Google is preparing its own distribution of Linux for the desktop, in a possible bid to take on Microsoft in its core business - desktop software.
A version of the increasingly popular Ubuntu desktop Linux distribution, based on Debian and the Gnome desktop, it is known internally as 'Goobuntu'. Google has confirmed it is working on a desktop linux project called Goobuntu, but declined to supply further details, including what the project is for.
The number of unexploited vulnerabilities in the core Linux kernel is on the rise, leading security experts to strongly suggest that business users take steps to ensure that their open-source software is as bulletproof as possible before it becomes a problem.
Recently, the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team, or CERT, reported that during 2005, Linux and Unix combined had 2,328 vulnerabilities, compared with 812 vulnerabilities for Microsoft Windows.
Since their release, these statistics have had their share of detractors, especially in the open-source community.
Novell has had one of those amazingly simple ideas that make you ask: "Why didn't I think of that?" The Linux vendor is using its Cool Solutions community-relations website to conduct an online public survey to determine which Windows-only applications people want to run on their Linux systems.
Yes, this kind of survey has been done before, but to the best of my knowledge, no major Linux vendor has ever done it. It's one thing when Linux Lovers of Outer Mongolia puts together a survey; it's another thing entirely when a billion-dollar software company does it.
While identifying Microsoft as the source of most IT security vulnerabilities, respondents to a SearchOpenSource.com survey also found holes in Linux and open source software (OSS) security.
Linux and Windows users were asked in the survey to compare the two operating systems and indicate their differences and their strengths and weaknesses. The survey also asked users to comment on what Linux needs to do to remain safe in 2006.
Linus posted on the Linux Kernel Mailing List today and said that the kernel will not be moving to GPLv3. "The Linux kernel is under the GPL version 2. Not anything else. Some individual files are licenceable under v3, but not the kernel in general. And quite frankly, I don't see that changing."
I recently acquired a Linksys WRT54GL wireless broadband router. The nice thing about this piece of networking gear is that it runs Linux. There is an abundance of information on the prior model (WRT54G) of this series on the Internet. In fact, there is so much information that I had over twenty tabs open in Firefox of various web sites to sort through just to get the information that I needed to hack on my new router. So I decided to write this guide to save others from information overload.
Novell has released Service Pack 3 for SuSE Enterprise Linux Server 9, which includes all security patches and bug fixes since SP2 -- of which there have been dozens -- as well as consolidating driver updates for both storage and network subsystems.
U.S. taxpayers are now helping to improve open source software code and security thanks to a grant issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Stanford University, Symantec and source code analysis firm Coverity are the three recipients of a DHS grant called "Vulnerability Discovery and Remediation Open Source Hardening Project." The grant will pay $1.24 million over three years.
With Apple's switch over to the Intel architecture nearing, Terra Soft Solutions is hoping to snare PowerMac users exclusively to its Linux distribution.
The company, which provides the Linux OS for the Power architecture used in Apple computers, announced last week the release of Yellow Dog Linux 4.1.
The new distro includes support for Atheros wi-fi cards and PCMCIA mobile phone and modems. USB devices auto-mount under both KDE and GNOME, while sound support has also been improved.
A project that started in 2003 to translate a Linux desktop environment into Welsh is expected to take another two years to complete, according to project co-ordinator Kevin Donnelly.
The translation project, known as Kywaith Kyfieithu, aims to translate the whole of KDE into Welsh, but Donnelly admitted on Friday that the project is making slow progress.
