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Links 22/10/2012: Linux Tablet Vivaldi, Return of Copyright News





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • ‘No thanks. I got Linux’
    Windows 8 will be unleashed, Kraken-like, on an awaiting public on Oct. 26, which is this Friday. For US$79.99 — let’s just round that up to US$80 — one can get the latest version of the Windows operating system which, by many reports, is not ideal yet not as bad a some of the other products Redmond has forced upon the public in the past.

    A CrunchBang user with the handle merelyjim posted this thread on the CrunchBang forum under the title, “No thanks. I got Linux” where he thinks that this $80 can be better spent elsewhere — like on your current distro or your favorite FOSS program.


  • Desktop

    • Review: The ARM-powered Samsung Chromebook
      I was already a big Chromebook fan before I got my hands on Samsung's just-released ARM-powered Chromebook. Now, after a weekend with it and with its amazing price of $249 I think it's going to find a few million more fans. Indeed, as of October 21st, the ARM-based Chromebook is Amazon's best selling computer.






  • Kernel Space

    • Linus Torvalds Still Rejects KVM Tool From Kernel
      Linus Torvalds has reaffirmed that at this point he doesn't intend to pull KVMTool into the mainline Linux kernel.

      KVMTool is the lightweight QEMU-free native KVM tool. KVMTool has been developed by several open-source developers for nearly two years.


    • AMD Trinity APU Performance-Per-Watt On Linux
      For those not over in the Czech Republic this weekend for the Linux events going on here, here are some more data points for the AMD A10-5800K "Trinity" APU to look at under Linux.

      I have already delivered many A10-5800K Linux benchmarks including articles looking closely at the integrated Radeon HD 7660D graphics on Linux and the AMD Trinity memory performance. I have also done initial tests of compiler tuning for the AMD Piledriver cores, a.k.a. the "Bulldozer 2" micro-architecture.


    • Linux 3.7-rc2 Kernel Piles On The Fixes


    • Initial F2FS File-System Results Are Impressive
      Earlier this month Samsung introduced a new Linux file-system, F2FS, that was designed for mobile devices with flash memory. Initial testing of F2FS yields very positive results against EXT4 and NILFS2.


    • Nvidia Wants to Remove Some GPL From Linux Kernel Code
      The company's Robert Morell submitted a patch to remove the GPL license from the dma buffer interface in the Linux kernel so it can be used in Nvidia's driver. Not everybody is happy, especially Alan Cox, who has been involved in Linux development since 1991 and was most influential when he maintained the version 2.2 of the Linux kernel.


    • Graphics Stack

      • Reading The Linux Graphics Driver How-To Book


      • ETC2 Texture Compression For Intel Is Happening


      • Reading The Linux Graphics Driver How-To Book
        For those wondering about the outcome of the Linux graphics driver development book that was worked on back in September prior to XDC2012, the book continues to be worked on a bit for those interested in reading it.

        If you want to read this basic Linux graphics driver development book, it's being housed in Git and can be seen from this Git repository. As can be seen from the log, the recent activity to it was pushed just 11 days ago.


      • Intel Linux Driver Still Working To Address Tearing
        Intel Linux Driver Still Working To Address Tearing Open-Source Intel developers have long been working towards a tear-free Linux desktop with proper vsync support. For Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge hardware there's still been some tearing issues, but they hope to soon finally have it solved.


      • Intel Linux Driver Still Working To Address Tearing


      • Wayland Continues To Excite Linux Users
        Wayland continues to be a topic that draws a lot of interest from Linux desktop end-users, based upon the turnout to a session regarding the Wayland/Weston Display Server Framework at LinuxDays in Prague.

        Egbert Eich spoke on Saturday during the openSUSE Conference, which was co-hosted with LinuxDays in the Czech Republic. Egbert was speaking again about Wayland, just as he has done before at LinuxTag and other events.






  • Applications

    • GLX-Dock 3.1 Brings Better Unity Integration
      A new release of GLX-Dock/Cairo-Dock is now available with new features, including better integration of the Ubuntu Unity desktop.

      GLX-Dock 3.1 is the new release and it brings in better integration of Unity, all configuration windows have been merged into a single window, progress bars in several applets, the music applet can control players from the system tray, icon separation in the taskbar, improvements to the advanced configuration panel mode, a rewritten messaging menu, and various bug-fixes / enhancements.


    • Multitech Linux based communication box available from Elecom Electronics Supply


    • Instructionals/Technical



    • Games

      • Doom 3 BFG Approved For GPL/Open-Source
        id Software released "Doom 3 BFG Edition" this week, a revised version of the Doom 3 game that came eight years after the original release of Doom 3. The engine source-code for Doom 3 BFG, which is still a modified id Tech 4 engine, is already approved for open-sourcing.

        Doom 3 BFG Edition features improved graphics, better sound, a checkpoint save system, support for 3D displays, and features various other refinements. Doom 3 BFG is still being powered by id Tech 4 and not the newer id Tech 5 engine as used by the Rage game and the forthcoming Doom 4 title.


      • Why Mac and Linux users will pay more than Windows users for the same thing
        When online travel agent Orbitz admitted in June that it was steering Mac users on its site toward higher-priced hotel rooms, many were angry. But another company is finding that Mac users will pay more than Windows users for an identical product – even when allowed to choose how much they pay.

        Orbitz wasn’t showing Mac users higher prices than it showed others for the same room: It found they would choose different, more expensive, products, spending up to US$30 more per night than PC users.

        But it’s not just Mac users that outspend Windows users: Linux users do too, according to Humble Bundle, a company that organises time-limited sales of bundles of games, music and ebooks and splits the proceeds with their creators and with charities.


      • id Software Has No Plans For Doom 3 BFG On Linux
        Yesterday when mentioning that Doom 3 BFG Edition is already cleared for a GPL open-source release, I mentioned it was unlikely id Software would be providing a native Linux client for this brand new game. Those fears have now been confirmed with id Software saying they have no plans for a Linux version.

        Doom 3 BFG Edition is a major overhaul of the original eight-year-old Doom 3 first person shooter. Doom 3 BFG is still based upon the id Tech 4 engine that is well supported under Linux and there was a great native Linux client for the original Doom 3, but now times are different at id Software.






  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded





Free Software/Open Source



  • Open Source Ammo for the SMB Security Arsenal
    In many cases, open source security software can fill the gap when funding for heavy, commercially supported, closed-source security tools is hard to come by. For SMBs, having a few open source security tools in their back pocket to meet specific security challenges can be a godsend.


  • Features of Open Source GPS Tracking System


  • Google Supersonic Released As Open Source


  • Samsung Set To Open-Source Parts Of The Exynos
    It appears that Samsung is preparing to open-source some code pertaining to their Exynos ARM SoC.


  • Events

    • From the Whispers of ApacheCon…
      That was what you may have heard 10 months ago, if you listened to the rumormongers. Certainly there were a lot of rumors being spread. (Or should we call it FUD?) Whatever you call it, the whispers continued, in a negative propaganda campaign that the open source community should be ashamed to be associated with. Even just a few weeks ago I heard from one LibreOffice lead that he was certain that the Apache OpenOffice podling would never graduate and that we’d fail, give up, shut down the project and give the OpenOffice trademarks to LibreOffice. I’m sorry to disappoint, but this kind of FUD has an expiration date, and that date is now.


    • LinuxDays: An Open-Source Event Of Disorganization
      While this was the first LinuxDays to happen and had high hopes considering it pulled in multiple distributions (aside from Gentoo and openSUSE, there were also Fedora and Ubuntu members too), the event itself turned out to be rather a disappointment; this just wasn't my opinion but it seemed to be the consensus from most that I talked to as well.




  • Web Browsers



  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • First VirtualBox 4.2 update has Linux 3.7 fixes
      Just over one month after VirtualBox 4.2 arrived, Oracle has released the first update to its open source desktop virtualisation system, which should improve its overall stability and fix various regressions. Version 4.2.2 of VirtualBox includes fixes for the recent Linux 3.7-rc1 kernel (both for Linux hosts and guests) and addresses a problem that stopped virtual machines (VMs) from booting under Mac OS X 10.8.2.


    • Fully open sourced JavaFX delayed
      Just three weeks ago at JavaOne, Oracle was still saying that the JavaFX RIA (Rich Internet Application) platform would become fully available as open source software by the end of the year. Now, JavaFX project architect Richard Bair has adjusted that schedule and moved the release date to February 2013.




  • CMS

    • Replacement of Decade Old Web Technologies by Open Source CMS
      It is the era of open source content management systems. The rise of open source software is like a boon for all middle or small scale business organization, because of the advanced age of internet. In this age of internet, a website needs to be strong enough for gaining the optimum attention of widely spread online community.




  • Education



  • Business



  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GCC 4.6/4.7/4.8 ARMv7 Compiler Benchmarks
      As some more benchmarks from the Calxeda EnergyCore ECX-100 ARM Server -- a.k.a. the "5-Watt Linux Server" -- to share this weekend, here is a ARMv7 Cortex-A9 GCC compiler performance comparison.




  • Project Releases



  • Public Services/Government

    • UK gov open source should follow Utah, USA
      The public sector's global use of open source technology is growing.

      Famed tech speaker Clay Shirky has been filmed for a TED talk saying that Germany is now publishing its laws on the GitHub online open source hosting repository and that the US state of Utah is also making its legislation available in Github so that individuals can see how the laws are being amended over time.

      So as we see positive signs here in the UK that the public sector is beginning to embrace open source, where should we look to for pointers?

      The choice of the Drupal Content Management System (CMS), an open source solution, as the platform for the Cabinet Office and the London.gov.uk site is a case in point, as is the Department of Health's use of open source to work with EU partners.


    • Asia govts welcome OSS benefits
      Asia's public sector agencies welcome the cost-effectiveness and customization abilities with open source software (OSS), but emphasize proprietary software should still be considered during procurement decision-making.


    • NASA achieves data goals for Mars rover with open source software
      Since the landing of NASA’s rover, Curiosity, on Mars on August 11th (Earth time), I have been following the incredible wealth of images that have been flowing back. I am awestruck by the breadth and beauty of the them.




  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open-source science helps San Carlos father's genetic quest
      One tiny flaw in one gene in one little girl. That explains why Beatrice Rienhoff, 8, is so lean and leggy.

      But it took the communal contributions of many researchers -- in an open-ended, open-source scientific search, led by her father -- to solve Bea's singular mystery.

      Most medical research is secret and proprietary. At Saturday's Open Science Summit in Mountain View, however, Bea's father, Hugh, described a needle-in-a-haystack quest made possible by the pitchforks of so many.


    • Meet NimbRo-OP, Teen Size Open Source Robot
      An open-source robot, size compatible with the RoboCup Humanoid League's Teen Size class, has been launched by the University of Bonn.

      It comes from the team, led by Professor Sven Behnke, that won the Louis Vuitton Cup for "Best Humanoid" in this year's RoboCup and is based on the same NimbRo model with its distinctive white head.


    • Open Access/Content

      • In Victory for Common Sense, Minnesota Will Allow Free Online Courses After All
        For one day, Minnesota's Office of Higher Education felt the Internet's indignation as word spread that it was cracking down on free online college courses offered through Coursera and other websites. The bizarre bureaucratic decision was first reported by The Chronicle of Higher Education on Thursday morning, and it became Internet-wide news after my blog post about it Thursday evening went viral, thanks in part to the user-generated news board Reddit.






  • Programming

    • Not All Linux Users Want To Toke On LLVMpipe
      OpenGL support is becoming an increasing hard requirement on the Linux desktop. Even if your hardware comes up short, more desktops are requiring GL support, which means falling back to the CPU-based LLVMpipe Gallium3D driver.


    • Software Engineers Are In Demand, And GitHub Is How You Find Them
      GitHub, the social coding service, has been plagued by two days of distributed denial-of-service attacks. No report yet on who is behind the attacks or why, but it must be some sort of geek infighting, because GitHub is the preferred clubhouse of the open source community. Not exactly the enemy of Guy Fawkes. As web designer Freddy Montes put it on Twitter, “DDOS attack to @github is like hiting your mom on Mother’s Day.”


    • Git 1.8.0 can access Windows and GNOME keyrings
      Git maintainer Junio C Hamano has announced the latest feature release of the open source version control system. Git 1.8.0 includes several new features, refined command syntax and a large number of fixes since version 1.7.12, which was the last feature release of the software from 19 August.






Leftovers

  • Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern




  • Finance



  • Privacy

    • A Dark Side of Data Portability: Litigators Love It
      Cloud services are great, but they pose a number of challenges for users. For example, users may legitimately fear that vendors will “lock-in” their users by holding user data hostage, forcing users to keep using their services instead of better competitors because it’s too painful to forego or transfer the existing data. To ameliorate this concern, there has been a push to demand that cloud service providers offer users a data export feature that makes it easier to take their data to competitive vendors. For example, earlier this year the European Union proposed revising its data privacy rules to require mandatory data portability (see Article 18). However, those favoring the proliferation of data export tools should consider another audience that will find the tools quite useful: litigators seeking to do discovery of cloud users.


    • Supreme Court rules employees have right to privacy on work computers
      Workplace computers contain so much personal information nowadays that employees have a legitimate expectation of privacy in using them, the Supreme Court of Canada said in a major ruling Friday.




  • Civil Rights

    • FBI Accused of Dragging Feet on Release of Info About "Stingray" Surveillance Technology


    • If you give the police more Tasers, don't be shocked by the result
      The police have been going through a rough patch recently. First they were implicated in the phone-hacking scandal – though they managed to escape most of the blame when we collectively came to the surprising conclusion that it was more serious for tabloid journalists to neglect the public interest than officers of the crown. But while they deflected a lot of that responsibility, their attempts to deflect it over Hillsborough have been catastrophically counterproductive. And as senior officers have been caught dining with Murdochs or maligning the dead, officers on the ground have been getting shot and called plebs. Or not called plebs, depending on who you believe.




  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Stallman Endorses Pirate Party Position on Trademarks, Patent and Copyright Monopolies
      In a welcome gesture on October 16, Dr. Richard Stallman made a public note supporting the Swedish Pirate Party’s position regarding trademarks, patent monopolies, and copyright monopolies.


    • Brazilian Newspapers Apparently Don't Want Traffic; They All Opt Out Of Google News
      We've already seen newspapers in Belgium and Germany argue that Google needs to pay them for linking to them in Google News. And we just wrote about how French newspapers were looking for the same ridiculous handout. But a bunch of Brazilian newspapers have taken the issue even further, and colluded to all pull out of Google News together (well, 90% of all newspapers in Brazil). They're demanding that Google pay them to link to them. Of course, I'm curious if any of those newspapers has ever hired an SEO expert to try to get them better search rankings...


    • Copyrights

      • It's Time to Fix YouTube's Biased Copyright System!
        YouTube's bias toward claimants; the lack of practical means for ordinary users to fight back realistically against false claims; the tightening of automatic detection systems with an attendant increase in false positives; the lack of meaningful appeal and escalation mechanisms; and the failure to incorporate a sufficient range of signals, extenuating circumstances, and associated proportionality into penalties, are rapidly turning YouTube into a very unfriendly place for anyone but the media elite.


      • Dotcom raid officer headed bike gang probe


      • The EU declares war on blind pirates
        A rumour is circulating that at the next negotiating round on the Treaty of the Visually Impaired at the World Intellectual Property Organization the members of the European Blind Union will attend the meeting with black pirate flags and one pirate patch over each eye.


      • WIPO SCCR meets on copyright exceptions for disabilities: 17 October 2012


      • Righthaven agrees to turn hard drives over to creditor
        Las Vegas copyright company Righthaven LLC appears eager to comply with the latest court order entered against it Tuesday, as noncompliance could cost its CEO a fine of $500 per day.

        U.S. Magistrate Judge Peggy Leen in Las Vegas, ruling during a hearing, ordered Righthaven to turn over to a creditor hard drives from its computers so the creditor could determine if Righthaven has any assets that can be liquidated for the benefit of Righthaven’s creditors.


      • 30 Years Of Music Industry Change, In 30 Seconds Or Less...


      • New Ruling In Sweden Suggests Ruling In Pirate Bay Case May Be Re-Examined For Bias
        A few years ago, we were surprised to find out that the judge in The Pirate Bay case in Sweden had ties to the copyright lobby pushing the case. There were additional issues, after it was discovered that at least one of the lay judges (sort of like a jury, but not quite) on the case was employed by Spotify, and might have business reasons not to be completely objective. Even more ridiculous? When the court reviewed whether or not there was bias, the original judge making the review ended up having to be removed... for bias, after it came out at she, too, was involved with the same pro-copyright groups that the original judge was associated with. While the courts eventually said there was no meaningful bias, a new high profile case in Sweden may reopen the issue.


      • Cindy Garcia Still Attacking YouTube Over Innocence Of Muslims Film








Recent Techrights' Posts

Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
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XBox is Rapidly Turned Into a Slopfarm by Microsoft
Slop isn't about efficiency and saving money
Microsoft's Halloween Documents and systemd, Wayland, Etc.
Maybe one day Wayland will be widespread. Or maybe not.
 
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
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Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
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Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
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The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
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Coming Soon: Another OSI Scandal, This One Implicating Molly de Blanc
OSI has been fairly quiet lately
Outreachy & Debian pregnancy cluster, Meike Reichle evidence
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Again, "Lunduke is Actually Sending His Audience to Attack People"
Microsoft Lunduke is not trying to "protect" Linux
One of the Most Hilarious Things About the Microsoft SLAPPs
It's so ridiculous
Financial Support for the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project
The FSF has extended until Friday its fund-raising campaign
Illegally Hiding (or Demanding Secrecy Around) Illegal Requests or Attempts at Extortion
unlawful communications like threats
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: BOFH Archive, Updating Old Palm PDAS, and Nginx vs Slop Bots
Links for the day
Ubuntu is Becoming GAFAM-Like
What does that say about Canonical and Ubuntu?
Slopfarms Which Take Real Articles About GNU/Linux and Turn Them Into Copycats Which Are False
Even before the LLM hype those were quite common
The Firm That Picks on Techrights is Accustomed to Working With Criminals
Techrights never did anything illegal. So why is it being picked on by people who work with criminals?
Microsoft Said the Mass Layoffs Were for "Investment" in "AI", But It's Also Laying Off the "AI" and "Copilot" Staff
Months ago we showed many so-called "AI" people were getting the boot and this time it's the same
DryDeadFish is Dead, Long Live DryDeadFish
We kept checking, hoping it can recover from some temporary technical issue
For Quite Some Time Already Microsoft Attracts Crackpots, Scams, and More
Occasionally we talk about the situation at IBM as there are many parallels
Links 14/07/2025: Chatbots Broken Again, McHire LLM Shows Limits of the Hype
Links for the day
Changing One's Name Won't Change One's Past
People who have earned a bad reputation are not magically "entitled" to reset
People Who Assault Women Are Not Victims of "Distress"
It seems like an American tradition. In a country with almost 50 presidents, not even one was a female.
Slashdot Media Turned Linux Journal Into a Slopfarm and Now Slashdot Actively Promotes Anti-Linux Slopfarms
Yes, "no-nonsense" apparently means actual nonsense
Adoption of Gemini Protocol Still Growing
Gemini Protocol is being obscured by the media - it doesn't help that Google 'hijacked' the word "Gemini" - but people still manage to find out about it, download a client, and use it
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More EPO Leaks on the Way
We hope that Mr. Rowan will actually try to refute what we say and show, not merely point the finger at the messengers
Decommodification is a Corporate Strategy Against Communities
systemd is led by Microsoft and hosted by Microsoft
copyleft.org 'Hijacked' by the People Who Attack the Person Who Created Copyleft
So far there's nothing "tasteless" in copyleft.org, but that can change at any time in the future
Asking People to Take Down Articles and Videos Only Makes These More Popular and "Viral"
If you do something bad, one of the worst things you can possibly do it try to silence those who speak about it
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, July 13, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, July 13, 2025
Two-Thirds Towards FSF Goal, Richard Stallman to Give Talks in Europe
There are 67 left before reaching the target
Brett Wilson LLP "Takes it Personal" (Character Assassination, Not Professionalism). Everybody Can See That.
On behalf of violent men
Gemini Links 14/07/2025: Politicised Tech and "Leaving GitHub"
Links for the day
Pissing Contests and Pissing Off Everyone
people who came from Microsoft are trying to vex and divide the community
Microsoft Repeats the Mistakes Made by the EPO After We Exposed a Major Microsoft/EPO Scandal 10 Years Ago
That scandal was all over the media, not just in English
The Demise of LLMs
We've just checked BetaNews again. They've dropped all the slop and went back to human authors.
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Sonpo Museum of Art and FCEUX
Links for the day
Links 13/07/2025: UnitedHealth's Censorship Campaign, Australia Wary of China
Links for the day
Firing Away With Nonsense
Or fighting fire with fire
Links 13/07/2025: Climate Crisis, GAFAM Poisoning the Water
Links for the day
Turns Out LLMs for Code Don't Save Time and Don't Improve Quality
Neither legal nor useful
The Microsofters Will Have an Obligation to Compensate Us
This story isn't just about Microsoft. It's also about corruption, there are many women victims, there is abject "abuse of process", and many more scandals to be illuminated in years to come.
Reproducing at the EPO Instead of Producing Monopolies for Foreign Monopolies With Their Price-Fixing Cartels
Does the EPO recognise the need of well-educated Europeans to bear kids?
Valnet Inc. Dominates Real (Not LLM Slop) GNU/Linux Coverage in 2025
And likely in prior years, too
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Fund Raiser Goes on
Later this month we'll expose another OSI scandal
EPO Staff Representatives Issue a Warning About Staff's Health and Inadequate Care
Even the EPO's own stakeholders (money sources) are openly protesting against what the EPO became
Links 13/07/2025: Partly Assorted News From Deutsche Welle and CBC
Links for the day
Gemini Links 13/07/2025: Board Games and Battle Styles
Gemini Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, July 12, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, July 12, 2025