Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 07/12/2009: Red Hat's Real-Time Linux, OLPC/Sugar Update



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • What Chrome OS has on Windows that Linux doesn’t
    Chrome OS faces the same applications challenge as any other operating system, but it’s rising to that challenge in a different way. It includes the Chrome browser running on a stripped-down version of Linux, but the applications won’t run on Linux, they’ll run on the Internet. Chrome is the conduit to the Web applications, and Chrome OS is the vehicle by which Google will get the browser installed on Netbooks starting in the second half of 2010, the company promises.




  • Applications







  • Distributions



    • New Releases







    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat revs real-time MRG Linux to 1.2
        Commercial Linux distributor Red Hat today kicked out the 1.2 release of its Enterprise MRG Linux variant for real-time, messaging, and grid computing.


      • Red Hat Tunes Up Real-Time OS
        Red Hat is aiming for lowered latency and improved performance with the second update of the year to its real-time Linux platform.

        The Linux vendor's new MRG 1.2 (short for Messaging, Real-Time, Grid) release includes new tools and improved technology designed to better enhance the OS's value for customers who rely on real-time performance.


      • Independent Study Highlights Significant Opportunities for Cost Savings and Benefits with JBoss Enterprise Middleware
        Red Hat (NYSE: RHT), the world's leading provider of open source solutions, today announced the release of a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Red Hat detailing significant cost savings and benefits achieved by one Red Hat customer, a major telecommunications provider, after migrating from proprietary middleware to JBoss Enterprise Middleware.












  • Devices/Embedded

    • CrunchPad partner plans media event
      Rathakrishnan, who had earlier promised via an email to the San Francisco Business Times that a statement would be forthcoming, "just wants to be able to share his side of the story and he’s going to be showing the device very briefly as well," Alpers said.




    • Phones

      • Majority of new HTC phones will run Android
        A leaked HTC roadmap for 2010 has revealed that the majority of the company's smartphones for the first half of 2010 will run Google Android, not Windows Mobile.


      • Why Carriers Love Open-source/Openness
        The first thing Nokia did when they decided that they wanted to work with the Maemo community to offer the operating system, was to tie up the loose ends that would not suit a commercial playground in the long run. For instance, Nokia's own Canola Media Player app is not an open-source application. It's got components licensed under GPL/LGPL, meaning that it's a commercial application at the end of the day. In other words, commercial app developers, manufacturers and carriers can protect their Maemo offerings just as easily as on any other platform.






    • OLPC

      • Fedora devs keeping OLPC sweet with Sugar
        Developer Sebastian Dzialias (who was also in the OLPC session), said that a new version of Sugar on a Stick was coming this Tuesday - codenamed Blueberry. It's a good thing too, the promise of the XO and its desktop, deserves better than to end up in a landfill.


      • OLPC's Netbook Impact on Laptop PC Industry
        I will list the ways in which OLPC has influenced the target market which probably defines the interest of most readers of OLPC News, the angle from which most bloggers and industry commentators have been talking about the OLPC project for the past 4 years, which is how OLPC technology may affect the rich Western country's PC/Laptop industry.

        [...]

        5. Google is now planning the Chrome OS. Educated from the netbooks, the demand from the mass consumer market has now definitely shifted from performance and bloat, towards just asking to have the bare minimum. Google is seeing the convergence of market trends and are as a result building a very optimized OS to boot in 5 seconds and run on $50 ARM powered laptops.

        OLPC has thus influenced the mass consumer and geek markets of rich countries in all these ways. But I do think OLPC has still a long way to go in the coming months to influence the industry even more.










Free Software/Open Source

  • What's Coming for Open Source in 2010
    With the end of the year quickly approaching, it's time for a few 2010 predictions. This past year was a big one for open source. Just think, back in March, it wasn't clear whether Google's open source Android platform had any future at all, but now it's absolutely flourishing. Oracle's proposed acquisition of Sun was a huge story this year, and it's still making headlines as the deal sits stalled by European regulators. There were lots of other notable stories. In this post, you'll find many predictions for open source in 2010, and the reasons for them.


  • Lower Enterprise Storage Costs: Open Source
    Two data storage vendors have released new products that they claim can save users a bundle over more traditional storage systems.

    Nexenta and ParaScale both use open source software and commodity hardware to lower storage costs for enterprises.




  • Releases

    • Open source NAC system PacketFence 1.8.6 released
      PacketFence is a free and open source network access control (NAC) system. It can be used to effectively secure networks - from small to very large heterogeneous networks. PacketFence has been deployed in production environments where thousands of users are involved - on wired and wireless networks.








  • Licensing

    • Open Source In A Parallel Universe
      More than anything else I have read recently, the phrase "parallel universes" sums up so much of what open source's fiercest advocates seem to be aiming for. The GPL makes it all too easy not just for software to exist in dual incarnations, but for the entirety of IT to follow suit -- the software, the hardware, the licensing, the whole thing.


    • Palm Sued Over PDF Technology Dispute


    • Press Releases
      San Francisco, CA (December 02, 2009) Artifex Software Inc. today announced that it has filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California against Palm, Inc., based on Palm’s unauthorized copying and distribution of one of Artifex’s registered technologies. Artifex is the developer and copyright owner of muPDF, a high-performance PDF rendering engine.








  • Programming

    • Localization pros offer a Translation Toolkit
      Most of the Translate Toolkit’s infrastructure is provided by SourceForge.net – version control, mailing lists, file releases, and web site – but the project also uses locamotion.org for hosting the official Pootle server as a showcase, testing experimental features of Pootle, and for managing its own UI translations. It also uses Bugzilla for bug reporting, with infrastructure hosted by the Junta de Extremadura in Spain.


    • Forget Perfection, Release Your App to the World
      Most developers are probably familiar with Linux founder Linus Torvalds’ motto: “release early, release often.” The reason is quite simple: Shipping something useful is better than withholding that usefulness until it’s reached perfection.








Leftovers

  • TSA can't redact documents properly, releases s00per s33kr1t operations manual
    The TSA has published a "redacted" version of their s00per s33kr1t screening procedure guidelines (Want to know whether to frisk a CIA operative at the checkpoint? Now you can!). Unfortunately, the security geniuses at the DHS don't know that drawing black blocks over the words you want to eliminate from your PDF doesn't actually make the words go away, and can be defeated by nefarious al Qaeda operatives through a complex technique known as ctrl-a/ctrl-c/ctrl-v.


  • HSBC exposed sensitive bankruptcy data
    In notification letters made public Thursday, the bank said it had redacted sensitive information in Chapter 13 bankruptcy proof-of-claim forms that were filed electronically, but that the information turned out to be viewable "as a result of the deficiency in the software used to save imaged documents."


  • Latest lame UK gov't excuse for supressing drug policy report: "if we release it, it will be hard to manage the news"
    The British government has reached new heights of absurdity in stonewalling the release of a report on the efficacy of drug prohibition. The report was commissioned from independent academic researchers, and various activist and citizen groups have spent years filing four separate Freedom of Information requests for it. The government has manufactured excuse after excuse, going out on such bizarre limbs that even the Economist has taken notice.


  • Shoddy phones becoming the norm
    With mobiles becoming increasingly capable of being upgraded automatically once they are connected to a computer, or even directly over-the-air, McHugh argues that this is leading to sub-par devices being rushed out the door, with manufacturers sitting safe in the knowledge that they can correct mistakes as complaints arise from users.




  • Internet/Censorship/Web Abuse/Rights

    • So, Verizon, about those doubled early termination fees...'
      The FCC wants a "more complete understanding" of why Verizon Wireless recently doubled its early termination fees on smartphones. Is it really just about recouping costs? And if so, why would people on a two-year contract still owe $120 after 23 months?








  • Intellectual Monopolies/Copyrights

    • US Trade Rep weasels and squirms when cornered on an airplane and questioned about secret copyright treaty
      Read this account of James Love's conversation with Ambassador Ron Kirk, the head US Trade Representative, on the question of why the Draconian Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement is taking place in secret. Love cornered Kirk on a United Airlines flight from Geneva to DC following a WTO Ministerial meeting. Love asks Kirk why the treaty isn't public, and Kirk's answers are -- at best -- total weaselling and at worst fabrications.


    • Artists To National Gallery Of Canada: 'Pay Us Again And Again And Again!'
      Rose M. Welch writes in to point to the latest example of entitlement culture gone wrong. Apparently, two groups representing artists in Canada, The Canadian Artists' Representation, known as CARFAC, and the Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Quebec (RAAV), have filed a complaint against the National Gallery in Canada. The National Gallery already pays artists an exhibition fee to display their art. But, CARFAC and RAAV think that the National Gallery needs to pay them multiple times for the same artworks, because the Gallery also uses some of the artwork it displays in brochures, catalogs and other offerings.


    • SOCAN Wants To Charge Buskers Performance Fees
      Remember how one collection society wanted to charge a woman because she put on music for her horses? Or how about the woman who worked in a grocery store, who was told to stop singing while stock the shelves, or the store would have to pay a performance fee. And, of course, we had ASCAP trying to claim that ringtones were performances, and mobile operators needed to pay up -- beyond the license fee that was already paid on the recording.

      SOCAN, up in Canada, has been no exception, pushing for drastically increased rates that cover new places as well. But the most ridiculous may be the one sent in by a few people (Jesse was the first) about how SOCAN is trying to get buskers -- street musicians -- to pay a performance fee if they perform in SkyTrain stations in Vancouver. SOCAN is claiming that TransLink, the transit authority for the trains in Vancouver should be paying up to $40,000 in performance fees for all the buskers singing in stations, and TransLink's response is to pass those fees on to the buskers.


    • Sherman Alexie – A Study in Misunderstanding
      Piracy didn’t destroy the music industry. There has yet to be a study which shows piracy had any more of an impact on the music industry than the following: 9/11, the rise of the video game as a cultural phenomenon, the transition towards HDTV, the rise of MySpace, or the iPod. Each of these items are tied together in a way much more convoluted than the music industry would like to admit.

      The major labels were first through the door when it came to the digital transition, and they came in still fat from the profits of the shift from LP and cassette to compact disc. They stumbled and fell, and file-sharing (often used in analog settings to build an artists career) became the boogie man of the digital switch.










Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day



Stormy Peters, HP open source strategist 01 (2004)

[an error occurred while processing this directive]



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

Recent Techrights' Posts

Coming Soon: Microsoft Fake Results, Mass Layoffs, and Silence About All the People Microsoft Pressured to "Quit" (So That They Don't Get Counted as Layoffs)
there will be more mass layoffs
Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
 
China is Already Culling GAFAM (Not Just Microsoft Windows)
OS monoculture or "OS hegemony" may be coming to an end
The "Telephone Operating System in the Vatican" is 95 Years Old, Vatican Moved to GNU/Linux
Maybe Microsoft is down to zero already
If Tesla Shares (and Alleged Value) Fell 55% (From $489 to $222) in a Few Months Maybe It's Not Worth Anything At All (It's Just Gambling)
Tesla swasticars have turned from a "status symbol" into a "public embarrassment" and cause for casual humiliation
Chromebooks' Adoption in Sweden No Longer Depends on Schools
School breaks are when classrooms are shut
No, IBM is Not Investing $150 Billion in the US and It Doesn't Even Have That Kind of Money
Here we go again... media as a vehicle of lobbying and misinformation
Leak: The EPO's General Consultative Committee (GCC) Does Not Consult Staff on Crucial Matters and Bypasses the Administrative Council (AC) to Do Illegal Things
violations against the EPO's very staff
New Leaks Coming Soon, We Maintain 100% Record of Successful Resistance to Censorship
We won't be told what we can and cannot say (especially when it's true)
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR
To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force
These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025