09.24.09

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• HP launches Linux-fiddling support group

  Hewlett-Packard is making an effort to support non-commercial Linux distributions on its servers and other vendors’ business hardware. But you wouldn’t know it from the black hole of fanfare regarding its new collaborative portal, communitylinux.org.

• Linux Game Repository With a GUI: DJL

  Djl is an open-source (GPL licensed) game manager written in Python 2.5 for the GNU/Linux Operating Systems, inspired by Valve’s Steam software for Windows for which anyone can submit games, via THIS page.

• Celebrating the release of GNOME 2.28!

  Today, the GNOME Project celebrates the release of GNOME 2.28, the
  latest version of the popular, multi-platform free desktop environment and of its developer platform. Released on schedule, to the day, GNOME 2.28 builds on top of a long series of successful six months releases to offer the best experience to users and developers.

• Distributions

  • My Arch Linux Experiment (Part 3)

    Welcome to the final part of my Arch Linux Experiment series. For those that missed the earlier entries, I was trying to find out if Arch Linux would be a viable replacement for Kubuntu. When I last left off, I had pretty much everything I needed straightened out and I was able to take care of all of my needs within my Arch Linux set up, and was ready to write about my final thoughts.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat Sees New Future in World of Cloud

      While the base platform Linux, still remains the dominant contributor of revenue, the company has moved beyond its Linux roots. Rather than being seen as a player only in the Linux OS space, the company is now positioning itself as an infrastructure player. In the emerging world of clouds, this has huge implications.

    • Red Hat second-quarter profit increases 37%

      Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Red Hat to post second-quarter earnings of 15 cents a share, and $179.1 million in revenue.

    • Red Hat mocks Meltdown in Q2

      Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat continues to buck the economic meltdown, reporting sales up 11.7 per cent to $183.6m in the second quarter of its fiscal 2010 and net income up 36.9 per cent to $28.9m. The sales were above the high end of Red Hat’s guidance.

    • US HOT STOCKS: Red Hat, Paychex Active In Late Trading

      Red Hat’s fiscal second-quarter profit jumped 37% as the company again posted slightly better-than-expected results on growing revenue and higher margins. Shares were up 3.1% to $25.66 in after-hours trading.

    • Red Hat beats profit, sales estimates

      Red Hat’s shares rose 3.3 percent in after-hours trading to $25.70 after closing at $24.88 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Tim Dobbyn and Andre Grenon)

  • Debian Family

    • Ubuntu Karmic: The good stuff

      Next month will see the release of Ubuntu 9.10, otherwise known as Karmic Koala, the latest version of the popular Linux operating system from Mark Shuttleworth’s team. Going, as it will, head-to-head with Windows 7, which is also expected to be released in October, Ubuntu is going to have to make a good impression if it doesn’t want to get blown away by Microsoft’s latest operating system.

• Devices/Embedded

  • USB group none too happy with Palm’s iTunes hack, either

    Palm’s attempt to get the USB Implementors Forum on Apple’s case for blocking the Pre from syncing with iTunes has backfired. Perhaps Palm will finally give up and resolve the issue by creating its own software.

  • The other ‘new’ Linux: Moblin

    I really, really want to see what Google has planned for us with its Chrome operating system. Intel and the Linux Foundation aren’t waiting around to see what they’ll do. Today, September 23rd, they and their partners, such as Dell and Canonical, gave us a peek at Moblin 2.1.

Free Software/Open Source

• Open Source Software Can Save India $2 BN/year–At least!

  I am glad to see a mainstream business resource like the Business Standard publishing a reasoned analysis and properly recognizing just how much waste there is in India’s current procurement practices. The bad news is that the numbers are likely much, much larger. The good news is that that waste can be eliminated, and India could be much, much richer the sooner it makes a more decisive shift from proprietary dependency to open source independence.

• Open Source Appeal: It Comes Down to Costs

  Noah Broadwater, vice president of information services at Sesame Workshop, is also keen on using open source. But as a technologist at the nonprofit group best known for its children’s TV show, “Sesame Street,” he approached open source from a very different perspective than that of larger enterprises.

• Tackling The Problem Of A Sluggish Computer

  “Treacherous Computing” that stealthily takes away rights from users, so says “The Free Software Foundation” who has launched a campaign against Microsoft Windows 7. At their Boston based Web site; Windows7Sins.org, has listed seven sins that software, such as this, commits against computer users:

  Poisoning education, locking in users, abusing standards such as Open Document Format, leveraging monopolistic behavior, threatening user security, enforcing Digital Rights Management, and invading privacy.” MS has not responded to a request for comment.

• Software Freedom Day 2009

  It was a nice, crisp fall day outside, but we had a great group of people gathered inside at Encuentro 5 in Chinatown for Boston’s Software Freedom Day. There were talks on hacking your blog, women in free software, free software on mobile devices, and how free software economics works.

Leftovers

• AstroTurf

  • Dr. Evil’s Payday

    Who pulled off this publicity stunt? Credit Richard Berman, one of Washington’s most notorious PR operatives, whose exploits Mother Jones and others have been chronicling for years. Nicknamed Dr. Evil—a moniker he embraces—he’s the force behind several industry-backed nonprofits that share staff and office space with his very for-profit communications and advertising firm, Berman and Company. The firm promises clients it will not “just change the debate” but “start” one, and a range of companies, from Anheuser-Busch to Philip Morris to the casino chain Harrah’s, have signed up for Berman’s “aggressive” and “hard-hitting” advocacy. Some clients pay Berman and Co. directly, while others donate to his nonprofits—but much of the cash winds up in the same place, via hefty management fees the front groups pay to Berman’s company.

  • HHS Investigates Medicare Providers’ Massive Misinformation Campaign

    Today, the U.S. Health and Human Services Department took its first steps toward cracking down on misinformation disseminated by Medicare providers.

    During the recent health care reform hullabaloo, “Keep Government Out of Medicare” became a rallying call for some and a joke for others. As it became clear that tens of thousands of senior citizens across the country held irrational beliefs about the government’s role in their health care, we asked, where is all the misinformation coming from? The answer: Medicare Advantage providers have been deliberately misinforming Medicare recipients about health insurance reform.

  • U.S. Chamber of Commerce Downsized

    Darbee wrote, “We find it dismaying that the Chamber neglects the indisputable fact that a decisive majority of experts have said the data on global warming are compelling and point to a threat that cannot be ignored.

  • New York Post Suspends Climate Skepticism … For Just a Moment

    The New York Post, long noted for promoting the views of climate change skeptics, responded to the fake 32-page edition with a media release headlined ‘”witless spoof in flawless format.”

• Censorship/Web Abuse

  • Net Neutrality to be curbed in the EU

    AS US REGULATORS consider new legislation to protect net neutrality, European citizens are set to have their internet freedoms significantly curbed.

    The debate on net neutrality revolves around whether telcoms firms should be allowed to intentionally speed up or slow down traffic based on which service or application is being used.

  • Republicans Move to Block Network Neutrality

    Senate Republicans react quickly to FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski’s proposal to expand the Federal Communications Commission’s network neutrality authority. Working on an unrelated appropriations bill, Republican senators push an amendment to deny the FCC funds for developing or implementing new Internet regulations.

  • Telecoms Package: Contact EU Reps now!

    It is time to act again to protect Net Neutrality in Europe, as reported by the open letter signed by 26 European internet civil society organizations.

  • Police ready to ‘take on’ commenters, chief says

    People who misrepresent themselves as officials in online comments could face civil, criminal penalties, Acevedo says.

  • Netflix is about to commit a privacy Valdez with its customers’ viewing data

    In other words, Netflix is about to put the behavioral data about viewing choices for millions of Americans into the public domain, despite its legal duty to keep this information private.

  • Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email

    Demon Internet sent thousands of business and government subscribers an email this morning telling them all about a new e-billing system, and tacked on details, including passwords, for 3,600 customers.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Paramount COO Shows FCC How To File Share, Blames Tech Companies, Has FCC Hide Its Presentation

    Last week, the FCC held what was ostensibly a panel discussion about the National Broadband Plan, but which was actually focused on copyright issues. How, exactly, is copyright an issue for broadband? Well, mainly because the entertainment industry has been trying for years to get ISPs to act as copyright cops… and apparently the FCC felt the need to hear them out.

  • Lawsuit: Copyright Filtering Technology Infringes

    The suit maintains that the copying and insertion of a copyrighted work into a filtering system without compensating the copyright holder, or obtaining their consent, is a violation of the Copyright Act. The case comes as copyright filtering technology is quickly becoming a behind-the-scenes feature on university sites, user-generated content sites and online social networking venues.

  • Only 5% of web users would pay for online news, reports survey

  • France adopts law that lets entertainment goons take your family off the net if one member is accused (without evidence) of violating copyright

    The French Parliament has adopted HADOPI 2, a law aimed at establishing a so-called “three-strikes” policy in order to fight file-sharing. The Constitutional Council made groundbreaking decision on June 10th 2009 that recognized access to the Internet as essential to the full exercise of free speech, and invalidated the sanctioning power of HADOPI 1. The law HADOPI 2, despite the internet cutoff now being handled in an expedient form of judicial justice, it is as flawed and dangerous as its predecessor, for it was only designed to circumvent the Constitutional Council’s decision. The war on sharing continues its way as HADOPI 2 will go through the constitutional test again. ***