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
- Techrights Thanks Every Single EPO Worker Who Went on Strike Today
- We have so much in common
- EPO Staff Union: The Strike Actions and Other Industrial Actions "Have Already Delivered Measurable Gains."
- SUEPO Munich has just issued a statement to staff
- Based on Insider Leaks, Asha Sharma's Job is to Kill XBox While Talking About "AI"
- They cite SneakerSO
- Linux Kernel 7.0 Release Candidate Comes Out, Stallman Turns 73 in Three Weeks
- It predates Microsoft and Apple
- In Greenland, Firefox's Gecko and KHTML (KDE, But Bastardised by Apple) Bigger Than Chrome
- Are those Danes recognising the risk of monoculture?
- IBM Layoffs Definitely Still Happening
- Contrary to what some apologists try to say
- Don't Use the Future Tense to Discuss the Slop Bubble
- Wall Street does not react to reality; it reacts to panic, which is related to expectations
- The Broken Window Industry and Its Ongoing Desires to Make Technology Less Dependable
- Reliable computing is becoming harder to find
- New XBox CEO Typecast in Social Control Media
- Microsoft apologists will fall back on (or shuffle between) the "racist" and "sexist" angle
- Sites Without JavaScript Deserve Your Visits
- We're not arguing that the Web should be as simple or barebones like Gemini Protocol/GemText
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- Security and blobs, by Alex Oliva (GNU Linux-Libre)
- Reprinted with permission from Alex Oliva
- Trusting the Evil Maids
- Don't listen to liars and frauds
- Aaron Swartz Has Already Explained What Reddit/Conde Nast Meant to Him and Why We Should All Avoid Reddit If We Value Software Freedom
- Aaron Swartz did not start Reddit
- Valnet's Good Legacy of GNU/Linux Advocacy in Journalism Form
- Let's hope they carry on like this
- Coders and Thinkers
- I used to be a hyper-productive coder; these days I do more thinking and writing
- Slop (So-called 'genAI') is Not a Skill, Slop Gets You Suspended or Even Sacked, It Can Eventually End Your Career
- Benj Edwards, a so-called 'Senior' so-called 'AI' so-called 'Reporter'
- Quitting Reddit (Social Control Media Controlled by Conde Nast)
- There is a new post in Reddit
- There is No Such Thing as "AI Skills", "AI Competency", "AI Fluency" Etc.
- Slop does not give anybody an advantage
- Links 23/02/2026: "What Boston Will Cost Me" and Women as Hostages
- Links for the day
- IRC Usage Levels Seem to be Rebounding This Year
- it looks like the total count (tally) of users increased a lot lately
- Microsoft Tricked the Media Into Lying About Microsoft Layoffs in January. Now It Does the Same (in February).
- Microsoft has got the media by the wallet (or balls)
- Free Software Projects Become Slow Due to Slop
- It does not improve efficiency or productivity, it reduces both
- EPO Strike Has Begun (or Resumed)
- The EPO status quo is untenable
- Links 23/02/2026: US Surrenders to Climate Change (to Benefit Oil Companies and Slop), UK Court of Appeal to Hear Mazur
- Links for the day
- GAFAM Jobs No Longer Lucrative
- Those days are long gone
- Germans Recognise the Contagion is Digital, Not Racial
- How to dismantle or neutralise those weapons? Turn them off
- Free Software (or Software Freedom) Ain't No Religion
- It's hardly surprising that some of the loudest opponents of Software Freedom and its luminaries also disregard or bend facts
- Dr. Andy Farnell Explains Why the Slop Industry is Like Trespassers and Thieves
- interesting new article about robots.txt files
- The Demise of the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) and Profession Based Around Bullying With SLAPPs and Empty Threats
- For press to survive and thrive in the UK we need the hired gun to be submerged
- Gemini Links 23/02/2026: Imperfect Journal, Evil, and "Progress Goes Boing!"
- Links for the day
- “Power is a Thing of Perception. They Don't Need to be Able to Kill You. They Just Need You to Think They are Able to Kill You” ― Julian Assange
- When leadership becomes corrupt enough to lose a sense of authority its days are numbered; it'll be replaced
- IBM Has Already Admitted 2026 Mass Layoffs (in 4Q Earnings Call)
- We showed this earlier this month, but some people bring that up again
- Reasons to Go on Strike in the European Patent Office (EPO)
- If you live in Europe and don't work for the EPO, you can still help
- First speech of Chanellor Hitler, Andreas Tille & Debian denounce Branden Robinson
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, February 22, 2026
- More and More Projects Quit Microsoft GitHub This Year, XBox Will See the Same
- Microsoft GitHub's embrace of slop as "strategic" gives us a clue of what'll happen to XBox very soon
- Google "Intelligence": Despite Slam-Dunk or "Smoking Gun" Proof, Drug Abuse in EPO Leadership is "Unverified Allegations"
- Google's slop (so-called 'AI') lacks intelligence
- 8,000 Pages/Articles Per Year
- We're eager to maintain a good production/publication pace and illuminate the sinister attempts to interfere with Freedom of the Press in the UK
- Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Okonomiyaki and Midcrunch Crisis
- Links for the day
- Freedom Means Accepting He or She Who is Different
- In the Debian community we're sadly seeing some authoritarian overreach this month
- EPO Strikes Are Already Working
- Campinos is already going "into hiding"
- Microsoft Windows Falls to Another New All-Time Low in Guatemala, It is a Bottomless Pit
- Maybe users come to realise that Windows means back doors and those doors are open to a regime that ought not be trusted
- "XBox" Will Become Slop After Mass Layoffs
- When all else fails, "AI it"
- Links 22/02/2026: Hardware Price Hikes Across the Board, "Microsoft Issues Statement on Potential Layoffs"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft "Layoffs Incoming"
- This transition isn't about promoting games; it's about canning the console
- Links 22/02/2026: "Bloat of Modern Fitness Apps" and Wikipedia Deprecates Archive.today
- Links for the day
- Our IRC 5-Year Anniversary (for Self-Hosted) is Fast Approaching
- A week from now it's March already
- Gemini Links 22/02/2026: Dream Job Gone and Slop in Taskwarrior
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, February 21, 2026
- GNU/Linux Grew a Lot in Nicaragua
- We've not noticed until today
- Techrights Has Over 1,000 Good Articles 'in the Tank'
- Drafts, notes, and lengthy documents
- New Article Challenges Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) for Choosing the Wrong SLAPP Cases to Investigate
- The one point we can agree on is that SRA does not know how to correctly select the worst culprits/offenders
- The Brand 'Watsonx' is a Terrible Name for IBM 'Hey Hi' (Chatbots) Because Watson Agreed With Adolf Hitler
- Almost a century has passed and IBM still believes that selling "intelligence", chatbots in particular, should be done under the name "Watson"
- Why IBM is Still Scary and Dangerous
- Keep a distance from "Big Blue" Bully
- Measuring the Growth of Our Mission and Community
- Something between experiment and prototype
- Richard Stallman in the United States - Part III - Georgia Tech Did a Fine Job Upholding Free Speech Principles
- The real problem was social control media (toxic)
- Debian's Master is Deleting Criticism of SystemD and Other Things (On-Topic and Published by Debian Developers), Resorts to the Excuse Messages Are "Too Long"
- Censorship serves nobody except the masters that control this censorship
- Digg's Latest Incarnation Already Failed, It's Infested With LLM Slop
- Many submissions go to slopfarms and some get summarised by slop
- Gemini Links 21/02/2026: Veganism and DeskPi RackMate T0
- Links for the day
- On The Web, XBox Already a Dying Breed
- Down to about 0.05% on large machines, based on statCounter [...] Microsoft will never publicly admit or say how many billions it lost on the XBox
- 2026 a Year of 'Top-Down' Microsoft Layoffs (Management First)
- Stay tuned for what comes next
- Your "Likes" Aren't Yours and They're Mostly "Worthless Clicks"
- Social hermits are not popular, irrespective of how many "Facebook friends" or "likes" they get
- Waggener Edstrom/Frank Shaw Lied, There Are Definitely Microsoft Layoffs
- Microsoft never issued a formal statement, it made allusions by proxy
- Microsoft-Controlled Media With Embargo and Press Operatives
- This won't be the last example of media manipulation for narrative control or face-saving "damage control"
- Slop Hype Makes Our Core Technology Less Reliable and Far Less Resilient (We Pay for the Catastrophe That Follows)
- Only slop-free projects can be trusted
- Going for 1,000 (Days of Uptime)
- universal records are vastly better
- Firefox is No-Go in China, Not Even 1% "Market Share" Anymore
- Given Mozilla's utterly rubbish marketing these days (politics over technical aspects), set aside the cheerleading for slop, there's hardly a chance of Mozilla Firefox reaching or exceeding 10% again
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part III - It's in His Eyes
- Workers are free to draw their own conclusions
- Links 21/02/2026: Tensions Over Iran and Illegal Cheeto Tariffs, Presidential Approval Sags
- Links for the day
- Links 21/02/2026: "Moving Away From Cloudflare", Many Layoffs or Shutdowns in Games (Including XBox/Microsoft)
- Links for the day
- GNU Linux-libre is a Grown-Up Today
- "before that, every distro that wanted to respect its users' freedom had to remove itself all of the binary blobs that were distributed as part of the kernel Linux's so-called sources"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 20, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, February 20, 2026
- Gemini Links 21/02/2026: "The Evil of Action" and Slop Bots Causing Great Harm Online (Not Just the Web)
- Links for the day