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Category Archives: linux/unix/os distros

2007: Top 10 Free and Open Source Legal Issues

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“The year 2007 has been the most active year for legal developments in the history of free and open source (“FOSS”). In fact, you would have been hard pressed in past years to enumerate even five important legal developments. However 2007 permits the creation of a traditional “top ten” list.”

Interested what goes behind the curtain when it comes to all those legality issues going around with free and open source world? Then check out a post here to see the Top 10 list of legal issues compiled by Mark Radcliffe from Law and Life: Silicon Valley blog.

PDF Editing & Creation: 50+ Open Source/Free Alternatives

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

Yesterday Amy Quinn notified me that they got a new post on their website listing 50+ alternatives, both open source and/or free, for Adobe Acrobat and PDF. The list is indeed comprehensive with links to app developers and small info packs on every app.

“Adobe Acrobat is expensive, but that doesn’t mean you have to live a life without portable documents. What many people don’t realize is that PDF is a Federal Information Processing Standard, which means the specifications behind the format are widely published. Numerous developers take advantage of this fact and create programs that offer effective alternatives to Acrobat. Check out our list of these programs and take advantage of these tools that are full of some of the best PDF features and functions.”

Check out the complete list

WTF: Nokia Wants W3C to Remove Ogg from Upcoming HTML5

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

Somehow I missed a big nuacence that is being proposed by Nokia (!) to W3C consortium – probably the purest anti-proprietary standards body on the planet.

“The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, a group devoted to publishing web standards, recently moved to approve the Ogg video and audio formats for inclusion into the forthcoming HTML5 standard. Nokia, maker of mobile phones and mobile multimedia services, has taken exception to this proposal, writing a position paper (PDF) and raising a formal issue at the W3’s web site, claiming that Ogg support should be “deleted” from the spec in order to “avoid any patent issues.”“Nokia to W3C: Ogg is proprietary, we need DRM on the Web” – Ogg is an open encoding scheme, as we all know, and it was On2, the company that developed it, gave it and a free, perpetual unlimited license to its patents to the nonprofit Xiph foundation … but somehow Nokia called it “proprietary” and argued for the inclusion of standards that can be used in conjunction with DRM …..

BTW, did you notice that Nokia’s Internet Tablets do not come with Ogg support out of box, official line being that it is up to third party developers to implement it!!!

As one forum user puts it:

“Nokia today is not Nokia from a few years ago. The old Nokia was a company that sold you mobile devices. The problem was, some moron sat inside Nokia and lusted after Apple’s business model… which leads us to the new Nokia. The new Nokia is a company that wants to sell you a mobile device that you’ll use to purchase lots of music and other forthcoming content (N-Gage games) and lock you into their portals and services (navigation subscriptions). The device is only a means to an end, and giving customers choices by making the devices open limits Nokia’s future revenue”

Sad to read such news. Looks like Nokia has growth issues and problems with a management – while right hand goes to the open world, left hand trashes all efforts to the hell.What the hell there should be DRM in my device? How far this DRM idiocy can go? When pirated content is better than original one, that’s a real shame for authors. This shows how far abuse of monopoly power can go in modern world.

I agree with the post from BoingBoing, discussing this matter, and closing their thoughts with: “But remember, that’s not what Nokia is objecting to: they are arguing that Ogg is proprietary (it isn’t) and that DRM should be part of a Web standard (it shouldn’t)”

P.S. It is strange that this post comes right after a post talking about great OS2008 (which indeed is a great Maemo product) release for Nokia Internet Tablets …. hmm

Official OS2008 Release for Nokia Internet Tablets

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

Users can now download the official installer for OS2008 for your Nokia N800 Internet tablet. You get:

  • The sluggish Opera browser has been swapped out for a speedy Mozilla based browser
  • If you’re on an N800, the processor speed has been bumped up to 400 Mhz
  • Built in Flash 9
  • FM Radio software
  • A Beautiful new UI
  • Improved RSS reader
  • and much, much more.

And:

  • This update increases the maximum CPU clock speed from 330MHz to 400MHz. The graphical interface feels snappier.
  • The browser is now the mozilla-based microb browser which seems to use more memory and slightly slower than the previous Opera browser. However, it’s free software and supports newer web standards, so I’m happy with the change.
  • The graphical interface is nicer. The designers appear to have responded to user feedback well in this area.
  • There are more codecs , but still no Ogg Vorbis support, which is very disappointing. The third-party package works fine with third-party media players, but doesn’t work with the default media player.
  • Newer kernel (2.6.21), Gtk (2.10) and DBUS (1.0) and gstreamer now supports the generic playbin

With this update, it feels like the Internet tablet OS platform is maturing nicely.

Check out the following video review on OS2008 running on the N800 made by Rcadden user:

Maps

Youtube

Overview

Internet Radio

To get the OS2008 update, you’ll need to install the Nokia Internet Tablet Software Update Wizard and download the update file from maemo.org. If you are a lucky Nokia N810 user, then you already have OS2008 running on it, but with this update you get minor optimisations and bug fixes.

Get latest OS2008

Also, check out a very comprehensive and with lots of pics review on OS2008 by thoughtfix on his blog.

Gaming: Flightgear 1.0.0 Released

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

After more than 11 years of development, Flightgear 1.0 has arrived.

Flightgear can be played on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, as well as other *nix platforms including FreeBSD, Solaris, and IRIX. Distributed under the GPL, Flightgear is one of the first major Free Software games and has become a flight simulator that rivals it’s commercial counterparts. It is a stellar example of enthusiasts coming together to create something for the community.

Airbus A380 landing

Despite the unbelievable attention to detail, Flightgear can be played on a rather modest PC. However the better the PC, the better it looks and runs so those with the latest, greatest 3D cards can still enjoy the extra beauty and a smoother experience.

Linux Reader – Get access to Linux files from Windows

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

How to get safe and quick access to alternative file systems? DiskInternals Linux Reader is a new easy way to do this. This program plays the role of a bridge between your Windows and Ext2/Ext3 Linux file systems. This easy-to-use tool runs under Windows and allows you to browse Ext2/Ext3 Linux file systems and extract files from there.

“There are a number of evident merits of the program, which you should know. First of all, DiskInternals Linux Reader is absolutely free. Secondly, the program provides for read-only access and does not allow you to make records in Ext2/Ext3 file system partitions. This guarantees that the interference in an alterative file system will not affect the work of Linux later. Apart from this, it is necessary to note, that it gives you an opportunity to use common Windows Explorer for extracting data. A preview option for pictures is one more pleasant point, which is worth mentioning.

While saving, it ignores file security policies. It means that it is possible to access absolutely any file on a Linux disk from Windows. The program can create and open images of Ext2/Ext3 disks.”

Download

Cross-browser Web application testing made easy

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

“Test on multiple browsers” has been a mantra ever since there have been multiple browsers to test on. Testing them all—especially these days—is impossible. But you can come a lot closer than you may think. In this article, learn a variety of techniques for cross-browser testing, from the very thorough to the quick and dirty. The choice you make will depend on your resources, but this is an issue you can’t ignore.”

We all know—or we all should know—that we need to test our Web applications on multiple browsers and operating systems. But that’s a task that’s often easier to agree to in the abstract than to actually undertake. When you start thinking about the many combinations of browsers and operating systems that your customers might be using to access your site, a complete suite of cross-browser tests might start to seem like a drain on your development resources.

ZuckerDocs – KnowledgeTree Document Management System into SugarCRM

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

go-mobile Announces SugarCRM and KnowledgeTree Integration Product for Sugar Exchange 

go-mobile, a provider of popular extensions for SugarCRM, has released ZuckerDocs version 2 which integrates the open source KnowledgeTree document management system into SugarCRM.

 

ZuckerDocs (”Zucker” is the german word for “Sugar”) is a Sugar module which extends Sugar suite with full Document Management and Knowlegde Base features. This datasheet contains an overview of features and pricing.ZuckerDocs, already one of the most popular projects on the SugarCRM community portal, SugarForge, provides access to KnowledgeTree’s advanced document management features from within SugarCRM. KnowledgeTree’s version control and full-text document search mechanisms are exposed to SugarCRM users. Documents within the KnowledgeTree repository may also be associated with SugarCRM objects such as accounts, opportunities and leads.

“Companies use SugarCRM to provide a customer-centric view of their information,” says Florian Treml, lead developer of the ZuckerDocs project at go-mobile. “ZuckerDocs extends that philosophy by allowing a customer-centric view of documents. KnowledgeTree and SugarCRM together provide a powerful application combination in a simple and easy-to-use manner.”

The latest version of the ZuckerDocs product uses KnowledgeTree’s Web Services application programming interface (API) and provides integration for both the open source and commercial editions of SugarCRM and KnowledgeTree.

go-mobile’s ZuckerDocs Version 2 is also listed on SugarExchange, the online marketplace for third-party applications from SugarCRM partners and community members.

“KnowledgeTree and SugarCRM are both developed on the popular LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) stack,” says John Thorne, chief sales officer at KnowledgeTree. “When we published our web services API a few months ago, our intention was for third-party developers to build applications around KnowledgeTree,” he says. “Zuckerdocs is a significant use of the API and we’re pleased that this strategy is adding value to both the KnowledgeTree and SugarCRM communities.”

SugarCRM for itself only provides rudimentary support for document management – it is possible to attach documents to notes, which for itself can be attached to contacts, accounts and other objects. ZuckerDocs uses a “real” document management system, from KnowledgeTree, and integrates the following into SugarCRM:

  • manage document templates for each client
  • organize business reports and invoices
  • store email attachments

Features:

  • ZuckerDocs server available for free
  • Assign documents to Accounts, Bugs, Calls, Cases, Contacts, Emails, Leads, Meetings, Notes, Opportunities, Tasks, Users – in short, all Sugar objects
  • Document Categorization for easy retrieval
  • Version history for all documents
  • Document locking with checkin/checkout functions
  • Fulltext search
  • “My Documents” for every user
  • All document types supported
  • Quick edit of text- and html-files
  • Knowledge Management with interlinks, “Recently Changed”, article categorization etc
  • Advanced document management by using the native KnowledgeTree UI

Both KnowledgeTree and SugarCRM have significant community traction. KnowledgeTree has 30,000 registered community members, over 420,000 open source software downloads to date, and 67 community-run projects. SugarCRM counts over 60,000 community members and nearly four million downloads of all things Sugar. The ZuckerDocs version 2.0 Beta release is available for download from SugarExchange: http://www.sugarexchange.com/product_details.php?product=21

Firefox 3 Beta 2 Available

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

Firefox 3 Beta 2 is now available for download. This is the tenth developer milestone focused on testing the core functionality provided by many new features and changes to the platform scheduled for Firefox 3.

New features and changes in this milestone that require feedback include:

  • Improved security features such as: protection from cross-site JSON data leaks, tighter restrictions on site-specific content using effective TLD service, better presentation of website identity and security, malware protection, stricter SSL error pages, anti-virus integration in the download manager, version checking for insecure plugins.
  • Improved ease of use through: better password management, easier add-on installation, new download manager with resumable downloading, full page zoom, animated tab strip, and better integration with Windows Vista, Mac OS X and Linux.
  • Richer personalization through: one-click bookmarking, smart bookmark folders, location bar that matches against your history and bookmarks for URLs and page titles, ability to register web applications as protocol handlers, and better customization of download actions for file types.
  • Improved platform features such as: new graphics and font rendering architecture, JavaScript 1.8, major changes to the HTML rendering engine to provide better CSS, float-, and table layout support, native web page form controls, colour profile management, and offline application support.
  • Performance improvements such as: better data reliability for user profiles, architectural improvements to speed up page rendering, over 330 memory leak fixes, a new XPCOM cycle collector to reduce entire classes of leaks, and reductions in the memory footprint.

More Here

Personas for Firefox

Posted on by Posted in linux and open source blog, linux/unix/os distros, news .

Mozilla labs published info on a cool add-on for Firefox, called Personas – lightweight theming to your browser.

Personas is a prototype that builds upon the ideas that:

  • themes today are too hard to find, install and use
  • graphic designers should be able to style the browser without having to code
  • browsers can be more than just desktop software, they can include online components
  • people just want their computer to be a little more fun and personal

This version improves upon a prototype that was discussed and tested earlier this year.

In this version, the Persona selector is dynamically loaded and populated from a JSON feed and all designs are loaded via URLs to remote resources. All changes to the browser chrome are applied instantly, with no need to restart.

Team shortly be releasing an API that will allow developers and designers to submit Personas that are based on Web content, including support for anything that can load in a content window such as HTML, CSS, PNG, JPG, Javascript, SVG and Canvas.

Features

  • You can select a Persona from the dynamic menus and see results instantly without having to discover, select, download or install a separate bit of software or code.
  • Personas can be added, removed or updated by their designers at any time, without requiring a software update.

Install Now for Firefox 2.0.0.* – 3.0b2pre, Windows/Mac/Linux
Compatible with the default themes that ship with Firefox