10.27.11

Links 27/10/2011: Chrome 15 is Out, Mozilla Sells Out to Microsoft

Posted in News Roundup at 9:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Frozen In One Place While Everything Moves Forward

He was basically telling me that I, or people in my age group, had become old, and stuck in one place. Not an insult either, but a clear fact. If you remember back when you were younger you should remember when things changed all the time in your life and you easily accepted it. Not just accepted it, enjoyed it and looked towards tomorrow for more. Sure, this isn’t everyone, but the majority.
Desktop
- Third Gen System 76 Lemur Laptop Goes on Sale
  
  The third generation model in Ubuntu-dedicated hardware company System 76′s Lemur Ultra laptop line is available to buy.
Kernel Space
- Inside the Linux kernel 3.0
  
  The new Linux 3.0 kernel in all its shiny awesomeness will be finding its way into your favourite distro any day now. So what does this major milestone release contain to justify the jump in version number?
- Yocto Project Introduces New Features
  
  The Yocto Project, a hosted project at The Linux Foundation, today announced the availability of Yocto Project Release 1.1, as well as a variety of one-year milestones for the project.
  
  The Linux Foundation today also announced it will become the host for the Embedded GNU C Library (EGLIBC), further broadening and strengthening a common set of tools for embedded Linux development.
- The Linux Foundation Announces Five New European Members
  
  The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that five Europe-based companies are joining the organization: AboveIT, Comarch, CSR, Symbio and Tieto.
- Industry Support for Long Term Support Initiative (LTSI)
- Long Term Stable Linux Kernel Initiative Announced
- Consumer Electronics Linux Initiative Starts
  
  Many people use Linux every day and never know it. Indeed, they’re often using Linux without even knowing they’re using a computing device. For years now, Linux has been the operating system of choice for Digital Video Recorders (DVR)s, DVD players, Smart TVs, Wi-Fi access points, GPS devices, and on and on. But, there’s never been a Linux kernel just for consumer electronics… until now.
- The Linux Foundation Announces Consumer Electronics Long Term Stable Kernel Initiative
- Linuxcon: Our world would collapse without Linux
  
  LINUXCON EUROPE began today with some interesting thoughts from Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation and Linux founder Linus Torvalds.
- Multi-Core Scaling Performance Of AMD’s Bulldozer
Applications
- Applications Are The Key
  
  Early on M$ worked hard to lock developers, ISVs, OEMs and consumers in to that other OS. The scheme worked well for more than a decade but is coming unravelled. Not only has growth of the platform frozen, there are now signs of shrinkage. SJVN points out that data from Download.com shows only 28% of downloads are software for that other OS. Also, the top downloads for that other OS are for anti-viral software, not productivity or entertainment items.
- Kino: An Easy-Does-It but Incomplete Video Editor
  
  Video editors out to make work-intensive, sophisticated compositions likely won’t be impressed with Kino. However, it is an easy-to-use choice for editors out to create something a little more basic. Kino, a GTK+-based non-linear digital video editor, has a range of formats that makes it a nearly ideal solution for video cam users.
- Proprietary
  - COGNEX : Vision Library now on Linux!
    
    Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ: CGNX), the world’s leading supplier of machine vision systems, has announced Linux support for the Cognex Vision Library (CVL), the world’s best-selling machine vision toolset. “This will open new markets for our products, so that machine builders using Linux platforms will have access to the same Cognex machine vision tools that have been available for years to our OEMs on Microsoft Windows®,” said Dr. Markku Jaaskelainen, Vice President and Business Unit Manager for Vision Software. “With Linux, they can obtain more predictable performance in critical machine control applications. It also offers them greater ability to manage operating system patches and upgrades for end customers who insist on Copy Exactly! procedures.”
  - Adobe Flash 11.2 Beta Brings New Linux Work
- Instructionals/Technical
Desktop Environments
- Some Attractive Wallpapers For Your Linux Desktop
  
  Here are a few great wallpapers available for download at GnomeLook.org. First and foremost is the debian chick, this gorgeous babe is the perfect addition to any desktop. Unfortunatelty those curves may cause you to miss a project deadline or two.
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
  - KDE Password And User Account Settings
  - Calligra 2.4 Beta
    
    The Calligra team is proud and excited to release the third beta version of the Calligra Suite. Since the start of the Calligra effort, we have had a long and very productive development phase. In the mean time we have released four snapshot versions, also known as alphas, to give the users a chance to see what we are doing.
- GNOME Desktop
  - [Gnome Shell Themes] Aqua and Tron Legacy
    
    Aqua is a simple and clean light theme for Gnome Shell 3.2. This theme is made by Satya who also designed Evolve GTK3 theme for Gnome Shell and Unity.
  - GNOME3 vs Unity on Ubuntu 11.10: my score is 6 – 9
    
    So, Ubuntu 11.10 is here and GNOME2 is gone…
    Even if you had an option to run GNOME2 in previous release of Ubuntu 11.04, there is no more this option in 11.10. It is only shipped with Unity interface.
Distributions
- New Releases
  - Puppy Linux Slacko 5.3 Is Based on Slackware
    
    Barry Kauler’s Puppy Linux distribution has a new child, or better a pup, named Slacko and based on the Slackware Linux 13.37 operating system.
- Red Hat Family
  - Red Hat Is Red Hot Right Now
    
    Red Hat posted a surge of 28% in quarterly revenues over the past year, which drove net income up a whopping 69%. This staggering growth was mainly because of enormous demand for its open-source solutions everywhere, especially in the financial services sector and local, state, and federal governments. Moreover, Red Hat’s customers have been looking to modernize their data center infrastructure. This helped in growing revenues and highlighted customer loyalty. High demand for Red Hat’s services, low service charges, and excellent reliability drove revenue growth.
  - The Perfect Server – CentOS 5.7 x86_64 [ISPConfig 2]
  - Red Hat talks ahead of Linuxcon keynote
    
    Tim Burke is the VP of Linux technology development at Red Hat. He spoke to us about the power of free software, what he thinks is the best thing about Linux and what it might be used for in the future.
  - Fedora
    - Secondary Fedora is hiring
      
      Red Hat is hiring a Fedora release engineer with primary focus on the PowerPC platform, where he/she will prepare the testing and final releases, work on the build system infrastructure, work with architecture maintainers on package build failures and much more.
- Debian Family
  - m23 rock 11.4 is ready!
    
    We’ve done it! m23 rock 11.4 is ready – and now Debian Squeeze is available as an additional client distribution and TDE (which can be seen as a continuation of KDE3) was added to the list of desktop interfaces to choose from.
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu 11.10 Experience on Dell D610
        
        First off, I would like to congratulate Ubuntu team for releasing another milestone of a good Linux distribution. It is such a big project which requires great balance between schedule, functionality, level of polish and quality.
        
        On the polish, I really like the new theme, it fits well to my taste.
      - Planning Ubuntu 12.04
        
        I love planning a new Ubuntu release. It’s a great experience to take a few steps back and look at the biggest challenges and opportunities in your area of interest and try to identify the most promising.
      - Disunited
        
        If you want a shiny barely-customizable straitjacket as a desktop environment, go buy a Mac. Please stop wrecking Ubuntu.
      - Ubuntu 11.10 review
        
        At the end of the upgrade process, I had changed an existing installation of Ubuntu 11.04 with a core of Linux kernel 2.6.38 to one running Ubuntu 11.10 with a core of Linux kernel 3.0.0, with no loss of existing data. Very nice. Though I did not backup my data because there was no useful data on the system, it is always a good idea to keep a backup of your data before an upgrade. You just never know.
      - White Screen of Death
        
        Remember the good old days when Windows had problems with the “Blue Screen of Death.” Years later, XBox followed with its “Red Ring of Death.” Now, it’s Ubuntu turn, what others are coining as the “White Screen of Death.”
        
        Yesterday, I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Prior to the upgrade, I was using Ubuntu 11.04 and the Gnome desktop (not Unity). Somehow, for some reason, when I upgraded to Ubuntu 11.10, it wiped out my Gnome default environment and switched me back to Unity. Argh!
      - United for Unity alternatives
        
        Having said this, allow me a Captain Obvious moment to say that folks have different tastes, likes and dislikes, which in the final analysis boils down to a subjective smorgasbord of opinion rather than any resemblance to objective fist-bearing, knuckle-bashing fact.
        
        I loathe Unity with a heat of a nova, but some people absolutely love it to the ends of the earth. And that’s great, but it’s not for everyone. What about those Ubuntu users who don’t like Unity because it’s a brain-numbing, unintuitive desktop environment that’s has a my-way-or-highway range of tweakability (or do I overstate it?), or what about an Ubuntu user who can’t use it because they’re using older hardware?
      - Canonical upping desktop support for its next Ubuntu LTS to 5 years
        
        Ever since Ubuntu shipped its first long-term-support release, the 6.06 Dapper Drake (one of my all-time favorites by the way), the distro’s LTS editions have enjoyed three years of support on the desktop and five years on the server.
Devices/Embedded
- Phones
  - Android
    - DROID RAZR Pre-Orders Start Tomorrow at 8AM, Will Ship “No Later” Than November 10
      
      Verizon pinged us this morning with a reminder that the pre-order period for the DROID RAZR starts tomorrow at 8AM, giving potential owners a chance to jump on the device early for $299 on contract. Up until now though, we had no idea when you would expect to see that order since Big Red and Motorola decided not to give us an actual release date last week at the RAZR event. According to this reminder email, it looks like November 10 is the latest you will see it.

Free Software/Open Source

Events
- Open Source rock at Latinoware
- LinuxCon 2011 Europe keynote videos
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Chrome 15 released with… improved start page
    
    Google has rolled out version 15 of Chrome to its “stable” channel. The update brings some minor cosmetic changes, including a slightly cleaner new tab page, and Google has also redesigned the Chrome Web Store with a simpler layout.
  - Google Releases Chrome 15 Stable for Linux
    
    The Google Chrome developers at Google proudly announced last night, October 25th, the immediate availability for download of the stable
    and final release of the Google Chrome 15 web browser for Linux platforms.
- Mozilla
  - Firefox partners with The Evil Empire
    
    Mozilla, has joined up with Microsoft to make a special version of Firefox that uses the Bing for its default search engine and home page.
Licensing
- GPL or BSD License: Confusion Galore
  
  I started with the notion that GPL should always be used in open source software. I also thought that releasing software under BSD license was letting others take advantage of your hard work without giving anything in return; a highly unfair practice. My thoughts have changed a bit. You can read all about the regurgitated pros and cons all over the Internet. I’m looking to introduce a new perspective, if I can.
Programming
- The art of unit testing explained

Leftovers

Security
- Nuclear And Military Data Taken In Mitsubishi Hack
  
  The attack hit approximately 45 servers and 38 computers, which were infected with malware at 10 facilities located throughout Japan, and at Mitsubishi’s Yokohama headquarters.
Finance
- Wall St. Giants Seek a Piece of Nigeria’s Sovereign Fund
  
  Nigeria, the West African nation that has gained notoriety for the illicit e-mail spammers aiming for Western bank accounts, is attracting attention for legitimate financial opportunities — investing its own savings.
  
  In an effort to preserve and increase its oil revenue, the country recently established a so-called sovereign wealth fund, following the path of many resource-rich countries. Now, Wall Street titans like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan Chase are courting top government officials, aiming to grab a piece of a portfolio that could eventually be worth tens of billions of dollars.
PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
- Herman Cain’s New Internet Campaign Ad Promotes Smoking
  
  Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain’s new internet ad features a tight head shot of his campaign’s “chief of staff,” Mark Block, telling viewers how great Cain will be for the country and how much confidence he has in Cain.