06.08.10

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Mobile Linux Gets Support From Chip Vendors

  The development of Linux on mobile devices may be poised to get a boost thanks to the formation of a new industry group called Linaro, backed by a consortium of chip vendors including ARM, Freescale, Texas Instruments, Samsung and ST-Ericsson.

  The goal of Linaro is to enable development of Linux on embedded System-on-Chips (SoC) including ARM-based processors. The effort will also leverage engineering help and resources from Ubuntu Linux vendor Canonical.

• TUL shows off DIY AIO PC at Pre-Computex event

  Powered by AMD and Ubuntu

• The road forward for systemd

  So it is not clear that any distribution will make the jump to systemd. But, then, even the above is a fair amount of attention for a project which has been public for less than one month. This program has reopened the discussion on how our systems should initialize themselves, and things may go on from there: there is talk of using systemd to take over the tasks of processes like cron and gnome-session. Regardless of who ends up running systemd, the ideas it expresses are likely to influence development for some time.

• TurnKey Linux launches private beta of TurnKey Hub, a new simplified cloud deployment service

• Desktop

  • When Google Stopped Doing Windows

  • Eclipse: Developers growing more fond of desktop Linux

    Developers in the Eclipse open source community are becoming more inclined to use Linux as their primary desktop operating system, according to a report released Monday by the Eclipse Foundation that gauges sentiments on software development issues.

• Applications

  • 6 of the Best Free Linux Application Launchers

    Application launchers play an integral part in making the Linux desktop a more productive environment to work and play. They represent small utilities which offers the desktop user a convenient access point for application software and can make a real boost to users’ efficiency.

    An application launcher helps to reduce start up times for applications by indexing shortcuts in the menu. Furthermore, this type of software allows users to search for documents and other files quicker by indexing different file formats. This makes them useful for launching almost anything on a computer including multimedia files, games, and the internet. Application launchers often support plug-ins, adding to their versatility.

  • Instructionals

    • Set a Rotating Picture of the Earth as Your Ubuntu Wallpaper

      We’ve already shown you how to keep your desktop interesting by setting a video as your wallpaper and how to download and rotate fresh photos. This week, weblog Simple Help shows us how to rotate a photo of the Earth from space.

    • Making Movies with Free Software

      Sometimes life is very circular. Once upon a time, I was a film major. Then I was an astronomer, then I was unemployed for quite awhile, during which time I discovered free software, and as a result of my various rantings about it, I started writing for Free Software Magazine. Now it seems that I’ve become a film-maker again. I’m working on not one, but two animated science-fiction films using free software tools, intended for a free-licensed release on the internet under new distribution models. And, being a writer, I’m going to write about it. I think it will be both entertaining and useful.

    • Network Design for a Small Business

    • 10 Git Tips and Tricks for Beginners

    • Install Stunning New Amarok 2.3.1 “The Bell” in Ubuntu Lucid, Karmic

    • Translate OIDs for Nagios

  • Games

    • Megadrive emulators in Ubuntu 10.04

      Here I tested 4 Linux MegaDrive emulators: dgen, gens, xe and rgen. Four classic MegaDrive games were used with each, including Sonic 3, Road Rash 3, Streets of Rage 2 and Zero Wing.

• GNOME Desktop

  • Nautilus Elementary Just Won’t Stop Improving, New Updates Include Customizable Toolbar And More!

    In our previous post we had a detailed discussion on what is nautilus elementary and how to install nautlius elementary in ubuntu using PPA. That was just a week ago. And already a number of important updates! Nautilus elementary is really going places. Let’s see what are the changes with nautilus elementary now.

• Red Hat Family

  • Risk Report: Five years of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4

• Canonical/Ubuntu

  • Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat Won’t Run On Processors Below i686

    If you’re planning on using Ubuntu 10.10 Maverick Meerkat on a computer with a processor older than i686, well… you can’t.

  • Ubuntu to decommission SPARC port, IA64 port in jeopardy

  • Canonical Rolling Out Ubuntu Advantage for Enterprise Linux OS

    Ubuntu Advantage customers will also receive the assurance of indemnification from Canonical protecting them against any potential legal issues. The legal indemnification is the same that Canonical had previously been making available to its paying support customers. Rival Linux distributions Red Hat and Novell also both provide their enterprise customers with legal indemnifications.

  • Flavours and Variants

    • Peppermint Team – Q&A with OpenBytes

      Peppermint, like many distro’s do need your help and support, whether its reporting bugs, telling people about your good experiences with the distro, making a donation or visiting the Peppermint store….it all helps to support and enables the development of excellent projects like this.

    • Linux Mint 9 review

      Mint 9, aka Isadora, is the latest update to the desktop-focused, Linux distribution based on Ubuntu (10.04). It is one of the more exciting desktop distributions, with a nice selection of custom-developed graphical management utilities.

    • Vinux – A talking linux distro for blind and visually impaired users

      Vinux is a remastered version of the popular Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx distribution optimised for the needs of blind and partially sighted users.. It provides three screen readers, two full-screen magnifiers, global font-size and colour changing facilities, and out-of-the-box support for USB Braille displays. The Vinux live CD boots into the Orca screen reader which makes it easy to navigate the graphical GNOME desktop using keybindings. For those who prefer to work in a simple text-based console there is the Speakup

    • [Reviews]: Qimo 2.0 Review Great Linux Distribution For Kids

      Overall it’s a really good distribution for kids, it’s a really good choice to install it on your machine for your kid.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Mobile OS guide

      Android, Symbian, Bada, WebOS. The list goes on. The list of smartphone operating systems is growing by the day. Many are open source, a good number are proprietary and some are barely out of beta.

    • Android

      • NPR to open source its Android app

        National Public Radio (NPR), a non-profit membership organisation, has announced that it plans to open source its NPR Android application. Created in 1970, NPR is a privately and publicly funded US media organisation that produces and distributes news, talk and entertainment programming. The NPR app for Android devices was created by Google developer Michael Frederick in his spare time. With the application, users can read, listen or create playlists of NPR stories, share them with friends and live stream audio from hundreds of NPR radio stations.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Six Different Linux Distributions, one HP 2133 Mini-Note Netbook

      My HP 2133 Mini-Note with WSVGA (1024×600) display has been out on loan for several months. It came back a week or so ago, and as it had missed the latest wave of Linux distribution updates, I decided to reload it from scratch. It originally came with SuSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 (SLED 10), and NO WINDOWS (Hooray!). I had preserved SLED 10 in a small partition “just in case”, but it is now so old that it would not be of any use whatever may happen, so I wiped it as well, and started from a completely clean disk.

    • 2 screen Linux tablet/e-reader to replace textbooks

      This is the prototype of the Kno a Linux based dual screen textbook replacement shown by californian startup Kakai at at the 8th Annual Conference of D: All Things Digital, otherwise known as D8

Free Software/Open Source

• AfricanFOSS foundation looking to boost ranks

  Looking for a job and a way to promote free and open source software? The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) is looking to hire a project manager.

• Rockbox 3.6 released

  On behalf of the Rockbox developers, I’m very pleased to announce that Rockbox 3.6 has just been released!

• Malta: Open source preferred

  The Government of Malta has issued a new directivePDF instructing all of its agencies to give preference to the use of open source software (OSS) throughout government. According to the directive, Malta will adopt free software using the definition set by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and it says that, “Where it is not possible to make use of OSS in the implementation of solutions, appropriate evidence shall be made available.”

• Qi Hardware Launches Open-Source Computer

  It’s difficult to envision a computer that’s completely open-source—and I mean completely, right down to the software on its drives, the drivers for its components, and the circuit boards for its construction. However, Linux News has gotten its hands on one such device, Qi Hardware’s “Ben NanoNote,” and it’s one of the few massive hardware projects in existence that runs on completely copyleft hardware.

Leftovers

• 9th Circuit Affirms Rejection of Data Breach Claims Against Gap — Ruiz v. Gap

  In a decision that does not bode well for plaintiffs bringing privacy-based claims against Facebook in California, the Ninth Circuit recently affirmed the trial court’s rejection of data breach claims against Gap.

• Security/Aggression

  • Terrorists figure out how to get America to attack itself: leave harmless, “suspicious” bags around

    According to the FBI, terrorists have noticed that Americans will go crazy and attack themselves (shutting down public spaces and transit, evacuating busy areas, subjecting innocents to search, detention and questioning) if you leave a “suspicious” bag in a public place. This is thanks to programs like New York City’s “See Something, Say Something,” which generates thousands of calls about “suspicious activity” every year, not one of which has ever led to an actual terrorism arrest. Of course, leaving bags of water or socks is an errand that’s a lot less risky than planting bombs.

  • New terrorist tactic: Suspicious bags?

    You’ve probably heard the slogan “See Something, Say Something.” Now it appears potential terrorists hope that you do, just to see the response.

  • In defence of photography (and common sense)

  • CCTV to catch irresponsible dog owners?

    BARMOUTH Town Council want to use the town’s CCTV camera system to spy on dog owners who don’t clean up after their pets.

    The town council is seeking legal advice on whether the town’s CCTV system could be used to catch dog owners who fail to clear up after their pets.

  • Big business ‘spying’ on the internet complainers using specialist software

  • RCN launches legal action against safeguarding scheme

    The Royal College of Nursing is launching a judicial review of a vetting scheme it fears will breach nurses’ human rights and have “catastrophic” consequences for their careers, Nursing Times can reveal.

• Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

  • Sender Who E-Mailed Links to Blog Post Open to Defamation Claim, Federal Court Rules

    A federal bankruptcy court ruled that sending an e-mail message with a hyperlink to a defamatory blog post can be considered a publication for the purposes of a libel claim.

    While the case before the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas revolved around William Perry’s bankruptcy proceedings, the court relied on Texas law to determine that e-mail messages Perry sent linking to websites that made false and defamatory statements about Sugar Land, Texas, mayor David Wallace met the “actual malice” standard a public official needs to bring a defamation claim, according to the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Bulgarian organizers take Chessbase to court

    The Bulgarian organizers of the Anand-Topalov World Championship match take Chessbase to court for “violating copyright rules”. Chessbase transmitted the moves of the match live on their Playchess server, against the will of the Bulgarians.

  • Copyrights

    • RIAA asks court to close down LimeWire

      The music industry has asked a federal court in New York to order a shutdown of the LimeWire service, according to documents obtained by CNET.

    • Pubs can start claiming PPL refunds

      Licensees can now start claiming for refunds from music royalties collection firm, Phonographic Performance Ltd (PPL), to get a share of £20m owed to pubs, hotels and restaurants, following a legal battle.

    • Defining Success: Were The RIAA’s Lawsuits A Success Or Not?

      The fact that lots of people paid up to settle extortion-like fees didn’t stop people from using file sharing networks to access unauthorized materials. It didn’t get more people to buy. It didn’t help the bottom line. It hasn’t helped the record labels sell more product. It certainly hasn’t helped the big labels stay in business. Hell, it hasn’t even helped the RIAA. Towards the end of the legal campaign, the RIAA ended up having massive layoffs of its own staff. And, let’s not even get into discussing what the average music fan thinks of the RIAA and the big labels these days…