05.22.11

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• The flexibility of Linux

  I’ll admit, I’m somewhat interested in Google’s Chromebook concept. The Chromebook is Google’s spin on the “netbook”. Announced in May last year, Chromebook goes on sale in mid-June.

  The Chromebook runs Google’s Chrome OS, which is based on Gentoo Linux. While Linux has appeared on netbooks in the past (and were the only option on the very first netbooks) this is another example of the flexibility of Linux. You can use Linux as a base for almost any computing platform – it’s small, fast, and supports a variety of hardware.

• I shall build it and I shall call it gregBook

  Both my desktop and my laptop started working more slowly a few weeks ago. This indicated that something about the operating system (some version of Ubuntu Linux) changed in a bad way. Or, perhaps, since the slowness was mostly noticed in the web browser, the newer version of Firefox was somehow borked. It turns out that the latter is true to some extent because the developers of Firefox left Linux out in the cold with hardware acceleration (and despite the excuses for that I’m still annoyed … had the same issues applied to, say Windows, they would not have left Windows out in the cold). But that is a digression. It turns out that the cause was related to something I had installed that was related to the system. This little problem has been solved, but it brings up another issue, which has also been addressed on the blog Linux in Exile. This is what I wanted to talk about.

• Linux vs Other Operating Systems : 7 common myths busted

  Myth 1: Linux is just for geeks

  Linux is for everyone. While Linux based distributions like Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Fedora are developed with the non-technical user in mind, Slackware and others appeal to the more geeky ones. Believe it or not, installing Ubuntu is actually easier than a Windows installation , and using it requires no special skills.

  Myth 2 : Linux can’t handle Excel, Word, Powerpoint

  Linux can handle all the major file formats when it comes to documents as it comes with a powerful opensource Office suite called Openoffice.org (soon to be replaced by Libreoffice). So, apart from doing all the spreadsheets, presentations, and word processing out of the box, Linux can do tasks like publishing, image editing using only free and open source applications.

• Google’s Chromium OS on the Desktop

  That didn’t take long. A manufacturer plans to release a small desktop PC with Chromium OS in July. It’s Xi3 and their modular PC. One of the modules will be a Chromium OS…

• Kernel Space

  • Help me come up with good questions for Linus at LinuxCon Japan 2011

    My previous plea for help worked out very well. The resulting video of the talk can be seen here, with one of the highlights being the phrase, “It is cheaper to work upstream in the kernel” from Dirk Hohndel who works at Intel. There’s a summary of the talk on lwn.net over here if you don’t want to sit through the whole video.

• Applications

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • How to Use GNU Screen

    • How to Convert Videos in Linux with Arista

    • VBoxHeadless – Running Virtual Machines With VirtualBox 4.0 On A Headless Ubuntu 11.04 Server

    • How To Install A (Canon) Printer On Debian And Debian-Like Systems

    • INX : Command line and console Linux Live CD

• Desktop Environments

  • GNOME Desktop

    • The Ubuntu GNOME Remix — an ISO is imminent

      I hoped Ubuntu would do the right thing and start an official derivative featuring the GNOME 3 environment. That has not happened.

      But there is a new project, the Ubuntu GNOME Remix, offering a PPA today and an ISO install image at some point in the near future.

      The project aims for a Canonical endorsement, as seen on its “about” page:

• Distributions

  • Review: Zenwalk 7.0

    So what’s the verdict? It certainly is relatively user-friendly, and much more so than Slackware. It’s stable, and it definitely minimizes package redundancy. That said, it isn’t as fast as advertised, and the French and Japanese issues were annoying, considering that I thought I was downloading an English live medium (and I thought there would be different live media for different languages). Those are minor issues, though, and while I wouldn’t recommend it for a newbie, I would recommend it for anyone who wants the stability of Slackware without the hassle. Zenwalk isn’t the only kid in town, though; other Slackware-based user-friendly distributions with Xfce include Wolvix, Salix OS, and Vector Linux, so please do check those out too. You can the download Zenwalk install CD from here or the live CD from here.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Skype Ubuntu Messaging Menu / NotifyOSD Integration

        • Ubuntu Sound Gallery could make finding and installing sound themes easy

          Have you ever installed a sound theme in Ubuntu? No? Well you wouldn’t be alone. Finding extra sound themes for Ubuntu is a task and half in and of itself, and that’s before the rather archaic installation process.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Modders Make Android Work the Way You Want

        CyanogenMod is one of the biggest hacks to ever hit the Android mobile platform.

        It’s got an estimated 500,000 users. Many Android programmers use it as a starting point for their own coding projects. And according to the project’s founder, a number of Google employees have it installed on their Android devices.

        Essentially, CyanogenMod is a tricked-out version of the software you’re already running on your Android phone.

        Every Android-powered device comes running a version of the operating system, from 1.5 (Cupcake) all the way up to 3.1 (Honeycomb).

      • The Android Tablet Ecosystem Is In Need of Major Changes

        Huang made very clear that he thinks Android tablets have to come in at lower price points, emphasizing Wi-Fi over 3G for connections. Meanwhile, there are also strong concerns being voiced over the marketing of Android tablets, or rather, the lack of any unified marketing for them.

        That hasn’t stopped powerful new players from entering the Android tablet space, though. Dell has announced plans for an Android tablet, among several other hardware makers.

      • Google Deodorizes Sniffable Android Security Flaw

      • The Android Empire Rules the Smartphone World

        The Android platform tops the list in sales of smartphone operating systems for the first quarter of 2011, according to a report by market researcher Gartner (NYSE: IT).

        Total smartphone sales accounted for 23.6 percent of global handset units overall, and various phones sporting Google’s (Nasdaq: GOOG) Android OS took 36 percent of that market. They sold more than 36.3 million units in the quarter. Next in line was Symbian, taking 27.4 percent of the market share. Following were Apple’s (Nasdaq: AAPL) iOS platform with 16.8 percent and Research In Motion’s (Nasdaq: RIMM) BlackBerry platform at 12.9 percent.

Free Software/Open Source

• Weekend Project: Pre-Loading Maps for Open Source Navigation Apps

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla Firefox 5 Beta now out – that was fast!

    • Mozilla follows Chrome with add-on to hide navigation bar

      As we showed you yesterday, recent prerelease builds of Chrome 13 have an experimental new user interface option that allows users to hide the navigation bar. But Google isn’t the only browser vendor trying to shed toolbar pixels. Mozilla Labs has published an add-on that brings a similarly svelte design to the Firefox Web browser.

Leftovers

• Microsoft Fog lets users down again.

• Brain scans show Apple fans really are religious about Apple.. The use of any non free software is an act of blind faith and brand loyalty is irrational.

• Health/Nutrition

  • Forchlorfenuron alters mammalian septin assembly, organization, and dynamics. This compound is commonly used to increase fruit size, so buy organic until the long term effects are better known.

  • AMA publishes report on health effects of cell phone use.

  • The TSA’s secret “tests” of the X-ray body scanners were phony. They did not test a real scanner, and they kept important details of the test secret.

• Defence/Police/Aggression

  • US Citizens, please protest giving presidents the ability to launch military attacks at will.

• Cablegate

  • When the UK evicted the inhabitants of the Chagos Islands, it promised to maintain their buildings and plantations. It ignored that promise, reflecting its intention to stop them from ever returning home. A Wikileaks cable shows that the UK intended its marine conservation zone as an additional obstacle to their return.

• Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Fukushima 1 reactor core completely melted and is still an uncontrolled release. . Reliable prior estimates weeks ago were that radioactive iodine and cesium were roughly 50 to 70 of what came from Chernobyl.

    Nobody really knows where all the water is going, but it can’t be anywhere good.

  • Fukushima will be an uncontrolled release for at least six months, but people doubt the honesty of Tokyo Electric.

  • EU agencies have issued warnings to women and children over lower count levels but the US EPA raises acceptable levels and halts rain and milk monitoring [2]

    “I really am horrified,” said Daniel Hirsch, a nuclear policy lecturer at the University of California, Santa Cruz. “It’s quite staggering and it seems to be part of the pattern of the EPA trying to make sure that there are no measurements that could cause people to be concerned.”

  • UK plans to build nuclear reactors underestimate the availability of tidal power generators and overestimate its future costs.

  • The US will continue to subsidize big oil.

  • Coal Ash Index – mountains of unregulated toxic waste threaten lives, natural resources and property.

  • Toxic FEMA Trailers find their way to Alabama Tornado Victims – from one global warming disaster to another.

• Finance

  • A Senate committee has laid out the evidence against big US banks. Now the Justice Department should bring criminal charges

  • New York State is investigating big banks for their roll in the housing bubble.

  • Matt Taibbi — ‘Wall Street a threat to America’

  • Goldman Traders Tried to Manipulate Derivatives Market in ’07, Report Says

    Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) mortgage traders tried to manipulate prices of derivatives linked to subprime home loans in May 2007 for their own benefit, according to a U.S. Senate report.

    Company documents show traders led by Michael J. Swenson sought to encourage a “short squeeze” by putting artificially low prices on derivatives that would gain in value as mortgage securities fell, according to the report yesterday by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. The idea, abandoned after market conditions worsened, was to drive holders of such credit-default swaps to sell and help Goldman Sachs traders buy at reduced prices, according to the report.

  • The People Versus Goldman Sachs

    Apparently, Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi will not rest until some Goldman Sachs executives are behind bars. He will not rest until the tarnished company’s reputation lies in tatters on the floor. These goals are admirable. Give Taibbi an ‘A’ for effort. Unfortunately, these noble goals, as much as we might hope for their fulfillment, are unachievable.

  • A New Wall Street Investigation: Is the Hammer Finally Coming Down?

    Got a chance to meet Josh Rosner (co-author, with Times reporter Gretchen Morgenson, of the new book Reckless Endangerment) last night during an appearance on Eliot Spitzer’s In the Arena. We were brought in to talk about the new investigation of the banks that apparently is being launched by New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, which looks like it might be the first for-real attempt at a prosecution of the systemic corruption that led to the financial crisis.

    Schneiderman’s probe, news of which came out yesterday in this piece by Morgenson, reportedly targets the banks’ mortgage securitization process during the bubble years. Morgenson reported that Schneiderman is focused on at least three companies: Morgan Stanley, Bank of America, and old friend Goldman, Sachs.

• Civil Rights

  • Wisconsin Firefighters and Police now on chopping block while rich political campaign contributors isolate and reward themselves with bonuses.

  • Hautala report on access to documents

    Hautala’s draft report on public access to documents for the years 2009-2010 has been published. The report concerns implementation of the regulation (EC) No 1049/2001 on public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents.

    Lisbon Treaty introduced a new constitutional framework of EU institutional transparency by establishing a firm fundamental right of access to documents of EU institutions. Now the Regulation does not only cover the Parliament, the Council and the Commission, but also all other EU institutions and agencies.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Google stops digitizing old newspapers under pressure from publishers who want to sit on them. [2] The rich and powerful would prefer we forget the lies they told in the past. Every local library should offer this service. PJ adds:

      shame on the newspapers for ruining everything. … Look what these newspapers want to charge you to read an article that didn’t cost even half that if anything at all at the time. … $2.95 to read one single article. Imagine you are some not exactly rich researcher and you are trying to find out what happened to write a book. You can’t afford to do it. … $359.95 for a year’s pass to read anything for 90 days. They call it Pay-per-View. And Google did the digitization for them.

    • The stupidity of our copyright laws is finally laid bare

      Watching British politicians engage with technology companies is a bit like listening to maiden aunts wondering if they would look better in thongs. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, to name just two such aunts, fantasised that Microsoft was cool, and spent years trying to associate themselves (and New Labour) with Bill Gates – even going to the lengths of making the Microsoft boss an honorary knight. Then we had the equally ludicrous spectacle of Cameron and co believing that Google is cool, which is why its CEO, Eric Schmidt – who for these purposes is the Google Guys’ representative on Earth – was an honoured guest at Cameron’s first party conference as leader. Given that, it’s only a matter of time before Ed Miliband discovers that Facebook is the new cool. And so it will go on.