• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Is Linux the computing Tower of Babel?

There is a story called “The Tower of Babel”. It is based in ancient times where all people spoke the same language and made a decision to build a tower to reach the heavens. Then, according to the story, the big guy from above saw their hubris and decided to scramble their languages and spread these people around like Vegemite on toast. If you don’t know what Vegemite is then beware of Australians offering sandwiches

Desktop

• Desktop Linux Showdown

  Last week I gave a presentation at LinuxCon in sunny Boston entitled Desktop Linux Distribution Showdown. The premise was to compare the three most popular desktop distributions to find out which is most user-friendly. It wasn’t easy, and the results might (or might not) surprise you.

• Touch Slate PC: Made in Pakistan

  You are running a Linux Ubuntu Operating System on the laptop — Considering the Ubuntu penetration into the consumer market, what’s the target audience for this?

  We have customized the UBUNTU OS to feel and work like Windows OS. One major reason was the price of Windows 7 for touch screen is approximately US$ 110, which is 1/4th the price of the complete machine, and we have yet to find a customer willing to pay for the Windows OS. We installed Open Office and can install all Windows-based software through WINE, hence all Windows machine file formats are supported and interchangeable with those on our machine without any issues.

Server

• LSI 3ware RAID Controller Cards Selected by Blue Box Group to Boost I/O Performance for Cloud-based Customers

  The improved data transfer rates and ease of management of 3ware 6Gb/s controllers, combined with Pogo Linux’s robust Intel(R)-based Iris servers, provide Blue Box Group with a scalable, high-performance infrastructure from which to build its cloud-based application and database solution.

• Oracle dumping HPC: Genius or foolhardy?

  Oracle doesn’t seem to understand that HPC is the birthplace of IT innovation. Many of the technologies used in enterprise computing today got their start in HPC, including clustering for scale, the use of Linux for computationally complex tasks, and high-speed storage and networking gear.

• IBM Bolsters Power7 Server Lineup

  IBM on Tuesday continued its introduction of servers based on its new Power7 architecture with the debut of several midrange systems, including one purpose-built for data intensive business analytics applications, and a high-end system that features 250 processor cores.

Kernel Space/OIN/LF

• PyMT 0.5 advances multi-touch for Python

  The PyMT developers have announced version 0.5 of their Python multi-touch user interface library. PyMT 0.5 supports Windows 7 and Mac OS X multi-touch APIs and, in this version, now supports Linux multi-touch kernel events, which were introduced in the 2.6.32 Linux kernel.

• Linux defense group invests in mobile ID security

  Linux patent defense organization Open Invention Network (OIN) announced a partnership with Arizona State University’s Arizona Technology Enterprises (AzTE) office, focused on mobile device identity management research. As part of the agreement, OIN acquired key intellectual property from AzTE aimed at providing “intellectual property for defensive purposes” for open source software on mobile devices, says OIN.

• Palamida Joins Linux Foundation

  Palamida has become the newest member of The Linux Foundation. It will participate in The Linux Foundation’s new Open Compliance Program.

  The Linux Foundation’s Open Compliance Program includes a set of tools, training curricula and a new self-administered assessment that will allow companies to ensure compliance in a cost-effective and efficient manner. It also includes a new data exchange standard so companies and their suppliers can easily report software information consistently.

• Graphics Stack

  • Open Invention Network Sponsoring Innovative Mobile Device Identity Management Research at Arizona State University

    A defensive patent management organization formed by IBM, NEC, Novell, Philips, Red Hat, and Sony to support Linux systems, OIN has established a uniquely collaborative business model attractive to universities. OIN licenses the technologies from its defensive patent pool on a royalty-free basis. It typically works with universities on technology and patent acquisitions, funded research, and defensive publication programs.

  • Intel’s GLSL2 Branch Is Merged To Mesa Master

    As we reported last month, Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center developers responsible for working on their open-source Linux graphics stack has been wanting to merge their GLSL2 shader compiler into the mainline Mesa code-base by the end of August so that it can be released as part of Mesa 7.9 by the end of this quarter. Over the night this milestone was hit and the GLSL2 compiler is now in Mesa master and has replaced the antiquated GL Shading Language compiler long used by Mesa.

Applications

• Rocking out with Minitunes

  Since you’ve upgraded to KDE 4.5 and started to suddenly feel the need for speed, you aren’t quite happy with Amarok 2 or Banshee anymore. “I want something faster, lighter” you think to yourself.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Get Started with LaTeX

  • Linux Server Monitoring Techniques

  • Weekend Project: Personal Area Networking with Bluetooth

  • Top 50 SSH helper tools – OMG!

Desktop Environments

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • KMyMoney 4.5 for KDE Platform 4 released

    After more than 15 months of development, the KMyMoney team has released the first stable version of their personal finance manager built on KDE Platform 4. KMyMoney 4.5, which aims to be the best, free personal finance manager, is now based on KDE 4 and competes with such similar finance applications as GnuCash, a cross-platform personal and small-business financial-accounting program.

• GNOME Desktop

  • GTK+2, GTK+3 Plays More With Cairo For Drawing

    With GNOME 3.0 not being released now until March of 2011, GNOME 2.32 is being released next month and will continue to focus on dependable and trusted GNOME 2.x technologies, such as the GTK+2 library rather than GTK+3 that’s been in development for quite a number of months and is already supported by most GNOME modules.

    While most development work on this primary tool-kit of GNOME is still focused towards GTK+ 3.0, GTK+2 continues to receive a bit of love with GTK+ 2.22 being the last planned stable release. Making way towards GTK+ 2.22 there was the release of GTK+ 2.21.6 last night as one of the final development snapshots towards this release that bids farewell to GTK+2. GTK+ 2.21.6 is being checked-in with the many other official GNOME modules that are providing updates for the GNOME 2.32 Beta release that’s expected later in the week.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Kongoni 1.12.3

  • Puppy 5.1

  • Untangle 7.4

  • Mangaka Moe v4

  • GParted 0.6.2-2

  • Trinity Upgrades Linux Rescue Kit

    The latest iteration of the distro uses the 2.6.35 Linux kernel and incorporates a more user-friendly, scrollable text menu to access the most commonly needed features.

• Red Hat Family

  • Does your organization need a “no policy” policy?

    At Red Hat, employees were given a lot of freedom, much more than in any other company I’d ever worked for. Yet Red Hat also had a strong culture of accountability. What we found over the years (these values were first articulated back in 2002) would probably be counterintuitive to many people:

    The more freedom the company gave, the more accountability it received in return.

    We watched this play out over and over in different parts of the company. More freedom in a department = more personal accountability from employees in that department. Conversely, the less freedom, the less accountability.

  • Installing CentOS Server for Production

    Installing a Linux server is easy, especially if you download one of the latest CentOS ISOs. There’s a nice wizard to walk you through the installation process, and it’s perfectly acceptable to do a standard default install. But, if you intend to do any serious hosting or expect production quality performance out of the system, or if you are just as particular as I am, than a bit of customizing of the install at the beginning could save you lots of time later on down the road.

• Debian Family

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Dell Expands KACE Systems Management Marketing Team

      An Ubuntu Linux veteran has joined Dell as part of the PC giant’s effort to focus on systems management. Ken Drachnik, a former manager at Canonical (promoter of Ubuntu) has joined Dell as director of product marketing for KACE, The VAR Guy has confirmed. Here are the details and the implications for Dell’s systems management strategy.

    • N-imal?

      And so, we come swiftly to a conclusion: allow me to introduce the Natty Narwhal, our mascot for development work that we expect to deliver as Ubuntu 11.04.

    • Ubuntu 11.04 Is Codenamed The Natty Narwhal

      Mark Shuttleworth has just announced via his blog that Ubuntu 11.04, which will be released in April of 2011, is codenamed the Natty Narwhal.

    • Canonical developer decodes Apple’s Magic Trackpad

      Canonical developer Chase Douglas says Ubuntu 10.10 will have multi-touch support for Apple’s Magic Trackpad, iPod, iPad, iPhone, MacBook and MacBook Pro. Canonical’s announcement yesterday that it had released uTouch 1.0, a multi-touch gesture recognising stack for multi-touch based devices, prompted queries about which Apple multi-touch devices were supported. In a Canonical log posting, Douglas has listed the supported devices and announced that he has decoded the protocol for Apple’s Magic Trackpad.

Devices/Embedded

• SODIMM-sized SBC has onboard flash, microSD slot

  Keith and Koep GmbH announced a SODIMM-sized, Linux-compatible single board computer (SBC) and a compact baseboard to go with it. The Trizeps VI offers Marvell Armada 100-series processors clocked at 800MHz or 1.1GHz, up to 256MB of RAM and 512MB of flash storage, and an onboard microSD socket, while the baseboard adds an Ethernet port and HDMI, among other functionality.

• Boxing Clever: Livestation On Boxee, EMI On PS3’s VidZone, Sky On I-Can

  Live TV news aggregator Livestation is taking an app on to Boxee, the internet TV media centre software for Mac, Windows, Linux and AppleTV.

  For the time being, Livestation’s premium channels, which it is now trying to push, are available on Mac and Linux only.

• Cheap Linux wall warts small on size, big on possibilities

  Every geek and technology lover will undoubtedly have stumbled across online adverts for tiny headless Linux-powered devices that are barely larger than the power point they plug into. What can you actually do with them? Plenty, it seems!

• Phones

  • Android

    • Google releases Froyo and new Voice Actions widget

      Froyo is currently available only on a few phones, including Google’s Nexus One and some HTC Evo 4G and original Droid phones. It will soon ship on the Droid 2, and next month will be available for the Droid X, while many other Android devices will be updated in the coming months.

    • Tablets, eReaders, and More Coming from Verizon as 2H Details Emerge

      Motorola isn’t taking their foot off of the gas, bringing an XT610 which is said to feature a Droid X-like screen size (4.3-inches) but with hardware more in the middle of the pack (think 3.2 or 5-megapixel camera and slower CPU). PhoneArena’s source says to expect a $100-$130 price point with a contract. Also arriving in October is a Motorola A957 “Sick” which likely comes from a “Dude, check out how sick this phone is!”

• Sub-notebooks

  • Jolicloud 1.0 review – watch out Google Chrome OS!

    Can a small team of French developers really take on the might of Google Chrome OS with Jolicloud 1.0? Linux User & Developer thinks they’re in with a shot…

• Tablets

  • Archos thinks small for next Cortex-A8 Android tablet

    A 3.2-inch, Android 2.1 tablet called the Archos 32 has been spotted on the FCC’s website. Like the Archos 5 and Archos 7, the Archos 32 is said to run on an ARM Cortex A8 system-on-chip (SoC), and offers GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, accelerometers, and composite video out, according to a manual posted on the FCC site.

OpenLuna Picks Up Where NASA’s Moon Mission Leaves Off

Though the Obama administration is ending NASA’s moon mission, not everyone is taking the news lying down. A group of engineers and scientists have teamed up with a handful of universities and companies in the space industry to form a collaborative volunteer organization called the OpenLuna Foundation. Together, they hope to pick up space exploration where NASA left off and eventually settle a manned outpost on the surface of the moon.

50 Open Source Replacements for Really Expensive Software

The “Great Recession” has businesses and consumers alike looking for ways to cut costs. That includes looking for cheaper alternatives to expensive software.

In most cases, open source applications offer much lower prices, even if you need to purchase paid support. With that in mind, we’ve put together a list of open source alternatives to software that tends to cost a lot.

This list comes with a few caveats. First, it’s nearly impossible to find prices for the very most expensive software you can buy. Many enterprise software vendors don’t release their prices because they negotiate separately with each customer or because their licensing schemes are so complicated that they could never explain them adequately in less than 5,000 words.

OpenOffice Base – A Simple And Useful Database Management Tool

When most people think OpenOffice, they think of word processing or spreadsheets. What many people do not realize is that OpenOffice also includes Base, a database system roughly equivalent to MS Access. Many businesses and individuals use these systems to allow even non-technical people to enter, store, retrieve and organize their data. Using Base, you can follow simple steps to create an easy, user-friendly way for people to store and retrieve information using custom-designed forms and reports.

Events

• ESC Boston features Linux/Android track

  The EE Times Group has announced keynotes and tracks for its ESC (Embedded Systems Conference) Boston, set for Sept. 20 to 23. ESC Boston includes a Linux/Android track, with half-day tutorials on each plus sessions on MeeGo, and once again offers its “Build Your Own Embedded System” track, this time using a BeagleBoard-xM.

• Workshop on Open Bibliographic Data and the Public Domain

• Richard M Stallman in Kerala

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • FoxToPhone sends URLs from Firefox to Android phones

    FoxToPhone, formerly known as SendToPhone, is an extension for Mozilla’s Firefox web browser that allows users to send their current web page directly and almost instantly to their Android-powered device using an address bar button. Users can also send any link, image or page to their mobile device by simply right clicking on it and selecting the appropriate action. Additionally, highlighted text can be sent directly to the phone’s clipboard.

Healthcare

• Laws governing medical devices in the EU and their effect on free and open source software

  States of the European Union recently implemented Directive 2007/47/EEC of September 5th 2007 concerning Medical Devices. This Directive amended Directive 93/42/EEC from June 14th 1993. Given that this Directive should now have become part of the national legislation of each EU Member State, it is a good time to take a look at how the provisions of the Directive could apply to open source software.

Business

• Semi-Open Source

  • Review: Zenoss network monitoring tool

Project Releases

• jQuery Mobile Project announced

  The jQuery Project developers have announced the launch of the jQuery Mobile project, a new project for a cross-platform mobile version of their JavaScript framework. According to jQuery creator John Resig, as part of the new mobile project, the core jQuery library is being improved to work across the various major mobile platforms and their browsers. Resig says that the developers are working to release “a complete, unified, mobile UI framework”. Current expectations are that this will be completed in late 2010.

Openness/Sharing

• Open-source cell phone network could cut costs to $2 per month

  A small team of telecom industry veterans has solved both of those problems. The team developed OpenBTS, an open-source, software-based cellphone network. Not only does it cost one-tenth as much as traditional networks, but carriers could charge callers about $2 per month and still make a profit.

• Competition Makes Groups More Creative

Programming

• A Programmer’s Discussion: Procedural vs. OO

  So I have been writing code of one sort or another for over 15 years (mostly Perl) and there is still one thing I don’t get … what is the advantage of object oriented programming (OOP) over procedural programming (PP)?

  I want to have an open discussion on the topic. Obviously I deal with both OOP and PP, but I am strongly in the PP camp. I am wondering “did I miss the boat”? I heard that Perl 6 will have very strong OOP and possibly will be pure OOP only, so if Larry Wall (way smarter then me) thinks it is a good idea, I must have missed something.

Defamation reform – the role of juries

Lord Lester explained that in his Bill he had reversed the presumption that trial is by jury rather than by judge in defamation proceedings because, in the present situation, the prospect of jury trial supposedly makes it more likely that parties hold out for the prospect of argument before juries rather than settling the case early, which would generally be in the interests of the parties (and, incidentally, save the state costs). I question whether the practical consideration about the likelihood of cases settling earlier is worth changing the principle of trial by jury, but – regardless of the accuracy or merits of that decision on its own terms – I would highlight the great risk involved in this approach.

How Do Native Apps and Web Apps Compare?

Health

• Potter to NAIC: Be a Hero to Consumers

  A consumer watchdog told insurance commissioners here that consumers are looking to state regulators to protect them from health care companies’ tendency to put shareholders first.

  Wendell Potter, a former insurance company executive who is now affiliated with the Center for Media and Democracy, Madison, Wis., addressed attendees at the National Association of Insurance Commissioners’ (NAIC’s) summer meeting Saturday.

Security/Aggression

• Oxfordshire conducts secret speed camera experiment

  When Oxfordshire switched off its fixed speed cameras due to budget cuts, what the council kept secret was that two of them were left running.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Welcome to the Infotainment Freak Show

  In a media atmosphere that prefers entertainment over enlightenment, segments such as the one occurring on Aug. 10 on Morning Joe have become the norm. Rather than spend time talking about issues of substance, Joe Scarborough and his team instead decided to spend a whole segment of his show poking fun at Rep. John Boehner new tan. It’s not as if anything else more important is occurring at the moment in the world, right? Infotainment, as epitomized by this segment, often reigns supreme in the mess that is the contemporary American “news” industry.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• Pirate Party Strikes Hosting Deal With Wikileaks

  During his visit to the the Swedish capital Stockholm, Wikileaks spokesman Julian Assange struck a deal with the local Pirate Party. The Party, which participates in the national elections next month, will host several new Wikileaks servers to protect the freedom of the press and help the whistleblower site to carry out its operation.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• iiNet counts meaningful ISPs on one hand

  There are only “four and a half” meaningful players left in Australia’s internet service provider (ISP) market, iiNet supremo Michael Malone said today, with companies like Primus and Eftel not relevant any more in terms of providing competition.

• Reports Of The Web’s Death Are Greatly Exaggerated Through Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

  In fact, much of both articles seems to be wishful thinking to support a view that the two authors — Chris Anderson and Michael Wolff — hope the world will come to eventually, rather than what seems to actually be happening. In both cases, it feels like they take the misleading graph at the top as the starting point, and then justify it, even though it’s not painting an accurate picture. There is this new fascination with app madness as the latest new thing — and companies love it because they think it gives them back some of the control they’ve lost to the open web. But, openness tends to find its way through. Closed systems are great for leading a charge to a new level, but they almost always stall out as more open solutions leapfrog them in the end. Apps are still digital, after all, and it’s tough to keep anything digital closed for too long.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • U2 Manager Blames ‘Free’ And Anonymous Internet Bloggers For Industry Troubles

    Paul, the people responding to your speeches and interviews and columns with these concerns are not some bogeymen from the dark with no name reaching out to “attack” you. We’re people who love music and worry about an industry that is making many misguided and dangerous decisions that do more to harm the music world than the new services and technologies you apparently haven’t taken the time to understand. We’re not attacking you. We’re pointing out the very big flaws in your ideas. Rather than repeating the same flawed plans — with gratuitous and incorrect claims of some anonymous mob that’s out to get you — perhaps you could respond to the actual points that we’ve raised? Or is asking for that just a form of an attack?

  • Lawrence Lessig’s new journey (part one)

    Lessig is a visionary when it comes to digital freedom and is one of the most inspirational people I’ve ever had the priviledge of meeting in person. I’m a huge Creative Commons fan. I see it and his work as championing one of the basic things there is to know and learn in life: sharing. We’re all part of one big community and, every chance we get, I feel like we should share knowledge, thoughts, science, research, art, and anything else that we know or create.

  • uTorrent Backs Artist, Bundles Album With New Downloads

    Following in the footsteps of The Pirate Bay and the successful BitTorrent distribution platform Vodo, uTorrent has now embraced an artist of their own. Starting today, all new uTorrent downloads will be bundled with the latest album from PAZ, an up and coming musician who hopes to achieve stardom through BitTorrent.

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Linux found in Portugal – RHL

Last Summer while in hollidays in Algarve, I noticed at the supermarket cashier after a reboot that they were using Red Hat Linux.

Well, this is a major Supermarket chain here at Portugal.

So today i had the idea to make some calculations and figure out how much computers with RHL installed just for cashier POS.

EZ Lube runs LubeSoft, which runs on Linux — more specifically on Ubuntu

It’s not like this is breaking news or anything, but I was at EZ Lube today getting an oil change and noticed the tell-tale brown GNOME windows of the Ubuntu 8.04 LTS era.

From looking at the screen while I was paying the bill, One of the windows on the Ubuntu desktop said “LubeSoft,” which indeed is software for oil-change places — and which proudly runs in a Linux environment.

Google

• 3 Reminders, As Chrome OS Approaches

  It’s For Netbooks. Is Chrome OS a server operating system that will do direct battle with Windows Server, or, for that matter, open source operating systems that reside on servers? Absolutely not. It’s aimed squarely at netbooks, a fast-growing part of the hardware market–but only part.

Applications

• Seif Speaks: Interviewing Mr. Gwibber (Ryan Paul)

• Best Online Data Backup Service for Linux Poll

• Ranger: Console-Based File Management

  Ranger is a neat option if you regularly use the console and would like a slightly more user-friendly option for file management than ls and the other shell builtins. I’ll certainly be using it again.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Resizing Linux partitions, Part 1: Basics

  • Replacing Ping with Nmap for Nagios

  • Syncronized Folders across Windows and Linux – Free Encrypted Cross-Platform Synchronisation with Unison

  • Chrooting Apache2 With mod_chroot On Ubuntu 10.04

• Games

  • “Amnesia”, “And Yet It Moves” – Two Incredible Games Which Now Has a Linux Version Too

    For serious gamer folks in Linux, there is more good news. “Amnesia”, which many reviewed as one that is going to be among the scariest game ever and “And Yet It Moves”, a physics-based platform game, are going to have native Linux clients. Meanwhile, you may also want to check our listing of games for non-gamers in Linux.

Desktop Environments

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • Using the KDE 4.5 Search and Launch Containment Activity

    The Search and Launch Containment Activity was only recently introduced in the 4.5 branch and is a fairly significant in the KDE desktop. In this article I am going to explain this Activity and show you how to take advantage of it.

  • KDE’s New Releases Make a Splash

  • KMyMoney Team Announces First Platform 4 Release

    The KMyMoney team is pleased to announce the release of the first stable version built on KDE Platform 4. With over 15 months of development, this is the starting point for a series of KMyMoney versions leveraging the stellar features offered by the new Platform.

  • kpresenter templates, foss/lc and other things

Distributions

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat deploys open source technologies in mission-critical, financial services

    Red Hat Enterprise Linux is the operating system of choice at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Lahore Stock Exchange, New India Assurance, SBI Life Insurance, the Korea Federation of Banks and Quam Financial Services Group.

• Debian Family

  • Happy Birthday Debian

  • Debian Appreciation Day

  • Margarita Manterola Celebrates Debian

    What an asset to the Debian community she is. Her latest project is a Thank Debian website where we can leave messages of encouragement and thanks to the folks who make Debian work. What a cool idea!

    I have used Debian GNU/Linux for years and recommend it highly. It is the standard for general-purpose GNU/Linux distributions. No repository matches it. No supported architectures match it. No quality of releases matches, except, perhaps, RedHat and Suse.

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Flavours and Variants

      • Puppy 5.1 codename Lucid is out- Now is compatible with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx package

        Puppy Linux 5.1, code-name ‘Lucid’ as it is binary-compatible with Ubuntu Lucid Lynx packages, has been released. The announcement and release notes say that because of the Ubuntu binary files, the development time to produce program packages that are tested and configured for Lucid Puppy is extremely short.

Devices/Embedded

• Phones

  • Android

    • Pleco Chinese Dictionary Camera Recognizer Demo

    • Android Shipments To Eclipse 55 Million Units Worldwide In 2010

      As expected, Android-powered smartphones will see the strongest growth, especially with Samsung and LG committing to manufacturing their own range of powerful Android smartphones, helping to grow Android shipments in the second half of 2010.

      According to Lin, Android’s share of the worldwide smartphone market has risen from around 5% in 2009 to top 13.8% in the first half of 2010. At it’s current rate o growth, Android’s market share is expected to reach 24.5%, with shipments estimated to push 55 million units, a rise of 561% year on year.

    • Droid Still Rules the Roost

      The original Droid smartphone on the Verizon network is still the top Android phone. The hot smartphone platform is definitely Android, and that is due to the number of hot phones are on the market. New phones are appearing almost every week which keeps things moving right along. Chitika Research, a division of the search-targeted ad network, is watching the Android space with interest, and have developed a real-time “Droid 2 Tracker.”

Cash and Community: Incentives and Open Source Development

This is a concern for some members of the FOSS community, like Bradley Kuhn of the Software Freedom Law Center and Software Freedom Conservancy. During the session, Kuhn expressed dismay that “too many people make money” working on FOSS funded by corporations, and not enough projects are being driven by hackers looking to scratch their own itch. Kuhn’s concerns are echoed by a number of contributors in the FOSS community, who say that a strong community should include developers who work on a project out of passion rather than for a paycheck. While Kuhn doesn’t say that projects should be without corporate contributions, he says that too many projects are initiated and driven by companies rather than growing organically and becoming useful to companies over the long run.

Sun’s purchase by Oracle highlights some dangers of corporate-driven FOSS projects, or projects depending too deeply on corporate largess. Many projects funded by Sun have floundered since Oracle took over the company, and other efforts — such as GNOME’s accessibility work — have taken a hit because Oracle laid off the only developers paid to work on those projects full time.

Business

• New Report Details The Rise of Business Intelligence Software

  Not long ago, OStatic did an examination of Business Intelligence (BI) software applications and suites, and it got a lot of notice. That’s probably because BI is one of the fastest-growing categories in the whole open source arena. In fact, when we covered the results of North Bridge Partners’ 2009 Future of Open Source Survey, I noted that many of the respondents said that they see open source Business Intelligence applications as highly likely to cause disruption in the next five years. Now, there are new signs that BI software is gaining solid entrenchment.

Science

• Ray Kurzweil does not understand the brain

  There he goes again, making up nonsense and making ridiculous claims that have no relationship to reality. Ray Kurzweil must be able to spin out a good line of bafflegab, because he seems to have the tech media convinced that he’s a genius, when he’s actually just another Deepak Chopra for the computer science cognoscenti.

Finance

• The heresy of the Greeks offers hope

  The crisis that has led to Greece’s “rescue” by European banks and the International Monetary Fund is the product of a grotesque financial system that itself is in crisis. Greece is a microcosm of a modern class war rarely reported as such, but waged with all the urgency of panic among the imperial rich.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

• Amazon Case: We’re In!

  Last Friday, the district court in the Western District of Washington granted the motion to intervene that the ACLU filed on behalf of our clients in the lawsuit (PDF) challenging the North Carolina Department of Revenue’s (DOR) repeated requests for Amazon’s customer records in the course of its tax audit of Amazon. These customer records reveal highly personal and intimate details of people’s lives that DOR does not actually need for its tax audit, including what books people are reading, what films they are watching, and what other private and expressive materials they are purchasing. The First Amendment bars the government from demanding and collecting this information.

• Lawsuit: Disney, others spy on kids with zombie cookies

  According to the complaint, each of the Clearspring affiliates independently and knowingly authorized the company to track users, even on non-Clearspring affiliated sites. A Flash-based tracking cookie was allegedly installed by the affiliate sites without users’ knowledge, and would recreate itself by digging into the Flash storage bin for the same user information if deleted. Essentially, users who were trying to remain privacy-conscious by regularly deleting their cookies were not able to rid themselves of the cookies deposited by Clearspring.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Why Intellectual Property Rights in Traditional Knowledge Cannot Contribute to Sustainable Development

  This paper makes a simple point: If sustainability (however defined) is the goal, intellectual property rights in traditional knowledge do not move us toward the achievement of that goal. The reason is that the only social policy justification for recognizing intellectual property rights at all is that they supposedly serve as an incentive to create socially desirable works of authorship and inventions. They are not and should serve as a reward for past achievements. In other words, outside of their usual incentive function of promoting new technology, intellectual property rights in traditional knowledge have no role to play in the sustainability analysis. This is not to say that traditional knowledge is irrelevant to sustainability; indeed, there is good reason to believe that much can be learned from study and implementation of traditional practices in a wide range of fields. Nor is it to say that intellectual property rights in general play no role in advancing the goal of sustainability. The incentives supplied by intellectual property rights to authors and inventors may help induce new technologies and methods for preserving what is left of the natural state of the planet and its ecosystems. The point is only that intellectual property rights in traditional knowledge can do no good (in promoting sustainability) and may do much harm, by tying up knowledge in exclusive rights that inhibit its application to sustainability (or anything else) without any compensating social gains.

• Copyrights

  • CLA statement on Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act

  • How to save the music industry

    My message was quite simple – and remains so today. We are living in an era when “free” is decimating the music industry and is starting to do the same to film, TV and books. Yet for the world’s internet service providers, bloated by years of broadband growth, “free music” has become a multi-billion dollar bonanza. What has gone so wrong? And what can be done now to put it to right?

    To my amazement, my speech was splashed across the world media. Partly this was due to the timing – President Sarkozy of France had just become the champion of the global music industry, tabling a new law requiring the telecom companies to finally crack down on internet piracy for the first time. But there were other reasons too.

  • A Big Fat Thanks To Record Execs

    In their recent edition, Rolling Stone Magazine has issued a thank you letter to the record label executives. Hopefully they’ll read it and get the bigger picture. It is a very wise and concise note that brings to light the changing nature in which individuals discover and spread music. Hats off to Rolling Stone for trying to get the RIAA and the music big wigs to open their eyes.

  • ACTA

    • Privacy challenges facing the European Union from ACTA

      The WP29 observed that the current text of the ACTA at the very least encourages the implementation of the controversial three strikes policy, which requires disconnecting purported intellectual property infringers, by collaboration between Internet service providers and right holders. Even worst, this policy does not seem limited to piracy and counterfeiting, which was the initial purpose of negotiating the ACTA, but it would extend to infringement of any kind of intellectual property rights, even patents (Articles 2.18.3 and 2.18.3 quarter).

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

ARM backs Linux server chip start-up

A US start-up chipmaker called Smooth-Stone has raised tens of millions of dollars to develop and sell ARM-based processors for servers, which ARM says will likely run Linux.

5 Free or Open NAS Servers

Here we’ll look at five different NAS servers provided by the open source community…

Free Linux-Based 2X CloudClient OS Achieves VMware Ready(TM) Certification

Treasury, Linux Australia collaborate on tax tools

The Australian Treasury has begun working with Linux Australia to make its AUSkey and Standard Business Reporting (SBR) systems compatible with open source platforms.

Server

• A Map to Your Nearest Data Center

  In preparation for the launch of its new backup and migration tool, Turnkey Linux has done some work to automate selection of the nearest regional data center.

• IBM Unleashes 256-core Unix Server, Its Biggest Yet

  The Power 795 is IBM’s biggest Unix server to date. It’s aimed at companies that run large-scale database applications or want to consolidate multiple Unix or Linux workloads onto a single system using IBM’s PowerVM virtualization software.

Google

• Chrome OS Powered Devices Coming To Verizon? [Google Code Comments Suggests Verizon Will Get Chrome OS Powered Devices]

  Just like Android, Chrome OS will be completely open source meaning not only can users modify the code at their will but legions of hardware manufacturers will be able to create devices around the platform. While we haven’t seen any devices hit the market with Chrome OS in tow (which shouldn’t come as a surprise considering it’s not even out yet) it won’t be long until we see the market saturated with such devices.

Multitouch

• PyMT Helps Developers Create Multi-touch Apps

  PyMT developer Christopher Denter writes, “One of the coolest new things with this release is the availability of portable binary packages for Windows and OS X. Those come bundled with everything you need (on Windows, even Python) to get started. You simply download the package for your platform and run it. We didn’t provide a portable package for Ubuntu, but it’s ridiculously easy to install PyMT there anyways. On Ubuntu 10.10, all you need is: sudo apt-get install python-pym.

• Ubuntu’s multitouch move: Will it bolster adoption?

• Eureka! Ubuntu Gets Multi-Touch

• Ubuntu bringing multitouch to Linux

• Ubuntu 10.10 to Feature Multitouch Support

• Ubuntu 10.10 Features Will Include Multi-touch Gesture Support

Kernel Space

• Texas Memory Systems Joins Linux Foundation

  The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Texas Memory Systems has become its newest member.

• Graphics Stack

  • AMD updates ATI Stream Software Development Kit

    The development platform brings a range of tools to the developer community including support for OpenCL 1.1, in addition to Ubuntu 10.04 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.5.

  • Texas Memory Systems Joins Linux Development Effort

  • Introducing The X.Org Gesture Extension

    Earlier this morning Canonical had announced the UTouch Framework, which is their multi-touch framework to be formally introduced with Ubuntu 10.10. Canonical developers crafted up their own multi-touch solution and even their own gesture language for Ubuntu, rather than leveraging any similar free software projects, but — to some surprise — it turns out they are now going to try to engage with upstream developers to at least have a formalized extension to the X.Org Server for gestures.

Applications

• OpenLuna – An Open Source Project Aimed at Returning Humankind Back to the Moon

  The idea called Open Source is fast spreading into non-computer sectors as well. For long, Open Source was equated to GNU and Linux basically and the idea behind Open Source was never really understood properly by many. Its all changing. The idea of sharing, collaborating and having community involvement is no more a bad thing.

• Linux applications galore

  Audio editing. Need to edit a sound or music file? The free and open source Audacity will do the job.

  Backups. Use Unison to automatically back up folders and files to local and remote locations. You can also use TimeVault to take a snapshot of your system that can be restored later.

  Communications. Pidgin is an excellent instant messaging client that supports multiple networks, including Yahoo, Google Talk and MSN. Empathy, which is installed with Ubuntu, is another alternative. If you want video and voice communication over the Internet, there’s Ekiga. There is also a Linux version of Skype which works just as well as the Windows or Mac versions.

  Desktop publishing. No, you don’t need Adobe InDesign to do desktop publishing. In Linux, you can use the free and open source Scribus, which can do layering, opacity, ICC color management, CMYK color separations, and PDF creation.

• Simple Linux word processing with WordGrinder

  Now, Linux users well know that there is no shortage of text editors already available, with vi and emacs being perennial favourites (as well as the cause of many a religious war or two!)

• Algorithmic Music Composition With Linux – athenaCL

  This article concludes our mini-tour of algorithmic composition environments for Linux.

• Books/Instructionals/Technical

  • Autotools Book Review

  • jQuery, books on jQuery and Readability

  • Convert EXT2 or EXT3 to EXT4 Without Reformatting Your Hard Drive

  • Digging under Totem Media Player

  • gimp-plugin-registry – A repository of optional extensions for The GIMP

  • Learning Probability via Octave

    Probability is a subject which brings everyone sleepless nights. Octave, the MATLAB clone or for some MATLAB wanna-be . GNU Octave is a high-level language, primarily intended for numerical computations. The best way to learn octave is to take a difficult task (or goal) and then start using it.

  • How to properly run fsck on (/) root or other partitions including LVM

  • Fix Ubuntu sudo Error:unable to resolve host

  • How to Create a Wallpaper Slideshow in Ubuntu

• Games

  • A Bushel Of Resources For Free, Open Source Games

    If you like games–especially free ones–you’re guaranteed to like LinuxLinks’ three part collection of “addictive” Linux games. You can find the third installation of the collection here, and the first and second parts are linked there. The folks at LinuxLinks used “addictive” as their keyword in selecting the games, and they range from well-known titles such as Atomic Worm to lesser known ones, such as Epiar. We’ve done quite a bit of our own coverage on free, open source games at OStatic. Here are some can’t-miss examples.

Desktop Environments

• KDE & GNOME cross-desktop development

  Fortunately, you can take care of this yourself, thanks to the Portland Project. Portland is a joint OSDL/freedesktop.org initiative to provide developers with stable APIs for desktop Linux and other free desktop platforms.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • KMyMoney Team Announces First Platform 4 Release

    The KMyMoney team is pleased to announce the release of the first stable version built on KDE Platform 4. With over 15 months of development, this is the starting point for a series of KMyMoney versions leveraging the stellar features offered by the new Platform.

Distributions

• New Releases

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 110

    · Announced Distro: VectorLinux 6.0 SOHO Edition
    · Announced Distro: Untangle Gateway Platform 7.4
    · Announced Distro: Salix OS 13.1.1
    · Announced Distro: Puppy Linux 5.1

    [...]

  • Texas Memory Systems Joins Linux Development Effort

    After more than a year of development, developer Tom Kerremans has announced the release of version 3.4 of the Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK). TRK is a Live distribution – bootable via a LiveCD, LiveUSB or over a network – that’s based on Mandriva Linux and is specifically aimed at recovery and repair operations for both Windows and Linux systems. For example, it includes a number of tools for recovering deleted files, resetting passwords and cloning drives.

  • Trinity Rescue Kit 3.4 Comes with Linux Kernel 2.6.35

    Trinity Rescue Kit (TRK) 3.4 has been released after more than a year of development. TRK is a Live CD distro aimed at rescue and repair tasks on both Windows and Linux PCs. TRK 3.4 comes with the latest Linux kernel 2.6.35 and quite a number of new features.

• PCLinuxOS/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

  • Linux light – PCLinuxOS 2010.7 Openbox

    So this edition is a bit of a mixed bag. With plenty of apps it is a good base as is or if you want to add a more cut down custom KDE or Gnome installation, but it’s probably best for fans of Openbox who would like to create their own custom spin with MKLiveCD for the road. In these few days I have come to appreciate the simple elegance and functionality of this window manager when paired with tint2, and the PCLOS utilities help administration. There were no dead menu entries and the menu updated every time I installed an application, like emelfm2 for better file management options. Performance was quite good too (responsive unless opening the Control Center) and I can’t find anything else to complain about, except maybe the branding and the ugly included wallpapers. But this is, with no menu buttons, not as prevalent as in the versions with the major desktop environments, and Gdm theme and wallpaper are quickly changed. Most important to me, my wireless Ralink worked without any fuss while running from CD. Once installed, it lost connection to my WPA2 encrypted network a few times, but these teething problems quickly seemed to disappear and did not reoccur after a cold boot, and once again all was well. Nothing is perfect, and while other distributions may not suffer the problems I have discovered, most are also more difficult to set up in the first place. As always, you make your choice.

• Red Hat Family

  • Wipro partners with Red Hat

    Wipro, a provider of IT services, has partnered with Red Hat, a provider of open source solutions. The two companies have strengthened their strategic partnership through joint marketing and integration opportunities designed to bring open source solutions to enterprises across India.

  • CirtexHosting Adds CloudLinux to All Servers

    CirtexHosting, a leader in Linux Web hosting, today announced it has added CloudLinux on all hosting servers, which is designed to increase server stability and prevent downtime, ultimately improving performance for customers.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 14 Artwork Progressing!

      Time is running short for us to iterate this wallpaper for Fedora 14 Beta! Want to try your hand? All of the sources are available, and it’s a great excuse to try out Blender if you haven’t gotten a chance to yet. Not up for working on the design, but have some feedback you’d like to share? Join the conversation on the design-team mailing list, or drop your feedback in the wiki or in this blog post’s comments.

• Debian Family

  • Canonical/Ubuntu

    • Ding, ding – Sound Applet mock-ups round II

      Wyatt Kirby, whose sound applet mock-ups found favourable fandom both here and on Mark Shuttleworth’s blog, has put pixel to, er, palette and come up with a newly revised design.

      For those new to the whole ‘Sound Menu Saga’ I’ll be brief: Ubuntu 10.10 has a new sound menu which controls things like thythmbox and system volume. Some people like it & some people like it less so.

Devices/Embedded

• TI launches 720p-ready Cortex-A8 SoC

  An evaluation module and BSP are currently offered for Linux and Android (the latter via Mentor Graphics), while Windows CE support will be available from Adeneo in the fourth quarter, says the company. RTOS versions are also under development by various vendors, says TI.

• Tablets

  • Video: Take a Look at the $35 Tata Tablet

    The first video demonstration of the tablet prototype, above, shows that the computer will run on the Android OS instead of the rumored Linux setup. The video seems somewhat sped up, perhaps so as not to give a true indication of the using experience. And oddly enough, the tablet seems to be using a touch-stylus-interface, even for typing.

  • The Android-powered Augen GenTouch78 is no iPad

    The tablet does have some good things going for it. While it’s made from black plastic, it has a solid feel. Better still, it comes with a form-fitting, faux-leather case. I don’t know about you, but whether I pay $170 for a GenTouch78 or $500 for an Apple iPad, I appreciate getting a real cover to protect it without shelling out additional cash.

Project Snowstorm: Our New Open Development Program

Almost two years ago, we set about revamping the Second Life Viewer and in March of this year we released Viewer 2. Over that two year period, we took a heads-down approach to our design and development process to create a Viewer that would be easier for new Residents to use. This heads-down approach meant we had very limited contact with you, and left many Residents feeling alienated. Now, we are making some big changes to better communicate with you and include you in our development process. Specifically, we’re beginning a new open-source program — known as Project Snowstorm — that will show you exactly what we’re working on and will also start to bring Resident contributions into our mainline Viewer build. We’re extremely excited to be firing up this program, and we’re confident it will lead to a better Viewer, one that benefits from the tremendous talent and creativity we’ve seen from the most committed members of our development community.

How corporate America went open-source

According to recent surveys, more large companies are committing to open-source software. How the platform went from closet to corporate.

How open source is like a good marriage

Zenoss’ Open Source Management Report indicates 98% of enterprises now have open source. Satisfaction with the product is growing, although support and documentation continue to lag. Half of enterprises are using cloud resources.

How To Find a Customer in a Divided IT Universe

Frequently, these companies are also contributing innovation back to into the open source community. The myriad NoSQL projects are just one example of this trend. Many take things much further: modified Linux kernels, custom compilers, internally developed networking control planes, even building their own servers and switches.

Open software passes Australian tipping point

Almost two in three Australian enterprises now has a policy or strategy in place regarding the use of Free Open Source Software, with just about every enterprise using elements of open source in their day to day operations.

Cost isn’t the only rationale for open source adoption

“Going open source saves us $4 to $4.5 million each year in IT spending, and we have much better performance and reliability, so why wouldn’t we use it?” Simhambhatla quipped.

Open source software a frequent flier on Virgin America

Virgin America’s IT infrastructure is primarily opensource

Virgin America is using mostly open-source software in its IT infrastructure, according to the airline’s CIO, Ravi Simhambhatla. The move from proprietary software is saving Virgin America millions of dollars, but that’s not the main reason for the transition, reports Sean Michael Kerner in an article at CIOUpdate.

Whisper – New Voice Solution for OpenSim

Today, vComm Solutions of Switzerland released Whisper, a high quality voice solution for OpenSim based on the popular Mumble open source VoIP client. The key feature of this solution is that it enables avatar lip sync and speaker indication to work correctly, in addition to providing very stable, high quality voice.

Get App-y: Open source software not just for techies

• Gimp.org, for photo editing. Doug Hoke, The Oklahoman’s photography director, told me about Gimp as a substitute for Photoshop, which costs about $700. Photoshop is still the industry standard, and Gimp isn’t organized as clearly as Photoshop, but the software application has the advanced photo editing features that professionals use. I can usually find the tools I need when using Gimp.

• Scribus.net, for layout and desktop publishing. I found this through The Oklahoman’s Glen Seeber. I haven’t played around with it much. I’ll use it as an alternative to Adobe InDesign, which can cost $1,000 or more in a package.

Why do FLOSS developers keep ranting?

Many of us do FLOSS coding for the ultimate glory of just doing it. Learning, filling empty days with something to do or simply because they need to feel important for somebody else (I’m pointing the finger to you, behated [my opposite of beloved] library developers).

Events

• Ohio LinuxFest Speakers Announced and Registration Open

SaaS

• Cloud Computing: Open-Source Cloud Computing: Channel-Friendly Vendors Who Support It

  Here are some of the channel-friendly vendors who are supporting one open source cloud computing platform or another.

• Open source faces hurdles in the cloud

  As companies gain ground in cloud computing, a debate is growing over the extent to which cloud companies should collaborate on open standards and open source to protect customers from vendor lock-in.

Oracle

• Solaris still sorta open, but OpenSolaris distro is dead

CMS

• McDonald’s using Drupal

  The website of McDonald’s Australia is using Drupal. I’m lovin’ it!

Project Releases

• Vi IMproved 7.3 Released w/ Fixes + New Features

  Marking the end of two years of development is the release of Vim (Vi Improved) version 7.3. While this is considered a minor release of Vim, there are a handful of new features along with many bug-fixes.

Licensing

• Westinghouse Digital Ruling: Less than Meets the Eye

  The court ruled that Westinghouse Digital Electronics, LLC (“Westinghouse”) had infringed on the copyright in the BusyBox software by failing to comply with the terms of the GPLv2 in its distribution of the Westinghouse high definition televisions (“HDTV”). Although Westinghouse had originally “answered” the complaint, it then withdrew from participation in the suit, apparently due to financial difficulties, and ceased to respond to discovery requests from the plaintiff. If the failure to respond to discovery requests is due to “willfulness, bad faith or fault,” the court can grant a default judgment and Judge Scheidlin granted the motion. The financial problems of Westinghouse are evident through its use of the “assignment for benefit of creditors” procedure. The “assignment for benefit of creditors” is a California state law procedure similar to federal bankruptcy law to wind down companies. In this procedure, the company assigns its assets to a third party licensed by California who, then, disposes of the assets and then pays off the creditors of the company. Unlike bankruptcy law, the assignment for benefit of creditors does not “stay” litigation.

Openness/Sharing

• In Brooklyn Store, Everything Is Always 100% Off

  Yes, indeed! And we at Shareable.net are here to help you bring a free store to your community! Mira Luna’s “How to Start a Really Really Free Market” is one of our most popular DIY pieces, and I hope you’ll check it out. You might also see “How to Start Your Own Skillshare,” “How to Throw a Community Swap Meet,” and “The Fixers’ Collective.”

• Open Data

  • Gathering, Preserving and Reusing our Cultural Heritage – the OKFN Cultural Heritage Working Group.

• Open Access/Content

  • Director Striving to Open Vast Collection of Artifacts

    “Phoebe Hearst believed in public education, research and learning, not just in acquiring objects,” Ms. Salvador said. “The museum should become an open source.”

Free Parking Comes at a Price

Many suburbanites take free parking for granted, whether it’s in the lot of a big-box store or at home in the driveway. Yet the presence of so many parking spaces is an artifact of regulation and serves as a powerful subsidy to cars and car trips. Legally mandated parking lowers the market price of parking spaces, often to zero. Zoning and development restrictions often require a large number of parking spaces attached to a store or a smaller number of spaces attached to a house or apartment block.

AP decides not to LOL

The Associated Press almost shared a page with LOLcats.

Pet Holdings Inc., which owns a network of blogs that post pictures of felines with silly captions, and videos of men getting hit in the groin on its Fail Blog, had been wrapped in rather lengthy negotiations with the Associated Press until this week.

The talks began to stall when lawyers for the I Can Has Cheezburger proprietor were worried about wording in the contract. The Associated Press finally axed the project on concerns over “journalistic integrity,” Pet Holdings Chief Ben Huh said in an interview Monday.

For the prestigious wire service to even consider associating itself with a business that makes a living from fan-made cat pictures may have seemed unthinkable a decade ago.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Earth’s Overdraft Notice

  According to the Global Footprint Network humanity crossed a threshold three decades ago when we stopped being able to live off of nature’s interest — “consuming resources and producing carbon dioxide at a rate lower than what the planet was able to regenerate and reabsorb each year” — and started living beyond nature’s capacity.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

• Net neutrality protesters lay siege to Google (for an hour)

  With that, a dozen or so protesters (and Ars) rode from the city’s Opera Plaza to Mountain View, California, headquarters of Google, now fallen from grace since the release of its watered-down net neutrality manifesto with Verizon.

  The objective—to deliver 300,000 signatures protesting the move.

Intellectual Monopolies

• Copyrights

  • uTorrent Backs Artist, Bundles Album With New Downloads

    Following in the footsteps of The Pirate Bay and the successful BitTorrent distribution platform Vodo, uTorrent has now embraced an artist of their own. Starting today, all new uTorrent downloads will be bundled with the latest album from PAZ, an up and coming musician who hopes to achieve stardom through BitTorrent.

  • Broadcast audience aging faster than population

    “It should be a concern, but it doesn’t seem to be a concern at the moment,” said Steve Sternberg, who wrote the report for Baseline Inc., an information source for the film and TV industries that is owned by The New York Times Co. “You don’t want to have CBS, ABC and NBC all having median ages in their mid-50s.”