OStatic

The Software Freedom Law Center and Red Hat's CEO rag on the patent system. Nobody can write software without risking a lawsuit.

Ingres goes after Sun's customers. The company is promoting a migration path from the MySQL database.

Apple's iPhone now has one-third the market share of desktop Linux. NetApplications measured how much Linux and the iPhone are used to access the Internet.

FOSS sexism claims stir up the pot. Bruce Byfield's recent article on the topic has people talking.

ARMing desktop Linux. ARM-based netbooks are on their way and they can't run Windows.

This week, the news arrived that Dell is putting ARM processors alongside Intel Core Duo chips in high-end Windows-based laptops that can boot Linux for instant-on application usage. The company's Latitude Z notebooks run Windows on a Core Duo Intel processor, but will let you jump in and out of simple applications and browsers for on-the-fly tasks when you don't want to wait for Windows to boot.

The concept isn't new. The idea of instant-on computers has been around for more than 15 years, but Windows computers have mostly been diametrically opposed to the concept. We have written about DeviceVM's Linux-based SplashTop instant-on software a number of times, and I've used it. It's excellent for when you want to check on a quick bit of information without loading a bloated operating system. Still, who wins if this idea takes off on a widespread basis in portable computers?

Fedora 11 is now available. It features ext4, the latest GNOME, KDE and XFCE releases, and Microsoft Exchange compatibility.

Mozilla to deliver a preview of Firefox 3.5 today. It will arrive in advance of the official Release Candidate 1.

Novell is considering an open source app store. It's a new way of marketing open source, officials say.

KDE On Windows continues. There are rumors that KDE isn't moving forward on the Windows platform--not true.

Seen: Linux notebooks with ARM CPUs. Freescale and Qualcomm have coined the term smartbook for them.

After 5 months of work, there's a new version of the Amarok music app. The playlist can now be customized to only show the information you care about, matching the way you use Amarok.

Unix turns 40: The past, present and future of a revolutionary OS. The future of the operating system is clouded, but its legacy will endure.

Intel buys Wind River: the end of the Wintel duopoly? Wind River is a leader in embedded devices, and will become part of Intel's strategy to grow its presence outside the traditional PC.

ARM: Android needs more work before it will sing on netbooks. Moblin and Windows Embedded CE may be in ARM's future, executive says.

U.K. considers emulating data.gov. The government is considering launching an open source data website, similar to the data.gov site launched by the U.S. government in May.

I was never one for cryptozoological taxidermic creations -- you won't find mermonkeys or crocoducks on display in my home. I have, however, for the last few weeks, been hiding a jackalope in my laptop bag. He was an experimental little guy, but the folks at Canonical and the vast community behind Ubuntu have completed the necessary gene splicing and DNA alterations and soon -- very soon -- the final, stable release of Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope) will be let loose into the wild.

What's new this time around? How does it all work? And for the wilder types, where locally can you attend a Jaunty Jackalope release party?

On Monday, Freescale Semiconductor announced its further plans to forge ahead into the netbook market. Freescale, a major manufacturer of embedded semiconductors, entered the netbook arena in January with its i.MX515 chip and a comprehensive netbook reference design featuring the new-to-ARM Ubuntu Linux platform.

Ubuntu isn't the only open source option for Freescale, however. The company has announced it will also support the Android platform, Xandros Linux, and HyperSpace, an instant-on Linux-based environment.

Canonical has announced that because of increased demand from hardware manufacturers, it will begin supporting ARMv7 processors (used in many smaller and system-on-a-chip (SoC) devices) with an optimized, commercially supported, full version of the Ubuntu desktop.