12.23.11

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Is This the Best Software Store on Linux?

  Chances are you’ve not heard of ‘Linux Deepin‘ – an Ubuntu-based Chinese Linux distribution.

• TLWIR 28: WebOS, The FCC, and Red Hat’s Record Quarter

• 5 types of very annoying Linux users

  Since I use Linux for several years now I’ve found Linux users of all kinds, having a blog has helped me to identify many types of Linux users. But of all the guys there are some that are very annoying and I will try to classify them.

• Desktop

  • Why Linux Desktop Makes Total Sense

    Unity is more natural and user friendly to me than anything else..finally. I have not booted windows for 4 months. This is not one of those hate article or Windows vs Linux article, so if you have such intentions please feel free to escape this article presently.

  • 2012: The Year Of The Disposable Computer

• Kernel Space

  • Kernel Log: Coming in 3.2 (Part 5) – Drivers

    Kernel version 3.2, expected around New Year, improves support for multitouch touchpads. It also enhances support for modern NVIDIA graphics chips and offers a range of new and improved drivers for DVB hardware.

  • Graphics Stack

    • How-To: Run Your Qt Apps On Wayland Right Now

      The plethora of Wayland news continues. Here’s a guide on how to run Qt applications within the Wayland Display Server for those not waiting until the 2012 onslaught begins.

    • Nouveau NVD0-Fermi Is Still A Busted Mess

    • AMD Radeon HD 7970 On Linux

      You’ve may have heard or seen that AMD introduced the Radeon HD 7970 graphics card this morning as their first product built in their “Southern Islands” family and is based on their new GPU architecture, but how well does it work under Linux for the open-source and closed-source AMD Catalyst Linux drivers?

• Applications

  • gDesklets: Semi-Sweet Eye Candy

    In the process of upgrading and changing Linux distros recently, I wandered away from Screenlets and tried gDesklets. I was mildly happy with the experience. There’s a little too much runaround to get more desklets. But it is a fun way to add information to your interface, and once you have the latest supply of mini programs, you can set it and forget it.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Multiple GNOME Terminals in one Window – Terminator

    • Kdenlive Part 5: All About Audio

    • Unity 3D (Launcher, Top Panel) Doesn’t Load – Possible Fixes

    • [How to] Browse the Ubuntu Software Centre Online

    • Scrolling/mouse wheel improvments (VTE-like) in urxvt

    • tcpdump fu

    • Troubleshooting common UrbanTerror problems

    • Add advanced power settings to Linux Mint 12

    • A Note About Removing Files With find(1)

    • Create desktop launchers in Linux Mint 12

    • How to Run Startup Scripts in KDM before KDE Starts

    • Identity Management with RHEL 6.2 Part I

    • Crash course: Embedded programming with Arduino

    • SQUID Proxy On RHEL5/CentOS – Everything That You Should Know About [Part 1]

    • Pipes in Unix Based Operating Systems

    • PDNSD HowTo – A DNS Caching Personal Server (Fedora 16)

    • Linux: 20 Iptables Examples For New SysAdmins

    • Ubuntu 11.10 Desktop Customization Guide

    • The Perfect Server – CentOS 6.1 x86_64 With Apache2 [ISPConfig 3]

  • Games

    • Announcing the Stop That Hero! Alpha

    • CoreBreach On Linux Is Ready, May Go Open-Source

      Besides being a racing game and not yet-another-first-person-shooter for Linux, what also made the CoreBreach Linux port interesting is that it’s originally a Mac OS X title and for still using the Apple APIs on Linux they took advantage of GNUstep in porting this Objective-C 2.0 game to Linux. The game also has custom 3D rendering engine. (All of the technical details about the Linux port are talked about in this Phoronix article.)

    • 2D Puzzle Platformer ‘Beret’ Open Sourced

    • Classic Game Multiponk Comes To Android

      The popular and all time classic game Multiponk has landen on Android market. The game which is priced at $4.99 is available only for $1 as introductory price. You can invite up to four friends to play Multiponk with you. The graphics is stunning and the experience is great as the time lag, response is par excellence. The game page says that “The HD graphic designs and the ultra-realistic physical engine will make you feel like playing on an real wooden board.”

• Desktop Environments

  • Are the new user interfaces really problems?

    When I wrote about DRM and how it is a big problem, I got a comment saying that the real problem is new user interfaces. I do not agree. They are problematic for now, that much is true; but only as far as the new users are concerned and only for so long.

  • Linux Desktop Environment Round Up

    A year and a half ago I did an entry entitled “Overview and Explanation of Linux Desktop Environments”. Anyone that is in the technology field (or knows even a little bit about it) knows that 18 months is a like a life time in the world of tech. Today I would like to re-cap my previous post with a few additions that have been added in recent months and mention a few desktops I missed last time.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • Debian has KDE 4.7.4 in Experimental repositories; install instructions

      Not in the Debian-KDE repos that had 4.7.2, but in the official Debian Experimental repositories, KDE 4.7.4 has been released! You need to be running Debian Sid to take advantage of this and be aware that these packages aren’t fully vetted and may break your world.

    • Amarok 2.5 adds GPodder support

      The Amarok development team has released version 2.5 of its open source music player and organiser, code-named “Earth Moving”. Among the changes highlighted by the developers are re-written support for USB mass storage devices, GPodder.net podcast synchronisation and an integrated Amazon MP3 store. The GPodder.net support includes the ability to browse directly from Amarok through the list of recommended podcasts on GPodder.net.

    • Amarok 2.5 Adds New USB Mass Storage Support

    • KDE SC 4.8 Release Candidate Is Ready for Testing

      Just in time for Christmas, the KDE development team proudly unleashed a minutes ago, December 22nd, the first Release Candidate version of the upcoming and highly anticipated KDE Software Compilation 4.8 environment.

    • KDE 4.7.4 Now Available For Kubuntu

    • KDE 4.8 Gets Secret Service

      The KDE team has released the first RC for its renewed Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. With API, dependency and feature freezes in place, the KDE team’s focus is now on fixing bugs and further polishing new and old functionality.

      Compared to Beta1, RC1 contains hundreds of fixes. Please give this release another good round of testing to help us release a rock-solid 4.8 in January.

  • GNOME Desktop

    • Cinnamon: GNOME Shell Fork With A GNOME2-Like Layout

      Clement Lefebvre, the Linux Mint founder, has started working on a GNOME Shell fork called Cinnamon, which tries to offer a layout similar to GNOME 2, with emphasis on “making users feel at home and providing them with an easy to use and comfortable desktop experience”:

    • Best GNOME Shell extensions

      It has been a couple of weeks now that GNOME launched a public alpha version of their extensions site which makes adding extensions to GNOME Shell with a single click. To use the extensions through his site first of all you must have install GNOME Shell 3.2 or newer. Fedora has version 3.2 by default.

    • 6 Best BURG Themes and How to Install BURG Themes in Ubuntu 11.10?

• Distributions

  • Chakra GNU/Linux Edn 2011.12 review

    Chakra Edn 2011.12 is the third and final edition of the Chakra Edn line of Chakra, a desktop GNU/Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The first two editions were Chakra Edn 2011.09 and Chakra Edn 2011.11 (see Chakra Edn 2011.11 review).

  • New Releases

    • pfSense 2.0.1

    • PUIAS 6.2

    • Clonezilla 1.2.11-33

    • AbulÉdu 11.08

    • Zorin 5.2

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • The PCLinuxOS Magazine: Scribus Special Edition

      The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the Scribus Special Edition issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community. The magazine is lead by Paul Arnote, Chief Editor, and Assistant Editor Meemaw. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, and some rights are reserved.

    • Geek-in-Pink: When I installed Mandrake on my computer, my boyfriend was not happy at all.

      There are different people. There are different Linux users. Generally, you can split all people in the world into two categories: men and women. But should we split Linux world by gender? Some people still believe we should. Many others think we shouldn’t.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Daiwa Next Bank Deploys Red Hat Enterprise Linux as its Core Banking Platform

      As one of the global leading, comprehensive financial service firms, Daiwa Securities Group operates core businesses such as retail and wholesale securities, asset management, investment, as well as system support and research services. Under its unity within the group approach, the banking institution provides a broad range of services to various clients. Daiwa Next Bank was established as a new type of Internet bank that acts as an agent of Daiwa Securities Group to provide customers with one-stop services for a full range of investments services.

    • Red Hat CEO Explains Open Source Success

    • Oracle Chases Red Hat Release Cycle

      If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, than Red Hat should be flattered by Oracle Linux. That’s not likely case on the Linux Planet, as Red Hat pushes forward with its own agenda and revenue even as Oracle updates its own Linux.

    • CentOS 6.2 Already?

      CentOS is a project that many people (myself included) rely on as a way to get all the goodness of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, without the cost (or support – but that’s another story). That’s probably why there was a lot of concern when it took CentOS so very long to put out the 6.0 release.

    • Oracle Solaris 11 Kernel Source-Code Leaked

      It appears that the kernel source-code to Solaris 11 was leaked onto the Internet this past weekend.

    • Red Hat’s Corporate Credit Rating Raised by Standard & Poor’s

      “With S&P’s upgrade, Red Hat is now considered Investment Grade”, said Charlie Peters, CFO of Red Hat. “This rating is indicative of the financial strength of our company, the consistency of our performance and will give the company better access to the debt capital markets, at lower cost. We are pleased with this upgrade.”

    • Oracle Revs Up Solaris Studio 12.3

      Software developers offered new code analysis tools and extra speed via advanced compiler technology

    • Fedora

      • Kororaa Linux 16 – A Fedora++ Distribution

        Since finding that Fedora 16 works the best of the Linux distributions I have tried on my Samsung netbooks, I have been making more and more use of it. I generally load the Gnome version of Fedora (for historical reasons), but that left me without my favorite photo management application, digiKam. The obvious solution was to switch to the Fedora 16 KDE distribution, but when I tried to load that I ran into some minor problem (I don’t remember exactly what, but whatever it was although it didn’t seem like it would be a big deal that the time, I just didn’t have time to fool with it), so I shoved that project onto the back burner. Then I saw the Kororaa 16 Release Announcement.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu 12.04 Login Sound To Be Disabled By Default

          The familiar login sound of Ubuntu has been disabled by default in an update to Ubuntu 12.04.

        • Ubuntu 12.04: Now With Quieter Logins

        • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 246

        • Why Java Isn’t Dead On Ubuntu

          There has been a certain amount of upset finally surfacing as a result of the decision Oracle took over the summer to discontinue packaging Java for Linux under the Distro License for Java. Quite a lot of people commenting on the article at OMGUbuntu this week, for example, see the news that the Java packages are no longer being maintained in the Ubuntu repository as a sign of the End Times for Java (ETJ). As I commented on Google+, I don’t think this is the case. To explain why, here’s a little history, necessarily abbreviated.

        • Ubuntu To Run In Cars

          It competes with Microsoft’s own offering in the car system. Linux is already quite strong in the embedded spcae, which is the same category car infotainment aka In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) falls in.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Sabily 11.10 Screenshot Tour

            Sabily 11.10, dubbed Uhud, has been officially announced earlier today, being based on Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) and featuring the Unity interface.

          • How to customize Pear OS Linux Panther 3

            Pear OS Linux Panther 3 is the latest edition of the desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, but with a desktop appearance that is fashioned after the Mac OS X UI. It has already been reviewed on this website (see Pear OS Linux Panther 3 review). It is the only distribution released this year that actually makes GNOME 3 look really good. It is not perfect, but it is a lot better than other distributions that use the GNOME 3 desktop environment.

          • Linux Mint with MATE works really really great

            In the past few weeks, I’ve spent some time dabbling with MATE, the new Gnome 2 fork slowly gaining momentum in the Linux world. MATE is designed to be, and let me quote the author, a non-intuitive and unattractive desktop for users, using traditional computing desktop metaphor. It might be what everyone needs, a fully functional environment intended for users with opposing thumbs.

          • Cinnamon: Linux Mint’s next GNOME step

            The Linux Mint developers, led by founder Clement Lefebvre, have forked the shell of GNOME 3. The new shell fork, named Cinnamon, is being used as a platform to continue their development of a more GNOME 2-like environment for GNOME 3 users. In Linux Mint 12, the developers introduced MGSE (Mint GNOME Shell Extensions), a set of shell extensions which added in the various elements of functionality that the Mint team wanted to see in GNOME 3. This included a launcher menu at the bottom right, a task bar at the bottom and status widgets.

          • Ready for a New Linux Desktop? Meet Mint’s ‘Cinnamon’

            If you’ve been following the world of Linux desktop environments in recent months, you may remember that the Linux Mint project has adopted a strategy of easing users gradually into the controversial GNOME 3 desktop.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Whisper open-sources Android text-encryption app

      • Ten best Android productivity apps

        With Android devices on the rise it’s time to consider how best to put your smartphones and tablet PCs to work. Here is a selection of ten Android productivity apps that could give your work a serious boost.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Which Tablet has the Best Display?

      We all have our own ideas on what looks good on a tablet display and what doesn’t. Unlike most of us though Dr, Raymond Soneira, president of DisplayMate, the world’s leading display and display tuning company, has more than just an opinion. He has a long, well-respected history of scientifically analyzing what separates great displays from good ones. When Soneira talks, I listen.

    • Metasploit on Amazon Kindle

Free Software/Open Source

• Nine Open Source Discoveries I Made in 2011

  When writing about free and open source software, sometimes I seem to spend all my time complaining. So, after last week, when I described 2011 as a whole as a disappointment, I thought I should add some balance by mentioning some of the free software-related discoveries that delighted me during the past year.

  Many of these discoveries were not new in 2011, although several came into their own during the year. However, until the last twelve months, they were new to me. All are worth mentioning, just in case you’ve missed them:

• Reinventing the open source wheel

  One of the greatest strengths of open source software development has been the notion that as an OSS developer, you can pretty much just pick and choose from the thousands of OSS projects out there to enrich your own project.

  (There are caveats to this idea, of course, the most obvious being license incompatibility. But, the general principle still holds.)

  But anecdotal evidence in the open source community seems to be demonstrating that the very opposite is occurring: new projects are often reinventing the wheel in their code, rather than partnering with someone else’s project.

• Open Source Apps: the Monster List

• Events

  • Linux Professional Institute Hosts Exam Labs at SCALE 10X

• Web Browsers

  • Qupzilla – the Best Browser You’ve Never Heard of?

    With the browser market dominated by Firefox, Chrome and Internet Explorer you could be forgiven for thinking that small browsers have little to offer.

  • Mozilla

    • Good news: Mozilla fixed their damn browser

      Since the official release of Firefox 9 is today, it seems like an appropriate time to revisit my post from a few weeks ago complaining about Firefox’s poor performance on Linux to see if anything’s changed.

    • How Did Firefox Fare in 2011? (Infographic)

    • Mozilla re-releases Firefox 9, backs out fix causing crashes

      A day after it shipped Firefox 9, Mozilla quickly released an update after backing out a bug fix that was causing some Mac, Linux and Windows browsers to crash.

    • Mozilla: We’re more than just Firefox, you know

      Although Mozilla has never limited its stated goals to merely building an open-source browser, there’s no doubt that Firefox has been the highest-profile project from the Mozilla Foundation.

    • Why Firefox 9 Is Not in Red Hat Enterprise Linux

      Mozilla faced its fair share of criticism this year when they moved to the rapid release cycle. Enterprises argued that they couldn’t update as fast as Firefox is being released, with new browsers out every six weeks.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Help Squash LibreOffice Bugs, Become Hero

    The Document Foundation has announced “the first LibreOffice 3.5 bug hunting session to improve the quality and stability of the best free office suite ever.” All you need is a computer with one of the big three operating systems and LibreOffice 3.5 Beta 1. Help squash enough bugs and you could be the official LibreOffice Bug Hunting Hero.

  • A Rivalry Emerges As Apache Asserts OpenOffice Plans

    There’s been much uncertainty surrounding OpenOffice.org ever since Oracle decided back in June to donate the open source office productivity project to the Apache Software Foundation.

  • Libreoffice repo for EL6

  • Download and Test LibreOffice 3.5.0 Beta 1

  • Oracle Will Try To Buy The Cloud

• Project Releases

  • Ceylon Achieves Milestone 1

    Milestone 1 of Ceylon includes a reasonably complete and stable specification and a complete command line toolset (compiler, runtime, documentation compiler). A compatible release of the team’s Eclipse-based IDE is coming soon.

• Licensing

  • VLC engine relicensed to LGPL

    As announced in a previous press release, VideoLAN and VLC developers have achieved the process of changing the license of the VLC engine to LGPL. The École Centrale Paris shares its happiness about this change.

• Open Hardware

  • Arduino-Open Hardware and IDE Combo

    This article is a bit different from my usual column in two ways. First, it’s starting with a hardware and software combo—something I’ve not done before. Second, the projects are linked to each other and come recommended to me by Perth LUG member, Simon Newton.

Leftovers

• Adobe’s Cloudware Announcement Stirs Pricing and Privacy Concerns

• Security

  • A Silver Bullet for Application Security?

• Finance

  • A Christmas Message From America’s Rich

    It seems America’s bankers are tired of all the abuse. They’ve decided to speak out.

    True, they’re doing it from behind the ropeline, in front of friendly crowds at industry conferences and country clubs, meaning they don’t have to look the rest of America in the eye when they call us all imbeciles and complain that they shouldn’t have to apologize for being so successful.

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • A New Lowe in Advertiser Cowardice

    The national hardware chain Lowe’s pulled its advertising from the TLC reality show All-American Muslim–explaining that the question of whether Muslims can be presented as regular human beings is a “hotly contested debate.”

    All-American Muslim is a reality show described by TLC, the cable channel that airs it, as “a look at life in Dearborn, Michigan–home to the largest mosque in the United States–through the lens of five Muslim American families…an intimate look at the customs and celebrations, misconceptions and conflicts these families face outside and within their own community.”

• Civil Rights

  • SOPA Broken Even Before Being Passed

    The way some congressmen are desperate to pass dangerous SOPA, ignoring all the warning being given by IT experts, shows how much money speaks when it comes to passing laws. SOPA is nothing short of a measure to break the Internet just to entertain the entertainment industry which is failing to keep up with the technological evolution.

• Copyrights

  • Anti-piracy laws will smash internet, US constitution – legal eagles

    Legal experts are warning that the proposed PROTECT IP and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) legislation, currently working their way through Congress, will damage the world’s DNS system, cripple attempts to get better online security and violate free speech rights in the US constitution.