Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 22/12/2009: SheevaPlug Reviewed, Qt Applications Reach Web



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Give the Gift of Linux for the Holidays
    Why Linux? Unlike Windows and Mac OS X, which cost money and offer (with some minor exceptions) only one set of features and capabilities for all users, Linux is free and comes in many different flavors. Regardless of what the person on your list likes to do, you'll almost certainly be able to find the perfect distro for him or her. And if you can't, you can probably roll your own—try doing that with Windows.

    Do Steve Ballmer or Steve Jobs really need any more money? I think not. Rather than giving Microsoft or Apple any of your money during these frugal days, keep your cash and go with Linux instead.


  • Ubuntu vs Windows Hardware Requirements
    I compared the hardware requirements of a popular Linux Desktop: Ubuntu 9.10 with Windows 7 both of which were released last month. Hardware Windows 7 Ubuntu 9.10 RAM (MB) 1024 MB 256 MB Processor (MHz) 1000 MHz 300 MHz Disk Space (MB) 16 GB 4 GB


  • Linux + Multitouch display = open source 10 fingered goodness
    In order to emulate these results, you’ll need the Linux kernel 2.6.31, a modified version of X.org 1.7, and supported hardware and drivers. So we’re not quite at the point where you can just pick up a netbook with a multitouch display, install Fedora or another Linux distro, and expect to tap your way to bliss with up to 10 fingers on the screen. But we’re getting closer.


  • Ubuntu movie sighting
    I was watching the Millenium movie last night, and spotted an Ubuntu desktop being used by the "Plague" character...


  • Great and Disappointing Operating Systems of the Decade
    GNU/Linux (especially 2.6.18+) Never has their been such an uproar in computing as a free kernel and free utilities-- all done very well with rapid, mindful if darwinian skill. Linus Torvalds crafted Linux, and has been holding on for dear life ever since. Coupled with the GNU utilities and two main window manager branches (Gnome and KDE), Linux underpinnings now grace objects from tiny wristwatches and clever cell/mobile phones, to IBM mainframes and everything in between. The promise of Linux for civilians is slowly but surely being realized through distros like Ubuntu, Novell/SUSE, Mandrive, Knoppix, and others, but the enterprise server market belongs to Red Hat, Novell/SUSE, and communities formed around each of these. That doesn't mean that there isn't worth in the literally hundreds of distros out there.




  • Twenty Ten

    • 10 Linux-based Technologies to Look for in 2010
      Everyone has posted their predictions for 2010 but here's the real scoop on what's going to happen in 2010 with Linux and Linux-oriented hardware and software products. Get ready to see the biggest increase in Linux adoption in history. You can say you saw it here first. These are in no particular ranking or order.


    • Kickstart 2010 with Linux
      If your new year's resolution is to kick the Microsoft habit, here are some Linux versions you might want to look at.

      Switching to a new operating system is never easy. Particularly if you were brought up on a staple diet of Microsoft Windows. But it's not as hard as it used to be to switch to Linux because there is a good selection of quality Linux versions that are easy to install and comfortable to use.






  • Applications

    • Inkscape 0.47 Totally Solid with Lots of New Tools
      Inkscape 0.47 by Nathan Willis – Totally solid release with lots of new cool tools and functions

      The free open source vector graphics editor Inkscape has released an update packing several new features, new tools, effects, and improved SVG compliance. Version 0.47 is available for Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows, as well as source code. Ubuntu users can also add the Inkscape Testers package archive to automatically upgrade.


    • 12 Days of Xmas: Day Five - ViewNior


    • Review: qBittorrent
      It was a little rough getting there, but KDE 4 has reached a point where I’m using it on all my machines. The pain was worth it (barely) and KDE is by far the most satisfying desktop environment for my personal use.

      [...]

      If you are in the market for a new bittorrent client, especially once based in QT – I highly recommend giving qBittorrent a look. It’s a solid and reliable client with well implemented features and under active development so chances are good it will continue to improve!




    • Instructionals









  • Distributions



    • Pentoo 2009.0 final – out and ready for action
      So, we spoke about a list of top pentesting livecd’s here. We might have to update that list soon! Pentoo is a Live CD and Live USB designed for penetration testing and security assessment. Based on Gentoo Linux, Pentoo includes Nessus and Metasploit for penetration testing and security assessment. The user interface is the Enlightenment window manager. Pentoo is optimized for Pentium III architecture. Pentoo supports package modularity in the same fashion that Slax does.




    • Debian Family

      • Dell introduces best Ubuntu netbook ever?
        Microsoft has restricted Windows 7 Starter to make sure it's no competition for the more full-featured versions of Windows 7. For example, "It's got to have a super-small screen, which means it probably has a super-small keyboard, and it has to have a certain processor and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." That ringing endorsement for Windows 7 Starter Edition was made by some guy named Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.

        Ubuntu 9.10, however, is an excellent desktop Linux distribution. While I'll be the first to admit that Ubuntu 9.10 has its rough-edges when you install it yourself on some systems, Dell has always done an excellent job of fitting Ubuntu on its systems.


      • Hands On with Linux Mint 8 (Helena)
        The recent release of a major new version of Ubuntu means it's time for new versions of various remastered distros. This time around it's Linux Mint 8. Linux Mint, as you may already know from previous releases, takes Ubuntu to another level by slicking it up with tools, multimedia codecs and more. Linux Mint 8 makes it easy to get started with Linux even if you haven't run it before. Pretty much everything you need for your daily computing tasks is included in Linux Mint 8 or available in the Linux Mint software repository.










  • Devices/Embedded

    • SheevaPlug - a Debian home server in a wall-wart
      This write-up was intended as a very high-level review of my experience setting up this unusual system, and is by no means a step-by-step walkthrough. There is plenty of detailed information available online on websites such as plugcomputer.org and computingplugs.com that can prove invaluable to get things working on the SheevaPlug. As remarked before, the system is sold as a developer's kit and setting it up is definitely not for the faint of heart or for those who avoid the terminal like the plague. In the end, I had a lot of fun getting this to work and the system is working beautifully. I learned a lot in the process and am amazed yet again at how flexible Debian is as an operating system for just about any computer, even embedded systems like this one.






Free Software/Open Source

  • Wanted: More Open Source Research
    Look up open source. You'll get 203,000,000 results. How come? While credit goes to many, including Bruce Perens, who chose the term, I see widespread usage largely as the direct result of a "call to the community" by Eric S. Raymond on 8 February 1998. Plus the runaway successes of Linux, Apache and thousands of other open source code bases, and the Internet they all run on. (And the Net is essentially a pile of open and free protocols.)


  • Open Source Downloads: the Monster List
    As demonstrated by the nearly 500 open source downloads on this list, open source software has benefited from an explosion of creativity in the last several years. Indeed, the first decade of the 21st century could be called “the Decade of Open Source.”

    Since 2006, Datamation has put together at least 15 different lists of open source software, for file sharing, enterprises, small businesses, windows users, netbooks, security professionals, and others. (And check out the hot new open source list from late 2009). For this list of open source downloads, we revisited all those applications that we've featured before, culled out the projects that are no longer active (or no longer open source), made updates, and organized them alphabetically in categories.


  • New: OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 1 (build OOO320_m8) available
    The next step in the OpenOffice.org 3 series is coming closer: OpenOffice.org 3.2.0 Release Candidate 1 is now available on the download website.


  • Openoffice3.2 RC1 is Released !




  • CMS

    • King of Belgium goes Drupal
      Following hot on the heels of US President Barack Obama, Albert II, King of the Belgians, just relaunched his website on Drupal. Check it out at http://www.monarchie.be. The site was built by Connexion.








  • Programming

    • Qt applications in your browser
      A Qt application, running inside the Native Client sandbox, inside the Firefox browser Vergrößern Source: Qt Labs A first shot at creating a port of the Qt toolkit to Google's Native Client (NaCL) environment allows Qt applications to run as applets within a browser. The port is not yet complete, but it already offers mouse and keyboard support, rudimentary support for the QtGUI and QtCore libraries and several more complex widgets. The biggest problem with the current port though is that the event handling in NaCL is polling based which makes applications spin using 100% of the CPU; the developers descibe this as "not quite our preferred style".






Leftovers

  • Finance

    • It’s Goldman Vs. London As Bank Threatens To Move Employees To Troubled Spain
      Talk about a slap in the face. Goldman Sachs (GS), in a bid to keep employees away from the UK's new onerous bonus tax, is threatening to shift a chunk of its London bankers over to highly troubled spain.


    • Goldman Sachs looks to Spain on bonus tax
      Goldman Sachs could move up to one fifth of its 5,000 London-based staff to Spain, the Independent has reported.


    • Goldman Warns London Over Taxes
      They’re not going to take it sitting down. Goldman Sachs told the British Treasury that it would move up to 20 percent of its London staff to Spain if the government does not relent on plans for a windfall tax on bonuses, The Independent writes.


    • Taxpayers Help Goldman Reach Height of Profit in New Skyscraper
      In the first six months of 2010, about 6,000 employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. will take a break from their spreadsheets and move across the southern tip of Manhattan to a new 43-story, steel-and-glass skyscraper.


    • U.S. taxpayers helping Goldman Sachs move in to gleaming tower, too
      The $2.3 billion steel-and-glass skyscraper was given a Liberty Bond tax break that allowed it to sell tax-free bonds to support the tower's construction.


    • Goldman Sachs PAC spreads the wealth
      The Goldman PAC raised $205,000 in the past month, so these are just initial numbers, but the early filings show that Goldman is hitting up the left, the right and the center, but the company is also being opportunistic. Waters is the third ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee and Lincoln is chairwoman of the Agriculture Committee -- which could have a role in regulation of derivatives.


    • Protestors sang Christmas Carols to Goldman Sachs employees and want their money back!
      Working people, seniors and oraganizers from Neighborhood Economic Development Advocacy Project, Americans for Financial Reform, NY Jobs for justice, NYPIRDG posed as carol singers today outside the New York downtown offices of Goldman Sachs on West Street protesting the banks plan to hand out $150 billion compensation and bonuses today.


    • University Presidents Who Waste Time Sitting on Corporate Boards…
      It’s quite the scam. You make tons of money by sitting in a chair.

      Sitting – with stock options and all – can net you far more than your university salary.

      And what’s in it for the university? Well, Brown gets to be associated with Goldman Sachs — one of the country’s most disgusting greed-machines.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Joerg Heilig, Sun Microsystems Senior Engineering Director talks about OpenOffice.org 07 (2004)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



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

Recent Techrights' Posts

In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Approaching 10,000 Articles/Pages Since Going Static
Trying to silence or derail the site was always a dumb strategy
Microsoft is Shedding Off Loads of Staff and That Can be Dangerous Too
Working for Microsoft is a choice; nobody forces you to do it
Richard Stallman and the Unix Philosophy
When asked about systemd people must remember that RMS speaks as an active Board member of the FSF and also the founder of the FSF
Get Rid of Back Doors, Don't Obsess Over Bounties and Other Corporate PR Stunts (or Needless Reboot Rituals)
Security as a term has mostly lost its meaning due to repeated misuse for many years
Serial Sloppers Are Killing the Web (They Probably Don't Care, Either)
Slop is a disease on the Web
 
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025
Links 25/04/2025: Slop Fatigue and Patent Judges Flocking to Fake, Unconstitutional and Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC, Captured 'Justice')
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Night Manager and Devuan in Hosting
Links for the day
Windows Falls to New Lows in Nicaragua, Now Below a Quarter (It Used to be Almost 100%)
Another all-time low for Windows
The Cost (to Linux) of LLM Slop
Slop 'artists' like Fagioli are far from harmless
Links 25/04/2025: Ubisoft Spyware, Hegseth Fails at Tech on Every Level
Links for the day
Gemini Links 25/04/2025: Food Forest Update and Facebook Destroying the Net
Links for the day
Streaming Apps Are “Investor Fraud” That Kills the Planet
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Things Get Increasingly Nasty at Microsoft Ahead of the Fake Results and May's Mass Layoffs Wave
They try to get people to 'resign' so that they won't count as layoffs and the company's 'wellbeing' will seem better
IBM's Debt Ballooned by 8.5 Billion Dollars in Just 3 Months!
Hallmark of a company in a state of disarray, trying to spend its way out of trouble
Big Trouble in GNOME
even GNOME people admit the CoC went wrong
Slopping the Trough: Disney Plus Loses Billions and the Decline of Physical Media in America
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 24, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Links 24/04/2025: GAFAM Problems and No Peace (or Ceasefire) in Sight
Links for the day
Slopfarms on the Web Almost Always Generate Anti-Linux FUD When They Produce "Linux" Output
Welcome to the dying Web
Richard Stallman's Oxford Talk Has Just Ended, Here Are Some Photos
he might hop over to another European country
Gemini Links 24/04/2025: Birthday and Good Work of Academia in Esotericism
Links for the day
Links 24/04/2025: EU fines Apple and Facebook, Another Microsoft GitHub Security Blunder
Links for the day
New Article Explains How the GPL Came About and WordPress Having Copyleft Obligations
Having been involved in the WordPress development community since almost the beginning, I know why it chose the GPL and how it restricts abuse by Automattic
IBM Gained Almost 6 Billion Dollars in "Goodwill" Value in Just 3 Months, According to IBM
Congrats to the management!
In Belarus, Yandex is Now Measured as 50 Times More 'Popular' (by Usage) Than Microsoft
Yandex continues to gain, whereas Bing cannot even register at 1%. Last month it was registered or measured at a measly 0.65%.
IBM Cannot Lie to Shareholders Anymore
"I would not be surprised if we see a layoff every quarter this year."
Dr Richard Stallman (RMS) Gives Talk in Oxford University in 4 Hours
If you live nearby, go there (it's free as in gratis)
Using a Law Firm's Licence to Exercise Politics Through Frivolous SLAPPs and Nastygrams (to Silence People, Remove Pages, Demand Fake or Forced 'Apologies')
Things must be getting really bad when lawyers act for raving antisemites
We're Working to Make Full-Site Search Available
This site has over 1,000 'wiki' pages, many thousands of documents, several thousands of videos, and about 50,000 blog posts or articles. We need to make them easier to find/navigate.
Links 24/04/2025: IBM Loses Many Contracts, Intel to Lay Off Over 20% (Not Counting Those Who Leave 'Voluntarily')
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Can Explain to Oxford Artificial Intelligence Society Why LLM Slop is Not Artificial Intelligence and Why It Hurts Society
another 'crop' of LLM slop that damages GNU/Linux and facts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 23, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025