HP launches Linux-loaded Eee PC rival.
HP has launched its attempt to grab a little or a lot of the Asus Eee PC's success, two months after the sub-notebook slipped out onto the web. Pitched primarily at schools, the 2133 Mini-Note PC sports an choice of 7in or 9in display, and is available with SuSE Linux pre-installed. more...

Sun and Canonical to bring Ubuntu 8.04 to x86 Servers.
Sun was the first major company to give Ubuntu a shot at making the big server show in May 2006. Then, the deal was all about putting Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support) on the UltraSPARC T1 processor on Sun Fire T1000 and T2000 servers. The 2008 version of the partnership between Sun and Ubuntu's parent company, Canonical, is all about putting the forthcoming UTS version of Ubuntu, 8.04, on Sun's x86 servers. more... and Sun Microsystems' Next Linux Move.

Java SE 1.4 to graft until 2017.
Sun Microsystems is extending the working life of Java Standard Edition 1.4, through a support program to carry the software beyond this summer's official retirement and onto 2017. more...

ISO: Office Open XML ratified as standard.
The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued a press release with the details of a vote that showed Open XML receiving 75 percent approval and 14 percent disapproval. It needed two-thirds approval and not more than 25 percent disapproval to pass. more... and OOXML Formally Approved.

Open Source Licensing: Obsolete or Of Importance?
Once besieged by basic questions ranging from “is it open source?” to “will it make money?,” the open source world is increasingly facing more mature, nuanced questions and assertions. more...

Explaining Open Source's Exponential Growth.
One of the problems with open source is that much of it happens invisibly. Whereas proprietary software, which is sold, has to publicised at some point, open source can simply be written: whether or not it gets used is a question of the author's personal inclinations. more...

Open Source Software Made Developers Cool. Now It Can Make Them Rich.
Last spring, marketer and blogger Hugh MacLeod posted a question on his site: If open source is such a phenomenon, where are all the open source billionaires? His audience wasn't amused. Open source software relies on a community of volunteer developers who tinker on, write for, or amend a program, then give it away free. more...

Record Numbers for Open Source Venture Capital Funding.
The 451 Group is out with a new report on venture capital funding for open source, and the news is rosy. The first quarter of this year brought more venture capital funding for open source than ever before, totaling $203.75 million, up from $100.4 million in the same quarter for 2007. That's more than a double, for year-over-year growth, although the news immediately follows a plunge in VC funding for open source that arrived in the fourth quarter of last year. more... and VC money pours into open-source businesses.

Who Really Creates Linux? A: The Enterprise.
The LF (Linux Foundation) has just released a new report, "Linux Kernel Development: How Fast It is Going, Who is Doing It, What They are Doing, and Who is Sponsoring It." This comprehensive study of the last three years of Linux kernel development, from version 2.6.11 to 2.6.24 releases, reveals that the average Linux developer is being paid by a major corporation to develop Linux. more... and Open Source Will Quietly Take Over.

Why Business Doesn't "get" Desktop Linux.
Why is it that many corporations and small to medium businesses cannot or will not take a step back and look at the competitive advantage and cost savings Linux and Open Source software will give their business? more...

Applications.
Komodo Edit Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Tcl, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, XML editor.
Flourish Player is an embeddable Flash (SWF) audio player for web sites.
Clonezilla allows you to do bare metal backup and recovery.
BOUML is a Unified Modeling Language editor for Qt.
BeeDiff is a graphical file comparator. User have a possibilty to compare a two text files.

Magazine.
Linux Gazette April 2008 (#149).

Misc.
Sun outlines its open source strategy and MySQL integration.
Ohio LinuxFest 2008 Free and Open Source Software Conference and Expo - October 11, 2008.
The Asus Eee PC (Part Three): The Alternative Distros.
Etymology of A Linux Distro.
About the AWN dock for Linux.
Test-driving OpenOffice.org 3.0.
A Look at the upcoming Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron.
VMware Server 2.0 Beta 2.
VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 1 with Unity support.
Inkscape 0.46 released.
Digikam Plans for KDE 4.
Geocaching in Eau Claire.

How To Tips.

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

EC_LUG