01.18.09

Links 18/01/2009: Big Gains for Apache, Launchpad to Adopt AGPLv3

Posted in News Roundup at 9:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

Enough is Enough. Higher Education…? Wake Up

Who appointed your entity as the gatekeepers of our technology? You may not perceive yourself as such, but actions are leading some to think you are just that…gatekeepers keeping us out. Linux users are growing in huge numbers and those numbers get bigger every day. I am hearing from Linux users about you at a disturbing rate.

Look, no one is asking you to embrace this thing fully, just tweak a couple of things to allow Linux users equal access to your portals and sites. Heck, pay my travel and one night’s lodging, buy me a meal and I will come do it myself. I’m serious, I will be happy to do it and I am fully qualified to do so.

Why are you denying computer users simply because they choose to use a more secure operating system?
Linux, windows and netbooks

The netbooks were designed with Linux in mind from the start. Only when microsoft realised how successful they were did it try to horn in on the act. Yet they had a hard time doing it with xp. They managed but how successful and useful is it?

The latest released os from microsoft, vista, doesn’t have a snowballs chance in the Nevada desert on a hot summers day of fitting onto a netbook. Now people are saying that windows 7 is targeted for netbooks.

I have installed w7 beta and, just like vista, at the moment it has as much chance as that poor snowball. Yet so called respected presidents of research companies seem to think that it can. What is even worse is they are clearly not neutral in their thinking and are twisting in the microsoft marketing wind.
Death of the CD, a new world for Linux?

I ask this, because, while we do in fact have distributions that run off pen drives, we don’t have any way to write distros to flash cards yet. And if the flash card is going to be the next medium of choice for music and movies, and likely all digital media, including software, how long will it be before people start demanding Linux distros that are capable of being installed from flash media?
Ten Great “Tux” the Linux Penguin Crafts

What geek doesn’t at least respect Linux? And even if you aren’t a fan of the OS, who doesn’t love Tux the Linux Penguin? I know I do! So here are ten of the coolest Tux projects I could find on the world wide web.
Move over PC and Mac; it’s time for “I’m Linux”

Apple’s “I’m a Mac” ads have gone viral, and are well known around the world, even in countries where they have never aired on television.

It’s a slick marketing strategy that certainly troubled the Redmond juggernaut, who spent a whopping $10m to hire the star – Jerry Seinfeld – alone. If you’re a Windows user, consider where your licensing fees are going!

Of course, one notable operating system has been absent from these comparisons and productions – until now!

The Linux Foundation think, and rightly so, that a Linux advertisement is overdue. They’ve taken on the challenge to bring it to life.
Desktop Linux – If it ain’t broke don’t fix it!

I have been using Linux for a decade and using PCLinuxOS since it’s 0.92 release. I had installed PCLinuxOS 0.92 sometime in 2005 worked on it for quite a long period, and installed the much anticipated pclos 2007. But I had to distro-hop, when I sold off that desktop and brought home a low-cost notebook. Hopped a full circle across the much hyped distros but again came back to pclos – the venerable PCLinuxOS 2008 MiniME.
Why everyone should be using an Open Source operating system

Most people are just not aware there’s a choice, most people don’t even know what a Operating System is.
It’s up to us to make them now.
Talking to a Wiimote in Ubuntu 8.10

To add Wiimote support on Ubuntu 8.10, start by running the command “sudo apt-get install wminput wmgui lswm” to install the CWiid library and associated software.

If you’re using a desktop machine, you probably don’t have Bluetooth capability. If you run the program “lswm” and see the message “No Bluetooth interface found” then you need to get a Bluetooth adapter, which is a dongle that uses a USB port to add Bluetooth abilities. I bought the IOGear GBU421 because it seems to be well-supported in Linux and only costs about $20. It’s also so tiny that it’s cute.
From Ubuntu Netbook Remix to Ubuntu UMPC

I am now using Ubuntu UMPC. This is awesome because I really like the defaults of the version of GNOME shipped with Ubuntu 8.10 and I have the benefits.
New Mexico in the midst of a geek renaissance.

Plenty going on in the world of non-profits too, an organization I’m involved with The New Mexico Linux Corporation was started to promote and manage The New Mexico LinuxFest it’s just getting off the ground but it promises to offer quite a bit in the near future. Check out the work from this group called Upgrade New Mexico, truly an amazing example of what an all volunteer organization can accomplish. Added to the mix of volunteer collaboration The New Mexico Ubuntu LoCo has as one of it’s projects The Endorphin Power Company a project that’s been over a year in the making and even has them installing a mesh network for their entire campus.
Tungsten’s New VIA DRM, Mesa Driver Published

Earlier this month we shared that Tungsten Graphics was creating a new VIA 3D stack for one of their clients. This new work has many improvements over the current Mesa and DRM code both on the technical level as well when it comes to what’s supported for use by end-users. This morning the code for Tungsten’s new support has been pushed out to OpenChrome.
OLPC
- Sugar on Acer Aspire One & Thin Client via LTSP
  
  We recently held a olpc / LTSP presentation in Vienna, which gave us the opportunity to be experimental and check the wonderful world of using Sugar on various platforms via LTSP. We hooked up 2 Acer Aspire One netbooks, a Thin Client (Artec), a laptop acting as LTSP and ejabberd server, along with 2 traditional XOs.
- What Keeps Me Going with One Laptop Per Child
  
  So, a lot of people have been asking me this lately in the One Laptop Per Child context: “What keeps you going?” They ask me, because I am Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D., organizer of SF-OLPC.
  
  Of course, this question has been asked by different people with different intentions. Some are genuinely surprised that I have so much free time, while others suspect a hidden treasure.
Desktop Environments
- Building the KDE UserBase
  
  Most software developers, whether open source or proprietary, would agree that the success or failure of any endeavour depends on building a community.
  
  This may be a community of fellow developers, advocates or just users, but unless a significant number of people take a project to their hearts, it’s unlikely to make an impact.
- What do I do as Executive Director of GNOME?
  
  I get asked a lot what I do, exactly, as executive director of the GNOME Foundation.
  
  First off, I want to say I’m really glad I work for an organization where people feel comfortable asking “what do you do?” It shows they care about the organization and are not afraid to ask tough questions. Have you ever asked your boss what they did, exactly?
- Interview with Paul Cooper – GNOME Mobile
  
  In this interview we talk with Paul. In specific, we talk about:
  
  * Getting started with the GNOME project
  * Devices targeted by GNOME Mobile
  * Differences between GNOME and GNOME Mobile
  * Establishing a design approach for meeting the needs of users and devices
  * The potential for virtualization on mobile devices
  * The relationship between GNOME and providing kernel and hardware support
- Enlightenment 17 Still Moving Right Along
  
  It has been awhile since anyone has posted any updates about e17 (myself included). The enlightenment project is still moving along at good speed. The window manager for enlightenment – simply called e – is stable. I have been using it constantly since 2004 as my X desktop on both Linux and FreeBSD without any issues. What many users may not know is how much over the last year or so has risen up around enlightenment.
New Releases
- (2009-01-10) Topologilinux 7.0.1 released
  
  Currently only available at below ftp site.
  ftp://ftp.se.linux.org/distributions/topologilinux/Topologilinux-7.0.1/
  Would be great if you could help me getting ftp mirrors.
  Tell them to link against ftp://ftp.se.linux.org/distributions/topologilinux
  updates are available in the updates directory.
  Topologilinux is still 100% free and so the updates but please donate some money if you like this project.
  just press the donate button and donate.
  This is a bugfix release that should fix reported bugs reported in the 7.0.0 release
  If you wonder why it has not been uploaded to Sourceforge yet.. read this info
  So help of this problem would also be appreciated.
- What is AUSTRUMI-1.8.5 ?
  
  • Fastest Linux distribution with 3D support for Nvidia and Intel video cards
  • Contains all necessary basic programs for work and entertainment
  • The modern user interface into Latvian, Russian, English, Italian and Greek languages
  • Simple boot from CD, flash drive or HDD
  • It is fitted out for the servers and workstations
- Clonezilla 1.2.1-33
- FreeNAS 0.69 (Kwisatz Haderach)
- Linux 2.6.29-rc2
  
  It’s out there now, or at least in the process of mirroring out.
  
  About half of the bulk is a late MIPS merge (tssk, tssk, but I really couldn’t make myself care too much), and there are a few odd new drivers there too. In fact, of the non-MIPS code, drivers is about half of the remaining one, and then firmware (which is really drivers too but shows up separately) is half of _that_ remaining half.
- The G:Mini 3.0.beta01 is Released
  
  The GoblinX Project is proud to announce the second beta of the next stable release. The G:Mini 3.0 beta 01 is released. The g:Mini formely known as ‘GoblinX Mini Edition‘ is the son of GoblinX and contains only XFCE as the windows manager and GTK/GTK2 based applications. The edition is ideal for those users whose want to remaster the distro or with difficulties in downloading more than three hundred of megabytes (the original size of g:Standard).

F/OSS

January 2009 Web Server Survey [Apache Wins Big]

Apache’s market share grew by more than 1 percentage point this month, extending its lead over Microsoft IIS, which has fallen to less than a third of the market. In total, Apache gained 1.27 million sites this month.
Why I Think Open Source Will “Win” In The End

I will not go into my half remembered “horror stories” of my sessions with Closed Source technical support. I did not document those nor do I really want to recall them. I just remember a great deal of frustration dealing with Closed Source technical support when I knew the problem was their software. Sure, sometimes PEBKAC is true. But many times PEBKAC is used in “the industry” to explain away real problems with Closed Source software by support personnel. Getting an acknowledgment that a Closed Source software program has a real problem can be problematic to impossible for an end user. Certainly this could happen with Open Source projects as well. But to date I have never experienced a “brush off” from Open Source folk and I will be surprised when or if it does happen.
Mozilla releases Ubiquity update

Mozilla Labs announced on Wednesday a major update to Ubiquity, a browser extension that provides users with a clever context-sensitive command interface to various web services and browser functionality.
GPL/FSF
- Launchpad’s License Will Be AGPLv3
  
  Last week, I asked Karl Fogel, Canonical’s newly hired Launchpad Ombudsman, if Launchpad will use the AGPLv3. His eyes said “yes” but his words were something like: Canonical hasn’t announced the license choice yet. I was excited to learn this morning from him that Launchpad’s license will be AGPLv3.
- Free Software Song Rocks!
  
  I still find the Free Software Song inspiring in some way although I know it will never ever win a Grammy Award or whatever. So, I thought I would share this to all of you especially those who are starting to lose faith in free software. Also, to all FOSS developers and advocates who are looking for some motivation, perhaps this will help.
- Shared data feed
  
  Richard Stallman views proprietary software, and specifically software patents, as deliberate efforts to prevent people from helping each other. In this way people make money providing what someone else would gladly supply free. I think both file sharing and free software are evidence that people are naturally inclined to share and help, within certain constraints. The sharing communities have arisen within those constraints. If all this is accurate, then file sharing and open source come from a basic part of our social nature and are going to be very hard to eradicate – hysterical anti-piracy campaigns and patent-supported software behemoths notwithstanding.