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Links 5/9/2014: New WordPress, Systemd Debate Continues





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Switch to Linux part 2 – install Linux
    Once you’ve got your Linux Mint image downloaded (or other distro if you fancy using a different one), you’ll need to burn it to a spare DVD or temporarily create a bootable USB stick with it. We recommend doing the latter by using the UNetbootin software and a spare USB stick that’s at least 2GB in size. Be sure to back up any files on the USB stick before using the software though, as it will delete them otherwise.


  • How a Linux system administrator evolves from beginner to advanced professional


  • Evolution of a SysAdmin
    There is an ever-growing demand for Linux professionals, and becoming a sysadmin can be a challenging, interesting and rewarding career path. We have curated a few resources that can help you take your Linux career to the next level - regardless of your current experience level.


  • Tux Machines Ten Months Later
    It wasn’t a big surprise when Linton announced her intention to sell the site. For a while it had been obvious she wasn’t putting the time into it she once had. Since the site had started in 2004, it had been constantly maintained, with links to other sites being posted daily, if not more often. Recently, it had lost that dependability. Days, sometimes weeks, would go by without the site being updated.


  • The Wrong Way To Install GNU/Linux
    Now, the newbie does not need to create a shopping list with thousands of entries. Many of the Debian packages are libraries shared by multiple applications so start with the major applications the newbie needs: a web browser or two, an office suite or two, some graphics applications for producing drawings or editing images, some multimedia software, various utilities like file-manager, search engine (yes you can have powerful tools on your desktop), database, etc. Make a short list of a few dozen or less packages that give the newbie what he/she wants. Then consider the desktop itself. The newbie can have none at all (strange but true), simple iconified desktops, brave new world shortcut-driven searchable-everything desktops and even some combinations like several different desktops running in virtual machines… Here the possibilities are numerous but there should be some combination that suites the user. If the user like most runs a few applications routinely and has a small total number of applications ever used, a rather finite desktop like XFCE should work. It’s a lot like XP with a task bar (or not), actual menus and such. If the user is some kind of genius with a huge number of applications, too many to hide behind icons, a search-engine base might be the way to go. You just start typing the name/description of an application and you find it just like URI’s autocompletion in your browser. Then choose KDE or GNOME.


  • Fedora in local medicine shop
    They are really happy with the OS as almost no downtime for them.


  • NBC, Today Show Use Ubuntu to Illustrate Celebrity Hacking Story
    Spotting Ubuntu in the wild should be promoted to a sport and records must be set for the most interesting places where the distro has been seen. It looks like NBC and the Today Show have used Ubuntu to illustrate the nefarious practices of the hacker that release some nude pictures of various celebrities.


  • Desktop



    • Chromebooks will make the year of Linux possible: Linus Torvalds
      Chromebooks are becoming quite popular among the techie as well as non-techie crowd. Even Microsoft has started to get worried about Chromebooks and is pushing hardware partners to do a Netbook 2.0 to combat Chromebooks.

      Linus likes Chromebooks quite a lot – this is one device which may realise the dream of ‘Linux on desktop’. When asked about what can be done to move closer toward the ‘year of desktop Linux’ at DebConf, he said, “Technical people don’t tend to use Chromebooks but I think Chromebooks are kind of things that will make the year of the desktop more possible.”


    • Toshiba introduces a Chromebook you would crave to buy
      Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, said a few day ago that Chromebook may realise the ‘year of Linux desktop’ dream. There is no doubt that Chromebooks are fast becoming preferred choice of users; the are the best selling devices on Amazon.com.

      Now Toshiba has introduced two Chromebooks which not only look great, but also pack some good hardware. The company has announced two Chromebooks, where one is an entry-level $249 Chromebook with standard HD display the other one is kind of high end with Full HD (1920 x 1080) 13.3 incg display with IPS technology.


    • Can this free software company secure the future of Linux for the city of Munich?
      There are many solved problems in open source. Groupware is not one of them.

      How else would you explain the number of migrations that fail on average in groupware? The Swiss canton of Solothurn is just one example among many as a result of groupware vendors who have given up and transitioned to Outlook or the web to meet their needs. Kolab does things differently. For one, Outlook will never be the client for the Linux desktop. And, the web is a good answer for a lot of things, but not all.

      The city of Munich is another good case to look at; they successfully completed a Linux migration that has saved them millions of Euros. But now, the newly elected mayor and his deputy have made the news by publicly considering a migration back to Windows. To explore this further, let's first ignore for a moment that the City Council would need to approve any change in strategy and has renewed its dedication to LiMux. Let's also ignore the fact that the City employees do not consider it a good idea to go back to Windows.

      So, what was it that prompted LiMux to be put into question in the news?

      If you guessed that Office interoperatbility may have something to do with it, you would be right. As long as there are competing standards there will be incompatibility between the dominant vendor and the rest of the market. Document exchange remains a constant issue that is ultimately only solved at the political level. This particular problem is not technical and the UK has recently demonstrated that they will choose open documents as the standard format to deal with it.


    • Acer Chromebook 13 review
      The best Chromebooks all have one thing in common: they’re small. The most popular Chromebooks have small, low-resolution 11.6-inch displays. They may offer a low price, stellar battery life, and fast performance — but sometimes you just want a bigger computer.




  • Server



    • Cumulus Linux Partners for Open Source Networking OS
      Does the channel need an open source operating system designed to power the next-generation networking hardware that powers the cloud? The company behind Cumulus Linux thinks so, and so too, apparently, do Dell, VMware (VMW) and other partners who have endorsed Cumulus Linux through major reseller and distribution agreements recently.


    • Parallels wants to help automate, manage and secure Linux containers
      Virtualization firm Parallels Inc. is hoping to break into the world of containers with its automation, security and management software.

      Parallels told The Register that its automation and management software Virtuozzo could be useful in making containers better behave.


    • Total chooses Linux for its supercomputer
      French oil firm Total has revealed that its supercomputer is now running on a Linux Enterprise Server operating system.

      The oil giant chose the Linux Enterprise Server - provided by software company SUSE - as it was the best value for money, according to the Total's high power computer (HPC) engineer, Diego Klahr.

      The IT deployment comes as Total looks to bolster its oil production process. In 2013, with oil and gas reserves diminishing, the Exploration and Production (Total E&P) department needed to improve how it located new oil and gas reserves.


    • Does Docker Need an Open Source Foundation?
      The open source Docker container virtualization project got started in March of 2013 and has since grown to become one of the most talked about virtualization technologies in the industry.

      Docker was started by Solomon Hykes, while Hykes was running a PaaS company known at the time as dotCloud. The dotCloud business has since been sold and Hykes is the CTO of Docker, Inc. which is the lead commercial sponsor behind Docker.

      In some cases with open source software, there is a push from the broader community for a vendor neutral foundation to help run the project. That's not likely to be the case for Docker.






  • Kernel Space



    • Random Thoughts, Cheap Shots, Bon Mots…
      Of course, as you might expect, Linus left a wide range of debate and discussion in his verbal wake. Among the things that raised both cheers and jeers were items like packaging programs is difficult and time consuming, systemd, GPLv3, and a complaint about the way distros go about doing what they do. That and, of course, saying the Free Software Foundation is full of fanatics (of course, he backtracked and said that there are many good FSFers, but some were extreme).


    • Boycott Systemd, Messy Makulu, and Top Ten
      Systemd continues to grab headlines and today there are calls to boycott it. The Document Foundation are holding membership committee elections. Matthew Miller and Jim Whitehurst talk Fedora and Red Hat. New high-risk threats have been reported to infect Linux systems. Christine Hall says Distrowatch's Top Ten actually contains only five distros and Softpedia.com says an old Ubuntu installer bug can still wipe your hard drive.


    • systemd, a brave new world
      After spending a while fighting with upstart, at work, I decided that systemd couldn't be any worse and yesterday morning upgraded one of my servers to run it.


    • btrfs rebalancing


    • Graphics Stack



      • More Nouveau Re-Clocking Patches Published
        A few weeks back Roy posted improved re-clocking code for NVA3 GPUs. Today his latest set of patches work on memory re-clocking improvements for DDR2/DDR3 hardware. The patches also implement wait-for-vblank to remove flickering during memory re-clocking, improvements for reducing the downtime of PFIFO pauses, etc. These patches are prep work for the actual memory re-clocking code that he says will follow later.


      • X.Org Is Looking For Some Female Help
        The X.Org Foundation is looking for one female to fund in the months ahead to do some sort of work for the open-source project.


      • Wayland/Weston 1.6 Release Candidate 1 Is Out


        Wayland 1.6 is finally close to materializing and should be officially released later this month.

        Pekka Paalanen of Collabora has been handling Wayland 1.6 release management in the absence of Wayland founder Kristian Høgsberg. There was a Wayland 1.6 Alpha in late August while out today is Wayland 1.6 RC1 along with a release candidate to the Weston compositor.


      • Wayland and Weston 1.6 RC1 snapshot (1.5.92)




    • Benchmarks



      • More Linux Benchmarks Of The AMD FX-8370E / FX-8370 / FX-9590
        In adding some extra tests besides what was shared in our large Linux review of the new AMD FX CPUs from earlier in the week, that included a fairly big comparison of Intel and AMD CPUs, here's some more Linux test results for just the FX-8370E, FX-8370, and FX-9590 processors.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • Intermediate results of the icon tests: Elementary
      The introduction of the new Breeze icon set in KDE let us again wonder, what aspects of an icon set actually takes what impact on the usability of it. We investigated Oxygen and Tango Icons for the LibreOffice project before, but our focus then was on checking all icons of the standard tool bar. This time we focus on different icon sets and will use 13 common actions to compare them.


    • GNOME Desktop/GTK



      • GNOME 3.14 Beta 2 Has Been Released!
        Frederic Peters has announced the release of GNOME 3.13.91, the second beta release which is a new step towards 3.14.0, scheduled to be released September 24th. This beta release updates many core applications such as: adwaita-icon-theme, Baobab, Caribou, Clutter, Clutter-gtk, Epiphany, Evince, GNOME Display Manager, glibmm, Gnome Contacts, GNOME Control Center, GNOME Desktop, GNOME Screenshot, GNOME Shell, GNOME System Monitor, grilo, GTK+, LibGWeather, Mutter, Nautilus (Files), Pango, Totem (Videos), Vala, and more.


      • GNOME 3.14 Beta 2 Released
        The second beta release to the GNOME 3.14 desktop stack due out later this month is now available.






  • Distributions



    • Linux Desktop Fragmentation Is a Feature, Not a Bug
      One of the most common expressions that you will hear in the Linux community is platform fragmentation, and it's also one of the contra arguments that people spout when citing reasons not to get a Linux OS. I'm here to tell you why platform fragmentation is actually a good thing.


    • Netrunner – The Best Distro You’ve Barely Heard Of
      My overall conclusion with Netrunner Rolling is that there is no better Arch platformed Linux distro with KDE as the default environment out there. It just works. It gets out of the way and it gives the end user a clean, crisp and efficient desktop right out of the gate. You don’t have to know binary to get it installed, updated, and running. You don’t have to sacrifice a goat to Cthulhu (I’ve heard that comes later?) to have a pleasing KDE experience for your desktop. I keep saying this, but it just works.


    • New Releases



      • Backtrack 5 R3 Hits One Million Downloads on Softpedia
        Backtrack was a Linux distribution designed for digital forensics and penetration testing and it's no longer maintained. In fact, this OS was so successful that it's still being downloaded and used even today, despite the fact that it's no longer maintained.

        Backtrack was not the only security-oriented distribution, but the wealth of applicationS provided by the developers ensured its supremacy. It remained one of the most downloaded Linux distributions for a long time, even after it wasn't maintained anymore.




    • Screenshots



    • Gentoo Family



      • Gentoo Linux 20140826 Iron Penguin Edition -- open source fans, download now!
        There are so many Linux distributions to choose from. Depending on your perspective, this can be a good or bad thing. You see, for many, using Linux is about choice -- you get to choose the distro, packages and environment. There is truth to this; however, many others, including myself, often wonder if the community's efforts are too fragmented. In other words, when talent is spread thin, progress may be slowed.

        One distro which should not be discussed in this debate is Gentoo; it has been around for 12 years and is not some recently launched project. Hell, Google chose this distro as the base for Chrome OS, so it must be good; seriously, the search-giant's operating system is pretty darn stable. Gentoo Linux has reached version 20140826 and it looks like a winner.


      • New Gentoo, Just Peachy, and Tuxmachines Now
        gentooA new Gentoo liveDVD was released last week featuring Linux 3.15 and KDE 4.13. Jack Wallen follows Jack Germain in tests of a new "fresh and juicy" Linux. The Reg test drives Ubuntu 14.10. And finally today, Christine Hall takes a look at my old Website, Tuxmachines.org, under its new management.


      • Gentoo Linux releases the 20140826 LiveDVD - Iron Penguin Edition




    • Red Hat Family



      • Cisco, Red Hat broaden partnership, eye integrated OpenStack systems
        Cisco and Red Hat on Thursday announced integrated systems designed for OpenStack cloud deployments.

        The companies also said they would collaborate more on OpenStack as well as Cisco's Application Centric Infrastructure and Intercloud efforts.


      • OpenStack 101: Getting started with Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform
        Cloud computing is enjoying a growing presence in businesses today, and according to forecasts from experts such as Gartner, uptake is only set to rise in the future.

        As organizations that haven't already latched onto the trend look to do so, investing in the right infrastructure, technology and tools is essential. OpenStack, as a community project, is not yet ready for the enterprise 'as-is'. However, like other popular open source community projects including Linux, there are companies, including Red Hat, that are making the community project into an enterprise Infrastructure-as-a-Service offering, enabling organizations to attain greater agility and scalability with the cloud, with the support lifecycle, vast partner ecosystem, and certified solutions portfolio that enterprise customers require.


      • Fedora



        • Matthew Miller: The Remaking of Fedora 1, 2, 3
          "If you look at Fedora over the past decade, you see sort of a decision to make it one-size-fits-all. But we are now looking at Fedora and asking, 'what is Fedora?' and 'what can we make better?' When you look at Fedora now, you can see that there was a decision to make it a desktop-only distro -- so that was the focus for a while. ... Over the last few years, the focus has changed."


        • Fedora 21 Alpha to slip by one week


        • Fedora 21 Alpha Slips By Another Week
          Jaroslav Reznik of Red Hat announced today that Fedora 21 has slipped by yet another week.

          The Fedora 21 release was delayed by yet another week due to unresolved blocker bugs. In particular, there's 8 blocker bugs right now ranging from Anaconda installer issues to theming issues. As a result, Fedora 21 Alpha will hopefully come around the 16th of September if no further delays take place. All further milestones are pushed back by an additional week.






    • Debian Family



      • The Linux Setup - Stefano Zacchiroli, Former Debian Project Leader
        Stefano is my great white whale. I’ve been trying to interview him for years, so I was very excited when he was able to make some time for this. He’s a Debian user, as you might expect from a former Debian Project Leader. Stefano also has a lot of nice things to say about GNOME Shell. And mutt users will want to check out his software list, as there’s a lot of nice Emacs integrations in there.


      • Debian PPA Utility
        Since its introduction, PPA’s are exclusively connected to Ubuntu and its derivatives (Mint, Elementary, etc …). But over time, a number of interesting projects appeared whose whole development is happening inside of PPA’s. To name few, I’m talking about TLP, Geary, Oracle Java Installer, Elementary OS and etc … Some of these projects are in WNPP without much happening for a long time, i.e: TLP


      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • YES, I have ridden the UNICORN: The Ubuntu Utopic unicorn
            Ubuntu 14.10, nicknamed Utopic Unicorn, is coming in just a few months. Alpha releases have been available for some time but beta testing started last week, meaning code is generally stable enough for virtual machines and other testing scenarios.

            Ubuntu's current release cycle means that the main Ubuntu line usually sits out the first beta and 14.10 is no exception. There is no beta 1 for Ubuntu 14.10; instead this beta consists of a number of participating "flavors," whose betas are also now available.


          • Ubuntu Touch Can Now Be Used to Control AR Drones
            The Ubuntu Touch platform is getting closer to a release on the market and some very interesting applications are making their way into the Ubuntu Store, like this drone control app.


          • Canonical Releases Mir 0.7.0 Display Server


          • The DowNow 0.3 (Torrent Client) Is Now Available Via The Ubuntu Touch App Store
            For now, the app is still under massive development, the DowNow 0.3 click package being downloadable via either Launchpad or Ubuntu Software Center.

            There aren’t a lot of applications for Ubuntu Touch available yet,but Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth hopes that by the time the first Ubuntu Touch powered phones hit the market, the top 50 Android/iOS apps will be available for Ubuntu Touch.


          • Canonical Has Joined The Khronos Group To Contribute To The Creation Of Mir/Wayland Drivers
            For now, both Mir and Wayland are under massive development, none of them being used on desktop yet. While Mir is testable via the Ubuntu Touch Next Image, Wayland will be added to the default repositories of Fedora, but will not be used as default.

            At first, Canonical intended to use Red Hat’s Wayland on their Ubuntu Touch, but it was difficult for them to submit patches and customizations for the mobile device and so, they decided to do the work themselves and created Mir.

            Recently, Canonical has joined the Khronos Group to contribute to the creation of Mir/Wayland drivers.


          • Ubuntu Attracts Developers
            Have you ever wondered why you use the operating system you do to create programs, perhaps for other completely different operating systems? Canonical is making efforts to try to attract you to Ubuntu, even if you are targeting Android.










  • Devices/Embedded



    • 5 things you need to know about the Raspberry Pi’s Epiphany web browser


    • RasPi issue 2 out now!
      Build a Raspberry Pi robot and create a game in Scratch with the latest issue of the digital RasPi magazine


    • 5 things you need to know about the Raspberry Pi’s Epiphany web browser
      Epiphany is a new web browser for the Raspberry Pi. It’s been modified to be faster, smoother and more powerful than the previous web browser, Midori, meaning it possible to watch 720p YouTube videos and browse more Javascript-heavy websites like RaspberryPi.org and RasPi.Today.


    • Phones



      • Ballnux



        • Samsung's Tizen-Based Gear S Throws a Curve at Smartwatch Market
          Prior to this week's IFA show in Berlin, Samsung showed off its third Tizen Linux-based smartwatch. The Gear S offers several innovations compared to the Tizen-based Gear 2 and Gear Neo smartwatches, including autonomous operation and a curved screen. The Gear S will ship in Korea in October, followed by a global launch. According to this mostly favorable CNET Gear S hands-on, there are no current plans for a U.S. launch.


        • Samsung announces Galaxy Note 4, Galaxy Edge – continues to innovate in hardware
          Samsung is all set to further eat into Apple market with the introduction of Galaxy Note 4, the evolution of its Galaxy Note phatblet. It’s an evolution in a true sense as it continues to chisel out rough edges of Galaxy Note 3 while retaining the form factor and everything that’s neat about it.

          Another major announcement by Samsung was Galaxy Note Edge, which kinds of takes smartphones and tablets to the next level – bringing in the much needed innovation that’s lacking in the otherwise somehow stagnated Apple hardware.


        • Several Thousand People Use The New Rolling-Release OpenSUSE
          OpenSUSE Factory only had around 2,000 users at the end of June but by the end of August was at nearly 6,000. Meanwhile, there's also just under 6,000 users of openSUSE Tumbleweed. The openSUSE community appears happy with these numbers and they're still working on making openSUSE Factory a better platform for users and developers.


        • Factory: Over 6000 installations and growing!




      • Android



        • Material design comes to Chrome for Android
          Google introduced a new visual language for its products which they called ‘Material Design‘. The upcoming release of Android – Android 5.x – will be using this new visual language. According to reports Chrome OS will also be moving to ‘Material Design’. If you are not willing to take a dive and try Android L, you can now enjoy the visual design on Android with Chrome.


        • Android Continues To Gain Market Share Over Apple's iOS In Australia
          Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, one of the most authoritative data providers on global smartphone market share, has released its latest survey findings for the three months to July.


        • Android Wear and Tizen smartwatches light up IFA
          Asus, LG, and Sony unveiled Android Wear watches, but the star of the show may be Samsung’s Tizen-based Gear S, which has 3G, WiFi, and a curved screen.

          Google’s Android-based Android Wear platform was well represented at this week’s IFA show in Berlin. New entries include LG’s round-faced G Watch R, the stylish, curved Asus ZenWatch, and a Sony SmartWatch 3, notable for running on a quad-core processor. These models join an early wave of Android Wear smartwatches including Samsung’s Gear Live, LG’s original G Watch, and Motorola/Lenovo’s round-faced Moto 360. Alcatel, meanwhile, tipped an unnamed round-faced watch with an unstated OS that is not running Android Wear.


        • Citrix ShareConnect Puts Desktop Applications on Android Tablets
          “Today’s workforce is more mobile than ever and they face two major challenges; not all data is stored in the cloud and many desktop apps are not fully functional through mobile apps,” said Jesse Lipson, vice president, Citrix, in a statement. “With ShareConnect, users can access and edit files, use industry-specific desktop apps critical to getting their work done and even use their business networks – all through a simple interface, optimized pixel by pixel for tablets.”


        • Best Android tablets (September 2014 edition)
          All of the tablets features here are very capable, powerful workhorses, and are ideal not only for home users, but also for enterprise users or those looking for a BYOD tablet. Any one of these will give you an excellent Android experience, and when combined with the right apps, will allow you to get a lot of work done when you're away from your desk.


        • Android-x86 4.4 review – technically a distro?
          We’ve been keeping an eye on the development of Android-x86 for a little while now, with the release of 4.4 seemingly imminent for some months now. In the past we’ve managed to use dodgy hacks of Android on proper computers or an emulated version via the ADK, but this promises to be one of the first complete ports of the mobile operating system to x86.


        • Firewall detects rogue cell towers that try to intercept your calls
          Most people know to turn off GPS on their mobiles if they are bothered about being tracked however fewer people know not to leave on Wi-Fi & call service as these also can be used to track you.


        • Android Candy: Quit Thumbing Your Passwords!


        • The new Moto X could be the best Android phone ever made
          Today, Motorola announced its second-generation Moto X, the successor to the company’s rebooted flagship smartphone that was unveiled just over a year ago. Yes, the phone will simply be called Moto X again — not X+1, as some rumors had suggested — and it’ll be available for the same $499 unlocked as the original when it launches later in September (that's for 16GB; the 32GB version runs at a $50 premium). AT&T, among others, will be offering it starting at $99 on contract.


        • How to Make the Most Out Of Pushbullet For Android and Chrome
          Since its release, Pushbullet has quickly become a favorite amongst many Android users. This free application lets you "push" any link or image to your mobile phone right from your desktop or browser. This means that you don't have to get up and type in a link that you see on your desktop on to your smartphone.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets



      • Microsoft’s cheap assault on Android tablets is about to begin
        Microsoft is copying competitor’s models so vigorously that they should move their head quarters to China. After pushing ‘cheap’ (in terms of price and performance) Netbooks to combat Chromebooks, Microsoft is now about to flood the market with ‘cheap’ Windows tablets.

        Toshiba is going to be the first company to launch cheap 7-inch Windows tablet. The tablet will be launched at IFA tradeshow in Berlin.








Free Software/Open Source



  • Earning a living from open source software
    Nitish began sharing his stories with us on open source in May this year. Then, he wrote another one in June and July. In his first article, he explained how to write secure code using Open Web Application Security Project guidelines. Next, Nitish compared three giants in open source content management—Drupal, Joomla, and Wordpress—based on these criteria: installation time and complexity, plugin and theme availability, ease of use, and customization and upgrades. Lastly (for now), Nitish shares his thoughts on Andriod's rise to popularity in the hearts of million through open source.


  • 10 Reasons To Use Open Source Software Defined Networking [Slideshare]
    Open source software (OSS) now has a permanent role in the enterprise IT world. Gartner forecasts that open-source technology will be included in 85% of all commercial software packages by 2015 and 95% of mainstream IT organizations will leverage some element of OSS. One of the fastest growing segments within open software is Software Defined Networking (SDN), which simplifies IT network configuration and management by decoupling control from the physical network infrastructure. The SDN market is projected to surge from $360M to $3.52B in 2018.


  • Open-Xchange launches open-source OX Guard encryption tool for its mail and storage apps
    Germany’s Open-Xchange, a provider of web apps for renaming by service providers and deployment in the enterprise, has released an encryption tool called OX Guard. As around 110 million people use Open-Xchange’s apps (though they probably don’t know it), this is a reasonably big deal.

    OX Guard is designed to provide a layer of security over Open-Xchange’s email and cloud storage products, whether they’re consumed through a service provider or installed on the customer’s own servers (the software is free for non-commercial use).


  • Consumer risks of having a reseller that doesn't offer enterprise open source products
    This message is not intended to sell you anything but more to be an "exclamation mark" in the strategy decisions being made in the consumer's IT environment. By Russell Gill, general manager at Linux Warehouse.

    If you speak to IT professionals, Gartner etc, the majority agree that open source products are playing a larger part in the consumer's IT environment. But here's the conundrum: it's more profitable for the average reseller out there to sell the proprietary product than to have their customers subscribe to enterprise open source software. Coupled with this, the resellers have to ensure that their staff are up to date with ever-changing trends and that they are able to support the IT environment.


  • New open-source file browser promises to locate docs scattered across clouds
    The browser incorporates Apache Lucene and Elasticsearch to furnish the search goodies here, said Mark Geene, Cloud Elements CEO and co-founder.


  • Open Source Developer Enhances Blue Button Integration Technology
    Open source software developer Amida, based in Washington, D.C., has released the second version of its Data Reconciliation Engine (DRE), a Blue Button-branded software component that supports the aims of the Blue Button Initiative.


  • Coreboot Lands Support For AMD's Olive Hill+ Board
    Just days after support for AMD's Steppe Eagle SoC landed in Coreboot, the first motherboard for this embedded G-Series SoC is now supported by mainline Coreboot.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome



    • Mozilla



      • One Year of Release Management
        This month marks my one year anniversary contributing to the Release Management Team as a Early Feedback Community Release Manager and I was not sure how the experience would turn out at first. I have really enjoyed the last 12 months working on our Firefox Nightly release.

        At our last work week in Portland, one of the things I asked for was more responsibility surrounding our release and going hands on with more tasks and this month I will start working on our Extended Support Release (ESR) with Lukas. Additionally, One of my Q3 goals is to firm up some documentation and ideas around pathways and on boarding new contributors.


      • Mozilla Firefox 32 Has Been Released!


      • Benjamin Kerensa on Firefox OS & Internet Freedom
        According to the Mozilla Developer Network, Firefox OS is an open source mobile operating system based on Linux, open web standards and Mozilla’s Gecko technology.

        But there’s more to it that that: Firefox OS is about reinventing what mobile platforms can be, about pushing the boundaries of what is possible with the Web on mobile and about enabling entirely new segments of users to come online with their smartphone at various levels of participation, from users to developers.


      • Firefox 32 And Thunderbird 31.1 Have Been Added To The Default Repositories Of Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives
        Among others, Firefox 32 comes with an improved generational garbage collection, HTTP caching v2 has been enabled by default, the login metadata viewable is now viewable in the password manager, public key pinning support has been added, the number of found items in the find toolbar is now displayed, just like in Chrome, Scratchpad has received code completion and inline documentation, support for connectiong to the HTTP proxy over HTTPS has been implemented and both the Password Manager and Add-on manager have received improvements and a big number of security and bug-fixes have been implemented.


      • Your Facebook page as a Firefox OS mobile app
        Whether you are a business or community page owner, what would be better than increasing your page reachability by offering your standalone mobile app?

        Apptuter is an open source framework to help you achieve that, with minimum coding knowledge and easy to follow steps you would be able to produce your own app. The framework currently supports Facebook pages as a content source and is capable of producing apps for Firefox OS, Android, and IOS platforms.






  • SaaS/Big Data



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice



    • Tender For Base Framework For An Android Version Of LibreOffice With Basic Editing Capabilities
      TDF currently plans to invest into getting LibreOffice, its free office suite, to mobile Android devices like tablets and smartphones, extending the existing desktop version of the software.


    • Microsoft is part of the problem, not the solution for Munich
      The new mayor of Munich is a self-proclaimed Microsoft fan and he wants to waste all the money that was invested in moving away from Microsoft’s vendor lock and incompatible technologies. His deputy is also a Microsoft fans so it’s not surprising that the new office of the mayor wants to bring back Microsoft technologies.

      But that will be a very dangerous move for Munich.

      Josef Schmid, teh deputy, points out two issues with LiMux – one is incompatibility with Microsoft technologies and other was increased support calls.

      Incompatibility with Microsoft products is a huge problem and it’s a problem for everyone who is using Microsoft technologies. Linux or Open Source are not the cause of the problem as Schmid says, they are victims.

      Then what is the cause?

      In a recent interview one of the directors of The Document Foundation disclosed how Microsoft users various tricks to break compatibility and that leads to people like Schmid to blame open source technologies without fully understanding where the problem lies.




  • CMS



    • WordPress 4.0 released, time to upgrade is now
      Matt Mullenweg, the founder and creator of WordPress has announced the release of version 4.0, code-named Benny. Matt says, “While 4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1, we feel we’ve put a little extra polish into it. This release brings you a smoother writing and management experience we think you’ll enjoy.”


    • WordPress 4.0 “Benny”
      Version 4.0 of WordPress, named “Benny” in honor of jazz clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman, is available for download or update in your WordPress dashboard. While 4.0 is just another number for us after 3.9 and before 4.1, we feel we’ve put a little extra polish into it. This release brings you a smoother writing and management experience we think you’ll enjoy.


    • Trying out WordPress 4.0 on OpenStack
      While a good portion of my focus on Opensource.com is on OpenStack and related cloud technologies, my most recent background prior to joining the team here was in doing web design and development work for small businesses, nonprofits, and others who needed sites created for them quickly and easily. So while I'm a Drupal fan for a lot of things I do, the ease and simplicity of WordPress led me to use it for a number of projects.


    • WordPress 4.0 for Debian
      Yesterday WordPress released version 4.0 or “Benny” of WordPress. I have now downloaded it and packed up for Debian users.




  • Business



    • Teradata throws itself further into Hadoop with Think Big buy
      Teradata, a company that sells data-warehousing hardware and software for storing and serving corporate information, has pulled out its wallet for another big data business. Instead of buying software, as it did last month, today Teradata reached for a big data consulting company called Think Big Analytics.




  • BSD



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC



  • Public Services/Government



    • Avoiding lock-in when building open ICT systems: How to make better use of standards in public procurement?


      Professor Björn Lundell from University of Skövde - Sweden, has been researching the Open Standards phenomenon -particularly in public procurement-, for a number of years. He is one of the few academics in Europe that have tackled the analysis of benefits of using standards in public procurement of ICT.


    • New open source platform to improve patient experience
      Alfresco is proud to announce that it has become the latest company to integrate with Unity, the world’s first universal health viewer, from Fortrus. This unique combination enables Alfresco to deliver to its customers an agile and innovative open source platform with a clinical viewer dedicated to the user experience.




  • Licensing



    • Open Source Software Licenses: Which Should You Use?


      Slowly but surely, open source software is taking over. If you don’t believe it, just look at some of the most popular tools that we all use: Firefox, WordPress, 7-Zip, MediaWiki, BitTorrent, Android, plus all of the free alternatives to paid software. But did you know that not all open source licenses are the same?




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Vote On The Open Source Local Motors Sports Car
      Last month, open source DIY automaker Local Motors launched its next big design contest, and this one has production ambitions. The goal? Create a high-performance, low-cost track racer for performance purists.


    • Three key takeaways from the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival
      I was lucky to be in Berlin Open Access Schism: Recapitulating Open So with some colleagues earlier this month for the 2014 Open Knowledge Festival and associated fringe events.

      There’s really too much to distill into a short post—from Neelie Kroes, the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda, making the case for “Embracing the open opportunity," to Patrick Alley’s breathtaking accounts of how Global Witness uses information, to expose crime and corruption in countries around the world.


    • Linux certification, governments on open design principles, and more


    • Open Access/Content



      • The Open Access Schism: Recapitulating Open Source?
        As well as in free software itself, this column is interested in the ways that the ideas underlying open source are spreading far and wide. One of the earliest manifestations was in the field of academic publishing, where open access has been gaining ground steadily. It seems that the open access world has just entered the schism phase that mirrors the similar split between those espousing "free software", and those who resolutely call it "open source."

        This most recent development is captured in yet another brilliant contribution from the unofficial chronicler of the open access world, Richard Poynder. His blog, called "Open and Shut?", is simply the best resource there is to find out about open access, its issues and key individuals. You could spend many days reading through the resources there, and it would be time well spent.


      • OPINION: Why Can’t OER Enjoy the Same Success as Open Source Software?
        Open Educational Resources (OER) have the capacity to extend this framework to education, provided that their proponents likewise view them as more than simply a means of lowering content costs. At the same time, one must also recognize the distinctions between the actors (hackers vs. instructors) and their products (software vs. educational materials). The achievable goal for OER by doing this is that it reshapes pedagogy as profoundly as OSS has reshaped software.


      • How being online changes how we think about the traditional research paper
        The academic paper is old—older than the steam engine, the pocket watch, the piano, and the light bulb. The first journal, Philosophical Transactions, was published on March 6, 1665. Now that doesn’t mean that the journal article format is obsolete—many inventions much older are still in wide use today. But after a third of a millennium, it’s only natural that the format needs some serious updating.






  • Programming



    • LLVM 3.5 Is Finally Available For Download
      LLVM 3.5 is now available for fans just not looking for a more liberally licensed compiler but for those dependent upon AMD's GPU LLVM compiler back-end and the other innovative use-cases provided by the LLVM stack.




  • Standards/Consortia



    • Community revolts against ISO software testing standards
      Known as ISO 29119, the standard aims to join (and in some cases replace) existing ISO software testing mandates for concepts and definitions, test processes, test documentation, test techniques and one for keyword driven testing.

      The elegantly named 29119 Software Testing standard has been created in association with the IEEE and the IEC -- it is said to be an internationally agreed set of standards for software testing that can be used within any software development life cycle or organisation.






Leftovers



  • Security



  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • 'Debating' War, Corporate Media Style
      As the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) has expanded control over territory in Iraq and Syria, a growing chorus of politicians and pundits are demanding the Obama administration take more forceful military action. ISIS's gruesome beheadings of two American journalists have only increased those calls, leading some to compare the media frenzy to the run-up to the Iraq War.


    • NATO – An Idea Whose Time Has Gone
      Whatever modern NATO has become, a defensive alliance it is not...






  • Finance



  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Huffington Post Doubles Down, Has MIT Professor Spread Blatant Falsehoods About Creation Of Email
      We already covered the bizarre situation in which one of the biggest names in PR has "teamed up" with the Huffington Post to write an entirely bogus "series" of stories on the "history of email" that is nothing more than a PR campaign for a liar. V.A. Shiva Ayyadurai claims to have invented email. He did not. We went into great detail on this on Tuesday, so you can check out the history there.

      Despite my requests to both Huffington Post and Larry Weber (the PR guy who kicked off the "series"), neither has responded and explained if any money is changing hands here. That means either it is, and Huffington Post is violating FTC rules concerning "paid" posts, or Huffington Post just made it clear that it is willing to post pure bullshit without the slightest bit of fact checking. I'm still not sure which is worse.


    • CNN Tech Analyst Thinks 4Chan Is A Person: ‘He May Have Been A Systems Administrator’


    • David Gregory–and Other Famous Left-Wingers
      As for Gregory–"famously left-leaning" to whom? The Post doesn't offer any specifics on that score, but that's typical right-wing media criticism: The corporate media are full of left-wingers because we've said so for a long time.




  • Censorship



  • Privacy



    • Tom Newton Dunn is one in half a million
      It was revealed this week that the Met police used a RIPA request to access the telephone records of The Sun's Political Editor, Tom Newton Dunn.


    • Nude photos, phone records, NSA data offer essential lessons for admins
      As to that NSA data, a great deal of confusion about "surveillance" seems to be floating around. In the United Kingdom, questions are being asked about all the data-gathering by the British equivalent of the NSA, GCHQ. In response, Secretary of State Theresa May has responded that "there is no programme of mass surveillance and there is no surveillance state" and labels claims that GCHQ engages in unlawful hacking as "nonsense." Yet clearly, a lot of data is being gathered.

      GCHQ, the NSA, and probably every other intelligence agency worth the name is actively gathering data from the Internet. Everything on the Internet is transient, with different decay periods, so gathering information is a constant process. They believe everything that can be gathered without illegal action is fair game, so they gather anything and everything they can, storing it just in case.

      They are without doubt capturing and recording all and any email, instant messages, Web pages, social media traffic, and so on. Recent disclosures reveal that the NSA collects "nearly everything a user does on the Internet," then offers analysts tools to search that data. The NSA has a variety of explanations why it's all legally gathered.




  • Civil Rights



    • UK Police Abused Anti-Terror Law To Snoop On Journalist's Phone Records Concerning Minor Political Spat
      Plebgate is one of those silly minor political spats in the UK involving a top UK politician who apparently got angry that police wouldn't let him ride his bike out of the main gate at 10 Downing Street. The details really don't matter. It's just one of those political type stories that the press loves. But, now it's come out that in investigating this incident, the Metropolitan Police appear to have abused an anti-terror law to obtain the phone records of journalists who reported on the story.


    • Plebgate: Met obtained phone records of Sun political editor without consent
      Police investigating the Plebgate saga obtained the telephone records of the political editor of the Sun without his consent, despite laws which entitle journalists to keep their sources confidential.


    • “Plebgate” report shows why the UK’s data retention laws are such a terrible idea


    • Militarization, Surveillance, and Profit: How Grassroots Groups are Fighting Urban Shield
      While all eyes are on the disturbing evidence of police militarization in Ferguson, are you paying attention to what’s happening with law enforcement in your own back yard?

      In the San Francisco Bay Area, the answer is yes. A coalition of community groups has come together to call attention to Urban Shield, a four-day long “preparedness” exercise for law enforcement and other agencies that will take place from September 4-8. They’ve organized a week of education, including a march and demonstration outside of the event on Friday, September 5. To these community groups, Urban Shield represents state violence and political repression, not public safety.


    • Judge Says Los Angeles Law Enforcement Doesn't Need To Turn Over License Plate Reader Data
      Los Angeles law enforcement has been battling privacy activists seeking access to license plate data for over a year now. The plate and location data scooped up by the city's many automatic license plate readers is considered fair game by law enforcement because visible license plates obviously don't carry any sort of expectation of privacy.


    • NYPD sends top cops to Twitter school
      NYPD precinct commanders are going back to school to study a subject that’s second nature to any teen — using social media.


    • NYPD Sending Their Best Cops To Twitter School To Learn All About Common Sense
      I'd say it's been pretty well established at this point that the NYPD sucks at Twitter. Occasionally they get it right and engage with the public in a meaningful way, but too often NYPD officers put things on Twitter that can only serve to cause the public to question their judgement. Insensitivity, racism, and otherwise crass behavior doesn't make the NYPD look all that good, of course, so the top brass has a solution. They're going to review their hiring practices to make sure they're hiring good, level-headed men and women to put on the uniform and protect the public. Hahahahaha, just kidding, they've decided to send some of their officers to "Twitter school" instead.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality



  • Intellectual Monopolies



    • Trademarks



      • Disney tries to block Deadmau5 trademark
        The logo appears on Deadmau5's record artwork and is the basis of the large helmet he wears during every performance. Disney began investigating the matter back in April, and it's easy to see why — there is an obvious resemblance with the Mickey Mouse logo, and since the registration would cover classes of products from toys to BMX bikes, the entertainment giant no doubt feels the need to protect its trademark. Deadmau5 seems up for the fight, though, going by his Twitter feed.


      • Disney Officially Seeks To Block Deadmau5's Trademark Claim
        Apparently it's a big deadmau5 day on Techdirt. Not only do we have the story of Ferrari looking into blocking the sale of his Purrari, Disney is officially opposing his attempt to trademark his logo mousehead, which he famously wears in concert.




    • Copyrights



      • Australian Movie Studio Says Piracy Is Equivalent Of Pedophilia & Terrorism
        We've already mentioned how a number of comments have been submitted concerning Australian Attorney General George Brandis' Hollywood wishlist proposal for copyright reform in Australia. There are a number of interesting comments worth reading. I was pleasantly surprised to see the normally copyright-maximalist BSA come out against the proposal, saying that it will create a real risk of "over-enforcement, punishment of lawful conduct and blocking of lawful content including critically important free speech rights." Dr. Rebecca Giblin, who has studied these issues and other attempts to put in place similar filters (and how they've failed), has also put forth a very interesting comment.


      • 4chan adopts DMCA policy after nude celebrity photo postings
        In the wake of the release of stolen, intimate photos from a number of celebrities’ cell phones this past weekend on 4chan’s /b/ Web forum, the site has added something to its rules and policies—a Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown policy. While 4chan previously relied on its rapid expiration of content to keep 4chan LLC and site founder Chris “moot” Poole out of trouble, the heavy scrutiny that came from the latest round of celebrity exposure has pushed the site to adopt more formal measures to avoid litigation. (Victims of photo theft could use copyright claims to seek damages from publications and websites that publish them.)


      • Record Labels Take Down Kim Dotcom’s Official Album… From Mega
        In what could be one of the most ironic anti-piracy mistakes this year, music industry group IFPI has asked Mega to take down Kim Dotcom's very own music album Good Times. Mega was asked to remove its founder's music twice, casting doubt over the accuracy of the record labels' takedown efforts.








Recent Techrights' Posts

Comparing U.E.F.I. to B.I.O.S. (Bloat and Insecurity to K.I.S.S.)
By Sami Tikkanen
New 'Slides' From Stallman Support (stallmansupport.org) Site
"In celebration of RMS's birthday, we've been playing a bit. We extracted some quotes from the various articles, comments, letters, writings, etc. and put them in the form of a slideshow in the home page."
Thailand: GNU/Linux Up to 6% of Desktops/Laptops, According to statCounter
Desktop Operating System Market Share Thailand
António Campinos is Still 'The Fucking President' (in His Own Words) After a Fake 'Election' in 2022 (He Bribed All the Voters to Keep His Seat)
António Campinos and the Administrative Council, whose delegates he clearly bribed with EPO budget in exchange for votes
Adrian von Bidder, homeworking & Debian unexplained deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Sainsbury’s Epic Downtime Seems to be Microsoft's Fault and Might Even Constitute a Data Breach (Legal Liability)
one of Britain's largest groceries (and beyond) chains
 
People Don't Just Kill Themselves (Same for Other Animals)
And recent reports about Boeing whistleblower John Barnett
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, March 18, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, March 18, 2024
Suicide Cluster Cover-up tactics & Debian exposed
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 19/03/2024: A Society That Lost Focus and Abandoning Social Control Media
Links for the day
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE: Plagiarism & Child labour in YH4F
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Linux Foundation Boasting About Being Connected to Bill Gates
Examples of boasting about the association
Alexandre Oliva's Article on Monstering Cults
"I'm told an earlier draft version of this post got published elsewhere. Please consider this IMHO improved version instead."
[Meme] 'Russian' Elections in Munich (Bavaria, Germany)
fake elections
Sainsbury's to Techrights: Yes, Our Web Site Broke Down, But We Cannot Say Which Part or Why
Windows TCO?
Plagiarism: Axel Beckert (ETH Zurich) & Debian Developer list hacking
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 18/03/2024: Putin Cements Power
Links for the day
Flashback 2003: Debian has always had a toxic culture
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
[Meme] You Know You're Winning the Argument When...
EPO management starts cursing at everybody (which is what's happening)
Catspaw With Attitude
The posts "they" complain about merely point out the facts about this harassment and doxing
'Clown Computing' Businesses Are Waning and the Same Will Happen to 'G.A.I.' Businesses (the 'Hey Hi' Fame)
decrease in "HEY HI" (AI) hype
Free Software Needs Watchdogs, Too
Gentle lapdogs prevent self-regulation and transparency
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 18/03/2024: LLM Inference and Can We Survive Technology?
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 17, 2024
IRC logs for Sunday, March 17, 2024
Links 17/03/2024: Microsoft Windows Shoves Ads Into Third-Party Software, More Countries Explore TikTok Ban
Links for the day
Molly Russell suicide & Debian Frans Pop, Lucy Wayland, social media deaths
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Our Plans for Spring
Later this year we turn 18 and a few months from now our IRC community turns 16
Open Invention Network (OIN) Fails to Explain If Linux is Safe From Microsoft's Software Patent Royalties (Charges)
Keith Bergelt has not replied to queries on this very important matter
RedHat.com, Brought to You by Microsoft Staff
This is totally normal, right?
USPTO Corruption: People Who Don't Use Microsoft Will Be Penalised ~$400 for Each Patent Filing
Not joking!
The Hobbyists of Mozilla, Where the CEO is a Bigger Liability Than All Liabilities Combined
the hobbyist in chief earns much more than colleagues, to say the least; the number quadrupled in a matter of years
Jim Zemlin Says Linux Foundation Should Combat Fraud Together With the Gates Foundation. Maybe They Should Start With Jim's Wife.
There's a class action lawsuit for securities fraud
Not About Linux at All!
nobody bothers with the site anymore; it's marketing, and now even Linux
Links 17/03/2024: Abuses Against Human Rights, Tesla Settlement (and Crash)
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 16, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, March 16, 2024
Under Taliban, GNU/Linux Share Nearly Doubled in Afghanistan, Windows Sank From About 90% to 68.5%
Suffice to say, we're not meaning to imply Taliban is "good"
Debian aggression: woman asked about her profession
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Gemini Links 17/03/2024: Winter Can't Hurt Us Anymore and Playstation Plus
Links for the day