Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 02/09/2009: RHEL 5.4 Released; Skype Buyout Can Help Free Software



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Linux grows up
    During my vacation last week I decided to take a look at Ubuntu's latest Linux offering and I was pleasantly surprised. I'm happy to say that Linux, as a desktop, has truly grown up. Out of the box I had audio, video, and wireless Internet support without any trouble whatsoever. It had an intuitive and user-friendly interface, something necessary to catch the attention of non-technically savvy users. Additionally, the installation was a breeze. This wasn't always the case and I finally felt Linux was a real option for the user desktop.


  • MLAs to go e-way with pre-loaded linux laptops
    The MLAs in the State are going e-way like their counterparts in other States, but with a difference. The 141 MLAs in the Kerala Legislative Assembly will be provided with pre-loaded GNU/Linux laptops, giving a clear indication that the State is still bonded to the idea of free software. The Kerala Legislative Assembly website has published the tender for pre-installed open source purchase with Linux Ubuntu certification.


  • Server





  • Kernel Space

    • Metadata Performance of Four Linux File Systems
      This article isn’t so much about benchmarks as a product, but rather it is an exploration looking for interesting observations or trends or the lack thereof. In particular this article examines the metadata performance of several Linux file systems using a specific micro-benchmark. Fundamentally this article is really an exploration to understand if there is any metadata performance differences between 4 Linux file systems (ext3, ext4, btrfs, and nilfs) using a metadata benchmark called fdtree. So now it’s time to eat our dog food and do benchmarking with the recommendations previously mentioned.






  • Games

    • CodeWeavers Releases CrossOver Games 8.0 for Mac and Linux; Adds Support for Snow Leopard OS
      CodeWeavers, Inc., a leading developer of software products that turn Mac OS X and Linux into Windows-compatible operating systems, today announced the release of CrossOver Games 8.0 for both Mac and Linux, available immediately. CrossOver Games allows Windows games to be played on Mac and Linux PCs without the need for a Windows operating system license. CrossOver Games 8.0 is also designed to run on the latest Snow Leopard OS for Mac PCs.


    • Battlefield 2 v1.50 Linux Dedicated Server
      Here's the Battlefield 2 Dedicated Linux Server (Build 1.5.3153) to host games for version 1.5.








  • Distributions







  • Devices/Embedded





Free Software/Open Source

  • Skype buyout wakes up open source vendors
    Meanwhile, the developers of FreeSWITCH, an alternative VoIP solution, have been re-emphasising that FreeSWITCH already supports Skype in an update released in August, albeit through a proxy mechanism which uses the Skype client software on Windows and Linux to connect to the Skype network. Whether the new ownership of Skype will see the company become more interoperable with open source in general has yet to be determined.


  • Integration Watch: Open-source hosts with the most
    At the top of the list is the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) at apache.org. It hosts only a few projects, but ones that matter and that frequently have a large following. In my recent interview with ASF president Justin Erenkrantz, he stated, “For a project to apply, it generally requires three active, regular contributors.” Even if it qualifies on that score, it must still go through an incubation and review phase before it becomes a fully accepted project. In exchange, the ASF provides hosting, a legal framework, considerable exposure and undeniable cachet.


  • Intalio Acquires Webtide, Developer of the Jetty Application Server
    Intalio, Inc., The Enterprise Cloud Company, today announced the acquisition of Webtide, the team behind the Jetty open source Java application server.




  • Business







  • Openness

    • Wikimedia Commons breaks 5,000,000 files
      Hot on the heels of the recent milestone of 3,000,000 articles on English Wikipedia, Wikimedia Commons has just lodged its own major milestone: passing the 5,000,000 binary mark. Wikimedia Commons is the vast image, video, sound, illustration (and more) repository of works that can be freely reused by anyone, and perhaps most notably to users is the space where all of Wikipedia’s images are stored. Few would dispute that Wikimedia Commons is the largest single collection of freely reusable images on the internet.


    • Are You Ready for Open-Source Hardware?
      According to the Chaos Theory, in a giant system that has lots of interconnections, even the smallest action can have a massive impact. It’s more simply described by the butterfly effect. This theory has taken its toll on the software business, thanks to the rise of open-source software platforms. Today, I learned about a move made by Backblaze, a small San Francisco-based online back-up service that can cause a similar disruption in the storage industry.






  • Programming

    • CollabNet pushes community best practices
      CollabNet announced this morning that it will offer free one-hour audits of existing communities, and has made available the Enterprise Community Management Cook Book, enumerating the best practices for managing open-source projects. For companies seeking an even deeper engagement, CollabNet also announced both an advisory and a management service for corporate communities in need of a shepherd.








Leftovers

  • Amazon API crackdown neuters book apps
    Then Elam noticed a similar problem with an aging Windows app known as Album Art Aggregator, which provided cover art for his collection of ripped CDs. And after a quick web search, he turned up issues with several other Linux apps, including Amarok, a music player for the KDE Linux desktop interface, and Rhythmbox, a music-management app for the GNOME destktop.

    As it turns out, all are victims of a recent change to the Amazon.com data API.


  • Will eBooks Kill Off The Hard-Cover Book?
    Arnaud Nourry, CEO of French publishing group Hachette Livre told the Financial Times that pressure from Google’s (GOOG) digital library project and from the move by Amazon (AMZN), Barnes & Noble (BKS) and others into electronic books is forcing publishers to consider drastic price cuts. He thinks one result could be the death of hardback books.


  • NPR’s Digital Makeover
    Yes, that's the problem. That's sort of the beauty of a not-for-profit, like ourselves. We're beholden to no one. No financier. Our gifts come with no strings attached, or we won't accept them. Nobody is getting rich off of it. It's a big issue.


  • NPR Recognizes It Makes Business Sense To Give Up Content Cash Cow And Go Free
    It appears that she's putting this realization to work in other ways, a bunch of readers have been submitting an NPR blog post explaining why it has stopped charging for transcripts of programs, and started offering them for free on its website.




  • AstroTurf

    • EXCLUSIVE: Health Insurance Lobby’s Stealth Astroturf Campaign Revealed
      According to the server-information hub Domaintools.com, the AHIP grassroots outreach website AHIPAdvocacy.org is hosted on a server owned by DDC. Though DDC conceals the hosting of its other websites using a service called DomainsByProxy, ThinkProgress has obtained a list of the domains hosted on DDC servers. A review of this data shows that DDC maintains the grassroots outreach websites for large health insurance companies, but also for big tobacco and Koch Industries:

      – phillipmorrisusaactioncenter.org (Altria) – tobaccoissues.com (Altria) – kochpac.com (Koch Industries) – aetnavotes.com (Aetna) – healthactionnetwork.org (WellPoint) – humanapartners.com (Humana) – ahipadvocacy.org (AHIP)


    • Rendon's Embed Vetting Scandal
      The military newspaper Stars and Stripes reported that the Pentagon was using one of its favorite public relations firms, the Rendon Group, to produce profiles of reporters requesting to embed with U.S. forces in Afghanistan; that the profiles graded reporters' past coverage as "positive," "neutral" or "negative," sometimes suggesting how to "neutralize" expected negative coverage or how to design embeds to "result in favorable coverage"; and that, in some cases, the profiles prompted military officials to reject reporters' embed requests


    • Online politics reserved for rich
      US civic engagement remains in the hands of the middle-class despite hopes that the internet would democratise political involvement.








  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Authors Take Up The Tiered Support Models Also
      Another day, another example of content creators embracing the business models we've been talking about -- and once again, this one is outside of the music industry. Recently we wrote about movie makers picking up on tiered funding offerings, similar to what Jill Sobule has done, and now we've got a budding author as well.


    • Movie studios again demand HDTV disabling powers from FCC
      Even the MPAA now concedes that its bid for selectable output control could force some consumers to buy new home theater gear. What we still don't have is a reasonable estimate on whether the 11 million figure bandied about is accurate. Nor do we know what the Genachowski FCC thinks about this mess.


    • Despite Winning $675,000, RIAA Fears Defendant is File Sharing
      The Recording Industry Association of America took the offensive Tuesday against a college student whom a jury concluded in July must pay $675,000 for file sharing 30 songs.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



William Li Wan, Manager of Sun Microsystems Sun China Engineering Institute 03 (2004)



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

Recent Techrights' Posts

Wayland is About Less Choice, About Removing Choices, It's Not About Freedom
IBM insists that it cares about "diversity"
Keeping Things Accessible
Gemini Protocol seems to be growing
Not Much Better Than LLM Slop: Linux Foundation-Funded 'News' Site Writes Linux Foundation 'News', Composed by Linux Foundation Operative, Quoting Linux Foundation Staff
...they get paid (sponsored) to produce this spam. Then they call it "journalism".
Annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 22x) 'Bought' by Microsoft and Microsoft Exceeded Sponsorship Limits by Giving Double the Maximum Permitted Amount
When people get bribed they tend to forget how to utter a simple word: "No."
EPO Examiners Point Out to the Heads of Delegations in the Administrative Council of the EPO That the "AI Policy" of the Office is Illegal
"the Central Staff Committee (CSC) asks the Administrative Council to exert its supervisory role and instruct EPO management to enter into genuine dialogue with the staff representation on the AI Policy, to revise the “Leverage AI” target of 90% AI-automated classification in the SP2028 and to put in place the measures supported by staff in the resolution."
French Cities Dumping Microsoft Because They Recognise Software Freedom, Open Standards, GNU/Linux Autonomy
We hope that more French cities - maybe Paris - will follow Lyon.
 
Links 27/06/2025: Journalists Under Fire and Microsoft Has Serious Slop Problems
Links for the day
X is Dying, But Not XServer/X11. Twitter X.com is Dying.
People or businesses or government officials (and departments) that still rely on Social Control Media are playing Russian Roulette with their future online
Escaping Colonialism (or 'Hegemony') Requires Abandoning GAFAM, Microsoft in Particular
Europe is already in the process of abandoning Microsoft
Microsoft Will Shut Down More Studios This Week, Its Media Operatives Will Tell Lies About the Magnitude of the Shutdowns and Layoffs (They Always Do)
Many people who get counted as "workforce" are "temps" or similar
What Linux Foundation 'Research' is: Paid Marketing
What is Linux Foundation 'Research'?
No, IBM Does Not Care About People With Disabilities
"Aktion T4" did not seem to bother Watson
Microsoft's Financial Problems Mean Shutdowns, Not Just Mass Layoffs
If the original rumour is true, then expect almost 30,000 Microsoft workers to be let go this year
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, June 26, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, June 26, 2025
The Netherlands: GNU/Linux Measured at All-Time High
Are any Dutch cities going to announce dumping Microsoft?
Gemini Links 27/06/2025: "Interstitial Existence" and Autocorrect
Links for the day
Technical People Need Technical Lawyers
Technical Litigants in Person (LIPs) have many real and concrete advantages
10,000+ Articles in About 20 Months (and How We Got Here)
More bloat does not beget efficiency and "bells and whistles" tend to have a hidden cost
Links 26/06/2025: Illegal Kangaroo Court (UPC) Failing Scandinavia, K-Pop Agencies Abuse People
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/06/2025: AuraGem Twitch Proxy is Back and UI Sluggishness
Links for the day
LWN is a Voice of GAFAM (Through Linux Foundation, Their Front Group or Occupying Force Inside Linux)
remember who the chief editor works for and who sponsors many of the articles
Links 26/06/2025: Noise Pollution Considered High in Europe, Mass Layoffs Next Week in Microsoft Confirmed, Very Large in Scale and Scope
Links for the day
The 'Case' of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft is a Lot of Copypasta (Maybe Also LLM Slop) From the Matthew Garrett 'Case'
5RB deserves to know and the matter shall be properly reported in due course (when the time is right)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part II - Office Breaks Rules, Ignores Courts, Defies Justice
False promises everywhere
No, I Don't Want Your Latest XYZ, ThankYouVeryMuch...
Wayland is finally ready?
China Keeps Breaking Into Microsoft Systems, So for True Sovereignty, Nations Wary of China Need to Dump Microsoft
Looking at data from Taiwan (not China) and Maharlika (not Philippines, the king is dead and Spain is out), there are encouraging signs
Linux Journal Wants Ads on Its LLM Slop or Ads as 'Articles'
it's basically another BetaNews
How to Kill a Monopoly
in 10 simple steps
IBM - Like Microsoft - is a Dying Company and Perishing Brand ("AI" is a Lie and Decoy)
"Arvind is cutting costs (layoffs, PIPs, forced RTO, etc...) like crazy. IBM offices are closing all over the place in the US."
"Code of Conduct" Invoked When Fedora and Red Hat Users (Since the 1990s) Don't Want to Use Wayland
That is IBM "DEI"
Mozambique: GNU/Linux Rose From 0.5% Last Year to 3% This Year
what (or how) statCounter is measuring
Microsoft Layoffs Next Week: About 10% to be Laid Off in Microsoft Gaming (2 Days Before Independence Day), About 20%+ of XBox Staff
Microsoft is rapidly collapsing
Next Month Marks 11 Years Since Our In-Depth EPO Coverage
The same is happening to Microsoft right now
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Campaigns Against Vista 11, Adds 4 New Associate Members Per Day
If more people understood the underlying principles, more of them would flock to Free software overnight
Canonical Seems to Have Culled Some Sources of LLM Slop From Planet Ubuntu
It's like "junk food", it's not information
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 25, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 25, 2025
On "Weak Claims"
For the record, they sent me unjustified threats, repeatedly tried injunctions (censorship)
EPO Squeezing the Staff - Part I - Burnout and Family Health
more exceptional circumstances
This Month's Mail (MX) Server Survey Shows Microsoft at 0.20% "Market Share"
We need to remind people that desktops and laptops decline (in proportion to other client devices) and at the "back end" GNU/Linux is already dominant and has long been dominant
Links 26/06/2025: Filespooler Guide and Learning to Code
Links for the day
Why Techrights Cannot be Vilified (and Instead It Gets SLAPPed Repeatedly by Microsoft People)
Attack dogs are all "bark"; because they have no actual "bite"
Austrian GNU/Linux Usage Up to About 5% as More of Europe Abandons Microsoft
Since inauguration day the Austrian people have adopted more and more of GNU/Linux
Why the "Wayland People" and "Rust People" Will Lose Hearts and Minds (Same Reasons)
Wayland pushers are fast becoming like "Rust People"
5,600 Pages/Articles Per Year
So far this year we've kept all the promises
BetaNews Beginning to Show What Its True Goals Are
The 'new' BetaNews won't be about journalism. It's trying to sell things.
Microsoft Has Lost "The War"
We'll soon see the 9th or 10th wave of Microsoft layoffs in 2025 alone
Slopwatch: A Wreck and a Dreck, "Flooding the Zone With Dreck" or Flooding the Web With Junk
"Slopwatch" continues today because we have many new examples
Links 25/06/2025: Thwarting More Software Patents, Overlap Grows Between EPO Corruption and Illegal Kangaroo Patent Courts in EU
Links for the day
Links 25/06/2025: Elon Musk’s Lawyers Caught Lying, WhatsApp Faces More Bans
Links for the day
Wayland Pushers Lose the Argument, Use LLM Slop and Chatbots to Make Up Arguments for IBM
Another new low and low blow
Brian Fagioli Created Another Slopfarm Targeting "Linux" After BetaNews Became a Slopfarm of Phantom Accounts and Pseudonyms
Mr. Fagioli even had slop about a dead Torvalds (hypothetical) as clickbait
Wayland is Perfect, Nobody Can Escape Its Perfection! (Or Not)
Do not form on opinion on Wayland based on politics
What is "MATA"?
Think of it as GAFAM or "Meta"
Moral Duty for "Linux Sites" to Speak Out Against LLM Slop
My wife has long complained about "Linux bloggers" keeping quiet and thus passive about a growing problem: slop
In Recent Hours Google News Promoted at Least 3 Slopfarms That Relayed Linux Foundation Propaganda Made by Bots or LLM "Bullshit Generators" (as Dr. Stallman Dubbed Them)
Google is circling down the drain and Google News too is hopeless
Linux Journal is a Slopfarm, It's Experimenting With LLM 'Authors'
Is Slashdot next?
WebProNews is a Slopfarm
Please avoid linking to WebProNews
Microsoft LinkedIn is Dying and Many More Layoffs Are on the Way
LinkedIn is just a failed acquisition of Microsoft. It causes losses and debt.
Gemini Links 25/06/2025: Combinatorial Music and Self Hosting
Links for the day
Richard Stallman Coming Back to Europe This Autumn to Give More Talks
His last talk in Europe attracted about 400-450 people
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 24, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 24, 2025
Social Control Media, Technology & Catholicism: Synod on Synodality review and feedback
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Many More Women Will Managers at Microsoft Strangle and Tell to Kill Themselves (or Try to Kill)?
The world needs to know what happened
The New BetaNews: 7 New 'Articles', All of Them LLM Slop
BetaNews is basically defunct. Nobody writes there anymore.
Another "Told You So!": XBox Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Many Recent Reports Were Chaff and Spin), Many Other Divisions Affected
With mass layoffs at Microsoft the world would be much better