11.15.10

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Avaya drops Microsoft with IP Office 6.1 update

  Communication platform switches to Linux

• Desktop

  • Open Source Desktops May Not Happen for Small Biz

    For all the talk of how open source software is kicking butt and taking names in the cloud space (see: Red Hat, Ubuntu, Novell) and in embedded space (see Android, MeeGo), there’s one area where open source has consistently fallen woefully short: providing solutions for small businesses.

    This is a weird sort of failure, too, because on the surface it seems like open source software products–with their collective low price tag, solid support, and better security–would be a perfect fit for the needs of smaller businesses, which often need superlative computing capabilities but can only afford the least-expensive hardware and software due to budget constraints.

• Server

  • Marvell spins quad-core ARM SoC for servers

    Marvell says it is now sampling a quad-core, ARM-based processor aimed at “enterprise class cloud computing.” The Armada XP runs at 1.6Hz, has a 2MB second-level cache, supports 64-bit DDR3 memory, includes four gigabit Ethernet ports and other interfaces, and uses fewer than ten Watts, according to the company.

• Audiocasts/Shows

  • LB – Episode 63 – Just Us, Just News

  • My first podcast – Switching from CentOS to Slackware

    This is my first podcast, and it is more an experiment than a real podcast with new content.

    I am thinking about making some podcasts, let’s say one per month, but I would like to hear “read” your feedback, so this is somehow a test drive.

• Ballnux

  • Samsung Galaxy Tab now available on T-Mobile

    Samsung’s seven-inch, Android 2.2 Galaxy Tab tablet is now available on T-Mobile for $399 with a two-year plan or $599 without, says the carrier. Meanwhile, a 10.1-inch Samsung tablet has been spotted at a Chinese trade show.

• Kernel Space

  • Graphics Stack

    • Automotive Infotainment Development Company Pelagicore Joins Linux Foundation

      The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Pelagicore is its newest member. Pelagicore develops products and technologies that serve the growing demand for open source infotainment systems from the automotive industry. The company is joining The Linux Foundation to collaborate specifically on MeeGo and its In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference design.

• Applications

  • Easy graphical BURG boot-loader tool ‘BURG Manager’ has been updated to version 1.0.

    Burg manager app updated with new themes, new features

  • Release of KGraphViewer, version 2.1.1

    Release of KGraphViewer, version 2.1.1. This is a bugfix only release that makes the kgraphviewer library cleaner: all necessary headers (and only them) are installed with a proper d-pointer in its sole exported class.

  • VLC v1.1.5 released

    VideoLAN have released an update to their popular media player. This is a minor update mainly containing bug fixes from v1.1.4 and a few new features. Support has been added for RTP access for H264 streams. Multiple language translations has also been updated within VLC, a new Austrian has also been added. You can find the full changelog below.

  • 5 Best Free Linux / Ubuntu Firewalls

    Linux OS is actually considered as a robust platform. It is not easily attacked by virus and other unwanted Internet junk. Yet it is better to keep your system protected as a wiseman said, “Prevention is better than cure”. So, this would make you protect your Linux / Ubuntu system, so we compile a list of 5 best free Ubuntu / Linux firewalls.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Linux Mint 10 manual disk partitioning guide

    • x2vnc allows the console (keyboard and mouse) on an X terminal to be used to control another console running a VNC server.

    • FlBurn – Optical disc burning software for Linux

    • The Perfect Server – Fedora 14 x86_64 [ISPConfig 2]

  • Wine

    • Test-driving Bordeaux 2.0.8

      I’ve been using Bordeaux for about a week now and, though it has some rough edges, I’m enjoying the experience. Once I got the hang of the suite’s little quirks, I found it to be powerful and it makes working with Windows software on PC-BSD a more pleasant experience. Having a list of supported software takes some of the guesswork out of running applications on Wine. Having separate cellars is also nice in that it gets around the problem of different programs having special (or conflicting) dependencies. Right now the software feels like it’s aimed at system administrators who want to install and manage multiple Windows applications. Bordeaux is not quite to the point where I would suggest it for end-users, but with a few more progress bars, tool tips and (especially) documentation it can easily get there. The functionality is in place and just needs some friendly touches. This is definitely a product to keep in mind if you’re trying to transition between the Windows world and the Linux/BSD community.

• Desktop Environments

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • KDE Attends Relaunched SoLiSC Event in Brazil

      KDE recently attended SoLiSC (website in Portuguese), a local free software meeting based in Florianópolis, Brazil. SoLiSC had been inactive since 2005, but in 2009 the Free Software Association of Santa Catarina (Associação Software Livre Santa Catarina) was created to revive it and succeeded in doing so in October this year. The aim of the Association is to create a permanent forum for the discussion of free software in the state of Santa Catarina.

  • GNOME Desktop

    • Quick and easy printer sharing in GNOME

      Printer sharing was once a big challenge for Linux. It almost always involved manually configuring Samba to share out your printers. That is not so now. With the latest releases of the GNOME desktop, printer sharing is as easy as it is in any other operating system. So longer will you need to open up that /etc/smb.conf file and spend hours or days trying to figure out the challenging configuration. Now it’s point and click.

• Distributions

  • New Releases

    • “Welcome to Tiny Core Linux [...] The latest version: 3.2″

    • Clonezilla 1.2.6-38

    • RIPLinuX 11.1

    • Release Notes for Alpine 2.1.2

    • xPUD 0.9.5

    • AUSTRUMI 2.2.1

    • Saturday, 30 October 2010 20:46

      Parted Magic 5.7 includes the new 0.7.0 version of GParted and some major changes to networking. Wicd is now used as the default networking manager and Gnome PPP for dial-up connections. The old Start Network program is still in the panel menu if you want to use it. The vncviewer was switched to Real VNC Viewer. A DBAN clone called nwipe was added for more advanced disk wiping.

    • 4 November 2010 – New Cooking 20101104

      The SliTaz team is pleased to announce the release of a new cooking ISO featuring over 2600 packages. It contains Linux Kernel 2.6.34 and was rebuilt with a new toolchain using glibc 2.11.2 and gcc 4.5.1. Xorg has been fully updated to 1.9.2. The LiveCD includes Midori, the Deadbeef audio player, and many more applications. Tazpkg and Tazctrlbox now support gettext translations and more UTF locales have been added. Many bugfixes, updates and improvements can also be found. A lot of work has been done during these past 6 months.

    • GParted 0.7.0-3

    • Greenie 8M

    • ImagineOS 20101103

    • Devil-Linux 1.4 released

  • Red Hat Family

    • Fedora

      • Ubuntu vs Fedora: which is best?

        So, who is right? Maybe they both are. It’s completely understandable that, for example, some Debian contributor feels that Ubuntu is in some way getting credit for their work. It is also true that, before Ubuntu, Linux was perceived as difficult to use and unsuitable for anyone but the most hardened geek.

        Ultimately, all the open source projects and people that work in or around them make contributions to Linux, and because all the Linux distros are part of a shared community, they all contribute too. Which one you choose is really down to what you want to use Linux for.

        What is certain is that there is a lot to discover in virtually every different flavour of Linux, so be adventurous – don’t just install one and stick with it. With virtual machine technology and a huge range of live distributions, it’s easier than ever to take a new version of Linux for a spin.

  • Debian Family

    • Debian Squeeze beta- a first look

      OK, this is still a beta, so any nits found here may be fixed before release, but these are my first impressions of Debian Squeeze Beta.

      [...]

      Overall impression: Good. There’s far less messing around required to get things working than was the case with Lenny. Applications are up to date and work as expected. With any luck the bugs I noticed will get fixed before release.

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Speed Limit: 75MPH. Ubuntu: 110MPH.

        In recent days, it was announced that Ubuntu is going to make the switch to using Wayland as a replacement for X as a windowing system and Unity for the desktop environment. I dislike both of these changes for one specific reason: Both codebases for both projects are too new.

      • Ubuntu 10.10 for the O2 Joggler

        I’ve been trying a new Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick) image out on my O2 Joggler this week and it is a big improvement over the 9.04 images I’ve been using previously and everything works out of the box without any fiddling.

      • Ubuntu’s Great Graphical Gambit: X Won’t Mark the Spot

        Reaction in the Linux community to news that Ubuntu will be getting a new graphics system — replacing X.org with Wayland — has been mixed, but the worriers seem seriously worried. “I really think they may have gone too far with this change,” Montreal consultant and Slashdot blogger opined. “There are still plenty of ways to get better speed out of the existing system without a wholesale change like this.”

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Linux Mint 10 New Menu Features

          The Linux Mint main menu has received even more changes in the recent release of Linux Mint 10. Users can now see new menu items highlighted, search for and install software, and search the web from inside of the menu. The main menu also supports GTK bookmarks and its own GTK theme independent from the rest of the desktop.

        • More Thoughts On Fedora 14

          In the most recent episode of the Acrossad GNU/Linux Oggcast, I stated that I was going to try Fedora 14 on a new laptop. I recently got my chance. I was able to test out Fedora 14 on a borrowed Toshiba Satellite L675 laptop.Fedora performed very nicely indeed. The built-in wifi does not work because Linux drivers for the installed Realtek wifi radio card do not yet exist.

        • Linux Mint 10 gains new theme, menu system

          The Linux Mint team released the final Linux Mint 10 (“Julia”), based on Ubuntu 10.10. the popular desktop Linux distribution adds one-click upgrades to the DVD edition, as well as a new Mint-X theme, performance improvements, improved software and update managers, GTK support, and revised menus that highlight new apps.

        • A newly minted Linux a must for the desktop

          One reader commented that Linux already has a higher install base than Mac OS X.

          While that might be true (with Linux being free to distribute it’s always going to be impossible to know exactly), it doesn’t mean Linux is living up to its full potential on the desktop.

          My argument is not that Linux distributions should try to be like Windows or Mac OS X, my argument is they should care more about the end-user experience. And shipping stable, integrated software is key to that.

          Windows and Mac OS X both appeal to non-technical people because a lot of administration tasks are either automated or only involve pointing and clicking.

          Of course, that doesn’t mean Linux is difficult to use. But the lack of integration can be off-putting for someone who has never used it before.

          In fact, there’s absolutely no reason why a free operating system can’t exceed the user experience of a commercial one.

        • Linux Mint 10 (Julia), First Impressions

          Probably the most difficult thing a user is going to run into with Linux Mint 10 (Julia) at this point is simply downloading it. Demand for the new release has obviously been far greater than anything they have seen before, and their servers have not been able to keep up with the load. As of this morning, Monday 15/11/2010 at 9:00 Swiss time, getting a response from their main web page is still inconsistent, so if you know of a mirror nearby, you would be well advised to go directly to it.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Automotive infotainment middleware debuts

    Jungo Ltd. announced a Linux-ready middleware stack for automotive infotainment applications. The Automotive Connectivity Middleware offers a complete media and networking infrastructure, including wireless connectivity, phone management, and integration with mapping and telematics functionality, says the company.

  • Linux development board and BSP ships for multicore MIPS SoC

    NetLogic Microsystems has released a Linux development kit and board support package (BSP) for its MIPS-based eight-core XLP system-on-chip (SoC). The XLP Multi-Core Processor Development Kit includes a development board, software tools, libraries, drivers, and reference solutions, says the chipmaker.

  • 3U cPCI board offers I/O expansion option

    The SBCs also offer identical ruggedization levels and operating system support. The latter includes board support packages (BSPs) for Linux, VxWorks, QNX Neutrino, and Integrity. Windows drivers are also available, says the company.

  • Linux/Android HMI kit upgrades to 1GHz Cortex-A8 SoC

    TES Electronic Solutions announced a new member of its Linux- and Android-ready “Magik” computer-on-module (COM) and HMI development kit family, this time with TI’s DaVinci DM3730 system-on-chip. The Magik-MX-37 COM has 512MB RAM and up to 1GB of flash storage, and the compete kit offers a seven-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen plus I/O including Ethernet, USB, and HDMI.

  • Music production tablet runs MeeGo on an Intel Atom

    Trinity Audio Group demonstrated a prototype of a tablet running a MeeGo-based version 5.0 of its Transmission audio platform for musicians. Now open for beta testing, the Indamixx 2 tablet runs on an Intel Atom processor with 2GB of RAM, and offers a multitouch display, 160GB of storage, and the Renoise tracking and sampling application.

  • Android tablets touted for advanced audio

    Creative Technology announced 10-inch and seven-inch tablet computers along with a 3.2-inch portable media player (PMP) — all offering Android 2.1, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1, and “Pure Wireless Entertainment” branding. The Creative Ziio 10″ and Ziio 7″ each offer Creative’s 1GHz, Cortex-A8-based ZMS-08 processor, while the Zen Touch 2 Wireless Entertainment Device features a two-megapixel camera.

  • Eight-core DSP claimed to be fastest ever

    With TI’s recent Linux port to the C64x DSPs, system designers developing signal-intensive equipment can take full advantage of the DSP cores directly with Linux, without requiring a SoC that also includes an ARM core. These would include the recently announced TMS320DM8168 as well as many other TI OMAP, Sitara, and DaVinci SoCs such as the DaVinci DM3730.

    Presumably, similar streamlined access to Linux developers is being provided for the C66x family as well. TI has recently been making a major push to open up its DSP architectures to ARM Linux developers. These efforts include the release of two free Linux development tools to ease programming of the TMS320C6000 DSP. The C6EZRun tool partitions code between the DSP and ARM cores, while C6EZAccel offers an ARM-side API library of over 130 optimized DSP kernels.

  • QorIQ SoC offers FlexCAN controllers, runs on 1.1 Watts

    A P1010RDB reference design board incorporating the P1010 is planned for availability in Q1 2011, says Freescale. The company did not list OS support, but previous QorIQ SoCs have been supported with Linux support packages.

    The new QorIQ parts will also be supported by Enea, Green Hills Software, Mentor Graphics, and Wind River, all of which offered testimonial quotes. Mentor Graphics and Wind River specifically mentioned Linux support.

    Stated Brett Butler, general manager and vice president of Freescale’s Networking Processor Division, “The P1010 is the newest member of the broad QorIQ product family, which scales from single-core offerings at 500MHz to multicore processors that deliver 2GHz.”

  • E Ink launches displays for color e-readers

    Electrophorescent (EPD) displays sourced from E Ink have been used in the majority of e-readers to date. Examples include Amazon’s market-leading, Linux-based Kindle — reecently updated to become smaller and lighter.

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Review: G2 soars with HSPA+ network and Android 2.2

        T-Mobile’s HTC-manufactured G2 smartphone was reviewed by eWEEK and found to offer blazing speed using T-Mobile’s 4G-like HSPA+ network. A strong feature set, Android 2.2, and reliable operation more than overcome a few flaws, Wayne Rash writes.

      • Android jumps to 44 percent U.S. smartphone share

      • Samsung leads global smartphone growth, says IDC

      • Samsung Continuum phone features secondary ticker display

  • Tablets

    • $150 Android tablet focuses on e-reader apps

      PocketBook USA has launched both a $150 color e-reader tablet based on Android 2.0 and a $180, Linux-based monochrome e-reader tablet. The PocketBook IQ is a seven-inch, 800 x 600 tablet with Wi-Fi and 2GB of memory, while the PocketBook Pro 602 is a six-inch E Ink e-reader with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, says the company.

Free Software/Open Source

• Apache knights at round tables

  Into this world comes Apache. They are programmers, they have jobs, but within Apache they also have a moral code, a sense of belonging, a common purpose, and important work that feeds the common good. They spin what in our time looks like wealth, then give it away free to anyone who wants it.

• The Enterprise’s Open Storage Quandary

  Further, open source storage solutions are becoming more sophisticated as third-party add-ons that offer high-end features evolve. For example, OpendedUp, an open source deduplication file system for Linux that’s also known as “SDFS,” emerged in March. This is designed for enterprises with virtual environments looking for a high-performance, scalable deduplication system that’s not too costly.

• SaaS

  • DimDim’s Acquisition Would Pitch Another FOSS Leader Into Proprietary Hands

    As Canonical COO Matt Asay notes on The Register, and as VCCircle has noted, there are strong signs that Salesforce.com is close to acquiring open source web conferencing company DImDim. Salesforce has been on a tear, with its stock hitting stratospheric heights, and is one of the primary companies illustrating how much promise the cloud holds for business technology users. It’s certainly believable that Salesforce might like to acquire DimDim, but do we want to see another celebrated open source-focused company swallowed up by a proprietary one?

• Databases

  • Can Firebird gain against MySQL?

    MySQL is now really an Oracle product, price included. Which is a big chance for all other “really free” database servers, like Firebird and PostgreSQL.

• CMS

  • Drupal 7.0 Beta 3 released

    Today marks reaching Drupal 7′s 0 critical bug milestone! We’ve rolled one final beta release to shake out any last minute problems and fix strings.

• BSD

  • 2.8.2 Released, 30-Oct-2010!

    The DragonFly 2.8.2 release is now available! A great deal of stability and MP-related work has gone into this release relative to 2.6, as well as many new features, pkgsrc-2010Q3, and the return of the GUI release image for 4G USB sticks.

  • OpenBSD 4.8

    The current release is OpenBSD 4.8 which was released November 1, 2010.

  • PC-BSD 9.0-snapshot

  • FreeNAS 0.7.2

    2010-11-06: Security Alert, all users need to upgrade their FreeNAS to the latest stable (0.7.2.5543). If you can’t upgrade: Restrict WebGUI access from trusted IP addresses. Thanks to Brian Adeloye from Tenable Network Security for reporting this vulnerability.

Leftovers

• Finance

  • Goldman Sachs Boss Complains About ‘Only’ Making $9 Million — If Only We Had Problems Like That

    I’ve seen some truly amazing feats of magic, but here’s one that beats them all. Right before your eyes, this thing rises into the air on its own, with no wires or mechanical devices giving it lift. And it hovers there effortlessly.

  • Would Henry I Have Castrated Goldman Sachs?

    2. Money doesn’t do you any good if you don’t use it at some point. An old workmate of mine used to have a colorful turn of phrase to describe the possession of something that is ostensibly praiseworthy but practically useless: “That’s like tits on a boar hog.” Economists have a more formal way to discuss the extent to which nominal money may actually be like “tits on a boar hog”: The Velocity of Money. The Velocity of Money is a measure of just how often a particular dollar gets spent during the year, and the more often the better.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • India The Latest To Think About Kicking People Off The Internet Based On Accusations Of File Sharing

      A few months back, we pointed to a discussion looking at how three countries with some of the biggest movie industries outside of the US — Nigeria, China and India — all were thriving, despite massive “piracy.” As you looked at the details of each, it showed how each industry had been adapting to a marketplace in which some of the content was widely available, but were still figuring out ways to make money (i.e., you can compete with free). However, because competing with free actually involves work, it should come as no surprise that some are seeking to implement government protectionist policies.