01.14.09

Links 14/01/2009: Qt/Nokia for LGPL, Oracle Layoff

Posted in News Roundup at 10:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Kernel 2.6.29: Corbet Says Btrfs Next Generation Filesystem

  Linux kernel developer Jonathan Corbet has just previewed the features of the upcoming Linux Kernel 2.6.29 that includes Btrfs, which he claims is the filesystem of the future.

• Linux Day Italy 2008

  A little bit in late to release this article, but important to let know KDE community about our involvement to spread KDE to Italian people. Last October, three members of KDE Italia gave talks in three different Italian cities. Daniele Costarella in Salerno, Salvatore Brigaglia in Sassari and Diego Rondini in Castelfranco Veneto (TV).

• Linux institutionalized, a little look back

  This is part of what makes Linux and institution. It relies not as much on money but on people. individuals who because of their contributions, take a bit of ownership in the whole. They are proud of the accomplishment an contribution s not only they make but of others doing the same thing. To see so many users adopting it and praising it validates their feeling of accomplishment and ownership of something tremendous.

• The Windows 7 party pooper

  I haven’t blogged that much lately. Sure, I scanned the headlines every day. KDE4 is coming around nicely, Mono isn’t getting anywhere (fortunately), Compiz is still the cutting edge window manager, Vista is getting battered by the press all the time, Linus is doing what he does best, that is making great kernels, what is there to blog about?

• Applications

  • Top 10 Linux RSS readers

    RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication (but also sometimes refers to Rich Site Summary or RDF Site Summary). It is an XML-based format for sharing and distributing web content. An RSS reader (sometimes called a newsreader or news aggregator), allows you to receive and view data feeds from various sources in a single interface. There are many RSS readers available, web-based and desktop clients. Here I compiled a list with the best (IMO) 10 RSS readers for Linux…

  • 21 of the Best Free Linux Backup Software

    Backup software is used to perform a complete back up of a file, data, database, system or server. It enables users to make a duplicate of everything contained on the original source. This type of software is also used to perform a recovery of the data or system in the event of a disaster.

• Desktop Environments

  • KDE

    • Qt Everywhere: 4.5 To Be Relicensed As LGPL

      All-in-all today’s news means tremendous things for Free and Open Source software. The possibility of extending the reach of all of our work is exciting in and of itself, and this announcement could lead to a veritable explosion of Qt and KDE adoption.

    • Qt goes LGPL!

      As of version 4.5.0, Qt will be released under the LGPL version 2.1. Jaw off the floor yet? Good.

    • Nokia Hopes to Increase Qt Popularity With New License

      Nokia has added LGPL (Lesser General Public License) as an option for Qt, saying the move will increase developer flexibility and increase popularity, it announced on Wednesday.

    • KDE 4.2 RC Released for Final Testing

      January 13th, 2009. The KDE Community today announced the immediate availability of “Cilense”, (a.k.a KDE 4.2 Release Candidate), the only planned release candidate for the KDE 4.2 desktop. Cilense is aimed at testers and reviewers. It should provide a solid ground to report last-minute bugs that need to be tackled before KDE 4.2.0 is released. Reviewers can use this release candidate to get a first look at the upcoming KDE 4.2 desktop which provides significant improvements all over the desktop and applications. It is not recommended for everyday use, however.

    • KDE 4.1.4 and 4.2 Release Candidate Available Now

      The KDE community has made available two new releases of the KDE desktop and applications today. KDE 4.1.4 is the latest update for the KDE 4.1 series.

  • GNOME

    • New Volume Control Interface For GNOME

      One of the items being worked on by Red Hat for Fedora 11 is making the GNOME volume control and sound preferences area more intuitive and easier to use. With Fedora and most other distributions now using PulseAudio, they are beginning to take advantage of some of the features available through this sound server. Some of this work involves reworking the user interface for controlling GNOME Sound Preferences, which we are providing a glimpse of in this article. Among other benefits, there is finally the ability to adjust the volume level on a per-application basis.

    • GNOME Foundation: Friends of GNOME Program is Live!

      The Friends of GNOME website is live! The Friends of GNOME program is a way for individuals to help the GNOME Foundation to pursue 2009 goals.

• Debian/Ubuntu

  • The Secret Lives of Ubuntu and Debian Users

    Popularity-contest reports four main statistics for each package: The number of installations, the number of hosts on which the program in the last 30 days (or Votes, as the package calls this statistic), the number of hosts on which the program was not used in the last 30 days (or “Old”), and the number of hosts on which the package was upgraded (“Recent”).

  • Ubuntu 8.10 upmc for the Asus EeePC? Don’t bother, just install the full distro

    I discovered recently the truth of the old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Yes, I finally did it. I bricked my beloved EeePc. I had just installed the Smart package manager and a subsequent reboot saw me stuck in, well, an eternal boot loop. Impulsive mixing of repositories always ends in tears—but not being able to boot? Argh! To rub salt into the wound I had mislaid the Xandros DVD to do a reinstall and I didn’t even have an external CD/DVD drive anyway. Organised or what? Well, I might not be organised but I’m a persistent little bugger and I was determined to either fix Xandros or replace it with something as good or better without shelling out for an external drive in the process. Ubuntu appeared to come to the rescue and not just any Ubuntu, but “the” Ubuntu specifically modified for ultra portable micro computers and MIDs—on a flash drive no less. Canonical seem to be taking netbooks seriously.

  • Ubuntu 9.04 Boots in 21.4 Seconds

    There are only two days left until the third Alpha version of the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) will be available
    (for testing), and… we couldn’t resist the temptation to take the current daily build for a test drive, before our usual screenshot tour, and taste the “sweetness” of that evolutionary EXT4 Linux filesystem. Announced on Christmas Eve, the EXT4 filesystem is now declared stable and it is distributed with version 2.6.28 of the Linux kernel and later. However, the good news is that the EXT4 filesystem was implemented in the upcoming Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 3 a couple of days ago and it will be available in the Ubuntu Installer, if you choose manual partitioning (see the screenshot below for details). The bad news is that EXT4 will not be the default filesystem for the Ubuntu OS until version 9.10, due for release in late October this year.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Linux Powers New Security System

    French security company M2M Solution has developed a security gateway device called Homebox to monitor your home, office, vehicle, and even your pets while you’re out. M2M and Texas Instruments, Inc. (TI) designed the system from the ground up in only nine months using Linux-based tools and open source codecs.

  • CES 2009 – Followup

    Of the many interesting companies I found who were showcasing Linux powered equipment, iRiver was one of the most surprising. They were exhibiting at CES presenting their new Wave Home device, an LCD video phone system designed to do more than just be a video phone. You can send SMS messages, do Video conferencing, build contact lists, leave notes, schedule events, run widgets to check the weather, browse the web, locate information, watch movies, view photos, and even do either Internet Radio or FM radio. And all of this done through an embedded Linux OS.

  • Audio system taps Linux, 802.11n

    Cisco’s Linksys division is shipping a networked home audio distribution system that runs Linux and uses 802.11n WiFi. The Cisco Wireless Home Audio system supports Internet radio and DLNA discovery, and includes a variety of receivers, speakers, players, iPOD docks, and a tablet-like touchscreen remote.

  • Imeem for Android Will Rock Your G1

    Imeem’s android application offers an easy and clear-sounding way to listen to music on your G1. While it doesn’t quite duplicate all the functions of the Web version of Imeem, it does serve up plenty of music without costing a penny.

  • Sub-notebooks

    • ARM Powered Pocket Size Linux PC With GPS & GPRS

      Round Solutions has rolled out the AarLogic C10/3, a breadboard which contains a complete Linux PC on a surface of just 104mm x 63mm.

      Despite its small surface area – approximately size of a matchbox – its 160-pin socket provides a wide array of connectivity options. Aside from keyboards, digital cameras and reading devices, this also includes WLAN, Bluetooth and GPS components, the company said.

    • The real (sort of) $100 laptop

      Once upon a time, we were all excited about the $100 laptop, Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC (One Laptop per Child). While the OLPC did eventually see the light of day, it never did make the $100 price. Instead, OLPCs retail for about $200. Dell, however, will sell you an Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for only $99.

F/OSS

• Marketcetera goes gold

  In an interview with ZDNet co-founders Graham Miller and Toli Kuznets said their algorithmic trading and routing system will compare initially with commercial rivals like Flextrade and Portware.

• Coyote Point Builds on FreeBSD to Accelerate

  Making Web applications faster is big business for big businesses-like carriers. Mid-market enterprises can also benefit from web acceleration, which is where Networking vendor Coyote Point is concentrating its efforts.

• Yes, We Can Make the Stimulus More Stimulating

  6) Funding for the Development of Open Software

  In the same vein, the government can spend $2 billion a year to develop open source software. This money can be used to further develop and simplify open source operating systems such as Linux, as well other forms of free software. The payoffs from this spending would be enormous. Imagine that every computer buyer in the world would be able to get a computer for which the operating system was free, as was almost all the software that they would ever use.

• Economist suggests federal funding of Open Source

  US ECONOMIST Dean Baker suggested on Monday that the federal government ought to fund Open Source software development as part of this year’s economic stimulus package.

  The subsidy was one of seven ideas he mentioned in an article published online at Truthout, including extending health insurance coverage, public funding for clinical drug trials, cash buyouts for older vehicles, subsidies for public transportation, federal funding for creative artisans and artists, and tax incentives for shorter working weeks and more holiday time off.

• Getting right by open source

  One big trend we saw last year was companies trying to “get right” by open source.

  Even Microsoft and Oracle sought accommodation with the open source imperative. (Picture from USLAW.Com.)

  But this has also existed in the open source movement. We saw it at SugarCRM. We see it in companies with whom, on the surface, open source has no quibble.

• Browsers

  • Firefox to use Chrome-like tabs

    Mozilla has announced a subtle but significant change to Firefox, tweaking the way tabs work on the browser.

    Writing on his blog, Mike Beltzner, director of Firefox at Mozilla, announced a “small change”, which essentially means when you click on a tab it will appear immediately to the right of the tab you are working on.

  • Google Introduces New Open Source Sitemap Generator

    Google has introduced a new Sitemap Generator for webmasters to help them create better sitemap files. Google had previously introduced one back in 2005, and watched many other people make their own, but this one is different they say.

• Europe

  • BE: Information Day on Call 3 of ICT PSP (Policy Support Programme)

    The ICT Policy Support Programme (or ICT PSP) aims at stimulating innovation and competitiveness through the wider uptake and best use of ICT by citizens, governments and businesses particularly. The approach is based on leveraging innovation in response to growing societal demands. The programme will facilitate the development of lead markets for innovative ICT-based solutions notably in areas of public interest and will open a wide range of new business opportunities in particular for innovative SMEs.

  • EU: Call for tender – Economic and social impact of software and software-based services

    The European Commission has opened a call for tender on “the economic and social impact of Software and software based Services”. The submission deadline is 2 February 2009, at 16:00 CET.

    The purpose of the study will be:

    * to identify the potential economic and/or social impact of the European software and services industry on Europe –now and in the future – and the elements that are determinant for its growth and competitiveness;
    * to assess the future market impact and expected market transformation due to the emerging Internet of Services;
    * to derive policy recommendations to remove barriers and foster the development of the software industry.

    Most of the current studies of economic and social impact are related to the ICT industry and market in general, but do not identify the software and services specific industry and/or market segments. However, the software and services industry is expected to drive the evolution towards the online service economy.

• Asia

  • Freedom Walk: A walk to claim, ensure and preserve freedom

    Free software had remained a technological and an economic issue in the state of Kerala and it had been very successful in being so. A team of four people decided to take the fundamental principle of the freedom behind free software and take this message of freedom to the masses in Kerala. They decided to project free software as an empowering agent to change the lives of people and in solving social, environmental and technological issues. They wanted to take free software and the freedom behind it to the common man in Kerala.

  • Malaysian Government Saves Big with Open Source

    Open Source in the public sector seemed to be all the rage in 2008, with government agencies all over Europe — not to mention agencies of the EU itself — adopting, and in many cases, mandating Open Source software and standards. Of course, Europe was not the only continent cozying up with a copy of the source code — governments in Africa, Asia, North & South America, and all over the South Pacific were exploring and implementing Open Source in 2008. Now, one of those governments has revealed the savings-side of OSS, and the numbers they’re tossing around are pretty nice.

• Applications

  • PDF-based presentations with 3-D effects

    Both PDFCube and Impressive are works in progress, with some ways — and, at the current rate of development, perhaps some years — to go before their 1.0 releases. However, in the current versions, PDFCube has the superior basic engine, while Impressive allows users the greater control. Despite PDFCube’s lack of options and Impressive’s mediocre OpenGL support, both are worth keeping at least an occasional eye on.

    In their separate ways, both demonstrate that, contrary to what many desktop users seem to assume, command line applications are not just archaic remnants. You need time to enter all the options in a command line application, but, if you take the trouble to familiarize yourself with the applications, you may find their controls easier to use than the cluttered editing windows of a desktop application like OpenOffice.org Impress. Far from being outdated, applications like PDFCube and impressive are practical demonstrations that command line applications can be both modern and innovative.

  • 3D graphics are 100% free software 3D graphics are 100% free software

    A few months ago, SGI released a new version of the SGI Free License B. With that change, a lot of code used to provide 3D graphics on GNU/Linux systems was now free software. To make sure that all the code was free software, however, a few developers who worked on code released under a related license, the GLX Public License, needed to grant us permission to release their work under the new terms.

Leftovers

• CDT Confident Next FCC Chair Recognizes Importance of Open Internet Policy

  WASHINGTON — According to news reports, President-elect Barack Obama will soon name Julius Genachowski to head the Federal Communications Commission.

• Kevin Martin Opposes Regulating Internet Content?

  A significant part of FCC Chairman Kevin Martin’s legacy will be the moves he made — and tried to make — to crack down on indecency while he was in power. The FCC went after TV broadcasters with much more vigor than under previous leaders, trying to impose big fines for “indecent” content, many of which got smacked down later by courts. Martin himself was a major advocate of a la carte cable plans, in which consumers could simply pay for individual channels, rather than bundles.

• Al Jazeera Announces Launch of Free Footage under Creative Commons License

  Al Jazeera Network today announced the world’s first repository of broadcast quality video footage released under the ‘Creative Commons 3.0 Attribution’ license. Select Al Jazeera video footage – at this time footage of the War on Gaza – will be available for free to be downloaded, shared, remixed, subtitled and eventually by users and TV stations across the world with acknowledgement to Al Jazeera.

• Nortel Files for Bankruptcy, Victim of Falling Sales (Update5)

  Nortel Networks Corp., North America’s biggest maker of telephone equipment, filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S., a victim of the global credit crunch and declining sales.

• Huge Oracle Layoff Won’t Be the Last

  Oracle employs 84,000 people globally. An 8,000-employee layoff would amount to about 10% of its workforce.

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Digital Tipping Point: Dirk-Willem van Gulik, road builder for the Information Super-highway 01 (2004)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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