Sun buys MySQL.
January 16, 2008 Sun Microsystems, Inc. announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MySQL AB, an open source icon and developer of one of the world's fastest growing open source databases for approximately $1 billion in total consideration. The acquisition accelerates Sun's position in enterprise IT to now include the $15 billion database market. more... and What to Make of Sun Buying MySQL.

Trolltech’s Qt to be licensed under the GPL v3.
Trolltech ASA is licensing its Qt cross-platform development framework under the GNU GPL version 3. Qt is already available under the GPL v2 and will continue to be so in addition to the GPL v3. The GPL v3 license will make it easy and safe for free software developers to use Trolltech’s Qt with the most recent license framework from the FSF. Trolltech hopes that its move will inspire free software projects to use GPL v3 when programming with Qt. more...

Review of Neuros OSD.
The first two observations I made when I opened my Neuros OSD were that the unit was a lot smaller than I was expecting (about five and a half inches by five and a half inches in size) and that it looked nice. This was no flat looking boxy apparatus, nor was it a standard component. It was curved, it was sleek, black and more aerodynamic than any other DVR I’ve come across. more... and video....

And now you can sell things with open source, too. Introducing Magento.
Magento is an open-source solution for setting up and managing an online store. The product appears to be pretty robust already, but the roadmap looks even better. If you need to set up an online store, why pay the six- to seven-figures to do so when you can use Magento for free and then pay when you want support going into production? more... and demo store.

The state of Linux according to Google.
Though looking at search statistics can never give a complete picture, this gives an interesting perspective to how things are going for Linux, especially when viewed through the eyes of such a dominant and pervasive search engine as Google. more...

FlyBack: a “Time Machine” backup utility for Linux.
For all the linux users that saw the new OSx Leopard and the new backup utility called Time Machine and said “wow”! Now there is FlyBack. For who don’t know what I’m talking about: more...

Open source web conferencing.
Have you ever wanted to attend a webinar but quickly discovered that the web-conference service doesn't even support your operating system? This has happened to me several times and it irks me greatly! more...

Sears offers cheap pre-installed Freespire Linux PCs.
The mainstreaming of Linux-based PCs has taken another major step forward. Sears, via its Web store, is now offering a low-priced minitower PC that comes with pre-installed Freespire 2.0 Linux. more...

KBarcode prints labels as well as barcodes.
KBarcode does generate the barcodes you would expect from its name, for most people, it is probably far more useful as a label and business card editor. Anyone looking for these functions could easily overlook it because of the name -- and that would be unfortunate because, even with some awkward interface designs, KBarcode still compares favorably to similar programs. more...

Applications.
ColorDiff is a wrapper for for the 'diff' command. It produces the same output as diff, but with colored highlighting to improve readability.
LatencyTOP, a tool for developers to visualize system latencies.
Apache2 Utils Provides some add-on programs useful for any webserver.

Misc.
Take 20 minutes and DO YOUR BACKUPS! more...
Nikon Lens Pen Cleaning System.
CallWithUs.com DID number for Asterisk.
Submit your web site to search engines. more...
Top 50 Linux Quotes of All Time.

How To Tips.

See you next Thursday 7 P.M. at 420 Cafe, 420 Washington Ave, Eau Claire, WI.

EC_LUG