Sybase Offers Free Linux Database, Sep 10, 2004

Sybase Inc. this week released Adaptive Server Enterprise Express Edition for Linux, a free version of its enterprise-class database for deployment on Linux systems.

IBM Corp. will spend more than $1 million to help fund a Linux technology center in Brazil. The center, created in conjunction with the Brazilian government, aims to train 700 public service professionals on the use of Linux by year's end.

A couple of speakers at last week's AUUG conference drilled home several messages that those in the Linux and open source communities with serious commercial aspirations must accept in order to make serious headway into the corporate and government sectors.

Winning lucrative deals in competition with proprietary software vendors is not achieved by carrying on about Microsoft's capitalist, monopolistic practices versus the 'socialist' practices involved in open source software development.

Hawaii schools, affected by lean budgets like many other US states this year, have upgraded their computer systems through the help of the open source community and Linux. A local nonprofit, the Oahu-based Hawaii Open Source Education Foundation (HOSEF) has supplied over a dozen Hawaiian schools with computers "recycled" with the Linux operating system and raised awareness of OSS.

Founded by Scott Belford over two years ago, HOSEF's mission is to promote the use of open source software. The organization seeks donations of unused PCs and refurbishes them with Linux. HOSEF then places the units in schools and other nonprofits organizations ithroughout Hawaii.

I have never warmed to that little Linux penguin. Not really. Maybe it's because it is a cold-water beast or, more likely, that the Linux community of open-source-obsessed programmers sends a chill down my spine. Their fanaticism presses all my scepticism and suspicion buttons.

Network computer maker Sun Microsystems Inc., which lost market share to rivals after the technology recession that began in early 2001, is now poised to reclaim some of that business, Sun President Jonathan Schwartz said on Thursday.

Sun is ready to pull back business that went to Red Hat Inc.'s Linux software because the Santa Clara, California-based Sun can underprice Red Hat, Schwartz said at the SG Cowen Technology Conference.

"We won't use rhetoric or litigation against Red Hat," Schwartz said, adding "We are going to earn that back by competing."

Open-source developers have warned of serious security holes in two Linux components that could allow attackers to take over a system by tricking a user into viewing a specially-crafted image file or opening an archive. Patches exist for the bugs, which affect LHA and imlib.

When Microsoft announced victory in its battle with open source for the hearts, minds and wallets of Newham council last month, the press naturally asked to see the report Newham's decision was allegedly based on. Er, yes, the report would be forthcoming, we were told. So we gave it a few days, and asked again. And again. And again. But mysteriously, although Microsoft executives are prepared to shout from the rafters about what's in the report, the report itself never seems to arrive.

Fortunately, there are ways to get hold of documents that have been presented, as the report was, to public bodies, so if Microsoft is still unable to find it, then The Register is now in a position to help them out. And an enlightening read it is, too.

If you run Linux on your desktop or laptop machine, it's highly likely you know about the X Window System. In the normal course of things, there's no reason why the details of the graphical windowing system should be made explicit to the user, but even in the best of circumstances X requires a degree of irritating configuration.

UserLinux has released its first beta CD and is widening the scope of testing. The project, led by long-time open source advocate Bruce Perens gives enterprise customers a certified version of Linux without the support price tag and restrictive licensing policies offered with commercial distributions from vendors like Red Hat and SuSE.

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