Links 21/3/2012: Torvalds Secrets, Radeon HD 7000 Driver Now Free/Libre
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-03-22 00:15:30 UTC
- Modified: 2012-03-22 00:15:30 UTC
Contents
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Kernel Space
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To get the most out of your systems, you want detailed insight into what the operating system kernel is doing. A typical approach is to sample stack traces; however, the data collected can be time consuming to read or navigate. Flame Graphs are a new way to visualize sampled stack traces, and can be applied to the Linux kernel for some useful (and stunning!) visualizations.
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Graphics Stack
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Applications
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The TEA Text Editor is a very handy writing tool that delivers a much different user interface. For most computer users cranking out words or program code for digital consumption, text editors are often preferable to feature-bloated word processors. TEA pours on features yet keeps from getting too steamy.
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Instructionals/Technical
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Games
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You may have heard a few days ago that Dear Esther, a game built upon Valve's Source Engine, would be ported to Linux and released in the coming months. Well, here's more details about that Source-based game is getting to Linux.
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Desktop Environments
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GNOME Desktop
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Users who choose between GNOME 2 and GNOME 3 are rarely making that decision on a purely rational basis. In my experience, users of GNOME 2 are often choosing what they know, while users of GNOME 3 are technophiles who enjoy anything that is new.
Neither is likely to go over the two generations of GNOME feature by feature. In many cases, the choice seems made before login.
But what happens when the two desktop environments are compared in general features? I'm a fan of neither GNOME 2 nor GNOME 3, but I decided to find out.
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New Releases
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Today sees the release of Legacy OS 4 Mini an Update / Replacement for TEENpup 2010 Mini Beta. Those updating from TEENpup 2010 Mini Beta will need to save any important documents, music etc to an external Hard Drive, USB stick etc as a full reinstall is required to update to this new version, sorry!
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Debian Family
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Spending a couple of days intensely running Linux Mint 12 on a very nice desktop PC sent to me for review by ZaReason (much more about that later), I probably shouldn't have been surprised by the annoying bugs in Mint that made me a lot less productive than I am in the Debian Squeeze system I've been running on my laptop since late 2010.
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In this interview, Luke Kanies, CEO and founder of Puppet Labs, explains why the Puppet configuration management tool is a huge hit with sys admins, and tells us what to expect next from the popular open source project.
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We got another reminder of how disruptive open source software is to mobile computing this week, when Linux and Android merged back together. This appears to be good news for a number of parties, but Android and Linux developers and users seem particularly likely to benefit. The inclusion of Android code in the Linux kernel and the ability for Linux developers to more easily work on the Android environment and applications also ties into some of the key topics we’ll be covering in a Webcast March 21 titled ‘Open Source, A Tale of Two Cities in the Mobile Enterprise,’ presented by 451 Research and Black Duck Software.
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Web Browsers
Chrome
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Ever since Google started working on its Chrome OS operating system, it has had a pronounced focus on allowing users to only work with cloud-based data and applications. This has drawn criticism from many users, and some from us here at OStatic, as seen in this post. With Chrome OS, Google placed a heavy bet on the idea that consumers and business users would have no problem storing data and using applications in the cloud, without working on the locally stored data/applications model that they're used to.
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CMS
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Licensing
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Are developers actually chasing down license violations?
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Openness/Sharing
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There are some pretty basic things that a researcher can do to make their work into an open content project. Here are a few.
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Programming
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Finance
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Censorship
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The Obama administration has condemned Iran for trying to take control of the Internet. In addition, The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued guidance and licensing information to further support the free flow of information to citizens of Iran – a freedom the Iranian regime has consistently denied to its people.
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Internet/Net Neutrality
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They're selling us out. Just weeks after Internet users from across the globe came together to to beat SOPA, the major ISPs are cutting a deal with Big Content to restrict web access for users who are accused of piracy.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Copyrights
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ACTA
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Concerned of the ACTA dossier many citizens contacted the press staffers of his colleague Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Commissioner Michel Barnier is right when he emphasized the need for better communications. Karel De Gucht had the opportunity to embrace the public attention to ACTA, and strengthen the institutional cohesion with the European public, help the transformation of the EU towards an “Europe of the citizens”. He didn’t exercise this opportunity, and it appears to me the reason is a fundamental disrespect to democratic principles, he doesn’t take the public seriously.
Recent Techrights' Posts
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- The "Gold" Rule: Taking Money for Reputation Laundering and Openwashing Under the "Linux" Banner
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- LLM Slop Says Slop is "coming for white-collar jobs. Microsoft’s layoffs are just the start"
- Look what the Web has become
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- Linux.com as Spamfarm of the Linux Foundation, Partner of the Gates Foundation
- They no longer publish articles
- Slopwatch: The Typical Slopfarms and the 'Brian Fagioli Dilemma'
- To the Web and to society (exposed to the Web) LLMs are a net negative
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- Gemini Links 16/04/2025: The 2010s Are Calling and Why "Tools Will Not Liberate Us"
- Links for the day
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- Google Promotes Fake Articles (LLM Slop) Instead of Originals, Relaying Microsoft's Linux FUD Emanating From Microsoft LLMs
- Shame on Google for participating in the slopfest
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- Windows at 18.9%, Android 60.2%
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- When Fedora Said It Was Looking to Integrate "AI" It Meant Promoting Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware and GPL-Violating Slop
- When they say "AI" they mean Microsoft
- It Used to be IBM, Now It's Microsoft (Why You Need to Fire Microsofters or CIOs Working for Microsoft)
- Typically the only effective solution is to identity and remove Microsofters from one's project/organisation (before they can bring more Microsofters in)
- IBM Closes Offices and Labs in the United States to Open New Ones in India
- It's not layoffs per se; they're substituting/swapping veteran employees for lesser-paid ones
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Tuesday, April 15, 2025
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- Links for the day
- Links 15/04/2025: Touchable Volumetric Display and Resistance to American Spying Firms
- Links for the day
- Links 15/04/2025: Some People Cannot Read and Re-discovering of 'Web 1.0'
- Links for the day
- Links 15/04/2025: China Admits Targetting Critical Infrastructure Using CALEA Back Doors, NASCAR Cracked by Windows Usage
- Links for the day
- Why We Support Carole Cadwalladr (Even If We Don't Agree With Everything She Said)
- I first became aware of Cadwalladr's work a long time ago
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- There is a strong element of "free press" here
- A Coalition or a Coup of Sexism
- In the Free software community it's hard to avoid this issue
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- He makes it seem like he's endorsing his attackers
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- and a total of nearly 4,500
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Monday, April 14, 2025
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- Hundreds of Microsoft Layoffs (Net Headcount Decrease) in the United Kingdom
- headcount decreased
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- Links for the day
- The Dilemma of Web Browsers Lying About What They Are (in Order to Bypass Discriminatory Gateways Like Clownflare) Worsens Due to LLM Slop
- LLM crawlers/scrapers have made sites more restrictive and hostile towards browsers that are potent but not "famous"
- What Really Matters to Companies is Net Income or Profit (Bankruptcy is Possible Even With High Revenue)
- We ought to stop talking about revenue without focusing on actual profit
- Carole Cadwalladr Talks About How Big Business Tried to Silence Her (and Why You Might be Next)
- Our story is very different from Cadwalladr's for many reasons
- Companies Conspiring to Keep Salaries Down and Undermine Competition
- People who do all the practical work are being paid less and made to work for much longer
- Links 14/04/2025: Disinformation, Public Disdain for LLMs, and "Lessons on Tyranny"
- Links for the day
- LLM Slop and SEO SPAM Take Us Further Away From Facts (the Case of IBM Layoffs)
- Some of these can impact Red Hat as well
- Gemini Links 14/04/2025: Ween and Historic Ada Project Management
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 13, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, April 13, 2025
- Influencers: Red Hat, Inc's IPO, 1999, post-mortem on the directed share offer to open source developer community
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock