Linux News for Jul 31, 2007

• Will Mozilla's Fuzzer Break The Web? (Jul 31, 2007, 23:45)
  Internet News: "The Web browser is the most basic common unit of the Internet experience for much of the global community. It's also one of the most attacked. And it's not just the bad guys breaking the browsers anymore, but also the browser vendors."


• The Linux Foundation Borrows Novell's Linux CTO for 18 Months (Jul 31, 2007, 23:00)
  The Linux Beacon "Markus Rex, who is chief technology officer for the Open Platform Solutions Group at Novell and who was one of the cornerstone executives named to the Linux Foundation board of directors back in April, is going to take a hiatus from Novell and work as CTO for the Linux Foundation. Rex is one of the key techies behind the SUSE Enterprise Linux Server distribution, and is the top executive that remains at the formerly independent SUSE since Novell bought the German Linux distro in November 2003 for $210 million."


• Why Microsoft is pushing its licenses for OSI approval (Jul 31, 2007, 22:15)
  The Wisdom of Ganesh: "...that's what these licenses are being rushed out to do - slow down the adoption of GPLv3. Fat chance. The GPL version 3 is a juggernaut. And Microsoft is roadkill."


• MS-DOS paternity suit settled (Jul 31, 2007, 21:30)
  The Register: "...history has overlooked the contribution of Kildall, who Evans justifiably described as "the true founder of the personal computer revolution and the father of PC software" in a book published three years ago."


• Open Source is no Web 2.0 (Jul 31, 2007, 20:45)
  Krishwords: "It is disgusting to see the so called saviors of open source kneeling in front of a company known to strangle the freedom of users."


• Acer: 'No UK Demand' for Linux Laptops (Jul 31, 2007, 20:00)
  ZDNet UK: "Acer will not release Linux-based laptops in the UK due to a lack of demand, despite launching an Ubuntu-based machine in Asia."


• Linux Has Just Vanished Forever (Jul 31, 2007, 19:15)
  OSWeekly: "Linux is Gone, Now What? You wake up one morning and you suddenly realize that Linux no longer exists. Regardless of how absurd this sounds, it does provoke some interesting points from various Linux users, and today, we'll be exploring these closely. Personally, I believe that I would likely end up using OS X or PC-BSD."


• Working With The GRUB Menu (Jul 31, 2007, 18:30)
  HowtoForge: "This tutorial describes how to edit the GRUB menu. It will also show how to add operating systems and how to add splash screens..."


• MOC Audio Player — advanced tricks (Jul 31, 2007, 17:45)
  Polish Linux: "I consider the MOC player to be a better solution for some users (including myself) than the very popular applications Xmms or Amarok, and the other visually appealing players. Why do I think so? Read on. I am about to describe some of the lesser known options of this excellent player."


• Citadel becomes the first end-to-end GPLv3 messaging/collaboration platform (Jul 31, 2007, 17:00)
  Citadel.org: "The developers of the Citadel messaging and collaboration system are pleased to announce that we are now releasing all of our software under version 3 of the GNU General Public License."


• Microsoft Project to Get Open Source Competition (Jul 31, 2007, 16:15)
  ZDNet: "Projity, which has been selling its project management software in the form of Software as a Service (SaaS), will launch an open source version at LinuxWorld next week, under the name OpenProj..."


• Fedora Stats Offer Insight Into Linux Usage (Jul 31, 2007, 15:30)
  Linux.com: "The Fedora Project offered a peek under its kimono recently with details about Fedora 7 adoption and other statistics..."


• MEPIS to switch from Ubuntu to Debian (Jul 31, 2007, 14:45)
  Desktop Linux: "But, Woodford said, for MEPIS users this means that Ubuntu does not provide a foundation for long term incremental upgrades. "Ubuntu is almost a whole new distro each time it's released," he said. "By using the EXPERIMENTAL code, each and every time, the Ubuntu code tree is inherently less stable than the Debian code tree, which contains additional levels of testing and vetting and fixing of code.""


• Making Linux systems That Don't Suck. Part II (Jul 31, 2007, 14:00)
  Lateral Opinion: "While one of the pillars of Unix is that each command should do one thing and do it well, we have here one of the most peculiar results. You have seven commands to do one or two things, and they do them rather badly."


• Linux Authentication Troubles? Try Active Directory (Jul 31, 2007, 13:15)
  SearchEnterpriseLinux: "In a heterogeneous data center, administering access and managing identity can be time-consuming any way you slice it..."


• Do Microsoft's Licenses Stand a Chance of OSI Approval? (Jul 31, 2007, 12:30)
  Computer Business Review: "Do any of them stand a chance? Here's my (admittedly simplified) two-penneth..."


• Uh Oh. Another Smooth Move from Microsoft: Watch out, Ruby. Watch out OSI. (Jul 31, 2007, 11:45)
  Groklaw: "At least two years ago, folks began noticing the erosion of the meaning of "Open Source" by Microsoft. It moves like a glacier, but while it may be slow, it's hard to be in a glacier's path and win. But unless someone stands up, and soon, Open Source is dead as we know it, and Microsoft will take it over and remake it in its image. All that will be left standing will be GPLv3 and Free Software."


• Sun Plug-in Brings ODF Support to Microsoft Office (Jul 31, 2007, 11:00)
  eWeek: "Sun Microsystems' ODF Plug-in for Microsoft Office won't usher in an era of universal document interoperability, but eWEEK Labs believes it is the best option currently available..."


• Linux: Suspend and Hibernation Status Report (Jul 31, 2007, 09:30)
  KernelTrap: "Rafael Wysocki posted a lengthy status report 'describing the current state of development of the suspend and hibernation infrastructure: how it works, what known problems there are in it and what the future development plans are...'"


• Dissecting The ATI/AMD Linux Driver (Jul 31, 2007, 08:00)
  Phoronix: "If you have been reading our ATI/AMD Linux display driver reviews for some time, you will know that there are periods where it doesn't look like the fglrx driver is actively being worked on, but in fact changes are being made 'under the hood...'"


• Bird Has Wings, But Can It Fly? (Jul 31, 2007, 06:30)
  Join the Revolution!: "The article was cleverly packaged with an interesting looking title and introduction, but after reading on I was surprised to see the objectives offered - to let Thunderbird determine its own destiny...!"


• Your Choices with Gentoo (Jul 31, 2007, 05:00)
  Funtoo: "There is a large interest among the Gentoo and larger Linux user community for me to come back as Chief Architect..."


• Review: Vector Linux 5.8 Standard Edition (Jul 31, 2007, 03:30)
  Raiden's Realm: "Vector Linux, a derivative of Slackware Linux, is an all in one Linux distribution targeted towards both beginners and the Windows refuge..."


• Is Comparison to Microsoft Necessary (Jul 31, 2007, 02:00)
  Techzone: "It appears that bashing Microsoft (commonly known as M$) has evolved as our, the so called open source lovers, common hobby..."


• Skype responds to Euro GPL rebuke (Jul 31, 2007, 00:30)
  Linux Devices: "In response to inquiries regarding a German court's ruling that Skype had breached the GPL, the company told LinuxDevices.com today that it "has not acted improperly." The alleged violation was associated with the method by which Skype "distributed" GPL-licensed source code with a Linux-powered VoIP handset."