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
- IBM's Kyndryl Down Almost 20% in 5 Days, IBM Down 35% in About 6 Months, Further 'Staff Reductions' at Red Hat (Problems Paying Salaries!)
- Will this year's festivities be Krishna's last?
- More Mass Layoffs at Microsoft, Only Weeks After the "Buyout" Nonsense (Glorified Severance to Highest-Paid American Staff)
- Next up it is LinkedIn
- IBM Lost Nearly 33% in "Value" in 3 Months (Shares Down $100), But Nobody Held Accountable
- This is a truly dysfunctional company
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- Links 13/05/2026: Sudan War Enters Fourth Year and Strait of Hormuz Leaves Safe Passage a Gamble
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 13/05/2026: Useless Protests and Foofaraw on Geminispace
- Links for the day
- Mainstream Media: Microsoft Says No Layoffs. Microsoft: OK, There Are Layoffs.
- Where is Waggener Edstrom/Frank Shaw now?
- IBM is in a Freefall, When Will IBM's CEO Fall on His Sword?
- Since he controls the Board, is anyone in a position to fire him?
- At GitLab, "AI" is "All India"
- It says "as much as 30%," but they also hire and it's clear what demography is targeted
- Verified Accounts of Microsoft Offering 'Retirement' (Layoffs) to People in Their 40s, Over Two Decades Earlier Than Retirement Age
- It's not even about performance, it's about age (or "cost" as well as location; they cheapen the labour)
- Links 13/05/2026: Slop Turns Into 2008-Style Subprime Bubble, Mass Layoffs at Starbucks
- Links for the day
- They Don't Like the Layoffs, So They Are Rebranding Them
- Layoffs are layoffs
- IBM Downgraded as the Shares Sink to New Lows
- The current strategy of IBM is financial engineering, wage reductions, and mass layoffs that the corporate media refuses to even write about
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 12, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, May 12, 2026
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- Links for the day
- How the European Patent Office Became a Crime and Corruption Hub, One of Europe's Biggest
- incomplete outline
- Techrights at 19.5 (We Started in 2006, Days After the Microsoft/Novell Deal)
- When Novell bought Ximian (run by the "best friend" of Graveley) it brought trouble to all of us, not just to Novell
- In Croatia, Microsoft Windows Share Sank From 98% to All-Time Low of 67% (or 28% If One Counts Android)
- statements made last week (and last month) by Microsoft's CEO confirm that Windows is rapidly losing users
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 75 Out of 200: All True, All Verifiable, Unlike Garrett and Graveley Lying to at Least Three High Court Judges About What They Did
- A lot of what I said a year ago not only turned out to be correct; it was moreover affirmed by Garrett after he had sworn on the Bible and put himself at risk to his liberty
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XXI - EPO President Campinos Bribing to Buy His Seat, But Cautions Staff Against Bribery
- This isn't a democratic institution
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: Spring Cleaning and New GemText Software
- Links for the day
- Links 12/05/2026: Samsung Sued by Dua Lipa (Publicity Rights), ‘Savage Love’ Copyright Infringement Lawsuit
- Links for the day
- IBM Falls to One-year Low
- At one point or threshold does the Board (controlled by the CEO) sack the CEO?
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: On Astronomy and Stargazing, Coyote Time, and Freenom
- Links for the day
- Links 12/05/2026: Data Centres Destroying Neighbourhoods, "Care Workers Are Saying No to 24-Hour Workdays"
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman to Give Public Talk in Erlangen, Germany (Next European Tour)
- Seems like a large room
- Google "Hey Hi" (Slop) Having a Stroke, Thinks I am Married to the Grandmother of My Grandfather
- Seriously!
- If IBM Suddenly Vanished in the 1980s, There Would be Chaos. Not Anymore.
- IBM's management has rendered IBM more irrelevant than ever before
- Beehiiv and Substack Are Platform Lock-in (Similar to Vendor Lock-in), Don't Use Beehiiv and Substack (and the Likes of These)
- Proprietary platforms are a problem. Some people "get it" sooner than others.
- Gitlab is in Trouble and Its Shares Have Collapsed
- Down almost 80% since it began [...] The real issue has nothing to do with slop, it is a lack/loss of customers and erosion of the company's theoretical "value"
- Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Are "Offers" (Like "Job Offers"), Culling Experienced and Highly-Paid Staff is "Softer Workforce-reduction Strategy"
- Media sites that play along with those lies don't do journalism, they're in the PR industry
- Under IBM, Mass Layoffs at Red Hat No Better Than Oracle Under Larry Ellison (Treating Workers Like Disposables - Even Enemies - Overnight)
- under IBM the respect for the worker (or peer) does not exist
- The Slop-Amplified Fear of Privilege Escalation (Local, Not Remote) in Linux, the Kernel
- we are meant to assume this is no better and no worse than Microsoft intentionally putting back doors in everything, even encryption
- Jim Zemlin/Linux Foundation Selling Anthropic Slop After Getting Bribed for Slop Marketing ('Linux' Foundation is a Pay-to-Say For-Profit Marketing Company That Buys and Manipulates the Media Based on False Pretences)
- Look what they've done to Steven Vaughan-Nichols (SJVN)
- GitLab the Latest Company to Do Mass Layoffs and Use Slop as the Go-to Excuse (GitLab Users Should Worry Too)
- This round of layoffs (disguised as something else) has nothing to do with slop ("hey hi"). It's about commercial problems.
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part XX - EPO Management's Unified (One) Voice or Policy is, Doing Cocaine is OK When You're a Friend and/or Family of President Campinos
- The management needs to resign to save the Office
- Technology Not Meant to Last
- A society apathetic towards declining production (or manufacturing) standards will end up ripped off
- statCounter Cannot 'See' Chinese Operating Systems That Gain Many Millions of Users Per Month
- There is no way for statCounter to recognise or show the market share of HarmonyOS
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 74 Out of 200: The Basis of My Lawsuit Against Alex Graveley, Who Helps Garrett Stack the Docket in Another Continent
- claim against the Serial Strangler from Microsoft
- Update on Slop About "Linux"
- "Linux" is a term many people are interested it, so it's not shocking that slopfarms target it
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, May 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, May 11, 2026
- GAFAM (Microsoft) "Cloud Computing" Means Another Country's Military Accesses All Your Data
- reminder that confidentiality and Clown Computing are complete opposites
- Another Discrimination Lawsuit Against IBM and Workers Say IBM Culls Older Workers (Just Like Microsoft)
- If IBM fails to retain some of the smartest people, then what is the future of IBM?
- Gemini Links 12/05/2026: Android Nostalgia and Switching to Guix
- Links for the day
- Links 11/05/2026: Another Oracle Setback and Mass Layoffs in Iran
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/05/2026: Older Can Be Faster and Textmode Workflow
- Links for the day
- Links 11/05/2026: The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Admits It Only Reacts When It's Too Late (Damage Already Done), Ombudsman’s Animal Cruelty HK Report
- Links for the day
- If It Takes You a Second to Serve (or Receive) a Page, That's Definitely Too Slow
- For speeds at milliseconds (e.g. for pages to fully load in a tenth of a second) the pages must be ready to be sent as soon as they're requested
- It's Not About Speed, It is About Patience and Adherence to Truth, Principles, Scientific Integrity
- attacks on us only ever made us stronger - a lesson that our adversaries have learned the hard way
- Cyber Show Does it Like Techrights: Static and Gemini Protocol as 'First-Class Citizen'
- HTML and GemText (over Gemini Protocol) would be rendered in tandem
- Libya's Share on the Web: 5.2% GNU/Linux
- GNU/Linux has hit an all-time high there
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 73 Out of 200: Microsoft's Graveley and Garrett Remain Closely Connected in May 2026 ("Tag-Teaming" Against Bloggers in Another Continent)
- The phrase "judge a person by their friends" seems applicable here
- Codecs and Software Patents - Part VI - The European Patent Office, Nokia, Microsoft, Sisvel, and More
- Whatever Nokia used to be, it's certainly not an ally and a lot of the turmoil at the EPO is the fault of companies like Nokia
- Discussions About When the Axe Falls at IBM/Kyndryl (11,000 Layoffs Estimated)
- "Kyndryl restructuring should reduce overhead functions and reduce the number of managers that lack technical knowledge"
- A World After Microsoft (and GAFAM) and After GitHub Shuts Down
- the only growth area is debt
- Fake News, Propaganda, and Misinformation: Microsoft Investing Money It Does Not Have in "Hey Hi" (for "Entertainment Purposes" Only)
- This will not end well
- Today the Whole European Patent Office (EPO) is on Strike and Next Monday an Even Bigger Strike
- the media refuses to cover these and is thus complicit
- The Corrupt Lecture the Non-Corrupt - Part IXX - EPO Management Speaks of Reputation and Integrity While Putting Cocaine Addicts in Management
- If the EPO values its "reputation", then it needs to start by ousting the management
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, May 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, May 10, 2026
- Links 11/05/2026: Security Breaches, Politics, and Energy Crunch
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- Gemini Links 10/05/2026: "Accidental Cameras" and "Addictive" Interfaces in Social Control Media
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