10.23.12

^{Gemini version available ♊︎}

Links 23/10/2012: DRM Nightmares at Amazon

Posted in News Roundup at 8:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

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

GNU/Linux

Desktop
- System76 Gazelle Professional Laptop Review & Giveaway
  
  We’re giving away a brand new one of these brilliant laptops designed to optimally run Linux worth almost $1000 to one very lucky reader!
- Samsung’s ARM-powered Chromebook runs Ubuntu
  
  Samsung’s Chromebook hasn’t even officially shipped yet, but a developer by the name of Olof Johansson has already managed to load up Ubuntu on the $249 laptop.
  
  Personally, I’m somewhat surprised that Ubuntu made it onto the device before Android, but I suppose Google’s wildly popular mobile OS is next in line – hopefully in the form of Jelly Bean (4.2).
- Ubuntu Tweak: After three days ‘dead,’ user outcry brings it back to life
- $249 Chromebooks Have Arrived: Should You Buy One?
  
  What’s the first application you open when you turn your PC on? The chances are it’s the browser. We ran a poll among our Facebook and Google+ fans and 99% respondents said the browser was the first app that they would open. I am curious how many of these users use the ‘rest’ of the PC?
Audiocasts/Shows
- Burning Circle Episode 88
Kernel Space
- 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: H. Peter Anvin
  
  This week, the 20th week in our 30-week series profiling Linux kernel developers, we talk to H. Peter Anvin. His Linux story starts in 1992 and involves a hospital stay, stolen OS/2 manuals and a computer hardware order made by pay phone.
- Linux Kernel 3.6.3 is out, upgrade now
  
  Linux Kernel 3.7 may still be in development, but that of course doesn’t mean development has halted on 3.6.y, with an updated version out now
- Intel Keeps Pushing Haswell Code For Linux
- AMD FX-8350 “Vishera” Linux Benchmarks
  
  AMD today is lifting the lid on their Piledriver-based 2012 FX “Vishera” processors. Just weeks after the “Bulldozer 2″ Trinity APUs were launched, the new high-end AMD FX CPUs are being rolled out. Being benchmarked at Phoronix today under Linux is the new AMD FX-8350 processor.
- Graphics Stack
  - With Wayland 1.0, A Large TODO List Remains
    
    Wayland 1.0 will be released as soon as today, but this doesn’t mark the death of X11 and Wayland beginning to secure major traction on the Linux desktop.
    
    Kristian Høgsberg, Wayland’s creator that began coding this likely eventual X.Org Server replacement back in 2008 and was first publicly covered on Phoronix, has always reinforced since earlier this year when planning the 1.0 release that this won’t mark a point of domination on the Linux desktop. Wayland 1.0 simply marks the point at which Wayland developers will ensure backwards compatibility with the Wayland core protocol and API. If your tool-kit or application is targeting the 1.0 API/protocol, it will work with future versions rather than in the pre-1.0 state where there was significant breakage without notice.
  - AMD Catalyst 12.10 For Linux Surfaces
    
    The AMD Catalyst 12.10 Linux graphics driver for x86 and x86_64 architectures is available from the download link offered here.
  - Wayland 1.0 Officially Released
    
    Kristian Høgsberg after developing the project the past four years officially announced version 1.0 for Wayland. As described earlier on Phoronix, Wayland 1.0 doesn’t mark the point that Wayland is complete and ready to replace the X11 Server as there’s still a lot of work left to do but it marks the point at which there is API/protocol stability in terms of all future releases being backwards-compatible with the Wayland 1.0 release. Regardless of there being a lot of work left until Wayland is common to the Linux desktop, Wayland is exciting many users although it means real bad news for some users.
Applications
- Instructionals/Technical
Desktop Environments
- New EFL release cycle 1.7.1
- GNOME Desktop
  - GNOME 3.6.1 Has Been Released
    
    Frederic Peters had the pleasure of announcing the first maintenance release of the GNOME 3.6 desktop environment, on October 18th.
    
    GNOME 3.6.1 is a necessary upgrade for all users of GNOME 3.6, brining lots of small improvements, updated translations, as well as numerous bug fixes.
    
    “The first update to GNOME 3.6 series is now available. As usual it provides bug fixes, translations updates and tiny improvements, in order to make our stable release even more stable and useful.”
Distributions
- Which Linux Distro is Best?
  
  Here’s a topic guaranteed to start controversy. Which Linux distribution is best? It all depends on your criteria for judging. Even then the topic is highly subjective. Here are a few nominees for “best distro” in specific categories.
- Qubes OSQubes R1
  
  Last week, when I went in search of a distribution with which to experiment, I thought the choice seemed obvious: Qubes OS. The Qubes project is working to produce a Xen- and Linux-based operating system with a strong focus on security. As the project’s website says, “Qubes is an open source operating system designed to provide strong security for desktop computing. Qubes is based on Xen, X Window System, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications”. Qubes, which comes from Invisible Things Lab, takes an unusual approach to security where the user’s desktop system is divided into separate domains. Each domain gets its own virtual machine. A person might have a few of these different domains, such as one for work-related applications and files, another for casual web browsing & e-mail and perhaps another for security-sensitive tasks like on-line banking.
- ROSA Marathon 2012 review – Ahem
  
  Maybe it was my own mistake. Maybe I did not read well enough before trialling ROSA. The truth is, it makes no difference. You do not need and should not need to spend time learning about operating system before using them. The whole idea is to get a seamless, transparent behavior and a pleasant experience, and if this means having to figure out what is free and what is not, and somehow know that your Wireless card firmware might be considered non-free by some vague standard, then thank you, but no thank you.
  
  If you’re looking for five years of support, you’re better off with Ubuntu. Shame really, because I was rather looking forward to testing ROSA. Finally, something new, something fresh. A system that does not come from the English-speaking world, which means a different mentality, five years, Mandriva baseline, they all sound like a damn good recipe for awesome fun. Alas, no. Not since Trisquel was I this disappointed. Another potential gem, killed by politics. Lastly, I cannot tell you how good or bad this distribution really is, because I didn’t get to test it properly. My hunch tells it’s a fairly decent one, but we shall never know now. Well, I might test the non-free version one day, but my goodwill for today is spent. Take care.
- Under the Hood with Arch and Gentoo
  
  Arch and Gentoo are rolling community distributions that emphasise self-help and choice for the adventurous user. Richard Hillesley investigates…
- Ubuntu 12.10 Virtualization vs. Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, CentOS 6.3
  
  For kicking off a new week of Linux benchmarks, here are some results of a high-end Intel Extreme Edition workstation when comparing the bare metal host and KVM virtualization performance between Ubuntu 12.10 and the earlier Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS release and then the RHEL-based CentOS 6.3.
- New Releases
- Gentoo Family
  - Sabayon Linux – to choose or not to choose
- Red Hat Family
  - Epitome Travel Solutions Adopts Red Hat Enterprise Linux for Mission-Critical Travel Portal
    
    Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that Epitome Travel Solutions (India) Pvt. Ltd. (ETS), a unique Indian travel organization that offers diverse travel-related solutions and services to corporations and individuals, has selected Red Hat as its trusted solutions partner and implemented Red Hat Enterprise Linux as its core enterprise platform. The implementation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux as its enterprise platform has made Epitome Travel Solutions’ core business more agile, increased performance and enhanced customer satisfaction.
- Debian Family
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Video: Ubuntu Linux hits Google’s Nexus 7
      - Ubuntu Founder Takes Aim at Red Hat
        
        Canonical has suffered more than a little flack over the years for what some critics call a lack of openness in Ubuntu development. But if one agrees with Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth, the truly closed platforms are Ubuntu’s competitors, especially Red Hat. At least, that’s what Shuttleworth had to say recently on his blog. Here’s the full story.
        
        Criticism of Canonical’s standards has often centered around issues such as the proprietary licenses that govern some of its software, such as the server side code for the Ubuntu One file syncing service. The company has also irked users for introducing major changes to Ubuntu, like the Unity interface, without soliciting much community feedback first.
      - Ubuntu less Unity: A first look at Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10
        
        For users who want GNOME 3 rather than Unity, a group of developers has now made the first GNOME 3 desktop remix of the Ubuntu Linux distribution available. Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 is based on the recent release of Ubuntu 12.10 and even uses a GNOME package management tool.
      - Installing Ubuntu 12.10
      - Can Canonical Put Ubuntu on Phones, Tablets and TVs?
        
        Will 2013 be the Year of the Linux Tablet? Personally, I’m not about to bet any cash on it just yet. But if Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has his way, Linux developers increasingly will be turning their attention to mobile, tablet and TV platforms over the coming year. Here’s what he had to say.
        
        There’s been plenty of talk in the open source channel about bringing Linux to new types of hardware devices such as phones, tablets and TVs. And some major open source applications — the Unity, GNOME Shell and Plasma Active interfaces, to name a few — are being designed with mobile hardware in mind at least as much as traditional PCs.
      - Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Screenshots
        
        The Ubuntu team is very pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.10 for Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products.
        
        There is no longer a traditional CD-sized image, DVD or alternate image, but rather a single 800MB Ubuntu image that can be used from USB or DVD. Users who previously installed using LVM or full-disk encryption via the alternate CD will find that these installation targets are supported by the consolidated image in 12.10.
      - Thank you, Ubuntu Tweak will continue
      - Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.1 Released: Install in Ubuntu 12.10
      - Protecting Your Ubuntu Desktop
      - Ubuntu 12.10 review: Quantal Quetzal is quite adequate
        
        Let’s cut right to the chase: Ubuntu 12.10 is a totally, 100%, utterly, completely acceptable release.
        
        It has some new features. It has some bug fixes. In almost every way, it is very, very similar to Ubuntu 12.04 – which makes a great deal of sense, considering that the two releases are only six months apart.
      - The UDS Design Track
        
        One week to go! We’re looking forward to UDS. For me personally it will be my first and I’m thrilled to check out all the interesting sessions and hear your stories about Ubuntu and design. There will also be a very exciting design track in which we hope to work together on many cool topics, such as fonts, Juju GUI, Danish toys, the theater and many more!
      - Is Mark Shuttleworth Really Arguing Against Open Ubuntu Development?
        
        Late last week, Mark Shuttleworth set off a series of heated debates about just how transparent the development process for Ubuntu should be. Specifically, he wrote this regarding the next 13.04 version of Ubuntu: “Mapping out the road to 13.04, there are 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. While we won’t talk about them until we think they are ready to celebrate, we’re happy to engage with contributing community members that have established credibility (membership, or close to it) in Ubuntu, who want to be part of the action.” The question is, why is everyone interpreting this as the end of an open Ubuntu development model?
      - Key parts of Ubuntu Linux 13.04 to be developed under wraps
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Kubuntu & Xubuntu 12.10 upgrade from 12.04?
        
        Kubuntu 12.10 Review: Is Quantal Quetzal significantly better than Precise Pangolin?
        
        After comparing between Ubuntu 12.10 and 12.04.1, where the verdict was mixed, next in line is Kubuntu. Like Gnome 3 shell, even KDE is going through a lot of transformation and users are bearing brunt of it. KDE 4.8.5 actually made me prefer XFCE as my primary desktop. However, KDE 4.9.2, I heard, has fixed a lot of the previous bugs and instability. KDE as a desktop is, possibly, the closest to Windows 7, offering similar looks and menu as well as previews as in the Microsoft OS. The changes in KDE have been incremental and it has retained the same look and feel, unlike Gnome, where even the look and feel have changed!
        
        Xubuntu 12.10 Review: A shinnier and more attractive desktop!
        
        Lubuntu 12.10 Screenshots
Devices/Embedded
- Phones
  - Ballnux
    - Google LG Nexus Phone Confirmed By LG India Executive
      
      The rumors were bang on target! For past several weeks, our RRS feeds were full of leaks and speculations about new Google LG Nexus flagship phone. Now suddenly the focus shifted to India, where Amit Gujral, head, Mobile Product Planning, LG India, in an interview with IBNLive stated “Google will unveil the LG Nexus on October 29 and the phone will be available in the Indian markets by the end of November.”
    - Amazon: Kindle Fire HD is a global best-seller
      
      Amazon just dropped us an email to let everyone know that their Kindle Fire HD is a worldwide best-seller. Yeah, like that’s a surprise to anyone.
      
      In all seriousness, the Android-based tablet has become the retailer’s #1 best-selling product across all of Amazon worldwide. Also, today sees the roll out of a an over-the-air update to add in the Kindle FreeTime feature that lets parents control what a child is able to see on the Kindle Fire HD as well as how long they can use the tablet.
  - Android
    - Purported live photo of Sony Xperia Odin C650X surfaces
      
      An alleged live photo of Sony Xperia C650X Odin has emerged, thus giving us a glimpse of the tech giant’s upcoming Android powerhouse. The device has previously made an appearance in a leaked user agent profile.
    - Google to announce 10-inch Nexus tablet with Android 4.2 on October 29?
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - Google to Get Last Word in Week of Tablet Launches
    
    Google isn’t ceding the tech media spotlight to Apple and Microsoft. As Apple gets set to unveil its iPad mini, and as Microsoft revs up for its Surface launch, Google is lubricating the rumor mill with some hints about an expanded Nexus line — perhaps a 32 GB 7-inch tablet, one with 3G, and maybe a 10-inch version. A new Nexus smartphone could be in the works too, perhaps running an updated Android OS.

Free Software/Open Source

Cordova becomes Apache Top Level Project

A year ago the Nitobi developers and Adobe contributed the PhoneGap software to the Apache Software Foundation to incubate as the Apache Cordova project; now the foundation has graduated the mobile development platform as a top level project. The news came from the project’s Twitter feed, but the project’s web site has not yet been updated to reflect the new status. This isn’t unusual as the graduation vote by the ASF’s board merely signals that the project can announce its new status in its own time.
Open Source Development: How it can be a Great Help in Reviving Business Processes?
Open Source SmartDeblur Attempts To Save Out of Focus Photos

Programmer Vladimir Yuzhikov has released a Windows only application SmartDeblur that can do some really impressive things with removing blur from images after the fact. Released on his website earlier this month, the open source project can recover a pretty spectacular amount of information from an otherwise illegible photograph.
Events
- Sydney, Perth bid to host LCA 2014
  
  After being in a position where it had no host for the 2014 Australian national Linux conference, better known as LCA, Linux Australia now finds that it has to decide between two bids.
Databases
- SASC report too blunt an instrument to address Accumulo
  
  Language in the Senate Armed Service Committee’s fiscal 2013 national defense authorization bill report regarding Defense Department utilization of an open source NoSQL database may have unintentional bad side effects.
- ITTIA DB SQL 5.5 Integrates with Many Popular Development Frameworks
Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
- Munich Is Just the Latest City to Standardize on LibreOffice
Project Releases
- JRuby 1.7.0. Released
- Cairo-Dock 3.1 is now available!
  
  Cairo-Dock is a pretty, fast and customizable desktop interface. You can see it as a good alternative/addition to Unity, Gnome-Shell, Xfce-panel, KDE-panel, etc
  Here is a short summary of the improvements and new features in this version 3.1.
Openness/Sharing
- Meet NimbRo-OP, Teen Size Open Source Robot
- Open-source science helps Peninsula father’s genetic quest
  
  One tiny flaw in one gene in one little girl. That explains why Beatrice Rienhoff, 8, is so lean and leggy.
  
  But it took the communal contributions of many researchers — in an open-ended, open-source scientific search, led by her father — to solve Bea’s singular mystery.
- Evil Mad Scientist Art Controller
- Open Access/Content
  - Hope for affordable textbooks
- Open Hardware
  - Hardware Hacks: Gertboard, Arduino Due and the R10 Quadcopter
    
    Hardware Hacks is the section on The H that collects stories about the wide range of uses of open source in the rapidly expanding area of open hardware. Find out about interesting projects, re-purposing of devices and the creation of a new generation of deeply open systems. In this edition, the Gertboard starts shipping, the open source-powered R10 quadcopter reaches its funding goal, the Arduino Due ARM-based board is now available for purchase, and using a Rasperry Pi as a Tor relay.
Programming
- Local Register Allocator Merged Into GCC (LRA)
- Git 1.8.0 Gets New Features With Official Release

Leftovers

Humble Ebook Bundle Breaks $1 Million; All The Authors Should Be Best Sellers

We’ve been talking about the first Humble eBook Bundle, which launched recently, and has taken off really successfully. Over the weekend, it zoomed past $1 million in money raised. As author John Scalzi (whose book Old Man’s War is included in the bundle) noted, if Humble Bundle purchases were counted by the NY Times every one of the authors would be on the best seller list. Think about that for a second.
Italian scientists convicted of manslaughter for earthquake risk report
Health/Nutrition
- How Food Stopped Being Food
  
  In 2008, farmers grew more than enough to feed the world, yet more people starved than ever before—and most of them were farmers. Harper’s magazine contributing editor Frederick Kaufman investigates the connection between the global food system and why the food on our tables is getting less healthy and less delicious even as the world’s biggest food companies and food scientists say things are better than ever. In Bet the Farm: How Food Stopped Being Food, he moves down the supply chain like a detective solving a mystery, revealing the forces undermining our food system.
Finance
- Gupta to Urge Probation From Judge Who Defended Insiders
  
  Gupta, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) director, will come before Rakoff in Manhattan federal court on Oct. 24 to be sentenced for leaking stock tips to Galleon Group LLC co-founder Raj Rajaratnam. Prosecutors say Gupta, convicted by a jury in June, deserves as long as 10 years in prison. Gupta seeks probation.
DRM
- Outlawed by Amazon DRM
  
  A couple of days a go, my friend Linn sent me an e-mail, being very frustrated: Amazon just closed her account and wiped her Kindle. Without notice. Without explanation. This is DRM at it’s worst.
- Remote Wipe of Customer’s Kindle Highlights Perils of DRM (Updated)
- Kindle user claims Amazon deleted whole library without explanation
- Amazon Wipes Customer’s Account, Locks All Ebooks, Says ‘Find A New Retailer’ When She Asks Why
- A Single Point of Failure
  
  Amazon’s cloud service experienced another widespread outage today, which caused cascading effects and brought down several popular websites. The unfortunate truth that the outage proves is that once again, it is never a good idea to have all of your eggs in one basket. Outsourcing your infrastructure to a single company, even a multi-tiered, scalable, cloud service like Amazon is the modern day equivalent to having a single computer host your database. While the components that make up the service are intended to be highly available and resistant to errors, the truth is that a single third-party service used alone equates to a single point of failure.
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - Big Brother comes to BitTorrent
  - To the ABA – Tear Down the Pay Wall that Keeps Ethics Opinions From Seeing the Light Of Day (Sign My Change.org petition)
    
    If you thought that aggressive enforcement of copyright was only for the RIAA, think again. The ABA is just as intent about enforcing copyright interests in its ethics opinions. But whether you agree with the RIAA’s tactics or not, at least its copyright enforcement activity is intended to protect RIAA’s constituents; artists, musicians and record companies who lose money when their music is misappropriated. By contrast, the ABA’s policy of copyrighting ethics opinions — the source of authority that govern lawyers’ conduct and inform many state bodies regulating lawyers — and locking them behind a paywall hurts lawyers and the public.