Links: KDevelop 4.0.1, GNOME 3...
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-07-24 07:32:48 UTC
- Modified: 2010-07-24 07:33:50 UTC
Summary: GNU/Linux news roundup
GNU/Linux
The Playstation 3 slim is not just a gaming console, but also a powerful PC besides the styled layout that the playstation 3 has. Everybody generally use the console for it?s main objective, to perform video games, with out realizing how significantly more the console can offer them . With Linux on Playstation 3 you can do almost everything a computer can do and then some with your Ps3. Not to mention installing Linux system on a Playstation 3 is very effortless. Here are some of the benefits linked with setting up Linux system on a Playstation 3 slim.
This is an old favorite of mine. Here is the problem, switching desktops on a Linux machine with or without compiz is not intuitive. Why? because it is related to some window keys Ctrl+Alt+Right or Left Arrow, it is a secondary menu, or it depends on the mouse being at the corner of the window.
Defragmenting the hard drive. It's hard to believe that even Windows 7, the latest operating system from Microsoft, is still prone to this problem. The NTFS filesystem (used by Windows NT and up) has other quirks, but it seems to slowly get fragmented and requires defragmenting from time to time. This process can take a long time depending on your hardware, and no doubtedly has to happen when you are not using your computer. It's more like a band-aid to the problem, whereas Linux solves the problem up front by not even allowing fragmenting to happen at all. This has been the case since the ext3 filesystem was first used for Linux, and is still the case today with the ext4 filesystem. To quote the Linux System Administrator Guide: "Modern Linux filesystem(s) keep fragmentation at a minimum by keeping all blocks in a file close together, even if they can't be stored in consecutive sectors. Some filesystems, like ext3, effectively allocate the free block that is nearest to other blocks in a file. Therefore it is not necessary to worry about fragmentation in a Linux system.". Again, this is brilliant.
So let's look at two of the most common operating systems used today used in datacenters and on server systems. On one hand, Windows and the other Linux.
Windows by nature has more downtime per system, because Microsoft releases patches that require frequent rebooting. Windows patches are scheduled to be released on the second Tuesday of each month, so at a minimum once per month Windows systems will need to reboot. Sometimes, patches are released even more frequently, depending on the severity. Windows just can't activate a majority of software updates without rebooting the entire system.
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Server
- Over two thirds (29 out of 42) of the most reliable hosting companies use Linux (would they use GNU along with it?)
- 14.2% use BSD (FreeBSD to be more precise)
- A little less than 10% use Windows
- 3 out of 42 are a big question mark
The z196 can be configured to include up to 80 specialty engines to further reduce costs and increase performance including the System z Application Assist Processor (zAAP) for integrating Java workloads with core business applications, the System z Integrated Information Processor (zIIP) designed to help free-up computing capacity and lower IT costs, and the Integrated Facility for Linux (IFL) to optimize Linux workloads running on the mainframe, IBM said in its press release.
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Graphics Stack
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Applications
Why do I care about this so much? Because I have music playing whenever I'm using this computer, and when you add up work plus free time, I'm at this computer 8-10 hours per day. Music keeps me sane during multi-hour debug sessions. Music is an integral part of my life, and a music app is an integral part of playing music.
It's very important to me that the programs and tools I use all day are comfortable. Otherwise I become cranky. If you were a carpenter, would you want to use a hammer with a wobbly handle all day? I'm a programmer, and I want to use comfortable computer programs.
Clementine is very comfortable.
A library management system (also known as an integrated library system) is an automated resource planning system which enables a library to operate efficiently, freeing staff from unnecessary tasks. This type of software typically offers functionality such as cataloging, searching, reporting, acquisitions, library circulation and management embodied into a central system.
A student information system (also known as a student management system or school management system) is computer software for educational institutions to manage student data.
We continue our Linuxables series on the Linux text editor. As you might have noticed, this is one of those topics that breed much contempt. If you talk about vi, you must give equal time to emacs. If you talk about Kate, you best talk about Gedit. And that is precisely where we are - Gedit (although we have yet to talk about Kate, that comes next week).
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By default Gedit will be installed on a GNOME desktop.
GSmartControl is a really useful Linux app to check the health of your hard disk drive. GSmartControl is basically a graphical user interface for smartctl, which is a tool for querying and controlling SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) data on modern hard disk drives. Only ATA drives including both PATA and SATA are supported for now.
Ear Candy Automatically Fades and Raises Volume Levels in LinuxLinux only: Free utility Ear Candy makes your sound system smarter. If you're listening to music and a Skype call comes in, or you load a YouTube video, Ear Candy gently lowers your music volume to let the other sounds through.
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Proprietary
More than two years after version 1.0 arrived and about one month behind schedule, the Wine Project development team have released version 1.2 of their Windows API implementation. Wine (Wine Is Not an Emulator) is free open source software that allows users to run Windows applications on Linux and Unix by providing its own native replacements for Windows DLLs. According to Wine Project leader Alexandre Julliard, Wine 1.2 represents more than 23,000 changes, including over 3,000 bug fixes, and includes a number of improvements and new features.
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Instructionals
Retouching your photos in digiKam is radically different from how it works in Aperture. In digiKam, you first have to open the image Editor. In the image Editor, you can select from the top menu the different manipulations that you apply to your photo. You pick one manipulation that you want to do and on the right side of the window, the controls for this particular manipulation appear. Here you can adjust the settings. For some tools, the changes are displayed straight away, for the more computing extensive tools you have to press the “try” button to see the effect. DigiKam has made it easy to check what the effect of the adjustment is going to be: there are four split screens available and there is a mouse over option available that shows the original or the adjusted photo depending on where your mouse is. You can select the behaviour of the Image Editor on the bottom right corner. In that same corner, you also find the apply button, which probably does not need any explanation!
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Desktop Environments
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K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)
I’m happy to announce the availability of our first patch level release for KDevelop 4.
Well, here comes a good one I think. As I was talking to some people on the KDE IRC channel yesterday, there was a comment made about a possible way to orient new KDE users on how to use the desktop. However, I believe that users should be left clues to discover their desktop on their own. There should not be an intro popup or anything like that. Ponder about this for a moment.
Today, the KOffice team presents a contest to create great KPresenter slide templates, offering t-shirts for the winners and of course inclusion in the next KPresenter releases for all good submissions. Read on for information on the contest!
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GNOME Desktop
This September, a new desktop will be unveiled to the world in the form of GNOME 3. This desktop will change the way people view, work with, and think of the desktop. It's different, it's intuitive, and it follows the current evolution of what the desktop should be. But best of all, it's all about Linux.
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I have owned a Victorinox USB flash drive for several years now - long enough that it is only a 512MB unit, and it was considered "typical" at the time that I got it. I recently decided it was time to get a new one with a capacity more typical by today's standards. My basic selection criteria was very simple - besides the capacity, it must not have any knife or scissors which would cause me problems when taking it in my backpack on commercial flights.
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Reviews
Parted Magic is a Slackware-based Linux distro which is made for the sole purpose of partitioning hard disks. Parted Magic comes with tools like GParted, TestDisk, fdisk etc. The latest release, Parted Magic 0.5 was released yesterday and it includes Linux kernel 2.6.34.1, GParted 0.6.1 etc.
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New Releases
After several years of development, German T2 creator Rene Rebe has announced the release of version 8.0 of his cross compiling Linux distribution System Development Environment (SDE), T2 SDE. According to Rebe, the latest release includes more than 10,000 Subversion revisions, hundreds of new packages, performance improvements and several new features.
The Sabayon Linux team has now released two new flavours of the Gentoo-based Linux distro packed with alternative desktop environments for those who prefer them or have slower computers. The Sabayon 5.3 XFCE and Sabayon 5.3 LXDE ‘spins’ are more experimental in nature than the regular release though they are considered stable enough for regular use. This is just the first step, more spins are planned, and these two will continue to evolve until they reach a more mature state.
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Canonical/Ubuntu
Flavours and Variants
Some love Gnome, others love KDE, for me it’s XFCE all the way. When I jumped on the Ubuntu bandwagon several years ago it was only natural that I’d use Xubuntu.
If you’re looking for a great KDE distribution built on Ubuntu packages, Linux Mint KDE is the one to get. Forget Kubuntu, Mint does everything it does and more. In fact, it’s everything Kubuntu used to be. By itself, Mint’s KDE edition shines with custom tools, a customized appearance, and attention to detail at just about every turn. Distributions like this one make it harder for me to choose a single distro to stick with, as there are many great ones out there to try out.
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Overall: 5/5 (Great!)
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Phones
I caught an excellent presentation by Aaron Williamson from the Software Freedom Law center here at OSCON yesterday examining why smartphones built on open source software aren’t as open as they possibly could be. What Williams talked about was often eye opening, though there were a few points I found myself disagreeing with him on.
He started the presentation by talking about Motorola’s Droid X and the controversy that was stirred up when hacking enthusiasts discovered that Motorola had implemented an encrypted boot loader that forced the device to boot into a “recovery” mode in the event a custom ROM was detected on the device. While this was shocking (and even infuriating) to some, The only thing setting Motorola apart from the other Android OEMS in this case is that they’re actually enforcing the restrictions mandated by the OS maker.
Mobile photography could get a shot in the arm thanks to the combined efforts of Stanford University researchers and Nokia Research, who have pushed a new open-source digital photography platform out the door. FCam – or “Frankencamera” – is initially available for the Nokia N900, and unlocks high-end functionality like RAW image capture, full manual controls and low-light imagery through combining multiple shots of varying ISO and exposure settings.
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Android
In two reports filed from this week's OSCON conference, The Register says that Google will open Android's internal development kit to contributors, and that Linux maintainers are holding tough in negotiating with the search giant regarding Android's readmission to the kernel. Meanwhile, Linux 2.6.35 RC6 was released, featuring enhancements to network scalability, memory management, and sleep-wait detection.
Interest levels in syncing music collections have notched up a bit of late with the introduction of a plethora of new Android-based super phones. That is, unless you happen to be one of those owners with a large quantity of digital music encumbered by digital rights management (DRM) better known as copy protection. In that case, you might want to do some research into converting said digital files into a more portable format. Meanwhile, for the rest, with media ready to load up on a new cool phone, we'll take a look at Linux options.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Big Blue's Quiet Axe - Poem Regarding IBM "RAs"
- No idea who posted this, but it is profound
- Growing Proportion of Linux Commits Being Made by LLMs Not a Sign of LLMs Working, It's a Sign of Linux Development Being Shifted From Community to GAFAM and Other Slop Pushers
- antagonist became apologist
- Worse Than "Taking Your Job", the Slop Pyramid Scheme Will "Take Your Pension"
- This will not end well
- Rumours of Further IBM Shutdowns
- IBM is going out of existence
- Many Anniversaries
- Many anniversaries in quick succession
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- Links 04/08/2026: GAFAM Expressing Concerns About Dangerous Disinformation by Slop, Bill Epsteingate-Connected Litigation Firm Salivating Over Europe
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 04/08/2026: Root Shell and "Duty of Care"
- Links for the day
- Alternate Data (Not IBM's Headcount) to Show Mass Layoffs' Effect at IBM (Despite Many Acquired Workers Via M&A)
- mass layoffs at Hashicorp and at Confluent this year (media did not cover either).
- Abundance of Fake (Sometimes Paid-for) 'News' About IBM Will Discredit the Media as a Whole
- In 'the news' today
- Microsoft is Trying Vapourware Again (to Keep Developers and Gamers From Fleeing)
- For XBox, the main thing over the horizon is additional layoffs
- statCounter Reckons 12.33% of Web Traffic in Gambia Can be Attributed to GNU/Linux, Even 15% If Adding ChromeOS
- Will this be sustainable?
- Reminder: The Pedophilia Problem Comes From the Accusers
- Attacks on Richard Stallman are a distraction; his accusers are themselves the culprits
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 139 Out of 200: Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Needs More Public Scrutiny (New Management Changed Nothing, It's Costing a Lot of Taxpayers' Money)
- millions or maybe billions of pounds wasted
- Brigading Against Women - Part II - Threatening Women Using the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (HRTO) and Then False Threats Miscarrying the Name of a Court
- In this series we intend to show the threats, the outcomes of those threats, the response to those threats
- Collapse of MElon Companies a Taste of What's to Come for Slop Bubble and GAFAM (Trillions in Debt, Justified as Slop "Investments")
- One good example of this was SpaceX
- The 'Hyperinflation' in Hardware Dooms Video Hosting (Very Large Files)
- a terabyte of video files would be expensive
- Rumours of Silent Layoffs in Microsoft This Month (August 2026), PIPs and Global Voluntary Separation Agreement (GVSA), aka "Buyouts"
- Will any investigative journalism follow or just shallow puff pieces and LLM trash from slopfarms?
- Links 04/08/2026: "Framework for Musician Burnout" and Alexa+ "is a Buggy Embarrassment"
- Links for the day
- Signs That XBox as a Console is Coming to an End, Windows Gaming Will be Called "XBox"
- "XBox" is the next "Surface"
- Microsoft's Share in Search Falls Sharply in Europe
- The layoffs at Microsoft's Bing will carry on
- Romania: GNU/Linux Reaches 4% (Less Than EU Average)
- We expect this same upward trend to carry on
- Microsoft Sites or Sites Sponsored by Microsoft Angry That GNU/Linux is Gaining
- The Microsofters cannot easily dismiss reports of GNU/Linux growth as "bots" or just allege that statCounter alone is wrong
- Ableism in the Free Software Movement Typically Comes From GAFAM Operatives and Proprietary Software Apologists
- And their hired guns
- Afghanistan: GNU/Linux Steadily Rises to 9%
- Windows is steadily declining
- IBM Innovation: It Has Invented New Methods of Silent Layoffs or Secret RAs
- How IBM disguises mass layoffs now
- LLM Slop Won't Replace People and Jobs (in the Long Run)
- At the end of the day, people who know their job offer more useful information, whereas LLMs waste people's time (typically an 'externality' to the entity deploying chatbots)
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 03, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 03, 2026
- Over 3,500 Known Gemini Capsules Accessible and Active According to Lupa
- It finally happened this morning
- Gemini Links 04/08/2026: Library Cards, Dead Ends in Software Development, and DOS on USB Key
- Links for the day
- IBM Has Embraced and Rewarded Liars
- The IBM culture vanished
- statCounter Estimates GNU/Linux at 5.32% in Kuwait, Years Ago It Was Near 0%
- Kuwait rose to fame in the 1990s because of a war
- Swatting People Who Write About Corruption, Misogyny, Criminal Misuse of Funds
- we've given ourselves a decade to cover all those stories
- GNU/Linux Rises Above 6% in Colombia
- In Colombia, which is a large south American country, GNU/Linux has risen steadily in recent years
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 138 Out of 200: Garrett Has Basically "Lost" and It is "Embarrassing" to Them
- they just wound up costing hundreds of thousands of pounds
- Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Great Exodus, xkcd as Text, and Dead Ends
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Has Surged to 6.3% in Madagascar
- Madagascar's adoption of Free software is a subject we covered a lot in past years
- Microsoft's Slop Bet is Killing the XBox Even Faster
- LLMs destroy almost anything they touch
- The Cyber Show on "Weaponised Antisocial Technology"
- by Andy
- Alexandre Oliva on Slippery Slop (LLMs)
- By Alexandre Oliva
- RMS Won the Argument and Now GNU Wins Over Computer Users
- He can look back at nearly 43 years of GNU and say, "I was right..."
- statCounter Corrects GNU/Linux Estimates, Now Measured at 9% Worldwide
- Windows has sunk like a rock
- GNU/Linux-Centric Blogs Belatedly Pick Up News About GNU/Linux Gains: 4-8% Depending on the Surveyor
- more people will get curious and give it a go
- Links 03/08/2026: Strike By Flight Attendants (WestJet) and Greedflation
- Links for the day
- Links 03/08/2026: EU Curtailed Slop, Frank Zappa Recalled
- Links for the day
- Daniel Pocock on Sky News This Morning
- No harm done
- Morten Linderud Has Helped Microsoft Put Locks (and Kill Switches) on the PCs of Arch Linux Users
- "the first rule of "secure boot" is to disable "secure boot"
- In Poor Peru, GNU/Linux Surges From 1% to 5% in a Few Years
- Windows is dying
- All Social Control Media is a Weapon (Against Its Users, Serving the Real Owners)
- That social control networks are weaponised isn't a new concept
- Fanning the Flames of Journalism
- This week we have several surprises coming
- Forcing the Slop Bubble to Implode Fully to Save the Economy From an Even Greater Collapse and Societal Harm
- Let's blow up the bubble. The sooner, the better
- GNU/Linux at 8% in Croatia
- somewhat of a GNU/Linux adoption hotbed
- It's Easy to Predict Microsoft Layoffs for October 2026 Because of the Financial 'Results' That Month (More Faking, More Secret Debt and Buzzwords to Perfume This Debt as "Investment")
- From what we've read, Microsoft is silently laying off people this month based on LITE, which leads to PIPs
- Not Hard to Guess Who Will Pay for IBM's Collapse (Due to False Statements Made to Shareholders), Red Hat May Disappear
- IBM's leadership is never being punished for its failures
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 02, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 02, 2026
- Gemini Links 03/08/2026: Collectibles, Cities of the Red Night, and Lali Lambda
- Links for the day
- IBM's August 2026 Promotions (Annual Ritual) Can Turn Into a "Bloodbath" (RAs, Layoffs)
- IBM Common Stock is set to open in the red (minus) on Monday
- Microsoft Culture Explained by People Who Work at Microsoft
- "Be ready for politicking and working over time and weekends."
- Codes of Conduct Attract Hoarders and Sociopaths, They Are Intolerant Towards Good People
- Codes of Conduct (CoCs) are also promoted using violence
- XBox is in Trouble, Sunday News Shows How Serious a Problem It Now Faces
- it seems impossible to resuscitate at this point
- statCounter Observes GNU/Linux at 10% in Libya
- this month statCounter finally sees GNU/Linux approaching "double-figures" there
- Thailand: GNU/Linux Approaching 15%, Windows in a Freefall
- It makes perfect sense for Thailand to adopt GNU/Linux for technical reasons, not just political reasons
- GNU/Linux in Bulgaria Back Up
- part of a trend in Europe
- Cuba Sees Leap in GNU/Linux Usage, as Reported by statCounter
- For the ordinary Cuban it makes sense to reduce a dependence on GAFAM
- Gemini Links 02/08/2026: Drift, Crawlers in Gopher Space, Purpose, and Python
- Links for the day
- Links 02/08/2026: Some Large Slop Investors "Crumbling", Russia Intensifies Bombing of Kiev
- Links for the day
- IBMers Discuss Who Killed IBM (It Impacts Red Hat)
- Fedora is fast becoming like another CentOS
- GNU/Linux Rises to 6% in Mexico
- Did the soccer (football) matches have some impact or just the "unknowns" being deciphered (or omitted) by statCounter?
- GNU/Linux Leaps to 8% in Asia
- In Asia, is it a bit higher because of GAFAM distrust? Maybe some other factor/s?
- Clownflare Web Usage Survey: About 10% in North America Use GNU/Linux, Worldwide 6.7%
- surveyors that showed GNU/Linux growth
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 137 Out of 200: Discovering That Spending a Million British Pounds (1,348,250.01 United States Dollars) on Lawyers Cannot Take Down One's Critics
- just outright bullying and criminality
- Steam Survey, analytics.usa.gov, and statCounter All Point to GNU/Linux Gains (Again)
- This must be very annoying to Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Exceeds 6% in Spain
- In recent years the "market share" steadily grew from 3% to over 6%
- Brazil: GNU/Linux Record High, 5%
- On average, GNU/Linux has evidence of growth in many countries this summer
- Amid 2026 Bing Layoffs Microsoft Share in Search Collapses
- How much longer before Microsoft throws in the towel or rebrands again?
- United Kingdom: GNU/Linux up to 7%, ChromeOS Another 5% (Total 12%)
- further significant gains for GNU/Linux this month
- Links 02/08/2026: Cheeto "Blurted Out Vile Plot to Censor ABC"; New York Times Fights 'Intimidation'
- Links for the day
- Why Techrights Will Still be Active a Decade From Now
- Techrights will carry on for many years to come
- We Are Witnessing the End of IBM
- IBM cannot find growth by moving downwards, by lowering standards
- The Slop Presumption Rule
- Tainting oneself can take one day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 01, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 01, 2026
- Gemini Links 02/08/2026: Older Books, Esperanto Music History, and Slop Making Things Worse
- Links for the day