Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 23/08/2009: SLAMPP 2.0, Nokia May Enter Sub-notebooks with Linux



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Open-source world is his
    Until his junior year of high school, McLean, 18, was an "average computer user." That's when a friend turned him on to Linux, a type of open-source software, where programmers can modify the underlying code.

    Next week, he starts his freshman year at Duke University and plans to study computer science and religion. His college costs will be partly paid with a 2009 Fedora scholarship, which recognizes students for their contributions to free, open-source software.


  • Korean OSS Contest Opens Doors to Worldwide Developers
    The deadline is fast approaching for open source developers to participate in Open Source Software Challenge 2009 contest, hosted by the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of South Korea.

    Until August 30, students and any other developer who wants to participate, can register for the Challenge, which is aimed at giving international competitors a chance to contribute to projects from around the world, fostering information exchange and the growth of a network of worldwide open source developers.


  • Froscon Day 1.
    This year I decided to go to Froscon. I had planned to go the last couple of years, but I never actually did it. And I must admit that I like it very much. The differences with for example Fosdem are huge. The developer tracks are really of the level of Getting Things Done instead of talking about it. Also the location is quite ok. The rooms are tidy, I can sit perfectly (something I can't say about Fosdem), the heat in the rooms is bearable and also the acoustic is very good. Most tracks are in German, but some are in English. Just the right ones.


  • Apple and Linux share the same design philosophy
    See what I mean? I will make a rough cut and say that Apple people develop frontend and Linux folks develop backend. But what unites them is that they both have a personal vested interest that the software succeeds, because they personally care about it. Which is opposed to the view of “professional designer” and “the user is not like me”.


  • 7 reasons I choose Linux over Windows 7
    Many have marked the 22nd of October on their calendars,but they seem to have forgotten the presence of the penguin.Mind you my friend the penguin is everywhere.Here are some of the Linux distributions releasing around that date

    Ubuntu Karmic : October 29th

    Fedora 12 : November 3rd

    OpenSuse 11.2 : November 12th




  • Kernel Space

    • The big guns of Linux kernel development
      As the report notes, the Linux kernel remains one of the largest and most successful open-source projects, able to sustain both rapid growth and rapid change. And, importantly, the distributed development efforts mean that development can continue on even if certain companies opt out of future efforts.

      Perhaps Linux is the only truly future proof technology?


    • Linux 2.6.31-rc7
      You know the drill, so all together now: "Another week, another -rc kernel".

      Most of the changes are small one-liners, but the dirstat shows the areas that got a bit more tender loving care:

      17.4% arch/arm/mach-omap2/ 2.2% arch/arm/mm/ [...]








  • Applications

    • World of Padman: Open-Source First-Person Shooter Game for Linux
      World of Padman is an open-source, cartoon-style first-person shooter game available for Linux too, besides Windows and Mac. It is a wonderful standalone game based upon the Quake 3 engine.


    • 5 RSS Feed Readers for Linux
      Here are 5 of the most popular, standalone feed reader applications for Linux. I didn't include feed readers which come with applications like Firefox, Opera or Thunderbird for example, but these can also be considered a viable alternative to the ones below.


    • Audacious 2.1 Review - Powerful Audio Replacement for XMMS
      Audacious is a powerful audio player for Linux which resembles the older XMMS, only using GTK2 toolkit for its interface. It supports XMMS and implicitly Winamp 2.x skins, coming with support for various audio formats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) or WMA (Windows Media Audio).


    • Top 3 Linux Vector Graphics Editors
      Formely known as Xara LX, it is based on Xara Xtreme for Windows, which is the fastest graphics program available, period. The Xara Xtreme source code was made available open-source in early 2006, and is being ported to Linux.




    • Simon

      • Simon - speech activated user interface for KDE
        Every once in a while, the KDE community stumbles across a third party application that is well integrated into KDE, but has somehow managed to fly completely beneath the radar. One such application is called simon (small 's' intentional), a speech recognition program that integrates well with KDE and provides a means of interacting with KDE using voice recognition.


      • How-To: Install Simon Speech Recognition Application in Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope
        Simon is a very nice KDE4 project with the goal of developing a speech recognition application and it currently works pretty well by letting the user record certain words and execute various commands given via a microphone. Since currently it is not included in the Ubuntu repositories, here are instructions on getting it up and running in Jaunty.










  • Distributions

    • Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Beta Has Plymouth
      Dear Mandriva fans, the time has come to announce the Beta release of the upcoming Mandriva Linux 2010.0 Linux distribution, due for launch in November this year. The features of this release are exactly what everyone was expecting, the KDE 4.3 and GNOME 2.28 Beta desktop environments, as well as Linux kernel 2.6.31 RC6 and X.Org Server 1.6.2.


    • Noteworthy Mandriva Cooker changes (10 August – 23 August 2009)


    • [SLAMPP 2.0 Released]
      Latest stable release

      SLAMPP Live CD/DVD 2.0.1 (Kalinda) - August 21, 2009

      Download the latest SLAMPP here. What powers up SLAMPP 2.0.x?

      SLAMPP 2.0.x is built using Zenwalk 6.0 as its base and Slackware Linux for packages. To compile everything into a working live CD, Linux Live scripts are used.


    • Hilti Standardizes Systems on Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SAP Solutions
      Red Hat, Inc., a provider of open source solutions, announced that Hilti has migrated its systems running SAP applications.




    • Ubuntu Family

      • New In Karmic: Installation Changes
        Canonical have been hard at work redesigning the Ubuntu installer ‘Ubiquity’ into something more user-friendly in time for Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.


      • Review: Ubuntu 9.04
        Long time no see; I've been away from the Linux community for a year focusing on other avenues. Yesterday I closed distro-review.com down and ported the Linux reviews over to this blog again. Having been away from the scene for a long while it seems fitting to review Ubuntu 9.04 and see how the situation has changed.


      • PC-OS 2009.03
        All in all, PC-OS is a good distro, with points to place it above Ubuntu, but the fact that it is based upon 8.04 is disappointing as it misses out on many of the improvements made in later editions. While it is lighter than Ultimate Edition, I still think Ultimate Edition has the edge over it when it comes to ease of use.


      • Buntfu.com Upgrades with New Features and Services
        Launched in February 2008, Buntfu is located at http://www.buntfu.com. It enables anyone or company to list their inventory of GNU/Linux based computers on their auction style store. The site is completely free with no site fees, store fees, or closing cost fees.










  • Devices/Embedded

    • Firefox Mobile: Fennec 1.0 Beta 3 for Nokia tablets
      The last peep we heard about Fennec was in late June, when Mozilla updated its mobile edition of the Firefox browser for Windows Mobile phones. This week, the Firefox browser maker has released an updated version for the platform powering Nokia N800 and N810 Internet Tablets: Fennec 1.0 Beta 3.


    • Nokia plans foray into netbook segment
      With the market for converged devices growing, the world's largest cell phone maker, Nokia, on Wednesday said it is exploring various opportunities in this market and may enter the netbook segment. ( Watch )

      "...the PC and the mobile will continue to come closer and merge. A lot of opportunity can be seen in this converged area.






Free Software/Open Source

  • Open source software might be cheaper than alternatives, but it has many other business benefits, too.
    It is often said that open source software wins because it is cheaper.

    However, the bigger factor in the success of open source software in industry has been performance.

    [...]

    Here's our top ten reasons to consider using open source and Linux in your business.


  • Accidental open source hero
    “In the heart of any open source project there is a circle of copying, modifying and sharing, all of which takes place without having to go through a central process,” he explains. “That is what drives the diversity of ideas.”


  • Time to Help an Open Source Hero
    I've given $10, which may not be much, but if just a few dozen Linux Journal readers did the same, his hospital bills would be covered, and there might even be some money left over for the HeliOS Project too.


  • Analysts Say EC Will Scrutinize—but Ultimately Sanction—Oracle-Sun Deal
    The Brussels-based European Commission has scheduled an antitrust review date of Sept. 3 to discuss the multinational companies' proposed deal. It will look closely at two main areas of concern: Sun's Java networking software franchise and the enterprise parallel database market—two sectors in which Oracle stands to greatly increase its market share.


  • The e-Learning Lingo Podcast Discusses “Open Source Software”
    Dave Boggs, CEO of SyberWorks, states, “This week’s episode of the e-Learning Lingo Podcast describes software for which the original program instructions are widely available.”


  • Anthony Doesburg: Students open to new source of knowledge
    All of it is open-source - and free - saving an estimated $200,000 over the equivalent proprietary software from the likes of Microsoft. Yet, says Mark Osborne, Albany Senior High's deputy principal and IT co-ordinator, the money's only part of it.

    "The financial benefits of open-source are quite secondary to our overall goal, which is to be an open, collaborative community where nobody is shut out of the learning process; nobody is beyond our community."


  • Why do companies prefer proprietary products to GPL products?
    In the GPL case, you've spent $50,000 on features you find valuable. Indeed your competitors can now use that product and those features, but they can in the proprietary route.

    There are additional benefits to the GPL products that seem to get overlooked. We have full access to the source code. We usually have a community full of examples and solutions to any problems we may encounter, which are only a Google search away.




  • Web Browsers

    • Bespin cloud editor gains collaborative editing feature
      Mozilla Labs has released a new version of Bespin, a Web-based integrated development environment. The new version introduces support for collaborative editing.


    • 12 add-ons every Firefox user must have
      Firefox's extendibility is one of its great advantages, and there are thousands of plugins to choose from.

      But having so much choice can be confusing, and it's often hard to tell which add-ons are worth installing and which are best left alone. So look no further - here's our 12 essential Firefox extensions. Download them now!


    • Which Web Browser And Why?
      Stuck in a 'Net surfing rut? Firefox, IE, Safari, and Opera have all been refreshed recently, and newbies Google Chrome and Microsoft IE 8 have joined the fray. Here's how to choose.








  • Misc.

    • Defense Info Agency Open-Sources Its Web Apps
      DISA, which provide IT services to the Department of Defense, made the decision to share its applications after other agencies expressed interest in them, said Dick Nelson, chief of personnel systems support at DISA's manpower, personnel and security directorate. "Federal agencies discovered that the applications we have could be of benefit more widely," he said. Interest is coming from states and counties, as well.


    • Introducing PLoS Currents: Influenza








Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Jack Vice, Founder of robot maker Anthrotronix, Inc. 03 (2005)



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

Recent Techrights' Posts

Over 3 Months Later Brett Wilson LLP Still Unable to Recruit a Media Lawyer?
"Immediate start", but not found... still unfilled
Microsoft is Trying to "Pull a Nokia" on GNU/Linux as Desktop/Laptop Platform
We all remember that rather well, don't we?
Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
Speed of the Site Should be Better Now
The "bot attacks" impact the speed of the sister site too
Getting More From AnalogNowhere
Recently we used many images from AnalogNowhere
Microsoft, Microsofters and 'Secure' Boot Shills Already Storming the LWN Report About Expiring Certificate, Shooting the Messenger
LWN has clearly stuck a nerve
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 23, 2025
Disable "Secure" Boot Today (the Only Better Time to Do So Was Yesterday)
Don't trust anything Red Hat tells you about security
Links 23/07/2025: Windows Killed Company After 150+ Years, US Government Mimics Russia's Attacks on the Media
Links for the day
Freedom Generally Wins at the End, History Shows (But It's Constantly Attacked, Too)
At the moment people realise "Linux" (e.g. Android) isn't enough to guarantee any freedoms
“Inhumane” and “Disgusting” Mass Layoff Execution, According to Microsoft Staff
The workers are looking for other places to work
Misinformation is Not Intelligence
It's low-grade plagiarism and it fails to show any signs of intelligence
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) Has a New Slogan for Its 40th Anniversary
The freedoms are what's most important
LLM Slopfarms gbhackers.com, "Cyber Press" and CyberSecurityNews Are Drowning Google News (and Shame on Google for Feeding and Facilitating Them)
All are run by the same people
Links 23/07/2025: Droplets GUI Patent Monopoly Challenge, Nokia Leverages Illegal Patent Court Against Rivals
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Community in Geminispace and Challenges With Old Computers
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Slop Patents Tackled, Slop Copyright Misuses Tackled by Politicians
Links for the day
Links 23/07/2025: Retreating From Transparency on Jeffrey Epstein, We No Longer Have Press Freedom
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/07/2025: Piano and Food
Links for the day
New and Old
On Ageism in Tech
EPO Crimes Are Spreading to the British Court System
Society is now paying the price for failing to tackle crimes at the EPO
It's Time to Dump SharePoint and Here's What to Use Instead
Nextcloud, ownCloud, Bookstack, MediaWiki, and MediaGoblin
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 22, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Brett Wilson LLP Has Gone Silent
Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Planet Ubuntu, and LinuxTechLab
some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
Links 23/07/2025: Book Bans, Storms, and Kangaroo Court for Patents Commits More Unlawful Acts of Overreach
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: Thinkpad and Pinephone
Links for the day
Links 22/07/2025: "Blog Restart" and Microsoft Clobbered by “ToolShell"
Links for the day
Global Warming and Global GAFAM Energy-Wasting
Burn more money (borrowed, loans), then hope the waste will somehow translate into profit?
No Compliance With the European Patent Convention (EPC) at the European Patent Office (EPO)
It's about preventing competition against this autocracy
Blue-Collar Trolls vs White-Collar Trolls
Examples of white-collar trolls
Apple Vision Pro Failed So Badly That Its Sales Are About 2,000 Times Smaller Than iPhone Sales
What's left for Apple to offer other than hype?
To Millions of People "Year of the Linux Desktop" Was Some Time in the 1990s (Bootable GNU/Linux as a Complete Operating System is Over 33 in Age)
In some sense, "year of the Linux desktop" was 33 years ago
Make No Assumptions (or Demands) About the Screen Resolution Used by Other People
There are usability aspects, aside from accessibility aspects
Why Wayland (and XWayland) Won't Solve the Key Problem It Proclaims to be Tackling (the Same Is True for Rust)
The problem isn't Wayland per se but the false promises and efforts to force everybody to move to it whilst insulting or demonising everyone who won't play along
They Don't Tell Us that 'Digitalisation' (Now Sold as "Hey Hi") Just Means Customers Become Unpaid Staff and Are Made Accountable
People are being conditioned to associate technology with something undesirable, at times even unbearable
Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 21, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 21, 2025
FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
"Thank you for making a stand against dystopia!"
Gemini Links 22/07/2025: VPS Exploited and Fear of View
Links for the day