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Links 16/5/2015: MAME Free Software. Rust 1.0, New Wine





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Server





  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack



      • Gallium3D's LLVMpipe Tacks On Another OpenGL 4 Extension
        Most often when talking of new OpenGL 4 extensions in Mesa it tends to be regarding the Intel Mesa driver given they're the company investing the most into the Linux graphics stack, followed by the Radeon and Noveau drivers. However, this week in Mesa is some love to the fallback/debugging software rasterizers.


      • Beignet Is Working On OpenCL 2.0 Open-Source Linux Support
        Within Intel's Beignet project for open-source OpenCL support on Linux systems with HD/Iris Graphics, there's a OpenCL20 branch as part of Beignet Git. The OpenCL 2.0 support code hasn't been touched in a few weeks, but it's clearly in the works by the Intel China crew that's been maintaining this project.


      • Intel Iris Graphics Performance With Mesa 10.6
        With Mesa 10.6 due to be released in early June, our usual performance comparisons of this new Mesa 3D version will come. To get our latest round of Mesa open-source graphics driver benchmarking kicked off, here are benchmarks of Intel's Iris Graphics when comparing Mesa 10.5 and 10.6 Git atop Ubuntu 15.04.


      • Libweston Likely To Be Delayed To Wayland's Weston 1.9
        While Wayland 1.8 is coming along, along with the Weston 1.8 update, it looks like the libweston functionality will be staved off for another release.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt



      • Qt 5.5 Beta Released
        It’s my pleasure to announce the release of the Qt 5.5 Beta today.

        Since we released Qt 5.4, a lot of effort has been put into fixing bugs reported both by our customers and the community. With this in focus, we went through a couple weeks of dedicated bug fixing here at The Qt Company. During this time, we worked 100% on fixing as many open issues as possible. Although the focus of Qt 5.5 has been on stability and performance, it also has some interesting new features and functionality to offer.


      • Qt 5.5 Beta Finally Released
        Lars Knoll announced the Qt 5.5 beta today to the blog.qt.io. Lars noted, "Since we released Qt 5.4, a lot of effort has been put into fixing bugs reported both by our customers and the community. With this in focus, we went through a couple weeks of dedicated bug fixing here at The Qt Company. During this time, we worked 100% on fixing as many open issues as possible. Although the focus of Qt 5.5 has been on stability and performance, it also has some interesting new features and functionality to offer."


      • Qt Gamepad: Adding Gamepad Support To The Toolkit
        Qt Gamepad is inspired by the HTML5 Gamepad API while styled with a Qt-like API. Qt Gamepad offers C++ and Qt Quick APIs and there's a plug-in architecture for providing different backends to interface with the actual gamepads.


      • KDE Applications 15.08 Planned For Release On 19 August
        For those tracking the development of KDE Applications 15.08, the release schedule has now been firmed up. The feature freeze is to take place on 22 July along with the beta release, the KDE 15.08 RC release on 5 August, and the official KDE Applications 15.08 release is set for 19 August.


      • Schedules - Applications - 15.08 Release Schedule




    • GNOME Desktop/GTK





  • Distributions



    • New Releases



    • Red Hat Family



    • Debian Family



      • [Old] Why pro-systemd and anti-systemd people will never get along
        I was inspired to write this by the recent announcements of public desire for a Debian fork, an idea that I find to be dumb and which likely will not lead to a lot of technical work.

        Nonetheless, I saw the same systemd debate unfold again. I’ve seen it countless times already, and there was virtually no variation from the archetypal formula. You have two ardent and vocal sides, roughly classified into an opponent/proponent dichotomy, neither of which have anything enlightening to say and both with their own unique set of misunderstandings that have memetically mutated into independent ideas that poison virtually every debate of this nature.

        I largely avoid systemd “debates” these days. They depress me due to all of the flawed reasoning and shitflinging emerging everywhere, but I felt that perhaps this little write-up could try to explain the background and causes for just why systemd inspires so much vitriol and turf warring.


      • Derivatives



        • Tails 1.4 polishes up the privacy-obsessed Linux OS trusted by Edward Snowden
          This Debian-based system is designed to preserve your privacy and anonymity online, providing better protection than just using the Tor browser alone on a typical operating system. How effective is this concealment-centric operating system’s tools? Well, in 2012, vulnerabilities for Tails topped the NSA’s most-wanted list alongside Tor and TrueCrypt.


        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • Tor Browser 4.5.1 Released with Support for Ubuntu 14.04 LXC Hosts
            The Tor Project announced the release of the Tor Browser 4.5.1 for all those who want to stay anonymous online. The new maintenance release is based on Mozilla Firefox 31.7.0 ESR, and it is available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, and Microsoft Windows platforms.


          • Meizu to Announce Ubuntu Phone on May 18 - Rumor
            Meizu might launch MX4 Ubuntu Edition on May 18, if the teaser posted by the Chinese company on Twitter is to be believed and if all the chatter on Chinese news websites will prove to be accurate.


          • Watch Mark Shuttleworth Announcing Ubuntu Fridge in 2006 with the Voice of Borat
            A fridge called ChillHub that runs Ubuntu was just announced last week, but it looks like Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Canonical, was making a similar announcement back in 2006. And he was using the famous voice and accent of the Borat movie character.


          • Flavours and Variants



            • A look at the MintBox Mini
              It has been a busy week for Linux powered hardware. We have had drones, refrigerators and more conventional hardware that are all powered by various incarnations of Ubuntu, launched this week. Another new hardware release we have seen this week is the MintBox Mini, it is the result of a collaboration between Linux Mint and CompuLab.


            • Elementary OS Freya: Is This The Next Big Linux Distro?
              I’ve tried just about every flavor of Linux available. Not a desktop interface has gone by that hasn’t, in some way, touched down before me. So when I set out to start kicking the tires of Elementary OS Freya, I assumed it was going to be just another take on the same old desktop metaphors. A variation of GNOME, a tweak of Xfce, a dash of OSX or some form of Windows, and the slightest hint of Chrome OS. What I wound up seeing didn’t disappoint on that level—it was a mixed bag of those very things. However, that mixed bag turned out to be something kind of special … something every Linux user should take notice of.












  • Devices/Embedded



    • How low can we go? Introducing the $9 Linux computer!
      With the release of the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B priced at $35 and its predecessor, the Raspberry Pi Model B+, having recently had its price dropped to $25 you might have thought a cheaper computer of equal capabilities would be hard to find. But now along comes CHIP, a $9 Linux computer!


    • Latest Atheros IoT SoCs include OpenWRT-friendly model
      Qualcomm has launched two WiFi-enabled SoCs that support the AllJoyn IoT standard, including a 650MHz, MIPS-based “QCA4531″ SoC that runs OpenWRT Linux.


    • Arduino shrinks Linux-ready Yún to “Mini” size
      Arduino announced a smaller, cheaper “Mini” version of the Arduino Yún SBC that offers fewer real-world ports, but gives more control to Linux.

      Arduino, the Italian-based project that designs the official line of Arduino hacker boards, announced a $60 Arduino “Yún Mini” SBC today at the Maker Faire Bay Area. This was the same event where Arduino two years ago announced its first Linux-ready board. the Arduino Yún. The Yún Mini sacrifices a number of interfaces in order to reduce size, and gives the OpenWRT Linux based Linino distribution, which is also used by the original Yún, more control over the board’s functions.


    • Original Raspberry Pi Model B+ Now Costs Just $20
      The Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced that the price of the original Raspberry Pi Model B+ has been cut, and it should now be found at $25 (€22).


    • Samsung Debuts Yocto-Based Linux IoT Boards
      This week Samsung debuted three new system-on-chips on several Yocto-based Linux "Artik" computer-on-modules aimed at the Internet of Things market. Last week, a hugely successful Kickstarter campaign by Next Thing Co. launched a tiny, IoT focused "Chip" single board computer starting at $9 that will debut a new, small footprint Allwinner R8 SoC. And in February, the Raspberry Pi Foundation launched a wildly successful Raspberry Pi 2 Model B that features a quad-core Broadcom BCM2836 SoC that was custom made for the SBC.


    • Bridge Shield: for Raspberry Pi, Arduino UNO & Arduino Mega
      We are happy to announce that every Backer who has pledged $81 and above will be getting an "ARDUINO UNO” (clone) with their reward.


    • Panasonic Releases First Smart TVs Running Firefox OS
      The Firefox OS from Mozilla has been out for some time now, but today Firefox OS is landing in a new market for the first time. It's coming to Smart TVs, starting with six models in Panasonic's VIERA line.


    • Phones



      • Tizen



        • More Concept Designs for the Samsung Gear A Tizen Smart Watch
          So we’ve got news of the new Samsung Gear A (codenamed Orbis) Smartwatch, the new Samsung Gear SDK and a render of what the Smartwatch could look like based on prototype drawings. Now we have more renders of what the upcoming Samsung round Smartwatch could possibly look like, with its round bezel that takes advantage of the new round user Interface.




      • Android



        • Where Android Wear should go from here
          There are more than half a dozen smartwatches that run Google's wearable software, but it'll take more to make people want to buy them. These should be the next steps.


        • 3 Reasons Not to Install the Android 5.1.1 Update Right Now
          Google’s Nexus Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update comes with a number of big time bug fixes for Lollipop problems. It’s an exciting update but it’s also one that you may not want to install on day one. Today, we take a look at a few reasons why you might want to skip your initial Nexus Android 5.1.1 Lollipop release date.


        • WhatsApp for Android now fully employs Material Design; Holo, begone!
          Roughly a month ago, we reported that the Android version of WhatsApp, one of the more (if not the most) popular messaging services out there, got its first taste of Google's Material Design. Unfortunately, the update in question (2.12.34) was not initially available for all users straight out of the Play Store. What's more, there were still certain aspects of the interface that refused to get rid of the boring, yet well-known Holo design.


        • Video: here’s Android 5.1.1 running on the Sony Xperia Z3
          Sony has already updated many of its smartphones to Android 5.0 Lollipop, but now we’re looking forward to the jump to 5.1 and a new video shows us what to expect.


        • Moto E leaps to Lollipop to lead this week's Android update roundup
          The small-but-mighty Moto E is leaping ahead of several more expensive flagships in the race to Android 5.1. It joins a number of other devices this week that are finally getting their turn at some long-overdue updates.


        • 5 Exciting Android M Update Details
          Google still isn’t talking about its rumored Android M release, an release that could wind up being the Android 6.0 update, but that doesn’t mean that we haven’t seen details emerge ahead of an announcement. In fact, we’ve seen a number of exciting Android M release details arrive in the days before Google I/O 2015.


        • Android 5.1/5.0 Lollipop Update Guide For Sony Xperia Z3 And Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo
          As it turns out, a new video has surfaced online showcasing the Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update for Sony Xperia Z3. In addition, the Android 5.0 Lollipop update for Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo has also been confirmed by the South Korean conglomerate.


        • Nexus 6 Performance With Android 5.1
          With Android Lollipop, Google announced that full disk encryption (FDE), an optional feature available since Android Honeycomb, would be enabled by default. This requirement was later revoked due to performance issues on certain classes of hardware, the Nexus 6, having shipped with FDE enabled, being a prime example.


        • Komando On Demand podcasts with this Android player


        • Nexus 9 Android 5.1.1 Update: Impressions & Performance
          This week after nearly 5 months without a single update Google finally delivered the much needed Nexus 9 Android 5.1.1 Lollipop update with a collection of bug fixes and performance improvements aimed at fixing the tablet. After spending a few days with Android 5.1.1 Lollipop on the Nexus 9, here’s our initial thoughts.


        • RadeonSI Gallium3D Driver To Be Enabled For Android
          With the latest Mesa patch series by Chih-Wei Huang of Android-x86, the AMD RadeonSI Gallium3D driver is to be enabled.










Free Software/Open Source



  • MAME is going open source to be a 'learning tool for developers'
    The folks who maintain MAME (Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator) are aiming to make the project completely open source in order to expand both its pool of supporters and its utility to developers and historians.

    This is notable because MAME is seen to be the premier emulator for arcade games, and the volunteers who maintain it have done laudable work to preserve artifacts of the game industry in a playable state.


  • MAME going open-source
    Given the scale of MAME, built over nearly two decades by so many contributors, accomplishing a change in licensing is a project in itself. One contributor reports that the licensing proposed is "BSD3 for core files and BSD3,GPL2 or LGPL2 for drivers/emulators"


  • Popular arcade game emulator MAME is going open source
    Unlike most vintage console or computer games, arcade games can be both difficult to find and expensive to buy, so many arcade fans use emulators to create their own homebrewed arcade systems. The Multiple Arcade Machine Emulator (MAME) has become the most popular emulator for gamers who want to play classic arcade games in their home, and now the team behind MAME has decided to make the emulator completely open source.


  • CommunityCube: Open-source, Privacy First Server
    CommunityCube is a plug-and-play open source, small server designed to build a cooperative, fair internet where users’ privacy and rights are protected. It was originally conceived of in 2013, inspired by the Edward Snowden disclosures, when the founders recognized the need for a consumer-level product to protect privacy and anonymity.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla



      • Announcing Rust 1.0
        Today we are very proud to announce the 1.0 release of Rust, a new programming language aiming to make it easier to build reliable, efficient systems. Rust combines low-level control over performance with high-level convenience and safety guarantees. Better yet, it achieves these goals without requiring a garbage collector or runtime, making it possible to use Rust libraries as a “drop-in replacement” for C. If you’d like to experiment with Rust, the “Getting Started” section of the Rust book is your best bet (if you prefer to use an e-reader, Pascal Hertleif maintains unofficial e-book versions as well).


      • Mozilla-backed Rust language stabilizes at version 1.0
        New programming languages come and go. Most of them remain nothing more than academic toys or niche novelties. Rust, development of which is sponsored by Mozilla, might be one of the exceptions. The new language reached the 1.0 milestone today, marking the point at which its feature set is stabilized and developers can start to use it without having to worry too much about their code getting broken by a major change.


      • Rust 1.0 Language Officially Released


      • Firefox 38.0.5 Beta Arrives with Proprietary Pocket Integration
        Firefox 38.0.5 Beta was just released by Mozilla, and it bring a few new features that should really surprise users of this Internet browser.






  • SaaS/Big Data



    • Rackspace: Expect more of a leadership role in OpenStack community
      In this Q&A, Rackspace's Private Cloud VP and GM discusses the state of the OpenStack community and the company's plan to strengthen its role in it.


    • Your Very Own Cloud: Get There with ownCloud
      ownCloud has been getting a lot of attention for its flexibility, and because interest in private clouds is on the rise. You can move beyond what services such as Dropbox and Box offer by leveraging ownCloud, and you don't have to have your files sitting on servers that you don't choose, governed by people you don't know. Here are our latest updated resources for getting going with ownCloud, literally in minutes.




  • Business



    • Zarafa in Movement: A Short Story about Communication, Sharing and No Outlook
      Earlier this year, we from Zarafa, have informed our ecosystem about the direction of Zarafa’s future product development. It was one, very long newsletter where we showed how we see the world of communication & sharing. Most people only remembered one thing, though: Zarafa stops Outlook. In some cases, people felt like the world has come to an end. Of course, we understand such emotions. But of course, such a big decision is not made overnight. I would like to take a moment to explain how our discontinuation of the Zarafa MAPI client is only one part of our mission to create an open source communication & sharing platform.




    • Openwashing





  • Project Releases



    • Wine Announcement
      The Wine development release 1.7.43 is now available.

      What's new in this release (see below for details): - Improved support for Shell Browser windows. - Some more API Sets libraries. - Read/write operations support with built-in devices. - Major Catalan translation update. - Support for WoW64 mode on ARM64. - Various bug fixes.


    • Wine 1.7.43 Works On Desktop Shell Window Support


    • Wine 1.7.43 Improves Windows Explorer Functionality
      Wine developers have announced that a new version of the application has been made available and is now available for download. It's full of interesting features and numerous fixes.




  • Openness/Sharing



    • Open Hardware



      • Autodesk’s Ember Goes Open Source
        It’s one thing to claim a commitment to an open source philosophy, and another altogether to build an open source business. MakerBot ran afoul of the maker community as they accused the company of shifting away from an open source business model. There was much gnashing of teeth directed at Bre Pettis.






  • Programming



    • LLVM's Clang Adds Support For ARM/AArch64 v8.1a
      ARM v8.1a is a revision to ARM's AArch64 64-bit architecture. ARMv8.1-A is a backwards-compatible revision to the ARMv8.0 architecture while native ARMv8.1-A hardware is expected by late 2015.






Leftovers



Recent Techrights' Posts

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
Matthias Kirschner, FSFE analogous to identity fraud
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
 
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."
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
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