12.18.11

Quick Mention: Ryan’s Blog

Posted in Microsoft, Site News at 11:51 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Holidays

Summary: A bit of promotion of a fairly new blog

RYAN from Techrights (he is considered the jester in the IRC channels) has a new blog and in it he describes some of his problems with Microsoft, which once made him a Microsoft MVP.

Here is the latest rant, “Microsoft to auto-destroy many copies of Windows with IE “upgrade””:

Regardless of what version of Windows the user has, an Internet Explorer update is always dangerous since Microsoft continues to claim it is a system component and not a web browser. It means that at best, you need to reboot your computer, and if the upgrade goes wrong it can mean anything from Internet Explorer not working to the Windows shell failing in inappropriate ways. Internet Explorer installations and upgrades have had a significant number of cases of destroying the operating system beyond being salvageable since at least Windows 95.

No decent operating system claims the web browser is an integrated component that can’t be removed. The Internet Explorer situation is a continuing monopoly abuse and Internet Explorer itself is a relic from the 1990s, when Microsoft tried killing Netscape by forcibly installing their own web browser into Windows.

Microsoft has proceeded to other forms of monopoly abuse, including the complicated patent wars which we will write about later. █

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Updates on Novell and Other FOSS Taxers

Posted in Microsoft, Novell, OpenSUSE, Patents, Turbolinux at 11:32 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Bits of news about Microsoft helpers who put a patent tax on Free software

THE state of Novell continues to be tracked and will be caught up with later this month.

One of Novell’s products, Vibe/Pulse, was declared dead earlier this year, but Novell keeps uploading videos about it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. It is probably not a marketing spillover because there are signs that Novell refuses to let this project go. Mixed messages for sure.

Disdain of Novell is a defence of the interests of FOSS because Novell forms a bridge for Microsoft to charge a tax/toll on FOSS. There is this new product coming from another company that does this. It is called Tuxera and it helps Microsoft tax file systems in Linux (and Android). We sometimes aptly call it “taxera”.

There is not much news from Novell, but those who try to keep abreast of things scrape some material that we will cover later this month. Novell won’t be named for much longer because it was bought. Then there is the story of Linspire/Xandros and Turbolinux, whose staff we find in new places:

Prior to Lyris, Luis oversaw global business development and sales at Turbolinux, where he led the launch of international subsidiaries in Argentina, Australia, Germany and the UK. Rivera also led international sales at IMSI, a publicly traded software publishing company, and business development at @Road, a mobile resource management solution provider.

In other news that we shall cover more thoroughly later this month, OpenSUSE (Attachmate) plans to have presence at FOSDEM despite the fact that SUSE is a bit of a pariah. To quote:

FOSDEM is the biggest event organized by and for the Free and Open Source (FOSS) community. Its goal is to provide developers a place to meet, come together and share and discuss ideas. The event happens 4-5 February 2012 in Brussels, Belgium. And there will again be a cross-distribution mini conference at FOSDEM this year. By organizing a mini conference where all distributions participate in we foster collaboration and cross pollination. You are hereby invited to hold a session.

This is actually quite harmless because it does not involve any of Microsoft’s trojan horses that Novell/SUSE is used for (e.g. Mono, Microsoft kernel drivers, OOXML). Let us know of any Novell news we might have missed (in comments/IRC). █

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Executive Director of The Economic Opportunity Institute Slams Microsoft for Not Paying Tax

Posted in Finance, Microsoft at 11:10 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Design

Summary: Microsoft’s practices of tax dodging have not dodged the attention of people who address the problem

THE problems with Microsoft are numerous. We can only ever effectively address one at a time. Putting aside technical problems, there are also legal problems and Microsoft’s history shows complete disregard for the law. No company — even of comparable size — can really be named for that, mercenaries aside.

The Executive Director of The Economic Opportunity Institute writes an opinion piece which names Microsoft’s attitude toward taxation. To quote, Microsoft “still needs to skimp on taxes. By running its licensing sales through a shop in Reno, Nev., it avoids royalty taxes that could be funding high-quality schools for Washington’s children.

“The Legislature has enabled Microsoft to continue this ruse. Last year the state budget included a provision to ensure that only Microsoft’s licensing revenue from Washington state customers is taxable. For good measure, the Legislature agreed to an amnesty clause that legally prohibits the state from trying to collect back taxes owed by Microsoft before the narrower definition of taxable licenses was passed.

“So how much did public school students and their teachers and professors lose from this ruse? Somewhere between $100 million and $400 million a year for the past 15 years. (We can’t get much more accurate because we can’t see Microsoft’s internal corporate accounting.)

“Add the $104 million Microsoft got in tax deferrals from the state in 2010, and the $2 million it received in tax credits, and you are a long way along the path to figuring out the revenue problem in our state.

“Microsoft’s corporate counsel recently weighed in on the state’s budget woes: “It’s important for the state to avoid further reductions in higher education funding… It’s similarly important to maintain investments in K-12 education across the state…” Which, I guess, is (squishily) endorsing the proposed sales tax increase that would directly hit low- and middle-class families in the pocketbook. But it’s the waste, fraud and abuse in our own tax code that we should be going after — not the students at Everett High School, not the students at Everett Community College, not their teachers and professors, not their parents, and not their daily purchases.”

It is even worse than that because the legislation in place had former Microsoft folks responsible for it. They broke the system.

We have already explained this point along with many others in previous posts on the subject. One of the better sources of information on this subject is a former Microsoft employee who further explains:

1) $1.51 Billion in Tax Savings: Based on Microsoft’s own reporting, I estimate the company has saved $1.51 billion in taxes, interest and penalties since 1998. For the first time, we’ve published our entire analysis in a Google Docs spreadsheet: Financial History of Microsoft’s Nevada Tax Dodge.

This estimate includes the $104 million that Microsoft saved last year after Chair of the Finance Committee Ross Hunter, a former Microsoft Executive, led the Democratically controlled Legislature to drastically shrink the Royalty Tax from a tax on worldwide revenue to one based just on sales to Washington State customers. Hunter’s action will continue to cost the state more than $100 million annually going forward. Hunter even slipped in a section to grant Microsoft amnesty from its past abuses.

2) $4.37 Billion in Tax Savings: The Royalty Tax rate actually was 1.5 percent (more than three times higher) prior to 1998, but was cut in response to software industry lobbying. Scenario B in the Financial History shows that if not for its lobbying to cut the Royalty Tax from 1.5 to .484 percent, Microsoft would owe $4.37 billion in taxes, interest and penalties.

Separately he notes: “When I interviewed Microsoft’s General Council and Vice President Brad Smith in 2004 for Citizen Microsoft, he admitted the tax avoidance effort, while attempting to make light of its scope…”

So even Microsoft admits that it is doing this. But it does not really respond to queries about it. Once in 4 years when there are elections in the US it simply bribes the candidates (as we showed before) which keeps regulation at bay. That is a subject for another day. The “Occupy” protesters have legitimate reasons to be upset. Bill Gates and Microsoft hardly pay any tax. But the problem is even broader because more plutocrats and corporations receive exemptions they do not deserve and they use the media which they own to justify it with sound bites like “job creators”. █

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IRC Proceedings: December 17th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 9:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


#techrights log	#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log	#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

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12.17.11

Links – FSF success, Microsoft failures and some anti-trust

Posted in Site News at 6:09 pm by Guest Editorial Team

Reader’s Picks

Will sprint for freedom: Report from the NYC CiviCRM code sprint

CiviCRM is a “graduate” of the FSF’s High Priority Projects list. A system for nonprofits to organize their fundraising and communicate with supporters had been on the list for quite a while, because this was an area where many people told us they were still forced to use proprietary software.
There is overwhelming support for government free software use in Canada and Finland, greater than 2/3 of MPs, and both are migrating.
Science
- Want to pretend you are aboard the Enterprise for the next 24 hours?
  
  play -n -c1 synth whitenoise band -n 100 20 band -n 50 20 gain +25
Security
- Fixing rogue printers: don’t trade one security threat for another
  
  Researchers at Columbia University recently demonstrated that many HP printers can have their firmware reprogrammed by specially crafted print jobs. … Unfortunately, some people are advocating a cure worse than the disease. They suggest that these printers should only run code signed by the printer manufacturer.
- Windows Phone SMS attack discovered, reboots device and disables messaging hu
  
  The flaw works simply by sending an SMS to a Windows Phone user. Windows Phone 7.5 devices will reboot and the messaging hub will not open despite repeat attempts. We have tested the attack on a range of Windows Phone devices, including HTC’s TITAN and Samsung’s Focus Flash. Some devices were running the 7740 version of Windows Phone 7.5, others were on Mango RTM build 7720. The attack is not device specific and appears to be an issue with the way the Windows Phone messaging hub handles messages.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Russia extends the operating licenses for Chernobyl style reactors.
  
  These reactors are of an inherently unsafe design, which cannot be improved through upgrades and modernization, and some reactor parts are impossible to replace. Russian environmental groups insist that the lifetime extensions violate Russian law, because the projects have not undergone environmental assessments.
- EPA Implicates Fracking In Wyoming Pollution
  
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Thursday for the first time that fracking … may be to blame for causing groundwater pollution.
- Poorly done lead abatement is worse than leaving the pipe in place.
Education Watch
- Online Learning and Charter School Failures, Successful Military Children and of Course, Much, Much More [success is mostly a matter of money]
  
  our entire education system is not “in crisis,” as so many executives in the for-profit education industry insist when pushing to privatize public schools. On the contrary, results from Program for International Student Assessment exams show that American students in low-poverty schools are among the highest-achieving students in the world. … the always-demonized teachers’ unions are not holding our education system back.
- Charter Schools and Constitutional Rights
  
  Are charter schools allowed to violate students’ civil rights? … You might think it’s a straightforward question, but it’s not. Federal law is inconsistent.
  
  One thing is sure, that it’s easier for a private school to violate people’s rights.
- To All Teachers in Seattle: Collective Bargaining Rights Are Civil Rights
  
  This article also deals with the issue of academic freedom in a defensive way, but we know that charter schools are all about standardized test scores and are more restrictive than public schools.
- Anti-Trust
  - Microsoft forces new browser on users.
    
    The author foolishly describes this as good but it just proves that Microsoft thinks they own everyone’s computers.
  - Oracle ends DLJ, making it impossible for Debian and others to distribute Sun Java
  - Bing blocks Cybermonday.com for Cyber Monday to protect people from spammers, blames super smart spam guard algorithms.
    
    Several of those dropped have wondered if it was all part of an attempt by Bing simply to drive more traffic to a special section of Bing Shopping that was ranking (and still does) in the first page of listing for searches at Bing for black friday and cyber monday,
  - Hung Jury – 11 to 1 for Novell — Mistrial in Novell v. Microsoft ~ pj – Updated 4Xs
    
    Microsoft was spared a $1.3 billion dollar judgment by one juror who was unsure about Novell’s potential outside of Microsoft’s malice. This comes despite a biased press and a judge that indulged every Microsoft whim.
  - SKYPE FOR LINUX WITH TABS SUPPORT USING SKYPETAB NG (NEXT GENERATION)
    
    SkypeTab used to only work with Compiz, Openbox and Xfwm but the new version should work with other window managers too, like Kwin, etc (I’ve actually tested it under Kubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot and it worked just fine).
    
    The only good thing about Skype was that it worked without fuss out of a repository, now we see that new software is buggy and picky about window managers.
- Civil Rights – NDAA passes
  - Military given go-ahead to detain US terrorist suspects without trial
    
    Barack Obama has abandoned a commitment to veto a new security law that allows the military to indefinitely detain without trial American terrorism suspects arrested on US soil who could then be shipped to Guantánamo Bay. … The legislation’s supporters in Congress say it simply codifies existing practice, such as the indefinite detention of alleged terrorists at Guantánamo Bay.
    
    Dissenting opinon relies on weasel words that don’t mean much, but even they say that the bill should be vetoed. All the rich and powerful have to do to eliminate critics now is provoke riots.
- Censorship
  - NYPD Continues To Restrict Photographers Despite Assurances
  - The pirates of YouTube
    
    The real villains of YouTube are the multinational companies cashing in on public domain footage they claim is their own
    
    Big publishers can load your videos with advertisements or push you off YouTube.
  - Actual engineers quoted by mainstream media summary of SOPA arguments.
    
    Their letter was authored by Steve Crocker, a longtime member of the Internet Engineering Task Force; David Dagon, a post-doctoral researcher at Georgia Institute of Technology; security researcher Dan Kaminsky; Verisign Chief Security Officer Danny McPherson; and Paul Vixie, chairman of the Internet Systems Consortium and principal author of popular versions of the BIND DNS server software.
    
    The letter is beautiful but no technical experts were invited to Congress.
  - Support for SOPA crumbled and the obnoxious censorship bill was put off till after Christmas
    
    More than 1 millions of calls and emails to Congress have been generated over the past month. The level of engagement on this bill is virtually unprecedented for a measure that still has not emerged from the committee process. And it has happened despite a virtual blackout from mainstream media, which is mostly owned by corporations that support the bill.
    
    Thank you to everyone who acted but watch out, it’s not over yet Keep demanding progress.
  - Chris Dodd blows hot and cold to bash Google and promote SOPA.
    
    [now] When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites. … [previously]Tell the Chinese government that Google.cn will no longer censor information with Google’s consent. And should the Chinese government not find that acceptable, then Google.cn would shut down its operations
  - Russia competes with the US for internet asininity and menace.
    
    Russia may outlaw Internet porn, “extremism,” anonymity, and more – “Another proposal regarding internet security has been put forward by senior Interior Ministry official Alexei Moshkov, who said anonymous accounts should be outlawed on social networks and online forums to prevent internet fraud, blackmailing and child abuse. “If you are a just and law abiding person, why would you want to hide?” Moshkov, who heads the ministry’s bureau in charge of technical services, said in an interview with the government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta. “There is no censorship on the internet,” he said. He also said the police would not “seek and arrest anyone for criticism” of the authorities.
- Privacy
  - EU ministers agree to share passenger data with the US
- Copyrights
  - Big publishers employees use bittorent to share movies and music.
    
    Big publishers know that sharing is an important form of marketing but insist on punishing people for doing it so they can continue to control our culture.
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IRC Proceedings: December 16th, 2011

Posted in IRC Logs at 3:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz


#techrights log	#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log	#techbytes log

Enter the IRC channels now

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5 Years of Techrights, 30 Years of Yours Truly — Decision Time

Posted in Site News at 2:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Time for changes but not without consultation with the Techrights community

IT IS only 7 AM (after 8 hours sleep), but as I mentioned earlier this year, today I turn 30 and there are already greeting cards coming here. Here is one from Harvey (a neat joke): █

Obama joke

I have not been posting much recently, but my intent is to be more prolific and dedicate more time to Techrights (than I did in 2011), even if that becomes a New Year’s resolution. The focus of the site might have to be changed though and readers’ advice would be appreciated here.

Question 1: Should we spent a little less time covering patent issues? They make up about half of all the posts now.

Question 2: Should daily links be abbreviated? To some people they may be too long to follow, but it’s hard to tell for sure.

Question 3: Should comments be opened to non-members? As in the wiki, one of the main drawbacks is the spam this typically leads to.

Question 4: Should the site be further crowd-sourced and responsibilities delegated to make operation efficient. There are already about a dozen ops in the IRC channels.

Question 5: Should we redesign the Web site around Christmas time as Kevin suggested (and offered help)? The drawback might be lack of familiarity with a 5+ year-old theme.

Any other comments and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. As I have a party tonight I do not expect to find time for new blog posts (there are several ongoing drafts), but any feedback on this post would be taken very seriously. Most of the decisions here were made by readers over the years.

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12.16.11

Links 16/12/2011: Kororaa 16, Puppy Linux 5.3.1

Posted in News Roundup at 1:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux
- Distributions
- Devices/Embedded
Free Software/Open Source
Leftovers

GNU/Linux

Holiday Gift Ideas for Linux Users

The holidays are almost here, and for a lot of people that means gift giving. Getting gifts, of course, is the easy part. Finding the right gift is the hard part. If you’re shopping for your favorite Linux user, or you’re a Linux user shopping for others, we’ve got a bunch of fun ideas to help you round out the shopping list.
Kernel Space
- Linux KVM vs. HandelSpielVM Virtualization
  
  At the request of many Phoronix readers, here are some new Linux virtualization benchmarks. Being compared is the performance of KVM (the Kernel-based Virtual Machine) to that of HandelSpielVM on the Linux 3.0 kernel with a stock Ubuntu 11.10 for both the host and guest.
- Intel SNA Acceleration Performance On Ironlake
- Graphics Stack
  - AMD Driver Support State For Radeon HD 7000 Series, Trinity
  - Video: Introduction to Cuda 4.1
  - Racing To Finish X.Org Multi-Touch Support
    
    Peter Hutterer has provided an update on the state of X.Org multi-touch support as he hopes to have this input feature ready for integration into the next X.Org Server release.
    
    Multi-touch has been a work in progress for a while after being delayed from the X.Org Server 1.11 release and is not part of X Input 2.1, but multi-touch as a feature of X Input 2.2 will hopefully be ready for X.Org Server 1.12. The original X.Org multi-touch implementation goes back to 2010 and even at that stage had undergone several revisions.
  - Radeon HD 7000 Series Will Bring New 3D Driver
  - Will OpenGL 3.0 Still Land In Mesa This Year?
    
    Back at XDC2011 Chicago plans were laid by Intel OSTC developers to have OpenGL 3.0 support in Mesa before year’s end, but with three weeks left to 2011, will they make this deadline?
    
    The developers working on Mesa within Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center have been making steady progress on reaching this OpenGL 3.0 goal in Mesa. The OpenGL 3.0 specification is nearly three years old, but the Mesa/Gallium3D support has lagged behind as invasive infrastructure changes have had to be made, significant GL Shading Language (GLSL) updates, and other changes made. The latest upstream OpenGL specification meanwhile is OpenGL 4.2.
  - NVIDIA 2011 Driver Year In Review
Applications
- tmux Lets Command-line Junkies Multiplex Their Terminals
  
  Serious command-line users will definitely love tmux, a utility that allows you to split your terminal window into multiple screens.
- Shelling Your New Linux System
  
  New Linux users may have been tempted to jump in with both feet after hearing about the customization options and security offered by the number one open source operating system. What they might not have realized, though, is that with freedom comes some very difficult choices—like which shell to use.
- A Tour of MyPaint 1.0
  
  The lightweight and flexible painting application MyPaint has officially made its 1.0 release. The milestone marks the end of a long, stable progression for the application. Consequently, there are not drastic changes from the 0.9 series, but there are several User Interface (UI) and feature improvements that new users and old pros alike will be glad to see.
- Instructionals/Technical
- Games
  - The Escape of the Rock-n-Roll DOSBox Freak Show
    
    Oh my God! It’s the return of your old favorite classic, the Rock-n-Roll DOSBox Freak Show, in which I, in the name of truth, justice, and barfing butterflies, randomly snarf up abandonware DOS games from Internet archive sites, plug them into DOSBox, and report what they did to my brain! And those are often very funny things! Sometimes I discover a crusty old classic that curls my toes with joy, and sometimes I get a hoary old croaker that upsets me so terribly that I find myself in a therapist’s office showing her where on the doll the bad game touched me. Well, anyway, let’s strap in and fly though this…
  - Cobalt coming soon! Platformer published by Mojang
Desktop Environments
- Open Source Ecology: Can open source save the planet?
  
  The Open Source Ecology project is developing tools for building sustainable communities based on the principles of DIY and closed-loop manufacturing
- K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
  - Amarok 2.5 Adds New USB Mass Storage Support
    
    Softpedia is the first to inform that the Amarok developers unleashed a few minutes ago, December 15th, the final and stable Amarok 2.5 music player and organizer software for Linux OSes.
  - Get the Beauty of KDE on Your Tablet
    
    At the time, a version of the open source software called Plasma Active One had just been launched for tablets and other mobile devices, but it was compatible with only a limited range of Intel-based devices.
  - Qt 4.8 now available; new SDK to follow
    
    Nokia has announced the release of Qt 4.8.0, its cross platform application and user interface framework. This release is not accompanied by a new release of the Qt SDK – version 1.2 of the SDK will follow in January 2012.
- GNOME Desktop
  - Top 5 Must Have Extensions For Gnome 3 Top Panel
Distributions
- Puppy Linux 5.3.1 aka Slacko Released
  
  Puppy Linux, the renowned champion of light weight Linux distributions, has reached version 5.3.1. Puppy Linux is one of those Linux distributions which focus on ease of use.
- The Debate OS Project
  
  Last week I posted about an open-source game in development called Pissed Off Penguins that is using Kickstarter to fund the project. Today I ran across another open-source Kickstarter project that I thought was worth sharing. The project, called Debate OS, is an Ubuntu spin focused on providing a debate environment for high school and college students.
- Review: VectorLinux 7.0 Standard Gold
  
  One of the distributions I’ve been wanting to check out for a while now has been VectorLinux. Recently, version 7.0 of VectorLinux was released, so I’m reviewing it.
- Red Hat Family
  - Fedora
    - Fedora 14 Resigns, Reaches End Of Life
      
      Fedora 14 reached its end of life for updates and support on December 09, 2011. Now there will be no further updates, including security updates, for Fedora 14. If you are still using Fedora 14, you must upgrade to the latest version of Fedora which is Fedora 16. The Fedora Project wiki contains instructions on how to upgrade from a previous release of Fedora to a version receiving updates.
    - Kororaa 16 (Chum) released
      
      It was a little while in coming, but it was worth the wait! It is my pleasure to announce the release of Kororaa 16 (codename “Chum”) which is now available for download.
- Debian Family
  - Government of El Salvador Gives Back to FLOSS: A Primary Debian Mirror
  - Derivatives
    - Canonical/Ubuntu
      - Ubuntu Cloud Live Offers Private Clouds via USB Drive
        
        “The cloud” can be hard to visualize, not least because the hardware behind it is often an ambiguous collection of servers scattered somewhere across the ether of the Internet. But in Canonical’s vision, the cloud can be something as simple and concrete as a USB stick running the Ubuntu Cloud Live image, which makes the creation of private clouds quite trivial. I recently got a chance to play around with this neat tool, and here’s what I found.
      - Top Ubuntu Apps For This Month
        
        Ubuntu team picks some of the coolest apps every month. When there are more than 30,000 apps highlight cool apps can help users in picking the right apps. This month the team has selected 3 apps to highlight.
      - Ubuntu One gains music web streaming
        
        The Ubuntu One team has announced that users can now stream music they have stored in Ubuntu One (U1) via the web. When signed in, Ubuntu One users can access the music streaming feature from the Music tab on the U1 dashboard; previously, users were only able to stream audio from U1 using an Ubuntu One app for Android and iOS devices.
      - Flavours and Variants
        
        Gnome Shell Ubuntu aka Gubuntu Is Coming!
        
        Ubuntu is undoubtedly one of the most user-friendly GNU/Linux-based operating system. Yes, I agree that ‘user-friendly’ is a relative term. For a home user, who is not very well versed with technology, Ubuntu can be extremely easy to use and manage. However, Unity changed (?) something.
Devices/Embedded
- Linux Spotted Distributing Cigarette In Amsterdam
  
  Ruben Vermeersch has posted a cool picture of a cigarette vending machine in Amsterdam running some GNU/Linux OS. It’s funny how one found that the dispenser was running GNU/Linux. There was a grub loading error resulting in black screen of death. A few months ago we noticed Brussels buses running Microsoft Windows, as it was showing the infamous blue screen of death.
- Phones
  - Android
    - Google Goggles For Android Gets Smarter
    - Android Doesn’t Support Linux
      
      It’s an irony that Linux-based Android tables don’t support Linux-based operating systems. Android 3.x+ uses MTP for mounting the devies on the PCs, which is not supported very well on Linux.
    - Galaxy Nexus Now Available For $299
      
      Google has finally made available its ‘super-phone’ Samsung Galaxy Nexus from Verizon Wireless. Google today sent out emails to those who subscribed on its Galaxy Nexus to be notified when the phone will be available.
    - Will WebOS OpenSourcing disrupt Android OS Growth
      
      WebOS the once coveted proprietary software that cost HP 1.2 Billion to acquire, is now Open Source software, after tablets running on WebOS failed miserably. Analysts ponder if WebOS entry, as free licensed software, will disrupt the just –consolidating-phase of Android OS.
    - WebOS and the open alternative live another day
      
      There has been no shortage of reaction to HP’s move to make the Linux-based WebOS open source software. Below, I offer some of my thoughts on the meaning for the different players affected.
- Sub-notebooks/Tablets
  - $100 tablet now shipping with Android 4.0
    
    Move over, Kindle Fire. Google’s Ice Cream Sandwich operating system has landed on a $100 tablet now shipping in China. The 7-inch tablet is also bound for the U.S. market.
  - Amazon Kindle Fire: Linux Christmas Gift
    
    It’s Christmas time, for a Linux and Open Source user. The market is flooded with a wide range of gadgets which can be the ‘perfect’ gift for your loved ones. I am working on a list of top 10 Linux gadgets for this Christmas.
  - Sony Launches Android Tablets In India
    
    Sony has introduced its Android tablet category in India with the launch of Sony Tablet S & P. In India, Sony has collaborated with local content developers to design unique applications for the Indian consumers. Priced at Rs. 33,990 and Rs. 36,990 for the 3G + Wi-Fi version, Sony Tablet S & Tablet P will be available across 500 stores in India starting Mid-January 2012.
  - Amazon’s Trojan Horse: Don’t Underestimate The Kindle Fire
  - Amazon Selling ‘Well Over’ 1 Million Kindle Devices Per Week
    
    The Kindle Fire tablet is the top-selling and most wished-for item across Amazon.com, Amazon said. Among Kindle devices, however, Amazon did not break out how many of those 1 million devices sold were the Fire, the Kindle Touch, Kindle DX, and original Kindle e-reader.
  - Santa Picks Top 5 Android Tablet For Christmas
    
    Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat, please put a penny in Android’s hat! Android tablets are going to be the hottest gifts this Christmas. If you are looking for gifting a tablet to your loved one here is the list of top 5 Android tablets.
  - Lenovo debuts three new Android tablets
  - Archos starting 2012 with a bang, promises ICS on G9 tablets
    
    Archos is one of the first out of the gate, announcing an official update to ICS for their G9 tablet in Q1 2012.
  - Toshiba’s 7-inch Thrive goes on sale
    
    The 7-inch variation of the Toshiba Thrive has gone on sale this week, giving U.S. consumers yet another option in portable Honeycomb experiences. Available in either 16GB ($379) or 32GB ($429) models, the Thrive 7 includes a 1GHz Tegra 2 dual-core processor, 5-megapixel rear camera and 2-megapixel front-facing camera. Additional specifications include microSD card expansion, mini-USB, micro-HDMI, stereo speakers, and Wi-Fi connectivity. Announced back in September, this 7-inch tablet is much thinner and lighter than its bigger brother and features a display resolution of 1280×800 pixels.
  - Apple’s Galaxy Tab ban was best advertising ever – Samsung
    
    Ah, sweet revenge! After winning its court battle to lift the ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia, Samsung is making the most of the fondleslab injunction saga.
    
    Samsung Australia’s vice-president of telecommunications, Tyler McGee, told the Sydney Morning Herald that the case has turned the tablet into a household name in Oz.
  - Kyobo 5.7″ eReader with Mirasol Display Walk Through with Video Playback
    
    Kyobo Book Centre and Qualcomm have revealed the world’s first ereader to use a mirasol color e-paper display, the Android-based Kyobo eReader. Mirasol’s Mems technology has had us all drooling for a three weeks of battery life with daily use since their screen has no backlight and mimics light reflection in a butterfly’s wings to get its colors.
  - Nook Color gets major software update, adds Netflix streaming
    
    Call it an early holiday gift or just making good on a promise, but Barnes & Noble has just released an expected software update for Nook Color owners that adds many of the features now found in the company’s step-up model, the $249 Nook Tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

British ISP deploys open source virtualization

A telecommunications firm in Britain is supporting its Internet subscribers using the Ubuntu Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) hypervisor, open source management software from Convirture and an approach to virtual machine clustering that shuns live migration.
SproutCore 2.0 becomes Ember.js
Ten years of Rockbox

Just in time for its 10th birthday, the developers of Rockbox have released version 3.10 of their alternative open source firmware for digital audio players. Rockbox is mainly used on older MP3 players – including devices from Apple, Archos, Cowon, iRiver, SanDisk and Toshiba – and aims to be “considerably more functional and efficient” than the standard device firmware.
How to Leverage Your Open Source Skills in the Changing Job Market

For countless people who are about to start a new year unemployed, this year’s top resolution will be finding a job. We’ve reported before on how acquiring skills with open source technologies can be an effective differentiator or the job seeker. Just this past week, more evidence that this is true has rolled in, and in this post you’ll also find some of OStatic’s best collected resources for leveraging open source skills for employment.
Free Tools and Resources for Doing A Deep Dive on Linux

One of the biggest complaints that many people have about open source software is that there isn’t adequate documentation. On the Linux front, though, there is surprisingly rich information available for free online on moving from being a beginner to an advanced user. Whether you’re new to Linux, or a seasoned Linux administrator, you can find hugely helpful resources online, without paying anything. Here is our most recently updated collection of top free resources for Linux.
Big Winners and Losers of 2011

A few people are saying KDE is a winner for 4.7. Folks seem to like that version. It might be time for me to brave away from 4.6, especially since my Aggregator has starting crashing lately.

Another outlier even mentioned Slackware for remaining relevant. Well, his exact words were, “Slackware for continuing to be powerful, rock-solid and fast.” Gotta love the Slack. This same commenter also put Novell in the big loser column with, “Novell for selling their soul.” I’m not sure I agree with that. When I think of Novell selling their soul, I think more of the Microsoft deal than the Attachmate acquisition.
Is Your Company New to Open Source? Here’s Where to Start

Over the past year, we’ve been working on a number of projects to help those who want to more closely participate in the Linux community, but don’t know where to start.

First, there’s the Linux Foundation Training program. We’ve continued to add courses as new needs arise, and have had the opportunity to give on-site training to many companies over the past year. While much of our content is on improving technical skills (e.g. “Developing Linux Device Drivers,” “Embedded Linux Development,” “Advanced Linux Performance Tuning”), we have also added courses on being more effective when working with open communities. “How to Participate with the Linux Community” is a roadmap of sorts for developers and managers who are comfortable with the technology, but need some guidance in understanding the Linux kernel community processes. (A related guide on participating with the Linux community is also available.)
Events
- Granicus hosts CityCampSF Hackathon to promote civic innovation and open government
Web Browsers
- Chrome
  - The unstoppable rise of Google Chrome
  - Run ChromeOS with a Hint of Lime: ChromiumOS Lime Builds (Finally) Available
    
    This post is part of our ReadWriteCloud channel, which is dedicated to covering virtualization and cloud computing. The channel is sponsored by Intel and VMware. Read the case study about how Intel Xeon processors and VMware helped virtualize 12 business critical database applications.
  - Chrome 16 Delivers Flexible Authentication and Sync Services
- Mozilla
  - Do Users Want Automatic Updates to Firefox?
    
    If you’re a Google Chrome user, you may greatly appreciate the fact that updates to the browser–which many observers predict will eclipse Mozilla Firefox in global market share next year–are automatically pushed. In other words, Chrome users get transparent updates, which differs from how Firefox and other browsers approach moving users to new versions. That’s going to change soon for Firefox users, and some Firefox users are likely to appreciate silent updates, while some others may not.
SaaS
- ownCloud Open Source Storage Launches Commercial Entity
- ownCloud Transforms Into A Company, Appoints CEO, CTO
  
  ownCloud, the open source file-sharing project which enables individuals to create their own local cloud, has evolved into a company. Former SUSE/Novell executive Markus Rex is joining the company as its first CEO and CTO. ownCloud has more than 350,000 users around the globe. The company is opening its a HQ in Boston, USA.
- OpenStack security analysis: Pros and cons of open source cloud software
  
  I’ve been asked to provide a brief security analysis of the OpenStack open source cloud computing platform and whether our enterprise should pursue it as the basis for our cloud infrastructure build-out. My initial assessment is that, like with Apache and Linux, the open nature of the platform allows security flaws to be found and fixed quickly, which helps decrease the likelihood of exploits. Do you agree? What other OpenStack security points (pro and con) are worth considering?
- Latest MapR 1.2 Distribution Prepares for a New Hadoop
  
  The astonishing speed at which the “big data” processing industry is evolving dwarfs anything we’ve ever seen with regard to software. Problems that stymied the best engineers just 18 short months ago are now commonplace tasks for modern data centers. Already, the systems envisioned by Google’s and Yahoo’s engineers are being prepared for the history books, as 2012 should bring forth the second generation of open source, scalable, big data processing.
Databases
- State of the MySQL forks: via a particular example of authentication plugins
  
  A year ago I posted a blog on The state of MySQL forks: co-operating without co-operating. (Also Giuseppe wrote about the topic at that time, and Peter Zaitsev covers it in his conference keynotes.) So I’ve been wondering if it would be good to write an update on the topic now, and in that case what to write.
  
  Sometimes it helps looking at particular examples to understand a general thing, at least my brain works that way. It just so happens that this might be a good approach to give a snapshot of how the MySQL forks are doing. So I will here focus on the recent announcements on authentication plugins – but not to focus on the feature itself, rather letting this be my 2011 edition on the state of the MySQL forks.
- Couchbase Closes Phenomenal 2011 With Thousands of Open Source Deployments and Over 150 New Commercial Customers
- MariaDB to get PAM and Windows plugin authentication
- PostgreSQL updates fix bugs
  
  The PostgreSQL developers have announced the release of version 9.1.2 of their open source relational database, a maintenance update that includes fixes for 52 bugs found in PostgreSQL 9.1. Bug fix updates have also been released for the 9.0.x, 8.4.x, 8.3.x and 8.2.x branches of PostgreSQL.
Education
- Inside NYSCATE: Moodle, GIMP, and other open source in education
  
  As an educator, trained Linux systems administrator, and technology director for a K-12 school district, I have been actively involved with NYSCATE (The New York State Association for Computers and Technologies in Education), a non-profit organization that works to lead the transformation of teaching and learning through technology. It’s been 20 years since I attended my first NYSCATE conference, and the conference’s open source presence has taken many different forms.
Business
- CloudBees launches Enterprise version of Jenkins
  
  Platform-as-a-Service provider CloudBees has released Jenkins Enterprise, a version of its continuous integration (CI) software designed for use in businesses. The service goes beyond the open source Jenkins community’s Long Term Support (LTS) release and provides enhancements for large installations, resource management, and access rights management; to this end, CloudBees has developed a variety of enterprise plugins. Customers who purchase Jenkins Enterprise also gain access to the company’s other proprietary products.
Project Releases
- GIMP 2.7.4 Released, Install In Ubuntu
  
  GIMP team has announced the release of GIMP 2.7.4. This release does’t bring any major changes and is mainly minor improvements and bug fixes release. Most improvements are related to user interface and usability. The GIMP team is now looking at version 2.8 and it is expected, depending on amount of bugs, that this could be the last version before 2.8 release candidates and 2.8 itself.
- Nagios fork Icinga 1.6 records SLA information
  
  The developers behind Icinga, which forked from Nagios two-and-a-half years ago, have released version 1.6 of the network monitoring software. This was quickly followed by version 1.6.1 released in response to a bug. Major changes in the new version include extended logging capabilities in the Classic UI and Core designed to make troubleshooting easier and increasing the performance of notifications. The developers have also added the ability to assign expiry times to acknowledgement, making use of an idea from a recent feedback poll.
- TYPO3 publishes Security Guide for web site owners
  
  The TYPO3 Security Guide is available to view online or to download in DocBook or OpenOffice.org Writer format. Like the project’s other official documentation, the Security Guide is published under the Open Content License; the source code for TYPO3 is licensed under the GPL
- Some Cerowrt updates
- DNSCrypt: a tool to encrypt all DNS traffic
  
  DNS service provider OpenDNS has announced a preview release of a new open source tool to improve internet security: DNSCrypt encrypts all DNS traffic between a user’s system and a DNS server. The tool is currently only available for the Mac, with a Windows version promised, and only works with OpenDNS’s own DNS service. Normally, DNS information is exchanged between client and server as plain text which makes it vulnerable to snooping or modification and man-in-the-middle attacks. By encrypting the exchange, OpenDNS hopes to make the “last mile” of DNS requests more secure.
- Phoronix Test Suite 3.6-Arendal Released
Licensing
- Tips on picking right OSS license
  
  Open source software (OSS), like any other software, is protected by copyright and its usage is governed under a license. As such, it is important enterprises pay attention to considerations, such as how much freedom they need with regard to developing on the source code or whether they plan to monetize the software, before deciding which license to use.
Openness/Sharing
- Creative Commons 4.0 process starts
  
  The Creative Commons project has announced the beginning of the process leading to version 4.0 of its license suite.
- Open Data
  - Open Government Platform: first source code made available
    
    This first code that has been released concerns the tools needed to set up an automated process for publishing data on the platform; this Data Management System handles the submission and approval of data and the updating of the catalogues of data on the Open Government Platform. The next set of data that will come from India’s National Informatics Centre relates to providing web site access to the platform. The two countries are encouraging developers to get involved and provide feedback, new modules and capabilities.
Programming
- DragonEgg 3.0 Puts GCC & LLVM In One Bed
  
  LLVM 3.0 was released last week as a major update to this increasingly popular open-source compiler infrastructure. With the release of LLVM 3.0 proper also came major updates to the Clang C/C++ compiler front-end and the DragonEgg GCC plug-in (here are the exciting LLVM3 changes). In this article is a look at DragonEgg for LLVM 3.0 that plugs into GCC to replace its optimizers and code generators with those from LLVM.
- jQuery developers come clean on plugin site
  
  The developers behind the jQuery plugins site have come clean – in a blog posting, they explain what happened to the jQuery plugins site. It went down around a week ago with only a message saying that the old site had issues with spam and was being reworked with a new submission process. In fact, what had happened was that, in an attempt to clean the spam using Drupal Views Bulk Operations, all the plugins were deleted, and all that they had was a year old backup. “In an ideal world, this certainly wouldn’t have happened exactly as it did. Sadly, it did” said the developers, who asked for forgiveness and “maybe even a hand” developing a completely new plugins site for the jQuery community.
- qooxdoo 1.6 JavaScript framework gains offline features
  
  Five months after the arrival of 1.5, version 1.6 of qooxdoo has been released. Project Lead Andreas Ecker says that the update to the open source “Universal JavaScript Framework” includes a number of “substantial improvements” and new features.
  
  The 1.6 release of qooxdoo adds support for applications going offline. qooxdoo makes use of local/session storage and offline event technology and adds an offline event handler and offline data store to simplify using those facilities. This allows developers to create apps that can pre-cache data and will work without an internet connection; a feedreader demo app with offline support is provided.

Leftovers

Genode Aims To Produce A General Purpose OS

2012 could be an especially interesting year for open-source software with continued advancements in the area of open-source drivers, prominent announcements, major software releases like GIMP 2.8 and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, and much more. Another event to look forward to next year is a new operating system release built atop the unique Genode Operating System Framework.
Science
- Soon You May Be Able To Store 1TB Data On Your Android Devices
  
  Intel [NASDAQ:INTC] and Micron has announced a new benchmark in NAND flash technology – the world’s first 20 nanometer (nm), 128 gigabit (Gb), multilevel-cell (MLC) device. The new 20nm monolithic 128Gb device is claimed to be the first in the industry to enable a terabit (Tb) of data storage in a fingertip-size package by using just eight die.
Security
- Pidgin IM client 2.10.1 fixes crashing vulnerabilities
- SMS flaw reportedly found in Windows Phone 7.5
  
  Devices running Microsoft’s Window Phone are susceptible to a denial-of-service attack that disables their messaging function, a tipster has told WinRumors.com.
Environment/Energy/Wildlife
- Old Oil Depletes, And the New Oil is Slow
  
  Exxon Mobil has released its 2012 Outlook for Energy: A view to 2040 report. I actually find these industry forecasts helpful, especially for their nuanced contrast with comparable long-range reports from EIA Washington and IEA Paris. For example, I find Exxon’s view that oil will retain its role as the primary energy source—not to be eclipsed by either natural gas or coal—unrealistic. But this is the same view held by IEA and EIA. Where Exxon is more on track however, is in their call that growth in global coal consumption rises very strongly through the end of this decade. This is the call I would have expected IEA and EIA to make as well. Given current trends, I explained as much in Coal’s Terrible Forecast: Because it is coal, not oil, that is steadily growing in supply. And you can’t increase consumption of a resource whose supply has been flat, for the past six years.
Privacy
- Richard Stallman: Facebook does massive surveillance
  
  Richard Stallman has declared Facebook and Google+ are mistreating their users. Furthermore, he points out Facebook performs massive surveillance with its tracking cookies.
Civil Rights
- What’s So Bad About SOPA?
  
  SOPA has been making the rounds of headlines across the internet and print media this last couple weeks. It is a bill to criminalize “illegal” content online. So, someone posts a snippet of a song owned by a record company on your website, and you are now a criminal. You are not just a person with a legal dispute between you and someone else. The Federal Government is also standing between you and that someone else.
  
  This represents a dramatic shift in copyright law in recent years. At its inception, copyright law was designed as a civil matter. If a copyright holder felt their material was used illegally, the holder was granted the right to take any offenders to court, at their own expense, as one would do over a contract dispute.
  
  Criminal matters are intended to be those issues that threaten the life, liberty and pursuit of happiness of the general public. For issues where the interests of only a few select entities are at stake, our once wise Constitutional legislators designated those issues as civil matters.
- U.S. House Discusses SOPA Bill Today, As Tech Opponents Express Opposition
  
  The U.S. House of Representatives has set aside time today to discuss the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), as we covered here. Members of the House Judiciary Committee will debate the proposed legislation, and Judiciary chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) will reportedly try to address strong concerns from the technology community about the bill. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said that the bill would: “….grant the government and private parties unprecedented power to interfere with the Internet’s domain name system (DNS). The government would be able to force ISPs and search engines to redirect or dump users’ attempts to reach certain websites’ URLs.” With the discussion looming today, many new organizations are coming out in opposition of the bill, or firming up existing opposition.
Internet/Net Neutrality
- EU Council Supports Net Neutrality. Let’s Make it the Law!
Intellectual Monopolies
- Copyrights
  - ACTA
    - No ACTA today

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