There has been a lot of debate about the role open source will play in the cloud.

The GNU project developed some of the 21st century’s most important software. The GNU Compiler Collection is used on Linux systems, BSD/OSX systems, and on Windows. GNAT has, for the most part, replaced any other Ada compiler ever created. The list could go on, but you get the idea. The sad thing about GNU is that it is so ideologically bent that I can no longer support it.

Here’s href="http://www.itnews.com.au/News/221051,oracle-shuts-down-open-source-test-servers.aspx">a
report on iTnews saying that Oracle has abruptly shut down a set of
servers used to perform quality assurance on PostgreSQL releases.
“Sun Microsystems – and for a short time its new owner Oracle – had
provided three member servers to ensure PostgreSQL was stable on the
Solaris operating system. The development of PostgreSQL had been supported
by Sun – which contributed DTrace support, amongst other features to the
database platform. At the start of July, Oracle shut down its three
PostgreSQL build farm servers without warning, leaving the PostgreSQL
community rushing to find replacements.”

Jabir is an application that implements a Point Of
Sale for bars, restaurants, pizzerias, and similar
establishments. It includes both a Swing-based
interface and a Web-based interface.

Changes: The db path was reviewed to support Windows Vista/7. Some important bugs were fixed.

Tags: Office/Business, Financial, Point-Of-Sale

Licenses: Other

From the Owning What’s Yours dept.:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation drove three deep wedges into the US prohibition on breaking DRM today. EFF had applied to the Copyright Office to grant exemptions permitting the cracking of DRM in three cases: first, to “jailbreak” a mobile device, such as an iPhone, where DRM is used to prevent phone owners from running software of their own choosing; second, to allow video remix artists to break the DRM on DVDs in order to take short excerpts for mashups posted to YouTube and other sharing sites; finally EFF got the Copyright Office to renew its ruling that made it illegal to unlock cellphones so that they can be used with any carrier.

SchilliX is an OpenSolaris-based live CD and
distribution that is intended to help people
discover OpenSolaris. When installed on a hard
drive, it also allows developers to develop and
compile code in a pure OpenSolaris environment.
SchilliX tries to be as Sun Solaris compatible as
possible and to be the optimum development platform for Solaris and OpenSolaris.

Changes: This release was updated to OpenSolaris Nevada Build 130. The schily tools (like star and cdrtools) have been updated to recent versions. The history editor in the Bourne shell now supports multi-byte locales.

Tags: Software Development, Operating Systems

Licenses: CDDL

Cego implements a relational and transactional
database system with support for the SQL query
language. The current release contains the most
common database features for basic table
manipulation and data retrieval. Indexes, foreign
keys, views, and stored procedures are also
implemented. Future releases (2.0 and above) will
support a multi-node database concept with log
file shipping for an automatic database
application failover.

Changes: Fixes were made for check constraints. An admin extension was added to set up a log manager via the command line.

Tags: Database, Front-Ends, Database Engines/Servers

Licenses: GPL

One of the best references for Linux and UNIX system administrators over the years has been the “Handbooks” (either Linux Administration Handbook (LAH) or UNIX System Administration Handbook (USAH) at various points). But the last edition was published in 2000 (as USAH), and included information on then-current Red Hat Linux 6.2 and FreeBSD 3.4. A new, updated version, UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, Fourth Edition (ULSAH), is due out any day now, and the principal authors, Evi Nemeth, Garth Snyder, Trent R. Hein, and Ben Whaley, agreed to answer some questions for LWN readers. Below are their answers on the book, the impact of Linux, the future for UNIX and Linux, and more.

FB4Linux is an Eclipse plugin that provides Flash development capabilities in Linux. Getting it installed can be tricky though, as there are a few undocumented steps you’ll have to complete. This article takes a look at how FB4Linux can be installed in Eclipse 3.5.2.

From the Buy Once, Get Reamed Everywhere dept.:
Mom-and-pop repair shops in Massachusetts are pushing a bill that would require auto manufacturers to provide, at a price, all the diagnostic and software information they make available to their dealerships.

Massachusetts would become the first state to approve the so-called auto right-to-repair law. The Senate recently passed it, and it’s pending in the House. Industry observers say passage of the bill in Massachusetts could drive similar legislative efforts in other states.