08.19.09

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• The Curse of the Living Windows

  Fortunately, I had spent the last few months learning enough about Linux to begin my run for freedom from Windows already, so Ubuntu 9.04 was running smoothly on one of my two computers by the time DSL came to town. I knew that all I needed or wanted from an ISP was a connection to the internet — any other services were of no interest.

  Of course, since this was a Windows ISP, there was nothing in their literature that suggested how to carry out the actual connection process other than “install the program from the CD, we will assimilate your computer and do the rest.” I’ve learned to expect that, having endured the Driver Dramas of winmodem/linmodem on dialup, but since this is ADSL, I did need to find the magic numbers like IP address, subnet mask, gateway, and DNS server. That meant I had to call Technical Support.

• Linux vendor revenue $1 billion by 2012? Or is it $49 billion+ ?

  Red Hat’s CEO Jim Whitehurst has said that it is his goal to advance Red Hat to be the first open source vendor to hit $1 billion in revenues. Red Hat is well on its way, but Red Hat is now making an increasing amount of its revenues from JBoss middleware running on Linux.

• Storage Basics: Clustered File Systems

  Generally speaking, shared disk setups have a single point of failure: the storage system. This is not always true, however, as “shared disk” is a confusing term with today’s technology. SANs, NAS appliances and commodity hardware running Linux can all replicate the underlying disks in real time to another storage node, which provides a simulated shared disk environment. Since the underlying block devices are replicated, the nodes have access to the same data and both run a clustered file system, but this replication breaks the traditional shared disk definition.

• Applications

  • Bordeaux 1.8.2 for Linux Released

    Supported Applications/Games:

    * Microsoft Office 2007
    * Microsoft Office 2003
    * Microsoft Office 2000
    * Microsoft Office 97
    * Microsoft Office Visio 2003
    * Microsoft Office Project 2003
    * Adobe Photoshop 6
    * Adobe Image Ready 3
    * Adobe Photoshop 7
    * Adobe Image Ready 7
    * Adobe Photoshop CS
    * Adobe Photoshop CS2
    * Microsoft Internet Explorer 6
    * Steam and Steam based Games
    * Apple QuickTime 6.5.2 Player
    * IrfaView 4.25 (Image files only)
    * Winetricks support

  • A Quick and Easy Guide to KDE KIO slaves

    Here are some other useful KIO slaves:

    * tar:/, zip:/, gzip:/, bzip:/, bzip2:/ all allow you to navigate into archives like they are folders.
    * fonts:/ shows installed fonts
    * cgi:/ runs cgi programs without a webserver
    * finger:/ provides information about a host name where “finger” is enabled.
    * settings:/ is similar to applications:/ providing an alternative method of accessing system settings.
    * smb:/ accesses and browses Samba shares. This is also available through remote:/
    * sftp:/ is a secure file transfer over SSH.
    * desktop:/ shows the files inside the desktop folder.
    * trash:/ shows the contents of the trash can.

  • Open source Dreamweaver alternatives

    We did show you before how to install dreamweaver on Linux using wine , and as we believe that there are good open source alternative for this product , we will try to show you bellow some of the open source Dreamweaver alternatives for Linux.

• Distributions

  • Rpath to Foresight Linux: Change to Fedora!

    In order for Foresight Linux to follow development trends more quickly, Michael Johnson (the founder of rPath and former head of Fedora) has proposed switching from rPath Linux to Fedora.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Does Dell’s Primordial Smartphone Have an Android Inside?

    This followed China Mobile’s announcement in Beijing on Monday of its new mobile app store.

    “We are developing devices for China Mobile, but we haven’t named them yet,” Dell spokesperson Matt Paretta told LinuxInsider.

Free Software/Open Source

• Korona Brings KDE 4.3 To OpenSolaris

  While Sun Microsystems puts their weight behind the GNOME desktop environment for Solaris and OpenSolaris, there are developers that do work on providing a quality experience for KDE on OpenSolaris. However, getting KDE to run on a clean OpenSolaris installation can require building KDE from source and taking various other steps. Fortunately, for KDE fans, there is now the Korona distribution, which brings KDE 4.3 as the default desktop environment to an OpenSolaris stack.

• Firefox

  • Mindcraft 2.0: Firefox Comes of Age

    When Firefox had only a few percent market share, it could be dismissed as a minority browser for a few enthusiasts. Now that it holds over 50% in some countries, particularly in Europe, it can’t be written off so easily. The fact that Microsoft has paid for these reports shows that Firefox has come of age as a serious rival to Internet Explorer that might even wrench the browser crown from the latter’s grasp in the not-too-distant future.

  • Calling All Volunteers – Mozilla Service Week needs YOU!

    Mozilla Service Week is coming up in just one month – September 14 to 21, 2009! The driving force behind service week is our strong belief that everyone should know how to use the Internet, have easy access to it, and have a great experience when they’re online. You can have a hand in helping organizations and people all over the world experience the joy of using the Web too!

• Business

  • Open-Xchange Plans First Partner Summit

    Sounds promising. But for Open-Xchange to broaden its appeal, the company will need to effectively position itself against Microsoft’s emerging Business Productivity Online Suite (which includes Exchange Online) plus a range of successful Exchange SaaS specialists — including Azaleos, Intermedia, and mindSHIFT’s groupSPARK business.

• Government

  • Digital Britain: Less a Policy, More a Typo

    While the digital revolution thunders along at a giddy rate in the real world, UK politicians prove to be all mouth and no trousers. Despite the rhetoric of making Britain a leader in digital content, the reality is the government just doesn’t understand that this isn’t business as usual, and that something has changed fundamentally, and requires a fundamentally different approach, not just some fine-tuning of old ideas.

  • HU: “Hungary should set up a open source competence centre”

    The Hungarian government should create an open source competence centre, writes the Hungarian Information Society (ITTK), a pressure group, in its annual report, published on 7 May.

    The group urges the government to increase its awareness of this type of software. “The government should is advised to make ODF an official standard in all branches of government.”

Leftovers

• Censorship/Web Abuse

  • Venezuela adopts censorship

    Venezuela has adopted a law censoring all newsmedia, prohibiting publication of anything that could encourage hatred or aggression, or even “indiscipline”, among children. It also prohibits anything that “deforms the language” or attacks “healthy values, good customs or public health”.

  • Comcast Fights FCC Net Neutrality Order

    The case is important because other broadband ISPs have privately feared the FCC order could hold jurisdiction over them as well.

• ID Cards

  • How 10 digits will end privacy as we know it

    A study of 1990 U.S. Census data revealed that 87 percent of the people in the United States were uniquely identifiable with just three pieces of information (PDF): five-digit ZIP code, gender, and date of birth. Internet surfers today spew considerably more information than that.

  • DNA Database Doomed: It Works Too Well

    This is something I’ve been saying (without proof, admittedly) for a while: the UK’s insane DNA database is doomed not because it doesn’t work well, but because it works *too* well in a sense – in that it lets you frame anybody with perfect efficiency…

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Since When Is Sharing So Bad?

    Jerry Leichter writes “We’re all taught to share as kids, and sharing is a fundamental aspect of human societies. But sharing is also “anti-market” – at least as many sellers see it. I have something – a piece of music, a lawnmower – that you need. If I share with you, we both come out ahead – but if instead you buy one for yourself, the seller and manufacturer comes out ahead…”

  • Myth Debunking: Fans Just Want Everything For Free

    This is a myth. It’s a popular myth, and I’m quite sure that Sheffner and lots of folks on both sides of the debate think its entirely accurate. But it’s a myth. The nature of a good economic transaction is one in which both parties are better off after the exchange. That means the people “paying” don’t mind paying. They’re happy to pay because they believe that what they have received is better than the cost it took to acquire it. But basic economics plays into the situation here: if the same thing can be made available by others in a better way, it’s only natural for people to ask why they should have to pay.

  • Police banned from listening to the radio

    POLICE officers in Hampshire have been banned from listening to the radio in their offices because they’re breaking the law.

    [...]

    Dep Chief Con Cole broke the news to staff in an email after other forces, in particular Wiltshire, were approached by the Performing Right Society who demand a ‘substantial’ licence fee for public broadcasts.

  • P2P Banned In Antarctica?

    We know that there’s been an ongoing effort by entertainment industry lobbyists to convince politicians (and others) that file sharing and P2P apps are somehow to blame for stupid government staffers accidentally leaking files via those programs. Apparently the propaganda campaign has worked in at least one area: employees of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) were sent an alert that they need to stop using all P2P programs.

  • The Pain in Spain Falls Mainly in the Plan

    in January 2010, Spain will take over the Presidency of the European Community. Spanish Government has already announced that one of their flagships will be reinforcing the control of the Internet and criminalizing the sharing culture in the digital environment. The consequences of those decisions will be noticed in the rest of the world.

    This is the first I’ve heard of this: bad news if true. Anyone have any more details?

  • Radiohead Leak Their New Track To BitTorrent

    During the last few days a new Radiohead song was mysteriously released onto the Internet. The track is called “These Are My Twisted Words” and until today it was unclear where it had come from. Now, thanks to a post on the band’s blog, it seems the boys could’ve had it planned all along, as they are now linking to the song on Mininova.

  • Of Mephistopheles and Poodles

    I was always under the impression that Lord Mandelson was dark, Machiavellian and very sharp; apparently not:

    Lord Mandelson launched a crackdown on internet piracy just days after meeting a leading Hollywood critic of illegal file sharing.