02.28.12

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• GNU/Linux for the Masses

  So far there have been lots of smartphones and tablets running FLOSS but this year a new kind of gadget is becoming mainstream, the computer on a stick. The best one I have seen comes with Ubuntu GNU/Linux or Android/Linux and you can connect USB keyboard/mouse and HDMI monitor/TV. That should work for everyone.

• Dustin’s Software Development Cogitations and Speculations

  Several posts on Linux have recently captured my interest. The post 10 free Linux e-books provides a list of ten freely available Linux books. Each book is featured with an image of its cover along with a brief description and a link to the electronic version of the book. Titles include Advanced Linux Programming (2001), Java Application Development on Linux (2005), and Linux Network Administrator’s Guide, 2nd Edition (2000). One of the free referenced electronic Linux titles is The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction, a book that receives rave reviews from Peter N. M. Hansteen in yesterday’s post The Linux Command Line Is A Very Appealing Story. The Linux Command Line has tremendous breadth, covering topics ranging from use of vi, to shell scripting to basic Linux commands. Speaking of Linux commands, the post Linux Command Line Tips that Every Linux User Should Know provides an interesting summary of Linux command-line commands.

• Kernel Space

  • Linux Kernel 3.2.8 Is Available for Download

  • Graphics Stack

    • Mesa’s Piglit May Move Forward This Summer

      Piglit, the OpenGL conformance test for Mesa, may see some improvements this summer thanks to Google’s Summer of Code initiative. In particular, there might be OpenCL support.

      Added to the X.Org Summer of Code Ideas page by Tom Stellard at AMD was an action item to add OpenCL support to the Piglit test suite, which up for now has just been testing for OpenGL conformance/compatibility with Mesa. Stellard and others would like to see OpenCL framework support to test the OpenCL API functions, a test runner, lots of OpenCL tests, etc.

    • What Would You Like To See Out Of Mesa 8.1?

• Applications

  • XFCE4 Desktop Application Finder

    For everyone that wants to know more about the application finder for the Xfce4 desktop here it is. The coming 4.10 release is expected to bring some big changes to the application finder. They are planning to merge the xfce4-appfinder with xfrun4.

    You can use the Xfce4 application finder to find and launch installed applications on your system. This is a very convenient little tool for finding lost applications. You can open the application finder by selecting run program from the main menu, or using the Alt + F2 keyboard shortcut.

  • Desktop Syncing Comes To ownCloud Through Mirall And Csync

  • Proprietary

    • NCP engineering Debuts New Version of Its Centrally Managed IPsec VPN Client Suite for Linux Users

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Lets Customize Ubuntu Part II

    • Hack and / – Forensics with Ext4

    • Process your data with Apache Pig

  • Games

    • Let’s Play: Dungeons of Dredmor

    • ToME RPG/Roguelike Game Updated with New UI and Numerous Improvements [Video]

      Easily one of the best RPG games for Linux and winner of Roguelike of the Year Award 2011, Tales of Maj’Eyal (ToME) has just been updated to Beta 38.

      ToME is an open-source, single-player, tactical role-playing roguelike and action game set in the world of Eya. You are an adventurer, looking for old powers, treasure and glory. You boldly go in lost and forgotten places, untamed forests and sealed ruins.

• Distributions

  • Terrible 0.0.1 Screenshots

  • New Releases

    • Clonezilla 1.2.12-24

    • Parted Magic 2012_2_27

    • Brand New wattOS-R5 out Now!

    • Network Security Toolkit (NST v2.16.0)

  • Red Hat Family

    • Ten year support for RHEL clones

      Following Red Hat’s announcement in late January that it was extending the standard support period for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 and 6 from seven to ten years, RHEL clones are now starting to follow suit.

    • Creanord Redefines 3G and LTE Backhaul SLA with MEF 10.2.1, Launches EchoVault with Red Hat Enterprise Linux

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu 11.10 (“Oneiric Ocelot”)

        • Create Your Own Ubuntu Distro

        • Linux computer the size of a thumb drive now available for preorder

        • FXI Cotton Candy world’s smallest PC Hands-on

          Now that smartphones are getting bigger, PC’s are getting smaller and FXI Tech’s Cotton Candy “world’s smallest PC” is here at MWC and has just received a small design change, new features, and Android 4.0 is up next. Coming in at about the same size of a pack of gum this dual-core powered PC will be available this March so we snapped a few photos of the new design and it streaming games using Ubuntu.

        • FXI’s Cotton Candy PC-on-a-stick goes up for pre-order, will come with Android 4.0 or Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu-Android Phone: Canonical’s Big Move?

          For years now, the Canonical team has been attempting to set up Ubuntu as something more than just another Linux distribution. It’s definitely been a long road, filled with both ups and downs.

          During this period of Ubuntu’s evolution, Canonical has managed to see success on both the desktop and server front. Where we’ve seen little to no activity however, is with Ubuntu on the tablet. Then again, remaining absent on the tablet may have been by design.

        • Canonical’s Ticking Time Clock

          Given Canonical’s history of abandoned users and product announcements that come up short in execution, Shuttleworth’s most recent goal of 200 million users by 2015 doesn’t compute. There’s simply no path from “declining OS vendor” to “competing on an equal footing with Microsoft, Apple and Google.” It’s the sort of rhetoric a CEO would say to rally the troops, but it’s become obvious that it’s already too late.

        • Introducing Ubuntu Stock Quotes Lens for Unity

        • Canonical Demonstrates Ubuntu TV at MWC 2012

          The Mobile World Congress 2012 event takes place these days in Barcelona, Spain, and our hard working team is there to bring you the latest news headlines.

          Today, February 28th, Canonical made a short demonstration of the Ubuntu TV device for Softpedia (check the video above).

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Release candidate for Linux Mint 12 LXDE arrives

            The Linux Mint development team has announced the availability of a release candidate (RC) for Linux Mint 12 LXDE, code-named “Lisa”. Aimed at developers and testers, the release candidate is based on Ubuntu 11.10 “Oneiric Ocelot” and includes the Linux 3.0 kernel and version 0.5.0 of the lightweight LXDE desktop environment.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Xilinx Unveils Linux OS-Based Asymmetric Multi-Processing Solution Supporting Zynq-7000 EPP at Embedded World 2012

  • Phones

    • Huawei joins Tizen

      Open source mobile platform and spiritual son of MeeGo, Tizen, has gained a new supporter in the shape of Huawei, jumping on board just as the Tizen team releases the SDK beta and source code. Huawei is the latest member of the Tizen Association Board, and apparently intends to release devices “for a range of markets” running the platform. Exactly when that will take place is unclear, however.

    • Tizen Software Platform Gains Momentum and Adds Industry Support

    • Huawei joins Tizen Association Board of Directors

    • Huawei taps Linux-based Tizen OS for phones

      The relatively obscure mobile OS, which pairs Linux with a Web app interface, wins over a major Chinese mobile-phone maker. Also: Tizen’s beta source code is out.

    • Android

      • Free Your Android!

        Android is a mostly free operating system mainly developed by Google. Unfortunately, the drivers for most devices and most applications from the “market” are not free (as in free speech, not free beer). They frequently work against the interest of the users, spy on them and sometimes can not even be removed.

      • ASUS Padfone formally unveiled: 4.3-inch Super AMOLED display, Snapdragon S4 CPU, ICS, HSPA+, coming in April

        Just like it said it would, ASUS has formally unveiled its versatile, form-changing Padfone at Mobile World Congress. There are two stories here, and they’re both quite compelling, frankly. On the one hand, you’ve got yet another high-end device, with a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED qHD display, Snapdragon’s new dual-core S4 chip, an Adreno 225 GPU, Ice Cream Sandwich and an 8-megapixel rear camera with an LED flash and f/2.2 autofocusing lens. (The front camera records at VGA resolution.) Other specs include 16 to 64GB of internal storage (expandable via microSD), Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, GPS, A-GPS, a gyroscope, 1,520mAh battery and a compass. Connectivity options include WCDMA (900, 2100 MHz), EDGE / GPRS / GSM (850, 1800 and 1900 MHz) and HSPA+, with theoretical download speeds topping out at 42Mbps. Barring LTE, we wouldn’t expect much less from a flagship launched at the world’s premier wireless show.

      • Asus introduces two new tablets at MWC under the name “Transformer Pad”

      • Motorola pits Voice Actions against Siri, claims to take the title belt (video)

        Siri may be the media darling and, admittedly she’s the one with the winning personality. But Motorola wants to remind you that Android has a voice control app of its own and argues it’s better than its iPhone 4S exclusive competition. In a series of videos, which we’ve embedded after the break, Moto pits Voice Actions against Siri on a trio of handsets — the Atrix 2, Photon 4G and Electrify. A faceless taskmaster tells the handset to send a text, pull up driving directions and load a website. In each of the tests, Voice Actions bests the polite lady inside the iPhone and gets crowned the champ. Though, we can’t help but think things would have turned out differently if the competition involved finding the meaning of life.

      • Android-x86 4.0 RC1 Released (Android Ice Cream Sandwich Optimized For Netbooks / Laptops)

      • Mountain View, California, Penguin Heaven

      • Android applications explained

Free Software/Open Source

• VA looks for Microsoft alternatives

  With an eye on reducing ongoing software costs, the Veterans Affairs Department said it is exploring alternatives to Microsoft Corp.’s longstanding Office Suite productivity software that has dominated federal desktops for two decades.

  The VA currently owns and operates the 2003, 2007 and 2010 versions of Office, which include Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and which are being used by more than 300,000 VA employees. Use of the integrated software suite has provided for interoperability between the VA’s many units.

• The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache ACE as a Top-Level Project

• WURFL: a cautionary tale

  At the beginning of this year a DMCA takedown notice was used against the open source project OpenDDR. Glyn Moody looks at the background to this story and the issues that it raises.

• Umit, Backed By Google, Prepares Open Monitor Tool

  Umit, an open source organization that’s loosely affiliated with Google, is preparing Open Monitor, a free and open source tool that will allow customers and service providers to monitor Internet connectivity conditions from any part of the world. If Open Minitor works as advertised, I wonder if there are potential integration opportunities with traditional RMM (remote monitoring and management) software that many MSPs already leverage.

• Qualifying the open-source movement

  Open source began in the late 1970s and early 80s as a way of preserving the sharing ethos upon which early computer science was built. Since then it has grown well beyond its original scope, and now underscores the creation of many creative works.

  Patent law is also directed towards a similar end, but encourages individuals rather than groups. So does the success of open source suggest patent law, as we know it, is set to change?

• Techtalk: NBN plan prices and open source software

• Spotlight on Open Source Router Platforms – Thoughts?

  We talk about networking quite a bit on AnandTech, covering everything from the upper end of home routers to WiFi stacks in smartphones and extending all the way up to 10GbE in the enterprise. What we haven’t really talked much about is some of the open source networking software that’s out there to improve and manage your network.

• Events

  • Open source ideals at HIMSS12

    A not-so-intimate group of healthcare IT professionals (a record-setting 37,032 attendees) gathered February 20 at the 2012 HIMSS conference in Las Vegas. They kicked off a week of talks, discussions and collaboration sessions addressing ways to tackle the challenges in the healthcare IT industry.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Add-ons behaving badly: the challenges of policing the Firefox ecosystem

      Firefox’s powerful add-on system is arguably one of the browser’s best features, but it is also occasionally a source of problems for Mozilla. Policing the add-on ecosystem to ensure that third-party code doesn’t degrade the quality of the Firefox user experience is a major challenge. It’s a problem across the ecosystem of web browsers, and some vendors, like Microsoft with its upcoming Metro version of Internet Explorer, don’t allow third-party plugins at all. In contrast, Firefox users have a sea of add-ons at their disposal, but there is danger lurking below the surface.

    • Mozilla Dropped Android From Boot-to-Gecko Project

      This week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Mozilla announced that Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom plan to build phones based on B2G, a platform that will run all apps on the phone, including basic apps like a phone dialer and SMS client, from the Web. Telefonica said it expects to release a low-cost phone running the technology this year; DT didn’t disclose additional details.

      When Mozilla first announced the B2G project last July, it said it expected to use parts of Android to compile the platform. But it ultimately didn’t have to, said Jonathan Nightingale, senior director of Firefox engineering for Mozilla.

    • Mozilla bets big on open Web devices

    • Mozilla Putting all the Pieces Together to be a Smartphone Contender

      When we think of HTML5 as a mobile platform, devices are not what come to mind. The mobile Web, almost by definition, is an amorphous set of technologies, standards, designs, contents and ideas. The mobile Web is more of a Wild West these days then its desktop counterpart. Mozilla is attempting to give the mobile Web shape and definition and today announced a partnership that will bring the first HTML5-based mobile operating system to a device in 2012.

• SaaS

  • Look before you leap into Hadoop

    Now that Apache.org has listed more than 150 enterprises as Hadoop users — including JPMorgan Chase, IBM, Google, Booz Allen Hamilton and the New York Times — it seems likely that the big data management system could soon become all the rage among corporate IT executives.

    But analysts and early users warn that companies should move slowly to take advantage of the open-source technology, noting that Hadoop requires extensive training along with analytics expertise not seen in many IT shops today.

  • Hadoop: Bigger than SpringSource, JBoss and MySQL combined?

  • Has OpenStack finally won over IBM?

    Since it launched two years ago, the open-source cloud computing platform OpenStack has won over an impressive array of tech backers, including Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Citrix. But not IBM.

  • Ericsson joins OpenStack, demonstrates unique virtual data center manager

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • The significance of a Foundation

    t was quite a month for the Document Foundation; the press rightly picked our three main announcements: the 3.5 release, the foundation’s incorporation and our partnership with Intel. I would like to go back to the foundation matter and show why the two other announcements are made more significant by the fact that we are now officially established and incorporated as a legal entity.

• Project Releases

  • PacketFence Open Source NAC Updated to Version 3.2.0

• Public Services/Government

  • What skills will the new government CIO leadership team need?

    But Mark Taylor, CEO of small open source company Sirius, who was appointed by the Cabinet Office to lead its New Suppliers to Government working group says the next CIO leadership must do more to open up the marketplace and work with other areas of government such as the procurement team to bring about change.

    “Some two years into the government’s term and so far not an enormous amount of progress has been made in terms of improving the number of SMEs doing business with government,” he says.

    The government still has little concept of how to deal with SMEs, he says. His company was recently contacted by a public sector organisation requiring a Linux refresh, which asked it to complete a 200-plus page booklet – a prohibitive procedure for time and cash poor small businesses.

• Licensing

  • Are App Stores Liable for Open Source Software Compliance?

    The use of open source software enables application developers to build better applications more efficiently and cost effectively. Yet, open source license compliance in the app store setting can be a bit puzzling.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Open Data

    • A single European open data licence?

      You’ll know that open data is a cause close to my heart, and I welcome your initiative. You’ll be aware that back in December I put forward an ambitious legal proposal to unlock the goldmine and open up Europe’s public sector, through a system that would be cheaper, easier to use and wider in scope than current rules. In legal terms, these take the form of amendments to the Public Sector Information (PSI) Directive: that means they are proposed by the Commission, but then must be agreed by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers before becoming law – and indeed those bodies have already held initial discussions on this topic.

  • Open Access/Content

    • Textbooks can be free

      The open-source method of learning would allow instructors to create and share information for all students to utilize. This type of education system is open to the whole world, which would share information on an immense level. While open-source books are the ideal solution to the high costs of textbooks, eTexts are a step in the right direction. In the meantime, students should use eTexts and push for an open-source learning model instead of pricey textbooks.

• Programming

  • Google Summer of Code 2012: mentoring application deadline announced

    Open source projects and organisations have until Friday, 9 March at 23:00 GMT to apply to mentor students as part of this year’s Google Summer of Code (GSoC) event. Projects interested in applying can register (sign in required) for the eighth annual event now; application requirements can be found on the FAQ page and a Mentor Manual is provided.

Leftovers

• Finance

  • Why Greece Matters to the Occupy movement, and the Occupy SF Greece Rally

  • The WikiLeaks GiFiles: Stratfor Plotted with Goldman Sachs to Set Up Investment Fund

    Stratfor, the intelligence firm at the centre of the latest WikiLeaks/Anonymous tie-up, attempted to set up an investment fund with a Goldman Sachs director to trade on the intelligence collected by Stratfor.

    In 2009, the then managing director of the investment bank, Shea Morenz, planned to utilise the intelligence from the insider network “to start up a captive strategic investment fund”.

    “What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor’s intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments, particularly government bonds, currencies and the like,” reads an email by Stratfor’s CEO George Friedman.

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Walker Using Out-of-State Tea Party Group to Indirectly Challenge Recall

    After news outlets reported Monday that Governor Scott Walker would not be challenging recall signatures, the governor quietly submitted a request asking that the state elections board accept challenges from an effort involving a Texas organization with a history of voter suppression.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • An Open Letter to Chris Dodd

      Mr. Dodd, I hear you’ve just given a speech in which you said “Hollywood is pro-technology and pro-Internet.” It seems you’re looking for interlocutors among the coalition that defeated SOPA and PIPA, and are looking for some politically feasible compromise that will do something against the problem of Internet piracy as you believe you understand it.

      There isn’t any one person who can answer your concerns. But I can speak for one element of the coalition that blocked those two bills; the technologists. I’m not talking about Google or the technology companies, mind you – I’m talking about the actual engineers who built the Internet and keep it running, who write the software you rely on every day of your life in the 21st century.

    • ACTA

      • What’s (still) wrong with ACTA, and why governments should reject the illegitimate agreement

        Negotiations on ACTA were formerly announced on October 23, 2007. The ACTA announcement came less than three weeks after the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted the “Development Agenda,” and was part of a broader strategy by right holders to move norm setting and technical assistance into more secretive, closed and captured institutions.