Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 9/4/2011: More GNOME 3, Qt SDK



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Linux high availability group working on critical enterprise application stack
    The Linux Foundation has formed a new working group to speed development within the Linux ecosystem that would make the operating system kernel more suitable for building high availability (HA) systems, the Foundation announced Wednesday.

    [...]

    So, not surprisingly, the Linux HA stack will include a lot of components that should aid in the clustering of servers. In addition to Linux, the software stack may include technologies such as the Corosync cluster engine, the Open Clustering Framework, the Linux Virtual Server, the Pacemaker resource manager, the Oracle Cluster File System (OCFS), the Global File System (GFS) and others.


  • That Other OS Re-re-reboots, Again
    Why is this OS still around? Who needs this aggravation? There is a better way to do IT: Debian GNU/Linux.

    Debian GNU/Linux is not perfect but it is a lot less work to keep it running. In the five years I have been using it I have only had much angst three times: a flub of openSSH, lots of display problems in the display on the beta of Squeeze and just yesterday, my wife found OpenOffice.org would not open files from Office that it previously had opened. Libre Office fixed that and a problem every couple of years compared to a monthly curse is heavenly.


  • The Battle for the Last Desktop
    Acer expects component shortages for tablet PCs and smartphones


  • Audiocasts/Shows





  • Kernel Space



  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments

    • Sanity


    • GNOME Desktop

      • Gnome3 is a YES


        I wanted to check out Gnome3 on my own, in spite of the wide range of reviews [or because of them!] I especially appreciated this review: https://piecesoflint.wordpress.com/2011/04/05/10-things-i-love-about-gnome-3/. I don't wish to repeat the findings, but add my own reactions.


      • New GNOME cuts the clutter


        Five years in the making, the newly released version 3 of the GNOME Linux desktop interface has been radically redesigned.

        The development team endeavored to develop a simpler interface for the shell, noted Jon McCann, one of GNOME Shell's designers, in a Thursday announcement.

        For this release, the boxy look and feel has been replaced with a more aerodynamic, clutter-free visage. All the icons were redesigned, and new default font Cantarell was adopted. Applications can be called up by simply typing the first few letters of a program name. Frequently used applications can be pinned to a desktop dashboard.


      • Gnome 3 Review
        The long, loooong awaited Gnome 3. Probably the most popular linux desktop environment out there has finally gotten its well deserved and a needed major overhaul. Often times I hear people complaining about the lack of features in Gnome 2.x when compared to, say, KDE. Others, on the other hand, like its simplicity, ease of use, and the fact that no big changes have been made for quite some time. In fact, I myself can’t recall any significant changes to Gnome since I first started using it 5 years ago. Gnome 3 was written from scratch and the team was hoping to reinvent some things, but innovate at the same time, while making the new Gnome the best desktop environment out there. But, did they succeed? More after the break!


      • GNOME 3 Heroes
        GNOME 3 is an incredible achievement. Looking back to that first announcement in 2008, I don’t think any of us would have quite imagined how much the project would accomplish with a new dot oh release. Everyone can feel very proud indeed.


      • GNOME 3






  • Distributions

    • 4 Recommended Linux Distros To Help You Choose The Right One For You
      Just imagine if you tried out a distro that wasn’t meant for you?


    • Have You Heard of AUSTRUMI Linux?
      I haven't thought of AUSTRUMI in quite a while. My memories of it are tiny, tiny, fast, fast, yet up-to-date able work on modern hardware (modern at the time). Then it fell off my radar around version 1.5.0 released in 2007. But 2.3.3 was just released a few days ago, so it was time to see its latest incarnation.

      AUSTRUMI is Slackware-based distribution that hails from Latvia. Yes, that's a country; in the general vicinity of Lithuania, Sweden, and the western Russian border. It ships as an installable live CD (to HDD or USB) with support for several languages. It was once about a 30 MB download, but these days it is 199 MB. It comes with Linux 2.6.38.2, Xorg X Server 1.10.0, GIMP 2.6.11, Opera 11.10, LibreOffice 3.3.2, and lots (relatively speaking) of other handy applications. It includes several server applications as well as system tools and utilities. AUSTRUMI also ships with NVIDIA and ATI/AMD proprietary drivers, although the choice of using Open Source drivers is available to boot. Another boot time option is whether to run it completely in RAM or not as well as your preferred language and several other options.

      It comes with a very attractive FVWM desktop with transparency and a nice titlebar, clock, and quicklauncher on the side as well as a pretty theme and wallpaper. They've also used Conky to display some machine statistics across the top of the screen.


    • 3-in-1: How 3 Old Friends Can Be Found In Same Place
      Post about SLAX was soon followed by post about Puppy. I felt in love with Puppy from the first sight. It's a pity I had to remove it from my HDD to replace with Debian Squeeze. SLAX is based on Slackware.


    • New Releases



      • SystemRescueCd 2.1.0 updates Xfce desktop
        Version 2.1.0 of the SystemRescueCd Linux distribution has been released, the first major point update to SystemRescueCd 2.0.0 from early January. Based on the Gentoo LiveCD and using Xfce as its default desktop, the SystemRescueCd is configured as a tool kit for administering or repairing an operating system and recovering data after a system crash. Supported file systems include Ext2, Ext3 and Ext4, ReiserFS, XFS, JFS, VFAT, NTFS, ISO9660 and Btrfs.




    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Smile becomes Mandriva partner
        Mandriva Pulse 2 is the Open Source solution to manage business IT infrastructure whether it is homogenous, unisite, multisite, and comprising a handfull of machines or several thousand.




    • Red Hat Family



    • Debian Family



      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • I Don't Like Unity; Should I Ditch Ubuntu?
          In my opinion most Ubuntu users who think the way my friend thinks are going to be upset about it. So, what to do? Should such users ditch Ubuntu and move to derivatives like Linux Mint (which is fast becoming my favorite)?

          Linux Mint has a very strong user-base and it doesn't need Ubuntu's failure to get new users. However, I can see quite a lot of users migrating to Linux Mint if they did not like Unity. While I have no issue whether you use Ubuntu or Linux Mint, I do have a suggestion to those who are not comfortable with Unity yet don't want to ditch Ubuntu.


        • Ubuntu 11.04 May Default To Classic GNOME Desktop
          When Mark Shuttleworth and co announced last year that Ubuntu 11.04 would deploy a Canonical-developed Unity desktop environment instead of the GNOME 3.0 Shell or the classic GNOME2 desktop, many users were concerned by this move with Unity on Ubuntu Netbook not even being in great shape, etc. Concerns over Unity by default in Ubuntu 11.04 have only grown with the Unity interface in Ubuntu 11.04 Beta still being sluggish and broken in areas. Now it looks like Canonical may default Ubuntu 11.04 to using the classic desktop.


        • Test drive the whole Ubuntu archive with WebLive
          In my last blog post about WebLive I announced the availability on WebLive of the top-50 apps from the new Ratings & Review service.

          Today I’m happy to announce that this feature is no longer necessary as you can now test drive anything that’s available in the Ubuntu archive.


        • The Spiel About The Default Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop
          Earlier today Phoronix was the first publication to widely report that Ubuntu 11.04 may default to the GNOME classic desktop rather than the Unity desktop that Canonical has been developing viciously over the past few months. There's just too many bugs outstanding and issues with Unity, but here's the whole spiel about what their evaluation is coming down to in deciding whether to stick with Unity by default or instead use the classic GNOME desktop until presumably Ubuntu 11.10.

          A more elaborate email from Canonical's Rick Spencer has now hit the Ubuntu development mailing list that further analyzes the situation and discussion that came out of the Ubuntu Technical Board meeting.


        • Ubuntu Expels One Of Its Developers
          Besides the MPlayer fighting that's now going on, the battles within the Ubuntu community isn't limited to GNOME vs. Unity on the desktop, but in fact the Ubuntu Developer Membership board and Community Council have jointly decided to expel one of the Ubuntu developers.

          The two Ubuntu groups have decided to kick Artur Rona out of the Ubuntu development community for at least two years, according to this mailing list post. This Polish developer had been responsible within the Ubuntu community for handling merges, syncs, and security updates for some packages.


        • Mark Shuttleworth talks Narwhals
          Natty Narwhal (Ubuntu 11.04) removes GNOME, adds new kernel, and offers a major patch for scheduling processes. Mark Shuttleworth talks to Linux User about all this, Debian relations and the future of Ubuntu…


        • Knowledge-Sharing on Agenda During Ubuntu App Developer Week
          Have an idea for a great Linux application that’s missing from the 30,000+ downloads in the Ubuntu repositories? Or just interested in learning some programming pointers? If you answered yes, the latest and greatest Ubuntu App Developer Week, which starts Monday, April 11, 2011, is for you. Keep reading for details…


        • Flavours and Variants

          • Elementary OS Review: Delight to Use, Few Issues Persist


          • Linux Mint Debian 201101 - Really, really nice


            There were two tiny wrongs with LMD - one, the lack of Compiz; two, the one-time boot glitch. Other than that, Linux Mint Debian was surprisingly good-looking and good-working, with none of the pessimistic predictions about its stability and usability.

            I'm thoroughly pleased with the distro. It's a near perfect 10! The Mint dev team has scored two tremendous releases, one after another, not an easy feat by any means or standards. This is really amazing. What more, LMD is a beacon of hope for all those frightened Ubuntu users and Unity haters. If you don't like the direction Ubuntu is going, there's Linux Mint and its Debian edition waiting for you. Stable, fast, beautiful, the sum of all good.

            Let's not forget - this is a rolling release, so install once and enjoy forever. It's also probably going to be supported for eons. And this is just the first edition. Think how this thing will look like in a year or two, given more time to buff and polish.










  • Devices/Embedded

    • Eurocom Launches Dual Processor Phantom 4.0 Server-on-the-Go Solution
      Eurocom Corporation (www.eurocom.com), the world's leading developer of highly personalized, high-performance notebook PCs and energy efficient All-in-Ones has been developing a dual CPU notebook solution for years. Eurocom technicians have been testing and verifying the systems performance and quality since the beginning of 2011 and now the system is ready for shipping.


    • The WINDspeed Pocket Hotspot: great for Linux users but piss-poor documentation.
      I must admit that I haven’t found a suitable use case for a MiFi device until now — where I find myself tasked with procuring a no-fuss Internet connection for visiting family. Each of the big carriers in Canada sells a personal WiFi hotspot of some sort, but being a fan of the little guy I went instead with WIND Mobile’s Huawei E583C — aka, the WINDspeed Pocket Hotspot.


    • The MosKeyto's Buzz
      A review of a USB drive might seem like a silly notion, but when the USB drive is barely bigger than the USB port itself, it seems worth mentioning. I recently was sent a LaCie MosKeyto USB drive, and I must admit, it's even smaller than I expected it would be. In fact, the cover to the Flash drive is actually bigger than the drive itself!


    • Phones



      • Nokia/MeeGo/Maemo

        • Nokia offering new SDK for Qt
          Developers who want to take advantage of Nokia's cross-platform application and user interface framework can now access the latest release candidate.

          Qt is designed to let developers write and deploy applications across desktop, mobile and embedded OSes without rewriting source code. The Qt SDK 1.1 Release Candidate is now available for download, Nokia said in a blog post on Thursday.






    • Tablets

      • Google begins tablet version of Chrome OS
        Details in Google's source code reveal that company programmers have begun building a tablet version of Chrome OS, its browser-based operating system.


      • Acer expects component shortages for tablet PCs and smartphones
        Commenting about the tablet PC market, Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin pointed out that the company is currently working aggressively over its tablet PCs and is doing a marvelous job; however, Japan's earthquake may affect component supplies for its smartphone and tablet PC lines.








Free Software/Open Source



  • Why Facebook open-sourced its datacenters
    Facebook has opened up a whole new front in its war with Google over top technical talent and ad dollars. Instead of simply hiring away Google engineers, the social networking service is now aiming to do for its datacenters what Google is doing with Android—that is, it's taking an open-source approach that will let the company harness the energy and know-how of a larger ecosystem of programmers and engineers to make its ad business that much more profitable. Facebook has framed the announcement as part of its commitment to openness, but there are much larger forces at work here. Specifically, despite what most people think, Facebook and Google are hardware companies, and the former's open-source datacenter will potentially help it compete in the datacenter arena with its much larger and deeper-pocketed rival.


  • Facebook's Open-Source Servers Will Change the Industry. Right?
    Facebook's bid to open-source its server architecture sounds like a technology with broad applications. But it remains unclear how the Open Compute Initiative will affect the traditional server market.

    Facebook said Thursday that it is making the design documents and specifications of the servers used at its Prineville, Ore. data center public at OpenCompute.org. The company claims that the design of the new servers is 38 percent more power efficient than its older models, and costs 24 percent less to make.


  • Facebook open sources its server, data center designs: Hardware fallout to follow
    Facebook on Thursday launched an initiative it calls the Open Compute Project, an effort to share the specs and designs of the custom servers in its data center in Prineville, Ore. In other words, Facebook is going to open source its hardware designs just like the software industry largely has.


  • FLOSS Weekly 160: Open Source Software At The Department Of Defense
    Hosts: Randal Schwartz and Simon Phipps

    Download or subscribe to this show at twit.tv/floss.

    We invite you to read, add to, and amend our show notes.


  • Project Harmony Launches Today


    "Project Harmony is like Creative Commons for contributor agreements. We've set out to capture the best practices of free and open source software contributions, across a diverse array of project cultures, communities, and values." said Allison Randal, a community participant in Project Harmony. "The public review process for the Alpha versions of the documents launches today, and runs through May 6th. After a year of hard work by the original ~100 drafting volunteers, we're really looking forward to broader participation in this public review."


  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome

      • Google Chrome 12 Protects Against Malware
        Google is updating its Chrome web browser, Chrome 12, with new performance and security features. Chrome 12 is now available in Google's dev-channel, providing users with a sneak peak of what Google has in store . Chrome 12 includes a new version of the V8 JavaScript engine as well as an overall code cleanup.




    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 4
        But it's rock solid, fast, and dependable. I no longer feel like I need to apologise for using Firefox as my browser.






  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



  • Education

    • Moodle 2.0 Science: Monitoring Your Students' Progress
      By the end of this article, you will be able to do the following:

      * Check that your learners are looking at the resources that you add to your course * Track completion of activities * Plan what your learners need to achieve for the completion of your course * Evaluate the effectiveness of your quizzes by using result analysis * Identify gaps in learner's understanding by using quiz grade analysis * Use assignment reports to identify learners who need extra help * Gain a valuable overview of your learners' progress by effectively using the gradebook




  • Project Releases



  • Programming





Leftovers

  • The Bizarre Cathedral - 96


  • Alcatel-Lucent Launches Wired Networking Mesh


  • Cablegate

    • Dear Queen Beatrix,
      It is with anger and disbelief that I now read that the current interior minister of your government is willing to give up the freedom of Rop Gonggrijp to please the United States. As you can read here, Uri Rosenthal has no problem to extradite Rop Gonggrijp to the United States should they so desire.

      And why? Because he helped Wikileaks to publish the truth. Because he helped the truth to be put in the spotlight of public scrutiny. A truth that is tough to accept, but true to his nature, Rop Gonggrijp defended the freedom to tell the truth.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality/UBB

    • Pensioner in Georgia cuts Armenia off from internet
      An elderly woman in Georgia is facing a prison sentence after reportedly causing internet services in neighbouring Armenia to crash.

      The country found itself offline for hours on 28 March after cables linking Georgia to Armenia were damaged.


    • BT escapes prosecution over web snooping
      BT will not be prosecuted for snooping on the web browsing habits of its customers.

      The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has dropped a request bring charges against BT and Phorm - the firm that supplied the monitoring system.

      The Webwise software used cookies to track people online and then tailored adverts to the sites they visited.








Clip of the Day





[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Credit: TinyOgg

Recent Techrights' Posts

You Need Not Wave a Rainbow Flag This Month to Basically Oppose Arseholes Looking to Disrupt and Divide the Community
Don't fall for it
What Miguel de Icaza and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
Similar aims, different methods
The 'Corporate Neckbeard' is Not the "Good Guy"
Works for IBM
Microsoft's Nat Friedman Became Unemployed the Same Time the SLAPPs Against Techrights Started Coming From His Friends (Weeks After We Had Exposed Scandals About Him and the Serial Strangler, His Best Friend, Who Got Arrested a Few Days Later)
Nat Friedman is not "Investor, entrepreneur"
Weeding Out Extremism in Our Community
To me it seems like Microsoft Lunduke is rapidly becoming like a "hate preacher" who operates online, breeding an extremist ideology or trying to soften its image
Censorship Versus Fact-Checking and Quality Control
It's not censorship but a matter of quality control
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and TUI Rant
Links for the day
 
With Workers Back From a Holiday Weekend, Microsoft Layoffs Carry on, More Waves to Come
Now it's Monday and people are bad to work, even some journalists
Mozilla Had No Good Reason to Outsource Firefox Development to Microsoft
What does Mozilla plan to do when GitHub shuts down?
Mozilla Firefox Did Not Die, It Got Killed
To me it'll always look like Mozilla got killed by its sponsors, especially Google, which had a conflict of interest as a sponsor
Dalai Lama Succession as Evidence That Determined, Motivated People Can Reach Their Nineties
And we need to quit talking about their death all the time
Dan Neidle, Whom Brett Wilson LLP SLAPPed (on Behalf of Corrupt Rich Tax Evaders), Still Fighting the Good Fight
Neidle fights for the poor people
Wayland Should Start by Dumping Its Very Ugly Logo
Wayland wins the "ugliest logo" award every year
Stop Focusing on Hair Colours, Focus on Corporate Agenda
If someone commits a crime, it does not matter if his or her hair was mostly white or there was no hair or a wig or whatever
Links 07/07/2025: Science, Conflicts, and a Fictional K-pop Group
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/07/2025: Being a Luddite and Announcement of Gotify
Links for the day
Links 07/07/2025: XBox Effectively 'Dead', DMCA Subpoena Versus Registrar
Links for the day
The Nasty Smear (and Stereotype) of "Neckbeard" or "Greybeard" is Ageism
This is the sort of stuff they might try to volley at critics of Wayland
Why Many of Us Use X Server and Will Continue to Use It For Many Years to Come
Don't make this about politics
Brett Wilson LLP Uses Threats to Demand Changes to Pages or Removal of Pages Without Even Revealing Which Staff Member Does That (Sometimes People From Another Firm!)
This has been in the public for years
Dan Neidle Said "It Really Then Became a Job of Tormenting" Lawyers Like Brett Wilson LLP (Who Threatened Him for Exposing Crimes, Just Like They Threatened My Wife a Few Months Later)
he and his wife decided to take on the evil people and their evil lawyers
Large Language Models (LLMs) Externalise Their Cost to the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
"The forty-sixth Free Software Bulletin is now available online!"
Reinforcing the Allegations Some More, Bryan Lunduke Digs His Own Grave
In his latest episodes he merely repeats his own lies, which I debunked using evidence right from his own mouth
Global Warming and Free Software as a Force of Mitigation
we'll need to think about Software Freedom, not just brands like "Linux"
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 06, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 06, 2025
[Video] "Copyleft Isn't a Bug."
"Copyleft isn’t a bug. It’s a feature. GNU GPL forced the world to treat code like a public good."
Being in Social Control Media Means Exposing Oneself to Heckling
Richard Stallman does not (either himself or directly) post to any social control media
Links 06/07/2025: Airlines Perils, Scams, and Breaches
Links for the day
Two Risks to Companies: The Microsoft Culture and the Microsoft Tools
Novell was killed by a form of "social engineering" by Microsoft
It's Hard to Trust People Who Worked - Not Only Those Who Still Work - at Microsoft
Bryan Lunduke is just what people would call an "arsehole of a person"
For the Second Time, Bryan Lunduke From Microsoft is Siccing Racist Trolls and Vandals at Me
You're only reinforcing the point we made yesterday
Links 06/07/2025: End to End Encryption at Risk, Reuters Twitter ("X") Account Withheld in India
Links for the day
Gemini Links 06/07/2025: Tinylog and Certification Rotation
Links for the day
Links 06/07/2025: Climate Change and "The Right to Criticise"
Links for the day
PCLinuxOS Sites Coming Back, Gradually
let's just be patient
Social Control Media, Even If Based on Free Software, Still Has Many Problems
a distraction from what actually mattered and still matters
IBM is Not Your Master
IBM makes friends with people who exclude the majority of the population: women
Help Fund the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
If you have some dollars to spare, go support the FSF
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 05, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 05, 2025
A Short History of Attacks on Techrights (and Boycott Novell Before That)
good opportunity to tell again the story of several (not all) attempts to silence us
The Mainstream Media Took 4 Days to Realise Microsoft Shut Down Its Operations in Pakistan and Fired Everybody
We estimate that Microsoft has had about 29,000 layoffs since January
Leadership in Free Software
Don't let IBM lead. It's a terrible flag bearer.
“Twibel” Actions Against Comedians (and Why It's a Truly Low Blow)
they try to make up in quantities for a lack of merit or quality
Linux Foundation Apparently Flirting With Slop (Marketing by LLM-Generated SPAM)
The Web is in a really bad state!
COVID-19 Sped Up Site Improvements in Techrights
A few months later we created our very own IRC network
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: Negative Questions and 'Touching Grass' (Going Outside)
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Dalai Lama Succession as 90th Birthday Approaches, 40 deg C in China
Links for the day
Links 05/07/2025: Hungary and US Defecting to Russia, "Google's Hotseat Hypocrisy"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 05/07/2025: 4th of July 2025 and "Zig Roadmap 2026"
Links for the day
How to Combat the Exploitation and Abuse by Microsoft GitHub
Not to mention corruption and crimes against women
Bryan Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People
"[Lunduke] is actually sending his audience to attack people."
Even The Right Wing is Rejecting Bryan Lunduke
no wonder he became so irrelevant and marginal
Microsoft's MSN Helps Microsoft Spread Lies About the Layoffs' Scale (Well Over 25,000 People Laid Off This Year)
There seem to be monopolies on lies and on truth
The Death of X Has Been Greatly Exaggerated (by Compromised Media)
X.Org Server is alive and well
Rewriting Things in Rust
How far would you go?
In 2025 Everything is "AI". Remember Blockchains?
Talk about what companies and things (services, products, software) actually do, not the labels they use
Julian Assange Has Been Free for a Year
Julian Assange and I disagreed on some things
Monopolies and Scalping
Monopolies gravitate towards price hikes
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 04, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, July 04, 2025
Microsoft's August Layoffs Wave: "August is Confirmed for Additional Performance Based Cuts"
"August is confirmed for additional performance based cuts from the recent connects along with additional organizational cuts."
What Microsoft Reputation Laundering (With a Weaponised Law Degree) Looks Like in a Foreign Continent
You would expect this in uncivilised and primitive countries
Slopwatch: LLMs 'Write' Fake or Distorted 'News' About "Linux"
LLM slop disguised as news