Links 21/3/2012: Torvalds Secrets, Radeon HD 7000 Driver Now Free/Libre
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-03-22 00:15:30 UTC
- Modified: 2012-03-22 00:15:30 UTC
Contents
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Kernel Space
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To get the most out of your systems, you want detailed insight into what the operating system kernel is doing. A typical approach is to sample stack traces; however, the data collected can be time consuming to read or navigate. Flame Graphs are a new way to visualize sampled stack traces, and can be applied to the Linux kernel for some useful (and stunning!) visualizations.
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Graphics Stack
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Applications
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The TEA Text Editor is a very handy writing tool that delivers a much different user interface. For most computer users cranking out words or program code for digital consumption, text editors are often preferable to feature-bloated word processors. TEA pours on features yet keeps from getting too steamy.
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Instructionals/Technical
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Games
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You may have heard a few days ago that Dear Esther, a game built upon Valve's Source Engine, would be ported to Linux and released in the coming months. Well, here's more details about that Source-based game is getting to Linux.
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Desktop Environments
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GNOME Desktop
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Users who choose between GNOME 2 and GNOME 3 are rarely making that decision on a purely rational basis. In my experience, users of GNOME 2 are often choosing what they know, while users of GNOME 3 are technophiles who enjoy anything that is new.
Neither is likely to go over the two generations of GNOME feature by feature. In many cases, the choice seems made before login.
But what happens when the two desktop environments are compared in general features? I'm a fan of neither GNOME 2 nor GNOME 3, but I decided to find out.
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New Releases
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Today sees the release of Legacy OS 4 Mini an Update / Replacement for TEENpup 2010 Mini Beta. Those updating from TEENpup 2010 Mini Beta will need to save any important documents, music etc to an external Hard Drive, USB stick etc as a full reinstall is required to update to this new version, sorry!
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Debian Family
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Spending a couple of days intensely running Linux Mint 12 on a very nice desktop PC sent to me for review by ZaReason (much more about that later), I probably shouldn't have been surprised by the annoying bugs in Mint that made me a lot less productive than I am in the Debian Squeeze system I've been running on my laptop since late 2010.
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In this interview, Luke Kanies, CEO and founder of Puppet Labs, explains why the Puppet configuration management tool is a huge hit with sys admins, and tells us what to expect next from the popular open source project.
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We got another reminder of how disruptive open source software is to mobile computing this week, when Linux and Android merged back together. This appears to be good news for a number of parties, but Android and Linux developers and users seem particularly likely to benefit. The inclusion of Android code in the Linux kernel and the ability for Linux developers to more easily work on the Android environment and applications also ties into some of the key topics we’ll be covering in a Webcast March 21 titled ‘Open Source, A Tale of Two Cities in the Mobile Enterprise,’ presented by 451 Research and Black Duck Software.
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Web Browsers
Chrome
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Ever since Google started working on its Chrome OS operating system, it has had a pronounced focus on allowing users to only work with cloud-based data and applications. This has drawn criticism from many users, and some from us here at OStatic, as seen in this post. With Chrome OS, Google placed a heavy bet on the idea that consumers and business users would have no problem storing data and using applications in the cloud, without working on the locally stored data/applications model that they're used to.
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CMS
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Licensing
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Are developers actually chasing down license violations?
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Openness/Sharing
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There are some pretty basic things that a researcher can do to make their work into an open content project. Here are a few.
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Programming
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Finance
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Censorship
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The Obama administration has condemned Iran for trying to take control of the Internet. In addition, The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control issued guidance and licensing information to further support the free flow of information to citizens of Iran – a freedom the Iranian regime has consistently denied to its people.
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Internet/Net Neutrality
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They're selling us out. Just weeks after Internet users from across the globe came together to to beat SOPA, the major ISPs are cutting a deal with Big Content to restrict web access for users who are accused of piracy.
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Intellectual Monopolies
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Copyrights
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ACTA
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Concerned of the ACTA dossier many citizens contacted the press staffers of his colleague Commissioner Neelie Kroes. Commissioner Michel Barnier is right when he emphasized the need for better communications. Karel De Gucht had the opportunity to embrace the public attention to ACTA, and strengthen the institutional cohesion with the European public, help the transformation of the EU towards an “Europe of the citizens”. He didn’t exercise this opportunity, and it appears to me the reason is a fundamental disrespect to democratic principles, he doesn’t take the public seriously.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Media Gaslighting Dooms the Media
- this "AI" gaslighting is done because publishers get paid to do so
- GNU/Linux at 4% "Market Share" (Even According to Steam Survey)
- Another milestone
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- Now It's a Mainstream Media (MSM) Story: Microsoft Layoffs Coming, They'll be Vast (and They Blame "AI", As Usual!)
- the books were cooked (accounting fraud) to hide what really went on
- Frankly Getting Sick of Slop About "AI" (Slop)
- Calling everything out there "AI" serves nobody and nothing but the Ponzi scheme
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- Science is at the heart of this site
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- In Africa, as we've just noticed, Bing is moving down, even more sharply this year
- Slideshare is Slop
- Be sure fools will rewrite history online
- Gemini Links 07/01/2026: Looking at 2026, Linux Anti-Minimalism, Diode Function Generators, and Inkscape
- Links for the day
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- the most serious harm was done to us
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- Links for the day
- EPO People Power - Part XXVII - Science- and Principles-First Journalism About Issues That Matter
- journalism became so shallow that nowadays it can be replaced by bots
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Tuesday, January 06, 2026
- Gemini Links 06/01/2026: Collective Responsibility, Pico2DVI, and TV Detox
- Links for the day
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- "What are the running totals for IBM and Microsoft layoffs?"
- Mozilla's Assisted Suicide, Assisted by GNOME
- Firefox is meant to get better all the time, but instead it gets worse
- Links 06/01/2026: Neglect of the Elderly, Abandonment of International Laws
- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- Internet Policy/Net Reality: You Must Never Ever Rely on Google (no "S.E.O." Either)
- Stack Overflow is dying
- Ahead of Mass Layoffs Microsoft Tries to Rebrand or Redefine XBox (Because the XBox is Tentatively Dead)
- 2026 will be the last year of XBox in all likelihood
- Richard Stallman (RMS) Announces His Georgia Talk 2.5 Weeks in Advance
- A lot earlier than usual
- Dr. Andy Farnell on Technology That Harms People (and Lack of Regulation Which is Needed to Address This Problem)
- Dr. Farnell's article is long but well worth reading
- GNU/Linux Rising to 5% in Cameroon and It's Hardly the Exception
- "AI" is just a smokescreen as losses pile up
- Rumours: Microsoft to Lay Off 12,500-25,000 Workers Soon (Tentatively Wednesday, 15 Days From Now)
- "Layoffs are coming third full week of Jan. Likely 21st but these things can move around a bit based on last minute developments."
- EPO People Power - Part XXVI - European Media Has Become Part of the Problem
- it is as clear as daylight that Cocainegate is real
- IBM 2026 "Organizational Change/s" Means Layoffs Resume Soon, Some Claim "Forever Layoffs."
- It's about "narrative control"
- Microsoft Layoffs in January 2026
- Get ready
- Google Still Boosting Slopfarms
- Slopfarms will probably all perish as soon as Google News quits sending them visitors
- Links 06/01/2026: Cryptocurrency Scam Emails and Greenland's Fear of Getting 'Venezuelad'
- Links for the day
- Links 06/01/2026: DIY Projects and Inertial Music
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, January 05, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, January 05, 2026
- To The Register MS, ARM Means Microsoft Windows (Follow the Money)
- the Free software community can campaign and run sites (like the one below), but it cannot afford to bribe so-called 'news' sites like Microsoft and its OEMs do
- IBM's CEO Makes No Sense
- "IBM CEO Aravind Krishna on what’s really driving tech layoffs"
- Links 05/01/2026: Tensions in Korea, Ukrainians See "Double Standard" in a US Russia-Style Invasion
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 05/01/2026: Farewell to CBS Reality, Being On-Call, Digital Ad Spendings
- Links for the day
- Remember That Nobel Prizes Are All Named After the Inventor of Explosives (Even a "Nobel Prize for Peace")
- These rewards are only as valuable as the reputation they earn for themselves
- Baidu and Yandex Have Overtaken Microsoft in Asia
- how about all the Bing layoffs?
- Googlebombing for Bill Epsteingate
- Maybe the slopfarms too can help him cover up
- Of Course GNU/Linux Has Reached All-Time High in Africa in 2026
- Africa will, on average, gravitate towards Free software or whatever costs less
- From GNU/Linux Boosting to Slop-Boosting Career
- It is sad to see someone who devoted many years of his life producing GNU/Linux stories stooping down to this "AI" boot-licking
- IBM Buys, Then Disposes/Sacks, the Staff (That It Paid For)
- Any money gained is spent buying some more companies to add/join up their revenue, even if the debt surges and there's little integration going on (misfits absorbed)
- Time for Microsoft to Rebrand to Fit the Vapourware (Ponzi Scheme)
- something between Meta and Alphabet
- Links 05/01/2026: Slop Ruining Children's Minds, "Complicity of the Press in US Violence"
- Links for the day
- Microsoft's Windows Falls Below 20% in the UK
- After a lot of years of advocacy and hard work
- The Real GNU Anniversary (Not Manifesto or Announcement) is Today
- the development, not the manifesto
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- it's hard to discount or dismiss Oceania as a bunch of "coconut islands"
- There's No Such Thing as "AI Godfather", Stop Repeating This Pure Nonsense!
- Infantile or corruptible media that plays along with slop or uses slop will perish
- Gemini Links 05/01/2026: "Poverty and Hunger", "Entrepreneurial Family", "Abandoning Obsidian for Logseq"
- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- Microsoft Allegedly Uses Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) to Hide the Massive Scale of Company-Wide Layoffs
- Just like IBM; they meanwhile talk a bunch of nonsense about "AI" to distract from their commercial calamity
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- Many "systems" rely on the mere perception or appearance of legitimacy
- No, Writing Isn't in Decline, Some of the Large and Centralised Platforms Are
- Slop isn't really competition, just a passing fad and pure noise
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- they probably lack any genuine excitement for "hey hi PCs"
- Whistleblowing is About Understanding Boundaries and Risks
- The bottom line is, people typically find out the truth at the end
- EPO People Power - Part XXV - While EPO Managers Snort Cocaine the Staff Compiles 'Insurance Files' to Expose EPO Corruption
- In this increasingly authoritarian world we need more whistleblowers
- "The European Patent Reform" That Represents a Gross Violation of Laws, Constitutions, and Conventions (in Order to Make the Rich Even Richer, Mostly Outside Europe)
- How far and how long will EPO corruption go?
- The Reputation Issue Is Not Our Fault
- Trying to squash words (and people) merely diverts more attention to them
- GNU/Linux Distribution "Ultimate Edition" Fixes Its Web Site (Apparently Compromised Months Ago)
- they dealt with the issue before media shame and a catastrophe of trust
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Sunday, January 04, 2026