Linux News for Jul 30, 2007

• Fotango COO quits job during keynote speech (Jul 30, 2007, 23:15)
  The Register: "A splash of drama hit OSCON this morning, as the COO of software maker Fotango resigned from the company during his keynote, protesting a decision not to open source the Zimki utility computing platform."


• Linux tool points out power-wasting applications (Jul 30, 2007, 22:30)
  LinuxWorld: "This year's most important Linux application may be a simple utility that helps users spot long-standing bugs that make systems waste power."


• Computer waste fuels toxic trade (Jul 30, 2007, 21:45)
  Newsforge: "Do you know what happens to your used computer equipment after it has been discarded? The answer may surprise you. Even if you have tried to recycle it, your old hardware often gets shipped to a developing nation in direct violation of international law. Useful components are then extracted -- without safety precautions -- by locals earning pennies a day and who are exposed to a range of hazardous toxins that include lead, beryllium, mercury, cadmium, and brominated flame retardants."


• City Net Goes Open Source (Jul 30, 2007, 21:00)
  PC World: "The city of Madera, Calif., has spent the last year successfully running an open-source-based network as a replacement for one based on Cisco Systems Inc. gear..."


• Upgrading from Edgy Eft to Feisty Fawn (Jul 30, 2007, 20:15)
  Wolfmanz Bytes: "The big question is how much stuff will get screwed up if I hit the upgrade button?"


• GNOME Online Desktop: "We will have to include Windows" (Jul 30, 2007, 19:30)
  derStandard: "During this years GUADEC Red Hat developer Havoc Pennington proposed his idea of an "Online Desktop" to the developers of the GNOME project. Through deep integration with web services and "zero-maintenance" the Open Source client aims to get the "perfect window to the Internet"."


• Thunderbird Must Go Says Mozilla CEO (Jul 30, 2007, 18:45)
  DaniWeb: "Put through my patented BS translator this produced 'Thunderbird brings us no revenue, gets a bad press whether compared to Outlook or Gmail, and anyway Firefox is our future...'"


• OSI Avoids Open Source War (Jul 30, 2007, 18:00)
  ZDNet: "Let us now praise Michael Tiemann..."


• Community Linux on the Rise (Jul 30, 2007, 17:15)
  Red Herring: "If a recent report is any indication, Novell may be in for a case of the blues..."


• One billion Windows users can be wrong (Jul 30, 2007, 16:30)
  DaniWeb: "Current market share statistics are revealing, with Windows XP hogging the limelight on some 81.94% of the OS market, and Vista with its 4.52% share sitting between Mac OS with 6% and Linux on a rather disappointing 0.71%."


• Can You Change a Service Contract Only on a Website? (Jul 30, 2007, 15:45)
  Groklaw: "The question the appeals court was asked to answer, in its own words, was: 'We consider whether a service provider may change the terms of its service contract by merely posting a revised contract on its website.' It's a significant ruling, in that it's the first time this issue has reached a federal appeals court."


• Open Source Convention: You Have to Have a Good Reason Not to Open the Source (Jul 30, 2007, 15:00)
  ONLamp: "A fast-spreading story out of Europe asserts that VoIP leader Skype has been found in violation of the GPL by a German court..."


• Update on Copiepresse v. Google (Jul 30, 2007, 14:15)
  Groklaw: "I find the ruling infuriatingly clueless about the tech. The "expert" advising the court obviously did not understand Google cache. Nor does the court comprehend that a robot can't do anything that a human hasn't told it to do. Nor does the court understand the difference between an information portal and a bunch of search engine results, which is all Google News is."


• How Microsoft bought China (Jul 30, 2007, 13:30)
  Desktop Linux: "...the real reason why Microsoft is "winning" in China and has won elsewhere is that Microsoft is willing to break the law, pay the fines, dump products on the market at far below cost, and continue on in the belief that in the long run the costs of doing business the Microsoft way will win out over the higher quality, security and features of Mac OS X and the Linux desktop."


• Grandpa Gets a Dell with Ubuntu Linux Preinstalled (Jul 30, 2007, 12:45)
  Groklaw: "Now, he has the skills to set up whatever he wants, really, but even when you know how, it's so pleasant when it just works. And if all your grandpa wants to do is surf, he can do this..."


• Open Source Software Gets a Chance in Russia (Jul 30, 2007, 12:00)
  CNews: "CNews found out a pilot open source software project was to be launched in the educational institutions in Tomsk Region and Tatarstan..."


• So You Want to Be a Linux Developer [Part 1 & 2] (Jul 30, 2007, 10:30)
  TechNewsWorld: "Five years ago, the only engineering or computer science majors setting their sights on a career in writing software code for an open source company were the most hardcore of computer nerds..."


• Linux Gaming, Part Four: Massive Multiplayer Online Games (Jul 30, 2007, 09:00)
  Kahvipapu: "Massive Multiplayer Online Games are hugely popular nowadays, especially thanks to the World of Warcraft which brought online gaming to the mainstream. So what's the state of online games on Linux...?"


• Review: CentOS 5 (Jul 30, 2007, 07:30)
  Raider's Realm: "Given all this versatility, and its roots as a server OS, some may be lead to ask the question, 'Does it make a good desktop distribution?' We're about to find out..."


• Hands On: Ubuntu Linux--Kubuntu and Xubuntu (Jul 30, 2007, 06:00)
  Personal Computer World: "In April the latest version of Ubuntu Linux, Feisty Fawn, was released. In this article, we are turning our attention to Kubuntu..."


• Customize Your Laptop Keyboard with X and KDE (Jul 30, 2007, 04:00)
  Linux.com: "Since I'm Uruguayan, my mother tongue is Spanish, and that presented a problem: laptops usually have an American-style keyboard..."


• Why (almost) Everyone Should Try Ubuntu (Jul 30, 2007, 00:00)
  Maximum PC: "If you're a hardcore Gentoo or Slackware type, go away and read something else. You're probably not going to like what I'm about to say..."