OStatic

Stefano Maffulli, the community manager at Funambol's repository/forge portal recently announced the latest Code Sniper challenge.

The Code Sniper Program offers bounties (yes, real bounties, in the form of cash awards) for client and connector code submitted by community members. The chosen application and code is opened and given back to the community. There are a number of projects on the hit list, and the latest target was named yesterday.

Earlier this year I wrote about the Chumby internet appliance/open source alarm clock. Though Chumbys have been available in the US for a little over a year now, Chumby Industries hasn't been able to officially sell these products internationally.

Chumby Industries intended all along to open sales outside the US, but electronics standards (and approval procedures) vary from country to country, and it's been time consuming. Some international users turned to friends in the States or third party shippers, but now, at least in a few countries, this is no longer necessary. Chumby is available at select retailers in Japan, and a Japanese language Chumby portal was launched last month.

Though the majority of companies have policies pertaining to responding to speculation, sometimes it just gets to a point they have to. For instance, say a rumor makes the rounds (with at least some supporting evidence) that Google has something up its sleeve that might possibly have to do with an operating system. Google can keep mum for a while, but it obviously has to be formally addressed, sooner or later.

It's unclear whether Google originally intended on announcing its Native Code Project last night, or if it hoped it could squeak out some more prep time before anyone noticed something was afoot. Either way, Google has unveiled Native Client, a technology that Google says will give web developers the full power of the client's CPU while maintaining browser safety, complete portability, and safety. And yes, it is open source.

Not long ago the Moonlight development team announced that the Linux Silverlight adaptation was drawing ever nearer to the 1.0 release. On December 1st, the Moonlight 1.0 beta version was released.

The Moonlight beta installs easily, and works quite well (though some sites respond better than others, this seems to hold true with Silverlight in a native Windows environment as well). The few hiccups I encountered during installation had more to do with network congestion and user error than the application itself.

In October, I wrote about Camp KDE. This event was planned to complement Akademy, the traditional developer gathering for the KDE team, giving those unable to attend the former event (and specifically developers in the Americas) a better opportunity to gather and discuss projects.

Late last week, the Camp KDE 2009 presentation selections were announced. In addition to the presentations, the meeting will feature the traditional keynote addresses and birds-of-feather meetings.

Sometimes porting a bit of code to another platform or piece of hardware isn't about the ported code delivering new features to the device. Sure, sometimes it's about opening the device to a specific application, and sometimes it's just about opening the device up to a new development approach. Sometimes the idea is to push the code (and the device) further, to learn -- because you can.

Sometimes these ports don't get all that far. Four years ago I managed to get Linux running on an iPAQ through online tutorials. I've long since sold the hardware, and running Linux meant a command line, and a basic X windows environment. Functional? Not really. Fun? Wouldn't have done it otherwise.

More recently, the 2.6 Linux kernel has been ported, and is running with some basic functionality on the iPhone. The Linux on the iPhone Project says that while this port is a first draft missing many drivers, the kernel boots on first and second generation iPhones and first generation iPod Touches.

VIA Technologies announced that it's moving forward with its commitment to open source software by collaborating with the openChrome Project to improve support for VIA integrated graphics chipsets.

VIA and openChrome have been focusing on multi-head support and improving the implementation of the RandR (resize and rotate) extension. The VIA framebuffer driver source has been checked into the 2.6.28 mainline kernel. Perhaps most significantly, VIA has opened the documentation for the VIA CX700M and VX800 chipsets.

Last month I wrote about the EVO Linux-based gaming console. The term gaming console seemed a bit misleading to me at the time -- it is ultimately where parent company Envizions Computer Entertainment would like the EVO to be -- but it is an early adopter system in the truest sense of the phrase.

The EVO Smart Console was originally scheduled for release on November 18th. It seems the FCC approval and testing process is taking longer than planned. Envizions expects the consoles to ship in the next two weeks. There are also two versions (in four configurations) available. Two versions? You guessed it -- Linux and Windows.

The Ubuntu project says that the initial alpha release of Ubuntu 9.04 (the Jaunty Jackalope ) could be available for testing in less than twenty-four hours. Yes, that's a little less than a month after the current, stable version, Intrepid Ibex was finalized and formally released.

Ubuntu 9.04 is gearing for an April 2009 release (in keeping with the project's six month development cycle). Phoronix reports that one focus is faster boot times through kernel optimization. This release will also be the first Ubuntu version to support ARM processors.

The GNOME Foundation executive director, Stormy Peters, recently wrote a bit about why the focus on the KDE versus GNOME debate is not the real issue. Many commenters on her post agree (while others actively demonstrate) that it is counterproductive.

Peters says the driving force behind both projects is what matters -- and that is to offer choices between free and proprietary desktop environments. The notion that one desktop environment will ever exist that suits every user is likely a myth. Peters proposes that the goal is to build ever stronger free alternatives, and if the projects compete, it is more along the lines of teammates competing for a Most Valuable Player title. She highlights that getting developers from different projects to talk is one of the driving reasons behind GUADEC and Akademy being held simultaneously this year, in the same location, and why they are hosted by the same organizers.