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The Open Source Initiative (OSI) held its annual election during its regularly scheduled April board meeting (2 April 2008). In 2007, the OSI Board of Directors were: * Mr. Michael Tiemann, President * Ms. Danese Cooper, Secretary and Treasurer * Mr. Russell Nelson * Ms. Alolita Sharma * Mr. Ken Coar * Ms. Nnenna Nwakanma * Mr. Rishab Aiyer Ghosh * Mr. Raj Mathur * Mr. Bruno Souza * Mr. Matt Asay Mr. Mathur served his one-year initial term and decided to not stand for reconfirmation. Mr. Asay retired from the board after two years of service. Ms. Sharma and Ms. Nwakanma both served their one-year initial terms and were reconfirmed to complete a full three-year term. Mr. Coar, Mr. Nelson, and Ms. Cooper were re-elected to each serve an additional three year term. To fill the two vacancies left by Mr. Asay and Mr. Mathur, the OSI Board nominated two potential candidates for election to the board, Martin Michlmayr and Harshad Gune. Bruce Perens launched a public write-in campaign to join the OSI Board, and he was therefore nominated by Mr. Ghosh as a potential candidate for election to the board, seconded by Mr. Coar, and the motion carried. The Board voted unanimously to elect Mr. Michlmayr and Mr. Gune to an initial one-year term that may be extended an additional two years upon reconfirmation. Mr. Gune teaches at the Symbiosis Institute of Computer Studies and Research (SICSR) in Pune, India. His primary experience with Open Source is as as educator. He has organized an annual FOSS conference "GNUnify" (www.gnuify.in) for the past 6 years and helped promote FOSS technologies in India as well as support the FOSS community to grow stronger. The conference has grown to unite the FOSS community in India. As an active member of the Pune Linux Users Group (PLUG), Mr. Gune has worked with others to educate students with FOSS software on computers, and has helped the industry learn more about the power of Linux through participation in trade shows and holding workshops. Mr. Michlmayr has been an active contributor to the open source community for almost 15 years. He was the Volunteer Coordinator for the GNUstep Project and acted as Publicity Director for Linux International. In 2000, he joined the Debian project, was elected Debian Project Leader in 2003, and after a successful term, was reelected. In his two years as the leader of Debian, Mr. Michlmayr represented the project and performed important organizational and coordination tasks within the project. He also served as an advisor to Software in the Public Interest (SPI) for several years. Last year he completed a PhD thesis on Release Management in Open Source Projects. He then joined HP's Open Source and Linux Organization in December to lead content and community related activities of FOSSBazaar, a new community HP launched with other partners as a Linux Foundation workgroup to provide neutral information about issues related to the governance of open source software. Mr. Michlmayr holds Masters degrees in Philosophy, Psychology and Software Engineering, and a PhD from the University of Cambridge. The OSI is excited to have such distinguished members of the open source community join our board, and we look forward to a productive 2008. For more information about the election, please contact Danese Cooper, Secretary of the OSI. For more information about the OSI and its 2008 agenda, please read our blogs and/or contact Michael Tiemann. Original link: http://opensource.org/pressrelea... April 19, 2008 (Computerworld) Asustek Computer Inc. on Friday confirmed that it will launch the Eee PC 900 in the U.S. on May 12 and that it will set $549 as the list price for the new ultralight notebook.
The Eee PC 900, which the Taipei-based computer maker unveiled last Tuesday, can be configured with either Microsoft Corp.'s Windows XP Home or the open-source Linux operating system. The price for both configurations, said an Asustek spokesman, is identical: $549. But there are differences. Users who purchase an Eee PC 900 with Linux will receive a laptop that boasts 20GB of flash memory-based storage space. However, customers who opt for Windows XP will end up with a machine equipped with only 12GB of solid-state storage. When asked why the two models pack different quantities of storage space -- and whether the lesser amount was stuck in the XP version because of the licensing fees Asustek must pay to Microsoft -- Asustek spokesman Charlton Ho called it a "strategic decision." "Cost would be one of the reasons, but not the main one," Ho said in an e-mail. He then proceeded to trumpet the Linux-based system. "Also, [the] Linux version is our main Eee PC model with our unique interface, so the consumer not only can get the great and easy-to-use interface on the Linux version but extra storage space," Ho added. Both Windows and Linux models pack an 8.9-in. screen, 1GB of system memory, a 1.3-megapixel camera and an Apple MacBook Air-style multi-touch track pad. This is the second ultralight line from Asustek that offers XP as an option; it currently sells a Eee PC with a 7-in. display in the U.S. for $399. Window XP, which is to disappear as an option on most new computers after June 30, was granted a reprieve of sorts two weeks ago, when Microsoft said it would allow resellers building what it called ultralow-cost PC (ULCPC) laptops to preinstall XP Home until the end of June 2010. Original link: http://www.computerworld.com/act... Microsoft and Novell have announced an "incremental investment" in their interoperability relationship, and have promised to put particular emphasis on the Chinese market.
The collaboration in China will focus on joint marketing and training efforts in areas including high-performance computing (HPC) and virtualisation. The HPC initiative will involve SuSE Linux Enterprise Server and Microsoft Windows Compute Cluster Server running in a dual-boot configuration. Cross-platform virtualisation offerings, meanwhile, will feature Windows Server 2008 with Hyper-V and SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 with Xen technology. The collaboration will also focus on efforts to convert "unsupported Linux users" to SuSE Linux Enterprise support. According to the partners, the move is a result of increasing customer demand in China for offerings that bridge the gap between open source and proprietary software. Microsoft and Novell cited several China-based firms that have recently signed up for Microsoft certificates for three-year support subscriptions for SuSE Linux Enterprise Server from Novell. These include the People's Insurance Company of China Group, Dairy Farm Company and Dawning Information Industry. "It is very encouraging to see that our business and technical collaboration continues to resonate with customers around the globe," said Ron Hovsepian, president and chief executive at Novell. Ya-Qin Zang, corporate vice president and chairman of Microsoft China, added: "We are very pleased with the initial response in the Chinese market to our joint offerings for intellectual property peace of mind and technology interoperability in areas such as virtualisation and HPC." Original link: http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/new... CollabNet recently announced the launch of CollabNet OnDemand, a hosted solution of distributed development tools. This release means that the power of an enterprise-class integrated suite of development tools is now available to teams of all sizes.
If you've never heard of CollabNet, here's the background: The company's roots come from the land of open source as the company was founded in 1999 by Tim O'Reilly and Brian Behlendorf, gurus with ties to the early days of the open source movement. When it released Subversion in 2000 it was the result of applying open source principles to the arena of software development. Subversion is the software code control piece of the puzzle and has over 2 million current users. CollabNet's distributed software development platform integrates tools for version control, requirement, issue, and other things in a collaborative development environment. With 1.3 million users, it is one of the leading platforms for geographically distributed software development organizations. Many traditional source-code-control configuration management tools are installed applications, geared toward development teams who work within the same company. They were initially designed to handle non-web-based software development projects, and many teams have simply adapted them for use within a web-based-development environment the best they could. CollabNet Subversion was designed specifically with the web-development environment and global, distributed-team model in mind. CollabNet Enterprise Subversion took things further, adding in a full suite of distributed development technologies to the mix including issue tracking, file release, project management, reporting, and collaboration tools. Role-based access control allows different team members to have varying levels of permissions across a project. Now virtual teams could work as effectively as a local group in a conference room because all the basics of distributed development could be managed centrally through the web. Because the suite itself is web based, it is specifically designed for the way web architecture and development software projects work. Teams could be in synch over various time zones and large distances. Leveraging the power of collaboration technologies like wikis, project information and knowledge that would normally be inaccessible while one half of the globe is asleep is now available to teammates during their peak productive hours. According to Rob Cheng, director of product marketing at CollabNet, "OnDemand allows small startup teams to get all the advantages of an enterprise solution. The features are identical and only the service level agreement (SLA) and degree of support varies. Larger teams of 50-60 users and up will still benefit more from using the full enterprise product either hosted or onsite." OnDemand is basically a hosted version of the SourceForge Enterprise suite. What it means though is that even small startup teams of a few folks scattered geographically can benefit from the power of a full arsenal of development and collaboration tools usually only available to larger teams with big budgets. "OnDemand is great for a telecommuting workforce," Cheng added. I can personally speak to the perils of attempting to use some traditional configuration management tools remotely. It would be quicker to watch paint dry. Last year CollabNet acquired SourceForge and they are in the process of combining both platforms. You can see how all the products tie together on this product overview page. The best of both these worlds will now be available to teams of all sizes via either OnDemand or the Enterprise edition of the tool. For more, check out the details on CollabNet OnDemand on the company's web site. Pricing is $50 per user month with annual subscription for the first project. Additional projects are $100. Using her signature down to earth and "plain English" approach to website design, Paula Gregorowicz and The Paula G. Company work with small and solo business owners to make the web work for them so their online presence is a true reflection of who they are and what their business is all about. Get your free successful website planner at: http://www.paulagwebdesign.com Original link: http://www.intranetjournal.com/a... Do you struggle to keep tabs on your Thunderbird inbox? The SIMILE Seek extension might be the answer to your problems. The extension adds faceted browsing to Thunderbird, which allows you to search and manage your email messages in a radically different way than you are used to. 
To better understand how faceted browsing works, take a look at sites like the venerable Open Directory Project. The site allows you to narrow your search by filtering the data by the criteria, or facets, you choose. For example, you may start with a broad category called Computer, then narrow it to Open Source, then Software, and so on. Each time you choose a category, you effectively add a facet to your search, and thus make it more precise. The Seek extension can help you to search your email in a similar manner. Once installed, Seek adds a panel to Thunderbird's interface with several default facets. Each facet displays search results for the criteria it represents. For example, the Tag facet shows all the tagged emails grouped by their tags. The Recency facet displays all emails received today, the day before, within a week, and so on. Each facet not only provides a quick overview of the messages that match the facet's criteria, but also lets you filter the results. For example, you can view messages tagged as Important by clicking on the Important tag in the Tag facet. Another way to narrow search results is to use the "Type to filter" field in some of the facets. Start entering a search criteria in the field, and the facet narrows the search results as you type. You can, of course, refine the search results by combining several facets. For example, you can quickly find messages sent directly to you (the To CC/me facet) by a particular person (the From facet) the day before (The Recency facet). You can see the number of messages matching the chosen facets in the Results pane, which contains a few other useful features. Using the search field, you can combine more traditional text search with faceted browsing. And if you tick the Include whole threads check box, Seek groups the messages into threads, giving you a better overview of your correspondence. You can easily rearrange facets in the Seek panel by using drag and drop. You can also remove some of the default facets and add more facets by choosing them from the list of available facets. So, if you don't use tags, you can replace the Tag facet with something else; for example, the Priority facet. Seek also boasts an impressive visualization feature, which is based on another nifty tool from the SIMILE project called Timeline. Select Visualize from the drop-down list in the Results pane, and Seek maps the email messages on a visual timeline. At least this is how it's supposed to work in theory. In practice, however, I couldn't make this feature work. Every time I tried it, the extension threw an error message complaining about an unresponsive script. Another of Seek's weak points is that the extension performs indexing every time you select a folder. It's not a big problem if the folder contains a couple of hundred messages, but it can become an issue if you have thousands. For example, on my machine, it took Seek 1 minute and 12 seconds to index a folder containing 10,338 emails. While this is pretty fast, it's still quite a nuisance if you switch often between different folders. To work around this problem you can enable Seek only when needed, and then deactivate it when you are done searching, by pressing the Disengage link. Despite these drawbacks, Seek is by far the most impressive and innovative extension for Thunderbird out there. If you want to beef up your email client with powerful search capabilities, Seek is worth a try. Every Monday we highlight a different extension, plugin, or add-on. Write an article of less than 1,000 words telling us about one that you use and how it makes your work easier, along with tips for getting the most out of it. If we publish it, we'll pay you $100. (Send us a query first to be sure we haven't already published a story on your chosen topic recently or have one in hand.)
Dmitri Popov is a freelance writer whose articles have appeared in Russian, British, US, German, and Danish computer magazines.
Original link: http://www.linux.com/feature/132... |
Brilliant Brainstorms is a weekly-ish summary of some of the best brainstorms from the Ubuntu Brainstorm site. In the beginning it may not always come exactly once a week or on the same day, but, if it becomes popular, it should become more regular.
The current Ubuntu homepage looks far too static and shows off very little of what Ubuntu can do and what Ubuntu is. A new homepage with news, applications, and links to the many various Ubuntu sites would both be more useful and helpful in promoting Ubuntu. It is important that the homepage remain professional, though. Anyone that has attempted to use Gnash, the free Flash Player alternative, will know that is does not work for everything, but it does work for some sites. If you have to choose between one or the other, you are basically forced to use Flash Player, but if you could easily switch between the two, you could use Gnash whenever possible. The Fedora team put a big push into not just with the boot screen but with the entire boot experience to make it look more professional and less confusing to new users. Although it may seem like a small thing, small things do matter, so it would be much better if Ubuntu too eliminated text screens at bootup. Although this idea may be very difficult or impossible to implement in practice, part of the idea of brainstorming is to come up with lots of ideas, possible or not. Sometimes there is simply not a .deb file for a piece of software and if newbies (and anyone wanting to save time) were able to simply click on a source package and have it install, it would be great. In the past, the configuration for Compiz Fusion was always amazingly complicated, but now that there is a much simpler configuration tool, Simple CCSM, it should be included. There are really two reasons to use the cube desktop effect instead of the wall effect. First, the cube is the one that is demonstrated more often, and therefore people are more likely to be familiar with. Second, even though Linux had it first, the wall could be thought of as a Mac rip-off by someone who was unfamiliar with Linux. Original link: http://www.linuxloop.com/news/20... The openSUSE team is proud to announce the first Beta release of openSUSE 11.0! There are many exciting enhancements and features in the new release. Among these is the incredibly fast package management (libzypp), KDE 3.5.9 and 4.0.3, GNOME 2.22.1, a beautiful new installer, live CDs and much more. What’s New
The openSUSE 11.0 beta 1 includes quite a few changes and new features that users will find interesting, including: KDE 4 and KDE 3.5: The openSUSE 11.0 beta 1 includes KDE 4.0.3, which includes a number of new features, fixes, and optimizations. See the KDE4 page for more info on the KDE4 branch. To help test, see the wiki for info on reporting bugs in KDE. Not quite ready to move to KDE4? No worries, the beta includes an installation option for KDE 3.5 in addition to KDE4. GNOME 2.22: Beta 1 includes GNOME 2.22.1 with plenty of new features and packages. Interested in helping with testing for GNOME in openSUSE 11.0? See the wiki for all the info you need. YaST ported to Qt4: openSUSE’s administration and installation tool, YaST, has been ported to Qt4, providing beautiful styling for the installer, and an improved look for areas such as package management. Screenshots!
Here’s a quick look at openSUSE 11.0 beta 1:
For some more screenshots head over to Screenshots/openSUSE_11.0_Beta1 on the wiki.
Under the HoodNew Package Management Solver and Meta-data: the package management stack of openSUSE, libzypp, has seen constant improvements since the last release. We introduced a new SAT solver (slides, video) and repository metadata that means that openSUSE’s package management works at a lightning-fast speed. Installation in 24 minutes: Due to changes within the installation media itself and the advances in openSUSE’s package management, an openSUSE installation is now well over 60% faster, completing in roughly just 24 minutes! (Your mileage may vary, offer not valid for 486s…) Other:
Obsessive package watchers can find a list of packages in Factory that’s updated daily. (Just see the column labeled “Factory.”) Important Changes Since Alpha 3Several important changes have happened since Alpha 3 was released, most notably:
A more detailed list of changes is available via the Factory Information and Download
Remember that this is a beta. It may not be safe to run for production systems, and should be used by users interested in testing the next release of openSUSE for bugs. Most Annoying BugsLive-CD
[edit] DVD
[edit] General
Missing System Users in 11.0 Beta1There is a Bug which affects the adding of system users in several packages on both LiveCD and DVD installation. You have to reinstall them to get the correct users created on your system. You can do so either in YaST or use zypper like:
See the Bugs:Most_Annoying_Bugs_11.0_dev page on the wiki for an up-to-date list. Call for TestingIf you want to help testing our standard test-cases, please coordinate with others and subscribe to the opensuse-testing@opensuse.org (subscribe) mailing list to help with our organized testing. Media and DownloadopenSUSE 11.0 Beta 1 for i386, x86-64 and PPC comes as different media sets, all of which can be downloaded from http://software.opensuse.org/developer. Original link: http://news.opensuse.org/2008/04... The public perception of open source software is changing fast, said Mark Shuttleworth, who leads distribution of the Ubuntu operating system (OS).
A new version of Ubuntu, a version of the Linux OS, is released on Thursday. Mr Shuttleworth said the success of the Asus Eee PC and the work of the One Laptop Per Child programme had driven awareness of open source. "There has been a sea change in the way people think of Linux, which is very healthy," he said. "We have seen a real shift in the last six months from folks seeing open source as either a super-specialist thing for people who run data centres or as an enthusiast thing, to something which is energising a lot of the straight commercial PC industry," said Mr Shuttleworth. Platform development He manages Canonical software, which is the primary sponsor of distribution for Ubuntu, and a key element in the platform's development. He is also well-known for being the second-ever, self-funded space tourist, travelling to the International Space Station aboard the Soyuz spacecraft in 2002. If people think of their daily experience as a sit down on the web, we know that people can have very compelling experience on Linux Mark Shuttleworth Mr Shuttleworth said ordinary consumers were beginning to turn to Ubuntu, and to Linux more generally, to improve their daily computing experience. "If people think of computing as going to a PC, sitting down and starting Word, then the traditional view, of using Windows and Office, will persist. "But if people think of their daily experience as a sit down on the web, we know that people can have a very compelling experience on Linux. "In fact, we know it is a better web experience because they can do it without spyware, without viruses." Mr Shuttleworth said he believed there were about eight to nine million users of Ubuntu worldwide. "Most of the growth in users is from people buying a device that comes with Ubuntu shipped or wanting something for a second or older computer and are looking to tech-savvy friends for guidance," he said. 'Most significant' He described the latest version of Ubuntu, dubbed Hardy Heron, as "perhaps our most significant ever". The version will have three years of "long term support" from Canonical, which Mr Shuttleworth believes will make it more attractive for large-scale roll-outs of machines powered by the operating system. FROM THE DOT.LIFE BLOG There's no culture of piracy in the Linux community Mark Shuttleworth Q&A on the technology blog Read Mark's thoughts in full He said the French police force was currently deploying 50,000 Ubuntu-powered machines, while Spanish education authorities were rolling out 500,000 desktops with the OS. Hardy Heron also has improved support for multimedia, including photo editing, music sharing and video playback, he said. The version has also been designed to make installation simpler and give users the chance to try the OS without making radical alterations to their current computer set-up. "This is the first version that you can install under Windows. "Instead of re-partitioning your hard drive and taking some fairly risky steps, effectively you can now install under Windows without modifying your system." Ubuntu can be installed on PC and Mac machines and is one of a number of versions of Linux. Mr Shuttleworth said: "It's a favourite version of Linux both for specialists and one that specialists would recommend to a cousin, aunt or uncle who want to have a stable desktop internet experience. "There are other versions of Linux that are better for a particular purpose - but Ubuntu strives to be a general platform that is secure and self-maintained." Original link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/techn... Last year was the worst of times for open source in health care.
The undercapitalized Medsphere had to reorganize after tossing its founders for daring to treat their open source promises seriously. Misys tossed some code over the side and called it an open source strategy. Open source had become a tactic, not a strategy. This was confirmed when Misys later did a deal to buy half of AllScripts, leaving the future of its code contributions uncertain. Lately, however, open source in healthcare has gotten a second life. I wrote earlier this month about the launch of Open Health Tools, under Eclipse co-founder Skip McGaughey. And now Tolven Healthcare has taken the OpenVista banner and married it to standard open source fare like PostgreSQL and JBOSS. Still, with Microsoft jumping into hospital computing with both feet, with incumbents like McKesson and Cerner growing fast, and with the whole industry being given a big shove in the back to computerize by politicians, does open source have the time to gain traction? I wish I knew the answer to that. I’d know better if I knew how much of a push one company is willing to give the no-longer nascent movement. IBM. IBM is a big player in open source. IBM is a big player in medical computing. If IBM got behind a marriage of the two they could give the open source movement in health care a real second life. Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for nearly 25 years. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations. Original link: http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-sour... Quite recently, HP announced a new line of thin clients with Debian Etch 4.0 preinstalled. That’s certainly good news for Linux, but why HP’s Linux support is Windows only?
HP, as every reputable hardware vendor, provides support for the products it sells. Its Linux-based HP Compaq t5735 Thin Client is no exception here:
So what happens if we choose the only supported operating system, which happens to be Debian GNU/Linux 4.0? Well, unless you’re used to the fact that your hardware vendor offers you RPM or DEB packages for Windows products, it shouldn’t surprise you that HP offers only Windows executables as a way to support its Linux products: Heck, have fun figuring out what to do with these instructions on your Linux distro: INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
1. Download the SoftPaq .EXE file to a directory on your hard drive.
2. Execute the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instructions.
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Open Source Initiative (OSI) Announces Res...
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