Let’s just surf around the computer world for a bit and see what we can find, shall we?
Item One: Suse has settled the lawsuit that stopped that distribution dead in its tracks last week. Apparently, the suit arose over a program that, according to Suse, was no longer included in its distribution. An odd note about German law cropped up, though. Apparently, trademark suits can be filed by any attorney, whether or not they have an interest in the case or represent the plaintiff. How wild would the US court system be if that were the case here?
Item Two: Jacques Le Marois, president of MandrakeSoft, apparently has a problem with a recent report giving Linux a less than rosy future in the enterprise. According to Le Marois, even companies that don’t officially report using the OS are using it for many of their systems.
Item Three: A frightening note in my email box in the past week:
Also, we feel obligated to disclose to you that we were compelled to disclose your email address to Microsoft during the discovery process as well as the content of many of your messages sent to us. We were not happy about doing this, but we had little choice. We have received assurances from Microsoft that they will not use or disclose your address for any purpose beyond this case.
This from Michael Robertson, CEO of Lindows. This kind of stuff happens when you stick your head too far out of the ground before you even have a product, Mr. Robertson. Maybe it’s about time you either delivered a product or quit banging your drum for VC dollars and publicity. For our sake. Please.
Item Four: Georgia Tech has apparently designed a program to detect cheating in the homework of computer sciences students. The software caught 186 “possible violations” of the school’s plagirization rules from a fall course on object oriented programming.
And, finally – a humorous note. TechTV’s Megan Morrone, apparently the current resident Penguin on The Screensavers, absolutely slew me on last night’s show with her feature “The Top Five Ways The Screensavers Influenced The Star Wars Universe.” Leo LaPorte in Kiss makeup — how funny. But the real question is, “Ace, Paul, Gene, or Peter?”
Tony
Steidler-Dennison
