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12.22.10

Links 22/12/2010: Kno is Out, Tiny Core Linux 3.4 is Released

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:28 am by

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • The Kno Starts Shipping Tomorrow

    The monster 14.1″ screens set it apart from every other tablet on the market, and the customized Ubuntu OS makes it potentially more versatile as well.

  • Server

    • ARM makes its attack on the server market official

      ARM Holdings has officially acknowledged its plans to take on Intel in the server market. However, CEO Warren East is quoted as adding that ARM licensees won’t begin to erode Intel’s market share until 2014.

  • Kernel Space

    • Graphics Stack

      • Oh Hey, X.Org 7.6 Is Finally Released For Christmas!

        The past few days I’ve been wondering whether or not X.Org 7.6 would make it out in 2010 or not. After all, this X.Org katamari update was supposed to be here in August after X.Org 7.5 was released in October of 2009 and the 7.6 release was delayed to November. The release of X.Org 7.6 didn’t come in November, but there was one release candidate but not much information since. This afternoon, however, Alan Coopersmith has announced the final release.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Introducing K16 and the Future of KDE

        Where will KDE be in five years? To answer this question, we plan to bring together visionaries, strategists, planners, out-of-the-box-thinkers, realists, dreamers, doers, creators, leaders, coders from the KDE community and everybody else who is interested in discussing the future of KDE and picturing what it will be.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Ailurus – the Gnome pimp

        Tweaking your desktop into a semblance of beauty and style has always been the ultimate goal of any self-proclaimed geek, be they Windows users or Linuxoids. However, in general, Windows people had it easier; they just downloaded this or that tweaking program and had their desktop transition from a beast into a beauty within seconds. Linux users always had it much harder, especially Gnome people. KDE shows pretty much any setting there is, but Gnome hides them. Either you’re handy with gconf on the command line or you use gconf-editor, which feels somewhat like a registry editor, but it was never really trivial. Well, now you have Ailurus.

        [...]

        Ailurus is definitely a welcome addition in the arsenal of average users who do not fancy taming their system via the command line. It offers convenience and ease of use, with a relatively high degree of safety. However, as always, you need to be careful when changing the behavior of programs and system utilities, lest they bite your hiny, and hard.

        If you’re looking for improving your Gnome desktop in a simple, quick way, without too much fuss, if you’re looking for extra comfort and new programs, then Ailurus seems like the program you want. That would be all, ladies and gentlefolks!

  • Distributions

    • New Releases

      • Tiny Core Linux 3.4 arrives

        Tiny Core lead developer Robert Shingledecker has released version 3.4 of Tiny Core Linux. Based on the 2.6.33.3 Linux kernel, Tiny Core Linux 3.4 features a variety of updates, including additional options in the mount tool (mnttool).

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu Myopia Continues Among Users

          Notice a pattern yet? For some reason that seems to escape most people, Ubuntu “owns” the Linux headlines with very few exceptions. Obviously Chrome OS and Android are in the top news headlines as well, however generally it’s Ubuntu that shows up as most popular in open source news these days.

        • Review: ZaReason Strata Pro 15 Laptop

          So, will I buy one (well, the 13″ version) for myself? My daily computing life is spent between my super powerful desktop and my little netbook. My desktop is used for work, virtualized installs, major image manipulation with inkscape and photo editing with the gimp. My netbook works well as a “sit on the couch and IRC + internet + email + minimal hacking” machine, which is much of what I do in my off-work hours. That said, I do have a hole in my computing world which influenced borrowing this laptop in the first place – nothing to really show off Ubuntu on for customers or at Ubuntu events, nothing to burn CDs on at events, and I have to admit that it would be nice to have a second machine with virtualized hardware so my development machines were more portable. We’ll see where my needs and budget lead me.

        • Unity Bitesize Progress Report for 20 December

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Phones

    • Sub-notebooks

      • Jolicloud: Cloud enabled and not just for netbooks

        There’s a Linux distribution for every occasion and the main purpose of Jolicloud is to present a web enabled GUI for netbooks and similar devices. I’m going to take a look at a preview release of the forthcoming 1.1 version. Under the hood, it’s based on the Ubuntu long term service release (10.04), and the front end is handled by a combination of the Chromium web browser and a full screen user interface that eschews overlapping windows.

        Netbooks are the obvious target of this distribution, and by default, it’s setup as a browser for website and cloud based applications. However, it’s easy to expand, and I think this could be a distribution with a lot of uses. It’s possible to add applications, and it can also be installed on any hardware that standard Ubuntu can including desktop PCs. Even better, as well as focussing on convenience, it’s easy to use, meaning that it might be a good platform for people who aren’t very good at using computers.

      • Cloud Livin’ – A JoliCloud Chrome Experiment

        A review off the cuff? It feels more distraction free than normal. Since the browser is the heart of the OS, I’m only focused on my tabs and nothing else. No dock, no start button, no nagging updates, no clutter on the screen. It’s actually refreshing.

Free Software/Open Source

  • AirPlay running on XBMC Linux box

    AirPlay. It’s not just for Apple products anymore. The video you see on the next page shows an XBMC install on a Ubuntu Linux box running an AirPlay client service. As with the AirPlayer solution I wrote for the Mac, the XBMC application advertises on Bonjour and can be played to directly from the built-in iOS video menus.

  • Events

    • Linux shows name dates, ask for papers

      O’Reilly has opened up a call for participation for its Open Source Convention (OSCON) 2011, to be held on July 25-29 at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland, Oregon. Meanwhile, the Linux Foundation’s Consumer Electronics Linux Forum (CELF) announced that its Embedded Linux Conference (ELC) will be held April 11-13 in San Francisco.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox Backs Up the “Do Not Track” Feature

        Day by day, concern about internet related privacy is growing. We’re all aware of it, which is why; a lot of companies are moving around to let people bear a better experience in the online world. In this context, Mozilla has made promises to let people cloak their internet activities on the basis of their new feature: Do Not Track.

      • Mozilla CEO: ‘Do Not Track’ Option Will Be In Firefox 4

        When Federal Trade Commission chairman Jon Leibowitz called for better online privacy protection earlier this month, he acknowledged that browser companies have an important role to play, especially in order to implement a “Do Not Track” browser setting. “We’ll give them some time,” said Leibowitz. “But we’d like to see them work a lot faster.”

  • SaaS

    • Stallman’s Cloudburst: Prudence or Paranoia?

      On the other hand: “It is not easy to tell if RMS is putting on a show or if he really believes his own words,” suggested amicus_curious. “The Google cloud and Chrome OS have little to fear from Stallman’s disdain.”

      Then again: “He’s absolutely right,” wrote blossiekins among more than 100 comments on The Guardian. “‘Cloud’ computing … encourages people to be lazy and uninformed about their data and what happens to it.

      “Google isn’t a big cuddly bunny that wants to look after all your data for you cos it’s nice; it wants to look after your data for you because it gives them more metrics,” blossiekins added. “And as the piece spells out, the risks of that are quite chilling.”

  • BSD

    • FreeBSD 8.2-BETA1 Released

      The FreeBSD Release Engineering Team has released FreeBSD 8.2 Beta 1 and 7.4 Beta 1of its popular free UNIX derivative. The first betas will be followed by two release candidates. The final versions of FreeBSD 7.4 and FreeBSD 8.2 are scheduled for the 24th of January.

  • Project Releases

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Last minute open giving ideas

      Whether or not you’re among the throngs hurriedly trying to get everything wrapped before the end of the week, it’s a good time to consider some end-of-the-year giving. So why not send some money towards open projects?

  • Programming

    • The Importance of Being Tested

      When I began work on Upstart, one of the earliest decisions I made was to make sure the code was very-well covered by a comprehensive test suite. I’d been working with Robert Collins a lot in the previous couple of years and he is very much an advocate of practices such as Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile Development; especially the discipline of Test Driven Development.

Leftovers

  • 5 Biggest Tech Winners for 2010

    By name, they are ARM Holdings (130.58% growth), Salesforce (127.47%), VMware (113.98%), Informatica (86.9%) and Red Hat (71.95%).

  • Stephen Harper treats Canadians like imbeciles

    What Canadians are now demanding is a leader that inspires hope and optimism. Who challenges us to bridge divides. Who believes that leadership at home and abroad can appeal to our aspirations, not stokes our fears. Who brings us together to accomplish great things. Who will strive to achieve the true promise and potential we know in our hearts is Canada’s destiny.

  • Do-Not-Call List Undermined By Loopholes in the Law
  • CRTC announces that Bell Canada has paid a $1.3 million penalty for violating the National Do Not Call List Rules

  • Science

    • Team prototypes instant genome test

      Scientists from Imperial College London have prototyped a tool that they say could ultimately sequence a person’s genome in minutes, at a fraction of the cost of current techniques.

  • Security

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • Student fees protests: who started the violence?

      Protesters and student groups, on the other hand, insisted the policing had been heavy-handed and disproportionate, arguing that the kettling for hours of thousands of people within a freezing Parliament Square was certain to cause frustration that would boil into anger.

    • New Orleans police officers convicted over Katrina killing

      A former New Orleans police officer has been convicted of fatally shooting a man in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and another officer was convicted of burning the man’s body in a case that exposed one of the ugliest chapters in the police department’s troubled history.

    • Israel faces tougher line from EU after former heads call for Palestinian state

      Twenty-six European grandees have urged the EU to adopt a tougher stance towards Israel including taking “concrete measures” and exacting “consequences” over continued settlement building on occupied land, which they say is illegal under international law.

    • 50 municipal rabbis: Don’t rent flats to Arabs

      The statement quotes a variety of halachic passages referring to the issue and notes that in some cases persons renting apartments to non-Jews could be ostracized.

    • Rummy’s Ruminations

      The Unknown
      As we know,
      There are known knowns.
      There are things we know we know.
      We also know
      There are known unknowns.
      That is to say
      We know there are some things
      We do not know.
      But there are also unknown unknowns,
      The ones we don’t know
      We don’t know.

      —Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing

  • Cablegate

    • Watch How WikiLeaks’ Mirrors Spread Around the World [Google Earth]

      When WikiLeaks began its release of more than 250,00 classified diplomatic cables late last month, its domain name – wikileaks.org – was the first thing to go. In the week that followed, however, a slew of mirror sites popped up, and Harvard-based developer Laurence Muller gave us a look at the global effort to keep WikiLeaks standing. Muller took the list of WikiLeaks mirrors, determined their locations, and plotted the points on Google Earth.

    • Apple attacks WikiLeaks, yanks iPhone app from app store

      Only a few days after its release, the unofficial WikiLeaks iPhone application has been removed from Apple’s App Store.

      For $1.99, the app offered access to documents on the WikiLeaks website and the @wikileaks twitter feed.

      When clicking on the app’s link, the app store returns with the message, “Your request could not be completed. The item you requested is not available in the US store.”

      Details for the WikiLeaks app can still be seen in Google’s cache.

      Tech Crunch noted that while the secrets website and founder Julian Assange are controversial, the app didn’t seem to violate Apple’s terms of service (TOS).

      Developer Igor Barinov confirmed that the app had been removed from the store.

    • WikiLeaks cables: China ‘fed up’ with Burma’s footdragging on reforms
    • WikiLeaks cables: You ask, we search

      French presidential hopeful, Ségolène Royal, told US diplomats French arrogance was partly to blame for Paris’s lost bid to host the 2012 Olympic games. The games were awarded to London after a closely contested vote that saw both Tony Blair then French president Jacques Chirac fly to Singapore in July 2005 to make their case to delegates.

      A confidential cable dated 17 February 2006 from the US ambassador to Paris concerning a recent meeting with Royal said she had suggested, he wrote, a need “to find France’s place in the world” with the French government showing less arrogance in how it speaks to the world. The latter factor, she suggested, had played a role in the defeat of France’s 2012 Olympics candidacy, he wrote.

    • The Implications of Charging Assange for Conspiracy to Leak [Updated]

      I’m not so sure this path avoids awkward questions. Charging Assange as a conspirator to Manning’s leak might distinguish the Times in the wikileaks case. But it would not distinguish the Times and scores of other media outlets in the many cases in which reporters successfully solicit and arrange to receive classified information and documents directly from government officials. Prosecution of Assange on this theory would therefore raise awkward questions about why DOJ does not bring charges against the American media for soliciting classified information on a regular basis. It would be a fateful step for traditional press freedoms in the United States. Indeed, unless I am missing something, it seems that a successful prosecution of Assange for conspiracy to leak would have broader and more corrosive implications for press freedoms than a successful prosecution under the ambiguity-riddled Espionage Act. In any event, I do not see how going the “conspiracy to leak” route is a press-protecting move.

    • House Judiciary chairman: WikiLeaks did not commit a crime

      There was an interesting development in the WikiLeaks saga on Thursday. You probably didn’t hear about it over the weekend because the fawning corporate media was too busy comparing the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell to the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

      The chairman of the House judiciary committee, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) stuck up for WikiLeaks on Thursday according to The Raw Story. Conyers made the argument that the controversial and unpopular actions of the whistleblower website are protected under free speech.

    • Reporter, Greg Palast describes BP abuses in Azerbaijan

      What I didn’t know was that WikiLeaks was about to release a State Department memo which referred to a small piece of this BP game. Rather than go to Azerbaijan to check the facts, the Wiki newspapers called BP in London for comment.

    • Czech version of Wikileaks will turn to The Pirate Bay for help

      It appears that the Czech Pirate Party’s attempt to set up its own Wikileaks site isn’t going as smoothly as the group hoped. The CPP (Ceska piratska strana) announced the inauguration of its “PirateLeaks” information service earlier this month, to be officially launched on Tuesday. But now the organization says that there will be some delays due to security issues.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Finance

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • NAB still using misinformation to defeat low-power radio expansion

      The National Association of Broadcasters has never been a friend to low-power community radio. Back in 2000, when the FCC first created the service, the NAB did everything it could to try and keep it from becoming a reality. While the broadcast lobby failed to stop it outright, the NAB did succeed in getting Congress to significantly curtail LPFM with a last-minute attachment to an omnibus budget bill passed in December of that year. One of the weapons the NAB used was a bogus CD that purported to demonstrate harmful interference caused by low-power stations, that was later disproved by an independent report ordered by Congress.

  • Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

    • North Bergen Internet shock jock Hal Turner sentenced to 33 months in prison

      At his trials the government confirmed that Turner did work for and with federal agencies, but that he went too far with his hate-filled remarks.

    • Anti-porn plan threatens sites like WikiLeaks

      Supporters of the open internet have reacted angrily to Government plans to block pornography on the web, claiming it is the first step towards online censorship. Taken to its extreme, they warn that it could lead to sites like WikiLeaks being blocked for political reasons.

    • Hungarian parliament passes controversial law to oversee media

      Lawmakers in Hungary have given a controversial new body powers to oversee public news production and levy high fines on private media that break rules on political reporting.

      The Hungarian parliament passed the law establishing the National Media and Communications Authority (NMHH) on Monday evening, according to the Hungarian national news agency MTI.

    • Viviane Reding takes on US over data privacy rights in anti-terror campaign

      The EU justice commissioner, Viviane Reding, has confronted Washington over data protection rights in the fight against terror, accusing the US of being interested only in accessing European citizens’ bank records and flight schedules but not in protecting their rights while doing so.

    • Venezuela tightens Internet regulation

      Venezuela’s parliament approved tighter regulation of the Internet on Monday in the latest of a package of laws to entrench President Hugo Chavez’s socialist “revolution” before a new Assembly is sworn-in next month.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

    • Vint Cerf, US Congresswoman Oppose Net Regulation
    • Net Neutrality as Diplomacy

      Citizens and their digital packets deserve much the same treatment as they traverse the global Internet. Just as states expect to conduct their official business on foreign soil without interference, so citizens should be able to lead digitally mediated—and increasingly distributed—lives without fear that their links to their online selves can be arbitrarily abridged or surveilled by their Internet Service Providers or any other party. Just as the sanctity of the embassy and la valise diplomatique is vital to the practice of international diplomacy, the ability of our personal bits to travel about the net unhindered is central to the lives we increasingly live online.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • US Ambassador To The UN: Protecting Patents & Copyrights More Important Than Development

      The US’s ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Betty E. King, recently gave a press conference in Geneva to talk about a variety of issues. What caught our attention, not surprisingly, was the discussion on intellectual property issues, which seemed to raise a lot more questions than it answered. Towards the end of her talk, she basically complained about WIPO, and how various developing countries are hijacking WIPO to focus on “development,” at the expense of things like patents and copyright. She says that she, and the US government, are pro development, but not if it comes at the expense of patents and copyrights.

    • Copyrights

      • Sorting Through The Spin: The Liberals and the iTax

        The issue of Liberal support for an “iTax” hit a fever pitch this week with competing releases – the Liberals stating they are against it and the Conservatives releasing a radio ad that says the Liberals support such reforms. That led some to ask for evidence to sort out the competing claims. This post is an attempt to do that.

      • “Anything you can do, we can do better?” Ireland joins the copyright review queue

        It’s not just the Brits who have decided to reassess their IP rules in the not-quite-so-new-any-more internet age: the Irish are doing it too. In “Firms hampered by failure to keep law up to date with internet age”, eminent scholar and lawyer TJ McIntyre argues in the Irish Times that much of the Irish law governing the internet is archaic, restrictive and hampers growth, which explains why the Taoiseach (Irish for ‘prime minister’ or, the Kat understands, an old Erse term for ‘man who graciously accepts the credit when things work out but gets first choice at blaming someone else when things don’t’) has announced his support for a review of European and Irish copyright law, stating [and does this sound familiar, anyone?] “it is time to review our copyright legislation, and examine the balance between the rights holder and the consumer, to ensure that our innovative companies operating in the digital environment are not disadvantaged against competitors”.

      • Ok Go Explains There Are Lots Of Ways To Make Money If You Can Get Fans

        Over the last few years, we’ve covered many of the moves by the band Ok Go — to build up a fanbase often with the help of amazingly viral videos, ditch their major record label (EMI), and explore new business model opportunities. In the last few days, two different members of Ok Go explained a bit more of the band’s thinking in two separate places, and both are worth reading.

      • Cultural Heritage rights in the age of digital copyright

        On December, 10th the COMMUNIA WG3 gathered in Istanbul for the final workshop, with the aim of producing a set of recommendations about cultural heritage and the public domain.

        I am not a lawyer, so I took a chance to learn about the marked differences between access rights and property rights. More than that, it became soon clear that Cultural Heritage rights (CHR) only exist in certain EU member states (e.g. Italy, Greece) while in others there are no such rights.

      • ACTA

Clip of the Day

Pandora – One vid per day 27: GINGE – Playing WIZ and gp2x Games


Credit: TinyOgg

IRC Proceedings: December 21st, 2010

Posted in Uncategorized at 2:07 am by

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

GNOME Gedit

#techrights log

#boycottnovell log

#boycottnovell-social log

Enter the IRC channels now

ES: Wikileaks Espectáculos / Cablegate Microsoft tratando de apoderarse de las escuelas brasileñas

Posted in Uncategorized at 1:41 am by

São Paulo

(ODF | PDF | English/original)

Resumen: Cables diplomáticos filtrados de Brasil muestran lo que Microsoft es a todo el sistema escolar que abarca a GNU/Linux, y que afecta a más de 50 millones de niños.

Eduardo Landaveri has provided a translation of the Wikileaks/Cablegate article about Brazil:

Uno de los últimos cables que se redactó y se libera del Consulado de Sao Paulo más hacia abajo afirma[http://cablesearch.org/cable/view.php?id=06SAOPAULO675&hl=microsoft] (“Microsoft” en mayúsculas para dar énfasis):

¶ 21. “El Secretario Gutiérrez luego visitó una sucursal del Servicio Nacional de Aprendizaje Comercial (SENAC). SENAC es un sistema de la Universidad que comenzó en 1946 con el apoyo de las diferentes Federaciones de Industria, incluyendo FIESP, que quería empezar un sistema de escuelas que se incrementaría de valores del país de los estudiantes con formación técnica. SENAC cuenta con 56 unidades solo en Sao Paulo. El Secretario (Gutierrez), el Cónsul General, y Senior Comercial SIPDIS fueron recibidos por Juan Kulcsar, Director del Centro de Estudio de EE.UU.; Szajman Abram, presidente del SENAC y de la Federación de Comercio de Sco Paulo, y Emelio Umeoka, el presidente de MICROSOFT. El grupo recorrió la colección de SENAC, donde se les dio una visión general de las actividades de SENAC y los recursos, y luego fue a través del campus al Centro de MICROSOFT de centro de innovación de aprendizaje. Umeoka presentó un panorama general de la inversión MICROSOFT en la educación de jóvenes y los objetivos del Centro de Innovación, así como un resumen de otros programas de MICROSOFT responsabilidad de las empresas en Brasil. Tras una foto con algunos de los estudiantes del Centro, el Secretario y los demás fueron conducidos a un salón de clases, donde pasó 30 minutos para dirigirse a doce estudiantes en un formato de mesa redonda sobre sus diferentes clases, las empresas incubadoras, y las esperanzas para un futuro empleo. Una breve entrevista con el canal de televisión interno SENAC seguido, y Szajman y Umeoka y otros representantes de SENAC se despidieron del Secretario y su delegación.”

Esto es muy importante para nosotros porque en muchas ocasiones antes de que nos han demostrado que Microsoft está tratando de tomar las escuelas en Brasil lejos de GNU / Linux y software libre / libre. Véase, por ejemplo:

* Rápida Mención: Migración enorme a GNU / Linux en Brasil (52 millones estudiantes)[http://techrights.org/2008/04/24/brazil-education-linux/]

* ¿Está Microsoft intentando descarrilar Otra masiva migración a GNU / Linux en Brasil?[http://techrights.org/2009/08/31/microsoft-comes-to-brazil/]

* ¿Está Microsoft Planificando un Golpe de Estado en Brasil?[http://techrights.org/2009/11/06/brazil-anti-linux-schools/]

* Microsoft financiado por IDC (IDG) Ataques de GNU/Linux en las escuelas de Rusia, acusado de utilizar “corruptos” datos[http://techrights.org/2010/09/13/idg-propagada-vs-gnu-linux/]

* Cambio de tecnología abierta explica cómo Microsoft Derailed GNU/Linux en los gobiernos, uso de “corrupción”[http://techrights.org/2010/09/14/mark-and-darlene-on-microsoft/]

* Microsoft “Tira una Rusia” en Brasil[http://techrights.org/2010/09/16/microsoft-latin-america-vs-freedom-sw/]

Ver también la página wiki sobre Brasil[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Brazil] y la de Microsoft cuota de mercado de GNU/Linux en Brasil[http://techrights.org/2009/01/08/microsoft-2003-linux-intelligence/].

No dejemos que Microsoft secuestre las mentes de los niños brasileños, que son la generación de líderes del mañana . En cuanto al secuestro destructivo de Microsoft de Yahoo[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Microsoft_Hijack_of_Yahoo], por ejemplo, Groklaw escribió hace unos días: “¿Qué estás tratando de decir? Que la asociación con Microsoft no pagar o algo así? ”

Preste atención para no repetir los errores de los demás, incluyendo la OLPC[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/OLPC]. El experto cuando se trata de secuestrar a los sistemas nacionales de educación es la Fundación Gates[http://techrights.org/wiki/index.php/Gates_Foundation_Critique] -miren lo que ha pasado en los Estados Unidos.

Como nota al margen, Microsoft ha utilizado el Brasil para vender la impresión de que GNU / Linux es sólo para los pobres[http://techrights.org/2008/08/28/cnet-only-the-poor/], pero de acuerdo con estos nuevos números[http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODkzMg], usuarios de GNU/Linux gastan la mayor cantidad de dinero.

El Humilde Indie Paquete # 2 acaba de salir hace tres días con los sistemas de Braid, Cortex Command, Mechanarium, Osmos, y La venganza de los de los Titanes juegos para Linux, Windows y Mac OS X. Al igual que el paquete original humilde independiente, usted paga lo que quiere. Si bien esta oferta de juego únicas esta ocurriendo por tres días, los desarrolladores ya han recaudado más de $ 900,000 USD. En el momento de la escritura que han depositado lejos $ 911,134.35 y parece que el fin de semana se debe exceder $ 1 millón de dólares.

Al igual que en el paquete humilde del año pasado, usuarios de GNU/Linux son los más generosos (o tal vez más ricos). Esto también muestra que el dinero se puede hacer por compartir.

Thanks to Eduardo for this translation. His message for the Brazilian people is: “Feliz Natal e Próspero Ano Novo! Próspera só vai ser sem Microsoft que só querem as suas riquezas e destruir o futuro dos seus filhos!” █

12.21.10

2006 Déjà Vu: OpenSUSE FAQ as Damage Control

Posted in Uncategorized at 6:09 pm by

Photo of Johannes Mehserle used to symbolise recent trial of Novell’s new manager, Jeff Hawn (downloaded from this page)

Johannes Mehserle

Novell in Provo

Summary: Novell’s ‘brain’ moves to a company which is run by a man previously jailed for illegally murdering animals, one whose history at AttachMSFT has zilch to do with “open source” projects

OpenSUSE is a Novell product, albeit one of the least profitable ones. Novell used it for PR purposes and for free labour. AttachMSFT, on the other hand, need not prove that it doesn’t give a damn about “open source”. Its lack of “open source” history speaks for itself, so OpenSUSE members are rightly concerned.

Jeff 'Bison Slayer' Hawn was sort of interviewed by his employee, Jos Poortvliet, in order to create a face-saving FAQ just like the one produced with Ted Haeger and Ron Hovsepian after he had sold out to Microsoft in 2006. They tried to limit the damage before Haeger left the company due to “careless disregard for the people that the company never bothered to consult (including me).” This time too the OpenSUSE community was left out of Novell’s decisions and to make matters worse, Novell gave many of its patents to Microsoft. Some deal, eh? It’s like 2006 all over again.

Here is Poortvliet advertising the FAQ, which was also advertised by the KDE account in Identi.ca (seemingly used by this Novell employee for self-serving purposes). Based on what’s said in the FAQ, this looks quite bad as it confirms what people have been saying for a while. AttachMSFT is likely to be worse than Novell when it comes to treatment of OpenSUSE (if that’s possible at all, as Novell already neglected the project anyway, e.g. when it hardly provided server resources for hosting). To quote one part from the FAQ (they call it a “Q&A”, but the questions raised are those which OpenSUSE folks wanted answered, so the community manager stepped forward):

Attachmate does not have a corporate track record in the open source business. However, we recognize the importance of open source technology, particularly Linux, and the growing value it brings to enterprises globally. We also recognize and value the openSUSE project, the contribution that the community makes to the SUSE business and most importantly, the many ways in which the community benefits SUSE customers.

At the end of the day, we are a technology company that is customer-driven, made up of engineers and technology enthusiasts. We have a lot of individuals that are long-time users of open source and participants in the open source movement. We recognize and understand what the community has developed, particularly over the last decade, and we are excited to be part of its future.

See the comments in LWN and the remarks from Phoronix, which concludes with:

It will be interesting to see how Attachmate operates Novell’s business units and particularly their open-source projects once their billion dollar acquisition is complete.

OpenSUSE recently lost and replaced its leadership and here is the press release about it. They should all just fork the project. The sooner, the better.

Apart from OpenSUSE, it remains to be seen what AttachMSFT does with Mono. Sites like OMG!Ubuntu! (which promote a lot of Mono) keep deceiving on Novell’s Banshee, which they insisted would be part of the next version of Ubuntu. We wrote about the subject in:

OMG!Ubuntu! is now saying that Banshee is not in Ubuntu 11.04, at least not yet (they contradict themselves and thus misinform readers):

To avoid any sensationalism, the switch has not yet been flipped, today Rhythmbox remains installed by default. This is likely to remain the case till at least January.

Banshee is being written by AttachMSFT (if at all), which expresses no real commitment to the “open source” projects it inherits from Novell, except SLE* (which is not really open source, either). Does Ubuntu want to set as default an application that can be orphaned soon? Surely they want to reconsider, or at least one would hope so.

Novell has just made another SUSE-related announcement, but it’s about proprietary software, as usual.

NEC and Novell today announced the immediate availability of a high-availability and disaster recovery solution optimized for SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server. Designed to enhance availability and serviceability in mixed operating system and hypervisor environments, NEC EXPRESSCLUSTER X 3.0 is now certified for and supported on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11. First available in Japan, this new solution represents an expansion of the partnership between NEC and Novell to deliver mission-critical services to joint customers worldwide. As a result, it is now easier for IT organizations to ensure business continuity for environments containing both Linux* and Windows* workloads.

Techrights believes that AttachMSFT’s commitment to Novell’s “open source” projects will be weak. It might take some months for one to get definite answers though. In the mean time, it’s safer to avoid everything from Novell. The company is not in good hands (just watch what another cowboy, Darl McBride, did with SCO). Even VMB_ware would have been better. █

Groklaw Lashes Out at Novell for Promoting OOXML (With Lock-in and Patent/RAND Traps)

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:23 pm by

New year promise

Summary: Novell is slammed by a longtime stickler for helping promote Microsoft’s proprietary rival to ODF, which is the international standard for documents

PEOPLE have begun leaving for their vacation, but earlier on Groklaw decided to speak about Novell’s massive betrayal (translation to Spanish), which is not exactly news at all. Novell’s betrayal has been clear to us for over 4 years and we wrote thousands of posts on the subject.

Groklaw turns to Comes exhibits, specifically IBM exhibits. Rob from IBM has just posted this chart which shows what an utter mess Microsoft Office can be for ODF (pretty much by design [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]) and Groklaw links this to what Novell did with Microsoft and what Microsoft did to IBM a couple of decades ago. To quote some parts:

First quietly create incompatibilities to make sure that Microsoft applications wouldn’t run right on OS/2. Then tell the world that they shouldn’t buy OS/2 because Microsoft applications wouldn’t run right on OS/2.

But 1991 is a long time ago, I hear some of you say, and there is a new Microsoft. Oh? Let’s see if that’s so by highlighting one of the recent Novell filings with the SEC, its work agreement with Microsoft titled “Improving Microsoft-Novell Interoperability through Open XML” and dated March of this very year.

It’s regarding work Microsoft was willing to pay Novell to do to make Microsoft’s cynically misnamed Open XML seem like it allows interoperability. Novell has been at work since March to make Novell’s version of OpenOffice.org interoperate, sort of, but as you will see not completely with Microsoft Office 2010 so that it would at least look like Open XML works and that somebody is implementing it.

What a role for Novell to agree to play. We’ve had our suspicions for years, since Microsoft and Novell entered into its patent peace agreement and technical work agreement, and now we know that everything we suspected Novell was doing with its version of OpenOffice.org, it was. It is. This is the smoking gun. And the work agreement runs through November of 2011, so this story isn’t over yet.

[...]

Remember that one of the big objections to OOXML becoming a standard in the first place was that it allowed for proprietary extensions, which it was pointed out would make it difficult and indeed impossible for anyone but Microsoft and any chosen pals to interoperate with the “standard”. And here you see it in real life. Under criticism, Microsoft hires Novell to be a Microsoft pal and to try to figure out a way to make Microsoft Office look like it interoperates with OpenOffice.org up to a point, not any version of it, but just Novell’s version of OpenOffice.

You are not supposed to have to hire people to figure out a private way to be compatible with a true standard.

[...]

Oh, Novell. What were you thinking? Why would you agree to this? I can read these words, so why couldn’t you? They say you are being used to prop up the reputation of Open XML, while not really making it compatible in the end. What kind of goals are these? For a *standard*? For a company selling GNU/Linux?

[...]

Irony is dead. Here you have a so-called standard being used for exclusivity, so Microsoft and Novell have special interoperability that others can’t enjoy.

And as for Novell’s awful role, obviously, Novell executives never grasped the essence of Linux or FOSS. That explains a lot, including the company’s downfall in the end, don’t you think? Selling out the community in secret does not a long-term business plan make. And to everyone who pushed for or accepted Novell’s version of OpenOffice.org, what’s the plan now? Seriously. Time to really make a plan. Microsoft does. How about the community? How stupid are we?

Groklaw also appends the exhibit (we will hopefully have its Spanish translation soon, courtesy of Eduardo Landaveri) and Microsoft’s booster/insider Alex Brown gets slammed for his role in this whole process (he is a Microsoft “mercenary” as Landaveri would probably call him). He is criticised severely not just for his abuse as OOXML convenor but also as a Microsoft booster after all these incidents. Brown also threatened me after I had leaked OOXML, for all the misconduct associated with it (even corruption like bribes). That’s the type of crowd Microsoft surrounds itself with, in order to defend itself from prosecution for crimes.

For those who can recall the debate from 2008, OOXML is filled with RAND traps although it’s not the only issue with this proprietary format. The news about EIFv2 [1, 2, 3] (also in Spanish) suggests that Europe will not exclude OOXML for its unacceptable RAND terms and there is a new analysis (supposedly impartial) of what EIFv2 will mean to Europe:

Whether or not by indirect reaction to some of these developments, Red Hat has this week issued a blog post outlining the European Interoperability Framework (EIF), which has been set out by the European Commission. The commission recognizes that open technologies are key to achieving interoperability and therefore recommends that public administrations should aim for openness at all times.

If the European Commission is right to back this initiative with its emphasis being on “open specifications” and open standards being implemented in practice, then it may help the wider cause of free and open source software application development (in the public sector at least) from the following perspectives:

* The promotion and support the delivery of public services by fostering cross-border and cross-sectoral interoperability;
* To guide public administrations in their work to provide public services to businesses and citizens; and
* To complement and tie together the various National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) where they exist.

Although this model is confined to Europe under the auspices of the European commission, if effective it may prove telling for procedural adoption in other developed countries of the Western world from the United States and beyond.

The EIF is more than just a typical paper from another government committee. It is the result of a multi-year, multi-stakeholder effort that sets out to shift the paradigm for IT deployment in the public sector. Indeed, in the words of the EIF, it… “should be taken into account when [governments are] making decisions on public services that support the implementation of policy initiatives… [and] should also be considered when establishing public services that in the future may be reused as part of public services.”

OOXML was never supposed to get anywhere near ISO, but Novell helped it along the way, in order to appease Microsoft which had paid Novell hundreds of millions of dollars. Boyott Novell and whatever comes after it (AttachMSFT is buying Novell, so the name of the target will change). █

OIN to Defend From Novell’s Software Patents (Now Microsoft’s) While Microsoft Florian Heckles

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:02 pm by

Novell Santa

Summary: OIN apparently kicks the threat of Novell to the curb; Microsoft boosters still hostile towards OIN, which provides signs that OIN is somewhat effective

EARLIER on we wrote about LibreOffice joining the OIN, which is positive news. As a good news site put it, “[p]atents owned by Open Invention Network are available royalty-free to whichever company, institution or individual that agrees not to assert its patents against free software.” Groklaw explained that OIN’s defence from Novell-owned patents was about to expire because of CPTN. Simon Phipps, whose employer recently joined the OIN, writes:

Smart move here – by joining now, they gain access to all those patents belonging to Novell that will leave the pool and belong (among others) to Microsoft and Oracle when the acquisition by AttachMate closes. Given Novell’s software portfolio, there’s a chance some of those are highly relevant. Now OIN needs to update its software list to include LibreOffice.

As one can imagine, LWN is characteristically heckled* by Microsoft Florian, who still promotes the pro-Microsoft side and bashes the OIN. █
____
* This mobbyist also reproduces the comments in other forums for increased impact, so there’s a lot of silent copying-and-pasting involved.

2010 the Year When Microsoft Became a Systematic Patent Bully

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:52 pm by

Nelson Muntz

Summary: The past year may be remembered as the year when Microsoft’s patent aggression and number of lawsuits filed nearly exceeded the number of new products

A summary of Microsoft failures is something which we hope to post around the new year because there’s a lot to catch up with and very little to say about new Microsoft products; there are almost none. Instead of bringing value to market Microsoft is bringing patent lawsuits, targeting the likes of Motorola and Salesforce (Motorola counter-sued and the ITC has just given it the “OK”).

To Microsoft, 2010 was not just another year of layoffs. It was a year of exodus and litigation, claims CNET (although not in these words). Techrights no longer focuses so much on Microsoft because looking at the long term, Microsoft is a small player. As for Novell, it’s history. So instead we focus on the major issues, one of which is software patents. It’s not just companies like Amazon and Apple which are promoting software patents; the pseudo ‘industry’ of patent lawyers is also a major part of this problem and some of the culprits publish new books about it. There are attempts to tax people in new and creative ways, essentially looting software developers for the enrichment of people who went to law school. This is not beneficial to society, it’s wasteful and stressful.

“Smart Phone Rivalry Plays Out In Patent Suits” says this new headline from NPR and AP Technology NewsBrief says:

Competition among smart phone makers is heating up at retail, in advertising and, increasingly, in the courtroom as handset and software makers wield patent lawsuits to protect their turf and slow down their rivals.

What’s good about this chaos in the mobile market is that it helps convince more people that the patent system is broken and change is urgently needed. People’s mobile phones are simply not as good as they could be, due to patents of course. There is some pro-”IPR” propaganda from China [1, 2], but it is missing the point that China thrives right now despite — not because — of “IPR”. Here is one anonymous writer who says:

Disclosure: although many reporters and analysts disdain patents and whine that patents, particularly software patents, stifle innovation, I believe intellectual property remains the bedrock of Silicon Valley.

Venture capitalists are sometimes opposing software patents too. Whose gut feeling is it that says software patents are good for innovation, despite lack of evidence? The author is unnamed in this case and Tang Yuankai from the other articles has offered no disclosure. Either way, upon closer inspection it often turns out that those who promote software patents in the press are in fact patent lawyers who profit from these unwanted algorithm ‘taxes’. █

Apple Attacks Free Speech by Removing Wikileaks, Just Like Amazon

Posted in Uncategorized at 3:50 pm by

Red Apple

Chairman Jobs

Summary: Apple takes a China-esque approach in handling Wikileaks cables on devices it rents to customers

HERE is a wake-up call to those who cannot see the correlation between software freedom/Free software and free speech. As the FSF’s Peter Brown explained in his interview last week, Wikileaks is an example of Free software ensuring that people can stay in control at the expense of illegitimate power. Now, guess who stands in the way other than Amazoff [sic] (which is freedom-hostile)? Yes, it’s Apple. Raw Story confirms that “Apple attacks WikiLeaks, yanks iPhone app from app store” and this helps illustrate the ugly problem when control-loving companies take control over what people can and cannot do on their devices (which they paid for) and then engage in unacceptable censorship on behalf of their government. Moving from Microsoft to Apple is an exercise of swapping handcuffs. █

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