Links 18/8/2013: Free/Open Source Software News
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2013-11-19 10:56:09 UTC
- Modified: 2013-11-19 10:56:09 UTC
-
For most tech professionals, the words “open source operating system” naturally translate to Linux. And so it's understandable that those same tech pros would be a bit confused by startup Cloudius Systems' announcement in September of a new open source operating system for the cloud, OSv.
-
Records obtained by DBA Press and the Center for Media and Democracy (DBA/CMD) shed new light on a technology, OpenMIND, utilized by law enforcement/counter-terrorism fusion center personnel in gathering and analyzing mass amounts of "open source intelligence" derived from the online lives of Americans.
-
Andy’s first point began with an astute observation. Open source software is often discussed in terms of being a "stack" (LAMP, for instance). It is no longer a stack, however, but a tower. A tower that spans software and hardware. With the source or schematics being available, not only can we stand on the shoulders of the giants of our field but on the shoulders of everyone who contributes. It’s an embarrassment of riches.
-
From simple bookkeeping packages to full-blown ERP systems, open source software can provide free options for small businesses that don't have the budget for big-ticket enterprise applications.
-
In August, the Fedora Project held its first Flock conference, a replacement for the North American and European FUDCon (Fedora Users and Developers Conference) events. Flock was a four-day, planned conference with talks, workshops, and hackfests, in contrast to FUDCon's barcamp model. In the interest of reaching beyond the community and reminding everyone that Fedora is so much broader than just a Linux project, the invited keynote speakers were from open source areas outside of the Fedora Project. One of those keynotes was by Dave Crossland, creator of the open font Cantarell and an active part of the free font movement.
-
The hobbies that inspired the scientific curiosity of my generation were Erector Sets, Science Fair Electronic Kits from Radio Shack and model rockets with balsa wood fins that we meticulously assembled and painted. While these toys piqued our curiosity in science and engineering our ability to share our discoveries were limited by geography. These fascinating distractions were often purpose-built and confined our creativity within their intended purpose.
-
This story is definitely a first for me. Not just because every story is unique in itself, but that it’s one of personal matter. The thing is, I quit my well-paid job, just to spend time on the things I’m very passionate about: open source development and information security. Not only was quitting my job a serious step, also the decision to share my personal story after 10+ years of working with open source software and security. Well, here you go. It’s my hope to intrigue others, find their passion in life and also go for it!
-
Who wants to tackle the complex problem of helping educators create learning service agreements? I don’t see too many hands. How about you there, reading this article? Wait, you weren’t aware that this is an issue that impacts the education system? Well, here's an open source project that solves this problem and needs more collaborators.
-
For most of us, Google shutting down Reader was annoying. For Jacob Cook, it was a call to arms.
He’s now building an operating system that anyone can use to replace all of the services that Google provides — or any other cloud company, for that matter. Email, chat, file sharing, web hosting: With Cook’s arkOS, you’ll be able to run all of those essential services on a secure, private server in your own home that’s about the size of a credit card.
-
Facebook's HipHop Virtual Machine (HHVM) open-source project that's been seeking to implement a high-performance PHP, is in the middle of a lock-down and for three weeks they are focusing on nothing bot boosting the performance of their PHP implementation and seeking to hit feature parity.
-
There was nothing new in what Matt Dugan said. There were no ground breaking revelations. He just methodically made his case, point by point, explaining why open source was usually, if not always, the best solution for business.
To me, this was just what the doctor ordered. I’d just sat through a forty-five minute lecture in that very same room from an open core guy that had left me fearing that enterprise open source companies were just as greedy and potentially as unethical as the proprietary guys. Dugan fixed that and quickly reaffirmed my faith in the notion that open source is where the good guys live.
-
Mahout components implement popular algorithms and can be unplugged easily when no longer needed.
-
MediaCore CE is the community edition of MediaCore, a Web application that powers a multimedia hosted platform targeted towards the educational market and run by MediaCore, Inc. It is a Python application built atop the Django Web framework.
Published under the GNU General Public License version 3, MediaDrop is free to download and use. However, because it is a Django application, installing it is a little bit more involved than the point-and-click process commonly associated with PHP applications.
-
Wireless connectivity between devices and display monitors remains mostly fantasy today, Google's Chromecast notwithstanding. But it could become a big deal for tablets, smartphones and even traditional PCs in the future. And it may even work on Linux, if the nascent OpenWFD project succeeds—which would be very good news for open source hardware vendors.
-
The Gate One HTML5-powered terminal emulator and SSH client that goes without needing any browser plug-ins and supports many SSH/terminal features is working on bringing X11 support to the web-browser. The developer claims that this X11 support in the browser written in HTML5 will be fast enough to support video playback and he's made a video demo as proof.
-
Linux and MySQL are old news. Partners must now open their minds to NoSQL, Hadoop, KVM, OpenStack and OpenDaylight
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Last Week's EPO Strike Was the Biggest (Highest Participation Rate), Hours Ago General Assembly Discussed Next (Growing) Intensity of Strikes
- Well done and well attended
-
- Gemini Links 23/03/2026: "Mandatory" Bad Things and Dangers of Perfection Aspirations
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 20 Out of 200: All Roads Lead to Rome and to GAFAM Funding
- Now about 10% into this series
- Mass Layoffs at HashiCorp, IBM Hid Them
- The media did not mention those layoffs
- Microsoft Downgraded on Concerns (Lack of Growth) Amid Silent Layoffs in 2026
- The press isn't functioning anymore
- Links 23/03/2026: Gulf Water at Risk, Heatwave in Malaysia
- Links for the day
- Slop Means False, New Article by Cybershow
- "We are living in a world that is rapidly divesting from reality."
- Debianism election 2026 community poll created, everybody can vote
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Links 23/03/2026: "Shocking Peter Thiel Antichrist Lectures", Robert Mueller Remembered
- Links for the day
- The Scandal Bigger Than IBM/Red Hat Layoffs is the de Facto "Media Blackout" About Those Layoffs
- So we have a media crisis, aside from the economic crises
- Gemini Links 23/03/2026: Geminispace/Elpher Enhancement and the Cerberus Cinco
- Links for the day
- Fear is Not a Legitimate Factor
- Smart people know that trying to prevent moral people from doing the "Right Thing" will backfire
- Fuel Autonomy and What It Teaches Us About Software Autonomy (or Software Freedom)
- Need we wait until a "software Pearl Harbor" or protect ourselves proactively by weaning ourselves off of GAFAMware?
- Scheduled Maintenance This Coming Wednesday
- Other than that, all is the same and we carry on as usual
- Most Press Articles About IBM Are LLM Slop, Sometimes With Slop Images
- IBM basically laid off almost 1,000 people last week [...] At the moment about 75% of the 'articles' we see about IBM (in recent days) are some kind of slop
- Links 23/03/2026: Security Breaches, Energy Shortages, Another SRA Scandal, and Patents on Nature
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 22, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, March 22, 2026
- Streisand Effect and Justice
- This weekend this site has served over 8 million Web requests
- Gemini Links 22/03/2026: "Woman of Tomorrow" and "First Steps in Geminispace"
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 19 Out of 200: They Were Ill-prepared for Tough Questions in Cross-Examination
- Very ill-prepared for the deteriorating situation caused by their clients' past behaviour towards many people, including high-profile figures who offered to testify
- The Media Sold Out to Slop Bros
- If you wish for the hype to stop, then stop participating in it
- EPO Strike a Week From Now, After That Strikes Can Become Permanent
- A week from tomorrow there will be another strike
- The Only Non-IBM Staff in Fedora Council/Leadership Attacks Booting Freedom (Just Like the Master Wants)
- Last week IBM laid off almost 1,000 people in Confluent and the media didn't write anything about it, so don't expect anyone in what's left of the media to comment on Fedora's demise and silent layoffs at Red Hat
- Just Like a Founder of XBox Said, Microsoft XBox is Collapsing, Management Continue to Jump Ship
- Nowadays Microsoft tries to promote this idea that Windows is XBox and XBox is Windows
- Links 22/03/2026: Slop Triggers Emergency at Meta, Energy Prices Rise Sharply
- Links for the day
- Links 22/03/2026: Microsoft 'Open' 'AI' in Legal Trouble (Plagiarism, Distortion, Misrepresentation); Facebook/Meta Kills Off "Horizon Worlds"
- Links for the day
- Racism Dressed Up as "Choice"
- Racism is rampant at IBM
- Probably an All-Time Record
- Our investment in our own SSG is paying off
- Your Site Should Implement Its Own Search (Before It's Too Late)
- GAFAM was never trustworthy
- Gemini Links 22/03/2026: LLM Slop Attacks USENET, Announcing Pig (New Game in Gemini Protocol)
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 21, 2026
- IRC logs for Saturday, March 21, 2026
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 18 Out of 200: Third Parties Funding Attacks on the Messengers, Lawsuits Against GAFAM-Critical Voices That Uphold Real National Security
- Women are like kryptonite to them
- Never Trust People Who Write Their Own Wikipedia Pages (Vanity Pages About Themselves) or Ask Friends to Do So. Also: Jono Bacon is Married to Microsoft.
- We'd hardly be the first to point out Wikipedia isn't what it seems
- No Tolerance for Attacks on Family Members
- Being a Free software activist ought not lead to "collateral damage" like attacks on family members, including doxing
- Sirius Open Source is Just a Zombie Firm With Shell Entities
- Many companies fake their health and their size
- Communities Can Only Survive When Trust Prevails
- PCLinuxOS is still a vibrant and authentic community
- Techrights Was Always a Community Site
- The harder we're attacked, the more people participate in the site
- Maintenance Reminder
- We'll carry on publishing
- Behind the PR Smokescreen and Microsoft-Sponsored Chaff, Microsoft Layoffs in "AI" Alleged This Month
- In an age when ~1,000 simultaneous layoffs aren't enough to receive any media coverage, what can we expect remaining publishers to tell us about Microsoft layoffs in 2026?
- EPO "Cocaine Communication Manager" - Part VIII - Mobbing and Silencing of Dissenting Staff
- that's the very cornerstone of functional democracies with real opposition parties
- Bluewashing at Confluent: Some Workers to Leave Within 3 Months (IBM Mass Layoffs)
- Is the "era of AI" an era when none of the media will mention over 800 layoffs? [...] There's a lesson here about the state of the contemporary media, not just IBM and bluewashing
- Microsoft OpenAI, Drowning in Debt and Forced to Make Significant Cuts (as Reports Reveal This Month), Does Hiring Disguised as "Takeovers" to Fake Value or Alleged Potential
- Remember what happened to Skype last year
- Reader Shares Recent Memes on Slop and 'Coding' by LLMs
- "just some funny memes I thought were relevant to current coverage."
- Slop Does Not Replace Art, It Contaminates Everything With Reckless Nonsense
- many Computer Scientists do not want programs to get contaminated by slop
- Coders Don't Just Reject 'Vibe Coding' Because They're "Luddites", They Just Know the True Cost of Slop
- if some programmer says slop sucks, don't rush to assume selfishness or defence of one's occupation
- When Nobody Else Covers the News
- There's an obvious "media blackout" regarding the mass layoffs
- Links 21/03/2026: David Botstein Dies, Slop as Censorship Apparatus
- Links for the day
- Links 21/03/2026: Metastablecoin Fragmentation and Crescent Moon
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 21/03/2026: Historic Ada Docs; The Lurking LLM on the SmolNet
- Links for the day
- HSBC the Latest Failed Bank Using Slop as Excuse for Its Financial Failure
- "HSBC is planning on cutting as many as 20,000 jobs in the near future as the company allies with AI revolution."
- Invitation to General Assembly After 1,200 EPO Workers Participated in the Demonstration 3 Days Ago
- "the strike of 19 March was also very well followed."
- A/Prof Susan G Kleinmann, Enkelena Haxhija & Debian-private risk to MIT
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 20, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, March 20, 2026