03.21.12

Links 21/3/2012: Torvalds Secrets, Radeon HD 7000 Driver Now Free/Libre

Posted in News Roundup at 7:15 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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

GNU/Linux

Open-Source (free) MultiMachine Project Aims to Spark Manufacturing Revolution in Developing World
Kernel Space
- Steve Jobs tried to hire Linux founder a decade ago
- Linux Kernel Performance: Flame Graphs
  
  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.
- Long term kernels 2.6.27.62 and 2.6.32.59
- Graphics Stack
  - AMD Open Sources Radeon HD 7000 Driver
Applications
- TEA: A Smooth Text Editor That Hits the Sweet Spot
  
  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.
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - Dear Esther: A Source Engine Game On Linux
    
    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.
Desktop Environments
- GNOME Desktop
  - GNOME 2 vs. GNOME 3
    
    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.
Distributions
- New Releases
  - Ankur has launched Shishir 2012
  - Legacy OS 4 Mini is Here!
    
    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!
- Debian Family
  - Debian Stable — set it and forget it — spoils me for fresh Linux Mint 12 on some very nice ZaReason hardware
    
    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.
Devices/Embedded
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Toshiba debuts 7-inch LT170 tablet

Free Software/Open Source

A Peek Behind the Curtain at Puppet Labs

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.
Open source moving in mobile

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.
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - Chromium OS Desktop Shell Eschews Google’s Cloud-Only Mantra
    
    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.
CMS
- Winning the hearts and minds: Dries Buytaert’s DrupalCon keynote
Licensing
- Understanding Open Source Licenses and Obligations
- How important is software compliance?
  
  Are developers actually chasing down license violations?
Openness/Sharing
- How to do open research: 5 basic principles
  
  There are some pretty basic things that a researcher can do to make their work into an open content project. Here are a few.
Programming
- My search findings on Learning C/C++ Programming and Using an IDE

Leftovers

Finance
- Banks Weren’t Meant to Be Like This. What Will their Future Be – and What is the Government’s Proper Financial Role?
Censorship
- America: Iran Can’t Control The Internet, Only We Can
  
  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.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- Take Action: ISPs Selling Out Customers, Pushing Backdoor SOPA
  
  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.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - ACTA
    - De Gucht goes rogue again
      
      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.