The USC Aiken Open Source Project

Linux, Open Source Greener than Windows

There's a great article over at SearchOpenSource.Com about a recently released U.K. Office of Government Commerce report that found that computers using Linux and other opensource applications last considerably longer than do machines with Windows OS and applications.

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E-waste or electronic waste is a growing concern for governments around the world as huge volumes of scrap computer waste and toxic chemics used in the manufacture of computers accumulates in dumps.

The hardware requirements of Microsoft's new Vista operating system will force most consumers to buy new computers and is expected to contribute greatly to the e-waste problem. With Linux and open source, consumers can easily realize several more years of useful life out of their current PC.

University of Nebraska Phasing Microsoft Out

Go Cornhuskers!

A short article at Linux.Com discusses reasons why IT management staff there decided to abandon Microsoft server and database technologies in favor of opens ource solutions.

Mainly, it appears that Microsoft was inattentive to the special requirements of a University computing environment.

Paint Dot Net - Photoshop Replacement

I made a neat discovery over the holidays. It's the free open source graphics program Paint Dot Net.

This package only runs on the Windows platform.

It's got a great looking interface, a bit slicker than my old graphics friend the Gimp. Both programs deserve a place on any Windows hard drive.

You could spend hundreds and hundreds on Adobe Photoshop. Or you could get Paint Dot Net for free here.

BlackBoard's Patent Challenged

From Newsforge.Net we learned last week that the Software Freedom Law Center has filed a court case challenging a 2006 patent awarded to Blackboard, Inc., a web based course management software (CMS) development company.

Blackboard is the course management system utilized systemwide by USC including USCA.

In July Blackboard used the patent as the basis of a patent infringement law suit it brought against a rival CMS developer, Desire2Learn.Com.

Several competing open source CMS projects are indirectly threatened by the patent case. That's why the SFLC has gotten involved. According to Eben Moglen, Executive Director of SFLC and Professor of Law and Legal History at Columbia University, "In a free society, there is no room for a monopoly on any part of the educational process."

National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation Science Friday Program addressed the issue of the damaged caused to scientific research caused by frivolous patents in a piece titled "Can Patents Prevent Scientific Progress?". You can listen online to this short program by pointing your web browser here.

For more information about the Blackboard patent case and other proprietary and open source CMS software projects, see the Blackboard Inc. entry at Wikipedia.