Devon IT plans to launch a tiny device called the Ceptor in July which you can plug into any TV or monitor to turn it into a thin client machine. Basically the Ceptor is a $99 device that’s small enough to fit in your pocket. It has an ARM-based processor and runs a Linux-based operating system, but it’s really designed to let you login to remote server running virtual desktop software.
I run My Linux Rig
We comes across Linux (Foss) in our day-to-day life. In fact we are surrounded by Foss technologies. The first thing that might come to the mind of ours is that why is Linux appraised so much even in Windows and Mac user Community.
The In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) System has received much of the focus from open source software initiatives in the automotive industry so far with the Automotive Grade Linux working group and the GENIVI alliance. But the instrument panel, which shares many technologies with IVI, is also ripe for development with Linux.
The instrument cluster will probably be the next focus of open source software development in the automotive industry, said Rudolf Streif, Director of Embedded Solutions at the Linux Foundation. Traditionally the instrument panel was a set of mechanical guages that monitored speed, engine temperature, fuel levels and more. Most dashboards are electronic now and will eventually be replaced by another screen and integrated with the IVI system, he said.
A few minutes ago, Greg Kroah-Hartman proudly announced that the third maintenance release for the stable Linux 3.9 kernel series is now available for download.
The second release candidate for the LinuThe second release candidate for the Linux 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn't have accepted later on in the release cycle. x 3.10 kernel is now out there. Torvalds released 3.10-rc2 on Monday with a few extra pulls that he wouldn't have accepted later on in the release cycle.
In working to enhance the performance of the Btrfs file-system in cases where certain data/files are frequently used, a set of patches for providing hot relocation support has been posted.
The Btrfs hot relocation support comes down to when storing data on a traditional (rotating) hard disk drive, when data gets "hot" (a.k.a. being frequently used), these patches would allow the data to be automatically migrated to a non-rotating disk (i.e. solid-state drive). By moving the frequently used data over to an SSD, the performance would obviously be much more optimal than keeping it on an SSD but making it so not all of your data would need to be stored on a costly SSD.
In revisiting the OpenGL graphics and gaming performance for an older Intel Core i5 "Sandy Bridge" Apple system, the Ubuntu 13.04 performance with Intel's open-source graphics driver is now easily surpassing Apple's OpenGL driver found in OS X 10.8.3.
With the public launch of Intel's beautiful Haswell CPU being imminent, Intel has released the xf86-video-intel 2.21.7 DDX driver that should support all of the Haswell PCI IDs.
When it comes to producing GUI prototypes, flowcharts, and other business diagrams, Microsoft’s Visio is often the go-to tool on the Windows platform. The Mac also has applications like the excellent Axure and OmniGraffle. When it comes to Linux, Evolus Pencil is one of the best for creating quality images quickly and easily.
The recently released QEMU 1.5 supports virtualisation with KVM on the Cortex A15 series of ARM cores. Another new addition is an experimental feature for passing through graphics chips from the host to the guest via VFIO; however, the feature is currently only thought to work reliably with some of the graphics chips. Both features rely on Linux kernel support that became available with Linux 3.9.
NCP Secure Enterprise Management 3.0 Honored as a Best Security Software Solution Category Finalist in The American Business Awards
UK vendor Igaware has announced support for the Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), enabling Igaware Linux Small Business Server customers to use Amazon S3 for off-site backup.
Opera Mobile after switching to Open Source WebKit engine from its own Presto, had released its first beta in February. Finally the updated mobile web browser is out of beta and available for download from Google Play Store.
Nearly one year ago I reported about a campaign on the online game sale platform GOG.com, which is requesting Linux game support. Although now, over 10000 users seconded the request, there are still no signs of Linux support on the platform so far. Recently one of our readers has brought other Linux petitions to our attention. Following petitions are trying to inspire game publishers to provide Linux support:
We have just released version 0.6.2 of KDE Telepathy, KDE's instant messaging client.
wanted to throw a little light on a feature that just landed in the Calligra repositories: A distraction-free writing mode for Calligra Author and Calligra Words.
The distraction-free mode means that we disable most UI elements and lets the user focus totally on the contents. This was one of the most asked-for features when I did a little survey half a year ago and asked which features that our potential users wanted. I say 'potential' because this was before the first release of Calligra Author and we didn't have any users at all by then.
This way you can decide that by default you want your highlighter to be green instead of yellow. Or even have two highlighters in the review bar.
Just two weeks after talking about a Qt 5 tool-kit port for the Tizen platform being worked on, the first release is now available.
Been quiet some time since my last blog about Krita, well, I had been a bit busy with college work. Nonetheless, with whatever time I had, and all the help from Boud, I have been able to import a particular feature from the Perspective Grid to the Perspective Assistant.
One of my favourite things about writing about Linux is when I decide to review one of the smaller distributions.
We worked hard and spend a lot of effort in creating this service release for Neptune 3.0. So if you like it please consider donating to us a small amount of money so we can further develop and strenghtens our efforts.
Mageia has long been what you might call a “best-kept secret” of the Linux world, consistently residing among the top five distributions in DistroWatch's page-hit rankings despite minimal marketing and hoopla.
The distro has only been around since it was forked from Mandriva Linux back in 2010, of course, but after several weeks' delay the Mageia project on Sunday finally launched the third major version of the free and open source operating system.
While the rest of Linuxdom was reading of the Debian 7.0 and Mageia 3 releases, the OpenMandriva gang have been hard at it trying to get their new distribution some attention. The OpenMandriva name was made official and an alpha was released into the wild.
To be honest, I have used quite a few KDE distros in last couple of years but never saw a resource efficient distro like Mageia 2. Under similar conditions, Mageia performed better than almost all the KDE distros I have used. Plus, with Mandriva Linux going commercial and PCLinuxOS becoming independent of Mandriva, Mageia and ROSA are perhaps the limited ways to know what's brewing in the Mandriva camp. Incidentally both the Mandriva derivatives present really beautiful KDE distros!
It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian "sid" at the time of the Debian "wheezy" release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release.
One of the biggest pitfalls for a new Debian (or Linux) user is attempting to remove an unwanted application than came installed with the Desktop installed. This can result in the Debian package manager informing the user that there are various packages which can be autoremoved. Allowing the package manager to autoremove these packages then removes packages essential to the Desktop environment, destroying the installation. Why?
Version 0.18 of Tails, The Amnesiac Incognito Live System designed for users who need to protect their privacy and be as anonymous as possible, has been released with a preview of a new feature which allows a custom list of packages to be installed and automatically updated each time a network connection is made. The new feature makes use of the persistent volume support in the distribution but users should be aware of the ramifications of using the persistence when attempting to leave no traces.
The story of Ubuntu and the Missing Community Link has progressed in the last week. A conflict that initially seemed symbolic of the division between Canonical employees and Ubuntu volunteers has since transformed into an illustration of Ubuntu's skill at handling community conflict.
For now, at least, the issue appears to have been resolved, although concerns linger about how to avoid similar divisions in the future.
The conflict arose when Canonical's design team removed the link to the community site from the main menu on the Ubuntu home page to a sub-menu at the bottom of the page. The change resulted in one-third fewer click-throughs to the community site, but more importantly, the change seemed to confirm fears of a continuing de-emphasis of the Ubuntu community.
As a result, Benjamin Kerensa and Mark Terranova, two prominent Ubuntu members, began a campaign to restore the position of the link. Much of the campaign was kept within conventional channels, but events reached a low point when Kerensa's private video that compared Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth to Adolf Hitler was briefly made public by Mark Terranova.
Recently there was yet another storm in a teacup that distracted us from creating and sharing Ubuntu and our flavors with others. I am not going to dive into the details of this particular incident…it has been exhaustively documented elsewhere…but at the heart of this case was a concern around the conduct in which some folks engaged around something they disagreed with. This is not the first time we have seen disappointing conduct in a debate, and I wanted to share some thoughts on this too.
To finish this aloud thinking, I really think that Ubuntu is doing something right. And that is, taking the important decisions fast, and sticking to a plan. I do not know if the path they are following will give them the final success, but I am sure that if the start listening everyone who disagree with that said path, they are never going to succeed.
It is time to test the third sibling in the Ubuntu family, the one named Kubuntu. So far, we've had Ubuntu, which was somewhat bland. Then we also had Xubuntu, which worked like a charm, except for a kernel oops thingie affecting the entire range, a silly thing to coincide with the official release. The KDE version is next.
Joshua Kiepert, a PhD candidate from Boise University, has built an awesome 32-way cluster from Raspberry Pis. Although clusters from Pi's have been made before, and even much larger, this is still a seriously cool project.
As we've covered before, when it comes to the top open source stories of the last 12 months, it's clear that one of the biggest is the proliferation of tiny, inexpensive Linux-based computers at some of the smallest form factors ever seen. The Linux-based Raspberry Pi, priced at $25 and $35, leads the pack among these devices.
But in a new twist on what Raspberry Pi devices are capable of, they're being chained together to form supercomputers and powerful clusters. If it sounds like a joke, you may be surprised at the enormous computing power these lash-ups are capable of. They may even have the power to democratize supercomputing-level data crunching at very low price points.
We recently set out to design a mini desktop computer with the wildly popular Raspberry Pi single board computer. The Raspberry Pi is a Linux-driven, ARM processor-based micro computer that is known for its low cost and small size. People use the device for a variety of projects, from micro-servers to low cost media players. Basically, our goal was to turn what is currently one of the cheapest bare-bones computer boards into a fully enclosed mini desktop computer that could be taken anywhere without the need for cabling or setup. One of the high level goals of this project was also to learn about programming with Linux and get a good feel for it with the Debian distribution.
Texas Instruments (TI) introduced a development kit for designs based on the TI OMAP5432 SOC (system-on-chip), which integrates dual 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore CPUs. The OMAP5432 EVM (evaluation module) targets high performance, graphically oriented, low power embedded applications such as human-machine interfaces, portable data terminals, digital signage, and medical monitoring devices.
Arduino has launched a new family of development boards and its first full robotics platform at Maker Faire Bay Area over the weekend. The Arduino Yún is the first release in a new line of Wi-Fi enabled boards and is based on the Arduino Leonardo coupled with an embedded Wi-Fi board running a MIPS variant of Linux. The Arduino Robot is the company's first robotics platform that is fully functional out of the box and consists of two boards connected by a ribbon cable which are equipped with motors, wheels and sensors in a circular design that is reminiscent of the Roomba. The design also features a color LCD screen, microSD card slot, a compass, LEDs and control elements.
QuickLogic has released Android 4.1.2 support for its custom Parallel Camera Interface (CAM I/F) chip for TI’s Sitara AM335x ARM Cortex-A8 SOC (system-on-chip). The new support, which comes in addition to earlier Linux support, adds Android compatibility to the BeagleBone’s 3.1-megapixel Camera Cape.
A fixed-rate timer is not part of the ARM specification, but most ARM-based SoC’s have such a timer. The Raspberry Pi is no exception. However, reading its timer in Linux takes a Unix hacker’s understanding.
At an online presentation today, Jolla Ltd. released further details around the Jolla phone and its Sailfish operating system, an open source OS based on the Linux Meego project. The world's first Jolla device was shown to an enthusiasic group of developers.
[...]
With Jolla, your other half, you have the ultimate freedom to let loose, innovate and individualize your own mobile world.
Jolla Ltd. opened pre-order voucher sales for the first smartphone to run its Sailfish OS, an open source distribution based on the Linux MeeGo project. The dual-core, 4.5-inch Jolla phone features a gesture UI, Android app compatibility, and interchangeable “Other Half” back covers that switch user profiles.
U.S. Cellular announced on Tuesday that the waterproof and shock-proof Kyocera Hydro XTRM will soon join its smartphone roster. the 4G LTE handset runs Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and features a 4-inch impact resistant display and1.2GHz dual-core processor, as well as Military Standard 810G certification (shock and drops) and IP57 certification (up to 3.28 feet of water for up to 30 minutes).
As part of its AOSP for Xperia project, Sony has released proprietary Wi-Fi drivers and OpenGL graphics libraries of its Xperia S smartphone, Xperia Z smartphone and Xperia Tablet Z. The company has opened GitHub repositories for all three devices that include Android source code from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP), the proprietary drivers and instructions to build AOSP images with the drivers and libraries and then install them on the company's devices.
The makers of tractors and other construction equipment are trying to drum up partners to sell its rough 'n' tumble Android smartphone.
Linux has gotten friendlier with Google's Chrome OS as well as with embedded chips running TVs and digital radios, with the release of the open-source operating system's latest kernel.
Mozilla REALLY cares about developers (as it should). To that end, more Firefox releases than not cater to developers with tools integrated into the browser that provide visibility into how a website or web app works. I have learned more about web dev by using Mozilla's tools and looking at the guts of website than any other source (by far).
Dell has scrapped plans to build public cloud services using OpenStack and VMware. Instead, Dell will defer customers to public cloud partners, while focusing more aggressively on private clouds.
IBM is giving its COBOL environment a cloudy flavour with an update to the ancient venerable and unkillable language.
To the cool kids, COBOL probably looks like a zombie, complete with loose bits of decaying flesh. However it still accounts for a vast amount of operational enterprise code that's too expensive to replace all in one hit.
In a major announcement from Dell yesterday, the company announced that its public cloud ecosystem and strategy will be centered on partners Joyent, ScaleMatrix and ZeroLag, and will emphasize recent acquisition Enstratius. The announcement represents one of the biggest snubs to the open source OpenStack platorm yet, as Dell had previously announced that its whole public cloud strategy would be built around OpenStack.
SugarCRM grew annual recurring revenue 30 percent in Q1 2013 vs. Q1 2012. Channel partners are embracing the company. Is there a longer-term exit strategy?
Ansgar Becker has announced the release of HeidiSQL 8.0, the latest version of the open source SQL client for Windows. The new version brings a query history function, supports search and replace in results and introduces folders for tables, views, routines and sessions that allow users to better organise the user interface. HeidiSQL supports MySQL, MariaDB, Percona Server and Microsoft SQL databases and enables database administrators to browse and edit data as well as import and export data from SQL files.
SQLite 3.7.17 was released yesterday. What makes this new release of the popular lightweight SQL database software noteworthy is that it introduces support for memory-mapped I/O.
For many people Apache OpenOffice and Libre Office, which I’ll call collectively FOs (Free Offices suites) for short, are nothing but “free, as in free beer” substitutes of Microsoft Office for basic to intermediate needs. Many users in this category may run the FOs for years without ever discovering some of their features, that is, without realizing the full power and flexibility of these tools.
The demand for expertise in open-source programming has come up fairly frequenly in recent months (here's an example). And the channel seems to be taking notice, as an announcement Tuesday by Pantheon of a partner program for connecting developers with expertise in Drupal, the open-source content management system (CMS), with organizations building enterprise-quality websites.
Drupal, which is now more than a decade old, is a key open-source technology behind the modern Web. Alongside alternative open-source CMS engines, like WordPress, Drupal makes it easier to build complex websites. It's the system behind some of the most popular sites out there, from McDonald's to the Linux Foundation to -- last but not least -- Britney Spears's homepage.
BSDTalk has a 12 minutes interview with Kris Moore (BSDTalk225) about PC-BSD, recorded at BSDCan 2013. Listen to the podcast as MP3 or OGG.
GNU Parallel 20130522 ('Rana Plaza') has been released. It is available for download at: http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parallel/
The changes for this release has been in the core of the code, so this release should be considered beta quality.
We are happy to announce the seventh GNU Hackers Meeting, which will take place from August 22 to August 25 2013 in Paris, France.
I'm pleased to announce that ktap release v0.1, this is the first official release of ktap project, it is expected that this release is not fully functional or very stable and we welcome bug reports and fixes for the issues.
Jira, Atlassian's issue tracker and management software, has received a user interface revamp and got a new mobile interface. Jira began life as a software development tool, but according to Atlassian, a recent survey found two thirds of the user base also used it for tasks other than software development. With this in mind, Atlassian set out to make Jira more modern and quicker to use.
On March 15, 2013, ComputerWeekly.com, the “leading provider of news, analysis, opinion, information and services for the UK IT community” published an article by Bryan Glick entitled: Government mandates 'preference' for open source. The article focuses on the release of the UK’s new Government Service Design Manual, which, from April 2013, will provide governing standards for the online services developed by the UK’s government for public consumption.
At a workshop on Citizen Cyberscience held this week at University of Geneva, a novel open source software platform called Crowdcrafting was officially launched. This platform, which already has attracted thousands of participants during several months of testing, enables the rapid development of online citizen science applications, by both amateur and professional scientists.
(The official launch had been planned to occur at the Boston Public Library but the temporary closing of the library due to the Boston Marathon tragedy prompted that event to be postponed until the fall.)
Most of these services now include "abstract factories" that are either registered by default or can be added to an application's configuration. The service manager uses abstract factories to handle multiple services that follow the same instantiation pattern, but which have different names. The developers have also implemented new plugin manager instances, Zend\Stdlib\Hydrator\HydratorPluginManager and Zend\InputFilter\InputFilterPluginManager. The first can be used for retrieving hydrator instances and, for example, allows custom hydrators to be used across all form instances, while the second makes it possible to retrieve input filters. This allows input filters to be reused and ensures that all input instances are provided with custom validators and/or filters. The developers have also added the new translators and sessions factories.
The move to cloud is seen as the ultimate form of product cannibalization for software vendors, since customers will be switching from high-end purchases to relatively low monthly payments.
Of course UKIP are not a real alternative. I said “do not despise UKIP supporters”, not “do not despise UKIP”. UKIP are a false “alternative” dangled by the mainstream media and the bankers. But the support for them is evidence that the public do very much want some alternative. I shall append this to the article as it must be more ambiguous than I thought.
There’s been a rash of mega-settlements between the government and the nation’s largest banks in recent years over allegations of foreclosing on people without just cause, knowingly making bad loans and reselling the debt, making false statements to rob from retired pensioners, laundering money for drug cartels, repressive regimes and terrorists, and agreeing to settlements and then ignoring them, to name a few.
The Texas-based Tea Party group True the Vote is claiming they were one of the groups inappropriately "targeted" by the IRS since their application for charitable status has been delayed for years. Although many Tea Party groups were singled-out by the IRS for improper reasons, there may be good reasons for the agency to take a close look at True the Vote's application for charitable status, particularly given the group's involvement with the Wisconsin "Verify the Recall" effort.
Freedom of conscience is one of the most fundamental human freedoms. This freedom is not merely about one’s ability to choose to believe or not believe in religion or a particular philosophy. In a democracy, freedom of conscience is about the ability to be critical of government and corporations, and to be free from the chilling fear that being critical will subject you to government surveillance.
Freedom of conscience is not fully realized in isolation. Without the ability to share one’s thoughts, to speak out about injustice, or to join with others in peaceably assembling to petition for redress of grievances, this core freedom is not truly free. Americans should be able to exercise these most sacred rights in free society without worry of being monitored by the government.
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information.
So Yahoo is buying its way into a crowded market to acquire a business that has no profits. Sounds like a disaster.
Australia's government is under fire after it appears to have introduced web censorship without warning and expanded already controversial powers to block access to child pornography into a wider web filtering system.
There's been concern recently about what mobile providers are doing with customers' data after a Sunday Times article on EE selling information about them. We've had a brief look at some of their customer data policies to try to work out what's going on.
In a positive step forward, the Government has announced that more than 1.1 million DNA profiles belonging to innocent people have so far been destroyed to allow new laws to be brought into force. In addition, 6.3 million DNA samples containing sensitive biological material, which are no longer needed as a completed DNA profile has been obtained, have also been destroyed.
Being completely (or even simply “mostly”) anonymous online tends to bring out the worst in people. Online game voice chat. Message forums. Blog comments. We've all seen it. The worst comments tend to come from someone who calls himself “NotAChance@NotReally.com” or something like that. (Note that I used the masculine pronoun - “himself” - because ladies tend to not do that sort of thing. Because ladies are, generally, better human beings than us men.)
Today we will appear before the House Judiciary Committee, and will argue that Congress should put to rest the question of military detention for domestic captures. More specifically, we will argue that Congress should state explicitly that such detention is not an option under the AUMF or the NDAA FY’12.
The manhunt for the Boston Marathon bombing suspects offered the nation a window into the stunning military-style capabilities of our local law enforcement agencies. For the past 30 years, police departments throughout the United States have benefitted from the government’s largesse in the form of military weaponry and training, incentives offered in the ongoing “war on drugs.” For the average citizen watching events such as the intense pursuit of the Tsarnaev brothers on television, it would be difficult to discern between fully outfitted police SWAT teams and the military.
While those of us who have been highly critical of the Obama administration since the beginning are happy to see this media-protected president finally face some close political scrutiny, this flurry of scandals is sadly just the tip of the iceberg. The IRS's targeting of conservative and Tea Party groups and the Justice Department's monitoring of Associated Press emails show an administration desperate and hungry to hold on to power at all costs. "Benghazi-gate" is an example of blowback, leadership failure, and a compliant media.
Kathleen McClellan: Some former Bush administration officials were quoted as saying, we'd never be able to get away with what the Obama administration has done
This Thursday, President Obama will deliver a speech on counterterrorism at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C.
...indefinite detention of American citizens without a warrant, Habeus Corpus, or the right to access legal representation..
Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, a nationwide "counter terrorism" apparatus emerged. Components of this apparatus include the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (U.S. DHS), the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), ODNI's "National Counterterrorism Center" (NCTC), and state/regional "fusion centers."
“There is a hidden country within the United States. It was formed from the astonishing number of secrets held by the government and the growing ranks of secret-keepers given charge over them.” So begins a synopsis of Deep State, a new book by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady.
Internet policy experts gather in Stockholm this week to grapple with online data protection and surveillance issues that everyone who surfs the web should care about, reports technologist Stefan Geens.
If you read this blog you must have an internet connection, so presumably have heard of 3D printing. It is a very disruptive technology with potential to change manufacturing in a variety of ways - and indeed even things such as medicine. I recently had some correspondence with Joshua Pearce whose engineering group is working on materials for use in 3D printing. He is concerned about a patent arms race in this area being drag on innovation. He is looking at creative ways to preempt some of the patent nonsense.
Are you familiar with the ISBN? A unique identifier issued by the U.S. Government to identify books? Did you know that the U.S. Government has granted a private company Bowker a monopoly over issuing them? They are very proud of it...as if it is a good thing!
In the dimension of copyright, the issue of plagiarism often comes up. There is a common misunderstanding that there is a connection between copyright or plagiarism. Plagiarism is not generally a violation of copyright law - although in some cases where extensive copying takes place it may be. Rather it is a failure of attribution. Basically plagiarism is not illegal - but it is heavily punished through contract law. It is a good example of "why we don't need a law for that" contrary the oft expressed opinion if something is bad we need a law against it.