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Links 28/4/2015: Plasma 5.3, Cutelyst 0.8.0





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



  • Desktop



    • Citrix Delivers Linux Virtual Desktop Offering
      Citrix is out with some interesting moves in the Linux virtual desktop arena. The company has a new kit called the “Linux Virtual Desktop Tech Preview” which is available here for XenApp or XenDesktop customers with active Subscription Advantage accounts. Citrix Partners can get it as well.


    • Chrome OS will get Lucid sleep mode
      François Beaufort, a Google developer, writes on his Google+ page that Chrome OS is receiving the ability to perform some Wifi functions while the device is sleeping.


    • VXL Launches Gio 6 Linux OS for its Suite of Thin, Cloud and Zero Client Desktop
      VXL Instruments has developed and designed exclusively in-house, VXL's new, industry-leading Gio 6 Linux operating system features a new look, user-friendly design together with greater flexibility, connectivity, security and multimedia capabilities.




  • Server



    • Linux vendor Cumulus rolls out management pack
      Linux network operating system developer Cumulus Networks this week at Interop rolled out a management platform that provides a common interface and operational process for data center racks.

      The Cumulus Rack Management Platform is based on the company’s Cumulus Linux network operating system code base. Out-of-band management switches running Cumulus RMP may be managed by the same Linux toolsets as both servers and data-plane switches running Cumulus Linux, the company says.


    • VMware Draws on Open Source to Manage Cloud Micro Services
      VMware last week released details about two new open source projects that aim to bridge the divide between the company's virtualization software and other vendors' containers. Both projects integrate into VMware's unified platform for the hybrid cloud, allowing the company to create a consistent environment for cloud-native and traditional applications.






  • Kernel Space



    • A Brief Update On Fwupd For Linux Firmware Updating Of Devices
      One of the latest focuses of prolific free software developer Richard Hughes has been on fwupd, an open-source and easy way to update device firmware.

      Fwupd is part of the initiative to make updating of UEFI/BIOS easily from the Linux desktop and fwupd can be used for updating the firmware of peripheral devices like Richard Hughes' ColorHug device.


    • Updating OpenHardware Firmware
      One of the use-cases I’ve got for fwupd is for updating firmware on small OpenHardware projects. It doesn’t make sense for each of the projects to write a GUI firmware flash program when most of them are using a simple HID or DFU bootloader to do basically the same thing. We can abstract out the details, and just require the upstream project to provide metadata about what is fixed in each update that we can all share.


    • Graphics Stack



      • AMD Radeon R9 290 OpenGL On Ubuntu 15.04: Catalyst vs. RadeonSI Gallium3D
        While I've posted some new AMD OpenGL benchmarks on Ubuntu 15.04 since last week's release of the Vivid Vervet, the Radeon R9 290 wasn't tested since at that time this Hawaii graphics card was busy on other Phoronix test systems. However, due to the interest level in seeing some fresh Ubuntu 15.04 numbers for the Radeon R9 290 series, here's some numbers.


      • Nouveau NVC0 Gallium3D Driver Now Exposes GLSL 4.10
        While there's still more work to be done before advertising OpenGL 4.0~4.1 compliance, the Nouveau NVC0 Gallium3D driver is now advertising support for GLSL 410 (4.10), the GL Shading Language version to match OpenGL 4.1.


      • GTX 750 Maxwell Acceleration Starts Working On Nouveau With Linux 4.1
        While the Nouveau developers remain blocked by NVIDIA on bringing up accelerated support for the GeForce GTX 900 series, with the forthcoming Linux 4.1 kernel there is initial GeForce GTX 750 "Maxwell" accelerated support out-of-the-box.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments/WMs



  • Distributions



    • BackBox Linux 4.2 Is a Complete Penetration Testing Distro Based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS [corrected URL]
      BackBox Linux, a distribution based on Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS, developed perform penetration tests and security assessments has just received a new update and is now ready for download.


    • New Releases



    • Screenshots/Screencasts



    • Red Hat Family



      • Fedora



        • CUDA enabled programs
          There is a new repository available with CUDA enabled programs in package format. This contains programs that have been linked to CUDA libraries or have CUDA support enabled. At the moment this is available only on Fedora 21, if there is sufficient feedback I will enable it also for other distributions.


        • Making It Easier To Deploy CUDA On Fedora
          While Fedora 21 ships with decent OpenCL support, if you're running the binary NVIDIA graphics driver on Fedora Linux and wishing to use CUDA-accelerated programs, it's a little bit easier today thanks to a new third-party package repository.


        • FLISOL Panama 2015 Report
          Panama Fedora team participated in Festival Latinoamericano de Instalación de Software Libre (FLISOL) given on Saturday, April 25th at Universidad del Istmo, main campus.






    • Debian Family



      • Debian 8.0 Jessie Debuts After Two Years of Effort
        New Debian releases don't occur every day, or even every year. This past week, Debian 8.0 codenamed Jessie was released after nearly two years of development effort. Debian is the first major milestone update for the GNU/Linux distribution since Wheezy was released in 2013.


      • why not trying to package Hadoop in Debian?
        OpenStack Sahara already provides the reproducible deployment system which you seem to wish. We “only” need Hadoop itself.


      • Backporting and git-buildpackage
        For working with Debian packages, one method of maintaining them is to put them in git and use git-buildpackage to build them right out of the git repository. There are a few pitfalls with it, notably around if you forget to import the upstream you get this strange treeish related error which still throws me at first when I see it.


      • Derivatives







  • Devices/Embedded



    • Arrow Electronics Joins Open-Source Software Pioneer Linaro to Help Bring Innovative New Boards to Market


    • Compact embedded PC runs Linux on Bay Trail
      Aaeon’s ruggedized, 158 x 95 x 20mm “Boxer-6403″ PC offers Celeron or Atom SoCs, plus four USB ports and double helpings of GbE, serial, and mini-PCIe I/O.


    • Phones



      • Tizen



        • Learn more about the Tizen Web Application Development Process
          Tizen is a new Linux based HTML5 centric Operating System that will offer developers a great opportunity for developers to bring their existing or new apps to a brand new ecosystem, where they actually have a chance of being discovered, and better still stand a chance of generating some real cash revenue.


        • Samsung’s 4K SUHD Smart Tizen TV
          The Samsung Smart TV revolution is upon us, and Samsung promises to redefine your viewing experience with television. We now have curved screens that feel more natural to watch as we see the world in a non-linear way, so why should we watch TV on a flat screen?

          Samsung Tizen TV offers some great image quality and promises to be able to become the Smart hub of your Smart home, allowing you to control peripheral devices from the comfort of your armchair.




      • Android



        • Android could ignite the Nokia of old
          For an entire generation, the name Nokia will stir up a lot of emotion. From the iconic 3210 to the symbolic N95, the pre-smartphone years were Nokia’s heyday and a large majority of current smartphone users will be able to recall using a Nokia handset in their past.


        • Disney's Infinity Digital Toys Finally Come To Android With The Toy Box 2.0 App
          If you're not familiar with Disney Infinity, it's basically the media giant's answer to digital toys like Skylanders, Angry Birds Telepods, and Nintendo Amiibo. The gist is that you buy your kids RFID-enabled collectible statues, they stick 'em on a base station, and then they can use digital versions of those characters inside the Disney Infinity game. Is there a technical reason that a completely digital character needs a $15 hunk of physical plastic to unlock? Why certainly, so long as "technical reason" includes "making Disney a boatload of money."


        • Google blushes over Google Maps showing Android icon urinating on Apple icon
          As of Monday, all was well in Pakistan's Ayub National Park, at least as far as Google Maps was concerned, which was showing it as a verdant green swath of pixels.

          It was a nice change from the image of Google's Android icon peeing on an Apple logo: an image that a map prankster uploaded to Google Maps and which had stayed up for an undetermined time.


        • Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Play Edition to get Android 5.1 Lollipop
          The Galaxy S4 may be more than two years old now, but it’s still very much a part of Samsung’s Lollipop upgrade plans. The device has already received an Android 5.0 upgrade, and according to a new report, Google Play Edition variants will get Android 5.1, too.


        • Will This Android Wear Update Fend Off the Apple Watch?
          Meanwhile, Google has kept the ability to customize Android Wear low compared to Android for smartphones and tablets, which has caused several manufacturers to experiment with homegrown solutions. These updates keep Android Wear's feature set compelling enough to keep most OEMs from venturing out on their own.


        • The Livescribe 3 smartpen finally works with Android devices
          Livescribe has been in the business of merging physical content you generate — things like hand-written notes and voice recordings — with the digital world for years now. The Livescribe 3 "smartpen," which launched in the fall of 2013, was certainly its most successful attempt to date. The combo of the Livescribe 3 pen alongside specially designed notebooks meant that you could take traditional notes, make drawings, do calculations, or anything else you do with a pen and paper and have them synced to your phone, tablet, or computer. That’s assuming you were an iOS user, of course — the Livescribe 3 only supported Apple’s mobile devices.


        • Samsung Galaxy Android 5.1 Release Details Arrive
          While the Android 5.1 update probably won’t be hitting the Samsung Galaxy S6, Galaxy S5 or Galaxy Note 4 anytime soon, it does appear that the rumored Galaxy Android 5.1 Lollipop update will be hitting at least one device in the near future.










Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • Security



  • Transparency Reporting



  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife



    • ‘All Weather Is Part of Actual Climate’


    • Climate change could drive air conditioning to boost carbon emissions
      The climate is full of feedback loops. When a warming climate melts sea ice, the water that's left behind reflects far less sunlight, leading to a further warming. Now, some researchers at the University of California Berkeley have looked at a human feedback loop: the relation between climate change and air conditioning. Using Mexico as an example, they find that the rising use of air conditioning may boost the country's electricity use and carbon emissions by 80 percent before the century is over—but only if economic growth continues at a pace that allows people to buy air conditioners.






  • Finance



    • The End of a Job as We Know It
      The concept of a job, as we know it, is starting to go away.


    • Wall Street Halts Twitter Trading Following Earnings Leak (Liveblog)
      Wall Street briefly halted trading for Twitter stock Tuesday afternoon after the company’s Q1 earnings were leaked early.

      Twitter missed analyst’s revenue projections, and the market reacted as Twitter stock quickly dipped almost 6 percent before trading was halted. Trading then resumed, and the stock finished the day down more than 18 percent.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Vouchers on the Move: Return to School Segregation?
      Twenty-five years ago, Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson signed the nation's first school voucher bill into law. Pitched as social mobility tickets for minority students, Wisconsin vouchers allow children to attend private, and sometimes religious, schools on the taxpayers' dime.




  • Censorship



    • Salman Rushdie: The authors boycotting event awarding Charlie Hebdo a prize for free speech are 'pussies'
      Salman Rushdie has accused fellow authors, including Peter Carey and Michael Ondaatje, of being “pussies” for boycotting an event organised by the free-speech organisation PEN at which the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo is to be given an award.


    • Rieder: Why 'Charlie Hebdo' deserves free speech award
      A debate has erupted over the decision by PEN American Center to give its annual Freedom of Expression Courage Award to the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

      It was at the offices of Charlie Hebdo that an assault by Muslim extremists in January left 12 people dead, including the publication's top editor and a number of prominent cartoonists.


    • Demonoid Blocks Adblock Users – Fair or Fail?


      Demonoid, once one of the Internet's most popular torrent sites, is now barring users who try to visit the site with advert blocking software Adblock installed. The move raises some interesting questions, not least the value of revenue to torrent sites and the intricacies of whether or not content really should be 'free'.




  • Privacy



  • Civil Rights





Recent Techrights' Posts

Gemini Links 09/08/2026: Meatballs (1979), Gopher, RSS Experiment
Links for the day
IBM's "Next Step" Program
Apparently close to 1,000 people being laid off by IBM wasn't worth reporting
If GNU/Linux Rising is Just "Bots" (It's Not, Many Surveys Show the Same), Why Does Microsoft Rush to Lie About System Requirements of Vista 11?
The real reason is, GNU/Linux is rising
 
Links 09/08/2026: US Blackouts (Energy Wasted), Slop to Evade Accountability, and Software Patents Framed as "Hey Hi"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/08/2026: Parakeets in Britain and Rant About 'Modern' Washing Machines
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2026: Social Control Media Weaponises Immigration, Europe Suffers Severe Drought, and "Internet of Stuff" Explained
Links for the day
SLAPP Censorship - Part 144 Out of 200: The "Hired Guns" ("Media" at BW) Shrank Almost Three-Fold Since They Sued Us in 2024
No wonder they're so visibly outnumbered
10 Days Ago Red Hat Formally Terminated Employment of About 500 Technical Workers (the Media Didn't Mention This)
IBM has nothing left to do except fire people (in secret) whilst attacking sites that give these people a voice
Freenode Continues to Shed Off Servers and Users, Good Thing We Abandoned It
you cannot sell communities. It leads to chaos
Daniel Pocock in the Sunday Times (Today)
Expect the attacks (from Pocock's haters, motivated by envy) to intensify
Controlling One's Platform
We need to strive for or actively pursue a Web where everyone has their own platform/s and where censors ("moderators") have no direct control over these platforms
Improving the Static Site Generator (SSG), Fixing Bugs
Next month the site's SSG turns 3
2026: The Year Richard Stallman Came Back to American Campuses
There's more on the way
XBox is Rotting Away, Technical Issues for Second Time in Two Weeks
XBox is dying
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, August 08, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, August 08, 2026
Red Hat is in Need of a 'Jolla', as an IBM-Controlled Red Hat is Becoming Like the Microsoft-Infiltrated Nokia
Dying fast, partly by design
Gemini Links 08/08/2026: Gigs, Poems, SREs, and Shared Passion
Links for the day
Kompromat Tactics in GNU and Linux
Kompromat as a concept was covered here in the past in relation to Microsoft
SLAPP Censorship - Part 143 Out of 200: After Nearly 10 Attempts to Settle With Us and Over a Million Pounds Spent on Lawyers and Barristers
We are in no particular hurry
20 Years and 43 Years
GNU/Linux is not just code, it's a philosophy, licence (copyleft), and community
GNU/Linux Turns 43 Next Month, Many Distros Actively Maintained
A lot of Debian-based distros are still actively maintained (we talk about this in IRC this evening), so the stability of the Debian Project is important
Links 08/08/2026: GAFAM Colonialism "Paved Over Protected Wetlands", Slop Companies Hoard Software Patents as Debt Soars to Trillions
Links for the day
Links 08/08/2026: "Palantir Paid No Federal Income Tax" and "Who's Responsible for This Mess?"
Links for the day
Retained: The Time IBM's Red Hat Tried to Hijack or Take Offline Site of Critics, Failed on All Grounds (Meritless Action Intended to Harass Critics)
Replicated from adrforum.com
IBM's 'Final Solution': Censor Sites Not Controlled by IBM, Sites Where Dissent is Expressed
IBM has no culture of free speech
More Mass Layoffs Coming IBM's Way (Ones IBM Cannot Hide, Cannot Convince Enough People to Leave or Unjustifiably PIP Them When They Say No)
The company that was like a "father of modern computing" is now stingy when it comes to travel. Not a good sign.
What Will it Take for Mainstream Media to Report Silent or Secret Layoffs at IBM?
"Silent" or "secret" sometimes because the media won't cover them
Is the Future of IBM Red Hat Temporary Staff, Contractors?
They want cheap, obedient lemmings
Gemini Links 08/08/2026: Tribute to Lloyd Center, Radio Amateurism, Homeworlds
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 07, 2026
IRC logs for Friday, August 07, 2026
Microsoft Uses Slop to Find Defects and Then Uses Slop to Replace Code, What Could Go Wrong?
Botspam is the problem, it's not a constructive approach in any shape or form
analytics.usa.gov: GNU/Linux Up Some More This Week
Days ago it said 6.4%, now it's up to 6.8%
RA-pocalypse: IBM Tells Workers "Taking a Hike" is Their "Next Step" ('Voluntary' Layoffs), Now It Prepares to Sack Lots of Contractors
There definitely is something going on
Legal Attacks on Techrights Have Made Techrights More Popular and More Widely Read
The misogynists will have plenty of work to do this summer
Kai Stephens (Barkley Walsh) & British Democrats in Clacton by-election hustings
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Daniel Pocock 'Punching' Nazis in the UK
The so-called "cult" of so-called "Debianism" was left with nothing but massive legal bills
SLAPP Censorship - Part 142 Out of 200: GemText is Not a Webpage, Gemini Protocol is Not the Web, and Capsules Are Not Websites
our intention to appeal (escalate to the Court of Appeal)
Microsoft: Our August 2026 Layoffs Are Not Layoffs Because... Reasons
That's like IBM making "spin-offs", then pretending that no layoffs are happening
Links 07/08/2026: UMG and Anthropic in Trouble Over Copyright Infringements Sold as "Training" (Slop)
Links for the day
Links 07/08/2026: "BMW Is Showing Commercials On Their Car's Dash Screens And They Want You To Think It's A Treat", Software Patents on Drones
Links for the day
What We Said About Red Hat's Fate Under IBM Turned Out to be Right on the Money (That IBM Lacks)
There are no layoffs at IBM
IRC Networks Show No Signs of Going Away, IRC Enters Its 39th Year
That IRC daemons are still actively developed and patched in summer of 2026 (over 38 years after IRC was born) says a lot about IRC's importance
Social [Control] Media Needs to Die
I am a bit shocked to recall that I wasted a lot of time on it
Some Malware is Legal Because It's Made and Distributed by Politically-Connected GAFAM
In reality, the security non-experts 'championed' (and salaried) by GAFAM are anti-security people who advocate back doors
The GNU/Linux Anniversary is Next Month, Not This Month
It'll turn 43
At Clacton by-election Hustings Event Daniel Pocock Says "Social [Control] Media Has Contributed to Some of the Anti Social Behaviour."
No doubt many problems in society are caused or at least amplified/accentuated by this horrible phenomenon
IBM Insiders Explain Why IBM is in Very Serious Trouble
Will IBM last long enough for any "quantum" deliverables to become a reality?
The Register MS Took Money From Broadcom to Publish Fake 'News' With "AI" Mentioned 35 Times
not legitimate or authentic journalism.
GNU/Linux Approaching 20% in Georgia (the Country)
Usage of GNU/Linux was near 0%, as measured by statCounter, several years ago
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 06, 2026
IRC logs for Thursday, August 06, 2026
Gemini Links 07/08/2026: Radio Amateurism, Summer Updates, and Programming "Taste"
Links for the day