Suse Linux champion defends open source despite its Microsoft deal

Justin Steinman, Novell director of product marketing for Linux and open source, has dismissed Microsoft’s claims that there are infringements of Microsoft intellectual property, in the Linux operating system.

Novell has an arrangement with Microsoft in which the two vendors agree never to sue each other’s customers over patent infringement, but Steinman was adamant. “I want to make it extremely clear. We do not think there are any IP violations in Linux,” he declared

 Continue the article at ComputerWorld UK

MotoRokr Z6 (formerly MotoRizr Z6)

Motorola MotoRokr Z6 (Click for details)

Motorola announced the MotoRizr Z6 in January, touting it as the first Linux phone to support all of Microsoft’s Windows Media technologies. Now known as the MotoRokr Z6, the phone officially launches today, with global roll-out expected over the next several weeks.

The Z6 has a unique slider form factor aimed at clearly delineating modality. In other words, “Closed, it’s an MP3 player. Open, it’s a phone,” Dale said.

Dale also called the Z6 “Our first true Linux/Java product,” presumably a reference to the device’s monolithic processor architecture, on which a real-time enabled version of Linux may provide both control- and data-plane functionality; earlier Motorola phones used VRTX or other real-time OSes on separate baseband processors to handle signal processing and run the cellular modem.

Other touted features include:

• PC song sync at 3 sec/song — three times faster than Sony Walkman phones
• Song storage on removable 2GB SD/MMC cards
• Simple music management using Windows Media Player
• X9 stereo bluetooth headphones included in European package

Lots more about the Z6 can be found in our earlier coverage, here.

Link back to original article at LinuxDevices…

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OSBC is designed for IT business executives (buyers and vendors), venture capitalists, attorneys, and other decision-makers tasked with developing businesses that leverage open source software. It explores the legal, investment, vendor and customer risks, rewards, and opportunities presented by open source software.

OSBC will be the gathering place for all participants in the open source marketplace and the only place that provides practical case studies and real-world open source deployments presented by SMB and enterprise end-users who implemented them.

Register your boss here….

Microsoft has fired new shots in its war of attrition against the Open Source Movement, the latest being Bill Hilf declaring that Linux is dead:

“They are full-time employees, with 401K stock options. Some work for IBM or Oracle. What does that mean? It means that Linux doesn’t exist any more in 2007. There is no free software movement. If someone says Linux is about Love, Peace and Harmony, I would tell them to do their research. There is no free software movement any more. There is big commercial [firms] like IBM and there is small commercial [firms] like Ubuntu,” he said.

Read More…

Soldiers, in the U.S. as well as in Iraq and other overseas locations, will no longer be allowed to use a variety of social networking sites such as YouTube, MySpace, and several others. The reason? Security concerns as well as bandwidth problems.

As a sysadmin, I understand how administrators feel about the use of such sites. I also understand the security risk potential these sites pose to national security and military operations. What saddens me is the fact that these soldiers use these sites to keep some normalcy in their lives while away from home and to keep in touch with friends and family while on tours that last twice as long as they should. The benefits to military personal are not fabulous and the pay isn’t so great; now they are losing a few more of the simple pleasures they had while away serving their country…

Read the full article here….

Royalty rates for webcasters have been drastically increased by a recent ruling and are due to go into effect on July 15 (retroactive to Jan 1, 2006!). If the increased rates remain unchanged, the majority of webcasters will go bankrupt and silent on this date. Internet radio needs your help!

The Internet Radio Equality Act has recently been introduced in both the House and Senate to save the Internet radio industry. Please call your senators and your representative to ask them to co-sponsor the Internet Radio Equality Act.

Click here to read more about the SaveNetRadio Coalition…

Listen below to a few public service announcements about the issue:

[audio:http://linuxchic.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/Montage_PSA_001.mp3]

[audio:http://linuxchic.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/SaveNetRadio_PSA-One_(Produced).mp3]