OStatic

Gentoo Linux has had a rough time of it the last few years. James Bellenger has briefly detailed the migration from Gentoo, and some reasons why it is occurring. He wonders where all the Gentoo users are going.

Matt Asay at CNET suspects Ubuntu's rising star is responsible for the exodus rather than Gentoo's lack of strong leadership.

Having used both distributions extensively, and strongly preferring one, I agree with Asay when he says that given Ubuntu's popularity, Gentoo's stats seem far less impressive. That could be said about thriving distributions when compared to Ubuntu.

The Linux Plumbers Conference may have ended last Friday, but the discussions -- and one discussion in particular -- will be analyzed, deconstructed, and argued for quite a bit longer.

Greg Kroah-Hartman's assertion is that Canonical doesn't contribute significantly to kernel development and the packages that make up the core of a Linux system. Canonical CTO Matt Zimmerman responded to this assertion. It seems at that point, much of the community, developers and users alike, took to examining their particular parts of the open source elephant.

Herein lies the problem.

This week, Canonical opened sales of legal multimedia codecs and DVD playback software to all Ubuntu users, regardless of whether the distribution was pre-installed on a purchased system or downloaded gratis from an Ubuntu mirror.

Fluendo handles the bulk of the codecs using the GStreamer framework. CyberLink offers DVD playback through a Linux version of its PowerDVD software.

It feels the most positive word that can be applied to this announcement is bittersweet. There are many more colorfully negative words that are applicable, as well.

Are open source violations lurking in your code?.....

Who runs Ubuntu? The list keeps growing.....

12 mthys about free and open source software.....

Microsoft claims it's reaching out to open source.....

Mark Shuttleworth, the man at the helm of Canonical and Ubuntu, went into greater detail last week about his thoughts on making future Ubuntu releases more user-focused. In the past, Shuttleworth has made no pretense that he feels Apple has, historically, offered a superior user experience.

Shuttleworth's comments have elicited striking reactions, ranging from enthusiastic support to concern about what innovation really means.

Anxious to go to the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Mountain View, CA this December but lack the funds to get there? Canonical is accepting requests for sponsorship and a lucky few will receive travel, entrance, and accommodations at no cost. It's not a free ride, though. Event organizers will definitely put the winners to work.

Red Hat acquires Qumranet, an open source virtualization company.....

Dell has an Ubuntu based netbook in the works.....

Ubuntu Linux now tops 8 million users.....

A new model: Open source software after it's acquired.....

Mozilla's Mitchell Baker on Firefox and Chrome.....