Who Ordered the Linux, Extra DRM?
June 18th, 2008 by Justin Ryan
DRM — digital rights management — isn't something one usually associates with Linux, given the freely available nature of the source code for the vast majority of Linux applications. Apparently someone wants it, though, as Aladdin Knowledge Systems has just announced the latest version of their HASP SRM package, complete with Linux support.
Presumably the target audience for this sort of thing is the hard-line corporate type, the ones like Nokia who want a piece of the Linux pie without walking the Linux path. We're guessing that whatever ends up locked up in Aladdin's cave will have to be pretty attractive to get hard-core Linux users to load anything vaguely resembling the despised digital "protections" anywhere near their free, and squeaky clean, systems.
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Justin Ryan is News Editor for LinuxJournal.com.
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July 2009, #183
News Flash: Linux Kernel 3.0 to include an on-the-go Expresso machine interface! Ok, maybe not, but Linux is definitely going mobile, from phones to e-readers. Find out more inside about Android, the Kindle 2, the Western Digital MyBook II, The Bug, and Indamixx (a portable recording studio). And if you've gone mobile and you been wanting more Emacs in your life then check out Conkeror.
To compliment the mobile we've got the stationary: parsing command line options with getopt, checking your Ruby code with metric_fu, and building a secure Squid proxy. How is this stationary you ask? What can we say? It's not. We just wanted to see if anybody actually read this part of the page :) .
All this and more, and all you have to do is get your hot sweaty hands on the latest copy of Linux Journal.
Justin, I can put your mind
On June 19th, 2008 Jeremy Soref, Sr. Product Manager, Aladdin Knowledge Systems (not verified) says:
Justin, I can put your mind at ease. Most of our customers asking for Linux support are not hard-line corporate types. The vast majority are software publishers who want to offer their customers - primarily small and medium-size businesses - a choice in operating systems. (A survey we conducted a while back indicated that nearly 20% of independent software vendors responding offered Linux applications alongside other operating systems.)
To ensure Linux remains an attractive option, it's critical that there's also a wide range of applications out there that run under operating systems such as Linux. One way of doing this is through open source. Another way is to allow software developers and publishers to profit from their investments in building those applications - particularly high-value business applications running on Linux servers. I think we would both like to see the continued availability of multiple options for operating system platforms. Wouldn't you agree that there's more than one path toward that goal?
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