08.04.08
Gemini version available ♊︎Links 04/08/2008: LinuxWorld Kicks Off, Many GNU/Linux Ports Announced
GNU/Linux
- OpenGL Benchmarking On Linux Reaches New Heights
Lightsmark is an OpenGL lighting benchmark (hence its name) that focuses upon real-time global illumination and penumbra shadows. This is a benchmark that’s built around the Lightsprint SDK. Lightsmark 2008 was released this morning with a faster engine, improved image quality with per-pixel indirect shadows and color bleeding, all GPUs using the same render path, and a steadier scoring system. More importantly, however, this is the first public release with native Linux support.
- LinuxWorld preview: IBM engineer touts SELinux
- IBM invests $360 million in cloud computing
- Mandriva Spring 2008 The New “Definitive” Linux?
Here’s where I step up on the soap box I have carried around for over a decade and say that Microsoft, upon experiencing Mandriva 2008, should be getting close to shaking in their boots. With the Spring 2008 iteration of Mandriva the Linux community is witnessing probably the closest to a Windows killer the community has yet to see. This is, without a doubt, the finest release of any Linux distribution I have ever experienced in my 10+ years of using Linux.
- Tasting Better With Linux
Enter Ubuntu. Using the 32-bit LiveCD, it immediately picked up the external adapter, and was able to connect to the hotel’s WiFi. I flattened Mepis and installed Ubuntu. I will give myself some time using the new system first, but I will probably flatten Vista and rid myself of that headache.
[...]
As a traveler who spends up to two-thirds of my time using hotel networks, Vista’s continuing wireless weaknesses make it entirely too unreliable for my uses. I cannot recommend Vista to anyone who connects to multiple networks. It is just not good enough.
- Service Pack Roll v5.0.3 for Rocks v5.0 is Released
The Service Pack Roll v5.0.3 for i386 and x86_64 architectures is released.
- [New Release:] Big Linux 4.1
- Linux-libre project meets rocky reception
- Tencent launches IM software QQ for Linux
- Check Point IPS-1 fills a gap in its product line
Both the IPS sensor and its management toolkit now reside on Check Point’s own SecurePlatform, a self-installing Linux-based security operating system that Check Point also uses for its other security products and management platforms.
- German Home Savings and Loan Association Relies on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
- The LXF Guide: Make your own Fedora re-spin
Looking for up-to-date Fedora DVD images? Want to change the default software selection?Or just fancy a new Linux project? Neil Bothwick shows you how to remaster Fedora with your own customisations
- Build a customized SystemRescueCd with your own kernel
- My favorite useful Compiz features
Personally, I am most concerned with the Compiz plugins that add functionality to my desktop. There are plenty of those too. I am going to outline some of my favorites and most useful.
- Vyatta changes the networking game
- Jim Zemlin and the Linux Foundation: Looking after Linus
Linux Foundation was formed in 2007 by the merger of the Open Source Development Labs (OSDL) and the Free Standards Group (FSG), and sponsors Linus Torvalds financially so that he is free to focus on his altruistic, albeit commercially beneficial, task.
Jim Zemlin, Linux Foundation’s executive director, is the man charged with managing an organisation that appears to have only the noblest of goals – the betterment of open source software, for the good of all. As well as sponsoring Torvalds, its other aims include fostering standards around Linux, providing a fund to contest any legal issues and managing the Linux \ trademark.
- Better Than Beach Reading: A Linux Starter Kit
LinuxWorld
- LinuxWorld: Showcasing the OS in data centers, mobile devices, e-voting
- LinuxWorld 2008: StarNet Brings LIVE to Linux Desktops
- ClickStream Technologies Expands Product Suite with Launch of LinuxSight(TM)
- InMage Systems Offers True Continuous Data Protection and Disaster Recovery for Linux Environments
- Promise Technology Furthers Linux Strategy With Linux Support for Its Full Product Portfolio
Ubuntu
- Can Ubuntu Linux Close the Digital Divide?
- Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 102
- Agile Plus Open Source Equals Developer Success
- Openbravo demonstrates compatibility with Ubuntu at LinuxWorld 2008
Laptops/Small Desktops
- At 50 Million Units Per Annum in 2013, Linux Will Take Lion’s Share of MID Market, According to ABI Research
- Good things in small packages
Some machines have a solid state option, meaning there are no mechanical components in the drive, resulting in less overall weight. For a Linux netbook, 512MB of RAM should suffice but for Windows we suggest 1GB.
- Review: Asus’s Mini Invasion Continues with the Pint-Sized Eee Box
- ASUS Eee Box PC
- Cheaper laptops on the way
Mobile Linux
- LiMo Expands
- LiMo touts new phones, members
- Motorola up in strong phone market
- LiMo aims DBus at Android
- Movial brings browser-based UI kit to LiMo
- ACCESS Announces NetFront Browser Widgets on ACCESS Linux Platform, Support for Mobile Internet Devices
F/OSS
- Meet the people behind the Open Source Initiative (video)
The Open Source Initiative (OSI) is the group that decides whether a software license merits a seal of approval as actual, genuine open source software. It has never been a secret group — its license-discuss email list has always been open to all comers, for example — but not many open source users or developers know who belongs to the board or what they do.
- OSS a ‘good choice’ for SMEs
“For example, in a desktop environment in which users just need a simple web interface, basic word processing and a spreadsheet, an open source package such as Ubuntu running OpenOffice would be perfect. These users don’t need the bells and whistles of a Microsoft Office.”
- UniSIM to Offer Singapore’s First Open Source Software Executive
- New open source blogger onboard ZDNet Asia
- Hyperic Adds Xen Support
- How much RMS has won
- SourceForge: Undervalued Open-Source Stock
- Mozilla Deploys Vertica, Pentaho for Large-Scale Analytics
- Zmanda Introduces Open Source Backup and Recovery Software for Oracle® Database and Joins Oracle Unbreakable Linux Program
Europe/Interoperability
- Revision of the EIF and AG
- The ‘European Interoperability Framework for pan-European eGovernment Services’ now available in printed version
- UK: Open Standards Forum 2008
Intellectual Monopolies and Suppression
- US cuts funding to universities
MAFIAA starts education protection racket
SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES in the ‘Land of the Free’ will lose funding unless they become copyright cops for the film and music industry.
- Illegal downloading is here to stay
- Design in a P2P world: interview by Julien McHardy
- Open source EV community invites suppliers to offer components for converting existing ICE vehicles to electric drive
- Those privacy-hating Chinese communist tyrants
The idea that the U.S. can exert meaningful leverage on China’s surveillance behavior is laughable for reasons wholly independent of what the U.S. Government itself does with regard to spying on its own citizens. Nonetheless, to watch U.S. Senators like Sam Brownback actually maintain a straight face while protesting China’s warrantless spying on the email and telephone communications of foreigners, and lamenting that private companies feel unfairly pressured to cooperate with China’s government spying out of fear of losing lucrative business opportunities, is so surreal that it’s actually hard to believe one is seeing it.
- South Korea Wants More Internet Regulation
Security
- Dutch police arrest 19-year-old accused of bot herding
- DNS Patches Slow Servers, but Fast Action Is Advised
Microsoft issued a mea culpa about its DNS update on July 17, saying that the patch was crippling some machines running its Windows Small Business Server suite. Then, on July 25, it said the patch could also affect some network services on systems running Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000. In both instances, Microsoft detailed work-arounds.
- New worm targets notworking sites
- New worm targets notworking sites
Leftovers
- Nvidia chipsets are history
- Google Apps goes to school at Notre Dame
- The ‘Anti-Java’ Professor and the Jobless Programmers
- Microsoft sees end of Windows era
- Funny on Monday – MS Has Pushed It Too Far
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