http://www.linux-watch.com/?kc=rss Keeping an Eye on the Penguin en-us As the Debian project releases a second update of its Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 ("Lenny") distribution, a controversy has broken out over the next version, "Squeeze." GNU guru Richard Stallman has warned that by including a Mono-based note-taking application called Tomboy, Debian runs the risk of Microsoft litigation over C# patents. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7392358109.html?kc=rss IDG World Expo has announced speakers for its inaugural OpenSource World 2009 show (formerly LinuxWorld) on Aug. 12-13 in San Francisco. California Secretary of State Debra Bowen will keynote the conference, which will feature presentations on Linux desktops, netbooks, Android, mobile devices, enterprise, security, troubleshooting, and numerous "cloud" topics. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9333020449.html?kc=rss Linus Torvalds (pictured) announced Linux kernel 2.6.30, adding several new filesystems, including the NILFS2 log-structured filesystem. Linux 2.6.30 enhancements include a local caching layer for NFS data, the RDS server cluster communications protocol, the Tomoyo security module, and support for LZMA and BZIP2 compression algorithms. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2720352534.html?kc=rss Intel announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Wind River Systems, one of the top providers of embedded Linux distributions and tools. Intel plans to acquire Wind River for $11.50 per share in cash, or about $884 million, making it a wholly owned subsidiary. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6104454041.html?kc=rss The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed suit against Apple to defend the First Amendment rights of a noncommercial online forum. The suit comes in response to pressure from Apple lawyers that forced "BluWiki" to remove discussions of how to make third-party media management software work with the iPhone and iPod. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7990509549.html?kc=rss Open Invention Network (OIN) announced that three of the eight patents cited in Microsoft's lawsuit against TomTom have been posted for prior art review by the Linux community. The evidence is being compiled to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that the patents are invalid. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3808328946.html?kc=rss Red Hat and Georgia Tech have published a study that measures open source activity around the world. The Open Source Index (OSI) is accompanied by an interactive map (pictured) that shows the relative rankings for 75 countries based on their open source software (OSS) activity. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5223881177.html?kc=rss Database giant Oracle has agreed to purchase Sun Microsystems in a deal worth $7.4 billion, according to a story in eWEEK. Oracle wants Sun more for its hardware than its software, and may choose to jettison Sun's open source offerings, including MySQL, says eWEEK. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7119024462.html?kc=rss Sun has added support for the Open Virtualization Format (OVF) to the latest version of its "open source" desktop virtualization software. Other enhancements to VirtualBox 2.2 (left) include greater hypervisor optimization and 3D graphics acceleration for Linux and Solaris applications, says an eWEEK story. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS8383783639.html?kc=rss The Linux Foundation (LF) announced that it will help companies excise the Microsoft FAT filesystem from their systems to avoid the fate of TomTom, which recently settled with Microsoft over alleged patent infringements over FAT. Meanwhile, other open-source leaders are suggesting a standardized FAT substitute may be in the offing. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS3228322313.html?kc=rss If by suing TomTom, Microsoft wins the right to charge for ubiquitous FAT filesystem features like long filenames and flash wear-leveling, it could spell real trouble for Linux device makers. Not to mention SAMBA distributors. OTOH, decades of non-enforcement are going make tough sailing for Redmond legal on this one. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9320107601.html?kc=rss [Updated 1234545906] -- As most any user can tell you, Linux systems think of time in terms of the number of seconds, not counting leap seconds, since the beginning of the UNIX epoch: Jan. 1, 1970. For most readers, that number will reach 1,234,567,890 this Fri. the 13th. Psych! http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2326838918.html?kc=rss Unemployed? Take a lead from the great open source entrepreneurs, and have a slice of open source cake, suggests Sramana Mitra in an interesting Forbes article that goes on to profile Apache and CollabNet Founder Brian Behlendorf, SugarCRM Founder John Roberts, and SpringSource Founder Rod Johnson. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7431065143.html?kc=rss [Updated Feb. 3] -- Debian's long-delayed 5.0 release (aka, "Lenny") will likely launch over the Valentine's-slash-President's day weekend, five months late. A look at Lenny's new installer hints that Debian's long-cherished "when it's ready" release schedule may be headed for divorce court, though. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS2747696242.html?kc=rss Ordinarily, I don't spend much discretionary income on computers. I get enough of 'em at work. But the other day, I actually considered buying a netbook. In the process of doing some shopping, I learned why Windows is outselling Linux. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4581810539.html?kc=rss Linux had its chance there for a while in netbooks, but has now been duly "kicked to the curb" by Microsoft, never to surface again. This according to Robin Harris, apparently an expert in storage, who in an amusing, penguin-baiting rant published by ZDNet, ventures his opinion on desktop Linux. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5784396972.html?kc=rss A company specializing in open source authentication and auditing software for mixed networks says it grew by a factor of five in 2008. Likewise Software says its products can be used to securely integrate Linux, Unix, and Mac systems with Microsoft Active Directory. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7020199436.html?kc=rss Microsoft yesterday laid off 1,400 workers, with another 3,600 on the block within 18 months. We asked Linux Foundation Director Jim Zemlin what role if any Linux played in Microsoft's misfortunes, how Microsoft will react, and what the news means for Linux and open source. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5652540837.html?kc=rss Red Hat announced the availability of a new version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) that improves virtualization scalability. RHEL 5.3 also adds an implementation of the open-source OpenJDK Java technology, as well as support for Intel's Nehalem processor architecture, says Red Hat. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS7878347491.html?kc=rss The 5.0 ("Lenny") release of Debian Linux has been delayed by a philosophical rift among project developers. In a thoughtful essay entitled "Debian, Philosophy, and People," Linux Foundation Fellow Ted T'so draws examples from literature, religion, and philosophy in renouncing the free software absolutism of Debian's Social Contract. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5640922731.html?kc=rss Patent holding company Open Invention Network (OIN) has launched a "Linux Defenders" program, co-sponsored by the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) and the Linux Foundation (LF). The program is designed to make prior art more readily accessible to patent and trademark office examiners, says OIN. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5780828553.html?kc=rss The Linux Foundation (LF) announced the results of its Technical Advisory Board (TAB) election. Six new members were elected to the ten-member TAB, originating from companies including Intel, Oracle, and Red Hat, says the LF. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS5622875762.html?kc=rss The little company that posed a big legal challenge to Linux early on now seems to have been handed its final comeuppance, in a court document ominously described as a "final judgment." http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS6510445564.html?kc=rss T-Mobile has issued an over-the-air fix for a laughable Android security bug that caused anything typed into its G1 phone to be interpreted by a root shell process. Prior to the fix, hackers briefly enjoyed root shell access, leading to such fun as Debian SD-card installations. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS9846736166.html?kc=rss Novell has launched a "competitive replacement" program aimed at luring Red Hat and CentOS users to its SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) product. Through the program, Novell will support customers' RHEL or CentOS servers for up to two years, while the customer migrates to SLES. http://www.linux-watch.com/news/NS4891662074.html?kc=rss