04.08.14
Posted in GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Windows at 10:47 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Windows aging
Summary: The corporate press mentions the end of Windows XP (no more support) but rarely does it mention GNU/Linux; a migration to Free/libre software is simpler than commonly believed
THE apparent distraction efforts aside, today is the last day for Windows XP as a live operating system. In light of that serious event (relevant to many because Windows XP is still widely used), some articles don’t even mention GNU/Linux at all (see the comments, readers are not easily misled) and some provide only scarce coverage for remedies like Robolinux [1], despite an expensive press release [2,3] which was disseminated in various sites. We found only one article about Robolinux (there may be more, but they are not going ‘on the radar’).
This is rather disappointing. There are orders of magnitude (in terms of numbers) more articles about the Heartbleed® stunt (from Microsoft’s ‘former’ security chief) than about GNU/Linux as the logical route for computers that still run Windows XP. Users of these computers can use Wine or even the improved (but proprietary) versions of software that incorporates Wine. Inside a company they can rely on remotely-accessed application servers running Windows for troublesome applications, with rdesktop/vnc for remote access from GNU/Linux desktop (that’s what one can do at the worst scenarios) and Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols (SJVN) shows how trivially it’s done (very visual).
What we are hoping to find is that more people follow advice which recommends at least mentions migration to GNU/Linux now that Windows XP is unsupported [4-9] (there ought to be be more coverage like this). Putting the derogatory phrase aside, right now there is a big opportunity for GNU/Linux on the desktop [10], and not just because of Chrome OS (which is a GNU/Linux distribution but not a freedom-respecting one). People can now swap a PC running Windows XP with a shiny new Chromebook for just $99 and there are many options when it comes to Chromebooks [11]. Whatever people choose, they need to escape the trap of PRISM (mass surveillance) and proprietary software. BSD too is an option. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
-
Robolinux, a fast and easy to used Linux distribution based on Debian, has just received another major update, raising the version number to 7.4.2.
-
-
Robolinux, founded in 2011, invented and has released “Revolutionary Stealth VM” so you can run Windows XP or 7 inside all Linux Mint OS Editions or all Ubuntu Versions and Derivatives Virus Free for as long as you want to without the need for Microsoft security updates or anti virus anti malware software.
-
This week, Microsoft ends free support for Windows XP, cutting off the supply of security updates and bug fixes to anyone unwilling to pay the $200 per desktop fee MS is asking for extended support.
XP machines aren’t just going to explode at midnight on 8th April but with hackers and malware authors already comfortable with the antiquated OS, it won’t be long before some new exploit is discovered that will never be fixed. In short, if you value security then it makes sense to stop using XP.
-
It’s doubtful there are many people out there at this point that don’t already know that support for Windows XP will come to an end tomorrow, April 8th. Despite that, a number of individuals and businesses will continue to run the operating system.
This doesn’t likely apply to those maintaining an HTPC, as this tends to be a more geek-savvy set, but no doubt a few are out there. For those users, XBMC has passed its judgment, and the verdict is Linux.
-
Other than Windows, users and companies could look at Linux versions that run many Internet servers and those in companies. GNU/Linux is also at the foundation of Google Inc’s Android mobile OS.
Linux distributions include Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Elementary, Zorin and Lububtu. Ubuntu 12.04, for instance, comes pre-installed with the LibreOffice suite—a Microsoft Office equivalent. However, migrating applications from Windows XP to a non-Windows (read Linux) platform is easier said than done. But then, Linux distributions are free.
-
Microsoft’s decision to stop providing technical support for Windows XP after Tuesday has caused a great deal of confusion and consternation among the millions who still use the trusty old operating system. I’ve opined that there’s no reason to ditch Windows XP, which will continue to work as it always has, and that you can safeguard its security by installing a good antivirus/antimalware program.
However, there is another solution that is faster and more secure than Windows XP – or any other version of Windows. It’s Linux, the long-suffering stepchild of the PC industry.
-
Today, as Microsoft discontinues support for Windows XP, a 12 year old operating system, users all over the world find themselves with only a few options to choose from as they move on. It’s not surprising that Microsoft encourages users to migrate to Windows 8.1, but of course, there are other alternatives. The best one by far is Linux. With over 100 distributions, Linux not only offers flexibility, but also reliability and support.
-
Microsoft’s Windows XP dies on April 8, and I will not be among those who mourn its loss. The sad part about the death of XP is that those who still run it might not even realize that their operating system is now dead.
-
It used to be a rallying cry, then it turned into speculation and finally it became a joke: That the next year, or the one after that, or very soon at least, would be “the year of the Linux desktop”. Even the meaning of the term has changed a bit, depending on the time and the publication. Maybe it means the year when Linux will be a majority operating system on desktop computers. Maybe it means that Linux accounts for a significantly increased share of the market.
[...]
But as I have been using Linux in the past several years, it has increasingly occurred to me: We’re at a point where we have a large number of incredibly polished distributions available. You can run a Linux system for a standard user without barely ever touching the terminal. There’s a wealth of software, both applications and games available, most hardware works without any worry, and the days of manually editing xorg.conf, our old best friend, are pretty much gone.
-
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in Deception, GNU/Linux, Microsoft, Security at 10:17 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Microsoft software has back doors by design
Summary: A sense of perspective in the debate over security, especially now that Windows XP is left open to crackers (other than the NSA) and Microsoft is known to be ratting on so-called ‘customers’
LAST year it was confirmed that Microsoft had been telling the NSA how to crack its software before this software could even be patched. In other words, Microsoft gave back doors to the NSA. Microsoft gave a bunch of government-sanctioned crackers monopoly or preferential access to the data and computers of Microsoft’s so-called ‘customers’. Microsoft went further than this by providing the NSA with direct access to data of so-called ‘customers’ who put their data on Microsoft servers or used Microsoft networks such as Skype or Hotmail for communication.
“Microsoft gave a bunch of government-sanctioned crackers monopoly or preferential access to the data and computers of Microsoft’s so-called ‘customers’.”Microsoft hardly behaves like a software company. Microsoft is an informant. As one article put it some days ago: “The Snowden documents also revealed that Microsoft allegedly helped the NSA intercept web chats on its new Outlook.com portal.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s stuff such as this which CIOs and CTOs must remember when moving away from Windows and from Microsoft (altogether).
Now that we know there’s 'former' Microsoft staff behind the new Heartbleed® publicity blitz (maybe the latest of or an extension of the security smears against GNU/Linux, which basically accompany that end of Windows XP patches) we should remember what the alternative to GNU/Linux (and BSD) is. The main alternative is PRISM club — a club which conspires with the NSA against computer users.
Trending in Twitter right now is the hashtag “openssl” and the reason for this is Heartbleed®, which was released strategically on this date by a company managed by Microsoft’s ‘former’ security chief. It is a sure way to distract from GNU/Linux as the solution for security woes (associated with Windows XP). Instead of talking about how and why GNU/Linux is great for people to move to after Windows XP (for security reasons) people now talk about security vulnerabilities in GNU/Linux.
Another company which was founded by a ‘former’ Microsoft manager (Black Duck) is now promoting Fog Computing (surveillance-friendly computing in ‘clouds’) under the guise of “Future of Open Source”. How typical.
What needs to be done right now is activity. We must not be passive in the face of what seems like a smear campaign and publicity stunt, well timed and well managed by allies of Microsoft. We need to remind people that Microsoft is by far the worst thing that can happen to security because Microsoft not only has security holes but it also has security lapses by design. These security lapses were designed to facilitate illegal mass surveillance by entities that pay Microsoft in bribes and favours (as emerged in the press last year). This is not exclusive to the US. We saw stories about this even in Russia. “The discussion is getting really mainstream,” iophk writes about this. █
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in FUD, GNU/Linux, Security at 9:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Dagger in the heart of OpenSSL
Summary: A serious conflict of interests that nobody in the media is talking about; Codenomicon is headed by Microsoft’s Howard A. Schmidt
SOMETHING fishy was in the news today (since early this morning), including articles from GNU/Linux-oriented journalists [1] and blogs [2], some of which pointed out that a vulnerability discovered and published irresponsibly by the firm headed by Microsoft’s former Chief Security Officer (we wrote about his actions before) are already “patched by all Linux distros”.
Now, looking at the site set up by his firm, you might not know this. It lists the names of many GNU/Linux distributions along with a nasty picture (the one above). This coordinated release (disclosure) of a vulnerability on the last day of Windows XP security patches (they are through unless one pays Microsoft a lot of money) is rather suspicious to us. It came with a trademark-like name, a dot-com Web site (yes .com), and soon we are guaranteed to see lots of FUD saying that GNU/Linux is not secure. We already know that the vulnerabilities industry is well inside Microsoft’s board and at highest level (look at John Thompson from Symantec; he is now Microsoft’s new chairman).
We don’t need to wait for the Microsoft press or a whisper campaign to use Heartbleed® to tell people (again) that Free software, Linux and GNU are very “bad” and are a danger for the Web (some suspect that this bug is the result of NSA intervention in code development — a subject we’ll tackle another day for sure).
“This is a man whose high-paying job required that he beats GNU/Linux at security.”Jacon Appelbaum (of Tor) says that this release was coordinated (with a date and everything) but not responsible at all because even the OpenSSL site, the FBI’s official site (whom Howard Schmidt worked with) and many more remain vulnerable. It should be noted that the flaw has existed for two years, so the timing of this disclosure is interesting. Not too long ago we showed what seemed like Microsoft's role in a campaign to paint GNU/Linux insecure and dangerous becuase of Windows XP's EOL. It was a baseless campaign of FUD, media manipulation, and distortion of facts, ignoring, as always, the elephant in the room (Windows).
For those who treat it like some innocent development at a random time in the news, remember that Howard A. Schmidt, the Chairman of the Board of Codenomicon, was the Chief Security Officer for Microsoft. He joined Codenomicon a year and a half ago. This is irresponsible disclosure and journalists who ignore the conflict of interests (namely Schmidt being the head after serving Microsoft) are equally irresponsible (for irresponsible journalism). They may unwittingly be playing a role in a “Scroogled”-like campaign.
Just go to Codenomicon’s Web site and find it described in large fonts as “A Member of the Microsoft Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) Pro Network” (in many pages). There are lots of pages like this one about involvement in Microsoft SDL.
So to summarise, what does Microsoft have to do with Heartbleed? We probably need to ask Howard Schmidt. This is a man whose high-paying job required that he beats GNU/Linux at security. █
Related/contextual items from the news:
-
-
-
A new vulnerability was announced in OpenSSL 1.0.1 that allows an attacker to reveal up to 64kB of memory to a connected client or server (CVE-2014-0160) which may consist of our X.509 certificates, user names and passwords, instant messages, emails and business critical documents and communication. According to OpenSSL Security Advisory report Neel Mehta from Google Security has discovered this bug.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 4:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Linux
Linux 3.15
-
-
-
For those not keeping up to date on all of the Phoronix articles covering the Linux 3.15 kernel changes that landed in the past week, here’s a recap of the changes that were merged so far half-way through the Linux 3.15 merge window.
Graphics Stack
-
The very large DRM pull request for the Linux 3.15 kernel was submitted just moments ago with significant updates to the open-source Linux graphics drivers.
-
-
Wayland’s reference compositor Weston now has support for using the new XWayland DDX support that was merged into the X.Org Server.
-
Users of the Samsung Exynos DRM driver will see several updates appear with the Linux 3.15 kernel.
Users of the Samsung Exynos DRM for display support with Samsung’s recent ARM SoCs can find the addition of a MIPI-DSI driver, S6E8AA0 MIPI-DSI-based panel drivers with accompanying DeviceTree bindings, a LD9040 parallel-panel driver, super device support, and other fixes.
NVIDIA
-
In my testing of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS with the Linux 3.13 kernel and Mesa 10.1 for the open-source graphics driver stack provided by Nouveau for NVIDIA GeForce graphics hardware, only the Fermi and Kepler GPUs are running reliably. While these newer NVIDIA GPUs are running stable with Ubuntu 14.04, the performance is still a wreck due to lack of reclocking.
-
-
The xf86-video-nouveau driver as of today supports server-managed file descriptors. As explained in the earlier Phoronix article, Last month we wrote about Red Hat working on a suid root wrapper for the X.org Server and other improvements being led by Red Hat’s Hans de Goede to run Xorg in more configurations without needing root support. As part of this, sever managed file descriptors (FDs) has been one of the changes needed by the X.Org graphics drivers for supporting this change of running the xorg-server without root rights. Besides needing changes to the DDX drivers and the X.Org Server (those changes are landing with X.Org Server 1.16 this summer), systemd-logind is also needed.
Benchmarks
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 4:37 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Awards
-
Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced that it has won the prestigious Channel Middle East award for ‘Software Vendor of the Year’ 2014. The award recognizes Red Hat’s effective channel strategy and focus to empower its partners and introduce effective programs to drive growth within the channel. The Channel Middle East Awards serve as a platform for honouring companies that are top of their class when it comes to channel development and market expansion in the region.
People
-
-
Linux and open source software have demonstrated that collaborative development is a successful model for rapid innovation in the tech sector. Now that model is being applied in other industries from health care, to city government, to education.
Linus Torvalds vs. Kay Sievers (Red Hat)
-
Kay Sievers, a well-known open-source software engineer, is a key developer of systemd, a system management framework for Linux-based operating systems. Sievers was banned by kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds for failing to fix an issue that caused systemd to interact with the Linux kernel in negative ways. Specifically, the command line entry “debug” ran both the base kernel’s debugging routine and that of systemd, potentially flooding some systems.
-
-
Never one to mince words, Linux kernel chief Linus Torvalds has once again handed a verbal smackdown to a Linux developer, this time for failing to address a serious bug that could prevent systems from booting.
Google
Cisco
-
Red Hat is joining in with Cisco and working with its OpFlex protocol in Netzilla’s ACI take on nearly but not quite open software-defined networking. Red Hat sees ACI involvement as a way of spreading its KVM technology and outflanking VMware.
-
-
Cisco has unveiled an openly defined protocol for controlling network hardware, but it lacks an essential ingredient: participation from other network hardware makers.
The new OpFlex protocol was announced by Cisco on Wednesday. It is designed to let admins transfer policy commands to any network hardware that supports OpFlex. A draft of the protocol has already been submitted to the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) with the hopes of becoming a recognized standard.
Expansion
-
“More than half of our associates are located outside of the U.S., so you can assume that about half of these roles we’re hiring will be out of the U.S.,” she says.
-
In other news, Red Hat jobs are in the news today.
Fedora
-
-
-
My apologies — it’s been a busy week and I’m swamped with Cloud SIG effort, other work stuff, and a kid with a stomach bug. Plus, these things turn out to take a long time to write. (Who knew?!) The Fedora.next 2014 Update series will back next week with governance structure, current status (with many updates!), and some big-picture ideas.
Fedora 21
-
“KDE Frameworks 5 don’t provide any UI or applications on their own, but are meant as extensions and addons for the Qt toolkit. In future there will be various desktop shells like Plasma 2 and applications built on top of KDE Frameworks 5 providing the full-featured KDE desktop,” said Red Hat’s Jaroslav Reznik.
-
Besides approving Mesa 10.1 for Fedora 20, the Fedora Engineering and Steering Committee approved today several features/changes to be found in Fedora 21.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 4:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Package Managers
-
Synaptic is a graphical package management program for apt. It provides the same features as the apt-get command-line utility with a GUI front-end based on GTK+. Most importantly, users can install, remove, upgrade and downgrade single and multiple packages.
-
-
16 years old and still ever changing: Not even the name remains stable. What used to be called “deity” was announced as “Apt”, first released as “APT” [1], shipped as “apt-get” and “apt-cache”, interpreted as “A Package Tool” and “Advanced Package Tool” and is now also available as “apt” … But the initial wisdom holds: “it’s still a good word in its own right”. And this word has surely influenced the way we manage our software on phones, servers and space stations.
-
“We need ensure that we cater to our users, and there’s millions of them. From those running the latest software in unstable, to people who simply want a rock solid core release. The size of Debian is increasing, and will reach a point where we’re unable to guarantee basic compatibility with other packages, or the length of time it takes to do so becomes exponentially longer, unless something changes,” said Neil McGovern.
Software
-
Mutter can replace Openbox in LXDE, and bring a modern, elegant look to your desktop. To experiment with it, install the software package and start it…
-
Comparison
-
Threehosts.com compares Mint, Ubuntu and Debian to show which is the best Linux Distribution.
-
All benchmarking for this article was done from the same Intel Core i7 4770K “Haswell” system with HD Graphics 4600, 16GB of RAM, and 120GB Samsung SSD 840. No hardware or settings changed between the clean installs of the different Linux distributions. The operating systems tested from this Intel Core i7 desktop were:
- Debian 7.4 “Wheezy” stable with the Linux 3.2 kernel, GNOME Shell 3.4.2.1, Mesa 8.0.5, and GCC 4.7.
- Debian 8.0 “Jessie” testing with the Linux 3.12 kernel, GNOME Shell 3.8.4, Mesa 9.2.2, and GCC 4.8.2.
- Debian “Sid” unstable with the Linux 3.13 kernel on top of the Jessie changes.
- Ubuntu 14.04 with the Linux 3.13 kernel, Unity 7.1.2 desktop, and Mesa 10.1-rc3.
Init Systems
Branches Debate
-
-
So there you have it. There is a simple summary for all of this:
Debian Stable if your first priority is a rock-solid system, and you don’t necessarily need to support the very latest hardware. This is often the case if you are setting up a server of some sort, but it may also be true if you are going to use a bit older .system as a desktop workstation,
Debian Testing if you want or need to have the latest hardware support, kernel dvelopments and advanced filesystems
Derivative distributions if you want a lot of additional packages included in the base distribution, thus saving you the time and effort of installing and configuring them.
Installer
-
-
-
The Debian Installer team has just announced that the first Alpha build of the Debian 8 “Jessie” version is now available for download and testing.
Wheezy
-
The Debian project has just released the Live CD version of the recently launched Debian 7.4 in several separate images with various flavors.
-
-
“At the moment it seems likely that an extended security support timespan for squeeze is possible. The plan is to go ahead, sort out the details as as it happens, and see how this works out and whether it is going to be continued with wheezy. The rough draft is that updates will be delivered via a separate suite (e.g. squeeze-lts), where everyone in the Debian keyring can upload in order to minimise bottlenecks and allow contributions by all interested parties,” said Moritz Muehlenhoff in the official mailing list.
Derivatives
-
Parsix GNU/Linux, a live and installation DVD based on Debian, aiming to provide a ready-to-use, easy-to-install desktop and laptop-optimized operating system, is now at version 6.0 Test 3 and is ready for testing.
-
Tails, The Amnesic Incognito Live System, version 0.23, is out.
-
Clonezilla Live is a Linux distribution that is designed to do bare metal backup and recovery on a wide variety of file systems and operating systems. It’s very similar to other older cloning software, such as True Image or Norton Ghost.
The distribution is based on Debian and, as usual, the developers have upgraded the underlying GNU/Linux operating system and the release is now based on the Debian Sid repository, as of March 31, 2014.
-
Grml is not a regular Linux distribution for regular users. It’s packed with a sysadmin’s favorite tools and allows admins with packages for installation, deployment and system rescue. This latest version has been dubbed Ponywagon and it comes with a couple of interesting features.
LMDE
-
Only the Cinnamon and MATE editions of Linux Mint Debian Edition 201403 were released. If there’s going to be a KDE edition, it probably will be released in about a month. Prominent features of this release are support (in the installer) for computers with UEFI firmware and for GPT partitions. But the installer, as you will read in the next section, is the weakest part of this distribution, a problem it shares with most distributions that are based on Debian. And the cause of that weakness is that it does not use the Debian Installer. Rather, the installer is a custom application that does not belong on a modern desktop operating system.
-
When I wrote about the Linux Mint Debian Edition Release Candidate last week, I promised to look at it in more detail when the final release was made.
Knoppix
-
-
Version 7.3.0 of Knoppix is based on the usual picks from Debian stable (wheezy) and newer Desktop packages from Debian/testing and Debian/unstable (jessie). It uses kernel 3.13.0 and xorg 7.7 (core 1.15.0) for supporting current computer hardware.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 3:36 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Trisquel
-
The developers take pride in the fact that Trisquel is a completely free operating system and it will remain free forever. The Linux distribution also doesn’t integrate any applications that are not completely free.
elementary OS
Ubuntu Studio
Mint
-
The biggest challenge for Windows XP users switching to Linux Mint is having to change the programs you’ve known and used for years. Fortunately, some programs are available on both Linux and Windows. In addition, there are Linux programs that duplicate the functionality of your favorite Windows programs.
-
Some Windows XP users might be considering Linux MInt as a replacement operating system. But just replacing the operating system isn’t enough, you’ll also need Linux applications that will replace the ones you used in Windows. ZDNet has a roundup of Linux Mint applications that might fill the void when making your move from Windows XP to Linux Mint.
-
It’s been a while since I’ve done a review. In fact, it’s been a while since I’ve posted in any form, because this semester has turned out to be a lot busier than I anticipated. It likely will remain so until it ends; the only reason why I can post a review right now is because of spring break, and even that has been busy for me. Anyway, I initially wanted to do a review of Frugalware because it looked intriguing, but I couldn’t get the live USB to work. I’m reviewing this (which I had planned for later) instead. If you’ve passed by this blog, you’ve probably already seen my thoughts on Linux Mint, so I’ll skip the introduction. I tried this updated ISO file as a live USB made with MultiSystem. Follow the jump to see what it’s like. There isn’t too much that has changed since last year, so I will simply link the review from then, point out any changes, and put out any other thoughts that occur to me about this.
-
-
Linux Mint is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu, but that wasn’t always the case. Now, the creator of Linux Mint has just announced Linux Mint 17 “Qiana,” which will be released almost a couple of months after Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr) is made available.
-
-
The MintBox 2 is a small form factor, fanless PC designed to run quietly at low power.
The machine features a die-cast, solid metal case which acts as a passive heatsink and cools down components without needing any fans. While the case design adds to the weight it reduces noise, with the only sound coming from the internal 500GB SATA hard drive.
-
Clement Lefebvre, the creator of the Linux Mint distribution, has just announced that the next version of the Mint operating system will be called “Qiana” and it should be available by the end of May 2014.
Linux Mint is one of the most popular Linux distributions out there and it’s only superseded by Ubuntu. Actually, Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu and makes use of its repositories, but that may not happen for very long anymore.
-
Peppermint
-
This time however I have been lucky enough to get not just one member of the team but two. I recently sent an email to the Peppermint Linux team with a series of questions and what follows are the answers provided by Shane Remington (COO of Peppermint) and Kendall Weaver (CTO of Peppermint).
-
When I’m introducing someone to Linux, I don’t believe the “all or nothing” approach works, so if you are new to Linux and would like to see the benefits it can offer you, download and burn onto disk the latest version of Peppermint and follow these steps.
-
As you may or may not know, I have recently acquired a HP Chromebook and my first article about the Chromebook looked at whether it was possible to run another operating system alongside ChromeOS.
Today I am taking a look at Peppermint 4. Peppermint 4 is designed as a hybrid operating system aimed at cloud computing and also average ordinary everyday home use.
I last reviewed Peppermint Linux in August 2012 (Peppermint 3) and my overall impression then was positive. In this review I will review Peppermint Linux from scratch and I will also look at what has changed since version 3 to show how Peppermint has moved on.
-
Open source makes a lot of sense in rural areas and in third world countries. Lightweight and open source systems that are easy to use, and which allow normal users to become power users and contribute back to the open source community, can be ideal for countries like Cameroon, located in middle Africa.
-
As the program has grown over the past years, the cost of licensing for the video editing software has grown as well, beyond the operating budget of the organization. Faced with this challenge, PAGE turned to open source technology. Elizabeth McIntosh, a member of the Steering Committee for PAGE, led the charge. “I’d heard about the open source movement through my friendship with Brendan Szulik at Duke, and thought it might be able to help us.” PAGE participants historically used Final Cut Pro to document and edit their digital stories, but this year will use open source alternatives Kdenlive and Blender. Both offer a good user experience, without the heavy scale-up costs associated with non open-source solutions. The ability to rapidly learn the technology and to use it as the program continues to grow are the largest benefits.
Bodhi
-
One of the things I am working on for our Bodhi 3.0.0 release this summer is a simple GUI system update tool written in Elementary and the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries. Today I would like to share an early version of this tool I am calling eepDater (pronounced epp-date-er), which is written in python utilizing the EFLs.
-
As promised I’ve put together our first Bodhi Linux disc that is built on top of the upcoming Ubuntu 14.04 release. Keep in mind this is a very early image not intended for production machines. There will be issues.
Lubuntu
-
Lubuntu is based on LXDE, a very light desktop environment that probably has even lower hardware requirements than Windows XP. It’s a favorite for older systems and it’s the lightest distro in the Ubuntu family.
-
Cleide Isabel! She managed to grab the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th place with her photos: ‘Vista Do Fitz Roy’, ‘Vale’, ‘Arvore’, ‘Daisie’ and ‘Copan02′.
-
Lubuntu 14.04 LTS Beta 2 (Trusty Tahr) has been officially released and it has joined its brethren from the Ubuntu family, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, and Ubuntu GNOME.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
Posted in News Roundup at 3:30 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Community
-
I just wanted to let you folks know that I am recruiting for a community manager to join my team at Canonical.
-
Mobile
-
Canonical has been working on its vision of complete OS convergence for quite a while now and the first results have already appeared, but it seems that Microsoft is also trying to do the same and it has called it Universal Apps.
-
The Ubuntu Phone is set to launch this year. With more and more major players getting on board as hardware suppliers, you can bet the darling of Linux mobility will slowly find its way into every market imaginable. The big question mark is the US market. With Android and IOS having a stranglehold on US customers, can this new mobile platform make it? I firmly believe that the Ubuntu Phone not only can be your next mobile device, it should be. I’ll give you 10 reasons why.
-
Server
-
No, they’re not kidding. As Sally Radwan, Canonical’s cloud product marketing manager, recently explained, “A few years ago, the cloud team at Canonical decided that the future of cloud computing lies not only in what clouds are built on, but what runs on it, and how quickly, securely, and efficiently those services can be managed. This is when Juju was born; our service orchestration tool built for the cloud and inspired by the way IT architects visualize their infrastructure: boxes representing services, connected by lines representing interfaces or relationships. Juju’s GUI simplifies searching, dragging and dropping a ‘Charm’ into a canvas to deploy services instantly.”
Integration
-
“An example of Ubuntu convergence in action. Here you see the Weather Channel powered Ubuntu weather app first the size of a phone, then a tablet, then desktop, and the content all re-aligns to make the very best use of the space. We then shrink the app back down and everything continues to adjust. All from a single code base,” wrote Jono Bacon on Google+.
-
I remember, when the good folks at Canonical introduced the Ubuntu tour feature on their website, I wished for there to be a way to access my Ubuntu desktop via a browser for real. Although it is possible to use VNC clients to remotely access your Ubuntu desktop from anywhere including your Android phone, it would be sure good to be able to access your desktop from any computing device without having to install a client side application.
Ubuntu One
-
-
Many of us had hoped it was an April Fool’s prank. But Ubuntu One will, in fact, no longer be available as of June 1, 2014 and all data will be wiped July 31, 2014. This will leave a great number of Ubuntu users without a cloud service. Fear not, intrepid users, there are plenty of cloud services and tools available – each with native Linux clients – ready and willing to take your Ubuntu One data and keep it in the cloud.
-
-
-
Ubuntu One always struck me as Canonical’s attempt to emulate Apple and other companies by offering a cloud-based file storage and music service. I’ve often wondered how well it was doing in terms of users and if it was making Canonical any money. Alas, Ubuntu One is no more according to the Canonical Blog. So I guess that answers those questions.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Criticism
-
Canonical got a lot of flak over the years for the decisions regarding its Ubuntu operating system, some of them justified, but most were just unfair. The truth is not in the middle as you might think because there are much bigger interests at play.
-
Canonical has had a rocky relationship at times with the rest of the open source community. The company has sometimes gone in its own direction and rather blithely disregarded criticism from others in free software. Datamation takes a look at the root of Canonical’s problem and thinks that it’s more about relationships than it is about specific software issues.
Ubuntu 14.04
-
-
Upgrading the Linux kernel and Mesa/X.Org graphics driver components past what Canonical shipped in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS and other recent releases of Ubuntu Linux isn’t actually that hard… Here’s the Phoronix-recommended approach for Linux enthusiasts wishing to upgrade their key software components for yielding better open-source graphics driver performance and features.
-
For system administrators or those just wishing to dive into the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS kernel to see how it differs from a vanilla Linux 3.13 configuration, Leann Ogasawara of Canonical has posted a mailing list message with various resources that outline the patches they’re carrying with their 3.13-based kernel, their kernel configuration, the configuration against Ubuntu 13.10, etc.
-
Stay tuned for the NVIDIA and Intel results that will accompany the AMD Radeon performance numbers in the days ahead. Overall, the Ubuntu 14.04 LTS open graphics experience is decent with Linux 3.13 and Mesa 10.2-devel although Linux gamers and enthusiasts are encouraged to either use the proprietary drivers or at least upgrade to the latest Linux kernel (3.14+) and Mesa 10.2-devel for the best OpenGL performance and best feature-set.
-
Ubuntu developers are making constant improvements to Unity8 and Mir, and they are also registering good progress towards implementing new features.
-
Due to Ubuntu 14.04 shipping with the Linux 3.13 kernel, a specially-crafted “i915_bdw” driver has been introduced for offering Intel Broadwell graphics support in this upcoming Ubuntu Linux release.
-
Download Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr here. For the first time, every flavour of Ubuntu 14.04 (Desktop, Server, Edubuntu, Lubuntu, etc) has been approved for LTS status, meaning they’ll all be supported for a minimum of three years, and some of them will be supported for five.
-
-
Code-named Trusty Tahr, 14.04 will be a Long Term Support release, meaning Canonical will support what you get in April for five years.
-
-
-
-
The next version of the world’s preeminent Linux distro, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, is almost upon us. Late last night, the final beta of 14.04 Trusty Tahr (an African wild goat) was released, with the final build due on April 17. Trusty Tahr is the first long-term support (LTS) build of Ubuntu in two years, and is thus contains a lot of exciting features that thousands (millions?) of Ubuntu 12.04 users can’t wait to get their hands on.
-
There were hopes that the Linux 3.14 kernel would make it into Ubuntu 14.04 LTS given that it has much better Intel Broadwell graphics support, other new hardware enablement, and a ton of new features. Sadly, it looks like only the Linux 3.13 kernel will be shipped by default in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. Fortunately, with the new hardware enablement strategy of Ubuntu Long Term Support releases, in 14.04.1 or 14.04.2 we will see a new kernel (along with Mesa/X components) back-ported from later release series.
Permalink
Send this to a friend
« Previous Page — « Previous entries « Previous Page · Next Page » Next entries » — Next Page »
Content is available under CC-BY-SA