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Links 17/9/2010: Software Freedom Day, Firefox 4 Preview Raves



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Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop

    • 4 Ways to Give Desktop Linux a Test-Drive
      That desktop Linux offers myriad compelling advantages for business users is no longer the subject of much debate. All that remains for many Windows users is to give it a try.


    • Have Courage, Linux Noobs
      Using Linux is "almost natural, but you still need to poke around to be really fluent -- just as in any OS with a lot of features," Pogson added.

      "I have exposed Grade 1 kids to GNU /Linux GNOME desktops, and after they learned to click a mouse they were off to the races," he recounted. "They were the only humans able to max out that terminal server."




  • Server

    • Should Red Hat Be Worried About Amazon Linux AMI?
      Red Hat is facing another competition from Amazon on form of Linux AMI. Amazon has announced the availability of the Amazon Linux AMI.

      The Amazon Linux AMI is a supported and maintained Linux image provided by Amazon Web Services for use on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). "It is designed to provide a stable, secure, and high performance execution environment for applications running on Amazon EC2," claims Evangelist Jeff Barr in his blog post.






  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack

      • Why Broadcom's Release May be More Significant than Just Code
        On September 9 the news of Broadcom's release of the code for some of its wireless Ethernet chip sets sent shockwaves throughout the Linux community. Broadcom owners, as well as distribution developers have a reason to celebrate.

        In the past, Broadcom owners had to resort to NDISwrapper or rely upon the limited reversed engineered drivers. Neither was optimal. The release of the code by Broadcom should eventually mean a much better Wi-Fi experience for owners of systems with Broadcom chip sets. But for those that like to read between the lines there may also be a deeper significance to this move.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • The future of KDE instant messaging is happening now
        Kopete was initially very innovative, at least in its goals: to communicate with people, while leaving the IM network as a channel. We brought the concepts of “metacontacts” (bad naming), but basically you say people in your contact list, no matter if they were available on MSN, ICQ, or both.

        Today I have a telephone with internet 24/7 in my pocket and I can IM on the bus. I don’t choose IM networks as a soccer team, but rely on them because I have friends on various of them. Just like I use twitter for “geeky stuff” while Facebook is a more “relaxed” environment.


      • Edit Your Films In Ubuntu, Use New Kdenlive
        Ubuntu is one of the most popular, powerful and useful operating systems of the world. While Mac is locked to Apple machines and Windows is expensive and vulnerable to viruses and attacks, Ubuntu is the only operating systems which has all the merits -- its highly secure, free of cost and can run on Apple machines as well.






  • Distributions

    • Fat or thin, it's your choice.
      The point here is that, no matter what Linux distribution you start from, you can make it do anything, be anything or look like anything. If wished you can take an Ubuntu installation and have it look, feel and perform like a Fedora distribution. Or you can take a Fedora installation and have it as slim and trim as Puppy Linux.


    • Looking at Fedora 14 and Ubuntu 10.10
      Both releases seem to be shaping up well, if very differently — as befitting the focus of the distributions and projects. Ubuntu 10.10 is a polished consumer OS that is well-suited for users who are new to Linux, or just prefer a desktop system that's easy to use. Fedora's developer-centric approach makes for an OS that is easy enough to use, but better suited for developers or experienced users who want to tinker with technologies before they make an official appearance in RHEL and other distributions. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is the end result of development rather than the beginning. Many of the changes in 10.10, e.g. the Ubuntu One improvements and the application indicators, are unlikely to show up in other distributions (excepting, perhaps, Linux Mint).


    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat looks out of area for HQ-size space
        Red Hat Inc., one of the Triangle’s high-profile companies, is scouting for sites in other states where officials may also be wooing the open-source software developer to move its headquarters from Raleigh.


      • Smartrend'S Candlestick Scanner Detects Bearish Engulfing Pattern For Red Hat (RHT)
        SmarTrend issued an Uptrend alert on shares of Red Hat on August 23, 2010 at $33.03 per share (13.4% return since that call). This bearish candle pattern may point to a reversal of the previously called Uptrend.


      • Fedora

        • Momonga Linux 7 review
          Momonga is a Linux distribution based on Fedora. It is a community-developed distribution with roots in Japan (the name is derived from a species of flying squirrel found in Europe and parts of Asia). Like Fedora, it is a multi-purpose distribution, a Free distribution, with a script that makes it easy to build and install non-free applications






    • Debian Family

      • Squeeze in a jam?
        I put this down to being a complete noob, and reinstalled Lenny. Later I learnt that the upgrade has to be staged- certain packages have to be updated before doing a full upgrade, otherwise the upgrade falls down. Recently I saw a post on the Debian forum which suggested that an upgrade was now a relatively simple process- involving just a kernel upgrade before a full upgrade, so I thought I'd give it a go.


      • Ubuntu 10.10 - Wallpaper, and a few notes
        In the process of doing some other things, I have just noticed that those who thought the "Barf Bag" wallpaper that showed up in Ubuntu 10.10 Beta was just a "placeholder" were probably correct.


      • Canonical/Ubuntu







  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Nokia/MeeGo

        • MeeGo Developer Day - Day 2 at IDF
          Sunil Saxena spent some time reviewing the MeeGo Architecture, along with our current thoughts on how we plan to define MeeGo compliance. The MeeGo compliance spec is still being developed, so now is a good time to review it and provide feedback.

          Bill Pearson was the next presenter talking about AppUp and the Intel AppUp Developer Program, which helps developers focus on what matters: platform sexiness, making money, getting recognition, and low friction deployment, while Intel helps with boring things like validation. Developers can create applications or components that they can sell to other developers. In addition to revenue from selling applications, the Million Dollar Development Fund provides additional incentives. Robust analytics are also available on the developer dashboards, to learn more about how your application is selling.

          Rajiv Ranganath gave us an overview of Qt, which has over 350,000 commercial and open source developers.


        • Day 1: Intel AppUp Elements 2010


        • Day 2: Intel AppUp Elements 2010




      • Android

        • Android lockdown: Thanks Linus
          The current lockdown of Linux based devices (including Android phones, TiVo, and many many consumer devices) is due, simply, to the Linux developers' unwillingness to update their code to the GPLv3 license. We* contribute to Linux, Linux is taken for use in Android (and remains Open and Free), and then the phone manufacturers take our work and lock it up and sell it to us with reduced functionality. Big thanks, manufacturers.


        • Android Continues to Gobble Up Smartphone Share






    • Tablets

      • High-end Avaya Android-powered Table PC Unveiled
        Avaya, an enterprise communications systems company, just announced a high-end table PC that is primarily designed for business conferencing. Called the Avaya Flare, the device has an Intel Atom processor and runs Android operating system. It is said to make use of Avaya unified communications software utilizing a new interface called Flare User Experience and features Aura Conferencing and the Linux-based Avaya Aura Messaging software.


      • ViewSonic and Samsung tablets are U.S.-bound
        Viewsonic demonstrated a 10.1-inch, Android 2.2 "G-Tablet" that's bound for U.S. sales, powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2. Meanwhile, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless say they'll offer the Android 2.2-based Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet this fall.


      • Asus U35JC review
        OS Tested: Ubuntu 10.04.1








Free Software/Open Source



  • How do you find and choose free software?
    So you’ve got your GNU/Linux based box. You’ve installed the base system and you’re good to go. Welcome to the world of freedom. But then what? How do you determine what packages to install. How do you decide which of the alternatives to go with?


  • A Quick Look at OpenIndiana
    OpenSolaris is dead, but OpenIndiana lives on. Just a few weeks after Oracle made it clear that OpenSolaris was dead as a doornail, the Illumos and OpenIndiana folks have a distribution ready for the OpenSolaris community that’s been left in a lurch by Oracle.

    The code dropped on Tuesday, so I haven’t had a lot of time to muck with OpenIndiana yet. I spent a few hours with the live CD and installed it into VMware.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 4 update moves link previews to awesome bar
        Clearly, the status bar's days are numbered. Even Internet Explorer 9 has removed the bottom-dwelling bar in favor of inline tooltips.

        Now, in the latest updates to Firefox 4, Mozilla's browser has moved status bar link previews to the right-hand side of the Awesome Bar. Hover a link, and the destination URL appears in soft, gray text. Sure, it looks OK when you're currently viewing a page with a nice, short URL -- but what about on something like an Amazon product page? Take the jump to see!


      • Firefox 4 Preview - Foxy, sharp and fast!
        I think Firefox 4 is a very smart product. It looks better than 3.6 overall, tabs on top or without them, it feels faster, it has lots of useful features, and it's got the Web 2.0 bling bling. Linux beta lags a step behind, but that's understandable. Performance is good in all aspects, with major improvements in responsiveness. Memory consumption is fairly modest. Firefox 4 is a pleasant addition to the browser arsenal.

        Firefox 4 is a plenty of good, old stuff and a sprinkling of new to make you feel young and excited again. Mozilla, good job. Even the revolutionary stuff is done with style and moderation to make a hot-headed conservative like me smile. You should look forward to the next release. Firefox 4 is going to be a superb browser.


      • Mozilla releases Thunderbird updates
        One day after it released updates for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Project has issued versions 3.1.4 and 3.0.8 of Thunderbird, the latest stable and legacy branch updates of its popular open source email client. According to the developers, the latest maintenance updates improve the applications overall stability and address several user experience concerns found in the previous stable branch release.


      • Mozilla releases new "Kraken" browser benchmark
        Mozilla software engineer Rob Sayre has announced the release of "Kraken", a new browser benchmark. The developer says that unlike other browser benchmarks, such as SunSpider, V8 and Dromaeo, Kraken focuses on realistic workloads and on forward-looking applications.






  • CMS



  • Business



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Celebrate Software Freedom Day with the LibrePlanet community


      Saturday, September 18th is Software Freedom Day, a worldwide celebration of user freedom. It's a great opportunity not only to introduce new people to free software, but to connect with other free software activists in your area or online.

      But what about the day after? How can we sustain these links? How can we make sure that people in your area who hear about free software can find a local community to connect with?


    • want to work on Bazaar?
      Now we’re looking for a very good software engineer to join the Bazaar team at Canonical, working both on the core tool itself and on how it’s used by Ubuntu developers.


    • A month of the Hurd: Media Appearances, procfs, Arch Hurd.
      Finally, amongst other bug fixing and other development work by the usual suspects, we had a short review of what the current Hurd contributors still need to use a GNU/Hurd system for most of their day-to-day tasks. This may help to prioritize the development efforts.




  • Licensing



  • Openness/Sharing

    • Developing films the open source way
      In a world where movies are produced on budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, at a time when studios expect a huge return on their investment, in an industry where the opening weekend can make or break a film--one man refuses to live by society's (or the movie industry's) rules. One man is willing to put it all on the line and do something different. Something daring. Something... free.

      [...]

      The key idea to take away here is freedom: freedom of the consumer to see what they're paying for before they spend their money. This empowers the viewer, letting them control where they spend their money. Rather than spending their money up front before watching a film, they can see the work for free. As a result, more people are likely to watch the film, or listen to the music.




  • Standards/Consortia





Leftovers

  • Power to the PC: How to Select a Computer Power Supply


  • Security/Aggression





  • Finance

    • Kaufman Says `Something Rotten' in Commodity Markets: Video
      Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Frederick Kaufman, a professor at College of Staten Island, Alexia Howard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Dennis DeLaughter, the owner of Progressive Farm Marketing Inc., and Alex Wittenberg, a partner at Oliver Wyman, talk about agricultural futures and commodity markets. They speak with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (This is an excerpt. Source: Bloomberg)


    • Setting the Agenda
      That's what journalists are supposed to do: Set the agenda. Rarely, however, do we get the headlines. But last night, on Bloomberg TV, the Food Bubble came through . . .




  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • The Internet Freedom Fallacy and the Arab Digital activism
      This article focuses on grassroots digital activism in the Arab world and the risks of what seems to be an inevitable collusion with U.S foreign policy and interests. It sums up the most important elements of the conversation I have been having for the last 2 years with many actors involved in defending online free speech and the use of technology for social and political change. While the main focus is Arab digital activism, I have made sure to include similar concerns raised by activists and online free speech advocates from other parts of the world, such as China, Thailand, and Iran.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • Red tape snarls rural Internet firm
      Ottawa tells Peace Region ISP that it’s not Canadian enough for new slice of spectrum


    • Tens of thousands could be priced out of broadband after Government announcement on file sharing code
      Up to €£500m will be taken out of the UK economy according to the Government's announcement today about the cost sharing for the letter writing regime following the Digital Economy Act. The BIS cost order confirms the 75/25 split of costs between rightholders and ISPs.

      ISPs will of course pass on these costs to their customers. According to the Government's own estimates that means that up to 96,000 individuals will not be able to afford an internet connection anymore.




  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • BSA's Latest Study on Piracy and Economic Benefits "Shockingly Misleading"
      When IT Business's Brian Jackson asked me for a comment, I noted that such estimates were notoriously speculative (see Glyn Moody on this) and that the BSA would do far better to tell us how much Canada has gained from its recent significant reductions in piracy. Last year, the BSA said the Canadian rate dropped by three percent to 29%, the biggest drop among developed countries and - the BSA noted - an all-time low. In fact, since 2006 the BSA says that there has been a five percent drop in Canada. Has that created thousands of new jobs and generated billions in new revenues and taxes?


    • IP as a joke


    • Lars Johnson Has Goats on His Roof and a Stable of Lawyers to Prove It
      Having Trademarked the Ungulate Look, Restaurateur Butts Heads With Imitators


    • Copyrights

      • Millions at Stake in Education Copyright Battle
        Negotiating with individual authors or publishers for the rights to a single work may be cumbersome, but so too are the proposed reporting requirements. Moreover, individual negotiations hold the advantage of potential costs savings for students and ensuring that the actual authors receive full compensation for the use of their works. In other words, win-win-win for authors, teachers, and students.


      • An Explanation Of My Views On Copyright Part Four – The Sky Is Falling
        Going back to the section on Digital Locks, let’s assume that Bill C-32 passes into law with no changes. So Randy Bachman releases a new compact disc, and the Record Label uses TPM/DRM on it. The way the law is currently written, Randy Bachman could not legally break the TPM/DRM, even if he owns the copyright. Even worse, he wouldn’t be legally able to break the TPM/DRM if he owned the Record Label, and the compact disc pressing plant. You might argue that he shouldn’t need to, as he’d still have the masters, but accidents have happened before, and masters have been lost. Even if Randy controlled every step of the chain, legally he can’t break the TPM/DRM he decided to use. Does this make sense?










Clip of the Day



Microsoft Propaganda Film



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Credit: TinyOgg

Recent Techrights' Posts

Like Microsoft and IBM, the 'Alicante Mafia'-Governed EPO Does PIPs Nowadays (at the EPO, It's "Professional Incompetence Procedure")
So "PIPs" are definitely in the EPO and we saw letters sent to staff
Time for Change, More New Articles, Less Curation
The oligarchy wants to gut the real press and replace media with slop and social control media (or social control media with slop in it, i.e. their own voices, mechanised)
Almost 1,600 EPO Employees Went on Strike Last Week
There is another strike coming 2.5 weeks from now
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
You Know Microsoft's "Value" is 100% Fictional When in One Single "Trading" Day in Wall Street It Loses THREE TIMES More in "Value" Than It Was 'Worth' in 2009
Microsoft does not behave like a company riding trillions but like a company that struggles with payroll
Better Outcomes When Facing the Discomfort of Conflict
Don't take the easy way out when the "hard way" is the right way and it can result in positive revelations
Leaving the United States 3 Years Ago Was the Best Decision We Made
A lot of stuff is being consolidated
BillBC (BBC) Covered Up Pedophilia, Now It's Covering Up for Its Sponsor Bill Gates by Reprinting His Lies, Which His Own Wife Disputes
Is Bill Gates having orgies (group sex)?
 
Explaining the Letter From JUDGE SYKES FRIXOU, Threatening Me Around the Time GNOME's Nat Friedman Lost His CEO Job at Microsoft GitHub and His Best Friend Got Arrested for Strangulation
this letter (with annotation) is critical
Linuxiac Not Rehabilitated, It's Still Full of LLM Slop (Part of a Trend)
The Web as a resource/source of information is perishing
"Sponsored by Azul" to Write Fake 'Article' About Azul, Quoting Azul Itself
The "journalism" industry [sic] became so utterly corrupt
JuristGate is for sale: three billion Swiss francs for a domain name
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 05/02/2026: Coercion, Antibiotics, and LVDT Project
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, February 04, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, February 04, 2026
Links 04/02/2026: Extreme Malice in Microsoft's Visual Studio Code on GNU/Linux, More Hey Hi (AI) Chaos
Links for the day
Sexism & GNOME: shaming men, hiding women, Sonny Piers update
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 04/02/2026: Humanity and Animality, systemd (Controlled by Amutable, a Proxy of Microsoft) Moves on to "Extinguish" Phase
Links for the day
Certificate Authority Let's Encrypt Used to be Widely Used in Geminispace, Now It's Down to Just 0.2% of the Whole
Let's Encrypt is not your friend
What IBM Does Is Clearly Illegal in the US: Tying Severance Packages to NDAs (Non-Disparagement Agreement/Clause)
The NDAs make things worse; they keep people isolated and silent
Microsoft's Giant Snowball of Layoffs and PIPs (in 2026)
They would delay until March or April if they wanted to, but then we can expect numbers exceeding 10,000 layoffs (Microsoft always low-balls the real figure/s)
Mozilla Turned Firefox Into Shovelware, Adding 'Kill Switch' for Slop Still Means Mozilla is Participating in a Pyramid Scheme, Plagiarism, Grifting
Mozilla is still a slop pusher
Links 04/02/2026: "Laws of Succession" and Microsoft's VS Code as Code-Stealing Malware
Links for the day
Phoronix Swims With the Real Trolls, People Who Fancy Proprietary Software and Back Doors
If Larabel begins to actively participate in provocation with the "Microsoft GitHub fans club", what does this tell us about Phoronix?
They Know Microsoft Layoffs Are About to Hit Them Hard
The gaming division at Microsoft is a complete catastrophe, lots of money (debt) down the drain [...] Buying Activision was all about misleading shareholders or hiding the deep trouble/problems XBox was having
Red Hat is Not a Linux Company, It's IBM's Ponzi Scheme Enabler
Had we still been stuck in 2021, perhaps IBM would plaster "NFT" or "metaverse" all over RedHat.com
Keep Grinding
"Don't let the bastards grind you down"
Mobbing at the European Patent Office (EPO) - Part III - Who's Going to Pay for the EPO's Corruption? (Aside From European Citizens)
Some people inside the EPO reached out to us
"Investors Are Concerned About an AI Bubble" (That GAFAM and IBM Ride)
A few decades from now IBM will only be remembered in the same sense many so-called 'AI' companies will be remembered
EPO Staff Union: "Very High Strike Participation on Friday 30 January", Another Strike Starts 19 Days From Now
EPO management in a bit of a panic
Censorship/Free Speech and Social Control Media
It's important to have a grasp of how contemporary censorship works and how to tackle it
Google News as Slop Booster
this is what Google links to
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, February 03, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, February 03, 2026
Gemini Links 04/02/2026: "Raspberry Pi Relaxes the Rules for Its RP2040 Hacking Challenge" and "Long Web Society"
Links for the day
IBM Falls by Over 10%
a recipe for disasters like accounting fraud
Links 03/02/2026: Windows Copies GNU/Linux, Windows TCO Shown Again
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/02/2026: Alhena Turns One, Slop Rejected, and Max Roy Carrouges Recalled
Links for the day
How to Identify Demonisation or Dehumanisation Tactics Against Interesting Figures or Luminaries in Free Software
Rather than in general or generally in technology
We Should Learn From Bulgaria
Why can't European companies and government recognise and react to a threat (when they see one)?
Dr. Andy Farnell on Why and How European Authorities Can Adopt Free Software, Parenting in the Age of Digital Abundance
Will Europe use technology that Europe controls (not the hegemon), for a change?
Canonical: Ubuntu is GAFAM (US), We're Resellers of American Proprietary Software
They want people to pay for a licence
Seems Like IBM Trolls Use Chatbots to Vandalise Platform That Discusses IBM's Secret Layoffs, Forever Layoffs
Not for the first time either
You Know Your Company is Dead or Basically a Pyramid Scheme When Jim Cramer Keeps Promoting Its Stock
How much does IBM pay for "puff pieces" or "fluff" about QC?
Red Hat (Under IBM) Works for Microsoft (Proprietary Software) and Slop
Yesterday Red Hat's official site, redhat.com, published exactly 5 new blog posts
IBM is Dying (More Layoffs), Red Hat Will Continue to Suffer From the Acquisition
Financial engineering
Colombia Adopting GNU/Linux Even Faster (at Microsoft's and Apple's Expense)
Do politics play any role in this?
An Effort to Tackle Slavery in 'Open Source' Clothing
"a civil rights lawsuit to examine the concerns of censored developers in the free, open source software ecosystem"
$15 billion lawsuit: Ubuntu, Google & Debian crowdfunding campaign launch
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Delusion - Part II - Why We Need to Expose the SRA to More Daylight, Public Scrutiny
SRA is neither effective nor regulated
Links 03/02/2026: "Distraction is a Sin" and Fake "Encryption" (Surveillance With Good Marketing)
Links for the day
400-Page US Federal Court Against Abuses by Google, Microsoft and Front Groups That Abuse Volunteers for American Corporations
There are 386 pages in total (in the US claim)
Corporate Influence Never Impacted Us
There's no reason to assume we'll ever "sell out"
Growth of GNU/Linux in Cuba
Right now a lot of the world drafts or already implements a GAFAM exit plan
A Day After EPO Strikes an Escalation to Heads of Delegations to the Administrative Council
They rely on the European media playing along, helping them to hide major blunders, even crimes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 02, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 02, 2026
Gemini Links 03/02/2026: Stargazing, Development Boards, and Tcl/Tk Slop
Links for the day