• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Desktop

• Merry Xmas with Tux and a PCLinuxOS TV

  It’s vacation time already and I’ve been away from the blogosphere. I remember that, before 2009 (when was still a Windows user), I longed for this free time to come. No, not because I was included in Bill Gates’ gift list, but because I really needed this free time to format my hard drive and get rid of all the malware pestering the OS…

Kernel Space

• Graphics Stack

  • A Second Snapshot Of X.Org Server 1.12

    One month has passed since the first X.Org Server 1.12 snapshot was released, but now a new development version has landed.

Applications

• Instructionals/Technical

  • Finding Out Package Dependencies With apt-rdepends On Debian/Ubuntu

  • Check and Optimize digiKam’s Databases

  • Setting Up Unison File Synchronization Between Two Servers On Ubuntu 11.10

• Games

  • 10 Indie Games for Linux part 1

  • 10 Indie Games for Linux part 2

  • Cobalt coming soon! Platformer published by Mojang

  • More Cool ‘Native Client’ Games You Can Play in Linux

    Google’s Native Client (NaCl) has already made it possible to play new console style rich 3D games in Linux. Games like Bastion and Pocket Legends now run as fast as native games making full use of 3D graphics hardware through WebGL.

  • New Linux Game ‘Wizorb’ Now Available on Desura

  • Caster now on Desura!

  • New Titles on Desura

  • CoreBreach: New Racing/Combat Game for Linux

Desktop Environments

• LXDE and Xfce – the other desktops

  GNOME and KDE may be the high profile Linux desktop environments, but they are not to everybody’s tastes. Richard Hillesley describes the different approaches taken by a couple of the more prominent alternatives.

• What’s the best Linux desktop environment?

  These are interesting times for the Linux desktop. The often-overlooked area of the Linux ecosystem is now the centre of attention and, while some users have welcomed the changes, others have reacted in true community style: ranting and raging, threatening to abandon ship or, when all else fails, demanding a fork.

• Razor-Qt: A New Lightweight Desktop Environment Based On Qt

  Razor Qt is a new lightweight desktop environment – think of it as an early LXDE, but using Qt. It doesn’t come with a display manager or window manager and its developers recommend using it with Openbox, but it should work with any WM, like Kwin, Metacity, etc.

• Move Over Unity, Gnome Here Comes Razor Qt

  The guys at Razor Qt have just released version 0.4 of the advanced, easy-to-use, and fast desktop environment based on Qt technologies. According to the project page, Razor Qt has been tailored for users who value simplicity, speed, and an intuitive interface. Unlike most desktop environments, Razor-qt also works fine with weak machines.

• User interface familiarity breeds contentment

  Changes to the behaviour of interfaces don’t always go down well, but are sometimes a good thing, says Richard Hillesley

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • Amarok 2.5 Released, Can Run On Windows As Well

    One of the most popular music player in the GNU/Linux world, Amarok, has reached a major milestone with version 2.5. With this version Amarok is now officially supported on the ‘security-risk’ prone Windows OS as well.

• GNOME Desktop

  • GNOME Shell – the UI revolution is well under way

    This past year has seen some interesting developments in the Linux desktop arena. GNOME 3, obviously, has been a big bang. But I would also mention the wide spread of Xfce 4.8, which shipped with openSUSE in March 2011. As I wrote in a review at the time, it’s a really impressive release. As usual for Xfce, there have not been any major releases since then – the project tends to take a while to push out major features. Then again, Xfce does not aim to shake up the infrastructure (like KDE did with version 4) or the user interface (à la GNOME 3). Keeping things simple and familiar has its advantages, so why do KDE and GNOME make us change our ways?

  • Gnome 3.2 Arrives In Debian Unstable (“sid”)

    Another milestone for the Debian ecosystem and the Gnome 3.x desktop this weekend as the Debian unstable distribution (“sid”) completed it’s transition to Gnome 3.2.1, with the migration of remaining Gnome 3.2 packages to Debian “sid” including gnome-shell 3.2.1-8.

Distributions

• Pardus Wallpaper paradise

  Anyways, the oxymoron at Wallmart made me remember that there is a nice place to get Pardus wallpapers.

• A Review of Vinux – Linux for the Visually Impaired

  Vinux is a specialist distribution remastered from a Ubuntu base and optimized specifically with visually impaired users in mind. Some others also come with a screen reader and other accessibility options by default, for example in the login screen, but these are never turned on from the start and voice recognition software is rarely if ever present.

• Puppy Linux 5.3.1 ‘Slacko’ Review

  Overall, Slacko is a nice continuation on the Puppy philosophy it’s designed around; It’s fast (at least on slightly newer machines than perhaps it’s intended for), reasonably simple, and most of all, very different to most current Linux distributions. Nothing else seems to combine the features it has with the footprint it takes up, and it’s incredibly flexible how it can be run as a regular, persistent OS from almost any medium. And while not suitable for a complete newbie, it’s definitely something a Windows or OSX power user could pick up and start using without too much hassle.

• New Releases

  • Webconverger 10.2

  • Sabily 11.10

  • Webconverger 10.2

  • Chakra 2011.12

  • Fermi 6.1

  • Linpus 1.6 (Lite Desktop)

• PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

  • Mageia 2.0 alpha 2 released

    The Mageia development team has published the second alpha of version 2 of its community fork of Mandriva Linux. Aimed at developers and testers, the release is based on the 3.1 Linux kernel and includes KDE SC 4.7.4 and GNOME 3.3.3.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat has momentum into 2012, say partners

    Red Hat reports its fiscal third quarter results on Monday and most indicators point to a solid year ahead, virtualization potential and rumblings about big data trends and Hadoop.

    The company is expected to report third quarter earnings of 26 cents a share on revenue of $289.6 million.

  • Red Hat Q3 Expected To Show Slowing Growth In Europe

    Cautious optimism appears to be the optimum phrase for Red Hat (RHT) as it readies to report its fiscal third-quarter results late Monday.

    Revenue for the open-source Linux software services provider, which helps companies adopt cloud computing technology, will likely be 23% better than the year-ago period, at $289.6 million, according to the consensus of 24 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. That would be the lowest percentage rise in four quarters but would mark the seventh straight quarter in which sales rose at least 20%. The company’s profit minus one-time items is expected to be up 30%, at 26 cents, which also would be the smallest percentage jump in four quarters.

  • Q3 Preview: Red Hat (RHT) Riding High on Linux, But Challenges Still Linger

    Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) shares are mimicking the company’s name rather well Monday heading into its third-quarter 2012 report, expected out after the market closes. The stock is down nearly 3 percent heading into the last two hours of trade.

    The Street is looking for Red Hat to report revenue of $289.62 million and earnings of 26 cents per share. The company posted a gain of 20 cents per share in the same period last year.

  • Red Hat Reports Third Quarter Results

  • Red Hat Plummets Following Q3 Earnings Release

  • Red Hat Q3 Profit Rises – Quick Facts

    Total subscription, training and services revenue for the quarter rose to $290.03 million from $235.58 million in the prior year quarter. Twenty two analysts had consensus revenue estimate of $289.62 million for the quarter.

  • Red Hat (RHT) Guides Q4, Boosts FY12 Outlook

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.8 Enters Testing

    Red Hat first launched Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL) back in 2007. In late 2010, Red Hat released RHEL 6, providing the next generation of enterprise Linux features. RHEL 6 was recently updated to RHEL 6.2, providing new control and storage features. The upcoming RHEL 5.8 release, which is now in beta, is getting its own set of updates. However, resource control is not among them.

  • Red Hat Grows Million-Dollar Linux Deals

    For the quarter, Red Hat reported revenue of $290 million, which is a 23 percent year-over-year gain. Net income hit $38.2 million or $0.19 per share, up from $26 million or $0.13 per share last year. Moving forward, Red Hat provided fourth-quarter guidance for revenue to be in the range of approximately $289 million to $292 million.

  • Red Hat Q3 Expected To Show Slowing Growth In Europe

  • Red Hat: ARM in Linux Is Not Ready for Prime Time

    Ubuntu is all over it and so is HP with their Project Moonshot effort using Calxeda ARM technology. While Ubuntu and HP and optimistic, Red Hat is more…realistic.

  • AT&T, Red Hat shares fall in after-hours trade

  • Q3 Preview: Red Hat (RHT) Riding High on Linux, But Challenges Still Linger

  • Red Hat Shares Sink on 3Q Results

    Shares of Red Hat Inc. (RHT) plunged after the bell, as the company posted third-quarter earnings-per-share that beat estimates but revenue was just slightly higher-than-expected.

• Debian Family

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Full-featured Ubuntu online installation using kickstart

Devices/Embedded

• Phones

  • WebOS: Destined to Fail, or Fuel for FLOSS’ Fire?

• Sub-notebooks/Tablets

  • Google May Want an Android Tablet of Its Own

    There are plenty of Android tablets in the market already, but none has given the iPad much of a run. “The issue with the Android tablets is they tend to be all over the map in terms of design and experience, appearing too difficult to use and too hard to learn against the simple elegance of the Apple product,” said tech analyst Rob Enderle. Can Google change that with its own model?

Five Last-Minute Gifts for Open Source Fans

Are you at a loss for what to buy the open source aficionados on your holiday shopping list? It’s actually not as difficult as you may think. Peruse this Linux fan’s personal picks to find inspiration as quick as a wink.

Web Browsers

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 9 unofficially released, JavaScript performance improved by 20-30%

    Ahead of an official release tomorrow, Firefox 9 has winged its way to various mirrors across the web and is now available to download from the official Firefox website — no messing around with a hammered Nightly FTP server this time, oh no!

Databases

• Grails 2.0 with more cloud support and NoSQL connectivity

  After nearly a year of development, the Grails team has released Grails version 2.0, their Groovy language based open source web framework. The new version sees improvements throughout the Grails framework including an improved user and developer experience, additional cloud support via Heroku and Cloud Foundry, integration with the SpringSource Tool Suite (STS) and support for a range of NoSQL databases.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Open Letter to the Open Document Format Ecosystem

  In such a large ecosystem it is impossible to agree upon a single vision for all participants, Apache OpenOffice does not seek to define a single vision, nor does it seek to be the only player. Instead we seek to offer a neutral and powerful collaboration opportunity.

  The permissive Apache License 2.0 reduces restrictions on the use and distribution of our code and thus facilitates a diverse contributor and user base for the benefit of the whole Open Document Format ecosystem. Within an Apache project it is possible to rise above political, social and commercial differences in the pursuit of maximally effective implementations of freely available open standards and related software tools.

  Our license and open development model is widely recognised as one of the best ways to ensure open standards, such as ODF, gain traction and adoption. Apache OpenOffice offers much more potential for OpenOffice.org than “just” an end-user Microsoft Office replacement. We offer a vendor neutral space in which to collaborate whilst enabling third parties to pursue almost any for-profit or not-for-profit business model.

Business

• Exploitation? Entrepreneurship, Capitalism, and Making Money on Free Software

  Recently, I was directed toward an excellent analysis of commons-based peer production as a phenomenon which separates “entrepreneurs” (who want to get things done and create value in the world) from “capitalists” (who want to get a return on an investment of property without contributing any labor). An observer — clearly outside of the community of free software developers — expressed dismay at the example of Mozilla Foundation, which makes money from the open source Mozilla project, but does not pay for most voluntarily contributed code improvements to the Mozilla software. Is he right? Is this exploitation of those contributors?

Project Releases

• ZFS v28

  ZFS v28 (finally, with deduplication) is available in latest D-I daily builds when selecting kernel of FreeBSD 9 as boot option.

• December 2011 GNU Toolchain Update

Public Services/Government

• Open source exceeds Munich’s expectations

  The German city of Munich has been very precise at bumping off Windows PCs to give its Linux operating system Lebensraum .

  Munich’s LiMux project has been going great guns and today the city announced that it had migrated 9,000 systems away from the PC and onto Linux. It only wanted to migrate 8,500 of the 12,000-15,000 PC workstations used by city officials in Munich but it turned out a bit easier than expected.

Programming

• Cracks in the Foundation

  PHP has been around for a long time, and it’s starting to show its age. From top to bottom, the language has creaky joints. I’ve decided to take a look at how things got to this point, and what can be (and is being) done about it. I start out pretty gloomy, but bear with me; I promise it gets better.

Saudi Prince Pumps $300 Million Into Twitter

In an unexpected move, a member of the Saudi royal family has invested $300 million in social networking company Twitter. This morning, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, founder and CEO of Kingdom Holding Company and one of the wealthiest people on the planet, announced the investment, which was reported first by Bloomberg.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Spinning the Occupation

  As winter sets in and Occupy Wall Street (OWS) encampments contract, the three-month old movement continues to have a big impact on the campaign trail. President Obama as well as some GOP candidates have adopted OWS concerns and language, while big bank lobbyists and GOP spinmeisters work hard to hold the line, defending U.S. economic institutions and the American “free market” system against what they fear could be a broad-based populist uprising.

ACTA

• Infographic Remix: ACTA, Lethal Weapon Against your Rights!

  The fantastic folks from DerechoALeer.org designed this wonderful mash-up between two videos from La Quadrature: “RoboCopyright ACTA” (for the graphics) and “NO to ACTA” (for the text)! Thanks so much Juan! ♡

• Distributions
• Devices/Embedded

Application Development: Linux Skills Open Huge Job Opportunities

Server

• Raytheon banners COTS data transfer system

  The servers run a hardened Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system.

• File Sharing Made Easy With Media Servers and NAS

• LinuxForce Cluster Service Now Available

  LinuxForce, Inc. announced today the availability of LinuxForce Cluster Services℠, a new IT (Information Technology) service offering. LinuxForce Cluster Services℠ design, provision, and maintain redundant, high availability (HA) clustered servers. HA servers are needed by organizations to assure a reliable system for delivery of critical business applications whether on-site, colocated, or “in the cloud”. LinuxForce’s advanced approach to implementing HA server clusters protect valuable data and assure continuity for virtualized systems while minimizing overall costs and maximizing performance without burdening existing staff.

Audiocasts/Shows

• CAOS Theory Podcast 2011.12.16

Kernel Space

• Linux Kernel 3.2 RC6 Is Available for Testing

  Linus Torvalds announced last evening, December 16th, that another Release Candidate version of the upcoming Linux kernel 3.2 is available for download and testing.

• Linux 3.2-rc6

Applications

• Quest updates Sudo Unix management tool

• First Nightingale media player release arrives

  The Nightingale development team has published the first release of its open source media player and re-launched the project’s web site. Nightingale was forked from the cross platform Songbird player after its developers announced that they would be dropping support for Linux, citing prioritisation issues.

• Proprietary

  • DFT adds native support for Apple ProRes on Linux OS-based Flexxity software

    DFT Digital Film Technology has announced that its Flexxity suite of software applications (Dailies, Playout and Archive) now includes native support of ProRes files on the Linux OS.

• Instructionals/Technical

  • PDNSD HowTo – A DNS Caching Personal Server (Fedora 16)

  • Google Authenticator for multi-factor authentication

  • How to Root the LG Optimus V (Virgin Mobile) and Rid Yourself of the Bloatware

  • HOWTO create your own cloud server in 10 minutes

  • The Most Common OpenSSL Commands

  • How To Connect Your Android Device To Ubuntu

  • How To Manage Your Android Device From Linux

    Android and Linux, despite being kernel cousins have love hate relationship. There is no client for Linux to manage your Android devices. Yes, it’s true that Android devices don’t need an iTunes like to pry on what you put on your devices, you can just drag and drop content. But what if you want to sync your contacts? Well since you are either way using a Google account so you can sync those contacts with your email client easily. In a nutshell and in a majority of cases you actually don’t need a client for Android, in Linux.

  • Most Highly Recommended Books About Linux

    Ever since we started this blog, we’ve talked about Linux at great length. We’ve provided tips, tutorials, hacks and even some spicy gossip from the magical Penguinland. While that may suffice your geek cravings, the information falls quite short if you’re trying to learn about Linux in greater detail. For learning Linux, you’ll need a deeper knowledge and understanding about the system and its functions. And what better way to learn Linux than by filling your shelf with some great books on the topic?

• Games

  • ‘No Time to Explain’ Season 2 Released for Linux

    Season 2 for fun Linux platform game No Time to Explain has just been released. The second part takes the crazy fast paced platforming action to new heights and is bigger than ever.

  • GitHub Repository For Pygame Examples

  • Revenge of the Titans new version + removal from Desura

  • Humble Indie Bundle 4 Available

Desktop Environments

• ANNOUNCE: Razor-qt 0.4.0

  We are glad to announce the release of Razor-qt 0.4.0, after a months of development since the last release…

• Razor-Qt: A New Qt-Based Desktop Environment

  The Razor-Qt desktop was just updated to version 0.4.0 after being in development for months. This release improves stability of the lightweight desktop, introduces several new components, offers new translations, a new theme, new panel plug-ins, and much more. The new Razor desktop components are azor-runner, razor-config, qtxdg, and Razor own menu.

• Users voted for best XFCE-based Linux distribution

  Most Linux distributions use one or more mainstream desktop environments. To be honest with you, I prefer KDE. My next preference is XFCE, followed by GNOME. And LXDE brings up the rear of the mainstream desktop environments for me. Every user has his own preferences, of course. That’s why arguments over Linux distributions and desktop environments will never end. People will always have differences of opinion.

• K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

  • Plasma Active Two Released; KDE’s Second Step Towards an Open Linux Tablet

    Plasma Active, the KDE project that aims to create an open source user environment for tablets and mobile devices has had its second release. Earlier this year, they released Plasma Active One, their first preview release of many, that showcased their new Contour UI and activities.

Distributions

• McRae: Pacman Package Signing – 4: Arch Linux

  Back in March 2011, LWN examined package signing (or the lack thereof) in the Arch Linux distribution. Things have advanced considerably since then. Allan McRae has now posted the fourth in a series of articles about the adoption of signed packages in Arch.

• New Releases

  • Chakra Edn 2011.12, The Arch Linux Fork Released

    The Chakra Development Team has announced the release of Chakra 2011.12. Chakra is one the most popular Arch Linux forks. This version is Linux 3.1 and KDE 4.7. With this release KDE is updated to 4.7.4, kernel to Linux 3.1.4. The sound group has been rebuild/updated, latest networkmanagement and mesa-stack are also included. Chakra is now offering a DVD and CD version.

  • SystemRescueCd and GParted Live updated

    The SystemRescueCd and GParted Live developers have each released new versions of their Linux distributions for administering and repairing systems. Both of updated distributions include the recent 0.11.0 release of the open source GParted partition editor and new kernels, as well as other changes and package updates.

• Red Hat Family

  • Red Hat and Navistar Move Up Trading Radars Prior to Earnings Reports

  • Collaring A Red Hat Investment

    Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) provides open-source software and services to the enterprise computing market. It is the most recognized open-source brand in the world. Their most popular solutions are Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization, JBoss Enterprise Middleware and their Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) operating systems. Much of the company’s revenue is generated through subscriptions and in the training of these products.

  • Red Hat (RHT) Shares Given New $56.00 Price Target by Stifel Nicolaus Analysts

    Equities research analysts at Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) to $56.00 in a research issued note to investors on Thursday. They currently have a “buy” rating on the company’s shares.

  • Fedora

    • Fedora 16 Officially Released for IBM System z 64-bit

      Dan Horák announced a last evening, December 15th, the immediate availability for download of the Fedora 16 operating system for IBM System z (s390x) 64-bit systems.

    • Kororaa Linux 16 : A Fedora-based Linux named “Chum” has been released

      Chris Smart announced the availability of Kororaa Linux 16 which code name is “Chum” on 16 Dec,2011. The Kororaa is originally based on Gentoo Linux but after 2010 it is based on Fedora Linux. The main aim of this Linux is to provide the easiness and user-friendly packages.

• Debian Family

  • The newsletter for the Debian community

  • Derivatives

    • Canonical/Ubuntu

      • Canonical Will Remove Java From Ubuntu

        Canonical announced a few hours ago, December 15th, that it will remove all Sun JDK (Java Development Kit) packages from the Canonical Partner repository.

      • Oracle Java Dies On Ubuntu

      • MyUnity: A configuration tool for Unity

      • Puppy Linux Racy Review

        Puppy Linux is a tiny distribution that is geared towards older PCs and giving them a second life. Puppy Linux can be run from a Live CD or USB (for faster performance) or just install it onto your system.

        The software programs that come part of Puppy Linux are those that are specifically picked out to ensure that resources are not wasted while providing a productive machine. The programs that are part of Puppy you will not usually find on a distribution such as Linux Mint or Ubuntu which are geared towards more modern systems but that does not mean they are any less useful.

      • Ubuntu; apparently, a Linux apart from Linux

        When I decided to start a blog and write about Linux, I never thought that I would see this. Since this surprised me somewhat, I decided to share it.

      • Move unity launcher to the bottom with Unity Bottom Launcher | PPA Ubuntu

      • Ubuntu Squeezebox music server: update and modifications

        Six months ago I wrote about a weekend project to install the SqueezeServer Squeezebox media server on an aging PC (a Hush PC based on a 1.2 GHz Via system with 40GB hard disk and 1 GB of memory) running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS.

        This is an update. I have spent the last few months tweaking the setup and buying additional Logitech Squeezebox devices, allowing me to stream music throughout the house with the same song playing in different rooms, or each room playing different music.

      • Thunderbird 70-100% CPU idle in Ubuntu Oneiric 11.10

        Dear People From The Future
        Use gtk-theme-switch2 to change from Oxygen-Molecule to some other theme, Oxygen-Molecule caused me massive CPU usage for Thunderbird and *some* other GTK software. Oxygen-Molecule-Flat works fine.

      • Ubuntu targets smartphones, clouds

        Ubuntu 11.10 has some jagged edges and documentation isn’t easy to locate, but Canonical is certainly dreaming big with this latest update, dubbed Oneiric (dreamy) Ocelot.

      • New Canonical portal a sign of mobile to come?

        Canonical is showcasing a new effort to reach out and touch hardware manufacturers… an effort that coincides well not only with its ongoing desktop PC push, but perhaps also Canonical’s latest drive to target the mobile device market.

      • Flavours and Variants

        • Pear OS Linux Panther 3 review

          Pear OS is a new Linux desktop distribution based on Ubuntu Desktop with the graphical installer. Its development started in early August 2011 by David Tavares (from France), and on August 15 2011, Pear OS 1.0, the first version marked “stable,” was released. The latest edition, release on December 14 2011, is Pear OS Linux Panther 3.

          Though a Linux distribution running the GNOME 3 desktop, Pear OS’s desktop is fashioned after Apple’s Mac OS X, and each major version’s code name is taken from the Mac OS release with a corresponding version number. So, “Panther,” the code name of Pear OS Linux 3, is taken from the code name of Mac OS 10.3. If you have not been following Apple’s flagship operating system, each Mac OS edition is named after a big cat. Like all reviews published on this website, this one is based on test installations of the 32-bit edition of Pear OS Linux Panther 3 (a 64-bit edition is available too) in virtual environments and on real hardware.

        • Create desktop launchers in Linux Mint 12

Devices/Embedded

• Timesys Expands Professional Services and Training Programs

• Linaro scheme recognizes effort by contributors

  Linaro, the open organization focused on improving Linux on ARM, has formed the Linaro Community Contributor Process and Team. Linaro Technical Leads now have the opportunity to nominate any individual who has made sustained contributions over a significant period of time as a Community Contributor of Linaro.

• Phones

  • How HP and Open Source Can Save WebOS

  • Android

    • Google Starts Rolling Out Android 4.0 To Nexus S

      Yesterday Google made available Galaxy Nexus in the US and today the company started rolling out Android 4.0 to its Nexus S phones.

      The Google + page of Android posted that “We’re rolling out Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, to GSM/UMTS Nexus S devices over the coming month, starting today.”

    • 6 Best Free Android FTP Tools

      File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a popular and time-honored method of transferring files to and from remote network sites and devices. FTP is built on a client-server architecture and uses separate control and data connections between the client and server applications. The FTP client connects to the FTP server, and enables the user to send and retrieve files from that server.

    • Pilotage Assistant LE

      Released with a GNU GPL license (see notice below), this is the application only. The distribution package contains the version 1.0 application .apk, source code, and all resources in an eclipse IDE workspace. There is a user’s guide.

    • How to: view core Android Java sources in Eclipse

EGL Goes Open Source

Last week, IBM announced that it was taking Enterprise Generation Language (EGL) into the open-source realm with the debut of Eclipse EGL Web Developer Tools version 0.7, which is built on an open, extensible compiler and generator framework. ( You can download it and get more information here.)

Web Browsers

• Chrome

  • Lime: Chromium OS with extra hardware support

    Chromium OS Lime logo Following nearly a one year delay, web developer and hacker Liam “Hexxeh” McLoughlin has released new builds of Lime, a customised Chromium OS-based operating system. Chromium OS is the open source branch of Google’s Chrome OS, the company’s minimalist Linux-based operating system that is built around the Chrome web browser.

SaaS

• Open Source Challenger to Dropbox and Box.net: ownCloud

  The file sharing, synchronization market led by Dropbox is a popular target these days. For many companies, it’s a chance to horn in on a growing market and carve out a piece of the pie for themselves. For open source projects, it’s a chance to return control of personal data to the user. For the folks behind ownCloud, it’s both.

• Why some execs think Hadoop ain’t all that

Business

• A-List – Peter Dawes-Huish

  Career so far I founded LinuxIT 12 years ago with the aim of it becoming the UK’s leading authority in the application of Linux and open source by offering the complete, integrated technology and service solution.

• Find a New Challenge as a Linux systems administrator Team Leader

Funding

• VC funding for OSS hits new high. Or does it?

  There are still a few days left for funding deals to be announced in 2011 but it is already clear that 2011 will be a record year. $672.8m has been invested in open source-related vendors in 2011, according to our preliminary figures, an increase of over 48% on 2010, and the highest total amount invested in any year, beating the previous best of $623.6m, raised in 2006.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• It’s been great!

  Hello, it’s Andrew the FSF campaigns intern. My internship is coming to a close, so I’d like to share with you what I’ve done this fall.

• GNU Telephony plans for 2012

  Today is a good day. I just distributed ucommon 5.1.0, and a second api and utilities snapshot for what will eventually become GNU Bayonne 3.0. I think GNU Bayonne will become strategic to our goals in 2012, along with GNU SIP Witch and the GFC client. We have already discussed internally an outline and possible goals for 2012 development in GNU Telephony, and I have made preliminary plans to attend LibrePlanet2012 in March.

Project Releases

• GNU Xnee 3.11 (‘Jansch’) released

Public Services/Government

• The LiMux project is more succesfull then expected

  The localized Linux distro of the German city Munich LiMux has reached another milestone.

• Open source use in govt is healthy: AGIMO

  The Australian Government Information Office (AGIMO) has reported a healthy level of open source software (OSS) use within government agencies during the past year.

• DWP to run open-source trials

• DWP Confirms 1,000 Open Source Desktops Pilot

• DWP to trial 1,000 open-source desktops

• DWP to trial open-source desktops

  The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is to pilot a new computing scheme over the next 12 months.

  As part of the government’s plans to adopt open source technology, 1,000 desktops are to be installed in the department to replace the current set-up. The DWP currently uses computers running Windows XP, Microsoft Office and Internet Explorer 6.

Openness/Sharing

• Open Access/Content

  • Darrell Steinberg pushes ‘open-source’ college textbooks for Californians

    Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced Tuesday that he will push for legislation to create an online, open-source library to reduce the cost of course materials for college students across the state.

• Open Hardware

  • Open Source Electronics DIY Kits with Adafruit

Programming

• Explaining the API Revolution to your CEO

  One of the most striking findings was how often API programs were started in secret, nurtured by the true believers in a clandestine way, slipped into production, and then brought to the awareness of senior management after the API was shown to be a success.

• eBay Open Sources New Query Language

Security

• Security problem in PuTTY SSH client fixed

• ‘Self-aware’ bank account robbing code unleashed by hacker

  A hacker has published code for potent cross-site scripting attacks that he claims go beyond the usual cookie stealing and phishing for users’ private details.

• Aussie exploit challenges for noob to leet

  Linux security boffin Andrew Griffiths has launched series of educational hacking challenges that hone skills in privilege escalation, vulnerability analysis, exploit development, debugging and reverse engineering.

Finance

• Salon Corporate Challenge: Goldman Sachs

  But what singles Goldman Sachs out for special opprobrium isn’t the culpability it shares with other investment banks for helping to create the financial crisis and then get bailed out with taxpayer dollars. It’s the fact that Goldman Sachs figured out, before any of its Wall Street colleagues, that the housing boom was a house of cards and the entire mortgage-backed security market was headed for a crash. Goldman wasn’t caught by surprise by the revelation that the mortgage securities it was creating were toxic junk. Quite the opposite. But instead of sending up an alarm bell and using its political influence and lobbying muscle to try to fend off the coming disaster, Goldman Sachs simply liquidated the positions in which it would be vulnerable to a downturn and started betting, instead, on the likelihood of disaster. As the Senate report acidly notes, in December 2006, “when it saw evidence that the high risk mortgages underlying many RMBS and CDO securities were incurring accelerated rates of delinquency and default, Goldman quietly and abruptly reversed course.”

• Occupied Media: Interview With Professor William K. Black

• Bill Black: Dante’s Divine Comedy – Banksters Edition

  Obama did not explain what Wall Street behavior he found least ethical or what unethical Wall Street actions he believed was not illegal. It would have done the world (and Obama) a great service had he been asked these questions. He would not have given a coherent answer because his thinking on these issues has never been coherent. If he had to explain his position he, and the public, would recognize it was indefensible.

  [...]

  I have explained at length in my blogs and articles why:

  • Only fraudulent home lenders made liar’s loans
  • Liar’s loans were endemically fraudulent
  • Lenders and their agents put the lies in liar’s loans
  • Appraisal fraud was endemic and led by lenders and their agents
  • Liar’s loans could only be sold through fraudulent reps and warranties
  • CDOs “backed” by liar’s loans were inherently fraudulent
  • CDOs backed by liar’s loans could only be sold through fraudulent reps and warranties
  • Liar’s loans hyper-inflated the bubble
  • Liar’s loans became roughly one-third of mortgage originations by 2006

  [...]

  As a criminologist, I do not favor sentencing criminals to the fates they richly deserve.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Walker Enlists Karl Rove Protégé to Promote New Protest Policy

  As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s new policies restricting protest in the Wisconsin capitol take effect in advance of the anniversary of 2011′s historic labor uprisings, the controversial governor has enlisted a new spokesperson to sell the rules, a 28-year old protégé of Karl Rove and new political appointee of the governor.