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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- What does this tell us about the state of the media?
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- IBM is killing Red Hat
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- Links for the day
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- Tomorrow should be sunny (at long last!) and a generally productive dayProductive Week Ahead
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- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
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- From what we can gather (screenshot above), today many people leave IBM and Red Hat
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- His birthday is just around the corner.
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- Windows is now down to 7%
- Never Miss a Good Opportunity to Shut Up and Drink Coffee
- Threats come at a cost; each time you issue a threat you stigmatise yourself as a bully
- Last Month Matthew Garrett Said Ridiculous Things After His Spouse Had Called Him a "Rapist", Now He's Trying to Take the Site Offline and Put My Family in Prison
- The real issue of concern to him (and his alleged reputation) is the spouse and the matter is to be dealt with in America, not the UK
- Reporting to Our Politicians/MPs the Failure of the SRA to Stop Hired Guns Who Help Americans (Men Who Attack Women and Nowadays Also Attack British Reporters)
- About a month ago my wife wrote to politicians to get the ball rolling
- The Topic Many People Don't Want to Talk or Write About
- "DEI" is inherently about making racial and gender patterns better reflect society's
- XBox is Virtually Dead Already, What Next Will Die at Microsoft?
- Now that there are mass layoffs at Microsoft datacentres it is not premature to speculate about what dies after XBox
- For the First Time, statCounter Measures Internet Explorer at 0.01% "Market Share"
- What Microsoft replaced it with is just a Chrome clone with extra spyware
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- more than 1 in 10 desktop/laptop requests is estimated to be GNU/Linux
- "Here in the UK, GNU/Linux rose to all-time high at Windows' expense"
- Will this entail Software Freedom as well? This depends on all of us
- Links 02/03/2026: Claude Code Causes a Mexican Government Cyberattack, "London Repair Week" Noted
- Links for the day
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- It's a scheme, a scam, an elaborate fraud
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- There's a "hidden cost" when one participates (for profit) in "pump and dump" schemes
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- It 'unpersoned' the developer
- LLM Slop Does Not Know People (It Knows Nothing) and Cannot Distinguish Between People. It's a Recipe for Disaster.
- no way of knowing who's who
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- Links 02/03/2026: "Not Envious of Billionaires" and Palantir SLAPPs "Swiss Magazine For Accurately Reporting That The Swiss Government Didn't Want Palantir"
- Links for the day
- There Has Never Been a Better Time to Quit Social Control Media
- Those networks are selling something. And that something is not peace because peace does not sell "attention".
- Microsoft Users Drowning in Slop, If They Complain Microsoft Censors Them
- Like an authoritarian regime
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 01, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 01, 2026
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- Being easily accessible all the time matters to us
- Dr. Andy Farnell on "Good Tech"
- in the age of "rent everything" and "own nothing"
- Gemini Links 01/03/2026: Simpler Software and Announcing OFFLFIRSOCH (OFFLine-FIRst SOftware CHallenge) 2026
- Links for the day
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part V - Jobs at the EPO for Those Connected to Cocaine Addicts (Skills Not Required)
- EPO management is trying to shoot the messenger
- Booz Allen Hamilton, the Former Employer of Edward Snowden (NSA Contractor), is Drowning in Debt
- Can Supreme Leader Cheeto bail it out like he does slop companies?
- On the Concept of "Protected Class" (or Race) at IBM
- It's self-harming as in practice it imperils the company and harms the reputation/brand
- The Mass Layoffs at Microsoft That Nobody in the "News Industry" Wants to Talk About (and TheLayoff.com Censored, Then It Censored the Evidence of the Censorship)
- They basically cover up how they censored the news about Microsoft layoffs
- Richard Stallman to Give at Least Three Talks in Switzerland, Starting This Week
- No mention (yet) of the Bern talk
- On Who 'Speaks for' Techrights
- typically a case of misrepresenting the site
- 'FSFE' an Imposter in Europe, Paid by GAFAM to Represent GAFAM Interests
- The Microsoft-sponsored 'FSFE', which violates the terms of use of its name, is causing confusion [...] formally-recognised institutions got tricked into thinking that the Microsoft-sponsored 'FSFE' is the FSF
- Lots of Lies From the Slop Industry
- The slop industry relies on fake news to give a notion or fake demand
- Links 01/03/2026: American Plutocrats Buy American Media While American Constitution Shredded
- Links for the day
- Teaser: The Next Series About the SRA, Which Would be Just as Effective as It Is Right Now If It Had Zero Employees
- the lapdog (of the "litigation industry") that is meant to be perceived as a watchdog
- Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part I - Introduction
- The SRA is a sham. Many people know this already, but we want to document our own experiences with it.
- Live Simply, Live Better
- Life isn't about "collecting" possessions; it's about doing things that matter and accumulating knowledge so as to make better choices
- Now That XBox is Pretty Much Dead and There Are Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
- This means our predictions about Microsoft (and XBox) are "falling into place"
- Gemini Links 01/03/2026: "In the Spirit of OFFLFIRSOCH" and "Delete Patreon"
- Links for the day
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- IBM is more than happy to work with autocracies
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- Rob Thomas or "RT"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
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- IRC logs for Saturday, February 28, 2026
- Slop is Distraction
- LibreWolf will never include any of this slop nonsense, no matter if toggled on or off
- Cult inquiry: Parliament of Victoria, last chance to have your say
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
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- Links for the day
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- As per the SUEPO diary [...] We still have an ongoing series about the EPO, with several more series to start later
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- Unregulated industries will lose their credibility as there is a threat of growing perception that they operate outside the law rather than practice law
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- Probably my most productive month, ever
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- Still Lots of IBM Departures
- It's not that we lack evidence of IBM layoffs. It's just that we have ample evidence of the press not doing its job (or barely existing anymore).
- The Register MS Standards: Promote a Ponzi Scheme in Exchange of Money
- Once upon a time it was a serious publisher. Months ago it was taken over by a Microsoft person.
- Slopfarms' Demise Looks Like the Beginning of the End (Lowered Demand for Slop)
- Slop about "Linux" has gotten hard to find this past week
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- insightful, as usual
- Links 28/02/2026: "Tehran’s Two-Tiered Internet", "Internet Under Fire"
- Links for the day
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- Tomorrow we start a new series for the new month
- Links 28/02/2026: Bill Epsteingate Admits Sex With Young Girls, "Epstein Files Are the Horror That Keeps on Giving"
- Links for the day
- IBM: Where Companies Come to Perish
- thelayoff.com is censoring stories
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- The Slopfarms' Business Case (or Business Model) Never Existed and Nowadays, in 2026, They've Mostly Collapsed
- Hopefully by year's end many slop suppliers will be offline and slopfarms that rely on them throw in the towel
- March in London Today Against Slop's Harms to Society (and the Environment), Starting at 12:00 GMT at the Microsoft OpenAI Office
- Today there is a protest in London (UK)
- Microsoft Mass Layoffs Have Officially Resumed, Microsoft's Waggener Edstrom/Frank Shaw Lied
- "The former employees say this was a mass layoff"
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 27, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, February 27, 2026
