Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 17/9/2010: Software Freedom Day, Firefox 4 Preview Raves



GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop

    • 4 Ways to Give Desktop Linux a Test-Drive
      That desktop Linux offers myriad compelling advantages for business users is no longer the subject of much debate. All that remains for many Windows users is to give it a try.


    • Have Courage, Linux Noobs
      Using Linux is "almost natural, but you still need to poke around to be really fluent -- just as in any OS with a lot of features," Pogson added.

      "I have exposed Grade 1 kids to GNU /Linux GNOME desktops, and after they learned to click a mouse they were off to the races," he recounted. "They were the only humans able to max out that terminal server."




  • Server

    • Should Red Hat Be Worried About Amazon Linux AMI?
      Red Hat is facing another competition from Amazon on form of Linux AMI. Amazon has announced the availability of the Amazon Linux AMI.

      The Amazon Linux AMI is a supported and maintained Linux image provided by Amazon Web Services for use on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). "It is designed to provide a stable, secure, and high performance execution environment for applications running on Amazon EC2," claims Evangelist Jeff Barr in his blog post.






  • Kernel Space



    • Graphics Stack

      • Why Broadcom's Release May be More Significant than Just Code
        On September 9 the news of Broadcom's release of the code for some of its wireless Ethernet chip sets sent shockwaves throughout the Linux community. Broadcom owners, as well as distribution developers have a reason to celebrate.

        In the past, Broadcom owners had to resort to NDISwrapper or rely upon the limited reversed engineered drivers. Neither was optimal. The release of the code by Broadcom should eventually mean a much better Wi-Fi experience for owners of systems with Broadcom chip sets. But for those that like to read between the lines there may also be a deeper significance to this move.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • The future of KDE instant messaging is happening now
        Kopete was initially very innovative, at least in its goals: to communicate with people, while leaving the IM network as a channel. We brought the concepts of “metacontacts” (bad naming), but basically you say people in your contact list, no matter if they were available on MSN, ICQ, or both.

        Today I have a telephone with internet 24/7 in my pocket and I can IM on the bus. I don’t choose IM networks as a soccer team, but rely on them because I have friends on various of them. Just like I use twitter for “geeky stuff” while Facebook is a more “relaxed” environment.


      • Edit Your Films In Ubuntu, Use New Kdenlive
        Ubuntu is one of the most popular, powerful and useful operating systems of the world. While Mac is locked to Apple machines and Windows is expensive and vulnerable to viruses and attacks, Ubuntu is the only operating systems which has all the merits -- its highly secure, free of cost and can run on Apple machines as well.






  • Distributions

    • Fat or thin, it's your choice.
      The point here is that, no matter what Linux distribution you start from, you can make it do anything, be anything or look like anything. If wished you can take an Ubuntu installation and have it look, feel and perform like a Fedora distribution. Or you can take a Fedora installation and have it as slim and trim as Puppy Linux.


    • Looking at Fedora 14 and Ubuntu 10.10
      Both releases seem to be shaping up well, if very differently — as befitting the focus of the distributions and projects. Ubuntu 10.10 is a polished consumer OS that is well-suited for users who are new to Linux, or just prefer a desktop system that's easy to use. Fedora's developer-centric approach makes for an OS that is easy enough to use, but better suited for developers or experienced users who want to tinker with technologies before they make an official appearance in RHEL and other distributions. Ubuntu, on the other hand, is the end result of development rather than the beginning. Many of the changes in 10.10, e.g. the Ubuntu One improvements and the application indicators, are unlikely to show up in other distributions (excepting, perhaps, Linux Mint).


    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat looks out of area for HQ-size space
        Red Hat Inc., one of the Triangle’s high-profile companies, is scouting for sites in other states where officials may also be wooing the open-source software developer to move its headquarters from Raleigh.


      • Smartrend'S Candlestick Scanner Detects Bearish Engulfing Pattern For Red Hat (RHT)
        SmarTrend issued an Uptrend alert on shares of Red Hat on August 23, 2010 at $33.03 per share (13.4% return since that call). This bearish candle pattern may point to a reversal of the previously called Uptrend.


      • Fedora

        • Momonga Linux 7 review
          Momonga is a Linux distribution based on Fedora. It is a community-developed distribution with roots in Japan (the name is derived from a species of flying squirrel found in Europe and parts of Asia). Like Fedora, it is a multi-purpose distribution, a Free distribution, with a script that makes it easy to build and install non-free applications






    • Debian Family

      • Squeeze in a jam?
        I put this down to being a complete noob, and reinstalled Lenny. Later I learnt that the upgrade has to be staged- certain packages have to be updated before doing a full upgrade, otherwise the upgrade falls down. Recently I saw a post on the Debian forum which suggested that an upgrade was now a relatively simple process- involving just a kernel upgrade before a full upgrade, so I thought I'd give it a go.


      • Ubuntu 10.10 - Wallpaper, and a few notes
        In the process of doing some other things, I have just noticed that those who thought the "Barf Bag" wallpaper that showed up in Ubuntu 10.10 Beta was just a "placeholder" were probably correct.


      • Canonical/Ubuntu







  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Nokia/MeeGo

        • MeeGo Developer Day - Day 2 at IDF
          Sunil Saxena spent some time reviewing the MeeGo Architecture, along with our current thoughts on how we plan to define MeeGo compliance. The MeeGo compliance spec is still being developed, so now is a good time to review it and provide feedback.

          Bill Pearson was the next presenter talking about AppUp and the Intel AppUp Developer Program, which helps developers focus on what matters: platform sexiness, making money, getting recognition, and low friction deployment, while Intel helps with boring things like validation. Developers can create applications or components that they can sell to other developers. In addition to revenue from selling applications, the Million Dollar Development Fund provides additional incentives. Robust analytics are also available on the developer dashboards, to learn more about how your application is selling.

          Rajiv Ranganath gave us an overview of Qt, which has over 350,000 commercial and open source developers.


        • Day 1: Intel AppUp Elements 2010


        • Day 2: Intel AppUp Elements 2010




      • Android

        • Android lockdown: Thanks Linus
          The current lockdown of Linux based devices (including Android phones, TiVo, and many many consumer devices) is due, simply, to the Linux developers' unwillingness to update their code to the GPLv3 license. We* contribute to Linux, Linux is taken for use in Android (and remains Open and Free), and then the phone manufacturers take our work and lock it up and sell it to us with reduced functionality. Big thanks, manufacturers.


        • Android Continues to Gobble Up Smartphone Share






    • Tablets

      • High-end Avaya Android-powered Table PC Unveiled
        Avaya, an enterprise communications systems company, just announced a high-end table PC that is primarily designed for business conferencing. Called the Avaya Flare, the device has an Intel Atom processor and runs Android operating system. It is said to make use of Avaya unified communications software utilizing a new interface called Flare User Experience and features Aura Conferencing and the Linux-based Avaya Aura Messaging software.


      • ViewSonic and Samsung tablets are U.S.-bound
        Viewsonic demonstrated a 10.1-inch, Android 2.2 "G-Tablet" that's bound for U.S. sales, powered by an Nvidia Tegra 2. Meanwhile, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon Wireless say they'll offer the Android 2.2-based Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet this fall.


      • Asus U35JC review
        OS Tested: Ubuntu 10.04.1








Free Software/Open Source



  • How do you find and choose free software?
    So you’ve got your GNU/Linux based box. You’ve installed the base system and you’re good to go. Welcome to the world of freedom. But then what? How do you determine what packages to install. How do you decide which of the alternatives to go with?


  • A Quick Look at OpenIndiana
    OpenSolaris is dead, but OpenIndiana lives on. Just a few weeks after Oracle made it clear that OpenSolaris was dead as a doornail, the Illumos and OpenIndiana folks have a distribution ready for the OpenSolaris community that’s been left in a lurch by Oracle.

    The code dropped on Tuesday, so I haven’t had a lot of time to muck with OpenIndiana yet. I spent a few hours with the live CD and installed it into VMware.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 4 update moves link previews to awesome bar
        Clearly, the status bar's days are numbered. Even Internet Explorer 9 has removed the bottom-dwelling bar in favor of inline tooltips.

        Now, in the latest updates to Firefox 4, Mozilla's browser has moved status bar link previews to the right-hand side of the Awesome Bar. Hover a link, and the destination URL appears in soft, gray text. Sure, it looks OK when you're currently viewing a page with a nice, short URL -- but what about on something like an Amazon product page? Take the jump to see!


      • Firefox 4 Preview - Foxy, sharp and fast!
        I think Firefox 4 is a very smart product. It looks better than 3.6 overall, tabs on top or without them, it feels faster, it has lots of useful features, and it's got the Web 2.0 bling bling. Linux beta lags a step behind, but that's understandable. Performance is good in all aspects, with major improvements in responsiveness. Memory consumption is fairly modest. Firefox 4 is a pleasant addition to the browser arsenal.

        Firefox 4 is a plenty of good, old stuff and a sprinkling of new to make you feel young and excited again. Mozilla, good job. Even the revolutionary stuff is done with style and moderation to make a hot-headed conservative like me smile. You should look forward to the next release. Firefox 4 is going to be a superb browser.


      • Mozilla releases Thunderbird updates
        One day after it released updates for its Firefox web browser, the Mozilla Project has issued versions 3.1.4 and 3.0.8 of Thunderbird, the latest stable and legacy branch updates of its popular open source email client. According to the developers, the latest maintenance updates improve the applications overall stability and address several user experience concerns found in the previous stable branch release.


      • Mozilla releases new "Kraken" browser benchmark
        Mozilla software engineer Rob Sayre has announced the release of "Kraken", a new browser benchmark. The developer says that unlike other browser benchmarks, such as SunSpider, V8 and Dromaeo, Kraken focuses on realistic workloads and on forward-looking applications.






  • CMS



  • Business



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Celebrate Software Freedom Day with the LibrePlanet community


      Saturday, September 18th is Software Freedom Day, a worldwide celebration of user freedom. It's a great opportunity not only to introduce new people to free software, but to connect with other free software activists in your area or online.

      But what about the day after? How can we sustain these links? How can we make sure that people in your area who hear about free software can find a local community to connect with?


    • want to work on Bazaar?
      Now we’re looking for a very good software engineer to join the Bazaar team at Canonical, working both on the core tool itself and on how it’s used by Ubuntu developers.


    • A month of the Hurd: Media Appearances, procfs, Arch Hurd.
      Finally, amongst other bug fixing and other development work by the usual suspects, we had a short review of what the current Hurd contributors still need to use a GNU/Hurd system for most of their day-to-day tasks. This may help to prioritize the development efforts.




  • Licensing



  • Openness/Sharing

    • Developing films the open source way
      In a world where movies are produced on budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars, at a time when studios expect a huge return on their investment, in an industry where the opening weekend can make or break a film--one man refuses to live by society's (or the movie industry's) rules. One man is willing to put it all on the line and do something different. Something daring. Something... free.

      [...]

      The key idea to take away here is freedom: freedom of the consumer to see what they're paying for before they spend their money. This empowers the viewer, letting them control where they spend their money. Rather than spending their money up front before watching a film, they can see the work for free. As a result, more people are likely to watch the film, or listen to the music.




  • Standards/Consortia





Leftovers

  • Power to the PC: How to Select a Computer Power Supply


  • Security/Aggression





  • Finance

    • Kaufman Says `Something Rotten' in Commodity Markets: Video
      Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Frederick Kaufman, a professor at College of Staten Island, Alexia Howard, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., Dennis DeLaughter, the owner of Progressive Farm Marketing Inc., and Alex Wittenberg, a partner at Oliver Wyman, talk about agricultural futures and commodity markets. They speak with Pimm Fox on Bloomberg Television's "Taking Stock." (This is an excerpt. Source: Bloomberg)


    • Setting the Agenda
      That's what journalists are supposed to do: Set the agenda. Rarely, however, do we get the headlines. But last night, on Bloomberg TV, the Food Bubble came through . . .




  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • The Internet Freedom Fallacy and the Arab Digital activism
      This article focuses on grassroots digital activism in the Arab world and the risks of what seems to be an inevitable collusion with U.S foreign policy and interests. It sums up the most important elements of the conversation I have been having for the last 2 years with many actors involved in defending online free speech and the use of technology for social and political change. While the main focus is Arab digital activism, I have made sure to include similar concerns raised by activists and online free speech advocates from other parts of the world, such as China, Thailand, and Iran.




  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • Red tape snarls rural Internet firm
      Ottawa tells Peace Region ISP that it’s not Canadian enough for new slice of spectrum


    • Tens of thousands could be priced out of broadband after Government announcement on file sharing code
      Up to €£500m will be taken out of the UK economy according to the Government's announcement today about the cost sharing for the letter writing regime following the Digital Economy Act. The BIS cost order confirms the 75/25 split of costs between rightholders and ISPs.

      ISPs will of course pass on these costs to their customers. According to the Government's own estimates that means that up to 96,000 individuals will not be able to afford an internet connection anymore.




  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • BSA's Latest Study on Piracy and Economic Benefits "Shockingly Misleading"
      When IT Business's Brian Jackson asked me for a comment, I noted that such estimates were notoriously speculative (see Glyn Moody on this) and that the BSA would do far better to tell us how much Canada has gained from its recent significant reductions in piracy. Last year, the BSA said the Canadian rate dropped by three percent to 29%, the biggest drop among developed countries and - the BSA noted - an all-time low. In fact, since 2006 the BSA says that there has been a five percent drop in Canada. Has that created thousands of new jobs and generated billions in new revenues and taxes?


    • IP as a joke


    • Lars Johnson Has Goats on His Roof and a Stable of Lawyers to Prove It
      Having Trademarked the Ungulate Look, Restaurateur Butts Heads With Imitators


    • Copyrights

      • Millions at Stake in Education Copyright Battle
        Negotiating with individual authors or publishers for the rights to a single work may be cumbersome, but so too are the proposed reporting requirements. Moreover, individual negotiations hold the advantage of potential costs savings for students and ensuring that the actual authors receive full compensation for the use of their works. In other words, win-win-win for authors, teachers, and students.


      • An Explanation Of My Views On Copyright Part Four – The Sky Is Falling
        Going back to the section on Digital Locks, let’s assume that Bill C-32 passes into law with no changes. So Randy Bachman releases a new compact disc, and the Record Label uses TPM/DRM on it. The way the law is currently written, Randy Bachman could not legally break the TPM/DRM, even if he owns the copyright. Even worse, he wouldn’t be legally able to break the TPM/DRM if he owned the Record Label, and the compact disc pressing plant. You might argue that he shouldn’t need to, as he’d still have the masters, but accidents have happened before, and masters have been lost. Even if Randy controlled every step of the chain, legally he can’t break the TPM/DRM he decided to use. Does this make sense?










Clip of the Day



Microsoft Propaganda Film



[an error occurred while processing this directive]



Credit: TinyOgg

Recent Techrights' Posts

SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
we press on with this series
Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
As Expected, Facebook Collapses, Microsoft Hides Massive Debt
GAFAM is a giant mountain of debt
Staff of EPO Cautions Against Unlawful Weaponisation of PIPs Against Industrial Actions That Protest Corruption
PIP-like sanctions against anybody who does not toe the line of Cocaine King?
IBM, Running Out of Things It Can Sell, is Selling Software Patents
IBM is not just pathetic; it's actively harmful because it lobbies for software patents and spreads software patents around
The 'Church' of Moglen/Stallman
'reunion' with Eben Moglen
 
The Era of Silence
So stay silent, remain hidden
GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026
At The Register MS "PARTNER CONTENT" Means Company Writing Fake Articles About Itself and Its Own Products
At The Register MS, content-farming has become a thing
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Star Trek, Retirement, and ODEs in GNU Octave
Links for the day
Links 29/07/2026: "BuzzFeed Lays Off 33 Percent of Remaining Staff" (Trying LLM Slop Some More), Scam Altman Mocked by the Media
Links for the day
GNOME Curated and Censored by IBM (Under the Guise of "Code of Conduct")
Felipe Borges (IBM) has just posted a follow-up
Digital Mass Surveillance as a Hallmark of Failed Societies
"small leap forward in tech ethics"
I Found a Typo, Don't Vote!
Social control media isn't good at adding any meaningful signal
Jeremy Sands Explained the Harms of Codes of Conduct
next week the 500th show milestone [is reached]
Tonight's Earnings Report From Microsoft and Facebook ('Meta') Will be Faked Because They Hide Almost a Trillion Dollars in Debt
The US economic system is only as honest as the people who govern it
The Vacuum Syndrome
Parables help
The Only Old People Who Can Survive IBM Are the CEO and His Circle of Enablers
very similar to what's happening at the EPO
Microsoft Layoffs Aren't Done Ahead of the Need to Tell Shareholders About "Efficiency" (Tonight)
Microsoft layoffs won't be "Done" until what's left of Microsoft is "None"
Microsoft Lacks Growth. Ahead of 'Results' The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) Finds Merit in Allegations Slop is Microsoft's Excuse for Price Hikes (Piggybacking Vendor Lock-in).
At this stage it's not hard to see why many nations gravitate away from Microsoft
Parliament leaks confidential cult inquiry witness contact list (COFG Victoria)
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Troll-Feeding is Time-Wasting
in social control media
WordPress is Technical Debt
There are a number of technical tasks underway and maybe some testing (this coming weekend or later)
Will Red Hat Still Exist in 2027 or Just Become a "Brand" at IBM?
Whistleblowers told us IBM was laying off about 500 Red Hat engineers earlier this year
Call for IBM Whistleblowers
If you work for IBM and have something material (like balance sheets) to prove financial misconduct, please try to 'touch base' and establish a secure communication channel we can both use
EPO Series on EU and Pan-European Corruption, Vote-Rigging, Extending Beyond the EPO Itself
By Saturday it will be August already, so we'll start preparing for Rianne's birthday
SLAPP Censorship - Part 133 Out of 200: Lies by Omission
As usual, the other side wants people to ignore how much they lost
European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Streamlining the Decision-Making Process
Negrão was one of 17 applicants for the position but he somehow managed to end up as the sole candidate on the shortlist prepared by the Management Board in June 2020
Links 29/07/2026: "Hugging Face Has a Deepfake Nudes Problem" and "$1.5B Anthropic Copyright Infringement Ruling" (Plagiarism is Not "Training")
Links for the day
Comments on Today's Judgment
It hopefully helps clarify what actually happened
Microsoft Has Fallen to #3 in Singapore
There are many technically talented people in Singapore or overseas workers who lodge in Singapore
Thank You, Andy
Burnham and "Tech Rights"
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Inaction and Incompetence - Part II - 77 Messages Sent, Did Not Even Investigate or Examine Any of the Actual Evidence (British Taxpayers' Money Wasted)
SRA has become known (even notorious) for inaction
Inevitable Politics
In technology, provided the work you do has growing impact (we served almost 2 million requests yesterday), things will inevitably become more political - whether you like it or not does not matter
Not Only "Loonies Take on Farage"
pretending that the opposition to the right wing is "Loonies"
Brigading Against Women - Part I - Bypassing the Legal System by Threatening Companies in Another Continent
In the next part we'll begin to connect Lozza's online activities (and court activities) to those of Garrett
IBM is Trying to Turn Debt (Borrowed Money) Into Fake Growth and It'll Worsen Matters
they put in their balance sheets a fake "growth" in something that does not even exist
Microsoft Relies on Misleading Narrative of Studios Going 'Independent'; in Reality There Are Mass Layoffs in Them
This is not a good narrative for Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 28, 2026
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 28, 2026
Gemini Links 29/07/2026: Arosa, Tired Tuesday, and Constellation Browser
Links for the day
In IBM, PIPs and RAs (Layoffs) Have Become Almost the Same Thing, Workers 'Expire' With Age (Seniority, Experience) and Empathy is Punishable by Termination
IBM does seem like a dead company
At Microsoft, PIPs Are Sometimes Known as "LITE" (a Silent Layoffs Legal Hack or a Shrewd Workaround to Skirt WARN Act)
Zero "layoffs" to report
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: “Strategies Against Algorithms” and DIYers
Links for the day
"Social Dialogue" With the Man Who Never Faced Real Competition at the European Patent Office (EPO), He Buys the Voters and Eliminates Rivals
Will the "Pretender" write back?
Digital Restrictions (DRM) and Microsoft: What Kills XBox Will Kill Windows Next
Microsoft wrongly and very arrogantly assumed that users would tolerate everything it throws their way
GNU/Linux in Afghanistan Reaches 7%
For many years it was stuck at less than 1%
Greenwashing Corruption With a "Chief Sustainability Officer", Who Infamously Defended Battisetelli's Crimes at the EPO and Petitioned for Him
She was rewarded for conspiring against EPO staff, as usual
What I Explained to Police About Blackmail and Death Threats via Burner Accounts (a Practice Which Generally Constitutes a Crime)
Today I've communicated several times with police
Links 28/07/2026: "People’s Claude Chats Are Publicly Accessible Online" and SpaceX Stock Crashes Like Its Products
Links for the day
UK tech sector missing from democratic process
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
How Not to Cover Elections (Democracy Relies on Reliable, Complete Information)
Misinformed voters are a recipe for disaster
Microsoft E.E.E. (and "Bait and Switch") Going Exactly According to Plan
That is what they are trying to tell us and the companies that employ us
IBM: An Old Company That Hates Old People
Remember that's coming to Red Hat workers in 2 months
Strict Policy on Violence and Violent Language
This matter is now being escalated to law firms
Avoiding Discrimination Against People With Disabilities
work underway to improve the system which runs the sites
Links 28/07/2026: XBox DRM Doomed Everyone (Cannot Play Anything), Slop (Ponzi Scheme) Being Pinkwashed Now
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/07/2026: Ethics, GIMP Script-Fu, SMTP Versus Gemini, and Proposal for Better TOFU
Links for the day
To a Sociopath, Ethical People Are Bad People. Don't Fall for It.
If you put sociopaths on a pedestal, the pedestal will break
Improving the Static Site Generator
Our system has fixes triaged
Diversity in Debian
bringing up the topic is the real problem, diversity itself is a taboo subject
GNU/Linux in Brazil. The B in BRIC(S).
the "market share" is assessed to be around 5%
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 27, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, July 27, 2026