News

Did Google Miss What Happened To Facebook?

Most anyone who pays attention to Web 2.0 news knows about the privacy face-plant caused by Facebook's Beacon service. However, it looks like the guys at Google may have missed it, given the brouhaha brewing over Google's decision to open the doors to user's Google Reader feeds.

Hello OnStar? OnStar? Are You There?

If you're one of the millions of Americans who have an OnStar equipped vehicle purchased prior to 2002 — or in some cases, as late as 2005 — then come next week, you'll be pushing that little button in vain.

Samba Gets Microsoft Protocols

The Open Source community took a step forward in compatibility last week — and perhaps, towards the eventual downfall of Big Evil — with the announcement that the newly-founded Protocol Freedom Information Foundation has hammered out an agreement to gain access to Microsoft's protocol documentation.

FBI Pays Out $1 Billion For Big Brother

The Federal Bureau of Investigation — in a move that smells more of the Ministry of Love — has announced a $1,000,000,000 plan to build the largest biometric database in the world, and to do it in the next ten years.

EFF Wins One For The Bloggers

The Electronic Frontier Foundation — the web's version of the American Civil Liberties Union — hit the ball out of the park last week in New Jersey, winning a home run victory in the fight to recognize bloggers as legitimate journalists with — gasp — constitutional rights.

Happy Holidays

A special note to say Happy Holidays to all our readers from the News Team here at LinuxJournal.com. Thank you for being with us this year, and best wishes to each of you from all of us. The LinuxJournal.com News Team

Red Hat CEO Stepping Down

Red Hat, Inc. — the company behind the popular Red Hat family of Linux distributions — announced today that President and CEO Matthew Szulik will step down from those roles effective January 1st, 2008.

Is Digg Looking To Get Dugg?

The blogsphere is perpetually atwitter with rumors of buyouts, and today was no different, with reports on several top tech-gossip sites that Digg is looking to sell to everyone from Microsoft to Barry Diller.

SCO President Jumps Ship

The SCO Group — the cast of comedians responsible for the anti-Linux lawsuits against IBM and Novell — has been slowly sinking since 2002, when they filed the first of the infamous lawsuits. The descent sped up when they filed for bankruptcy in September, and now it appears the rats are finally deserting the bilges.

Beleaguered Senator Backs Down

Faced with a full blown filibuster after resorting to procedural trickery to force through a pro-immunity amendment to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was forced to withdraw the controversial measure and allow the Senate to consider both versions after the Christmas holiday.

BusyBox Claims Another Victory

The principal developers of BusyBox — Erik Andersen and Rob Landley — have quickly become famous within the Open Source community for the bevy of lawsuits filed on their behalf by the Software Freedom Law Center. Now they're back in the news with the settlement of another GPL action.

Linux Up 600 On Wall Street

The New York Stock Exchange — the granddaddy of financial markets — has decided to give UNIX the shove and move to Linux, starting with 600 severs tasked with handling the exchange's millions of transactions per minute.

Canonical Opens The Bazaar

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, step right up and see the latest and greatest version control system: Bazaar, brought to you by Canonical. It slices, it dices, it makes julienne fries, and if you use it right, you won't even need a fork!