GNOME 2.6 Out to Up Linux Desktop Stakes, Mar 31, 2004

The GNOME project is expected to release version 2.6 of its open source Linux desktop Wednesday, which supporters call a major step forward in offering choice among desktop players.

GNOME is one of two principal open source projects vying to be the Linux Desktop technology of choice. The other main Linux Desktop project, KDE, released its latest version a few months ago.

Red Hat's free Linux distribution, Fedora, has added support for the security enhanced modules created by the NSA and known as SELinux, a media release from the company says.

Fedora Core 2 test2 was made available for download on Tuesday.

SELinux is basically a patch to the Linux kernel to add security features, and patches to applications to allow them to determine the security domain in which to run processes.

A recent court filing from IBM Corp. appears to indicate a growing confidence on the part of the Armonk, New York, computing giant that it will prevail in its legal dispute with The SCO Group Inc., according to lawyers following the case.

In an amended counterclaim to SCO's lawsuit that was filed Friday, IBM asked the District Court for the District of Utah to enter a declaratory judgement in its favor. IBM asked the court to rule that it has not infringed on SCO's copyright and has not breached its contractual obligations to SCO. The filing further asks the court to rule that SCO, which was at one time a Linux vendor, cannot impose restrictions on the software that it previously distributed under Linux's open-source software license.

The SCO Group wants to split off parts of its lawsuit against IBM over Linux code.

In its latest motion filed in federal court in Utah, the company said its copyright infringement and breach of contract claims over Linux should be split into two trials.

SCO's latest court filing doesn't alter any of its major allegations in the case, which center on its past licensing agreements with IBM and on claims that SCO holds copyrights on portions of IBM's AIX and Dynix software that made its way into select Linux kernels.

Enterprises could make savings of up to 80 per cent by switching to Linux servers and desktops, Novell has claimed.

The company believes that enterprises and government organisations using Unix could save up to 80 per cent in deployment, maintenance and service costs by switching to Linux, while a switch from Windows to Linux could save up to 50 per cent.

Government and retail sectors will pioneer the deployment of Linux in the enterprise, Jack Messman, Novell's chief executive, told vnunet.com.

Australia’s bioinformatics industry will increasingly rely on open source software as researchers look for inexpensive point solutions that are not just a “black box”, according to delegates at an Australian Technology Park Innovations bioinformatics symposium in Sydney.

Sydney University senior lecturer in bioinformatics, Dr Bret Church, said open source is undoubtedly the founding stone of bioinformatics.

“We love it,” Dr Church said. “It is made for research, and there was plenty out there when bioinformatics came along. On the way to solutions, and while exploring possibilities and avenues, open source code tends to play a leading role.”

For years, the Linux operating system has been relegated to computing's back room -- the world of servers. Then last September, Motorola released a cell phone based on Linux, and the mobile world has never looked back.

Rather than be held prisoner to any company's proprietary software, cellular service providers (which distribute most phones) are beginning to ask specifically for Linux-based handsets, says Michael Sudol, general manager of the group at Motorola PCS that's focused on Linux. So in January, Motorola released its second Linux-based phone for Asia. And later this year, its Linux-based smartphones -- essentially a cross between a phone and a personal digital assistant -- will become available worldwide. The market for smartphones should grow from 3.5 million units, or 1% of the total cell-phone market, in 2002, to 45 million units, or 7% of the market, by 2007, according to tech consultancy ARC Group.

Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, has begun selling Microtel PCs that come with Sun Microsystems' version of the Linux operating system.

"We are seriously considering Wal-Mart to be the PC supplier for Sun Microsystems," Jonathan Schwartz, head of Sun's software group, said in a meeting with reporters here Tuesday. Separately, he said an unnamed European bank is using Sun's Linux software for 10,000 tellers.

Red Hat Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Matthew Szulik had the air of a motivational speaker Monday evening, citing his company's improving finances and growing user base as evidence of a sea change in the IT industry and promising more Red Hat jobs for beleaguered Massachusetts workers.

Tall and clean-cut, Szulik exhorted a mixed audience of IT industry veterans and fresh-faced college students to commit themselves to a coming struggle between proprietary and non-proprietary operating systems that will "change the world". But he also quietly conceded that Red Hat faces tough competition in the open source market from Novell Inc. and is years away from displacing Microsoft Corp.'s Windows on the desktop.

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