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
- How We Do Techrights (and What's Changing Next Week)
- Many former news sites no longer yield much non-meaningless news (not anymore); there's a gap to be filled
- Links 12/07/2026: Palantir Unrest and Wireshark 4.6.7
- Links for the day
- Links 12/07/2026: New Instrument Time and PalmOS Experiences in 2026
- Links for the day
- Red Hat Staff Says IBM Policy Has Stigmatised Him as a Tool and a Slopper With Plagiarism Tools
- IBM is killing Red Hat with slop
- Freedom of Choice or Freedom Versus Choice (or When All Choices Are Incompatible With Freedom)
- When some business asserts that it gives people different options, then it can rightly argue that it offers some choices, but that is not the same as freedom
- Techrights IRC Turns 5 Without a “Code of Conduct”, “Code of Conduct Committee”, and All Those Bureaucratic Nightmares
- 18+ years if one counts our time in Freenode as well
- Why U No Use AI???
- Many hype waves come and go
- There Are Still Slopfarms in Google News
- Google is trying to participate in if not lead this pyramid scheme
- The Cyber Show Explains How Slop and Promotion of Slop is About Taking Control Away From Computer Users
- "On making a trustworthy machine"
- Keeping Available the Site at All Times
- Informal arrangements and crowdfunding keep our work available despite resistance (including from people who break the law)
- What If "Era of AI" and "AI Revolution" (Fake News) Never Happened?
- So how much longer before the bust (or bubble-burst)?
- GNU/Linux Approaches 5% in Australia
- 5% by year's end?
- Europe/EU is Moving Towards Independence, Fast to Adopt Free Software
- More and more states (governments, public sector) in Germany are dumping Microsoft
- GNU/Linux Grows at the Expense of Windows
- People who want to get work done already left Windows
- Tux Machines Growing as a Volunteers-Run Site
- Historically the site did not have many original stories, but this changed as the audience grew and the site gained more recognition
- Links 12/07/2026: European Commission Versus ‘Addictive Design’, "Google Loses Final Appeal Over $4.7 Billion EU Android Antitrust Fine"
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Market Share Increases Some More Today, statCounter Measures It at 7.3%
- Will more such thresholds and records be broken?
- Gemini Links 12/07/2026: Studying Languages and 2026 Old Computer Challenge (OCC)
- Links for the day
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part XIII - At the EPO, Cocaine Addicts and Their Friends Are "Protected Class"
- What does that tell us about the EPO?
- Increasing Output by Focusing on Originals
- It's probably more important to carry on with these than it is to keep abreast of non-crucial news
- Amid Strikes and Industrial Actions, Young Professionals at the European Patent Office (EPO) Kept on 'Short Leash', According to the Local Staff Committee The Hague
- Issues affecting Young Professionals
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, July 11, 2026
- Blogs May be Making a Comeback (They're Not Fediverse, They Are Joined by RSS Feeds)
- Don't fake expansion where none existed
- ChromeOS and GNU/Linux in the United Kingdom Reach 11%
- the UK shows signs of digital maturity
- Corporate Media: Blame the People Who Enter the Abandoned IBM Buildings, Not IBM for Abandoning Workers in Pursuit of IT Sweatshops
- When the media spreads falsehoods stocks can go up (a lot higher), but at whose expense and how long for?
- Canonical is Selling Microsoft, It Pays The Register MS to Sell Microsoft
- It's all about money to them. And they call this journalism.
- When Red Hat's HR Becomes the Same as IBM's HR (Bluewashing)
- Red Hat keeps sacking very experienced engineers and adding temporary interns
- GNU/Linux Growing in East Asia
- Assuming this is more or less accurate, we could use a plausible explanation
- SUEPO Munich Report on the Recent EPO Demonstration and Rolling Strikes That Continue to Grow
- "increasing registrations for the 'rolling strikes' running until autumn"
- Over a Week After Microsoft Discontinued Some XBox Models It Apparently Exits Some Markets Altogether
- We seem to be witnessing the end of XBox
- Gemini Links 11/07/2026: Old Computer challenge, Poems, Antenna, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 11/07/2026: "Trademark wars of Influencer Culture", Xinuos Uses Copyrights Versus UNIX
- Links for the day
- North America: GNU/Linux Measured at 10%
- To better understand what contributes to the gains
- Following Corrections and Adjustments statCounter Sees GNU/Linux at 7.1%, an All-Time High
- There is a lot of layoffs at Microsoft this month
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, July 10, 2026
- Links 11/07/2026: Wednesday-Saturday News Catch-up
- Links for the day
- Prioritising High-Importance News
- In order to fully catch up with news we'll not publish many new articles until next week