Linux/Open Source

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Nokia has started deliveries of its new top-of-the-range model N900, a key product for the world's top phone maker in its battle against rivals iPhone and Blackberry.

Mozilla's success had demonstrated open source's potential. Pay attention, Microsoft.

Mozilla's Firefox Web browser turned five years old today, and as I took it for a celebratory spin (I'm a recent Chrome convert), it was easy to notice how similar all the major browsers have become in terms of basic functionality.

On its fifth birthday, Firefox must be considered both an incredible success and somewhat of a failure. The open source Web browser is a great product and quite an achievement, but has not tremendously advanced the cause of "free" software.

On November 9, 2004, Mozilla's Firefox 1.0 debuted and quickly became a serious contender in the ongoing browser wars. At the time, Microsoft's Internet Explorer dominated the market with a 99 percent market share. Five years later, Internet Explorer still reigns at 65 percent, but Firefox comes in second with an impressive 23 percent.

Firefox celebrated a milestone birthday Monday. Five years ago today, Mozilla shipped version 1.0 of the open-source browser.

WarMouse, in collaboration with the OpenOffice.org community, revealed on Friday a new open-source mouse developed specifically for users of the OpenOffice suite.

WarMouse, in collaboration with the OpenOffice.org community, revealed on Friday a new open-source mouse developed specifically for users of the OpenOffice suite.

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - A Motorola Droid smart phone goes on sale Friday, joining the growing ranks of smart phones on the open-source operating system backed by Google.

Google has decided to release as open source several of its key application development tools, hoping that they will prove useful for external programmers to build faster Web applications.

San Francisco - The Apache Software Foundation for open source projects is readying an upgrade to its Tomcat Java servlet container, eyeing improvements in areas such as scalability and security, Apache personnel said on Wednesday afternoon.

San Francisco - Likening its organizational plan to a museum featuring different galleries of interest, the Microsoft-backed CodePlex Foundation for open source projects this week is talking up its project submission guidelines, which were released last week.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled its first Android phone, which could represent a new level in multimedia for Google's open-source platform. The catch: The phone won't be out until the first quarter of next year. The company said the phone, called the Xperia X10, introduces a new user experience platform "where communication truly becomes entertainment," and it is part of its "make.believe philosophy" to push new boundaries.

There are only three days until Verizon joins the Android invasion. T-Mobile was first to embrace the open source Google operating system, but with the addition of Sprint, and now Verizon, Android is mounting a quiet revolution that could see it squash the iPhone OS and rise to a dominant position among mobile operating systems.

San Francisco - Yahoo is debuting on Monday an open source version of its Traffic Server software, which serves as a high-performance application server for cloud computing services.

A milestone on the road to Firefox 3.6 was achieved late last week when Mozilla released the first beta of the browser. Downloaded versions will be automatically upgraded as changes are made until the final release of the browser is reached.

After promises of an early release, a "test build" teaser, and then an unexpected delay, Firefox 3.6 beta is finally available for download. You can grab a copy for the PC, Mac and Linux on the Mozilla Web site.

Why do so many people want to dress up as an iPhone for Halloween? Can't nerds dress up as something normal like Steve Jobs or the Linux Penguin? In recent years more and more Halloween party goers are choosing to dress up like an iPhone.

Mozilla on Friday issued its support for the Federal Communications Commission's proposed net neutrality rules, but a House Republican this week introduced a bill that would block the commission's efforts.

Canonical on Thursday updated its Linux distribution for netbooks, simplifying the interface and adding new programs that the company says will make it easier for users to access and use Web content.

An Éclair in your cell phone. That's Google's vision of the future for its Android open-source operating system, with its announcement Tuesday of a software development kit for the new Android 2.0, whose code name is Éclair.

San Francisco - Microsoft will unveil on Wednesday several open source initiatives to boost interoperability between Microsoft technologies, such as Windows 7, Windows Azure, and Silverlight, and open source technologies, including the Eclipse tools platform and Java.

Now that Windows 7 is out the door, Canonical -- the distributor of rival Linux-based operating system Ubuntu -- is eager to engage in "real head-to-head competition" with Microsoft, according to Ubuntu founder and CEO Mark Shuttleworth.

Jim Lynch makes the case for sampling Linux on virtual machines.

Qualcomm has built a new subsidiary to better integrate its products with mobile open-source software, in hopes of capitalizing on the trend toward open platforms in the mobile industry.

Essential OS fixes are big this month. And fans of free software need to up­­date their Firefox and OpenOffice copies.

An effort to manage the frustrating onslaught of e-mail messages that threatens to bury users is the driving force behind the Mozilla Labs Raindrop project, introduced this week. "We're hoping to give users the ability to see the important messages out of the messages that are sent to them," said Rafael Ebron, director of marketing for Mozilla Messaging.

Mozilla has launched a software project designed to let people better manage the ever more voluminous stream of messages coming from sources such as Twitter and Facebook into their e-mail.

Canonical on Thursday made available the Release Candidate of its latest Linux-based operating system, Ubuntu 9.10, on the same day Microsoft launched the long-awaited Windows 7.