Ubuntu gets multi-touch interface

The next version of operating system, Ubuntu, will get multi-touch interface abilities, catching the Linux operating system up to Windows and Mac OS X in at least one domain, says Builder.au.

"Every single major PC manufacturer has been asking for a touch story on Linux. This has been one of the major missing points for Linux in the PC ecosystem," said Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the company called Canonical that develops and supports Ubuntu.

But multi-touch support will arrive in the next version of Ubuntu, 10.10, aka Maverick Meerkat.

Five years after Sun Microsystems began an effort to rejuvenate Solaris by attracting outside programming involvement, Oracle is apparently scrapping what remains of the OpenSolaris project, reports CNet.

Oracle acquired the Sun version of Unix in January, but has shown little of Sun's interest in building a vibrant external community of programmers around Solaris to match some of Linux's collaborative advantages.

The OpenSolaris board has been left in limbo with no contact from the company for months. Even with no official communications, though, Oracle's inattention sent a strong indirect message that OpenSolaris wasn't on the company's priority list.

Organisations, interested in using open source but wary of intellectual property issues, can use a mostly free assistance program recently released by non-profit Linux Foundation, states PC World.

The Open Compliance Program includes an assessment checklist, training programs and software tools to monitor open source software usage.

Especially in the growing field of mobile device and consumer electronics manufacturers, software development often involves use of multiple programs - many open source - in a single stack, said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation.