Tech Crystal Gazing by The Economist - Ubuntu and Licensing Crackdowns

[IFP.E...@googlemail.com]

Dear All,
Here is a link to The Economist article crystal gazing on Tech 2008
and Ubuntu Linux :
And of course our Mr Ratan Tata has brought out the Nano for Rs 1Lac
to struggle for driving and parking space on Indian urban roads.
Mr Kamal Nath has commented on the right of Indian population / common
man - to be "aspirational" as India becomes a global powerhouse,
fighting off global recession that is striking at the roots of many
Western markets and as global investment / hedge funds seek security
in the sheer size of Indian middle class !!
Regards,
Nagarjuna


http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10410912

quote .. "Even Apple, long a bastion of closed systems, is coming
round to the open idea. Its heavily protected iPhone was hacked within
days of being launched by owners determined to run third-party
software like Skype on it.

Apple's initial response was to attempt a heavy-handed crackdown. But
then a court decision in Germany forced its local carrier to unlock
all iPhones sold there. Good news for iPhone owners everywhere: a
flood of third-party applications is now underway.

The trend toward openness has been given added impetus by the recent
collapse of the legal battles brought by SCO, a software developer.
Formerly known as Santa Cruz Operations, the firm bought the Unix
operating system and core technology in 1995 from Novell (which, in
turn, had bought it from its original developer, AT&T).

Short of cash, SCO initiated a series of lawsuits against companies
developing Linux software, claiming it contained chunks of copyrighted
Unix code. Pressured by worried customers fearing prosecution, a
handful of Linux distributors settled with SCO just to stay in
business.

But IBM, which uses Linux, was having none of it, and fought the firm
through the courts until it won. SCO is now operating under Chapter 11
of the American bankruptcy code.

The verdict removed, once and for all, the burden that had been
inhibiting Linux's broader acceptance. Linux is now accepted as being
Unix-like, but not a Unix-derivative.

Bulletproof distributions of Linux from Red Hat and Novell have long
been used on back-office servers. Since the verdict against SCO, Linux
has swiftly become popular in small businesses and the home.

That's largely the doing of Gutsy Gibbon, the code-name for the Ubuntu
7.10 from Canonical. Along with distributions such as Linspire, Mint,
Xandros, OpenSUSE and gOS, Ubuntu (and its siblings Kubuntu, Edubuntu
and Xubuntu) has smoothed most of Linux's geeky edges while polishing
it for the desktop. "..
unquote