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06.21.12

Links 22/6/2012: Red Hat Reports Results

Posted in News Roundup at 7:09 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • How to Land the Best Linux Job
  • GNU/Linux is a Winner

    Jack Wallen thinks the decision of the US Navy to switch their drones to GNU/Linux from that other OS because of a virus will play out like this:
    “

    * DOD begins Linux roll out
    * US Government begins wide-spread roll out
    * Civilian security companies world-wide begin roll out
    * Universities fall in line
    * Consumers begin clamoring for better security on their OS

    “

    I think the situation is a bit more complex than that. Clearly weapons/intelligence collection devices require top security but it is far from clear that consumers will ever think that way. They fall for the salesmen’s lies…

  • Desktop

    • Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: It’s 2016, and Chrome OS is ascendant

      Google thinks we’re ready to say goodbye to fat client systems and move to cloud-based operating systems, such as its own Chrome OS. Instead of PCs, it wants us to use Chromeboxes and Chromebooks. We’re resisting, but I think we’ll come around to Google’s point of view in a few short years.

      Not that the old mainframe/terminal model ever really went away. Some companies still issue thin clients that are basically input devices, with most of the actual computing happening on a distant server. Others use its descendant, client/server systems. More companies might have stuck with those models, but users made their preferences known. They liked the “personal” in “personal computer.” They wanted their computers to run just the way they wanted.

  • Kernel Space

    • Stable kernels 3.0.35 and 3.4.3
    • Linus to Nvidia: Yawn

    • Graphics Stack

      • Nvidia Responds to F-Bomb From Linus Torvalds

        Linux creator Linus Torvalds may call Nvidia “the single worst company” the Linux community has ever dealt with. But the chipmaker makes no apologies for its approach to the open source operating system.

        Late last week, during an event in his native Finland, Torvalds went so far as to hurl an expletive at the chipmaker and flip it the proverbial bird, and when we contacted the company about this on Monday, it could not be reached to comment. But the company has now responded with a brief statement that seeks to explain why it doesn’t work to include its Linux hardware drivers in the core open source code for the OS.

        Basically, the company prefers to offer its own proprietary drivers for running its graphics hardware with Linux, rather than rolling driver code into the Linux kernel. “While we understand that some people would prefer us to provide detailed documentation on all of our GPU internals, or be more active in Linux kernel community development discussions, we have made a decision to support Linux on our GPUs by leveraging Nvidia common code, rather than the Linux common infrastructure,” reads a canned statement from Nvidia. “While this may not please everyone, it does allow us to provide the most consistent GPU experience to our customers, regardless of platform or operating system.”

        Torvalds created Linux in 1991 as an open source alternative to Microsoft Windows, which was on its way to dominating the computer market. In the twenty years since, it has became so widely used — particular on servers — that even Microsoft has started to play nicely with Linux.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Linux Desktops and Linux Personalities: What’s Your Perfect Match?

      Back when I started work at a Linux company, I had trouble wrapping my mind around the idea that an operating system could have more than one desktop. Finally, I asked what the difference between GNOME and KDE was.

      “Oh, that’s easy,” another employee told me. “KDE is for people who are used to Windows, while GNOME is for those who like innovations.”

      Today, recommendations are much harder. For one thing, both GNOME and KDE have morphed out of all recognition, making that summary long obsolete. For another, at least half a dozen other desktops are clamoring for users’ attention.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Reach your matching limits, with Mahjongg!

        GNOME’s Mahjongg is an one player matching game that is based on the ancient Chinese 4-player game Mahjong. The Mahjong Solitare games family has been available on computers since 1981, and is to be found in every platform and device nowadays. So, what is so great about this game?

        The aim of the game is to remove all 144 given tiles as quickly as possible, while avoiding a stall. The tiles have a specific formation that is called “The Turtle”. To remove 2 tiles by matching them, they must be “free”, meaning that they have no other tile on their right or left of the same level. See the two images below to understand this better.

  • Distributions

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Raspberry Pi

      If you know one thing about the Raspberry Pi PC, it’s most likely the fact that it’s almost comically inexpensive. $35, to be exact. And what do you get for such a modest sum? In terms of in-the-box hardware, not much. Essentially a motherboard with a CPU soldered onto it, the Pi requires that you provide your own operating system, your own local storage media, even your own power supply.

      The point of such a product is primarily education. According to their Web site, the designers of the Raspberry Pi wanted to create an affordable computer that encourages students to break away from the technical hand-holding that comes with off-the-shelf PCs. Chances are you might learn something from building a system yourself. Given that it’s a Linux-based computer, you might even write your own software for it.

    • Measuring the Raspberry Pi’s Current …

    • Phones

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • The Monotonous Decline of That Other OS

    That’s an average decline of 0.57% per month.

  • Cablegate

    • Ecuador offers Wikileaks founder Assange residency

      Ecuador has offered Julian Assange, the founder of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, residency in the country.

      Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said his country’s government wanted to invite Mr Assange to Ecuador to give him the opportunity to speak publicly.

      He said Ecuador was concerned about some of the alleged American activities revealed by Wikileaks.

      Earlier this year Sweden refused an application from Mr Assange, who is Australian, for residency there.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • House to Vote on Effort to Preempt EPA Regulation of Coal Ash

      According to the EPA, the waste from coal burning plants contains concentrations of arsenic, boron, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, and other metals that has been known to seep into ground water supplies. Thursday marks the two year anniversary of when the EPA first proposed minimum safeguards for coal ash disposal.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • The Nuns on the Bus Go Up and Down

      After an hour and a half visit to Janesville, the “Nuns on the Bus” bus cruised on to Milwaukee for a visit to St. Benedict the Moor’s meal program and to a picket line by mostly immigrant workers at Palermo’s frozen pizza plant. During the next two weeks, the sisters will visit seven more states, including Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Maryland before a scheduled finish in Washington D.C. on July 2.

      Back on Janesville’s Main Street Tuesday afternoon, the crowd had evaporated, leaving a single peace sign between a Manpower office and a shuttered “Rock County Mortgage.” There were no manufacturing jobs at Manpower (GM’s last auto plant closed in 2009), just a poster seeking four telemarketers at $8.50 an hour. With so many Janesville families without work and grateful for what little government assistance there is in hard times, it is no surprise that the nuns received a warm welcome.

  • Censorship

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Monsanto May Be Forced To Repay Brazilian GM Soybean Royalties Worth Billions Of Dollars

      When the history of modern Brazil comes to be written, a special place will be reserved for the soybean, the powerful farmers that grow it — and the deforestation it is driving. And at the center of that tale will be Monsanto, with its patented “Roundup Ready” crop, so called because it has been genetically modified to withstand the herbicide glyphosate, marketed as Roundup.

    • Copyrights

      • Is Copyright Needed To Stop Plagiarism?

      • ACTA

        • Crucial ACTA Vote: Will INTA Committee Betray EU Citizens?

          This Thursday, June 21st, the “International Trade” (INTA) committee of the EU Parliament will adopt its draft report on ACTA. Under pressure from the EU Commission and industry lobbyists1, members of the committee could decide, potentially in a secret vote, to call for the adoption of ACTA or to postpone the final vote for years, which would help the pro-ACTA to save face. Citizens participation is absolutely crucial to ensure that the Parliament will stick to the general interest and face its political responsibility by voting a clear rejection of ACTA.

        • INTA Committee Must Reject ACTA

          ACTA threatens fundamental freedoms online, Net neutrality, innovation, access to free/libre technologies and to essential medicines. The European Parliament has all the evidence needed to reject it, and if it were to postpone the final vote on the agreement it would be seen as escaping its political responsibility.

        • Final Europarl Committee Rejects ACTA: Internet-Lobbyists, 5-0.

          Today, the final and ultimately responsible committee in the European Parliament gave its recommendation on ACTA. Its opinion was clear: Reject ACTA. This brings five recommendations to the European Parliament to reject and kill ACTA once and for all.

        • [Major Victory] Now Let’s Win ACTA’s Final Round!

          The European Parliament’s main committee in charge of ACTA just adopted its voting recommendation to the rest of the Members. Despite intense pressure, the Parliament is now officially advised to reject ACTA during the upcoming plenary vote, scheduled for July 4th1. We now have very high chances of finally defeating ACTA and opening the way for a positive reform of copyright! Let’s celebrate, while aiming for the final vote, and build a post-ACTA world!

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