Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 23/05/2009: Gaming, Phones, and Sub-notebooks



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Discovery: The Ultimate Linux Device - The Kickfire Appliance
    Kickfire is having a contest where you can win a Kickfire appliance. You'll have to compete with me, of course, and others who want to win the ultimate Linux device but we'll all have fun doing it.


  • Statistics, Market Share, Logic, and Why There Probably Can't Be Only One
    Operating systems aren't immortal beings, and by rights, there can't be (there shouldn't be) only one. McKenzie reiterates Brian Proffitt's take on the Freeform Dynamics report, highlighting the idea that visual artists and graphic designers generally find using Linux less appealing (or workable) than those in IT departments, or even generalized office workers.


  • Sometimes Linux is really better
    I've been very impressed with the latest Ubuntu and it seems that the polish goes far deeper than just the eye candy.

    Next week I'm off to Melbourne and the office lent me a nifty 3G USB wireless dongle, a Huawei model E169, supplied by Optus.




  • Events

    • Taiwan open source conference sets agenda
      An agenda has been posted for the FreedomHEC Taipei open source conference in Taiwan. Scheduled for June 10-11, the conference focuses on embedded hardware running open source Linux, and includes presentations on Linux fast-boot technology, GPL licensing, the Qi bootloader, and Coreboot.


    • Red Hat Open Source Forum
      The Red Hat Open Source Forum will explore how to carve out costs with open source technologies in the current economic climate. Taking place in London on 16 June, 2009, the full day conference, for IT professionals will feature testimony from Red Hat partners and customers on the benefits provided by open source solutions.






  • Applications

    • Ubuntu Polishes GNU Screen
      GNU Screen is a terminal multiplexer program that Linux folk have used for ages. It allows you to turn one terminal into many, and run processes even after logging out. In this article we will give a brief overview of screen usage for the uninitiated, then talk about how Ubuntu’s defaults and new screen-profiles package have taught us about new and wonderful features of screen.


    • Download Themes for Your Gnome Desktop with Gnome Art
      Gnome Art is an art website which allows you to download and install various items such as icons, backgrounds, desktop themes, login window theme and gtk engine. This website comes with a very interesting application which is in the Ubuntu repositories. If you want to install it, run this in a terminal:


    • A new feature for Krita
      Yesterday, I took a day off from serious things like redesigning the library structure of KOffice, working on the Krita part of the redesigned KOffice website, trying to optimize the hell out of freehand painting and several other things, like being too sick to actually think straight for two consecutive moments and so not making much progress with any of these things.

      I took a holiday, in short, a chance to add a nice little feature to Krita: image backgrounds.








  • Games

    • Linux MMORPG Game Engine Sees Major Update
      Regnum Online, a Massively Multi-player Online Role Playing Game that has a native Linux client offered by its developers (NGD Studios), has received a major overhaul. Regnum Online is one of the very few MMORPGs that has a native Linux client, but now its own game engine got a whole lot more powerful. The game engine has been reworked greatly and is now known as NG3D2.0, but later this year they already plan to introduce another major update on top of that.


    • Mystic Mine Sale
      Koonsolo is starting production on their next game, but as you might know this can be quite costly especially for a small game developer. In order to gain some funds quickly, they are doing a promotion and sell their current game ‘Mystic Mine‘ at a huge price discount!


    • Vendetta Online launches Dynamic Warfare.
      With the Friday night release, Linux-friendly space MMO Vendetta Online has launched Dynamic Warfare: a new long-term battle and large-scale warfare mechanic designed to permit factional conquest of geographical areas.








  • Desktop Environments







  • Devices/Embedded

    • UMID M1 mbook Available now in Linux and Windows XP and Both Very Pricey
      The $659.42 (Linux) and $765.78 (XP) price points won’t help its cause either. For these prices, UMID could’ve used an aluminum chassis and maybe an OLED screen and higher-capacity 32GB SSD.


    • Home media server to demo on Intel Atom platform
      At Computex, Intel and Amahi plan to demonstrate an embedded version of the latter's Amahi Linux Home Server software designed for Intel Atom N270 processors. The open source Home Digital Assistant (HDA) will provide media sharing and backup on integrated media servers and home routers, says Amahi.




    • Phones

      • NTT DoCoMo to Releases Their First Android Phone in Japan
        Behold the HT-03A, that according to this Japanese blog (memn0ck.com) is DoCoMo's future Android powered phone. The HT-03A running Android 1.5 Cupcake (aka HTC Magic) (Eric Lin introduced us to it on video here).


      • Panasonic to embrace open-source smartphones
        Speaking at a press conference in Japan, Keisuke Ishii, board member and director of the Mobile Terminal Business Unit at Panasonic Mobile Communications, said the company is "seriously considering developing an Android-based handset and entering overseas mobile phone markets in fiscal 2010."






    • Sub-notebooks

      • Linux Distros For Netbooks
        Most Linux distros are suitable for netbook use. But fine-tuning your particular flavor of netbook by finding an even friendlier Linux distro isn't too difficult. Matching up your rig's configuration: screen size, devices, and drivers -- and your own style of work and play -- with the most conducive Linux distro, you'll get the max out of your mini-laptop.


      • Et Tu, Intel? Microsoft's Ambitions Lie Bleeding
        Intel’s new operating system, designed for cloud-computing devices like smartphones and netbooks, is a potentially fatal stab wound to Microsoft’s operating system empire.

        [...]

        Intel’s decision to develop Moblin was clearly driven by the success of smartphones and netbooks, both of which rely on the cloud to do most of the processing and storage that traditional PCs perform on the device itself. Microsoft has tried to float the idea that it will survive the obsolescence of traditional PCs and laptops because of the largely spurious idea that Windows 7 is optimized for netbooks.












Free Software/Open Source





Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Steve Weber, creator of the phrase "anti-rival goods" 20 (2005)

Ogg Theora





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

Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft-Sponsored Xenophobia and Nationalism
IBM is very similar in this regard
Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
I'll still be in my forties by then
 
Links 21/09/2025: "Hey Hi" (Hype) Under Fire, Fakes Identified; Tesla Burns Family
Links for the day
Google's Software is Malware and Malware in Mobile Devices
Originally posted by Rob Musial
Links 20/09/2025: Hegemony Coming to a Close, Luigi Mangione Ruled Not Terrorist
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/09/2025: "Charlie Kirk Was a Hateful Piece of Shit" and Slop Code Attempted by Microsofter
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, September 20, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, September 20, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Snowy Photos and utism is a Spectrum
Links for the day
Vintage is Sometimes Better
Why can't we get back to "simple" if (or where) "simple" means better?
Climate Breakdown Means We'll be Publishing More, Not Less
Press freedom will be a common, recurring theme
Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
Violence is a recurring theme
Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
Links for the day
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Options and TV Time Machine
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
Links for the day
Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
Links for the day
About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
4.8K would represent a 20% increase
Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
Does Rust make sense?
Techrights the Name Turns 15
About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
Many articles out there are nowadays fake
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
Gemini Links 20/09/2025: Navigating the Pressures of Modern Life and SpellBinding Accidentally Wrote Another Gemini Server
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
Links for the day
European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
breaking/violating laws and conventions
Offloading to the Sister Site
In the interest of not overwhelming readers
Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
Links for the day
Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
Links for the day
Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025