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10.19.12

Links 20/10/2012: Ubuntu Getting More Closed, OpenOffice.org Promoted in Apache

Posted in News Roundup at 7:39 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Achieving Photorealism in Blender

    (Unfortunately the video I recorded on the day was too dark and difficult to hear, so I figured there was no point in uploading it. Sorry about that!)

  • The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache OpenOffice™ as a Top-Level Project

    The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced that Apache Open Office has graduated from the Apache Incubator to become a Top-Level Project (TLP), signifying that the Project’s community and products have been well-governed under the ASF’s meritocratic process and principles.

  • OSI and OSHWA agree on logo usage

    The Open Source Hardware Association (OSHWA), which was officially launched in June, has signed an agreementPDF with the Open Source Initiative (OSI) to settle a dispute over its Open Source Hardware (OSHW) logo. Following concerns that the logo OSHWA was using to denote the open hardware nature of devices was too similar to the OSI’s trademark, both organisations worked out an agreement that clarifies the difference between the logos and the areas they are applied in.

  • Open Call for Packagers!

    In the past, we’ve had people pull code right out of our master branch. There were a few problems with this technique for deployment; pulling out of the active branch of development meant that a podmin had no idea as to how stable the latest code for a pod could be. Secondly, we think that setting up a pod should be easier, as people shouldn’t have to mess around with a terminal and lots of config files to enjoy the benefits of a decentralized social web.

  • Open Source Vendor Zarafa Solves Apple’s iOS Problems

  • Events

  • SaaS

  • Databases

    • 10gen: Growing the MongoDB world

      10gen, the company set up by the creators of the open source NoSQL database MongoDB, has been on a roll recently, creating business partnerships with numerous companies, making it a hot commercial proposition without creating any apparent friction with its open source community. So what has brought MongoDB to the fore?

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Congrats Apache OpenOffice!

      Today the Apache Software Foundation announced that Apache OpenOffice ™ is a top level project, and I really wish to congratulate with the Apache OpenOffice Community to have achieved this important milestone.

    • LibreOffice 3.5.7 Released

      What’s a conference without a release announcement? The Document Foundation didn’t find out today because it announced the release of LibreOffice 3.5.7. 3.5.7 is “the seventh and possibly last version of the free office suite’s 3.5 family, which solves additional bugs and regressions, and offers stability improvements over LibreOffice 3.5.6.”

    • Mark Hurd: Oracle Accepts Cloud And Hadoop

      Oracle chief operating officer Mark Hurd says the company really is enthusiastic about open source, big Data and the cloud

    • Is Hadoop the Answer to Oracle Customers’ Big Data Problems?

      Oracle customers are facing a big data problem, and Hadoop is the answer – reluctant as Oracle is to admit it.

      Speaking at the Oracle product and strategy update in London yesterday, Oracle president Mark Hurd said that the company’s customers are growing their data up to 40% a year, putting tremendous pressure on IT budgets.

    • Apache Elevates Open Source OpenOffice – So What?

      There was a time when OpenOffice was where I spent a good chunk of my work day. Those days are now in the past, as I’ve moved on and so has every single major Linux distribution. We’ve all moved to a faster more agile open source office suite. We have moved to LibreOffice.

  • Education

    • Parents of non-traditional learners advocate for open education

      While Thomas Edison is often lauded as the most prolific American inventor, his mother, Nancy Edison, and how she fostered an open education and an open mind in her son is often overlooked. When a headmaster labelled Edison as being ‘addled,’ slow, and unteachable, his mother disagreed and decided to withdraw her son from school and teach him at home. She knew her son was a bright, curious, creative child who thought divergently yet was often disorganized, disruptive, and hyperactive; today he would most likely be diagnosed as having ADHD.

  • Healthcare

  • Business

    • Up to Date on Open Source Analytics

      I’ve been updating the computational analytics platform on my Wintel notebook the last few days. I’d fallen behind several versions on each of the main tools and decided to get them all back in synch at once. The good news for hackers like me is that there are so many freely-available, open source analytics products to choose from. The bad news is that it takes a focused effort to stay up to date on the latest largesse.

  • Funding

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • New Features Coming Up For The GCC 4.8 Compiler
    • Initial ARMv8 Support For 32-bit GCC Port

      Developers from ARM Holdings have published their initial ARMv8 patch for the GNU Compiler Collection for the 32-bit “AArch32″ compiler port.

      ARM developers had already been working on their 64-bit ARM / AArch64 compiler port, which was officially approved just days ago. The latest ARM open-source compiler patch is ARMv8 in the AArch32 port with basic functionality.

  • Project Releases

    • VLC Media Player 2.0.4 supports Opus decoding

      Version 2.0.4 of the VLC Media Player has been released by the VideoLAN project. While the minor version number change may not reflect it, the new release is described as a major update by its developers as it fixes numerous regressions and introduces support for the IETF’s Opus lossy audio compression format. It also brings several other improvements and platform-specific changes.

  • Public Services/Government

  • Programming

    • The Growth of Google Summer of Code

      I recently sat down with Chris DiBona to talk about the 15th anniversary of Slashdot. In addition to discussing the joys of heading an email campaign against spamming politicians, and the perils of throwing a co-worker’s phone into a bucket, even if you think that bucket is empty, we talked about the growth of Google Summer of Code. Below you’ll find his story of how a conversation about trying to get kids to be more active with computers in the summer has led to the release of 55 million lines of code.

    • Subversive brings Subversion to Eclipse

Leftovers

  • The Pioneers of UNIX

    Steve Jobs? Steve Jobs didn’t do jack. If you want to know who is responsible for the modern world you have to look at the people working at Bell Labs in the 1970s and 1980s. The people who created UNIX. It was from that invention that we have the modern world. UNIX led to Linux which led to Android. UNIX led to the BSD family of operating systems which led to Apple OSX. UNIX led to the C programming language in which most system-level software today is written. Ever wonder why URLs use forward slashes? It’s because UNIX was instrumental in the creation of the Internet.

  • Security

  • Finance

    • Why I Left Goldman Sachs, Chapter Three: “My Alleged Competition”

      On Monday morning, Grand Central Publishing will release Why I Left Goldman Sachs: A Wall Street Story, a memoir penned by former Goldman employee Greg Smith, based on his op-ed for the New York Times entitled, “Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs.” When Smith’s piece came out last March, few if any senior executives inside the bank were pleased, in part because it came as a total shock. No one at Goldman had known Smith was planning to have his resignation letter printed in the paper. No one had known he had issues with the firm’s supposedly new and singular focus on making money at all costs. No one, at least at the top, even knew who Greg was. Obviously all this left the bank at a competitive disadvantage in terms of fighting back and for the time being, Smith appeared to be handing Goldman its ass. Getting cocky, even. Perhaps thinking to himself, “When all of this is over, I could be named the new CEO of Goldman Sachs.” As anyone who has ever won a bronze medal in ping-pong at the Maccabiah Games will tell you, however, winners are determined by best of threes. And that anyone going to to the table with Goldman Sachs should be prepared for things to get ugly.

    • Big Oil and the U.S. Chamber Fight to Keep Foreign Bribery Flourishing

      In a new lawsuit against the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), big energy extractors are pushing for carte blanche in their interactions with foreign governments, making it harder to track whether their deals are padding the coffers of dictators, warlords, or crony capitalists. The United States Chamber of Commerce, American Petroleum Institute, the Independent Petroleum Association of America, and the National Foreign Trade Council filed a lawsuit on October 10, 2012 against a new SEC rule, which requires U.S. oil, mining and gas companies to formally disclose payments made to foreign governments as part of their annual SEC reporting.

  • Censorship

  • Privacy

  • Copyrights

10.18.12

Links 18/10/2012: Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’ is Out

Posted in News Roundup at 7:13 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • My Spies Come Through, Finally

    A while back I sent a pack of spies into China but they were so distracted by touristy things that they forgot/neglected to report back on GNU/Linux on retail shelves in China.

  • GNU/Linux Selling on Retail Shelves in China

    I don’t read Chinese but the pictures seem consistent with reports of stores selling GNU/Linux in China. I don’t believe the stories that these machines are intended for illegal copies of XP. That may have been the case a few years ago but there’s a whole new generation of users getting PCs now that have never used XP and for whom smart phones and tablets are OK.

  • Top Linux-o-lanterns from around the Web
  • Should Linux Take a Lesson From Apple?

    It seems safe to say that most FOSS fans are sick to death of hearing about both of them, of course, but recently the always-insightful team over at TuxRadar posed yet another interesting question. Specifically, “What can Linux really steal from Apple?” was the title of the latest Open Ballot poll posted on the thought-provoking site, and there’s no doubt it’s provoked a lot of thinking.

  • Server

    • The World’s Most Powerful Climate Change Supercomputer Powers Up

      For all the political discord over climate change, one thing everyone can probably agree on is that when you’re throwing computational resources at modeling weather, the more the merrier.

      Think of the new computer that just came online at the NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center in Cheyenne, Wyoming as a kind of dream come true from a meteorological standpoint, then, because it represents a mammoth increase in raw crunch-prowess, dedicated to studying everything from hurricanes and tornadoes to geomagnetic storms, tsunamis, wildfires, air pollution and the location of water beneath the earth’s surface.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • The People Who Support Linux: Tushar Kute Brings Linux OS to India’s Sandip Institute

      The native of Pune, India, encountered Linux for the first time as an engineering student, running it as an occasional alternative to Windows. But he didn’t fully embrace it as an operating system until he began teaching microprocessors and operating systems as a graduate student and assistant professor at the Sandip Institute of Technology & Research Centre in Nashik, India.

      Going straight into the educational sector after graduating from college meant Kute didn’t gain the real-world experience that comes from working in the industry, he said. Converting to Linux has helped him get hands on with research and development and greatly increased his understanding of computer systems.

      “I got inspired by various Linux & Open source developers & users. As it follows my ideology that, `Windows of knowledge are wide and open!” said Kute, via email. “I am passionate about programming and especially, C Programming! Linux has given me everything that I wanted in programming. As Linux is (an) open source operating system, I can study everything about a computer that I want to know.”

    • VMware Works On Mainlining More Linux Kernel Code

      VMware developers continue to work on mainlining more of their Linux kernel code to support their virtualization platform in the name of improving the “out of the box” experience for Linux VM guests. The latest work has been on pushing forward VMCI and VSOCK for the mainline Linux kernel.

      While the work hasn’t hit the Linux 3.7 kernel and is still undergoing review, VMware has been pushing VMCI, the Virtual Machine Communication Interface, and VSOCK, VMCI Sockets, as being worthy of mainline for Linux.

    • Intel To Hide Early Hardware Support By Default

      While Intel is quick to work on enabling future hardware within their open-source graphics driver stack for Linux, the early support is often buggy and problematic on the early code before the hardware is released. Intel now intends to conceal this early hardware support — for Valley View and Haswell right now — behind a run-time variable for toggling the support.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • The KDE PIM meeting, just awesome!

        Last weekend from friday 12th till sunday 15th i attended the KDE PIM meeting in Berlin. I never had attended to any KDE meeting yet and i never went to a place that far away. I went there with a main focus on learning a lot about Akonadi, how it works and what it’s goal actually is. Obviously also to meet the people behind akonadi and just to socialize a bit with people that share a common interest: KDE.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME 3: Renaming Nautilus as Files is a good idea

        The more I think about it, GNOME’s renaming of applications with clear words describing their function is a good thing to do.

        The file manager Nautilus is now called Files.

        The web browser Epiphany is now called Web.

        I believe that Totem will eventually be Movies (or something like that).

        Sure it makes it hard to manage these applications when you don’t have them installed.

  • Distributions

    • Core17 1.7.4 Screenshots

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

      • Piper Jaffray Gives Overweight Rating to Red Hat (RHT)
      • Red Hat Developer Day

        Red Hat are hosting a “Developer Day” at London South Bank University on the 1st of November. The day’s sessions cover various aspects of development using Red Hat supported technologies including developing to target multiple RHEL versions, using KVM for application virtualisation, and the OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS).

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 19 Continues With Unique Names

          Aside from generally releasing late another de facto tradition for the Fedora Project has been unique codenames for each release. It looks like the Fedora 19 codename will continue in this manner.

        • Fedora 19 Might Replace Rsyslogd With Journald

          While Fedora 18 is still more than one month away and we don’t even know the Fedora 19 codename yet, one F19 feature is being talked about already. Fedora 19 might replace rsyslog with systemd’s journald as the default process for system logging.

        • Fedora 18 Beta, and final, delayed

          The Fedora Project have pushed back the Fedora 18 Beta by a week, which will carry over to the release date of the RC and Final version

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Mark Shuttleworth Notes Availability of Ubuntu 12.10 with OpenStack “Folsom”

            As is true of Cisco, RedHat, Rackspace and many other companies, Canonical has been steadily marrying its cloud strategy to the open source OpenStack platform. In February of last year, we discussed how Canonical was deepening its relationship with OpenStack, and it has kept doing so. Recently, Canonical released the Cloud Archive for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server, an online software repository from which administrators can download the latest versions of OpenStack, for use with the latest long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu. And now, at this week’s OpenStack Summit, Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced the arrival of Ubuntu 12.10 with Folsom–the latest version of OpenStack.

          • In Massachusetts, Even the “People’s Pledge” Can’t Keep Out the Outside Money

            Unity is expanding everyday with its new sets of lenses. These lenses allow you to do everything and anything. One of the latest lenses in entertainment category is the Unity movie lens.

          • Ubuntu Linux 12.10 review: Better, but slower

            On October 18th, Ubuntu 12.10, the latest and greatest version of this popular Linux distribution arrives. On the eve of its arrival, it’s looking pretty good, but it’s far from flawless.

          • Benchmarking The Ubuntu “Low-Jitter” Linux Kernel

            There’s an independently maintained “low-jitter” version of the Linux kernel targeting Ubuntu, which claims to be faster, but is that really the case?

            In response to the recent Linux 3.7 + Mesa 9.1-devel Running On Ubuntu 12.10 article, a Phoronix reader was quick to promote his specially-configured kernel for Ubuntu.

          • Ubuntu TV Still Being Ported To Unity 3D

            With Unity 2D having been dropped from Ubuntu 12.10, another consequence of this controversial decision is that the Ubuntu TV work must be ported to Unity (3D).

            The early Ubuntu TV work was using Unity 2D as the basis for its interface, but now it must be ported to the standard Unity code-base with Compiz. While hopefully the performance won’t be too bad for Unity on Ubuntu TV, it’s a large undertaking.

          • Ubuntu 12.10 “Quantal Quetzal” takes flight with a bag full of Juju
          • Canonical Ubuntu 12.10 brings the Internet closer to the desktop

            Canonical has released both the server and desktop editions of 12.10 Ubuntu, which offers a glimpse of how this Linux distribution will evolve in the next few years.

          • Slideshow: Say hello to Ubuntu 12.10 Linux
          • Ubuntu 13.04 a.k.a. Raring Ringtail

            Mark Shuttleworth, father of the popular Ubuntu operating system, proudly announced a few minutes ago, October 17th, the name and the goals for the next version of Ubuntu OS.

          • Download Ubuntu 12.10 Manual Now

            The Ubuntu Manual team is proud to announce a new edition of the comprehensive Ubuntu Manual, this time for the Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) operating system.

            Just in time for the Ubuntu 12.10 release on October 18th, the Ubuntu Manual is now ready and available for download right now, right here (see the download link at the end of the article).

          • Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) review

            Ubuntu 12.10 contains more controversial changes than expected. If you can live with or work around those changes, it remains a powerful and useful desktop Linux operating system.

          • Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’ released
          • Ubuntu 13.04 will be called Raring Ringtail, emphasize mobile and battery life

            After running with other alliterative codenames such as Oneiric Ocelot, Precise Pangolin and Quantal Quetzal, Canonical has announced the latest in its line of fauna-inspired Ubuntu releases — Raring Ringtail. With version 13.04 CEO Mark Shuttleworth plans to start seriously laying the groundwork for phone, tablet and TV interfaces, which he hopes to have in place for the next LTS release in April of 2014 (14.04).

          • Ubuntu Linux search fix leaves prime critic unsatisfied

            In releasing updates to its client and server Ubuntu Linux distributions today, Canonical will enable users to turn off a search option in its client product that has raised some eyebrows over privacy issues. A whistleblower, however, remains unimpressed with Canonical’s handling of the situation.

          • Canonical releases web interface for Juju

            Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has introduced a new web interface for the company’s software deployment tool Juju at the OpenStack Developer Summit in San Diego. In a blog post, Ubuntu Cloud Community Liaison Jorge Castro has pointed to a test installation of the tool, which can be used to get a feel for the new interface.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Kubuntu 12.10 is Released

              The Kubuntu community is proud to announce the release of 12.10, the Quantal Quetzal. This is the first release to burst free from the limits of CD sizes giving us some more space for goodies on the image.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Calxeda sees the future in 32-bit ARM

    • Phones

      • Open webOS arrives on LiveCD

        Enthusiasm for HP’s (Palm) webOS remains quite high, even if the industry heavyweight is no longer actively promoting the open source OS.

      • Android

        • Waffle 1.1 Gets EGL + GBM, Android Toppings

          Chad Versace of Intel released Waffle 1.1.0 on Monday, which is a cross-platform library for deferring selection of the OpenGL API and windowing system until run-time. Waffle makes it easy to switch between X11 with GLX or EGL, Wayland with OpenGL ES 2.0, and other windowing / GL API options.

        • How to improve your Android security
        • Acer prices 7-inch Iconia Tab A110 at $230
        • Five Android apps that fix something about Android

          Google is to be credited for improving its Android operating system by leaps and bounds over the past four years. You know who also deserves loads of credit? Independent developers who care a lot about their phone experience, and yours, too. They’ve quietly filled in missing features and fixed annoyances in Android while nobody was looking—but now’s the time to look at what their fixes can do for you.

        • The Jelly Bean Desktop

          One of the best things about Android Jelly Bean is how clean the interface is. It’s polished, it’s pretty, and it looks good on phones and tablets. Flickr user Knight Hawk2 wanted that same experience on his desktop, and now you can have the same look and feel on your desktop too.

        • Android Sneaks Into Cable Boxes

          In recent months, we’ve seen a surge of Android media players ranging from basic, sub-$100 mini-PCs and HDMI sticks from China to a smaller number of more advanced, primarily Google TV devices. Building upon a foundation established by Google TV, Apple TV, media-savvy game consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox, as well as numerous Linux-based players like Roku, the media players let users stream and download video and other multimedia from the Internet for playback on TV. Some offer built-in support for online video services such as Netflix, while most simply project Android onto a TV screen, letting users browse the web, run apps and sign up for services via specialized remotes.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Asus Deploys New Ubuntu Netbooks (Yes, Netbooks)

        Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) is on the verge of releasing a major new operating system. Uncertain what prospects the new platform holds for them, hardware vendors are exhibiting renewed interest in shipping alternative operating systems, such as Linux, on their machines. Is it early 2007 again? Not quite, but it kind of seems that way in light of Asus’s introduction of a new Ubuntu netbook. Here’s the scoop.

      • Google set to launch $99 Nexus tablet this quarter, report says

        The company’s slate will come with a single-core processor, but won’t be developed with help from Asus, according to Digitimes.

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Security

    • Computer Viruses Are “Rampant” on Medical Devices in Hospitals
    • A note to the Joint Committee regarding retrospective traffic decryption

      Questioning in the closed sessions has suggested a scenario under which a network CSP (i.e. ISP, such as BT) would be requested to store encrypted data-streams between their customers and third-party CSPs (such as Google). The implication that, under RIPA or equivalent, third-party CSPs would be requested to retrospectively decrypt this captured data.

    • Cloud security: A closer look at FedRAMP

      Security concerns typically provide the chief source of rain for the cloud parade, as worries about data leakage and other cyber maladies have caused federal IT managers to think twice about cloud computing. Indeed, more than 50 percent of respondents to an 1105 Government Information Group survey declared that cloud solutions lack sufficient security.

      The government is looking for ways to assuage that anxiety and spark cloud adoption because federal data center consolidation efforts — not to mention the Obama administration’s cloud-first policy — rely on the technology. Therefore, the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program (FedRAMP) brings together officials from the General Services Administration, Department of Homeland Security and Defense Department, among others, to provide a standardized approach for determining the security of cloud-based services.

    • Report: Steam poses security risk

      Security firm ReVuln has analysed the browser protocol that Steam servers use to execute commands via users’ browsers. During the analysis, the company’s researchers discovered security issues that could potentially allow attackers to infect PCs with malicious code such as spyware.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • In Massachusetts, Even the “People’s Pledge” Can’t Keep Out the Outside Money

      The U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts is currently among the closest in the country, with the most recent polls showing a razor-thin lead by Democratic challenger Elizabeth Warren, who hopes to unseat Republican incumbent Senator Scott Brown this November. The Massachusetts race is unique among national Senate races, as outside money is playing a significantly diminished role thanks to a pledge signed by both candidates that has helped keep outside spending on television, radio, and Internet ads in check.

  • Censorship

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Say it ain’t so, ETNO: Dangerous proposal a threat to net neutrality

      When the world’s governments convene for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT), they will debate whether to expand the mandate of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to include aspects of internet policy. Specifically, WCIT delegates will approve changes to the International Telecommunication Regulations (ITRs), an international treaty traditionally concerned with telecommunications interoperability, and these negotiations have the potential to affect the internet’s openness and the exercise of human rights online.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • After five years, “dancing baby” YouTube takedown lawsuit nears a climax

        It’s been five years since Stephanie Lenz, angry that a video of her son dancing to a Prince song was taken down from YouTube, reached out to the lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Ultimately, Lenz worked with EFF lawyers to sue Universal Music, the company that initiated the takedown.

        Arguing against the takedown of a 29-second home video portraying a toddler dancing might have been a slam dunk from a PR perspective; legally speaking, it’s been anything but. EFF was looking for a case that was so obviously an example of “fair use” that the content owner who initiated the takedown could actually be forced to pay damages, under a little-used section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, section 512(f). But the bar is very high to get that type of relief. That became crystal clear at the most important hearing in the case thus far, held today in San Jose.

10.17.12

Links 18/10/2012: Wine 1.5.15, Mageia 3 Alpha 2

Posted in News Roundup at 6:33 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Is an Atom D520 ‘good enough’ for Linux

    While the Atom processor does not have a good reputation here at PC Perspective as far as its ability to provide enough power for most peoples usage, Phoronix might have a different take on a tiny Atom powered computer. After all, Linux has a reputation of needing less system resources than a Windows box, so perhaps the benefits of a tiny 190 x 135 x 25 mm system outweigh any possible performance issues on a customized Ubuntu installation, called ALUSA 12.04 OS. You may not be surprised to find out that while the system did boot properly out of the box and all the hardware was properly supported, the lack of power especially the maximum resolution limit of 1366×768 was enough to turn Phoronix off of this device. There is a newer model they hope to test in the future.

  • Lightworks for Linux: The developer’s story

    Lightworks for Linux is approaching its public testing phase. Lead Developer Rob Fearnside answers questions from Red Shark News about how it got to this stage.

  • Desktop

  • Server

    • Tarsnap: On-line Backups for the Truly Paranoid

      Enter Tarsnap—”on-line backups for the truly paranoid”. Tarsnap is the brainchild of Dr Colin Percival, a former FreeBSD Security Officer. In 2006, he began research and development on a new solution for “encrypted, snapshotted remote backups”, culminating in the release of Tarsnap in 2008.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Main development phase of Linux 3.7 completed

      Linus Torvalds has issued the first release candidate of Linux 3.7. With this release, Torvalds has, as usual, closed the development cycle’s “merge window”, the phase in which the majority of a new version’s important new features are added to the main development branch. Until the final release of Linux 3.7, which is expected to arrive in December, the developers will now focus on bug fixes, discounting a few potential stragglers as well as smaller, harmless improvements.

    • Can ‘Open Source’ Solve Car-Tech Problems?

      Horsepower used to be the measuring stick among new cars, but now, increasingly, it’s fuel efficiency. Even safety and styling, which have long been important selling points, are not as powerful among buyers as they once were.

      If you consider modern society’s infatuations with 24/7 connectivity — or just watch car ads on TV — it’s clear that technology is one of the most significant factors affecting car-buying decisions today. And although the latest slick touch-screen infotainment systems get all the attention, one of the most important components of a car is something consumers rarely see or think about: software.

    • Zenwalk Continues Banging The BFS Scheduler

      Zenwalk 7.2 was released last week as the latest release of the interesting Slackware-based distribution. This latest Zenwalk release continues to patch its Linux kernel to drop in the BFS scheduler for providing better interactivity on the Linux desktop.

      Zenwalk has been shipping the Brain Fuck Scheduler since 2010 as its default kernel scheduler beginning with the 6.4 release and they’re still relying upon it to this day rather than the Completely Fair Scheduler (CFS) or O(1).

    • Signed Kernel Modules Support For Linux 3.7
    • AMD Piledriver/Trinity A10-5800K Compiler Tuning

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Five reasons to try the new Razor-qt Linux desktop

      Those in the homogeneous Windows world may be bracing themselves anxiously for the impending arrival of Windows 8 with its controversial Metro interface, but for Linux users, the array of desktop choices just keeps on expanding.

    • New functionality for nimble Linux desktop, Razor-qt

      Version 0.5.0 of the Razor-qt desktop environment is now available and brings with it changes to the configuration of themes, new plugins and a new notification daemon. The relatively young, lean desktop is based on the Qt framework, but in contrast to KDE, is able to run on low-spec hardware. While development of Razor-qt is still at an early stage, the desktop already includes all the key components: a desktop with a panel, application launcher, a settings centre and session management.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Plasma Active 3 : First Look

        The KDE Project have released Plasma Active 3, which is KDE desktop implementation of tablet and other mobile devices. The desktop has been rigorously tested on ARM and Intel based devices and runs well on both. KDE developer, Aaron J. Seigo has released a video which shows the working of Plasma Active on a tablet:

      • Calligra 2.6 alpha previews professional writing program

        The developers at the Calligra project, part of the KDE community, have released an alpha for version 2.6 of their set of open source productivity applications. In addition to improving and adding new features to existing programs in the KDE-oriented office suite, this preview release is the first to include a new writing program called “Author”.

      • KDE Plasma Active 3 open source tablet software improves performance, adds new apps

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Gnome Initial Setup and Welcome Tour

        Gnome Initial Setup might arrive in Gnome 3.8 and Fedora 19, but we will not -for sure- see it in Ubuntu.

        It is separated in two steps; first is the account creation in an empty system and secondly comes an optional welcome tour that introduces some basic functionality of Gnome Shell.

      • 11.6-inch Asus laptop runs Ubuntu, costs $314

        Here I was, thinking netbooks—especially Linux-powered ones—had long since been relegated to the history books. Maybe that was a little hasty of me. As Liliputing reports, two U.S. e-tailers have started carrying an 11.6″ Asus laptop that’s awfully similar to the netbooks and consumer ultraportables of old—and has a price tag to match.

      • Gnome 3 has a non-fallback mode, too!

        I like Gnome 3, but, I’ve always used it in fallback mode. On every box I’ve ever had, Gnome Shell dumps into fallback mode, which, if I understand correctly, is due to Clutter being unable to run because of a lack of 3D graphics power. I’ve always tried to use free graphics drivers, and they don’t always work well in 3D.

      • Some statistics about GNOME.org
      • Mutter 3.6.1 Fixes a Few Bugs

        Mutter, a window and compositing manager that displays and manages your desktop via OpenGL, has reached version 3.6.1.

      • Gnome 3.6 is now ended ..Looking forward to Gnome 3.8

        Today Gnome released the 3.6.[1] version that is a major bug fixing release, typically in every Gnome 3.[x%2 == 0] series.

        From today Gnome is looking forward to the next release, which from an early quick look, 3.8 seems to be another massive developing cycle that will follow the excessive work done in 3.6. New Apps, a better notification system, a re-designed Gnome Shell, better (and more) Cloud support and much more things will land in 3.8.

  • Distributions

    • Zenwalk 7.2 Screenshots
    • Slackel 14.0: Slackware 14 further simplified!

      I tried using Slackware, 5 years back, when my Linux experience was still at infancy. I remember looking for a Linux distro to install and downloaded Slackware – but had a nightmare installing it and making it work! However, one of the oldest Linux distros, Slackware (now nearly 20 years old, I guess), has come a long way with the latest release, 14.0. It is definitely much easier to use than its predecessors! Definitely not a Ubuntu or Fedora, but still user-friendly and newbies can actually now get their hands dirty with Slackware 14.0.

    • Slackel 14.0 Screenshots

    • New Releases

      • BlankOn 8.0 (Sajadah)
      • Rescatux 0.30 Screenshots
      • Zenwalk Linux 7.2 aims for “100% Slackware compatibility”

        The latest release of Zenwalk Linux, version 7.2, is now available and focuses on further improving the Slackware-based distribution’s overall performance, as well as updating its underlying components. Project founder Jean-Philippe Guillemin says that the goal of the new version was to “achieve 100% Slackware Linux compatibility,” while also keeping and improving upon most of the optimisations throughout all levels of the OS, including the kernel, applications and desktop.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Gentoo Family

      • Evaluating Sabayon Linux Xfce

        The last time I installed SL (Sabayon Linux) on one of my own machines was 18 months ago, and that was my media centre. I haven’t touched that installation since: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” My most recent desktop SL installation was on a relative’s Acer Aspire 5738 laptop just over a year ago, but it was disappointing. In the end I did get SL working with the laptop’s NVIDIA GPU but, amongst other things, ALSA didn’t work correctly and even I couldn’t fix it. The owner was understandably unimpressed with SL and ended up installing Ubuntu over it, which worked perfectly out of the box.

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Solus OS: Debian on steroids

        Are you tired of all the new interfaces being pushed to you by Unity, GNOME Shell and, soon, Windows Metro? Do you want to stick to “good old” GNOME 2? Do you want to have a rock solid base for your operating system?

      • Bug Reporting Rate in Debian

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Growing Our Design Community

            As part of these plans I have been having some wonderful discussions with Ivo Weevers who is the head of the Canonical design team and who reports directly to Mark Shuttleworth. Ivo is passionate about helping the design team at Canonical and the community to work closely together, and we have been discussing what problems we need to solve, and how to resolve them. In the past there have been concerns in the community that it is difficult for our community to actively participate in design and Ivo and I are keen to solve these challenges.

          • Thesaurus Scope For Unity Ready For Testing
          • Canonical’s Plan for Fixing Unity Search

            Hoping to put to rest the swirling controversy around Ubuntu 12.10′s integration of Amazon.com search results into the Unity desktop interface, Canonical has published an official summary of its efforts to resolve user complaints. Has the company finally set things right in the eyes of Ubuntu users? That remains to be seen, but it’s sure trying hard.

          • Inktank In Two Partnerships

            In two separate announcements, the firm said that it has linked with Canonical, the developer of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, and also partnered with Pasadena-based Metacloud, the startup developing a fully managed, private cloud service. In the Ubuntu link, Inktank said that the deal will expand integration of Ceph into Ubuntu.

          • Shuttleworth: Ubuntu 12.10 available with OpenStack “Folsom” today

            Noting that Cisco and HP are running CloudStack-enabled Ubuntu Linux on their cloud platforms, Ubuntu and Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth said today at OpenStack Summit that Ubuntu 12.10 with the latest incarnation of OpenStack called ‘Folsom” is now available and that the “‘Folsom” upgrade path for Ubuntu 12.04 is also ready

          • Amazuntu: Pictures Speak Louder Than Words

            Deviant Artist albaux has taken another approach with freedom of speech and has made a clever wallpaper that pokes fun at the partnership. If it unknown at this point whether or not this wallpaper is designed in protest of the partnership or just good old fashioned fun with the Gimp. Either way, we think it’s mighty clever and good for a laugh.

          • Benchmarking The Ubuntu “Low-Jitter” Linux Kernel

            There’s an independently maintained “low-jitter” version of the Linux kernel targeting Ubuntu, which claims to be faster, but is that really the case?

          • The problems with Ubuntu’s Amazon results legal notice

            Every Ubuntu release seems to have its own controversy. For Ubuntu 12.10, codenamed Quantal Quetzal, that controversy is the inclusion of results from Amazon when you use the dash for searching. Thanks to the controversy, this feature has been heavily modified. However the legal notice that has been add as one of those modifications is as much cause for concern as the feature itself.

          • Why Ubuntu’s Donation Model is Brilliant

            I believe most people are quite content using something for free, especially if they think there’s no obligation to pay for it.

            This certainly rings true when it comes to various Linux distributions. The mindset appears to be: if it’s open source, there is no need to worry about sustaining it financially.

            For some open source projects, perhaps there is a pass to be given here. After all, many projects in the open source space are merely done as student projects or created by hobbyists.
            I believe most people are quite content using something for free, especially if they think there’s no obligation to pay for it.

            This certainly rings true when it comes to various Linux distributions. The mindset appears to be: if it’s open source, there is no need to worry about sustaining it financially.

            For some open source projects, perhaps there is a pass to be given here. After all, many projects in the open source space are merely done as student projects or created by hobbyists.

          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 287
          • Ubuntu Needs a “Project Butter” like Android

            I’m a fairly satisfied Ubuntu 12.04 LTS user and I’m quite optimistic about the forthcoming changes to Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal. But that doesn’t mean they both are somehow “perfect” or something. Unity, which was a huge departure from the traditional GNOME 2.0 desktop, has been around just for an year or two. Though I generally like the idea, one gets easily frustrated because of bugs like these, Compiz crashes, slow loading launcher etc. To put it bluntly, when compared to rock-solid GNOME 2.0, Unity and the underlying GNOME 3.0 is not yet there in terms of performance or reliability. Ubuntu desperately needs the kind of attention-to-detail Android received with 4.1 Jelly Bean release.

          • Ubuntu 12.10: The Controversies Continue

            Watching Ubuntu has become a hobby for thousands of people in the free software community — a hobby that sometimes resembles a circus and sometimes a lynch mob. For some, Ubuntu and its commercial arm can do no wrong; for others, it can do no right.

          • Upgrading Ubuntu 12.04 to 12.10
          • How to Keep Your Ubuntu System Secure
          • New Unity 4.0 Beta Build Improves Linux Support
          • Ubuntu Helps Accelerate OpenStack Deployments

            Mark Shuttleworth is a man with vision. He had the vision to create the Ubuntu Linux project and he had the vision to be the first commercial Linux distro to embrace OpenStack fully.

          • Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Disc Artwork
          • Ubuntu Helps Accelerate OpenStack Deployments

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Chipmaker takes to Kickstarter to become the Raspberry Pi of parallel computing
    • Ready for Teeny Tiny Colo? Meet Raspberry Pi

      A closeup of the Raspberry Pi, a small ARM-powered computer that runs Linux. (Photo via Wikimedia Commons)

    • New Boxee box: media streaming + live TV + DVR

      Boxee has announced a second-generation media streaming device. In contrast with the company’s pioneering Boxee Box, the new “Boxee TV” product features a limited set of apps for streaming from the most popular Internet-based sources and local network shares, integrates dual digital TV tuners, and provides a DVR function backed by cloud-based storage and watch-anywhere services.

    • Raspberry Pi Foundation Starts Shipping Gertboard

      The Raspberry Pi Foundation has started shipping Gertboard, which is a extension of Raspberry Pi that can be used to control several real life devices. According to the official announcement, people can hack it and use it to control lights, use it to run motors or sense lights, heat etc.

    • Raspberry Pi Gertboard deliveries begin
    • Raspberry Pi delivery delays leave buyers hungry (and angry)

      Customers eager to get their first taste of the Raspberry Pi have been left angry and disappointed by distributor RS Components, which is failing to cope with demand.

      The Oxford-based company has admitted to falling behind in sending out orders for the £25 Linux mini-computer, leading buyers on Raspberry Pi forums and elsewhere to complain of delays of up to six months.

    • Phones

      • Video: Introducing webOS – the Android app
      • Give Open WebOS A Try Through A Live CD

        HP is developing its own mobile OS for tablets, as known as Open webOS. The operating system is under high development for several months and community membership is on a rise. It will be the right time to download the images and give yourself a try.

      • First generation Nook Color successfully booted with Open webOS

        Open webOS, the open source tablet OS, has been successful booted onto a Nook Color, which normally runs Android. Ping-Hsun Chen of Taiwan managed to get webOS up and running on a Barnes and Noble Nook Color recently. This is a great first step for users looking to mod their old first generation Nook Colors, but it’s just that, a first step.

      • Android

        • Built-in malware scanner for Android on the way?

          Mobile malware is increasingly “popular” as people’s lives are more and more entwined with the contents of their smartphones. There’s a lot of valuable data on the average smartphone. Google’s Android OS has had its fair share of malware attacks, actually you could say more than its fair share. This is partly due to the openness of the Android app downloading/installing system and the huge number of Android devices out there. On top of that there are accusations that Google hasn’t done enough to stem the flow of malware into the Android ecosystem. Now Sophos and Android Police have discovered a new Google initiative; it is planning on implementing a built-in malware scanner in the Play Store APK.

        • Understanding the Difference Between AOSP and the Open Handset Alliance [Opinion]
        • Google to Developers: You Have the Con

          The new console will help developers navigate the Android app ecosystem with a bit more clarity, said Al Hilwa, program director, applications development software at IDC. “The Android platform is known for being chaotic and not intimately supported by Google,” he said. “Clearly Google’s a believer in self-service for developers, and they’re improving workflows, expanding language and enhancing the analytics.”

        • Waffle 1.1 Gets EGL + GBM, Android Toppings

          Chad Versace of Intel released Waffle 1.1.0 on Monday, which is a cross-platform library for deferring selection of the OpenGL API and windowing system until run-time. Waffle makes it easy to switch between X11 with GLX or EGL, Wayland with OpenGL ES 2.0, and other windowing / GL API options.

        • Android malware, FUD, and the FBI

          The Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a U.S. government task force made up of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, recently issued an Android malware warning. This has been taken by some to be yet more proof of how insecure Android is compared to Apple’s iOS. Please. Give me a break.

        • Casio Unveils Rugged G’z One Type L Android Phone

          Casio has unveiled it’s latest smartphone in the G’z One range, it’s the Type-L, and it’s a rugged, waterproof, shock resistant, outdoorsy device powered by Android 4.0 with a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon processor, 4.0-inch IPS LCD panel, 8-megapixel camera, LTE and a 1,800mAh battery capable of 10.5 hours on a single charge.

        • ASUS intros quad-core PadFone 2

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Sony Nexus X Captured On-Camera?

        LG’s Optimus-G-based Nexus 4 has been leaking like a rusty sieve, but we’ve heard it won’t be alone in the Nexus spotlight this fall. The other potential Nexus candidates have been playing things a lot more low key than the LG; the HTC Droid Incredible X has shown up a couple times, but not in any way directly tied to the Nexus family, and the all the others we’ve really only heard alluded to by name only. Today we get what might be some new photographic evidence of another of these new Nexus models, upon a couple shots of the so-called Sony Nexus X surfacing.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Google Open Sources Supersonic Query Engine

    Google announced today that it is open sourcing a query engine library called Supersonic, which the company says is “extremely useful for creating a column oriented database back-end.”

    “Supersonic’s main strength lies in its speed,” says Google’s Supersonic Team in a post to Google’s Open Source blog. “It is a cache-aware engine which exploits several low-level optimization techniques to ensure second-to-none execution times and high throughput. By making use of SIMD instructions and efficient pipelining we make columnar data processing very fast.”

  • Twitter open sources Clutch.io mobile A/B testing tool
  • 60 OS Replacements for Storage Software

    According to IDC, the amount of digital data in our universe is doubling every two years. They say that in 2011 our world generated 1.8 zettabytes (1.8 trillion gigabytes) of data. The research firm also reports that enterprises store 80 percent of that data at some point during its lifecycle.

    The problem: while the amount of storage capacity needed is growing incredibly rapidly, enterprise budgets are not increasing at the same rate.

    As a result, enterprises are increasingly looking to open source solutions to help them manage their huge data stores while keeping costs down. And the open source community also has many storage-related projects that can help small businesses and consumers with their storage needs as well.

  • RIM: reaping the benefits of open source

    Since we spoke to RIM about an open source strategy we called pragmatic back in February, BlackBerry 10 hasn’t materialised but RIM’s promised open source commitments have. The company has stuck to the open source approach it promised even when there have been setbacks, and Mary Branscombe finds that it seems to be paying dividends – like contributions from the open source community and high browser compatibility scores.

  • Kicking Out Comic Sans

    There’s only one valid excuse, and that’s making notices and text readable for dyslexics. According to some authorities, using a clear font that incorporates asymmetries in the letter designs helps people with dyslexia keep track of the text they are reading and understand more clearly.

  • Open Source Takes Center Stage, Decades Later

    It may come as a surprise to today’s digital natives, but the concept of open systems dates back to the late 1960s and early 1970s, where the first steps were taken to link different computer systems together across communications networks.

  • Open Sankoré: Open source whiteboard software

    Interactive whiteboards are something you find in pretty much every school, college and university these days. Mostly these come from one of two companies, Smart and Promethean, both of which also supply the main software application that typically teachers and students interact with. This application is closed source and runs on Windows and does some basic things like allowing the teacher or student to draw on the board using drawing tools, import presentations and documents, and include some interactive content.

  • Can we upgrade democracy with open source version control?

    As Luis Ibanez pointed out on Friday, Clay Shirky’s latest TED Talk—exploring what open source version control systems may mean for democracy—is great food for thought. Shirky says tools like Git will one day transform democracy, because they will make it easier than ever for citizens to participate in lawmaking and other formerly hierarchical civic processes. Imagine, for example, if anyone could propose a “patch” to the legal code, as easily as they can for computer code. It might be feasible for many more people to be directly involved, and the code might get much better.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Delivers Advice on Updating Specific Extensions

        As we’ve recently covered, and as our readers have confirmed, not everyone is thrilled with Mozilla’s rapid release cycle for the Firefox browser. Even as Mozilla has maintained that its new rapid release cycle for Firefox will proceed, the company has also made steady adjustments to the way Firefox extensions are tested, in an effort to avoid the kinds of extension-related performance problems that have occasionally cropped up in the past year. And now, in one blog post, Mozilla is encouraging users to update specific extensions, and in another, is showing off a new Developer Toolbar that can help with both extension and web app development.

  • SaaS

    • CloudStack strikes back in the battle of open-source clouds
    • The Open Source Cloud is Ready for Hadoop, Projects Say
    • Spring Data gets a release train

      The Spring Data developers have decided to coordinate the publication of the various Spring Data modules with a regularly scheduled release train. The first release train of modules has just arrived, synchronising the GA (general availability) releases of six Spring Data modules: Spring Data Commons 1.4, Spring Data JPA 1.2, Spring Data MongoDB 1.1, Spring Data Neo4j 2.1, Sprint Data Gemfire 1.2 and Spring Data REST Exporters 1.0.

    • A truly open cloud has to be open source, says OpenNebula

      There are many cloud providers who call themselves open or say that they are open-source, but most of them are dependent on a single large vendor or series of vendors, Open Nebula co-founder and CEO Ignacio Llorente told attendees at GigaOM’s Structure Europe conference in Amsterdam on Tuesday. Unlike these other competitors — such as OpenStack, which was started by Rackspace — Llorente said that OpenNebula is truly open, and relies on a community of users to develop and contribute to the codebase, which is used to run data centers.

    • Salesforce Hires to Go Open Source

      On Friday, Salesforce started looking for engineers skilled in an open source database called PostgreSQL. In a job posting, Salesforce says it needs five engineers now, and 40 to 50 more people next year, for “a huge PostgreSQL project” that would involve “implementing core technology that runs Salesforce.com.”

    • DreamHost Debuts Open Source Cloud IaaS

      The open source channel gained a new stronghold in the cloud today with the introduction of DreamCloud, an Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) cloud platform from DreamHost based on OpenStack, Ceph and other major open source technologies. Read on for details.

    • OwnCloud 4.5 Mounts Open Source Storage Alongside Amazon, Dropbox
    • Metacloud Gives OpenStack Some Spine

      What do Ticketmaster and the open source OpenStack cloud platform have in common? Thanks to startup Metacloud, they now both have some ‘spine.’

      Spine is an open source technology for provisioning and scaling that was originally built by Ticketmaster and then released as open source. Steve Curry, CEO of Metacloud, was formerly a Senior VP at Ticketmaster before leaving along with some members of his cloud engineering team to create the OpenStack-based startup.

    • OpenStack Gets Integrated Into Red Hat

      Red Hat’s OpenStack distribution isn’t just about the upstream project, though; it’s also about integration with Red Hat’s existing Linux platform tools.

    • Rackspace launches open PHP, Java SDKs for OpenStack
    • Why OpenStack Works
    • Cisco announces its own OpenStack-powered distribution

      Networking specialist Cisco has announced the release of its own distribution of the open source OpenStack cloud management platform. The Cisco Edition of OpenStack is designed for automated deployment, high availability and monitoring. Cisco is one of the contributors to OpenStack’s Quantum virtual networking component and the company has included its own Quantum Plugin; this works with Open vSwitch and Cisco Nexus subplugins, and offers L2 VLAN segmentation.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Healthcare

    • Filipinos urged to use open-source technology in medical records

      THE National Telehealth Center (NTHC) has urged Filipinos to become more active members of the OpenMRS (Medical Records System) to enhance the country’s health capacity.

      To promote the system, the NTHC recently organized a gathering of developers and users of free and open-source software for use in health centers around the world for the sixth annual OpenMRS Implementers Meeting held at the Y.C. James Yen Center at the International Institute of Rural Reconstruction (IIRR).

    • DSS donates open source search tool to OSEHRA

      Document Storage Systems has released to the Open Source Electronic Health Record Agent an open source tool that enables clinicians who use the VistA EHR to search a patient’s record for free text data that might otherwise be scattered throughout the chart.

  • Business

    • Open Sourcing May Be Worth the Risk

      Everyone wants a little something for free. But allowing others access to a piece of your business could open you up to criticism. Is it worth it?

      In early 2012, my company made the decision to open source a key piece of our technology platform. We open sourced Mobify.js, our core framework that enables web developers and designers to create a mobile-friendly version of their website. “Open sourcing” means to make software’s source code publicly available, so that anybody can recreate the software or modify it to make their own version. The popular web browser Mozilla Firefox, the image format PNG, and Apache, the world’s most popular web server, are all examples of open-source technology in common use.

    • DSS hands open source search tool over to OSEHRA
    • Medsphere Contributes Enhanced Database Management System to VistA Open Source Community

      OSEHRA community agrees on Medsphere’s MSC FileMan as initial collaborative development project; VA to adopt enhanced DBMS in agency health facilities

    • VA contest seeks VistA appointment scheduling tools

    • Semi-Open Source

      • Always ask about the business model

        But “don’t ask about the business model” is beginning to sound like a Freudian slip: Don’t ask, because if you examine the business models too closely, what you find might make you uneasy. We’re far enough into the second dot-boom to see the business models that time and over-reliance on venture funding produce, and there’s plenty of reason for discomfort.

      • AppDirect Acquires Open Source Billing Company jBilling

        Today cloud app store company AppDirect announced its acquisition of open source billing company jBilling. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. AppDirect co-CEO Daniel Saks says existing jBilling won’t be affected and AppDirect will continue to sell and support jBilling products.

  • Funding

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • FSF Opens Up Nominations For 15th Annual Free Software Awards

      The first award is given to an individual who has made great achievement in the field of free software and has striven to make free software useful and accessible to all. The second is given to a person or organization who, with the help of free software, have worked for benefit of the society.

    • Happy Ada Lovelace Day!
    • Free Software Foundation, the irony phone is ringing

      This kind of behavior runs completely counter to the goals of the Respect Your Freedom certification program, which is designed to give hardware manufacturers the RYF badge if their equipment meets certain standards, such as not including digital rights management (DRM) restrictions, as well as the inclusion of source code and hardware designs under a free license.

  • Project Releases

    • Open Source Search Engine Apache Lucene/Solr Gets Big Update

      Today the Apache Foundation released a major update to the open source search engine building tools Lucene and Solr. Version 4.0 adds several new features aimed at making Solr easier to use, more scalable and more customizable.

      Although they’re jointly developed, Lucene and Solr are actually two different things. Lucene is just a Java library, not a stand alone search engine. Solr is a search engine server built with Lucene as its core.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Timeline of open source in U.S. government

      I’ve written a few times about FLOSS and GNU/Linux in US government. A clearer picture than snapshots or particular events is revealed in this video from RedHat. It shows first the DoE and years later DoD accepting FLOSS as COTS (Consumer Of The Shelf) software. DoE began using FLOSS rather freely but DoD anguished over the matter for years before publicly stating the obvious, FLOSS is good software.

    • GOV.UK “Open” for Business; More to Follow

      Back in February I wrote about an exciting project from the Cabinet Office: a complete overhaul of the UK government’s “citizen-facing” Web sites. It was exciting in part because it was rather good, which made a nice change for a government computing project, but more particularly because it was open source through and through.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Crowd-sourcing a cure for cancer through the internet

      It is only natural that someone with a cancer diagnosis would turn to the web for help, even though the results are likely to terrify and reassure in equal measure.

      But on getting his diagnosis, Italian robotic engineer and open-source artist Salvatore Iaconesi took things one step further.

    • Open Source Robot wants to Win Fifa World Cup

      That’s a big goal to achieve, but those behind Robocup want to work towards that goal. And their objective involves helping hundreds of young scientists every year by challenging them to create the best robot they can.

    • Are leaders in your organization practicing openness?

      Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO of Red Hat, Inc., recently shared his thoughts on leadership in business at the Marbles annual Big Idea Forum. He said, “For leaders to be truly effective, they’re going to have to operate as catalysts. When you get into the details, it’s subtle but it’s incredibly important.”

    • Six ways to improve meetings using open source principles
    • Crowd-Sourcing a Cure for Cancer

      Looking for medical advice on the web is a common activity, even if the results are not always accurate or reassuring. Salvatore Iaconesi has gone considerably further. When the Italian was diagnosed with cancer he put his medical records online to get as many opinions as possible and to try and find a cure.

    • Cisco announces its own OpenStack-powered distribution

      Networking specialist Cisco has announced the release of its own distribution of the open source OpenStack cloud management platform. The Cisco Edition of OpenStack is designed for automated deployment, high availability and monitoring. Cisco is one of the contributors to OpenStack’s Quantum virtual networking component and the company has included its own Quantum Plugin; this works with Open vSwitch and Cisco Nexus subplugins, and offers L2 VLAN segmentation.

    • Cisco Launches Own Version Of OpenStack Cloud Software
    • IFT president: Open innovation will do for the food industry what open source computing has done for the IT industry

    • Open Access/Content

      • Open-source textbooks provide student benefit

        In late September, California Gov. Jerry Brown approved a proposal for the state to fund 50 open-source textbooks for use in lower-level public postsecondary classes. The bill will ultimately allow for the creation of a California Digital Open Source Library that legislators hope to expand during the coming years.

      • B.C. to offer free textbooks online

        The B.C. government is offering free online textbooks for post-secondary students who are taking the 40 most popular courses.

        Advanced Education Minister John Yap says up to 200,000 students could save money next year.

    • Open Hardware

      • Open-Source Kits Put Robots in Many Hands

        I recently received an interesting press release about Multiplo, a four-person startup seeking venture funds in small amounts to create and manufacture kits for anyone interested in robotics.

        The company has used Kickstarter, a Web-based business that helps connect sponsors with small groups that want to pursue a specific project. The Kickstarter approach lets people involved with a project — which must have a specific goal — solicit funds and offer “rewards” to people who contribute funds.

  • Programming

    • The Git Revolution Is Here

      The movement from centralized to distributed VCS is accelerating. Enterprises and tool vendors are catching on and catching up with what open-source developers have been doing for a while. And at the front of the parade is Git.

    • GNU Unified Parallel C Still Aiming For GCC 4.8

      Developers behind GUPC, the GNU Unified Parallel C implementation, are still hoping to see their several year old project merged into the GCC 4.8 compiler release.

Leftovers

  • Convenience, Features, Disaster

    I have no idea how the situation in New Zealand evolved. Probably someone added the kiosks without realizing they could access files all over (sad that was not checked…) or someone relaxed security not realizing the kiosks were around. Bad things happen when systems become more complex than one person knows. The right combination leads to disaster major or minor. One cannot regulate stupidity or ignorance but one can choose to use an OS like GNU/Linux where security is a higher priority than convenience.

  • Obama-Romney debate number two: Another stage-managed charade
  • Congressman warns FTC: Leave Google alone

    A Democratic congressman who played a leading role in the fight against the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this year has taken up a new cause: shielding Google from antitrust scrutiny. In a strongly worded letter to Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz, Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) praised Google’s contribution to the nation’s economy. He warned Leibowitz that if the FTC does choose to initiate an antitrust case against Google, Congress might react by curtailing its regulatory authority.

  • Congressman to FTC: Mess With Google, You Mess With Us

    Google is not a monopoly and does not deserve to have antitrust charges brought against it, at least that is the opinion of Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) who warned the Federal Trade Commission that if it took on Google, it would also be taking on Congress.

  • Britain will not extradite hacker with Asperger’s

  • Security

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Privacy

    • EU Watchdogs To Outlaw Google Privacy Policy

      CNIL was heading the investigation designed to look at whether the changes violated EU law. Earlier, Google had been warned by both EU and US regulators to stop the introduction of the policy until it was approved, but went ahead and implemented the policy, which lets Google combine user data between all of its products, including Search, Gmail and Youtube, and gives users one opportunity to opt out.

      The case is expected to have important consequences for Internet companies across Europe, and result in heavy financial losses for the Silicon Valley company.

    • ORG congratulates CNIL

      “It’s good to see European data protection authorities take action so that users gain control of their data…”

    • Congressman Warns FTC: Suing Google Will Be A Woefully Misguided Step

      As you are aware FTC is preparing an anti-trust case against Google (a similar case is being negotiated in Europe). Now a Colarado Democrat Rep. Jared Polis is warning FTC to not take such step against Google. The focus of this investigation is “whether Google manipulates its search results to ensure that its own services, such as YouTube, Google Maps and Google Plus, appear above those of its rivals.”

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Pirate Bay Moves to The Cloud, Becomes Raid-Proof

        The Pirate Bay has made an important change to its infrastructure. The world’s most famous BitTorrent site has switched its entire operation to the cloud. From now on The Pirate Bay will serve its users from several cloud hosting providers scattered around the world. The move will cut costs, ensure better uptime, and make the site virtually invulnerable to police raids — all while keeping user data secure.

10.16.12

Links 16/10/2012: Linux 3.7 RC1, Plasma Active Improvements

Posted in News Roundup at 6:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Twitter Open Sources Clutch.io – Develop iOS Apps Faster And Better

    Twitter Engineering team has open-sourced Clutch.io, a library that will help developers to create iOS based apps faster and better. Developers can also deploy their apps instantly and run several A/B tests make sure their apps run well.

  • 5 key forces driving open source today

    From the rise of foundations to emerging revenue models, the open source movement is primed for even greater impact on tomorrow’s technologies

  • Events

  • SaaS

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Funding

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • MediaGoblin Looking For Support

      The Free Software Foundation has launched a fund raising campaign on behalf of GNU MediaGoblin, a free software media publishing system for images, video, and audio.

      Coding on the MediaGoblin project, which aims to provide decentralized and extensible tools for media sharing that adhere to free software principles, has been ongoing since 2011 and currently is at version 0.3.1.

    • Lulzbot 3D printer receives FSF hardware certification

      The Free Software Foundation (FSF) has awarded its “Respects Your Freedom” (RYF) hardware certification to the LulzBot AO-100 3D printer made by Aleph Objects. This makes the LulzBot AO-100 the first device to receive the certification since the RYF programme’s launch. The programme was originally created in 2010 to endorse devices that respect the customer’s freedom and use free software in all parts of the product.

    • The Free Software Foundation opens nominations for the 15th Annual Free Software Awards

      The Free Software Foundation (FSF) and the GNU Project today announced the opening of nominations for the 15th annual Free Software Awards. The Free Software Awards include the Award for the Advancement of Free Software and the Award for Projects of Social Benefit.

    • The Free Software Column – Inside the code

      It is in the nature of things that ideas which upset the status quo or challenge the prevailing orthodoxies are watered down to make them more acceptable, which is why the free software movement is an essential part of the landscape

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Open source in U.S. government in five minutes

      Gunnar Hellekson, Technology Strategist for Red Hat’s U.S. Public Sector Group, presents a timeline created by tying together data about software the government has released as open source.

    • Polish Lower Silesia Region corrects procurement following complaint

      The Council of the Polish Region of Lower Silesia corrected its procurement specification following complaints from a civil IT procurement watchdog. In the updated request, published in September, the council no longer asks for a specific proprietary brand of operating system and ditto office suite. The watchdog hopes this opens the way for providers of open source alternatives to participate in the bid.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open system for seed germplasm mooted

      Linux has changed the way we compute using software tools available through the open source. It opened up a new world of software development for those opposing the proprietary technology solutions.

      How about a Linux for seeds? This is what a small set of scientists, including in ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), independent scientists and non-governmental organisations, are thinking loudly.

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Checking Back in on OpenStand

      In case you haven’t thought about it lately, it’s a fair bet that everything in your life today depends to some greater or lesser extent (usually the former) on the Internet and the Web. And in case you’ve never thought about it at all, what makes those vital services possible has less to do with servers and fiber optics than it does with protocols and other standards. Take that reality a step further, and it becomes obvious that that the processes by which these essential enablers of our interconnected world are created is pretty important.

10.15.12

Links 15/10/2012: New Btrfs Features In Linux 3.7, New E17 Snapshot

Posted in News Roundup at 5:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Revisiting The Linux Sweet Spot

    Two years ago I wrote The Linux Sweet Spot, where I speculated that a sub-hundred dollar tablet computer that did one thing, launched a browser and let me connect to the web, would be the perfect competitor to the iPad. Over the course of the past two years, several devices have launched that come close to what I was envisioning, but none at the price I thought.

  • The Linux survival guide

    Although Windows 8 brings to the forefront a huge array of innovation in how we use our computers, many people think that the new UI is obstructing them from doing their own work. Some people hate it simply because some guy sat in a corner chewing his keyboard going over in his head about how terrible his life had become after using Windows 8 for five minutes and the resulting document was posted online. Many of you just don’t like it and you want something that you’re used to.

  • Veriton N – What That Other OS Really Costs

    Acer shows side-by-side Veriton N with GNU/Linux and with that other OS “Pro”. Want to spend 67% more for the same hardware and functionality? Pay M$ $160 for a PC worth about $240.

  • Linux Format 164 On Sale Today – Linux at CERN!
  • More Linux!

    The Linux world stands still for no one. New releases of Fedora, Ubuntu and others are always in the works, each a unique mixture of upstream software versions and patches. It takes more than just a kernel to make an operating system. This is why each version of Linux is a little bit different even if almost all the software comes from the same sources.

  • Desktop

    • Linux Desktops Described In Terms Of Beer

      With GNOME starting the GBeers initiative, for the weekend I couldn’t help but to think about what beer pairings I would do if needing to match the popular Linux desktops with beer.

  • Server

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • A New E17 Snapshot Before The Big Announcement

      A big Enlightenment E17 snapshot was released, days ahead of their big announcement during LinuxCon EU 2012 concerning an official release of the window manager.

    • Nick Schermer, Xfce Developer

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Razor-Qt Sees A New Major Release

        Razor Qt is a lightweight and fast desktop environment based on Qt libraries which is attractive as well as fun to use. The desktop is under high development and still not very stable. However, those who like KDE and need a light alternative will love this desktop.

      • KDE celebrates Ada Lovelace Day with tutorials

        Today, KDE celebrated its 16th birthday. On October 14, 1996, Matthias Ettrich started KDE. Since then, amazing women have helped make KDE what it is today. Women like Anne-Marie Mahfouf, Eva Brucherseifer, Alexandra Leisse, Celeste Lyn Paul, Anne Wilson, Claire Lotion, Lydia Pintscher, Myriam Schweingruber, Claudia Rauch and many many more. Women have shaped both KDE code and KDE community.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME Launches GBeers Initiative

        While there’s many critics to the GNOME Shell desktop, will GNOME gain more followers through promoting the consumption of beer at monthly meet-ups?

        There’s now GBeers, a world-wide initiative for GNOME meet-ups that has lightning talk presentations while drinking beer. The GNOME project is encouraging users and developers to organize GBeers in your own city; the first GBeers happened recently in Madrid, Spain.

  • Distributions

    • Arch Linux To Support Systemd By Default On New Installations

      Arch Linux will now support Systemd as the boot framework on on all its new installations. The news was announced in official Arch Linux site by Thomas Bächler. The systemd-sysvcompat package has been added to the base group and users will be able to use Systemd by installing this package.

    • Santoku a new Linux distro focused on Security

      There’s a new GNU/Linux distro designed to help you in every aspect of your mobile forensics, mobile malware analysis, reverse engineering and security testing. It’s called Santoku Linux. Santoku is a general purpose kitchen knife which originated from Japan, meaning “three virtues” or “three uses”. This distribution is not from Japan, but the name was suggested by Thomas Cannon of viaForensics (who happens to be the project leader of Santoku Linux) because the distribution was crafted specifically for Mobile Forensics, Mobile Malware Analysis, and Mobile Security Testing. The current alpha release is based on a fork of the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) MobiSec Ubuntu distro thus making this alpha release an OWASP MobiSec Remix (released under GPL) with added tools from viaForensics and some of its contributors or supporters. This project or platform is sponsored and launched by viaForensics which is a known and very innovative digital forensics and security firm that focuses or specializes on computer and mobile forensics, mobile application security, enterprise security, information security and penetration testing, and forensics training.

    • Stella 6.3 – Simple, elegant and beautiful

      Distro forking is a dangerous business. The attempts either end up a rather brilliant product like Linux Mint, or not all, mostly the latter. Moreover, most distro forks tend to brand themselves as unique operating systems, usually failing in the said branding and QA tests.

    • Fuduntu: Best of Two Worlds!

      Unlike Crunchbang Linux Fuduntu it is most definitely a Linux which can be used out of the box with little and no modification from the user themselves. Add to this the fact the desktop is very close to Windows including features like desktop short cuts and start like menu it would be very quick for a Window User to learn how to get around it.

    • Snowlinux 3.1 Screenshots
    • Santoku a new Linux distro focused on Security

      There’s a new GNU/Linux distro designed to help you in every aspect of your mobile forensics, mobile malware analysis, reverse engineering and security testing. It’s called Santoku Linux. Santoku is a general purpose kitchen knife which originated from Japan, meaning “three virtues” or “three uses”. This distribution is not from Japan, but the name was suggested by Thomas Cannon of viaForensics (who happens to be the project leader of Santoku Linux) because the distribution was crafted specifically for Mobile Forensics, Mobile Malware Analysis, and Mobile Security Testing. The current alpha release is based on a fork of the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) MobiSec Ubuntu distro thus making this alpha release an OWASP MobiSec Remix (released under GPL) with added tools from viaForensics and some of its contributors or supporters. This project or platform is sponsored and launched by viaForensics which is a known and very innovative digital forensics and security firm that focuses or specializes on computer and mobile forensics, mobile application security, enterprise security, information security and penetration testing, and forensics training.

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Canonical includes Donations screen in Ubuntu
          • Ubuntu 12.10: 32-bit vs. 64-bit Linux Performance

            In past years on Phoronix there has been no shortage of 32-bit vs. 64-bit Linux benchmarks. Assuming you don’t have a limited amount of RAM and under memory pressure, 64-bit distributions tend to be much faster than the 32-bit versions. However, some Linux users still often wonder whether they should use the 32-bit or 64-bit version of their distribution even when on 64-bit hardware. So with that said, here’s some more 32-bit vs. 64-bit benchmarks of Ubuntu 12.10 with the Linux 3.5 kernel.

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • Zim text editor 0.57 adds LilyPond and Zeitgeist plugins

    With the release of version 0.57, Zim developer Jaap Karssenberg has reworked the side panes in his graphical text editor, while also improving existing plugins and adding new ones. Written in Python using GTK+ libraries, Zim maintains a collection of locally stored wiki pages, each of which can contain simple formatting, as well as links to other pages, images and attachments. Pages are stored as plain text with wiki formatting and the software can be expanded with various plugins, such as a spell checker and an equation editor.

  • Three new widgets in jQuery UI 1.9.0

    Three new widgets are the highlights of the new features in jQuery UI 1.9.0, as the developers work towards completely refreshing the HTML5/JavaScript UI toolkit for a future 2.0 release. One widget, Menu, was technically in the previous release, 1.8, but was bundled within the autocomplete widget; now it has been broken out and promoted to being a first class widget for inline and popup menus and for use as a basis for more complex menus.

  • Twitter open sources Clutch.io mobile A/B testing tool

    Following its acquisition of Clutch.io in mid-August, Twitter has announced that Clutch.io’s software for developing, deploying and integrating native mobile applications is now available as open source. Described by Chris Aniszczyk, Open Source Manager at Twitter, as “an easy-to-integrate library for native iOS applications”, Clutch consists of two projects: the Clutch A/B testing service and the Clutch Framework.

  • The Next Battleground for Open vs. Closed? Your Car

    It all seems upside down: a major toy company releases its first tablet; a major search company works on its first car. Yet all of this makes sense when you realize everyone just wants to be – or may already be – in the mobile device business. Including car companies.

    A friend recently showed me his shiny new luxury sports car. Did he rave about the 333-horsepower, six-cylinder engine, or 14-speaker, noise-cancelling stereo system? No. His first point of pride was the car’s ability to become an internet hotspot, powering Wi-Fi devices throughout the vehicle. This makes sense when you realize cars have become our portable offices and homes, a shared mobile experience for the entire family.

  • Contribution of open source to Europe’s economy: 450 billion per year

  • Events

    • One Week To LinuxDays In Prague

      Coming up next weekend is the first-ever LinuxDays event in Prague, which will happen alongside a Gentoo mini-conference, an openSUSE conference, and the SUSE Labs conference.

  • SaaS

  • Databases

    • How 3.6 nearly broke PostgreSQL

      In mid-September, the 3.6 kernel appeared to be stabilizing nicely. Most of the known regressions had been fixed, the patch volume was dropping, and Linus was relatively happy. Then Nikolay Ulyanitsky showed up with a problem: the pgbench PostgreSQL benchmark ran 20% slower than under 3.5. The resulting discussion shows just how hard scalability can be on contemporary hardware and how hard scheduling can be in general.

  • CMS

    • Canada’s Largest Art and Design University Leverages Canvas Open Source for its LMS

      OCAD University, Canada’s largest school for art and design, has moved to Canvas by Instructure for the 2012-13 school year. OCAD U is the first university in Canada to implement Canvas Community Version, the open-source version of Canvas, for its students and faculty. The university has been running Canvas since January 2012 and has 4,500 students and 1,500 courses on the system today.

  • Education

    • Education is the new oil that will drive the information revolution

      Jim Whitehurst presented on Saturday morning at the 2012 installment of TEDxRaleigh, speaking to a sold-out crowd in Raleigh’s Lincoln Theatre. Now in its third year, TEDxRaleigh has brought together local innovators, researchers and thought leaders to give local flair to a wildly successful national event.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • Obnam 1.2 introduces diff command for backups

      Developer Lars Wirzenius has released Obnam 1.2, the latest version of his open source snapshotting backup utility. The new version includes a diff command and several improvements to its existing options, as well as a collection of bug fixes. Obnam, which has been in development since 2006 and graduated to version 1.0 in June, creates generational backup copies that remove the need for the user to care whether they should create an incremental or a full backup. Obnam’s copies share as much data as possible and only changed data is backed up in subsequent runs.

    • Phoronix Test Suite 4.2-Randaberg Hits First Stage
    • Open source framework Zikula now with mobile theme

      The latest release of the open source application framework Zikula includes a number of updates and fixes which, the developers hope, will allow Zikula 1.2 users to upgrade without issues. Along with changes for PHP 5.4 compatibility, the new version, Zikula 1.3.4, includes updated versions of jQuery and jQuery UI, and a default theme for viewing on mobile devices. The password recovery system has also been fixed and there have been fixes and enhancements made to Forms, ContextMenus, Menu Tree and DateUtil.

    • Lucene and Solr 4.0 released

      After entering beta mid-August, the final 4.0 versions of the Apache project’s Lucene search engine library and Solr, the search platform built on top of Lucene, have now been released. Solr allows users to create a full-text web-accessible, dynamically clustered search engine that is capable of ingesting rich documents like Word or PDF files and indexing them for complex searching.

  • Licensing

    • NVIDIA wants to remove GPL marker from Linux interface

      NVIDIA developer Robert Morell has proposed removing a marker for the Linux kernel’s GPL licence from a Linux kernel driver interface, apparently in order to permit the use of the interface with proprietary drivers. A discussion thread on the topic has seen several key kernel developers express clear opposition to the proposal and debate over which developers would have to consent to such a change.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Apple’s Going to Pay Up for the iOS 6 Clock Design It Stole

      Apple’s Going to Pay Up for the iOS 6 Clock Design It StoleApple shamlessly swiped the design of iOS 6′s iPad clock from the Swiss National Railway, and a couple of weeks ago, it was called out. Now that its copycatism has been exposed, Apple has agreed to licensing terms.

10.13.12

Links 13/10/2012: Stallman on Canonical, New Zenwalk

Posted in News Roundup at 6:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • The Linux Labs – how it was done

    Earlier this year we launched an appeal. We wanted you to help us with our Linux Labs. We didn’t want you to answer a few multiple choice questions; we didn’t want plain numbers. We wanted you to help us write the reviews themselves.

    So, via the medium of The big PC Pro Linux Labs wiki, hosted by our friends over at Memset, we set about building a collaborative Labs of the likes never seen before in the pages of the magazine.

  • TLWIR 46: Limerick Loves LibreOffice
  • We Invite You to Share the World’s Most Inspiring Linux Stories

    Linux inspires. It is enabling nearly every technology innovation of the 21st century and is supporting the growth of numerous industries from mobile to the cloud. And, its reach goes far beyond these markets to also enable scientific discovery, smart cities, new companies and young students.

  • Desktop

    • A California School District Is the Latest to Adopt Chromebooks

      Slowly but surely, Google is getting traction for Chromebooks–portable computers running the Chrome OS operating system–in schools. In the latest example of a school system standardizing on Chromebooks, California’s Milpitas Unified School District has put Chromebooks in the hands of more than 1,000 students. It’s only the latest example of Google’s global efforts to woo schools and educators over to its concept of cloud computing and what a modern operating system should do.

    • Chromebooks allow students to navigate online learning
    • Windows 8 vs Ubuntu: battle of the operating systems

      When Windows 8 is released on 26 October, it will be the third straight time a major Windows version is launched close to the release of arguably the world’s most popular Linux distro – Ubuntu.

    • Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook: Day one

      After a full day of using the latest Chromebook from Samsung it’s clear the Chrome OS has evolved to be a powerful platform. It handles my work so perfectly it is like an OS made just for me.

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux Kernel Support For The Loongson-3

      Lemote has published new Linux kernel patches for enabling the Loongson-3 processor support plus Loongson-3 based systems.

      The Loongson-3, which is codenamed Goson-3, is a quad-core MIPS64-compatible CPU that runs at around 1.0GHz. The Loongson-3 is manufactured on a 65nm process and has a sub-15 Watt TDP. Eight and sixteen core versions of the Loongson-3 are also expected to be released in the future.

    • Linux 3.6 Debuts with 5 Major Advances

      Late last month Linux creator Linus Torvalds had been considering publishing an eighth release candidate of the Linux 3.6 kernel, but on Sunday Torvalds decided to skip that step and launch the final version instead.

    • One Kernel Can Now Handle Multiple ARM Platforms
    • Intel SMAP Comes To Try To Better Secure Linux

      The Supervisor Mode Access Prevention feature is an instruction set extension whereby the kernel cannot access pages that are user-space. However, when the need comes about for the kernel to access a user-space page, an override is available. This work from Intel was originally published last month and has now been merged into the mainline kernel for Linux 3.7.

    • 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: Jiri Slaby

      Welcome to week 16 in our 30-week series that profiles the world’s leading Linux kernel developers. This week we talk to Jiří Slabý, a young developer who tells us why he likes working on the Linux kernel: “Because no one can really understand the kernel fully. It is a constantly changing ecosystem and one still has to learn something new. And, it is also the people. They taught me real programming.”

    • Linux on ARM breakthrough to take away Torvalds’ arse pain

      A single Linux kernel build that can run on various ARM-powered kit from competing manufacturers has come closer to reality, much to Linus Torvalds’ relief.

    • Fluendo Advances Multimedia for Linux

      The Linux Foundation in March announced that Fluendo was becoming a member. The company has been at the forefront of building legal multimedia solutions for open environments and works very closely with the Gstreamer community. In this exclusive Q&A with Fluendo’s VP of Business Development Michael Pizzoli we get to learn more about the company’s work and perspective on the Linux desktop, embedded Linux and infotainment for cars.

    • AMD Turbo Core Performance Under Linux

      As the latest AMD A10-5800K Trinity APU benchmarks under Linux, here’s a quick look at the impact that Turbo Core Technology has under Linux.

      AMD Turbo Core is the technology that’s been around for about two years going back to the AMD Phenom II CPUs that automatically shift the CPU frequency to a higher state when greater performance is desirable. Similar to Intel’s Turbo Boost, it’s basically the reverse of Cool ‘n’ Quiet and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology.

    • Xen For ARM Is Set For The Linux 3.7 Kernel
    • ARM64/AArch64 Support Going Into Linux 3.7 Kernel
    • Linus Torvalds Compares Hard Disks to Satan

      In a chat with tech lovers at Slashdot on Thursday, Torvalds compared the hard drive to Satan. Yes, Satan — as in “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

    • Linus Torvalds interviewed by Slashdot readers

      Slashdot, the 15-year old popular technology discussion site, recently had their readers come up with a list of their top questions to ask Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator. The results were interesting.

      For example, the first question presumed that Torvalds was anti-patent and copyright. Eh… no, he’s never really been either. As Torvalds explained, “I like copyrights, and even on patents I’m not necessarily in the ‘Patents are completely evil. camp. When I rant about patents or copyrights, I rant against the *excesses* and the bad policies, not about them existing in the first place.”

    • 64-bit ARM support merged into Linux kernel
    • Yocto-Compliant Enea Linux Reaches Version 2.0

      The past year or so has seen a number of new technologies emerge based on The Linux Foundation’s Yocto Project, including several that have gone on to be certified as officially Yocto-compatible through the project’s new Compliance Program.

    • Linaro Introduces “Boottime” For Linux Kernel

      Up to this point if you have wanted to monitor the start-up/boot performance of a Linux system, namely how long it takes the Linux kernel to boot, you have had to use an independent utility like Bootchart. Now with work done by the Linaro project, there is an in-kernel measurement capabilities via a new “Boottime” patch.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Update to Trinity KDE 3.5 fork brings improvements

        Trinity, the fork of the classic version of the KDE desktop which appeared in wake of the backlash against KDE 4.0, is still being developed and, after a year of work, a new stable release, version 3.5.13.1, of the desktop environment is now available. Trinity is a fork that continues development of the old 3.x branch of the KDE desktop and which has been enhanced with additional features but is also designed to be both compatible with newer hardware and responsive on older systems.

      • 2012 Randa Report

        In September, several teams met in Randa, Switzerland for the fourth such Sprint Intensive. As expected, there was substantial progress as the teams worked on their individual projects and across projects. The work done at the Randa meetings involves both future-oriented discussions and detailed bug fixing and coding, all done ultimately to delight KDE users.

        Each of the project teams—Accessibility (a11y), Plasma, KDE Edu and Multimedia—have provided a synopsis of their accomplishments below. The actual results of their work will appear in future versions of KDE software.

      • KDE Plasma, Applications and Platform 4.9.2

        Packages for the release of KDE SC 4.9.2 are available for Kubuntu 12.04.1 LTS releases. You can get them from the Kubuntu Backports PPA. They are also in our 12.10 development release.

      • KDE celebrates 59 successful Summer of Code projects

        The KDE project has announced the outcome of its participation as a mentoring organisation in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2012. According to the announcement, KDE was the biggest participating organisation in the event and 59 out of the 60 different projects it mentored were successful. Under the project’s stewardship, students worked on a diverse range of KDE sub-projects from core libraries to entertainment and multimedia applications.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • New versions of GTK+, GLib and Clutter

        Theming support for CSS animations and blur shadows are just two of the new features in the recently released GTK+ 3.6. Also new are the GtkMenuButton widget, which generates a button for a pop-up menu, GtkSearchEntry, an entry field with added “search” icon and “clear” button, and GtkLevelBar, which can be used to display Wi-Fi signal strengths or other levels.

  • Distributions

    • Which Distros Would Obama and Romney Use?

      With fewer than 30 days remaining until the U.S. presidential election, it’s become more or less impossible to hear ourselves think here in the Linux blogosphere, so loud is the din emanating from the land of stars and stripes.

      Of course, misery loves company, as the old saying goes, which probably explains why there’s nary an unoccupied barstool to be found lately in any of the blogosphere’s many bars and saloons.

    • LIF by numbers

      A couple of days ago I wrote my impressions after the Linux Install Fest, but didn’t have exact numbers to back my impressions. Now the organizers published the stats, I can see the numbers and play with them.

    • CAINE 3.0 Screenshots
    • SimpleWelcome gets a new look, and goes social

      The second alpha version of what will become ROSA Desktop 2012 was released yesterday. It is a showcase of the very bright future ahead for this Russian distribution.

    • Zenwalk 7.2 has been launched

      We are happy to release Zenwalk 7.2. After several months of rescheduling we think it’s time to let this new jet fly. Zenwalk 7.2 is loyal to it’s design : providing 1 application per task, everything needed to work / play / code / create, in a single 700MB ISO image, through a 10 minutes automatic install process on any recent computer. Zenwalk is aimed to be really fast in the club of “modern desktop” Linux systems, due to many optimizations at different levels : kernel, applications, desktop. The challenge that we faced, and made them delay the 7.2 release date, was to achieve 100% Slackware Linux compatibility while keeping most of the optimizations that were introduced during the last years of development, started in 2004. Zenwalk 7.2 runs on kernel 3.4.8 with BFS scheduler. The Zenwalk desktop is based on the XFCE 4.10 / GTK 2.24.10/3.4.4 team, with unique look and feel and perfect ergonomic integration of the application set : Libreoffice 3.6.2, Firefox/Thunderbird 15.0.1, Gimp 2.8.2 and much more… The Netpkg package manager has been improved with multiple mirrors support and better performance.

    • Qubes 1.0 Review – Absolute Security

      Don’t you trust the websites you’re visiting? Thanks to Qubes, you can visit them in disposable virtual machines and isolate many other applications from each other

    • New Releases

      • Parted Magic 2012_10_10
      • Blender 2.64 improves green screen and compositing
      • Snowlinux 3.1 Has Been Officially Released

        Lars Torben Kremer proudly announced yesterday, October 10th, the immediate availability for download of the stable release of the Snowlinux 3.1 operating system.

      • Zenwalk 7.2, Now Compatible with Slackware

        Zenwalk Linux 7.2 was released today with “many optimizations at different levels.” Zenwalk is based on Slackware Linux, but aims to be faster, easier, and smaller. It’s been a long time coming, but Jean-Philippe Guillemin says they’ve finally achieved 100% compatibility with Slackware.

      • Tiny Core Linux: A Barebone Linux Distro That Boots Very Fast

        Lightweight Linux distro usually comes in the file size ranging from 20MB to 50MB and they are best suited to use on a old computer. Recently, I come across this tiny Linux distro that weighs only 12MB and it boots up really fast. I am referring to Tiny Core Linux.

      • Absolute Linux 14.0 – Still Needs Refinement

        As expected Absolute Linux 14.0 is not radically different from 13.1, details of which you can read here. Besides the usual package updates that Slackware itself has undergone as well there isn’t a lot to tell on the surface. Underneath Slackware is now using kmod to load modules but that is pretty irrelevant to the desktop user experience. Absolute is still centered around IceWM which is why it was tailored in the first place but also offers Fluxbox as another light weight alternative. It is still 32-bit for the i686 architecture only, in keeping with its target market of older but not too old PC’s, i.e. no 486 processors any longer. It is fully compatible with SlackBuilds and Slackware repositories. Like other derivatives it also still uses a slightly modified version of that old ncurses installer, only in gray.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • A few thoughts on cloud computing

        The problem with cloud computing is it creates situations that were unknown before and therefore new, unforeseen problems may arise. We at Mandriva have been thinking for quite a while about this, and we feel we owe our customers and the market in general a few clear and simple answers on our vision of what cloud computing should be :

        * It should work well : if you can’t make it work and provide the right, efficient service to your customers then it’s not worth it.

        * It should be open : your data should not go into a black box, and more often than not, the cloud stack should be based on standards.

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • mod_pagespeed Out Of Beta, Helps Developers Boost Page Speed Significantly

    When it comes to developing a complete website, page speed is one of the key factors to make a site successful. For this reason, Google, along with a community of developers had created a new Apache module called mod_pagespeed back in 2010. The good news is, this module is now out of beta and can be used in enterprise and business environments.

  • Google’s Latest Web Speedup Strategy Aims at Apache
  • There Must Be 50 Ways To Profit From FLOSS

    The old school types constantly complain that FLOSS and */Linux cannot possibly succeed because there’s no profit to be made selling software licences. That argument is irrational because it assumes selling licence is the only way to make money from software.

    I have made part of my living just using FLOSS. That’s huge. There are lots of businesses making money other ways:

    * selling support for FREE software like RedHat,
    * selling hardware that uses FLOSS, like most OEMs lots of specialists, and
    * selling some other good or service with FLOSS in the mix somewhere.

  • Quantcast Open Sources Hadoop Distributed File System Alternative

    Quantcast, an internet audience measurement and ad targeting service, processes over 20 petabytes of data per day using Apache Hadoop and its own custom file system called Quantcast File System (QFS). Today, it’s making that technology available to as open source under an Apache license. You can now find it on GitHub.

  • SOFA Statistics: An Interview with developer Dr. Grant Paton-Simpson

    I have been a data analyst and researcher since the mid 90s, mainly in the health sector. Was an SPSS user from about 1989. Discovered that most analysis in many sectors is very rudimentary (simple descriptive tables, maybe a barchart, possibly a t-test). Thought there would be a gap for a program that makes the 20% of functionality used 80% of the time very easy to use. I have four children but still find enough peace and quiet to think and program. Badminton makes a nice change from sitting in front of a keyboard.

  • It’s official: Open source is an engine for growth

    When I wrote about open source as a stealth stimulus package this summer, some readers expressed skepticism. But two reports from Europe today support the growing hypothesis that open source provides an excellent monetary bundle for economies that embrace it. More than that, it can be a springboard for businesses that engage it on the basis of delivering flexibility rather than restricting their vision to cost savings.

  • Open source software helps artists create music

    TruthLogik, a New York based hip hop artist, says that in a million years he could not have imagined he would be recording an album using entirely free software. When he first stumbled on open source music-making tools, he thought about the computer classes he took in school. He had never been exposed to the idea that free software could be so well-made and uniquely useful.

  • Events

    • Linux Event TV: One-on-One with Open Source Visionaries

      Linux Foundation events are studded with Linux and open source community leaders, as well as some eccentric personalities. What better place than one of these events to sit down and talk to the people who are making innovation happen in software development and cloud computing?

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Sites can slurp browser history right out of Firefox 16
      • Make your own political campaign ad

        Mozilla and PBS Newshour launch innovative new election video tool — starring YOU

      • Mozilla Firefox 17 Gets Social

        Firefox 16.01 (updated today) is out the door and that means Firefox 17 is now in Beta (those trains move fast!).

        This release like the the last half dozen before it – adds new developer goodness – but this time it’s more sociable than just CSS3 support.

        Firefox 17 includes the new SocialAPI , which is described as an attempt to integrate social content (i.e Facebook) into the browser.

  • SaaS

  • Databases

    • SkySQL launches Cloud SQL Suite and Enterprise Suite

      SkySQL has announced a beta release of Cloud Data Suite, a platform for deploying high availability MariaDB databases to Amazon’s EC2, and, Enterprise Data Suite, comprising a carrier grade database, a high availability tool and analytics applications. The Cloud Data Suite is free to use and includes open source components, while the Enterprise Data Suite is designed to be part of the company’s commercial service and support subscription model.

    • What is NoSQL, and why do you need it?

      Imagine that you have coupons that you wanted to push to mobile customers that purchase a specific item. This is a customer facing system of engagement requires location data, purchase data, wallet data, and so on. You want to engage the mobile customer in real-time.

    • Is Oracle squeezing the MySQL lemon too hard?

      Despite what many feared, Oracle has not abandoned development of MySQL. Indeed, as announced at Oracle OpenWorld this week, Oracle just released MySQL Release Candidate 5.6 with a host of new features.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Funding

    • Hardware startup creates open source Kickstarter alternative

      After having their project rejected by Kickstarter, the designers of the wireless lock system Lockitron went away and wrote their own crowdfunding platform, which they have now open sourced. Apigy Inc’s Selfstarter enables companies to set up their own crowdfunding site, similar to Kickstarter, to host financing campaigns for their products. The very successful funding drive for Lockitron is already being run using the software.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • FSF rallies support for GNU MediaGoblin to make media publishing free “as in freedom”

      BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Thursday, October 11th, 2012 — Today the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced its support for the GNU MediaGoblin project’s fundraiser at http://mediagoblin.org/pages/campaign.html. MediaGoblin is community-developed free “as in freedom” software that enables users to share their experiences through photos, videos, and audio, in a decentralized way that sidesteps current media-publishing gatekeepers.

    • GnuTLS 3.1.3

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Leipzig on course with free office package

      The Münchner IT-Blog, the IT blog of Munich city council in Germany, reports that its fellow council in Leipzig started a migration to the free open source office suite OpenOffice earlier this year.

    • Romanian animal monitoring program proves open source’s reliability

      Romania’s for the past seven years has been using open source for all servers, PCs and laptops for its country-wide farm animal monitoring program. It proofs the reliability and sustainability of this type of software, says Teodorescu Constantin, the project’s IT manager. “We chose Linux and other open source solutions because we wanted trouble-free workstations.”

  • Licensing

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Clay Shirky on how the Internet will one day transform government

      Clay Shirky has done it again. In a fascinating TED Talk, Shirky examines the impact that collaboration tools developed for and by open source communities will have on the way citizens participate in public life and how they can steer the political processes.

    • Open Access/Content

    • Open Hardware

      • Inside Facebook’s lab: A mission to make hardware open source

        A look behind the scenes of Facebook’s hardware lab, the spiritual home of the Open Compute datacentre hardware movement, which may radically change the type of IT enterprises use, and who they buy it from.

      • Build Your Own Arduino Powered Automatic Blinds

        Build Your Own Arduino Powered Automatic BlindsOne of the easiest tricks to keeping a house warm (or cool), is to open and close the blinds in time with the sun. Of course, that’s only helpful if you’re home all the time to do that. Instructables user FreedomToCreate has made an Arduino powered system that opens and closes the blinds on a schedule, based on room temperature, or outdoor light.

      • Open-Source Kits Put Robots in Many Hands

        I recently received an interesting press release about Multiplo, a four-person startup seeking venture funds in small amounts to create and manufacture kits for anyone interested in robotics.

        The company has used Kickstarter, a Web-based business that helps connect sponsors with small groups that want to pursue a specific project. The Kickstarter approach lets people involved with a project — which must have a specific goal — solicit funds and offer “rewards” to people who contribute funds.

  • Programming

    • Google launches its third junior Code-in event
    • Perforce Aims to Bring Git to the Enterprise

      It’s no surprise that the pace of technological innovation in the startup and web development world greatly eclipses the pace of technology adoption at most enterprise organizations. Enterprises are generally slow, risk averse, and demand long-term support for products in which they invest. Startups, web development shops, and open source enthusiasts move at a significantly faster pace. While some enterprises are just now moving from the venerable CVS version control system to something like Subversion, the bulk of today’s generation of developers are using git (and GitHub).

  • Standards/Consortia

Leftovers

  • Finance

    • Q & A with Journalist & Author of “Bet the Farm” Frederick Kaufman

      What would be a significant first step in reducing hunger in America?

      A: Hunger in America isn’t about not having enough food; it’s about not being able to afford food. One proven remedy has been the availability of food stamps, which depends on the fate of the next Farm Bill. Many would like to cut programs that make food available to children in schools, and adults in need, a “reform” that would bring this country a step closer to food insecurity. In this country, not having the money to purchase food also translates into obesity, as cheap calories generally come with too much fat, sugar, and boatloads of artificial everything. In order to consume better calories at lower prices, Americans need to learn about nutrition and home food preparation. Education can help, along with support for purveyors of produce in urban food deserts. Above all, we need jobs for Americans. Food often accounts for 12-15 percent of a weekly paycheck, but first Americans need the paycheck.

  • Censorship

    • Internet censorship: Let it rot in walled gardens

      John Gilmore, an internet activist who was also one of the co-founders of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the first free software company, Cygnus Solutions, once wrote that “the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”.

  • Privacy

    • Party conferences and the Comms Data Bill

      The usefulness of data comes in part from its intrusiveness. So the collection and access to communications information is balanced against the fundamental right to privacy. As a start, many politicians accept that the police should have access to communications traffic data. Of course, sometimes law enforcement have had access to this data, as with phone bills.

  • Civil Rights

    • Snooper’s Charter: 19,000 Emails Against, 0 In Favour

      Back in August, I urged people to respond to the consultation on the truly dreadful Draft Communications Bill, aka Snooper’s Charter. Obviously, I wasn’t alone in doing that: many organisations concerned about the impact on civil liberties in this country have done the same. For example, both 38 Degrees and Open Rights Group (ORG) provided suggested texts and asked people to contact the Joint Parliamentary Committee that has been considering the Bill – and doing rather a good job of it, I must say.

  • DRM

    • Txtr Beagle – Concern to Amazon? – No.

      I’m looking at the Guardian today for the purposes of this article which is reporting a new e-ink, ebook reader which they write about under the title of “Kindle under fire from low-cost ‘txtr beagle’ e-reader” – A dramatic and wholly inacurate headline in my view, but then this is the Guardian so I don’t expect either Guardian staff or its readerbase will see any problem with that. Reported at being available for around £8 this twin AAA powered device with significantly less storage capacity, a slightly smaller screen, no WIFI or 3G and having to be loaded with ebooks via Bluetooth on an Android or iPhone, is going in some way to disturb Amazon or indeed any of the other great e-ink devices.

    • Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Coming to the UK, Germany and France

      Amazon is bringing the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to the UK, Germany and France later this month, giving European Kindle owners (with Prime membership) the choice of over 200,000 books to borrow for free as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • DEAct: Concerns about copyright infringement evidence gathering

        Consumer Focus have today written to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) about the way the MPAA collect evidence of copyright infringement by individuals on P2P networks. The letter relates to a presentation the MPAA gave to Consumer Focus and security expert Dr Richard Clayton (also a member of Open Rights Group’s advisory council), about the process they will be using for the US’ ‘six strike’ copyright infringement process. In his analysis, Dr Clayton found a number of issues that could lead to errors in the gathering of evidence of infringement.

      • ACTA

        • CETA: Governments Must Protect our Freedoms!

          La Quadrature du Net publishes a letter sent to French ministers in charge of negociating CETA, the Canada – UE Trade Agreement, and calls them to act to protect our freedoms, in accordance with previous commitments.

10.11.12

Links 11/10/2012: Ubuntu Donations, Humble Bundle

Posted in News Roundup at 9:16 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • How to Watch HDTV from Internet on your TV with Linux PC (Legally)

    Hooray! The Airbus finally brought me to the land where law is taken slightly more seriously than in Russia. With great responsibility, however, usually comes great power, and a lot of absolutely legal video streaming services are available in the U.S. Moreover, my corporate-sponsored temporary apartment has a large, like, 30-inch TV, and it would be a sin to just let it collect dust in silence.

    No, I couldn’t just watch cable TV! The very idea that I watch something on a predefined schedule is not appealing to me. I’d have to spend money on a TiVo or something that records TV shows anyway. And what about DVDs and feature movies? TV shows isn’t the only thing I watch, by the way. And what about shows that are not airing? how to watch older seasons? No, TV is for the weak.

  • Coming To A Car Near You: Linux Goes Automotive, Signs Up Harman, Intel, Toyota, Samsung’s Tizen, More

    If, one day, we really are all going to be carted around in driverless cars from the likes of Google and others, then we may as well have some apps on board to keep us occupied. Today, the Linux Foundation announced that it was throwing its hat into the car-apps ring, with the creation of the Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup. Early sign-ups among car companies include Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota. Tech companies include Harman, Intel, NEC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, along with Tizen, the Linux-based platform backed by Samsung and Intel.

    The Linux Foundation is not exactly an early mover here. We’ve already seen “car of the future” odes from the likes of Ford and Honda – not to mention Google — even some suggestions that Apple is working on concepts, too. The point with the Linux news, it seems, is to try to keep it relevant in that wider picture of development, and to try impart some standards in the process.

  • Open source’s secret ally: Moore’s Law

    Linux went from being a cool personal hack in a bedroom to software that would eventually change world just over 21 years ago when Linus sent out his famous “Hello everybody out there using minix” message that invited people to join in. As I noted last month, that open, collaborative approach was really quite new and proved key to the uptake and development of Linux.

    That was possible because the internet was sufficiently widely available for enough people to join Linus’ distributed team of volunteers. In other words, the rise of free software is intimately bound up with the internet. Indeed, the rapid take-off of Linux compared with the rather slower progress of the GNU Project is probably due, at least in part, to the fact that the latter could not take global connectivity for granted. It was thanks to this that Richard Stallman was able to live off the sales of GNU Emacs, which he sent out on tapes.

  • Top 5 security Myths about Linux; and their realities

    Linux, unfortunately has been long surrounded by myths. Despite the speedy adoption of Linux as mainstream operating systems for enterprises particularly, the common misconceptions about Linux seem to continue. The post enlists five traditional myths about Linux Security and attempts to debunk each; discussing real facts.

    There exist mainly two schools of thoughts regarding security of Linux. One group that assumes ‘ Linux is Virus Proof’ and the other, advocating a completely contrary thought i.e. ‘Linux is more insecure (when compared to contenders), as it makes source code available to everyone’. Let’s investigate in detail.

  • Desktop

    • Desktop Linux: Diversity is the New Reality

      Everyone agrees that desktop Linux has become more diverse in the last couple of years. But how diverse? And how are the dethroned dominant environments responding?

      Those are questions that nobody is asking — although they probably should.

      So far, 2012 has yet to see one of those magazine polls that are our main — although imperfect — indications of what desktop environments users prefer. However, with a little digging, a few indicators can be unearthed.

      Several indicators are available from Distrowatch, the site that attempts to track distributions.

    • Linux and Windows: Peaceful Coexistence

      Like an evangelist, I frequently tell people about a free Windows-like alternative that is faster and more secure than Microsoft’s OS. The most common response I get is, “Linux, what’s that?”

      Often I also hear, “I can’t switch systems. I am too busy to start from scratch with all my files.” Or, “I’m too busy to go back and forth between two sets of files, one on my Windows computer and the other in my new Linux set up.”

    • 2012 Desktop Shootout

      I didn’t blog yesterday. I’m sorry. I know the internets were in a frenzy arguing over whether I quit or gave up or what have you, but I didn’t. I was just busy doing boring stuff that wasn’t worth blogging about.

    • CAINE 3.0 review

      CAINE, acronym for Computer Aided INvestigative Environment, is a Linux distribution specially crafted for performing computer (digital) forensics. It started life as the graduate thesis of Giancarlo Giustini at the Information Engineering Department of the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy. It is now a project of Digital Forensics for Inter-department Center for Research on Security (CRIS) at the same university.

  • Server

  • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Podcast Season 4 Episode 19

      In this episode: More jury confusion on the Apple vs. Samsung case. Blue Systems sponsors KWin. Linux kernel 3.6 is out, and 3.7 is going to be ARM-unified. You can now shutdown Gnome 3.6 and the French adore le logiciel libre. Plus, hear our discoveries, our rants and raves, and your own opinions in the Open Ballot.

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.8 Kernel May Have Better Nouveau Re-Clocking

      While it will still be a while before the Linux 3.7 kernel is even released, the Linux 3.8 kernel may end up having better Nouveau driver re-clocking support for the common “NV50″ NVIDIA GPU family.

      In the forum discussion surrounding the significant underlying Nouveau driver changes found in Linux 3.7, Nouveau’s Martin Peres wrote, “No luck for this kernel, but I think I’m not that far from delivering good reclocking support for the nv50 family. Maybe next kernel?” His comments were in response to a Phoronix reader asking about dynamic re-clocking and voltage changes.

    • How To Boot Linux In Under One Second
    • 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: Mauro Carvalho Chehab
    • Korea Linux Forum Hosts Kernel Collaboration Gangnam Style

      This week The Linux Foundation is hosting its first-ever event in South Korea, the Korea Linux Forum in the Gangnam District. This was planned long before PSY’s Gangnam-style videowent viral but who are we not to do our part in contributing to this craze and honoring our host location?

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Snowlinux 3.1 GNOME 2 & XFCE 4.8 & E17 released!

      Snowlinux 3.1 is a bug fix release for GNOME, XFCE and E17. It solves many bugs and it also brings many features to the users. CTRL_ALT_Backspace restarts the x-server if it has hung up. Click on tap was activated and lots of bugs were solved.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • KDE’s KWin Gears Up To Advance At Faster Pace

        With the push towards Wayland and other various advancements being desired out of KDE’s compositing window manager, Martin Gräßlin is joining Blue Systems to further work on KWin.

        Beginning a new blog post by Martin, “Very soon after joining the KWin development team almost five years ago, I realized that KWin would need at least one full time developer. It is one of the most important parts for the user experience of the KDE Plasma Workspaces and we have seen quite often that important changes for the user experience could not be implemented due to lack of manpower.”

      • KWin maintainer to join Blue Systems

        KDE developer Martin Gräßlin has announced that he will be joining Blue Systems to continue his work on KWin window manager for the KDE Plasma Desktop full time. The developer says that soon after joining the KWin development team nearly five years ago, he realised that the project would eventually need at least one full time developer. “With the upcoming required changes like Qt 5 and Wayland the need for developers is increasing,” noted Gräßlin.

      • Possibility to use KLook from File->Open/Save dialogs
      • KDE Publishes Its Manifesto

        Citing the benefits of a KDE project the site says: Being part of the international KDE community conveys certain benefits and rights.

      • KDE Pens Manifesto
      • KDE Commit-Digest for 5th August 2012
      • Roktober 2012
      • Amarok Celebrates 10 Years

        Amarok, popular KDE music manager, is turning 10 years old this month and the project is taking this opportunity to review the last year and look head to the future. Amarok 3 will debut at FOSDEM next February, and planning has already begun. So, it’s time for the team to raise some money.

      • KDE Commit-Digest for 12th August 2012
      • KDE Commit-Digest for 19th August 2012
      • KDE4 Plasma Active

        I’ve recently replaced Unity, on the little MSI Netbook, that I wrote about recently after installing Ubuntu/Unity on it.

  • Distributions

    • Review: Cinnarch 2012.10.01

      I haven’t gotten the chance to do a review in a while. It’s a long weekend, so I finally do have some more free time now, and I need to take a break from the otherwise endless stream of work, so I’m taking a look at Cinnarch now.

      Cinnarch is a relatively new distribution on the scene. True to its name, it is based on Arch Linux and uses GNOME 3/Cinnamon as its primary DE. At first I figured that the packaging would be fairly stock, but as it turns out (and as you will see later in this post), there are a few other mild customizations present as well.

    • Zorin Linux Is Heavy on the Windows Dressing

      For many newcomers to Linux, Zorin has a deal maker that is unmatched in any other Linux distribution. It comes with several integrated tools that let you modify Zorin’s appearance. Look Changer lets you decide how the desktop looks and acts. You can tweak the look and feel even more with Splash Screen Manager, Internet Browser Manager and Background Plus.

    • OS4 13 Screenshots

    • New Releases

      • GeeXboX 3.0 released
      • Zentyal 3.0 integrates Samba 4

        Version 3.0 of the Zentyal small business server is now available; the new version upgrades the underlying operating system and integrates Samba 4. Aimed at small and medium businesses (SMBs), Zentyal is a Linux-based server distribution that can act as a Gateway, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Infrastructure Manager, or Unified Communications Server, or as a combination of these. The system can also be extended using over 30 modules, such as HTTP Proxy, firewall and the Zarafa collaboration platform.

    • Gentoo Family

      • Sabayon 10 introduces MATE edition

        Sabayon 10, the latest release of the Gentoo-derived Linux distribution, introduces a new edition of the operating system with version 1.4.1 of the MATE desktop, a fork of the older 2.x branch of GNOME. For the first time, Sabayon also provides Amazon Machine Images (AMI) to deploy the distribution on Amazon’s EC2 cloud platform.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Expands OpenShift Ecosystem with Zend Partnership

        Red Hat has expanded its OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) ecosystem by collaborating with Zend, the PHP Company.

        The new Zend Server for Red Hat OpenShift gives professional-grade PHP development and runtime environment, alongside the benefits of the OpenShift PaaS. PHP applications deployed to Zend Server for OpenShift can access built-in debugging, monitoring and application performance tuning capabilities, making application development and management easier.

      • Red Hatters seal chumship with Zend on OpenShift PHP cloud

        Red Hat is still only previewing its OpenShift platform cloud, and one of the reasons why is because it had not yet inked a deal with Zend Technologies, the commercial entity that is to the PHP programming language as Linux Torvalds and Red Hat together are to the Linux operating system.

      • Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst to Discuss the Information Revolution at TEDx Raleigh
      • Red Hat makes APAC appointments

        Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced six appointments across the Asia Pacific region to support market interest in open source technologies and the company‘s growth plans across the region.

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 18 To Be Delayed By Another Week

          Fedora 18 Beta codenamed Beefy Miracle is going to be delayed by another week. This is mainly because of unfinished/non-testable nature of its build. The decision was taken in Fedora 18 Beta Change Deadline readiness meeting and its expected that this delay will make the beta release possible soon.

        • Name Suggestions For Fedora 19 Now Open

          Naming suggestions are now open for Fedora 19, which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. The upcoming release, Fedora 18 Beefy Miracle is going to release end November 2012. Fedora maintains a 6 month release cycle while older releases get unsupported after a period of 1.5 years.

        • Is that Fedora running on a Raspberry Pi?

          That was a popular exchange at the Fedora booth during this year’s Ohio LinuxFest. The iconic Model B Raspberry Pi, running Fedora Remix and proudly displaying the Beefy Miracle fireworks on a XFCE desktop, was drawing lots of attention.

    • Debian Family

      • CrunchBang ‘Waldorf’ – Second Time Lucky

        As we all know ‘Waldorf’ is the testing branch of CrunchBang Linux based on the upcoming Debian ‘Wheezy’. Two weeks ago I wrote a shortish post about how the latest testing image failed to install, and promptly an update got released with the release announcement pointing to a known bug in the Debian installer. So, time to try again now that we’re back home.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0: The Apps Generation

            It’s almost half year since the last major release of Ubuntu Tweak. In 0.7.x release, I polished the UI of Ubuntu Tweak, and also brought back the App Center & Source Center that you miss.

          • Canonical Opens Up Donations For Ubuntu

            Canonical has opened up donations for the Ubuntu project and users who do not have much time to contribute to the project in kind, now can help it in cash. The donation mechanism is similar to the Humble Bundle, where users will be able to select the exact usage of the donations.

          • Ubuntu Linux: Donationware?
          • Easier Financial Contributions To Ubuntu
          • Upgrading to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server
          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 286
          • The Ubuntu architect: why it’s important to attract all users

            Allison Randal is such a brilliant speaker that she could keep us interested in anything, for hours.

            Fortunately, when our sister title Linux Format met her she was talking about the best ways to engage the next wave of Ubuntu users to join in and become good citizens.

            As technical architect of Ubuntu, it’s her job to, as she puts it: “champion the community’s vision for Ubuntu; to facilitate conversations as we integrate multiple perspectives and balance multiple needs; to ask good questions that help us find better solutions.”

          • Ubuntu Made Easy: Interview With The Authors

            A couple weeks ago, I reviewed the book Ubuntu Made Easy, and a few days after that, I thought “why not do an interview to the authors”? So, here it is. Rickford Grant and Phil Bull both agreed on making it. I also got a few questions from you on Reddit, which got asked here.

          • Ubuntu’s Jono Bacon Talks Open-Source Community Management

            Jono Bacon, the community manager for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux, believes in open-source software, but even more, he believes in the ability of open-source communities to help move code forward to drive success for enterprises. By getting their developers more involved in open-source communities, Bacon believes that enterprises will reap far more than they sow by benefiting from better code that helps solve their business challenges. That’s why, he argues, more enterprises today are correctly hiring community managers to nurture and grow such efforts. Bacon was in San Francisco Oct. 8 to speak on the subject at the Liferay Symposium. There he sat down with eWEEK’s Todd R. Weiss to answer questions about the state of open- source software in 2012 and why participation in open-source communities should be taken even more seriously by enterprises. Bacon authored a book on the topic, “The Art of Community,” which was updated in a second edition this past May by O’Reilly Media, and is the founder of the Community Leadership Summit. Begun in 2009, it’s been held each year in Portland, Ore., just before the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON).

          • Ubuntu’s Shopping Lens Might Be Illegal in Europe

            The new Shopping lens that received so much publicity in the last month, both positive and negative, could be illegal in Europe.

          • Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’: Beta 2 Sneak Peek

            Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’ is due for release in approximately one week. But before we start preparing a full review of the new version, we thought we’d give Unixmen readers a small preview of what we should all expect from the ‘Quantal Quetzal’.

            I’ve spent some time with the latest Beta 2 in the last few days. And I must admit, the past few releases of Ubuntu I have found to be rather uninspiring and I think there are much better Linux based operating systems currently available. Yet, I think 12.10 could be the version that gets back my respect for Ubuntu.

          • DVDs For Approved LoCo Teams
          • Ubuntu Prompts For Donations When Downloading

            Just a few weeks after Canonical integrated Amazon product results into Unity’s Dash in an effort to generate more money through affiliate/referral revenue, they have taken another step today to try to increase their cash flow.

            Ubuntu has long accepted donations for the project, but now they have made it more apparent with changes to the Ubuntu web-site.

          • Install Ubuntu and contribute to Canonical

            Ubuntu is a free operating system, free as in speech and free as in beer. And Canonical are keen to reinforce this Richard Stallman ethos as they announce a new way for users to optionally contribute to Canonical before they download the desktop version of Ubuntu.

          • How Ubuntu Intel Graphics Changed In One Month

            Here’s a look at how the open-source Intel Linux graphics performance has changed in Ubuntu 12.10 when comparing benchmarks results of Ubuntu Quantal development snapshots from the end of August to the beginning of October.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Bodhi Linux 2.1.0 arrives with new file manager

              With the 2.1.0 update release, the developers of the minimal desktop distribution Bodhi Linux have introduced a new file manager, improved the login manager and given users four new themes for their desktop. Bodhi Linux is based on the Enlightenment E17 desktop and the latest version drops the PCManFM file manager in favour of the desktop’s own alternative called Enlightenment File Manager (EFM).

            • AriOS 4.0 Review: Polished, attractive and functional Ubuntu 12.04LTS

              Debian gave birth to Ubuntu and Ubuntu, in turn, gave birth to hundreds of other distros like Linux Mint, Pinguy OS, Zorin, Crunchbang, Pear OS, Luninux, OS4, Super OS, Ultimate OS, Kiwi, etc. to name a few apart from the usual Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. When I read the release news of AriOS 4.0 on distrowatch, I was expecting something in the similar lines – just another remix of Ubuntu with plenty of necessary and unnecessary applications and other stuff! Needless to say, once you have a Linux Mint, do you really need any other Ubuntu derivative? These days, Linux Mint is my benchmark after my experiment with 20 odd Linux distros and I start comparing any distro I test with Linux Mint. If Linux Mint is 100, where do others lie?

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Two developer contests from Qualcomm

      The open source AllJoyn framework is designed to enable peer-to-peer communication between mobile devices without the need for servers to be involved in the process. The Apache 2.0 licensed framework supports near field communication (NFC), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and can be used for a variety of tasks. Accordingly, there are several different application technologies for the Peer-2-Peer App Challenge, including Best Gaming App, Best Educational App, Best Social App and others. Qualcomm is providing prizes with a total value of $170,000. The application deadline is 27 December.

    • The Raspberry Pi gets a turbo mode

      The Raspberry Pi Foundation has performed testing on the effects of overclocking and overvolting, and is now providing what it calls a “turbo mode” for the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. While the Foundation has always supported these kinds of modifications, they have in the past voided the customer’s warranty for the product – a sticky bit in the BCM2835 chip makes sure this operation cannot be performed undetected. The turbo mode option enables users to get more performance out of their Raspberry Pis without having to be afraid of affecting their warranty.

    • Phones

      • Meg Whitman says HP has to ‘offer a smartphone’

        HP bet big on the smartphone world when it purchased Palm, but the company fell flat on its face and webOS failed to take off. The reasons for the failure are numerous, but the new CEO Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize it can’t simply abandon the market entirely. In an interview with Fox Business, she said that HP “ultimately has to offer a smartphone.”

      • Android

        • LG Nexus 4 To Release On October 29

          French publication “Le Figaro “says that LG Nexus 4 is scheduled for a worldwide release on October 29. With Nexus rumors at its peak, this news has certainly been the most delighting of all for all the Nexus fans.

        • Razr i Boasts 2GHz Intel Atom, Respectable Battery Life

          More significantly, the battery is claimed to last much longer than on earlier phones featuring Medfield chips. Battery life has long been a challenge for Atom-based mobile devices, but if Motorola’s claims are true, the issue may be moot. The Razr i and its 2000mAh battery is claimed to offer up to 20 hours of use — almost as long as the long-lasting Razr Maxx and 40 percent longer than the iPhone 4S.

        • Affordability is the key factor in Android adoption

          Apple iPhones aren’t seeing the uptake in some markets due to price. Android devices are more affordable and therefore more accessible.

        • HTC Flyer 2 coming with an extremely slim anodized aluminum body, Snapdragon S4 chip

          HTC will not be making a Windows 8/RT-based tablet, but that might turn out to be a good thing for competition as now more details surface about an upcoming HTC Flyer 2, the second generation of HTC’s 7-inch Android tablet.

          The second-gen Flyer is said to feature a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels and the same gorgeous anodized aluminum body like the HTC One S, according to a source in the know

        • Eric Schmidt talks up new Android numbers

          According to him, Android is now at 480 million install base and is growing at a rate of 1.3 million per day.

        • Tablet shipments now expected to hit 117 million this year
        • MOGA Mobile Gaming System Coming To 7,000 US Stores

          MOGA, the first complete mobile gaming system for Android devices, will be available in more than 7,000 stores in the U.S. starting on October 21, 2012.

        • Hopes For The Aakash Android 4.0 Being Released On Nov 11

          Telecom minister Kapil Sibal hopes that the Aakash tablet will be launched on 11th November. Speaking at the Economic Editor’s Conference, he said, “Hopefully on November 11, you will see the President talking to 20,000 students across the nation who will have their hands on Aakash”.

        • Sprint Announces Four New 4G LTE Android Devices

          Sprint is lining up four new 4G LTE Android phones – Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, LG Optimus G, LG Mach and Sprint Plug-in-Connect Tri-mode USB. The company is holding back on pricing and availability for the moment.

          Features to attract your interest include, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is the first tablet to combine the benefits of Sprint 3G and 4G LTEand comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.

        • Android 4.1.2 AOSP Update Released for Nexus 7

          The release of Android 4.1.2 to AOSP was announced by Jean-Baptiste Queru, (Technical Lead, Android Open Source Project, Google) today via Android Building Group. This will just be an incremental update over Android 4.1.1, as stated by the update notification “improves performance and stability and fixes bugs.” Nexus 7 tablets will be the first to receive these updatess.

        • Landscape mode comes to Nexus 7
        • New Linux and Android Game Platforms Gaining Momentum

          Things are heating up on the open source gaming front. The buzz continues over the open source Ouya gaming platform. A Los Angeles-based project, Ouya is billed as “a new kind of video game console” and famously pulled down millions in funding on Kickstarter. As Ouya’s plans ramp up, there are also new details emerging about Steam for Linux, which looks like it may include many more advanced games than previously thought.

        • MetroPCS adds $150 Coolpad Quattro 4G to lineup

          MetroPCS today announced yet another affordable 4G LTE Android with the debut of the Coolpad Quattro 4G. As the second smartphone of its kind to cost less that $150, the handset runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 1GHz processor. Additional details include a 4-inch touch display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, and your standard fare of connectivities.

        • Archos debuts 7-inch Android-powered GamePad
        • Huawei Launches the Ascend G600 Smartphone – More Visual Clarity, More Speed and More Power
        • Huawei intros ‘fashion forward’ MediaPad 7 Lite

          Huawei announced at IFA that they’ve got a 7-inch tablet for those of you with eye for both fashion and function. Called the MediaPad 7 Lite, the device runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS display, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and pair (3.2-megapixel rear, .3-megapixel front-facing) of cameras.

        • Motorola unveils its first Intel-powered smartphone: Razr i

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Children, beware! This monster came for you!

        Today, I discovered that the Quiros-Tanzi Foundation, the NGO that handles the XO computers of OLPC, launched its first TV campaign to promote the goal of distributing the inexpensive computers. The TV ad features a simple concept: children are afraid of a hideous creature called “The Browser,” who can find them anywhere. The point of the ad is that children should not see technology as a monster. Interestingly, this 2009 video proves that even adults ignore what a browser is!

      • Acer outs £180 Iconia Tab A110 Android tablet

        The new tablet, which has disadvantages and advantages when compared with the Google Nexus 7, is clearly priced as a reaction to that and other recent devices – the last Acer seven-incher launched at £300.

      • PCs hit a high for customer satisfaction — boosted by tablets

        Labeling desktops, laptops, and tablets all as personal computers, the ACSI gave the category a grade of 80 out of 100. That proved a 2.6 percent gain over the 78 score earned last year and in 2010. Though some may disagree with the tagging of tablets as PCs, the iPad and its brethren were partly responsible for the bump in satisfaction among computer buyers.

      • Source: Barnes & Noble prepping Nook Tablet followup with ‘incredible display’ for fall release

        This week may belong to Amazon and whatever information the mega-retailer decides to drop on our heads tomorrow at its press conference in Santa Monica, but Barnes & Noble’s apparently won’t be letting the Kindle maker hog the spotlight for too long.

      • Sony Xperia Tablet S now available in the USA
      • Google to Partner with Samsung For Nexus 10

        A 10 inch tablet from Google is on its way, presumably the Nexus 10. CNET has learned from Ricard Shim (analyst at NPD DisplayDearch), that Google will partner with Samsung to produce this device and it is going to be a high end device compared to the $199 Nexus 7 or rumored $99 Nexus tablet.

      • Nexus 7 Wins T3 Gadget Of Year

        The blockbuster Android Tablet, Nexus 7 from Google has added another jewel to its crown. Nexus 7 by Asus has won the T3 Gadget Awards for “Tablet of the Year” as well as the “Gadget of the Year.

      • This is the new Amazon Kindle Fire

        The Verge has obtained images of what appears to be the next version of the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s Android-based tablet that’s expected to be announced next week, following news that the current model is “sold out.” We’re being told that a “pair” of Fires is likely — a 7- and a 10-incher — though it remains unclear whether both models will be introduced at the same time. We’re not sure which model we’re looking at here, but the scale of the keyboard suggests that seven inches is more likely.

      • Oregon Scientific debuts $150 MEEP! Tablet for kids
      • Top 10 Android Tablets Shipping Today

Free Software/Open Source

  • Synnex Partners Discover Open Source for Business

    At Synnex National Conference, scores of VARs last week discovered open source business solutions from Digium, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) and Open-Xchange. Many of those channel partners investigated Asterisk (an IP PBX), unified communications, virtualization and cloud-based email solutions that leverage open source at the core. This certainly is not Synnex’s (NYSE: SNX) first move to promote open source business partners. But it may be the most successful effort yet. Here’s why.

  • Server-side enhancements for OpenGeo Suite 3.0

    The developers at OpenGeo worked on improving the server side of their geodata platform in version 3.0 of the OpenGeo Suite to make it a more comprehensive platform for processing spatial data on the web. Features include a OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) which allows geospatial processing to be run against the GeoServer, rendering transformations for cartography and support for serverside scripting in Python and JavaScript.

  • Open source computing started with the bicycle

    Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst used his company’s Boston user summit this June to explain the core concept behind open source innovation and Computer Weekly reported on the former Delta Airlines chief’s comments at that time.

    Whitehurst reminded us that it was only 100 years between the invention of the ‘autolathe’ machine to manufacture “standard components parts” in physical engineering such as the standard screw and, then, subsequently, the invention of the combustion engine and the jet plane.

  • NoteCase Is Back in Pro Form – but There’s a Hitch

    NoteCase Pro’s forte is organizing notes in a sensible, tree-like system. Note-taking is not confined to data you manually enter. Rather, it stores scanned images and customizable text formatting for fonts. These include bold, italic, strike-through, text and background color. One of the most useful features is the ability to embed pictures in the text note.

  • Open vs. Closed: The Cloud Wars

    For all the freedom promised by cloud computing, businesses may be really looking at less choice and more constraint than ever before. Whether that happens is the technology industry’s next great battleground.

    On one side are large incumbent tech providers like Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, who already have broad portfolios of technology and deep corporate relationships after years of selling products. On the other are younger companies, whose products and services were built for cloud computing and thus may offer more innovative approaches.

  • Events

    • Registrations Now Open For FOSS.IN 2012

      Registrations are now open for India’s one of the largest conferences on free software and open source. The normal entry fee is Rs 2500, but you can get it at early bird discount of Rs 1500 till October 21st.

      The event will be held in Bangalore, India from November 29th to December first. If you are looking to attend this event, this will be a good time to purchase your tickets and save a lot.

    • Open Forges Summit 2012: 11th October, Paris (OWF)

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 16 Released With An Amazing Developer Toolbar

        The Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of the popular and free web browser, Firefox. This version comes with a developer toolbar that will make web developer’s life even easier.

        Firefox makes developing for the Web faster and easier with a unique Developer Command Line. The new tool provides easy keyboard control over Firefox Developer Tools and is intuitive, completing commands and parameters for you.

      • Firefox 16 Available in Stable Channel
      • Firefox Debuts New Developer Toolbar
      • Mozilla Firefox 16 Delivers More Dev Tools. Hello Browser IDE

        Mozilla’s Firefox 16 open source web browser is now generally available and with it comes more goodies for developers.

        That’s right. While Firefox has long positioned itself as browser for users, the focus since moving to the rapid release train cycle has clearly shifted – towards developers. I personally think that’s a good thing because it’s not something that any other major browser vendor does.

        The Mozilla focus on developers means that developers will use Firefox more than other browsers. If developers use it more, I suppose that the prevailing notion is that they will also be more prone to recommend it to others, thus feeding a virtuous cycle of referrals and future adoption.

      • Download Mozilla Firefox 16.0 for Linux

        Mozilla has uploaded a few minutes ago, October 9th, the final packages of the Mozilla Firefox 16.0 web browser for all supported platforms, including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

      • Firefox 16.0 Officially Lands in Ubuntu
      • Firefox 16, a treat for developers

  • SaaS

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • CMS

    • Joomla 3.0 optimized for mobile devices

      The recently released Joomla 3.0 upgrade will be a treat for web content producers that want to improve the functionality for mobile users.

      Most notably, version 3.0 leverages Bootstrap, Twitters’ tool collection for creating websites and web applications, for ntaively optimizing how content is displayed on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

  • Education

    • Zimbabwe pushes for open education despite oppression

      Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. For many years, it was regarded as the breadbasket of Africa. But since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, Robert Mugabe has been the leader, and the fate of the country has largely been tied to him and his policies.

  • BSD

    • A Significant Release Of DragonFlyBSD Coming Up

      A new version of DragonFlyBSD 3.2 is expected by month’s end and it will possess several new features.

      DragonFlyBSD 3.2 was branched this morning as the developers of this BSD operating system prepare to release the new version on the 22nd of October. The branching announcement was made by Justin Sherrill today on the project’s mailing list.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GNU Xnee 3.14 (‘Lord Pi’) released

      We are pleased to announce the availability of GNU Xnee 3.14

    • FSF Launches Hardware Certification Program

      Software freedom is not just about software, it’s also about the hardware it runs on. The Free Software Foundation has launched the “Respects Your Freedom” computer hardware product certification program to encourage the production of hardware which respects user’s freedom.

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Malaysia Saves Big $ Using FLOSS

      Malaysia continues to promote and to implement FLOSS in government. Adoptions of FLOSS on servers is widespread. Adoptions of FLOSS on the desktop are ramping up. The latest figures show 33872 seats of OpenOffice.org.

    • Portuguese Vieira do Minho profits from a decade of open source

      For twelve years now, the administration of Vieira do Minho, a municipality in the north of Portugal, is using open source wherever possible. “These IT solutions are flexible, easy to study, test and switch”, says António Rebelo, head of the IT department. “It keeps us free from IT vendors and, because of the lower costs, results in a more sustainable IT infrastructure.”

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Here Comes The First Humble Ebook Bundle

      The Humble Bundle Project is now limited to games alone. While the Humble Bundle 6 finished successfully with raising over $ 2 million, the Humble Bundle team has released another Humble Bundle, but this time, with digital ebooks.

    • Beat Making Lab assembling development team

      Our Beat Making Lab is applying for an Open Art grant, which would allow us to start development on our dream: open source beat making software we are calling PAMOJA, which means oneness or solidarity.

  • Programming

    • Open Source Lives in Polyglot Programming

      The prominence and pervasiveness of open source software in cloud computing is something I’ve researched and written about quite a bit. I’ve also discussed how open source software is a key component and catalyst for the devops trend that blends application development and deployment via IT operations. Now I’m seeing the same effect from open source software yet again in a disruptive trend: polyglot programming.

    • Simple trick that lets you code twice as fast

  • Standards/Consortia

    • W3C documents the web with Web Platform Docs

      The W3C has announced the alpha release of Web Platform Docs (docs.webplatform.org), a new site which it hopes will become a comprehensive and authoritative source for web developer documentation. Such documentation has been been available, but scattered over many sites, some of which have been less up to date or less informative than they should be over how elements of HTML5 and CSS work across browsers, operating systems and devices.

    • Apple, Microsoft, Google, Others Join Hands to Form WebPlatform.org

      Tech heavyweights Apple, Adobe, Google, HP, Microsoft and many others have joined forces and launched a new resource – the Web Platform in a bid to create a “definitive resource” for all open Web technologies.

Leftovers

  • The Philippines’ Awful New ‘Cybercrime’ Law Put On Hold — For Now

    Last week Tim Cushing wrote about the hugely-worrying new “cybercrime” law passed in the Philippines that seemed likely to criminalize all kinds of everyday online activities. As an article on Radio Australia’s site reports, the Philippines’ highest court has now stepped in after being petitioned to block the legislation…

  • Hiring trends: Which tech skills are most in demand

  • Privacy

  • Civil Rights

    • The Supreme Court Isn’t Bothered By the NSA’s Warrantless Wiretapping

      The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on Tuesday that holds telecom companies accountable for letting the National Security Agency spy on unknowing Americans without a warrant. Dating back to 2006 when the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation first filed the class-action lawsuit, the case accuses AT&T of providing the NSA with customers’ personal information — phone calls, emails and web browsing history — without seeking a court order. Verizon and Sprint are also mentioned. The plaintiff, former AT&T technician Mark Klein, even provided internal documentation that showed evidence of the NSA surveilling Americans’ Internet traffic from a secret room in San Francisco. That case, Hepting v. AT&T, has now been thrown out, and the Supreme Court didn’t even comment on why.

      This sound very important! After all, doesn’t the Constitution protect American citizens from being spied on by their government without their knowledge or consent? Well, yes and no. Warrantless wiretapping sounds invasive and terrible, sure, but it’s actually technically legal under a 2008 law that retroactively granted immunity to all of the telecom companies that were spying on Americans at the government’s behest. Unsurprisingly, the practice can be traced back to President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism program following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Once things calmed down and people actually started suing the government for eavesdropping on everyday Americans, Congress passed the FISA Amendements Act. (FISA stands for the original law, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.) That law is currently up for renewal in Congress.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • Google, Facebook, Amazon lead new tech lobby group

      The Internet Association, a lobbying group made up of some of the Web’s most powerful companies, has officially launched.

      The organization today announced that it’s now operating in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of president and CEO Michael Beckerman. First announced earlier this year, the Internet Association is backed by 14 giants of the Web, including Amazon, AOL, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and others. The companies hope to have their voices heard in Washington, Beckerman says.

  • Copyrights

    • ACTA

      • Confirmed ACTA-like Outrageous Criminal Sanctions in CETA!

        Brussels, 10 October 2012 – The EU Commission has confirmed that ACTA-like criminal sanctions are currently present in CETA, the Canada-EU Trade Agreement. This attempt by the EU executive to impose repression of online communications through the backdoor is unacceptable. La Quadrature du Net calls on EU citizens to demand their governments remove copyright provisions from CETA during the upcoming round of negotiations1; failing to do so, the final text would have to be opposed as a whole.

10.09.12

Links 9/10/2012: Cinnarch Debut, KDE Manifesto

Posted in News Roundup at 1:48 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Report on LiMux to Munich City Council 2012-03-21
  • Linux Top 3: Arch, ARM and LibreOffice

    Torvalds merged code in last week that will fundamentally change the way ARM is handled in Linux.

  • The true legal vulnerability of Linux

    A recent focus on the problem of software patents raises the question: could Linux be sued off the face of the Earth?

    The not-so-random thought came up this weekend when I read the New York Time’s special report, “The Patent, Used as Sword.” This article, which I highly recommend you read when you get a chance, comprehensively examines the broad landscape of software patents without really coming down too hard on one side or the other. It does, I should add, leave you with the sense that something is wonky with this whole idea that billions can be spent and companies can go down just because one side’s lawyers are quicker on the draw than others.

  • Desktop

    • Explosion of Interest in GNU/Linux at Distrowatch.com

      he last week saw the number of distros with 1000 or more hits per day increase from 9 to 15 compared to the last month. What happened is that the total hits/day for the top 100 distros increased 9%, but the hits/day for the top 15 increased 20%. This means the world is becoming more focussed on the popular distros. A consolidation of distros is happening.

    • Compare different cloud-oriented Linux-based Operating Systems

      The new form of personal computing sits in the cloud. As computer users rely more and more on Internet services, and spend most of their computing time working online, it makes sense that operating systems would begin to focus usability around the Internet browser. We see that this exactly the case with Chrome OS as they have built an entire operating system platform and corresponding hardware systems around the Google’s Chrome browser. The XPUD operating system is actually designed to run completely within the browser. The Peppermint distro is a sleek, streamlined system that relies completely on cloud based apps and web services while maintaining something of a traditional desktop look and feel.

  • Kernel Space

    • One Linux for all ARM systems

      ARM processors and Linux have been married for years. You name an ARM-based device—smartphones, Raspberry Pi, tablets—and you’ll find Linux running beside it. It’s not been a happy marriage though. For every ARM system on a chip (SoC) there had to be a different Linux spin. With the forthcoming Linux 3.7 kernel we’re on our way to seeing all ARM processors working with a single Linux kernel.

    • Stable kernel 3.2.29
    • Linux Kernel Whackos: Drop Everything But ARM

      It’s not even Friday yet, but there’s more awkward entertainment today at the expense of Linux kernel trolls. The latest in the series of weird messages hitting the Linux kernel mailing list is a proposal to drop support for all CPU architectures but ARM and a new “invisible” file-system feature.

      There’s been a string of messages on the kernel mailing list lately from alleged trolls requesting various functionality be removed from the mainline kernel or other weird changes that don’t make too much common sense: Linux doesn’t need x86 32-bit support, Linux doesn’t need keyboard support, and then last Friday was Linux doesn’t need multi-monitor, multi-user, Ethernet, and optical drive support.

    • Arch Linux Switches To Systemd
    • Arch Linux switches to systemd

      A new installation image for Arch Linux is now available that sees the distribution’s default boot process switch from the previous System V implementation to systemd for booting the live system. Because of the change, initscripts are no longer available on the live system. However, the developers note that they are still installed by default, but this “is likely to change in the near future”.

    • Samsung contributes F2FS NAND filesystem to Linux
    • Linux Support For HDMI CEC Still In Development

      A brief status report was shared concerning supporting the Consumer Electronics Control (CEC) feature of HDMI under Linux.

      Back at the Linux Plumbers Conference in August, the Linux developers meeting in San Diego decided to create a CEC bus with CEC clients that is independent of the Video 4 Linux 2 and DRM APIs, so that both those sub-systems along with other “clients” could use this HDMI feature.

    • Graphics Stack

      • OMAP DDX Driver Sees Improvements
      • The Second DRM Pull For The Linux 3.7 Kernel

        The second DRM pull request was submitted and subsequently pulled for the Linux 3.7 kernel.

      • Unvanquished Pushes Its OpenGL 3 GLSL Renderer

        The eighth alpha release of Unvanquished was released this weekend with some major changes to its graphics renderer.

        This open-source first person shooter that is a very promising non-commercial title with impressive graphics (similar to Xonotic) continues to see new alpha releases on a monthly basis.

      • Mesa 9.0 develops OpenGL 3.1 support

        Mesa 9.0 is the latest development version of the open source implementation of OpenGL’s specification for rendering interactive 3D graphics. The new release sets out to implement version 3.1 of the OpenGL API for selected hardware; the developers do note that the software reported version will vary dependant upon what is supported by the hardware and drivers.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

      • Rekonq 2 Web Browser Enters Development For KDE

        Work on version 2 of Rekonq, the popular QtWebKit-based web-browser focusing upon the KDE desktop, is now underway.

      • Video Editing on GNU/Linux: It’s Easy with Kdenlive

        I wrote a quickie on Kdenlive last time and wanted to do a more thorough job this month because this is one killer video editor. If you like to make movies and show them to your friends, or even need software for a presentation, Kdenlive is your candidate. If you want to create something that looks professional, I can tell you that while it may not stand as tall as Final Cut Pro, Kdenlive comes quite close to Sony Vegas Pro or Adobe Premiere.

        It doesn’t matter if you have a Web cam, a mobile phone camera or a high-definition camera; Kdenlive is ready with all the punches. The software supports so many formats that it’s not possible for me to give the list without missing out something (for the full list, visit kdenlive.org/about-kdenlive/audio-and-video-formats).

      • Here Comes A Plasmoid For Apper Software Updates

        KDE users love Plasmoids, the small little widgets that you can put in your desktop or system tray. Well the default KDE comes with Plasmoids for RSS Feed, System monitor, comic strip reader to even a web browser! So why not a plasmoid for Apper updates?

      • The KDE Manifesto

        Since it began more than 15 years ago, the international KDE community has grown bigger and more diverse than could have been imagined at the beginning. These forces created a need for clarity about what pulls us together as a community. Over the last six months or so, we have examined this critical issue, moving beyond assumptions and what has been taken for granted. In a rigorous project led by Kévin Ottens, many thoughts were distilled down to essentials. Today, we present the result of that effort: the KDE Manifesto.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • List Of New Apps Shipping With Gnome 3.8

        Gnome 3.6 has been released, and developers are now busy with the next Gnome release, Gnome 3.8. We have compiled a list of new apps that may ship with the next Gnome release, along with some handy screenshot for each. For time to time, we will keep you updated about development of these apps, most of which are currently in design phase.

      • Gnome Online Accounts To Support OwnCloud

        Gnome developers are working to integrate the web services in your desktop, and Google, Facebook and Windows Live! have already been tightly integrated. This means you can access your Google and Windows Live! mails, documents, photos and more right from default Gnome apps. This makes working easier, specially if you use cloud services more than desktop ones.

      • Gnome Reads To Make Ebook Reading A Breeze

        Newer Gnome apps are set to make our lives even easier. Earlier we covered a few apps that will debut in Gnome 3.8. Gnome Reads is another new app that is being designed to make ebook reading easier, both online and offline.

  • Distributions

    • ODROID-X – a call to ARMs
    • AriOS 4.0 – Persian Perfection!

      When a woGue reader sent an email to us suggesting that we should try AriOS I wasn’t very optimistic. The description was showing the same trodden approach that we saw in so many other projects that is “an Ubuntu based distribution that offers a more ready to use Ubuntu”

      AriOS is really not just simply one of those distributions… It is a truly carefully tailored operating system that offers exactly everything you need, combined with elegance and a sense of opulence!

    • Two Slackware Derivatives Still Alive

      Two Slackware derivates recently made it known that they are still alive and developing. One released their first new work in over three years. The other is an update to a release now a year old. AgiliaLinux is known to release once a year, but most thought Draco was pushing up daisies.

    • Three Linux distros get key updates, plus one fades away

      With so many Linux distributions out there, it can be difficult to keep tabs on all the updates that come out over the course of an average week or month.

      I’ve featured a few key arrivals over the past few months–including PCLinuxOS 2012.08, OpenSUSE 12.2, the Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 1, and Sabayon 10–but several others have appeared in short order as well, making the challenge more difficult than ever.

    • Cinnarch – Where Arch meets Cinnamon

      Arch Linux is now one of the most popular Linux distributions out there and that is for a good reason. It is the distribution with the largest number of available packages, the most recent/up-to-date packages, the rolling release nature, one of the most complete and comprehensive documentations and one of the biggest userbases out there (that is certainly the most knowledgeable too).

    • Solus Eveline 1.2: good for newbies

      I am new to Linux and about 3 months ago tried Zorin 5.2 Core. I was very impressed with a Linux based operating system and decided to make my laptop a dual boot with Win7. I wanted a very stable Debian distro. I found Solus OS which seemed to have what I was looking for in a distro.

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Expands OpenShift Ecosystem with Zend Partnership to Offer Professional-Grade Environment for PHP Developers

        The new Zend Server for Red Hat OpenShift offering provides a professional-grade PHP development and runtime environment, delivered with the benefits of the OpenShift PaaS. PHP applications deployed to Zend Server for OpenShift can access built-in debugging, monitoring and application performance tuning capabilities, making application development and management easier.

      • Jim Whitehurst’s big idea: Effective leaders must operate as catalysts

        Every year, Marbles in downtown Raleigh holds their annual Big Idea Forum. The lunchtime discussion aims to highlight ways corporate and community leaders shape organizations and people through inspiration and innovation.

        Jim Whitehurst, President & CEO of Red Hat, Inc., opened up to Ron Wilder, a business author and executive coach, this past Wednesday, October 3rd, to talk about his big idea.

      • Fedora

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Unity 6.8 Doesn’t Change Much For Performance

            While LLVMpipe may be a different story, when using hardware-accelerated graphics drivers with the recently released Unity 6.8 desktop, the performance doesn’t change much. For at least one driver, there’s even a new OpenGL performance regression under certain workloads. Here’s some test results of Unity 6.6 vs. Unity 6.8 on the Radeon and Nouveau drivers.

          • 23 Brand New Features in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal [Screenshots Tour]

            The Ubuntu juggernaut is moving ahead and huge improvements and brand new features keeps pouring in. Every new Ubuntu release cycle gives you the impression that, things have really been improved and enough features have been added, until you start seeing the changes being done in the next release cycle. Case in point is the latest Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal Beta 1 and Beta 2 releases. Lets see what makes Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal one of our favorite releases till date. 23 things new in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal.

          • Pre-Order Ubuntu 12.10 DVD Now

            Guess what? Two weeks ahead of the final release of Ubuntu 12.10, Canonical decided to open up their shop with DVDs for the next major release of Ubuntu.

          • Here Comes The GitHub Unity Lens

            Customizing Unity is easy and fun, specially because of its ever growing set of lenses, with new ones coming out almost everyday. Previously we had featured a Python Doc search lens for developers, and this time, Unity GitHub lens will also come handy for devs to search GitHub repos and users.

          • Ubuntu 12.10 DVDs Now Available For Pre-Order

            Ubuntu 12.10 release is coming closer and Canonical has just opened up a new section in its store for Ubuntu 12.10 DVDs. While you can download the .iso file for free and burn it into a disk, it becomes handy to keep a DVD with you, specially if you want to install it on multiple computers and show it off to your friends.

          • Canonical Releases Updated Enterprise Management Solution for Ubuntu Linux
          • Amazon and Ubuntu: A match made for profit?

            A few of the new features will be in the installer (see the state of manual LVM and full disk encryption configuration in Ubuntu’s Ubiquity), while most will be on the running desktop environment itself. If you have been following the development of this next edition of Ubuntu, especially via the blog of Jono Bacon (see On The Recent Dash Improvements), I am sure you must be familiar with the issue surrounding the search results that the system throws in front of you when you use the Dash to search for content.

          • Ubuntu: Breaking the Industry Barriers

            Canonical has come under some heavy criticism in the past couple of weeks with its controversial decision to include Amazon shopping results in the Ubuntu Dash search results. I have to admit, when I first read of the news I was also enraged with a certain amount of anger and honestly couldn’t believe that our beloved Ubuntu had fallen victim to the commercial trap. The more I thought about the issue the more accepting I become of the concept. Allow me to delve a little deeper in to my thoughts and explain to you what I mean.

          • Access Ubuntu Software Center with any Distro!

            Ubuntu Software Center (USC) other than making software installation easy, it is more important because it helps us to discover Apps and the see their ratings and comments from people that they already have used them.

            Unfortunately USC is only available in Ubuntu and Ubuntu spins and derivatives, but apparently it seems there is a web-interface (somewhere hidden) that everyone can access no matter the distro. Even with Windows and Mac.

          • Ubuntu Tweak 0.8 Comes With Integrated Apps Store

            Ubuntu Tweak is a open-source teaking tool for Ubuntu that allows you to customize your Ubuntu desktop the way you like. Apart from regular tweaks, the updated version Ubuntu Tweak 0.8.0 comes with a native app store.

          • Efficiently Using the Launcher

            Learning some basic methods to navigate and customize the launcher can make it an efficient tool that is used to complete daily tasks. With several icons located in the launcher, reordering the applications may reduce your time searching for your desired program to execute.

          • Canonical Responds to Complaints Over Amazon Search

            In an effort to appease users, Canonical has pushed out some updates to its Unity interface in the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10 release that include a simple turn-off function for the controversial Amazon.com “lens” feature. But will this be enough to calm an unruly community in near revolt over the company’s original plans to push this functionality on users?

            The “fix” for the much-berated Amazon feature comes among a slew of updates, most of them simple bug fixes, that landed with version 6.8 of Unity. It was uploaded into the development version of Ubuntu 12.10 Oct. 5.

          • Is Ubuntu Shutting Out Old PCs?

            Looking back at the progress of Ubuntu over the years, including the various off-shoot distributions based on it, I cannot help but be amazed. I find myself amazed at the improvements made to the desktop, both in usability and new features.

            But sadly, some of these improvements mean that slower performing PCs will be left out in the cold.

            In this article, I’ll discuss what Ubuntu is doing to make using the Unity desktop more difficult for older PCs, examine whether or not this matters and talk about options are for all of us going forward.

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • Bluelight Powering Auroville With OpenSource

    Few weeks back I visited Auroville to meet my friends from BlueLight. BlueLight is a non for profit shop which does all the consulting related to IT and Open Source software. They manage infrastructure for many organizations inside Auroville. They have a diverse team with people from Russia, Gemany, India, France and other countries. They manage a Cyber Cafe which is running on Ubuntu and I was surprised to see the internet savvy users had no issue in using Linux.

  • Open source hobbyists now in high demand

    It struck me this morning when I was reading up about this cool little open source operating system called Contiki, a very lightweight embedded OS designed to work well with the Internet of Things.

    My colleague Rohan Pearce has a great write-up about Contiki over on Techworld Australia, detailing what Contiki and the Internet of Things are and how they work. But the passage that struck me was this one:

  • Catalyst notes shift in open source attitude

    The Hong Kong newspaper, which has 1.3 million page views and about 500,000 people visiting the website each week, approached Catalyst originally as one of four companies it had selected worldwide to invite to tender.

  • Which freaking PaaS should I use?

    Most of the buzz around the cloud has centered on infrastructure as a service (IaaS). However, IaaS is no longer good enough. Sure, you can forgo buying servers and run everything virtually on Amazon’s EC2 server farm. So what? You still have to manage it, and to do that you’ll have a growing IT bureaucracy. Companies that want to focus on writing their code and not have to think about application servers at all are now looking to platform as a service (PaaS).

  • Events

    • Never too early for SCALE

      Now that Ohio Linux Fest is in the books and now that the only thing really left on the Linux horizon is LISA in San Diego just after Thanksgiving — but then, LISA is not for us mere mortals, but for the hallowed and revered system administrators. So we get to set our sights on Linux/FOSS events for next year.

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Reditr Comes To Linux, Thanks To Google Chrome

        Reditr is to Reddit what Tweetdeck is to Twitter. And now you can experience it under any GNU/Linux based system thanks to Google Chrome. Today Reditr has made its desktop app available for download. At the moment the app is available for Mac, Windows and Ubuntu. It’s may be disappointing for some users as the app is not yet available for rpm based systems such as Fedora, openSUSE or Mandriva.

      • New Version Of Google Chrome Released With Updated Flash And Better Audio Support

        A new stable release of the Google Chrome browser is now available. This version, 22.0.1229.92 fixes a number of stability issues and security venerabilities and also features an updated version of Flash. Google Chrome, and Chromium browser features inbuilt support for flash from version 20.

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox 16.0 What’s New

        Mozilla is in the process of updating all Firefox channels in the coming ways. Firefox 15.0.1 will be updated tomorrow to version 16.0, followed by updates for the browser’s beta, aurora and nightly channels bringing the respective versions of the browser to 17, 18 and 19.

  • Databases

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice 3.6.2 Released, Comes With Over 90 Bug Fixes
    • LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice, Part Deux

      “I use LibreOffice, and will no longer use OpenOffice,” said Google+ blogger Linux Rants. “Oracle’s heavy-handed attempt at taking it over soured me to the entire project. I realize at this point that it’s been given back to the community, but the damage has been done for me. I moved to LibreOffice as soon as it was available, and have no plans on returning to OpenOffice.”

    • Why Is Google Not Supporting The Open Document Formats?

      For ages I have been convincing people to switch from close source to open source, from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. I have been telling people to ditch the controversial docx format and adopt .odt only to find myself in an embarrassing situation, thanks to Google.

  • CMS

    • Best Free Content Management Systems 2012

      “A content management system (CMS) is a computer program that allows publishing, editing and modifying content on a web site as well as maintenance from a central page. It provides procedures to manage workflow in a collaborative environment. These procedures can be manual steps or automated cascade. The core function of Content Management Systems is to present information on web sites. CMS features vary widely from system to system. Simple systems showcase a handful of features, while other releases, notably enterprise systems, offer more complex and powerful functions.”

    • Brain Drain Holding Back Mainstream Adaptation Of Drupal – Doug Vann

      Drupal is one of the most powerful open-source CMS platform available currently, but in spite its power and flexibilty, the software suffers from contributor crisis and unpopularity. In a recent interview to opensource.com, Doug Vann, a training consultant at Drupal community cited brain drain as the main reason preventing widespread adaptation of Drupal.

  • BSD

    • FreeBSD On ARM Is Still In Severed State

      Following the recent Phoronix news articles about an easy way to try out FreeBSD 10 in its current development state along with Clang becoming the default compiler, there’s been questions raised by Phoronix readers about the FreeBSD ARM support. Simply put, at the moment it’s not in as good of shape as it is for Linux. ARM is considered a “Tier 2″ architecture of FreeBSAD with no official releases or pre-built packages being made by the project.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Optionally Free Is Not Enough

      There are distros we decline to recommend that offer the user the option of installing only free software. Given that option, a user who values freedom strongly enough, and thinks about the issue, can make those distros respecting her freedom.

      A distro that offers that option is clearly better than one that fails to offer that option. But that option does not make the distro ok to recommend in general. After all, most people in our community are not conscious of this issue. We cannot expect most of them to reject nonfree software just because the distro offers a way to do so.

    • GNU patch version 2.7 released

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Data

      • EnterpriseDB – competing with giants

        From time to time, I have the opportunity to speak with someone from EnterpriseDB, a company devoted to bringing the open source PostgreSQL database to organizations of all sizes. The propose of the call was introducing EnterpriseDB’s new Multi-Master Replication (MMR) capability. The conversation then went on to focus on how EnterpriseDB was trying to compete with giants, such as Oracle, to win over decision-makers and database architects.

    • Open Hardware

      • A New Open Source Robot Wows with Its Soccer Skills

        For the last several years, some of the more interesting work in the field of robotics has been driven by open source efforts. In fact, an Open Source Robotics Foundation is now driving many global efforts to produce next-generation robots and share source code for them. Now, a brand new open source hardware platform created by the University of Bonn’s Team NimbRo performs many specialized functions and can even play soccer.

      • The open GSM future arrives

        In previous articles, we’ve looked at the question of how free are the phones that people use every day, and looked at the theory behind building your own GSM phone network using open source software. Now, in this article we take a look at the sysmoBTS, a small form-factor GSM Base Transceiver Station (BTS) built around these principles and the steps required to configure it to provide a standalone mobile telephone network that is useful for research, development and testing purposes.

  • Programming

  • Standards/Consortia

    • Standards and the Status Quo

      Standards do anything but drive the status quo – they enable new devices and networks to become possible that never did before the standards were agreed upon.

Leftovers

  • Amazon Opens Portal for Mobile App Distribution in Japan

    Amazon has announced that developers can now submit apps for distribution later this year in Japan. It’s all part of their plan for developers looking to build, market, and monetize their apps and games.

  • Security

  • Finance

  • Censorship

    • Don’t make me laugh

      Yesterday Matthew Woods was given 12 weeks in a youth offenders institution for posting jokes about the missing 5 year old girl April Jones (see Padraig Reidy’s write up of this yesterday on the Index on Censorship blog). Today Azhar Ahmed was given a community order for posting some very stupid and offensive comments about soliders.

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