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FSF to Cisco: It's Time to get Sued!

David Murphy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:30:21 -0600

The Free Software Foundation filed suit in U.S. District Court today, alleging that networking giant Cisco violated FSF copyrights by not giving its users the ability to share and modify the open-source software it uses as the basis for some of its hardware. That's a mouthful, so here's what happened: According FSF, the company found that Cisco was using a GNU-licensed version of Linux to power its firmware. Only, Cisco wasn't giving its customers the full access to the source code that the GNU license specifies as a condition of use!

According to the FSF, the company has been working with Cisco in an attempt to repair these licensing issues since 2003, when the FSF first noticed that Cisco's WRT54G router was running Linux source code, yet offering purchasers no way to access that source code as stipulated in the accompanying GNU license. Cisco allegedly took the ball and ran with it, levying the same treatment for a wide swath of its networking products and accompanying software. That's how things got messy, and why the FSF decided to pursue legal action to protect its copyrights.

"Our licenses are designed to ensure that everyone who uses the software can change it," said Richard Stallman, president and founder of the FSF. "In order to exercise that right, people need the source code, and that's why our licenses require distributors to provide it. We are enforcing our licenses to protect the rights that everyone should have with all software: to use it, share it, and modify it as they see fit."

The complaint, which you can read for yourself, asks the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to enjoin Cisco from distributing the infringing products. FSF also seeks monetary rewards -- all the profits Cisco has made from said devices. That's an open-source nuke, if we've ever heard one! Cisco has yet to respond to the suit as of this article's writing. But if this case goes in the FSF's favor, the idea is that Cisco would have to release all of the code that it's mixed alongside the GNU-bound Linux code. At least, if Cisco intends to keep using code that falls under a GNU license, that's the way it has to work.

Exclusive: Full List of Official Left4Dead Achievements

Norman Chan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:25:32 -0500

We'd slay zombies all day just for the heck of it, but turns out you can earn some sweet rewards for putting down the undead. Steam (and Xbox 360) achievement points, to be exact. Valve Software has hooked us up with the official full list of Left4Dead's 50 game achievements, which can be earned on both the Survivor and Infected side (in Versus mode). Among our favorites in the list? "Zombie Genocidest", which requires that we kill 53,595 common infected zombies, and "101 Cremations", which you earn by setting 101 infected on fire with the molotov cocktail.

Edit: There are actually only 50 achievements, not 52.

Dead Stop    Punch a Hunter as he is pouncing.    10
Drag and Drop    Rescue a Survivor from a Smoker's tongue before he takes damage.    20
Cr0wnd    Kill a Witch with a single headshot.    30
Untouchables    No Survivors take damage after contacting the rescue vehicle.        30
Blind Luck    You or another Survivor take no damage after being vomited on by a Boomer.    20
My Bodyguard    Protect any Survivor from an attacking Infected 50 times.        15
Akimbo Assassin    Survive a campaign firing no guns other than pistols.        30
Field Medic    Heal 25 Survivors with a first aid kit.        20
Pharm-assist    Give pain pills to 10 Survivors.        20
Helping Hand    Revive 50 incapacitated Survivors.        20
Hero Closet    Rescue a Survivor trapped in a closet.        10
Hunter Punter    Shove a Hunter off of a pinned and helpless Survivor.    10
Tongue Twister    Kill a Smoker who has grabbed you with his tongue.    20
No Smoking Section    Kill 10 Smokers as they are pulling helpless Survivors.    15
101 Cremations    Set 101 Infected on fire.        20
Do Not Disturb    Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.    20
Man vs Tank    Single-handedly kill a Tank.    30
Tankbusters    Kill a Tank without it dealing any damage to a Survivor.    20
Safety First    Play through a campaign with no Survivors taking friendly fire damage.        30
No-One Left Behind    Beat a campaign with all 4 Survivors.        20
Unbreakable    Beat a campaign without ever using a first aid kit on yourself.        30
Witch Hunter    Kill a Witch without any Survivor taking damage from her.    20
Red Mist    Kill 1000 Infected with a mounted machine gun.        20
Pyrotechnician    Blow up 20 Infected in a single explosion.        20
Zombie Genocidest    Kill 53,595 Infected.        20
Dead Giveaway    Heal a fellow Survivor when your own health is below 10.        10
Ground Cover    Save another Survivor from a Special Infected while on the ground.        30
Clean Kill    Shove a Boomer and then kill him without him splashing on anyone.    10
Stand Tall    Survive a campaign without being incapacitated.        20
Back 2 Help    Leave a safe room to save an incapped teammate and bring them back safely.        20
Zombicidal Maniac    Survive any campaign on Impossible.        30
What Are You Trying To Prove?    Survive all campaigns on Impossible.        35
Lamb 2 Slaughter    Incapacitate a Survivor after he has entered and exited a safe room.        20
Nothing Special    Survive a campaign with no Survivors taking damage from Specials.        30
Burn the Witch    Light a Witch with a Molotov.    10
Towering Inferno    Light a Tank with a Molotov.    10
Spinal Tap    Kill an Infected with a single blow from behind.        10
Stomach Upset    All Survivors complete a campaign without being vomited on.    20
Brain Salad    Make 100 headshot kills.        15
Jump Shot    Headshot a Hunter while he's leaping.    20
Mercy Killer    Survive the No Mercy campaign.        15
Toll Collector    Survive the Death Toll campaign.        15
Dead Baron    Survive the Dead Air campaign.        15
Grim Reaper    Survive the Blood Harvest campaign.        15
Barf Bagged    Cover four Survivors with Boomer bile at once.    20
Big Drag    Drag a Survivor x distance with your tongue.    20
Chain Smoker    Constrict two Survivors on one life as a Smoker.    20
Double Jump    Pounce two different Survivors on one life as a Hunter.    20
All 4 Dead    Kill all four Survivors on one life as a Tank.    30
Dead Wreckening    Dole out 5000 total Survivor damage as a Special Infected.        20

Will Linux Beat Out Windows in Mobile Internet Device Market?

Chris Moody — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 08:34:17 -0500

Eweek says that Linux will outpace Windows in mobile internet device (MID) market by 2013? Is it any wonder? Netbooks are catching on as a great way to check email and surf the web in out of the way places without having to lug a notebook with you. The netbook credo is cheap, light and small. Mobile internet device market is expected to grow from the expected 305,000 units in 2008, to 39.6 million units in 2012.

MIDs are targeted at cloud computing, which involves checking email, IM, browsing, etc. They do not require Windows to get that done and you don’t need the one thing that Windows brings to the table, which is a large library of software.

Eweek also suggests that another form of MID; smartphones are a market that Linux is going to make inroads into as well. Mobile Linux providers LiMo, Maemo and Moblin are laying out the groundwork now so they can be out front when the market takes off. There are several new phones for LiMo that look really interesting and are sure to shake things up.

In the mobile market things are almost even amongst mobile operating systems. Linux would seem to have an advantage since it is highly flexible, configurable, and has a huge following for developing open source software to expand the usability of these devices.

Will you be picking up an MID for your next gadget, and will it be sporting Linux or maybe you already have one? Fill us in!

Asus' Express Gate, is it a Useless Gimmick or a Glimpse of the Future?

Chris Moody — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 10:59:29 -0500

Over at PCmag.com, they bring up an interesting point about Asus’ new ROM boot chip and "Express Gate"; how it will affect users psychologically. We are not talking about power users, but just regular end users and how they feel about Linux.

For power users, there just isn’t much draw on Express Gate. So it lets you boot into a basic OS with a web browser and Skype in five seconds. Not really a big deal since most power users keep their machines on 24/7, or maybe let them sleep/hibernate. They also may have a dual boot system to a full featured Linux OS as well. This leaves power users scratching their heads asking why. Had Asus decided to make use of this Linux on ROM to provide things like diagnostics, data recovery, BIOS configuration/updating, or hardware systems monitoring, they would have had us at “hello”.

End users on the other hand, are more likely to power their systems on and off. For these folks having the option to boot quickly to use a web browser for a few minutes before rushing off someplace makes sense. More importantly it gets them using Linux without being obvious about it. I am sure Asus likes this idea as it will warm users up to their Eee line using the Linux OS. This could spool up to be a big deal if other manufacturers pick up on the idea and start serving up their own Splashtop Linux ROM chips on their motherboards.

The effect becomes that there will be more users comfortable using Linux and that could eat into Microsoft’s market share. If this takes off, Microsoft has little choice but to make it’s OS capable of going instant on, or creating a super light and cheap version of Windows that can do the same thing (like Windows CE, but better).

Do you think this might take off? Can we expect Microsoft to follow suit and do their own instant on OS?

Ubuntu Box Distro Hits Consumer Electronics Stores For $20, Still Free Online

Chris Moody — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:10:17 -0500

Linux is moving a little bit more to center this week with Ubuntu Hardy Heron 8.04 Linux distros becoming available at bestbuy.com and amazon.com for $20. It includes OpenOffice, FireFox, Evolution email, Rhythmbox media player, and MP3 support. While Wal-Mart has offered Linux based computers at their stores on low end PCs and laptops, this marks a first for boxed Linux Distros at consumer electronics stores like Best Buy.

ValuSoft is packaging the application and it includes printed documentation and 60 days of unlimited customer support.

ValuSoft advertising goes right for the consumer panic button with this line; “You're right in the middle of an important procedure when your computer freezes and crashes, erasing your data and costing you hours of extra work.” We’ll see how well that works on the masses.

Netgear WGR614L Embraces Open Source Firmware

Chris Moody — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:50:11 -0500

Netgear may have found a winner with it’s newly announced WGR614L wireless-G router that provides open source developers with an appliance platform that can be customized. Linksys has been enjoying a certain amount of popularity from the open source community since it released its original Linux based WRT54G router back in 2003. Since then a number of projects to change the firmware on the WRT line have come about like Tomato and OpenWRT. Of course flashing the firmware to anything other than the Linksys designed firmware voids your warranty. Netgear has chosen to embrace this community with their new WGR614L, rather than fight it.

Som Pal Choudhury, senior product manager for wireless at Netgear is quoted as saying:

“The launch of the WGR614L is significant to the open source community as there has been a growing demand for more powerful platforms to support a rapidly growing segment of open source enthusiasts that are seeking to create more robust, commercial-grade applications for their wireless routers.”

“In addition to adding a more powerful processor and additional memory to the proven Broadcom platform, the most popular open source firmware, Tomato and DD-WRT, are available on WGR614L making it easier for users to develop a wide variety of applications. An important feature of our offering is the dedicated and responsive open source community which enables users to easily exchange ideas and troubleshoot issues. New applications currently being developed by this community include traffic shaping applications, redirections to captive portals for hotspots, guest access via a separate SSID, upstream and downstream QOS, and intelligent bandwidth monitoring.”

The WGR614L features a 240 MHz MIPS32® CPU core (overclockable) with 16 KB of instruction cache, 16 KB of data cache, 1 KB of pre-fetch cache, and incorporates 4 MB of flash memory and 16 MB of RAM. It also includes an external 2 dBi antenna and a second internal diversity antenna. On the network side it has a 10/100 Internet WAN port and a four-port 10/100 LAN switch, incorporates an 802.11g access point to support wireless connectivity at speeds of up to 54 Mbps. The WGR614L also supports static and dynamic routing with TCP/IP, VPN pass-through (IPSec, L2TP), NAT, PPTP, PPPoE, DHCP (client and server), and Bigpond. A Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall protects the network from intruders, and the wireless connection is secured with support for 40-, 128- and 152-bit WEP encryption, Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA), WPA2-PSK, and Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). Additional security features include: Exposed Host (DMZ), MAC address authentication, URL content filtering, logs and e-mail alerts of Internet activity. It will list for $69.00

Netgear has also launched myopenrouter.com to form a community around writing firmware for the WGR614L. This is a brilliant move on Netgear’s part. Rather than fight the open source community on fiddling with the firmware, choosing to embrace it will only result in a better product, without Netgear needing to engineer the software. I believe this will prove to be a very popular system for home based routers for enthusiasts who want to be hands on with their hardware, and seek to get the most performance possible.

Open Source Community Blasts Nvidia on Drivers

Chris Moody — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:04:55 -0500

Nvidia has reiterated that it won’t provide open source drivers for Linux. They claim that there is no need for it. It does however provides binary Linux drivers and has open sourced a few drivers.

According to ZDnet Nvidia said in a statement: “NVIDIA supports Linux, as well as the Linux community and has long been praised for the quality of the NVIDIA Linux driver. NVIDIA’s fully featured Linux graphics driver is provided as binary-only because it contains intellectual property NVIDIA wishes to protect, both in hardware and in software,”, which was in response to developers’ direct criticism of hardware vendors that produce just closed source drivers.

This is beginning to sound a bit like the mess Creative had with driver modder Daniel_K. The Creative example shows that companies want to hold on to control of their hardware so they can have more control of when users need to upgrade. This should be practically a non issue in video cards since the technology changes so rapidly. You may change your video card out 2-4 times (or more if you’re a complete fanatic) over the life of an operating system to keep up with the curve. So what’s the beef?

The ZDnet story goes on to stay that Linux developers maintain that closed source drivers are “harmful to end users because it cuts them off from additional support and upgrades they might enjoy from the community”. In an email Nvidia sent to ZDnet’s Paula Rooney, “NVIDIA doesn’t expect Linux kernel developers to debug issues in NVIDIA’s kernel module”.

This has the potential to become a very hairy issue. Consumers can no doubt benefit from modding and open source work on hardware drivers. Companies want to maintain close control over their hardware and their driver code. There are legitimate concerns on both sides. The technology is proprietary to Nvidia, they spent a lot of money building it, so it’s understandable that they want to keep that under wraps. Open Source want to provide better support for the hardware. Enthusiasts want to push the limits. Be wary of sharp flying objects and caveman clubbing action in the debate.

openSUSE 11 Officially Released

Chris Moody — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:52:50 -0500

openSUSE 11 officially premiered yesterday with more than 200 new features specific to openSUSE and a redesigned installer that makes openSUSE even easier to install (and if you've ever installed it before, it was pretty darn easy then).

If you're into bling (and who doesn't like a little bling), there is the 3-D desktop app Compiz Fusion and it is now default in openSUSE 11.0. It includes a number of Compiz plugins, as well as easier configuration with Simple CompizConfig Settings Manager (CCSM) and the more comprehensive CompizConfig Settings Manager that lets you do detailed configuration of your Compiz setup.

Version 11 includes Gnome 2.22 and the KDE 4.0 desktop environments. KDE 4.0 doesn't include KDEPIM applications, so the openSUSE included beta versions of the KDEPIM suite (KMail, KOrganizer, Akregator, etc.) from the KDE 4.1 branch that is in development and slated to be released some time next month.

Firefox is of course the staple of Linux browsers but openSUSE 11 ships with the Firefox 3.0 beta 5 version. Updates will be available via the online update of course. Some other featured programs shipping with openSUSE are, Banshee 1.0, OpenOffice.org 2.4, NetworkManager 0.7, Wine 1.0 RC3, and Kepas for file sharing.

Ars technica calls this release a "very strong release" with many compelling improvements and "offers the best KDE 4 experience out there". They go on to say that it is no Ubuntu-killer, but we can expect to see a larger following for it in the coming months.

I'll be devoting part of my weekend to updating my openSUSE Linux box from v10 to v11. If you'd like to grab a download for your Linux box, it's available here.

Image Credit: openSUSE