02.24.12

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• 10 free Linux e-books

• Desktop

  • Living and Loving the Acer Aspire One 522

    What an odd situation this is. For the past week or so, the only netbook / notebook I have been carrying with me is the Aspire One 522. Never mind that the display resolution is “only” 1024×600. Never mind that the keyboard is absolutely flat, so the feel is a bit odd and touch-typing takes some getting used to. I just like it. It’s kind of like it was with the HP 2133 Mini-Note, despite a number of apparent drawbacks or problems, I prefer using it. First because it is so small and light, and because the screen is so clear and bright. It is also quite fast – the AMD C-60 cpu and Radeon HD 6290M display controller make it noticeably faster than the other netbooks I have around here. I can connect it to an external display via VGA when I want to do more serious work at home, or to a TV via HDMI When I want to show my photographs, and in both cases the dual-display netbook/external works perfecty, and makes using it much easier and more pleasant. Oh, and it has a memory card slot that takes Memory Stick as well as SD/xD cards, which is a very nice extra.

  • Canonical believes Windows XP stragglers hold the future for Ubuntu

    LINUX VENDOR Canonical believes that Microsoft’s Windows XP, not Windows 8, could drive adoption of its Ubuntu Linux operating system.

    With Microsoft readying Windows 8 for release later this year, companies are expected to evaluate whether it is worth renewing existing Microsoft licenses or splashing out on the latest Microsoft revision of its desktop PC operating system. However, according to Canonical CEO Jane Silber, it isn’t undercutting Windows 8 that holds the key for take-up of Ubuntu Linux but Microsoft’s termination of Windows XP support that will drive Ubuntu growth.

  • Why Adobe Is Wrong to Restrict Flash Updates for Linux Users

  • Linux on Smartphones: Could it Replace the Laptop?

    Dan Gillmor’s got an interesting column looking at an idea I’ve raised before. Could the smartphone end up becoming the replacement for the laptop computer? My own question took it a little further: could the smartphone become our basic computer?

  • Death to Office or to Windows – choose wisely, Microsoft

    Windows is dead, and Microsoft Office has killed it. Or will, once the rumours about Microsoft porting its wildly popular Office product to the iPad become reality.

    For just as porting Office to Mac OS X back in 2001 sowed the seeds of Apple’s relevance as a credible desktop alternative to Windows, so too will Microsoft’s capitulation to the iPad ensure that Windows will die even as Office takes on a new, multi-billion dollar relevance.

    Microsoft, however much it may want to own the customer experience – from database to operating system to applications to free-time leisure gaming – wants to make money even more. Right now, Microsoft’s only real money in mobile comes from browbeating Android licensees to pay it patent hush money. So Microsoft needs a winner in mobile, and Windows isn’t it. At least, not anytime soon.

• Kernel Space

  • Why Linux Is a Model Citizen of Quality Code

    With 6,849,378 lines of Linux 2.6 code scanned, 4,261 outstanding defects were detected and 1,283 were fixed in 2011. The defect density of Linux 2.6 is .62, compared to .20 for PHP 5.3 and .21 for PostgreSQL 9.1. Keep in mind that the codebase for PHP 5.3 — 537,871 lines of code — is a fraction of that of Linux 2.6, and PostgreSQL 9.1 has 1,105,634 lines of code.

  • Moving Linux Kernel Drivers To User-Space? Nope.

    Brought up on the Linux kernel mailing list this week was a short-lived discussion whether Linux device drivers should be moved from kernel-space to user-space in an attempt to provide “greater security and robustness” of Linux systems.

    Jidong Xiao asked on Wednesday, Can we move device drivers into user-space? It’s been a matter that’s been brought up before in past years and he cited an earlier research paper on “Tolerating Malicious Device Drivers in Linux.” Jidong’s reasoning for bringing up the topic again is that, “Advantage: Since most of kernel bugs are caused by device drivers issues, moving device drivers into user space can reduce the impact of device driver bugs. From security perspective, the system can be more secure and robust if most device drivers are working in user space. Disadvantage: At least, existing techniques as well as the above paper showed a relatively high overhead.”

  • Graphics Stack

    • Intel Releases 2.18 X.Org Linux Graphics Driver

      The primary target of xf86-video-intel 2.18 is to address outstanding bugs. The bugs namely addressed are changes for limiting the maximum object size, incorrect clipping of polygons, limiting the number of VMA cached, and latency in processing user-input during continuous rendering.

    • Intel 2.18 Video Driver for Linux Released

    • The Fallback Mode-Setting Driver Is Improved

      One week after the release of the new X.Org mode-setting driver there’s another release with more changes.

      Last week David Airlie announced the release of xf86-video-modesetting as a generic, un-accelerated DDX driver that in theory should work with any hardware that’s being handled by a Linux KMS (kernel mode-setting) driver. The xf86-video-modesetting driver just relies upon the generic KMS interface with the kernel to allow X.Org to work atop it.

• Applications

  • Top 10 Security Assessment Tools

  • Install Tribler In Ubuntu Via PPA (Decentralized Bittorrent Application)

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Install Tribler In Ubuntu Via PPA (Decentralized Bittorrent Application)

    • Avoiding Common WordPress Setup Mistakes

    • Tag Sound Files With Easytag (Linux Mint 12)

    • How to get exit status from a piped command in Linux shell

    • Your old PC can be an useful download center, here’s how

  • Games

    • Indie Royale, New Game Bundle for Linux

      So far, Indie Royale team has released many bundles in past but most of the times, games were not available for Linux. However, they have launched a new ‘Alpha Collection’ bundle where all games are available for Linux.

      These games are currently in Alpha stages of development. By paying minimum amount of $5 (current minimum), you get three games, all subsequent updates and the final version. These proceeds will help devs in funding the game development.

    • Indie Royale Alpha Collection Includes Three Early Stage Games

    • Buy 3 Awesome Linux Games for $1 Each

      Indievania is an online game marketplace for independent developers to sell their games directly to players. Unlike any other game distributors, 100% of the cost of the game goes to the developer.

      Customers can purchase games directly from the developers own merchant account, supporting the original developers and helping fund further development. Indievania currently have over 200 indie games on the site, all DRM-free.

    • CoreBreach – The Best Racing Game on Ubuntu?

    • Amnesia, Scariest Game Ever, to Get Sequel

• Distributions

  • Best Lightweight Linux Distribution for Older Computers

  • Review: KahelOS 020212

    That is where my time with KahelOS ended. It is basically as user-friendly as Chakra, and I could do almost everything (and all of the major things) that I could in Chakra in KahelOS, which is great. Of course, I still cannot get used to the small but grating “features” in GNOME 3/Shell, and I would probably use the Arch repositories in KahelOS to install a different DE (probably either Xfce or GNOME 3/Cinnamon, as that is available now too). Plus, the size requirements for both the live medium and the installed system are unusually large. That said, I can definitely recommend this both to relatively new Linux users if they are comfortable with just a couple commands at the terminal as well as to Linux newbies if they have a helping hand configuring things.

  • New Releases

    • LPS Security 1.3.2 has been released! Live cd from department of defense

      LPS Security 1.3.2 LPS Security 1.3.2 has been released, this is a maintenance release that comes with some new features, updates and bug fixes. Lightweight Portable Security (LPS) is a Linux-based live CD produced by the United States of America’s Department of Defense and is part of that organization’s Software Protection Initiative.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Notable Put Options Activity in Red Hat

      Shares of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) are higher on the session by 2.11%, currently trading at $49.93. The stock has been moving largely higher over the past two months and is currently trading above the 50-day moving average.

    • Signs are strong that Red Hat will remain in Westford

      Indications are strong that the engineering headquarters of Red Hat, Inc., will remain in town and that company officials are currently in the midst of hiring talent.

      State Rep. James Arciero, who was instrumental in helping the company win a significant tax credit from the state, said the company is expected to continue local operations.

    • Red Hat Executive Marco Bill-Peter Appointed to Technology Services Industry Association Support Services Advisory Board

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu for Android Previewed

        • Ubuntu for Android to replace PCs?

        • Linaro 12.02 Released

        • An Interview with Balloons

          I came across Balloons in the #ubuntu-community-team a few months ago when seeking some advice on a forum matter. Balloons is a “new” member of the Canonical Community Team working as the QA Community Coordinator. I asked if he would be willing to do an interview, he said yes and here we are now…

        • Login Screen, Software Center, Ubuntu One Changes Land in Ubuntu 12.04

        • Ubuntu 12.04 (Precise Pangolin) Beta 1 freeze now in effect.

        • New Ubuntu 12.04 Sound Theme, Finally

        • Ubuntu 12.04 Login Screen Gets A Refresh

          The Ubuntu 12.04 LTS login screen received its fair share of updates before the User Interface freeze yesterday. The login screen now displays a logo to indicate the desktop environment you want to use. Here’s a screenshot displaying it. In the screenshot, the Ubuntu logo is shown which indicates Unity and Unity 2-D.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Why Does Kubuntu Suck?

            If you use another distro because of issues with Kubuntu, why? What caused you to switch, and by switch I mean recently, not 2 years ago.

          • Dream Studio 11.10 Is Based on Ubuntu 11.10

            Dick MacInnis proudly announced earlier today, February 24th, the immediate availability for download of the Dream Studio 11.10 operating system.

            Being based on the Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system, the brand-new Dream Studio 11.10 distribution has lots of new features and a beautified Unity-based desktop.

          • Pear OS 4 goes back into beta

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Developers Make More Money From Android Than From iOS

        Android has left Apple behind when we talk about the market share. There is, however, one area where Android is catching up fast — apps. A new study shows an interesting aspect of Android vs iOS market.

        According to a survey by Canalys, Android developers earn more from Android than from iOS. A developer will make around $347.37 from top apps for Android vs only $147.00 from iOS.

Free Software/Open Source

• Putting the control-factor into open source components

  News has been crackling across the open source newswires this week of Sonatype’s open-source repository manager.

  The new Nexus Professional 2.0 may sound more like a digital camera than a developer tool, but its basic function is to provide “actionable” information about the open-source components used in any development project.

• Actually, Open Source Code Is Better: Report

  Free and open source software such as Firefox, LibreOffice, and Linux is enjoying increasingly widespread adoption on business and home computers alike, but every once in a while a naysayer will still pipe up with one vague concern or another about open source quality, in particular.

• Pocketeers reveals open source 2D IwGame Engine for mobile, desktop and smart TV

• Can open source save RIM?

  Don’t expect RIM to open source its entire operating system, or its radio stack. But the original smartphone company is gambling its future success on open source, and it has an expert on board to help. Mary Branscombe asked Senior Technical Director for Open Software, Eduardo Pelegri Llopart, where open source fits in at RIM.

• Software a tailored fit for developing countries

  Programs such as Ma3bar and the Khmer Software Initiative, though, are implementing Free Open Source Software (FOSS) programs in developing countries to create localized software that is used to improve education, increase economic potential, and open market opportunities.

• Events

  • Tizen Conference Announced

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla partners up with LG to combat Apple and Google with its own device

• SaaS

  • Cloudscaling, cloudTP Partner On Scalable, Open Source-Based Cloud Platform

    Building a scalable cloud is a major challenge for IT departments, especially since most IT departments lack the technology, knowledge and resources to effectively create a cloud presence. Yet, the demand still remains and budgets are not increasing quickly enough to meet the demand for cloud services. That situation has forced many an enterprise to seek cloud relief elsewhere, namely out in the cloud itself in the form of hosts and service providers.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Intel Supports LibreOffice

  • Rebootless updates: now available for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, too!

• Business

  • OpenERP is Going Social With the Launch of Its New Version 6.1

  • OpenERP 6.1 adds new web client

  • Semi-Open Source

    • DERI teams up with Belgium’s UCB on open-source software

      The Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) at NUI Galway is starting a collaboration with the Belgian pharmaceutical company UCB to ramp up its D2RQ open-source software project.

• BSD

  • DragonFly BSD 3.0 improves multiprocessor support

    Developer Justin Sherrill has announced the release of version 3.0 of DragonFly BSD, a FreeBSD fork. The major update, labelled 3.0.1, reportedly performs “significantly better” on multicore systems than previous releases.

• Project Releases

  • Gnash 0.8.10 GNU Flash player released

    Version 0.8.10 of Gnash, an open source Flash player, has been released. According to developer Rob Savoye, the update allows users to set script limits to adjust the time before the abort popup appears for slow scripts, and includes Qt4 GUI support for the clipboard, screen resolution, and scroll wheels on mice.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Could Open Source Principles Revolutionize Drug Development?

    Here at OStatic, we’ve chronicled many examples of open source principles being applied to exotic types of projects, including some projects that combine software and hardware goals, and some that are purely hardware-focused. For example, we’ve covered the DIY projects you can take on via the Arduino open source hardware effort, and numerous examples of open source robotics projects. Now, a startup company is applying open source principles to, of all things, drug development. Transparency Life Sciences may have a shot at invoving patients in drug development in unprecedented ways, and could usher in innovative ways to speed up the clinical trials process.

  • Open Data

    • Open Knowledge Releases Open Data Handbook 1.0

      The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) announced the 1.0 release of the Open Data Handbook today. The 1.0 release is the culmination of a project that started in October 2010 at a book sprint in Berlin as the Open Data Manual.

Leftovers

• Aussie woman scammed Nigerians: court

  A BRISBANE woman fleeced Nigerian scam artists by stealing more than $30,000 from their internet car sales racket, a court has been told.

  Sarah Jane Cochrane-Ramsey, 23, was employed by the Nigerians as an “agent” in March 2010 but was unaware they were scam artists, the Brisbane District Court heard today.

• Security

  • PacketFence 3.2.0 brings new features, closes XSS hole

    PacketFence logo The PacketFence development team has published version 3.2.0 of its open source network access control (NAC) system. The release adds support for Ruckus Wireless Controllers, integrates the OpenVAS vulnerability assessment system for client-side policy compliance and adds a billing engine that enables the use of a payment gateway for gaining network access.

• Finance

  • Consumer Rates Climb After Deregulation Goldman Sachs Funded

    Houston (10750MF) consumers were supposed to get lower electricity rates from deregulation. Instead, they pay some of the nation’s highest prices, partly because of bonds Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) recently sold for a local utility.

• Privacy

  • White House pushes online privacy bill of rights

    The Obama administration on Thursday unveiled a new online bill of rights intended to protect consumers’ privacy when they surf the Web.

• DRM

  • Who’s adding DRM to HTML5? Microsoft, Google and Netflix

    With tech companies abandoning the proprietary Flash and Silverlight media players for HTML5, it was inevitable somebody would try to inject DRM into the virgin spec.

    Microsoft, Google and Netflix are that “somebody”, having submitted a proposed modification to HTML5 to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) for “encrypted media extensions”.

  • Proposal to add DRM to HTML5 meets resistence

    A proposal at the W3C by Microsoft, Google and Netflix to add encrypted media support to HTML5 has already become controversial. The proposal has been called “unethical” by HTML5 editor and Google employee Ian Hickson who added that the proposal does not provide robust content protection. Hickson has yet to elaborate on his response to Microsoft’s Adrian Bateman who raised the issue in response to a change request to add parameters to pass values to audio and video elements. In follow up comments, Intel’s representative said they “strongly support the effort”.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • In Brazil, books sold through vending machines at pay-what-you-want prices

      Brazilian company 24×7 Cultural recently launched an initiative enabling customers to choose the price they want to pay for the books sold through its subway station vending machines.

    • Westlaw And Lexis-Nexis Sued AGAIN Over Claims That They’re Infringing On Copyrights Of Legal Filings Themselves

      In 2009, we wrote about a case involving a lawyer named Ed Connor filing a class action lawsuit against the two giant legal aggregators, Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis. His argument was that legal filings, which those two services aggregated into large databases and then sold access to, were covered by copyright, and these two giants were clearly infringing on those copyrights. In 2010, we wrote about a similar case filed against Thomson Reuters. I can’t find any info on what happened to either case.