Linux

Novell wins in court; SCO eyes new fights

SCO's seemingly endless legal campaign over the copyrights to Unix may finally be over.

On Tuesday afternoon, a federal jury found that Novell owns the rights to the operating system, foiling SCO's plan to seek millions of dollars in licensing fees from companies it accused of illegally distributing its proprietary Unix code with the Linux OS.

Great news for the open-source community and for the long-suffering Novell, which has been battling SCO for quite some time now.

"Novell is very pleased with the jury's decision confirming Novell's ownership of the Unix copyrights, which SCO had … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1194: Pee2Pee (Podcast)

The show's a pretty well-controlled train wreck right up until we start talking about the underwear that texts when it's, um, moist. No, you're not listening to the 404 (or Gadgettes), it's actually Buzz Out Loud. In real news (if you will), the first week's worth of iPads have apparently sold out and actual competition is coming to the wireless space ... around 2011. Also, cosmic rays are making your car go fast. No, really.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 1194

Apple runs out … Read more

Bad economy is a gift that keeps giving to Red Hat

Someone should tell Red Hat that the world has been muddling through a global recession for the past few years. While others' earnings went into a deep freeze throughout the recession, Red Hat has consistently posted strong numbers.

Red Hat's fiscal fourth-quarter 2010 earnings, announced on Wednesday, are no different. Does the company ever get bored of reporting double-digit growth and record billings?

Apparently not.

Red Hat notched its fourth consecutive quarter of exceeding analyst expectations for profits. Highlights from Red Hat's earnings include:

$195.9 million in total revenue, up 18 percent from the year ago quarter. … Read more

Tim O'Reilly: 'Whole Web' is the OS of the future

SAN FRANCISCO--Open-source developers and businesses are focused on the wrong opportunity, according to industry luminary Tim O'Reilly. The future isn't programming for Linux or MySQL. The future is programming for the "whole Web."

And it threatens to be controlled by open-source savvy, data-rich companies like Google.

On Wednesday in San Francisco, O'Reilly closed the first day of the Open Source Business Conference by shaking up some comfortable assumptions of the open-source commercial ecosystem, which has tended to focus on commoditizing established markets with low-cost, high-value distribution, all driven by open-source licensing.

This is nice, according … Read more

Meet Ubuntu Linux's new CEO (Q&A)

LONDON--Jane Silber has been chief executive of Canonical for 11 days.

But she's no outsider swooping in to take over Ubuntu Linux's corporate sponsor. She joined Canonical in June 2004, two months after previous CEO Mark Shuttleworth founded the company with a few programmers he recruited from the Debian Linux project on which Ubuntu is based.

Since then Canonical has grown to about 320 employees and has made Ubuntu a major presence in the world of Linux--version 10.04, one of the important "long-term support" versions that arrives every two years, is due in April. It'… Read more

If Novell gets bought, will Red Hat follow?

Elliott's proposed acquisition of Novell promises to shake up the software industry, which has grown a bit staid in the past year or two. But what will it mean for Red Hat, and for the broader open-source software industry?

In particular, Novell's acquisition might well spur a mergers and acquisitions revival, as Barron's notes. But will it create overwhelming pressure for Red Hat to sell, too?

Red Hat has been the subject of buyout rumors for well over a decade, but has never been particularly close to indulging the temptation, according to sources close to the company. … Read more

Gadgettes 176: The Big Brother Episode (podcast)

Reunited and it feels so good! Today we cover the ways in which technology allows you to spy (or be spied upon!) Your paranoia is officially justified.

Subscribe with iTunes (audio) Subscribe with iTunes (video) Subscribe with RSS (audio) Subscribe with RSS (video) EPISODE 176

Porn Detection Stick seeks out salacious images

Mobicip: A kid-safe Web browser for iPhones and iPods

Shocking desk devices: “I warned you to stay away from my stuff”

TigerMail – the Tiger Woods app that deletes those embarrassing sex-ts

North Korea’s Red Star OS takes the “open” out of “open source”

What a concept (Big … Read more

Novell's buyout and its effect on the industry

For years, Novell has served as an odd bargaining chip between Microsoft and enterprises looking to move to Linux.

Novell's Suse Linux distribution, while a distant No. 2 to Red Hat's leading Linux server business, has helped Microsoft keep some measure of control over its open-source competition--or, at least, to keep a close eye on it.

With Novell now up for grabs through a $1.8 billion buy-out offer from Elliott Associates, what is likely to happen to the Linux market, and to Microsoft, if it goes through?

The easy view is that Red Hat will benefit and … Read more

Need a job? Learn Drupal

The economy may be getting better, but unemployment is still high. Companies slashed budgets and personnel last year, but as the economy begins to recover, the creation of jobs is not falling in line.

The lack of new jobs continues to be an issue even for San Francisco Bay Area tech companies. So, how are unemployed developers and technologists supposed to find work? One solution: learn new skills.

Drupal is a free software package that makes publishing and managing social content on the Web easy. It's been downloaded more than 2 million times to date. And though Drupal has … Read more