christian.einfeldt - Slashdot User

Submission + - Linux reaches 32% netbook market share (desktoplinux.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Monday December 07, 2009 @08:05PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Linux netbooks have captured 32% of the global netbook market, says Jeff Orr, an analyst with consumer computer research firm ABI Research. The largest share of netbook sales is in the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Lai's article reports, according to Orr's interview with Eric Lai, a reporter with ComputerWorld.com. ABI's latest figures coincide with a statement by Dell executives from February of this year, in which they said that Linux netbooks comprise about 33% of Dell shipments of Dell Inspiron mini 9s netbooks. The ABI Research figures, together with the statements by the Dell executives, cast doubt on claims by Microsoft that Windows XP captured 98% of the netbook market, a figure Microsoft later reported as 93% market share. In an interview with DesktopLinux.com, Orr made clear that the 32% Linux netbook market share did not include either user-intalled Linux or dual-boot systems, but was confined to just pre-installed Linux shipments."

Submission + - Washington Post says use Linux to avoid bank fraud (washingtonpost.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Tuesday October 13, 2009 @07:28PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Washington Post columnist Brian Krebs recommends that banking customers consider using a Linux LiveCD, rather than Microsoft Windows, to access their on-line banking. He tells a story of two businesses which lost $100,000 USD and $447,000 USD, respectively, when the thieves — armed with malware on the company controller's PC — were able to intercept one of those codes when the controller tried to log in, and then delay the controller from logging in. Krebs notes that he is not alone in recommending the use of non-Windows machines for banking; The Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) — a industry group supported by some of the world's largest banks — recently issued guidelines urging businesses to carry out all online banking activities form 'a stand-alone, hardened and completely locked down computer system from where regular e-mail and Web browsing is not possible.' Krebs concludes his article with a link to an earlier column in which he steps readers through the process of booting Linux LiveCDs to do their on-line banking."

Submission + - Forkable Linux radio ad now on the air in Texas (blogspot.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Sunday September 20, 2009 @02:39PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Everyone is familiar with the Linux video ads created by IBM, Red Hat, and Novell, but until recently, there have not been any professionally-backed forkable radio ads. Now, Austin-based Linux advocate Ken Starks has obtained the services of a professional radio talent in creating a high quality voice track, which can be easily adapted by local providers of Linux computer services. The raw material addresses end-user frustration with Microsoft Windows malware, and promotes Linux as a more stable alternative. Starks hopes the raw material will seed pro-Linux ads across the US, and he offers his own final product as an example of how the raw material can be remixed with music. He has released all of the raw material and final work under the Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license, and has waived the Attribution requirement in his blog. His blog links to both the raw material and his final product. Starks' provocative ads are currently on the air in the Austin market during the popular talk show of Kim Komando, who just happens to be a Microsoft Windows enthusiast."

Submission + - Linux Notebooks selling well on Amazon Germany (linuxtech.net)

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christian.einfeldt

on Friday July 24, 2009 @07:54PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "The LinuxTech.net blog points out that Linux notebooks are currently selling quite well on Amazon's list in Germany. The blog includes screenshots showing the Linux Asus and Aspire notebooks in positions 2 and 4, respectively on that list. It's worth noting that these machines are not netbooks, but full notebooks, albeit on the moderate to low side regarding price and performance. That LinuxTech.net blog was dated 23 July 2009, and the Asus machine is still holding second place more than one day later, while the Acer machine slipped to fifth position, despite the volatile nature of Amazon bestseller lists. While these two data points are just snapshots in time, they are consistent with other data showing that Microsoft itself attributes some of its recent weak earnings to surging sales of low-end notebooks, as well as data showing that the Linux-powered and Unix-powered computers topped Amazon's sales charts in all categories for 2007. If there is to ever be a 'year of desktop Linux', it won't happen all at once, but will creep up in ways similar to what we are seeing now."

Submission + - Amazon UK refunding Windows license fees (theopensourcerer.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Thursday July 23, 2009 @02:26PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Alan Lord, a FOSS computer consultant based in the UK, has announced that Amazon UK honored his request for a refund of the Microsoft license fee portion of the cost of a new Asus netbook PC that came with Microsoft Windows XP. Lord details the steps that he took to obtain a refund of 40.00 GBP for the cost of the EULA, complete with links to click to request a refund. Lord's refund comes 10 years after the initial flurry of activity surrounding EULA discounts, started by a blog post by Australian computer consultant Geoffrey Bennett which appeared on Slashdot on 18 January 1999. That Slashdot story led to mainstream press coverage, such as stories in CNN, the New York Times on-line, and the San Francisco Chronicle, to name just a few. The issue quieted down for a few years, but has started to gain some momentum again in recent years, with judges in France, Italy, and Israel awarding refunds. But if Lord's experience is any indication, getting a refund through Amazon might be as easy as filling out a few forms, at least in the UK, without any need to go to court."

Submission + - Unusual physics engine game ported to Linux (blogspot.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Thursday July 16, 2009 @11:37PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Halloween has come early for Linux-loving gamers in the form of the scary Penumbra game trilogy, which has just recently been ported natively to GNU-Linux by the manufacturer, Frictional Games. The Penumbra games, named Overture, Black Plague, and Requiem, respectively, are first person survival horror and physics puzzle games which challenge the player to survive in a mine in Greenland which has been taken over by a monstrous infection/demon/cthulhu-esque thing. The graphics, sounds, and plot are all admirable in a scary sort of way. The protagonist is an ordinary human with no particular powers at all, who fumbles around in the dark mine fighting zombified dogs or fleeing from infected humans. But the game is remarkable for its physics engine — rather than just bump and acquire, the player must use the mouse to physically turn knobs and open doors; and the player can grab and throw pretty much anything in the environment. The physics engine drives objects to fly and fall exactly as one would expect. The porting of a game with such a deft physics engine natively to Linux might be one of the most noteworthy events for GNU-Linux gamers since the 'World of Goo' Linux port."

Submission + - What's up with the Munich Linux migration? (worldlabel.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Saturday June 27, 2009 @06:27PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "The Munich decision to move its 14,000 desktops to Free Open Source Software created a big splash back in 2003 as news circulated of the third-largest German city's defection from Microsoft. When it was announced in 2003, the story garnered coverage even in the US, such as an extensive article in USAtoday on-line. Currently, about 60% of desktops are using OpenOffice, with the remaining 40% to be completed by the end of 2009. Firefox and Thunderbird are being used in all of the city's desktop machines. Ten percent of desktops are running the LiMux Debian-based distro, and 80% will be running LiMux by 2012 at the latest. Autonomy was generally considered more important than costs savings, although the LiMux initiative is increasing competition in the IT industry in Munich already. The program has succeeded because the city administration has been careful to reach out to all stakeholders, from managers down to simple end users."

Submission + - Microsoft earning only $15 per XP netbook (wsj.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Sunday May 03, 2009 @01:14AM

christian.einfeldt writes: "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft is earning only about $15.00 USD for each netbook sold with Microsoft Windows XP. The WSJ cites the proliferation of netbooks as a factor contributing to the 8% decline in Windows revenue for the quarter that ended in December, 2008. The netbook market segment poses an on-going problem for Microsoft, according to the WSJ, in light of the fact that Gartner, a market research firm, recently predicted unit sales of netbooks will grow nearly 80% this year to 21 million units, while overall PC sales decline a record 11.9%. Microsoft will respond by offering Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition, which features limited functionality such as limited customization and a cap of three applications running concurrently. Dell, meanwhile, has said recently that its sales of Linux-based netbooks constitute about one-third of its Inspiron Mini 9s, with return rates comparable to that of Inspiron Mini 9s netbooks running XP."

Submission + - Hungary, Tatarstan latest to go FOSS (heise.de)

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christian.einfeldt

on Saturday April 11, 2009 @07:19PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "It seems as if almost every other week there is news of another government migration toward Free Open Source Software. Two of the most recent moves in this direction come from Hungary and the tiny independent former Russian republic of Tatarstan. On April 2, The Hungarian government announced that it will be modifying its procurement rules to mandate that open source procurement funding match expenditures for proprietary software, according to Ferenc Baja, deputy minister for information technology. In Tatarstan, a Republic of 3.8 million inhabitants, the Deputy Minister of Education, Ludmila Nugumanova, announced that by the end of this school year, all 2,400 educational institutions in Tatarstan will have completed a transition to GNU-Linux, following a successful pilot program in rolled out in 2008 across 1000 schools in the Republic of Tartarstan, the region of Perm and the province of Tomsk in the Russian Federation."

Submission + - Major League Baseball dumps Silverlight for Flash (zdnet.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Tuesday April 07, 2009 @06:20PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Major League Baseball will open this week without Microsoft's Silverlight at the plate, according to Bob Bowman, CEO of Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which handles much of the back end operations for Major League Baseball and several other leagues and sporting events. The change, which was decided last year but to be rolled out this spring, was due to technical glitches such as difficulties users experienced starting downloading Silverlight. Adobe Flash already exists on 99% of user machines, said Bowman, and Adobe is 'committed to the customer experience in video with the Flash Player.' MLBAM's decision to dump Silverlight is particularly problematic for Microsoft's effort to compete with Adobe, due to the fact that MLBAM handles much of the back-end operations for CBS' Webcasts of the NCAA Basketball Tournament and this year will do the encoding for the 2009 Masters golf tournament."

Submission + - 1 of 3 Dell Inspiron Mini netbooks sold with Linux (laptopmag.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Monday February 23, 2009 @09:21PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "According to an article in Laptop Magazine on-line, one-third of Dell Inspiron Mini 9s netbooks are sold with the Ubuntu Linux operating system. Dell senior product manager John New attributed the sales volume to the lower price point of the Ubuntu Linux machines. And the return rate of the Ubuntu Linux machines is approximately equal to that of comparable netbooks sold with Microsoft Windows XP. Dell spokesperson Jay Pinkert attriutes the low return rate to Dell's good communications with its customers, saying 'We have done a very good job explaining to folks what Linux is.'"

Submission + - World of Goo ported to Linux (2dboy.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Friday February 13, 2009 @10:45PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Lovers of both games and Free Open Source Software will be pleased to see that the popular World of Goo has been released for Linux. Designed by a small team of two ex-Electronic Arts developers, Kyle Gabler and Ron Carmel, who used their entire combined savings of $10,000.00 USD to create the gooey game aimed at guiding goo balls to salvation. The developers built their goey world with open-source technologies such as Simple DirectMedia Layer, Open Dynamics Engine for physics simulation, and TinyXML for configuration and animation files. Subversion and Mantis Bug Tracker were used for work coordination. Blogger Ken Starks points out that the release of this popular game for Linux could be a big step toward ending the chicken-and-egg problem of a dearth of good games that run natively under Linux."

Submission + - Vietnam using more OpenOffice, Mozilla, Linux (vietnamnet.vn)

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christian.einfeldt

on Tuesday January 06, 2009 @08:29PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "The Vietnamese Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an administrative ruling increasing the use of Free Open Source Software products at state agencies, increasing the software's use both in the back office and on the desktop. According to the new rule, 100% of government servers must run Linux by June 30, 2009, and 70% of agencies must use OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox, and Mozilla Thunderbird by the end of 2009. The regulation also sets benchmarks for training and proficiency in the software. Vietnam has a population of 86 million, 4 million larger than that of Germany, and is one of the world's fastest-growing economies."

Submission + - Lessig bets on social networking to clean up gov. (wired.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Friday March 21, 2008 @02:50AM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Stanford Law Professor Larry Lessig really 'gets it' when it comes to the efficacy of distributed open source code production, and now he is attempting to use distributed production methods to expose corruption in the US Congress with the launch of another 'cc' organization, this time called 'Change Congress'. CC (as opposed to cc for Creative Commons) would invite users to track whether US legislators are willing to commit to Change Congress' four pledges. CC will rely on users to record and map the positions of candidates who are running for open seats in the US House and the Senate. Change Congress will use a Google mash-up to create a map depicting which legislators have taken the CC pledge, which have declined, and which have signaled support for planks in the Change-Congress platform. The four pledges (which are not numbered 0 through 3) basically call for greater transparency in government, and less influence of private money in shaping legislation."

Submission + - Microsoft standing firm on OOXML ISO vote (fanaticattack.com)

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christian.einfeldt

on Monday February 11, 2008 @10:29PM

christian.einfeldt writes: "Microsoft has responded via the industry trade goup ECMA to some of the thousands of criticisms of its submission of Office Open XML (OOXML) as an ISO standard. Open standards advocate Russell Ossendryver takes a look at those responses to see if Microsoft has made significant changes in either the substance of OOXML or the manner in which the OOXML specification will be maintained going forward. Ossendryver concludes that Microsoft's position has not siginficantly changed, but only hardened in place in advance of the Ballot Resolution Meeting which is to occur from February 25 through 29 in Geneva, Switzerland. While no one can say for certain whether Microsoft will succeed in having its OOXML specification win the nod from the international community, Ossendryer thinks that Microsoft's firm stance will actually backfire."

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