07.20.09
Posted in Deception, Google, Microsoft, Search at 10:27 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
…According to Microsoft’s logic
Summary: A game with figures and definitions intends to paint a deceiving picture
THIS is an interesting little catch about Microsoft’s already-struggling-to-grow search engine. Watch how Microsoft spins its search engine, claiming a jump from 0% to 8% because they renamed their search engine and began redirecting visitors. Underneath it is mostly the same, so to suggest such a gain is like Google launching under a new domain, pretending to have begun from scratch, and then pretending to have gained a lot of market share, starting from 0%. Here is another article whole title is “Microsoft: Bing Jumps 8 Percent Since Launch”. This is a very deceiving headline and it is irresponsible to put it like that. Towards the end it states:
Bing has yet to capture as much of the market globally, with 3.27 percent of worldwide marketshare in June, behind Google with 89.8 percent and Yahoo with 5.15 percent.
The English-speaking press tends to paint a different picture by citing US-oriented surveys. The same goes for studies of Web browsers and operating systems trends, where data is mostly collected from the most developed countries.
Here is one person who is blocking Bing altogether.
Webmasters all over the web have been noticing the same trend. Exposure Online says, “Microsoft is lying and intentionally screwing up your log files,” and eKstreme.com says, “Yell if Microsoft’s Live.com Spammed You Too – Updated,” and even other webmasters decided to block MS’ bot before I did.
This last article is spinning it in some other ways; for instance, it is measuring only what seems like growth (e.g. “people likely to recommend”) and ignoring the rest of the possible metrics that are less than supportive. █
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Posted in Finance, Google, Microsoft at 9:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: More news about Microsoft’s situation amid declining margins, increased spendings in some units, and pressure from Google/SaaS and GNU/Linux
YESTERDAY WE wrote about Microsoft's expected sharp decline in profit. It turns out that not only profit declines but revenue does too (these two yardsticks can go in separate directions). According to this report from Romania:
Microsoft Romania, the local subsidiary of world’s biggest software producer would end the fiscal 2009 (July 1 2008 – July 3 2009) with a 10-15% decline in revenues, thus missing the growth estimates made at the end of last year by 1 to 4%, stated Calin Tatomir, the company’s chief executive.
Microsoft’s revenue also declined in the last quarter. It was claimed to be a first-ever, but as past stories suggest, this may not be true. Expectation is that Microsoft’s profit erosion will be sharp, so IDG has just published an opinion piece titled: “Seven Reasons Microsoft’s Profits are Tanking”
To give one reason:
* Bing: Microsoft’s latest search engine effort will cost in the ballpark of $100 million to market, and that doesn’t include development costs either. Is Redmond tilting at windmills here, or does Bing really have a shot at challenging mighty Google for search dollars? Whatever the case, Bing is one expensive gamble.
It is not just Microsoft’s finances that are declining. Microsoft’s public image too is suffering. Consider for example the following new reports:
i. Microsoft Customer Satisfaction Plummets in VendorRate Q2 Report
VendorRate, the only Web-based business information service that offers quick, confidential performance ratings and comparisons of technology vendors, announced today that customer satisfaction scores for Microsoft plunged dramatically in the second quarter of 2009 while IBM Informix and telecom equipment maker ShoreTel earned the top scores in the quarter.
ii. Survey: Microsoft customer satisfaction takes second quarter hit
Customer satisfaction for Microsoft’s applications and operating systems took a hit in the second quarter, according to a report by VendorRate, an outfit that tracks vendor satisfaction.
iii. Startups give Google thumbs-up over Microsoft
Analysts and executives say Google, which unveiled the Chrome this week in a direct challenge to Microsoft’s decades-old dominance of computer operating systems and business applications, will take years to get significant share of the market, but startups might be their way in.
A growing number of tech entrepreneurs argue that Microsoft’s current software is out of date and inefficient because, unlike applications that run off the Web in a “cloud” environment, they run one copy per person at a time, rather than allowing multiple users to share information.
So how can Microsoft defeat Google? Well, Joe Wilcox is back after Microsoft Watch closed. Writing for BetaNews, he gives Microsoft advice not on how to improve Microsoft products but on how to FUD rivals.
Microsoft should use Twitter data theft as hosted apps marketing FUD
[...]
Microsoft talks about the “Apple Tax,” but I’ve heard plenty of IT managers complain about the “Microsoft Tax” in reference to Software Assurance fees or CALs (client-access licenses). They see that off-premise hosting can cost loads less per employee, provide immediate software and feature upgrades and reduce management costs. It’s to these businesses considering hosted services — and not from Microsoft or one of its partners — that the Twitter/Google Apps data breach could be used as effective counter marketing. Microsoft sales people can spin the story to emphasize the importance of on-premise software and to call out new security features coming in Windows 7.
The explanation may seem reasonable, but the headline shows sheer bias and intent to FUD as a business strategy. █
“I’m a huge fan of guerrilla marketing.”
–Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Watch
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Posted in News Roundup at 8:11 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Contents
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The partnership, a first for any Nigerian software company, will be launched at the Nigerian computer society conference slated for Abuja by this month.
International Syst and Leapsoft are jointly developing and marketing a suite of software applications and customized solutions for the Nigerian market which when fully developed will be branded Metasys Wazobia.
The partnership was structured by Leapsoft executives Bolaji Onibudo and Tola Talabi at International Syst headquarters in Brazil.
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The problem was that Asus had not only adopted Windows and jettisoned Linux (which I knew), but the computer didn’t even come with the free services that came with the US$199 model. I know there are millions who love Windows. That is their human right. But it fails completely — for me — on usability.
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Additionally, Linux is not tied to the brand or agenda of any other major company, as is the case for Nokia’s Symbian OS and Microsoft with its Windows Mobile OS, which creates unfettered business model flexibility that can fully support a highly customisable user experience.
Mobile Linux solutions share APIs with the desktop and enterprise solutions. As a result, previously developed third-party Linux applications can be ported to the mobile environment more efficiently and cost-effectively.
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MP3 – 1 hour 52 minutes 57 seconds, 51.7 MB, Ogg Vorbis version here — you can also download all our episodes in both MP3 and Ogg Vorbis format from the Outlaw Archives.
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There is a reason why open-source operating systems based on Linux are less likely to be infected by a virus than proprietary systems like Microsoft’s Windows: As computer security experts like to say, “given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.”
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Google recently announced plans for a new PC operating system, the Chrome OS. Within minutes, the media reported an OS war and began telling us who loses and who wins. The Chrome OS will smash Windows! Or else Chrome is actually good for Microsoft and (despite running on a Linux kernel) threatens Linux! Who knows? We might actually have to wait until the new OS comes out, which Google says won’t happen for another year.
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Have you ever wondered why some updates or installs require a reboot, and others don’t? The main reason relates to kernel-level (core) services running in memory which either have been altered by the update to include new data that can’t be “squeezed in” to its existing footprint, or are currently attached to multiple separate processes which cannot be accounted for without a reboot. Ksplice has figured out a way around that issue in a majority of the cases.
[...]
This technology is only for Linux at the current time. No features like this are available for Windows. The technology does require a kernel patch, as Ksplice itself must be integrated into the kernel. The installation software (.deb package) handles this for you.
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Those behind the Das Keyboard are now offering up new keycaps for Linux and Mac users. Just pop off the designated Windows keys and replace them with the 2 Mac command keys, 2 Mac alt/option keys, and 2 Linux keys.
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Only two weeks ago, Bull announced that it was creating its own line of extreme-scale blade supercomputers with the unfortunately and presumably unintentionally hilarious name bullx. The machines do, however, include plenty of clever hardware such as nVidia Tesla GPU co-processors, and software such as a complete Linux stack for HPC shops.
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IFOSS L. Rev’s Tech Watch section aims to allow technical experts and organisational leaders in Free and Open Source Software to introduce and explain topical issues with important legal aspects. These discussions may form the basis of subsequent detailed examination by IFOSS L. Rev. contributors.
This issue, KDE e.V. Vice President of Legal Affairs Adriaan de Groot reviews some of the issues presently confronting community software authors: copyright consolidation, making a living from coding, and ‘doing legal stuff right’.
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Applications
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When I first downloaded LinCity-NG (free), I figured it was a simple clone of an older version of SimCity, primarily aimed at the *nix market. As it turns out, it’s more like a first cousin once removed, but that’s not entirely a bad thing.
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Micro-blogging is all the rage these days. It is a webservice which allows the subscriber to send short text updates or micromedia such as photos or audio clips and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or by a restricted group which can be chosen by the user. Subscribers can read microblog posts online or request that updates be delivered in real time to their desktop as an instant message or sent to a mobile device as an SMS text message.
With micro-blogging, posts are brief (typically 140 – 200 characters) and can be written or received with a variety of computing devices.
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The Mandriva developers have released a second edition of their Mandriva Linux One 2009.1 LiveCD. The second edition of the LiveCD uses the 2.6.29 Linux kernel and features version 4.2.4 of the KDE desktop environment.
The release includes all of the available security and maintenance updates up to the 10th of July and several updates to the included applications, such as Firefox 3.0.11, OpenOffice 3.0.1 and version 1.0 of the VLC Media Player. Two new desktop icons allow users to easily install a flash player and several additional audio and video codecs.
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At the end of the day though, I wouldn’t call Kubuntu Jaunty a particularly successfully release. It took a pretty significant effort to fine-tune the setup to its current state and I don’t find that to be particularly associated to “just works”. I’m going to try out Karmic as soon as it hits beta. Hopefully, we can avoid jumping through hoops to get it setup properly this time.
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By sheer chance and very good fortune, I now own an ASUS N10J netbook. Or notebook. Somewhere in between the two, I suppose, in terms of price, features and performance. This is likely to turn out to be very long, so I am going to start off with the summary, for those who just want the high points, and then I’ll fill in a lot more details.
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Mozilla Labs has announced the winners of its Summer Design Challenge, a competition that called for the interaction design community to submit ideas for reinventing tabbed browsing.
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Open-source software has gained growing acceptance in the enterprise. Once enterprises put in place the same governance, policy and support processes around open-source software as they do with proprietary software, there is no limit to how much open-source software they can bring into their organization. Here, Knowledge Center contributor Carol J. Rizzo offers five tips on how to bring open-source software into your organization in a way that maps to your corporate risk factors, making open-source software no more or less of a risk than proprietary software.
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A picture is always worth a thousand words. The good news is that in the open source world as well as the freeware world, there are many excellent graphics and photo management tools, plus free desktop publishers and web design templates. Whether you want to produce splashy graphical documents, enhance graphics on a blog or web site, create eye-catching logos, or more, check out our updated collection of ten free applications and resources here.
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Open source shares critical values with government and public education that make them function in the ideal; meritocracy of ideas, transparency, collaboration. But where is the sweet spot in the confluence of these social, technical, and public policy ideals? What is the opportunity for the citizen developer to get involved? And would it surprise you to know that change has been quietly at work while you were still standing in line for your driver’s license?
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The Unladen Swallow project, which seeks to bring a 5-fold performance boost to the Python programming language, has delivered its first milestone release. Although the project hasn’t delivered real-world performance improvements yet, the new version is a big step forward and helps to demonstrate the technical viability of the effort.
School Park mashup art and Free Software space in Santo Andre, Brazil 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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Posted in IRC Logs at 8:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Read the log
Enter the IRC channel now
To use your own IRC client, join channel #boycottnovell in FreeNode.
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07.19.09
Posted in Site News at 4:34 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
WE have begun drafting a commenting policy, as promised last night due to increased site abuse. Here is a first draft.
Everyone is welcome to post comments. However, we are sometimes encountering anti-GNU/Linux propagandists. They are those who regularly post argumentative, insulting, distracting, untrue, and generally unpleasant articles to the site containing propaganda designed slow and even prevent to acceptance of GNU/Linux by the general computing public or even acceptance of the site (ad hominem attacks). For more information, see Common Troll Tactics.
In addition, cursing, libeling, and intimidation are seen as unacceptable in the comments as these disrupt discussion. People whose professional affiliation relates to the subject of the posts (e.g. Novell or Microsoft employees commenting on a post regarding their employer) are strongly encouraged to post disclosures. This is intended to prevent corporate influence overwhelming impartial voices without it being known to visitors.
That last part also refers to SLAPP, which Wikipedia defines as:
A Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (“SLAPP”) is a lawsuit that is intended to intimidate and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition. Winning the lawsuit is not necessarily the intent of the person filing the SLAPP. The plaintiff’s goals are accomplished if the defendant succumbs to fear, intimidation, mounting legal costs or simple exhaustion and abandons the criticism. A SLAPP may also intimidate others from participating in the debate.
Comments insinuating SLAPP will not be tolerated here. The same goes for IRC. Most importantly, please do not feed the trolls. █
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Posted in Debian, FSF, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Mono, Novell, Patents, Ubuntu at 11:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Solang photo manager does not require Mono
Summary: How F-spot would force Ubuntu, for example, to adopt more Mono applications with non-ECMA .NET components
LAST NIGHT we arrived at an interesting realisation. If F-spot will depend on Banshee, which according to the plan we have heard that it will [PDF], then Ubuntu, which already uses F-Spot, may have to swallow this other pill too — one which contain non-ECMA components (Banshee that is). So, the latest statement from the FSF aside and also API concessions aside (Mono gives Microsoft power and leverage over GNU/Linux APIs), there is an inherent legal problem here, which is difficult to stop. Another prospective concern is the increasing proximity between Moonlight and Banshee [1, 2, 3, 4], which might bring Microsoft codecs even further into GNU/Linux.
Check out this new mashup from Linux Today, as selected by its editor Carla.
[phred14] [Who is asking for Mono?]
Simple answer – nobody. Mono is being pushed into Linux, not pulled. So far the one application that’s dragging it into “default” isn’t even very important, and Mono/C# isn’t even critical. A Mono-free C#-free clone of that application was built in practically no time.
Simply put, Mono gives Microsoft control over a Linux desktop API, even without patent threats. The ECMA standard is irrelevant, if only because it’s incomplete, and *always* needs extensions. In order to field a functional, complete Mono, you need to start cloning Microsoft stuff. You may as well base the Linux UI on WINE.”
[GreyGeek] [Re: Re: Re: Mono a solution looking for a problem?]
[...]
The lack of MONO apps IS glaring, isn’t it!
What’s even MORE glaring is that De Icaza has been working on MONO since December of 2000, when he changed the name of his company, Helix Code, to Ximian in order to focus on developing MONO. Yet, NINE years later there is only a handful of MONO apps. IF MONO is the such a marvelous RAD tool, why has it taken so long to produce so few applications?
Also, if .NET is such a marvelous CROSS PLATFORM tool where code written on one platform can be recompiled with few or no changes on another platform, WHY isn’t Linux being FLOODED with .NET applications?
The answer is simple. MONO is a patent trap and most Penguins realize it. So, just like it did with the ISO committees, Microsoft is flooding the Linux development groups with .NET moles and the Linux forums with astroturfers and TEs.
GNU/Linux distributions like BLAG reject Mono for obvious reasons (not just the adherence to the FSF’s principles). On the other hand, Ubuntu’s suppression of discussion about Mono [1, 2, 3] is characteristic of a betrayal of democratic principles, or at least ones of an open community thriving in liberties. Humanity for others, unless they dislike Mono. It is indicative of a ruling minority taking decision-making powers from an opposing majority (most people reject Mono), which leads to unrest.
Speaking for myself, I am truly torn here. I have used Ubuntu since its very first release (4.10) and I still have Ubuntu installed on 3 separate boxes. To manually delete Mono is still to send out the message that a Mono-defending distribution is acceptable because subsequent removal of Mono is never accounted for; the message does not get across and users are assumed to have accepted Mono when choosing this one distribution among many hundreds. I remain optimistic that Ubuntu/Canonical will keep this debate alive and maybe resolve its differences. The facts about Mono are not hard to come by. █
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Posted in Asia, Deception, Europe, Free/Libre Software, GNU/Linux, Microsoft at 9:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: A look at how Microsoft responds to the Ukraine’s desire for autonomy with Free software
MANY months ago we wrote about Microsoft signing a contract of exclusivity (MOU) with the Ukrainian government. Such contracts are specifically designed to block competitors such as GNU/Linux, shutting them out of the government sector altogether. We saw it happening once again in May when Steve Ballmer visited the Ukraine. The timing is interesting because of information we have just received about GNU/Linux in the Ukraine (and Microsoft’s response to it). That too is based on a report from May 2009. This report is one among 2 articles, for which we received interpretation from an informant who is familiar with the situation.
“Both articles are published by well-known and trusted sources,” says our informant. “I wish there were more information about this. The Russian press is less transparent than the Ukrainian, and corruption level is very high in both countries.”
Here is the informant’s explanation of the situation in the Ukrainian government:
I have just discovered some FUD that Microsoft spreads in the Ukraine. Basically, the Ukrainian government wants to switch to open source. Here is an announcement (Google’s automated translation to English). To quote from the translation: “May 12, 2009 – in the State Committee of Informatization of Ukraine held a public discussion of the concept of state program implementation in the public administration software with open source, where officials reported on the decision to switch to open source until 2012 and the establishment of the Ukrainian distribution based OS Linux.”
“The General Director of Microsoft Ukraine follows this up with an interview, where he lies about Open Source licensing schemes.”The General Director of Microsoft Ukraine follows this up with an interview, where he lies about Open Source licensing schemes. He said that if someone contributed code, that someone would eventually want compensation for this. Here is his interview (Google’s automated translation to English). He also claims that there is no single country where open source adoption in the government was successful. The first claim is in the first paragraph. The second — in the fifth. He also tells nice things about how “we need to teach kids the most popular OS/office packages, not something that a local government wanted to stick to.” (this was in the 8th paragraph)
They cite IBM, Microsoft and Adobe as world leaders in software development and the guy from Microsoft, for the record, is called Dmitry Shimkiv.
The Ukrainian government is easy to bribe, so I doubt Microsoft is afraid of bad publicity in the Ukraine. Moreover, until ’00 years, 100% of Ukrainians used counterfeited Microsoft software at home and at work, which made them “addicted” to it. This is why Microsoft is hardly afraid of losing this market. There is information about counterfeiting levels in the Ukraine and this is widely available from the BSA, which lists the Ukraine in the top 20 for 2008 (I believe it was in the top 5 in 2000). There is a grassroots movement to support Linux, though. It even made it into a government programme.
There are a couple points to be added to the above. First, government migrations to Free software and GNU/Linux are very often derailed by Microsoft's EDGI. Microsoft uses this anti-competitive programme to pretend that GNU/Linux fails in governments or that it gets rejected. The Gartner Group analysts, whom Microsoft is paying large sums of money [1, 2, 3], participate with Microsoft in this attack on GNU/Linux in governments. There are success stories nonetheless, e.g. in France, the Netherlands, and Germany.
Secondly, on the face of it, in the report above Microsoft also pretends to be “open source” (making Microsoft indistinguishable from rivals). This is an old, dishonest strategy.
The story from the Russian government may be similar, and it is one that we last covered some days ago following initial observations and consultation with people who are close to the scene. Russia has ongoing antitrust scrutiny against Microsoft, so all these tidbits need to be properly documented. This latest story won’t do Microsoft any good with government affairs. It does not look like professional conduct; it is predatory and inherently anti-competitive. █
“Government attorneys accuse Microsoft of using its monopoly position to bully, bribe and attempt to collude with others in the industry, while illegally expanding and protecting its Windows franchise.”
–The antitrust case: a timeline
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Posted in News Roundup at 8:21 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
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Please stay away from GNU/Linux because it is a computer revolution. It is slowly changing the computer industry in major ways. Even Google is creating their own operating system that will be based on the Linux kernel. What are they thinking? Linux for the masses? Oh no! How are we going to get used to not paying hundreds of dollars for an OS. We would have to change our way of thinking and I don’t think majority people are ready for that. We cannot allow this to happen. I have been using GNU/Linux for years and I still can’t get used to such a great operating system. I am happy with it and the great software that I am using. Please take my warning seriously! GNU/Linux is awful and I hope you stay away from it. It is better to pay high prices for an OS that you do not like and the company will dictate to you what you can or cannot do with it, what software you can install and treat you like a criminal. If you do not take my warning seriously and will install GNU/Linux I hope that you are ready for what is to follow. Don’t say I haven’t warned you. Think hard about switching to GNU/Linux.
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The news has been abuzz about Google’s upcoming OS. Many people have been arguing reasons for and against the system, its viability in such a market, and, if the OS is successful, even the morality of the company who may be trusted with even more private information than it already has. Well, here’s another reason for Chrome OS: it could bring more jobs in the area of Linux IT.
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Kernel Space
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So does printing work well in Linux? My response would be an enthusiastic “YES”.
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After being in development for a number of months and being challenged by a few delays, Mesa 7.5 was officially released last night. What’s most significant about this milestone is that it’s the first release to include the Gallium3D architecture. The Gallium3D drivers are still incomplete and there are many state trackers to be added, but this code for the next-generation Linux graphics card drivers is now living in mainline Mesa.
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Applications
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With interest heating up around Linux on netbooks, notebooks and desktop PCs, more and more people are hunting for good word processing software that runs on Linux. Luckily, while a lot of word processing options for Linux have fallen by the wayside, new ones keep springing up, too. Meanwhile, some of the older standbys are picking up features that rival those of Microsoft Word.
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Digital photographers are always looking to improve their skills behind the lens. Anyone can point and click, but what does it take to take a picture with real depth, meaning, and intrigue? What does it take to move from taking a vacation photo to capturing a moment in time? The following open courseware collections aim to help students move from just playing around with a digital camera to creating works of art.
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What’s new in this release (see below for details):
– Still more translation updates.
– Faster bitmap stretching using XRender.
– Proxy support in WinHTTP.
– Many more JScript functions.
– Various bug fixes.
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Quod Libet is a GTK music player written in Python with support for various audio formats, including Ogg Vorbis, FLAC, MP3, WAV, MP4 and WMA. Quod Libet has a different interface and a slightly different approach compared to players like Rhythmbox or Banshee, for example.
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Rhythmbox is the default audio player coming with the GNOME desktop environment, featuring a clean, typical interface which is so common for GTK audio players. I could say that Rhythmbox has little missing features and it is rather complete.
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Gargoyle is a router interface for devices of the Linksys WRT54G series and other small routers such as the La Fonera. The software is based on the recently released OpenWrt firmware Kamikaze and targets not only power users but speaks especially to the average user as well. It provides functions not usually found in router firmware, such as smart DynDNS support, QoS and used bandwidth monitoring.
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Desktop Environments
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He continued, “We promise not to change our application to prevent users to use Amarok with your device. Not only do we care about our users, we are not a competitor to you or have any ulterior motives. Amarok is already fully supported on all flavors of Linux and we have beta releases on Windows and Mac OSX which just need a bit of polishing and stabilization.”
Much as I like iTunes, you have to admit, especially if you’re Palm or any other phone or hand-held device maker, that the Amarok offer should be taken seriously. After all, you’re in the business of selling full-featured devices, not playing software catch-up. Wouldn’t you rather have an open platform that would just work for your customers without worries? I know I would.
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This distro was brought to my attention in the BN IRC room, and whilst my distro hopping machine had difficulties with it (its a little anti social at the moment) I gave it a run on one of the many machines dotted around my house and found myself very surprised (pleasantly) by the results. Its a Slackware based distro, and in these days of MONO uncertainty and the ever growing popularity of about 4 or 5 of the “big name” distro’s, its nice to break out of the mold and take a look at a lesser known option (sans MONO I hasten to add).
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Vector Linux is a popular Linux Distro whose motto is “speed, performance, stability”.
Version 6.0 was released in February 2009. Their stated goal is to “Keep it simple, keep it small and let the end user decide.” Having said that, this end user decided to see what was cooking at Vector.
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Red Hat
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The switch will occur July 24 after the market closes. S&P says CIT’s value had fallen too low Friday for the bank to remain a member of the S&P 500.
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Standard and Poor’s announced that Red Hat would join the S&P 500 as of the close of trading on Friday. Red Hat replaces lender CIT Group, which had a market capitalization below $275 million, ranking it 500th in the index.
The market seemed to like the S&P news. In after hours trading Friday, Red Hat was up 8.45 percent to $22.34.
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Ubuntu
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The Ubuntu CE development team proudly announced yesterday, July 17th, the immediate availability of the Ubuntu Christian Edition 5.0. Being based on the powerful Jaunty Jackalope (Ubuntu 9.04), the new, highly anticipated release of Ubuntu Christian Edition includes a brand new DansGuardian GUI, E-sword installer and, of course, the usual updates and fixes.
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For those of you still running Ubuntu 8.04 due to its Long-Term Support status rather than upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10 or Ubuntu 9.04, fire up your update manager as Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS is now available. Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS is the third maintenance update targeting the Hardy Heron and it includes security updates and fixes for high impact bugs.
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MontaVista® Software, Inc., the leader in embedded Linux® commercialization, today launched a professional services offering for design engineers developing commercial products with Google Android™. MontaVista’s Android Commercialization Services offering is designed to help Android developers deliver innovative commercial products to market quickly and efficiently. This new global services offering is being launched this week with a series of seminars in Tokyo, Taipei, and Seoul.
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Phones
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Palm issued a public release of the Mojo software development kit for its new webOS operating system, in what could possibly be a response to leaks of the SDK in June. The SDK, given a limited release in April, had been slated for public release by the end of summer. Palm’s take is that the public release follows the success of its early access program. “After a successful early access program, Palm’s Mojo Software Development Kit is available to all interested app developers,” begins the announcement on Palm’s blog by Online Communications Director Jon Zilber.
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Sub-notebooks
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Netbooks may be on the cheaper side of computing, but as we’re all watching our pennies now, making the right choice is essential. We’ve brought together all the netbooks we could get hold of – most of which are bundled with Linux – for a comprehensive test.
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Google’s recently announced Linux-based, cloud operating system, Chrome OS, has been the talk of the tech world over the last few days, and rightfully so. Any talk of a fresh OS designed for netbooks (at least, initially) is sure to grab headlines, but when you sex it up by tossing the Big G into the mix, well, it’s world-class news.
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Microsoft’s new Windows 7 operating system will not run on netbooks powered by ARM chips, Microsoft said on Wednesday…
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That may, actually, be exactly what is needed to bring the concepts of Ubuntu Netbook Remix to the masses. It’s too early to tell, but Jolicloud looks like it has a chance of being one of the first Linux-based netbook distros to take off, if they can get deals with hardware manufacturers.
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All articles are copyrighted by the respective authors and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Contact the author directly for questions about modifying or revising an article.
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News providers, like most content providers, are interested in having their content seen by as many people as possible. But unlike many news organizations, whose primary concern may be monetizing their content, National Public Radio is interested in turning it into a resource for people to use in new and novel ways as well. Daniel Jacobson is in charge making that content available to developers and end users in a wide variety of formats, and has been doing so using an Open API that NPR developed specifically for that purpose. Daniel will talk about how the project is going at OSCON, the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. Here’s a preview of what he’ll be talking about.
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As an experiment, I decided to bring my Evolutionary Computing presentation on making the journey into free, open-source software — a slide show originally created in OpenOffice Impress 2.4 — into Google Docs, which happens to have a presentation app in addition to the better-known Docs and Spreadsheets components.
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Do you want to remove that Windows or Apple logo from your Linux-powered netbook or laptop? If you do then you may as well replace it with some cool graphics that would stand out. To spare you from the hassles of creating you own or searching the web, I recommend that you download the Free Software Sticker Book first. There you will find tons of ready-made stickers (in ODG format) that is related to Linux and Free and Open Source software. But before I’ll give you the download link, here are some teasers…
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Research organisation National ICT Australia (NICTA) has stepped up its support for open source software by launching the OpenNICTA portal (http://www.opennicta.com) where people can view and download software developed and licensed by the organisation.
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Even if you have the perfect idea for the next Great American Novel, getting it down on paper is never easy. While you could always use standard word processors like OpenOffice Write or AbiWord, they don’t have the bells and whistles that make writing books, manuals, and theses as easy as possible. Fortunately, there are a few open source applications that help budding authors get stories out of their heads and into the hands of readers.
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Firefox
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Quite: this isn’t just about getting some well-deserved dosh to the coders, but also about giving users a way to feel more engaged. Great move.
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Some time in August Firefox will be downloaded for the billionth time (or one thousand millionth) since its original release, back in November 2004.
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Business
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Dr. Dobb’s: What’s MariaDB?
Widenius: It’s a community developed branch of MySQL with bug fixes and new features developed by the MariaDB community, of which Monty Program Ab is an active member. We will keep MariaDB in sync with MySQL development to ensure all bug fixes and features in MySQL also exists in MariaDB. At this time MariaDB 5.1 should be notable faster, have more features and have fewer bugs than the corresponding MySQL 5.1 release.
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Openness
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As regular readers of this blog will know, I am intrigued by the way that ideas from free software are moving across to different disciplines. Of course, applying them is no simple matter: there may not be an obvious one-to-one mapping of the act of coding to activities in the new domain, or there may be significant cultural differences that place obstacles in the way of sharing.
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As a media theorist who’s written about some of the most influential ideas of the digital age, Rushkoff is second to none. In Life Inc., he describes not just corporations, but how we all can change to an “open source economy” that favors decentralized value creation over banking and central currency. We spoke with him to ask more about what this new economy would look like and how the Web is involved.
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CREST has released the results of its questionnaire on OA. The questionnaire responses were due April 1, 2009, and the EC accepted the summary of responses on June 9, 2009. (Thanks to Heinz Pampel.)
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Censorship/Web Abuse
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Mark Klein: Fear. First of all it was a scary time. It still is a scary time, but during the Bush years it was sort of a witch hunt atmosphere and people were afraid. People are afraid of losing their jobs, and it’s a rule of thumb that if you become a whistleblower you’ll probably lose your job. And if you have a security clearance, you not only lose your job, but you probably will be prosecuted by the government. The Bush administration made that very clear in statements they made over and over again: ‘Anybody who reveals anything about our secret programs will be prosecuted and we are running investigations to find out who leaked this to the New York Times.’ Well that puts a fear in people.
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But no, apparently the publisher changed its mind about offering an electronic edition, and apparently Amazon, whose business lives and dies by publisher happiness, caved. It electronically deleted all books by this author from people’s Kindles and credited their accounts for the price.
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In an irony-filled moment that underlines the flaws of our increasingly digital society, Amazon has removed George Orwell’s 1984 from America’s Kindle ebook readers.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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This could have been an enthusiastic Wikipedia editor, so I checked the history page of the article, which tracks every change. It turns out that Wikipedia had it first. Here is a link to the 10 July 2009 version of the article.
Let me repeat, to be clear: Wikipedia Had It First. Which means an AP writer or editor cribbed directly from Wikipedia, changed some words, and put it in the article.
In and of itself, that is not the problem. Wikipedia is, in fact, fine with this.
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I’ve been following the rather entertaining case of Antigua vs. US for a few years now. Basically, the US government has taken a “do as I say, not as I do” attitude to the WTO – refusing to follow the latter’s rules while seeking to enforce them against others. The net result is that plucky little Antigua seems to have won some kind of permission to ignore US copyright – up to a certain point – although nobody really knows what this means in practice.
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Nine organisations representing the technology industry, libraries, digital rights and privacy interests have sent a letter to United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk urging that issues related to the internet be dropped from negotiations for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). They also demanded that in the secretive ACTA negotiation, negotiating documents be made available to those representing the public interest, and that advisory committees be created to include civil society and internet-related industry interests.
Alexandro Colorado, international open source evangelist 22 (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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