Wednesday, February 16, 2005

Novell , Hula and LinuxWorld The hot news is all from LinuxWorld in Boston this week, and I'm envious of course. Typing away at SUSE Linux Unleashed (and it's starting to look like a summer release), so I can't get away. Just like I couldn't go to the Desktop Summit last week. Oh well, maybe next year. The most exciting news from yesterday (to these eyes at least) was that Novell is launching the Hula Project, an open source (LGPL and Mozilla Public License) mail/collaboration server. It will be (is?) based on the NetMail product already in place. They say they want to focus first on making the best mail client and calendaring app ever, and then expand into godknowswhat, though VoIP keeps coming up. Just sounds pretty cool; and I think it does speak well of Novell's good community citizenship. 4:54:18 PM    comment []

Irresistible License Quote This is a hackneyed blog cliche, but I couldn't resist, really. Downloaded the Yahoo toolbar with the built-in anti-spyware tool a few minutes ago. In hopes of discovering whose spyware tool they're using, I perused the license agreement. In addition to the usual idiotic language, there was this true gem of a paragraph: (iv)  you may not use the Yahoo! Software to operate nuclear facilities, life support, or other mission critical application where human life or property may be at stake. You understand that the Yahoo! Software is not designed for such purposes and that its failure in such cases could lead to death, personal injury, or severe property or environmental damage for which Yahoo! is not responsible. Now I did not realize that it was possible to "operate nuclear facilities" with my Yahoo toolbar, though I suspect I knew that the toolbar "is not designed for such purposes." I definitely want to see the court case that prompted this language, though. ... And no, the license (nor any of the other propaganda on the site) doesn't indicate who's spyware tool they're using. 2:10:02 PM    comment []