Links 23/3/2012: Commodore Linux, Iceland Moves to Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
- Modified: 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
Contents
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Commodore USA has released the new AMIGA mini and the VIC mini, two small form factor PCs with a bit of retro styling, but very new and powerful guts
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Kernel Space
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Graphics Stack
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The Gallium3D compute infrastructure, which is the underlying work for supporting OpenCL over this open-source graphics driver architecture, is on approach for landing in the very near future. This has been one damn good day for open-source Linux graphics drivers following the earlier Nouveau surprise announcements.
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Soon, the kernel will support several AMD graphics cores that are used in recent Radeon graphics cards and in various upcoming processors. In systems with Intel graphics, using hibernation can cause memory corruption. The development of Linux 3.4 has started.
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Applications
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Instructionals/Technical
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Wine
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Desktop Environments
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
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Jonathan Riddell, the KDE developer, recently announced that Canonical stopping funding the Kubuntu project and reassigning him in a new role. Looking at Canonical's focus on Unity, that's not a surprising move. I don't know how Canonical works, but looking at the new challenges they set for themselves with every release, I do think they need all the hands they can get. The result of that hard work is evident - Unity is shaping up really well.
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Have an old computer lying around that you’d like to use for some light web surfing, document editing, and other tasks? I mean like a PC with a 1999-era Intel Pentium III processor? It turns out there’s an OS for that… and it’s not Windows 98.
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In my last blog about Linux Live Environments, I mentioned REMnux, an environment specifically built for malware analysis. I'd spent a little time with REMnux when it first came out, but decided to take the latest version (3.0) for a test drive.
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New Releases
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Debian Family
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Derivatives
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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Canonical’s next long-term support release of its flagship Linux distribution, Ubuntu 12.04 is in late beta. This next release, due out on April 26th, is in beta now. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and so far, so good.
Indeed, the new Ubuntu is good enough already that I’ve it on my default Ubuntu system: a 2009-era Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. No, it’s not fast, but unlike Windows 8’s beta, you don’t need a fast computer for Ubuntu.
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From a pool of thousands, 15 photographic wallpapers have been chosen for inclusion in Ubuntu 12.04.
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With Ubuntu remaining uninterested in systemd, the Upstart init system continues to be developed. Released today was Upstart 1.5 with a few new features.
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However, while that beefed up version may be available at some point, costs and demand will likely hold it off for a while, the popular mini-computer's designer said.
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Phones
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Android
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NASA has made great efforts to get the public interested in their various projects and avenues of research using tools such as social media networks and their suite of mobile applications. Unfortunately, those applications have almost exclusively been iPhone exclusive. Of the over 20 mobile applications NASA has released, only a scant have made it over to everyone’s favorite open source mobile operating system.
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Android is open source and built on Linux. Fortunately for Android enthusiasts and independent developers, however, Sony has made life a little easier by releasing the open source archive for the Xperia S device. Of course, there are some catches. Read on for what this announcement means for the juncture of Android and free software.
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Sub-notebooks/Tablets
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Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
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The Document Foundation (TDF), which produces the leading open source office software suite LibreOffice, is on schedule for the release of a cloud version of its software next month.
The team released the last update to its 3.4 build on Thursday and is now focused on developing version 3.5 further, but the group is now also ready to go live for cloud services in April. That said, the team reserves the right to hold off on launch until the last few software fixes come in, TDF spokesman Italo Vignoli told The Register.
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Project Releases
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Public Services/Government
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OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is finding favour on the Icelandic government scene with the announcement that all of its public administration organisations will adopt it.
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Iceland's push to move its public sector to open-source software has made some headway, with most of the shift seeing Windows swapped for Linux.
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Security
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Some words just seem to go together: "bread" and "butter"; "trial" and "error"; "Microsoft" and "security breach." The MS12-020 Remote Desktop Protocol vulnerability revealed last week shows once again that when it comes to data security, Microsoft is its own worst enemy and any "secure" system can be compromised.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Microsoft: Work Weekends Too
- Microsoft literally working its workers to death
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- September at IBM: Silent Layoffs on Day 1
- PIPocalypse at IBM
- Last Month IRC Entered Its 39th Year and It's Still Growing (New IRC Networks)
- There are 511+ known IRC networks
- Links 01/09/2026: Climate, Disinformation, Microsoft Overworking People
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's Site Still Offline (Third Day), But Richard Stallman is Active Online
- he is busy online despite his site not being accessible so far this week
- PIP Layoffs at Microsoft, Even in India
- Microsoft is trying to hide the true scale of the layoffs
- Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
- Layoff trackers are similarly misleading as they only measure what companies openly admit and register with WARN notices
- The Peculiar Case of OSNews, Which Experiments With Slopfarming
- It wasn't published in error. It has been there for two months.
- Russian Federation is Removing Windows From Computers
- Windows is going "out of fashion"
- XBox CEO Has No Clue What She is Selling
- Some people believe Microsoft will parcel and offload the whole "gaming" unit to some other companies
- analognowhere.com and xkcd.com Selling Physical Copies of Webcomics
- That's one way to support their work
- PIP/GVSA at Microsoft: Mass Layoffs Disguised as Something Else
- Microsoft is trying to cheapen the workforce because the numbers don't add up
- Microsoft Lunduke Uses Twitter ("X") Because It's Algorithmically Designed to Boost His Worldview/s, He Ignores What "X" Is
- Maybe all those people really deserve one another
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 31, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 31, 2026
- Censorship by Threats
- It should be noted that the Web site of Richard Stallman will soon enter its third day of downtime
- In Romania, GNU/Linux Reaches 6%, According to Clownflare
- Tomorrow we'll see the latest data from statCounter (for September)
- Gemini Links 01/09/2026: Denali Park Train Trip, Crafts, and Community-Building in smol.pub
- Links for the day
- Microsoft Workers Doing 80 Hours a Week After Microsoft Culled Their Colleagues
- there are days when they work 17 hours a day (barely any time left to sleep and eat) and work starts at 5AM
- IBM Defrauds Shareholders With Fake News (Bribed Press) About "Quantum"
- That says a lot about the state of "Tech Giants" and also the utterly shameless state of the media
- Record Highs for GNU/Linux, Especially in the United States of America
- the "market share" of GNU/Linux is about 9%, still about a third of what Vista 11 stands at
- PIPocalypse at IBM
- Silent layoffs
- Spending Over a Million Bucks on Lawsuits Abroad When There's a Big Mortgage to Pay in America
- Priorities, priorities...
- Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Announcing ROOPHLOCH 2026, smol.pub Discussion, and LLM Plagiarism Engines Target Geminispace
- Links for the day
- Richard Stallman's GNU Turns 43 in 4 Weeks, FSF Growing
- In a few weeks GNU turns 43
- IBM's Cuts Are Worsening Security in GNU/Linux
- IBM is still run by the same idiot who proposed taking over Red Hat
- Links 31/08/2026: Anthropic Sued Again for Copyright Infringement of Massive Scale, 'Tokenmaxxing' Shows Slop is a Worthless Liability
- Links for the day
- Links 31/08/2026: "Teslas Are Still Driving Into Oncoming Freight Trains" and "LLM Moats Quickly Evaporating"
- Links for the day
- Stallman Has Explained Slop is "Marketing Hype Campaign" and Torvalds Agreed. The Difference is the Bribes.
- So be like Stallman
- Debian Project Discards About 25% of the Votes on LLM Slop, Microsoft Votes in the General Resolution (GR)
- "[t]he rules of the vote saw community members asked to rank each of the eight proposals. Just under 600 people voted, but Debian’s election team rejected many for unspecified reasons, leaving almost 450 valid votes to count."
- Essentiality of Rest and Killing Oneself for Vicious Companies
- Working for Microsoft is foolish
- In the UK, Bing (Microsoft) Down to Lowest Level Since January
- our tax money being passed to Microsoft via MoUs (back door deals with kickbacks)
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 167 Out of 200: The Court of Appeal Might be the Next Step
- Today is our last vacation day
- German Government Sponsors IBM Because of GNU/Linux
- Flatpak is sponsored by, run, and controlled by IBM
- Richard Stallman Speaks to Christine Hall of FOSS Force, stallman.org is Down for Over a Day
- interview does a good job addressing the hype about LLMs too
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 30, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 30, 2026
- Gemini Links 31/08/2026: Holidays, Stream of Consciousness, and Posting Online
- Links for the day
- Anniversaries Next Month
- The month should be otherwise quiet and uneventful for us
- Coding is Not Obsolete
- we drown ourselves in chaff to meet "LOC" objectives while ignoring everything else
- Microsoft Layoffs Perpetual But Silent, People Pushed Out Using Pressure or Incentive Schemes
- Earlier this month we named some of the programs
- Links 30/08/2026: Apple Rant and LLM (Slop) Scrapers Target Gemini Protocol and Gopher
- Links for the day
- Salaries Are Counted in Money, Not in Participation in the Employer's Scheme
- articles greatly exaggerating GAFAM salaries
- Walls in Free Software
- mind your own business and move on
- Even Linux Cannot Cope With Slop
- Bots on the Web are truly obnoxious
- What a Summer!
- Tomorrow is the last day of this month
- Links 30/08/2026: Soldiers in Niger Attack Presidential Palace and Airport, Nepali City Struggles to Handle the Many Dead Bodies
- Links for the day
- Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux Rising to 11% This Past Week
- Is it the year of "Linux in China"?
- Links 30/08/2026: Russian Strike on a Ukrainian Warehouse and Rhetoric Escalations
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/08/2026: Photography, Paper Books, Linux Kernel and the Debian Projects Permitting Slop Plagiarism
- Links for the day
- Imagine a World Where Nobody Fights for Software (and Computing) Freedom
- The community keeps fighting back, so some of these ambitions are delayed or watered down
- FSF Has Grown (More Staff) After a Year of Financial Growth
- On October 4 the FSF turns 41
- GNU/Linux Has Become More Mainstream in the United Kingdom
- It's a long weekend here and we guess some people dabble in GNU/Linux migrations, at least at home
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 166 Out of 200: Garrett Wasn't Found Innocent Per Se, the Court Wanted More Evidence of Who Was Behind Particular Accounts Using Tor
- It's complicated
- Criminals Don't Obey Laws, California Does Not Enhance Online Safety
- It has been a while since we last mentioned so-called 'age-verification' laws
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 29, 2026