02.23.16

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Software Piracy and Linux Adoption

  The open-source software operating system Linux is a free-of-charge substitute to proprietary systems like Microsoft Windows. By using a cross-country data set, this paper finds evidence that increased piracy of proprietary software has a negative impact on adoption of desktop versions of Linux. The interpretation of this result is that the availability of pirated versions of Windows, as well as pirated applications compatible with Windows and OS-X, lead to fewer individuals installing a Linux operating system on their desktop computers. Thus, in the absence of software piracy, Linux would be a more widely used operating system.

• Illegal Copying Of TOOS v GNU/Linux

• Desktop

  • WD, What?

    Along with my plan to delete Intel as well as M$ from my LAN I’ve been looking for a Network Addressable Storage (NAS) unit. Of course Western Digital makes a bunch but their latest and greatest have exactly zero mention of GNU/Linux. So, I was put off.

  • Can you replace a computer with your mobile

    Android phones have reached the point where they have similar specifications in terms of CPU and Ram than most budget laptops, but are held back for phone centric tasks. The truth is, your phone is ready to replace your laptop or desktop if you give it a chance.

    I am no stranger to the ideal of using a phone to replace most computing requirements, I love my Galaxy S5 and every chance I get to hook it to a screen and keyboard I do, but the Android UI is not great for larger screens.

• Server

  • New Docker Datacenter Admin Suite Should Bring Order To Containerization

    Like many open source projects, Docker gained a strong following among developers first, but as it grew in popularity, the companies these developers were working for wanted a straight-forward way to track and manage them.

    That’s exactly what DDC is designed to do. It gives developers the agility they need to create containerized applications, while providing operations with the tools they need to bring order to the process.

  • Linux’s Open Mainframe Project declares areas of focus

    The Linux Foundation is announcing new areas of focus for its Open Mainframe Project. The Open Mainframe Project is a collaborative effort launched six months ago as a focal point for the deployment and use of the Linux OS on the mainframe.

    The new areas of focus were determined by the project’s technical steering committee, and they emphasize compatibility and support for growing technologies.

• Kernel Space

  • Robin Systems Joins The Linux Foundation’s Open Container Initiative

    Robin Systems, a Silicon Valley-based provider of containerized data platform software, today announced its membership in The Linux Foundation’s Open Container Initiative.

  • OCZ Trion 150 Budget SSD On Linux

    As I had picked up the Trion 150 for a test system rather than being a free review sample, I had bought the Trion 150 120GB model, which set me back just about $50 USD at Amazon.com and puts it in line with other SSDs of a similar capacity.

  • Graphics Stack

    • X.Org Elections Are Next Month, Will Vote Again About SPI Merger

      The X.Org Foundation is set to hold elections beginning next month for four new board of directors as well as the adoption of changes to the foundation’s by-laws for allowing it to become part of SPI.

    • Libinput 1.2 Officially Released

      Libinput 1.2.0 was officially released this morning by Red Hat’s Peter Hutterer for improving the Linux input support on X.Org, Wayland, and Mir systems.

      Libinput 1.2 features graphics tablet support, three-finger pinch gesture support on capable hardware, motion hysteresis has been deactivated by default, fixes for disable-while-typing, and other changes.

    • RadeonSI Quietly Landed A Shader Cache As A Last Feature For Mesa 11.2

      An in-memory shader cache landed for the RadeonSI Gallium3D driver on Sunday and made it in time for the Mesa 11.2 branching.

      Marek Olšák pushed a number of code commits to Mesa on Sunday that ended with support for binary shaders and shader cache in memory.

    • Mesa 11.3-dev Crosses Off Another OpenGL ES 3.2 Extension

      The newly-opened Mesa 11.3-devel code-base already has support for another OpenGL ES 3.2 extension.

  • Benchmarks

    • Open vs. Closed Driver Benchmarks Of AMD’s A10-7850K Kaveri On Ubuntu 16.04

      From an AMD A10-7850K Kaveri system I did a clean install of a daily Ubuntu 16.04 x86_64 development snapshot. First I tested the closed-source driver as packaged right now in Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus (fglrx 15.20.3). Following that, was the test of the current out-of-the-box open-source RadeonSI stack with the Linux 4.4 kernel and Mesa 11.1 built against LLVM 3.8. Following that I did a run of the same open driver stack but having manually enabled DRI3 rather than using the default DRI2. Following that was then an upgrade to the Linux 4.5 Git kernel for an extra run and then lastly was a run of the Linux 4.5 Git kernel paired with Mesa 11.2 and DRI3 enabled.

    • Intel Skylake CPUFreq vs. P-State Scaling Benchmarks On Linux 4.5

      For those curious about the performance impact between the CPUFreq and P-State scaling drivers and the different scaling governors when using an Intel Core i5 “Skylake” CPU with the latest Linux 4.5 kernel, here are some fresh benchmarks.

      Over the weekend on a Core i5 6600K Skylake system running Linux 4.5 Git I compared P-State powersave, P-State performance, CPUFreq ondemand, CPUFreq performance, CPUFreq powersave, and CPUFreq conservative options.

• Applications

  • Putting make-up on PlaybackPopover

    So, here goes the new screenshots of PlaybackPopover…

  • Samba 4.3.5 Arrives with a Few Fixes

    Samba is a tool that seamlessly integrates Linux/Unix servers and desktops into Active Directory environments using the winbind daemon, and developers have just released a sizable update for it.

  • Proprietary

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Using Docker Swarm in Production

    • Using Vagrant and Ansible to deploy virtual machines for web development

    • How To: Install/Upgrade to Linux Kernel 4.4.2 in Ubuntu/Linux Mint Systems

    • Check Internet Speed with speedtest-cli on Debian and Ubuntu

    • Monitor your local network with NagiosPi

    • How do I build a containerized app on Mirantis OpenStack with native Docker tools?

    • Simple GWTP and Objectify example with Maven

    • Ruby & Time-based Testing

    • Multithreaded OpenGL driver quality

    • In praise of pdftk and inkscape

    • Run a Linux command every X seconds forever using Watch command [Ed: similar to this]

    • How to skip existing files when copying with scp

    • How to simulate yes/No in Linux scripts/commands

  • Games

    • Steam Beta Client Brings XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Grid Autosport Fixes

      Valve has released a new update for the Steam beta client and it comes with a couple of fixes for XCOM: Enemy Unknown and GRID Autosport.

    • SteamOS/Linux Game Development Porting In 2016

      Ethan Lee talked about the process of Linux game porting, a few gripes he has from the few years he’s been porting (Windows) games to Linux, and more.

    • Valve Rolls Out A SteamVR Performance Benchmark

      Valve today announced the release of a free program for measuring the performance potential of your system for SteamVR to see if your system can handle the number of emerging VR products. Unfortunately, for now at least, the test is Windows-only.

    • Open Source game engine Godot has a new major release, lots of new stuff

    • Godot 2.0 Is Out, But Godot 3.0 Will Be Even More Exciting

      Godot, the cross-platform game engine that was open-sourced two years ago, is up to version 2.0.

      Godot 1.0 was released just over one year ago while out today is the big 2.0 release. Godot 2.0 features improved scene instancing, a new text-based scene format, Opus audio format support, improved gamepad support, new editor features, and other improvements.

    • Insurgency Standstorm Is A UE4-Powered Linux Game Coming Out Next Year

      Insurgency: Sandstorm is a new title being developed by New World Interactive for release in 2017 on Linux, OS X, Windows, and the game consoles.

      NWI is known for their Insurgency game, which has been supported on Linux since last year. Insurgency: Sandstorm is their next title and is powered by Epic Games’ Unreal Engine 4.

    • Insurgency: Sandstorm realistic FPS announced for SteamOS & Linux, will use Unreal Engine 4

      You guys love Insurgency right, the awesome FPS game that came to Linux last year? Well Insurgency: Sandstorm is coming with some Unreal Engine 4 goodness, and Linux is confirmed.

• Desktop Environments/WMs

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • KDE neon Comes Alive!

      We’ve been working hard at KDE neon HQ to get the project going and today I’m pleased to say the Developer Unstable package archive is up and running. This gives daily packages of KDE Frameworks and Plasma desktop built direct from Git master branches. Expect some breakage, it’s called unstable for a reason. Ideal for testers and contributors to these two projects. To install it you’ll need an install of *buntu 15.10 (wily) and follow the Package Upgrade instructions.

  • GNOME Desktop/GTK

    • Building an xdg-app – part 4

      In part 1 we created a very small application. All it did was print to stdout. Such a program is very easy to sandbox. In fact, since we didn’t specify any permissions for it this application already runs in a very tight sandbox.

• Distributions

  • Reviews

    • Antergos: The first Linux distribution with ZFS support during installation

      The latest edition of Antergos features support for the ZFS file system during installation, which makes it the first (desktop) Linux distribution that I am aware of with ZFS as a file system option during installation.

      Antergos is a Linux distribution that’s based on Arch Linux. ZFS is an advanced file system with built-in volume management that originated from Oracle Solaris operating system (formerly Sun Solaris).

  • Screenshots/Screencasts

    • Antergos 2016.02.21 Screenshot Tour

  • Arch Family

    • Manjaro Cinnamon 16.02 released

      The Manjaro community is proud to announce a new stable release of the Cinnamon Edition.

      In addition to the full edition with office suite, graphics software and mailclient included, Manjaro Cinnamon 16.02 is also available as a minimal-ISO of 1GB download size, with users in mind who prefer to setup their own set of software.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Openness and transparency are keys to success for Red Hat CEO

      Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Raleigh, North Carolina-based Red Hat, helped turn the open source software solutions business into what Forbes called “one of the world’s most innovative companies,” in 2012, 2014 and 2015. His book The Open Organization: Igniting Passion and Performance was published last year. Whitehurst took over the top job at Red Hat in 2008. Prior to that, he spent six years at Delta Air Lines, where he worked his way up to the chief operating officer position. He played an instrumental role in the airline’s financial turnaround. Before that, he worked with the Boston Consulting Group. A Columbus, Georgia native, Whitehurst earned a bachelor degree in economics and computer science from Rice University in 1989, and his master’s in business administration from Harvard University in 1994. He lives in Durham with his wife and their two children, who are twins. He spoke with Craig Dowden.

    • Red Hat signs Middle East distribution deal with Spectrami

      Red Hat, a provider of open source systems, has signed Spectrami DMCC as a specialist distributor in the Middle East for the Red Hat JBoss Middleware portfolio and Red Hat Mobile Application Platform. Spectrami DMCC is a value added distributor for security, storage, and mobility products.

    • Red Hat Ansible Platform Now Brings DevOps to Networking

      Red Hat Ansible IT automation and DevOps platform has added new functionality and now includes native agentless support for automating heterogeneous network infrastructure. The update to Ansible networking capabilities expands the platform’s functionality to orchestrate entire application infrastructures, including network devices, with one automation tool.

    • How to interview for culture fit

      I remember Bill vaguely from my early days at Red Hat. When I’d bumped into him in the hall and introduced myself, I’d learned it was Bill’s first week on the job as a partner relationship manager. He’d just left a similar role at a major enterprise hardware company. Bill looked like what I would call a traditional business person; he was wearing a suit and making copies at the Xerox machine (two things I didn’t see many people do at Red Hat in those days). He looked slightly uncomfortable, but I didn’t think too much of it. A week later, I heard he’d quit—went back to the giant enterprise hardware company.

    • KAMES CAPITAL plc Acquires Shares of 21,104 Red Hat Inc (RHT)

    • Fourth Swedish National Pension Fund Decreases Stake in Red Hat Inc (RHT)

    • Fedora

      • Road to the HACK-CAMP2016 of FEDORA and GNOME

        Thanks to Alvaro and Martin, guys that belong to Hackspace Peru for the support of the outstanding camp event that will promote the use of FEDORA 23 and GNOME 3.18.

      • Fedora Infrastructure projects in IndiaHacks 2016

        IndiaHacks 2016, HackerEarth’s annual flagship event, aims to be the largest global gathering of developers. The event comprises of a series of hackathons and algorithmic challenges across nine different tracks.

        Open Source is one of the tracks and aims to encourage open source contributions to various participating organizations. The track follows a model similar to Hacktoberfest, where contributions are measured by accepted pull requests and commits to open source software projects.

      • Fedora on non-rooted Android phones – 2016 another update!

        After much trial and error and fighting with permissions, I’ve managed to create a much more simpler way of getting a Fedora 23 chroot running on a non-rooted Android phone.

      • Rebuilding Fedora Under GCC 6 Has Uncovered An Assortment Of Problems

        The past few days Red Hat / Fedora developers have been rebuilding Fedora Rawhide packages with the GCC 6 compiler. Out of the 17,741 packages, 577 packages ran into issues relating to GCC 6 (~3% of the packages).

        Having problems with 577 packages due to the new version of the GNU Compiler Collection is much more than usual with Red Hat’s Marek Polacek pointing out last year with the GCC 5 rebuild they had problems with half as many — 236 problematic packages.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Hands-On With The Ubuntu Edition Meizu PRO 5 Phablet

        • Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition hands-on

        • Ubuntu OS available for Xperia Z1, OnePlus One

        • Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition with Exynos 7420 Processor & 21MP Camera Launched

        • Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition available for pre-order

        • Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition available for pre-order now!

          The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition will be showcased for the very first time at Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona, drop by the Ubuntu stand in Hall 3 (booth 3J30) to get a hands-on experience of the device. The device being demonstrated at MWC will be running on demo version software, which will be updated with improved features through the next OTA update.

        • What’s New in Ubuntu OTA 9.1 Update for Ubuntu Phones

          A new Ubuntu OTA update is on its way and it should land tomorrow. Here are the fixes and improvements that will be released to the public.

        • Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Beta 1 Flavors to Land in Two Days, Kubuntu Is Missing

          A new Beta for Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus) is in the works, and we now know what flavors are going to participate.

        • Watch: Robot Powered by Snappy Ubuntu Core Plays Football at MWC 2016

          The Mobile World Congress 2016 in Barcelona is not only about IoT, Ubuntu Touch or the cloud for Canonical. It’s also about a small little robot powered by Snappy Ubuntu Core that seems to be gathering a lot of attention.

        • Two libssh Vulnerabilities Closed in Supported Ubuntu OSes

          A couple of libssh vulnerabilities have been found and fixed in Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS operating systems.

        • The truth about Ubuntu Unity is not what you think

          Let’s face it, modern interfaces are all really easy to use. So let’s call it like it is…a matter of taste. You either like Unity or you don’t. You either like Windows 10 or you don’t. Both, however, are user-friendly, intuitive, and do their jobs well.

          If, however, you do find Unity (or Linux, for that matter) challenging…you might want to rethink your career of choice. Harsh words? Maybe. But if you’re in IT, a user interface should be the last thing to confound you.

        • BQ Aquaris X5 Plus with Snapdragon 652 Processor & 16MP Camera Announced

        • BQ announces Aquaris X5 Plus with Fingerprint scanner & 16MP Camera at MWC

        • BQ Announces First Convergent Ubuntu Tablet at MWC

        • This Ubuntu tablet switches to desktop mode when you plug in a keyboard

        • BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition

        • Meizu Pro 5 shows off its Ubuntu software

        • Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Edition hands-on photos

        • A top Meizu phone can’t hide Ubuntu’s flaws

          The last 12 months have been disastrous for the minor league of mobile operating systems. Jolla’s Sailfish OS has started to capsize, while Blackberry has all but abandoned BlackBerry 10 for Android. Firefox OS, at least on phones, is but a few dying embers and Windows 10 Mobile has arrived with a muffled thud. Does Canonical and Ubuntu share the same fate? Perhaps, although the pair are fighting defiantly this month with a new flagship phone, courtesy of the Chinese manufacturer Meizu.

        • Ubuntu Touch OTA-9.1 Update Tomorrow, OTA-10 Soon

        • Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Looks Amazing in New Screenshots!

• Devices/Embedded

  • ARM’s Cortex A32 is a tiny CPU for wearables and Raspberry Pi-like boards

    ARM’s Cortex CPU core designs are widely used by all kinds of chipmakers who don’t want to create their own ARM CPU designs from scratch, so it’s important to pay attention when the company announces a new one. The ones we see the most often around here are the mainstream 64-bit cores for smartphones and tablets—the high-end Cortex A72 and A57 and the mid-end Cortex A53—but ARM produces a variety of smaller designs for ultra-low-power and embedded applications, too.

  • Introducing Cortex-A32: ARM’s smallest, lowest power ARMv8-A processor for next generation 32-bit embedded applications

    The announcement of the ARM® Cortex®-A35 processor marked the beginning of a new family of ultra high efficiency application processors from ARM. Today, ARM announced the second member of that family, the Cortex-A32, a new 32-bit processor. Highlights of the Cortex-A32 include:

    ARM’s smallest, lowest power ARMv8-A processor, optimized for 32-bit processing (supports the A32/T32 instruction set, and is fully compatible with ARMv7-A)
    Provides ultra efficient 32-bit compute for the next generation of embedded products including consumer, wearable and IoT applications.

  • ARM’s slim new Cortex-A32 aims 32-bit ARMv8 at IoT apps

  • Mentor Graphics Expands Mentor Embedded Linux Support to the Third Generation AMD Embedded G-Series SoC

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Cyanogen launches the “Mod” platform, with lots of Microsoft integration [Ed: Another reminder that Cyanogen is more like a Microsoft proxy/Trojan horse now]

      • Intel shows budget Android phone powering big-screen Linux

        Intel is showing what it calls “Big Screen Experience” at Mobile World Congress, an Android smartphone which runs a full Linux desktop when plugged into an external display.

        The concept is broadly similar to Microsoft’s Continuum for Windows 10 Mobile, but whereas Continuum devices are towards the high end, Intel’s project is aimed, it says, at budget smartphones and emerging markets.

      • How to Choose Your Next Android Phone: 2016 Edition

        Mobile World Congress, the biggest smartphone trade show of the year, is this week, and companies like Samsung and LG are there showing off the hot new handsets they want you to buy. All of this gives us a glimpse into how Android phones will evolve in 2016, and what you should look for before you go shopping for your next smartphone.

        Every year, major smartphone manufacturers like Samsung, LG, and HTC release a new batch of phones that set the bar for the entire Android ecosystem. We looked at the top, most anticipated phones from each to see where the industry is going, and to help you pick your next device.

      • Show ‘Em How Normcore You Are with This $67 Android Flip Phone

        While browsing the many acres of Mobile World Congress 2016, I was lucky enough to stumble upon what has to be the most normcore smartphone at the show. Naturally, I found it at the booth of Chinese company Reeko, a specialist in the area of yesteryear-themed clamshell phones.

      • NVIDIA Ships Android 6.0 For The SHIELD TV With Vulkan Support

      • Acecard – One of Today’s Most Dangerous Android Trojans

      • Dangerous Android banking bot leak signals new malware wave

      • Android Pay’s security to be put to the test in 2016

      • Cyanogen launches ‘MOD’ platform to give developers Google-like access to Android OS

      • Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow Update Status Of Samsung Galaxy S6, S6 Edge

      • F.lux finally makes its way to Android

      • WhatsApp opens its Android beta testing program on Google Play

      • Google’s head of Android: Apple v FBI ‘not a simple case’

      • Famous, Formerly The Controversial People-Trading App Stolen, Hits Android After App Store Ban

      • Honda’s concept nav system consists of an Android phone and free app

      • BQ Aquaris X5 Plus to run Android 6.0.1 on release

Free Software/Open Source

• BeeGFS Parallel File System Goes Open Source

  Today ThinkParQ announced that the complete BeeGFS parallel file system is now available as open source. Developed specifically for performance-critical environments, the BeeGFS parallel file system was developed with a strong focus on easy installation and high flexibility, including converged setups where storage servers are also used for compute jobs. By increasing the number of servers and disks in the system, performance and capacity of the file system can simply be scaled out to the desired level, seamlessly from small clusters up to enterprise-class systems with thousands of nodes.

• 2016 Survey Shows More and Diverse SDN Use Cases Being Deployed by Open SDN Power Users

• NoviFlow and IP Infusion Collaborate To Integrate Commercial-Grade Networking Stacks With The ONOS Controller For Use In Scale-Out SDN Router Applications

• SDN Open Source Movement to Advance as NoviFlow Joins ONOS Project

  The Open Network Operating System (ONOS), a Software Defined Networking (SDN) OS had another name added to its list of collaborators as NoviFlow Inc. joined the project. This was publicized in an announcement made by NoviFlow Inc. which is a leading provider of high-performance OpenFlow-based switching solutions.

• OpenDaylight Beryllium Advances Open-Source SDN [VIDEO]

  The new Beryllium follows the Lithium release that debuted in 2015, and adds performance, and stability to the platform

• Open Source Project Managers Can Keep You on Track

  When you’re collaborating with other people who may be at disparate locations around the world, sometimes you need collaboration software to manage projects and keep workflows humming along. Open source project managers can be just the ticket for these needs. Collabtive is one tool that we’ve covered in this area, and an increasingly popular one is OpenProject. These have several features that make them competitive with proprietary alternatives.

• Events

  • Bulgaria Web Summit 2016 Report & Videos

    The morning sessions were dominated by database topics including MariaDB, RocksDB and MammothDB. The MariaDB talk was particularly strong while the rest were with average attendance.

    In the afternoon we switched to DevOps and Docker and the room exploded. There were people sitting on the ground and standing around the walls. There was not enough oxygen for everyone in the room.

• Web Browsers

  • WebKit Switches Away From LLVM For Its JavaScript JIT Compiler

    For the past two years WebKit has had an LLVM JIT back-end for its JavaScript engine, but now with the latest upstream code, Mac x86_64 users of WebKit have a new compiler implementation not based on LLVM.

• SaaS/Big Data

  • MapR and Ericsson Team to Advance Hadoop+Spark Analytics

    MapR Technologies, which we’ve reported on extensively as it has focused on Hadoop and the Big Data space, has gained a powerful and experienced partner. It has formed a partnership with Ericsson, and the two companies are working together to advance adoption of the MapR Converged Data Platform. The platform integrates file, database, stream processing and analytics, and is gaining attention at enterprises. It’s also interesting because it marries Hadoop and Spark, which are probably the hottest open technologies in the Big Data space.

• Databases

  • Weekly phpMyAdmin contributions 2016-W07

    As the flow of incoming bugs for upcoming 4.6.0 has slowed down a bit it was more time for code cleanups and related tasks. But it’s also time where potential Google Summer of Code students come to our organization and want to get involved.

    On the cleanup side the biggest was change to remove embedded PHP libraries which are available on Packagist from our Git and use Composer to manage the dependencies. This change will happen in 4.7.0, so it’s still some time ahead, but it’s already in our master branch. There still some third party libraries which we use and can not be installed using Composer, so we keep these for now.

  • Encryption – MariaDB

• Pseudo-/Semi-Open Source (Openwashing)

  • IBM proves love for Swift, releases Kitura web server framework for Linux

    IBM held a press conference at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona to update the world on its MobileFirst offering, which supports enterprise applications on Apple iOS devices.

    A couple of things were notable about the event. Although IBM presents MobileFirst as a partnership with Apple, nobody from Apple bothered to turn up. Second, the assembled press had to endure a panel of no doubt worthy but hardly notable app demos from various customers, and a number of journalists headed for the exit before IBM got around to delivering its actual news: that it was supporting Swift on the server with a new web framework.

  • GigaSpaces Announces ARIA, an Open Source, Open Governance Framework for TOSCA-based Cloud Orchestration

  • Exclusive: Infosys is using Open Source as its most lethal weapon yet! [Ed: Infosys is more like a Microsoft extension]

    Open source became huge in 2015 with more consumers adapting it like never before. Though to a layman the quick adaptability will be credited to the ‘free’ aspect of it all, a survey done by Infosys actually contradicts this and brings the real picture forward.

    [...]

    Talking about the main strategy to target the open source market in India, he said Infosys doesn’t really go and sell Open Source. “We are there as the customer demand is there.”

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Upcoming features in GCC 6

    The GCC project has traditionally made major releases yearly in the March/April timeframe. March is rapidly approaching and the GCC project’s engineers are busy polishing things up for the GCC 6 release. I’m going to take a short break from my own release efforts to briefly talk about some of the new features.

• Public Services/Government

  • EU funds open source programming research

    The European Research Council (ERC) is funding several open source software research projects, including code audits, security testing an on cryptography. Each of four projects in Austria, France and Germany received just under EUR 2 million in so-called Consolidator Grants.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Open Data

    • 5 March: International Open Data Hackathon in cities all over world

      On Saturday 5 March 2016, the third International Open Data Hackathon will be organised. That day in cities all over the world, local communities will host hackathons where people from civil society, government and companies collaboratively work on applications, analyses and visualisations based on open data.

  • Open Hardware

    • Engineers turn laser cutter into an open-source 3D printer

    • Lylo Open Source Smart Router Hits Kickstarter (video)

      If you are in the market for a smart router and are looking for an open source solution which provides a wealth of more up-to-date features than the current routine you are using in your home or office, you may be interested in the Lylo which has been created by Oneby based in Brussels, Belgium.

• Programming

  • IBM Cloud to Easily Replicate VMware Workloads and Enterprise Java

    For those shops that want to migrate their existing enterprise Java workloads to the cloud, IBM has released IBM WebSphere Cloud Connect. This connector provides an easy way to bridge server side Java applications to the cloud for the 100,000 enterprise users that run the IBM WebSphere Java Enterprise Edition server.

    IBM has estimated there are approximately 13 million Java programmers worldwide.

  • What Is Programming And Why You Should Learn To Code?

    With the advent of new online opportunities, learning how to code is easier than ever. Read more to know why everyone should learn to code and grab the best courses to kickstart your coding career.

Leftovers

• Security

  • Tuesday’s security advisories

  • Countless computers vulnerable to MouseJack attack through wireless mice and keyboards

    Countless wireless mice and keyboards can be hacked from 100 yards away leaving their host machines and the networks they are attached to open to malware, Bastille has discovered.

  • Future Hosting Warns Hosting Clients Of The Risks Of Linux Ransomware

  • WiredTree Advises Linux Server Administrators To Patch GNU C Library Vulnerability

  • Thinking about glibc and Heartbleed, how do fix things

    After my last blog post Change direction, increase speed! (or why glibc changes nothing) it really got me thinking about how can we start to fix some of this. The sad conclusion is that nothing can be fixed in the short term. Rather than trying to make up some nonsense about how to fix this, I want to explain what’s happening and why this can’t be fixed anytime soon.

  • Alert: Patch Critical ‘Skeleton Key’ Flaw in Linux

    Information security experts warn enterprises to patch the serious “glibc” domain name system flaw now, with one likening it to a “skeleton key” that could be used to remotely take control of any system or device that runs the software.

  • Take these steps to adopt a big data approach to security

    As organizations race to acquire the means to capture, store and mine vast quantities of data, there’s another big data imperative emerging – protecting the enterprise and its data assets.

    As the “Insight Economy” continues to flourish, and computing velocity and transaction throughput grows, more data is generated, and more business models dependent on information emerge, the need for new tools to scale and streamline security becomes paramount.

  • Linux Mint site hacked, modified ISOs with backdoor distributed

  • Warning — Linux Mint Website Hacked and ISOs replaced with Backdoored Operating System

• Finance

  • If Sterling Goes Down on `Brexit,’ It’s Taking the Euro With It

    Britain’s referendum on its membership in the European Union isn’t just a threat to the pound. It’s raising currency-market risks across the continent.

    While the pound led declines among major currencies on Monday with its biggest slide since 2010, the euro had the second-largest drop, weighed down by signs of slowing growth. The cost of options protecting against losses on Europe’s 19-nation currency also jumped. The U.K.’s potential exit may damage trade and encourage other members to renegotiate their relationship with the EU, signaling scope for further losses in the euro in the run-up to Britain’s June 23 referendum.

  • BBC to stage referendum debate at Wembley Arena

  • London Stock Exchange in merger talks with Deutsche Boerse

    London Stock Exchange (LSE) has confirmed merger talks with Germany’s Deutsche Boerse.

    Shares in the LSE soared 17% after it said it was in “detailed discussions” with the German company about a “merger of equals”.

    Both companies said all their key businesses would continue to operate under their current brand names.

    It is the third time the LSE and Deutsche Boerse have tried to strike a deal, first in 2000 then in 2004-5.

  • International Coalition Calls for Trade Agreement Reform to Protect Global Digital Rights

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and an international coalition of groups representing Internet users, consumers, and scholars are calling for reform of the negotiation of global trade agreements in order to protect Internet and other digital rights for communities around the world.

    The “Brussels Declaration on Trade and the Internet” was signed by 20 groups and individuals concerned about secretive and closed trade negotiations, like the ones that were behind the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP). The TPP is now awaiting ratification from 12 countries but was under development for seven years before the completed text was released for the public to see. However, advisors for big corporations were allowed to view and comment on draft texts. As a result, TPP includes restrictive copyright enforcement regulations that will hurt free expression, innovation, and privacy on the Internet and elsewhere.

• Censorship

  • Proposed R150 000 fine for harmful material on social media

  • We want to protect kids against revenge porn – publications board

  • MPs call for public participation in “internet censorship bill”

  • Tough sanctions to act as a deterrent to malicious online content

  • MPs want public input on Internet ‘censorship bill’

  • MPs call for public participation for Internet censorship bill

  • South Africa government to introduce Bill regulating web content

  • MPs to be briefed on draft online bill

• Privacy

  • US spied on Ban to protect its oil firms: WikiLeaks

  • US NSA Targets World Leaders for US Geopolitical Interests

  • WikiLeaks Says US Spied On Meetings Of UN Chief, Angela Merkel, Benjamin Netanyahu

  • Report: US intercepted 2010 conversation between Bibi, Italian PM

  • US spied on Bibi asking Italian PM to intervene with Obama

  • Wikileaks: NSA spied on UN Secretary General, Merkel

  • Wikileaks says NSA listened to Merkel, Berlusconi and Netanyahu calls

  • US spied on UN chief’s meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Netanyahu-Berlusconi meeting: WikiLeaks

  • Wikileaks: US spied on UN to protect oil firms

  • Netanyahu asked Berlusconi for help to mend rift with Obama, leaked cable shows

  • New report: NSA did more than just tap Merkel’s phone

  • US spies snooped on Merkel’s calls to UN chief, Wikileaks reveals

  • US spied UN Chief, other world leaders: WikiLeaks

  • WikiLeaks: US spied on Merkel, Ban Ki-moon

  • Wikileaks says new documents show US bugged meetings between world leaders

  • WikiLeaks: NSA Bugged Meeting Between UN Chief and German Chancellor

  • Wikileaks report US spied on Berlusconi

  • NSA Eavesdropped on Netanyahu-Berlusconi Chat, Says Wikileaks

  • WikiLeaks Releases Documents on NSA’s Spying on World Leaders’ Negotiations

  • WikiLeaks: NSA tapped meeting between Netanyahu, Berlusconi

  • WikiLeaks claims US surveillance of Merkel wider than thought

  • Wikileaks: Italy Promised to Help Resolve Tensions Between Netanyahu, Obama in 2010

  • WikiLeaks Reveals American NSA Snooping on Netanyahu-Berlusconi Talks

  • Netanyahu begged Italy for help healing Obama rift, cable shows

  • Wikileaks reveals NSA spying on Netanyahu, Berlusconi and Ban Ki-moon

  • WikiLeaks reveals new NSA eavesdropping cache

  • Italy summons US envoy over reports Berlusconi was spied on

  • Italy summons US ambassador after reports US spied on Berlusconi

  • Italy summons U.S. ambassador amid NSA eavesdropping allegations

  • Italy summons US envoy over alleged spying on Berlusconi

  • NSA allegedly spied on talks between Angela Merkel and Ban Ki-moon

  • Italy summons American ambassador to ​clarify reports NSA spied on Berlusconi

  • Italy summons US ambassador over WikiLeaks spying reports

  • US surveillance of Angela Merkel wider than thought: WikiLeaks

  • Italy Summons U.S. Ambassador on Reports Berlusconi Was Spied On

  • WikiLeaks Just Published ‘Mostly Highly Classified Documents’ About NSA Bugs

  • US government bugged the phones of UN refugee agency officials and EU leaders, WikiLeaks releases claim

  • NSA Tapped Call Between Netanyahu and Berlusconi on US-Israel Relations

  • Wikileaks reveals NSA spying on world leaders

  • Netanyahu pleaded with Berslusconi to help him with Obama

  • Wikileaks: US National Security Agency spied on Netanyahu and Ban Ki-moon

  • WikiLeaks claims new reveals of US spying on allies around the globe

  • Italy Summons US Ambassador After Reports NSA. Spied on Berlusconi

  • 1ST LEAD WikiLeaks: US intelligence snooped on Merkel’s calls to UN chief By Joerg Blank and Marc Kalpidis, dpa

  • NSA spied on UN chief, world leaders: Wikileaks reveals

  • WikiLeaks bares new US spying on Merkel

  • Wikileaks: NSA spied on UN Secretary General and world leaders over climate and trade

  • Italy summons US envoy over Netanyahu-Berlusconi ‘spying’

  • US ambassador summoned over spy report

  • New WikiLeaks Release Exposes ‘Most Highly Classified’ NSA Spy Ops

  • Italy calls in US envoy over NSA tapping of Berlusconi’s phone calls

  • WikiLeaks: Top-Secret Documents Show NSA Spying on Foreign Leaders

  • NSA eavesdropped on Netanyahu, Berlusconi: WikiLeaks

  • US safer with fully encrypted phones: Former NSA/CIA chief

    Former NSA and CIA director Michael Hayden said Tuesday the government would be giving intelligence services one more entryway into Americans’ data should it prevail in the dispute with Apple over unlocking an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino terrorists.

  • Bill Gates Is Confused About Apple FBI Fight, Makes Everyone More Confused

    So basically, it seems that (once again) everyone is a bit confused about this. Gates’ initial answer was a bit wishy-washy and doesn’t actually get at the actual issue. He focuses on the question of the precedent — and he’s just flat out wrong on that. He’s right that the DOJ in this case is asking for a very specific thing, but setting the precedent that they can get that very specific thing will mean that similar things will be asked for in other cases — and he is wrong that it won’t put overall security at risk. The precedent here is everything, because once in place similar rulings can be used to proactively undermine security systems. That’s a big deal, even if Gates doesn’t recognize it.

    Gates also totally misrepresents the issue by talking about how law enforcement needs to enforce the law and stop crime. That’s a tautology. Everyone knows that. But that does not mean it needs to force companies to build systems to hack their customers. It’s a completely different question. Meanwhile, his “backing off” of the FT’s headline is still confused. No one’s saying that the government is completely blind. They have a ton of other information. Gates is, unfortunately, buying into the myth that the FBI needs everything. But that’s never been the way that the law works. We have a 4th amendment (and hell, a number of other amendments, including the 5th) for good reasons: and one of those reasons is that we expect the job of law enforcement to be hard. And that’s because convicting someone of a crime shouldn’t be easy. And we do that on the belief that if we make the job hard, we’re a lot less likely to convict innocent people.

    It’s too bad that Gates doesn’t appear to fully understand the issue, and is allowing yet more misinformation into this debate.

  • The List Of 12 Other Cases Where The DOJ Has Demanded Apple Help It Hack Into iPhones

    In our last post we noted that while FBI Director James Comey insists that it wasn’t trying to set a precedent, and this move was just about getting access to a single phone, law enforcement around the country was eagerly lining up behind the FBI to make similar requests. And… then last night it came out that even the DOJ is making similar requests in 12 other cases.

  • FBI Insists It’s Not Trying To Set A Precedent, But Law Enforcement Is Drooling Over Exactly That Possibility

    Yeah, except that’s clearly bullshit. They absolutely want the precedent, and if the FBI’s PR strategy is to now insist this precedent won’t be useful beyond this case, perhaps it should have coordinated those talking points with others in law enforcement. Because if you talk to them, they’re happy to tell everyone just how badly they want this precedent so they, too, can demand Apple build hacking tools into iPhones. Jenna McLaughlin at The Intercept has put together examples of law enforcement people practically drooling over the possibilities that will be opened up should the FBI win.

  • California lawmakers working to ban phone encryption by 2017

    California State Representative Jim Cooper (D-Elk Grove) is touting a bill that would force mobile devices to come with encryption off by default starting January 1, 2017. Any phone sold after that date would also have to be “capable of being decrypted and unlocked by its manufacturer or its operating system provider.”

• Civil Rights

  • What’s Being Said About Atheists In Arabic?

    I’ve previously wondered what horrors I might uncover were I able to see what the Arabic speaking world were saying about atheists on Twitter. Well, thanks to the good work of Twitter user @Ahmedaa1k, I need wonder no more. And it’s not good news. Please note, Ahmed is not the individual making these statements, but the one translating them. Here are some Arabic responses to the hash tag ‘atheism is not a crime’…

• Internet/Net Neutrality

  • Google Fiber Expanding Faster, Further — And Making Comcast Very Nervous

    While Google Fiber was originally seen as an adorable little experiment primarily designed to bring PR attention to a lack of broadband competition, over the last six months Wall Street has woken up to the fact that Google Fiber isn’t playing around. While the number of customers that can actually sign up for Google Fiber remains in the several hundred thousand range, Google’s announcements to tackle sprawling areas like Atlanta, San Antonio, Chicago, and Los Angeles has many Wall Street analysts changing their tune.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Hurt Locker Publicity Rights Lawsuit Brought By War Veteran Tossed Again On 1st Amendment Grounds

      Remember The Hurt Locker? Yes, the film that perhaps became best known for resulting in all kinds of legal action against those who pirated it also faced a legal challenge of its own. Jeffrey Sarver is a veteran of the Iraq War who claimed in California court that The Hurt Locker was totally about his own life, for which he wanted compensation, but also that it portrayed him in a falsely negative light, for which he also wanted compensation. In other words, it was a portrayal of him and also not, now gimme some money. That initial battle was decided on First Amendment grounds, with the court affirming the film as a transformative work protected as speech and, without any actual evidence that there was a false portrayal specifically of Sarver, who is not named in the film, there was no grounds for the suit.