and embraces Ubuntu

Eric.S.Raymond is best known for authoring the famous essay "The cathedral and the bazaar" where he discusses the theories of software engineering in terms of two fundamentally different development styles - the cathedral model of most of the commercial world versus the "bazaar" model of the Linux world. This essay has become so popular that it has also been published in a book format (By O'Reilly). One of the most often used quotes from his essay is - "Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow". He is also a board member of Freespire.

In the past, Mr Raymond has been in the limelight for the push to allow proprietary codecs into Linux. His surmise is that the Linux community need to start integrating more proprietary software in order to get market share. ESR points to proprietary multimedia codecs as an example, where Linux distributions should step away from Free software ideology in order to get more users. He states that this will succeed in bringing those users back to open source later on which will lead to gaining more influence with manufacturers and media distributors thus helping make Linux a properly supported platform. And this idea he put forward was met with ridicule from a major section of the community.

Now again he has succeeded in grabbing the headlines by stating his intention to switch to Ubuntu from Fedora which he has been using till now. And he supports his move by listing the following reasons - and I quote :

• Chronic governance problems.
• Persistent failure to maintain key repositories in a sane, consistent state from which upgrades might actually be possible.
• A murky, poorly-documented, over-complex submission process.
• Allowing RPM development to drift and stagnate -- then adding another layer of complexity, bugs, and wretched performance with yum.
• Effectively abandoning the struggle for desktop market share.
• Failure to address the problem of proprietary multimedia formats with any attitude other than blank denial.
  

While I agree with him on his statement on the performance of Yum - I have myself found it quite slow - a reason attributed to it storing all the details in an XML file and then reading from it, I do not agree that Red Hat/ Fedora is in the wrong to flatly deny to incorporate proprietary multimedia formats in their distribution.

Alan Cox has given a reply to ESR's letter in the Fedora mailing list.

Ironically, another news that is being just aired is that Microsoft has been asked to pay 1.52 Billion dollars in a patent case against Alcatel-Lucent concerning the use of MP3 technology in WMP [Source: BBC].

So the risk factors concerning incorporating proprietary / patented formats in GNU/Linux is clear for all to see. Can Red Hat / Ubuntu or any other distribution survive if they are asked to pay such a huge sum for alleged patent infringement ? I doubt it.

On another note, considering that he is a board member at Freespire, and given his stand, shouldn't he be embracing Freespire instead of Ubuntu ?

Shiksha India - taking strides in providing Open Source multimedia driven educational material

Shiksha is a word in the Sanskrit language which means "to instruct" or "educate". Shiksha India - a non-profit organization, is an initiative of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and was launched during the India Economic Summit on 2nd of December 2001. It is managed by the Shiksha India Trust. The main aim of this organization is to provide good quality multimedia driven educational material. It has the blessings of the Indian government and it has partnered with the Ministry of Information Technology of India to provide good quality educational content in the public domain.

Mark Rais writes about how this non-profit project is playing a pivotal role in imparting education to more than half a million under privileged students. What is more important is the manner in which Open Source plays a significant role in this project.

In India, most Government controlled schools in the cities run in a relatively smooth manner and on an average have a teacher student ratio of 1:40. But as you move to the outskirts, in villages and in many remote areas, the so called government schools are just dilapidated structures with not enough teachers. And if there are teachers, the people in that area are so poor that they feel sending children to school will be a waste when they would rather ask them to do odd jobs and contribute to the family income.

To overcome this inertia among the people and to encourage them to send their children to schools, many state governments have started the free mid-day meals scheme in all government run schools in their respective states which has shown results in greater attendance in classes.

By embracing Open Source and Free Software solutions in public institutions including government run schools, India can save a huge amount of money in licensing costs which can be diverted to meet more pressing humanitarian needs. At present, the official stance of the Indian government is to use the most efficient technology in IT be it proprietary or Open source. And which one to use will be decided on a case-by-case basis. So there are no clear guidelines for or against Open Source or Free technologies. In recent times though, there is a growing awareness in many official quarters on the advantages of embracing Open Source solutions in public institutions.

Dell and Linux - The GNU/Linux support page of Dell

Dell has been recently in the news for its decision to ship Dell desktops and laptops pre-loaded with GNU/Linux. While most Dell advertisements in newspapers shows the caption "Dell recommends Windows XP" or similar, this move has come as a surprising relief for all Free software enthusiasts. More specifically, it shows the change in the way the wind blows. Of course Dell does not provide the option to ship all its computers pre-loaded with Linux. This is available only for its N-Series range of desktops and laptops.

Dell has also put up a separate page dedicated to Linux where it explains the level of support it provides for machines pre-loaded with Linux. The heading of the web page proclaims - "You choose the Linux you want. Dell does the rest. Dell|Linux makes life easier." Dell has also put together a community portal at linux.dell.com where you can get more information regarding the usage of Linux on your Dell equipment.

Update (26-Feb-2007): Dell has also started a website called dellideastorm.com where it invites opinion from the general public about the suggestions and ideas they have and which they would like Dell to incorporate in their products. Guess what, offering "Pre-Installed Linux | Ubuntu | Fedora | OpenSUSE | Multi-Boot" has the most number of votes - a total of 82959 followed by "Dell machines Pre-installed with Open Office" a distant second with 53092 votes.

Free Open Solaris starter kit

Two months back, I had gustily bought the news of the free Sun Solaris media kit which consisted of a set of 3 DVDs which contained the Solaris OS for the Sparc and Intel architectures as well as Java software goodies. And as a follow up, I had posted a couple of photos of the media kit I received as well. Now it is OpenSolaris which is handing out free DVDs. But the OpenSolaris give away is more exciting for a number of reasons.

The OpenSolaris media kit, which they chose to call the starter kit consists of a set of two DVDs and a mini book. You heard right, they have also included a booklet which contain a collection of tutorials and documentation which will be of use to OpenSolaris neophytes. The DVDs will contain apart from the Solaris Express, the community built images of three distributions of OpenSolaris namely Nexenta OS, Belenix and SchilliX as well as OpenSolaris source code. You will also find the Sun Studio compilers included in the offering. You can order your copy of the starter kit here. I may also add that you need to register first to place the order.

In all respects these are very good times for Solaris users as Sun Microsystems is going on a limb to sustain the excitement towards its software products by developers and users alike and ensure that its legacy does not wither away. A good move in these fast changing times. Now I am waiting for the day when they will release Solaris under the GPL v3 license.

Yahoo mail now provides unlimited storage

My first email id - the very first one I created when I was introduced to the Internet - was a Yahoo mail id. I still remember my mail box had a measly 5 MB storage limit. At that time, Yahoo was the most popular web portal around and also the dominant search engine. Then Google came along and the rest as they say is history.

With Google starting Gmail and providing a humongous 2GB and counting mail storage for each of its users, it as much as literally pulled the rug from under the feet of most heavy weights including Yahoo. While currently Yahoo has reportedly 250 million email users, and is still the leader in size in relation to Google's 50 million, it has to be noted that Gmail was able to get so many users in a significantly short time, that too when it was in the beta stage. And the number of people switching to Gmail is increasing at a rapid rate.

Yahoo eventually did hike the storage limit to 1 GB for all its free users with the paid users getting 2 GB of storage but its email interface couldn't hold a candle to the Gmail interface which most users fell in love with.

I myself switched to Gmail because I found it much more convenient to go through my mail as they were presented in the form of a conversation. And the tagging of mails was a real boon to sort ones mail. Over and above that, Gmail provides free POP3 access which is a paid feature in Yahoo mail.

Yahoo has made a number of mistakes which has helped Google usurp its position and become the leader in search and advertising and a strong competitor in mail and a few other domains.

Now it seems Yahoo is slowly waking up to the ground realities. The latest news is that it has decided to provide unlimited storage space for its mail users which I whole heartedly welcome.

Unlimited as in infinite. You can store any number of elephants if you can some how convert the elephants to its equivalent bytes ;-) .

One thing worth noting is that Yahoo doesn't allow you to convert its mail box into a virtual drive such as is possible with Gmail. Not yet anyway. While Google doesn't say that it allows one to use ones Gmail box as a virtual drive, there are projects such as the xmail hard drive and Gmail drive which makes it easy to use the email id to store your files in Gmail.

And then, Yahoo Mail servers are reportedly being powered by FreeBSD where as Gmail servers use Linux as their OS. I need not tell you which email service will be favored by a person maintaining a Linux blog ;-).

KDE 4.0 the holy grail of Desktops ?

A couple of weeks back, I was greeted by the news of a very interesting project having been moved to KDE base. The project in question is a file manager named Dolphin. What is unique about this file manager is that it is light weight, is simple to navigate without overwhelming the Computer neophytes but at the same time does not sacrifice much functionality.

In fact, I installed Dolphin on my machine which has only one window manager namely Xfce. I do not have KDE on this machine. And normally, my experience is that while running KDE applications in non-KDE window managers, the applications suffer some latency at the time of start up. But I was surprised to see that Dolphin started as quickly as any other application. I would so much as say it was even quicker to start up than its equivalent Gnome file manager Nautilus in Gnome. I do not want to start anything by comparing one file manager with another. But let me say this, Dolphin is as easy and simple to use as the Gnome file manager.

Fig: Dolphin file manager with three different file views including split panes.

On concerns shared by the power users who have grown to love the present default file manager in KDE namely Konquorer, this is what Aaron.J.Seigo - the lead developer of KDE project had to say - and I quote :

So, what is the point of dolphin? First, I think it's obvious to everyone that konqueror kicks some pretty serious ass. The downside is that it's really tuned for a particular category of power users. Our plan is therefore to introduce a file manager that is aimed at the rest of the masses and tuned specifically for file management. Where does this leave konqueror? As a power user's app and generally useful multi-function tool. i expect we will continue to ship konqueror in its current form, modulo kde4 improvements to the ui and guts.

From the above statement, I have inferred two things namely :

1. The KDE users who have the mind set of Linus Torvalds need not worry as the new KDE (4.0) will still have all the features that make it the favorite of power users. And more importantly ...
2. The KDE team is making a pitched effort to rein in rest of the people which includes the grandmas and grandpas of this world by providing them an alternate file manager which doesn't overwhelm them.
   

I am sure you will agree with me that a file manager forms one of the most frequently used application in any desktop. You can't think of a OS or desktop devoid of a file manager. And by integrating the light weight file manager Dolphin into the KDE base, the KDE team is sending out a strong signal that it aims to be a Desktop fit for all kinds of people namely the power users and the grandma kinds alike.

Indeed if this trend is duplicated across other KDE applications, KDE 4.0 could very well end up as the holy grail of Desktops.

Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 released

After waiting for so long (close to 2 years), Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 code named Debian Etch has been taken out of development cycle and is given the stable tag. A couple of months back, I had tried out Debian Etch while it was still in the testing stage and my impression of it was very good - what, with most up to date versions of popular and most used software packages and a pretty graphical installer to boot.

Some of the new features in Debian 4.0 are as follows :

• A fully integrated installation process with out of the box support for encrypted partitions.
• Graphical installer for those with enough memory for their PC
• Use of secure apt to enhance security while installing software (Read more on apt-get usage).
• Debian GNU/Linux 4.0 now runs on even AMD64 and Intel EM64T (amd64) apart from 9 other architectures.
• Now can be installed from various installation media such as DVDs, CDs, USB sticks and floppies, or from the network.
• Support for multi-architecture installation disks.
  

Those who are using an earlier version of Debian need just do an

# apt-get update

and an

# apt-get dist-upgrade

... to move their Debian distribution to the latest version.

Another important news especially for people administering Debian servers is that the Debian team has also updated the official Debian 3.1 version to include some much needed security fixes. The official Debian website has the full press release regarding Debian 4.0.0

EnGarde Secure Linux 3.0.14

EnGarde Secure Linux is a Linux distribution developed by Guardian Digital - an open source Internet security company, and is designed with security in mind. Built from grounds-up, this product has been in development since 1999. EnGarde Secure Linux highlights its "Secure by default" tag as the one reason that it should be favored to be used as a Linux server. The developers have considerably reduced its size to include server-only applications and the whole administration of the server from the rebooting to its shutting down as well as configuring and maintaining web servers, database servers and so on can be done remotely from the confines of a web interface.

Guardian Digital has split EnGarde Secure Linux into three branches. Them being

1. The Unstable branch which contain bleeding edge packages and is open only to developers.
2. The community branch which is provided for free and is supported by the open source community. And lastly...
3. The professional branch which is officially supported by Guardian Digital. And which needs to be bought.
   

The main difference between the community branch and the professional branch apart from the fact that one is free and the other is paid version is that Professional branch is much better tested and documented and can avail of the official support of Guardian Digital. Compared to that, the community branch will have to rely on the mailing list for support.

Features of EnGarde Secure Linux are many and are as follows (as quoted from their website) :

• Linux 2.6 kernel for the latest hardware compatibility
• SELinux Mandatory Access Control provides high security by strictly enforcing service separation at the kernel level
• Guardian Digital Secure Network features free access to all system and security updates and allows for quick and easy updating of the entire server
• Broad support for server hardware, including 64-bit AMD architecture and hardware RAID
• Web-based management of all functions, including the ability to build a complete web presence with FTP, DNS, HTTP, SMTP and more
• Secure up-to-date LAMP stack serves virtual websites with Apache v2.0, MySQL 5.0, and PHP 4.4 (PHP 5.0 available as an optional package)
• Latest BIND 9.3 provides secure DNS services
• Completely new WebTool, featuring easier navigation and greater ability to manage the complete system via a secure web browser connection
• RSS feed provides ability to display current news and immediate access to system and security updates
• Integrated firewall with ability to manage individual firewall rules, control port forwarding, and creation of IP blacklists
• Commercial grade Network Intrusion Detection System displays and graphs incoming attacks in real time
• Built-in Host IDS monitors system files for unauthorized changes to ensure system integrity
• Built-in UPS configuration provides ability to manage an entire network of battery-backup devices
• Real-time access to system and service log information
  

Ryan Berens who is an open source advocate at Guardian Digital tells me that EnGarde Secure Linux is a fully functional platform distribution that focuses on integrated security and ease of management. EnGarde Secure Linux has also been released by Guardian Digital as a Live CD so that it can be taken for a test drive without installing on ones machine.

Metric equivalent of Microsoft fonts for Linux

Visit any random website and chances are the website expects your machine to have a set of which have become the de-facto standard on the Internet. The fonts being Arial, Times New Roman, Courier New and so on. While it may not be illegal to install these fonts on a Linux machine, they are propritery and are owned by . And Microsoft does not licence third parties to redistribute these fonts - a reason why you don't find these commonly used popular fonts installed in Linux by default.

This is going to change once and for all. Red in association with Ascender Corp has developed a set of fonts which are the metric equivalent of the most popular Microsoft fonts, and they have released it under the GPL+exception license. Three sets of fonts have been released, them being:

1. Sans - a substitute for Arial, Albany, Helvetica, Nimbus Sans L, and Bitstream Vera Sans
2. Serif - a substitute for Times New Roman, Thorndale, Nimbus Roman, and Bitstream Vera Serif and
3. Mono - a substitute for Courier New, Cumberland, Courier, Nimbus Mono L, and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono.
   

The advantage for Linux users is that now you don't have to explicitly install Microsoft fonts anymore as the web sites or documents which use Microsoft fonts will display flawlessly using the metric equivalent fonts which can be included in all Linux distributions by default.

The work on the fonts is yet to be completed and so will be released in two stages. In the first stage, all the fonts are released as fully usable but will lack the full hinting capability provided by True Type/Free Type . In the second phase of the release which will happen some time in later half of 2007, the fonts will have full hinting capability and will be at par with or excel the Microsoft fonts in quality. For now Red Hat has made available all the fonts for download so that you can test it on your machine.

Creating good quality fonts - ie. fonts which retain its quality even in smaller sizes is a very tedious and time consuming process. And buying good quality fonts is a very costly affair with each set of fonts costing anything upwards of $100 . By taking the initiative to develop good quality fonts which are the metric equivalent of Microsoft fonts, and releasing them under a Free licence, Red Hat has done a very good deed and Open Source cause.

LINA - Truly portable Linux applications

A truly portable application is one which can be run on multiple operating systems spanning diverse architectures without recompilation of code. One language which creates truly portable applications is Sun Microsystem's Java language. Programs created using Java can be run under any operating system - be it Mac OSX, Windows, Linux, OS/2 and so on. This is made possible because programs compiled using Java are not binaries in the original sense. When you compile a Java program, you get byte interpreted code. And it is the duty of the Java virtual machine which is installed in the parent OS to interpret the code to machine language which the OS and the architecture can understand.

Now there has been a new development for Linux. A startup company in Alameda, California has developed a technology called LINA (Not an acronym) which allows one to compile Linux applications to make them run in any operating system - be it Windows, Linux or Mac OSX. The idea is to have a virtual machine in similar lines of Java virtual machine which will be released as native builds for the respective operating systems. Then developers and independent software vendors can build Linux applications on top of LINA that run on all operating systems with native look and feel.

The company plans to dual license the technology, with GPL ver 2 for non-commercial uses and a separate license for commercial uses.

Salient features of LINA

• Applications written for LINA are distributed as Linux executables guaranteed to run on all machines, Linux and otherwise. So you can have say, one Firefox build which runs flawlessly in Windows, Linux, Mac OSX or any other operating system.
• Portable LINA applications enable users at home and in the enterprise to use Open Source applications on their existing operating systems.
• With LINA installed, programs written for Linux will run securely, regardless of changes made to the underlying operating system.
• Developers can write the code once and run their applications anywhere.
  

You can get an idea of running LINA applications by viewing this screencast which demonstrates how a Linux native build of links web browser packaged using LINA is run in Windows.The company has also released a white paper (PDF) describing the LINA technology. While some might see LINA as similar to what Sun Microsystems has accomplished with Java language, it is notably different. In the case of Java, it is required that programmers sit down and start developing programs using this language. But as far as LINA is concerned, the applications are already there in the form of 10s of 1000s of open source and Free Software programs for Linux. And it is only a matter of re-compiling the source of these programs to run using LINA virtual machine.

While many would consider this new project quite exiting (who wouldn't want a truly portable copy of their favorite Linux application, right?), there has been a somewhat similar project in existence for some time now which goes by the name Cooperative Linux. Short named as coLinux, it is a port of the Linux kernel that allows it to run cooperatively alongside another operating system on a single machine.

Fedora 7 - latest offering from Red Hat

The latest offering from Red Hat, Fedora ver 7.0 has been released. This time round, Fedora team has mearged the core packages with the Extra platform components which is why you see the title of this post to contain "Fedora 7" instead of "Fedora core 7".

Some of the new features found in Fedora 7 are as follows :

• The ability to create appliances to suit very particular user's needs.
• The latest versions of Gnome (2.18), KDE 3.5.6, Xorg 7.2 .
• Latest Linux kernel with integrated KVM (Kernel Virtualization) support.
• Different Fedora 7 images to suit different users needs such as Gnome and KDE live CDs with accompanying installer, an all encompassing DVD image, A regular image for desktops, workstations, and server users and so on.
• NetworkManager presents a graphical interface that allows user to quickly switch between wireless and wired networks for increased mobility. NetworkManager is installed by default in both GNOME and KDE Live CDs.
• A new comprehensive graphical administration tool for SELinux, system-config-selinux is available by default in this release.
• Integrates the experimental nouveau driver within Xorg and the kernel. The nouveau driver aims to provide free and open source 3D drivers for nVidia cards.
  

You can download Fedora 7 from the list of mirrors and also view the full release notes.

Download Netscape Navigator ver 9 for Linux

Remember Netscape - the very web browser which once enjoyed a major browser market share and which was nearly killed by Microsoft's anti-competitive practices by its release of Internet Explorer ? The very Netscape navigator whose code base was then released as open source and which lead to the eventual development of the stable and increasingly popular Mozilla and then Firefox? Guess what, it has re-incarnated as Netscape Navigator ver 9.0.

Contrary to popular belief, Netscape Navigator was not dead though its popularity was severely diminished. One of the reasons for it to fall out of favor with the net users was because its succeeding versions accumulated a lot of unnecessary bloat. I remember using Netscape navigator ver 4.0 which was really sleek and then when I upgraded to the next major version, it some how did not live up to the mark of its predecessor.

The new Netscape navigator has shed a lot of fat and is now much sleeker. It is based on Firefox and has a couple of unique features built-in such as :

• Integration with Netscape portal which is now a social bookmarking site (Yes Netscape website is now a social bookmarking/voting site aka digg.com ). From within the web browser without visiting Netscape, you can share and vote for web pages that you find interesting.
• Read the latest news directly from your browser.
• Netscape navigator fixes commonly mis-typed URLs for you.
• And the highlight of ver 9 release is a link pad (Similar to what you have in Opera) which allows you to save interesting links without cluttering your bookmarks.
  

Netscape ver 9 is available for Linux apart from that for Windows and Mac OSX and is a modest 8.9 MB download. The minimum system requirements are 256 MB RAM and around 100 MB disk space.

If you are interested, you can download Netscape Navigator 9 and take it for a test drive.

Linus Torvalds vs Jonathan Schwartz - clash of two titans ?

The fire started when Linus Torvalds wrote a reply to a mail in the Linux kernel mailing list where he pondered on Sun Microsystem's true intentions in willing to release Solaris under a GPLv3 licence and how the rise of Linux has hurt Solaris and how Sun doesn't want to help Linux.

In his own words, this is what Linus said (and I quote parts of the mail):

They may like open source, but Linux _has_ hurt them in the marketplace. A lot.

They want to use Linux resources (_especially_ drivers), but they do *not* want to give anything back (especially ZFS, which seems to be one of their very very few bright spots).

So to Sun, a GPLv3-only release would actually let them look good, and still keep Linux from taking their interesting parts, and would allow them to take at least parts of Linux without giving anything back (ahh, the joys of license fragmentation).

Jonathan Schwartz the president and CEO of Sun Microsystems has written a reply on his blog to Linus Torvalds explaining Sun's true intentions and why it is taking so long for Sun to release Solaris under GPLv3.

But most of all, from where I sit, we should put the swords down - you're not the enemy for us, we're not the enemy for you. Most of the world doesn't have access to the internet - that's the enemy to slay, the divide that separates us. By joining our communities, we can bring transparency and opportunity to the whole planet. Are we after your drivers? No more than you're after ZFS or Crossbow or dtrace - it's not predation, it's prudence. Let's stop wasting time recreating wheels we both need to roll forward.

You may also be interested in reading the comment made on Jonathan Schwartz's blog by OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt.

Red Hat CEO says he held talks with Microsoft ...

I came across this very interesting piece of news on Reuters which says Red Hat CEO had at one point of time held talks with Microsoft regarding patents (infringement?). When queried Matthew Szulik refused to answer the question as to whether Red Hat is now in talks with Microsoft.

It is surprising to note that after all the hoopla and bonhomie evident in most Linux based news sites regarding Linux's (aparent) immunity to patent infringement claims, it is true that there is an under current of apprehensiveness amoung most Linux heavy weights such as Red Hat and the likes as to what strong arm tactics Microsoft has lined up for the Linux distributors who do not play ball with it.

Here is a quote from the article ...

...
An update to that license, version 3, is about to be implemented. It will forbid companies from distributing Linux software if they enter into patent agreements like the ones that Microsoft signed with Novell.

The Free Software Foundation, which authored the General Public License and owns rights to much of the code at the heart of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, inserted that clause into the agreement in an effort to discourage other open-source software developers from signing patent deals with Microsoft.

The authors of that license (read FSF) have said they believe that such patent deals will help Microsoft back claims that its intellectual property is being violated by code in Linux and other open source software, eventually giving the company ammunition to seek billions of dollars in license fees from users of open-source software.

This is evidently the reason why FSF spearheaded by Richard M Stallman is too keen to release GPLv3 which has provisions to negate any foul play that the likes of Microsoft can bring about. And this is why in my opinion, Linux should also move to GPLv3 as soon as possible instead of sticking to just GPLv2. Not doing it would be suicidal...

Slackware 12.0 released

So after nearly a year since Slackware 11.0 was released, Patrick Volkerding has finally deemed it fit to release the next major version of this very popular Linux distribution namely Slackware 12.0. I have always been a Slackware fan and I especially liked its BSD style ways of maintaining the scripts which made configuring Slackware really simple once you get the hang of it.

Some of the new features of Slackware 12.0 are as follows :

• Use of Linux kernel 2.6.21.5 which is patched with Speakup to support speech synthesizers providing access to Linux for the visually impaired community.
• X11 7.2.0
• Support for fully encrypted network connections with OpenSSL,OpenSSH, OpenVPN, and GnuPG.
• udev dynamic device management system for Linux 2.6.x. This means Slackware now can automatically mount a USB stick as you insert it.
• New development tools for a wide variety of programming languages.
• Latest versions of different web browsers - the list includes Sea Monkey, Konqueror, Firefox 2.0.0.4, and thunderbird email client.
• KDE 3.5.7 - This is no surprise as Slackware is essentially a KDE centric Linux distribution.
• A number of GTK+ programs such as pidgin Instant Messenger, Gimp, Pan news reader and so on.
• Sun's Java runtime environment (JRE ver 6.0)
  

One thing I really wish to see included in Slackware and which has not (to my knowledge) been included in version 12.0 is a Personal Finance software such as GnuCash or KMyMoney. I personally would root for GNUCash as it is what I find most useful. And if Gimp, which is a GTK+ application can be included, it fails me why GNUCash couldn't be included too. But those are my inner ramblings.

And apart from that I find Slackware 12.0 to be a very robust, secure and user friendly Linux distribution. You can read the official announcement as well as check out the full package list to take a closer look at the packages that are included in Slackware 12.0. The preferred method of downloading Slackware is via torrents and a list of torrents for CD sized ISOs and DVD ISOs has been made available here.

Ubuntu plus Dell equals better support for devices in Linux

One of the best things that has happened to Linux enthusisasts the world over is the confluence of two big players one in the Linux arena (Ubuntu aka Canonical) and the other in the PC hardware space (Dell). And the end users have already started reaping the benefits.

The benefits include device driver support for hardware components which were otherwise not compatible with Linux. A couple of years back, I had to struggle getting my internal modem based on a conexant chip to work with Linux. These internal modems are infamously known as winmodems because they delegate some of its job to the parent operating system and work flawlessly only in Windows.

Because they were not full modems, most of them are incompatible with Linux and are as good as paper weight. I have documented how I got my internal modem to work with Linux with some difficulty.

Now the good news is that Dell has released device drivers for the conexant internal modems for their E1505n and 1420n machines which is available here for download.

The driver is provided as a deb package and so will be compatible with other Debian based Linux distributions.

$100 laptop goes into production

BBC reports that the $100 laptop has gone into production and the first batch of machines should be put into the hands of children in developing countries as soon as by October 2007.

It is believed that initially the $100 laptop is going to cost nearly $176 but with ramped up production they hope to eventually bring the cost down to $100.

The laptop has a rugged, waterproof case and is as energy efficient as possible. In other words, it is built to cope with the harsh and remote conditions found in areas where it may be used, such as in deserts or on mountains.

Fig: The current price breakdown of the laptop

The laptop needs an order of magnitude less power than a typical laptop. That means you can power it by solar or human power like by using a foot pump. The $100 laptops will be powered by a low power AMD processor and will be running Linux.

While governments of many third world countries have pledged to buy the laptops to be distributed to students, I am sad to say that India is not one of them. One of the positive effects of distributing these laptops to children could be the drastic reduction in the number of books they have to carry to and from school and which can be replaced by a lightweight laptop. I remember the heavy load of books I had to carry to school each day. It was truly back breaking.

Read the full story at bbc.co.uk

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Status of the OLPC project

One Laptop Per Child gets a new name and a slightly higher price tag

Google phone based on Linux in the making ?

After getting tired of all the iPhone hype one saw in diverse media, now the rumor is that Google is planning to roll out its own branded Phone. And one can find sneak peaks at a prototype (See photo below). No details of the specification of the phone are yet available.

The phone is supposed to be an ad-supported phone which means the consumers ie the end users can look for a free lunch by way of heavily subsidised call rates which cost next to nothing (again a rumor). And Wallstreet Journal is reporting that Google has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in its cell phone project and is courting U.S. and European mobile operators.

And most obviously the Google phone (for now nicknamed GPhone) will be powered by Linux. Check out this prototype of a GPhone which is floating on the net.

Fig: A prototype of GPhone [Courtesy: VOIP blog]

Read more!