Practical Technology

for practical people.

June 10, 2008
by sjvn01
5 Comments

Violate the GPL at your own risk

It used to be that companies could get away with stealing GPLed open-source code into their own software and no one would be the wiser. Those days are done.

Oh, it still happens, but the SFLC’s (Software Freedom Law Center) recent legal actions on behalf of BusyBox‘s principal developers have been putting the fear of open-source violations into unscrupulous software companies. In the latest chapter, SFLC has sued Bell Microproducts Inc. and Super Micro Computer Inc. for using BusyBox’s open-source software without honoring its open-source license.

Both companies have been distributing BusyBox’s lightweight embedded Unix tools illegally without complete source code. By the rules of the GPLv2, which is the open-source license that covers BusyBox, every downstream recipient of the program must be provided access to the program’s source code

The SFLC contacted each company, but the businesses ignored them. Dumb move.

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June 10, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

Five reasons why it’s not business as usual for Microsoft

Bill Gates will be leaving Microsoft for good at the end of the month and Microsoft would have you believe that it will be business as usual for Microsoft. I understand they also have a great bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn that they’d like to sell you. Cheap!

1) You can’t replace genius. Steve Ballmer is moving into the top slot, but I’ve met Bill Gates, and Steve Ballmer is no Bill Gates. He’s a big, bouncy sales guy.

Can’t you just see Ballmer selling used cars on a local TV ad spot? Instead of running around a stage shouting: “Developers! Developers!” just visualize him running around a car lot shouting, “Cars! Cars!” I find it far too easy to do just that. This is the man who’s going to replace Bill Gates? I don’t think so.

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June 9, 2008
by sjvn01
2 Comments

Firefox 3: Past, Present, and Future

July 2004 — Internet Explorer has held more than 95 percent of the browser market since June 2002. Over the last month, however, its market share has slowly dropped from 95.73 percent on June 4 to 94.73 percent on July 6.A loss of 1 percent of the market may not mean much to Microsoft, but it translates into a large growth, proportionately, in the number of users running Mozilla and Netscape-based browsers. Mozilla and Netscape’s combined market share has increased by 26 percent, rising from 3.21 percent of the market in June to 4.05 percent in July.—PC World, Mozilla Gains on IE.

June 2008 — Firefox 3 is almost here. The latest version is now at release candidate two and, in a word, it’s great.

It strikes me that we forget, even as many of us look forward to this great open-source browser just what hurdles Firefox had to overcome. Four years ago, Internet Explorer, thanks to Microsoft’s monopoly owned the Web browser market. Netscape, while still around, was already dead and buried for all practical purposes.

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June 8, 2008
by sjvn01
0 comments

The Mac’s new friends

Macs have been on sale in Apple stores for years now. They also show up in reseller stores from time to time. What they haven’t done, until recently, is show up in conventional box stores.

That’s why I was pleasantly surprised when I went in to kill some time at my local Best Buy in Asheville, NC to find a mini-Apple-store within a store. The store featured only four laptops, including the MacBook Air and a pair of Apple iMacs.

The little display area may be nothing compared to an Apple store, but what caught my attention was not only how many people paid attention to the mini-store, but how they paid attention to it. In the usual areas, you see two kinds of people.

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June 6, 2008
by sjvn01
3 Comments

Meet Linpus Linux

The number two laptop maker in the world, Acer, has joined in the Linux-powered UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) rush. Their Linux of choice for their forthcoming 512MB to 1GB of RAM mini-computers is Linpus Linux. “Linpus who,” you ask?

Linpus is not a well-known Linux distributor. You won’t even find it listed on DistroWatch‘s listing of 100 Linux distributions. Linpus is not, however, a Linux newcomer.

The company has actually been working with Linux since 1997. Its primary focus has been on research and development and offering open-source engineering services to IT and OEM (original equipment manufacturers) customers in Taiwan.

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June 5, 2008
by sjvn01
1 Comment

Will Linux force Microsoft to give XP Pro more life?

Microsoft has been forced by Linux’s popularity on UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) to extend the life of Windows XP Home. My only question: How long will it take before Microsoft buys a clue and gives XP Pro a new lease on life as well?

The boys from Redmond seem to be in denial. Let me go over the fundamentals for them. 1) Vista is a flop; 2) People want comparatively low-powered, inexpensive computers; 3) Linux runs greats on these PCs; 4) Nothing Microsoft has, except for XP, will run on these PCs; and 5) Microsoft seems to think that only consumers will want these tiny laptops.

Wrong.

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