02.24.12

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Bill G Got One Thing Right

  That was written the year after I adopted GNU/Linux and he was right on all those points. I went from being a newbie to being able to do everything a teacher normally would do with that other OS in just a few days. The download took more time, 10 days of nights and weekends on dial-up… I replaced Lose ’95 on five old PCs in my classroom and never looked back. GNU/Linux was clearly superior to the software we were using on Macs and other PCs in the school.

• Linux as an Automation Host

  Automation is a perennial technical buzzword among System Administrators (SAs) and in management circles alike. Business owners and managers demand automation with the thought that it will save “man hours” and possibly decrease the need for a full technical staff. System Administrators realize that this is not the case nor is staff reduction the inevitable result of automation. The bad news is that the purpose of automation isn’t to reduce staff numbers. The good news is that there are several reasons for automation that make it a worthwhile pursuit.

• Kernel Space

  • Graphics Stack

    • Open-Source Radeon HD 7000 Code Coming Soon?

      Where oh where is the open-source support for the “Southern Islands” GPUs, a.k.a. the AMD Radeon HD 7000 series? It’s been over two months since the first hardware launched and there still is no open-source Linux driver support available.

    • Mesa 8.1-devel On Radeon Gallium3D

      Earlier this week I shared a pleasant surprise in Mesa 8.1 Radeon Gallium3D with some significant performance improvements to be found in the current Mesa Git code-base for the “R600g” driver in some OpenGL games. In this article is a more diverse look at the current state of Mesa 8.1 development for R600 Gallium3D and comparative benchmarks from every major release going back to Mesa 7.10.

• Applications

  • 5 Best Free Linux Terminal Multiplexers

    The nuts and bolts of Linux seem destined to be increasingly hidden away from the desktop user. The continuing development of popular desktop environments offering attractive interfaces and fancy features shows no sign of abatement. We note that one of the most popular Linux distributions, Ubuntu, is even going to replace its application menus with a “head-up display” (HUD) box. However intuitive and slick the HUD will be implemented, and how advanced, in general, desktop environments become, there is little prospect that the faithful terminal will be consigned to the recycle bin in the near future. There is simply too much power at the hands of a terminal for many experienced Linux users.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • The Perfect Media Server – Ubuntu 11.10 [Sabnzbd+/Sickbeard/Couch Potato/Headphones/Serviio]

    • ISPConfig 3 With Xeround Cloud Database Service

    • Expert Tips and Tricks With Kate and Konsole

    • Install Cinnamon 1.3.1 in Fedora 16

  • Wine

    • Wine Translators wanted

    • Bordeaux 2.0.10 for Linux Released

      The Bordeaux Technology Group released Bordeaux 2.0.10 for Linux today. Bordeaux 2.0.10 is a maintenance release that fixes a number of small bugs. With this release we have updated winetricks, fixed a bug in the Bordeaux GUI, fixed a bug in the Cellar manager and made other small bug fixes.

  • Games

    • Indie darling Blocks That Matter sells 200K units, mostly on computers

    • Beans Quest

• Distributions

  • New Releases

    • Dream Studio 11.10

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat’s KVM Overtakes Xen and Service Providers Lead the Way

      This week Ubuntu sponsor company Canonical released the results of its latest Ubuntu Server User Survey. Over 6,000 Ubuntu Server users from around the world responded. Possibly the most interesting result is that although VMware still leads, Red Hat’s KVM has overtaken the Citrix backed Xen as the most common host environment for virtualized Ubuntu Server instances. According to the report, this is the fist time in the three years that Canonical has been conducting this survey that KVM has beat out Xen.

    • Oracle extends Linux support to 10 years

      Oracle has reaffirmed that it’s in the Linux business to stay by extending the support lifecycle of its own-brand build to ten years, and tempting Red Hat users with a trial offer of its Ksplice patching system.

    • Fedora

      • Fedora 16 KDE

        Fedora 16 was released a while back, and I’ve finally gotten around to checking it out. For this review though I’ve opted for the KDE version of Fedora. As you may already know, Fedora comes in multiple spins including GNOME, Xfce, KDE and others.

      • Raspberry Pi school computer to run cut-down Fedora

        Early adopters of the Raspberry Pi $25 computer will be offered a cut down and customised Fedora ‘remix’ compiled to run on the system’s ARM microprocessor, it has been confirmed.

        The first Raspberry Pi is just bare circuit board for now but developers at Toronto’s Seneca College have worked hard to fit a Fedora image on to a 2GB SD card to boot the computer into a GUI, complete with a small suite of applications and admin tools.

      • Fedora puts back Btrfs deployment yet again

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu crests new wave of mobile computing solutions

          The popular Linux distributor is helping travellers turn smart phones into laptops, but we’ve barely imagined the potential

        • seems McDonalds is happy to stick with Jaunty…

        • Ubuntu: Community Developer Interview | Boden Matthews

          It’s always nice to follow the development of Linux distributions such as Ubuntu and Fedora. But what about the people behind the scenes that use these operating systems. The developers. The community. The Users. Behind all those pixels that make up your display, there’s a whole wide range of interesting geeks with plenty of talent to contribute in many ways to the future of Linux development.

          Geeks of all ages, young and old. I found one such person for which I briefly interviewed for Unixmen. A promising young developer who is still in his teens. Boden Matthews is a community developer who is currently working on a version of Ubuntu designed for the HP TouchPad. And it seems to be an interesting project with potential.

        • Canonical CEO admits Unity was a painful change

          LINUX VENDOR Canonical has acknowledged that Ubuntu’s shift to the Unity user interface was painful for many of its users but insisted it hasn’t led to a decline in the popularity of the Linux distribution.

        • Ubuntu 12.04 Updates: The First 12.04 Beta to Be Released Next Week

          According to a development update posted on Ubuntu Fridge by the Ubuntu developer Daniel Holbach, Ubuntu 12.04 is on its way to release the first beta next week, on February 29, after the user interface freeze which occured today. “Today User Interface Freeze and Beta Freeze will kick in, next week we will do a test rebuild of the whole archive and Beta 1 will get out next week as well.”

          Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin is a LTS (long-term support) release and it will ship with Linux kernel 3.2 by default, GNOME 3.2, Unity 5.4.0, LibreOffice 3.5. According to Ubuntu Kernel Release Manager, Leann Ogasawara, as soon as new stable versions of the 3.2 kernel branch will be released, they will be included in Ubuntu. “With Ubuntu 12.04 being an LTS release, our primary focus has been on stability. As such, we chose to ship with a v3.2 based kernel and will continue to rebase to the latest v3.2.y stable kernels as they become available.”

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Introducing Descent|OS: Ubuntu With GNOME 2

            Softpedia is once again proud to introduce a new Linux distribution based on the popular Ubuntu OS from Canonical, this time with a modernized GNOME 2 desktop environment.

          • Hands On with the Cinnamon Desktop

            As one of the GNOME users who’s still fond of the old-school GNOME desktop, the recent release of Cinnamon 1.3.1 caught my eye. While it’s not exactly GNOME 2.x, it’s close enough that most users with a fondness for the 2.x days will feel right at home.

            The GNOME Shell (and Ubuntu’s Unity) are making lots of rapid progress, and they may (or may not) be the bee’s knees for many users. I’ve been using Linux desktops for a long time now, so I’m probably not the target audience for GNOME Shell or Unity. Either way, I’d rather spend my time writing and learning about how to use server-side software than re-learning how to use my desktop.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Smackdown: Google TV vs Apple TV vs Boxee vs Roku vs…

    Throughout this smackdown, there are links to DeviceGuru’s in-depth reviews of all five devices. The reviews provide lots more detail on each device’s unique capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses, and also include comprehensive screenshot tours that demonstrate the device’s user interface and operation.

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Android 5.0 ‘Jelly Bean’ launching in Q2? Eh, maybe

      • Samsung announces armor-plated Android, the Rugby Smart

        Rugged phones have been around forever, but melding extreme survivability into a true Android smartphone that’s not laughably large or looks like an off-road tire is a challenge. Samsung feels it has created a tough device that has beaten the odds.

        The $99.99 Samsung Rugby Smart certainly has a rough and tumble name. The company claims it’s built to meet both the U.S. military Mil-spec 810f and the IP67 international standards for ruggedness. In a nutshell, that means the phone should be able to withstand submersion in 3 feet of water for 30 minutes, plus prolonged exposure to blowing dust, driving rain, extreme temperatures, and the odd drop onto hard surfaces.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • The Problem with Tablets and the Spark Solution

      It’s real: Tablet PCs have arrived. According to a recent DePaul University study, one in every dozen airline passengers is using a tablet PC or e-book reader at any given moment.

      Like many of you, I got a tablet (a Nook, if you’re interested) as a gift this last December (thanks Jeanette!). It’s pretty nice. I read Wired on it now, check news, post tweets occasionally. But it’s moderately frustrating that I can’t really do anything worthwhile on this machine.

Free Software/Open Source

• Actually, Open Source Code Is Better: Report

  Free and open source software such as Firefox, LibreOffice, and Linux is enjoying increasingly widespread adoption on business and home computers alike, but every once in a while a naysayer will still pipe up with one vague concern or another about open source quality, in particular.

• REPORT: Open Source Software on Par With Proprietary Code Software

• Open Source Code Quality On Par with Proprietary Code in 2011 Coverity Scan Report

• Piwik 1.7 adds new reports, improves security

  The Piwik development team has released version 1.7 of its open source web analytics suite. The major update brings performance improvements and adds a number of new features, including additional reports.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla Stocks the Shelves for an App Store Grand Opening

      Mozilla is about ready to invite developers to submit applications to be distributed on the Mozilla Marketplace, the organization’s upcoming app store. The Mozilla Marketplace will be a cross-platform distribution system that works on a variety of operating systems. By not nailing its store down to a particular OS, Mozilla says developers will have an easier time building and maintaining their wares.

    • Mozilla to open ‘agnostic’ apps store

      .

      “The Web is the largest platform in the world. We are enabling the Web to be the marketplace, giving developers the opportunity to play on the biggest playing field imaginable,” Mozilla innovation chief Todd Simpson told theinquirer.net.

    • Mozilla’s Open Phone Idea

    • Mozilla takes action against CAs issuing man-in-the-middle certificates

    • Firefox’s Jetpack extensions reach mobile browsing

• SaaS

  • TryStack offers a free OpenStack sandbox

    Developers who are interested in testing their applications in an OpenStack environment can now do so for free and without having to configure their own cloud. TryStack is a free service that is supported by Cisco, Dell, Equinix, HP, NTT and Rackspace, and provides “156 cores, 1040GB memory and 59.1TB of disk storage” to allow developers to run their code on a reasonably substantial system. Equinix provides the data centre space and Dell provided the servers; HP plans to add a zone in a different data centre so developers can also experience geographic diversity in the system.

  • OpenStack Promotes Quantum Networking to Core Project Status

    Quantum is a networking component for OpenStack that delivers networking technologies that that no other cloud stack (that I know off) provides. It first showed up in the OpenStack Diablo release as an incubated project and now it’s set to be a core project for the Folsom release set for the fall of 2012.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Tempest in a Teapot: Intel AppUp Promotes LibreOffice

    So, I see some good and bad in this. On the one hand AppUp does make it easy for users of that other OS to use FLOSS like LibreOffice and VLC. On the other it does nothing to promote FLOSS as a platform except to get end users familiar with FLOSS applications. That is a typical step in migration from that other OS to GNU/Linux but it also helps end users remain comfortable with that other OS. Ultrabooks are certainly not small cheap computers, either. They are netbooks on steroids with lots of non-free software and fire-breathing CPUs.

  • Intel joins The Document Foundation, pushes LibreOffice

    Intel has begun distributing the open source LibreOffice suite via its online AppUp Store, and has joined the board of The Document Foundation (TDF) – a decision that will have many of the Redmond old-guard fuming.

• Education

  • E Cape IT graduates receive open source boost

    Thirty-five unemployed information technology (IT) graduates have boosted their marketability and chances of finding employment after an intensive, week-long open source software workshop organised by information and communication technology (ICT) incubator the Eastern Cape Information Technology Initiative (ECITI).

  • Whamcloud Goes Global with Lustre Training

• Project Releases

  • PacketFence 3.2.0 released!

• Licensing

  • Kuhn: Busybox GPL enforcement concerns resolved

• Openness/Sharing

  • Open Access/Content

    • The Research Works Act (RWA): why Scientific Publishing needs FOSS Methods

• Programming

  • OpenJFX gets JavaFX testing framework

  • First official release of Eclipse Code Recommenders

  • How Java SE may finally make it to Android

• Standards/Consortia

  • WebKit browsers learn to calculate with CSS

Leftovers

• Monopoly is Not Natural for IT

• Defence/Police/Aggression

  • Bradley Manning formally charged with ‘aiding the enemy’ by giving files to WikiLeaks

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Scarcity Is A Shitty Business Model

    The Gotham Gal has been under the weather this weekend. Last night we made soup for dinner and decided to sit on the couch and watch a movie and go to bed early. After dinner, we fired up Boxee and checked out Netflix. Nothing good there. Then we fired up the Mac Mini and checked out Amazon Instant Video. Nothing good there. Then we went to the Cable Set Top Box and checked out movies on demand. Nothing good there. Frustrated and unwilling and uninterested in heading to a “foreign rogue site” to pirate something good, we watched a TV show and went to bed.

  • Trademarks

    • Trademark Lobby Wants To Help European Court of Justice Forget About EU Citizens’ Rights

      It was only yesterday that the European Commissioner Karel de Gucht made the surprise announcement that the European Commission would be referring ACTA to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) “to assess whether ACTA is incompatible — in any way — with the EU’s fundamental rights and freedoms.” Just a few hours after that, there are already signs of panic among ACTA’s supporters that the treaty may indeed be incompatible — and thus dead in the water as far as the European Union is concerned.

  • Copyrights

    • It’s my word, don’t you dare use it.

    • Australian Commercial Radio Wins Simulcast Suit Against PPCA

      Australia’s commercial radio stations won’t have to pay out extra royalties for online “simulcasting” of recorded music following an important ruling last week from the country’s Federal Court.

      Recording companies’ collecting society PPCA had sought a declaration from the court that Internet streaming of radio programs – or simulcasting — should not be regarded as a “broadcast” under the country’s Copyright Act and should there be subject to a separate music tariff.