Links: Linux News (SSHFS, Drivers), Applications, Instructionals, Unigine Game, and Distributions
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-21 16:06:25 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-21 16:06:25 UTC
Summary: Accumulation of Linux and GNU news including a Zenwalk 6.4 review
Graphics Stack
Last month we reported on the status of kernel mode-setting with the Glint driver that's being done as a Google Summer of Code project to provide KMS support for the ancient 3Dlabs Permedia 3 and Permedia 4 graphics cards and to better document the Linux KMS/DRM driver writing process. As part of the Glint KMS discussion, it emerged that an independent developer (James Simmons) happened to hack together a 3dfx DRM driver. This was interesting as the work was never published or accepted into the mainline kernel, but today we finally are able to lay our eyes on this open-source 3dfx driver for the Banshee, Voodoo 3, and Voodoo 5 graphics cards.
Userspace file systems are one of the coolest storage options in Linux. They allow really creative file systems to be developed without having to go through the kernel gauntlet. This article presents one of them, SSHFS, that allows you to remotely mount a file system using ssh (sftp).
Applications
Most Linux users are familiar with the top command. Top shows you a list of processes on your system and provides a ton of useful information such as their CPU usage and owner. Unfortunately, this isn’t always enough data and many people don’t know where to turn next. This article covers three performance monitoring applications that show information top doesn’t tell you, and can greatly help in troubleshooting bottlenecks or just finding out more about your system. These utilities are iftop, iotop, and pv.
digiKam is undoubtedly a powerful application for processing and managing your photos, but there are situations when you need something lighter. For example, I use my netbook when I'm on the move to off load photos from my camera and quickly go through them. For this, I use Geeqie, a lightweight image viewer that offers a slew of nifty features that make it an indispensable tool in my arsenal.
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Instructionals
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Games
Earlier this month the developers behind the Unigine Engine shared their latest update on this advanced 3D engine that's fully supported under Linux. With the latest work on this game engine, there are significant performance optimizations to UnigineScript (the developers say these optimizations are "HUGE"), volumetric light shafts, optimized rendering of meshes in non-instanced mode, optimizations of the Unigine math library, and a note there is a new terrain system on the way, among other changes. Unigine Corp also dropped their first public confirmation of a new strategy game they are developing.
Desktop Environments/WMs
This time around, in our Alternative desktops series, we’re going seriously old-school Linux with Fvwm. Although using Fvwm will make you feel like you’ve gone back in time, it still has it’s place in today’s world. Where speed and simplicity are the single most important desire on a desktop, you really can’t go wrong with Fvwm. The only problem with this wonderful little desktop is getting used to the configuration.
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K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)
Most of you probably haven't heard about Clementine before. But every linux music enthusiast must be aware of Amarok 1.4, which for many like me, was the best open source music player for Linux. Even though it was KDE app, I used it as my default music player in Ubuntu Gnome. It was that good. But everything changed once KDE developers decided to rewrite Amarok.
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GNOME Desktop
I can't stand the default menu Ubuntu comes with and I only keep it because I have to know under which submenu the user can find an installed application when posting on WebUpd8. This wouldn't be needed if people used a menu with a search function but anyway. Also, since I install quite a few applications, half of it requires scrolling and makes it almost unusable.
There are gazillions of people on this planet right now. Not all of them will ever care to build their own flavor of Linux. But Linux gives you the ability to choose how YOU want things, and then share it with the world. I’ve talked before about where you can go to build your own version of Linux. It’s not as difficult as you might think it is… so what are you waiting for?
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Reviews
It’s been a long time since I last took a look at Zenwalk. I’ve always had a sweet spot for it, though I haven’t had a chance to really give it a full spin in quite some time. Although I am primarily a KDE user, there’s something about Zenwalk that always keeps my attention: It’s simple, fast, and gets the job done. Not only that, but its one of the best lightweight distros around.
Zenwalk uses XFCE as it’s desktop of choice (though other versions are available) and from the past times I’ve used it, it appears to be focused on allowing your system to run free, rather than bog it down with unnecessary eye candy and bloat. Zenwalk manages to pack a punch with a large variety of useful applications preinstalled, without slowing you down in the process.
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Red Hat Family
Red Hat Enterprise Linux now comes with built-in virtualization (KVM) but is Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization (RHEV) about to go to the virtual mat with VMware? If you look at their RHEL video, you'll come away with a resounding 'Yes' to that question.
Red Hat purchased Qumranet in 2008 to acquire their KVM-based virtualization solution and SolidICE product based on the SPICE protocol.
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Fedora
As Ian and Ryan already blogged, the Fedora Design Team is evaluating new branding fonts: Comfortaa for headings and either Cantarell or Droid Sans for body text.
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Debian Family
After ten editions in nine countries spanning four continents, and for the first time in the US, the Debian project is holding the annual Debian Developer conference, DebConf, at Columbia University in New York City on August 1.
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Canonical/Ubuntu
I believe such a philosophy, like Ubuntu’s code of conduct, is important and every project should have one.
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Flavours and Variants
Huzzah! So, the official (and huge) ISO for the second release of Netrunner is up, out and available right now! (torrent)
Here’s the distrowatch announcement.
Moving to KDE
The biggest change in this version is moving to KDE for the desktop.
Something important to understand about that: when I say “KDE for the desktop”, that doesn’t mean Netrunner is running all KDE apps. There are a lot of GNOME (and other) apps in there, because we are trying to present the best selection of applications and for some reason some people like some of the non-KDE apps better.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Martina Ferrari & Debian, DebConf room list: who sleeps with who?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Europe Won't be Safe From Russia Until the Last Windows PC is Turned Off (or Switched to BSDs and GNU/Linux)
- Lives are at stake
- Links 23/04/2024: US Doubles Down on Patent Obviousness, North Korea Practices Nuclear Conflict
- Links for the day
- Stardust Nightclub Tragedy, Unlawful killing, Censorship & Debian Scapegoating
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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- Microsoft is Shutting Down Offices and Studios (Microsoft Layoffs Every Month This Year, Media Barely Mentions These)
- Microsoft shutting down more offices (there have been layoffs every month this year)
- Balkan women & Debian sexism, WeBoob leaks
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 24/04/2024: Advances in TikTok Ban, Microsoft Lacks Security Incentives (It Profits From Breaches)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 24/04/2024: People Returning to Gemlogs, Stateless Workstations
- Links for the day
- Meike Reichle & Debian Dating
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 23, 2024
- IRC logs for Tuesday, April 23, 2024
- [Meme] EPO: Breaking the Law as a Business Model
- Total disregard for the EPO to sell more monopolies in Europe (to companies that are seldom European and in need of monopoly)
- The EPO's Central Staff Committee (CSC) on New Ways of Working (NWoW) and “Bringing Teams Together” (BTT)
- The latest publication from the Central Staff Committee (CSC)
- Volunteers wanted: Unknown Suspects team
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Debian trademark: where does the value come from?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Detecting suspicious transactions in the Wikimedia grants process
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Gunnar Wolf & Debian Modern Slavery punishments
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- On DebConf and Debian 'Bedroom Nepotism' (Connected to Canonical, Red Hat, and Google)
- Why the public must know suppressed facts (which women themselves are voicing concerns about; some men muzzle them to save face)
- Several Years After Vista 11 Came Out Few People in Africa Use It, Its Relative Share Declines (People Delete It and Move to BSD/GNU/Linux?)
- These trends are worth discussing
- Canonical, Ubuntu & Debian DebConf19 Diversity Girls email
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Links 23/04/2024: Escalations Around Poland, Microsoft Shares Dumped
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 23/04/2024: Offline PSP Media Player and OpenBSD on ThinkPad
- Links for the day
- Amaya Rodrigo Sastre, Holger Levsen & Debian DebConf6 fight
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- DebConf8: who slept with who? Rooming list leaked
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Bruce Perens & Debian: swiping the Open Source trademark
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Ean Schuessler & Debian SPI OSI trademark disputes
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Windows in Sudan: From 99.15% to 2.12%
- With conflict in Sudan, plus the occasional escalation/s, buying a laptop with Vista 11 isn't a high priority
- Anatomy of a Cancel Mob Campaign
- how they go about
- [Meme] The 'Cancel Culture' and Its 'Hit List'
- organisers are being contacted by the 'cancel mob'
- Richard Stallman's Next Public Talk is on Friday, 17:30 in Córdoba (Spain), FSF Cannot Mention It
- Any attempt to marginalise founders isn't unprecedented as a strategy
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, April 22, 2024
- IRC logs for Monday, April 22, 2024
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- Don't trust me. Trust the voters.
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Chris Lamb & Debian demanded Ubuntu censor my blog
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Ean Schuessler, Branden Robinson & Debian SPI accounting crisis
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- William Lee Irwin III, Michael Schultheiss & Debian, Oracle, Russian kernel scandal
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Microsoft's Windows Down to 8% in Afghanistan According to statCounter Data
- in Vietnam Windows is at 8%, in Iraq 4.9%, Syria 3.7%, and Yemen 2.2%
- [Meme] Only Criminals Would Want to Use Printers?
- The EPO's war on paper
- EPO: We and Microsoft Will Spy on Everything (No Physical Copies)
- The letter is dated last Thursday
- Links 22/04/2024: Windows Getting Worse, Oligarch-Owned Media Attacking Assange Again
- Links for the day
- Links 21/04/2024: LINUX Unplugged and 'Screen Time' as the New Tobacco
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 22/04/2024: Health Issues and Online Documentation
- Links for the day
- What Fake News or Botspew From Microsoft Looks Like... (Also: Techrights to Invest 500 Billion in Datacentres by 2050!)
- Sededin Dedovic (if that's a real name) does Microsoft stenography
- Stefano Maffulli's (and Microsoft's) Openwashing Slant Initiative (OSI) Report Was Finalised a Few Months Ago, Revealing Only 3% of the Money Comes From Members/People
- Microsoft's role remains prominent (for OSI to help the attack on the GPL and constantly engage in promotion of proprietary GitHub)
- [Meme] Master Engineer, But Only They Can Say It
- One can conclude that "inclusive language" is a community-hostile trolling campaign
- [Meme] It Takes Three to Grant a Monopoly, Or... Injunction Against Staff Representatives
- Quality control
- [Video] EPO's "Heart of Staff Rep" Has a Heartless New Rant
- The wordplay is just for fun
- An Unfortunate Miscalculation Of Capital
- Reprinted with permission from Andy Farnell
- [Video] Online Brigade Demands That the Person Who Started GNU/Linux is Denied Public Speaking (and Why FSF Cannot Mention His Speeches)
- So basically the attack on RMS did not stop; even when he's ill with cancer the cancel culture will try to cancel him, preventing him from talking (or be heard) about what he started in 1983
- Online Brigade Demands That the Person Who Made Nix Leaves Nix for Not Censoring People 'Enough'
- Trying to 'nix' the founder over alleged "safety" of so-called 'minorities'
- [Video] Inauthentic Sites and Our Upcoming Publications
- In the future, at least in the short term, we'll continue to highlight Debian issues
- List of Debian Suicides & Accidents
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- Jens Schmalzing & Debian: rooftop fall, inaccurately described as accident
- Reprinted with permission from disguised.work
- [Teaser] EPO Leaks About EPO Leaks
- Yo dawg!
- On Wednesday IBM Announces 'Results' (Partial; Bad Parts Offloaded Later) and Red Hat Has Layoffs Anniversary
- There's still expectation that Red Hat will make more staff cuts
- IBM: We Are No Longer Pro-Nazi (Not Anymore)
- Historically, IBM has had a nazi problem
- Bad faith: attacking a volunteer at a time of grief, disrespect for the sanctity of human life
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Bad faith: how many Debian Developers really committed suicide?
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 21, 2024
- IRC logs for Sunday, April 21, 2024
- A History of Frivolous Filings and Heavy Drug Use
- So the militant was psychotic due to copious amounts of marijuana
- Bad faith: suicide, stigma and tarnishing
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- UDRP Legitimate interests: EU whistleblower directive, workplace health & safety concerns
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock