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07.13.11

IRC Proceedings: July 12th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

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#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

IRC Proceedings: July 11th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

IRC Proceedings: July 10th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

IRC Proceedings: July 9th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:32 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

Regulators in the US/Canada Authorise Linux-hostile Patent Cartel, Google Must Help Abolish Software Patents Now

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft, Patents at 3:05 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Google’s Rivals Accused of Colluding Against Android” ~Forbes.com headline (this week)

Boardroom

Summary: As the patent assault on Linux/Dalvik/Java (Android) becomes ever more intense, calls are made for Google to get its act together and join the side of the public, liaising with those seeking to put an end to all software patents

MICROSOFT THINKS it has got it all figured out. It promoted Horacio, the key patent racketeer, not so long ago, whereas Apple is said to have let its chief patent lawyer go (maybe he left on his own, but it does not seem so because IDG says that “Apple’s current chief patent lawyer is reportedly leaving the company after failing to block Android manufacturers from using iPhone-like features”).

So anyway, major changes at Apple are evident after failing to harm Android with the patent attacks. HTC has not surrendered (Apple is retrying) and Samsung dealt a major blow to Apple following Apple’s impulsive lawsuit. The branding company, Apple, cannot quite manage to transform into an extortion company. Neither can Microsoft though, as it has tried since 2006 (with Novell). Microsoft’s ‘progress’ mostly involves small companies that nobody cares about, not Red Hat or even Canonical. Here we see the nuisance called Tuxera finding another place to put some Microsoft patent tax, but again, who ever heard of Rockchip? Wikipedia barely even mentions it. As we explained recently, whenever Microsoft strikes against a medium- or large-sized company, it faces blowback, so now it just plays ‘safe’ by attacking the feeble ones in the school yard. That’s just Microsoft’s game. Pathetic. Why won’t Microsoft sue Google and see its patents invalidated one by one, jin the same way Oracle does? Just watch the latest from Groklaw:

  • Oracle v. Google – The Court Questions Oracle’s Damages Report

    Judge Alsup clearly believes the Oracle damages report provided by Prof. Iain Cockburn has failed to provide a basis for applying the “entire market value” theory of damages. So what is the “entire market” theory of damages?

  • Oracle v. Google – Google Moves to Supplement Its Invalidity Defenses

    In another instance, the court’s claim construction opened up prior art that was not usable before (see Sec. A under Argument in the Motion). In their obviously very thorough search for prior art, Google also found references that it says demonstrate obviousness. (See Sections E, G and H under Argument in the Motion) In a fourth instance Google says that Oracle’s JavaOS itself is prior art, and JavaOS was publicly available for more than a year prior to the asserted patent.

“Google recently made very large bids for the Nortel patents,” wrote to us a reader this morning. “What Google can do with the approximately $4B USD that they would have used for the Nortel patents would be to jump into US politics with both feet and get software patents banned again. There are several options ranging from direct campaign financing (due to new rules) or regular lobbying.

“Such a law would ultimately save Google more than it would do by fighting each case separately. There is an increasing number of “non-producing entities”, often referred to as patent trolls, and fighting them one at a time or one patent at a time isn’t going to help anyone except the patent lawyers. In the example of Android, they may ask for smallish sums per handset, but 5 or 10 dollars multiplied several times will quickly price the devices out of the market. Best to focus at the heart of the problem and go directly after the patentability question.”

Techrights made a similar suggestion yesterday. The Star has this new article which says:

Google’s loss in bidding for the $4.5 billion (U.S.) portfolio of Nortel Networks Corp. patents last week means the Internet-search company will be looking to buy other inventions to build a bulwark against lawsuits targeting its Android system, patent brokers say.

“There are a lot of phenomenal portfolios for sale,” said Dean Becker, chief executive officer of ICAP Patent Brokerage in Palm Beach, Fla., the world’s largest patent seller. “Every operating company is in the market because of the expense, distraction and the potential financial risk of patent litigation.”

Some days ago we noted that Canadian and US regulators were potentially stepping in, but after an unfortunate breakthrough and then authorisation of the sale [1, 2, 3] we are left assuming that the government once again sidles with corporations rather than with public interests. The courts give a go-ahead:

Apple Inc(AAPL.O), Microsoft Corp(MSFT.O), Research in Motion Ltd(RIM.TO) and three other leading tech companies received court approval on Monday to buy wireless patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp for $4.5 billion.

Judges in the United States and Canada approved the sale of 6,000 patents and applications, which fetched three times what some analysts expected from the four-day auction in June.

Nortel Networks Corp (NRTLQ.PK) filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors in January 2009 and courts in the two countries are overseeing the disposal of the company’s assets as the former telecommunications giant winds down its operations.

Jack Wallen says that “the Microsoft bully is back” in his new column:

The Microsoft bully is back

[...]

Well, color me surprised that the tyrant known as Microsoft has taken to doing everything it can to chip away at the competition — no matter what the cost, what the stakes, or what the perception of the public at large. Here’s the deal: Back in April, Microsoft struck a deal with Samsung wherein Samsung would pay the software giant an undisclosed sum for every Samsung handset sold — get this — powered by the Android OS. That’s right, MS made it’s usual claims that Android (along with every company on the planet — regardless of what they produce) infringed upon patents held by Microsoft. Would they disclose the said infringed patents? Of course not. After all, it’s been Microsoft’s modus operandi for decades to obfuscate the real truth for fear of looking like a spoiled baby taking its toys and going home.

So there the public was (the public that cared about Samsung and Android) wondering what the sum and the patents were. Well, we now know that Samsung is to pay a whopping $15.00 per Android-based handset sold. Let’s do that math:

Samsung sold over 19 million Android-based handsets in the second quarter of 2011. At 15 smackers a pop, that equals $285 Million Dollars.

“The FUD gets a lot worse,” argues Jonathan Angel in Linux For Devices (eWEEK). Quoting the relevant parts: “As far as we’re aware, there has been no public explanation of what Microsoft patents Android devices infringe. Nor is it clear whether, ultimately, it will be possible for any manufacturer to create an Android devices without paying a tithe to Redmond.

“What we do know is that the FUD just got a lot worse. As we reported last week, Microsoft joined Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Research in Motion (RIM), and Sony in a consortium termed Rockstar Bidco LP — which successfully gained more than 6,000 Nortel Networks patents and patent applications at a bankruptcy auction. The $4.5 billion Rockstar bid beat out Google’s own, which could have purchased some protection for Android, by more than $1 billion.”

“Google’s Rivals Accused of Colluding Against Android,” says this headline from Forbes Magazine blogs:

The American Antitrust Institute is asking regulators to investigate Nortel’s patent sale, suggesting the winning bid to Google’s biggest rivals may imply collusion against Android.

The group calling itself Rockstar Bidco, which include Apple, Microsoft and Research in Motion, bought Nortel’s trove of patents for $4.5 billion, possibly the biggest intellectual property auction of all time. The sale immediately raised concern from antitrust advocates, since the members of the coalition, mainly Google’s rivals, may use the patents to attack Google’s Android operating system.

Some lesser-known blogger from CNET did the right thing for a change by going with a more pacifying title, “Android users: Don’t fret over Google’s fee battles” (that’s a defence in principle).

Handset makers using the Google Android mobile operating system may be slapped with additional licensing fees if Oracle and Microsoft have their way. But what might that mean for the average cell phone consumer? Would the price of Android devices go up?

It’s not likely, say experts. There are several reasons to think that legal victories from Oracle or Microsoft would do little to move the needle in terms of pricing for consumers. What’s more, whatever additional costs might be added to the phone would likely be offset by savings elsewhere, still guaranteeing that handset makers generate decent margins on these products as the cost of making them also goes down.

There is no reason to assume increased costs just yet. We wrote about this yesterday. It’s part of the FUD campaign which Android foes like Microsoft are coordinating.

Chris DiBona from Google gave a good interview yesterday and he is widely quoted for saying that Android is a realisation of the Linux dream ([1]-[3] below). Google has in fact just released some GPL-licensed code for the latest Android version, although not all of it ([4]-[5] below). We really ought to defend Android and also attack software patents, which Microsoft and Apple will increasingly try to use against Linux because it’s the only weapon these gorillas have left, except marketing and FUD. If we manage to defeat software patents, hopefully with Google’s support, Linux will definitely win. We gave DiBona’s address (cdibona@google.com) hoping that people can write to him politely as he usually replies to E-mails. Let’s hope that idiotic press releases like this new one which says “[w]e recently filed an exciting new software patent” will come to an end. The US economy has enough problems even without the patent cartels. Every patent filed only makes matters worse, although not to those who see the cartels as inclusive and ignore the externalities. Google must fight those cartels, not find a way to buy a membership (with massive patent acquisitions). █

  1. Google: “Android is the Linux desktop dream come true”

    Chris DiBona, Googles Open Source Boss talks about the role of Linux inside the company and why Chrome and Android use so fundamentally different release models

    Right from the start Open Source has been playing an important role at Google. Nowadays it’s used nearly “everywhere” inside the company. From server to the engineering desktops and smartphones as Chris diBona, Googles “Open Source Manager” points out in an interview with derStandard.at. He goes on to talk about Android as the “Linux desktop dream come true” and explains why the release model of Chrome and Android are so fundamentally different.

  2. Google Open Source Manager: Android Is The Linux Dream Come True

    With half a million Android devices being activated everyday, there is no doubt that Android is one of the most popular operating systems today. Not many users realizes this but Android is based on Linux.

    Android is without any doubt the most popular Linux-based operating system in the world. In an interview with German website derStandard.at, Chris DiBona, who is the Open Source Manager at Google, has said that Android is the Linux dream come true.

  3. Google’s Open Source Chief Talks Shop in Interview
  4. GPL source code for Android 3.2 available in AOSP
  5. Google is not releasing all the source code for the latest version of the operating system

    Google is not releasing all the source code for the latest version of the operating system.

Microsoft Gives Money to EU Politicians, Gets Supporters for Software Patents

Posted in Europe, Microsoft, Patents at 2:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Poland the way Microsoft likes it

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office Polish version

Summary: Poland’s presidency is yet another presidency which Microsoft gives money before it becomes a booster of policies that usher in software patents

TECHRIGHTS wrote a lot about Poland in relation to Microsoft’s OOXML-related corruption [1, 2, 3] and also in relation to alleged racism at Microsoft's Polish component which conveniently masquerades as not American (good for lobbying and tax reasons). A few days ago we noted that the Polish Presidency started lobbying for a back door which would facilitate software patents in Europe and now we discover, thanks to the president of the FFII (Benjamin Henrion), that the “Polish Presidency is sponsored by Microsoft”. The evidence is in this page which explains:

By virtue of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of June 23, 2009 r. no. 113/2009, a long-term programme entitled “Preparation for and holding of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2011″ was adopted.
The programme aims at providing financing for the years 2010–2012, which includes the preparation for and holding of the Presidency of the Council of the EU by Poland in the second half of 2011.

Why does a European government need to receive money from a corrupt company in another country? This makes no sense whatsoever and we found that the same thing happened in the Czech Republic's presidency, which lobbied for the same suicidal policies after it had received money from Microsoft.

In other related news, explains Henrion:

Spain and Italy did not raised the language discrimination issue in their ECJ complaint. I doubt that they will succeed without that.

Watch what happens to the phone giant from Finland

Helferich Patent Licensing has sued Nokia in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for patent infringement. Helferich Patent Licensing has alleged that Nokia is infringing on 7 patents of Helferich Patent Licensing in the domain of push messaging and user interfaces.

Helferich Patent Licensing’s patent portfolio, comprising 25 US patents and 10 pending US applications, mainly relate to mobile wireless communication devices and delivery of content and media to such communication devices. Helferich Patent Licensing has asserted that Nokia’s devices, specifically, N8, X6, E72, E73, 2320, 5800 and 6350 are infringing on the following 7 patents assigned to Helferich Patent Licensing…

Here in the UK it has been mostly quiet on the patent front, but Dr. Glyn Moody warns about this MPs debate, noting that in the absence of studies like Bessen's very recent one, the claims regarding so-called ‘IP’ are based “*not* [on] evidence unless it’s backed up by reliable methodology & data: industry figures never are” (IDC is among those who work with the BSA to generate bogus numbers). █

Ken Muir (Vice President) Leaves Novell

Posted in Mail, Novell at 1:36 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Leaving Novell in droves

Busy people

Summary: Ken Muir moves from Novell to GWAVA where he will serve as CEO And CTO

THE OTHER day we asked readers whether we should leave Boycott Novell aside while dealing with more important and pressing issues (mostly software patents). Well, although Linux Today chose this article for its front page, we have not received sufficient feedback on it, except from Steve Stites who wrote:

We are nearly finished

Roy Schestowitz has put the most time and effort of anybody into the effort to break the Microsoft-Novell agreement so he is the most likely voice to declare the boycott Novell movement finished. My thoughts on the status of the boycott are:

When Attachmate killed the Mono project that removed one of our two principle problems with Novell. Mono is a dead issue.

Our other principle problem with Novell is the Microsoft-Novell agreement, especially as it dealt with software patents. Attachmate has issued a general statement that they would honor all of the Novell commitments so that agreement is still in force and still applies to software distributed by SuSE. I think that we should continue the boycott until SuSE issues an acceptable statement that they are no longer bound by the terms of the Microsoft-Novell agreement, especially the terms relating to software patents.

All of the bad things that have happened to Novell, Ron Hovsepian, and the others are merely collateral damage to the boycott (and in all honesty the boycott was only one of several factors that brought Novell down). We would have been quite satisfied with killing Mono and destroying the Microsoft-Novell agreement without any personnel changes at Novell or monetary punishment for Novell.

I think that we should continue the boycott, marking time so to speak, until SuSE issues an acceptable statement that they are no longer bound by the terms of the Microsoft-Novell agreement, especially the terms relating to software patents. But yes, we have won and we are only marking time until SuSE figures out a way to get rid of the Microsoft-Novell agreement.

While Novell is still around and amid transformation (there is still emission of new adverts in YouTube) we will keep track of its staff, for example Ken Muir who has just become CEO And CTO of GWAVA. Any future for Groupwise at all? Not based on Attachmate’s actions thus far. The press release says that “Muir, 41, a former Novell executive, most recently served as CTO and Vice President of Novell’s Collaboration business where he was instrumental in building Novell’s collaboration strategy and products. Prior positions include Chief of Staff to the CEO and various engineering and product management leadership positions. Muir has over 15 years experience in the software industry ranging from engineering and development to product strategy and technology management. He brings to GWAVA strong executive leadership and extensive knowledge of enterprise messaging systems, security and compliance.”

It sure seems like The Register got its news 2 months late regarding layoffs at Novell. For those who wonder about SUSE, the OpenSUSE Conference is being handled almost single-handedly by Jos Poortvliet, based on whoever almost always blogs. The other bits of news arrive from the very few volunteers who are left. Quoting Poortvliet:

Over the last month the conference team has received a large number of proposed sessions for the openSUSE conference. However, we also realize we have not entirely capitalized on the potential for especially the ‘interactive’ sessions we wanted. So we extend the deadline with two weeks to allow more BoF, Workshop and Hack sessions to be submitted. And we’ll release some more articles to explain what we want!

OpenSUSE sought funding for this event from some unexpected sources. Will it work out? █

07.12.11

Links 12/7/2011: Pardus 2011 Released, New President of Executive Board at Mandriva, Firefox 8 Previews

Posted in News Roundup at 5:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 155
  • The Linux Setup – Lateef Alabi-Oki, Scribes text editor

    My name is Lateef Alabi-Oki. I’m a software developer, IT consultant and computer technician. I’m modestly known in the Free Software community as the maintainer of Scribes, the esoteric, unconventional, unorthodox text editor for Linux and Unix-like systems. I also maintain less popular projects like Striim (the Internet Radio Player), Germinal (the terminal emulator designed to be used with a terminal multiplexer like Tmux), gomodoro (a pomodoro timer) among others.

  • 13 fun Android apps for Linux/Unix fans!
  • My favorite Linux.

    Soon the task of re-installing and re-installing Windows got so frustrating I decided to get rid of Windows altogether and install Linux in its place. So began my search for a Linux distribution that works with my old hardware and my wireless card, and I have tried plenty of distributions with no luck. I tried Ubuntu, Fedora, FreeBSD, Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, and a bunch of others. They were either too demanding on my resources or didn’t work well with my wireless card.
    After some more searching I have finally found a nice flavor of Linux that’s perfect for my needs, and it’s the one I’m using right now.

  • Desktop

    • ‘Satchbook’ is a powerful, but pricey, Ubuntu laptop

      With a 15.6″ screen, a dual-core i5 processor and 8GB of DDR3 RAM German company Rockiger‘s Satchbook might read like a MacBook Pro, but it comes with Ubuntu preinstalled.

    • Commodore 64’s revival

      It can run also on Windows 7, even though it has the base of Ubuntu.

    • The Linux Desktop: We’ve Arrived.

      Linux Desktop articles are all over the place. I can hardly open up a browser without tripping over one. Most of them are negative whine-fests, complaining that Linux is too hard for new users, or has become too dumbed-down for technical users, or the fonts are ugly, or the next generation desktop environments are too different, or… well I could go on, but I think you get the point. So today, I feel like whining about the whiners. Give em’ some of their own medicine, and bring something a bit different to the table: A positive viewpoint on the state of the Linux Desktop. Don’t look so shocked, just keep reading.

      We have what we need folks! The Linux Desktop has arrived. The solid foundation of GNU’s tools and the Linux kernel; topped with many desktop environment choices and all the wonderful Linux desktop applications has got us there. Due to the hard work of the entire Linux developer community there is now a viable, open, free, full desktop computing alternative for those who seek it out. There are user friendly distributions out there for non-techies, and highly technical ones for those who prefer to build a custom desktop experience. Available in your favorite distribution’s repositories are three modern and beautiful desktop environments to choose from. Ubuntu’s Unity is becoming more polished and user friendly. KDE is mature and highly configurable. And Gnome 3 takes the minimal, “get out of my way so I can get stuff done” desktop philosophy to new heights. For those that prefer more classic desktop experiences there is the fast, stable, fully featured xfce4; and the super-fast lxde desktop. For the nerdiest of the nerds there are multitudes of fully configurable window managers out there; from tiling powerhouses like Xmonad, to flexible floating window managers like Openbox. Linux users have never had more choice and quality available for their desktops.

  • Server

    • IBM heaves new System z minis at mainframe shops

      In the hope of continuing the System z upgrade boom that started last summer, Big Blue has rounded out its lineup with a midrange – what IBM calls “Business Class” – mainframe, the System zEnterprise 114.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • AMD Pushes gDEBugger Away From Linux, Mac OS X

      gDEBugger, a program developed by Graphic Remedy for debugging, profiling, and analyzing OpenGL (and OpenCL) applications, was a very useful tool for graphics developer. gDEBugger worked with GPUs from all major vendors, is capable of locating graphics pipeline performance bottlenecks, allowed dynamically editing GLSL shaders in real-time, and had many other capabilities. This powerful utility was even made free of charge to Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux users. Graphic Remedy was acquired by AMD last month and already the non-Windows users have been shafted with their OS support being dropped.

    • Visualizing Linux Performance Data In New Ways

      One of the items I’ve been working on recently for Phoronix Test Suite 3.4-Lillesand is new ways to visualize performance result data generated by the many test profiles and suites available via OpenBenchmarking.org. Here’s one of the new ways that was committed over the weekend to the Lillesand Git code-base.

    • Graphics Stack

      • Mesa Gets OpenGL 3.0 Floating-Point Depth Buffers
      • XreaL Is Still Around, But Without Any Release

        XreaL, the heavily modified Quake 3 game engine that its developer says is the most advanced open-source game engine, is still in-development even without an official release for this project that’s been around for years.

        Back in 2009 when we first featured XreaL, the graphics were incredibly impressive with many advancements made to the ioquake3 engine not found in other incarnations of the game. The feature-set was incredible. Back then the attempt was to turn XreaL into a full-fledged game, but the artists and engine developer parted ways and it turned into more of an effort just to make the best game engine possible.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Prettyfying Your LXDE

      LXDE, the Lightweight X11 desktop environment, has gained quite a following over recent years seemingly coming from nowhere, and many distribution spins are now using it for their user interface. This is really a follow-up to my previous post about beautyfying Xfce. Because both are using gtk+ the same themes will work and the same engines are needed to make them look as intended.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Amarok vs. iTunes

        In my old company long standing employees get an iPod when they leave. I’m happy with my Sansa Clip+, but since my wife wanted one I was very ok with that. Since it’s currently not possible to set up an iPod Nano (6th gen) with Amarok as I was told on IRC I finally installed iTunes. And I must say I was impressed.

      • KDE Commit-Digest for 3rd July 2011
      • Process Photos with digiKam’s Batch Queue Manager and a Bash Script

        One of digiKam’s lesser known features is the ability to link scripts to notifications. At first sight, this may seem like a rather obscure functionality, but it can be put to some clever uses. Say, you want to keep a portfolio of selected photos on a mobile device. Resizing multiple photos to a specified size to make it easier to view them on the mobile device and transferring the processed photos from digiKam to the mobile device manually is not very practical. And this is where the ability to trigger scripts via notifications can come in handy. You can attach a simple Bash script to the Batch queue completed notification, so it’s triggered automatically when the Batch Queue Manager tool is done processing photos.

      • rekonq, 1 feature a week. #1

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GDM3Setup: GUI To Change GDM3 Wallpaper, Theme, Logo And More

        Last week we’ve posted about changing the GNOME 3 login screen background / GTK3 theme via command line but if you want to use a GUI for this, you’ll be glad to know that one already exists: GDM3Setup.

        GDM3Setup is a simple GUI tool to tweak GDM3 (GNOME3 login screen). Using it, you can change the following GDM3 settings: wallpaper, GTK3 theme, icon theme, logo, disable the login screen user list or restart buttons.

      • drwright: GNOME-native typing breaks in GNOME 3
      • XpGnome

        At our latest Linux Users Group meeting, I was given a copy of the May 2011 issue of Linux Format magazine. In the midst of an article about convincing Windows users to switch to Linux, was a sidebar about XpGnome. It’s a script that customizes the Gnome desktop to make it look like Windows XP.

  • Distributions

    • Damn Small Linux: Still Damn Fun

      I’ve described how to refurbish mature computers in several articles. The emphasis has been on machines in the four to ten year old range — Pentium IV’s, D’s, M’s, III’s and Celerons. But what if you have a really old computer, like a Pentium II, I, or even a 486? Can you use it for anything worthwhile? A vintage distro named Damn Small Linux answers “yes.” This article describes DSL and tells how to make 1990′s computers useful again. Screenshots follow the article.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • PCLinuxOS Review: What Does PCLinuxOS Have to Offer?

        In the quest to find the perfect Linux distribution, we often hit an obstacle that makes the grass look greener on another distro’s lawn. When we reach that point, the first instinct is to turn to another distribution and hope that something fresh will also be something better. This time around, I decided to see if PCLinuxOS was indeed greener.

        Time and time again, I have learned that something new is not always something better. Take Ubuntu’s switch to a new desktop shell with Unity in Ubuntu 11.04. This switch has left a number of Ubuntu users pondering other distributions in search of more familiar territory.

      • Mandriva, at the heart of the CompatibleOne project

        The realm of remote, scalable and automated computing, also known as Cloud Computing, is currently progressing at a very fast pace.

        CompatibleOne is a research project, under the aegis of the two competitiveness clusters System@tic and SCS, aiming at facilitating the deployment, the configuration and the administration of public, private or hybrid Clouds using open standards and interoperable open-source technologies.

      • New President of Executive Board

        Dominique Loucougain will replace Arnaud Laprévote in the position of President of Executive Board (Directoire) for Mandriva France.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat clone CentOS 6.0 arrives late, but with security updates
      • CentOS 6.0 Release Notes
      • Release for CentOS-6.0 i386 and x86_64

        We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of CentOS-6.0 for i386 and x86_64 Architectures.

      • At Long Last, CentOS 6.0 ISOs Finally Surface
      • CentOS 6.0 Released, It’s Based on RHEL 6.0

        The CentOS development team, through Karanbir Singh, proudly announced last evening, July 10th, the immediate availability for download of the CentOS 6.0 operating system.

        The new CentOS 6.0 operating system is based on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.0 distribution, and it brings all the features that are present in the RHEL distro, with which is 100% binary compatible.

      • A Changing Web Culture Fits With Red Hat

        Jim Whitehurst sees user collaboration as the wave of the future, not only for technology companies but for the business world at large.

        His company’s business model is built on it: He’s chief executive and president of Red Hat Inc., the only publicly traded open-source software company. With open-source software, users in addition to vendors make changes and share them. Red Hat provides technology consulting and sells services and updates for its core product, the Linux operating system.

      • Scientific Linux 5.6 Live released

        Just over two weeks after the official release of Scientific Linux 5.6, the Scientific Linux (SL) developers have announced the arrival of the LiveCD and LiveDVD variants of version 5.6 of their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone. The LiveCD/DVD versions allow users to run the distribution directly from a CD or DVD drive without having to install it. Alternatively, it can also be installed to the local hard disk or users can run the LiveCD image from a USB flash drive.

      • Fedora

        • Podcast: Igor Pires Soares – Fedora Project
        • Well balanced Red Hat sits easily in the region

          AUSTRALIA continued to be an important engineering base for Linux provider Red Hat despite the strong dollar.

          Global chief executive Jim Whitehurst said it was committed to its Brisbane engineering hub that serves a global market and employs about 150 people.

          Australia is the second-largest market for Red Hat after Japan in Asia-Pacific, considered the company’s fastest-growing region.

          In recent months, security software firm Symantec was forced to close its enterprise research unit, citing the currency factor, but Mr Whitehurst said Red Hat was not in the same boat.

        • Fedora 15 Configuration Series: A Review Of Ailurus

          Ailurus is a great little program to add on to a fresh installation of Fedora 15. I would compare it to something along the lines of Ubuntu Tweak, in which the user is presented with a set of clean up tasks, system information, a package manager, and even a good solid set of repositories to choose from. I only wish I had found it a little earlier than I did as it would have made adding the initial repositories a breeze when I first installed Fedora 15.

    • Debian Family

      • Linux Mint 11 KDE to Based on Debian, Maybe

        Linux Mint 11 GNOME was released nearly two months ago. Some of us have been waiting for the KDE version to test (and possibly use) and wonder where it is. Today a blog post by Clem gives a clue.

      • Derivatives

        • SimplyMEPIS 11.0 review – Spartan, but ok

          Compared to MEPIS 8.0, the 11th release by number is somewhat better, but I can’t say how much of that is technology and how much actual progress in the mindset and the execution. In its current form, MEPIS deserves around 7/10, maybe 8/10, but not more. Its huge potential is still waiting to be unleashed, but it won’t happen in this release.

        • Everything’s Fine…Shall I Try an Update?

          While several of my colleagues and students are having a great time fighting viruses and malware or trying to get their mainstream, highly-reputed systems to work again, both my mutant penta-boot netbook and my grotesque hepta-boot desktop have been working fine. Thus, more out of boredom than for any other reason, I decided to check for and install their corresponding updates. Since it had been a few months since my last update, I thought things could get complicated and thus I could join my colleagues’ frustration…let’s see:

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Growing Pains

            Ubuntu over the years has grown to be easier and easier, so easy that I would probably put anyone on it now days. Unfortunately for me as Ubuntu has grown easier I have grown softer. And I never realized how much Ubuntu had moved away from the standard Linux installation because the changes were implemented so slowly. A new installer here, some new GUI configuration tools there. Gradually I was point and clicking more than I was using CLI.

          • Moving away from Ubuntu

            I decided to abandon Ubuntu on my home desktop after the upgrade to 11.04 Natty Narwhal. I knew there were some things that I couldn’t like, but I didn’t know it would cripple the very base of the operating system. These are the things that went bad:

            * The upgrade finished with obscure errors.
            * can’t log in graphically without safe mode.
            * system console (CTRL+ALT+F1 etc.) appears as a white background and unreadable characters.
            * packages have been left in an unclean state.

          • Ubuntu 11.10: Screenshot preview

            Ubuntu 11.10 Alpha 2 was recently released for the brave and adventuresome to test. I did not do much of a testing, but ran the system in a virtual environment to see what it looks like. Aside from the kernel, there is really no major change, as far as I could tell, from the last stable release, which is Ubuntu 11.04. (See Ubuntu 11.04 review.)

          • UbuntuDeveloperWeek

            Welcome to the Ubuntu Developer Week! We will have one week of action-packed sessions from July 11th 2011 to July 15th 2011!

          • Canonical Copyright Assignment

            Ted Gould’s debate with Bradley Kuhn and others about the Canonical Copyright Assignment Agreement (CAA) is quite illustrative and one of Ted’s remarks provides a good launching pad for me to express why I find the CAA so objectionable.

          • QA Community Coordinator Required

            I am looking to hire a new member for my team (the Community Team) here at Canonical. I am looking for a bright, motivated, and experienced person to build, maintain and develop a cohesive, productive and effective Ubuntu QA community.

            This role will be full-time working at Canonical, you will be working from home with regular travel to various events (such as UDS and team sprints), and you will be working in a fast-paced, productive, and energetic environment. This is a really exciting role that is designed to bring huge value to the Ubuntu community in the area of quality by refining, optimizing, and growing our QA community participation.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot Alpha 2 Released, Overview and Screenshots
          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 223
          • Using Ubuntu on the Desktop
          • Scrollbar Updates in Ubuntu, and Why They Matter

            If you’ve used Ubuntu’s Unity interface, which (for better or worse, depending on whom you ask) became the default with the appearance of Ubuntu 11.04 last April, you probably noticed that the scroll bars in most windows looked different. Departing from the decades-old paradigm that most computer users have known for decades, Ubuntu now compacts scrollbars into a smaller unit intended to be more functional.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Bodhi Linux… Ubuntu might have a competitor

              Bodhi Linux is yet another attempt to convince users that you don’t have to pay 54£ (Windows 7 Home Premium) in order to use your computer for basic tasks like writing emails and browsing the Internet. Based on the ever-so-popular Ubuntu Linux, Bodhi pushes the boundaries a bit further in ease of use, resources required and “ohhhh prettyyy” factor.

              On thing I would like to mention about Bodhi, before starting the actual review, is their website: http://www.bodhilinux.com/. It’s not often that a Linux distro (especially an “indie” one like this one) has such a well rounded and useful website. Their QuickStart section is more than useful if you’ve never used Linux before. Check it out here: http://www.bodhilinux.com/quickstart/quickstartEN/.

              [...]

              I’m quite impressed by this distro, it’s pretty, it’s fast, it’s light, I… I just can’t find a fault…

            • Trying Kubuntu 11.04

              At the end of the week, I find myself in agreement with the people who told me that Kubuntu, in avoiding the innovation of Ubuntu, had created a solid desktop experience.

            • Linux Mint 10 screen capture tour

              Linux Mint 10 (Julia) was released Nov 12, 2010 which feels like eons ago in Linux land. But hey I wanna play around with it before I jump to Linux Mint 11.

              Overall feel is good, installation was uneventful. The interface is pretty clean and well structured. This is what I like best with Mint. Anyway, this is old news but would like to keep a log of how the installation screen looks like. Below are the screen captures.

            • Is Linux Mint a Better Choice than Ubuntu?

              For many advanced Linux enthusiasts reading this, I doubt that any recent changes to the Ubuntu desktop swayed you very much. Most of you already have had plenty of time to select alternative distros — from Fedora to Arch Linux — should you decide you want to.

              Each distribution has its own set of advantages and differences. But for those people who cannot bear to part with some features that are considered to be unique to Ubuntu, Linux Mint might be a viable option to look into.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • WebOS products do not run that other OS

      I was looking for information on what products HP is releasing with WebOS and found this at the foot of a page about printers:
      “WebOS products do not run Windows”. In a world where many OEMs “Recommend” that other OS, that is really strange wording. It could be a way to assert branding:

      * WebOS is not that other OS

      What a warped world we live in that things like that have to be communicated…

    • Phones

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source as a differentiator?

    What is an “open source company”? What is the real differentiation element introduced by Open Source? These and more questions were introduced by a great post by Matthew Aslett (if you don’t follow him, go and follow now. I’ll wait. Yes, do it. You will thank me later.), called “The decline of open source as an identifying differentiator“. It is an excellent analysis of how companies mostly stopped using the term “open source” in their marketing materials, and has a follow up (here) that provides a summary of the main responses by other analysts and observers.

  • FOSS and the Freeloader Factor
  • In Giving Back, Brazil Sets a Good Open Source Example

    Recently, we’ve covered the many debates going on surrounding whether organizations that use open source software are properly giving back to the development communities that they benefit from. According to some observers, the disparity between using and contributing doesn’t matter, while others feel strongly that organizations that use open source software should help develop it or invest in development. On this topic, Simon Phipps has an interesting post up on the Brazilian government’s decision to invest in OpenOffice and LibreOffice, based on its usage.

  • Why a Devout Capitalist Loves Free Software

    When I first began using Linux as my primary operating system, I did so to try to solve some problems I was having with Microsoft Windows. My computer had begun to feel like it was not under my control. Updates were being downloaded and installed during inopportune times and they were requiring me to completely shut down my computer nearly every time, or nagging me to do it anyway. I was running anti-virus software that was buggy and bloated and slowing down my computer. In order to maintain all of the recent security updates, I had to literally hand over the contents of my hard drive to Microsoft on a regular basis to prove that I had not hacked Windows (Windows Genuine Advantage). My music, videos and even the font files on my computer were told what they could do by Microsoft’s DRM efforts. Being a lover of liberty and a bit of a security freak, I was rubbed the wrong way with many of the issues that Microsoft had taught me I just had to live with.

  • The responsibility in open source

    I’ve written before about the genuine renaissance open source software represents and the vast implications that openness provides. I’ve admitted that computer science, based on its relative unwillingness to share great ideas, has lagged behind other hard sciences in its understanding of how and where value is created.

    I’ve also written about the principles of open source software and how the mere gifting of source code, while important, does not actually generate the majority of value for the community. Instead, the real value comes from adhering to the principles of open source–transparency, participation and collaboration–and I’ve tried to evangelize this is the real method upon which commercial open source companies help create success.

  • FOSS vs Proprietary – Who cares about ‘The War’

    Free software and open standards have always been a point of debate for the confusing line between hardcore tech world and the whole other world of users. However, very recently, tech pundits have beaten a retreat on the issue, claiming that free software and open standards do not really matter much. This can only be understood better if one understands the factors that have always been taken in to account in the face off between free and proprietary software or open and close standard hardware.

  • XBRL Group Offers Cash Prize for Open-source Tools

    A U.S. nonprofit consortium is hoping the prospect of a US$20,000 cash prize will help spur the creation of open-source software tools companies can use to work with the XBRL (Extensible Business Reporting Language) standard for financial reporting.

  • Mozilla

  • Databases

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • VirtualBox 4.1 Beta 2 gains PCI passthrough support

      The VirtualBox development team has released a second beta of version 4.1.0 of its open source desktop virtualisation application for x86 hardware. The latest development preview brings a number of changes over the previous beta, including fixes to the experimental WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) graphics driver support for Windows guests that was added in Beta 1.

  • CMS

    • Twitter Selects Acquia and Drupal to Power Developer Community Website

      Acquia, the leading provider of commercial solutions for Drupal, announced today that Twitter selected a Drupal-based community solution for its new Twitter developer website at dev.twitter.com. The site, which was developed with support and guidance from Acquia, launched today.

    • Twitter using Drupal

      Starting today, Twitter’s developer community lives and breathes on Drupal! Check it out at http://dev.twitter.com.

      This is a big deal for Drupal — it’s not every day that one of the hottest technology start-ups switches one of its sites to Drupal. At Acquia, we have been working with Twitter on this site but couldn’t talk about it for the longest time. I’m glad we finally can because it’s a great use case for Drupal.

      Twitter has 750,000 developers who have created nearly a million apps, making 13 billion API calls per day. Those are some astonishing figures! A population that big requires a lot, as we in the Drupal community know.

    • Ten Content Management Systems for Photo Galleries

      When it comes to sharing your images on your website in the form of a web gallery, the CMS options for managing the same are many. Whether you wish to create an online portfolio, or simply want to share some photos, choosing the ideal CMS for your web gallery goes a long way in effectively managing the gallery! In this article, we bring to you some of the best known CMS options for web gallery management.

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Publication: Guide to Open Source Software

      The Guide to Open Source Software for Australian Government Agencies, Version 2.0 has now been revised and finalised following the public feedback.

    • Open Source In the Bavarian Government of Munich, Germany: Interview

      Anton Borisov interviews Oliver Altehage, Change Manager for LiMux-Project to understand the options and deployment of GNU/Linux and open source in the Bavarian Government of Munich, Germany.

      Anton: Oliver, the City of Munich is famous for its open-source initiative, when Microsoft products must be substituted to Linux and open-sourced applications. Could you please shed some light on this idea, because I know it has original roots in 2000′s.
      Oliver: That is true. First idea was created in 2001, first concept appeared in 2002. Decision for migration of the city parliament was taken in 2004, and migration itself was started in November 2006.

  • Licensing

    • The trouble with Harmony: Part 2

      In opting to follow the maximalist model of contributor agreements, Harmony inherits, and thereby legitimizes, all of that model’s problems. There is growing awareness that the maximalist approach can impair the effectiveness of the open source community development model, creating unnecessary barriers to contribution. Rather than attempting to address those problems, Harmony merely hides them in attractive packaging.

  • Programming

  • Standards/Consortia

    • From C++ to HTML5: Opera ports game with web standards

      Even before the introduction of the WebGL standard for rendering 3D graphics in a browser, it was already clear that a browser can be a suitable platform for graphically complex games. To demonstrate the browser’s potential capability in this arena, Mozilla has released the Flight of the Navigator demo and the Opera developers are working on a technology preview of what they think can be achieved. The question though is what is practically possible now if, say, an entire game were to be implemented using currently available web standards. Now, an Opera developer can answer that question.

    • Leftovers

    • Unix still data center darling, says survey

      Unix systems may not be all the rage that they were two decades ago, but in nearly eight out of 10 data centers based on them, their use is either holding steady or increasing.

      That’s the assessment of a recent survey of the HP, IBM, and Oracle Unix customer bases by Gabriel Consulting Group, which has just finished up its fifth annual slicing and dicing of Unix customer sentiments.

      Unix systems have successfully colonized their neighborhoods in the data centers of the world, and are resisting the onslaught of Windows and Linux on those systems’ relatively inexpensive x64 iron. The Unix colonists are also resisting all of the marketing muscle and money that is dedicated to evicting them.

    • Health/Nutrition

      • For-Profit Health Insurance: Where the Real Death Panels Lie

        On behalf of Grigor and Hilda Sarkisyan, I would like to invite Republican Rep. Phil Gingrey of Georgia to attend the 21st birthday celebration of the Sarkisyans’ only daughter, Nataline, this coming Saturday, July 9, in Calabasas, California.

        Gingrey could consider it a legitimate, reimbursable fact-finding mission. He clearly needs to have more facts about the U.S. health care system before he starts talking about death panels again.

        Gingrey seems determined to keep alive the lie that the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a., Obamacare) will create government-run death panels in the Medicare program.

    • Finance

      • Goldman Shareholders Re-Elect Directors, Approve ‘Say-on-Pay’

        Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the fifth- biggest U.S. bank by assets, said shareholders re-elected the company’s directors and approved a compensation plan for top executives.

        Directors were re-elected with 90 percent of the vote and the pay awards for named executive officers were approved by 73 percent in a so-called say on pay vote, General Counsel Greg Palm said today at the New York-based bank’s shareholder meeting in Jersey City, New Jersey. None of the proposals submitted by shareholders was approved, Palm said.

      • 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.

    • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

      • Rupert Murdoch’s Big Newspaper Scandal

        Media mogul Rupert Murdoch moved quickly to shut down one of his oldest media holdings — a 168 year-old, best-selling weekly British tabloid newspaper called News of the World — amid charges that the paper’s journalists hacked into the telephones of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, murder victims and their families, and bribed police in exchange for information and tips. News of the World was Britain’s best-sellling Sunday newspaper. Its last issue will be this Sunday, and will not carry any commercial advertisements.

      • How Intrepid Netroots Activists Toppled Glenn Beck

        The campaign was a true netroots effort. An online petition sent to Beck’s advertisers was signed by 285,000 people, and the number of advertisers who responded by dropping their ads from Beck’s show exceeded 300.

        Just two months into the boycott, Color of Change announced that it was costing Fox News $600,000 per week. Fox remained in denial, and two months later, Fox’s Rupert Murdoch, recently involved in his own scandal for breaking into the cell phones of crime victims and dead service members, supported Beck by saying he was right when he made the offensive comments.

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