Contributing writer: Thomas Fitzsimmons
At the 2006 JavaOne conference, Sun announced plans to open source Java. This wasn’t exactly a surprise to those of us working on Java at Red Hat, given that there had been rumblings before. But this was a real announcement. We were immediately interested in learning exactly which license Sun would choose. Even if it was a legitimate open source license, it still might not allow us to combine our code with Sun’s.
We have been working on free Java for many years–most particularly through gcj, a project started at Cygnus in 1998 by a developer named Per Bothner. Gcj has been steadily improving over the years, but still wasn’t fully Java-compatible, partly because we couldn’t get permission to run the official Java compatibility test suite. We had also been working on GNU Classpath, which is GNU’s free replacement for the core Java class libraries from Sun. We were very curious to see the “official version.” » Read more
Find out about the new features in Fedora 9 straight from the source–Paul Frields, the new Fedora project leader. He talks with us about the massive changes in KDE4, the new (and improved) LiveUSB features, and the many, many people that helped get Sulphur off to a running start. And what’s in store for Fedora 10? Watch and learn…
This is another article in our series co-publishing with Fedora Interviews.
AbiWord just had a great 2.6 release and the developers took several hours of their spare time over a few weeks period answering questions and providing information. Thanks to the team and especially MarcMaurer for his time and patience. We present you a detailed interview with the AbiWord team on a broad range of topics. » Read more
Hello, Red Hat Network Satellite users! We hope you’re excited about the recent release of Red Hat Network Satellite 5.1. Earlier, we gave you some details about the new Satellite exporter tool that allows you to easily populate content on disconnected RHN Satellites.
Another new feature introduced by Satellite 5.1 is multiple organization support. This feature allows you to partition your Satellite into different organizations, each with their own subscriptions, systems, and content. It provides Satellite administrators with a new way to control user and system access to resources on a Satellite server. For more details on multiple organization support, please refer to our whitepaper: RHN Satellite 5.1 Best Practices for Multiple Organizations (PDF download, ~700KB).
The Satellite Team would like to learn how we can improve this feature to better suit your needs–and we need your help. » Read more
Contributing author: Melanie Chernoff
Over the past year, the OOXML debate launched a worldwide discussion about what an open standard should be, how it impacts the technology industry, and why open standards are important.
Last week, OOXML–an XML format designed for Microsoft’s office suite–was approved as a standard by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). In past articles1 2, we have discussed problems with voting irregularities, the use of a fast-track process without adequate industry review, proprietary Microsoft technologies used without specification, and other problems. Now that OOXML has been approved despite these objections, let’s take a look at the standardization process and the impact that OOXML’s approval will have in the office suite space. » Read more
In 60 countries around the world, 200 teams have organized activities for today, the first Document Freedom Day. It’s a day of grassroots effort (based on the model of Software Freedom Day) to promote and build awareness for the relevance of free document formats and open standards. » Read more
Matt Asay posted about an interview with JBoss middleware division GM Craig Muzilla, praising Craig for understanding why open source is not only a great software strategy but also a revolutionary business strategy. One of the comments to the article caught my attention:
“JBoss’ success has about 5% to do with the fact that it is open source, and 90% that it is good software, approximately.”
Thanks to the poster for his praise of JBoss software, but his comments exemplify a misunderstanding across various open communities. We can all agree that making a software project open source does not magically make the binaries better. The open source methodology combined with an open source license do get the advantage of several effects, which are key to the success of JBoss and other similar projects.
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Contributing author: Melanie Chernoff
You probably don’t lose any sleep worrying that your word processor is saving files in the wrong format. You may have some old files that don’t open correctly, or someone might have sent you a spreadsheet that doesn’t work in anything but Excel, but you probably found some way to work around the problem.
But when data is important and needs to be used in different ways or archived for a long time, the format really does matter. It all boils down to one question: who owns your data? If your data can be used in a wide variety of applications, you own it. If it can only be used cleanly with one vendor’s applications, that vendor is really the one with control.
This is why standards are so important. A complex standard that can only be fully implemented by one vendor does nothing to solve this problem, especially when the format was designed for only that one vendor’s data. This is the crux of the debate over OOXML, an XML format designed for Microsoft’s office suite, which was submitted to ISO for fast-track standardization as DIS 29500. This proposal will be accepted or rejected on March 29, 2008. » Read more
This is in response to a thread from fedora-devel-list. You can read the relevant post in the redhat.com mailing list archives.
Many people claim that “Linux is about choice!”. That’s a neat phrase, but what does it mean? Does it mean that you should have the ability to twist and turn 400 different knobs on your Linux install? That’s what some think. Does it mean that you have the right to choose Linux, or choose your flavor of Linux, and then choose from the package sets within those flavors? That’s what I and many others think. There is a very distinct difference here too. Let’s look at it from a food point of view (one of my favorite points-of-view). » Read more
This is the story of Dev Fu, a portal that provides updated, relevant content to developers trying to get their work done.
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