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Operating Systems

Submission + - Sun CEO reveals ZFS will be OSX default filesystem

Submitted by Fjan11
Fjan11 writes: Sun's Jonathan Schwartz announced that "Apple would be making ZFS "the file system" in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard". It seems likely that Leopad's Time Machine feature will require ZFS to run, because ZFS has back-up and snapshots build right in to the filesystem as well as a host of other features, such as built in Raid. Jobs is probably not happy about his thunder being stolen right before for the June 11th keynote...
Republicans

Submission + - Congressman Orrin Hatch caught pirating software

Submitted by
Rocketship Underpant
Rocketship Underpant writes: "Orrin Hatch, the Congressman viewed by many as a shill for corporate copyright interests, recently stated that people who download copyrighted materials should have their computers destroyed as punishment. However, as Wired.com reports, Hatch's own website uses copyrighted software without permission — a Javascript menu system developed by a British company. Is Mr. Hatch accepting volunteers to go through his home and office destroying all his computers, or were his comments to Congress just a bunch of hypocritical hot air?"
Programming

Submission + - Wired: Does GPL v3 Alienate Developers?

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Wired is reporting about a blog post in which BMC Software's whurley and Google's Greg Stein agree that the GPL v3 is currently on a path that will alienate developers. Stein has an interesting theory called "license pressure" which is similar to "pricing pressure". Stein's quote; "Due to pressure from developers, all software is moving towards permissive licensing" translation, the GPL and developers are moving in opposite directions.
Patents

Submission + - The shakedown continues

Submitted by
SL Baur
SL Baur writes: "http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech /view_article.php?article_id=70004

Microsoft Corp and South Korea's LG Electronics (LGE) said Thursday they have reached a patent cross-licensing agreement aimed at further developing each other's current and future products. LGE will be able to use Microsoft's patented innovations in its products, including Linux-based embedded devices, the two high-tech giants said in a statement.
The article goes on to add that Microsoft will be making more payments to LGE than LGE will make to Microsoft. That still means users of LGE's Linux-based embedded devices will be paying the Microsoft Tax."
Movies

Submission + - Disney presents: Fair use and copyrights

Submitted by
jdavidb
jdavidb writes: "Eric Faden of Stanford University's Fair Use Project "stole" thousands of tiny clips from dozens of Disney films to create an educational film explaining copyright and fair use. Right out of the mouths of characters from Disney, the chief advocate behind the most recent ex post facto extension of copyright, you can learn how copyright terms have been extended, how important it is for works to pass into the public domain in something resembling a reasonable period of time, and what exceptions are granted by the principle of fair use."
Linux Business

Submission + - It's real: Dell sells PCs with Ubuntu preinstalled

Submitted by
javipas
javipas writes: "Today could mark a turning point for the history of Linux. Dell will start today 4pm CST selling three machines with Ubuntu 7.04 preinstalled. The two desktops (XPS 410n, $899 and Dimension E520n, $599) and the notebook (Inspiron E1505n, $599)will be the first three machines with the popular Linux distribution installed by default. Dell has announced that they will provide hardware support, and they've created a new site devoted to give further Linux support and updates. At the moment the offer is available in the US, but we all hope the rest of the world can enjoy it very soon. Good luck!"
KDE

Submission + - Munich's KDE Desktops Usability Certified

Submitted by falonaj
falonaj writes: Munich's KDE distribution LiMux has been certified to meet the international usability standard ISO 9241. The use of KDE 3 as an 'effective, efficient and satisfactory' working environment is named as a decisive factor for passing the certification. This is the first time that a Free Software desktop has been officially attested for usability by the German certification association TÜV. After an extensive two-year process of iterative testing, TÜV IT confirms that 'Open Source has reached a very high level of professionalism' and concludes that KDE's Open Source nature made it very easy for Munich to ensure that the software is especially efficient and user friendly for their office workers.
Puzzle Games (Games)

Submission + - Checkers has been Solved

Submitted by
r55man
r55man writes: "The Chinook project recently announced that checkers has been solved. Perfect play from both sides results in a draw. From their website:

On May 8, 2007, we were pleased to announce that checkers is now solved. From the standard starting position, Black (who moves first) is guaranteed a draw with perfect play. White (moving second) is also guaranteed a draw, regardless of what Black plays as the opening move. Checkers is the largest game that has been solved to date.
"
The Courts

Prosecutor Announces Charges Against Pirate Bay 345

Posted by CowboyNeal from the timbers-be-shivered-then dept.
paulraps writes "Almost a year after a police raid on the Pirate Bay's servers, a Swedish prosecutor has announced that he intends to press charges against the individuals behind the file-sharing giant. They will be prosecuted for various breaches of copyright law, reports The Local. But a Pirate Bay spokesman was defiant, saying, 'I think they feel they have to do it. It would look bad otherwise, since they had 20 to 30 police officers involved in the raid.'"
Software

Submission + - No emulation software for Dell's Linux machines

Submitted by
Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward writes: "Dell will not include open-source software such as Wine, which lets users run Windows programs on Linux, with the PCs it plans to bundle with Ubuntu Linux, Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu and its commercial sponsor Canonical, told eWeek (http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2125848,00.a sp). He is quoted in the article as saying the reason for this is that he does "not want to position Ubuntu and Linux as a cheap alternative to Windows." While Linux is an alternative to Windows, it is not cheap Windows, he says, adding that Linux has its own strengths, and users should want it because of those strengths and not because it's a cheap copy of Windows."

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