Programming News Picks: Focus on Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-16 23:26:19 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-16 23:26:19 UTC
Summary: 2014 news picks that focus on programming and development, especially of Free software or using Free software tools
Demise of Proprietary
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HTML5 developers queried recently by tools vendor Sencha remain dedicated to building apps via Web technologies, even as doubts have been cast on how effective HTML5 is vis à vis native development. Many of those same developers, however, have dropped support for the classic Microsoft Windows platform.
Surveying 2,128 business application developers from the HTML5 development community, including users of its own tools, Sencha found that 70-plus percent of developers planned to do more with HTML5 in the 2013 timeframe than they had done the previous year. And 75 percent will work further with HTML5 in 2014. More than 60 percent of developers have migrated to HTML5 and hybrid development for primary applications. For the coming year, just 4 percent of HTML5 developers plan to cut back on HTML5.
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I still remember IBM's provocative announcement in 2001 that it was putting $1 billion toward the development and promotion of Linux. While such billion-dollar commitments from IBM are now so routine as to be unremarkable, back then a billion dollars meant a lot. I was working for an embedded Linux vendor at the time, and most of our sales cycle was spent explaining why GPL-licensed Linux wasn't the technology equivalent of terminal cancer. (Thanks in part to Microsoft's contribution.)
Google
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The second video features Jason Hibbets's full interview with Chris DiBona Open Source Director at Google. Find out how DiBona measures his performance, why he once called open source "brutal," and more on working for Google and the future of open source.
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Over 280 attendees representing 177 mentoring organizations gathered for a two-day, code-munity extravaganza celebrating the conclusion of Google Summer of Code with the annual Mentor Summit held at Google in Mountain View, California.
GitHub
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GitHub's position as the repository of choice for open source community projects is today one of dominance, most would argue.
Officially often referred to as a "web-based revision control service" (rather than simply a software code repository), this classification is an obvious nod to the site's inherent level of active community involvement as open projects are continuously developed, refined and augmented.
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So, what’s the problem? Well, that’s simple. It seems that Fox News’ technology department –run by a motley crew of half-witted quick-study-types– failed to explain GitHub, and also disregarded both spelling and punctuation in favor of adopting what I would describe as a rogue journalistic style; a style that exists far beyond the confines of traditional English language rules. It is now with great pleasure that I flog the holy-hell out of the following screen capture in an attempt to make them cry.
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I have an open source script for a specific site (I'm trying not to call anything by name here) that a few other developers and I recently moved to GitHub. We've been joined by several new developers since we moved to the new system, including one very active one in particular. However, this active one has started changing a lot of the project.
First of all, he deleted our versioning system (not like Git, but like that—we called it versions v4.1.16) and said it would be better to simply push the code to the site when we think it's ready. Now there's no centralized place to put release notes, which has become annoying.
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GitHub has become the de facto repository for open source projects. So, we were excited for the opportunity to sit down with GitHub's co-founder and CIO Scott Chacon during the All Things Open Conference in Raleigh, NC.
Python
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One year ago the Puerto Rico Python Interest Group (prPIG) was founded on one purpose; to create a sustainable user community based on software development in Puerto Rico. On February 20, 2014 we will celebrate our first anniversary with an open format meeting with lightning talks from the community.
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Programming languages are crucial to a programmer as they boosts their productivity. Keeping in mind the fact that programmers may not be comfortable with all the coding languages around, we thought of compiling a list of programming languages set to make it big in 2014.
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Python community, friends, fellow developers, we need to talk. On December 3rd, 2008 Python 3.0 was first released. At the time it was widely said that Python 3 adoption was going to be a long process, it was referred to as a five year process. We've just passed the five year mark.
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In an article entitled “Python Displacing R As The Programming Language For Data Science,” MongoDB’s Matt Asay made an argument that has been circulating for some time now. As Python has steadily improved its data science credentials, from Numpy to Pandas, with even R’s dominant ggplot2 charting library having been ported, its viability as a real data science platform improves daily. More than any other language in fact, save perhaps Java, Python is rapidly becoming a lingua franca, with footholds in every technology arena from the desktop to the server.
Git
LLVM
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It looks like there's finally going to be stable point releases of the LLVM compiler infrastructure for pushing out bug-fixes quicker, whether you're using the Clang C/C++ compiler or depending upon LLVM for your GPU driver compiler back-end.
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It's nearly one month late but the LLVM 3.4 compiler infrastructure is now available with the updated Clang C/C++ compiler front-end, the usual LLVM sub-projects, and also some new compiler tools.
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The release of LLVM 3.4 is imminent and with the major compiler infrastructure upgrade comes update to the Clang C/C++ compiler front-end, LLDB debugger, and other LLVM sub-projects. LLVM 3.4 is a very righteous release and in celebration of its forthcoming release, it's back into compiler benchmarking season at Phoronix.
Ruby
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Ruby 2.1 has many improvements including speedup without severe incompatibilities.
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The Ruby project has done a new major release on Christmas for their popular programming language. Ruby offers performance speed-ups but without severe incompatibilities, according to the release announcement.
Misc.
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Regular readers of this column won't be surprised to hear that I love both Ruby on Rails and PostgreSQL. Rails has been my primary server-side Web development framework for about eight years, and it has managed to provide solutions for a large number of consulting and personal projects. As for PostgreSQL, I've been using it for about 15 years, and I continue to be amazed by the functionality it has gained in that time. PostgreSQL is no longer just a relational database. It's also a platform supporting the storage and retrieval of many types of data, built on a rock-solid, ACID-compliant, transactional core.
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In the sometimes dark and mysterious world of computers, I see open source programming and community around it as a force of good. Open source sparks and kindles a connection between people that I think is hard to find elsewhere in programming. Working with open source, a programmer builds important and powerful collaboration skills. This is significant because many of us (programmers and self-proclaimed nerds) are rather antisocial. Open source programming helps us cultivate social behaviors like sharing, improved communication, and collaborating towards a common goal.
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So by the mid-1980s, programming in schools was surging...
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The Checkpoint-Restore Tool has reached version 1.0 as part of the CRIU project. Checkpoint/Restore In Userspace allows for users to freeze running applications and checkpoint it to the hard drive as a file and that checkpoint can then be restored to a running process later on. CRIU is different from suspend-and-resume with the Linux kernel in that this is a tool for handling individual programs and it is implemented in user-space.
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The development team behind the Clutter software, a library for creating compelling, portable, dynamic and fast graphical user interfaces (GUI), has announced a few days ago that the second maintenance release of the stable Clutter 1.16 branch is available for download.
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Jim Kukunas of Intel OTC published the set of 13 patches on Monday that include medium and quick deflate strategies, a faster hash function with SSE 4.2 support, PCLMULQDQ-optimized CRC folding, SSE2 hash shifting, and other changes/tuning.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Firefox in Trouble in the US, Down to Lowest Level in 20+ Years
- more sites will stop or intentionally neglect Firefox support
- Clownflare: More Than 1 in 5 Laptops or Desktops in El Salvador Run GNU/Linux or ChromeOS
- Clownflare Radar reckons it's more like 20%+ now
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- Links 20/08/2026: 'Linux' Foundation Promoting Slop Hype for Money (Hype as a Service), Malaysia’s Exports Jump 38% Year-on-Year
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 20/08/2026: A "Break From Routine" and "Modem Was the Problem"
- Links for the day
- Clownflare Reckons GNU/Linux is on Almost 1 in 10 Laptops/Desktops in Western Europe
- Western Europe and China are leaving more of GAFAM behind them
- Looking Ahead at September
- Rianne and I look forward to a productive September
- Links 20/08/2026: Facebook "Ran Ads for an App That Promised to Nudify Female Politicians" and Facebook Faces "Social [Control] Media Addiction Trial"
- Links for the day
- Clownflare Sees GNU/Linux at 16% Market Share on Desktops/Laptops in Tajikistan
- in Tajikistan it seems like adoption of GNU/Linux is exceptionally high, based on a very large data set associated with Web access
- The Demise of Social Control Media Continues
- Entering (anew) social control media in 2026 seems foolish
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 155 Out of 200: Throwing Stones in Houses Made of Glass
- character-assassination-as-a-service
- Gemini Links 20/08/2026: Planners, Pantsing, Vinylyssee
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 19, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, August 19, 2026
- Gemini Links 19/08/2026: "Big Boost in Autonomy" and "Answer of E-Mail"
- Links for the day
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 154 Out of 200: Computer-Generated Legal Filings From Men Who Are Salaried by Mass Plagiarism Companies in Another Continent (America)
- This isn't the behaviour of a moral person but of some sort of "crypto bro" or "slop bro"
- Fired by IBM for Medical Leave, Rampant Censorship of IBM Critics Explained
- We've already caught and showed many cases where thelayoff.com deleted comments that were not even remotely racist
- Links 19/08/2026: First Amendment Under Fire by White House of Cards, "Universities Were Forced to Pay Up" for Not Censoring
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/08/2026: What Friendship Means, Sm0lNet/SmolNet, and New Feeds
- Links for the day
- Omarchy is Already Dying
- Same as the life cycle of slopfarms
- No, WSL (Windows With Fake 'Linux') Isn't Growing Faster Than Ubuntu, This Was Disinformation Spread by a Microsoft Propaganda Site, Then Spread by Slopfarms
- Be sceptical; Microsoft is truly desperate for anti-Linux spin right now, seeing that Windows is in a freefall
- Microsoft's Mass Layoffs Impact the Ability to Run Microsoft
- Can Microsoft still run Microsoft?
- Microsoft's Active Directory ("AD") and "Entra" Are National Security Threats
- Even the US government concluded Microsoft could not be trusted for security; it issued a formal report about it in April 2024
- Instant Impact: GNU/Linux Skyrockets to 10% in China Days After Policy Changes
- Let's see what the 'aftermath' looks like by year's end
- Links 19/08/2026: Timothy James King (AmigaDOS) Dies, GitHub Goes Offline, Finland Wants to Shun Social Control Media
- Links for the day
- Slop's Achilles Heel: It Increases the Workload, Not Just Costs
- Set aside its inability to scale well
- Improving techrights.org
- Technical debt (like 17 years with WordPress) is something that's better to address early, not later
- Mass Layoffs at Dropbox, Blame the Debt, Not Slop Hype
- The debt of Dropbox Inc., which isn't an imaginary (estimated) thing, is over 4 billion dollars
- Microsoft is 'Angel of Death' to Developers (Even Its Own), 'Voluntary' Layoffs Happening Again
- From what we are hearing and reading, there are 'voluntary' layoffs again
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 18, 2026
- Gemini Links 19/08/2026: Shirts, Handwriting, and Fights in Geminispace
- Links for the day
- Laos Leaving GAFAM Behind, Gradually
- Yesterday evening it was measured at 10% for GNU/Linux at one point
- They Were Wrong All Along
- Two women combined won't deliver a healthy baby in just 4.5 months
- A "Tech Journalist" Would Not Cover Vote on LLMs as a Sex Issue
- For a moment there you have to pause and wonder, is this a "Tech Journalist" or the Daily Stormer?
- 20,000 by Year's End
- The "New Techrights" will have 20,000 pages by year's end
- Last Night GNU/Linux Measured at 9% in Africa
- Nighttimes in Africa are times when GNU/Linux usage on desktop/laptop devices typically surges, based on Clownflare [...] It changes in favour of GNU/Linux
- Gemini Links 18/08/2026: Google Bait and Switch (Getting College People 'Hooked' on 'Cheap' Storage, Then Backups Gone), a "Question of E-mail"
- Links for the day
- Bluesky is in Trouble
- Bluesky is a private company (unlike Bluesky Digital Assets Corp. in Toronto, that one runs a pyramid scheme!), so it's hard to know for sure just how much money it is losing
- China Says Goodbye to Microsoft
- It is hardly surprising that Windows is shedding off userbase all around the world
- Links 18/08/2026: US Abandons South Korea, New Legal Disputes Over Slop Plagiarism in the Music Scene
- Links for the day
- Linux Losing Interest in Users' Freedom, Pursues DRM Instead
- "Linux" is (or was, as GNU/Linux) meant to empower - not artificially restrict - the users
- GNU/Linux in Ecuador and Colombia: Growing, Still Below International Average
- locals turn away from Windows and try GNU/Linux instead
- IBM is Dead or Dying. Now It Asks Workers to 'Resign' Voluntarily.
- To save face, to pretend no layoffs are happening (as it might alarm shareholders) [...] We keep hearing more and more stories like that
- Links 18/08/2026: Sergey Brin Controlling State Policies, "Dario Amodei's (Anthropic) Wife Is Closely Linked to Jeffrey Epstein"
- Links for the day
- SBS News Interviews Daniel Pocock
- The locals say this PR stunt (by the bigot, Farage) was a waste of money
- Clownflare Sees One in 7 Web Requests in Libya Originating From GNU/Linux
- GNU/Linux has taken a (foot)hold there
- Openwashing and Manifestos Composed in Private by Dictators With Deliberately Addictive (and Subsidised, Bundled) 'Tech'
- It's long, so make a cuppa first
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 153 Out of 200: Decades of Debt, Weaponising Borrowed Money to Try to Put Their Critics in Debt
- they've always had a financial report by now
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 17, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 17, 2026
- Gemini Links 18/08/2026: Solar Power, Kipple and Impermanence, Catastrophe Ethics
- Links for the day