Archive for the ‘Free Software’ Category
Internet freedom groups urge W3C to keep DRM out of HTML
A coalition of organizations led by the Free Software Foundation has petitioned the Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions (EME), a proposed expansion of the HTML spec that would create a standard digital rights management (DRM) mechanism for the web.
In an open letter addressed to W3C director Tim Berners-Lee, dated April 24, the groups described the EME proposal as "disastrous," saying that the very idea of adding DRM to the web flies in the face of core W3C principles.
"Ratifying EME would be an abdication of responsibility; it would harm interoperability, enshrine nonfree software in W3C standards and perpetuate oppressive business models," the letter states.
The EME proposal is largely the work of giant online companies that have big stakes in streaming media. Its three co-editors hail from Google, Microsoft, and Netflix, respectively.
"These companies have been promoting DRM both for their own reasons and as part of their close relationships to major media companies," the FSF's letter claims.
It's hard to argue that's not the case. Earlier this month, Netflix said that it was planning to move away from its current Silverlight-based streaming technology to one based solely on web standards, but that it would only do so once EME and other DRM-related proposals were ratified by the W3C.
Speaking at the Linux Collaboration Summit in San Francisco earlier this month, Netflix cloud architect Adrian Cockroft told the audience that the company wasn't interested in developing a version of its service that could work without digital content restrictions.
"Right now what we're basically doing is giving billions of dollars to Hollywood to buy the content, so that they can afford to build more content," Cockroft said. "That's basically the business we're in."
But according to the FSF and its cosigners, attempting to back such a business model by enshrining DRM in W3C standards would inevitably erode individual freedoms.
"Applying such restrictions to streaming media may seem less harmful now, when 'ownership' of most media is still possible by storing it on a personal hard drive," the letter to the W3C explains. "It is quite possible, however, that this option will disappear as companies create a system in which media isonlyavailable via streaming where they are able to control who views what when with which software."
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Internet freedom groups urge W3C to keep DRM out of HTML
Software AG Achieves Double-Digit Growth in Largest Business Line
RESTON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) reported license revenue growth of 19 percent (at constant currency) in its largest business line, Business Process Excellence (BPE), in the first quarter of the current fiscal year. These results, clearly outperforming the market, illustrate that the company's expansion of sales, begun last year, continue to have a positive impact. In addition to its quarterly results, Software AG announced its acquisition of LongJump, a U.S. based firm headquartered in California. LongJump offers a cloud-based software platform that enables customers to independently develop enterprise applications. In order to further fuel dynamic growth, Software AG plans to drive its growth initiatives with targeted investments in the BPE business line during the course of the current fiscal year. The company's full-year forecast for 2013 has been confirmed.
Software AG CEO Karl-Heinz Streibich stated, "Our first-quarter results confirm that we are exactly on track with our strategic growth initiatives. There is unprecedented demand for products around the four technological megatrends: Big Data, Cloud, Mobile and Social Collaboration. Our BPE offering addresses precisely what our customers need and helps them successfully implement their digitization strategies. Additionally, we are enhancing organic growth through selective acquisitions."
Business line development
The BPE business line made the largest contribution to total revenue with growth of about 14 percent (at constant currency) to total 90.3 million (2012: 80.6 million). The business line's license revenue went up 19 percent (at constant currency) to 41.9 million (2012: 35.7 million). With these results, the company clearly outperformed its competitors which should lead to an increase of its market share in the period under review. This dynamic development verifies the impact of strategic growth measuresincluding the expansion of the company's sales force in specific marketsintroduced last year. Based on its project pipeline, Software AG is optimistic about upcoming quarters and expects BPE license revenue to continue to rise over the course of the year.
The traditional Enterprise Transaction Systems (ETS) database business generated 64.5 million (2012: 76.6 million) in the first quarter. The expected decline in the current year is due to a weaker cycle of contract renewals. Because the ETS products Adabas-Natural are a key technology to a large customer base, Software AG anticipates the division's performance to improve during the second half of 2013.
The Consulting business line, which comprised the services of BPE, ETS and IDS Scheer Consulting for the first time this quarter, posted revenue at 70.1 million (2012: 97.4 million). As part of the realignment of its SAP consulting business, Software AG continues to withdraw from unprofitable markets and to focus on process optimization for SAP applications in the German speaking region. The sale of its North American SAP-related service activities in January 2013 was a major step in this direction.
Software AG's total revenue for the first quarter of 2013 was 224.9 million (2012: 254.6 million) due to decreased consulting revenue. Revenue from Software AG's own products (BPE + ETS product revenue) at constant currency was slightly above the figure of 156.9 million from the same quarter last year. Product sales represented about 70 percent (2012:63 percent) of total revenue. The revenue mix therefore further improved in favor of growth-driving, high-margin license and maintenance revenue.
Earnings
Due to the planned increase in sales and marketing expenses, at 72.8 million (2012: 59.3 million), for addressing new high-potential markets, EBIT was 41.6 million (2012: 54.8 million). Net income after taxes totaled 27.2 million (2012: 35.9 million).
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Software AG Achieves Double-Digit Growth in Largest Business Line
Open source software topic of tech forum
On:April 26, 2013, By:admin, In:Lifestyle,
Tech Tuesday will feature Dave Norton, whos been working in the world of supercomputing for the past 30 years designing, building, and programming some of the worlds largest computers.
Norton will discuss open source software (free downloadable software) for Android operating systems; Chrome and Firefox web browsers, OpenOffice, LibreOffice, Google Docs, and challenges to Microsoft Office.
Attendees will learn the genesis of open source software, and where it might be appropriate to use. Different types of open source licenses and the different philosophies behind them will also be discussed. While there are several types of free software licenses, they commonly grant freedom to run the program, to study how the program works, to change the program to do exactly what you need (access to the source code is a precondition of this), and to distribute your modifications to the software.
Attendees will look at some of these programs, learn how to install them using common configuration options, and learn what a virtual machine is and who might benefit from using it.
This workshop put on by Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce is May 7 from 8-9:30am in the chambers conference room at 169 Highway 50. It is for members and $15 for prospective members. Reserve a space online.
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Open source software topic of tech forum
Trisquel GNU/Linux flies the flag for software freedom
Image credit: http://trisquel.info
Trisquel is a 100 per cent 'free as in free speech' GNU/Linux distribution started by Rubn Rodrguez Prez nine years ago.
"It started as a project at the university I was studying at. They just wanted a custom distro because... everybody was doing that at the time!" Prez says.
"Since I'm very stubborn, the project kept going," Prez adds.
The idea of software freedom the kind of freedoms Richard Stallman laid out in the GNU Manifesto in 1985 and the original GPL in 1989 are central to Trisquel. (In 2005, when Trisquel 1.0 was launched, GNU founder Stallman was part of the occasion.)
By software freedom "we mean the basic liberties the software user should have: those of using, studying, improving and sharing the software without limitations," Prez says.
"It is a very important issue, because we now use computers for everything: our work, our leisure, our studies; and we should do it under our control. If the government uses software to manage data about the citizens, they should have the code to know for sure how the data is being treated and to guarantee privacy.
"If a school uses a computer for the kids to learn, they should be allowed to study how the tool is made and never get their teacher to answer 'you cannot know that'."
The distro was originally based on Debian's testing repository, but over the course of several years, Trisquel shifted to using Ubuntu as a base.
"The reason was to get a more predictable schedule to work on, and also because we felt that with Ubuntu gaining users it would be good to have a free drop-in replacement to it," Prez says.
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Trisquel GNU/Linux flies the flag for software freedom