johnteslade - Slashdot User

Submission + - Whitehouse.gov switches to Drupal (techpresident.com)

Submitted by

Falc0n

on Sunday October 25, 2009 @02:32AM

Falc0n writes: "WhiteHouse.gov has gone Drupal. After months of planning, says an Obama Administration source, the White House has ditched the proprietary content management system that had been in place since the days of the Bush Administration in favor of the latest version of the open-source Drupal software.
Dries Buytaert reflected on this, adding: "this is a clear sign that governments realize that Open Source does not pose additional risks compared to proprietary software, and furthermore, that by moving away from proprietary software, they are not being locked into a particular technology, and that they can benefit from the innovation that is the result of thousands of developers collaborating on Drupal.""

Submission + - Low-Power home server for Linux 8

Submitted by mpol on Saturday October 24, 2009 @04:23PM

mpol writes: For years I've been using a home-server with Linux, but recently I've been getting doubts about the electric bill. I'm not touched by the recession yet, but I would like to cut costs, and going from a 100Watt system to a 30Watt system would save me 70 bucks a year. The system doesn't need to do much, just apache, imap, ssh and some nfs, but I do prefer to have a full-fledged system, where I can choose what to install on it. I also don't really care if it's a low-power Via or an ARM processor, I do prefer it to be cheap. A full system for max 300 bucks would be nice. That way I would have earned it back after 4 years on powersavings.
I've been reading about the Western Digital Mybook World Edition, which has an ARM processor, but isn't that easy to install Debian on. A Mac Mini draws about 85Watt, so that isn't an option either. I would accept something just a bit more than turn-key, but not a hack-job. I've done hack-jobs enough in the past, now it's time for smooth and easy. Adding a temporary cdrom or dvd-rom, or an usb disk with an iso to install from would have my preference.
Are there Slashdotters who run nice and cheap low-power Linux systems? What can you recommend?

Microsoft Ordered To Pay $388 Million In Patent Case 233

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday April 09, 2009 @04:13AM from the pay-up dept.

jeffmeden writes "BusinessWeek reports today that Microsoft suffered a loss in federal court Monday. The judge rendering the verdict ordered Microsoft to pay $388 Million in damages for violating a patent held by Uniloc, a California maker of software that prevents people from illegally installing software on multiple computers. Uniloc claims Microsoft's Windows XP and some Office programs infringe on a related patent they hold. It's hard to take sides on this one, but one thing is certain: should the verdict hold up, it will be heavily ironic if the extra copies of XP and Office sold due to crafty copy protection end up not being worth $388 million."

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