Flumotion Media Server

This is a press release from Fluendo announcing the launch of Flumotion Media Server and its own website. This press release marks the official launch of the free software version of Flumotion. Flumotion is a streaming media server with a modern distributed design and advanced extensibility. Flumotion is being developed by Linux multimedia specialist Fluendo. [...]

Fluendo Launches the Ultimate Media Center for Linux Operative Systems

Fluendo has announced the release of its Media Center, a software application developed by the Spanish company. Fluendo Media Center’s versatility was evident from the off when it was used for reproducing a whole manner of multimedia in a variety of devices using completely different platforms. Whether on Windows, Linux or Open Solaris; on netbooks, [...]

Built to last

It has now been almost exactly five years since kernel development community tentatively started using the git source code management system with the 2.6.12-rc2 commit. That was an uncertain time; nobody really knew how long it would take the development process to get back up to speed after an abrupt core-tool change. As it turned [...]

Free software in the Haiti aid effort, and how you can help

OpenStreetMap and Sahana are two free software projects that are facilitating aid to Haiti. We wanted to call attention to two free software projects that have been involved in the Haiti humanitarian effort, both because of the usefulness of their work and because they can surely use the help of skilled volunteers. The first, Sahana, [...]

China’s supercomputer will run Linux

It’s official: China’s next supercomputer, the petascale Dawning 6000, will be constructed exclusively with home-grown microprocessors. Weiwu Hu, chief architect of the Loongson (also known as “Godson”) family of CPUs at the Institute of Computing Technology (ICT), a division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also confirms that the supercomputer will run Linux. This is [...]

Linux is top OS on supercomputers

Data compiled by top500 shows that Linux is the operating of choice on supercomputers. That’s good news. The table (image reproduced below) does not go into details like which distro is the most popular on these supercomputers, but that’s not important. What matters is that we’ve won that battle.

simplicITy: A Linux-powered computer for the elderly

If you want to introduce a group of people to the Web, a group that’s never used a PC, and have never used the Internet, what route would you take? Sell them a Windows PC, or one powered by a Linux operating system? My guess is it would be a Linux PC, and that’s is [...]

Open Source and The Geographic Divide – Europe and North America

Observations from the Open World Forum and Open Source Think Tank – Paris, October 2009 Despite some logistical challenges and a very diverse agenda, the second edition of the OWF was a tremendous success, I believe most of the 1600 attendees came away very happy. This year the Open Source Think Tank was a single [...]

Astaro home user license upgraded

Astaro Security Gateway Home Edition, a free, Linux-based firewall-cum-router distribution, has just had its IP address limit bumped to fifty (50). Previously, users of Astaro Security Gateway HE were limited to using it to protect no more than ten (10), active networked devices. The IP address limit change was made known to license holders in [...]

Get paid “GNU Bucks” by the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced that it will begin rewarding those who find and report any nonfree components in free software operating system distributions with public recognition and “GNU Bucks.” The FSF maintains a list of guidelines covering what it means to be a free distribution, and endorses distributions that commit to meeting [...]

Switching to Linux: A Windows developer’s view

A few weeks ago, I switched my development environment from Windows to Linux, on a project which was developed so far on Windows only. In this post, I want to describe the issues that brought me to this switch, a short overview how I did the actual port, and some observations on Linux for developers. [...]

What Microsoft Doesn’t Get – And What I Hope You Do

You know what Microsoft doesn’t get? — For one thing, the Internet. Microsoft doesn’t control it. What it used to be able to do in the dark now falls out of its noxious bag of tricks into the Internet’s bright light, stage front and center. And there stands Microsoft in the spotlight, with its pants [...]

Deep Packet Inspection Puts Open Internet at Risk

The uncertainty surrounding Net Neutrality has given rise to a technology known as Deep Packet Inspection (DPI) that offers Internet service providers unprecedented control over Internet content, according to a new paper released today by Free Press. Deep Packet Inspection: The End of the Internet as We Know It? argues that the use of DPI [...]

MIT adopts a university-wide Open Access mandate

This afternoon, the MIT faculty unanimously adopted a university-wide OA mandate. Here’s the resolution the faculty approved (thanks to Hal Abelson, MIT professor of computer science and engineering, who chaired the committee to formulate it):

Help the FSF write “Introduction to the Command Line”

Join the Free Software Foundation and FLOSS Manuals March 21st-22nd book sprint, “Introduction to the Command Line” The Free Software Foundation and FLOSS Manuals are joining forces in a sprint to write a new textbook introducing GNU/Linux newbies to the command line. Join us as we sprint to release a new book by Monday March [...]

Is this the new face of Tux?

Linus Torvalds (you know him, right?) has this post on his blog: So 2.6.29 isn’t quite out yet, but I’ve merged the new Tuz logo, so now my laptop boots up with two of these guys showing. See an earlier post about the plush version of this that I got while in Hobart for LCA [...]

10 ways to go green with Linux

Editor’s note: Most people write about Linux as if it’s the only free and open source operating system in use. They seem to forget, or are ignorant, or have no knowledge of the BSD operating systems. I am referring to OpenBSD, NetBSD, FreeBSD, PC-BSD, and a few others. If I wrote this article, I would [...]

Sabayon Linux 4 Released

The perfect Christmas gift for fans fo Sabayon Linux – Sabayon Linux 4, is here. Sabayon Linux is a Gentoo-based distribution GNU/Linux distro with binary package installation. From the release announcement, this version comes loaded with features and package enhancements.

Linux Mint 6 Released

The Linux Mint team has announced the release of Linux Mint 6. Based on Ubuntu 8.10, and code-named Felicia, this release features a Live CD iso image (the Main Edition), with support for multimedia codecs and restricted formats, and a Live DVD iso image (the Universal Edition) that lacks the codecs and restricted-formats support of [...]

The City of Schoten and Open Source Software

You can say that the City of Schoten, in the Province of Antwerp, Belgium, loves open source software, or they just love saving money. Either way, open source software wins. With a population of about 33.000, four hundred of whom are employed by the city administration, the city’s three IT personnel oversee the deployment and [...]

Katana – The Linux Robot

Fedora 10 Released

The Fedora team has announced the public release of Fedora 10, the latest stable upgrade release of the popular Linux operating system. Users may download DVD and CD install media (iso images) for x86, x86-64,and ppc architectures.

Invasion of the Linux Desktop

This story reports on a trend that’s been observed in most of Africa, South America, and the rest of the developing world. Would you rather pay for a legitimate copy of Windows, use a bootlegged copy (of Windows) and risk dealing with the local BSA, or use a free and open source operating system like [...]

University to Migrate from Windows to Pardus GNU/Linux

More than a hundred computers have already been equipped with the Turkish Pardus GNU/Linux distribution. The first group using it is the university administration. The number of PCs running the open source system will quadruple in the first half of 2009 when all student laboratories will be migrated.

Norwegian Ministry to Sponsor Adoption of OpenOffice.org

Here’s news that will make advocates of open source software solutions very happy: A Norwegian Minister – Heidi Grande Røys – has allocated 2 million Kroners towards the adoption OpenOffice.org in public agencies – in Norway, of course.

Elastix 1.4 Beta Released

Elastix 1.4 Beta has been released and made available for download. Elastix is a CentOS-based, IP-PBX “appliance software that integrates the best tools available for Asterisk-based PBXs into a single, easy-to-use interface”.

GNU Free Documentation License 1.3 Released

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) today announced the release of version 1.3 of the GNU Free Documentation License (FDL). This version of the license allows public wikis to relicense their FDL-covered materials under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC-BY-SA) 3.0 license.

Ubuntu 8.10 Released

Ubuntu 8.10, the latest in the line of the popular Linux operating system is now available for download from Ubuntu repositories and download mirrors worldwide. Both the desktop and server editions were rolled out today.

Open Source Desktops Are Cheaper to Maintain

Open Source desktops are far cheaper to maintain than proprietary desktop configurations, says Rolf Schuster, a diplomat at the German Embassy in Madrid and the former head of IT at the Foreign Ministry.

EC’s IDABC Unit to Publish Debian-based GNU/Linux

The European Commission’s IDABC unit responsible for the Open Source Software Observatory and Repository (OSOR) will publish it’s own derivative of Debian GNU/Linux to provide organisations with an easy way to create blogs and forums, the unit announced on Friday.

eBox Platform 1.0rc1 Ready for Testing

“The eBox development team proudly announces that you can already download our first release candidate (0.12.99) for eBox platform 1.0. This version will give you an accurate preview of the upcoming 1.0. Please note that it is a release candidate ready for testing. You can download the eBox installer CD from here”

University of Perugia’s Open Source Master Course

The University of Perugia is offering a master course on Open Source. “Software developers and IT policy makers need to understand the importance and potential of this type of software and how to combine it with proprietary IT systems.” The ‘Master di I° Livello in Sistemi e Tecnologie Free Libre Open Source per la Società [...]

Porting AskoziaPBX to Linux

AskoziaPBX is the only BSD-based (FreeBSD) IP-PBX distro listed on this site. However, if everything works out well, it will become the only IP-PBX distro available for both BSD and Linux platforms (listed on this site).

The Road to AsteriskNOW 1.5

AsteriskNOW is one of the Linux-based IP-PBX distros that is listed on this site. In the words of Steve Sokol, AsteriskNOW gives you all the tools you need to “transform an ordinary PC into an extraordinary communications platform”. The current stable, downloadable version is AsteriskNOW 1.0.2.

Zeroshell 1.0.beta11 Release

Zeroshell 1.0.beta11 has been released. Zeroshell is an original Linux distribution for servers and embedded devices geared towards providing network services for LANs. This release brings us closer to the first stable release of Zeroshell.

Mandriva Linux 2009 Released

Mandriva, a worldwide Linux solutions provider, has announced the release of Mandriva Linux 2009. Mandriva Linux, formerly known as Mandrake Linux, was founded by Gael Duval, who now heads the Ulteo Project. Mandriva Linux was one of the first stable, desktop-oriented Linux distributions, back when there were only a handful of distributions.

Trolltech Renamed to Qt Software

Trolltech ASA, which was acquired by Nokia in June 2008, has been renamed to Qt Software. Qt Software, which will operate as a group within Nokia, will still be responsible for developing Qt, the dual-licensed, cross-platform application development framework.

Distro Update: eBox 0.12

The eBox development team has announced an update to the eBox platform. eBox is a comprehensive Linux-based (server) distribution that provides a wide range of network services – “network gateway to communication center and file management”.

How to Participate in the Linux Kernel Community

This year – 2008 – could very well be regarded as the year that the term open source made it into prime time, into main stream media. We think that Google’s launch of Android towards the end of 2007 was a major contributing factor. Suddenly, everybody is an expert on the open source community. Individuals [...]

Distro Update: Sabayon Linux 3.5

The Sabayon development team has announced the latest stable release of Sabayon Linux for the x86 and x86-64 architectures. Sabayon Linux is a Gentoo-based distro, and version 3.5 – this latest stable release – comes with significant improvements for both architectures.

HP Open Sources TRU64 AdvFS

The source code to Advanced File System (AdvFS), the file system for HP’s Tru64 UNIX, has been contributed to the open source community. To ensure compatibility with the Linux kernel, the source code (to AdvFS) is being made available under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2.

Distro Update: openSUSE 11

openSUSE 11, the latest stable version of the Linux distro sponsored by Novell, has been released, and now available for download. openSUSE 11 comes with lots of new features and bug fixes, and offers an exciting array of desktop enhancements for all user levels.

Distro Update: Zenwalk Live 5.2

The Zenwalk development team has announced the release of Zenwalk Live 5.2, the live CD distro that is based on Zenwalk Current. Zenwalk is a Linux distro, based on Slackware Linux, and that used Xfce as its default desktop environment.

Distro Update: eBox 0.11.101

The eBox development team has announced the release of version 0.11.101. This is a mostly a bug-fix release, but it also comes with the porting of ebox-webserver to Ubuntu, a module to manage an Apache server.