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
-
Kernel Space
-
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.
-
Graphics Stack
-
Applications
-
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.
-
Instructionals/Technical
-
Games
-
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.
-
Desktop Environments
-
GNOME Desktop
-
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.
-
-
New Releases
-
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!
-
Debian Family
-
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.
-
-
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.
-
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.
-
Web Browsers
Chrome
-
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.
-
CMS
-
Licensing
-
Are developers actually chasing down license violations?
-
Openness/Sharing
-
There are some pretty basic things that a researcher can do to make their work into an open content project. Here are a few.
-
Programming
-
Finance
-
Censorship
-
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.
-
Internet/Net Neutrality
-
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.
-
Intellectual Monopolies
-
Copyrights
-
ACTA
-
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
- How We Process Screenshots of Slop to Suitably Tag Them as Slop
- everything is a single command
- Seductive Mirage or Allure of Complex, Proprietary Coffee Machines (or Similar White Elephants)
- Software is a lot like those things
-
- Team GNOME Has Libeled Me for Nearly 20 Years
- we are not dealing with sane people
- Experience With Airlines in 'Web Sites' and in 'Apps'
- In a lot of ways, Stallman Was Right about what JavaScript would turn out to be
- Open Does Not Mean Free
- wiser to ask if some program is freedom-respecting
- The Register MS Takes Money From Companies Banned by the Biden and Trump Administrations (National Security Risk)
- today's sponsor
- Sabotaging GNU/Linux PCs (and Users) is Not a 'Joke'
- maybe cruelty is the very objective
- Links 11/08/2025: Data Breaches, Politics, and Climate
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 10, 2025
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 10, 2025
- Gemini Links 11/08/2025: Tea Caffeine Hot and Super ZZ Zero
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, Brian Fagioli, and Other Serial Sloppers
- Maybe Microsoft wants to dub this "Web5"
- Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Residents Management Company, Automation, and Politics
- Links for the day
- Links 10/08/2025: AOL Ending Dial-up
- Links for the day
- Links 10/08/2025: Webrings, “AI Sunglasses” and “AI Eyeglasses”, US Administration Intensifies Attacks on Science and Research
- Links for the day
- Sometimes Newer is Worse
- We generally need to reject this dumb notion that "old" means bad
- The Code Used to Make Techrights Fits on a Seventh of a Floppy Disk (or 100KB When Compressed)
- For the sake of comparison I've just downloaded the latest version of WordPress. The ZIP file is 27.2MB in size, or ~27,200KB.
- What They Tell Young Programmers
- Coding in 2025
- Simpler is Better When Simple is Enough
- Over-complicating things to "sell" new versions is so 1990s
- Links 10/08/2025: From Social Control Media to Prison, New Examples of Windows TCO
- Links for the day
- Sloppy Reporting About Slop, or How The Register MS Lowers Its Standards
- Maybe the management isn't even aware of this
- IBM's Strategy: Cull 'Expensive' Workers, Replace Them With Cheaper Ones
- So far we saw not even one rebuttal or challenge to the claim of Red Hat layoffs scheduled for tomorrow
- If You Attack Somebody Too Much You Legitimise and Strengthen That Somebody
- at the end those attacks add up to a "martyr" status
- The Man Who Helped Microsoft Kill Linux is Trying to Delay Our Lawsuits Against Him
- By conservative estimates, and based on court documents submitted by them, they're prepared to spend over a million dollars on lawyers, fighting against me and my wife
- Gemini Links 10/08/2025: Gen Con 2025 and Framework Laptop
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Saturday, August 09, 2025
- The Register MS (Microsoft) or The Register AI (Slop)?
- What a slopfest!
- Is Red Hat About to Give the Boot to GNOME People Who Helped Microsoft 'Secure' (Monopolised) Boot?
- It was always a dumb idea to play along with Microsoft's hardware mischief
- Sales of Windows on PCs (Windows Licences) Go Down
- Microsoft has a big problem in its hands
- The Hype That Microsoft and The Register MS (Among Others) Promote Helps Stage DDoS Attacks on Free Software Sites
- Microsoft is, to put it bluntly, pure evil
- The Goal of Coopetition Assumes You're Friends
- it will never work with Microsoft
- Links 09/08/2025: Putin Allegedly to Visit Alaska (Which He Deems Part of Russia), Mike Tyson Sued for Copyright Infringement
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Linux Journal, LinuxSecurity, and Google News With Its Slopfarms of Choice
- SEO spam, made with LLMs
- Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
- paid to promote slop
- Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
- Links for the day
- Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
- Links for the day
- After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
- Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
- Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
- If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
- Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
- we expect OEMs will just listen to users
- The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
- Call out the culprits
- Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
- if this persists, we'll need to escalate
- There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
- there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
- Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
- Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
- Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
- Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
- Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
- We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
- Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
- Links for the day