Ubuntu Linux 7.10 Released

Last October 18, Canonical Ltd. - the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu - just announced that the latest Ubuntu Linux 7.10 codenamed Gutsy Gibbon is already available for free download. According to the press release, "Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Edition adds an enhanced user interface, improved hardware support, multiple monitor support and integrated desktop search" as well as "bringing together the best open source and free software available in a stable, robust environment that 'just works'."

This is a great news to all Linux users out there, just recently Canonical Ltd. released Ubuntu 7.04 codenamed Feisty Fawn, and in keeping true to their bi-annual release you can download the latest version of Ubuntu here. I personally had fun ordering 5 Ubuntu 7.04 cds which I promptly gave to some of my officemates, who like me, have been using Linux for quite sometime.

I highly recommend everyone who are open source enthusiast, Linux users, or just brave souls to give Ubuntu 7.10 a spin and see the benefits - first hand - of using Linux.

Seven Wonders of the IT World

CIO.com has compiled a rather interesting list of the Seven Wonders of the IT World. Some are very interesting while others are not.

The first one is the computer closest to the North Pole, and that title belongs to Webcam #1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory takes care of this floating eye at the top of the world.



The second one is the computer farthest from Earth, and that title belongs to NASA's voyager satellite. It is three times farther away from Pluto.




The third one is the world's most intriguing data center, and that title belongs to Googles' The Dalles, Oregon data center. It has a hydroelectric dam for power, two four-story cooling towers.






The fourth one is the world's largest scientific grid computing project, and that title goes to the E-sciencE II (EGEE-II) project. It is a large-scale scientific research projects in fields from geology to chemistry.




The fifth one is the world's fastest supercomputer, the IBM BlueGene/L (BGL). It helps researchers answer physics questions about stockpiled nuclear weapons and materials like Plutonium.




The sixth one is the world's smallest PC to run Windows Vista, the QOQ Model 2. Such a small and stylish device that runs the latest OS from Microsoft.




And lastly, the seventh one is the biggest paradigm change in enterprise software, that title belongs to the Linux kernel. One of the biggest name in free and open source software revolution.





Disclaimer: All images from CIO.com. Please click here to view the entire article.

Python 3000 released!

Python 3.0 has just been released! Be wary though, this is just an alpha release, with beta releases next year and hopefully the final version will be delivered by August 2008.

For those who are not familiar with Python, it is a high-level and multi-paradigm programming language (functional, object oriented and imperative) which has a fully dynamic type system and uses automatic memory management; it is thus similar to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, and Tcl. [wikipedia.org]

Its new version is called Python 300 (a.k.a. "Py3k", and released as Python 3.0) is a new version of the language that is incompatible with the 2.x line of releases. The language is mostly the same, but many details, especially how built-in objects like dictionaries and strings work, have changed considerably, and a lot of deprecated features have finally been removed. [python.org]

So if you are ready to learn the wonderful world of python, well I just started myself, click here to download the new alpha version of the language. Be warned though, this is not yet a stable release.

OS Summit Asia 2007

A friend told me about an open source summit to be organized in Hong Kong this November 26-30, 2007. According to their website the summit is about "Combining the talents of the Eclipse Foundation and the Apache Software Foundation to create the first open source community summit in Hong Kong."

If you are an open source enthusiasts or a software developer that utilizes either Eclipse or any tools by Apache and have money, lots of money to spare then don't hesitate to give them a call or an email. Please click here to view their website.

SUNW to JAVA, MSFT to ?

Sun Microsystems Inc. has changed their ticker symbol from SUNW to JAVA. According to their CEO, Jonathan Schwartz, "JAVA is a technology whose value is near infinite to the internet, and a brand that's inseparably a part of Sun (and our profitability). And so next week, we're going to embrace that reality by changing our trading symbol, from SUNW to JAVA."

Is it a smart move or a dumb one? But some people over at slashdot wants Microsoft to change their ticker symbol from MSFT to ...

 

Software Freedom Day 2007

I got this from the local Linux user group in Davao. To all tech enthusiasts who share a passion with free and open source software, it's this time of the year to congregate.

Please say hello to Software Freedom Day 2007! Share the banner to inform other people.

Bill Gates Open Letter to Hobbyists

Even way back then, Bill Gates was a strong believer in software as a business economy.

Read and enjoy.

--------------

An Open Letter to Hobbyists

by William Henry Gates III

February 3, 1976

To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself. Without good software and an owner who understands programming, a hobby computer is wasted. Will quality software be written for the hobby market?

Almost a year ago, Paul Allen and myself, expecting the hobby market to expand, hired Monte Davidoff and developed Altair BASIC. Though the initial work took only two months, the three of us have spent most of the last year documenting, improving and adding features to BASIC. Now we have 4K, 8K, EXTENDED, ROM and DISK BASIC. The value of the computer time we have used exceeds $40,000.

The feedback we have gotten from the hundreds of people who say they are using BASIC has all been positive. Two surprising things are apparent, however, 1) Most of these "users" never bought BASIC (less than 10% of all Altair owners have bought BASIC), and 2) The amount of royalties we have received from sales to hobbyists makes the time spent on Altair BASIC worth less than $2 an hour.

Why is this? As the majority of hobbyists must be aware, most of you steal your software. Hardware must be paid for, but software is something to share. Who cares if the people who worked on it get paid?

Is this fair? One thing you don't do by stealing software is get back at MITS for some problem you may have had. MITS doesn't make money selling software. The royalty paid to us, the manual, the tape and the overhead make it a break-even operation. One thing you do do is prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software. We have written 6800 BASIC, and are writing 8080 APL and 6800 APL, but there is very little incentive to make this software available to hobbyists. Most directly, the thing you do is theft.

What about the guys who re-sell Altair BASIC, aren't they making money on hobby software? Yes, but those who have been reported to us may lose in the end. They are the ones who give hobbyists a bad name, and should be kicked out of any club meeting they show up at.

I would appreciate letters from any one who wants to pay up, or has a suggestion or comment. Just write to me at 1180 Alvarado SE, #114, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 87108. Nothing would please me more than being able to hire ten programmers and deluge the hobby market with good software.

Bill Gates

General Partner, Micro-Soft

Set Your Documents Free!

Red Hat announces the new ODF artwork for us to share and spread.

What is ODF?

ODF is a file format for electronic office documents, such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations, databases and word processing documents (e.g.: memos, reports, letters). [wikipedia]

It's main competitor is the Microsoft Office formats. The key differentiator here is that ODF is backed by a standards committee called Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

What's the reason for ODF?

The reason for the existence of ODF is that OASIS believe that file formats should be free and open source, in that way when you open ODF files you don't need the expensive Microsoft Word to create, edit and view document files, rather you can use any document viewer program as well.

Final note from Red Hat

What can you do? Download, print, and hang the poster. Spread the word. And liberate your documents with ODF.

The declarations that started the Linux revolution

A trip back in the memory lane on how Linux started.

First declaration.

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: What would you like to see most in minix?
Summary: small poll for my new operating system
Message-ID: <1991aug25.205708.9541@klaava.helsinki.fi>
Date: 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Hello everybody out there using minix - I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready.I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system(due to practical reasonamong other things). I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40),and things seem to work.This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, andI'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs.
It is NOT protable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never
will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's
all I have :-(

Second declaration.

From: torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Free minix-like kernel sources for 386-AT
Message-ID: <1991oct5.054106.4647@klaava.helsinki.fi>
Date: 5 Oct 91 05:41:06 GMT
Organization: University of Helsinki

Do you pine for the nice days of minix-1.1, when men were men and wrote their own device drivers? Are you without a nice project and just dying to cut your teeth on a OS you can try to modify for your needs? Are you finding it frustrating when everything works on minix? No more all-nighters to get a nifty program working? Then this post might be just for you :-) As I mentioned a month(?)ago, I'm working on a free version of a minix-lookalike for AT-386 computers. It has
finally reached the stage where it's even usable (though may not be depending on
what you want), and I am willing to put out the sources for wider distribution. It is just version 0.02 (+1 (very small) patch already), but I've successfully run bash/gcc/gnu-make/gnu-sed/compress etc under it. Sources for this pet project of mine can be found at nic.funet.fi (128.214.6.100) in the directory /pub/OS/Linux. The directory also contains some README-file and a couple of binaries to work under linux (bash, update and gcc, what more can you ask for :-). Full kernel source is provided, as no minix code has been used. Library sources are only partially free, so that cannot be distributed currently. The system is able to compile "as-is" and has been known to work. Heh. Sources to the binaries (bash and gcc) can be found at the same place in /pub/gnu.

Pinoy Job: PERL Software Engineers

REWSS A/S is currently in need of PERL Software Engineers.

REWSS A/S is a Danish company specialized in developing Software Solutions and providing Consulting Services for Telecom companies worldwide. We have an expanding global client base and offices in Denmark, US, Brazil and the Philippines.

Responsibilities:

• Develop detailed technical design documents based on high-level designs
• Participate in and/or facilitate technical design walkthroughs
• Code and test modules per detailed technical design specifications
• Prepare unit test and assembly test plans (i.e., test script, test conditions, test data)
• Perform testing according to test plans
• Document test results
• Ensure quality of own deliverables through adherence to project standards (budget, schedule and quality)
• Adhere to project processes, policies and standards

Requirements:

• Candidates must have knowledge/skills in any of the following programming language: Perl or JAVA/J2EE, SQL, UNIX scripting, PHP
• With strong written and oral communication skills
• Entry Level applicants/Fresh graduates are also encouraged to apply
• Possesses an open attitude towards learning and adapting to new technologies and methodologies
• Experience/knowledge in object-oriented design and/or programming is a plus
• Experience in Linux and development tools such as Dreamweaver, Zend Studio, Eclipse, and CVS is a plus
• College degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology or similar discipline with good academic record is a plus

So if you are a PERL Software Programmer looking for greener pastures please email your resume to jobs@rewss.com.