2005 Linux and free software timeline: November

[Posted December 20, 2005 by corbet]

Desktop Linux is a tough nut to crack. The desktop is like teenage sex. Everybody's talking about it, but nobody's doing it.

--Matthew Szulik

OpenBSD 3.8 is released (announcement).

[Nexenta] Nexenta Debian/GNU/Solaris launches (announcement).

Forgent steps up its JPEG patent suits (press release).

Novell lays off 600 employees, including free software developers (press release).

Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?

--SonyBMG manager Thomas Hesse

Nexenta and Debian developers clash on licensing issues (article).

The Open Invention Network launches as a means to acquire and enforce patents for the free software community (press release).

The Lupper worm, which affects Linux systems, hits the net; it uses the long-fixed XML-RPC vulnerability (article).

FreeBSD 6.0 is released (announcement).

NetBSD 2.1 is released (announcement).

Famous last words, but the actual patch volume _has_ to drop off one day. In fact there doesn't seem to much happening out there wrt 2.6.15.

--Andrew Morton

It's hard to go through in any great detail, because even the shortlog is actually almost five thousand lines and about 200kB in size, and would thus run afoul of the mailing list limits so I can't include it here... The unidiff is about a million lines in size, just the diffstat is 300+kB.

--Linus Torvalds releases 2.6.15-rc1

The GNOME Foundation board is reduced to seven members as the result of a referendum (results).

Efforts to derail the Massachusetts OpenDocument initiative continue (Groklaw).

SonyBMG releases a software update to remove its DRM rootkit but the cure turns out to be worse than the disease (Felten).

The Linux Standard Base becomes an ISO standard (press release).

The Linux Phone Standards Forum launches (press release).

Researcher Dan Kaminsky finds evidence of 500,000 systems infected by SonyBMG's rootkit (Wired).

After more than five years of trying, the recording industry has not yet demonstrated a workable DRM scheme for music CDs. Gartner believes that it will never achieve this goal as long as CDs must be playable by stand-alone CD players. The industry may now refocus its attention on seeking legislation requiring the PC industry to include DRM technology in its products.

--The Gartner Group

The Public Patent Foundation challenges Forgent's JPEG patent (press release).

The EFF launches a class-action suit against SonyBMG (press release). Texas sues as well.

The FSF announces that the first GPLv3 draft will come in January, 2006 (press release).

KDE 3.5 is released (announcement).

Microsoft proposes its Office file formats for ECMA/ISO standard status.

Firefox 1.5 is released (announcement).

Escaping the Java Trap published, showing how free Java is nearly ready - and how to fix the parts that aren't (escape).

Computer Associates spins off Ingres into an independent corporation (press release).

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