11.22.14
Gemini version available ♊︎Links 22/11/2014: Linux Mint 17.1, Ubuntu MATE
Contents
GNU/Linux
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Desktop
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Crowdfunding project promises a “laptop that respects essential freedoms”
What price can you put on freedom? If you’re talking about software freedom, a new San Francisco-based computer company prices it at $1,949 and up.
Purism has turned to the crowdfunding site Crowd Supply to fund and launch its first-ever product—a laptop that’s as open source friendly as it is technically feasible. Advertised as a “Free and Open Source laptop that respects your essential freedoms,” Purism’s Librem 15 laptop, now in prototype and ready for manufacture, is designed to run entirely with open source software, requiring no proprietary drivers. The only proprietary code on the laptop resides in its Intel firmware.
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The Great Paradox: On Windows 10 and Innovation
Talk about the paradoxes of life! I woke up today and saw this article mentioning “3 cool features” of Windows 10. Of course the are cool. But they are neither “new” nor “Windows features” at all.
The author and I agree on one point: With Windows 10, Windows is becoming more and more like Linux.
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Server
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Q&A: AWS Docker integration marks new era for Linux containers
Kubernetes is a project sponsored by Google, and then there’s the Google Container Engine which is the Google Compute Engine equivalent of the AWS EC2 Container Service. We were very happy that the AWS integration used native Docker interfaces and integrated with Docker Hub.
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Linux is still the most popular system in supercomputing
After the most recent Top500 list of the best supercomputers in the world, only one thing is clear: Linux is still the leader of the pack.
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Linux Developer Terra Soft Founds HPC Consortium to Port Bfx Apps to Cell Chip
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SDN in action: Hands-on with Cumulus Linux
The stage is set for SDN (software-defined networking) to change the way we push data through our infrastructures, with the promises of more agile network provisioning and management, as well as more affordable network hardware. But for many, the SDN concept is still amorphous. What does SDN look like in practice?
To shed light on this question, I sat down with a few Dell Networking S6000 switches running Cumulus Linux 2.3. There are many approaches to an SDN solution, but one of the most significant is the advent of white-box switches and à la carte switch firmware. This is the essence of the solution offered by Cumulus Networks.
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Contain yourself: The layman’s guide to Docker
Welcome to the age of containerization, where an ecosystem led by startup Docker is leading IT organizations to ineffable peaks of efficiency, helping them scale their workloads ever-higher, and probably baking them a nice cake to boot (it’s my birthday, I have cake on the brain, sue me). Microsoft, Google and Amazon Web Services are all tripping over themselves to make sure prospective customers know that their clouds are the place to be if you want to get the most from Docker.
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Audiocasts/Shows
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Kernel Space
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V2 Of KDBUS Published For Linux Kernel Review
The second revision to the Linux kernel based D-Bus implementation is now available for review.
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Graphics Stack
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Using NVIDIA’s NVENC On Linux With FFmpeg
For those wishing to make use of the assisted H.264 video encoding, there’s multiple FFmpeg Git branches around supporting libnvenc, such as this GitHub repository. However, building the NVENC Linux support isn’t straightforward as for now it seems at least one header file must be fetched from NVIDIA’s Windows version of the Video Codec SDK for the Linux build to pan out.
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Benchmarks
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More File-System Tests Of The Linux 3.18 Kernel
Earlier this week on Phoronix I posted benchmarks indicating potential block/file-system performance regressions using the Linux 3.18 kernel. Since then I’ve been carrying out more tests looking for any file-system performance problems on other hardware.
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Applications
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Package managers ease installation of Linux programs
Tools such as Synaptic Package Manager provide a GUI for installing and maintaining the many Linux programs suitable for enterprise use.
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Instructionals/Technical
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How To Install IceCat On Any Distro
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Kali Linux Network Scanning Cookbook Review
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Serve websites with Nginx
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Virtual Hosting With PureFTPd And MySQL (Incl. Quota And Bandwidth Management) On OpenSUSE 13.2
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Beginning Git and Github for Linux Users
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Virtual Hosting With PureFTPd And MySQL (Incl. Quota And Bandwidth Management) On OpenSUSE 13.2
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Days Between Dates?
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The Ultimate Windows 7 And Ubuntu Linux Dual Boot Guide
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How to install CMS Made Simple on an Ubuntu 14.04 VPS
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How To Use Compiz In Ubuntu MATE 14.04 Or 14.10
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How To Install ClamTK 5.11 On Fedora And CentOS Systems
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How To Install ClamTK 5.09 On Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04, Debian Jessie, Debian Wheezy And Derivatives
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How To Install Calibre 2.11 On The Most Popular Linux Systems
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How To Install Virtualbox 4.3.20 On Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE And Derivatives
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How To Install Pale Moon 25.1.0 On Linux Systems
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Games
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Civilization: Beyond Earth Mac Version Should Be Releasing Next Week, Linux Version Has A Couple Weeks Left
We’re about a month into the lifespan of Sid Meier’s Civilization: Beyond Earth, but it looks like the game is about to get a little boost in its player base. According to Mac developer Aspyr, the Mac version of the game has been submitted to Firaxis and 2K for approval, with an estimated arrival time of next week.
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Clockwork Empires Alpha Update Adds Mac and Linux Support, Bandit Attacks
Gaslamp Games has rolled out the “Bandit Raid on ‘Fightin’ Vicar Zedock Woodburn’s Frontier Chapel” for the Clockwork Empires Steam Early Access alpha.
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Civilization: Beyond Earth Mac And Linux Update: Mod Support Confirmed For Mac, Multiplayer Syncing Issues Continue
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Time To Guess What Feral Interactive Are Working On, New Teaser
Feral Interactive are being sneaky, as they have given a little hint towards their next game, and it’s quite obvious it’s for Linux.
It’s time to get excited folks. Feral Interactive ported XCOM: Enemy Unknown to Linux not too long ago, so we are all eager to see what they have up next. Luckily, we may not have to wait for long at all.
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11 Linux Games Up to 86% Discount During This Steam Weeklong Deal
This Monday Steam has kicked off a new Weeklong Deal which will last until November 24, during which 11 titles for Linux are available at special promotional prices.
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What Can You Do For Linux Gaming?
Of course buying games for Linux directly will help. Buy them using Linux and play them on Linux. Do not buy games that don’t have a nice smiling penguin icon. In my humble opinion, this prohibits pre-ordering as well. We should be sure that a purchase is counted for Linux!
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Desktop Environments/WMs
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt
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Calligra Gemini Added to Calligra Suite
About a year ago, the Calligra community added a new application to the suite by the name of Krita Gemini, which combined the functionality of the Krita digital painting application with the touch optimised user interface of the tablet focused Krita Sketch, into a shell with the ability to switch between the two at runtime. The goal was to create a responsive user interface for Krita, and this is now a part of Calligra. In May of this year, Intel approached the team which produced Krita Gemini with the idea of doing the same for other parts of Calligra, by creating an application which would encapsulate the Words and Stage components in the same way as Krita Gemini did for the Krita component.
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10 Great Plasma Widgets for KDE with Screenshots
Since the introduction of Plasma widgets in KDE4, the whole desktop took a new direction, starting to become a more interactive way to communicate with the user, to say nothing about the fact that a desktop with widgets will look more beautiful than a plain, icon-only desktop.
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Distributions
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Reviews
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Ubuntu MATE is a heavyweight among the lightweight distributions
What kind of operating system would you run on your PC? One that hogs resources leaving you with just enough to do your work or one that ‘glides’ over the resources leaving almost everything for you to use?
I would certainly choose the latter. And if I ran a business, where a penny saved is a penny earned, I would be even more conservative about it.
I use Arch Linux with KDE Plasma on my main machine. This combination gives me a fully optimized base OS with a desktop environment (DE) that is known for being the most feature-rich.
However, I am always on the lookout for a DE that can run efficiently on less-powerful (aka less expensive) hardware, with an easy to manage OS.
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Linux Mint 17.1 finally makes MATE’s fancy Compiz graphics easy to use
Linux Mint isn’t chasing touch interfaces, rethinking the way we use the desktop, or enacting any other grand experiment. It’s just a polished, modern Linux desktop system—and that’s why people love it. Linux Mint 17.1 (codenamed “Rebecca”) is on the brink of being released, and it continues the Linux Mint mission of refining the interface we use every day.
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Hands on with Caine Linux: Pentesting and UEFI compatible
Caine 6.0 is derived from Ubuntu 14.04.1 (64 bit). That is a Long Term Support release, so that is a good thing. It uses the MATE desktop, rather than Unity, which is another really good thing. The ISO image can be obtained from their Downloads page (duh), and is relatively large (2.68GB).
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New Releases
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SolydX 201411 Is a Rolling Release Alternative to Linux Mint Debian Xfce
SolydX, a Debian-based distribution that features the Xfce desktop environment and uses a rolling release model, is now at version 201411 and is ready for download.
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Screenshots
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PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandriva Family
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Testing upcoming versions: Mageia 5 and Windows 10
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Mageia 3 Is Now Officially Dead
The Mageia 3 Linux distribution has reached end of life and the developers have announced that the updates and security patches for the operating system have stopped completely.
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Red Hat Family
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Scientific Linux 6.6 vs. Scientific Linux 7.0 Benchmarks
Scientific Linux 6.6 vs. Scientific Linux 7.0, which of these Red Hat Enterprise Linux derived distributions are faster? Here’s some benchmark results from a ten-core Xeon system.
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Jefferies: Linux Slowdown Puts Red Hat Consensus At Risk
Linux provides about 70 percent of Red Hat’s annual revenue, and the slow-down represents “a significant risk” to Wall Street’s expectation of subscription growth of 14 percent in 2015 and 15 percent in 2016, DiFucci said.
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Red Hat Pushes Forward with CentOS [VIDEO]
At the beginning of 2014, Red Hat embraced the community CentOS Linux distribution. It’s a move that brought the clone of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) closer into the Red Hat organization.
In a video interview, Paul Cormier, EVP and President at Red Hat, details how the CentOS relationship has worked out over the course of 2014.
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Fedora
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Fedora Community Action and Impact job opening (Red Hat OSAS)
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Council Elections Interview with Rex Dieter (rdieter)
I currently use Fedora to power several web-based application servers (as part of my dayjob).
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Debian Family
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Barbie becomes a Debian developer and creates systemd
A recent Barbie book caused a row over its portrayal of women in technology. The book has since been withdrawn by Mattel, though you can still buy the Barbie The Computer Engineer doll on Amazon.
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Systemd fallout: Two Debian technical panel members resign
Two well-known and experienced Debian developers, both members of the project’s technical committee, have announced they will be leaving the committee.
The resignations of Colin Watson and Russ Allberry from the panel come soon after senior developer Joey Hess resigned from the project altogether.
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Derivatives
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Elive 2.4.5 beta released
The Elive Team is proud to announce the release of the beta version 2.4.5
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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How to install Ubuntu: run Linux on your laptop or PC
We reveal how to install Ubuntu, the free open-source OS, on your laptop or PC
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Imp mini PC is a tiny, ARM-based Ubuntu computer
Want a small, low-power desktop computer that runs Ubuntu Linux, but don’t want to go through the hassle of installing and configuring the operating system yourself?
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Would you crowdfund a $500 Ubuntu “open to the core” laptop?
With Jolla have success with crowdfunding a tablet, it’s a good time to see if we can’t get some mid-range Ubuntu laptops for sale to consumers in the US. I’d like to get some idea if there is enough demand for a very open $500 Ubuntu laptop.
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Flavours and Variants
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Linux Mint 17.1 (now available in two flavours)
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12 Awesome Themes for Mint 17.1 Cinnamon
With Mint 17.1 Rebecca being days away from release, and Cinnamon 2.4 looking so good, here is an overview of some of the best looking themes which allow you to beautify your desktop.
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Ubuntu MATE 14.04 LTS Released : Supported Until 2019
The final version of Ubuntu MATE 14.04 LTS has been released and announced by Ubuntu MATE team few days ago, this release based-on Ubuntu 14.04 featuring MATE desktop environment 1.8. Unlike Ubuntu MATE 14.10 will supported for nine month, come with LTS version it will be support until 2019.
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Devices/Embedded
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JVC KENWOOD Corporation, Linaro and OpenSynergy Join Automotive Grade Linux
Automotive Grade Linux (AGL), a collaborative open source project developing a common, Linux-based software stack for the connected car, today announced that JVC KENWOOD Corporation, Linaro and OpenSynergy are joining The Linux Foundation and AGL to collaborate on the creation of an open automotive reference platform to accelerate rapid innovation and delivery of the connected car experience.
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Raspberry Pi nightlight
You’ve probably all seen those cheap, solar-powered lamps that you can stick into your garden to try and give it a classy bit of illumination during the night. If you’ve actually got one then you may have found out that they don’t shine very brightly and the plastic stakes can be very flimsy. So why not make your own version? What we’ll show you on this page is the beginning of an array of light-sensitive LEDs using a single LED, so that you can understand how the system works. We’ll use a special resistor called a light dependant resistor (LDR) or photoresistor that changes its resistance based on the levels of light it’s receiving.
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Phones
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Android
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Android projector offers 400 lumens on battery power
AAXA’s Android-based M4 is claimed as “the world’s brightest battery powered projector,” with 400 lumens running on battery power, or 800 lumens plugged-in.
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Samsung’s smartphone insanity may be coming to an end
Samsung has long been known for offering many different models of smartphone, across a wide range of markets. But the company’s penchant for creating smartphone after smartphone has finally caught up with it as profits have plunged in the face of competition from lower-cost Android manufacturers on the low end, and Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus phablet on the high end.
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Samsung will reduce the number of models in its Android phone lineup
Samsung has hit some hard times, and now the company is restructuring its smartphone business to streamline operations and improve profitability. It will reduce the number of different smartphone models it offers by 30%.
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Nexus 7 fandroids tell of salty taste after sucking on Google’s Lollipop
People with Nexus 7 tablets say the latest major Android update – codenamed Lollipop – has slowed their slabs to a standstill. Google said today it is investigating the matter.
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Nokia’s return to hardware begins with the $250 N1 Android tablet
Rumors of Nokia’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. Its lineup might seem empty now that it’s relinquished control of its Lumia smartphones to a lumbering giant and gave up on those low-cost Asha devices earlier this year, but that doesn’t mean the company’s done crafting consumer gadgets just yet. Now Nokia’s trying to revive its once-titanic consumer brand, starting with something a little… unorthodox. Meet the Nokia N1: a 7.9-inch Android tablet running some Nokia software that looks like a giant iPhone. It’ll cost you $250 when it launches, but it’s slated to land in China first in time for Chinese New Year (that’s February 19, 2015) with a release in Russia to follow soon after.
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Nokia’s N1 Android tablet is actually a Foxconn tablet
Nokia has partnered with Foxconn to bring to market the first Nokia-branded, Android-powered device.
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Sub-notebooks/Tablets
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Crowdfunding Jolla, a GNU/Linux-powered high-spec tablet
It runs an OS called Sailfish that can use Android apps as well its own native apps, and was created by a team with a bunch of senior Nokia refugees on it.
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Linux-Based Beautiful Jolla Tablet Registers Fantastic Success on Indigogo
Jolla is a new tablet developed by a team of people who used to work for Nokia and it’s powered by a Linux-driver operating system called Sailfish OS. The recently launched crowdfunding campaign has surpassed any expectations.
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Free Software/Open Source
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Adobe Brings Open Source Veteran on Board to Lead Mobile
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OPNFV Adds Chinese Telecom to Open Source NFV/SDN Partnership
The Linux Foundation’s OPNFV project won a significant endorsement this week from China-based ZTE Corporation, which stands to increase the global reach of the open source network functions virtualization (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN) initiative.
Based in Shenzen, China, ZTE is a major manufacturer of telecom…
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Elasticsearch Uses Power of Community for Open Source Analytics [VIDEO]
How has the ELK stack emerged to become a leading open source data analysis platform?
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Google’s Kubernetes Project May Have One Giant Beneficiary: Google
Recently, I covered the news that Google has released Kubernetes under an open-source license, which is essentially a version of Borg, which harnesses computing power from data centers into a powerful virtual machine. It can make a difference for many cloud computing deployments, and optimizes usage of container technology. You can find the source code for Kubernetes on GitHub.
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Events
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Weighing in on SCALE & More…
Get those proposals in: The Call for Papers for the 13th annual Southern California Linux Expo — SCALE 13x, for those of you keeping score at home — ends in less than three weeks from today. Specifically, the CFP ends at midnight Pacific Standard Time on Dec. 10, but it doesn’t mean you have to wait until Dec. 9 to submit (even though many of you will…).
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SaaS/Big Data
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OpenStack Survey Shows Admins Are Moving to Actual Deployments
In preparation for the recently held OpenStack Summit in Paris, the OpenStack Foundation conducted one of its regular surveys of operators and application developers, who were asked to provide feedback on their experiences. These surveys have traditionally yielded a lot of good information, not just about OpenStack usage but what kinds of tools are being used in conjunction with the cloud computing platform.
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Symantec and HP Partner on Disaster Recovery for HP Helion OpenStack
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Open-source IaaS: OwnCloud 7 Enterprise Edition arrives
If your office is like mine, you already have a lot of storage. Over the years, it’s probably become quite a mix of storage-area networks (SAN), network-attached storage (NAS), and servers. More recently, your staff has started to use tablets, smartphones, and Chromebooks instead of PCs for work. A cloud would make sharing your files with your mobile staff much easier So, what’s a CIO to do?
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Lessons from the OpenStack user survey
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Databases
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Splice Machine Debuts Relational Database for Big Data Storage
Splice Machine, which is building a scale-out database storage system for Hadoop that it said dwarfs traditional SQL database performance yet runs on commodity hardware, has now released version 1.0 of its relational database platform for big data.
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Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
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FLOSS Works – Now It Has Salesmen
Canonical claimed 20 million PCs had shipped from OEMs in 2013/2014 with Ubuntu GNU/Linux.
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Changelog for VirtualBox 4.3
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CMS
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WordPress 4.0.1 Updates Millions of Sites for 8 Flaws
Millions of open-source WordPress site owners received email notifications over the last 24 hours advising them of a site update. The new WordPress 4.0.1 update provides multiple security fixes and data-hardening improvements to help secure WordPress sites. The WordPress 4.0.1 update is the first incremental update for WordPress since the 4.0 release in September. The 4.0.1 update provides 23 bug fixes and an additional 8 security vulnerability fixes.
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BSD
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systemd to Stay, FreeBSD Millionaires, and Fedora Love Letter
Today was another busy day in Linuxville. The results of the Debian general resolution on decoupling systemd are in and Phoronix.com is reporting that FreeBSD just received a million dollar donation. Joe Casad says TOR isn’t as anonymous as users think and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols comments on the latest Top500 supercomputer list. Ubuntu 15.04 gets a projected release date and Sam Varghese interviews new SUSE owner head. Danny Stieben explains the differences between Unix and Linux and Jamie Watson test drives KaOS Linux.
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Updated! – FreeBSD Foundation Announces Generous Donation and Fundraising Milestone
The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to announce it has received a $1,000,000 donation from Jan Koum, CEO and Co-Founder of WhatsApp. This marks the largest single donation to the Foundation since its inception almost 15 years ago, and serves as another example of someone using FreeBSD to great success and then giving back to the community. Find out more about Jan’s reasons for donating below.
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FreeBSD Receives A Million Dollar Donation
The FreeBSD has received their largest ever single donation: $1,000,000 USD.
The FreeBSD Foundation received the million dollar gift from Jan Koum, the CEO and co-founder of the WhatsApp messaging application that was acquired by Facebook earlier this year.
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FreeBSD Foundation Receives $1 Million from WhatsApp CEO
The FreeBSD project has received a massive $1 million (€800,000) donation from one of the WhatsApp co-founders, Jan Koum, and the developers are more than thrilled at the fact that they have secured their future, at least for a while.
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FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC
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GNU LibreJS 6.0.6 released
There’s a new version of LibreJS – version 6.0.6.
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Back in stock: a ThinkPenguin router that respects your freedom
This is the first home wifi router on the planet that you can go out and purchase that ships only with software that respects your freedom.
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Openness/Sharing
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Pie Noon by Google, Super Smash Bros on your TI-83, and more
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Web inventor predicts cultural shift, Apache powers half the Internet, and more
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UK government commits to Open Contracting Data Standard
The UK government has committed to a data standard which claims it will transform procurement in the UK and make government procurement contracts more transparent.
The Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS) will give governments the tools to open and share their procurement data. The UK will join Canada, Costa Rica, Colombia and Paraguay in committing to the standard.
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Programming
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Python explained
There’s a lot of focus on Python for programming on the Raspberry Pi. Is this because it’s the only way to program the Raspberry Pi?
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Leftovers
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Security
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Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression
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The Trident Test
The Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP have female leaders and are anti-Trident, a symbol of their broad radicalism.
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War Works–So Why Isn’t It Working?
What makes a seemingly innocuous question like that noteworthy is the assumption that airstrikes are supposed to “work” in the first place.
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Palestinian Shot by Israeli Troops at Gaza Border
Now, very few people read the full text of every story in any newspaper, so as an editor you have to ask yourself what a headline conveys on its own. I expect that most people who only read that headline assumed that the Palestinian referenced was an adult–and likely had a different reaction to the story as a result.
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Environment/Energy/Wildlife
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More Than 300 A Year: New Analysis Shows Devastating Impact of Pipeline Spills
‘There’s no way to get around the fact that oil and gas pipelines are dangerous and have exacted a devastating toll on people and wildlife,’ attorney says
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Elephants are being wiped out, but not enough people seem to care
I asked a senior environmental journalist the other week what he thought was the single most under-reported environmental issue. He replied, unhesitatingly, wildlife poaching. “It’s as if the wildlife is just being hoovered out of Africa,” he said. “In the 1960s people campaigned around whales and wildlife. The Daily Mail actually put rhino poaching on their front page. But now there just doesn’t seem to be the same level of interest.” Dr Paula Kahumbu, a wildlife campaigner based in Kenya, echoes his sentiment, but adds that the UK public is still more active than most areas of the world. “Not a single African leader has spoken out on this,” says Kahumbu. “The silence is deafening.”
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Finance
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Amid Wall Street’s ‘Dazzling Successes,’ Workers Left in ‘Dark Corners’
Though the claim is ubiquitous in business reporting, many readers still probably marvel that the financial crisis is long over, given that their own crisis is not–stagnant wages and reduced benefits being some of the ways the economy has been “reshaped.”
But it’s easy to feel that the Times’ David Gelles thinks a rise in “mega-mergers” means just what his most prominent source, Mark Zandi from Moody’s, says it does: “It reflects the economy, and it also portends better times ahead. Deals don’t get done unless people feel pretty good about the future.”
Ah, but which people, exactly? Does the fact that “CEOs are feeling pretty good about things” mean that the majority of US households–which rely on paychecks–should feel good too?
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PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying
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How Facebook Is Shaping Who Will Win The Next Election
Here’s an obvious, yet poorly understood fact: a single social network could have a major influence on who gets to control our government in the future.
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Privacy
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TOR Network Isn’t So Anonymous
A recent research project claims it is possible for a well-funded and powerful entity such as a nation-state to identify up to 81% of people using the so-called TOR anonymity network. The technique relies on traffic analysis and depends on injecting a traffic pattern, such as an HTML file, then monitoring traffic at the exit node.
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90 Percent Of The World Will Have A Mobile Phone By 2020, Ericsson Predicts
Ericsson Mobility Report finds no hiding place for technophobes, with 2.7bn mobile phones currently active
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US Senate falls two votes short of shutting down NSA phone spying
The US Senate voted against reining in the NSA’s spying powers tonight, shooting down a proposal that was supported not just by intelligence reform groups, but by the director of the NSA himself.
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ACLU of California’s Smart About Surveillance Report: A Smart Way to Fight Local Spying
Think you know how your local cops are spying on you? The ACLU of California’s “Making Smart Decisions About Surveillance: A Guide for Communities” is a new resource that can help you figure out what surveillance technology is being deployed in your community—and what you can do about it. And as we’ve pointed out, while we hope everyone continues to let Congress know that it’s time for real changes to spying by federal agencies, the use of surveillance techniques and technology by local law enforcement is an area ripe for grassroots organizing.
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USA Freedom Act Fails To Move Forward… For Incredibly Stupid Reasons
So, this evening the USA Freedom Act failed to get the 60 votes it needed for cloture to “advance” to a full floor vote. It ended up at 58 to 42. There was a short debate prior to the vote, and the debate was… stupid. Yes, there are some legitimate concerns with the USA Freedom Act, mostly in that it doesn’t go far enough. But that’s not what the debate was about at all. You had a bunch of bizarrely clueless Senators, many of whom insisted they were against the act because it would take the bulk collection out of the hands of the NSA and put it into the hands of the telcos — with the claim being that the NSA could keep that data safer. Senators Susan Collins and Saxby Chambliss kept harping on that point. But it’s flat out wrong. Because the whole point of this is that the telcos already have this data. The debate is between “telcos have the data” and “telcos and NSA have the data.” Arguing that telcos-only is inherently more likely to lead to a privacy violation makes no sense at all.
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Civil Rights
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What Rightwing Media Gets Wrong about the Reagan and Bush Immigration Orders
Republicans and right-wing media are in panic mode. They’ve spent weeks describing President Obama as an “emperor” or a “monarch” for using his executive authority to grant a reprieve to some undocumented immigrants — and are now faced with evidence that Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush did the same thing.
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Nurses Urge Leniency Over Refusal to Force-Feed at Guantánamo Bay
The case of a Navy medical officer who refused to force-feed prisoners on a hunger strike at Guantánamo Bay prompted the country’s largest nursing organization on Wednesday to petition the Defense Department for leniency, citing professional ethical guidelines that support the officer’s decision.
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Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists
A senior executive at Uber suggested that the company should consider hiring a team of opposition researchers to dig up dirt on its critics in the media — and specifically to spread details of the personal life of a female journalist who has criticized the company.
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Fmr. deputy Tom Fallis arrested on murder charge nearly three years after shooting death of wife
Former Weld County sheriff’s deputy Tom Fallis was arrested on Tuesday on a charge that he allegedly murdered his wife on New Year’s Day 2012.
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[Old] Evans detective accused of covering up evidence to hide murder as suicide
The Evans Police Department has reopened an investigation into the death of a 28-year-old woman after FOX31 Denver found evidence an Evans police detective misstated or omitted key evidence to disguise a murder as a suicide.
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Lollie Sues Cops, City For St. Paul Skyway Arrest
Three St. Paul police officers involved in the January arrest of a man — who recorded the incident and claimed he was being targeted because he was black — have been cleared of allegations that they used excessive force, police announced Friday.
But Christopher Lollie’s still angry, and he’s now suing the city and the three officers for stopping and arresting him without probable cause, for false imprisonment and for using excessive force.
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Internet/Net Neutrality
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A crowd funded Lantern will bring Internet to ‘dark’ places
There first consumer device is the Lantern, it acts as a receiver that is sent data from a satellite and the content is stored on it so you can access the information from you computers, similar to how a NAS device works. Websites that will be accessible from the device will be Project Gutenberg which hosts public domain book, Open Source Ecology which hosts designs for various items ranging from tractors to 3D printers, and Wikipedia. In addition to those will be news sites include Deutsche Welle.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Copyrights
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Watch out, Uni of NSW students – pirate at Uni and you’ll get fined!
If you’re a University of NSW student pirating stuff over uni Wi-Fi, and you’re not taking precautions like SSL or a VPN or something to hide your activities, the uni will fine you up to $1000 – ouch!
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Why Hollywood Director Lexi Alexander Sides With “Pirates”
Lexi Alexander is one of a few Hollywood directors to have come out in support of file-sharers. While her opinions may not help her career, she believes that certain four letter acronyms are a bigger threat to the movie industry than the young brights minds previously jailed for file-sharing. Today we ask her why she decided to get involved in this heated discussion.
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