UK Open Source Media Watch

… here. More technically oriented pieces can be found here and here and here and in lots of other places. The Inq’s inimitable take is here and Mozilla’s own account is here.

In seeking a more convenient method for installing new hardware drivers, Novell is hoping to remove one of the major barriers to wider Linux uptake.

The new system – called the Partner Linux Driver Process – is available for Suse Linux Enterprise products as an upgrade for Suse Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP3. It will be […]

Software is a unique development in human history and should be treated as such by the patent system. That’s the argument from Gervase Markham in the latest “Man from Mozilla” column over at The Times.

The uniqueness of software means that software and patents have unique interactions. For example, a drug is usually covered by a […]

Information Week delves into the coding dynamics of the open source world, looking at where the donkey-work comes from in the development process. InfoWorld suggests why one might wish to join in with said work, whereas elsewhere on Information Week there are reasons one would perhaps avoid it.

Of course, one of the prime motivators for […]

Andrew Morton, the Linux lead maintainer and Torvalds’ right hand man (also not a confidante of the late Princess Diana, as helpfully pointed out by The Inq) has called for an overhaul of the Linux kernel in order to squish more bugs. Speaking at the LinuxTag conference in Germany, Morton opined that the problem was […]

Open source software is not meeting the needs of those in the developing world, according to the United Nations University. People in the developing world are consumers of, not contributors to software projects, and it is leading to a “digital divide.”

Researchers compared the number of open source mailing list postings from different countries with the […]

Gnome 2.14 was released on Thursday, and Novell unveiled SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 at CeBit.

Vyatta, a tiny (stealthy, in the words of CNN) tech startup, have released the first beta of the open source routing software XORP, or eXtensible Open Routing Platform, with which it hopes to take on the near-ubiquitous Cisco systems. In contrast to most other offerings, the software can run on bog-standard x86 architecture, one of […]

Oracle, of database fame, have recently been throwing their weight around with the acquisiton of open source companies Sleepycat and HotSip, causing some agitated speculation about the co-option of the open source movement by proprietary vendors.

Something giving those attached to open source reason to fear is Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s legendary distaste for the stuff; […]

The GNOME desktop is due for a new iteration (2.14) come the 15th of March, boasting “noticeable speedups” and better administrator control. The release is aimed squarely at the corporate desktop, with facilities that make it easier for admins working with large numbers of users to control their privileges.

They’ve also teamed up with KDE, […]

South Korea announced last week plans to create a “Linux showcase city” and University. The central government plans to pay a city - they haven’t announced which one yet but we should know by the end of March - to roll out Linux across its servers and desktops. The University will have a […]

Novell have announced an update for OpenGL and that improved interoperability with MS Office and OOo for its Linux Desktop 10. The companies CTO was spoke to Desktop Linux about the prospects for Linux on the desktop.

Red Hat also have plans afoot, aiming to beef up its desktop security with improved authentication and identity […]

South African open sourcerer and cosmonaut Mark Shuttleworth appears to have set off a number of rumours after letting slip that Google has developed its own version of the Ubuntu distro - Goobuntu - in an interview for SA’s Business Day. The Register picked up on that yesterday, but not everyone bought it, with Daily […]

Redmond raised eyebrows after it offered - without prompting - access to the source code and documentation for its Windows Server in order to try and fend off the legal (and possibly-soon-to-be penal) assault from the EU over server protocols. Nobody except the media seemed particularly impressed by the move; an unnamed representative of the […]

ZDNet reported on Tuesday that Firefox now enjoys brand status comparable with the likes of Starbucks and Apple, and ahead of that of eBay (who?) and Sony (never heard of ‘em). The annual survey, conducted by a marketing industry website, has never previously had an open source project featured so highly in the rankings.

Part of […]

The bank revealed that it has been working on a large-scale CMS using the open source Zope application server, which recently had an upgrade, for about two years. A similar system was recently chosen by the local government of South African province eThekwini.

If you’re into the CMS scene, and expert in the field, Seth […]

From Silicon.com:

Chinese Linux products will be certified by a central lab that has signed up to the Linux Standards Base

The Free Standards Group, a non-profit group promoting Linux standards, said that a Chinese government agency has opened a lab that will use the Free Standards Group’s Linux Standards Base certification process.

Backing this up is the […]

Intel Chairman Craig Barrett has dismissed MIT’s UN-backed $100 laptop as a “gadget”, claiming that people care more about features than price. Given the target “market” for the device - kids in the developing world in areas with little access to infrastrucure such as a regular power supply - it reminds me of one of […]

The OSDL held a get-together last week in Portland, Oregon, to talk about the development of the bestest ever Linux desktop environment. The meeting’s best result, according to the article above, was a realisation that the various groups had “much in common” and had to start working together more closely in order for Linux to […]

Electronics retailer Siemens has announced it is to join the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) to work on Linux for handheld devices such as mobile phones and other projects.

Meanwhile, France Télécom and ZTE have announced that they are to collaborate on various projects, including the development of a Linux-based platform for 3G (third generation) phones.