05.11.09

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Cadets Trade the Trenches for Firewalls

  Brian McCord, part of the team that installed the operating system, said he was chosen because his senior project was deeply reliant on Linux. The West Point team used this open-source operating system, freely available on the Internet, instead of relying on proprietary products from big-name companies like Microsoft or Sun Microsystems.

  “It seems weird for the Army with its large contracts to be using Linux, but it’s very cheap and very customizable,” Cadet McCord said. It is also much easier to secure because “you can tweak it for everything you need” and there are not as many known ways to attack it, he said.

• Linux is not an OS

  One way that it could be claimed that Linux is not an operating system is by asserting that what we call “Linux” is in fact a name of the kernel, a core of the operating system, rather than an OS as a whole. Such assertions would usually come from the Free Software supporters who would quickly point out how the proper way to call this “OS” is as “GNU/Linux” because it is only after combining the Linux as a kernel with GNU as tools that the operating system actually is capable of operating usefully.

  [...]

  I have no faith at all in the Linux unification cause as much as I don’t have faith in command economies such as those in the soviet union. They never work.

  The sooner we stop dreaming about it probably the better. Instead of endlessly pushing for the impossible, each distribution should realize that they are a project of providing a unique operating system, not merely some sort of a “subset” of a larger OS, with all of the implied responsibilities and false obligations that come from that. They should focus on providing their own particular operating system experience, NOT the “Linux experience”.

• GNU or Linux?

  The GNU/Linux name is possibly the most controversial and most misunderstood issue surrounding Linux. David Chisnall looks at the reasoning for the name and asks whether it’s justified.

  No other system has experienced so much controversy over its name. A great many flame wars have erupted over the Free Software Foundation’s suggestion that distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora should be called GNU/Linux, rather than Linux. Are they just trying to take credit for other peoples’ work, or is their argument valid?

• The Linux Media Center Solution! Awesome!

  Browsed through the Internet for the Freedom Fone Project and came over the LinuxMCE. I have been dreaming about a project like this, and was really amazed about the possibilities included already.
  They have done a smart thing dividing it up in two parts;

  * one powerful core server for doing encoding of incoming media
  * one or more clients connected to each screen around in the house.

• Linux’s position in cloud computing efforts

  Clouds are such big Linux news these days that, in the physical world, it would be raining by now. Or at least heavily overcast.

  [...]

  The Linux Foundation report said cloud computing is growing because data center costs are escalating and improvements in virtualization, distributed computing and IT management make cloud computing a more feasible option. Linux, in turn, was an obvious choice for cloud computing from the get-go because of its open source, modular architecture, its low cost and its scalability, the report said.

• ABAS ERP Awarded Best ERP 2009

  ABAS Business Solutions (PRC) Ltd. announced today that ABAS ERP was awarded the “Best ERP 2009″ by the Linux Pilot magazine at the awards presentation ceremony of “Linux & OSS Best Solution 2009″ held on 15th April at the Hong Kong Convention & Exhibition Center. This is the Fourth Time that ABAS ERP has been awarded with this award in Asia and we are all again deeply honored.

• Linux Live CDs: Why I love them.

  So what did we learn? Linux is a very versatile operating system that can run on just about any hardware, with any configuration. Most importantly, GO GET THE LIVE CD. It will save your ass someday and you will be glad that you burned that disc.

• Why I chose GNU/Linux

  The reason GNU/Linux makes sense to me is that I am a big fan of the “Free software” ideal. I like the fact that I can take my software and change it to work for me and that is completely legal. I like that I can freely distribute the code to anyone I want. I also like knowing that there are people who see things the same way are there to protect my rights (FSF). I use GNU/Linux out of a desire to live free and without the threat of someone installing a rootkit or a spy program to make sure I am using it the way the company who made it want me to.

• Readings

  • How to Follow Linux Developments

    Get your RSS feed readers ready because here is my list of the best sites/feeds to stay in touch with the latest developments in the linux community. This is the short list — there are many personal/professional blogs/sites that should be included in a full list. But, most of them are aggregated in the following sites.

  • 10 Free Linux Ebooks For Beginners

    This is the first part of the series, in the near future we will have a list for “Intermediate and Advanced Linux Users” and “Linux System Administrators”. If you have any suggestions feel free to share them with us in the comments.

• Events

  • InternetNZ supports Australasian Linux Conference

    InternetNZ (Internet New Zealand Inc) is pleased to announce its leading sponsorship of Linux.conf.au 2010 (LCA2010).

    The annual Linux.conf.au conference will be held in January 2010 in Wellington – the second time it has been held in New Zealand. It will bring together local and international open source practitioners who contribute to the Linux operating system and numerous other open source projects. Linux creator Linus Torvalds regularly attends this event.

  • Linux Audio Update

    This conference is a key “meeting of the minds” for Linux audio developers and users. Represented projects included Csound, the Q programming language, Pure Data (Pd), netjack and many others. Former conferences have been characterized by an abundance of fine conversation, music, food and wine, and reports indicate that organizer Fons Adriaensen maintained the tradition in excellent style. Judging from the quality of the papers I’ve read and the videos I’ve watched, LAC2009 appears to have been another successful event. As far as I know, the date and location of LAC2010 have not been formally announced, although Utrecht has been mentioned as a likely candidate.

  • Linux: here before Social Media

    Every distribution of Linux has its own active online community of users and developers, but support for and advocacy of the software takes place both online and offline, and on a regional basis. By reaching out to people at the most local level possible (county level in the UK), support can be found from someone in your close community. What I quickly realised was that whilst LUG’s might advocate Linux in all its shapes and sizes, there is often a tendancy towards favouring one common distribution. There’s a lot to be said for having a commercial backer (Canonical Ltd in this case) to provide marketing, and as proof of this most LUG members seem to favour Ubuntu and its promise of being “Linux for human beings”.

• Weekly Newsletters

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 44

    Summary:

    · Editorial: Ubuntu Muslim Edition Is Now Known as Sabily
    · First Look: Linux Mint 7 RC1
    Distributions announced last week:
    · Linux Mint 7 Release Candidate Is Here
    · Parted Magic 4.1 Brings GParted 0.4.5
    Other News: Transmission for Linux reaches 1.6.0 and KDE 4.2.3 is now available
    Tutorial of the Week: Installing Ubuntu 9.04
    Tutorial of the Week: How to Install OpenOffice.org 3.1 on Ubuntu 9.04
    Video Clip of the Week: Linux Mint 7 Appearance
    New Distributions: Chaox and Lin-X
    Distributions Updated Last Week: KDE 4 Live CD 1.2.3, Bauer-Puntu Linux 9.04, R.I.P. 8.5 and more…
    Development Releases: Caixa Magica 14 RC1, Kongoni 1.12.2 Alpha and more…

  • DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 302, 11 May 2009

    With mobile computing being the next operating system battleground, it’s hardly surprising that many industry players are focusing on these increasingly popular devices. One of the most promising among them, Moblin, has been through some major changes recently, both in terms of ownership and development goals. Read our feature story for the roundup of its recent past and probable future to learn more about the project. In the news section, Debian ditches the GNU C Library in favour of the more flexible Embedded GLIBC, Fedora finalises all features for the upcoming Leonidas release which includes delta support for RPMs, Slackware switches to packages compressed with LZMA compression mechanism, and the Ubuntu community looks to create yet another derivative based on the LXDE. Finally, don’t miss our tips and trick section which provides a step-by-step guide of upgrading a stable Mandriva Linux 2009.1 to the latest Cooker, Mandriva’s bleeding-edge development branch.

  • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 141

    Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 141 for the weeks May 3rd – May 9th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Monthly BugSquad Meeting: May 12th, Jaunty Jackalope Release parties, What’s a build score, then?, byobu 2.0 released, In The Press and Blogosphere, Ubuntu Podcast #27, Meeting Summaries of Technical Board and Ubuntu Server Teams, and much, much more!

• Applications

  • 12 of the Best Free Linux News Aggregators

    A news aggregator is software which collect news, weblog posts, and other information from the web so that they can be read in a single location for easy viewing. With the range of news sources available on the internet, news aggregators play an essential role in helping users to quickly locate breaking news.

  • XBMC 9.04 delivers impressive media center experience

    The XBMC project has released version 9.04 of the popular open source media center application. The new version includes improved Linux support and an enhanced theming system. Ars takes the new version for a test ride to see how it compares to Boxee.

  • 10 Games That Will Turn your Linux into a WarMachine

    My favorite time pass. I’m always out for nifty gaming sessions when I’m bored, posted lots of stuff on it in the past and still going to. Loads of my friends use linux and “some” complain that there aren’t much games for the OS out there.. well they are wrong, I’ve posted about Linux games in the past and going to write / update more on it in this post. Stuff I’ve missed out in the past and games which were released earlier.

• Desktop Environments

  • 10 Awesome Icon Sets for Ubuntu/GNOME Desktop

    Since our list of cool icon sets for Ubuntu/GNOME desktop was pretty much in demand, I decided to give you some more. This time, we have collected some of the finest and freshest icon sets that will surely enhance the look of your Linux desktop.

  • MacOSX-like Dock Menu for KDE: Fancy Tasks [Linux]

    Fancy Tasks is a KDE 4.x dock applications that looks a lot like Avant Window Navigator but at a first look, it seems to be even nicer.

• Distributions

  • Sabayon Linux 4.1 Review

    Last week we looked at VirtualBSD, this week we’re moving back to Linux and to a more convential kind of distribution. Sabayon Linux is based on Gentoo. Gentoo as you might already know is somewhat famous for being the “roll your own” kind of distribution. It’s an extremely powerful and customizable version of Linux but installing it in the past has sometimes been difficult for some folks. Gentoo has had the reputation of being one of the “geek’s geek” types of Linux distributions.

  • Ubuntu

    • Research and Markets: Ubuntu Linux Secrets Revealed

      While the Ubuntu Linux distribution makes building a Linux system easy, once readers create a Linux system they’ll need to know how to use and maintain it. There are dozens of Open Source applications installed by default on the Ubuntu system, with hundreds of other applications easily installed from the Internet. The average Linux user can get overwhelmed with the availability and complexity of the new software. Existing books on Ubuntu Linux cover the basics of creating a new system and show what software is installed. This book digs deeper into the underlying applications and features of the Ubuntu Linux system, providing in-depth information on how to get the most out of each application and system feature.

    • Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.04 & Asus eee 904 Laptop

      As ‘World + dog’ is rev’d up by the release of Ubuntu 9.04 I thought I’d use up some bandwidth and download several of the available versions. Yet again bittorrent proves its worth for things other than just pirating movies.

      My test machines have been an IBM R40 notebook (tried Jaunty x32, Januty Netbook Remix, Mythbuntu 9.04 & Kubuntu 9.04 on it) and an Asus eee 900 w/ 4GB SSD + 16GB SSD (Jaunty Netbook Remix).

      [...]

      Works like a charm.

    • Ubuntu 9.04: The official review

      I could easily draw a conclusion here. I could say 9.04 is an outstanding release for Ubuntu that offers something very positive for every level of user. That is my experience. From the testing I have done, this release is one finest releases Ubuntu has given us yet. It does have some room for improvement, but it does excite me to think that if this is where Linux is heading, the competition better be aware.

    • A Review of Jaunty Jackalope

      Ubuntu 9.04 rocks. The boot up time excites me every time I feel need the reboot. I actually get excited about a reboot. This is by far the most user friendly installation of a Linux distribution I have ever gone through and I believe that I’ll be giving the disc to my mother and let her have a go at it (the ultimate test).

    • The Freedom Maintainers Rocking Ahead

      How far, then, has gNewSense come? According to Paul’s message, one of the main goals of the project was to prove two points:

      1. That Free software works
      2. That non-free software “can bite you hard and should not be run”

• Devices/Embedded

  • RoweBots Releases Ultra-Tiny Embedded-Linux(TM) RTOS for Renesas Technology’s 8-, 16- and 32-bit Microcontrollers

    RoweBots Research, Inc., the leading supplier of tiny embedded Linux RTOS products, today announced the launch and release of DSPnano, Version 2, and Unison™, Version 4. These two ultra-tiny embedded-Linux compatible RTOSs open Renesas Technology Corp.’s R8C, M16C and R32C/100 microcontroller (MCU) families to Linux and POSIX compatible development for the first time.

  • Have You Seen the Beagle Board?

    This is an incredible find. It’s a computer that can sit in your living room and run an HDTV. Of course, the thing has a Linux kernel at its heart. Watch the video and see what I mean.

  • Phones

    • Analyst forecasts 900% Android phone sales growth

      Android-based smartphones will ship in massive numbers this year – at least compared to last year’s total, market watcher Strategy Analytics has forecast.

      In its latest report, the firm predicted that Android smartphone shipments will increase a whopping 900 per cent during 2009 over last year. Shipments of Apple’s iPhone will grow 79 per cent this year, SA said.

    • [Announce] Intel and Nokia announce open source telephony project (oFono)

      oFono.org is a place to bring developers together around designing an infrastructure for building mobile telephony (GSM/UMTS) applications. oFono.org is licensed under GPLv2, and it includes a high-level D-Bus API for use by telephony applications of any license.

  • Sub-notebooks

    • Dell Freshens Up Its Mini 10 Netbook with Ubuntu

      Dell now provides its 10″ Mini 10 netbook with Ubuntu in the U.S. and Canada, with the rest of the world to follow shortly.

    • Verizon to Offer HP Mini Netbook and ‘Mi-Fi’ Service May 17, Reports

      It would come with either Windows XP Home (SP3) or Ubuntu Linux and 16/32GB solid state or 80GB hard-drive options.

Free Software/Open Source

• PCBSD 7.1

  Overall then, PC-BSD is an excellent Operating System, removing most of the disadvantages of FreeBSD, (and Linux) and putting it into a neat system.

• Prism – Mozilla minimal browser beta

  A Firefox browser lies behind the program, with its user interface reduced to a minimum. Prism can be downloaded from the revised project page as either a Firefox add-on or standalone application. Installed as a Firefox add-on extension, Prism adds a – Convert website to an application … – option to the Tools menu. This option lets you convert opened web applications or sites into desktop applications.

• OpenOffice.org

  • OpenOffice package for public administration published in EU open source portal

    The OpenOffice open source package for central and local government agencies published last year by the Ministry of Finance and the Association of Finnish Local and Regional Authorities has released a new software version. The software package is distributed in a new way too. It can be downloaded in the EU open source portal at Osor.eu.

  • OpenOffice 3.1 ready to lick Microsoft’s suite?

    The answer for many is OpenOffice.org, which has – after several push-backs – just released version 3.1. And the good news is that OpenOffice 3.1 meets the most important criterion of any software upgrade: It’s considerably snappier than its predecessor.

• Programming

  • Qt Publishes Roadmap, Opens Up Git Repository

    Back in March we witnessed the release of Qt 4.5 which was also met by an announcement that Qt Extended was to be discontinued and that was just weeks after the announcement came down that Qt Jambi would be discontinued. There have certainly been many changes since Nokia bought out Trolltech and then renamed it to Qt Software. Nokia also allowed these Norwegian programmers to license Qt under the LGPL. Today there are more changes coming out of Qt Software.

    [...]

    Qt’s plans for a 3D portability API sound a bit like the work Intel and others have been putting into Clutter to simplify the development of OpenGL and OpenGL ES programs.

Leftovers

• DRM Hell

  Now, for those that have not kept up, Microsoft charges for their software and not a small amount either. If you want to charge me to use your software, and I find a value in using your software, I have no problem paying you. What Microsoft and others does to control their licenses is this – they create a unique signature based on the activation key and ten or so hardware component IDs. Change a percentage of the hardware and you invalidate the key. Invalidate the key and…

• Elsevier Had A Whole Division Publishing Fake Medical Journals

  Remember a week ago when we wrote about pharma giant Merck and publishing giant Elsevier working together to publish a fake journal that talked up various Merck drugs and was used by doctors to show that the drugs were safe and useful?

• Linux Torvald’s plagiarism revealed!

  I’ve just watched Caprica, the pilot for a prequel series to the recent Battlestar Galactica. In the last episode of BSG, we learn that all of this takes place tens of thousands of years in the past.