06.08.12

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Linux UEFI compromise reasonable, still sucks

  The EFI system has slowly been making headway in recent years, and right now EFI firmware is compatible with Windows supporting the GUID Partition Table (GPT), OS X/Intel, and Linux 2.6 and beyond machines. EFI is seen as a better hardware/software interface than BIOS, since it is platform-agnostic, runs in 32- or 64-bit mode, and GPT machines can handle boot partitions of up to 9.4 zettabytes. (That’s 9.5 billion terabytes to you and me.)

• Less freedom is no freedom

  I wanted to write about the Linux boot and UEFI from a while now, but I figured out is better to learn first more about the issue and take a deep breath before taking a position. In the meantime, many faces of the debate were talked in various places, so I think I have a better grasp.

  From the beginning, when people started talking about Secure Boot some warned about the treat to Free Software, but they were pretty much dismissed by many as a bunch of hippies following the smelly RMS, we’ll surely find a way around when will get to it. Now, after mjg wrote a long technical pieces about the struggles of making Fedora boot on UEFI with Secure Boot enabled, we can the alarmists were right and Microsoft managed to give a fatal blow to Free Software on the desktop with the help of many hardware manufacturers.

• M$ Attempts to Build a New Monopoly

  Allowing M$ to pick and choose which OEMs can install that other OS is leading to a new monopoly designed to replace Wintel, at least on ARM. No longer will consumers be able to install an OS from M$ on a PC if M$ gets its way. M$ will have loyal OEMs only blessed with the privilege and revenue streams.

  [...]

  Are you paying attention, US Department of Justice?

• 7 More Heroes of Linux

• Kernel Space

  • ACPI Updated For The Linux 3.5 Kernel

    The ACPI feature pull request for the Linux 3.5 kernel merge window was submitted on Saturday.

  • Graphics Stack

    • AMD R600g Still Tackling Hierarchical Z

      While patches have been around for more than one year to support Hierarchical Z on the ATI/AMD R600 open-source driver, the Gallium3D support still hasn’t been merged.

    • X11R7.7 released

      The X.Org Foundation and the global community of X.Org developers
      announce the release of X11R7.7 – Release 7.7 of the X Window System,
      Version 11. This release is the eighth modular release of the X Window
      System. The next full release will be X11R7.8 and may happen in 2013.

    • Radeon 6.14.5 Linux Graphics Driver Released

    • A New Open-Source GPU Comes About

      While the university crew designed an open-source graphics processor using an FPGA, they haven’t written a proper Linux graphics driver, at least not yet. From part of the email I received, “While this is not anywhere close to OGP, it’s a step in the right direction. The big difference is that the only requirement for our implementation is a FPGA and a RAM. This can easily be integrated with a softcore processor like Microblaze or NIOS or the one we have worked with: the OpenRISC. Yea, thats right we are running a open source graphics accelerator connected to a open source cpu architecture. When we get a linux driver up and running it will be a true open source computer with USB, Ethernet etc all open source.”

• Applications

  • Lightspark 0.5.7 Released : Free and Open Source Alternative Flash Player

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Install and Configure Samba Server as File Server on Ubuntu Server 12.04

    • How to Install 200+ Free and Open Source Games in One Command on Ubuntu 12.04 – 11.10 – 11.04 -10.04

    • How To Upgrade From Fedora 16 To Fedora 17 (Desktop & Server)

    • How to Install Diablo 3 on Linux

    • Tune mod_jk to Boost HTTP/Java Server Performance

    • 8 Linux Commands: To Find Out Wireless Network Speed, Signal Strength And Other Information

    • How to Install Diablo 3 on Linux

    • CentOS / RHEL CacheFS: Speed Up Network File System (NFS) File Access

    • Seamlessly Extending IRC to Mobile Devices

    • How to dual-boot Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon/MATE and Windows 7

  • Games

    • That Exciting Game Is Coming To Linux

      Last month I wrote about Linux Gamers Are Going Crazy For This New Game that was possibly coming to Linux, but today it’s been officially confirmed by the developers that it will indeed be ported.

      The game in question is Carmageddon: Reincarnation, which has been a very popular Kickstarter project. Funding ends today and with a “stretch goal” of $600,000 USD they were going to provide a Linux and Mac OS X client. They’re only at $578k right now, but the developers have said regardless they will be providing a native Linux version of this unique racing game (via this update).

    • Carmageddon Reincarnation Mac and Linux versions confirmed

    • Carmageddon: Reincarnation

    • ioquake3 Developers Working On “baseio” Game

      Some of the developers behind the ioquake3 game engine that is derived from the id Tech 3 engine are working on a truly open — all game assets / content are Creative Commons licensed — game called baseio.

    • Humble Bundle V Crosses Three Million Dollars

• Desktop Environments

  • Trading Ubuntu for Chromebox Running Google Chrome OS

    The VAR Guy is trading in his Ubuntu PC for a new Samsung Chromebox running Google Chrome OS. What motivated the move to a cloud-centric thin client? Here’s the explanation.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

    • KDE Ships June Updates to Plasma Workspaces, Applications and Platform

  • GNOME Desktop

    • GNOME 3.5.2 first sights :p

      Not the whole GNOME stack has reached version 3.5.2 so we can’t review it just yet. But we can share what Matthias Mclasen post in his blog -and enrich it a bit

• Distributions

  • Users voted for the best XFCE-based distribution… again!

    People kept voting, despite the announcement of the results. Today I publish second round of the poll results, with number of participants more than doubled since last time: 169.

  • Interview with Patrick Volkerding of Slackware

  • New Releases

    • Distribution Release: Snowlinux 2 “Cinnamon” LTS has been released

    • Parted Magic 2012_06_07

    • Clonezilla 1.2.12-63

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • PCLinuxOS (Kinda) Saved My Laptop

      Today, I was alarmed to see that I could not boot into my Linux Mint system; the OS would give a “no init found” error after the boot splash. First, I had to boot into Microsoft Windows 7; thankfully, that worked as Linux Mint was the OS I was [of course] using when I accidentally unplugged my computer. I looked up the error, and it turns out it’s a common one that can be solved by a file system check (“fsck”) from a live CD. All the guides I saw recommended using a live CD of the same OS whose hard drive partition is affected, but I had left my live CDs and USB sticks in my dormitory room. Whoops again. What I figured would just be a minor inconvenience turned into a semi-major problem.

    • June 2012 issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine

  • Gentoo Family

    • Gentoo Does An x32 Stage 3 Release Candidate

      Linux x32 is the effort for a native 32-bit ABI for Intel/AMD x86_64 systems but where 32-bit pointers are used to reduce the memory footprint while still allowing for x32 programs to take advantage of the rest of the 64-bit benefits. There’s x32 support within the Linux kernel, GCC, glibc, binutils, and even LLVM/Clang.

    • A Gentoo x32 release candidate

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat CloudForms Now Available

      Red Hat has announced the availability of Red Hat CloudForms, an open hybrid cloud management platform. CloudForms enables enterprises to create and manage Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) hybrid clouds with the ability to make self-service computing resources available to users in a managed, governed and secure way.

    • Red Hat Debuts CloudForms for Cloud Management

    • Red Hat carefully repositions CloudForms as open hybrid cloud management platform

    • Red Hat Shows What Real Cloud Looks Like

      While many enterprises have been experimenting with private clouds over the last year, moving real workloads to the platform means dealing with public clouds and others’ cloud platforms, a problem dubbed hybrid cloud.

      CloudForms, originally created as a Red Hat Infrastructure as a Service or IaaS offering, has now joined the OpenStack development group founded by competitor Rackspace (RAX) and is pushing CloudForms as a method for interoperating among different cloud infrastructures.

    • Fedora

      • Fedora 17 Review: It’s an Upstream Experience

        Fedora 17 came out just last week. This is the first time I’ve installed it as a desktop in more than a year — last time was Fedora 14 (or was it 13?).

        Fedora for me has always been something I install to check out what’s new, and to get a feel of what all I shall get in other distros in the coming months/years. Here, I’m specifically talking about system-level utilities — for example, systemd and stuff like that. Although, I gotta admit, I still use the service and chkconfig commands as most distros, including Fedora, have managed to keep these tools systemd-aware — and hopefully not retiring either any time soon.

      • Fedora 17 LXDE Review:

      • Firefox 13 Officially Lands in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

      • The Perfect Desktop – Fedora 17

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • ‘Download for Ubuntu’ Button Campaign

        • Ubuntu Community Manager Jono Bacon Talks About Ubuntu for Android, Humble Bundles, Steam, Gaming and More

          Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager at Canonical recently replied to user questions while doing ‘Ask Me Anything’ session at Reddit.

        • Ubuntu 12.10 Sets To Make ARM Even Stronger

          With Ubuntu 12.04 for ARM there were performance improvements thanks to switching to ARM hardfp binaries by default rather than the soft floating-point version. The switch to the hardware floating-point build made a noticeable difference and for some hardware there were performance improvements due to upstream kernel improvements. With the Linux kernel found in 12.04 (Linux 3.2), there is proper support for the OMAP4460 as found in the PandaBoard ES. With that, the dual-core Cortex-A9 can now properly clock up to its rated 1.2GHz speed. Those reasons represent a bulk of the improvements for the ARM architecture in Ubuntu 12.04.

        • Ubuntu 12.10 First Alpha Released

          Ubuntu 12.10 has started churning releases. Kate Stewart of Ubuntu has announced the release of 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) Alpha 1. As you are aware alphas are not meant for ‘regular’ consumption. However, if you are an Ubuntu user and want to help find and fix the bugs you can install it on your secondary machine.

        • Ubuntu 12.10 Alpha 1 now available

          It feels like it was just April when Ubuntu 12.04 was released… oh right, because it was. But the folks at Canonical are already working on the next version of one of the world’s most popular Linux-based operating systems. Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal is scheduled to launch in October, but you can download the first Alpha builds today.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Linux Drives Cadillac Into the Infotainment Era

    This month, GM is shipping a 2013 Cadillac XTS sedan that is “technologically gee-whizzed to the gills,” according to USA Today. Novelties include adaptive headlights, ten airbags, and a driver’s seat that vibrates in different locations depending on the direction in which sensors detect a possible collision. Yet the highlight is a Debian Linux-based in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system called Cadillac User Experience (CUE).

  • Phones

    • Android

      • No Ice Cream Sandwich for You? Clone It!

        Add widgets and shortcuts if your install is a keeper. You’ll be able to change desktop layout and preferences, like autofit, that can fix anomalies with look; change user preferences like gesture behavior; configure the status bar and its content; tweak the colors and tints; customize text preferences; change battery indicator preferences; and reboot the launcher.

      • Most Popular Android ROM: CyanogenMod

        Most Popular Android ROM: CyanogenMod If your Android device is feeling a little stale, or maybe the manufacturer has abandoned it and you’d love to breathe a little life into it, your best bet is to root it and install a new ROM. It’s like installing a brand new operating system on your phone or tablet, and an in many cases can give you features the manufacturer never thought to offer. Last week, we asked you which Android ROMs you thought were the best. Then we took a look at the five best Android ROMs based on your nominations, and put them to a vote. Now we’re back to highlight the winner.

      • Holo Launcher Brings the Ice Cream Sandwich Launcher to Any Android Phone

        Holo Launcher Brings the Ice Cream Sandwich Launcher to Any Android Phone Android: If you’re stuck on a device running 2.3 Gingerbread (or even worse, 2.2 Froyo) and your manufacturer has no plans on upgrading your phone anytime soon, Holo Launcher gives you all of the features available in the stock Ice Cream Sandwich launcher, right now, completely free.

      • Intel “improving” Android – but is it willing to share?

        Intel claims it is making significant improvements to the multicore performance of Android – but isn’t sure if it’s willing to share them with the open-source community.

      • Parrot bets on Android winning in-car device market

        Parrot, an upstart French technology company, is betting that drivers want their cars to be fitted with an all-in-one “infotainment” device based on Google’s popular Android operating software to give hands-free control of its smartphone, radio, music and satellite navigation functions.

      • HTC introduces dual-SIM devices – Desire V and Desire VC

      • Acer reveals sub-$200 7-inch quad-core Iconia Tab A110

        Android’s had a quiet showing here at Computex Taipei, but Acer just snuck out a new product that could well represent a breakthrough for the platform at large. The Iconia Tab A110 is at the company’s booth without much fanfare, and on the face of it isn’t particularly interesting — a 7-inch tablet with Android 4.0 that’s powered by an Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. However, we spoke to an Acer representative who said that the A110 would be positioned as the company’s main low-end device when it’s released in the third quarter of the year, and that it will cost less than $200. If true, the aggressive pricing means it could well be the first beneficiary of Nvidia’s $199 Kai program, though the representative wasn’t able to comment on this.

      • Ubuntu OS may be coming to Android Devices

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Sierra Wireless outs thinnest-ever 4G LTE module, teases skinny AT&T-ready laptops and tablets

      One of the bigger challenges of spreading LTE has been size; going 4G has tended to put on a little weight. A new Sierra Wireless embedded modem, the AirPrime EM7700, could be just the ticket to shedding those pounds. It’s reputedly the thinnest module ever made, at a tenth of an inch deep, and should slot into an Ultrabook or tablet without anyone making snide comments about the extra bulk.

Free Software/Open Source

• Netflix delivers using commodity hardware and open source software

• Zipkin: Twitter’s new open source distributed tracing project

  Gathering information about how quickly services are running, or not, can get very complex when dealing with dozens of disparate services over many systems. To solve this problem, Twitter created its own distributed tracing system called “Zipkin” and has now made it available as open source. According to its developers, Zipkin is “closely modelled” after a Google research paper from 2010 about Dapper, a large-scale distributed systems tracing infrastructure.

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Can Mozilla right the ship?

      Several years ago, Mozilla was a real up-and-comer — its Firefox browser was the first serious challenger to Internet Explorer in a long time, and the company’s identity with open source enhanced its public perception as a worthy upstart.

    • Which Firefox is right for you — 13, 14, 15 or 16?

    • Good Reasons to Get Firefox 13, and Good Ways to Install It on Linux

    • hunderbird 13 has been released!

    • Firefox 13 Tweaks Tabs, Home Pages, Speed and Security

• SaaS

  • Ease Big Data Hiring Pain With Cascading

  • Is OpenStack the new Linux?

    I’m standing in the lobby of the downtown San Francisco Hyatt Regency, where the 2012 OpenStack Conference has just commenced. As with most open source events, I feel like I’m surrounded by ComicCon refugees.

• Databases

  • What is MySQL denormalization and should you be doing it?

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • LibreOffice vs. MS Office: Spreadsheets and Slide Shows

    If functionality and stability are the criteria, LibreOffice’s Writer is a more powerful tool than Microsoft Word.

    But how do the other main productivity tools in LibreOffice and Microsoft Office (MSO) compare? In other words, how do Impress and PowerPoint, the slide show applications in the two office suites, compare? Or Calc and Excel, the spreadsheet apps?

    The answers are far more complicated than with the word processors. Writer and Word are applications with distinctly different approaches and assumptions about how users work. By contrast, LibreOffice’s Impress and Calc, which were developed after Writer, are designed for compatibility with their MSO counter-parts, and are more similar to them in design.

• BSD

  • PC-BSD 20120605 Snapshot Now Available

  • NetBSD: Will It Stand As A Light Desktop?

• Project Releases

  • Stabilising update for BIND DNS server

  • MPlayer 1.1 Magically Surfaces With New Features

    The last official release of MPlayer was version 1.0-rc4 and it came in January of 2011. Since then there’s been no official releases so after more than a decade, MPlayer 1.0 has yet to be released, but being quietly available now is… MPlayer 1.1.

• Public Services/Government

  • What open source can teach government officials

    What started with a unanimous vote to adopt an open source resolution eventually became a long-term commitment to the open source way. How many of you have had an elected official attend a citizen-lead event? Probably some of you. But how many of you have had your entire city or town council attend an unconference?

• Openness/Sharing

  • Sharing the path to success with your employees

  • OpenRelief Launches Open Source Disaster Relief Drone

    We’ll never forget last year’s LinuxCon Japan conference, which took place shortly after the devastating Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in March. As the country still reeled from the disaster, LinuxCon presenters discussed how open source software could contribute to disaster relief.

Leftovers

• Security

  • Germany readying offensive cyberwarfare unit, parliament told

    Germany has set up a cyber-warfare unit designed to carry out offensive operations, the country’s Defence Ministry has admitted for the first time in a parliamentary report to legislators.

    According to German reports, the Bonn-based Computer Network Operations (CNO) unit had existed since 2006 but was only now being readied for deployment under the control of the country’s military.

• Finance

  • Wall Street and Republicans team up to curb CFTC: Kemp

    Politics is brutal. Just how brutal became apparent Wednesday when Wall Street teamed up with Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives to emasculate the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) by slashing its budget while imposing new requirements for cost-benefit analysis and rule-writing.

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Big Tobacco Cash Floods California to Defeat New Tax

• Censorship

  • EU Governments Push Global Alliance for Net Censorship

    In an unanimous decision, EU Member States have decided to promote website censorship at the global scale under the pretext of tackling child pornography. This dangerous initiative must be denounced by lawmakers and citizens: Europe cannot give up on its commitment to the rule of law by legitimizing Net censorship internationally.

• Civil Rights

  • Claim: Encrypted Chat Developer Detained, Interrogated at US Border

    A developer for encrypted chat application “Cryptocat” has recently claimed that he was detained and interrogated at the US border. Apparently, border guards took his passport and interrogated him about the application, demanding to know “which algorithms Cryptocat used and about its censorship resistance.”

  • FBI accused over removal of Megaupload data

    The FBI has been accused of “illegally” copying evidence used in a case against file-sharing site Megaupload.

    The site was shut down in January and its operators arrested in New Zealand because, alleged the FBI, it was being used to pirate content.

    Lawyers acting for Megaupload said the FBI had illegally removed hard drives containing evidence.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Copyright law threatens to destroy the world, in Year Zero

      Check out an exclusive first look at the book trailer for Rob Reid’s Year Zero, a “Swiftian Satire” about aliens who love our music a little too much. This is the zaniest book trailer we’ve seen in quite some time, and it showcases what an unusual, offbeat premise this book actually has.