Computer Tips -Tech Info

Tag: Open Source

  • Dell “open source” PC’s for sale

    I saw yesterday that Dell has a page advertising computers with NO preinstalled OS. Dimension line… n series and they are targetted towards people that want to install an Open Source operating system like Linux. They do ship with a freedos install disc, but come without formatting/preinstalling anything on the hard drives.

    They do note that they don’t support a non-dell installed operating system. (i.e. even if you put XP pro on it well make you prove that it’s a hardware problem.) Still, it’s good to see the option becoming available.

  • Rumors and more on Vista

    It’s interesting to see the rumor mill around Vista – I saw articles this morning claiming that 60% of the Vista code would have to be rewritten and the Xbox team was pulled to work on Vista – from what I can see both of those are not true. I suspect people are looking to explain why the release has slipped into the next year. I do find it interesting that there were such ambitious plans for Vista which have gradually evaporated and pushed to a future release and the pruned back plans just aren’t within reach in a short amount of time. However, in some ways software development is about making big plans reality, sometimes it just turns out to be bigger than you thought.

    (more…)

  • Wikipedia Class action suit?

    ZDNet’s the Open Source blog is talking about a possible Classaction suit against the wikipedia. He calls it the next SCO suit and summarizes things like this…

    The SCO suits were an attempt to shut down open source based on the idea that everything is owned, or comes from something that is owned, and so the use of any code requires payment to someone.

    While that lawsuit is winding down, a new threat is now emerging. It’s a class action against Wikipedia, aimed at ending open source information by demanding that “someone take responsibility” for everything published on the Web.

    (more…)

  • Moving to Open Source quietly

    ZDnet UK has another article on how many businesses prefer to make a move to open source software fairly quietly. This should be no surprise really given the news and circus-type feel some of the public “studies” of a large company or other organization moving to linux or replacing Microsoft Office. In many cases, there’ve been “personal visits” from Steve Ballmer to try to keep the organization in the Microsoft camp, lot’s of news articles, outside individuals lobbying one way or the other.

    (more…)

  • New List of Open Source software for Windows

    In an effort to educate more people on the value of open source software, there is the Looplist. The Looplist was highlighted in desktoplinux.com today. It’s essentially a user-collaborated WIKI listing Open Source applications which run on Windows based systems.

    (more…)

  • Intel investing in open source

    PClinuxonline.com is reporting that there is a zdnet article concerning Intel’s investment in Open Source software. Specifically the article is about Intel’s support of the Xen Virtualization Technology Project which is being integrated into the Linux Kernel.
    (more…)

  • Microsofts Linux Lab manager answers questions on slashdot

    A few days back I mentioned that slashdot was posing questions to Bill Hilf, the manager of Microsoft’s Linux lab. Today his responses are being posted.
    (more…)

  • Collection of Open Source software for Windows

    This is a quick link to a downloadable cd of open source software for windows. There is a sizable list of programs. It appears as though some are not open source, but are free. If you have a fast enough connection to download it, you might find it very useful. If not, you might (more…)

  • What is Open Source

    Open source denotes that the origins of a product are publicly accessible in part or in whole. See Open source (disambiguation) for related topics and other meanings.
    (more…)