Links: PC-BSD 8.1 and Lightspark 0.4.2 Released, Other Free Software/Open Source News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-22 18:55:05 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-22 19:00:10 UTC
Summary: Today's news about digital freedom and openness
Morevna is an open source anime project made using open source tools like Synfig, Blender, GIMP and Krita. Unlike Project London Movie, Morevna is not only created using free and open source tools, but Morevna anime will also be released and distributed as free content. This project definitely deserves a lot of appreciation.
Whether you just want to balance your checkbook or you need to track the finances of a large global corporation, you can find open source software to do the job. For our list of open source financial tools, we cast a wide net and included applications related to enterprise resource management, point-of-sale and even employee time tracking. Not to mention traditional accounting and financial management tools.
One trend worth noting -- a huge number of the open source tools on this list, particularly the business applications, are now available on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis. For businesses, this model seems to make sense, as it gives them access to support and reduces the need for in-house staff to deploy and monitor applications. It also enables a more mobile workforce and keeps costs low. And of course, this model is also great for open source vendors as it gives them another way to monetize their open source projects.
Without further ado, here are fifty open source applications that might be able to replace the financial software you currently use for your home or business.
If you haven’t run into a situation where you need to rename multiple files in one go, you haven’t been using a computer for long. When the next time comes, turn to KRename. Its simple graphical interface makes renaming files easy for average users, and it offers a powerful template language for advanced users with more complex renaming tasks. Although it was written for the KDE desktop, KRename works under other Linux platforms and even on Windows.
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Web Browsers
Last week we showed Opera 10.60 to be the world's fastest Web browser. That was in the Windows world. But where do Chrome, Firefox, and Opera stand in Linux? Today we find out. Adding the Win 7 results, we'll also learn which OS has the speediest browser.
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Mozilla
Firefox 3.6.7 and Firefox 3.5.11 are now available as free downloads for Windows, Mac, and Linux from http://firefox.com. As always, we recommend that users keep up to date with the latest stability and support versions of Firefox, and encourage all our users to upgrade to the very latest version, Firefox 3.6.7.
The latest Firefox 4.0 nightly build adds a new download ("Save link as") / upload dialog - in Linux that is, as I didn't try Firefox 4.0 Windows or Mac builds. This may have been added earlier but only now I've noticed it.
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SaaS
There’s a real explosion of cloud platforms and management tools, it seems you can’t swing a dead cat without hitting one these days. In the commercial proprietary solutions space you have – CA’s 3Terra AppLogic, Enomaly, Nimbula, RightScale. In open source there are Eucalyptus, Cloud.com, Open Nebula and Ubuntu Enterprise Cloud. There are a bunch more that I failed to mention. It makes you wonder do we really need another one? How much different can they be?Rackspace Champion's Open Source Cloud I am not sure but the newest one appears to be rather significant.
NASA is dropping Eucalyptus from its Nebula infrastructure cloud not only because its engineers believe the open source platform can't achieve the sort of scale they require, but also because it isn't entirely open source.
NASA chief technology officer Chris Kemp tells The Reg that as his engineers attempted to contribute additional Eucalyptus code to improve its ability to scale, they were unable to do so because some of the platform's code is open and some isn't. Their attempted contributions conflicted with code that was only available in a partially closed version of platform maintained by Eucalyptus Systems Inc., the commercial outfit run by the project's founders.
In some ways Facebook is still a LAMP site (kind of), but it has had to change and extend its operation to incorporate a lot of other elements and services, and modify the approach to existing ones.
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BSD
The PC-BSD Team is pleased to announce the availability of PC-BSD 8.1 (Hubble Edition), running FreeBSD 8.1-RELEASE, and KDE 4.4.5
One of the features that sets FreeBSD apart from other open source opeating systems, is its governance structure. FreeBSD is not owned by a company, though many companies use it and contribute code back, but yet is run as if it were a company, with the Core Team taking decisions and steering the Project.
The FreeBSD Foundation funds various projects each year and there are several interesting projects in progress:
* DAHDI (formerly known as Zaptel) FreeBSD driver port--this project will make it possible to use FreeBSD as a base system for software PBX solutions
* resource containers and a simple per-jail resource limits mechanism
* userland dtrace
* BSNMP improvements
* jail-based virtualization
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Project Releases
The Lightspark project has released version 0.4.2 of its free, open source Flash player. According to Lightspark develoepr Alessandro Pignotti, the alternative Flash Player implementation is "designed from the ground up to be efficient on current and (hope fully) future hardware".
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Government
Operating as the Open Information Security Foundation, and working with a number of government-related private companies, a team headed by Mark Jonkman of Emerging Threats and Victor Julien of the Vuurmuur firewall project are offering an intrusion detection and prevention engine with multi-threading automatic protocol detection for a wide variety of protocols.
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Openness/Sharing
It's an ambitious effort to preserve, restore and promote the re-use of traditional skills and inventions from all over the world.
We risk stifling the development of new tools, both commercial and academic, and new knowledge under the weight of a legal regime that was designed to cope with the printing press. At the same time a simple statement that this kind of analysis is fair dealing will provide certainty without damaging the interests of copyright holders or complicating copyright law. These new uses will ultimately bring more traffic, and perhaps more customers, to the primary documents. By taking the simple and easy step of making automated analysis an allowable fair dealing exception everyone wins.
After the election and looking to the post-Becta future, Open Source Schools has been making new plans to ensure that the community is able to respond to the changing educational landscape where the benefits offered by open source are becoming ever more important.
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Open Data
Opening up food and agricultural data requires an information architecture and infrastructure that does not currently exist. The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization is a leader in providing easily accessible, highly usable, and surprisingly current data, but right now it is far ahead of the pack in terms of transparency in reporting.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- In Central African Republic Windows Has Pretty Much Fallen to Zero
- We need to focus on Software Freedom
- Microsoft Windows Down to 8.5% in South Africa
- South Africa and Egypt are strategic in Africa
- New Series: A Deep Dive Into the Severe Corruption of the Open Source Initiative (OSI), Nowadays a Front Group and Lobbyist of Microsoft
- There's a lot to show
- Doing Free Software for a Living in an Era or a Time of Abundance of Code (and Fast Internet to Pass It Around Freely) or Writing When the Web is Attacked by LLM Slop
- Tailoring code to needs is the key
- The UEFI hype and Microsoft's lies
- By Sami Tikkanen
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- Gemini Links 03/03/2025: Copyrights, GrapheneOS, and SpaceBeans
- Links for the day
- Links 03/03/2025: Europe Rallies Behind Ukraine, Measles Flourishes in US Again
- Links for the day
- After Fund-raising Campaign the Free Software Foundation Still Raises About $13,000 Per Week (Without Campaigning for New Donors/Members)
- Richard Stallman in the Board is not a liability
- Links 03/03/2025: 'Monetisation' Myth' and Microsoft's LLMs Helping Criminals
- Links for the day
- The New Series About the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and the Microsoft Entryism in OSI is Closely Related to the SLAPP Against Techrights
- Also based on the leading publication that they want removed
- Links 03/03/2025: Mass Layoffs in IBM China, Intel Still in Trouble
- Links for the day
- 3 Out of 4 in Cuba Use Linux to Access the Web
- Maybe change does come about...
- Links 02/03/2025: Day Off, POWER9, Console Challenge
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 02, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 02, 2025
- Microsoft Windows Falls to All-Time Low in Thailand
- We're seeing many all-time records like these so far in 2025
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: Snowdrop Flower and Hostile Leaders
- Links for the day
- Links 02/03/2025: Microsoft Outlook Goes Offline, Foreign-Owned Social Control Media Interfering With Fair Elections
- Links for the day
- According to statCounter, Windows Falls Off a Cliff in Maharlika, GNU/Linux Surges to 5%
- But mobile is king
- New Video Clip of Richard Stallman's Latest Visit to and Talks in Italy
- Richard Stallman or RMS giving his latest talk last week
- Windows Used by Only One in Six Asians to Access the Web, According to statCounter
- maybe more governments in Asia should move away from Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Reaches 5% in Brazil, an All-Time High According to statCounter
- There are hundreds of millions of people in that country
- Google Already Dominates the Global South (via Android/Linux)
- If one puts aside Russia and east Europe, not many countries exist that still connect to the Web from Windows more than from Android
- GNU/Linux Widespread in Finland, Sweden, and Norway
- Sweden has many Chromebooks in schools3 nations
- Germany's Incoming Leader Said He'd Seek More Independence from the US, GNU/Linux Soars to 6%
- Last month it was 5%
- For the First Time GNU/Linux is Measured at Over 4% in Europe (Not Counting ChromeOS/Chromebooks)
- Europe, on average, is now estimated to have GNU/Linux on 1 in 25 Web-connected laptops/desktops
- Over 2 Years of LLM Hype and Nothing to Show for It
- People still use search, not chatbots
- Apple's iOS Almost Bigger Than Windows Now (Internationally), Windows Falls to 22% According to statCounter
- Without Windows domination, there's not much left going for Microsoft
- Putin's Loyal DOGE
- We hereby crown Arvind Krishna "Putin's DOGE"
- The Media Barely Reported This (Late Friday): IBM Lays Off About 2,000 More Workers, Effective Hours Ago
- Maybe some diversity programs can help IBM recruit slaves or grossly-underpaid staff
- Microsoft Money Being Spent to Bully Techrights Only Legitimises Techrights
- The longer it goes on for, the greater the Streisand Effect
- Suing One's Way Out of Real Trouble Won't Work (It Merely Increases the Trouble)
- "Guns for hire" in London can only issue "legal" threats
- Microsoft Writing Articles About Microsoft, Using Microsoft LLMs
- Right now there are many articles about Microsoft Outlook being down completely
- Gemini Links 02/03/2025: OFFLFIRSOCH 2025 and Programming
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 01, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 01, 2025
- Another Day and Another LLM Slopfest From Madame Day at the Slopfarm LinuxSecurity.com
- Can't take a break, can she?
- Sucking Up to Fascists (Like IBM's Watson Sucked Up to Adolf Hitler in the 1930s) Did Not Help IBM
- IBM could stick to better principles, but instead it treats the Free software community and even its own staff like trash
- Links 01/03/2025: GB News Loses Over 100 Million Pounds, Zelensky Wins World's Sympathy
- Links for the day
- Getting Serial Sloppers to Knock the Habit of Plagiarism by LLM Slop
- All in all, the fewer the slop objects, the better
- As Prices Soar and Services Shut Down (Even YouTube Starts Demanding Money for the Original or a Tolerable Experience) It's Time to Explore the Real Alternatives
- https://inv.nadeko.net is the most viable instance of Invidious these days
- Gemini Links 01/03/2025: Amends and GNU/Linux
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: Scam Altman's Latest Excuse, Google Price Hikes
- Links for the day
- Justice Will Find Its Way at the End
- We deserve an award, not SLAPP, for what we've done
- March Already, Rumours of IBM Layoffs in Brazil
- Red Hat might be impacted too
- Links 01/03/2025: Squashing Software Patents, USPTO Facing Additional Cuts
- Links for the day
- Links 01/03/2025: UNM Gopher and Getting One's Pages on gemini://
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, February 28, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, February 28, 2025