Should Fedora abandon release names?
Fedora has a long history of release names. Some have been serious (Verne, Goddard, Cambridge), while others have been a little less so (Werewolf, Moonshine, Zod). Perhaps the silliest of them yet, Fedora 17 will be "Beefy Miracle,"...
Larry Ellison knocks Oracle's Linux strategy
The Oracle v. Google trial is kind of hard to miss this week, and it's dragging out all kinds of nuggets of information. One of the best this week? Oracle's CEO unintentionally taking a jab at his own company's enterprise Linux...
Fedora 16 to skip btrfs by default
One of the main features planned for Fedora 16 was a switch to btrfs by default. However, as the first alpha for F16 approaches, it looks like it will be another cycle before the filesystem gets its day in the Sun.Josef Bacik has...
Say what? GNU Emacs violates the GPL
GPL violations are a dime a dozen. Some are intentional, some are not — but I don't think I've ever seen one quite as surprising as this one. Yes, Richard Stallman has sent out a note letting everybody know that the 23.2 and 23.3...
Close to the wire, Novacut nears its Kickstarter goal
Want people to open their wallets? Give a good deal on games. Want people to fund an open source video editor project with a big vision? That's a bit tougher, but the Novacut project looks like it might just make it the second time...
The hard-line anti-anonymity approach for Google+ shows Google still doesn't get social
When Google+ launched, I was really happy with the service and thought that Google was in a great position to demonstrate that they "get" some of the complaints that users have long had with Facebook. While Google seemed to be...
Custom distro hammers hardware to detect system failures
One of the things I love about Linux? You can do so many interesting things with it. Take, for example, Breakin — a stress-testing and hardware diagnostic tool that will put hardware through its paces to make sure it's...
Facebook bans another tool for contact exports
After just a few days of operation, Facebook has already slammed the door for Open-Xchange's OX.IO export tool. According to Facebook, the app violates its terms of service — but the company says "we are not violating anything."So...
Debian and Software Freedom Law Center publish software patent FAQ
Software patents have, unfortunately, become an inescapable part of working with software. They're of particular concern to free and open source projects (FOSS), but like many matters legal people have a lot of questions and...
Anti-rantifesto: Why free software and free culture aren't the same
Nina Paley, a professional illustrator and animator, has produced a fairly energetic rantifesto arguing that the "four freedoms" of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) should apply to free cultural works as well. While that might be...
Giving Google a B- for Plus
The first and foremost feature of Google Plus (or just Google+ if you prefer)? It's not Facebook. That, of course, is not enough to sell the service entirely — but it's a good start. After tooling around the service for a short...
Facebook restores access and uploaded photos for KDE apps
A day after KDE users found their pictures gone missing and KDE apps unable to load pics, Facebook has restored access and photos. What happened? Apparently the KDE Plug-Ins were whacked in error by Facebook's automated...
Facebook bans KDE application, deletes user photos
KDE users have gotten a rather unpleasant surprise from Facebook: Not only is the site blocking KDE apps like Gwenview from uploading, the social media giant has also taken down photos uploaded with the KDE plugins. Yet another...
German company claims it can disregard GPL requirements in aggregated software
A Germany company that provides DSL modems, using in part the Linux kernel, is trying to deny another company the right to modify GPL'ed software. The company, AVM Computersysteme Vertiebs GmbH (AVM), says that Cybits AG is violating...
Sorry HP: Oracle's right - give up on Itanium already
Hewlett-Packard is doing what all losers in the IT industry do these days when it loses a technology bet: It's trying to sue its way into relevance. Case in point, HP is suing Oracle over its decision to stop supporting Itanium....
Et tu, Adobe? Dropping Adobe AIR support for desktop Linux
Folks can quibble about the market share of the Linux desktop, but Adobe has read the tea leaves and said it's not interested in pursuing desktop Linux with Adobe AIR. But things look good for Android.Dave McAllister, director of...
Bad news for Microsoft is bad news for FOSS
Microsoft hasn't exactly been the best friend to FOSS, but it's hard to feel good about the company's $290 million loss to i4i. The company lost its appeal in front of the Supreme Court, which has affirmed that issued patents are...
Apache president Jim Jagielski talks about OpenOffice.org next steps
The announcement yesterday that Oracle proposed OpenOffice.org as an Apache Incubator project was heavy on impact, but light on detail. To get a bit more information about the hand-off, I checked in with Apache Software Foundation...
Oracle proposes OpenOffice.org to Apache Incubator
In what may not be the best-kept secret, Oracle has finally spilled the beans: It's proposing OpenOffice.org as a Apache Incubator project — and not to The Document Foundation.According to Oracle's release, "Donating OpenOffice.org...
Does Amazon "owe" open source? Maybe a little
When most people look at Amazon, they probably see a retail giant that's constantly growing and reaching into new markets. But at the core of almost all of Amazon's success is open source — yet you rarely see Amazon participating and...
