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09.28.11

Links 28/9/2011: Linux 3.1 RC8, Gains for Android Tablets

Posted in News Roundup at 7:28 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • Open Source, Open Mind

    I’ve been a big advocate of open source software since I learned about the model of software licensing and development 10 years ago. I am a big believer that many minds produce great things, so the idea that a community of users would develop and improve software to the benefit of the community really appealed to me. Open source is often a great solution for cash-strapped libraries that can adopt tools like Open Office for free instead of paying for Microsoft Office licenses on all of their computers.

  • Luis Iván Cuende García demonstrates the power of Free Software and the determination of a fifteen year old

    A few months ago I went to Campus Party in Spain. I have blogged about Campus Party before, so I will not spend a lot of time and space here on that topic.

    I will tell you about a young man, Luis Iván Cuende García, who was fifteen years old when I met him but who had released his own distribution of Linux called “Asturix”. He, his father and his friend Ricardo had all traveled to Campus Party at the invitation of the Campus Party management.

  • FLOSS for Science Books August 2011

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS

    • Piston launches OpenStack cloud OS for private clouds

      Piston Cloud Computing came out of stealth mode today, launching an OpenStack-based cloud OS that allows enterprises to build private clouds that meet security and compliance requirements. Former NASA and Rackspace execs are leading the charge. The OS will be generally available Nov. 29.

    • Twitter Storm: Open Source Real-time Hadoop

      Twitter has open-sourced Storm, its distributed, fault-tolerant, real-time computation system, at GitHub under the Eclipse Public License 1.0. Storm is the real-time processing system developed by BackType, which is now under the Twitter umbrella. The latest package available from GitHub is Storm 0.5.2, and is mostly written in Clojure.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • A year after the fork: LibreOffice is growing and going strong

      Today marks the one-year anniversary of The Document Foundation (TDF) and the LibreOffice project, a promising community-driven fork of OpenOffice.org (OOo). The project has seen considerable growth during its first year of existence. TDF estimates that there are now 25 million LibreOffice users worldwide.

    • Will Oracle Turn MySQL Into ‘Crippleware?’

      Since Oracle obtained MySQL in the Sun takeover, many FOSS folks have been wary of Oracle’s plans for the open source database, a wariness that wasn’t eased by Oracle’s handling of the OpenOffice/LibreOffice split. When a couple of weeks ago we learned that Oracle has added three commercial extensions to MySQL, many figured that was the beginning of the end of MySQL as a free and open project.

    • September 28, 2011

      The Internet, September 28, 2011 – The Document Foundation (TDF) celebrates its first anniversary, one year after the unveiling of the project and the release of the first beta of LibreOffice. “What we have achieved in just twelve months is incredible,” says Charles Schulz, a member of the Steering Committee. “Let’s have a look at some numbers: we have 136 members who have been nominated for their contributions to the project; we have some 270 developers and 270 localizers (although we always want to attract more), many of whom are also members; we have over 100 mailing lists, with over 15,000 subscribers, half of whom receive all our announcements; and there have been thousands of articles in the media worldwide”.

  • BSD

    • What Can Your Team Learn from a Bike Shed?

      Because of his position in the FreeBSD project at that time, Kamp was particularly annoyed by the pattern he was seeing, which is why he sent his thoughts to the email list. “You see it in politics, from national to school board and boy scout meetings,” he says, adding, “You see it in pretty much any meeting in a corporate context where somebody has a ladder to climb.”

      Not that this would have any relevance in your life. Oh, no. I’m sure you’ve never seen any behavior like this at all. But play along, because a friend might have experienced “bike shed” moments. Right. A friend.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • Airtime 1.9.4 released with .deb packages for Ubuntu & Debian

      Airtime 1.9.4 has been released with new DEB packages for Ubuntu and Debian that keep installations automatically updated with the latest version. Airtime 1.9.4 also includes the new file storage system with ‘watch’ folders, allowing stations to magically synchronise files and to easily browse their audio archives, as well as Shoutcast support, improved front-end widgets, and extensive bug-fixes.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone.

    A recent blog post dealt with my suggestion that PC users should switch to Linux and ditch Windows. Once they make the move to Linux, they’ll no longer need to pay for computer repairs (antivirus, spyware cleaning, etc.), especially those offered by online services are constantly advertised on cable television.

  • Science

  • Security

    • That Was the Breach That Was

      The attack on Kernel.org last month was “a big wake-up call,” according to Green Armor’s Joseph Steinberg. “This breach could have been astronomically worse. If the attack had been carried out with more sophistication, the attackers could have done a lot worse damage than they did. The gut feeling is that it is more of an accidental intrusion.”

  • Privacy

    • Facebook stores up to 800 pages of personal data per user account

      Facebook consistently reappears in the news with regards to privacy and the data it keeps on each of its users. For example, earlier this week an engineer working for the social network had to explain why Facebook tracks you even when you’re logged out.

    • sjvn01
      Facebook: The Spy in Your Network

      I used to like Facebook. Oh, its security and constantly changing privacy protection was a bad joke, but it was still the best way to find and keep in touch with old friends from high school (Hi Cathy!) and the like. That was then. This is now.

      It was bad enough that Facebook tries to harvest your phone number, in the new Facebook Open Graph platform you can share all kinds of usage data with your advertisers… uh friends. With the new Facebook, you can automatically share what movies you’re watching on Netflix, what music you’re listening to on Spotify, and what’s you’re reading on Flipboard.

  • Copyrights

    • Illegal download law fails [Ed: spot the mistake]

      Files containing movies and music are spread between different computers on the internet and bittorrent software is used to find the file parts and reassemble them. Some files, such as the open source Linux operating system, have no copyright, while files of music, movies and television shows belong to copyright holders.

09.27.11

Links 27/9/2011:Tinycore 4.0, Android Most Popular

Posted in News Roundup at 7:11 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Linux users, start your engines

    Unless you’re a motorhead to a varying degree — and an older one at that — you probably don’t know who John Cooper is. His contributions in racing circles — putting the engine behind the driver in his Cooper Formula 1 cars in the late 1950s — would normally cement his place in automotive history, but he didn’t stop there.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Kernel.org Still Struggles To Return

      Accessing Kernel.org will simply result in a “Down for maintenance” message. It’s also in a similar manner for Linux.com, which was exploited earlier this month. LinuxFoundation.org is at least back online.

    • Linus Torvalds’s Lessons on Software Development Management

      If anyone knows the joys and sorrows of managing software development projects, it would be Linus Torvalds, creator of the world’s most popular open-source software program: the Linux operating system. For more than 20 years, Torvalds has been directing thousands of developers to improve the open source OS. He and I sat down to talk about effective techniques in running large-scale distributed programming teams – and the things that don’t work, too.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Fighting the Schism of Free Software

      Over a decade ago an event happened which is still influencing our life in free software. Instead of one, two projects emerged to bring a fully free desktop to Linux based systems. Back then we failed to see the advantages of having multiple available desktop environments and we basically created a schism between the KDE and the GNOME world.

      The Schism is still in place!

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Still hating Kde4/cups

        Overall KDE4 doesn’t limit my working overly compared to KDE 3.5 (although, so far as I can remember, it doesn’t improve it). One area where it particularly falls down is in printing. I have remarked earlier on the absence of kprinter.

      • KDE’s Infrastructure.

        During KDE’s (one of the largest open source communities around, with about 2500 active developer accounts with direct write access to many millions of lines of code across dozens of products, and large numbers of external contributors) ongoing migration from SVN to Git, GitHub was never considered as an option because the community considers it unacceptable for an open source community to throw their weight behind a proprietary solution.

      • [Artwork]: 10 Ksplash Screen Themes For KDE 4.x

        A great Ksplash theme collection for KDE 4.x featuring many Linux distributions. Innovative themes designed to be suitable to many users who would like to customize the default Ksplash theme.

    • GNOME Desktop

  • Distributions

    • Hello again, Chakra

      Given the short time that has gone by since I last tried Chakra, I’m impressed with its progress.

    • The Air Force’s secure Linux distribution

      Outside of the U.S., there are several “national” Linux distributions. These include China’s Red Flag Linux; Turkey’s Pardus, and the Philippines’ Bayahnian. Other countries, like Russia, are on their way to moving their entire IT infrastructure to Linux and open-source software. In the U.S., the government, especially the military, makes use of Linux all the time. Indeed, Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux), the most popular software set for hardening Linux against Linux is sponsored by the National Security Agency. But, there hasn’t been a national American Linux desktop distribution… until now.

    • New Releases

      • A Bundle of Updates Give 10 Linux Distributions a Boost

        With so many Linux distributions to choose from, it can be difficult to keep tabs on them all. Over the past few weeks I’ve written about Bodhi Linux–a lesser-known but nice (and increasingly popular) flavor of Linux–as well as Arch Linux and Mandriva. But today I’d like to round up other distributions of the free and open source operating system that have released key updates recently.

      • Tinycore 4.0 released

        Yesterday has been released the version 4.0 of Tinycore linux, one of the smallest linux distribution around.
        You can find the detailed changelog in their official forum, among many updates some are:

        * Updated kernel to 3.0.3
        * Updated udev to 173
        * Updated glibc to eglibc-2.13
        * Updated e2fsprogs base libs to 1.41.14
        * Updated gcc base libs to 4.6.1
        * Updated util-linux base libs to 2.19.1
        * Updated eglibc for 486/586 support.
        * Updated base Xlibs (microcore users need to get new Xlibs.tcz)
        * Updated all the custom core utilities to use the new repository area.
        * New loadcpufreq to handle module loading.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Fedora

        • Anaconda Whiteboards

          David Lehman and Will Woods are in the Boston area this week so along with Chris Lumens, Peter Jones, and David Cantrell we’ve all been whiteboarding away, planning and refinement on the upcoming Anaconda UI redesign that is scheduled to land in Fedora 17.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 11.04 Gets Positive Review On Indian News Station CNN-IBN

            Ubuntu bagged itself some mainstream media exposure this weekend when it was reviewed on Indian news channel ‘CNN-IBN’.

            As part of the stations 25 minute technology segment, ‘Tech Toyz‘, the English language news network featured a short review of Ubuntu 11.04.

          • Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 Beta Released | Introduce Plugin Management System

            Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 has been released. Ubuntu Tweak 0.6 will introduce some new features and new user interface design kinda looks suitable to the upcoming release Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot. Now it’s available to install for tester and developer through Launchpad PPA.

          • Five topnotch replacements for GNOME 3 or Ubuntu Unity

            You’ve heard the talk, the complaints, and the scathing reviews. Both GNOME 3 and Ubuntu Unity have been met with a hailstorm of bad publicity — so much so that people are turning away from adopting Linux — at least Linux that uses either of these two desktops. So if you want to switch to Linux but you don’t want to use either of these desktops, what can you do? Well, I’ll give you five what-to-do’s that will ease the troubled Linux desktop selection.

          • Ubuntu Development Update

            Sticking exactly to the plan, we are quickly moving towards the release of 11.10, and it’s only three weeks until then. If you like partying, start organising your local release party soon! Beta 2 was released yesterday, so give it all the testing love you can. You won’t be disappointed, there’s something great and new in there for everybody.

          • A Tale of Two Betas (almost)

            I don’t often write about pre-release versions of Linux distributions any more – I did for a while, but the amount of negative feedback I got compared to the benefit I felt it was providing became too great. I’ve decided to make an exception this time, though, because there are two particularly interesting new releases coming up – Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, and openSuSE 12.1. I was thinking that I would have the added incentive of both Beta releases coming out on the same day, but openSuSE decided to push theirs back because they are still working on some difficult conversions to systemd, so I just downloaded Daily Build 301 instead of the actual Beta release. They say that the final release date (10 Nov) will not be changed as a result of this delay, though. The screen shot below was made on my HP dm1-3105ez, after installing Ubuntu 11.10 Beta-2.

          • Series: Introduction to Ubuntu Development – Part 6

            This is the sixth article in a series to explain the basics of Ubuntu Development in a way that does not require huge amounts of background and goes through concepts, tools, processes and infrastructure step by step. If you like the article or have questions or found bugs, please leave a comment.

          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 234

            Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter. This is issue #234 for the week September 19 – 25, 2011, and the full version is available here.

          • Ubuntu 11.04 vs. Ubuntu 11.10 Benchmarks

            At the request of many Phoronix readers, here are some benchmarks comparing the 64-bit performance of Ubuntu 11.04 versus a recent development build of Ubuntu 11.10. Six different systems were benchmarked for this comparison.

          • Announcing the Ubuntu App Developer site

            I’m thrilled to announce the launch of a significant milestone in the ongoing effort of making Ubuntu a target for app developers: the new Ubuntu App Developer site.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux Mint Computer Case Stickers… For Europe?

              Linux Mint is said to be gaining ground on Ubuntu’s popularity dominance lately. This means more folks are using Linux Mint than ever before. These users are bound to be distributed throughout the world – granted with a large concentration in Europe. But there are sure to be users in the USA, Asia, Australia, and South America too.

            • AriOS 3.0 – Not as good as its predecessor

              Now, AriOS 3.0 is out there. As a potential candidate to becoming a complete, truly successful Ubuntu derivative, an accolade which has so far been reserved to only Linux Mint, I took the distro for a spin, with high spirits and higher expectations. Tested: the 32-bit version, on my T60p experimentation rig. There’s a 64-bit version, too.

            • Why I chose Zorin OS 5 Ultimate as my go-to distribution

              I changed my Ubuntu workstation from an Ubuntu Ultimate Edition distro to Zorin OS 5 Core. After a week or so I liked it so much I upgraded to Zorin OS 5 Ultimate and installed Zorin Core (the free version) on my other machines. The reason for the changes was quite simple. Zorin OS 5 Ultimate gave my workstation the baseline Ubuntu 11.04 plus the Gnome desktop with features that keep the UI very straightforward and clean. The other machines are kept busy doing distributed processing work for BOINC projects like SETI, Einstein and LHC so their OS and UI needs are minimal. Zorin Core provides the same UI but the distro installs with fewer extra programs to update and maintain.

            • Muon Package Management Suite

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Android

        • Samsung signals HD smartphones with supersize screens

          Samsung had its hands full today, launching several phones, including this refreshed Galaxy S II with a large HD screen.

          The Samsung Galaxy S II HD LTE – which was announced in Korean this morning – sports a 4.65in OLED display with a resolution of 1280 x 720. The handset is apparently the first with an OLED display to feature a higher pixel density than 300ppi, rocking in at 316 pixels per inch.

          Other features include 16GB of storage, an 8Mp camera with 1080p video recording, NFC support and a large, 1850mAh battery.

        • Android ‘most popular’ with smartphone buyers
        • Survey says: Innovators prefer Android

          About 40 percent of U.S. mobile phone users over age 18 now have smartphones, and Google’s Android OS runs on over 40 percent of them, says Nielsen.

Free Software/Open Source

  • How open source got its groove back

    Portland’s lure lost some luster when the Great Recession hit.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Does Mozilla’s Response to Enterprises Focused on Firefox Go Far Enough?

        As we reported back in June, while many users applaud the rapid release cycle that Mozilla announced for the Firefox browser back in February, not all IT administrators are among the fans. It’s easy for consumers to forget that businesses have much more stringent requirements for accepting new applications of all sorts, including browsers, into mainstream use. There are security concerns, compatibility concerns, and more. Mozilla officials have already announced that they take the protests from the IT community seriously, and have a working group focused on delivering Extended Support Releases (ESRs) specifically for businesses that want to use Firefox. Do these efforts from Mozilla go far enough, though?

      • Mozilla Addresses Problems with Add-Ons and Firefox Releases
      • Mozilla Firefox 7 Released

        With the rapid release cycle and all, we are seeing more releases of the Firefox browser than before. Mozilla just pushed Firefox 7 to the official ftp server to prepare for today’s release of the browser. Firefox 7 is actually the first version of the rapid release cycle that is showing big improvements over previous versions.

      • Firefox Memory Leaks Once Again Causing Frustrations

        Three and a half years after developers plugged “hundreds” of memory leaks in the Firefox browser that had slowed many PCs to a halt, memory leaks in Firefox 6.0.2 are apparently once again frustrating users.

        In a number of issues posted on Mozilla’s support message board over the past several weeks, users report repeated instances of Firefox eating more than 1 GB of memory during basic tasks. Some memory leaks have been tied to browser plug-ins, while other users insist they are doing nothing exotic to cause such significant memory use.

  • Databases

    • Oracle’s Commercial Moves with MySQL are Drawing Scrutiny

      When Oracle announced its intent to acquire Sun Microsystems, the very first question we asked was what would become of the open source MySQL database and Sun’s record of openness with it. The general concensus around Oracle’s plans was that the database giant would position MySQL as a way to onboard users to its commercial offerings. (Oracle offers an Enterprise edition.) There is now debate about the extent to which that is happening, especially because Oracle has just released three commercial extensions for MySQL.

    • MySQL at the core of commercial open source

      Oracle last week quietely announced the addition of new extended capabilities in MySQL Enterprise Edition, confirming the adoption of the open core licensing strategy, as we reported last November.

    • MySQL.com Hacked to Serve Malware

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

Leftovers

  • Finance

    • Solyndra Failure Hits Goldman’s Reputation: William D. Cohan

      Since the financial crisis hit, investment banks have been rightly criticized for their tendency to be more concerned with their own trading profits than the well-being of their customers. Sometimes, however, an investment bank can take the whole client service thing a bit too far.

      Take, for instance, the case of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) and its client Solyndra LLC, the California-based solar-panel maker that filed for bankruptcy protection on Sept. 6 and dismissed its 1,100 employees.

    • 80 ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Protesters Arrested

      Dozens of demonstrators who have vowed to “occupy” Wall Street were arrested Saturday on the seventh day of a social media-fueled protest against U.S. banking institutions, according to protest organizers.

    • Is the Eurozone Market About to Collapse?

      That’s what Wall Street trader Alessio Rastani says in this extraordinarily candid interview on the BBC. “This economic crisis is like a cancer,” he tells the host. “If you just wait and wait hoping it is going to go away, just like a cancer it is going to grow and it will be too late.”

09.26.11

Links 26/9/2011: IPCop 2.0.0, Asus Eee PC With MeeGo

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

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Server

  • Kernel Space

    • Facebook’s Flashcache For The Linux Kernel

      Facebook has made many open-source contributions over the years from their high-performance PHP-To-C++ compiler, to parts of their infrastructure, to some of their development tools. One of their open-source projects they made public last year for increasing their database performance was Flashcache. Flashcache is a kernel module that provides a block cache for Linux with various caching modes.

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • REVIEW: Sabayon 6 (Xfce) and a look at my migration away from Gnome.

      It’s no secret that Gnome 3 (and Gnome-shell) are not being well received by everyone. Canonical is going with its Unity and for many other Gnome users, the future is Gnome-shell.

      KDE is/was never an option for me, I simply don’t like it. Over the last few years I’ve tried to get on with KDE, but found myself time and again going back to Gnome after only a very short period of time. Maybe that’s because when I migrated fully to a Linux desktop, I mostly used Gnome and have now become indoctrinated in working with it. Series 2 offered everything I wanted, it was simple, clean and familiar, however with its move to 3 series I find that it no longer has a place in my heart. Without repeating views which I’ve stated many times in the past, I will merely say that Gnome-Shell to me feels as if it should be on a smart phone, not a desktop form factor. My personal comfort zone in desktop computing is not having a “cushion” between myself and the OS (Gnome-shell). People may disagree, people may like Gnome-Shell. I do not.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME’s Sandler: Is there a killer in the code?

        Is there a killer in the software code running millions of medical devices? GNOME Executive Director Karen Sandler, formerly of the Software Freedom Law Center, has been fighting to get this software opened up for inspection and review since she received her own implanted defibrillator in 2008. The FDA and Supreme Court have been no help. She recently shared her journey at OSCON 2011.

      • The Gnome 3 Meteor: Ready for impact

        It’s been a long time since a desktop environment has caused so much controversy in the FOSS universe. How long? It is really hard to say, since the last time I can recall any kind of user backlash and retreat was over half a decade ago when the KDE project announced KDE 4.0. Alot of people relate the release of KDE 4 to the release of Gnome 3, drawing all sorts of wild parallels; but I say that these 2 releases could not be any more different. Now this article is not about KDE, but at the same time, a clear line in the sand must be drawn in order to explain what Gnome 3 really is.

  • Distributions

    • Who cares about users and distributions anyway?

      As distribution developer, some of our most important tasks are

      * making packages work together nicely
      * and selecting “stable” package version sets for a broader audience

    • New Releases

      • IPCop 2.0.0
      • IPCop’s VPN and firewall Linux updated

        The newly released IPCop 2.0 Linux firewall distribution updates the kernel to version 2.6.32, adds hardware support for Cobalt, Sparc and PPC systems and includes a new installer that assists users with such tasks as setting up a network. The developers have also revised the user interface: for example, the system menu has a new scheduler for time-based actions, the web proxy menu includes more advanced settings, and the DHCP server menu has been simplified.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Millennial: Android Mobile Ad Impressions Up 48 Percent, iOS Remains Flat

        Mobile ad network Millennial Media, is releasing its monthly report which gives a view into how each OS, device and manufacturer is performing on one of the largest remaining independent ad networks in the world. In August, Millennial actually combined connected devices and smartphones when breaking out the OS impression share. That’s significant because iOS and Android share can include tablets into factoring presence on the network. And last month, Android was in the top spot with a 54% share, while iOS was in second with a 28% share. Rim followed with 13% share.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Grows Earnings by Upselling

        Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) is continuing to grow its revenues even in the midst of the current macroeconomic climate. Red Hat is growing for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that they’re growing the number of deals worth more than $1 million.

      • Go RedHat!

        Those who say you cannot make money from FLOSS are ignoring RedHat which exceeded expectations handsomely. Investors are loving them.

      • ClearOS Enterprise 6.1.0 Beta 1 Released

        The ClearOS Enterprise 6.1.0 beta 1 release is here! This release will kickstart the process of creating a stable base system: installer, RPM packages, users, groups, system tools, LDAP, network, firewall, framework, and Marketplace. At the same time, we will start rolling out more apps like Web Proxy and Web Access Control found in this beta 1 release.

      • Red Hat Virtualization Alliance grows to 200 members

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Samsung to open source Bada next year. Will they use Meego to do it?

        Companies that do have their own successful proprietary platforms are no it usually too eager to start giving them away in hopes that outside developers will make it better in exchange. Companies who’s platforms do fail to take off or get into trouble, on the other hand, sometime do try to turn to the open source community for help. Sometimes these efforts work and result in a successful product (e.g. Netscape Navigator turned Firefox), sometimes they end in disaster – e.g. Nokia’s Symbian experiment. However, even in Netscape case – it wasn’t the actual open sourced code, but the community created in the process that built Firefox browser from scratch, without much help from Netscape. And it took years of stale browser competition for Firefox to emerge, while Netscape’s corporate owner reaped very few benefits from open sourcing.

      • Android

        • High-end Korean phones feature Android 2.3, cool cameras

          Two high-end Android 2.3 smartphones were unveiled in Korea by HTC and LG this week. The HTC Raider 4G features a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, a 4.5-inch IPS (in-plane switching) display, 4G LTE, and an eight-megapixel camera with a 28mm lens attachment, while the LG Optimus Q2 sports a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a slide-out keyboard, and a four-inch IPS display with 700-nit brightness.

        • Android, at a glance

          Java SDK is, perhaps, one of the most important advantages of Android which provides various powerful functions of Java programming language. However, many developers complain about Android’s fast development pace that they have difficulties to catch up. But if we think more positively, this fast-paced transformation seems to have materialized Android to consolidate itself as the most popular mobile platform. On top of that this popularity has led to many patent suits with Microsoft, thus pressuring many carrier providers to inevitably pay patent fees who initially used the technology thinking it was free. Also Oracle’s patent suit against Google citing that Java cannot be used on mobile devices just because Android uses Java. For above reasons and more, the future path of Android might not seem as smooth as before, but we can’t say it will be gloomy either. I hope all these issues will be settled down, and Android will continue to prosper.

        • Calls for the ABC to shed Apple fixation

          Android smartphones now outsell Apple products in Australia, according to research firm Kantar WorldPanel. It says Android had 42.9per cent of the market last month compared with Apple’s 37.2per cent.

          Open Source Industry Australia, a body that promotes free and public-domain software, urged the ABC yesterday to get over its Apple fixation.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Asus Eee PC X101 MeeGo netbook: First impressions of a $200 laptop

        The Asus Eee PC X101 is the thinnest, lightest, and cheapest member of the Eee PC netbook family. The mini-laptop weighs just two pounds, measures less than 0.7 inches thick, and sells for about $200.

      • ASUS Eee Pad Slider Lands in USA and Canada

        ase this amazing piece of hardware, then you can get it from NewEgg, Amazon and B&H. NewEgg is offering the tablet in both the 16GB and 32GB version but with only one color choice: brown. The ASUS main site shows that the Eee Pad also comes in white, but for some reason, it’s not available on NewEgg. You can also check out the deals from Amazon and B&H. For all you Canadian residents, Amazon.ca is offering the tablet in both 16GB and 32GB flavors, but like NewEgg, the tablet is only available in brown.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Catalyst IT wins South China Morning Post contract

    Wellington open source software firm Catalyst IT has won a seven-figure contract to develop the news website and supporting systems for the South China Morning Post.

  • Sonatype Introduces Open-Source Governance Solution

    Sonatype delivers Sonatype Insight, a new solution for governing the use of open-source software in enterprise systems development.

  • Events

    • Software Freedom Day Organized at SMVDU by OSUM CLUB

      Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) today celebrated the event of ‘Software Freedom Day’ (SFD) in their university campus. The event was organized by OSUM (Open Source University Meet-Up) club of SMVDU. The event was sponsored by AGMATEL INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED and AMTRAK TECHNOLOGIES. Software Freedom Day is a worldwide celebration of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS).

    • 2011 Open Source Awards launched

  • SaaS

    • Puppet Enterprise 2.0 automates cloud, on-premise deployment

      Puppet Labs is moving forward new provisioning, orchestration and automation capabilities designed to advance the platform’s stellar reputation in the management arena.

      Puppet Enterprise 2.0, which debuted this week and ships October 21, is the first major upgrade of a company’s commercially supported version of Puppet that counts Google, Twitter, Apple, NYSE, Match.com, Red Hat and Citrix among its 250 enterprise customers.

    • A Wise User Judges Each Internet Usage Scenario Carefully

      If the term “Cloud Computing” has any meaning, it can only be a certain attitude towards computing: an attitude of not thinking carefully about what a proposed scenario entails or what risks it implies.

    • Open source cloud-builder respawn: Eucalyptus 3.0 looms

      Marten Mickos and Eucalyptus have pumped new life into their build-your-own–cloud platform, revamping its approach to open source while adding new code designed to protect users from catastrophic failures.

  • Databases

    • Open Core MySQL

      By truncating software freedom before distribution, the supplier ensures you can’t use the software without restriction or benefit from the freedom of others to do so. In other words, while there may be some open source software in its origins, it’s not open source software you are receiving.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Business

    • Britain’s got Talend for open source

      Open source software vendor Talend has cited the growth of its partner network as proof that the channel’s appetite for non-proprietary products is growing.

      The vendor, which specialises in open source data integration products, claims to have doubled the size of its UK channel over the past 12 months and now has more than 50 partners signed up.

  • Project Releases

    • Smooth lighting

      The code can be optimized, but should give you a clear understanding on how to make smooth OpenGL lighting. And you can admire the stunning results with a mere basic material and one lamp!

  • Public Services/Government

    • Will the public sector ever be an open house?

      The minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, vowed in March that he would “create a level playing field for open source software” as part of his strategy to slash the government’s £20bn annual bill for IT equipment.

      A recent BBC Freedom of Information request hinted at just how far the government has to go before open-source technologies are widely adopted by various government departments. Although some are using open source for server management and workspace IT, proprietary vendors such as IBM and Microsoft still rule the roost.

    • Sleman to Use Open Source Computer System

      The Sleman government will use a free open source operation system in its office computers

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Data

      • E.U. Sets 2013 Deadline for Open Source Public Data Mining Portal

        Sticking with her original deadline announced last year, European Commission Vice President Neelie Kroes told a European interoperability standards forum yesterday that a public portal for access to government and public data from across the continent is on track to go online in Spring 2012. Following that, the next stage in Comm. Kroes’ agenda includes an ambitious project to launch a community-built, crowd-sourced public data platform for all of Europe.

    • Open Access/Content

      • Student group pushes open source textbooks at UC Irvine

        Mr. $200 Textbook — the rival of cash-strapped college students — and Textbook Rebel –a Spongebob Squarepants lookalike – helped gather students to sign a petition that urges professors, publishers and college decision makers to consider inexpensive textbooks or free e-books over conventional, high-priced textbooks.

    • Open Hardware

      • ARM-ed to the Teeth, Arduino Hardware Grows Up

        Makers and motherboard-modders rejoice! One of the most popular open-source computing hardware companies recently debuted new hardware offerings for gadget geeks, including a beefier project board that will allow makers and hobbyists to create more complicated embedded computing projects.

        Arduino announced three new products at Maker Faire NYC this weekend: The Arduino Due, which features a souped up ARM-based microcontroller, the Arduino Leonardo and the self-explanatory Arduino Wi-Fi.

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Walgreens’ “Million Hearts” HealthWashing Ploy

      The chain’s press release about the Initiative says heart disease and stroke are the first and third leading causes of death, respectively. What Walgreens doesn’t say is that while it searches for ways to prevent heart disease, the chain also continues to sell one of the nation’s leading causes of heart disease and stroke: cigarettes. Not only that, but when the city of San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2008 banning pharmacies from selling cigarettes (based on the logic that as health-promoting businesses, pharmacies should not promote smoking) Walgreens fought the measure.

  • Security

    • Making the EU cyber-safe

      The Internet is already essential infrastructure – where we make financial transactions, share personal data and get access to important information. It is part of our economic and social framework – and becoming all the more so. That’s a good thing. But it also means that the risks and impacts of cyber-attacks grow ever more. So what do we do when the system is under threat?

  • Finance

    • Occupy Wall Street Protesters Kettled and Pepper-Sprayed by NYPD [Video]

      This sort of First Amendment violation should be a cause for concern for every American, whatever the political persuasion. This is a country where gamblers can now pillage the wealth from the lower classes and dodge prison sentences, while those who see a wrong and try to stop it are corralled, pepper-sprayed and hauled off to jail for attempting to petition their government—their government—for a redress of grievances.

      Why don’t some of these blue-collar policemen do something for their own people and haul some Wall Street bankers and hedge fund managers off to jail for a change?

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Health Care Front Group Provides New Clothes for GOP Medicare Privatization Plan

      Last week, the insurance industry and its allies began what I predict will be a massive campaign to sell the public and policymakers on the idea of moving forward with the Ryan plan — albeit with a few tweaks and new a new sales pitch to make it seem more consumer-friendly.

      An outfit called the Healthcare Leadership Council (HLC) announced in a press release a scheme that could be called Ryan-lite, but don’t be fooled: the plan would — to use a favorite industry term — take us down the “slippery slope” toward a complete corporate takeover of the Medicare program. (Insurers and their allies for years have warned Americans that enacting sweeping health care reforms they don’t like would lead us down the slippery slope toward socialism.)

  • Civil Rights

    • RespectMyNet: Name and Shame Operators’ Attempts to Control the Net

      Civil society groups launched today an online platform to help citizens track Internet access restrictions imposed by telecom companies. This platform, RespectMyNet.eu, will present EU lawmakers with the evidence they keep denying: there is an urgent need to legislate against Net Neutrality violations, which harm fundamental freedoms as well as innovation and competition.

09.25.11

Links 25/9/2011: Kernel.org Status, OpenShot 1.4

Posted in News Roundup at 5:34 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • No Brass Ring on HP’s CEO Carousel
  • Analysis: Whitman’s Tenure At HP Must Include Open-Source Investment

    Of all the priorities Meg Whitman now must face as Hewlett-Packard’s CEO — and HP has many priorities — deep and long commitment to open-source technology must be near the top of the list.

    HP’s software business is simply not a strength for the Palo Alto, Calif.-based company — whether it’s on the desktop, the server, the data center or in the cloud. Perhaps the best piece of software that comes from HP is its Universal Print Driver, which is actually a powerful piece of software but not exactly positioned in the IT industry’s growth areas.

  • Finance

    • Goldman Sachs Could Be Headed Toward First Loss Since Financial Crisis

      Growing concerns about the weakness of economic growth around the world are increasingly dimming prospects for American financial institutions, amplifying risks of spiraling troubles.

      Even Goldman Sachs, the well-known investment bank, now could be headed toward recording its second quarterly loss in a dozen years — its first quarterly loss since the financial crisis — according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The bank’s lower earnings prospects have been taken by experts as a sign that Goldman is pulling back from taking risks. In the immediate term, a cutback in financial activity by Goldman and other banks is likely to drag on the struggling American economy, as more businesses and consumers find it harder to secure credit needed to make purchases.

    • The men who crashed the world

      Lack of government regulation; easy lending in the US housing market meant anyone could qualify for a home loan with no government regulations in place.

      Also, London was competing with New York as the banking capital of the world. Gordon Brown, the British finance minister at the time, introduced ‘light touch regulation’ – giving bankers a free hand in the marketplace.

    • The Social Contract

      Meanwhile, over the same period, the income of the very rich, the top 100th of 1 percent of the income distribution, rose by 480 percent. No, that isn’t a misprint. In 2005 dollars, the average annual income of that group rose from $4.2 million to $24.3 million.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

09.24.11

Links 24/9/2011: Linux 3.1 RC7, Plasma Active OS

Posted in News Roundup at 11:50 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Linux the harlequin.

    Meet Linux, Linux the harlequin. Linux wears a coat of many colours, is depicted as a bumbling fool and people love to laugh at it. This harlequin is called a clown, a fool, an idiot and looked upon with derision by people of “class”. This harlequin is ignored and just treated and thought of as simply background entertainment. In other words Linux the harlequin is not thought of as important at all and is generally underestimated.

  • Microsoft of old on Linux desktop, mobile and users

    I wrote recently about how Microsoft is now among the broadest supporters of enterprise Linux server, but when it comes to desktop PCs and laptops, mobile and converged devices and end users, Microsoft’s Linux support is a time warp back to 1998 when computers and their software were fused by proprietary sodder.

    Though probably not intended as one of the new Windows 8 features to be highlighted, recent reports indicate a boot requirement in Microsoft’s latest Windows 8 OS prevents booting of Linux.

    As a Linux user who has installed several different distributions on several different failed Windows machines, I’m concerned for a few reasons. One, it can be difficult to impossible to avoid the so-called ‘Microsoft tax,’ whereby Windows machines are purchased with the intention of installing Linux. Two, this is a serious limitation to the growing segment of users that like a dual-boot option with Linux. Three, what will happen to all of those PCs, laptops, netbooks and other devices after the Microsoft software becomes buggy, broken or outdated?

  • Supporting UEFI secure boot on Linux: the details

    An obvious question is why Linux doesn’t support UEFI secure booting. Let’s ignore the issues of key distribution and the GPL and all of those things, and instead just focus on what would be required. There’s two components – the signed binary and the authenticated variables.

  • UEFI secure booting (part 2)

    Microsoft have responded to suggestions that Windows 8 may make it difficult to boot alternative operating systems. What’s interesting is that at no point do they contradict anything I’ve said. As things stand, Windows 8 certified systems will make it either more difficult or impossible to install alternative operating systems. But let’s have some more background.

  • Delusions of M$

    The same will happen with tablets. A small, number about 60million will be shipped in 2011 but in 2012, the number could increase dramatically, about 300%. That means when “8″ is released, the installed base of GNU/Linux or Android/Linux or iPad tablets could be about 200 million. OEMs are not going to shift to the “tight margin” model that M$ imposes on PCs in the smart thingies. The newcomers will be making more than M$’s partners on small cheap computers than on “PCs”. By the end of 2012, consumers and businesses will know and love the small cheap computer and will turn up their noses at M$ offering small expensive computers.

  • Desktop

    • My minimalist setup

      My laptop is just a plain old Thinkpad W510 with a 15” screen running 1920×1080. I don’t have another monitor, I don’t have a desktop or a second laptop, this is it.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Kernel Log: Coming in 3.1 (Part 4) – Drivers
    • Is Tux Still the Right Mascot for Linux?

      Apple has its self-explanatory fruity logo, Microsoft has its stained-glass banner, and Linux has its floppy, friendly, ever-cheerful penguin Tux as its team mascot. But after 20 years of existence, does Linux benefit from the Tux logo? Some say Tux is a perfectly fine way to represent Linux as a whole; others call it “cartoon-y” and prevents people from taking Linux seriously.

    • Linux 3.1-rc7

      I was supposed to do this on Monday, but it didn’t seem to be hugely pressing.

    • Linus releases dive tracking application

      If you have ever wondered what the creator of Linux does in-between working through the thousands of changes, corrections and new features for the next Linux release, the answer is simple: he writes software. Linus Torvalds has just released subsurface, a dive-tracking program designed after he found that “none of the dive log software worked for me”. The subsurface application runs on Linux and uses gtk2 for the GUI. It can process xml dive files or work directly with any dive computer supported by libdivecomputer.

    • Graphics Stack

      • XDC: How to bring in more contributors

        In my talk (or rather: structured discussion) “Methods of Attraction: How to bring in new contributors” on this year’s X.org Developer’s Conference I brought up reasons why open source projects often fail to attract new contributors, and some changes to help this.

      • A Major Rework To The X.Org Video Driver ABI

        One of the mailing list threads I’ve been trying to catch up on this week while at Oktoberfest is the heated discussion about merging video/input drivers back into the X.Org Servers. This discussion was started at the XDC2011 conference, but there’s many e-mails being exchanged from more parties not in favor of merging the drivers into the xorg-server tree or wishing to see other developmental process changes.

      • Last Call For The X.Org/Linux Graphics Survey

        Originally this annual survey was set to end on 20 September, but due to being busy with Oktoberfest, that deadline was forgotten about. As a result, there’s still time to participate.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Beta Testing Phase Beginning for Plasma Active OS

        The Plasma Active OS has been on Desktop and Netbook interfaces for quite awhile now. The exploration into a much wider range of devices that can utilize the Plasma interface is the goal of the current beta testing. By displaying the possibilities of Plasma OS to other devices through a beta run, the developers at KDE are targeting the largest pool of users possible.

      • Qt 5, KDE 5 To Be Written In C++11 (C++0x)?

        C++11, the new C++ ISO standard that was approved last month and formerly was known as C++0x, has been called to be employed by Qt and KDE as quickly as possible.

      • Developer and User Interaction

        A free software project such as the many projects under the KDE umbrella do not need users, they only need more developers. A user which is not able to develop is useless. Because of that it is totally acceptable that you demand that user’s should start learning programming to fix the bugs they report.

      • plasma active workshop: day 0

        The last couple of weeks have been ridiculously busy. Or, if you prefer (and I do): ridicubusy. On the personal side of life, I managed to squeeze in a two day paddle-and-camping trip the other weekend, played dinner host to Lawrence Krauss (made some of my favourite dishes, and one new one (for me, anyways): egg yolk ravioli), co-hosted a “Ready, Steady, Cook!” evening at the house along with S. All of that was enjoyable, and great breaks between the long hours of working on Plasma and general KDE “stuff”.

      • plasma active workshop wrapup

    • GNOME Desktop

  • Distributions

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat signs giants to anti-VMware open-source project
      • Red Hat Puts On Its Growth Hat

        That was the takeaway from my exclusive phone interview with Red Hat (NYSE: RHT ) CEO Jim Whitehurst after the company reported second-quarter earnings last night.

        Revenue for the quarter tallied up to $281.3 million, up 28% year over year, while non-GAAP net income was $56.5 million, or $0.29 per diluted share, rising 53% from last year. Non-GAAP operating income jumped 41% to $76.4 million, resulting in an 18.7% operating margin. The company’s total deferred revenue balance, an important precursor to sales, rose 25% to $813.2 million and billings grew 30%.

        [...]

        Even Samsung is considering taking its mobile OS, Bada, open source next year.

      • Red Hat Shares — 3 Pros, 3 Cons

        In yesterday’s ugly market, only a few stocks were able to eke out gains. One of the standouts: Red Hat (NYSE:RHT). Its price was up 3% to $41.49.

        [...]

        So might the tough macroeconomic environment hurt Red Hat? Perhaps so. Yet the company has the advantage that its software is free. Consider that some of the hardest-hit sectors — such as financial services and the government — have shown continued demand for Red Hat’s services.

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 16 Verne Beta Wallpapers

          Next, I’d like to remind you that in Fedora 16 we again have supplemental wallpapers and what’s more: since Fedora 16 all the supplemental wallpapers appear not only in GNOME’s and KDE’s wallpaper choosers but also in XFCE’s.

        • Taking the plunge!

          This post is exactly what it prommised. I have decided to take the plunge and install Fedora 16 Beta RC1 on my Desktop. (Before anyone starts on me I have the experience to run a beta on a production machine and have a backup O/S RHEL 6)

        • Fedora 16 Delayed by Two Weeks Too

          In his blog post referencing Wednesday’s Go/NoGo meeting, Williamson detailed some of the bugs causing another slip in the Fedora 16 release schedule.

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

      • Android

        • Android and Users’ Freedom

          To what extent does Android respect the freedom of its users? For a computer user that values freedom, that is the most important question to ask about any software system.

          In the free/libre software movement, we develop software that respects users’ freedom, so we and you can escape from software that doesn’t. By contrast, the idea of “open source” focuses on how to develop code; it is a different current of thought whose principal value is code quality rather than freedom. Thus, the concern here is not whether Android is “open”, but whether it allows users to be free.

          Android is an operating system primarily for mobile phones, which consists of Linux (Torvalds’ kernel), some libraries, a Java platform and some applications. Linux aside, the software of Android versions 1 and 2 was mostly developed by Google; Google released it under the Apache 2.0 license, which is a lax free software license without copyleft.

Free Software/Open Source

  • The Open Source Angles To Adobe’s Flash And Flex

    The recently launched Adobe’s Flash Builder 4.5 and Flex 4.5 have become an attraction for the developers. Although this version of the development tool is recently launched with an updater for multiscreen mobile support, the rave reviews of the product bear testimony to the fact that developers are willing to make the most of it. With Adobe Flash Builder, developers now have a single platform for developing highly expressive mobile applications that can be distributed via Android Market, Apple App Store and BlackBerry App World. Flash Builder 4.5 enables the creation of applications that work seamlessly across leading mobile devices platforms. These products provide developers with an opportunity to reach more than 80 million Android devices, BlackBerry Playbooks, iPads and iPhones.

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla Proposes 42-Week Release Cycle For Firefox in Businesses

        Mozilla has published a proposal for an extended support release (ESR) version for Firefox versions that are deployed in business environments. The extended release cycle is designed to alleviate the burden of the 6-week rapid releases and respective support cycles by replacing them with 42-week versions.

      • The biggest version number?

        There’s a lot of talk about Firefox’s ever-increasing version number, and it made me wonder: what piece of software has the biggest version number of all? A brief scan of my Xubuntu 11.04 box suggests than XTerm, at version 268, has the lead, although I’m sure there’s something bigger out there. And in the grand scheme of things it doesn’t really matter – how good the software is, and for how long it is supported, is a bigger issue.

  • SaaS

    • A wise user judges each Internet usage scenario carefully

      Businesses now offer computing users tempting opportunities to let others keep their data and do their computing. In other words, to toss caution and responsibility to the winds.

      These businesses, and their boosters, like to call these computing practices “cloud computing”. They apply the same term to other quite different scenarios as well, such as renting a remote server, making the term so broad and nebulous that nothing meaningful can be said with it. If it has any meaning, it can only be a certain attitude towards computing: an attitude of not thinking carefully about what a proposed scenario entails or what risks it implies. Perhaps the cloud they speak of is intended to form inside the customer’s mind.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • BSD

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Bad-mouthing the Free Software Foundation

      What disturbs me is not the fact of the criticism, but how it is made. For one thing, it seems unrealistic. It’s all very well for Proffitt to say, as he did on Google+, that “I would hope that they would advocate the benefits of free software (of which there are many) without feeling the need to tear down everything else. Again.”

      But how, in practice, is the FSF supposed to approach subjects like Android in a positive light? While Stallman concedes that “the Android phones of today are considerably less bad than Apple or Windows smartphones,” Android obviously isn’t free software, although many people I talk to have the vague belief that it is.

      Obviously, a debunking is in order, but by definition a debunking is negative. In fact, how is the FSF supposed to discuss the matter at all, especially when any free software alternative to Android is so small and so unknown that any attempt to advocate it would automatically discredit itself?

    • Free Software’s Smelly Underpants

      In his “Off The Beat” blog at LinuxPro Magazine, Bruce Byfield wrote about what he called a “disturbing trend”, namely to criticize and otherwise bad-mouth everything that comes out of the Free Software Foundation. He mentioned other pundits and journalists like Brian Proffitt and Joe Brockmeier.

      For the record, I know and like everyone of these guys (Bruce, Brian, and Joe) and I really hate to see them fighting.

      Where was I? Oh yeah, the Free Software Foundation. The FSF has, as its founder and figurehead, the legendary Richard M. Stallman. Richard is a very smart guy with some strong feelings about what constitutes Free Software. He’s also the guy behind the GPL, the license under which the Linux kernel was released. That document, the GPL, deserves to be called ‘visionary’, helping to shape the world of FOSS as we know it.

  • Project Releases

    • Lightspark 0.5.1 released

      After over two months of work since 0.5.0 by a handful of developers, there’s finally a new release of Lightspark, the (other) open source Flash player. Unlike Gnash, Lightspark supports the AVM2 virtual machine and the newest versions of SWF files, while falling back to Gnash when it encounters SWF8 or earlier content.

  • Open Hardware

    • Ford Gets Geeky With Apps For Open Source Platform

      To realize this, the car company announced a partnership with Bug Labs to develop a new in-car research platform named OpenXC, earlier this week. [1] Ford also plans to introduce a socially-networked in-car fuel economy monitor connected to the Internet via Bug Labs’ cloud-based service, BUGswarm.

Leftovers

  • User influence on gigantic corporations

    It has come up many times, that the users of software products have the most influence over how these greedy and gigantic companies operate. Why? Because if users do not use and/or buy products, these companies could not and would not exist.

    Microsoft is probably one of the worst abusers of its consumers. Complex licensing programs are designed purposely to make customers overpay for licenses. Little to no discounts have been offered for upgrades, even for users that had already purchased Windows Vista for example, despite Microsoft’s declaration that Vista was a “mistake”. Secretly undermining the competition, using legal devices like software patents, so that users must go to Microsoft and pay royalties to Microsoft if they use non-Microsoft software. Vendor lock-in, where current customers are unable to use non-Microsoft software because their Microsoft products are incompatible and too expensive to migrate away from. Closely monitoring the software that its customers use, in order to keep them from installing the software on too many computers without paying more. And the list goes on.

  • Security

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • ACTA

        • With ACTA, manipulation returns to the European Parliament

          A few years ago, an amendment making sure that parallel importation was not criminalised in the EU disappeared after it was adopted in the European Parliament. This summer, the Chairman of the International Trade committee (INTA), Mr Vital Moreira, rewrote a question the INTA committee asked the Parliament’s Legal Services regarding ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). The INTA Chairman among others things left out a reference regarding parallel importation. Up until now, no member of the INTA committee questioned the behavior of the INTA Chairman. (See update below.)

09.23.11

Links 23/9/2011: Linux Delay, GNU Health 1.3.3

Posted in News Roundup at 8:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

  • Server

    • Looking For i In All The Wrong Places

      Beyond that I’ll find discussions on virtualization, the cloud, and Linux, as well as how to noodle lifecycle costs by factoring in the cost of operation and incremental changes on top of the cost of acquisition. I can categorize some of that as “must know” and some of it as “hope I can skip through that.”

    • IBM pitches overclocked Xeons to Wall Street

      Big Blue has joined the ranks of server makers that are pitching servers using over-clocked processors to latency-sensitive financial services companies.

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Distributions

    • Pardus 2011.2: new version or service pack?

      Even having these oddities, this distribution gains popularity. As per recent voting, Pardus got just below 5% of votes for best KDE-based distribution. More than monstrous Mandriva or newborn Mageia.

    • TLWIR 18: Ubuntu Rapid Release, Acer, and The Philippines’ Bold Move

      Intel saved $200 million by switching from proprietary Unix software to free software running on GNU/Linux.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Happy Belated Birthday, Mageia

        A year ago, when I wrote about a group of Mandriva former employees and contributors who’d decided to create a fork called Mageia, I had no idea whatsoever whether the project would survive to actually release a product. Well, a year has come and gone and Mageia not only released Mageia 1 in June, it’s now a distro with a year’s worth of organization under it’s belt. That may not sound like a lot, but to my mind it’s quite an accomplishment.

    • Red Hat Family

      • CloudLinux Now Running on More Than 5,000 Servers
      • Red Hat Profit Jumps 69%

        Red Hat Inc. (RHT: News ), the world’s largest seller of Linux software, said Wednesday after the markets closed that its second quarter profit rose 69% from last year, as revenue surged 28% amid strong demand for its products and services. The company’s quarterly earnings per share, excluding items, also came in above analysts’ expectations as did its quarterly revenue.

      • RHT: Microsoft’s Ship Has Sailed In ‘Cloud Computing’

        Following a better-than-expected fiscal Q2 report this afternoon by Linux operating system and tools vendor Red Hat (RHT), CEO Jim Whitehurst was kind enough to take a few moments to talk with me about the results but also about how his company is progressing in “cloud” computing.

      • Red Hat Beats its Own Forecasts

        Red Hat has reported financial results for its fiscal second quarter, which ended August 31, and the company continues to prove that a business model of supporting robust open source software can lead to remarkable success. In fact, as we predicted it would be, the company is emerging as the first ever billion dollar a year open source company. Red Hat’s total revenue for the quarter was $281.3 million, an increase of 28% from the year ago quarter. Subscription revenue for the quarter was $238.3 million, up 28% year-over-year.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • RoweBots Helps the Blind See
    • Iomega’s NAS excels with flexible connections, cloud storage, says review

      Iomega’s StorCenter PX px4-300d NAS (network attached storage) device is a solid contender for the SMB market, says this eWEEK Labs review. The four-bay, Linux-based device runs on a dual-core 1.8GHz Intel Atom D525, offers up to 12TB storage, and supports hot-swappable solid-state disks as well as Iomega’s Personal Cloud.

    • Phones

      • Report: Bada to be open sourced

        The open sourcing of Bada is designed, it is reported, to attract more developers to the platform. Another reported reason is that the move is a reaction to the takeover by Google of Motorola Mobility, producers of Android phones and other devices; it is believed that Samsung would aim to counterbalance the threat of Google preferring to work with Motorola.

      • Android compatibility layer launches first on MeeGo

        OpenMobile has demonstrated OEM-focused technology that permits any Android app to run on MeeGo, with versions planned for Linux, Bada, WebOS, and Windows, Symbian, and QNX. OpenMobile’s Application Compatibility Layer (ACL) was shown in a video running Android apps and quickly switching between MeeGo and Android environments on a MeeGo tablet.

      • Android

        • Is banned Android Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 better than the Apple iPad 2?

          DaniWeb recently reported how Apple had won a ban on the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in Europe and even published the rather generic-looking design drawings at the heart of the case. Now a Düsseldorf regional court judge, Johanna Brueckner-Hoffmann, has heard the Samsung appeal against the ban and concluded that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 gives a “clear impression of similarity” to the iPad: the result being that the ban has been upheld, but only in Germany rather than being across the EU. If reports are to be believed, Samsung could fight back with an attempt to delay or block the sale of the new iPhone 5 in Europe (on the grounds that it infringes some basic technology patents held by Samsung) before it has even arrived.

        • Google Plus Hangout Comes To Android

          Google today rolled an update of Google + app for Android devices. The update brings the most demanded feature to the Android device — Hangout. Now Android users can join Hangouts from the mobile app. Another notable new feature is changing Huddle to Messenger. You can now send photos to each other using Messenger (Huddle).

        • Acer C6 Liquid Express Android phone in Orange leak

          Acer’s newest mobile has been leaked by Orange. The Android-powered C6 Liquid Express has popped up on the network operator’s website, along with a list of its specs.

          The C6 Liquid Express, spotted by Unwired View, will come running Android version 2.3 Gingerbread, backed up by both Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity. It’s going to have a 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen, and around the back it’s set to pack a 5-megapixel camera.

Free Software/Open Source

  • FI: Kankaanpää halves project hardware costs by deploying open source enterprise virtualisation software

    The town of Kankaanpää in the western Finnish region of Satakunta has been able to halve its project hardware costs by deploying enterprise virtualisation software from a global open source (OS) solutions provider, it was announced on 24 August 2011.

  • Events

  • SaaS

    • OpenStack Diablo is a Quantum Leap for Open Source Cloud

      The OpenStack Project is moving a bit closer to its proprietary competition with the Diablo release, out today. In addition to improving the three core projects, OpenStack is now adding a Web-based dashboard, unified authentication and an API for configuring virtual networks. With Diablo, OpenStack is poised to manage global clouds.

  • Databases

    • MySQL Moves Closer to Closed

      MySQL founder and developer Monty Widenius announced on his blog that the MySQL relational database management system would no longer be a free software project and will instead be under an Open Core model. Widenius pointed to an Oracle announcement last week, which detailed new commercial extensions for MySQL Enterprise Edition.

  • Education

    • Mobile Moodle App Arrives for Open Source e-Learners

      If you’re unfamiliar with the fast-growing world of online learning (e-learning) it’s becoming a huge business, and top universities such as U.C. Berkeley now offer free webcasts and podcasts to the public. Did you know that one of the biggest players in software and platforms for e-learning is a free, open source offering? If not, consider Moodle, which we covered here. Moodle is a course management system (CMS) that leverages developers from all around the world, and allows people to deliver and take courses online. In the latest piece of Moodle news, there is now a Moodle iPhone app.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Fellowship Interview with Stefan Kangas

      People have been using our email servers since around February. The systems are basically up and running, but at this point mainly on borrowed and donated hardware. We set our membership fee at 300 SEK per year (around 33 Euros) and that’s basically covering the running costs of an exclusive internet connection for the main server. Though it’s consumer grade at this point, we’re currently looking at a better solution; we want to be hosted in a more serious location.

      We’ve discussed whether or not a virtual private server is OK, seeing as we want to keep everything under our own control. Obviously we want to control all hardware as well as the software. But at the moment we basically receive email and store it on our IMAP server. We have no outgoing email, though we are currently working on setting this up. We received the server just this week which has been lent to us for this purpose.

      This spring we had a party which was quite successful, basically a “launch party”. We are looking to organize another party for October 1st. It’s nice that parts of the Fripost work are already going on outside the “main” channels, which means we can spread the work load amongst more people; a goal that we have for everything in the project.

    • GNU Health 1.3.3 is out !

      I’m pleased to announce GNU Health 1.3.3

Leftovers

  • Top 10 Runlevels for Windows 8

    Lo and behold! We discovered that Microsoft is secretly including Unix-like runlevels into their new OS. Some of these runlevels will be available to the user (although they won’t be called “runlevels”) and others will only be able to be activated by MS through the Windows Update feature, without user control. Doesn’t sound good, does it? Things from Redmond seldom do.

    So, here it is, our list of the top 10 runlevels for Windows 8….

    9. Reboot. It’s predicted this will be the most used runlevel in Windows.
    8. Big Brother Mode. We can’t find anything about this because the information is classified and requires clearance from either Homeland Security or the Chinese government.
    7. Pre-Infected Mode. Why wait for a drive-by attack. Go ahead and get it over with. Offer your machine as a bot to the Russian mob.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • TSA Employee vs. Advice Goddess

      Just because she offers advice on manners in the modern world, don’t expect blogger/columnist Amy Alkon to stand by quietly if she thinks a government employee is violating her rights at the airport.

  • Cablegate

    • Assange bio: not a manuscript anyone would intend to publish

      They were putting copies of Julian Assange: The Unauthorised Autobiography in the window of Waterstone’s this morning when I arrived to buy a copy, which was cool — I really thought that was no more than a movie cliché. Inside, half a dozen copies sold in 10 minutes — most of the purchasers looked like newsroom interns — and a film crew from German state television was sharking around interviewing people.

    • Julian Assange: Statement on the Unauthorised, Secret Publishing of the Julian Assange “autobiography” by Canongate

      Julian Assange Press Statement on the Unauthorised “Autobiography”: Thursday 22nd September 2011, 0100

      I have learned today through an article in The Independent that my publisher, Canongate, has secretly distributed an unauthorised 70,000 word first draft of what was going to be my autobiography. According to The Independent, Canongate “enacted a huge security operation to secretly ship books out to thousands of stores nationwide without tipping anyone off as to the content of the book”. It will be in the bookshops tomorrow.

      I am not “the writer” of this book. I own the copyright of the manuscript, which was written by Andrew O’Hagan. By publishing this draft against my wishes Canongate has acted in breach of contract, in breach of confidence, in breach of my creative rights and in breach of personal assurances. The US publisher, Knopf, withdrew from the deal when it learned of Canongate’s intentions to publish without my consent. This book was meant to be about my life’s struggle for justice through access to knowledge. It has turned into something else. The events surrounding its unauthorised publication by Canongate are not about freedom of information — they are about old-fashioned opportunism and duplicity—screwing people over to make a buck.

  • Finance

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Is Scott Walker John Doe?

      Wisconsin has been riveted this week by reports that more of Governor Scott Walker’s top aides may be implicated in an ongoing “John Doe” investigation into potentially illegal campaign practices related to Walker’s 2010 gubernatorial race. Although the investigation, first reported on by Dan Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, has been underway for at least a year, a recent FBI raid on the home of Walker’s chief lieutenant, Cynthia “Cindy” Archer, has the state abuzz with speculation about who may be the target of the investigation.

    • Hiding the Sausage: How a Well-Funded Right-Wing Organization is Grinding Out State Laws

      When Jeff Wright walked into the lobby of the New Orleans Marriott on Aug. 3, he wasn’t sure what to expect. As the director of public policy advocacy for the Florida Education Association — a prominent teachers’ union that had been bearing the brunt of legislative attacks from Florida Republicans throughout the 2011 legislative session — he wasn’t there for your standard Mardi Gras-themed party. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a national nonprofit organization made up of elected officials and private interests who gather regularly to try to directly influence the substance of public policy, was holding its annual four-day meeting there, so any “partying” would probably be a little more conservative, and — going by a recent glut of press coverage pointing out ALEC’s clearinghouse mentality of privately linking big corporations with the state legislators willing to pursue their bottom-line agendas in the form of “model legislation” — slightly more nefarious. Nevertheless, he wanted to see it for himself.

    • Koch Lobbyist is ALEC State Co-Chair for Wisconsin; Scholarships Raise Ethics Concerns

      When Jeff Wright walked into the lobby of the New Orleans Marriott on Aug. 3, he wasn’t sure what to expect. As the director of public policy advocacy for the Florida Education Association — a prominent teachers’ union that had been bearing the brunt of legislative attacks from Florida Republicans throughout the 2011 legislative session — he wasn’t there for your standard Mardi Gras-themed party. The American Legislative Exchange Council, a national nonprofit organization made up of elected officials and private interests who gather regularly to try to directly influence the substance of public policy, was holding its annual four-day meeting there, so any “partying” would probably be a little more conservative, and — going by a recent glut of press coverage pointing out ALEC’s clearinghouse mentality of privately linking big corporations with the state legislators willing to pursue their bottom-line agendas in the form of “model legislation” — slightly more nefarious. Nevertheless, he wanted to see it for himself.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

09.22.11

Links 22/9/2011: Red Hat Net Up 69%, Kororaa 15 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 8:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Samsung NP-P580 Notebook and Linux, of Course

      Once Windows installation is done, I booted my Linux Mint (Debian) 201109 Live USB stick. I know that Mint (and Ubuntu) always include gparted on their live media, so I can use that to reallocate the disk partition(s). I’m sure that there are plenty of other disk management tools that can be used for this, depending on what distribution you prefer. In this case all I had to do was delete the D: partition and recreate it as an Extended Partition, then make the necessary logical partitions within that for the various Linux distributions I plan to install. That whole process took less than 5 minutes. Then I went ahead and installed the new Linux Mint 201109 Gnome distribution. That was an absolutely routine installation, it took about 15 minutes and at the end it booted up to the installed Linux system with no problems of any kind. Everything works, including wired and wireless networking, Bluetooth, dual monitors (with an external monitor on the VGA port), sound, touchpad, everything. It took about another 5 minutes to install the latest updates, and the system was ready to use. I tried the obvious Fn-key functions, such as volume up/down/mute and brightness up/down and they work just fine. I even used the Fn-sleep keys to suspend the system, and that worked; press the power button and it is ready to use again in about two seconds. I added the CPU Frequency Monitor to the panel, and verified that frequency stepping was working automatically.

    • Linux desktop: Not pining for the fjords

      Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols points out in a recent article that the resounding butt-kicking that Android and Chrome are laying on the digital world these days doesn’t bode well for the Linux desktop. Vaughan-Nichols links to a blog post by Jason Perlow that says that, essentially, we are entering the post-PC era in which, while the x86 may be dead, personal computing across different-sized hardware will continue.

      I can see this and generally have no qualms with that, however I think this sales pitch for a brave new world of tablets and smartphones goes overboard. Arguably, what Perlow describes doesn’t sound like post-PC, but rather PC-plus-(fill in your additional hardware here).

      Linux’s success in the non-desktop realm is hardly an accident and I am neither belittling it nor taking this for granted. On the contrary: Linux’s superiority in servers, supercomputers and mobile provide resounding proof that it is a successful operating system, to the point where “the year of the desktop” has now become laughable since it is no longer the standard by which Linux’s success should be gauged (if that was ever the case in the first place).

  • Kernel Space

    • Graphics Stack

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Users voted for best KDE-based Linux distribution… again!

        Strange enough, announcement did not stop votes. Other way round, number of votes almost doubled during last month!
        Is it a good reason to make another announcement of voting results? Yes, it is.

      • Nepomuk Stability and Performance

        Over at his blog, Sebastian Trüg is raising money for Nepomuk. Short version of this story–please give what you can to an important KDE project and a valuable KDE contributor. Background and details below.

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

      • Versiones estables de LliureX 11.09: adaptaciones Escriptori e Infantil
      • [pfSense] 2.0 Release Now Available!

        I’m proud to announce the release of version 2.0. This brings the past three years of new feature additions, with significant enhancements to almost every portion of the system. The changes and new features are summarized here. This is by far the most widely deployed release we’ve put out, thanks to the efforts of thousands of members of the community. We also have hundreds of customer systems that have been running 2.0 in production for months and years in some cases. More than 108,000 unique IPs have downloaded snapshots in 2011 from snapshots.pfsense.org alone, not counting downloads from the mirrors.

      • CAINE 2.5 – SUPERNOVA is out!

        CAINE (Computer Aided INvestigative Environment) is an Italian GNU/Linux live distribution created as a project of Digital Forensics
        Currently the project manager is Nanni Bassetti.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Happy Birthday, MAGEIA!

        Mageia was celebrating its first anniversary yesterday.

        A year! That was fast! Just like my daughter, baby Mageia is “a proud, promising and exciting toddler!”

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Reports Second Quarter Results

        –Second quarter deferred revenue of $813 million, up 25% year-over-year

        –Second quarter operating cash flow of $77 million, up 20% year-over-year

      • Red Hat net jumps 69%
      • Red Hat (RHT) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.03 EPS
      • Red Hat Q2 Profit Rises – Quick Facts

        Red Hat Inc. (RHT: News ) reported that its second-quarter net income rose to $40.0 million or $0.20 per share, from $23.7 million or $0.12 per share, in the year ago quarter.

      • VMware Rivals Further Expanding Open Virtualization Alliance
      • Open Virtualization Alliance Expands
      • RHEL Clones Advance

        Love it or hate it, Red Hat commands a significant share of the world’s enterprise Linux revenues. This week on the Linux Planet, updated versions of Red Hat’s enterprise clones were released, even as Red Hat moved forward with its own plans.

      • Fedora

        • Kororaa 15 Unleashed

          “The first stable release of Kororaa 15 (codename “Squirt”) has been released and is available for download, in 32 and 64 bit with KDE 4.6 and GNOME 3.” This is second release of the Fedora-based distribution since development resumed in late 2010. Kororaa, once based on Gentoo, aims to provide a “complete, easy to use system for general computing.” It tweaks Fedora “to make the system ‘just work’ out of the box.”

        • Kororaa Linux 15 Released, Based on Fedora 15

          Chris Smart proudly announced last evening, September 20th, the immediate availability for download and upgrade of the highly-anticipated Kororaa Linux 15 operating system.

          Dubbed Squirt, the new Kororaa 15 OS is now based on the Fedora 15 release, it features both KDE SC 4.6 and GNOME 3 desktop environments, and it is available for download (see download links at the end of the article) for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Is Ubuntu falling from grace?
          • Audacious 3.0.3 And 3.1 Alpha 1 Available For Ubuntu Oneiric (PPA)

            Audacious is a versatile music player for GNOME that has a low memory footprint and a clean GTK interface. It also comes with a Winamp-like interface that supports Winamp 2.x skins.

          • Don’t trash that old PC, put it to good use

            Close the Windows

            While Windows works just fine, it does take up a lot of resources. And that can make an old machine run slowly. Consider replacing Windows with a Linux operating system such as Ubuntu. That often will pep up that slow machine.

            And, unlike with Windows, the operating system is free. You can read about it and download it at www.ubuntu.com/.

            There’s another reason to try this. You may find you prefer Ubuntu for all your machines.

            Use the old machine to get familiar with how it works first and then, if you like what you see, move away from Windows entirely.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Review: Linux Mint GNOME 201109

              That basically ended my time with Linux Mint GNOME. I really like the concept of update packs and the thorough testing of them, because it brings much-needed stability to what is otherwise a good rolling-release model. My small gripes about Compiz not working initially, inconsistent GTK+ theming, and Mozilla Firefox not getting the latest updates remain, but they’re relatively minor. Of course, it’s great that this is otherwise functionally and visually identical to the Ubuntu-based Linux Mint GNOME, yet it manages to be so much more lightweight and snappy. (Seriously, this was worlds more responsive than Linux Mint 11 “Katya” GNOME.) The gripes I mentioned might mean that a user considering this should make sure they have a technically-inclined friend to help them out in times of need, but otherwise, I can basically give it my highest recommendation, and I could see myself installing this on my computer and using this regularly. In fact, it is one of the contenders for replacing Linux Mint 9 LTS “Isadora” once its support runs out. It may partially be due to my fondness for Linux Mint in general, but I really like this a lot.
              You can get it here.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-based home automation system adds tablet controller, Android app

      Control4 announced a seven-inch tablet, meant for portable control of its Linux-based Control4 home automation, surveillance, and music-server system. In addition to the Control4 7″ Portable Touch Screen, the company also announced a “Control4 MyHome — Android” app.

    • Phones

      • Android

        • 4.1-inch Android 2.3 phone debuts on Verizon’s 4G LTE for $100

          On Sept. 22, Pantech will start selling an Android 2.3 smartphone on Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE network for just $100, following rebate and two-year contract. The Pantech Breakout is equipped with a 1GHz processor, an 8GB microSD card, a 4.1-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen, as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 3.0, says Verizon.

        • HTC Rhyme phone wants to charm women

          HTC announced an mid-range Android smartphone for Verizon Wireless that appears to be marketed at women. The “Rhyme” is equipped with a 1GHz processor, 768MB of RAM, 4GB of flash, five-megapixel and VGA cameras, plus accessories including a free docking station, headphones, and a “Charm” device that flashes a light to indicate an incoming call.

        • 10 Best Free Android File Managers
        • Android Bluetooth Robot Sound Box Unboxing and Review

          I recently had a chance to play with an Android Bluetooth Sound Box with Hands-Free and would like to share my opinion with you all.

        • LG Optimus EX shows up in South Korea

          A new Android handset from LG has shown up in Korea, with the images and specs shared in a leak by SlashGear. The dual-core, 1.2GHz smartphone uses Android 2.3 and gets a four-inch 800×480 touchscreen much like the Optimus Black. The model number, LG-SU880, is also revealed by the spec sheet.

        • HTC Ruby: First Press Shot

          We’ve seen the 1.5GHz dual-core HTC Ruby in the wild a few times already, and now the first press shot of this impressive handset has come to light. Tipped for release on T-Mobile as the HTC Amaze 4G — it will apparently also see an international launch under another name (possibly just Amaze, a la Sensation/Sensation 4G) — Ruby was originally thought to be a codename for Sprint’s HTC Arrive (7 Pro) Windows Phone, but subsequent photographs revealed it to be a high-end Android device.

        • Google and Moto: The Best- and Worst-Case Scenarios

          If Google is able to go ahead with its plans to buy Motorola Mobility, it will mean big changes in store for the Android world. Whether those changes are hurtful or helpful to the OS as a whole is up to Google. Will the Android creator take its OS in a more proprietary direction? Or will Google’s acquisition actually make for a stronger, more diverse ecosystem?

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Asus Slider tablet ships, combining Android 3.2 with slide-out keyboard

        Asus has begun shipping its Eee Pad Slider Android 3.2 tablet in the U.S. for $479 with 16GB storage and $579 with 32GB. The Slider is equipped with a 1GHz Nvidia Tegra 2 processor, 1GB RAM, 16GB flash, a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 display, dual cameras, and all the other standard Honeycomb features, but adds a slide-out QWERTY keyboard.

Free Software/Open Source

  • BRIC Countries A Huge Opportunity For FLOSS (Ed: correct URL this time)
  • PiCloud: Scientific open source computing in the cloud

    This week we interviewed Ken Elkabany, CEO of another company with a business model on top of scientific open source software: PiCloud. PiCloud allows running any Python code on an auto-scaling, high-performance cluster in a server-less cloud. That includes SciPy code. We hope this kind of interview inspires scientist and developers to turn into FLOSS entrepreneurs. Enjoy the interview and leave your comments!

  • OpenIndiana’s fork of OpenSolaris sees new Illumos based release

    With the release of OpenIndiana version oi_151a, the developers of the Solaris 11 compatible operating system have followed up their first release with one that replaces Oracle’s OS/Net operating-system and network component with the Illumos kernel. This new edition of OpenIndiana also includes emulation and virtualisation support through the inclusion of the open source QEMU emulator and the KVM kernel-based virtual machine.

  • 50 Open Source Apps for the Mobile Workforce

    As smartphones and tablets become increasingly popular with consumers, they’re also becoming a common work tool for employees. A recent study by Dimensional Research found that 87 percent of enterprises allow employees to use personal devices for work. In addition, 80 percent of those companies allow employees to use personal smartphones for work.

  • Events

    • Apache at JavaOne 2011

      Oracle and Apache have had a somewhat ‘interesting’ relationship in 2011.

      On one hand, Oracle donated OpenOffice to the Apache Software Foundation. On the other hand, Apache resigned from the Executive Committee of the Java Community Process.

  • Databases

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Project Releases

    • [OpenShot] Version 1.4, Sweeties, and the Future!

      It’s been 3 months since my last blog post, and I have so much to say. I have been working harder than ever before on OpenShot, and regret that I have not had more time for writing blog entries. I have new details on our next release, version 1.4, a request for translations, a GKT3 update, details on a new Daily PPA, enhancements to www.openshot.org website, an announcement about a new OpenShot video editing library, and more! Let’s just call this… an information explosion for OpenShot fans. =)

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open sourcing the post-Irene Vermont flood relief effort

      Two weeks ago, in the wake of tropical storm Irene’s devastating flooding in Vermont’s Mad River Valley, local residents organized a MRV Flood Relief initiative. What began as a self-organized volunteer effort to match needs and help offered in our communities, using telephone, handwritten posters, and a Mad-River-Valley-Hurricane-Irene Facebook page created by the Chamber of Commerce, quickly grew into a coordinated project based in downtown Waitsfield’s Masonic Lodge. Now, two weeks later, in an effort to more effectively provide daily coordination for ongoing flood relief efforts in 10 central Vermont towns, Mad River Valley flood relief headquarters has launched a new open source web site.

Leftovers

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Coal’s Terrible Forecast

      There are many unfortunate outcomes to Peak Oil. One of the more serious is the world’s transition back to coal. Expensive BTU from crude oil has influenced the energy adoption pathway of the Developing World for ten years now, pushing the five billion people in the Non-OECD towards coal. My work has documented this shift for some time. But, I have paid less attention here at Gregor.us to the effect this paradigmatic change will have on our climate.

  • Finance

    • As California Headed Back into Recession, the San Francisco FED Was Declaring Recovery

      In February of this year John Williams, head of research at the San Francisco Federal Reserve, gave a speech at Stanford in which he asserted the US economy had finally recovered, with 2011 real GDP expected to expand by 4.00% and then by 4.5% in 2012. (see: The Fed’s John Williams: recovery has achieved “liftoff”, Reuters 4 February 2011). Unfortunately, at the very same moment Mr. Williams was speaking in Palo Alto, data on California food stamp participation and employment was sending out a warning that America’s largest state was going back into recession.

  • Censorship

    • Ed Vaizey talks about website blocking

      Today ORG and a number of other groups had a constructive meeting with Ed Vaizey to discuss approaches to copyright and enforcement. The meeting was organized by Dominque Lazinksi of the Tax Payers Alliance after a Twitter storm following ORG and other group’s exclusion from the website blocking meetings.

    • Nominet and domain suspensions

      The draft as it stands is not, in ORG’s view, sufficiently precise and reasoned to be backed by us. While it gives plenty of indications of the approach Nominet might take, we feel the final document needs to be very precise, as well as robust and well-argued in order to convey truly useful advice to Nominet’s Board.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Lib Dems say they want to scrap the Digital Economy Act

        It was very heartening to see the Lib Dems reject the Digital Economy Act as a broken and anti-liberal measure at their Conference yesterday. The main speakers included Julian Huppert, Neil McGovern and Bridget Fox, all making powerful points in favour of a more balanced approach to copyright enforcement.

09.21.11

Links 21/9/2011: Pardus 2011.2, Red Hat’s Results Impress

Posted in News Roundup at 4:43 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • The Model For Windows 8 Is Linux

      Linux has been more than competitive with Windows for a decade, thanks in part to the Apache Web server. It is more than competitive on tablets and phones, thanks to Google’s Android, now being forked by Amazon and Baidu. It gets laughed at, and perhaps rightly so, because it’s week on the desktop. “This is the year of desktop Linux,” is a running gag.

    • Building the Ultimate Modern Linux Desktop

      Despite what we’ve read in various Linux articles lately, there’s a world beyond Ubuntu and their Unity desktop experience. Fact is, you can actually still stick with Ubuntu if you choose to and not feel obligated to use their choice for a desktop experience.

      In short, Unity isn’t mandatory for people who want access to the rest of the Ubuntu experience. In this article, I’ll show how you can take part in the benefits of using Ubuntu without limiting your desktop experience to Ubuntu’s ideals.

      [...]

      On my desktop, I rely on Compiz Fusion. So the idea of using a dock that relies on that technology was a natural fit for me. In the end, I wound up with the Awn dock due to its useful functionality. Not only can I duplicate almost anything that Gnome panels or Unity might have to offer, but I can theme my Awn dock to look more appealing.

  • Server

    • To CFD, or Not to CFD?

      OpenFOAM (Open Source Field Operation and Manipulation) basically is a set of C++ libraries that are used in the various processing steps. OpenFOAM, just like most other CFD packages, breaks down the work to be done into three separate steps. The first step is called pre-processing. In pre-processing, you define the problem you are trying to model. This involves defining the boundary conditions given by the solid objects in your model. You also describe the characteristics of the fluid you are trying to model, including viscosity, density and any other properties that are important for your model. The next step is called the solver step. This is where you actually solve the equations that describe your model. The third step is called post-processing. This is where you take a look at the results and visualize them so that you can see what happens in your model. An obvious consequence of this breakdown is that most of the computational work takes place during the solver phase. The pre- and post-processing steps usually can be done on a desktop, while the solver step easily can use up 50 or 100 processors. OpenFOAM includes several pre- and post-processing utilities, along with several solvers. But the real power comes from the fact that, because OpenFOAM is library-based, you can build your own utilities or solvers by using OpenFOAM as a base. This is very useful in a research environment where you may be trying something no one else ever has.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • GNOME Desktop

      • You can’t go Gnome again

        AS a user of Ubuntu Linux since 1996, I viewed with some trepidation the decision by its commercial sponsor, Canonical, to revamp its user interface, which was based on the Gnome desktop. Over the years, I’ve grown accustomed to Gnome’s simple elegance, which I found gave me a surprising amount of freedom to customize my desktop environment. Combined with special effects from programs such as Compiz and Emerald, my Gnome-based Ubuntu desktop was truly beautiful.

        But starting with the current release (11.04), Ubuntu began sporting the Unity interface, a system that Canonical designed from scratch, obviously with an eye to touch-screen functionality and the simplicity of point-and-drag menus favored by smart phone users.

      • Richard Hughes on color management in Linux and GNOME

        Color management on Linux used to be a thing for brave boys and girls in the past. Two years ago the GNOME Color Manager project led by Richard Hughes and powered by Argyll color management system made a major breakthrough to fix it once and for all. Now that GNOME 3.2 is just a week away, we decided to corner Richard and ask him some very direct questions.

  • Distributions

    • Pardus 2011.2 screenshot preview

    • New Releases

    • Gentoo Family

      • Stabilizations: situation stable

        I just checked and x86 and amd64 bug queues are fully under control. I’d even say we’re now doing stabilizations faster than maintainers can file new bugs and fix stabilization blockers.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Shares Poised for Earnings Pop

        The earnings calendar is unusually busy this week, with a number of big names on the schedule. Any time you can find Nike (NYSE:NKE), FedEx (NYSE:FDX), and Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) in the same week, things could be interesting.

        One of the smaller names on the docket this week is Red Hat (NYSE:RHT). The open-source business software maker reports on Wednesday after the close.

      • Red Hat to release earnings on Wednesday
      • Red Hat (RHT) Shares Given a “Overweight” Rating by Piper Jaffray (PJC) Analysts

        Red Hat last announced its quarterly results on Wednesday, June 22nd. The company reported $0.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the previous quarter, beating the Thomson Reuters consensus estimate of $0.22 EPS by $0.02. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Red Hat will post $0.25 EPS next quarter.

      • Open Virtualization Alliance adds 100-plus members

        The Open Virtualization Alliance, a consortium committed to fostering the adoption of open virtualization technologies, today announced total membership of more than 200, up from 65 in just over three months. New members include CA Technologies, DataStax and Jaspersoft.

      • Want to work for Red Hat?

        Respond quickly via email (spot@redhat.com) with your resume/CV and sales pitch as to why I should consider you for a job at Red Hat. This is a limited time opportunity, and I guarantee nothing. :)

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Interview: Stuart Langridge, Strategic Architect for Ubuntu One

            In this interview with Strategic Architect for Ubuntu One, Stuart Langridge, I kick off the first of a series of articles about Ubuntu One.

            Today, we’ll learn a little more about Langridge and his involvement with Ubuntu One and a brief overview along with future plans for this personal cloud service.

          • Ubuntu Linux and Wayland Display Server: Status Update

            Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth announced Wayland graphical server for Ubuntu, the Linux distribution, in fall 2010. Wayland for Ubuntu news made headlines. But almost a year later, Wayland for Ubuntu remains in development and the venerable X server won’t be going anywhere soon — which is not surprising, since replacing a display system that has dominated the open source world for decades is hard work. But when can we expect Wayland for Ubuntu to hit the mainstream? Read on for some updates.

          • Free ‘Ubuntu Software Centre’ Guide Released
          • Ubuntu Software Center: Streamline Your Software Experience

            The Ubuntu Vancouver Local Community believes that one barrier to the widespread adoption of Ubuntu’s ethos and its collection of outstanding software is a shortage of well-written and accessible user guides. Guides that make people say “Wow! I didn’t know Ubuntu is that easy. I didn’t know Ubuntu could make my life easier and more fun!”

            The Ubuntu Software Center is one of the most important components of Ubuntu. It’s the entry point for new users into the universe of excellent software that is written with freedom in mind. It’s our delivery channel. It’s an Ubuntu first (now copied by a fruit company), and it’s full of amazing.

          • Flavours and Variants

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Industrial-focused Cortex-A8 SoCs offer CAN support, imaging subsystem

      Texas Instruments (TI) announced three ARM Cortex-A8 system on chips (SoCs) featuring a camera imaging subsystem, a wide range of peripheral support including CAN-bus, and an optional evaluation board. Aimed at industrial applications, the Linux- and Android-ready AM387x triplets all feature 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 cores, while two of them offer video subsystems and the top-of-the-line AM3874 is endowed with a 3D accelerator.

    • Phones

      • Samsung plans to make Bada open source

        As part of a drive to increase the reach of its own brand OS, the firm has let slip its plan to release Bada to developers and device makers. The change will occur sometime next year, according to the Wall Street Journal.

      • Samsung Looking to Open-Source Bada [REPORT]

      • Android

        • Samsung Galaxy SIII Leaked

          According to the information the Galaxy SIII will come with a quad-core , yes quad not dual, 2.0 Ghz processor and a whopping 1.5GB of RAM. The multi-tasking performance of such a device will be incredible and we’re already excited about the gaming prospects of the device.

        • 5 Free Android apps for capturing ideas and thoughts

          Many writers and bloggers often need to jot down important ideas that they come across. For years, people have relied on notepads, sticky notes and even paper napkins. Even though the traditional method is the best, there are some tech-savvy folks like us who prefer using their smartphones to do the same. If you’re one of those people, then here are some of the best Android applications for capturing new ideas and thoughts.

        • Google preps developers for one-size-fits-all Android update
        • Do You Still Care That Android is Open Sourced? (Op-Ed)

          Android is ubiquitous because it is free and not because it is open source. Except for the popular Cyanogen mods, the FOSS aspect has largely been ignored by most of the ODM’s. Witness the poor implementations of Android devices by Archos, Augen, Camangi, and countless other Tier Three AKA Chinese manufacturers and the animosity towards UI’s like Sense and MotoBLUR. If the FOSS was so easy to take advantage of then why are only a handful of developers able to deliver a customer experience that was comparable to Google’s? And even Cyanogen AKA Steve Kondik only bothered to modify the ‘with Google’ version.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Google preps developers for one-size-fits-all Android update

        Google is preparing Android developers for the latest edition of its Android mobile operating platform that will work the same on both tablets and smartphones.

        Scott Main, the lead tech writer for Google’s Android Developers Blog, Monday reminded developers that the newest edition of Android — dubbed “Ice Cream Sandwich” — will “support big screens, small screens and everything in between.” Main also emphasized that Android would maintain “the same version … on all screen sizes” going forward.

      • Preparing for Handsets

        Early this year, Honeycomb (Android 3.0) launched for tablets. Although Honeycomb remains tablets-only, the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) release will support big screens, small screens, and everything in between. This is the way Android will stay from now on: the same version runs on all screen sizes.

Free Software/Open Source

  • BRIC Countries A Huge Opportunity For FLOSS

    Brazil, Russia, India and China all have governments that support use of FLOSS for many different reasons: cost, security, local economies and building IT infrastructure. They also contain 40% of the global market for PCs and have high rates of growth.

  • Events

    • XDC2011 Chicago Recap: Open-Source Graphics, GPGPU, OpenGL 3.0

      For those that missed out on attending XDC2011 Chicago in person or missed out on the Phoronix coverage due to the Intel Developer Forum and other events taking place last week, here’s a re-cap of the interesting bits of information that were revealed during this year’s developers conference that focused upon open-source graphics drivers, GPGPU / OpenCL computing, and open-source OpenGL 3.0 driver support being just around the corner. Here’s also a collection of photos from the event.

  • Web Browsers

    • Acid3 Test Simplified; All Modern Browsers Score 100

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla may shorten Firefox’s six-week release schedule to five weeks… or less

        Mozilla, not content with its monumental shift from four major builds in five years down to a new stable build every six weeks, is looking at outputting a new release every five weeks, or perhaps even less.

        Christian Legnitto, a project manager at Mozilla (and currently the “release manager” of Firefox), announced the intention to shift to a shorter release cycle on Mozilla’s planning mailing list. In response to one developer citing the success of the six-week release cycle, and asking whether it would be feasible to speed it up even further, Legnitto said: “Yes, I absolutely think in the future we will shorten the cycle,” but recognizing the pains caused by the sped-up process, he added “But it won’t be soon. We have some work to do to make 6 weeks smooth from a process, tool, and product side.”

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Oracle v. Google – Update on ’702 Reexamination

      One of the patents asserted in the Oracle v. Google case, U.S. Patent No. 5,966,702 [PDF], is subject to an ex parte reexamination as we have earlier reported. Oracle has now filed their response [PDF] to the first office action [PDF] in this reexamination. Not surprisingly, Oracle contends that the art cited by the examiner in the first office action is not relevant and that all of the claims should reissue as is.

  • CMS

  • Healthcare

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • More partisanship from free software leadership

      But Stallman mentions open source with his little air quotes to make sure that when he’s talking about non-free software, he’s also lumping open source with proprietary software in that descriptor. It’s not enough that he disagrees with open source (which is his right, of course), but he also needs to belittle it as much as possible.

  • Public Services/Government

    • NASA unbolts open source space applications challenge

      NASA said it will coordinate with other interested space agencies around the world on an International Space Apps Challenge that will encourage scientists and concerned citizens from all seven continents – and in space – to create, build, and invent new applications that can address world-class issues.

    • MT: Number of open source applications on government desktops doubled

      The number of open source applications installed by default on desktop PCs of public administrations in Malta has increased by 47 percent, between December 2009 and May 2011, says Michel Bugeja, enterprise architect at Malta’s Information Technology Agency (MITA). “The biggest increase is on tools to handle PDFs, for creating diagrams, for mind mapping and for project management.”

Leftovers

  • UEFI secure booting

    The UEFI secure boot protocol is part of recent UEFI specification releases. It permits one or more signing keys to be installed into a system firmware. Once enabled, secure boot prevents executables or drivers from being loaded unless they’re signed by one of these keys. Another set of keys (Pkek) permits communication between an OS and the firmware. An OS with a Pkek matching that installed in the firmware may add additional keys to the whitelist. Alternatively, it may add keys to a blacklist. Binaries signed with a blacklisted key will not load.

  • Government Provides Details on Do-Not-Call Enforcement

  • Hardware

    • Intel downstream partners request CPU price drop

      Executives from Intel’s PC partners – Acer Taiwan president Scott Lin and Compal Electronics president Ray Chen both have invoked Intel to help drop the Ultrabook price to below US$1,000 by reducing the CPU price.

  • Finance

    • SEC’s Proposed Rule To Stop Banks From Profiting At Investors’ Expense

      Underwriters or sponsors of asset-backed securities would be banned for one year from taking positions to profit from investors’ losses under a plan released by U.S. securities regulators on Monday.

      The proposal by the Securities and Exchange Commission would get at the very heart of issues raised by U.S. Senate investigators in a report earlier this year that accused Goldman Sachs of positioning itself to profit from clients’ losses on complex securities that it packaged and sold.

      The proposal would also prohibit the kinds of conflicts that were seen in the SEC’s civil case against Goldman in 2010 by banning third parties from helping assemble an asset-backed pool that would let those parties profit from investors’ losses.

    • Tech Firms Facing the Abyss

      There seems to be quite a few tech companies in trouble these days. In fact, in an article published yesterday on 24/7 Wall Street, tech firms represent six out of the eight major companies listed as being in troubled financial waters. There aren’t any surprises here for anyone who’s been paying attention, but a year or so ago most of us wouldn’t have suspected that some of these companies would even be capable of falling on hard times.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Claimed Monopolies Over ‘Running A Game of Skill Tournament’

      Apparently the Game Show Network felt it could just steal another company’s property by having a computer match, rank and distribute awards to competing contestants based on their relative skill levels. They obviously need to pay dearly for this moral outrage…

    • Patents finance illegal drug company payoffs to doctors and worse

      Dean Baker takes issue with a Washington Post story link here on doctors shilling for drugs and drug companies paying them big money to push greater use of their drug including for uses prohibited by FDA link here.

      The Post article is a routine description (“fair and balanced” as the big papers like to claim) leading to the fact that the doctors are well-paid for what amounts to treating patients while never seeing them. In some cases they push uses that are criminal, as when they recommend or prescribe a drug for unapproved use.

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