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Links 22/11/2012: New KDE, GNOME 3.x Update





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Using Linux to keep an old work PC alive
    A couple of years ago I helped a small business convert their old virus infected Windows XP computer into a Linux Mint 11 (Katya) Xfce. This was done after a long time of trying to help them keep that machine running at a half-decent speed – the virus being the last straw that finally had them make the switch to Linux. Amazingly, well maybe not to the Linux faithful but to most people, this transition not only went smoothly but was actually extremely well received. Outside of a question or two every couple of months I have heard of no issues whatsoever. Sadly Linux Mint 11 has recently reached its end of life stage and so the time has come to find a replacement.


  • Desktop

    • Chromebooks Get Extended Desktop Support
      Google has pushed an update for its dev channel brining it to version, 25.0.1324.1, (Platform versions 3196.1.0 for most platforms and 3196.2.0 for Samsung Chromeboxes) for all Chrome OS devices.

      This build brings numerous improved features to Chrombooks including support for extended desktop and mirrored displays.




  • Server

    • Evildoers can now turn all sites on a Linux server into silent hell-pits
      An advanced Linux malware strain can automatically hijack websites hosted on compromised servers to attack web surfers with drive-by-downloads.

      The software nasty targets machines running 64-bit GNU/Linux and a web server, and acts like a rootkit by hiding itself from administrators. A browser fetching a website served by the compromised system will be quietly directed via an HTML iframe to malicious sites loaded with malware to attack the web visitor's machine.






  • Kernel Space

    • Filesystems Benchmarked
      Choosing the right filesystem for a particular job can be a difficult task. We tested seven candidates and found some interesting results to make an administrator’s choice easier.


    • Graphics Stack

      • Open-Source GPU Drivers Improved For Linux 3.8
        Various improvements to the major open-source Linux graphics drivers will be landing with the Linux 3.8 kernel in the months ahead.

        David Airlie updated his "drm-next" Git repository last night with all of the latest code bits ready to be merged for the Linux 3.8 kernel when its merge window opens in the next few weeks following the Linux 3.7 release. He also sent out an email confirmation.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



  • Distributions



    • New Releases



    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Takes Next Steps In OpenStack Cloud Strategy
        Red Hat is moving ahead with its OpenStack-centric cloud computing plans. The company has been steadily working on an enterprise-class version of the OpenStack platform. It will arrive in a fully supported version early next year, but you can already get a preview edition, based on the "Essex" OpenStack release. And now, Red Hat has announced the availability of its new OpenStack Technical Preview based on "Folsom."




    • Debian Family



      • Derivatives



        • Canonical/Ubuntu



          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux Mint 14 Unleashed
              The Linux Mint team today announced the release of version 14, codenamed "Nadia." Today's release ships in MATE and Cinnamon desktop varieties for 32 and 64-bit architectures. "After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience."












  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones

      • Jolla Unveils MeeGo-Based Sailfish OS
        Finnish startup reveals Sailfish OS UI for the first time and announces deal with ST-Ericsson



      • Jolla Phones Will Soon Be Available In Finland, Preview Of Phone Running Sailfish
        Jolla has signed a deal with Finland's 3rd largest mobile operator DNA to market the MeeGo based smartphones in the Finnish market. According to Mobile Business Briefings, "The firm has struck a deal with Finland’s number-three mobile operator DNA, which has agreed to market Jolla smartphones based on its MeeGo-based ‘Sailfish’ platform in Finland "as soon as they enter the market.""

        Jolla has also partnered with ST-Ericsson for its chipsets. Sailfish OS already supports multiple chipset and further support is continuously being built for all the major chipsets. The company already has a deal with Chinese D.Phone to distribute Jolla powered devices in China.


      • Android

        • Google Nexus 10 32 GB Now In Stock, Nexus 4 May Be Coming
          The 32GB version of Google Nexus 10 is now in stock. I just ordered mine. The tablets (and Nexus 4) were sold out within a few minutes of going on sale. It did leave bruised experience for those who were waiting for these devices.


        • To patent or not to patent, that is the question


        • Google's Android is eating Apple's lunch
          Smartphones and tablets powered by Google's Android software are devouring the mobile gadget market, eating into Apple's turf by feeding appetites for innovation and low prices, analysts say.

          The Android operating system powered nearly three out of four smartphones shipped worldwide in the recently ended quarter as the mobile platform dominated the market, according to industry trackers at IDC.


        • Android Community Demands MIUI ROM Comply With FOSS Licenses
          A thorn in the side of many free software loving Android users, the Chinese MIUI ROM has long been accused of riding on the success of Android without fully complying with the free and open source licenses which it’s based on. MIUI’s developer, Xiaomi, has managed to cultivate a considerable fanbase for their ROM, adding insult to injury for many opponents. Xioami has even been so bold as to put their own phone into production, running (naturally) their license-violating software.


        • Motorola's New Intel Atom Smartphone
          Motorola Mobility has announced a new Intel Atom smartphone for the Chinsese market, the MT788.










Free Software/Open Source



  • OSSEC 2.7 released
    OSSEC is Free Software, a GPL-licensed, host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS) that operates on a client-server model. Its development is sponsored by Trend Micro, a software security outfit based in Tokyo, Japan.


  • Web Browsers



    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Firefox 17.0 Stable out later today
        Mozilla is currently preparing the release of Firefox 17.0 stable which will be later out today if no last minute issues emerge that delay the roll out of the update to all users of the stable version of the browser. We look at what’s new in Firefox 17 back when the Aurora channel got updated to the version, and the majority of features mentioned in that initial article made their way into the stable version as well. Aurora releases are about 12 weeks ahead of stable releases so that some things can change along the way.


      • Mozilla Firefox 17 ARMs Up and Gets Social
        Mozilla is out today with the Firefox 17 open source browser release, providing new user-facing features as well as improved security.

        Among the key highlights of the release is the SocialAPI that Mozilla first began testing at the end of October. The SocialAPI provides a new type of integration capability for Firefox, enabling a very vibrant user experience for social networking services.

        The first social network that Firefox is integrating with is Facebook, with more to come in the future. The initial beta period for the SocialAPI was a critical part of the development process.


      • Firefox 17 Gets Friendly With Facebook, Wary of iFrames






  • CMS

    • Top Open Source Learning Management Systems
      Open source Learning Management Systems have become extremely popular in recent years, but what does open source mean? Open Source technology is technology where the source code is “open”, that is, the code is available to the public and free to be modified. Improvements can be made by developers and it can be spread or sold to the wider community. So, why should an organization choose an open source Learning Management System as opposed to a homegrown or proprietary Learning Management System?




  • Public Services/Government

    • Freiburg Throws Away €600K
      They’ve done it. Freiburg, Germany, has voted 25 to 20 with 2 abstentions to upgrade M$’s office suite rather than OpenOffice.org or LibreOffice. The twits were using M$ Office 2K and OpenOffice.org 3.2.1, both obsolete versions… The vote could have been closer because 2 of the “yes” votes were Greens. It could have been 24 to 23 against…


    • German city dumping OpenOffice for Microsoft


    • Majority in Freiburg city council for switch to proprietary software
      The German city of Freiburg will end its use of open source suite OpenOffice and is switching back to using a proprietary alternative The city also abandon's its default use of the Open Document Format, confirms Green Party city council member Timothy Simms.




  • Openness/Sharing



  • Programming

    • The State Of 64-Bit ARM (AArch64) On LLVM/Clang
      ARM's AArch64 back-end for LLVM to handle the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture is working, but there's still more work ahead of the hardware's general availability in about one year's time.

      There's AArch64 in GCC's code-base with version 4.8 following months of development and its approval by the steering committee. Initial AArch64 architecture support was also merged into the Linux 3.7 kernel. However, on the LLVM/Clang side there hasn't been much public-facing news.


    • Google Parsing Of LLVM's Clang Compiler Errors






Leftovers



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