Linux News for Dec 24, 2008

• 19 Standards Orgs. - and Over 13,300 Members - Support Rambus Brief (Dec 24, 2008, 22:04)
  Standards Blog: "Yesterday I filed a pro bono amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief with the United States Supreme Court in support of the Federal Trade Commission's petition for writ of certiorari in its suit against Rambus Technologies. I'm pleased to report that 19 standard setting organizations (SSOs), representing over 13,300 members, joined as amici curiae supporting this brief; the list of participants appears later in this blog entry."


• Editor's Note: Holiday Greetings and Good Wishes, and The Big Story That Got Missed (Dec 24, 2008, 20:04)
  In which your faithful editors dispense good will, good wishes, and a scoop on a big Linux story.


• AIR on Linux Test Run (Dec 24, 2008, 19:34)
  Cyber Cynic: "AIR (Adobe Integrated Runtime) is a cross-operating system runtime that lets you use rich Internet applications that combine HTML, Ajax, Adobe Flash, and Adobe Flex technologies. What that means to you and me is that it's lets us run another kind of application on our Internet-connected Windows PCs, Macs, and just this month, Linux desktop computers."


• Linux in 2009: Recession vs. GNU (Dec 24, 2008, 19:04)
  Datamation: "Pundits and business executives alike are predicting gloomy economic times for 2009. But when the talk turns to free and open source software (FOSS), suddenly the mood brightens. Whether their concern is the business opportunities in open source or the promotion of free software idealism, experts see FOSS as starting from a strong base and actually benefiting from the hard times expected next year."


• Wiping Disks With DBAN (Dec 24, 2008, 18:34)
  Tip of the Trade: "DBAN (Darik's Boot And Nuke) is designed to fully and securely wipe your disk. It's a downloadable self-contained boot disk, available for CD/DVD, floppy disk, or USB flash drive."


• Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier Discusses OpenSUSE 11.1 (Dec 24, 2008, 18:04)
  Desktop Linux: "Q1 -- When I installed OpenSUSE 11.1, I had to agree to the new license first, but it only seemed to be available in English. Given SUSE's proud history as Europe's top Linux desktop, are there plans to translate the license to, for example, German?"
  Why have a EULA at all?--ed.


• The Other Secret to Red Hat's Success: A Magazine Article (No Joke) (Dec 24, 2008, 17:34)
  The VAR Guy: "What's the biggest secret to Red Hat's success in a down economy? Plenty of pundits think it's Linux and JBoss open source middleware. But The VAR Guy has another theory: One of Red Hat's smartest moves is promoting a particularly influential magazine article about the company."


• Mplayer, FFmpeg Gain VA-API Support (Dec 24, 2008, 17:04)
  Phoronix: "Video acceleration APIs for Linux has been a hot topic recently with NVIDIA having introduced VDPAU last month (the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix) that brings PureVideo-like features to Linux with great results while it's already finding its way into MPlayer, FFmpeg, MythTV, Xine, and VLC. AMD has been working hard on XvBA (X-Video Bitstream Acceleration), but that has yet to be officially introduced."


• Alan Cox and the End of an Era (Dec 24, 2008, 16:34)
  Open Enterprise: "I don't know what Cox will be doing at Intel, but as an employee of a hardware company he is likely to be involved in dealing with the kind of lower-level issues that have presumably become increasingly scarce at Red Hat. Assuming that's the case, this will be good news both for Cox and for the free software world."


• Security Trends of 2008 and Predictions for 2009 (Dec 24, 2008, 16:04)
  Help Net Security: "As a new year approaches we must prepare for new Internet security threats. Every year, new and innovative ways of attacking computer users emerge and continue to increase in volume and severity. To know where we are going it is helpful to look at where we have been."
  This isn't really about security trends-- it's about threat trends. --ed.


• Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring Alpha 1 released (Dec 24, 2008, 15:34)
  Mandriva: "The first alpha for Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring (2009.1) is now available"


• Tech Writing Tips From the LinuxPlanet Pros (Dec 24, 2008, 15:04)
  LinuxPlanet: "I've never believed that the distinction between "amateur" and "professional" was quality; that is, that amateur means poor quality and professional = high quality. The only difference is professionals get paid."


• OpenVAS Charts Its Own Forked Course (Dec 24, 2008, 14:34)
  Internet News: "One of the notable features of open source software is forking. If an open source project takes a direction that users or developers don't like, well, they can fork off in a new direction."


• SSL Certificate for Mozilla.com Issued Without Validation (Dec 24, 2008, 14:04)
  SSL Shopper: "Unethical business practices of an SSL Certificate reseller have been exposed and it is causing many to wonder about the security and practices of SSL providers."


• Debian Seeking New Project Secretary (Dec 24, 2008, 13:04)
  Linux Magazine: "Current balloting for Debian Lenny's future has led to strife in the organization. Secretary of the free project, Manoj Srivastava, has resigned his position. A possible consequence is that the next version will undergo further delay in its release."


• Weekly Ten (12-22-2008) (Dec 24, 2008, 12:34)
  Tech Source From Bohol: "9. Hard Work and Practice in Programming
  There's a long arc in computing that teaches us how much we gain through advances in ease-of-use, with the iPhone being the latest breakthrough success..."


• Best Wishes for the New Year (Dec 24, 2008, 08:34)
  Linux Journal: "These days, there is an almost unfathomable number of ways in which to communicate. I have a telephone, email, snail mail, and a multitude of Instant Messaging accounts. I have a cell phone and can send and receive text messages. I'm on MySpace. I can receive phone calls over the Internet via SIP. I'm on IRC and various mailing lists. You would think that I use these wonderful tools to keep in touch with friends and family."


• Revised Slackware Keeps it Simple (Dec 24, 2008, 04:34)
  Linux.com: "At a time when new and buggy features cloud basic computer functions, it's refreshing to see a new release of a distro like Slackware that stays true to its core philosophy. Slackware has an unfair reputation of being a distro only for experienced users. Granted it doesn't sport many graphical configuration tools, but it balances that with stability and speed."


• Higher and Further: The Innovations of Linux 2.6.28 (Dec 24, 2008, 03:04)
  Heise Open Source: "The Ext4 file system leaves its main development phase and will soon be ripe for productive use. Major renovation work on the code for memory and disk management promises GPU speed increases and better scalability. Hundreds of new and revised drivers improve hardware compatibility significantly."


• Demise of the Hard-Disk? I Think Not (Dec 24, 2008, 01:34)
  Another Signpost on the Information Superhighway: "Computer world is running a post talking about the demise of the hard-disk (HD) in favor of solid state drives (SSD). The post has so many errors in it I have a hard time figuring out where to begin."


• Linux Mint Raises the User-Friendliness Bar (Dec 24, 2008, 00:04)
  LinuxPlanet: "Linux Mint says its "purpose is to produce an elegant, up to date and comfortable GNU/Linux desktop distribution." With hundreds of Linux distributions vying for our attention, what sets Linux Mint apart?"