Links 23/3/2012: Commodore Linux, Iceland Moves to Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
- Modified: 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
Contents
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Commodore USA has released the new AMIGA mini and the VIC mini, two small form factor PCs with a bit of retro styling, but very new and powerful guts
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Kernel Space
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Graphics Stack
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The Gallium3D compute infrastructure, which is the underlying work for supporting OpenCL over this open-source graphics driver architecture, is on approach for landing in the very near future. This has been one damn good day for open-source Linux graphics drivers following the earlier Nouveau surprise announcements.
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Soon, the kernel will support several AMD graphics cores that are used in recent Radeon graphics cards and in various upcoming processors. In systems with Intel graphics, using hibernation can cause memory corruption. The development of Linux 3.4 has started.
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Applications
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Instructionals/Technical
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Wine
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Desktop Environments
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
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Jonathan Riddell, the KDE developer, recently announced that Canonical stopping funding the Kubuntu project and reassigning him in a new role. Looking at Canonical's focus on Unity, that's not a surprising move. I don't know how Canonical works, but looking at the new challenges they set for themselves with every release, I do think they need all the hands they can get. The result of that hard work is evident - Unity is shaping up really well.
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Have an old computer lying around that you’d like to use for some light web surfing, document editing, and other tasks? I mean like a PC with a 1999-era Intel Pentium III processor? It turns out there’s an OS for that… and it’s not Windows 98.
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In my last blog about Linux Live Environments, I mentioned REMnux, an environment specifically built for malware analysis. I'd spent a little time with REMnux when it first came out, but decided to take the latest version (3.0) for a test drive.
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New Releases
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Debian Family
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Derivatives
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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Canonical’s next long-term support release of its flagship Linux distribution, Ubuntu 12.04 is in late beta. This next release, due out on April 26th, is in beta now. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and so far, so good.
Indeed, the new Ubuntu is good enough already that I’ve it on my default Ubuntu system: a 2009-era Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. No, it’s not fast, but unlike Windows 8’s beta, you don’t need a fast computer for Ubuntu.
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From a pool of thousands, 15 photographic wallpapers have been chosen for inclusion in Ubuntu 12.04.
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With Ubuntu remaining uninterested in systemd, the Upstart init system continues to be developed. Released today was Upstart 1.5 with a few new features.
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However, while that beefed up version may be available at some point, costs and demand will likely hold it off for a while, the popular mini-computer's designer said.
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Phones
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Android
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NASA has made great efforts to get the public interested in their various projects and avenues of research using tools such as social media networks and their suite of mobile applications. Unfortunately, those applications have almost exclusively been iPhone exclusive. Of the over 20 mobile applications NASA has released, only a scant have made it over to everyone’s favorite open source mobile operating system.
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Android is open source and built on Linux. Fortunately for Android enthusiasts and independent developers, however, Sony has made life a little easier by releasing the open source archive for the Xperia S device. Of course, there are some catches. Read on for what this announcement means for the juncture of Android and free software.
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Sub-notebooks/Tablets
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Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
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The Document Foundation (TDF), which produces the leading open source office software suite LibreOffice, is on schedule for the release of a cloud version of its software next month.
The team released the last update to its 3.4 build on Thursday and is now focused on developing version 3.5 further, but the group is now also ready to go live for cloud services in April. That said, the team reserves the right to hold off on launch until the last few software fixes come in, TDF spokesman Italo Vignoli told The Register.
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Project Releases
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Public Services/Government
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OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is finding favour on the Icelandic government scene with the announcement that all of its public administration organisations will adopt it.
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Iceland's push to move its public sector to open-source software has made some headway, with most of the shift seeing Windows swapped for Linux.
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Security
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Some words just seem to go together: "bread" and "butter"; "trial" and "error"; "Microsoft" and "security breach." The MS12-020 Remote Desktop Protocol vulnerability revealed last week shows once again that when it comes to data security, Microsoft is its own worst enemy and any "secure" system can be compromised.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Slopwatch: A Cause for Hope, the Hype is Dying
- For about a month we showed that becoming a slopfarm - for several weeks - resulted in utter failure and ruin for BetaNews
- The EFF Sided With the Team That Strangles Women and Tells Women to Kill Themselves
- They say that apathy and inaction are a form of a "stance"
- Exemplary List of Things That Are Not Artificial Intelligence or Even Intelligence
- The "age of AI" or "era of AI" or "AI revolution" mostly boils down to rebranding, just like "the cloud"
- GitHub Copilot Can Cause the Bankruptcy of GitHub to Come Sooner and GitHub to be Shut Down Just Like Skype
- Some publicly available information suggests that even for each paid subscriber for plagiarism (LLM 'coding') GitHub Copilot still loses more money than it makes
- Our Lawsuits Against the 'Cancel Mob' (Ringleaders) Helped Reduce Anti-Free Software Online Abuse
- That's not to say that lawsuits are the best way to handle terrible people. But that can help.
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- Microsoft - Like IBM - Does the "Relocation" Tricks (Start Over Elsewhere, Then Get Sacked by Microsoft)
- It is a "low blow" or a "dick move"
- After the Free Software Foundation's Campaign to Raise Money Let's See Campaigns to Finish Off Microsoft (Vista 11, GitHub etc.)
- Microsoft is in effect collapsing
- Your Publications Have No Major Impact Unless or Until You "Get Some Heat"
- we're on the right track
- Links 11/07/2025: Censorship Worsening, 3D Printing Success Stories, UK and France Unite Around Nukes
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Zorin OS and Scriptonite Updates
- Links for the day
- Links 11/07/2025: Hardware, Russia, and China
- Links for the day
- Links 11/07/2025: Intel Collapsing and Microsoft Resorts to Bribery to Push Slop Via Obligatory Education
- Links for the day
- "Nat [Friedman] and [the Serial Strangler From Microsoft] Were Always Exceptionally Close," Says Former Housemate and Colleague
- Now Alex (hiding behind another name when that suits him) not only attacks women but also people who merely report what he did to women
- New Letter From the European Patent Office Explains How the Office Plots to Grant Many Illegal Patents, a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy of 'Growth'
- Open letter to Mr Rowan (VP1) and Mr Aledo Lopez (COO)
- Abuse of Process
- 5RB is employing people who help violent men
- What Microsoft's Nat Friedman and Microsoft Lunduke Have in Common
- "Get in da car; No time to explain, loser"
- Microsoft and IBM Don't Have Much of a Future (They Mostly Pretend at This Point)
- IBM and Microsoft are in some ways alike but in many ways different
- It's Not Just Twitter (or X.com) That's Dying, Microsoft's Equivalent is Dying Also
- Unable to find a business model
- Wayland is Bad for the Planet
- If you use Wayland, it'll take you longer to accomplish tasks and you will consume more energy (or battery life)
- Legitimising Those Who Sabotage You
- Microsoft is a very malicious company
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 10, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 10, 2025
- On Microsoft Layoffs
- we might be looking at about 60,000 Microsoft layoffs since 2023
- EPO Management Already Breaks Its Own Promise (Lie) on "Bringing Teams Together"
- This gut-punching move happened just 2 days ago
- Gemini Links 11/07/2025: Occupation of 2025 and "Old Man Yells At Soundcloud"
- Links for the day
- Tomorrow is the Last Day of the Fund-Raising Campaign of the Free Software Foundation (FSF)
- They will probably extend the date, as usual
- Fixing Patents in Europe, Little by Little (by Transparency and Reporting of Suppressed Facts)
- Tomorrow and throughout the weekend we shall focus some more on the EPO
- The Two Lies Microsoft is Telling in "the News" This Week (to Distract From Layoffs and Decreased Interest in Slop/Chaff)
- Microsoft is run by liars and frauds who SLAPP critics
- Tux Machines Already Destroyed SLAPPs
- Attacks on the mere publication of GNU/Linux news won't be tolerated
- PCLinuxOS is Available for Download Again
- PCLinuxOS is important to us also because its founder, back then the partner of Susan, helped create Tux Machines more than 21 years ago
- Links 10/07/2025: Microsoft E-mail 'Services' Collapse Again, "Yet Another Strava Privacy Leak"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Automating Git Repo Updates and Small Web 'Zine'
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Leftovers
- mostly Linux stuff
- Audiocasts/Shows: Going Linux, FLOSS Weekly, and RHEL Clones
- 3 new picks
- We Are Already Fighting - With Considerable Success - SLAPPs in the UK
- we intend to tell the full story
- Bullies With Pens and Papers (or Apple Macs With Templates)
- Not all barristers are evil, but there are perhaps "rotten apples"
- Slopwatch: webpronews.com, linuxsecurity.com, linuxjournal.com
- a pile of trash disguised as 'articles'
- Links 10/07/2025: Linda Yaccarino Divorces MElonazi Site, Wildfires Hit Syria
- Links for the day
- The History and the Policy of the EPO's Stance on Breastfeeding (Corporate Monopolies Versus Babies' Health)
- "The Case for Introducing a Breastfeeding Policy at the EPO"
- Gemini Links 10/07/2025: Inventing Chords and "Nightmare Boss"
- Links for the day
- Igor Ljubuncic Once Again Shows That for Technical Reasons Wayland Still Sucks, Performs Considerably Worse Than What Existed for Decades
- That is aside from compatibility factors and other crucial factors
- Links 10/07/2025: "Apple Vs The Law" and Twitter Became Full Nazi Bar
- Links for the day
- Unable to Find Anyone to Work as Their Media Lawyer, Brett Wilson LLP Will Continue Losing Female Staff
- What sort of sick person would wish to join Brett Wilson LLP to carry this baton?
- Microsoft-Sponsored Propaganda Site Has Removed False 'Hit Piece' About Dr. Stallman (With Fake and Misrepresented Imagery) But Only After 4 Years
- So they only removed that page some time around 2025, i.e. about 4 years after it had been published
- Always Check Your Inputs
- Garbage in, garbage out. Or wrong assumptions, wrong corollary.
- Dan Neidle Said That Tax Evasion Facilitator Mr Zahawi (Working to Silence Bloggers Through Brett Wilson LLP) Targeted Not Only Him (But The Others Kept Quiet)
- "Mr Neidle said after repelling Mr Zahawi he was contacted by bloggers and tweeters who had received similar threats. They deleted their work “and in most cases never commented publicly on anything again”."
- SLAPP Funding Transparency Urgently Needed in the UK and Elsewhere (in Practice, Not Just in Theory)
- Writing about crime - including Microsoft crime - is not a crime
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 09, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 09, 2025
- Elodie Bergot Still Doing Illegal Things at the EPO, Based on the Local Staff Committee Munich
- They keep taking away from the staff while compelling the staff to do illegal things
- Gemini Links 09/07/2025: Extreme Testing and Golang Documentation in Geminispace
- Links for the day
- Vice President of the European Patent Office (EPO) Complains That Techrights Gives Visibility to Legal and Technical Issues at the EPO
- "Follow-up on enquiries relating to Dir. 1218 and 1001"
- Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com and Various Slopfarms That Lie About "Linux" and Are Promoted by Google News
- Google does not seem interested in tackling this problem
- Links 09/07/2025: War Updates and Microsoft Moving to India to Cut Costs
- Links for the day
- GNU/Linux Was Always a 'Movement' of Inclusion of Tolerance
- Even the licences themselves remove access barriers
- Links 09/07/2025: "Subprime AI Crisis" and "OpenAI May Be in Major Trouble Financially"
- Links for the day
- Huge Piles of Legal Papers ('Paper DDoS') Do Not Impress Judges and Regulators
- they just make judges and regulators even more suspicious of the eagerness to resort to 'paper DDoS'
- Brett Wilson LLP Sent Over 5 Kilograms (or Over 12 Pounds) of Legal Papers! Because Writing About Microsoft Abuses is 'Illegal'.
- How do you guys sleep at night? On a big pile of Microsoft money?
- Extremism as a Weapon Against GNU/Linux (Microsoft Lunduke)
- He ought to know the Halloween Documents. Wasn't he a Microsoft employee when these came out?
- Lunduke Isn't Even Hiding His Anti-Linux Agenda (From "Linux Sucks" to "Linux is Pedophiles")
- just trying to make a lot of trouble
- Some People Use Computers to Get Actual Work Done
- Tolerance and inclusion must extend to acceptance that some people don't agree with you, might never agree with you, and imposing what allegedly works for you on them is unreasonable
- Example of "Old" Things That Still Work
- The notion that something being "old" implies it must be discarded is typically advanced by those looking to sell more of something
- Some Scheduled Maintenance Later Today
- Typically the most vulnerable service during short interruptions is IRC
- Computers Are Just a Tool
- People don't get married because they love weddings, folks don't join the army because they love war, and most drivers don't drive to work because they love cars
- Apple Way Past Its Prime
- Apple deserves a decline
- The FSF's SysOps Team Recovered From Serious Hardware Issue Within Hours
- About half a day ago I noticed that all/most GNU/FSF sites were not reachable and thus reached out to a contact for any details
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 08, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, July 08, 2025
- Slopwatch: Turning Bugs Into FUD About "Linux", Getting Basic Facts Wrong
- all the screenshots are of fake articles; we don't want to link to any
- Technical Reasons, Not Politics: With Wayland "it feels a lot like Linux from 20-25 years ago, which is horrendously frustrating, because it feels like we wasted one or two decades of progress and stability"
- Lately, quite a few benchmarks were published to show Wayland compares poorly compared to what we had
- PCLinuxOS Recovering From Fire
- It looks like a nightmare scenario, where even backups onsite get destroyed
- Links 09/07/2025: More Heatwaves, Officials Culled in Russia
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 09/07/2025: XScreensaver and Resurrection
- Links for the day