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Android, Schmandroid: Linux on the iPhone

Since its launch, renegade developers have been working to make the iPhone a Linux workstation, porting tools to the device. And why not? It has enough RAM and hard disk space to make the work worthwhile. "My iPhone has 16 GB of disk space, 128 MB of RAM, a 600-plus MHz processor and a much better d...

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

SourceForge’s Larry Augustin: A Better Way to Build Web Apps

Larry Augustin strives for collaboration. Augustin and James Vera launched VA Research in 1993 with the hope of providing a Linux-based operating system for personal computers. After the company bought out its biggest rival -- Linux Hardware Solutions -- the company changed its name to VA Linux Syst...

FSF Approves Affero GPL for SaaS Apps

The Free Software Foundation on Monday published the GNU Affero General Public License version 3, a version of the GNU GPLv3 designed specifically for network-oriented free software. The AGPLv3 is based on version 3 of the GPL but includes an additional terms to allow users who interact with the lic...

GPL v3: Was It Worth the Effort?

The third version of the GNU General Public License version 3, released last summer, is on the slow road to acceptance. The new licensing conditions usher in numerous changes in how open source software developers regulate what users of their freely distributed programming code are legally able and ...

Free Software Licensing, Part 2: Beyond GPL

While the Free Software Foundation's GNU General Public Licenses are used in nearly three-quarters of all free and open source software, GPL-based licenses not the only game in town. There are dozens of free and open source-focused software licenses, and while most aren't used -- or aren't even usef...

Free Software Licensing, Part 1: Third Time’s the Charm?

The free software movement's most important license -- version three of the GNU General Public License was unveiled by the Free Software Foundation late last month. It comes roughly 16 years after its wildly successful predecessor, GPLv2, became one of the most used software licenses ever. Today, ap...

Open Legislation, Part 1: What If Everybody Got to Write Laws?

It's probably safe to say that most Americans, at one time or another, have felt they could do a better job of governing the nation than their elected officials. It may even be safe, in fact, to say that that has never been more true than it is today. "Bush's approval ratings are as low as it's poss...

Microsoft Declares Immunity From GPLv3

Microsoft has issued a statement about its position in regard to the Free Software Foundation's version 3 of the GNU General Public License, which was crafted in part to protect users from possible Microsoft patent infringement lawsuits. Microsoft's stance? The company, in four paragraphs of text, e...

After Months of Wrangling, GPL v3 Unleashed

After an unprecedented development process that brought four drafts in eighteen months, the Free Software Foundation has released the third version of the GNU General Public License, the world's most popular free software license. "Since we founded the free software movement over 23 years ago, the f...

GPL ‘Last Call’ Aims to Make MS-Novell Deal Last of Its Kind

The Free Software Foundation has released the "last call" draft of version 3 of the GNU General Public License. The near-final draft simultaneously paves for the way for the controversial Microsoft-Novell Suse Linux distribution pact while at the same time inhibits similar deals from occurring again...

Sun May Release OpenSolaris Under GPL

Sun Microsystems is considering the possibility of releasing OpenSolaris, the open source version of its Solaris operating system, under the latest version of the GNU GPL, the primary free software license. Up to now, OpenSolaris has been offered only under the Common Development and Distribution Li...

Linux Hackers Skewer GPLv3

Linux creator Linus Torvalds' objections to GPLv3, the Free Software Foundation's draft of the next version of the popular GNU General Public License, have been reinforced by the rest of the open source operating system's top developers. They share Torvalds' concerns over digital rights management, ...

GPLv3 Gets Second Draft

The Free Software Foundation and Software Freedom Law Center released a second working draft for the next iteration of the GNU General Public License (GPL), version 3, which updates digital rights management, patent and other provisions included in the most popular free and open source software lice...

EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

Richard Stallman Sets the Free Software Record Straight

Richard Stallman is a free software pioneer. As president of the Free Software Foundation and founder of the GNU Project, he is also an evangelist of a free society in which people have inaliable rights to run, study, copy and distribute software. As such, Stallman is often grieved when he reads new...

GPL Version 3 Includes Revised Legal Provisions

The Free Software Foundation released what many expected to be a controversial first draft of the GNU General Public License version 3.0 on Monday at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Now it looks as though the draft may not actually be as controversial as some had speculated.

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