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Links 26/9/2011: IPCop 2.0.0, Asus Eee PC With MeeGo





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Server





  • Kernel Space

    • Facebook's Flashcache For The Linux Kernel
      Facebook has made many open-source contributions over the years from their high-performance PHP-To-C++ compiler, to parts of their infrastructure, to some of their development tools. One of their open-source projects they made public last year for increasing their database performance was Flashcache. Flashcache is a kernel module that provides a block cache for Linux with various caching modes.


    • Graphics Stack





  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments

    • REVIEW: Sabayon 6 (Xfce) and a look at my migration away from Gnome.
      It’s no secret that Gnome 3 (and Gnome-shell) are not being well received by everyone. Canonical is going with its Unity and for many other Gnome users, the future is Gnome-shell.

      KDE is/was never an option for me, I simply don’t like it. Over the last few years I’ve tried to get on with KDE, but found myself time and again going back to Gnome after only a very short period of time. Maybe that’s because when I migrated fully to a Linux desktop, I mostly used Gnome and have now become indoctrinated in working with it. Series 2 offered everything I wanted, it was simple, clean and familiar, however with its move to 3 series I find that it no longer has a place in my heart. Without repeating views which I’ve stated many times in the past, I will merely say that Gnome-Shell to me feels as if it should be on a smart phone, not a desktop form factor. My personal comfort zone in desktop computing is not having a “cushion” between myself and the OS (Gnome-shell). People may disagree, people may like Gnome-Shell. I do not.


    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME's Sandler: Is there a killer in the code?
        Is there a killer in the software code running millions of medical devices? GNOME Executive Director Karen Sandler, formerly of the Software Freedom Law Center, has been fighting to get this software opened up for inspection and review since she received her own implanted defibrillator in 2008. The FDA and Supreme Court have been no help. She recently shared her journey at OSCON 2011.


      • The Gnome 3 Meteor: Ready for impact
        It's been a long time since a desktop environment has caused so much controversy in the FOSS universe. How long? It is really hard to say, since the last time I can recall any kind of user backlash and retreat was over half a decade ago when the KDE project announced KDE 4.0. Alot of people relate the release of KDE 4 to the release of Gnome 3, drawing all sorts of wild parallels; but I say that these 2 releases could not be any more different. Now this article is not about KDE, but at the same time, a clear line in the sand must be drawn in order to explain what Gnome 3 really is.






  • Distributions

    • Who cares about users and distributions anyway?
      As distribution developer, some of our most important tasks are

      * making packages work together nicely * and selecting "stable" package version sets for a broader audience




    • New Releases

      • IPCop 2.0.0
      • IPCop's VPN and firewall Linux updated
        The newly released IPCop 2.0 Linux firewall distribution updates the kernel to version 2.6.32, adds hardware support for Cobalt, Sparc and PPC systems and includes a new installer that assists users with such tasks as setting up a network. The developers have also revised the user interface: for example, the system menu has a new scheduler for time-based actions, the web proxy menu includes more advanced settings, and the DHCP server menu has been simplified.




    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Millennial: Android Mobile Ad Impressions Up 48 Percent, iOS Remains Flat
        Mobile ad network Millennial Media, is releasing its monthly report which gives a view into how each OS, device and manufacturer is performing on one of the largest remaining independent ad networks in the world. In August, Millennial actually combined connected devices and smartphones when breaking out the OS impression share. That’s significant because iOS and Android share can include tablets into factoring presence on the network. And last month, Android was in the top spot with a 54% share, while iOS was in second with a 28% share. Rim followed with 13% share.




    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Grows Earnings by Upselling
        Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) is continuing to grow its revenues even in the midst of the current macroeconomic climate. Red Hat is growing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they're growing the number of deals worth more than $1 million.


      • Go RedHat!
        Those who say you cannot make money from FLOSS are ignoring RedHat which exceeded expectations handsomely. Investors are loving them.


      • ClearOS Enterprise 6.1.0 Beta 1 Released
        The ClearOS Enterprise 6.1.0 beta 1 release is here! This release will kickstart the process of creating a stable base system: installer, RPM packages, users, groups, system tools, LDAP, network, firewall, framework, and Marketplace. At the same time, we will start rolling out more apps like Web Proxy and Web Access Control found in this beta 1 release.


      • Red Hat Virtualization Alliance grows to 200 members




    • Debian Family





  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones

      • Samsung to open source Bada next year. Will they use Meego to do it?
        Companies that do have their own successful proprietary platforms are no it usually too eager to start giving them away in hopes that outside developers will make it better in exchange. Companies who’s platforms do fail to take off or get into trouble, on the other hand, sometime do try to turn to the open source community for help. Sometimes these efforts work and result in a successful product (e.g. Netscape Navigator turned Firefox), sometimes they end in disaster – e.g. Nokia’s Symbian experiment. However, even in Netscape case – it wasn’t the actual open sourced code, but the community created in the process that built Firefox browser from scratch, without much help from Netscape. And it took years of stale browser competition for Firefox to emerge, while Netscape’s corporate owner reaped very few benefits from open sourcing.


      • Android

        • High-end Korean phones feature Android 2.3, cool cameras
          Two high-end Android 2.3 smartphones were unveiled in Korea by HTC and LG this week. The HTC Raider 4G features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 4.5-inch IPS (in-plane switching) display, 4G LTE, and an eight-megapixel camera with a 28mm lens attachment, while the LG Optimus Q2 sports a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a slide-out keyboard, and a four-inch IPS display with 700-nit brightness.


        • Android, at a glance
          Java SDK is, perhaps, one of the most important advantages of Android which provides various powerful functions of Java programming language. However, many developers complain about Android's fast development pace that they have difficulties to catch up. But if we think more positively, this fast-paced transformation seems to have materialized Android to consolidate itself as the most popular mobile platform. On top of that this popularity has led to many patent suits with Microsoft, thus pressuring many carrier providers to inevitably pay patent fees who initially used the technology thinking it was free. Also Oracle’s patent suit against Google citing that Java cannot be used on mobile devices just because Android uses Java. For above reasons and more, the future path of Android might not seem as smooth as before, but we can’t say it will be gloomy either. I hope all these issues will be settled down, and Android will continue to prosper.


        • Calls for the ABC to shed Apple fixation
          Android smartphones now outsell Apple products in Australia, according to research firm Kantar WorldPanel. It says Android had 42.9per cent of the market last month compared with Apple's 37.2per cent.

          Open Source Industry Australia, a body that promotes free and public-domain software, urged the ABC yesterday to get over its Apple fixation.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Asus Eee PC X101 MeeGo netbook: First impressions of a $200 laptop
        The Asus Eee PC X101 is the thinnest, lightest, and cheapest member of the Eee PC netbook family. The mini-laptop weighs just two pounds, measures less than 0.7 inches thick, and sells for about $200.


      • ASUS Eee Pad Slider Lands in USA and Canada
        ase this amazing piece of hardware, then you can get it from NewEgg, Amazon and B&H. NewEgg is offering the tablet in both the 16GB and 32GB version but with only one color choice: brown. The ASUS main site shows that the Eee Pad also comes in white, but for some reason, it's not available on NewEgg. You can also check out the deals from Amazon and B&H. For all you Canadian residents, Amazon.ca is offering the tablet in both 16GB and 32GB flavors, but like NewEgg, the tablet is only available in brown.








Free Software/Open Source



  • Catalyst IT wins South China Morning Post contract
    Wellington open source software firm Catalyst IT has won a seven-figure contract to develop the news website and supporting systems for the South China Morning Post.


  • Sonatype Introduces Open-Source Governance Solution
    Sonatype delivers Sonatype Insight, a new solution for governing the use of open-source software in enterprise systems development.


  • Events

    • Software Freedom Day Organized at SMVDU by OSUM CLUB
      Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) today celebrated the event of 'Software Freedom Day' (SFD) in their university campus. The event was organized by OSUM (Open Source University Meet-Up) club of SMVDU. The event was sponsored by AGMATEL INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED and AMTRAK TECHNOLOGIES. Software Freedom Day is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).


    • 2011 Open Source Awards launched




  • SaaS

    • Puppet Enterprise 2.0 automates cloud, on-premise deployment
      Puppet Labs is moving forward new provisioning, orchestration and automation capabilities designed to advance the platform’s stellar reputation in the management arena.

      Puppet Enterprise 2.0, which debuted this week and ships October 21, is the first major upgrade of a company’s commercially supported version of Puppet that counts Google, Twitter, Apple, NYSE, Match.com, Red Hat and Citrix among its 250 enterprise customers.


    • A Wise User Judges Each Internet Usage Scenario Carefully
      If the term “Cloud Computing” has any meaning, it can only be a certain attitude towards computing: an attitude of not thinking carefully about what a proposed scenario entails or what risks it implies.


    • Open source cloud-builder respawn: Eucalyptus 3.0 looms
      Marten Mickos and Eucalyptus have pumped new life into their build-your-own–cloud platform, revamping its approach to open source while adding new code designed to protect users from catastrophic failures.




  • Databases

    • Open Core MySQL
      By truncating software freedom before distribution, the supplier ensures you can’t use the software without restriction or benefit from the freedom of others to do so. In other words, while there may be some open source software in its origins, it’s not open source software you are receiving.




  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



  • Business

    • Britain's got Talend for open source
      Open source software vendor Talend has cited the growth of its partner network as proof that the channel's appetite for non-proprietary products is growing.

      The vendor, which specialises in open source data integration products, claims to have doubled the size of its UK channel over the past 12 months and now has more than 50 partners signed up.




  • Project Releases

    • Smooth lighting
      The code can be optimized, but should give you a clear understanding on how to make smooth OpenGL lighting. And you can admire the stunning results with a mere basic material and one lamp!




  • Public Services/Government

    • Will the public sector ever be an open house?
      The minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, vowed in March that he would “create a level playing field for open source software” as part of his strategy to slash the government’s €£20bn annual bill for IT equipment.

      A recent BBC Freedom of Information request hinted at just how far the government has to go before open-source technologies are widely adopted by various government departments. Although some are using open source for server management and workspace IT, proprietary vendors such as IBM and Microsoft still rule the roost.


    • Sleman to Use Open Source Computer System
      The Sleman government will use a free open source operation system in its office computers




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Open Data

      • E.U. Sets 2013 Deadline for Open Source Public Data Mining Portal
        Sticking with her original deadline announced last year, European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told a European interoperability standards forum yesterday that a public portal for access to government and public data from across the continent is on track to go online in Spring 2012. Following that, the next stage in Comm. Kroes' agenda includes an ambitious project to launch a community-built, crowd-sourced public data platform for all of Europe.




    • Open Access/Content

      • Student group pushes open source textbooks at UC Irvine
        Mr. $200 Textbook -- the rival of cash-strapped college students -- and Textbook Rebel –a Spongebob Squarepants lookalike – helped gather students to sign a petition that urges professors, publishers and college decision makers to consider inexpensive textbooks or free e-books over conventional, high-priced textbooks.




    • Open Hardware

      • ARM-ed to the Teeth, Arduino Hardware Grows Up
        Makers and motherboard-modders rejoice! One of the most popular open-source computing hardware companies recently debuted new hardware offerings for gadget geeks, including a beefier project board that will allow makers and hobbyists to create more complicated embedded computing projects.

        Arduino announced three new products at Maker Faire NYC this weekend: The Arduino Due, which features a souped up ARM-based microcontroller, the Arduino Leonardo and the self-explanatory Arduino Wi-Fi.








Leftovers



  • Health/Nutrition

    • Walgreens' "Million Hearts" HealthWashing Ploy
      The chain's press release about the Initiative says heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death, respectively. What Walgreens doesn't say is that while it searches for ways to prevent heart disease, the chain also continues to sell one of the nation's leading causes of heart disease and stroke: cigarettes. Not only that, but when the city of San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2008 banning pharmacies from selling cigarettes (based on the logic that as health-promoting businesses, pharmacies should not promote smoking) Walgreens fought the measure.




  • Security



    • Making the EU cyber-safe
      The Internet is already essential infrastructure – where we make financial transactions, share personal data and get access to important information. It is part of our economic and social framework – and becoming all the more so. That’s a good thing. But it also means that the risks and impacts of cyber-attacks grow ever more. So what do we do when the system is under threat?






  • Finance

    • Occupy Wall Street Protesters Kettled and Pepper-Sprayed by NYPD [Video]
      This sort of First Amendment violation should be a cause for concern for every American, whatever the political persuasion. This is a country where gamblers can now pillage the wealth from the lower classes and dodge prison sentences, while those who see a wrong and try to stop it are corralled, pepper-sprayed and hauled off to jail for attempting to petition their government—their government—for a redress of grievances.

      Why don’t some of these blue-collar policemen do something for their own people and haul some Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers off to jail for a change?





  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Health Care Front Group Provides New Clothes for GOP Medicare Privatization Plan
      Last week, the insurance industry and its allies began what I predict will be a massive campaign to sell the public and policymakers on the idea of moving forward with the Ryan plan -- albeit with a few tweaks and new a new sales pitch to make it seem more consumer-friendly.

      An outfit called the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) announced in a press release a scheme that could be called Ryan-lite, but don't be fooled: the plan would -- to use a favorite industry term -- take us down the "slippery slope" toward a complete corporate takeover of the Medicare program. (Insurers and their allies for years have warned Americans that enacting sweeping health care reforms they don't like would lead us down the slippery slope toward socialism.)




  • Civil Rights

    • RespectMyNet: Name and Shame Operators' Attempts to Control the Net
      Civil society groups launched today an online platform to help citizens track Internet access restrictions imposed by telecom companies. This platform, RespectMyNet.eu, will present EU lawmakers with the evidence they keep denying: there is an urgent need to legislate against Net Neutrality violations, which harm fundamental freedoms as well as innovation and competition.






Recent Techrights' Posts

A radical proposal to keep your personal data safe, by Richard Stallman
"The surveillance imposed on us today is worse than in the Soviet Union. We need laws to stop this data being collected in the first place"
 
"Cloud Computing" Does Not Mean Safety
Fault tolerance is related to the notion of software freedom
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 21, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 21, 2025
The Fall of Windows: From Something to Nothing
Of course Microsoft will pretend everything is fine and "just trust the hey hi" (AI)
Sounds Like Fedora is Ready to Become Less of a Slave of Microsoft (GitHub)
This seems like a belated move in a positive direction
XBox is a Dead Microsoft Product in a Dying Industry
It's probable that another wave of XBox layoffs is just over the horizon (maybe even before month's end)
Progress on Techrights Site Search
Fun times
IBM's Bluewashing of Red Hat Means the Layoffs Are Silent, Barely Reported
Don't wait to hear about "Red Hat layoffs"
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Happy Disconnection, AWS Falling Apart, Closing of Gemlog Blue
Links for the day
Full Audio of Today's Richard Stallman Talk in the Technical University of Munich
Free/Libre software and freedom in the digital society
Microsoft XBox is Just Vapourware (Promises of Hardware That Doesn't Exist), Real Products Perish
just as developers lose interest in developing for XBox Microsoft is increasing the costs imposed upon them
Slopwatch: Fake Articles (Slop) in "Linux" Clothing in Google News (Noise)
all about what Google does
Links 21/10/2025: Even "Inventor of Vibe Coding" Rejects Vibe Coding, USPTO Experiments With Slop in Examination
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Talk Now Available for Viewing (Archived Copy, Not Live-streamed)
This recording is over 2 hours old
Links 21/10/2025: AWS-Induced Chaos and Social Control Media Curbs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/10/2025: Programming, StarGrid, Brand-New Palm OS Strategy Game in 2025, and Chatbot as Addiction Mechanisms
Links for the day
The African Lion and the American Cowards
Safaris exist for people to watch and enjoy animals
Amazon Web Shenanigans Perfectly Timed for Today's Talk by Richard Stallman
Maybe listen to him instead of looking for excuses to ridicule the messenger
Mission:Libre Has Taken Off (Project by Carmen Maris)
there will be a lot more to report on next month (after the event)
Techrights to Publish More EPO Leaks Next Week
We're meanwhile also doing lots of work on search, whose interface now looks better
Links 21/10/2025: 'The Lost Art' of Neon Signs and Twitter (X) to Enable Identity Theft (or Handle Theft) as a Service
Links for the day
Plagiarism With LLM Slop: Hindustan Times (HT Digital Streams Limited) Has Become a Slop Factory/Hub
What a disgrace
Next Week We Launch Search at Techrights
We're planning to launch it some time next week. Maybe Tuesday, maybe Thursday.
Talk by Richard Stallman Will be Live-streamed in Less Than 10 Hours
Happy hacking
"No Kings" in the Software World (GAFAM Should Not Exist, Either)
"No Kings" is a good slogan. Let's start by ridding ourselves of masters, not only those who reside in DC or visit DC
Every Morning
Bugs/edge cases combined with automation can spell disaster
Insane, Deliberately Dishonest, or Just Another Bigot?
very intellectually-dishonest human being
A Lot of Techrights is Built on Perl
Perl also runs the sister site
The Register MS Selling Slop for Microsoft (Vapourware, Ponzi Scheme, False Claims)
What will be left of The Register MS if it keeps repeating falsehoods and looking to profit from Ponzi schemes?
analytics.usa.gov Says Less Than 14% of Web Requests (to Government Sites) Come From Vista 11
Vista 11 was released more than 4 years ago!
People Who Attempt to Take Down Correct Information Need a Doctor a Day
“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” ― George Orwell
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 20, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, October 20, 2025
Vista 11 is Sinking While Microsoft is PIPing (Mass Layoffs But Silent Layoffs)
We're witnessing a shift in platform dominance
Richard Stallman is Having a Good Week Already (Stallman Was Right About 'Clown Computing')
That alone is worth bringing up in his talk
An Update About Soylent News, With Jan Rinok "Back in the Saddle"
Burnout or "near burnout" a possibility when having to curate abuse
When Prominent GNU/Linux Distros Are Run by Spies
What has Microsoft Canonical become?
More Publishers and Companies Nowadays Say "GNU/Linux", Not "Linux"
It's not to see InstallAware saying GNU/Linux this week
Google News is Now Promoting a Parasitic Slopfarm Called "findarticles.com", Where Plagiarism of "Linux" Articles is Rampant
Does Google even care about the slop epidemic? Google itself is a vendor of slop now (and it calls it "Gemini")
Gemini Links 20/10/2025: Pumpkin Carving, "Hey Hi", and Other Buzzwords
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Google News Promoting Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt (FUD)
What is the value of Google News if so many results in it are fake 'articles?
Rejecting 'Snoop-Phones' and Turning "Old" Phones (or Tablets) Into Freedom-Respecting Appliances
Paul Fernhout (pdfernhout.net) wrote back to Akira Urushibatathis this past weekend
Our Uptime This Year Was Better Than AWS (Also a Lot Cheaper)
We never used "the cloud"
Amazon Web Shenanigans
An ongoing, experimental endeavour
Death of Elias Diem: FSFE mailing list archives hidden
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 20/10/2025: Louvre Museum Reveals Weakness, About 7 Million Protest US Turning Into Oligarchy/Monarchy
Links for the day
They Should Have Listened to Techrights Over a Month Earlier (Xubuntu Site Compromised)
we reported this issue about 40 days earlier and nobody did anything about it
Richard Stallman to Give Another Talk Today in Bavaria (Bavarian Academy of Science)
Tomorrow at 6 PM he speaks in Munich
Apple is the Company of Dictators and Worse
Apple is just another greedy corporation in search of sweatshops and even pedophiles (especially the high-profile ones)
Counting Unhatched Eggs Is Not Counting Chickens
Everything here will persist as normal
Barry Kauler Explains That Puppy Linux and EasyOS Exclude Systemd to Keep Things Simple
Barry Kauler's Puppy Linux is in the community's hands. He now focuses on EasyOS and more.
The "Infinite Bread"
The biblical story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 has software parallels
Half a Year After Brian Fagioli Got Kicked Out of BetaNews for Slop He's Still Doing LLM Slop and Slop Images Targeting 'Linux' (Plagiarising Original Works)
If the Web gets polluted or flooded by slopfarms such as these, and Slashdot then sends traffic so these slopfarms (Slashdot probably doesn't do this intentionally), then real writers with real knowledge of GNU/Linux will lose the spark for publishing
In Many Cases and in Many Different Ways, Technology Became Less Durable and Less Reliable Over Time
The "modern" things are more complex. And complexity is a foe or reliability and repair-ability.
Microsoft's LinkedIn is Losing Money, Traffic, and Hope; Now It Wants to Sell Its Users' Lifeblood (and Data)
Let this be a reminder of what social control media really is about
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, October 19, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, October 19, 2025
Campaign of FUD Against Framework Laptops and GNU/Linux (Using Microsoft's Attack on Linux, 'Secure Boot')
Ritual Defamation Cult has turned its attention over to Framework
Microsoft Lunduke: Freedom of Speech Means Spreading What I Have to Say and Banning People I Disagree With
4Chan is one he aims for and he is siccing 4Chan trolls at people he doesn't like
Liberation From 'The Feed'
They rank things based on the editor's choice/ideology (he or she knows the sponsors, hence the masters)
Microsoft's Killing of Vista 10 Seems to Have Resulted in More Articles About GNU/Linux (But Also FUD)
We not only saw a rise in traffic, we also saw a remarkable rise in the number of articles