08.01.09

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• [Opensourc3 Magazine publishes its first issue]

  Issue 1 looks at the Linux KVM Hypervisor Technology, System Automation with Puppet, Cloud and Hypervisor Technologies, Building IP Networks and Linux iSCSI solutions.

• First they bash it, then they use it.

  GNU/Linux is a really good concept. It empowers the end user and gives you tons of choices, power and freedom. You can choose from hundreds of different distributions, install thousands of free software and customize your OS significanty if you choose to. On the other hand, most proprietary software locks you in and dictates to you what you can do or not do with it.

• Kernel Space

  • Don’t Miss the Boat

    If you’re in the mood for Linux — and who amongst us isn’t — September may be your month, as the Linux Foundation presents the inaugural LinuxCon in Portland. Just shy of two months ago we sounded the call to rise, shine, and catch the early bird rate — sadly, the early bird’s worm is no more. It’s still possible, though, to grab yourself a spot and shave a nice slice off the price.

• Applications

  • If You Pay for a Linux Word Processor, Is It Really Worth the Price?

    Meanwhile, industry heavy-hitters Sun Microsystems, Novell, and IBM Lotus keep building on their Linux heritages with new releases of distinctive commercial word processors. So, too, does, ThinkFree, an innovative California-based start-up that’s just added ThinkFree Mobile Netbook to its growing line-up of crossplatform suites. Haansoft, a South Korean distributor of Linux OS and word processing software, just so happens to hold a majority interest in ThinkFree.

  • A new player in Linux music production

    I recently discovered a fairly new project that has an interesting take on Linux music production: the Open Octave Project. The goal of Open Octave is to provide an environment for audio and MIDI production specifically for orchestral music and film scoring. What is different about this project – compared to other Linux audio / MIDI solutions – is that the developers don’t build a new application from scratch. Instead, the team chose to combine and adapt existing projects into an unified framework. This actually works two ways: in using existing applications, the team doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel and can use existing quality tools, and by contributing their efforts back to the original projects, these benefit as well. So what’s in store with the Open Octave Project? Let’s delve a little deeper…

  • Gaze at the stars with Stellarium

    We have had lots of programs featured here on Dedoimedo, but we never really focused on educational software. Until today. I’m going to present Stellarium, a beautiful, pleasant, addictive open-source planetarium software.

    [...]

    Stellarium is a young application. Still, it already shows many exciting, promising features that will surely help it grab wider and wider audience. Stellarium is a great choice for the final frontier fans. It can also help hobbyist astronomers, physics students and seems like an excellent way of getting children hooked into science.

  • 3 Dockbar like applications for Linux / Mac OS X / Windows

    In the past, the dock bar has been just an appearance enhancer in operating systems. People have been led to believe that the dock is for those who are more conscious about appearance rather than performance and because of this, they quickly lost interest in it once they got used to it.

  • Go Back to School With Linux: Part Three

    Today marks the final installment in our series that takes a look at educational versions of popular Linux distributions ideal for students returning to class in the next few weeks. We’ve already talked about Edubuntu and openSUSE Education, so today let’s take a look at Debian Jr.

• Distributions

  • Red Hat

    • Red Hat to step up developer efforts

      Red Hat will step up its efforts to help drive developer contribution and remains unfazed by desktop competition, according to its chief executive Jim Whitehurst.

    • [CentOS] Open Letter

      The CentOS Development team had a routine meeting today with Lance Davis in attendance. During the meeting a majority of issues were resolved immediately and a working agreement was reached with deadlines for remaining unresolved issues. There should be no impact to any CentOS users going forward.

      The CentOS project is now in control of the CentOS.org and CentOS.info domains and owns all trademarks, materials, and artwork in the CentOS distributions.

      We look forward to working with Lance to quickly complete all the agreed upon issues.

      More information will follow soon.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Motorola enlists help developing apps for new wave of mobile phones

    Motorola Inc. is calling on mobile phone application developers as it readies the release of several new phones later this year.

    The company’s turnaround strategy for its mobile phone division rests on Android, a platform created by Google. Schaumburg-based Motorola plans to have several Android-powered phones on shelves for the holiday season.

Free Software/Open Source

• The White House Sends an Invitation: PCAST Meeting Aug. 6 and 7

  PCAST is a group of scientists and engineers who advise the President and the Office of the President, providing policy recommendations. The purpose of the meeting is to set priorities for the coming year.

  I know many of you are stakeholders, CEOs and executives of companies and leaders and contributors to software projects, but you don’t have to be: the general public can contribute also. I’d so dearly love to go and speak about FOSS, but I don’t feel it would be wise, due to the death threat situation, but you can go and represent yourself. And it will be streamed. There is even an opportunity to send written comments at any time. I’ll give you the details in a moment, but if you’ve ever complained that the government is clueless about tech and FOSS, this is your opportunity to contribute in a positive way.

• Time Marches On: Mozilla Sunbird Finally Approaches 1.0

  The Mozilla Project’s long-awaited calendaring app is about to see 1.0. After five years of development, the project released 1.0 beta builds this week. We took Sunbird for a spin to see how it manages our time.

• Official Google Chrome Themes Coming?

• Openness

  • Code Rush in the Creative Commons

    Last year, to commemorate the release of Firefox 3.0, I posted a heavily-annotated copy of Code Rush — the commercially-unavailable documentary from 2000 about the open-sourcing of the Netscape code base and the beginning of the Mozilla project. Shortly afterwards, I interviewed Code Rush director David Winton about the film, who asked that I take the video offline while he decided what to do with it. Last week, he made a decision.

• Programming

  • A first look at Eclipse 4

    The Eclipse development environment has become a very popular open source project. A flexible software tool kit, Eclipse can integrate the products of several vendors as plug-ins, for example for modelling, development and software tests; for some time now, Eclipse hasn’t just been about Java. The Eclipse Foundation behind the development environment has grown into an influential consortium: in November 2001, IBM introduced the source code of a development environment into the newly established Eclipse.org open source community. IBM then dominated the scene for a long time, until the foundation was established as an independent and non-profit organisation for the development of the Eclipse platform in 2004.

Leftovers

• Web Abuse

  • Surveillance Self-Defense International

    6 Ideas For Those Needing Defensive Technology to Protect Free Speech from Authoritarian Regimes and 4 Ways the Rest of Us Can Help

    Introduction: The Internet remains one of the most powerful means ever created to give voice to repressed people around the world. Unfortunately, new technologies have also given authoritarian regimes new means to identify and retaliate against those who speak out despite censorship and surveillance. Below are six basic ideas for those attempting to speak without falling victim to authoritarian surveillance and censorship, and four ideas for the rest of us who want to help support them.

• Intellectual Insanity

  • In a Mermaid Statue, Danes Find Something Rotten in State of Michigan

    The problem is that this ode to the old country allegedly infringes the copyright of Danish artist Edvard Eriksen. In May, just as preparations for this year’s Danish-themed festivities were getting under way, the town got a letter from the Artists Rights Society — a New York-based organization that enforces copyrights on behalf of artists, including Andy Warhol and Picasso. The letter said that the statue is an “unauthorized reproduction” and had to come down. If not, the town would have to pay a licensing fee.

  • Pictures From Public Places Not Private

    Internet accessibility of images amassed by governmental organizations, commercial entities and individuals is the basis of novel privacy violation claims. However, Internet distribution of images of both individuals and private places collected from public places remains lawful.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Obama Taps Another MoFo Lawyer

    President Barack Obama has nominated Ketanji Jackson, of counsel to the D.C. office of Morrison & Foerster, to fill a spot on the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

    Jackson, 38, would be one of seven voting members of the commission, which overseas the sentencing guidelines used by federal judges and advises Congress on criminal law. The position is part-time, requires confirmation by the Senate, and would end in October 2013.

  • Amanda Palmer Talks About Connecting With Fans: Fans WANT To Support Artists

    i started my band in 2000. we didn’t play rock clubs. we played in our friends houses, in our own houses, in art galleries, in lofts, at parties. then we gradually brought the party indoors, into clubs that would book us once they knew we’d bring in 50 drinking/paying bodies. i treated our email list like gold. i obsessively stayed up all night and added named after every show. we took the time to meet every single fan who wanted to meet us after every show (i still do this, and i know that brian does it in his current punk band, world/inferno). but this wasn’t because i felt it was mandatory….i did this because we LIKED it.

  • Reasons Why Copyright On Art And Music Could Be Deemed Unconstitutional

    Bell is interpreting the Constitutional clause in an even stricter manner — suggesting that any work covered by patents or copyright needs to promote both progress in science and in the useful arts, which is an even higher bar, though I’m not sure I’m convinced it was meant to be both. Also, many would retort that the Constitution grants the Congress the ability to determine if such monopolies promote the progress of science and the useful arts — and as long as Congress says they do, then we should consider that they do (no matter how wrong they might be).

  • Italian RIAA Sues The Pirate Bay For 1 Million Euros

    Lawyers from FIMI (Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana) and FPM (Federation against Musical Piracy) say they will sue Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij and Gottfrid Svartholm in Italy, seeking damages in excess of 1 million euros. Their lawyer told TorrentFreak that so far, the prospective defendants have had no official notification.

  • European Commission secret move on 3-strikes

    The European Commission is secretly talking with industry on Europe-wide 3-strikes measures. In what would appear to be British-inspired intiative, it wants to broker agreements between broadband providers and rights-holders, threatening EU legislation if they do not co-operate.

    A meeting was held on 6 July, attended by rights-holders, trade unions, and Internet providers. The Commission’s agenda was to start of series of talks to set up ‘voluntary agreeements’ for dealing on online copyright protection of ‘creative content’ which is defined as ‘books, films and music’. ‘Sanctions and remedies’ were discussed, as well as ‘legal alternatives to piracy’. The Commission is threatening to bring in a new European law which would bring in copyright enforcement measures against Internet downloading in all Member States, if no agreement is reached.