Tech crystal gazing by The Economist - Ubuntu and License Crackdowns

2008-01-11T07:36:00.000-08:00

Dear All,
Here is a link to The Economist article crystal gazing on Tech 2008 and Ubuntu Linux :
And of course our Mr Ratan Tata has brought out the Nano for Rs 1Lac to struggle for driving and parking space on Indian urban roads.
Mr Kamal Nath has commented on the right of Indian population / common man - to be "aspirational" as India becomes a global powerhouse, fighting off global recession that is striking at the roots of many Western markets and as global investment / hedge funds seek security in the sheer size of Indian middle class !!
Regards,
Nagarjuna

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10410912

quote .. "Even Apple, long a bastion of closed systems, is coming round to the open idea. Its heavily protected iPhone was hacked within days of being launched by owners determined to run third-party software like Skype on it.

Apple's initial response was to attempt a heavy-handed crackdown. But then a court decision in Germany forced its local carrier to unlock all iPhones sold there. Good news for iPhone owners everywhere: a flood of third-party applications is now underway.

The trend toward openness has been given added impetus by the recent collapse of the legal battles brought by SCO, a software developer. Formerly known as Santa Cruz Operations, the firm bought the Unix operating system and core technology in 1995 from Novell (which, in turn, had bought it from its original developer, AT&T).

Short of cash, SCO initiated a series of lawsuits against companies developing Linux software, claiming it contained chunks of copyrighted Unix code. Pressured by worried customers fearing prosecution, a handful of Linux distributors settled with SCO just to stay in business.

But IBM, which uses Linux, was having none of it, and fought the firm through the courts until it won. SCO is now operating under Chapter 11 of the American bankruptcy code.

The verdict removed, once and for all, the burden that had been inhibiting Linux's broader acceptance. Linux is now accepted as being Unix-like, but not a Unix-derivative.

Bulletproof distributions of Linux from Red Hat and Novell have long been used on back-office servers. Since the verdict against SCO, Linux has swiftly become popular in small businesses and the home.

That's largely the doing of Gutsy Gibbon, the code-name for the Ubuntu 7.10 from Canonical. Along with distributions such as Linspire, Mint, Xandros, OpenSUSE and gOS, Ubuntu (and its siblings Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Xubuntu) has smoothed most of Linux's geeky edges while polishing it for the desktop. "..
unquote

osKanpur - Learn One Teach One - Share Ubuntu Linux Knowledge

2008-01-03T03:30:00.000-08:00

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Tech crystal gazing by The Economist - Ubuntu and License Crackdowns

osKanpur - Learn One Teach One - Share Ubuntu Linux Knowledge