May 17, 2007

Ubuntu Update

I am going to try again tonight to download the alternate desktop CD for Ubuntu.  The responses I had received in the Ubuntu Forums all seemed to agree that my download was bad.  Further it seems that many folks had better luck downloading and installing from the alternate instead of the LiveCD.  One really good tip I did get from the CyberNet Forums was to burn the ISO no faster than 4X.  Also need to say thanks to PDecker for recommending the FREE CDBurnerXP Pro for burning the ISO to CD-R.  If all goes well, I hope to have Ubuntu…

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Follow-up MS Free Software Violates Patents

Earlier today I posted Microsoft: Free Software Violates Patents!. Todd Bishop has a lengthy article on his blog today about this topic. However the article is more about the Free Software Foundation and it’s draft of the General Public License Version 3 (GPL, the license under which many open-source programs are distributed). Eben Moglen is the legal counsel to the Free Software Foundation and had this to say: The recent “saber-rattling” further illustrated the importance of protecting against Microsoft’s attempts “to disrupt free software production through the inculcation of a large inventory of most-likely invalid patents.” There also appear to…

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Fx 2.0.0.4 RC3 Available For Testing

If you are interested in testing or just seeing what the new Fx 2.0.0.4 is all about, you can download the RC3 build via the Mozilla FTP server . It is important to keep in mind this may or may not be the final release. The developers have already had to “re-spin” the RC builds twice now because of new bugs that have been discovered during testing. News Source: mozillaZine

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Microsoft: Free Software Violates Patents!

Microsoft must be losing lots of money to free software such as Linux and OpenOffice.org, as they are now whining that “Free Software Violates 235 Patents”: The Linux kernel – the deepest layer of the free operating system, which interacts most directly with the computer hardware – violates 42 Microsoft patents. The Linux graphical user interfaces – essentially, the way design elements like menus and toolbars are set up – run afoul of another 65, he claims. The Open Office suite of programs, which is analogous to Microsoft Office, infringes 45 more. E-mail programs infringe 15, while other assorted FOSS…

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FastStone Capture No Longer Free

Back in January I raved about the then FastStone Capture.  Earlier this week FastStone Capture version 5.4 was released and much to my disappointment has become shareware.  You get a free 30-day trial then you have shell out $30 to get the “real” (usable) version.  Now granted version 5.3 may not have all the new features (not they are any exciting much less worth paying for) or be bug fee (not that I have had any issues with bugs) but it was freeware. Now, there a couple options available if you do not want to do that Shareware version.  First…

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