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Submission + - Librarians stake their future on open source

Systems Librarian writes: Linux.com is running a story, Librarians stake their future on open source, about group of librarians at the Georgia Public Library Service that have developed an open source, enterprise-class library management system that may revolutionize the way large-scale libraries are run. The system, Evergreen, whose 1.0 release came in November, is an Integrated Library System (ILS): the software that manages, catalogs, and tracks the circulation of library holdings. It's written in C, JavaScript and Perl, is GPLed, runs on Linux with Apache, uses a PostgreSQL database, Jabber for messaging and XUL as client-side software. The system allows easy clustering and is based entirely on open protocols.

Can the Malware Industry be Trusted? 185

Joe Barr writes "Is the entire anti-virus / malware industry as rotten as it appears? I started digging into it as a result of the recent lame, unsubstantiated assertions of viral threats to Linux by Kaspersky Lab, but the practice doesn't seem to start or end with them. Who knows, maybe it's pandemic in that entire segment of the IT industry."

Nintendo's Mario - 26 Years of History 57

kukyfrope writes "What started as a guy simply trying to rescue his whiny girlfriend from an angry ape 26 years ago has since grown into one of the most recognizable faces in video gaming: Mario. GameDaily explores the different types of Mario games over the years, from Jump Man to Mario Kart, to the new Wii title, Super Mario Galaxy." From the article: "Mario Bros. was released in a combination cart with the shooting game Duck Hunt, and gamers ate it up aplenty. (It was so popular, in fact, that the game was released for the Game Boy Color and remains one of its highest sellers to date.) Super Mario Bros. 2 would arrive years later and would take a drastic turn in gameplay, as it was actually based on a Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic and not the "true" sequel that was released in Japan only (at the time- it would resurface in the SNES release Super Mario All Stars). It was a hit, and would see a release alongside the launch of the Game Boy Advance years later under the name Super Mario Advance."

Sun to Change Java License for Linux 226

daria42 writes "It looks like the days of downloading Java every time you re-install a Linux box may be at an end. Reports are trickling in that Sun plans to alter the Java license to make it easier to bundle the JRE with Linux. From the article: 'Sun has faced calls several times to open-source Java, which advocates say would foster innovative open-source development. The company has resisted formally open-sourcing all of the Java software, but it has dramatically changed the development process around Java and changed licenses to make it easier to see Java source code.'"

Reflections on the Holy Trinity 139

1up has a piece looking at gaming's future by reflecting on gaming's past. What do the launches of older systems teach us to expect from the PS3's ... eventual debut. From the article: "Shouts of 'Dreamcast' ... fall a little flat when you consider that Dreamcast was more of a last-ditch attempt from a company that hadn't turned a profit in 10 years. Microsoft isn't bowing out anytime soon, which means that being out in front will probably be an advantage -- by the time Sony launches, the 360 will be over the launch hiccups and rolling with a steady stream of new software. On the other hand, if Blu-ray is as big for the PS3 as DVD was for the PS2, Microsoft could find itself technologically inferior -- a direct consequence of its rush to market. "

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