Waves. Source: "scope" by noii's on Flickr. License: CC BY-SA 2.0.

Google has released two parts of its Wave protocol under the Apache License version 2.

To kickoff Federation Day, we open sourced two components: 1) the Operational Transform (OT) code and the underlying wave model, and 2) a basic client/server prototype that uses the wave protocol. The OT code is the heart and soul of the collaborative experience in Google Wave and we plan that code will evolve into the production-quality reference implementation. The prototype is intended primarily as a simple “hello, world” implementation, to encourage experimentation using the Google Wave Federation Protocol. All of this code — nearly 40,000 lines of Java code — is available under the Apache 2.0 license, and we’ll be open sourcing more code as wave evolves. Check out the source code and get started with the introductory documentation.

Hopefully Google will make good on their promise to release more code in the future.

• Google Wave Developer Blog
• Ars Technica
• Slashdot

Google has released a server for the NX remote desktop protocol, called Neatx, under a GPL license:

There is a free implementation of an NX server based on NoMachine’s libraries named FreeNX, but this did not appeal to Google.

“FreeNX’s primary target is to replace the one closed component and is written in a mix of several thousand lines of Bash, Expect and C, making FreeNX difficult to maintain,” according to Google.

“Designed from scratch with flexibility and maintainability in mind, Neatx minimizes the number of involved processes and all code is split into several libraries.”

Neatx is written in Python with a time-critical process written in C and some wrappers in bash script.

Good to see Google contributing some code again.

• Neatx’s Google Code page
• TechWorld article

ZeXx86 has created ArenaLive, an MMOFPS that can be accessed from the Web. According to ZeXx86’s Slashdot submission, ArenaLive is based on OpenArena.

Arena Live is a free, open source, Quake-based massive multiplayer, first person shooter.

This work is distributed under the GNU/GPL2 License, which means that you are free to use and modify it for any purpose.

When you are interested in development or you need answer for question around Arena Live, join to IRC channel #arenalive on irc.freenode.net server.

The Slashdot submission says that only GNU+Linux and Firefox are supported right now, but more platforms will be appearing soon. Sounds like an interesting project.

• Arena Live
• Slashdot

Fedora 11 GNOME Desktop. Source: Renegadeviking on Wikipedia. Public Domain.

The Fedora Project has released the latest version of Fedora, version 11 (Leonidas).

Fedora’s hallmarks are technical excellence and innovation. Fedora 11 is packed with tons of new features across the spectrum from casual desktop user to hardcore hacker. Additionally, Fedora 11 offers a very good technical preview of features that may appear in the upcoming version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Fedora 11 showcases a new default filesystem in ext4, a 20 second startup, and the latest GNOME, KDE and XFCE releases. Firefox 3.5 and Thunderbird 3 latest pre-releases are available as well. Fedora 11 features Presto, a yum plugin that reduces bandwidth consumption drastically by downloading only binary differences between updates. It also features Openchange for interoperability with Microsoft Exchange. There are new security enhancements, improved and upgraded development tools, and cutting edge features in areas such as virtualization.

The yum plugin (Presto) sounds like a great idea, especially for very large packages and for dial-up users. I hope this idea shows up in other package managers.

• Fedora 11 Tour
• Release Notes (US English)

HotHardware reports that id Software has released an official free software port of Wolfenstein 3D for the iPhone. The source code for the port can be downloaded from id’s Web site.

Earlier this week id Software released an iPhone port of Wolfenstein 3D as open source, but at the time it wasn’t in the App Store. Wait no longer, it’s there.

Besides having its own website (which you absolutely have to visit, right?), the game that id Software calls “the grandfather of the FPS at your fingertips” is located here in the App Store.

Sorry, you can’t have everything. While the code has been released as open source, the game itself is a relatively high for the App Store $4.99. But come on: it’s Wolfenstein 3D.

While I detest the iPhone, and really wish id would go ahead and release the media for such an old game under a free license as well, it’s good to hear that their port is free software just like the PC version. Hopefully it will be ported to Android and the FreeRunner soon.

Also, when is id Software releasing id Tech 4?

• HotHardware
• Digg

Jaiku Logo. Source: http://jaiku.com/

The Jaikido Blog reports that the JaikuEngine, which was abandoned two months ago, has been released as free software.

Yesterday, we flipped the switch and moved Jaiku to App Engine. Today, we are open sourcing the Jaiku code base under the Apache License 2.0. The code is available as JaikuEngine on Google Code Project Hosting as of now. Anyone can set up and run their own JaikuEngine instance on Google App Engine.

I have to wonder why it took them so long. Were there licensing issues with the code?

• Jaikido Blog
• jaikuengine – Google Code
• Slashdot

Fred Trotter reports that he has been able to set up a meeting with the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology presumably to discuss the use of free software in healthcare.

The best established certification body is CCHIT. They have not been named as the certification body, but they are likely lobbying for that role. However, CCHIT has had an anti-open source stance for years. For years, I and other activists in the community have chosen
to largely ignore this bias. Simply because CCHIT was an optional certification. Now, things have changed. It is possible that the government will mandate a certification program that is either CCHIT or similarly unfriendly to FOSS.

Recently I submitted my complaints to Dennis Wilson (associated with both FOSS Laika and employed by CCHIT) who put me in touch with Mark Leavitt. As a main result of that discussion, Mark has agreed to have a meeting with the community-at-large about this issue at HIMSS (please see the forwarded message from the CCHIT e-newsletter below).

Granted, this is like offering to meet with the Rebel Alliance at the annual Death Star conference. HIMSS is decidedly anti-open source. HIMSS EHR Vendor association continues to limit membership to vendors who “design, develop and market its own proprietary Electronic Health Record (EHR) software application.” Further HIMSS has specially advocated against the US governmenfunding FOSS EHR solutions, which implicitly includes VA development of VistA. There is also great concern about the ties between CCHIT and HIMSS/EHRVA. Leavitt himself was employed by HIMSS immediately before his current position and is currently a fellow of HIMSS. CCHIT maintains that the two organizations are independant, everyone else seems to understand the dangerous familiarity between the two organizations.

I’m hoping that this will lead to a change of heart in the organization. Governments are willing to trust free software. Why not healthcare?

• Fred Trotter
• Slashdot

BBC News reports that the United Kingdom will be using more free alternatives to proprietary software for public services.

Announcing an open source and open standards action plan, the government said it would:

• ensure that the government adopts open standards and uses these to communicate with the citizens and businesses that have adopted open source solutions
• ensure that open source solutions are considered properly and, where they deliver best value for money are selected for government business solutions
• strengthen the skills, experience and capabilities within government and in its suppliers to use open source to greatest advantage
• embed an open source culture of sharing, re-use and collaborative development across government and its suppliers
• ensure that systems integrators and proprietary software suppliers demonstrate the same flexibility and ability to re-use their solutions and products as is inherent in open source.

A smart move by the UK government. Now if only they would stop spying on their citizens and treating them like potential criminals.

• BBC News [Print version]
• Digg

Microsoft presentation to investors. Source: Microsoft

OSNews reports that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer gave a presentation in which he suggested that either he or the company considers GNU+Linux to be a bigger threat than Mac OS X.

[Microsoft] sees piracy as its biggest competitor. “Number two market share goes to Windows pirated, or unlicensed,” Balmer [sic] said, “That’s a competitor that’s tough to beat, they’ve got a good price and a heck of a product, but we’re working on it.” This isn’t exactly new information, but it’s interesting to see it spelled out so clearly.

Much more interesting is Microsoft’s idea of Linux and Apple, According to Microsoft, Linux is a bigger threat to the company than Apple, placing Linux above Apple in the marketshare figure pie chart thing. “Linux, you could see on the slide, and Apple has certainly increased its share somewhat,” Ballmer said.

I have long said that, Apple’s marketing aside, Apple no longer competes with Microsoft in Microsoft’s core markets, at least not in such a way as to endanger Microsoft. Microsoft Office is (sadly) a very popular package on the Mac, even more than Apple’s iWork. And the Intel switch means that a number of Mac users are buying copies of Windows, either for dual-booting or for virtualization. Free software has far more potential to eat into Microsoft’s market share, especially in the long run.

• OSNews
• Digg

Powered by Ubuntu. Source: ghindo on Flickr. License: CC-BY 2.0

Laptopmag.com reports that shipments of preinstalled Ubuntu systems on Dell’s Inspiron Mini netbooks account for a third of all shipments, while the return rates are similar to those systems with Windows XP.

While MSI told us a few months back that Wind netbooks running SuSE Linux saw 4x higher return rates than that of XP machines, Dell has had quite the opposite experience with its Inspiron Mini 9 offering with Ubuntu. “A third of our Mini 9 mix is Linux, which is well above the standard attach rate for other systems that offer Linux. We have done a very good job explaining to folks what Linux is,” says Dell’s Jay Pinkert.

According to Dell, the the return rate of Ubuntu running Mini 9s are comparable to the XP rate, which we are told is “very low.” “Our focus has been making sure that before the order is taken is that the customer knows what he is getting,” New added.

I’m guessing it’s the user interface. Does SuSE have a default user interface or a simplified one?

• Laptopmag.com
• Slashdot