Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 28/8/2010: Diaspora Coming Within Weeks, SFLC Now in India Too



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Open source scores
    Microsoft is laggard in everything except desktop operating systems, Office and gaming. Internet Explorer has not been able to pass the Acid 3 test which signifies that it is not standards-compliant.

    What Mr Scott would fear to accept publicly is the rise of the Ubuntu operating system and how the future release (Meerkat) is being adapted to netbooks (where Win 7 has not been ported). Mobile applications have been hammered and its newer version was greeted with a big yawn. It’s difficult to compare search engines in terms of content but Microsoft-funded agencies have been claiming Bing’s "meteoric rise". The fact is that Google does not need to shout about its offerings.

    There is a serious lack of choice from OEMs while buying new hardware. Mr Scott may not be aware that Linux has been ported to almost everything under sun. I run my entertainment servers attached to Wi-Fi that streams music and is connected to the web on 10-year-old legacy systems ported to Unix which does not need a reboot. Windows does not provide "support" to old hardware.


  • Applications



  • Distributions





Free Software/Open Source



  • PixelLight Open-Source Cross-Platform 3D Engine
    It’s built entirely in C++ and already runs on Windows and Linux, with test versions already running on mobile devices and web browsers. Definitely looks like something to keep an eye on.


  • Open-source 3D engine PixelLight released


  • Brazil goes all-digital with 2010 census
    Better known for its beaches and passion for soccer, Brazil also happens to be the world’s second-leading open source country (just behind the U.S.) and boasts an IT services sector that rivals China and India. The South American country is now putting its digital leadership on display by carrying out its first-ever paperless, all-digital population census.


  • Government saving with open source
    Achieving significant efficiency savings and more from IT is possible - Peter Dawes- Huish, CEO, LinuxIT, considers how open source based systems and outsourcing can provide the solution

    I attended a seminar the other day and I was amazed just how much misinformation there was around the adoption of open source based software and the services surrounding it. The reasons, the strategies, the options, the benefits it offers both the private and public sector today.

    I'm not sure why. Perhaps it's because open source (OS), by its very nature with such a developer led resource is such a fast moving field, or those within the OS community and providers of Enterprise Open Source, like LinuxIT, just need to work harder at getting across the ability of OS to transform the management and performance of IT environments. Its ability to contribute towards IT innovation, interoperability, reliability, flexibility, return on investment and so on.


  • Web Browsers



  • SaaS



  • Oracle

    • The future of Solaris


      In 2005, Sun released the source code to Solaris, described then as the company’s crown jewel. Why do this? The simplest answer is that Solaris had been losing ground to an open source competitor in Linux. Losing ground was a symptom of economics. Students who had once been raised on Solaris were being inculcated with Linux knowlege. The combination of Linux and x86 were good enough and significantly cheaper; new companies for whom the default had once been Sun/Solaris/SPARC were instead building on x86/Linux. OpenSolaris along with x86 support were specifically intended to address this trend. Indeed, the codename for OpenSolaris was “tonic” — the tonic for Solaris’ problems.




  • CMS

    • Replacing SharePoint with Open Source CMSs
      Probably the most compelling reasons to deploy an open source solution instead are price and flexibility. The licensing costs of SharePoint, plus Windows Server, plus SQL Server and the rest of the bundle are not insignificant. If you’d prefer to avoid becoming too deeply entrenched in Microsoft-based solutions, you’ll find several open source alternatives — and three I personally recommend: Alfresco, MindTouch, and Drupal.

      Why those, and not some of the other open source CMSes? Alfresco and MindTouch are two of the most feature-compatible replacements for SharePoint. Drupal is not a direct replacement for all of SharePoint’s features, but handles many of the use cases for which SharePoint is popular. All three not only enjoy a strong user and developer community, but also have strong commercial support, making them much more suitable for enterprises that choose open source but still seek support and training services.


    • Open-source Diaspora set launch date
      Diaspora, an open-source social network describes itself as “privacy-aware, personally-controlled”, will be launched on 15 September, according to the developers. The project is considered as an alternative to Facebook, but many believe that it is difficult to challenge the world’s largest social network, which has 500 million users and is estimated to be worth $33bn currently. A team of four US students built up Diaspora trying to solve some of the problems appeared in Facebook, when it was criticised for being overly complex and confusing, as well as privacy concerns. “We want to put users back in control of what they share,” Max Salzberg, one of the founders said. Diaspora made headlines earlier this year when Facebook was in intense criticism.


    • Facebook alternative Diaspora eyes launch date


    • Elgg, the open source social networking CMS announced version 1.7.2
      A new version of the popular open source social networking CMS, Elgg has been released! 1.7.2 is primarily a bugfix release.




  • Business



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



  • Government



  • Openness/Sharing

    • Designing culture: The other community plumbing
      4. Don't be Tom Sawyer.

      Here stood the board fence which tom sawyer persuaded his gang to pay him for the privilege of whitewashing. Tom sat by and saw that it was well done.

      Tom Sawyer is interesting because Tom, by being a smooth talker, convinced everyone to do his work for him. Many companies approach their community strategies as having other people painting their fences. The popular term now is crowdsourcing. In this model, a company says "I have a lot of problems. Maybe I can convince a bunch of people to do my work for me." Sometimes it works, like Dell's IdeaStorm. But it works only for big, powerful brands. It doesn't work when a company asks for help, and everyone ignores them. And it doesn't work because as a company, you can't build a community around yourself.


    • Pharma's Future: Open-Source R&D
      The future of pharmaceutical R&D may lie in open-source research, with key data being made available to a number of people, including college students and university researchers, in an open and collaborative process. Open-source drug development would leverage an online community of computer users worldwide.


    • Open Hardware

      • Open Source: A Developing Robotics Industry
        The Menlo Park, Calif-based company, founded in 2006, develops open-source hardware and software for the robotics industry. Its robot PR2 (Personal Robot 2) is being sold as an example of what software developers can do with an open-source robotics platform.






  • Programming

    • Ruby on Rails 3.0 due this week
      Ruby on Rails 3.0, a major upgrade to the popular open source Web development framework, is due in a final release this week, the founder of the framework, David Heinemeier Hansson, said on Tuesday.






Leftovers

  • John Lennon's loo fetches €£9,500 at auction for Beatles fans


    A porcelain lavatory which John Lennon told a builder to use as a "plant pot" has fetched €£9,500 – nearly 10 times its guide price – at an auction today.

    The loo was used by the music legend when he lived at Tittenhurst Park in Berkshire between 1969 and 1972.


  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Walter Reed says it mishandled nuclear material
      The military's flagship hospital acknowledged Thursday it mishandled two packages of radioactive material last spring in an incident regulators said may have exposed staff and patients to elevated radiation levels.


    • MIT researchers unveil autonomous oil-absorbing robot
      The system, called Seaswarm, is a fleet of vehicles that may make cleaning up future oil spills both less expensive and more efficient than current skimming methods. MIT’s Senseable City Lab will unveil the first Seaswarm prototype at the Venice Biennale's Italian Pavilion on Saturday, August 28. The Venice Biennale is an international art, music and architecture festival whose current theme addresses how nanotechnology will change the way we live in 2050.








Clip of the Day



Richard M. Stallman Speech Patents Calgary Canada 2005



[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Recent Techrights' Posts

Dr. Richard Stallman in Ada Lovelace Lecture Series 20 Hours From Now in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology (Rotkreuz)
Well-connected and affluent corporations want everything to be controlled by them, ranging from culture to words and news
 
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Industrial Panettone, Cancel, and LLMs
Links for the day
It's Not "AI", IBM is Collapsing Due to Financial Difficulties, "All Small Country Offices Will Close"
IBM is in trouble. Insiders know it.
"AI Companies" Running Out of Money, GAFAM Layoffs Are Signs of Weakness, Not "AI Efficiency" or Novelty
In the past, this term ("AI") had another meaning and connotation
Libel/Defamation Law Does Not Exist to Cover up Crimes
The projection tactics are nothing new
Myanmar/Burma: Growing Acceptance of GNU/Linux, Big Losses for Windows
GNU/Linux has come close to 5% there
Without IBM, Microsoft Would Not Have Taken Off. Both Companies Need to be 'Taken Down'.
Maybe it's time to boycott IBM as well
'Former' Red Hat Staff Upset That Techrights Covers IBM Accounting Problems
Are we touching a sensitive subject at IBM?
Ubuntu is Controlled by a Youngster From the British Army (Background in Mass Surveillance), So One Can Expect Ubuntu to Not Respect Privacy
"Canonical is aware of the legislation and is reviewing it internally with legal counsel"
IBM Hates Computer Freedom. This Means Red Hat Too is an Enemy of Software Freedom.
A summary of Fedora's position when it comes to "attestation"
IBM Union Says Many IBM Layoffs in Europe, With Netherlands and Belgium Confirmed, Allegedly Italy Soon (200 Layoffs)
IBM's demise will harm Red Hat and already harms Red Hat, according to whistleblowers
Microsoft and Microsoft's 'Open' 'AI' Seeking Bailout From the Pentagon Means Brand Erosion
Microsoft and its offshoots growing more and more dependent on military ("defence"; "Department of War") budget
Another EPO Strike a Fortnight From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich (LSCMN) Shares 127-Page Document Explaining How Policies Impact EPO Staff
The Office is circling down the drain
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 3 Out of 200: A More In-Depth Breakdown
presents the narrative in a less chronological and more logically coherent fashion
2026 Seems Like (Potentially) the Last Year of Slop Drowning News Sites
Sites that do so perish [...] It's getting hard to find slop in news sites which cover "Linux" because many gave up
Links 05/03/2026: New LexisNexis Data Breach Confirmed, "Goldman Sachs Head During Financial Crisis Says He “Smells” a Similar Crash Coming"
Links for the day
"Silent Layoffs" or "Forever Layoffs" at IBM and Red Hat (After Bluewashing)
Like every day (all day long) we can see people who leave IBM and say something that's based on a 'script'
Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Others Promoting String of RMS Talks, Starting Tomorrow in Lucerne School of Computer Science and Information Technology
Well done, FSF!
Links 05/03/2026: A Bet Against Substack, American Government Openly Hostile Towards Environment
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/03/2026: Greed and Sentiments Shifting Against Slop
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, March 04, 2026
FSF Promoting Richard M. Stallman (RMS) Talk in Switzerland in Just Over a Day From Now
RMS may have more talks on the way
Why Slop Will Flop - Part IV - We've Seen the End of It
Some years ago they insisted blockchains would revolutionise everything
Android is Proprietary 'Linux' and It Becomes More Malicious Over Time, Google Only Delayed What It Planned All Along
Google is a proprietary software giant, GSoC is only a distraction and confusion
Links 04/03/2026: Scam Altman Causes Chatbot Sub Numbers to Plunge, "Stocks Drop as Inflation Risk Emerges"
Links for the day
Why Slop Will Flop - Part III - Our Relationship With Slop (and Yours)
I never - except inadvertently - "used" an LLM-based chatbot
Why Slop Will Flop - Part II - Devil in the Details
News sites or social control media sites which tolerate slop are digging their own grave
Simpler Means Faster
Do you know your bottlenecks?
Gemini Links 04/03/2026: About a Missing Symbol and "Good Manners"
Links for the day
The Register MS Takes Money From Chinese Surveillance Threat to Promote a Ponzi Scheme
"Sponsored by Huawei."
Nicaragua's GNU/Linux Usage Measured at Over 8% by statCounter
Nicaragua is a poor country, but it also has rich culture
Why Slop Will Flop - Part I - Slop Fatigue Prevalent
See, sooner or later people (audiences of colleagues) find out and as soon as they find out you are slopping, they will lose interest
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 2 Out of 200: Detailed Timeline From 2012 (Attack on Reporters That Question Restricted Boot) to 2024 (Lawsuit Against Reporter and His Wife in Another Continent)
we reproduce a document produced 2 years ago to give people more context and more facts
Links 04/03/2026: "The EU moves to kill infinite scrolling" and a call to "Nationalize Amazon"
Links for the day
Coming Soon: Evidence of Abuse in Our IRC Network
IRC's freedom can sometimes be its 'weakness' if not properly guarded
High GNU/Linux Adoption in Brunei Darussalam
It's worth noting (or at least noticing) that Microsoft loses ground in some of the countries where the government contracts paid the most
Media Blackout Reducing or Preventing Press Coverage of Microsoft Layoffs in 2026
Worse yet, there will be gaslighting and deceit
GNU/Linux in Laptops/Desktops Still Matters, It's Likely the Only Way to Achieve Software Freedom
Software Freedom requires all sorts of things at the "OS level"
Gemini Links 04/03/2026: The Garnet Star, The Hunt, The SYN Attacks
Links for the day
The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Discussion Illuminates How Much Worse Things Have Gotten ("on Strike and Participated in the 'Meeting'")
a videoconference - not a physical meeting - discussed EPO policies
Free Software Foundation Supports Its Founder, Advertises His Talks in Switzerland
When you suppress voices, assuming the reasons for suppression are bunk, it is always bound to backfire very badly
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 03, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, March 03, 2026
Over 1,500 EPO Workers Went on Strike Last Week
a new publication which celebrates some accomplishments of industrial actions and calls for further actions
Madame Streisand Wanted to Censor The Web, Instead She 'Created' a New Term, "Streisand Effect"
It is basically an own goal
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Failed to Detect Fraud in Law Firms... Until It Was Too Late
Earlier today we contacted some more politicians about this and received mail from them as well
Our EPO and IBM Coverage Bears Fruit
In case insiders want to get in touch with us, please ensure or at least try doing so securely
Defending Women Isn't a Crime, Everybody Can Agree on That
Their culture is unlike ours
EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VI - Influx of Spaniards and Portuguese Workers (+77%) at Europe's Second-Largest Institution, Led by the 'Alicante Mafia'
There is now data supporting this assertion, new and complete data in fact
Links 03/03/2026: "Scam Altman in Damage Control" and Oil Traffic Disrupted
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/03/2026: Phones, LLMs, and Changes on the Web
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Confirms Talk in Bern Next Week
Dr. Stallman has just formally confirmed his third talk this month in Switzerland
Nobody is Safe at IBM (or Red Hat)
There is no job security at IBM
GNU/Linux at All-Time High in Guam
there are many computers in that island
Bad faith: Hugo Roy knew FSFE impersonating FSF before French tribunal, colleagues deceived
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Microsofters' SLAPP Censorship - Part 1 Out of 200: Claim No. KB-2024-001270 in a Nutshell
abuse of process by a law firm working for an American who was arrested for strangling women and another American whose own spouse calls a "rapist"
When EPO Team Managers (TMs) Are Harassing People Who Strictly Apply the European Patent Convention (EPC) in Patent Examination
There are two strikes planned for this month
Confirmed: Using Slop Gets You Fired
Let the story of Benj Edwards be a cautionary tale
Links 03/03/2026: "No one wants to read your AI slop" and "chatbots in the kill chain"
Links for the day
EPO and "Equivalent to More Than 100 Days of Strike"
The industrial actions continue and already have a positive effect
Streisand Effect, the Microsoft Way
Microsoft has once again proven the Streisand Effect
Keeping Track of IBM Layoffs in March 2026
IBM depends on bribery
GNU/Linux Measured at 7% in Yemen
Windows is too hostile and dangerous
Links 03/03/2026: Security Breaches, Iceland Wants EU Membership, and "Wall Street–Backed Lawmakers Want to Help Banks Gouge You"
Links for the day
Queensland Health Payroll System: IBM billion-dollar-blowout inquiry
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 02, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, March 02, 2026
Gemini Links 03/03/2026: GrapheneOS and Keyboard Shortcuts
Links for the day