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Linux.com : News
OpenID gets the third degree at OSCON
Is OpenID a panacea, a placebo, or something in between? Opposing viewpoints took turns on center stage Wednesday afternoon at OSCON 2008. The session entitled "A Critical View of OpenID" started off as anything but critical, but once the audience got its turn to raise questions, things got more interesting.
GovTrack opens up information on US legislature
Since 2004, GovTrack.us has housed information about the United States Congress, including 10 years of bills, voting records, and contact information for individual members of Congress. Visitors can also find out who represents them and search the database for committee assignments, legislative statistics, and the Congressional Record, which is the official record of daily proceedings in Congress. All the code that makes GovTrack run is open source, and all the information stored there is freely available to everyone.
Ottawa Linux Symposium 10, Day 1
The tenth annual Ottawa Linux Symposium kicked off Wednesday in Canada's capital, just a few blocks from the country's parliament building, in a conference centre in the midst of being torn down. The symposium started with the traditional State of the Kernel address, this year by Matthew Wilcox. Among the dozens of talks and plenaries held the first day was kernel wireless maintainer John Linville's Tux on the Air: the State of Linux Wireless Networking.
Veteran developer ditches Microsoft for open source
If you've ever used Microsoft Access or Excel, you have likely used a product that Mike Gunderloy had a hand in developing. The irony is that Gunderloy himself doesn't use those products anymore. He's given up Microsoft for open source -- and he's not going back.
Hyperic's CloudStatus demo and interview (video)
Jon Travis, principal engineer for Hyperic, explains the company's new CloudStatus utility in this video interview. CloudStatus is free, it's open source, and you can access it through your Web browser. Right now it works only with Amazon's cloud computing services -- which currently dominates this market niche -- but Hyperic has plans to expand the service to other up-and-coming cloud computing providers.
Panel discusses openness at OSCON
The first two days of O'Reilly's Open Source Convention (OSCON) are dominated by technical tutorials, but there are sessions that buck the trend. Monday's most interesting event was Participate 08, a panel discussion sponsored by Microsoft. Panelists debated the meaning of the buzzword "openness" as it applies to source code, services, data, and business models.
Seneca College teams with FOSS projects for hands-on learning
Where most computer science departments emphasize theory and mention free and open source software (FOSS) only indirectly, Seneca College in Toronto, Canada, offers a different approach: a hands-on introduction to the community in partnership with the Mozilla and Fedora projects. Now in its third year, the program is expanding rapidly and receiving attention from other academic institutions that hope to imitate it.
FSF organizes against Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement
Nobody knows yet what the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) will consist of, but the few available indications are so ominous that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has started a campaign to raise public awareness of the possibilities. According to Matt Lee, an FSF campaign manager, ACTA threatens to "create a culture of fear and suspicion," and, in the worst-case scenario, undermine and demonize free software.
Is SCO finally dead?
Even though SCO has suffered another legal defeat, the company looks like it has enough willpower, if not sense, to keep its legal losing streak going.
OpenDomain.org owner: Selfless FOSS helper or domain squatter?
OpenDomain.org is an organization that offers to provide free use of certain domain names to worthwhile open source projects. Ric Johnson, the leader of OpenDomain.org and the owner of dozens of domain names, says he has spent thousands of dollars registering those domains in order to prevent "squatters and phishers" from snapping them up. He's keeping them safe so you can have a chance to use them. However, to some people, based on Johnson's past practices, it's not clear how OpenDomain.org differs from other organizations that buy up domain names in the hopes of future gains.
Event aims to bring Lindependence to one California town
An enterprising group has taken on a radical approach in attracting users to Linux: switch a whole town! Dubbed "Lindependence 2008" (a.k.a. LIN08), this event strives to switch citizens in Felton, Calif., for at least a week from Microsoft Windows to Linux. The initiative, loosely led by Ken Starks in Austin, Texas, and Larry Cafiero in Felton, has taken the idea of introducing normal computer users to Linux to screaming heights. By July 28, those in Felton who decide to take the plunge will go Microsoft-free for a week or more.
In memoriam: Linux evangelist and Linux.com editor Joe Barr
Our colleague Joe Barr sometimes described himself as a doddering old geek. Many knew him as a Linux evangelist; others knew him from his ham radio activities. And those of us who worked with Joe knew him in all of his sometimes irascible, often funny moods. Joe was always one of our favorite people, and we are devastated to report that he died at home, unexpectedly, last night.
OpenLogic pushes partnerships on open source support
OpenLogic Inc., a provider of enterprise open source software, wants other open source software developers to shake hands over a partnership program that will give it control over an alliance of support services for other vendors' products.
Canadian open source community upset over proposed copyright law
The Government of Canada has angered those who believe that a proposed copyright law threatens the country's open source business model.
UMPCs and Linux: made for each other, and coming soon
Who knew that the biggest desktop Linux show of 2008 would turn out to be the June Computex show in Taipei, Taiwan, where the next generation of Linux desktop hardware was put on display? In fact, Linux was at the heart of no fewer than four different ultra mobile PCs (UMPC).
New Linux-powered PowerStation dispels rumors Power Architecture's death
Terra Soft, the developer of Yellow Dog Linux on the PowerStation platform, is pushing the limits of design and performance with the planned mid-July release of a quad core PowerPC deskside tower that returns the Power Architecture to both the workstation and server markets at a competitive price.
Patches coming today for DNS vulnerability
Whether you're running Linux, Windows, Cisco, Sun, or other DNS servers, you are at risk from a newly discovered vulnerability. So says Dan Kaminsky, head of penetration testing research at IO Active, who accidently discovered the DNS "design flaw" earlier this year.
Maemo 4.1 bring mail and packaging improvements to Nokia's Linux-based tablets
Nokia released version 4.1 of it's Linux-based Internet Tablet platform Maemo last month. 4.1 is a minor update to the operating system, but it boasts two important features that answer long-held complaints: an improved open source email client, and migration to a package updating system more like that of a desktop Linux distribution.
Stormy Peters joins the GNOME Foundation as Executive Director
Open source technology luminary Stormy Peters has been appointed executive director of the GNOME Foundation, effective immediately.
Mozilla officially scores a world record
They did it -- Mozilla now holds the world record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours, according to Jamie Panas, press and marketing assistant at Guinness World Records.
