Linux Australia fights Motion Picture Association of America notice, Sep 20, 2004

What seems to be an embarrassing blunder by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) in its hunt for online pirates has prompted Linux Australia to contact its legal representatives and warn of a possible breach of Australian law.

An upgraded GNOME desktop environment for Linux and Unix is due for release this Wednesday, with its authors pitching enhanced features for end-users and a commitment to make hardware "just work".

Popular Linux and Unix desktop environments such as GNOME and KDE have traditionally appealed to geeks with time to spend on tweaking new hardware configurations and knowledge of Unix commands. However, with the upcoming release of GNOME version 2.8, the project is expected to increase its useability for mere mortals in the computing industry.

In true-blue Australian style, a pub in Sydney is the venue for the release this week of a new Linux distribution and an update of the GNOME open source desktop environment.

The new Debian-based GNU/Linux distribution -- code-named "The Warty Warthog" -- is scheduled for release at the Sydney Linux Users Group’s (SLUG) Debian Special Interest Group’s (SIG) Wednesday night meeting at the James Squire Brewery on King St Wharf.