Interview with Richard Stallman on OfB

(Feb 2004) Open for Business talks with Richard Stallman about the XFree86 license modifications. "So what is the problem with the new license? "The details of the requirement conflict with the GNU GPL," Stallman explained, "anyone linking GPL-covered applications with that XFree86 code would be violating the GPL." more, comments, XFree pre 4.4 License, see especially discussion of GPL compatibility issues

Debian: Investigation of the new XFree86 License.

(Feb, 24, 2004) Branden Robinson inspected the new license for XFree86 4.4 and higher. He concluded that the de facto impact of the change to the XFree86 Project, Inc.'s own license is to render the XFree86 source distribution GPL-incompatible in many aspects. Keith Packard asserted that he has a strong desire to make the released software on freedesktop.org from that source completely DFSG-free.

Here's an analysis by Branden Robinson from 22 Feb 2004 on the debian X11 mailing list followed up by more comments on the list: "Given all of the above, it is my recommendation to the Debian X Strike Force, the Debian Project in general, and to the Open Source and Free Software communities to avoid all code under the X-Oz license (a.k.a. XFree86 1.1 license)..."

Everaldo, The Crytal Iconset Creator

(Feb 2004) Interview with Everaldo, the Crystal Iconset Creator on LinuxCult: A while back, some of our users voice a list of questions they would like Everaldo to answer .. Nullmind pulled a virtual chair and sat down with Everaldo to discuss the list of questions, this short interview is the result of that. (Comments on DotKde)

The Big freedesktop.org Interview

(Nov 24 2003) ... a very interesting Q&A with major freedesktop.org members: the founder Havoc Pennington (also of Debian, Gnome and Red Hat fame), Waldo Bastian (of SuSE & KDE fame), Keith Packard and Jim Gettys (of X/XFree86/fontconfig/w3c fame) and David Zeuthen, a new member who's taking over the ambitious HAL project. In the article, we discuss about general freedesktop.org goals, status and issues, the role of KDE/Qt in the road to interoperability with Gnome/GTK+, HAL (with new screenshots), the new X Server aiming to replace XFree86 and we even have an exclusive preliminary screenshot of a version of Mac OS X's Exposé window management feature for this new X Server! This is one article not to be missed if you are into Unix/Linux desktop! more.

The Luxury of Ignorance: An Open-Source Horror Story

(Mar 1, 2004) Eric S. Raymond, the alpha geek in the open source scene, writes about his frustration in configuring a popular open source software package. "I've just gone through the experience of trying to configure CUPS, the Common Unix Printing System. It has proved a textbook lesson in why nontechnical people run screaming from Unix. This is all the more frustrating because the developers of CUPS have obviously tried hard to produce an accessible system ? but the best intentions and effort have led to a system which despite its superficial pseudo-friendliness is so undiscoverable that it might as well have been written in ancient Sanskrit..." more.

The Luxury of Ignorance: A follow-up

(Mar 2, 2004) Raymond: This rant made it onto all the major open-source news channels, so I was expecting a fair amount of feedback (and maybe pushback). But the volume of community reaction that thundered into my mailbox far surpassed what I had been expecting ? and the dominant theme, too, was a bit of a surprise. Not the hundreds of iterations of "Tell it, brother!", nor the handful of people who excoriated me as an arrogant twerp; those are both normal features of the response when I fire a broadside. No, the really interesting part was how many of the letters said. in effect, "Gee. And all this time I thought it was just me..." more

A Talk about Qt 3.3 with Trolltech CEO Haavard Nord

(Feb 13 2004) OfB.biz featured an interview with Trolltech CEO Haavard Nord. "With the potential for a substantial performance improvement, Qt 4 could be coming out about the time Nord estimates that GNU/Linux desktop adoption will start to become more mainstream. He remarked that there has been a shift in Qt purchasing [to Linux] over the past few years." more, (comments on DotKde)

Deep inside the K Desktop Environment 3.2

(Feb 22 2004) Ars Technica features an article "Deep inside the K Desktop Environment 3.2" written by Datschge and Henrique Pinto. After introducing KDE and the project's structure the authors present some new applications of KDE 3.2. After that they explain the key KDE technologies KParts, DCOP, KIO, Kiosk and KXMLGUI and give examples for code reusage and an overview of efforts to integrate non-KDE applications. For developers Umbrello, Cervisia and Valgrind with KCachegrind are introduced and of course KDevelop 3.0. An examination of licenses is preceding the positive conclusion.

Microsoft displays fear, uncertainty, and doubt toward OpenOffice.org

(2004-03-27 09:32) By: Taran Rampersad
I came across this Microsoft OpenOffice 1.1 Competitive Guide through a post on the TTLUG mailing list, and decided to answer it fully in a FDLed response because it will save quite a few people from typing everything. more, Microsoft on OpenOffice (pdf), comments

Bill Gates' starke Schwäche

Die Zeit vom 25.3.2004: Nicht Bußgelder, sondern die Software-Rebellen von Linux gefährden Microsoft. Über das Quasi-Monopol von Microsoft und seine Bedrohung durch die Open Source Gemeinde.

Let Java Go

(Feb 2004) Eric S. Raymond wrote this open letter to Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun. The response from Sun can be found in this PCPro article, leading to a follow-up letter from ESR. "We don't presume to dictate Sun's strategy. But what we do require of anyone before we will accept them as a "friend of the open-source community" is more honesty than this. Sun should be nervous about the consequences of allowing its spokespeople to indulge in flames, spin, and prevarication when there are serious issues on the table. Because an attempt to shoot the messenger won't make those issues go away; indeed, it makes some of them worse."

IBM urges Sun to make Java open source

(Feb 26, 2004) News.com reports that IBM has sent an open letter to Sun Microsystems urging the company to make Java technology open source. "IBM is proposing that Sun, IBM and others choose which portions of the Java technology -- such as the Java Runtime environment, code libraries or even server software -- should be submitted to open source. Optimally, an official open-source version of Java would emerge to replace a "hodgepodge" of open-source Java technologies and efforts" Mr. Sutor said. more, more

Jürgen Gallmann: "Microsoft kann von Linux auch lernen"

(Feb 26, 2004) Microsoft kann nach Einschätzung des Deutschlandchefs Jürgen Gallmann durchaus von Open-Source-Software lernen; Novells Europa-Chef Richard Seibt betonte, Linux profitierte vor allem in Sachen Sicherheit vom Prinzip der Open Source. more

Free but shackled: The Java trap

(April 12, 2004) Topics: Java , Programming By: Richard M. Stallman

Editor's note: Stallman's timing with this piece is impeccable, and it dovetails nicely with the questions raised by Javalobby's Rick Ross in this article.

If your program is free software, it is basically ethical--but there is a trap you must be on guard for. Your program, though in itself free, may be restricted by non-free software that it depends on. Since the problem is most prominent today for Java programs, we call it the Java Trap... more

Commentary: Where is Java in the settlement?

(April 12, 2004) Topics: Java , Programming By: Rick Ross

Editor's note: Our colleague, Javalobby founder Rick Ross, has graciously allowed NewsForge to reprint his column from this week's special edition of the Javalobby newsletter. It makes an excellent package with Richard Stallman's essay on "Free but shackled: The Java trap." more

WikiPedia: Wer weiß was?

Mittwoch, 21. April 2004, Hamburger Abendblatt, von Frauke Hinrichsen

Im Internet entsteht derzeit in rasantem Tempo eine Enzyklopädie, an der jeder mitschreiben kann. WikiPedia enthält bereits jetzt 80 000 Stichwörter. mehr

Die verschenkten Kronjuwelen

Die Zeit, 3.7.2003 Die verschenkten Kronjuwelen: Das weltbekannte Massachusetts Institute of Technology bietet seine Vorlesungen und Seminare im Internet an - kostenlos. Über die Open Courseware Initiative des MIT.