News Archive - July 2007
BBC iPlayer; Mozilla Thunderbird; ATi Drivers; The F in FOSS
Thursday 26th July 2007
Category: News
First up is the news that the BBC Trust met with the Open Source Consortium over iPlayer, which currently only works on Windows XP. Whether any comes of it still remains to be seen, although I'll keep my fingers crossed.
There's also the perhaps unsurprising news that Mozilla Thunderbird is flying the nest and finding a new home, leaving the Mozilla Corporation with just Firefox.
Now that Dell has started selling computers with GNU/Linux installed, Dell Wants Better ATi Linux Drivers. I could tempt fate by saying that the reports of Linux on the desktop reaching critical mass are finally coming true...
Finally, Eben Moglen had a pleasant chat with Tom O'Reilly about putting the F back in FOSS.
Growth; GPLv3; Stable API for Linux Kernel; KHTML and Webkit
Tuesday 24th July 2007
Category: News
First of all, we learn about the earnings of Google - revenue is up 58%, but this is still lower than expected. Similarly, Microsoft had unspectacular growth - the level of growth appearing to be in line with before Vista was released.
Next up is an article named The 'Cost' of GPLv3 is the Loss of All Threats to Free Software, while elsewhere the Linux kernel gains a stable userspace driver API. While some aren't too fond of proprietary drivers, I hope this will encourage more firms to develop drivers for Linux, which is frequently cited as a requisite for more success on the desktop.
Finally, good news in the form of KHTML and Webkit coming back together again. As marvellous as Gecko is, some more open source competition is nothing to complain about - I look forward to trying out a Webkit powered Epiphany.
Gobuntu; CUPS; Badgers
Tuesday 17th July 2007
Category: News
First of all, Mark Shuttlework has announced a new project called Gobuntu, which exists as a totally free alternative to Ubuntu. I've never studied Ubuntu development in any great depth - but presumably Gobuntu would still use the proprietary Launchpad for bugs? Hmm, perhaps not totally free.
Elsewhere, CUPS has been purchased by Apple (the company that makes Macs, not the Beatles). Interestingly, the latest issue of Distrowatch suggests it may be time for a fork. So long as CUPS continues to be open source and of a high quality, I personally don't see the problem.
Finally, something totally unrelated to technology - an article from the BBC about Basra Badgers, which had the brilliant quote:
UK military spokesman Major Mike Shearer said: "We can categorically state that we have not released man-eating badgers into the area.
Will IT Blend?
Wednesday 11th July 2007
Category: News
Apparently, in answer to will IT blend, the answer is yes. And so does an iPhone. Fancy that.
Microsoft and GPLv3
Monday 9th July 2007
Category: News
Microsoft has made a statement on its relationship to the GPLv3. It has decided that it is in no way bound to it - but there is still the paragraph stating:
At this point in time, in order to avoid any doubt or legal debate on this issue, Microsoft has decided that the Novell support certificates that we distribute to customers will not entitle the recipient to receive from Novell, or any other party, any subscription for support and updates relating to any code licensed under GPLv3. We will closely study the situation and decide whether to expand the scope of the certificates in the future.
Hmm. Of course, there's plenty to read about this, such as:
- Microsoft Says It Is Not Bound by GPLv3 [eWeek.com]
- Microsoft tells GPLv3 to talk to the hand [The Register]
- MS: Dancing as fast as it can to try to get away from GPLv3 [Groklaw]
- Microsoft tries evading new GPL grasp [ZDNet Asia]
Red Hat; GPLv3
Thursday 5th July 2007
Category: News
Following in the footsteps of Novell and, more recently, Linspire and Xandros, there are Red Hat will be the next to make a deal with Microsoft, although eWeek went with Red Hat to MS: Let's Talk Interoperability.
There's also an article on The Real Meaning of GNU GPLv3.