02.15.14

Historical Week for Debian and Ubuntu (a Look Back)

Posted in Debian, GNU/Linux, Ubuntu at 6:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A roundup of news about Debian, Ubuntu, and derivatives of Ubuntu

Debian

• Updated Debian 7: 7.4 released

  The Debian project is pleased to announce the fourth update of its stable distribution Debian 7 (codename “wheezy”). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments for serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available. Please note that this update does not constitute a new version of Debian 7 but only updates some of the packages included. There is no need to throw away old “wheezy” CDs or DVDs but only to update via an up-to-date Debian mirror after an installation, to cause any out of date packages to be updated.

Systemd in Debian

• Systemd Is The Future Of Debian

  Since this weekend we have known that systemd was winning the Debian init system battle, but now it’s official: systemd has prevailed over Upstart in Debian.

  After a very heated fight between the Debian technical committee and also Debian stakeholders, Bdale Garbee as the chairman of the tech committee has announced systemd will be used in Debian 8.0 Jessie.

• Finally, Debian chose* systemd as default init systemd, bye bye upstart

  systemd already has a wide adoption withing the GNU/Linux distribution with all major distros including openSUSE, Fedora, Arch Linux, etc using it as their default init system. Upstart was either way not getting much support from the free software community due to the restrictive CLAs Canonical requires which is often criticized by the community. With Debian going* for systemd, it will get even more developer power whereas Canonical will be left alone to deal with Upstart along with many more project that it’s trying to do on its own – including the recently discussed File Manager which may replace Nautilus (Files).

Systemd in Ubuntu

• Debian init decision further isolates Ubuntu

  Going forward, systemd will be Debian’s default init system for Linux distributions, an init system soon to be used by every other major Linux distribution other than Ubuntu.

• Losing graciously

• After Linux civil war, Ubuntu to adopt systemd

• Ubuntu to ditch Upstart and switch to systemd

  With this move Canonical has slowed the alienation of Ubuntu from the rest of the Linux community. It also shows that Canonical also understand that it can’t fork it’s path too much from the mainstream Linux community, especially from mommy Debian. In a nutshell it’s a wise and welcome decision by Ubuntu leadership and will help them focus on more pressing issues which will help make Ubuntu better.

Systemd

• Broken by design: systemd

  My view is that this idea is wrong: systemd is broken by design, and despite offering highly enticing improvements over legacy init systems, it also brings major regressions in terms of many of the areas Linux is expected to excel: security, stability, and not having to reboot to upgrade your system.

• systemd analysis: a personal perspective

  As usual in these cases, not just Lennart, but many of those who supported him, also those who sponsored these efforts, has suffered all kind of attacks. Sadly not just for technical, I mean ATTACKS. Even journalists have been involved. Yes, Free Software is also mature enough to have “yellow (technical) press” associated, political and business interests and people in different communities willing to use them against anybody who threaten the current status quo.

Mobile

• Ubuntu delays its planned PC mobile convergence

• Ubuntu mobile takes two steps forward, one step backward

  Vodafone joined Ubuntu’s Carrier Advisory Group, as Ubuntu demoed progress on a unified desktop/mobile UI, but a Debian decision may further isolate Ubuntu.

• An Ubuntu Phone/Mobile Announcement Is Coming Next Week

• Ubuntu store apps won’t work across mobile and desktop in 14.04

  One of Canonical’s main goals in bringing Ubuntu to mobile devices is to create a converged platform across smartphones, tablets, and PCs. As such, a developer should be able to write an app that has a single code base yet runs on all three types of devices, presenting a different interface to the user on each form factor.

Licence Agreement

• Canonical Explains Why Linux Mint and All Other Distros Must Sign a License Agreement

  Canonical has issued an official explanation for the reason why Linux Mint developers have to sign a license agreement in order to continue to distribute the package straight from the Ubuntu repos.

Valve

• Valve Is Now Giving Away Their Games To Ubuntu Developers

• Fake DDs Steal Games, Linux on Laptop, and Candy Hearts

LTS

• Early Benchmarks Of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS vs. 14.04 LTS

  After this weekend sharing benchmarks of the recent Ubuntu 12.04 LTS point releases, here’s some complementary tests that offer a look at the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS “Precise Pangolin” performance against the current state of the “Trusty Tahr”, a.k.a. Ubuntu 14.04 LTS.

• Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS released

  The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS
  (Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, Cloud, and Core products,
  as well as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.

• Ubuntu 14.04 (Trusty Tahr) – Alpha 1 Released ! Time to Upgrade !

Development

• Forward Momentum in the Ubuntu App Developer Platform

  Last week I was in Orlando sprinting with my team as well as the platform, SDK, and security teams and some desktop and design folks. As usual after a sprint, I have been slammed catching up with email, but I wanted to provide a summary of some work going that you can expect to see soon in the Ubuntu app developer platform.

• The Next Ubuntu Developer Summit: 11-13 March 2014

  The Ubuntu Developer Summit is the primary place where we discuss, debate, and plan the future of Ubuntu. The entire event takes place online, is open and accessible to all, and every session is recorded so everyone can see how decisions are made. It is a useful, fun, and rewarding event to join.

Ubuntu Variants

• Ubuntu 14.04 Derivatives Do Their Alpha 2 Release

  Various flavors of Ubuntu 14.04 have come out today with their Trusty Tahr Alpha 2 spins.

Bodhi Linux

• Interview: Jeff Hoogland Talks About Bodhi Linux

  We are huge fans of Jeff Hoogland’s work as a Software Developer and his efforts with Bodhi Linux. So we invited Jeff for a quick chat with Unixmen Australia. We were privileged when Jeff accepted our invitation. Here is what he had to say.

Linux Mint

• Why Did Linux Mint Ax mintConstructor?

  It’s no great secret that our organization Reglue uses Linux Mint on many of our outgoing computers. I run Mint on one of my work computers and at home as well. Linux Mint has given us the opportunity to create a respin for educational purposes within our non profit, largely due to an app named mintConstructor. It provides a fairly simple method of making custom systems using Linux Mint as the base.

• Revisited: Linux Mint 16 “Petra” KDE + Xfce

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Microsoft-Bribed Ben Edelman Behind Latest Smear Against Android/Linux

Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Google, Microsoft at 5:28 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Funded by Microsoft, but the press doesn’t know it

Summary: Response to some of the latest claims about AOSP — claims that indirectly come from Microsoft, the biggest foe of Android

Ben Edelman is a sellout masquerading as an academic. He worked for Microsoft by covertly spreading FUD against Android in 2011 and he is doing is again. Microsoft has a tradition of passing ‘dirt’ for people to publish and make its rivals (ODF, IBM, Google, GNU, Linux etc.) look bad. It comes from Microsoft’s PR agencies.

When we saw the latest smear against Android [1,2] (similar to Steve Jobs’ facts-free smear against Android) we thought it was Microsoft Florian behind it. This time, however, it was a different paid lobbying doing the work [3] (there is a group of people Microsoft regularly pays for this FUD service, some of whom are lawyers that try to hide the payments from Microsoft).

The latest smear against Android (it’s untrue by the way, for reasons we covered before) was further promoted and spread by pro-Microsoft circles like tech tabloid ZDNet (CBS). Chase all these reports back to the source (which Android/AOSP does have by the way) and you will find Microsoft. It’s a shame that all these gullible journalists fail to disclose the Microsoft tie to these claims. They just don’t seem to know who Ben Edelman really is. This is why Microsoft keeps shuffling lobbyists; it’s harder to track this way.

There is a new press release titled “Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROM Builder Now Available on AWS Marketplace,” [4] demonstrating perhaps that the myth of limitation is just a make-belief agenda that Microsoft has been pushing for years. █

Related/contextual items from the news:

1. Android can’t escape the Pandora’s Box of openness

2. Is Android too open for Google to retain control?

3. Google’s Dirty Little Android Secrets Leaked

   Google imposes strict restrictions on smartphone manufacturers and app developers in its Android mobile application distribution agreement, or MADA, according to excerpts of documents revealed by Ben Edelman, an associate professor at the Harvard Business School.

4. Android Open Source Project (AOSP) ROM Builder Now Available on AWS Marketplace

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