Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links Bank Holiday Monday: Schools and GNU/Linux



GNOME bluefish

Contents









GNU/Linux

  • Linux Outlaws 103 - It's a Trap!
    On the massively tardy show for this week, Dan & Fab talk about Microsoft submitting code to the Linux kernel, one-second boot times, Apple screwing with Palm, a cool RTS game that recently went open source and much, much more.




  • Desktop

    • Even a 2 Year Old Can Use Linux
      My son arrived to identify what I was mumbling about and found the same scene. However, to him it was business as usual and he walked in to join Annie.

      I asked him when he had learned to use Linux, to which he replied without hesitation, "Everybody knows Linux."

      He and Annie just kept playing and trying out some other games to see what I had loaded on the test machine.

      Needless to say, for the next few minutes I just enjoyed the sight of my two kids fiddling with Linux, as if they had been using it for years. I couldn't resist taking a few photos, and then of course it was time to get back to testing.

      But in my amusement, I realized the significance of what had happened to me personally.

      I realized that all of those years and countless people helping to promote Linux to schools had made a big difference.


    • Why aren't schools adopting open source?
      I’ve had many a discussion with people in various sectors of the professional world. Nearly every person I spoke with agrees with what I assumed to be a truth: At one point teaching school-age kids Microsoft, and only Microsoft, software was a safe bet. But things have changed. No longer is it safe to assume that every business uses MS software. Although most businesses are still sticking with one form of Windows or another, many of those same businesses are adopting OpenOffice, Firefox, and more as their software of choice. And thankfully for the students (and users of all ages and sorts) OpenOffice has done a great job of creating an interface that anyone used to MS Office will be comfortable with. So the preconceived notion that schools HAVE to teach Microsoft Office is not longer a given truth.


    • Does Linux Have a 'Safe Mode'?
      The moral to this story is that people often associate the unknown with their problems. Linux was the thing that was different for him and, of course, it was to blame for his problem.








  • Kernel Space

    • Proper Multi-Seat X Support Is On The Way
      While multi-seat computing has been available on Linux for years, it's often been a chore to setup and required some time. Beyond just being time consuming and an unnecessary hassle, the way of setting up a multi-seat computer through an X Server with multiple nested Xephyr servers is not pleasant. There have been several attempts at improving the multi-seat Linux experience by creating a multi-seat display manager and taking various other steps, but to date this is still a challenge to setup. The good news though is that this may soon change.












  • Applications











  • Distributions

    • Mini-Distro-Review: Tiny Core Linux
      In conclusion, the concept of Tiny Core Linux is an excellent one, and given it is a new distribution on the block I hope to see further development and expansion upon this concept.






    • Ubuntu

      • Launchpad Open-Sourced. Now What?
        Shuttleworth, a former Debian developer, has spent millions of his own dollars funding Ubuntu and by all indications is genuinely committed to free software. If he decides to keep some code proprietary, he’s doing what he truly believes to be in the long-term interests of Ubuntu. But only time will tell whether Canonical’s policies will pay off.


      • Community inertia in Debian and Ubuntu
        Finally, Ubuntu is a branch of Debian. Once a project grows beyond a certain point, it becomes difficult to make major changes on the spot. Major changes rarely come out perfect the first time, so they may need intensive regression testing before they can be considered stable enough even for development purposes. The changes also need to be coordinated with other developers, because they may interfere with their work.


      • Face off with Fedora and Ubuntu Linux
        If you are going to try Linux, Rightardia recommends Ubuntu. You will get up to speed faster with Ubuntu.


      • Top 25 Ubuntu Programs
        I am using Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Netbook-Remix, but these programs shoudl be platform independent. I will go with the pre-set menus that Ubuntu gives us all.


      • Ubuntu Desktop: Contacts as Indexed Files
        To index progressively the changes as they happen, we should use inotify, this would then pass off the management process to the immediate computer run time. Threaded obviously.


      • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 152
        Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #152 for the week July 19th - July 25th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Karmic Alpha 3 released, Launchpad is now open source, Ubuntu-US-NY is now an approved Ubuntu LoCo team, Focusing on the Launchpad UI, Answer contact can assign questions, Automatically import files to Launchpad using product release finder, Ubuntu Forums tutorial of the week, Kubuntu Translation Days, Ubuntu Podcast #31, and much, much more!




















  • Devices/Embedded

    • Google Gives Android Developers a Donut
      According to multiple reports, Google is now offering developers a crack at some Android 2.0 features at the Android code repository. Android 2.0, which was codenamed "Donut," was discussed at the Google I/O developer conference earlier this year. To listen to what Google had to say, watch the following clip (the Android part starts a couple minutes in).


    • Android Is Still Headed Beyond Just Smartphones
      Earlier this month, when Google announced its Chrome OS and made clear that it is headed for netbooks, the news curbed many of the predictions people were making about the Android operating system's prospects on netbooks. Google officials made clear that they were steering Android toward smartphones. That hasn't stalled all of the efforts to bring Android to platforms other than smartphones, though. As PC World points out, device maker Touch Revolution is working on several types of touch-screen devices based on Android, including a line of cutting-edge remote controls for homes. Meanwhile, Japan's OESF (Open Embedded Software Foundation) continues to push forward with plans to deliver devices running Android as an embedded operating system.


































Free Software/Open Source

  • Random musings on GPL and Microsoft
    After all, nobody is forcing anyone to use GPL code in their solutions. Well, at least I haven't heard of anyone complaining of having RMS threating them with using GPLed code in their solutions or.... So if you don't like the GPL, then don't use code released under its terms. Stop wining about how bad the GPL is, do your homework and write your own code instead. I know.... there's excellent GPL code out there and it's gonna take time to reproduce it but... if you choose to use it, then abide by its rules. That's all their creators asked for when they released the code under its terms after all, right?




  • Standards/Consortia

    • Internet Explorer 8 provides best web browsing experience
      Wow! Now it says, "FAIL" in giant letters just to let you know that it does, in fact, fail. It probably says that in the IE7 rendering as well, but it's difficult to tell what with all the mangled distortion of crap way up there.


    • Another Vendor to Fully Support ODF: GemBox Software
      Furthermore, this demonstrates two existing IT trends. First one is wider adoption of ODF. Second is replacement of old, proprietary document formats with new, XML based, open and standardized document formats.
























Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Luis Casas Luengo, Director of Extremadura's Fundecyt foundation 04 (2004)



Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Real Life Should be Offline, Not Online, and It Requires Free Software
Resistance means having the guts to say "no!", even in the face of great societal burden and peer pressure
 
Links 26/09/2023: KDE, Programming, and More
Links for the day
Mozilla Promotes the Closed Web and Proprietary Webapps That Are Security and Privacy Hazards
This is just another reminder that the people who run Mozilla don't know the history of Firefox, don't understand the Web, and are beholden to "GAFAM", not to Firefox users
Debian More Like an Exploitative Sweatshop Than a Family
Wiltshire is riding a high horse in the UK, talking down to Indians who are "low-level" volunteers in his kingdom of authoritarians, guarded by an army of British lawyers who bully bloggers
Small Computers in Large Numbers: A Pipeline of Open Hardware
They guard and prioritise their "premiums", causing severe price hikes due to supply/demand disparities.
Microsoft Deserves a Medal for Being Worst at Security (the Media Deserves a Medal for Cover-up)
There are still corruptible/bribed publishers that quote Microsoft staff like they're security gurus
10 Reasons to Permanently Export or Liberate Your Site From WordPress, Drupal, and Other Bloatware
There are certainly more more advantages, but 10 should suffice for now
About 200,000 Objects in Techrights Web Site
This hopefully helps demonstrate just how colossal the migration actually is
Good Teachers Would Tell Kids to Quit Social Control Media Rather Than Participate in It (Teaching Means Education, Not Misinformation)
Insist that classrooms offer education to children rather than offer children to corporations
Twitter: From Walled Gardens to Paywalls and/or Amplifiers of Fascism
There's moreover a push to promote politicians who are as scummy as Twitter's owner
The World Wide Web is Being Confiscated From Us (Like Syndication Was Withdrawn About a Decade Ago) and We Need to Fight Back
We're worse off when fewer people promote RSS feeds and instead outsource to social control media (censorship, surveillance, manipulation)
Next Up: Restoring IRC Log Pipelines, Bulletins/Full Text RSS, Wiki (Archived, Static), and Pipelines for Daily Links
There are still many tasks left ahead of us, but we've progressed a lot
An Era of Rotting Technology, Migration Crises, and Cliffhanging
We've covered examples from IBM, resembling the Microsoft world
First Iteration of Techrights as 100% Static Pages Web Site
We want to champion another decade or two of positive impact and opinionated analysis
Links 25/09/2023: Patent News and Coding
some remaining links for today
Steam Deck is Mostly Good in the Sense That It Weakens Microsoft's Dominance (Windows)
The Steam Deck is mostly a DRM appliance
SUSE is Just Another Black Cat Working for Proprietary Giants/Monopolies
SUSE's relationship with firms such as these generally means that SUSE works for authority, not for community, and when it comes to cryptography it just follows guidelines from the US government
IBM is Selling Complexity, Not GNU/Linux
It's not about the clients, it's about money
Birthday of Techrights in 6 Weeks (Tux Machines and Techrights Reach Combined Age of 40 in 2025)
We've already begun the migration to static
Linux Foundation: We Came, We Saw, We Plundered
Linux Foundation staff uses neither Linux nor Open Source. They're essentially using, exploiting, piggybacking goodwill gestures (altruism of volunteers) while paying themselves 6-figure salaries.
Security Isn't the Goal of Today's Software and Hardware Products
Any newly-added layer represents more attack surface
Linux Too Big to Be Properly Maintained When There's an Incentive to Sell More and More Things (Complexity and Narrow Support Window)
They want your money, not your peace of mind. That's a problem.
Modern Web Means Proprietary Trash
Mozilla is financially beholden to Google and thus we cannot expect any pushback or for Firefox to "reclaims the Web" a second time around
Godot 4.2 is Approaching, But After What Happened to Unity All Game Developers Should be Careful
We hope Unity will burn in a massive fire and, as for Godot, we hope it'll get rid of Microsoft
GNU/Linux Has Conquered the World, But Users' Freedom Has Not (Impediments Remain in Hardware)
Installing one's system of choice on a device is very hard, sometimes impossible
Another Copyright Lawsuit Against Microsoft (or its Proxy) for Misuse of Large Works by Chatbot
Some people mocked us for saying this day would come; chatbots are a huge disappointment and they're on very shaky legal ground
Privacy is Not a Crime, Reporting Hidden Facts Is Not a Crime Either
the powerful companies/governments/societies get to know everything about everybody, but if anyone out there discovers or shares dark secrets about those powerful companies/governments/societies, that's a "crime"
United Workforce Always Better for the Workers
In the case of technology, it is possible that a lack of collective action is because of relatively high salaries and less physically-demanding jobs
Purge of Software Freedom and Its Voices
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
GNOME and GTK Taking Freedom Away From Users
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
GNOME is Worse Today (in 2023) Than When I Did GTK Development 20+ Years Ago
To me it seems like GNOME is moving backward, not forward, mostly removing features and functionality rather than adding any
HowTos Are Moving to Tux Machines
HowTos (or howtos) are very important in their own right, but they can easily distract from the news and howtos are usually quite timeless or time-insensitive
Proprietary Panda: Don't Be Misled by the Innocent Looks of Ubuntu (and Microsoft Canonical)
Given the number of disgruntled employees who leave Canonical and given Ubuntu's trend of just copying whatever IBM does in Fedora, is there still a good reason to choose Ubuntu?
Debian GNU/Linux is a Fine Operating System, But What if People Die Making It for Somebody's Corporate/Personal Gain?
Will companies that exploited unpaid volunteers ever be held accountable for loss of life, caused by burnout, excessive work, or poverty?
Links 24/09/2023: 5 Days' Worth of News (Catchup)
Links for the day
Leftover Links 24/09/2023: Russia, COVID, and More
Links for the day
Forty Years of GNU and the Free Software Movement
by FSF
Gemini and Web in Tandem
We're already learning, over IRC, that out new site is fully compatible with simple command line- and ncurses-based Web browsers. Failing that, there's Gemini.
Red Hat Pretends to Have "Community Commitment to Open Source" While Scuttling the Fedora Community (Among Others)
RHEL is becoming more proprietary over time and community seems to boil down to unpaid volunteers (at least that's how IBM see the "community")
IBM Neglecting Users of GNU/Linux on Laptops and Desktops
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Personal Identification on the 'Modern' Net
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Not Your Daily Driver: Don't Build With Rust or Adopt Rust-based Software If You Value Long-Term Reliance
Rust is a whole bunch of hype.
The Future of the Web is Not the Web
The supposedly "modern" stuff ought to occupy some other protocol, maybe "app://"
YouTube Has Just Become Even More Sinister
The way Google has been treating the Web (and Web browsers) sheds a clue about future plans and prospects
Initial Announcement of GNU (for Gnu's Not Unix) on September 27, 1983
History matters
Upgrade and Migration Status
Git is working, IPFS is working, IRC is working, Gemini is working
Yesterday in the 'Sister Site', Tux Machines (10 More Stories)
Scope-wise, many stories fit neatly into both sites, but posting the same twice makes no sense logistically
The New Techrights Will be Much Faster
A prompt response to FUD is important. It's time-sensitive.