News (187)
Microsoft offers free software for start-ups
In its boldest bid yet to win the affections of emerging businesses, Microsoft on Wednesday announced a program that will allow some start-ups to use its server software free of charge. Read more »
IBM joins the 'cloud computing' bandwagon
IBM on Monday launched a major initiative into 'cloud computing', a current term for internet-based services, in an effort it hopes will challenge the early lead of cloud pioneers such as Amazon and Google. Read more »
Stallman warns of cloud vendor lock-in
Free Software Foundation founder Richard Stallman this week said cloud computing was "stupidity" that ultimately would result in vendor lock-in and escalating costs. Read more »
Shuttleworth defends Firefox licence in Ubuntu
Mark Shuttleworth, whose company, Canonical, funds the Ubuntu operating system, has stepped in to try to resolve a dispute on Ubuntu developer's forum Launchpad. Read more »
Ubuntu gets user interface team
Canonical, the leading backer of the Ubuntu version of Linux, this week said it would hire a team to help make open source software on the desktop more appealing and easier to use. Read more »
Ubuntu debuts Jaunty Jackalope
The Ubuntu project has detailed plans for the April 2009 version of its Linux distribution, continuing its habit of naming its software after animals by dubbing Ubuntu 9.04 "The Jaunty Jackalope". Read more »
Stephen Fry kicks off GNU's 25th birthday party
The Free Software Foundation is beginning celebrations of 25 years of GNU with the release of a video presented by actor and comedian Stephen Fry. Read more »
SCO fined in Germany over Linux claims
SCO Group has been ordered to pay a €10,000 fine in Germany for making claims that Linux includes intellectual property from Unix. Read more »
Gates is gone but the fight goes on: Stallman
To pay so much attention to Bill Gates' retirement is missing the point. What really matters is not Gates, nor Microsoft, but the unethical system of restrictions that Microsoft, like many other software companies, imposes on its customers. Read more »
Microsoft's OOXML bid: No knowledge, no regrets
Microsoft admits it had no knowledge of software standards until deep into its bid to get Office Open XML approved by the International Organization for Standardization -- but there are no regrets over its tactics during the process. Read more »
Features (48)
Taking on Twitter with open source software
One service that seemed to come out of nowhere and get instant buy-in from influential digerati around the Web was Identica, an open source microblogging alternative from Montreal resident Evan Prodromou, who in 2003 had co-founded Wikitravel. Read more »
Microsoft plays open but patent jaws still have teeth
Despite Microsoft's claim it will not sue developers that build free open source software on Microsoft platforms, a caveat leaves a yawning space for its legal teeth to gnash those that commercialise the software. Read more »
Be aware of the threat of hidden keystroke-logging devices
Learn about the different versions of keystroke loggers, and get tips for protecting your organisation and your users from this threat. Read more »
Is a US$100 laptop truly useful?
There has been a lot of focus in recent years on creating inexpensive, affordable computers for users in the developing world, and at the forefront is Professor Nicholoas Negroponte. Read more »
"We're halfway there": Sun on Open Source
Builder AU's Nick Gibson sat down with Sun Microsystems's Chief Open Source Officer Simon Phipps to find out what's the fallout of open sourcing Java, what he really thinks about GPL v3 and why Sun is living on the prayer of Open Source. Read more »
Talking IP with Kimberlee Weatherall and Rusty Russell
Law professor and intellectual property expert Kimberlee Weatherall and Linux Australia's IP Policy Adviser, Rusty Russell, talk about the new intellectual property laws Read more »
Interview with Dr Andrew S Tanenbaum
Nick Gibson caught up with Dr Tanembaum after his keynote address at linux.conf.au and spoke about microkernels, MINIX and what's coming up on the horizon. Read more »
A look inside Google's open source kitchen
Google's Chris DiBona says the search giant has a lot of involvement in open source, but is also a firm believer in proprietary software. Read more »
Surviving in the wild with open source Java
Nick Gibson shows what the Classpath exception means you don't have to worry. Read more »
Web 2.0 meets the enterprise
Long set up like a gated community, the enterprise software industry is quickly gaining a populist streak. Read more »
Video (3)
Create a bootable USB flash drive for Windows XP
In this IT Dojo video, Bill Detwiler, TechRepublic's Head Technology Editor, explains the process and pitfalls of creating a bootable Windows XP USB flash drive. You'll learn how to configure a computer's BIOS to boot from a USB drive, how to download and use the free software to create a bootable drive, and how to installed Windows XP on the drive. Read more »
25 years of GNU with Fry
The Free Software Foundation is beginning celebrations of 25 years of GNU with the release of a video presented by actor and comedian Stephen Fry. Read more »
Opening Up! -- Club Builder
Microsoft has opened up some APIs and is giving students free software. We also talk DRM and GPLv3 and finish with the deadliest gun in gaming history. Read more »
Blog (17)
Google Earth brings virtual tourism to iPhone
-- Google already has customised some of its websites for display on the iPhone, but now the company also dived headlong onto Apple's highly regarded mobile phone with a full-fledge application, a handheld version of its Google Earth geographical software. Read more »
Install Web stacks in an instant with BitNami
-- Need to set up a server environment to run Web applications such as WordPress, MediaWiki, Joomla, Trac, DocuWiki, or Drupal? Here's how to do it in less than two minutes with free software. Read more »
Jonathan Schwartz's free software foundation
-- Sun has become its own free software foundation, open sourcing everything from Java to Solaris, and acquiring the open source MySQL database for $1 billion in January of this year, as a way to grow its revenue. Read more »
Is public domain software open-source?
-- When writing earlier this week about Adobe's sponsoring of the SQLite project, I ran into a complicated issue: is software released into the public domain also open-source software? Read more »
Samba gets an inside look at Microsoft documentation
-- A complicated third-party arrangement means that the open-source Samba project will be able to make use of proprietary documents describing Microsoft file-sharing software. Read more »
Google joins Microsoft's mixed bag
-- It certainly has not been all roses and glory at Microsoft and Google this week. Read more »
How Microsoft dealt with GPLv3
-- The easiest way for Microsoft to avoid the snare of the Free Software Foundation is to step around GPLv3 and leave it to their partners -- this is certainly the case for Silverlight. Read more »
All this matter and make up and déjá vu
-- There are some weeks when you could be mistaken for thinking that the record had skipped and the players involved were simply going through the motions -- this week was one of them. Read more »
Who really owns your open source code?
-- If you are a developer committed to open source and you wish for your contributions to always remain open, do not reassign copyright to an external party Read more »
GPL 3 -- a bridge too far?
-- Now it's time to create a new phrase: "free as in free software," meaning the freedom to make adversaries of potential partners -- the kind of freedom one has when one's work must be carefully excluded from other people's projects. Read more »
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In this week's roundup we see that continuous whining can get results, Linux users get 64-bit Flash and Moonlight previews, the latest in the Yahoo/Microsoft relationship and Senator Conroy ducks and weave in Senate Question Time. Read more »
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Sun eye Web developers with Netbeans 6.5
Despite the recent employment axe hitting Sun the company has pushed out a new release of its Netbeans open source IDE with an eye to appeal more to Web developers. Read more »
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BarCamp buzz: Let the hacking continueAttending last weekend's BarCamp in Sydney, it was hard to escape the conclusion that a certain "dot-com bust" flavour had seeped into the kool aid previously being drunk by Australia's web 2.0 and early stage start-up sector. Read more »
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Interplanetary Internet a possibility
2008/11/21 10:32:55
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Conroy ducks, Ballmer evades and Android Fails -- Club Builder
2008/11/20 10:58:20
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Yang's resignation: The talk of Silicon Valley
2008/11/19 16:10:33
What's on?
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Conroy ducks, Ballmer evades and Android Fails -- Club Builder
Club Builder this week takes a long look at Senator Conroy's recent attempt to explain his Great Firewall of Australia, we chase Steve Ballmer over Sydney, and find Google's biggest bug of the year.