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Links 20/10/2012: Chromebooks in the News, Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop



  • Server

    • Servers
      Notice that the rate of growth of GNU/Linux is nearly double that of that other OS and at that rate,






  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack

      • Nouveau DRM Commits Supporting Z Compression
        Ben Skeggs of Red Hat pushed a number of new DRM commits into the Nouveau driver development repository today, including new support for Z compression.


      • Unigine Engine Does Real-Time Global Illumination
        The Unigine Engine has been revised with a number of new features and impressive capabilities. One of several new features is "real-time global illumination with spherical harmonics", which may be a mouthful but is for delivering even more beautiful graphics.

        About the real-time global illumination with spherical harmonics, Unigine Corp says, "A new, real-time global illumination based on precomputed spherical harmonics allows to render high-detail diffuse lighting with interreflections and angle-dependent specular highlights. It is fully interactive: soft environment light illuminates both static geometry in the scene and dynamic objects moving around it...The stunning lightmap-like quality is achieved by using automatically generated LightProb...Global illumination is available across all APIs and is well scalable performance-wise... As you can see, GI makes a huge difference: it brings a truly photorealistic visual quality to a scene."






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



    • GNOME Desktop

      • Cinnamon 1.6.2 Out With Nemo 1.0.4
        Linux Mint team has released a bug fix of Cinnamon desktop and Nemo file browser. This is a maintenance release, which means no new features have been added, but a variety of bigs have been fixed which will make the desktop experience even smoother. Some of the major bugs that have been fixed are:


      • Prefer GNOME Shell? Download Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10
        Ubuntu GNOME Remix, a Linux distribution which aims to become an official Ubuntu flavour, uses GNOME Shell as the default "shell" and tries to provide a "mostly pure GNOME desktop experience built from the Ubuntu repositories".






  • Distributions

    • Highly Recommended Linux Distributions for Beginners (Excluding Ubuntu)
      If you are a longtime Windows user, then switching to Linux is quite a challenging task. Not that Linux is difficult or something, it’s just that many users get perplexed as to which distribution to choose. This is actually where the problem begins for most users. They go to various sites and forums, ask for questions and different people recommend various distributions.

      That said, it’s quite obvious that most of the time new users go for Ubuntu, the most popular Linux distribution at the moment. They choose it either because one of their friends recommended it to them or they heard something good about it from news, blogs, or forums. In both cases, it’s evident that Ubuntu has been, and will be the first choice for most of the new users.


    • Chakra Linux Makes Full Switch To Systemd


    • This Week in Linux: Fedora, Mandriva, and Mageia
      Ubuntu's latest release and controversies have dominated the news this week, but it wasn't the only distribution making announcements. Fedora 18 is running behind schedule, but developers are already looking ahead. The Mandriva foundation has a name and Mageia has officially changed its schedule.


    • New Releases



    • Debian Family



      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 12.10 Review – Linux User’s biggest ever super test


          • Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 Released


          • Was it something I said?
            Leave it to Ubuntu/Canonical’s Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator for Life Mark Shuttleworth to completely ruin a perfectly good release day for Ubuntu 12.10 and its arguably superior derivatives like Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu and Edubuntu.


          • “in addition to”


          • The development of Ubuntu Tweak is stopped
            No matter how you got this news, what I want to announce is the same: I want to stop the development and maintenance of Ubuntu Tweak. This means you will not be able to use “Apps” (Since it is a web service), I will not response for the bug report, the last commit of the code will be: Add cache support for Apps, only available in Ubuntu 12.10, so sad…

            You may ask why I made this decision to stop the development of Ubuntu Tweak, I may write 10,000 words to describe how I start this project, how I feel happy from this project, how I feel bad from this project…But I just want to say: If making free software is not free any more, why still doing this?


          • What’s New In Ubuntu Linux 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’


          • Shuttleworth ruffles feathers with Ubuntu Linux 13.04 'Raring Ringtail' plans


          • AMD Catalyst: Ubuntu 12.10 vs. Windows 7
            For those wondering about the performance of Ubuntu Linux 12.10 versus Microsoft Windows 7 when using the same system and the Catalyst graphics driver, here are new Phoronix benchmarks of an AMD Radeon HD 6870 graphics card when running a variety of OpenGL workloads from Ubuntu 12.10, Kubuntu 12.10 (the KDE desktop version of Ubuntu 12.10 to avoid the Unity desktop overhead), and Microsoft Windows 7 Professional x64.


          • Canonical claims Amazon integration in Ubuntu is what users want
            Canonical released Ubuntu Linux 12.10 yesterday, which brought tighter integration with Amazon in system search results, a move that has raised some criticism from the community. According to Canonical, Amazon integration in Dash is something users expect and the firm will integrate other online services in future Ubuntu releases.



          • Ubuntu Linux 12.10 Offered in Desktop, Server Flavors
            Ubuntu Linux 12.10 includes innovations such as document search capabilities that allow users to easily find documents whether they are stored on their computers or in the cloud.


          • Canonical dresses Ubuntu 12.10 in garb fit for the cloud


          • Is Ubuntu Development Becoming Less Open? [Updated]
            While the larger Ubuntu community was busy downloading, installing and enjoying the latest edition of Ubuntu yesterday, a post by Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth ruffled some feathers.


          • Mark Shuttleworth: Nothing That Was Previously Public Will Be "Taken Private" [Exclusive]


          • Ubuntu moves some Linux development inside


          • Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth Tires Of Critics, Moves Key Ubuntu Developments Out Of Public Eye


          • Ubuntu Tweak Stops Development, Claims No Longer Free
            Popular Ubuntu configuration utility Ubuntu Tweak has officially ended support for its long-running project today. Ubuntu Tweak has been a mainstay application on newbie machines since the days of Dapper Drake, and between then and now has gain a lot of respect within the community regardless of being merely a front-end for already trivial tasks.


          • Ubuntu 12.10 Screenshots


          • Shuttleworth: Secret development of 13.04's "Tada" features - Update
            In the wake of the release of Ubuntu 12.10, Mark Shuttleworth has announced a new style of development for Ubuntu 13.04, the next major version of the Linux distribution. Referring to "a few items with high 'tada!' value that would be great candidates for folk who want to work on something that will get attention when unveiled," Shuttleworth said that there will be a new process where the new features will not be talked about "until we think they are ready to celebrate". Before that time the company says it will only engage with "contributing community members that have established credibility".


          • Free Ubuntu manual updated
            The Ubuntu Manual Team has announced that the Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal version of the Ubuntu Manual, "Getting Started with Ubuntu 12.10"PDF has been published. The 143 page manual provides an introduction to Ubuntu covering topics such as how to try out a LiveCD, how to install the distribution, using the Ubuntu desktop, working with Ubuntu, managing hardware and peripherals, managing software and updates, and offering pointers for further research and reading.


          • Ubuntu Ported To Google Nexus 7
            In announcing Ubuntu 13.04 is the Raring Ringtail, Mark Shuttleworth encouraged attendees going to the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Copenhagen to bring along their Nexuis 7 tablet. At that point it could be deduced they would be bringing Ubuntu Linux to this popular Google tablet, but now it's confirmed.


          • Fancy A Ubuntu Boombero Speaker To Boost Your Sounds?
            You're listening to your tunes or watching a video on your Android phone and you're not too happy with the tinny, low audio. So you wander over to your new Ubuntu Boombero Speaker and place your device on top and suddenly Mr Bombastic is filling the room with big base vibes. Well now it's a reality.


          • Ubuntu 12.10 brings the cloud Juju


          • Flavours and Variants

            • Ubuntu Gnome Remix 12.10 | Review
              Yesterday marked the release of Ubuntu 12.10, the latest version of the most popular Linux distribution. What’s interesting now is that GNOME and Ubuntu are back together after 18 months.


            • Ubuntu Gnome Remix 12.10 Review
              The first stable release of Ubuntu Gnome Remix has arrived with a lot of promises for long-time Gnome users. Ever since Ubuntu switched to Unity, it became harder for Gnome users to get the pure Gnome 3.x experience on top of their preferred operating system. Quite a lot of users moved to other distributions and we saw the rise of derivatives like Linux Mint which seems to have become the favorite distro of seasoned GNU/Linux journalists like Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols.

              As a long time Gnome+Ubuntu user, I was personally excited about this release. However, before I picked this review, I reminded myself that 'this is the first release of Ubuntu Gnome Remix' so treat it as the first release. At time tend to start judging things in their beta or alpha stages, which is simply unfair. So, before we bring UGR under the microscope keep in mind that this is the very first release and Gnome 3.x is still going through heavy development so my criticism of this release should be taken too seriously.












  • Devices/Embedded





Free Software/Open Source



  • Building a computer from scratch: open source computer science course


  • The Genesis Of Free Software Projects
    Like other Linux distributions, we take a range of upstream components and assemble them together into an integrated system. Throughout this integration work our community actively participates in a range of different areas – development, testing, bug-fixing, translations, documentation, and more.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Delivers Preview of Firefox Marketplace
        Mozilla has been steadily moving forward with its Boot to Gecko, Firefox OS and smartphone initiatives, and now the company's long awaited app store is available in a preview edition for Android developers. A Mozilla blog post on The Future of Firefox includes instructions for how Android users can get the preview edition of Firefox Marketplace through Mozilla's Aurora channel. This app store will play a key role in Mozilla's serious efforts to become entrenched in the world of smartphones and open mobile operating systems, even though it is Android-focused for the moment.


      • TED Talk: Ryan Merkley demos Popcorn
        Today, a powerful new Popcorn Maker demo makes its debut on TED.com, showcasing Popcorn’s potential to change the way the world tells stories on the web.






  • SaaS



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice 3.5.7 maintenance update released
      At the LibreOffice Conference, currently taking place in Berlin, The Document Foundation has released version 3.5.7 of its open source LibreOffice productivity suite, fixing more than 50 bugs. The seventh maintenance update to the 3.5.x branch corrects problems that caused the application to crash, including one that occurred when pasting data into more than one sheet in the Calc spreadsheet program. A number of bugs related to RTF and SmartArt import, ODF and DOC export, and program crashes when using tables were also fixed.




  • Healthcare

    • Did Open Source EHR Summit answer questions?
      The nonprofit Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent (OSEHRA) organization recently held its first annual Open Source EHR Summit & Workshop. Seong K. Mun, PhD, President and CEO of OSEHRA, talked about goals for the workshop and OSEHRA in general before it began. This was first time that the OSEHRA community to meet and develop their skills with open source health IT training and educational workshops.




  • Business



  • Funding

    • Open Source R10 Quadcopter Zooms Past Kickstarter Goal
      Quadcopters are all the rage right now for amateur drone projects and hobby flying, and it’s no wonder; a quadcopter has outstanding speed, maneuverability, and payload capacity. They are as fun to fly as they are useful, but unfortunately they tend to be something else: prohibitively expensive.




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



  • Public Services/Government

    • Anything but open source!
      It's another of controversial tenders tracked down by Foundation of Free and Open Source Software experts in the scope of "Monitoring of public procurement for software and hardware in units of government and local administration and intervention in case of detecting irregularities". This time their attention was brought by tender for "Equipment for Regional Centre for Transferring Modern Technologies in Mielec" issued by District Starosty. Announcement has been issued in Official Journal of the European Union - TED: 292946-2012. Estimated value of the tender is over 200 thousand €. Time limit for receipt of tenders is due on 22.10.2012. Documentation of this tender is available here: District Starosty in Mielec.


    • New OpenITGov partnership offers complete open source solution for the new public sector




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming





Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Three Lawsuits Against Microsofters Are About to Become a Lot More Relevant to GNU/Linux
The Master will easily understand why Garrett has been attacking me since 2012
Slop Is Not Intelligence and It Does Not Enhance Productivity
Like voice dictation, which cannot tell the difference between "sheet" and "shit"
 
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Sometimes silence says more than nothing at all
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some slopfarms show no remorse and they don't value their reputation at all
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Examples of white-collar trolls
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Diplomatic Immunity Should Not Exist for Anybody
The EPO in its current form gradually 'normalises' the end of European democracy
Brett Wilson LLP Stopped Sending Me Papers When I Showed It had Sent Me Over 5 Kilograms of Legal Papers
A week ago we lodged our third lawsuit
Microsoft Mass Layoffs and Shutdowns Became the New Normal at Microsoft
Microsoft mass layoffs became a topic of everyday media coverage since May
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Has Layoffs and Microsoft Gaming/Entertainment Division Has an Uncertain Future
it's good to see all those horrible things crashing and burning
Over at Tux Machines...
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FSF "Raised Almost $139,000 During This Summer Campaign"
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Slows things down a bit
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threatened me with bankruptcy
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There's a hidden message here about the merits of sticking with X
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This week we shall continue writing about the 3 lawsuits we filed