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10.12.11

Links 12/10/2011: Nokia’s New Linux Team, NGINX Gets Dosh

Posted in News Roundup at 8:12 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

Free Software/Open Source

  • NGINX Goes Open Core
  • Apache and IIS’ Web server rival NGINX is growing fast

    It used to be easy for Web server administrators. If you ran a Windows shop, you used Internet Information Server (IIS), if you didn’t, you used Apache. Now, though, you have more Web server choices and one of the leading alternatives, the open-source NGINX Web server, is gaining fast.

    According to Netcraft, the leading Web server analytics company, NGINX, with its over 40-million Web domains and 8.5% of all Web domains, is catching up with the big two. Indeed Netcraft analysts believe that “If current trends continue NGINX will soon overtake Microsoft to have the second largest number of active sites.”

  • Open Source Web Server NGINX Receives $3 Million Investment
  • Nginx open source web server gets Dell backing
  • Open Source Web Server Leader NGINX Closes U.S. $3 Million Series A Funding Round.
  • NGINX Go Commercial, a Promising Open Source Business Case
  • FIIB Delhi faculty’s study on ERP reported in reputed journal

    The paper analyzes business models of open source ERP, emphasizing the importance of software licensing and partner networks.

  • Open source hypervisors on VMware shops’ radars

    Hypervisors based on open source code will get new consideration from users in the next 12 months, according to the results of SearchServerVirtualization.com’s 2011 Virtualization Decisions survey.

  • Open Source. What is it Good For?

    I’ve written about open source hardware (OSHW) a few times before. Like this and this. I’ve understood open source software for quite some time and over the last few years have been starting to get what open source hardware is all about. It is different than open source software.

    With software, your tangible product is essentially intangible. Your acquisition and distribution of an open source project can be virtually free. Not so with hardware. Someone has to physically build something, which costs time and money in parts and labor. Really though, all that means is the proliferation of an open source hardware product just takes a little longer. If you look at it as the design being open source more than the actual product, then it gets to be more and more similar to software.

  • French Model Specialist Modeliosoft Goes Open Source
  • Top five drawbacks of open source (Ed: SD Times, the usual)

    While open source has seen tremendous uptake in companies large and small, there are still plenty of problems you can encounter when building on top of an open stack of software. Here are the top five.

  • Churches and Technology. Open Source and the Church

    Open source software is computer software that has been produced and is licensed in such a way that the software is allowed to be downloaded and accessed by anybody, free of charge.

    Open source in many cases is built by people that care about software as something they love to produce and something that they want to build. The developers care about how things are done, and the quality of the end result rather than the money that they can get from selling the software itself.

  • Antepedia is the largest Knowledge Base of Open Source components

  • Web Browsers

  • SaaS

    • Forget iCloud, Create Your ownCloud

      ownCloud team has announced the release of version 2 of ownCloud, the free and open source cloud computing. The latest version comes after a huge gap of one and a half year. But, this release is promising.

    • ownCloud 2 released

      ownCloud 2 has just been released. ownCloud is a web-based storage application similar to Google Docs, Dropbox or Ubuntu One with a big difference—your data is under your control. With version 2, the ownCloud team has improved the basic service and added valuable features:

      * Access your files on the web or integrate ownCloud with desktop file managers.
      * Share files securely.
      * Access music and personal information directly or connect through applications.
      * Synchronize with other web applications that use the remoteStorage protocol.
      * More user support, demos and community interaction.

    • Linux Labs to Launch New SaaS Platform in 1Q 2012

      Currently, the company is in alpha and testing with a limited number of clients. Linux has been deploying FDS cluster computer solutions for clients such as ARUP since a decade. As per the new strategy, Linux will provide an FDS SaaS solution that would provide efficiencies and cost savings for future clients, from industries such as Engineering, Educational institutions, Gas, Chemical and Government agencies like FEMA.

    • The OpenStack juggernaut

      The OpenStack collaborative industry effort to build an open source cloud platform is to be applauded for the remarkable gains it has achieved in a short amount of time. Founded by Rackspace Hosting and NASA in July last year, the organization is now backed by 120 companies, including the likes of HP, Dell, Intel and Cisco, and has already issued four major code releases, the last of which, Diablo, just came out last month and has already been downloaded 50,000 times.

  • Databases

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • More proof of Oracle’s disinterest in open source

      But as kernel developer Dave Jones notes, “The number of bug reports we get from people with VirtualBox loaded are truly astonishing. It’s GPL, but sadly that doesn’t mean it’s good. Nearly all of these bugs look like random corruption. (corrupt linked lists, corrupt page tables, and just plain ‘weird’ crashes).”

      Hence Jones has added a patch to list the driver as tainted. Doing so, means that “automatic bug filing tools can opt out of automatically filing kernel bugs, and inform the user to file bugs somewhere more appropriate.”

      There are many third-party drivers which are present on GNU/Linux systems. They are maintained by outsiders and if the code meets the high standards of the kernel then they often get merged with the mainline kernel. Oracle is the owner of VirtualBox and given that it is a widely used platform should, by rights, be maintaining the driver.

    • Hard-up OpenOffice whips out begging-cap website

      Hamburg-based open-source project OpenOffice will embark upon a major fundraising campaign this week to defend itself against a looming shutdown.

    • Oracle Previews Upcoming Solaris 11 and Oracle Linux Changes

      Almost lost within the fanfare of last week’s Oracle OpenWorld were several sneak peeks at where the company is heading with its Solaris and Oracle Linux operating systems (OS) in the near future. For the upcoming release of Solaris 11, the company announced features to make it more user friendly, more virtualized and more scalable. On the Linux side, Oracle revealed it is releasing a second version of its Unbreakable Enterprise Kernel for Linux. The big news here is that it can be patched without any downtime.

  • Education

    • Open source science

      In 2009, mathematician Timothy Gowers posed this question to the blogosphere: “Is massively collaborative mathematics possible?” He described an unsolved math problem and asked for help figuring it out. Over the next few hours and days, commenters began to pick at the problem together. They brought up incomplete ideas, which were expanded and incorporated into other peoples’ ideas, until Gowers posted 37 days later that the problem had (probably) been solved.

  • Funding

    • Spree Raises $1.5 Million From True Ventures, Aol For Open Source eCommerce Platform

      Spree Commerce, the open source, Ruby on Rails-based eCommerce solution, announced today that it has raised $1.5 million in seed funding led by True Ventures. Also participating in the round were Aol Ventures, and angels like Sean Glass. Spree has also brought on some notable advisors, including Dries Buytaert (Creator of Drupal), Luke Kanies (Creator of Puppet), Tom Preston-Werner (Co-founder of Github), and James Lindenbaum (Co-founder of Heroku).

    • Open Source Ecommerce Solution Raises $1.5M in Seed Funding

      Popular open source ecommerce solution, Spree, announced yesterday it has officially become incorporated as Spree Commerce Inc. This announcement comes after Spree’s raising of $1.5 million in a seed-funding round led by True Ventures. Other participants in the round include AOL Ventures and Sean Glass.

  • Project Releases

  • Public Services/Government

    • Bristol City Council all clear for open source

      Bristol City Council has announced that there are “no security or accreditation issues that should hold us back from pushing ahead with our open source agenda”. The announcement was said by the council to be the result of working with the Cabinet Office after concerns were raised, by the council itself, about security accreditation for open source software. The council leader Barbara Janke said: “We have now been given the green light by the Cabinet Office to push ahead with this open source agenda and they have promised to work closely with us on this issue over the next few months”.

    • Cabinet Office Approves Bristol’s Open Source Plans

      The government’s cyber security arm has given Bristol council the go-ahead to use open source software

      Bristol City Council has been given the green light to push ahead with its open source strategy following a meeting with CESG, the cyber security arm of the UK intelligence services.

      The council first announced its intention to adopt open source alongside existing Microsoft software in September 2010. As part of an ongoing review of its desktop systems, the council was looking to replace its current email system with an open source alternative.

    • Bristol gears up for ‘fantastic’ open source project

      Bristol City Council is set to begin work on a major open source project, following a meeting called by the Cabinet Office.

      The meeting, held on Thursday last week, was attended by LinuxIT, an open source specialist located in the city. GCHQ, the government’s communications tracking headquarters, and vendors BeLIB and Nameless, also attended.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Data

      • Public Data Mining Project Prompts Concerns

        On the Internet, information is everywhere. From blogs to Tweets and everywhere in between, the data stream seems endless. For your average Web surfer, the majority of this information is irrelevant and may be disregarded. But what if casual information, like the kind found on blogs and Webcams, could be made useful?

        The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), a US government research agency, believes that this is possible, and that information from such sources may be able to predict the future.

    • Open Hardware

      • How open source can help you build a voice-activated robotic arm

        The project that I discovered was developed by UK Aerospace Engineer, Arthur Amarra, who normally works on the structural analysis of composite aircraft wings, but who professes to have been an avid linux geek for as long as he can remember.

        Amarra initially purchased the robotic arm as a gadget to play with and admits that the machine is not particularly useful in itself since it is only capable of lifting objects that weigh in at about 100 grams.

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols: Microsoft’s Metro is on the wrong track for many Windows users

    Microsoft has made it clear that it considers Windows 8′s Metro interface and applications to be the future. When I look at Metro, however, I see gaudy colors, boxy designs, applications that can either run as a small tile or as full screen with no way to resize or move windows. Where have I seen this before? Wait, I know! Windows 1.0.

    Twenty-five years of user-interface development and this is what we get? Scary.

  • Censorship

    • Censorware or child protection? We need clarity from government and ISPs

      ISPs are discussing what they call “Active Choice”: that is, to insist that adults are given a yes / no choice before installing or using parental controls when they set up a new broadband connection.

      Now, there is a world of difference between offering sensible child safety, and trying to persuade adults to live with layers of censorship.

      Thus the devil is therefore in the detail, and how “options” are presented. Will adults be asked if they need parental controls, or if they want to “adult content” switched on?

    • Call your MP today to repeal the Web Blocking Clauses of the Digital Economy Act

      These amendments will be debated late this afternoon, and we need as many sympathetic MPs to be there as possible!

  • Copyrights

    • Can default P2P settings break the law? US says yes

      The Federal Trade Commission has decided that certain default software settings can violate the law against “unfair or deceptive acts or practices in or affecting commerce.” The agency recently went after the peer-to-peer filesharing program FrostWire for sharing too many user files by default, something that could easily lead to identity theft, copyright infringement, and the loss of “intimate photographs.” That’s right: the federal government now goes to court to protect the privacy of your nude smartphone pics.

    • Publishing. Right. Wrong. Otherwise!

      Think about this, and think hard. I’m going to list a bunch of media:

      * Video Laserdiscs
      * Betamax Videotapes
      * VHS Videotapes
      * Long Play Vinyl Records
      * Reel to Reel Audio Tapes
      * Eight Track Audio Tapes
      * Cassette Audio Tapes
      * Audio Compact Discs
      * Paper Books

      All of these media have a common purpose, to deliver a form of entertainment. They are a delivery system. Of course the delivery system has to be delivered, and it has to be displayed on shelf space.

      The current switch to electronic delivery of electronic files removes the need for a delivery system and for shelf space. This is why Borders went bankrupt in the United States, and it is why Chapters-Indigo in Canada has a smaller and smaller amount of shelf space devoted to books.

10.11.11

Links 11/10/2011: Wine 1.3.30, Sabayon 7 is Coming

Posted in News Roundup at 8:44 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • 4 Reasons to Have Live Linux at Home
  • LPI Announces Academic Training Partners in Malaysia

  • Desktop

    • Best Use for an Old Laptop: TinyCore Linux

      Like many computer geeks, I have more unused computers than I know what to do with. Old hardware is often considered to be obsolete when often the MSWindows went pear shaped.. I know that Linux can breath new life into almost any hardware, so I have a hard time letting older machines go. Unfortunately, they often don’t have the needed components to be fully usable — what good is a computer these days without networking?

      TinyCore Linux is an ultra-small Linux desktop; the 4.0 release is just under 12MB. TinyCore is stripped down, so don’t expect the bells and whistles of a more active desktop, such as KDE or OSX or Windows has. Instead, its claim is that it runs in RAM and it runs fast, which is great for older hardware.

    • Frankendesktop: My Gothic desktop fantasy

      Over the course of the day, I have to hop between various desktops. That experience set me wondering what a desktop would look like if it were assembled from all the favourite features that I encounter daily. Of course, it’s pure fantasy. But just in case, somewhere on the planet, a team of developers is trying to create the ideal desktop, here’s a roadmap that they might like to follow.

  • Audiocasts/Shows

    • Podcast Season 3 Episode 19

      In this episode: Canonical launches an app developer portal and there’s a new mobile Linux initiative. We create a whole new section of the podcast, discover lots of things and discuss whether secure booting will hinder Linux adoption.

  • Kernel Space

    • Kernel Log: Linux 3.1 approaches

      Kernel version 3.1 will probably be released in the next few days. After a break of more than four weeks, Greg Kroah-Hartman has released new stable kernels. The X.org developers are thinking about merging the most important graphics drivers into the X Server.

      Late last Tuesday night, Linus Torvalds issued the ninth release candidate of Linux 3.1. Since then, some further corrections have been integrated into the main development branch; however, in the past few days there have not been any new hints on when Linux 3.1 might get released – but it is likely to be released some time this week, or next week at the latest, as indicated by Torvalds when releasing RC7.

    • The kernel column with Jon Masters #106

      As is the case every month, Jon Masters looks at the latest developments in the Linux kernel community, including work on new architecture and ABI support, not to mention Kernel.org disruptions…

    • Logitech C270 Webcam and Linux

      After years of having an audio-only computer, I finally succumbed and bought a USB webcam, so that I can do video calling through Skype.

      First, because I’m frugal, I looked on-line to see what low-cost cameras were available at my local retail chains. The Logitech C210 seemed to be the least expensive and most available.

    • The VirtualBox Kernel Driver Is Tainted Crap

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Testing, XFCE to the Rescue

      What a busy week it has been with testing, finding bugs, confirming and submitting. Generally I test Gnome and KDE isos, but this time went off the wall as my frustrations grow with both Gnome and KDE and decided to test XFCE 64 bit edition. Last time I looked at XFCE was like version 4.0, so to my surprise 4.8 will knock your socks off compared to that.

      So I have decided that with my Sabayon Forensic spins, I will go with xfce instead. I’ve been up to my ears in the skel files learning the xfce ways, adding and removing packages and been testing local isos via the wonderful tool molecule. My computer is feeling the pains tho, molecule will really give those cpus a work out. So drop the KDE and Gnome editions and just go with XFCE to make this simpler and more universal for working with various computers. Gnome-shell is kinda of a nightmare right now on various hardware. KDE has it’s issues too, but works better than gnome-shell.

    • Linux For The Masses!

      I remember when the 4.0 release of KDE hit the public, which I believe should never have happened that early. I didn’t like what the KDE 4 series brought to the table, and in some ways I still don’t, but I gave the project the time it needed to mature, which the KDE team wasn’t giving it by releasing too early in my opinion. Anyway, I found the 4.6, and 4.7 releases something I could work with, and give it a fair try. To be perfectly honest too, there was aspects of the KDE 3 series that I wasn’t fond of, and had found some problems with it many times, even with the last release of it. Nothing’s perfect, and it’s foolish to think all things must fit that way. But to the point, I waited it out, let it mature, and have been pleasantly surprised. Would I switch back to KDE after all this time since I left the 3 series? I don’t know. I won’t say that it wouldn’t happen, but I can’t say it will. I grew to like the GNOME 2 series, even with its lack of configuration options, and simplistic UIs, compared to KDE. But I could easily switch if need be, or more importantly, if GNOME 3 matures quickly, or even Unity, I could switch to those. They’re tomorrow.

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • Plasma Active

        Here is the About screen for Plasma Active One, as seen in our instance running on top of MeeGo, recently abandoned by Intel and Nokia Linux-based operating system for mobile devices.

      • Results from poll about future of XScreensavers in KDE Plasma

        Today ended the poll on forums.kde.org about the future of X Screen saver support in the KDE Plasma Workspaces. I want to thank everybody who participated in the poll. The poll and the thread clearly help us to see what the users need and want and what we need to provide.

      • KDE’s Summer of Achievements

        KDE took part in its 7th year as a mentoring organization for the Google Summer of Code. Thanks to Google’s generous funding and KDE’s mentors we were able to work with 51 students over the summer, once again making KDE the largest organization taking part in Google Summer of Code. Choosing the right students was hard but the selection turned out well. The students coded in nearly all areas of KDE from Calligra and Rekonq to Amarok and KStars. Their projects turned out very well, and we’ve once again been impressed with the talent and dedication of the students. All 51 students passed their mid-term evaluation and 47 successfully passed their final evaluation. Valorie Zimmerman, KDE Administrator for Google Summer of Code, says: “KDE got forty-seven completed projects, which is tremendous. Our focus though is not on the code itself, but on the students and their involvement with KDE. However, their projects enrich KDE immensely, and you’ll be seeing their code integrated into our codebase over the next few months. “

      • digiKam Tricks 3.9.5 Released
      • Humanizing metal and electrons

        We think that looking at different devices as isolated worlds, needing completely different “Apps” and UX stacks for each kind of device it’s pretty limiting, and it’s not the way who uses it (aka “humans”;) thinks.

        What we believe in, is that computing devices (doesn’t matter if it’s the laptop, a tablet, or something running in a washing machine) should exist in function of helping the people accomplishing the task they want to do, no more, no less, devices shouldn’t be something complex, hard and therefore “harming”, but should just be extensions of the user harm, of the user mind, just tools, and in every situation, the best tool for the best job.

      • How Cute can Konqui Be?
      • Plasma Active Perspectives: The App Story

        Plasma Active brings a flexible, elegant, activity-driven user experience to a spectrum of devices. This article is part of a series of articles about different perspectives on Plasma Active. In the first installment, we look at a number of applications that come with Plasma Active. Kontact Touch, Calligra Active, Bangarang and a collection of Active Apps provide a stable and powerful set of functionality, making Plasma Active suitable for personal and professional use cases.

      • KDE’s ‘Plasma Active’ Tops GNOME 3 and Unity

        Mobile devices have been influencing desktop software design for several years now. Mostly, I’ve not been impressed. Either the results are awkward, like GNOME 3, or over-simplified, like Ubuntu’s Unity.

        I had just about reached the conclusion that the mobile influence represented a step backwards in desktop design — then I tried KDE’s Plasma Active, a desktop designed for touch screen tablets, and all my assumptions were trampled underfoot.

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Has Gnome 3 decided that people shouldn’t want screen savers?

        As you may know, years ago some fresh young face on the Gnome team decided, for no sensible reason, to re-implement the xscreensaver daemon from scratch and call it “gnome-screensaver”. This re-write was still able to run the 95% of xscreensaver that comprised the actual, you know, screen savers. It ran them badly, but it ran them.

      • Elementary Viper Luna Gnome Shell Theme

        Elementary Viper Luna Gnome Shell theme is inspired by DanRabit’s work on Elementary Luna desktop. The theme is created by justviper who in past gave us couple of nice Gnome Shell themes.

      • Looking For a Beautiful GNOME Shell Theme? Try ‘Nord’
      • Gnome 3.2 reviewed | Its uber cool and feature rich

        Gnome 3.2 was released a few days back. With an improved shell and various other integrations, this shell will please many users. We had been looking closely at the developments from the Gnome stable with our posts on Installing Gnome shell, Gnome Shell extensions and Gnome Shell themes. Check out this article to find out more about the new features in Gnome 3.2

      • Gnome 3.2 Review

        All in all, it’s a mixed bag of a release. The improvements that have come with it are definitely welcome. The Gtk+ theme updates have certainly improved my day to day experience with the desktop, and I’m hopeful that the new applications and online accounts integration will turn in to really excellent features in the near future.

        Unfortunately, many of the bugs and annoyances from the 3.0 release persist – largely because the Gnome team doesn’t consider these bugs but features – and some new ones have been introduced.

        Weighing things up, I’d say that my overall experience with the desktop is little improved from 3.0. That said, it’s not an altogether bad thing since I did quite like the 3.0 release and still find this series of Gnome releases to be the best free desktop for my needs.

      • Thoughts on being an upstream

        I’ve been reading things people report in Bugzilla for years. How I feel about this now is that there are really several, entirely different things that we presently lump under “bug”. For example, I think it’s pretty clear that someone’s random ideas for a change to the design are totally different from say identified code regressions, which are in turn different from proposed patches.

  • Distributions

    • Slackware 13.37 – Perfect for My Laptop

      Most people who have dabbled in Linux for a while “know” that Slackware is difficult to install, configure, make work and keep up to date. It is an OS only for geeks. Not so. These days the developments in the wider universe have trickled down to Slackware as well, and having something like KDE 4 as default desktop already means plenty of things taken care of, with all the utilities and options this desktop environment is providing.

    • New Releases

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Million Dollar Baby…

        Since the begining of the Mageia adventure, 243 people gave money to Mageia.Org, helping us to buy hardware, domain names, goodies, …
        It makes an average donation of € 62 ($ 83) per donor! Thank you to all the money donors or ressources partners (ielo, gandi, online) but also to all other people offering in the way they want: time (packagers, triage, qa, artwork, marketing, bug report, dev…) or just by spreading Mageia arround them by buying TS or talking on forums, events…

    • Gentoo Family

      • Sabayon 7 Brings The Experimental Fusion Kernel

        Sabayon Linux, the easy-to-use distribution derived from Gentoo, reached version 7.0 yesterday. Among other improvements, Sabayon 7 features an “ultra-optimized” Linux 3.0 kernel as well as the project’s experimental Fusion Kernel.

        Some of the key software packages to Sabayon Linux 7 include the Linux 3.0 kernel, GNOME 3.2, KDE SC 4.7, Xfce 4.8, and LibreOffice 3.4. In total there’s been more than 4,000 package updatss since Sabayon 6.0, which arrived back in June. There’s also XBMC 10.0 support, an updated Entropy Framework, support for new languages and fonts, and semi-automated package updates.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat (RHT) Approaches New Upside Target of $44.40

        Shares of Red Hat (NYSE:RHT) have bullishly opened above the pivot of $42.75 today and have reached the first resistance level of $43.64. Analysts will be watching for a cross of the next upside pivot targets of $44.40 and $46.05.

      • Red Hat: Perfect Short Candidate For This Market

        Red Hat, Inc. (RHT) is a provider of open source, Linux-based software for corporate IT customers. The company has been a rumored acquisition target for years, with potential suitors including Oracle (ORCL), IBM (IBM), and most recently Hewlett-Packard (HPQ).

      • Red Hat’s Open-Source Software Lowers Costs

        Cloud computing has been compared to an electricity grid, mainly because end users can access power and services without having to set up and run the infrastructure.

        With the cloud, software and applications are stored on remote servers and delivered over the Internet rather than individual computers.

      • Fedora

        • Results of the voting for the Fedora 17 release name
        • Fedora 17 Has A Tasty Codename: Beefy Miracle

          Last week Mark Shuttleworth announced Ubuntu 12.04 LTS would be codenamed Precise Pangolin while this evening Red Hat’s Jared Smith has announced the codename for Fedora 17, which will be released around the same time next spring.

        • Testing Fedora 16 “Verne” – Beta

          I made the upgrade of my operating system to Fedora 16 (a.k.a. Verne). The first thing I did was update my applications. Then I did the procedures mentioned in this link.

          The download size was about 1.2 GB so I waited for it to end. I did not have to do any other commands in particular. When it was over, I restarted my computer to see if it had worked properly.

          The first thing I noticed was the advance of a grub2 grub. After changing to black at the bottom of plymouth. Then I realized I had changed from the login screen. Now I like Fedora more.

        • “I’m a Beefy Miracle” song
        • Fedora 17 Will Be Named Beefy Miracle

          Jared Smith proudly announced earlier today the codename for the upcoming Fedora 17 operating system, due for release next year.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 11.10 Is in the Wings: Three Days and Counting

            It’s now been almost six months since the release of Ubuntu 11.04, or “Natty Narwhal,” and that means it’s about time for the next version of Canonical’s popular Linux distribution to make its official debut.

          • Small Things That Matter: Logging Out of Ubuntu From the Dash
          • Unity: I just can’t
          • The Supreme Court of India Embraces Ubuntu Linux
          • Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 236
          • Official Ubuntu 11.10 CDs Go On Sale

            The official Ubuntu 11.10 CDs have gone on sale in the Canonical Store.

          • Video: Ubuntu 11.10 Review

            For our Ubuntu fans as well as those who just want to learn about the upcoming release, I found this on youtube. I was hoping for HTML5 playback option, but this seems to be Flash only. The review was done from a recent release candidate that I believe will be the final release due out this Thursday. I still prefer KDE myself. :)

          • Sushi File Previewer in Ubuntu 11.10 Unity

            One of the new features in GNOME 3.2 is quick file preview. Pressing space while a file is selected in the file browser will open a window with a preview of the file contents. Previews of images, videos, music, PDF documents, and more are supported.

          • Transforming the home PC with Ubuntu 11.10

            Millions of home users give their computers a new lease of life with Ubuntu each year. The upcoming version, Ubuntu 11.10, has substantial benefits for those looking for the latest personal cloud and web technologies, as well as those running on older hardware.

          • Ubuntu will power HP’s new cloud service

            Ubuntu Linux will be the primary operating system powering HP’s upcoming cloud service, Ubuntu maker Canonical said last week. HP recently opened a private beta program for an infrastructure-as-a-service cloud that will offer both compute and storage capacity, using the OpenStack open source cloud platform.

          • An Elephant On A Computer

            Probably a good idea to install one of the countless Linux and open source distros as a backup OS on the old traveling netbook.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 arrives with ARM support

            Canonical is claiming to have released the first general-purpose server platform to run on ARM architecture chips with Ubuntu 11.10, which also introduces a service orchestration framework and updated support for the OpenStack cloud platform.

          • Ubuntu prepares for ARM-based servers

            Linux vendor Canonical is to make the latest iteration of its operating systems for client and server, Ubuntu 11.10, available for download this Thursday.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 will support ARM processors to take on Red Hat

            Canonical’s popular Ubuntu Linux distribution will get its second update of 2011 this month for both desktop and server editions. However it is the server edition that Canonical has made the biggest changes to by supporting ARM processors.

          • The Other Issue With Ubuntu 11.10: Boot Speed
          • Ubuntu Server Aims to Own the Cloud

            With a lack of any license fees and a focus on cloud features from its primary sponsor, Canonical, Ubuntu has flourished in the cloud, becoming a popular guest operating system on Amazon EC2 and other infrastructure-as-a-service options.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot, new feature info

            Currently the most up-to-date Ubuntu distro is Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal, this arrived back in April and initially we weren’t seeing a lot of love for the new Unity user interface which this OS version introduced, but now people have had a chance to use it you can understand why it was favored to the dated Gnome layout.

          • HP to Use Linux-Based Ubuntu Platform in Upcoming Cloud Computing Service

            Canonical has announced that Hewlett Packard has chosen Linux-based Ubuntu platform as the lead and guest OS in its upcoming cloud computing offering.

            In a blog post, Canonical, which handles the software distribution, revealed that CEO Jane Silber made the announcement during the OpenStack cloud computing conference in Boston.

          • Indian Supreme Court Switches Over To Ubuntu; So Should USA

            The Supreme Court of the world’s largest democracy has ordered all courts across India to switch to GNU/Linux based operating system Ubuntu. Prior to this move the courts across India were using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, which is mainly targeted at servers. More than 17,000 courts around India will now be switching over to Ubuntu from RHEL.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • The Top 5 Ubuntu based Linux distributions

              In this article I am introducing some of the most amazing derivatives of Ubuntu. Ubuntu based distros are basically Ubuntu with specialized applications in a particular domain. For instance, it could be in education like Edubuntu or multimedia or Mythubunu. Read on to find out more.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Tux goes for a spin

      The Linux Foundation has announced a new event and a new emphasis for Linux: the inaugural Automotive Linux Summit.

      The Auto Summit, which will happen on November 28 in Yokohama, Japan, is geared to “address the growing need for carmakers and Linux developers to collaborate on the future of computing on wheels.”

      And, I would suspect, a chance to really try to showcase the in-vehicle capabilities of MeeGo and Tizen, two mobile platform projects stewarded by the Linux Foundation.

      You don’t hear much about these platforms’ in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) features, except in press releases about the platforms themselves, where we all die a little bit inside when we read the word “infotainment.” But it’s as good a term as any to describe the class of devices that have come as an option in cars in recent years, like seat warmers. OnStar, GM’s big revenue generator, and Ford Sync, an equivalent IVI platform powered by Microsoft’s Embedded Automotive operating system, are two examples of this kind of system.

    • Phones

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Motorola Xoom Tablet: The Business Review

        Is the Motorola Xoom – a Google Android-powered tablet – ready for business users and channel partners? David Courbanou, my peer here at The VAR Guy, wasn’t all that impressed with early Xoom 2 chatter. But I’ve spent recent days using the original Xoom. iPad lovers cover your ears: I believe the Xoom tablet has something to offer the business world.

        First things first. While attending the recent Box.net customer conference, I received a Xoom tablet for free. Generally speaking, The VAR Guy’s editorial team doesn’t accept free technology unless it’s part of a broad conference giveaway — as in this case. Also, we always disclose how we received the hardware and software we test.

      • Motorola Solutions spins ruggedized Android tablet

        Motorola Solutions announced a ruggedized, seven-inch Android 2.3.4 tablet for enterprise users. The ET1 tablet offers a dual-core, 1GHz Texas Instruments OMAP4 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of flash memory, a 1024 x 600 pixel display with extra thick Gorilla Glass, and an eight-megapixel camera with barcode reading capabilities, the company says.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Pros and Cons of Open Source Software

    And even though I can only cover a fraction of the open source/closed source applications available today, I ‘ll touch on the most common software titles.

  • FLOSS software things which I wonder about

    I attended the Floss Unconference fest yesterday at Manchester Conference centre (a location I had planned to use for BarCampManchester2 due to their ability to do overnights and excellent warren like structure).
    The event was reasonable but not well attended, which was a shame. It needed about another 30 people to feel more busy and active. Not quite sure why people never came out for it…? But to be honest I only spotted it by hearing a tweet from Teknoteacher. Anyhow, at the end of the day there were lightening talks and I jumped at the chance to talk about software which really needs to be developed on Linux. I’ve adopted this post to apply to most Floss type things…

  • Web Browsers

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • LibreOffice Conference
    • A message from the Eocene; or, the ballad of WordPerfect

      From time to time, I look back fondly on the years when I ran Windows. It doesn’t last; my wife’s computer has XP on it, and XP needs some periodic adjusting, and then it all seems like just a bad dream.

      [...]

      But the other day I opened up LibreOffice Writer in my Mageia installation on the laptop. It opened up in about ⅔ of a window, as it always does (it must be a KDE thing, because it does the same thing in my Kubuntu) (or it was transient; weeks later, sometimes it opens up in a full window), and I maximized it, and I realized that I’m really never going to love LibreOffice Writer.

    • A FOSS Success Story: LibreOffice Turns 1

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GNU PDF no longer an FSF high priority project
    • Upon further review . . . [Ed: I do not agree with Stallman's critics, just informing about opinions]

      – A glaring omission: While re-reading my blog post, it mistakenly reads like it’s just Richard Stallman’s statement on Steve Jobs that is the sole reason for my leaving the FSF. It’s not. The statement about Jobs is just a tipping point in a list of several incidents where I, and others, have run into resistance, censorship and pariah-hood by merely questioning the FSF gospel over the years that I have been a FSF member. As an aside, an e-mail exchange with FSF executive director John Sullivan — some long and detailed, some not — allowed me to air my grievances, and I am grateful to him for lending a proverbial ear to hear these concerns. Sullivan’s e-mail exchanges, as well as discussions with others, show there is room for change in the organization.

    • Time to fork the FSF
    • I’d buy that for a dollar

      I hear “Photoshop is bad”, but I think you should say “Gimp is awesome” instead. I hear “Windows is evil”, but I’d rather hear “Use Fedora today!”.

    • Leave It To Richard Stallman To Go There

      I met Stallman for lunch many years ago at a San Francisco Burmese restaurant. Stallman can be an infuriating man, but he can also be a very charming lunch companion.

  • Public Services/Government

    • PL: Deputy Prime Minister calls FLOSS “the greatest success of the 20th century”

      Waldemar Pawlak, Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, saluted Free and Open Source Software (FLOSS) as the “greatest success of the 20th century” in a conference talk on 27 September 2011. He added that FLOSS is based on very sound principles and can provide solutions to some of the problems of civilization which we will face in the 21st century.

  • Openness/Sharing

Leftovers

  • OpenIndiana—a Free Fork of the Solaris OS (Part 1)

    OpenIndiana comprises the Illumos core, taken from OpenSolaris, with a set of GNU user-land tools. OpenIndiana can even be called an analogue to GNU/Linux, but instead of a monolithic Linux kernel, it uses the OS/Net-based derivative kernel known as Illumos, which is 100 per cent ABI compatible with the Solaris kernel. In short, we can assume that OpenIndiana is actually the OpenSolaris operating system.
    Once upon a time, there was Sun Microsystems. Not just an IT industry flagship, but also a legendary firm. Famous for SPARC processors, the Java language, and for the decades it spent developing its own UNIX OS, Solaris. Solaris’ successor is the OpenIndiana project.

  • Hardware

    • Linux Hardware: Harddrives for Video Editing on Linux

      I like to shoot and edit video (on Debian GNU/Linux, of course on KDE, using the wonderful KDEnlive Video Editor), but in video editing, there is always a bottleneck. My wife and I recently purchased a Nikon D5100 camera which shoots fantastic video in hi-def! I was worried that my video editing computer hardware wouldn’t be able to keep up with these large HD video files.*

  • Health/Nutrition

    • “Occupy Wall Street” Should Protest Wall Street Takeover of Health Care

      The lobbyists for U.S. health insurers surely have to be feeling a little uneasy knowing that thousands of Occupy Wall Street demonstrators who have been marching and protesting in Washington as well as New York and other cities might target them in the days ahead. After all, the headquarters of the insurers’ biggest lobbying and PR group, America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), at 601 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., is just blocks away from Freedom Plaza, where the demonstrators have set up camp — and problems with health insurers appear to be near the top of the list of protesters’ concerns.

      Health Care for America Now, an umbrella advocacy group that played a key role in the health care reform debate, last week analyzed the 546 comments that had been posted by then on the “We are the 99 percent” Tumblr site. It found that 262 of the comments mention such problems as getting denials for doctor-ordered care from their insurance companies and having to forego treatment because of hefty out-of-pocket costs.

  • Defence/Police/Aggression

    • Boston Police Assault #OccupyBoston arresting around one hundred protesters

      At 1:30 this morning police in full riot gear attacked the participants of Occupy Boston, which had peacefully gathered on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. Without any regard for the protester’s constitutional rights, the Boston Police Department made no distinction between protesters, medics, or legal observers, arresting legal observer Ursula Levelt, who serves on the steering committee for the National Lawyers Guild, as well as four medics attempting to care for the injured.

  • Finance

    • Occupy Wall Street
    • Goldman Sachs CEO cancels lecture at Barnard

      In response to Blankfein’s invite, Columbia students had organized “School the Squid” week—referring to writer Matt Taibbi calling Goldman Sachs “a great vampire squid”—including a series of discussions and film screenings focused on corporate greed and abuse of power.

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • ALEC Tied to British Political Scandal

      British Conservative Party defense secretary Liam Fox is in the midst of scandal that has grown deeper as ties to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) are revealed. Pressure has been growing on Fox in recent weeks after having been caught in a lie about unethical dealings with his friend and former flatmate, and more ethical problems arising from the operation of a recently-dissolved, ALEC-connected “charity” Fox founded.

  • Censorship

  • Civil Rights

    • Electronic Surveillance Scandal Hits Germany

      A German hacker organization claims to have cracked spying software allegedly used by German authorities. The Trojan horse has functions which go way beyond those allowed by German law. The news has sparked a wave of outrage among politicians and media commentators.

  • Internet/Net Neutrality

    • EU Governments Oppose an Open Wireless Infrastructure

      Paris, October 11th, 2011 – As the European Union engages in important discussions on the future of the radio spectrum policy – i.e the future of open wireless communications -, it’s becoming clear that national governments are aligned on the position of dominant telecom operators. To protect open wireless communications operated and controlled by citizens, the EU Parliament must resist the pressure and defend its position.

  • DRM

    • Removing DRM can prevent piracy

      One of the biggest factors leading to music being pirated is the security software which is used to stop it being… er… pirated.

      Economists from Rice and Duke Universities have been using game theory to work out that DRM technologies, which restrict music file copying and moving, encourage illegal file sharing instead.

      Dinahy Vernik, assistant professor of marketing at Rice’s Jones Graduate School of Business told Ars Technica that DRM restrictions prevent legal users from doing something as normal as making backup copies of their music. Because DRM makes things inconvenient, punters choose to pirate.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • ACTA

        • ACTA’s Impact on Industry and Human Rights – Letters to EU Parliament

          La Quadrature du Net has written to two key committees of the European Parliament regarding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). As the EU Parliament engages in preparatory works in view of its upcoming consent vote on ACTA, La Quadrature stresses that the Parliament must fully assess the dangers of this agreement for innovation, competition and competitiveness of EU businesses, but also for human rights.

Links 11/10/2011: KDE Releases Plasma Active One, Debian 6.0.3 is Out

Posted in News Roundup at 6:08 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Dave Whitinger, LXer

    I know of Dave Whitinger from LXer, which is a lot of people’s must-read for Linux and open source news (obviously, it’s one of my daily stops). Dave has a fascinating setup. As you’ll read, it’s Fluxbox over Fedora, and as Dave points out, it allows him to use the same user interface for as long as he wants to. Thinking like this keeps Dave out of the UI wars and lets him focus on work. It’s a novel concept…

  • Different computer users, one common Linux complaint

    I guess I fall in the gourmet user category. I decided not to jump into the MS Office 2007 wagon because I could use the previous version quite efficiently. Well, since the version I bought did not include PowerPoint, I had to learn how to use electronic presentation software in StarOffice. Additionally, I didn’t like the Ribbon interface…and they killed “Linxs”. To modify pictures, I used Satori (never liked Photoshop), not MS Paint. And I didn’t use MS Movie Maker to produce videos, but VirtualDub. I required my OS to be able to handle Japanese input. Finally, I also wanted my OS to handle text-to-speech synthesis, to fire all sorts of alarms (music, alerts, actions) and to keep me protected from malware. I managed to learn how to do all that in Windows (with the obvious exception of the latter, which is virtually impossible). To do everything I required, the computer depended on many, many third-party programs to add functionality to the MS OS.

    I never shy away from learning. That’s the reason why migrating to Linux was not so difficult for me…not to mention that I found a friendlier environment in which all tasks I require from the OS can be performed more easily than in the MS operating system.

  • Small Victories? I’ll Take ‘Em…

    Unfortunately, one of her most counted-on apps will not run in Wine or Crossover. Efficient PIM is a great little all-around calendaring app with a ton of features. She has now upgraded to the full version just so she has a license, should she ever have to reinstall. I had a legit license for WinXP SP3 and I installed it via VirtualBox on her Linux side.

    From what I understand, she is now working more than half the time in Linux. Microsoft is in the position to abuse their customer base this way because people think they have to endure it to access their computer.

    I am glad to report there is one less of them today.

  • Kernel Space

    • Motherboards With Broken ASPM On Linux

      One of the many OpenBenchmarking.org features that haven’t yet been fully taken advantage is the opportunities presented by the vast collection of system hardware/software information and logs that have been submitted to this collaborative testing platform from Phoronix Media. OpenBenchmarking.org is much more than just being a storage place for benchmark results. After writing a simple plug-in this morning, here’s a list of many motherboards that have broken PCI-E Active State Power Management support from their BIOS, which can lead to greatly increased power consumption under Linux.

    • Intel’s Brewing A New Linux Driver Release Cycle

      Intel’s Open-Source Technology Center (OSTC) team responsible for the open-source Linux graphics driver stack is drafting new plans for how they release their driver code. The release model and release criteria for the Intel Linux driver will be quite different from the status quo of putting out new releases on a timed quarterly basis.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • Desktop Summit 2011 Berlin survey published

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE takes on Android, Apple’s iOS on smartphones and tablets

        If another group was trying to take on Android and Apple’s iOS on smartphones and tablets, I’d dismiss them. RIM, BlackBerry’s parent company, is having a heck of a time getting anyone to buy into PlayBook and while HP TouchPad users loved it,HP killed the TouchPad after only a few weeks. So, why should anyone think that KDE, makers of one of the two most popular Linux desktops, should stand a chance with Plasma Active? Well, because KDE has a long history of delivering the goods with minimal resources.

        So what is it? Plasma Active is not, like Android, iOS, or webOS, an operating system. It’s a KDE 4.x style interface and application programming interface (API) designed for touch devices. The Plasma Active Team states that “Plasma Active is innovative technology for an intelligent user experience (UX). It is intended for all types of tablets, smartphones and touch computing devices such as set-top boxes, smart TVs, home automation, in-vehicle infotainment. The goals for this KDE open source project are:
        A fast embedded UX platform with minimal memory requirements
        Customizable and modular to support different form factors
        An interface that adapts as users change Activities.

      • Plasma Active One released!

        Today marks a major milestone for KDE Plasma Workspaces. Plasma Active One has been released, primarily for tablet computers. It is the latest expression of the Plasma concept, following Plasma Desktop and Plasma Netbook. In the KDE tradition, Plasma Active One is designed for the best User Experience—for people on the move and engaged in many activities.

        Plasma Active is a truly open project. It is modular, customizable, and offers an attractive app development environment. The KDE Community and the Plasma Active team invite participation from individuals and companies with interests in ultraportable computing.

      • KDE Commit-Digest for 2nd October 2011
      • KDE Releases Plasma Active One User Experience

        There’s several screenshots of this new KDE tablet user experience within the press release. Plasma Active can be installed as a package and there are also live images available for those interested in testing this mobile user experience from the KDE developers.

  • Distributions

    • Tiny Core 4.0 Put Together Your Own Desktop

      The traditions of small size and speedy operation that were established in previous versions of this distro have been upheld in the new release, and believe it or not, improved upon. I’m not exaggerating when I say that you could be staring at a fully loaded desktop ten seconds after you boot from the 12MB ISO image.

    • New Releases

      • Parsix GNU/Linux 3.7r1 Is Available for Download

        Alan Baghumian proudly announced on October 9th, the immediate availability for download of the Parsix GNU/Linux 3.7r1 operating system.

        Parsix GNU/Linux 3.7r1 is the first maintenance update to Parsix 3.7 series, bringing a lot of new features and improvements, and of course many updated packages.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Video: Red Hat on CNBC’s Mad Money
      • Triangle CEOs back tax break

        BY DAVID RANII The News and Observer

        The CEOs of Red Hat and Quintiles, two of the largest companies based in the Triangle, say that a new bipartisan bill co-sponsored by North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan could entice them to hire more U.S. workers.

        Red Hat’s Jim Whitehurst and Dennis Gillings of Quintiles were among a half-dozen local business executives who turned out at a press briefing Friday, flanking Hagan in a show of support for the bill that calls for temporarily cutting the tax rate for corporate profits earned overseas. Many multinational corporations with a presence in the state across a range of industries – including Cisco Systems and Duke Energy – have pushed for the tax break.

      • Red Hat will wait on Progress

        Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said the Linux software company can afford to delay its move into one of Progress Energy’s two downtown Raleigh buildings while the utility overhauls its merger plans with Duke Energy.

        In August, Red Hat announced it would shift its headquarters from N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus to downtown Raleigh, where Progress plans to exit one of its buildings in conjunction with its merger with Charlotte-based Duke. But a glitch emerged last week when federal regulators sought assurances that the merged company won’t manipulate electricity rates.

      • Red Hat
      • Red Hat to Acquire Gluster
      • Open Virtualization Alliance Grows

        It appears that KVM, the Linux kernel’s built-in virtualization, has become mainstream with the Open Virtualization Alliance now having 200 members. Started by HP, IBM, Intel and RedHat the Alliance seeks to promote and standardize KVM and associated tools so that price/performance and competition thrives.

    • Debian Family

      • Updated Debian 6.0: 6.0.3 released

        The Debian project is pleased to announce the third update of its stable distribution Debian 6.0 (codename squeeze). This update mainly adds corrections for security problems to the stable release, along with a few adjustments to serious problems. Security advisories were already published separately and are referenced where available.

      • Download Debian 6.0.3 Now

        The Debian project proudly announced a couple of days ago, October 8th, the third maintenance release of the stable Debian 6.0 operating system.

        Debian 6.0.3 brings fixes to various security issues, as well as improvements to some serious problems. Some of the packages included in the previous versions of the distribution were also updated with the Debian 6.0.3 release.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu 11.10 In The Offing, Will Have ARM and Cloud Features

            Reports from a variety of sources indicate that the forthcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) will feature ARM architecture support as well as a variety of cloud features.

            At the Open Stack conference in Boston this week, Jane Silber, CEO of Canonical (which makes Ubuntu), gave a keynote wherein she teased details of the upcoming distro, which is due to launch this week–Thursday, October 13th, to be exact.

          • The World Welcomes Oneiric Ocelot: Ubuntu 11.10

            The Ubuntu Linux distribution has come a long way since it’s first release in 2004. It started out as a nicely packaged Linux desktop, built from a specific set of packages cultivated from the nearly thirty thousand packages available in the Debian distribution. Regular six-month releases ensured that Ubuntu would always be close to the cutting edge of Linux and free software development. Every fourth release is a long-term support offering, which gets security and support updates for three years. In the last seven years Canonical, the primary commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, has added a server version of Ubuntu, built UbuntuOne, a cross-platform cloud storage solution, and made great strides in cloud computing.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 to Feature Arm Support, Cloud Orchestration

            The next version of Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution, to be released next week, will be the first to run on the Arm architecture, as well as the first edition to offer a new cloud service orchestration engine, called JuJu.

          • Ubuntu Linux heads to the clouds

            Last week, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company Canonical CEO Jane Silber announced at the OpenStack cloud software conference that HP has chosen Ubuntu as the lead host and guest operating system for its Public Cloud. That’s impressive. It’s Canonical’s biggest enterprise win to date, but that’s only a hint of what Canonical is up to with the cloud.

            Canonical started its move to OpenStack from Eucalyptus in February. While Canonical has promised its not going to leave its Eucalyptus users without support, the company is clearly pinning all its cloud plans going forward around OpenStack.

          • Ubuntu 11.10 launch interview- Unity is here to stay

            Linux User talks to Canonical’s Gerry Carr to get the full low-down on Ubuntu 110.10 ‘Oneric Ocelot’ ahead of its 13th October launch…

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Bodhi Linux 1.2.1 and other Updates

              At little over a month ago the Bodhi team and I released our second update release. We were unaware at the time that the version of GCC used to compile the kernel on this release had an issue that caused an issue for some users when compiling and inserting extra kernel modules (such as the nvidia drivers and Virtual Box). This update release today contains a kernel in which this issue has been resolved.

              If you already installed Bodhi 1.2.0 (or an earlier release) and your system is working fine (odds are it is, this issue was only affecting some users) there is no reason to install this new release. It is simply a bug fix release so the ISO image has the updated kernel by default.

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • Events

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Google Releases Chrome Desktop-Sharing Feature

        Called Chrome Remote Desktop, the new feature is in beta testing and lets you connect any two computers that have a Chrome browser, including systems running Windows, Linux, and Mac OS, as well as Chromebooks. The app can access all data on a remote computer and requires the person sharing access to their computer to give a code to the person who will tap into it remotely. That authentication must be done every time access is granted.

    • Mozilla

      • Future Firefox to slurp updates silently

        Mozilla is changing the way Firefox installs on computers in an apparent concession to enterprise users it previously ruled were irrelevant.

      • Stop Firefox from Greying Out URLs in the Navigation Bar
      • Mozilla CEO Gary Kovacs On The Fate Of Firefox In A Mobile Era

        Firefox is one of the world’s most popular desktop browsers, with more than 450 million users. But as the world increasingly turns to mobile devices to access the web, Mozilla is in danger of getting left in the dust. A recent Pew report found that roughly 68% of all smartphone owners access the mobile web on a typical day; what’s more, 25% of those users go online mostly using their phone (rather than, say, a PC).

      • Mozilla postpones Firefox 3.6 update plan
      • Firefox Boounce, Switch Search Engines Effortlessly
      • Mozilla: Rising revenue, but rising challenges

        The Mozilla Foundation, the developer of the Firefox Web browser and an organization charged with defending openness on the Web, plans to report today that its revenue increased 18 percent from $104 million in 2009 to $123 million in 2010.

        Expenses rose, too, though–from $61 million to $87 million–and Mozilla generated less net cash, down from $26 million to $22 million, according to Mozilla’s tax filings. But hey, in case you missed it–Mozilla measures its success by improving the Web, not amassing a pile of cash.

      • Firefox 8: The Next Major Version of Mozilla’s Browser

        While many Firefox users are still working with version 7, Mozilla has made a beta version of Firefox 8 available, and this version can be thought of as the next major iteration of the browser. You can download the beta now. It’s the latest of several upgrades to Firefox that Mozilla has delivered since moving to a rapid release cycle in February, which came in response to machine gun-paced releases of Google Chrome. Firefox version 8, is in Mozilla’s own view, the next big upgrade.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Oracle Drives Java Technology Forward at Annual Conference

      One of the side benefits of Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems was it gained control over Java, and therefore gained a wedge against its Java-loving rival IBM. Oracle CEO Larry Ellison declared victory over IBM Power Systems in the Java performance category at its Oracle OpenWorld conference in San Francisco last week, while at the same time, Oracle and IBM teamed up at the nearby JavaOne 2011 conference to discuss the future of the world’s most popular programming environment.

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Free Software Foundation Calls PDF Done

      Matt Lee of the Free Software Foundation announced earlier this week from their web-site that this high priority FSF project has been removed from their list since the mission is complete. The foundation cites libpoppler as an open-source library supporting modern PDF features like annotations and forms as now being good enough to mark GNU PDF off their list.

    • Richard Stallman Draws Heat for His Negative Comments on Steve Jobs
    • Eric S Raymond Defends Richard M Stallman Over Steve Jobs
    • RMS – Too Crude to Lose

      When it comes to software freedom, Richard Stallman is a bomb throwing anarchist. That’s a good thing. The FOSS community needs a few bomb throwers in its arsenal.

      His job is to keep the bad guys, those who constantly attempt to usurp our principles for their own gain, at bay. More importantly, his job is to expose them, which helps keep us FOSSers from believing the spinmasters when they use Orwellian magic to convince us that “closed is open.”

  • Openness/Sharing

    • A New Experiment in Open-Source Citizenship

      Not long ago I received in the mail a slender envelope with international postage on the front. Inside was a small card-paper placard bearing my name, handwritten, confirming my citizenship in what is apparently the world’s newest nation—neither South Sudan nor Kosovo, of course, nor even a nascent Palestine, but rather nowhereisland. This decidedly more post-materialist undertaking is the brainchild of British artist Alex Hartley.

    • Big Pharma’s Open Innovation Initiatives Zoom In on Discovery

      The software industry was a trailblazer in the field of open-source innovation. Savings to users were estimated at about $60 billion a year, according to a 2008 study by The Standish Group International. Open-source collaboration has now spread to the biopharma industry, among others.

Leftovers

  • OpenIndiana – back and better

    The last time I took OpenIndiana for a test run it was back when the project was first getting up and running. At the time they’d just moved away from the OpenSolaris project and were in the process of moving things over and getting their infrastructure in place. Predictably running a development release of a new project in the midst of a major change wasn’t a smooth experience. At the time some applications didn’t work properly and, though the project’s work with file system snapshots was coming along nicely, the newborn OpenIndiana wasn’t yet ready to face the world. Well, some time has passed, a new stable release (version 151, Desktop edition) is here and it’s time to see what a fully formed OpenIndiana can do!

  • Security

  • Wikileaks

    • Google Hands Wikileaks Volunteer’s Gmail Data to U.S. Government

      The contacts list and IP address data of Jacob Appelbaum, a WikiLeaks volunteer and developer for Tor was given to the U.S. government after they requested it using a secret court order enabled by a controversial 1986 law called the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, according to the Wall Street Journal. The law allows the government to demand information from ISPs not only without a warrant, but without ever notifying the user.

  • Finance

    • Michael Lewis: The United States is Now a Third-World Nation

      Michael Lewis, author of the new book “Boomerang,” says the United States and many European nations suffered a moral failure which lead to economic collapse. Lewis insists that the U.S. economic situation will get much worse before it gets better.

    • Michael Hudson on #OccupyWallStreet and the Need to Treat Banks as Utilities
    • What They’ve Come to Find at Occupy Wall Street Is America

      Sal Cioffi and Randy Otero are union electricians from Local 3 of the IBEW in New York. They’re working on the Freedom Tower a few blocks over in lower Manhattan. Over the past couple of days, they’ve taken to having their lunch in Zuccotti Park, in the middle of the Occupy Wall Street protesters who have set up camp here. The event has grown sufficiently that it’s now attracted almost as many food trucks and mobile falafel units as it has television-news trucks, so there’s always some place for Sal and Randy to buy lunch. So they park themselves on the stone bench, put their hard hats on the ground and, almost organically, they become part of the event.

      “We’ve had demonstrations, and it never makes the news,” says Sal. “We could have 10,000 workers demonstrating, and it won’t make the news. At least, something like this, they get the publicity.”

    • “Occupy” Movement Comes to Madison, Wisconsin

      The energy from Wisconsinites protesting Governor Scott Walker’s attack on working people in early spring may have inspired Occupy Wall Street, and on Friday, Occupy Wall Street inspired demonstrations in Wisconsin. Around 150 people gathered in Madison’s Reynolds Park Friday night for the first in a series of Occupy Madison demonstrations.

    • How I tracked down The Market

      Has anyone seen him? Has anyone talked to him? Gotten answers? Maybe asked him to change his ways? I cannot think of a single journalist, economists, or policy maker who has interviewed The Market. And then I knew…this was only a job only for Dr. Gal Noir. I wanted to hear more about The Market’s rationale for what seemed to be very disturbing developments. I wouldn’t normally investigate questions that are only of interest to me, but it turns out that The 99% have been asking the same questions too. Of course, we all know who The 99% are. Here are their stories and their faces. But no one seems to know exactly who The Market is!

10.09.11

Links 9/10/2011: Kororaa 15 “Squirt”, Android 4.0 Expected Soon

Posted in News Roundup at 6:03 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Kernel Space

    • Graphics Stack

      • Colour Correction Concepts for Monitors
      • Intel i915 Gallium3D Driver Continues Advancing

        The Intel “i915″ Gallium3D driver continues to advance thanks to love from Google. A new Intel employee is now even contributing to this unofficial driver too.

        Over the summer we have seen a number of changes to the Intel Gallium3D driver that supports the older i915/i945 era hardware. This driver is not officially supported by Intel, but Google’s after it for use in their Chromebooks as their netbooks can do better since this Gallium3D driver has faster CPU-based code generation of vertex shaders than the classic Intel DRI driver. The work has mostly been done by Stéphane Marchesin, the former Nouveau driver project lead who is now part of Google’s Chromium team.

      • First Look: AMD Trinity APU, Linux Already Runs Well

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE SC 4.7.2 update arrives

        The KDE project has released the second point update to version 4.7 of its KDE Software Compilation (KDE SC). According to the developers, the maintenance update to the Linux and Unix desktop contains a variety of translation updates and bug fixes; as expected, no new features have been added.

    • GNOME Desktop

  • Distributions

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Is On Track To Become A $1 Billion Company

        Red Hat has acquired Gluster, a company that uses software to tackle storage problems in a new way.

        We had the opportunity to talk to Jim Whitehurst, CEO of Red Hat, about the acquisition, how Gluster’s product works, and what it means to be steering a company into the $1 billion revenue mark.

      • Fedora

        • Review: Kororaa 15 “Squirt”

          I’ve been swamped these past couple weeks. I mean, I’ve been absolutely, completely, and totally bogged down by work. I had 4 problem sets to do, on top of my recently-started UROP and other work-study stuff I’m doing, so I seriously had no room to breathe, until now. I briefly thought about starting work for next week tonight, but then I realized that whatever sanity I had left at this point would go out the window if I worked any more. I needed a break, so what did I do instead of working? I wrote this review! (This is my pre-emptive excuse if some people may feel that this is not thorough enough, or whatever. Yeah, yeah, sue me.)

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Not So Great Video About What Makes Ubuntu 11.10 So Great

            Ubuntu’s YouTube channel has uploaded a new video introducing the latest version of Ubuntu which is 11.10. The video gives and overview of some of the new features of Ubuntu 11.10 but lacks the quality and professionalism. It doesn’ show all the new features of Dash, which include refined search.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux dark autumn clouds – Bodhi Linux is there!

              Not only for Windows, but also for Linux the hour of truth comes near. October-November are months with new releases and upgrades. Let’s forget about Windows 8 for now; it’s still an early Beta. However Ubuntu 11.10 and Linux Mint 12 will come out soon. So are updated desktops: Gnome and KDE to name but two. It’s no secret that I am still not convinced that the Gnome based Gnome 3 shell and Ubuntu’s Unity desktops are matured enough to compete with either Windows 8 Beta or Apple’s OSX. What’s more, I still don’t like either of the two. So do many more Linux-users. The one UI fails this here, the other is messy there, which isn’t inspiring and inviting me to even test these releases. I am running Mint 11 for now and will continue to do so with its ‘old’, but for me far more productive, more flexible Gnome 2 desktop, better suited to run production software.

            • Zorin OS: Promising, but Still Typically Linux

              Zorin OS also comes with a Zorin Look Changer which allows easily changing the layout of the desktop to match the look of Windows XP and Linux GNOME in addition to this default Windows 7 look. In a Zorin OS video presentation I’ve also noticed Mac OS X, but it wasn’t present in my install. Perhaps it is available for install from repositories or as part of a Premium version.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Linux-based access point uses Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for proximity marketing

      iSign Media Solutions announced a Linux-based device designed to send out marketing messages via either Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. Including an integral web server and the ability to communicate with digital signage PCs, the “Smart Antenna” is an all-weather device that draws five Watts of power over an Ethernet cable, says the company.

    • Audio streaming device shrinks size, power, cost

    • Phones

      • Android

        • India Now Aims For $10 Android Tablet

          India is one of the champions of making cheap stuff. Tata’s Nano, the world’s cheapest car, is now dethroned by Aakash, one of the cheapest Android tablets. India created quite a buzz with the launch of $35 Android tablet which had the backing of the Indian government.

          The HRD minister of India Kapil Sibal is now aiming at $10 tablet. The minister has reportedly invited companies to make a cheaper Android tablet. With low income a majority of Indians can’t buy expensive $500 tablets, thus being left behind. Given India’s next to chaotic power outage situation where you don’t even get electricity for 24 hours a day, a tablet may keep users well connected.

        • Google Nexus Prime Video Leaked, Coming Next Week

          Apple is not the only champion of creating hype about its products before they are launched. Unfortunately, iPhone 4S release was a major disaster as hype-mongering sites were calling it the iPhone 5 and some even said it had a bigger screen. Lesson: don’t listen to the hype created by Apple fans, it’s mostly vapor.

        • Android apps to run on iPad with Alien Dalvik 2.0

          Android apps will now be able to run on Apple’s iPad and a host of other non-Android devices, courtesy of new software from the crew at Myriad Group.

        • Android 4.0 Launch Canceled, To Honor Steve Jobs

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Sixth and most powerful E-Fun NextBook tablet surfaces

        E-Fun announced the sixth, highest-end member of its Nextbook family of Android tablets. Running Android 2.3 on a Rockchips RK2918 Cortex-A8 processor, the $300 Nextbook Premium 8 offers an eight-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive display, 4GB of internal storage, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, and a front-facing camera, and a Kobo eBook Store app, says the company.

      • Open fire

        AMAZON’S Kindle Fire was always going to set the tablet world ablaze. Even before it starts shipping in November, though, it has managed to reignite the debate over the relative merits of open versus closed software. Supporters of openness trumpet it as a way to promote ideas and competition, leading to greater consumer satisfaction and optimal prices. Closed systems, goes the argument, remove choice and ramp up prices. If only it were that simple.

        For a start, the distinction between open and closed is fuzzy. The Fire, for example, relies on Google’s Android operating system (not the latest, tablet-spec version 3, but an earlier one designed for smartphones). Android is open—in the sense that anyone may view, modify and employ the source code in free or commercial applications without a license (other than that which comes at no cost with the code). Modifications to the code may have to be distributed publicly, depending on the specific license in question. (Android is a melange of code from many open-source projects and licensing terms for the ingredients vary.)

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Copyrights

    • The Economics of the Writing Business – Updated

      If you went through a publisher and agent, assuming you could find a publisher and agent willing to talk to you, you’d only earn $1,875.00. Why would you give away $6,875.00 to someone else when you could do it yourself, including hiring a cover artist, an editor, etc. There are places that charge a flat rate of less than $100.00 to do this for you if you can’t do it…

10.08.11

Links 8/10/2011: Ubuntu at HP, Next Release Next Week

Posted in News Roundup at 11:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 168
  • The Death of Zune, the Resurrection of WebOS & Kernel.org Returns
  • Windows to Linux Considerations

    I have been asked by several people recently, both through here and privately, about the steps involved and the decisions to be made in converting a PC running Windows to Linux. After repeating the whole thing a few times, I decided to put it here for reference. These are based on my own experiences – anyone who has different, better or additional ideas should add them in the comments.

    - First, especially if you are starting with a new PC, make sure that you have complete Windows recovery media. This is even more important (and potentially tricky) today than it has been in the past, because a lot of new systems today do not come with Windows installation CD/DVDs included, they only have a “recovery partition” on the hard drive. In this case make sure that you use whatever the manufacturer’s “recovery media creation utility” might be to create yourself a set of disks – it will usually be about 3-5 DVDs. Yes, I know, we all hate Windows and we will be glad to see it getting wiped from the disk, never to return… but you never know what is going to happen to that PC, and perhaps someday you will want to sell or pass it along to some poor schmuck who insists on running Windows…

  • How to Build a Compact, Energy-Efficient PC

    Ideally, I’d be able to skip the Windows fee entirely by installing Ubuntu or another user-friendly Linux distro. However, the other family members would probably throw several small objects at me if I tried to foist Linux on them. But other households might be different, so a good Linux distro like Ubuntu could be a good fit.

  • Kernel Space

    • Kernel Developers Share Security Tips

      As most folks know by now, a security breach affecting kernel.org was discovered in September. While that didn’t affect kernel sources, it did get Linux kernel developers to thinking about their personal system security–and it might not be a bad idea for others to do the same.

    • A Plumber’s Wish List for Linux

      We’d like to share our current wish list of plumbing layer features we are hoping to see implemented in the near future in the Linux kernel and associated tools. Some items we can implement on our own, others are not our area of expertise, and we will need help getting them implemented.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • activities

        Several years ago now I had a minor epiphany while doing field research in the offices of friends and work associates on how people use their computers. The ideas led to the concept of “Activities”, which I originally called “Projects” (we changed the name because it was about more than just things we could call a “project”).

        [...]

        So it was that the beginnings of Activities were as different widget layouts in Plasma Desktop. You could zoom out and see each collection of icons and widgets and switch between them. It let you, for instance, open different folders in a folderview for different projects you were working on. Some people got it right away and started using Activities. Most people didn’t, and I don’t blame them at all: it was very hard to communicate something that was new to me as well and which we had only the basic sketches of implementation to demonstrate.

      • KDE’s October Updates Improve Kontact Performance

  • Distributions

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Is A Prudent Play On Open Source

        Red Hat (RHT) is a leading provider of open-source and cloud solutions to enterprises around the world, including Europe. It is true that some companies will be less profitable because of Europe. Not Red Hat. On its conference call, CFO Charlie Peters stated that “Europe for us was also strong. And as I said, all geographies were 25-plus percent growth. I would say we had company-specific growth in Europe, which maybe is different than what others are experiencing, but not only the growth, but really the pipeline looks good.” Red Hat’s subscription-based model provides the company with a stable, dependable revenue stream.

      • CloudLinux to Show How to Increase Server Efficiency

        CloudLinux Inc. makers of CloudLinux OS, the only commercially-supported Linux OS (operating system) made specifically for shared hosting, will advise attendees at the upcoming annual Automation Bootcamp cPanel conference in Austin, Texas from October 10-12 how they can become more efficient by switching to CloudLinux. The director of operations at A Small Orange will lead a session on how the company converted to CloudLinux.

      • Red Hat will wait on Progress

        Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst said the Linux software company can afford to delay its move into one of Progress Energy’s two downtown Raleigh buildings while the utility overhauls its merger plans with Duke Energy.

        In August, Red Hat announced it would shift its headquarters from N.C. State University’s Centennial Campus to downtown Raleigh, where Progress plans to exit one of its buildings in conjunction with its merger with Charlotte-based Duke. But a glitch emerged last week when federal regulators sought assurances that the merged company won’t manipulate electricity rates.

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 16 Review: A Big Change or A Little Editing? (With Screenshots)

          Unwilling to wait for Fedora 16 final to come out, I went ahead and installed Fedora 16 beta. So much has been fixed in Fedora 16 that was wrong in Fedora 15 I can hardly see why this is called a beta. However, there are a few things I’ve noticed that go awry with Fedora 16 that will hopefully be fixed by the time the final release comes out.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Ubuntu Powers HP Public Cloud

            Today our CEO Jane Silber announced at the OpenStack Conference in Boston that HP has chosen Ubuntu as the lead host and guest operating system powering their Public Cloud. HP and Canonical are working closely together during the current private beta to make certain that we provide the most secure, scalable, business-class cloud to companies of all sizes. We are excited to join with HP in recognizing that open and interoperable cloud infrastructure and services are critical in delivering the next generation of cloud-based services to developers, ISVs and businesses. Both companies share a common commitment to open source and both embrace the OpenStack community. With over 117 member companies the momentum behind OpenStack is truly game changing and promises to position it at the center of the next wave of computing.

          • Ubuntu Server Trenches, The Big Picture

            Ubuntu Oneiric 11.10 is shaping up to be a fantabulous release from the server team! I’m starting early celebrations for Oneiric by pushing out a series of Ubuntu Server from the trenches articles. Get to know all the hot new features landing in Oneiric server, as well as the people behind them! I start by interviewing Robbie the Ubuntu server team manager. Robbie is just great, always fun to be around! Ahmed Kamal (AK) will be asking Robbie to introduce the newest features of 11.10 as well as shed some light on the way forward. Let’s get started

          • From ‘Warthog’ to ‘Pangolin’: Up Close With Ubuntu Linux Mascots

            If you’re a fan of Ubuntu Linux, there’s a good chance you’re among the many who have been wondering in the last day or so what, precisely, a pangolin is.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 will not be a Perky Penguin
          • An Update On The Linux Power Situation In Ubuntu

            While I was away for three weeks, there was an update on LP bug #760131, the infamous bug report on the power consumption being raised significantly higher in Ubuntu Natty. This bug report of high importance now indicates a fix being committed to Natty and a fix being released for Oneiric, but what has changed? Here is an update.

          • Indian Supreme Court Replaces Red Hat Enterprise Linux with Ubuntu in More than 17,000 Courts

            Indian Supreme Court has given a customized DVD of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS to more than 17,000 courts across the country. All the systems in these courts were running Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 for last 4-5 years and now it will be replaced by Ubuntu.

            Many helpful links and materials are being provided to these courts. An SMS channel has also been setup which will provide helpful Ubuntu tricks and information to these courts.

          • Ubuntu Powers HP’s Public Cloud
          • Ubuntu 11.10 Will Feature ARM Support, Ships Soon

            This week during the OpenStack conference in Boston, Canonical CEO Jane Silber revealed several new features that will be included in the next version of the company’s Ubuntu Linux distribution, Ubuntu 11.10. She also announced that both the desktop and the server editions will be released next Thursday, October 13.

          • From ‘Warthog’ to ‘Pangolin’: Up Close With Ubuntu Linux Mascots

            That, of course, is because Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth just declared Precise Pangolin the nickname for the next Ubuntu. I’m betting there’s been a sudden surge in Google searches on the term since the announcement was made.

            Keeping up with the Dr. Seussian name choices for Ubuntu mascots is never easy, so to make matters more clear for all of us, here’s a brief history with pictures of all the mascots Ubuntu has had so far. The only question now is, what will it be for Ubuntu 12.10: Quirky Quail, Quahog, Quarterhorse or Queen Bee?

          • Ubuntu 11.10 to Feature Arm Support, Cloud Orchestration

            The next version of Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux distribution, to be released next week, will be the first to run on the Arm architecture, as well as the first edition to offer a new cloud service orchestration engine, called JuJu.

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Want to Revive an Old Netbook? Try Lubuntu

              Raise your hand if this sounds familiar: You bought a netbook a couple years back, thinking it would be your go-to travel PC, but quickly became dissatisfied with its sluggish performance–and stuck it in a closet.

              Hey, that’s a perfectly good PC you’ve got in there. It just needs a better operating system, one that fares better with less horsepower. Last year I wrote about Joli OS (formerly known as Jolicloud), which accomplished that very goal–but with a somewhat unfamiliar-looking interface that didn’t appeal to everyone.

  • Devices/Embedded

Free Software/Open Source

  • What community?

    Wow! That’s a diverse target audience, and a very wide ranging list of ways you can help out. But is it really helpful to scope the project so wide, and try to cater to such a wide range of use-cases from the start? And is the project at a stage where it even makes sense to advertise itself to some of these different types of users?

    I have talked about the different meanings of “maintainer” before, depending on whether you’re maintaining a code project or are a package maintainer for a distribution. I have also talked about the different types of community that build up around a project, and how each of them needs their own identity – particularly in the context of the MeeGo trademark. I particularly like Simon Phipps’s analysis of the four community types as a way to clarify what you’re talking about.

  • Why free software really isn’t (and shouldn’t be) free

    If you’ve looked into buying software licenses, you know that they can be expensive. Big Guns from Big Corporations charge a lot for their work – the work of their programmers, the marketing department, and so on.

  • The Apache Software Foundation Announces Apache TomEE Certified as Java EE 6 Web Profile Compatible

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

      • Chrome OS: the verdict

        Is Google’s “web only” OS ready to take on Windows, Mac and Linux? We give it a real-world road test

      • 20 of the best Chrome OS apps

        Google uses a rather woolly definition of the word “app”: many of the so-called applications that you’ll find in the Chrome Web Store are nothing more than bookmarks to websites that you can use from pretty much any internet browser.

  • SaaS

    • Akamai Joins OpenStack Community to Add Global Application Performance, Scale, and Availability Experience to Open Source Initiative

      Akamai Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: AKAM), the leading provider of cloud optimization services, today announced the company has joined the OpenStack™ community. Akamai plans to provide the OpenStack community with advice and guidance on best practices for platform design and architecture to help overcome the availability, delivery, performance, and scale challenges inherently faced by globally distributed cloud infrastructures and applications.

    • CloudBees Open Source Choice

      CloudBees is made up of Open Source veterans. Sacha Labourey was the CTO of JBoss, Kohsuke Kawaguchi is the Founder of Jenkins and Hudson, Michael Neale, Adrian Brock, Ryan Campbell, Paul Sandoz, Harpreet Singh Vivek Pandey, and many others have spent most of their careers developing open source software. On the business side, David Skok and I are two well known advocates for the open source business model.

    • Reality Check: Contributions to Apache Hadoop
    • OpenStack Foundation Breaks Corporate Ties

      OpenStack is set to begin the second stage of its existence as an open standard with the formation of a non-profit-making foundation which will solely be in charge of the intellectual property and the management of development projects.

      The OpenStack Foundation was announced at the organisation’s conference in Boston, Massachusetts, today and it is hoped to officially open for business in 2012, though an actual date has yet to be set.

    • Rackspace to spin off cloud standards-setting OpenStack project to foundation

      NASA and Web hosting company Rackspace jointly launched a new cloud computing project last year called OpenStack. The goal is to produce a standardized set of open source software components for building out self-hosted elastic cloud computing environments.

    • Rackspace Opens Up OpenStack With Planned Foundation

      During the course of the past year, the OpenStack open source cloud project has grown significantly from its origins as a joint effort of Rackspace and NASA.

  • Databases

    • Overview of the Oracle NoSQL Database

      Oracle is the clear market leader in the commercial database community, and therefore it is critical for any member of the database community to pay close attention to the new product announcements coming out of Oracle’s annual Open World conference. The sheer size of Oracle’s sales force, entrenched customer base, and third-party ecosystem instantly gives any new Oracle product the potential for very high impact. Oracle’s new products require significant attention simply because they’re made by Oracle.

    • Google Cloud SQL: your database in the cloud

      One of App Engine’s most requested features has been a simple way to develop traditional database-driven applications. In response to your feedback, we’re happy to announce the limited preview of Google Cloud SQL.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • DTrace for Linux

      Even among Oracle employees, there’s uncertainty about what was announced. Ed Screven gave us just a couple of bullet points in his keynote; Sergio Leunissen, the product manager for OEL, didn’t have further details in his OpenWorld talk beyond it being a beta of limited functionality; and the entire Solaris team seemed completely taken by surprise.

    • Oracle Brews a Stronger Cup of Java

      Oracle put the focus on Java recently with previews of developments yet to come. “I would say that Java is in better strategic shape on several levels,” Al Hilwa, a research director at IDC, told TechNewsWorld. “The most important aspect is unblocking some of the politics and moving forward with the [Java] SE 7 and SE 8.”

  • Education

    • What newsrooms can learn from open-source and maker culture

      “Newsosaur” blogger and media consultant Alan Mutter some time ago suggested that journalism has become a lot more like Silicon Valley. Newspapers are too risk-averse, he said, and so they “need some fresh DNA that will make them think and act more like techies and less like, well, newspaper people.”

  • Business

    • SugarCRM: The open source customer relationship management software

      SugarCRM is the world’s largest open source CRM (customer relationship management) software. Founded in 2004, over 7,000 customers and more than half a million users rely on SugarCRM to execute marketing programs, grow sales, retain customers, and create custom business applications. These custom business applications can be used in a multitude of ways, such as to power sales teams, run customer support organizations, and manage customer information databases.

  • Public Services/Government

    • Bristol Council gets open source go-ahead after CESG discussions

      Bristol City Council has been cleared to build an IT infrastructure using open source software after a visit from CESG, the cyber security arm of the UK intelligence services.

      Complaints about CESG’s obstruction of open source software were branded “folk-law” at a meeting the security body held in Bristol yesterday with council leader Barbara Jenke and others including Bristol IT chiefs Paul Arrigoni and Gavin Beckett, and executives from the Cabinet Office.

      The security body, an arm of GCHQ, denied its Code of Connection (CoCo) and guidance on information assurance prevented public bodies using open source software.

      The meeting heard how CESG rules, by which public bodies determine what systems they should use, were being interpreted incorrectly.

      Liam Maxwell and Bill McCluggage, Cabinet Office directors of ICT futures and ICT policy respectively, joined the meeting to tackle what they believed was a misperception that had been thwarting their policy to increase the use of open source software in government.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Open Hardware

      • Getting to Know Arduino

        Have you ever spent time with Arduino? It’s an open source electronics platform based on a microcontroller and microprocessor with I/O capabilities that allow it to drive many kinds of inventions. We’ve covered the platform and the community that creates with it before. The project has come a long way in recent years, and here are some of the highlights as they stand now.

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Readers respond: Control is an issue for open source pieces of DoD/VA joint EHR

      The massive undertaking to create a dual-agency EHR that serves both DoD and VA patients with a system woven from existing proprietary and open source components might demand something to which the federal government is largely unaccustomed.

      “The government tends to have this view of, ‘We’re the ones in charge here,’” said John Scott, author of the report “Open Technology Development for Military Software,” a member of the Military Open Source Software (Mil-OSS) community and senior systems engineer and open technologies lead at RadiantBlue Technologies.

    • Wisconsin Judge Rules Against Food Rights

      Wisconsin dairy farmers are appealing a state judge’s ruling that they do not have the right to own a dairy cow or drink the unprocessed milk from their own cows.

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • Wisconsin Becomes Part of Gas Industry’s Land Grab

      The methane gas industry is snapping up land across the United States, and it’s not only regions with gas reserves its after. Part of the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” which has become big business in the nation, requires a fine silica sand. The sand is most easily accessible in the state of Wisconsin, which means the industry is looking to scrape the Midwestern state of it’s rolling hills by extracting its sand. This new scramble for sand mining has local residents concerned about the health and environmental impacts on their communities.

  • Finance

  • Copyrights

    • Time zone database axed by astrology
    • Bill C-11: Locks, Limits, Levies, Litigation & Now RIP “Rip, Mix & Burn”

      If laws about digital locks like Bill C-11 had been in place in 1980, we would have never seen the astonishing evolution of the “Rip, Mix and Burn” zeitgeist that Steve Jobs created. Not only has Apple gone from the brink of bankruptcy two decades ago to become the world’s very most valuable company at various recent times on the stock exchanges. It’s also incontrovertible that Steve Jobs changed the world in the process – and much for the better.

      “Rip, Mix & Burn” became an iconic mantra. Laws like Bill C-11 would have made much of what “rip, mix and burn” was all about illegal. Here’s the transcript of a brilliant and prescient 2004 lecture by Princeton’ celebrated Prof. Ed Felten about “Rip, Mix and Burn”, and efforts to stifle the notion through copyright law. He makes a number of references to Apple. And when he talks about the promise of a future with a “universal media machine”, just substitute the term “iPad”. Prof. Felten asks in 2004 whether society should embrace the change that could come from the “universal media machine”, and the spirit of the “Magna Carta” Betamax US Supreme Court decision of 1984, or whether we resist it.

    • Astrology outfit takes time-zone database down
    • Publisher Claims Ownership of Time-Zone Data

10.07.11

Links 7/10/2011: KDE SC 4.7.2, Thunderbird 8 Beta

Posted in News Roundup at 5:10 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Kernel Space

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE SC 4.7.2 Is Available for Download

        The KDE team proudly announced last evening, October 5th, the second maintenance release for the KDE Software Compilation 4.7 environment.

        KDE Software Compilation 4.7.2 is a version that is focusing on fixing last-minute bugs and finishing the required documentation and translations.

  • Distributions

    • IPFire open source firewall gets ARM port

      The IPFire project development team has announced the first beta release of an ARM port of version 2.11 of its open source firewall. IPFire is a Linux server distribution that can be booted from a CD or USB drive, or installed to a computer’s internal drive.

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • FlashSoft Extends SSD Support To Linux
    • Qbo open-source robot gets Android control app

      What if you had a robot that could roll around the office, speak with your coworkers, and act as your eyes and ears when you’re 10,000 miles away? How about if that robot’s control system was simply an Android app you could download for free? We’ve been covering the open source Qbo robot project for quite some time now, and this is without a doubt probably the most awesome advancement the project has made in its relatively short history – if you ask your narrator, that is. You must simply download the app, identify yourself and connect, then control away!

    • Phones

      • Android

        • ACRyan Veolo Android Mediaplayer

          ACRyan known from its bestseller Linux based mediaplayer, the PlayonHD now introduces an Android based mediaplayer, the Veolo.

        • Sony Itches to Return to Mobile Arms Race

          In a sign of the central role smartphones will play in its future consumer-electronics strategy, Sony Corp. is nearing a deal to buy out Telefon AB L.M. Ericsson’s stake in their mobile-phone joint venture, people familiar with the matter said.

        • Ice Cream Sandwich to launch next week

          A placeholder video on the official Android developers channel.

          Google is expected to serve up Ice Cream Sandwich–the newest version of Android–on Tuesday at the Samsung Unpacked event in San Diego.

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Eight-inch Android 2.3 tablet sells for $229

        Pandigital SuperNova announced an eight-inch Android 2.3 tablet that costs just $229 and offers one-stop access to Barnes & Noble’s eStore. The SuperNova offers a 1GHz Samsung Hummingbird processor, 4GB internal storage, a seven-inch, 800 x 600 screen, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 connectivity, says the company.

      • Lubuntu Gives You A Full-Fledged Desktop On Your Netbook

        I bought my netbook hoping it would be the perfect portable companion for those quick jobs when I’m out and about — like updating one of my posts, or touching base with my boss without using my phone. The problem is, those “quick” jobs seemed to take ages on the netbook. Starting up Firefox in Windows seemed to take forever, and forget about opening multiple tabs. Even on Ubuntu, everything moved a little more sluggish than I’d like. Sure, netbooks are always going to be a little bit slower, but when they move at the speed of molasses, it seems to defeat the entire purpose of having one.

      • HP Investigating Android TouchPad Shipments
      • HP Investigates Android TouchPads

        HP is investigating how several TouchPads reportedly shipped to end users running Android, instead of webOS.

        Shortly after HP announced it would stop selling TouchPads and began offering the remaining tablets for US$99, reports surfaced from a few users who say they received TouchPads that run Android instead of HP’s webOS software. At the same time, developers have been working on porting Android to the TouchPad, since it’s uncertain how much support and development HP will dedicate to webOS in the future.

      • HP Claims Someone Snuck Android Onto Its TouchPads, Opens Investigation

        With the TouchPad’s fire sale, which saw units selling for as little as $88 USD, the short-lived Hewlett-Packard Comp. (HPQ) webOS tablet is chic again. Given that webOS, appears on its last legs in terms of support from HP, developers are rushing to port Google, Inc.’s (GOOG) Android OS to the device to extend its lifetime.

      • India’s Small Cheap Tablet PC Arrives

        They are at 100K units per month and they need millions to reach 220million children.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Why Do Volunteers Write Better Code?

    Volunteers write better code, and maintain it better. At least that’s what Michael Meeks, SUSE’s desktop architect and senior LibreOffice developer says.

  • Free and open-source text editors for devs
  • SOGo 2.0: open source groupware with Outlook connectivity

    The SOGo developers have released the first beta of version 2 of their open source groupware solution. The most significant new feature is native support for Microsoft Outlook: the developers say that Outlook 2003, 2007 and 2010 can connect directly to SOGo as if it were an Exchange server, without the need for additional plug-ins; this is achieved through the use of the SOGo OpenChange middleware.

  • Does “open storage” put the hardware factor into open source?

    OpenStorage provider Nexenta Systems is aiming to use its forthcoming appearance at VMworld Europe later in October to showcase VMware’s so-called ‘Hands on Lab’ (HOL) demos. The company will be at pains to convince attendees that its open storage concepts can deliver “enterprise performance for a fraction of the cost of traditional, legacy storage solutions”, so is there substance behind these claims?

    Nexenta’s HOL, classified as a true public cloud, will aim to emulate what was achieved at VMworld US where the company ran four out of eight HOL vertical application areas for the duration of the show.

  • Opening the Door to Innovation

    The link between open innovation and open source has long been documented. That there is a significant correlation is obvious and not arguable, but to what extent is there causation? And in what direction?

    Open innovation describes a process, whereas open source — as well as its predecessor, free software — has traditionally described a product or end result. The ultimate determination of whether a software project qualifies as open source is the license under which it is released.

  • Events

    • Embedded Linux Conference Europe features Torvalds, free LinuxCon Europe pass

      The Linux Foundation and CE Linux Forum announced a schedule for the Embedded Linux Conference Europe (ELCE), set to take place Oct. 26-28 in Prague. Co-located with LinuxCon Europe, ELCE 2011 offers 50 presentations on Linux and Android — including projects such as Genivi, Yocto, Linaro, and possibly Tizen — plus speakers ranging from Linus Torvalds to Intel’s Dirk Hohndel.

  • Web Browsers

    • Mozilla

      • Mozilla releases Thunderbird 8 Beta

        Mozilla has published the first beta of version 8.0 of the open source Thunderbird news and email client. Compared to previous Thunderbird version updates, the development release offers very few changes, some of which focus on add-ons. According to the Releases wiki, it will arrive in a stable production-ready form on 8 November.

  • SaaS

    • Who Wrote Hadoop? It’s the Community, Stupid

      One of the questions that comes up frequently in open source projects is “who’s contributing to this thing?” For single-company efforts like MySQL, it’s usually pretty obvious where the bulk of contribution is coming from. But for projects like the Linux kernel or Hadoop, a little digging is in order. The problem with measuring contributions to projects is it’s not trivial figuring out how to credit contributions from individuals as they move from one company to another. Consider, for instance, the question of who really wrote Hadoop. Hint: It’s not just Yahoo and Hortonworks, as some might have you believe.

    • OpenStack: We Are The Open Cloud Alternative

      OpenStack will be the open alternative to proprietary cloud players, the open-source cloud initiative’s driving forces said Thursday at the OpenStack Conference in Boston.

      And as the Rackspace-led OpenStack open-source cloud initiative moves headlong into its second year and experiences a groundswell of interest and participation within its community, 2012 is the time to “think bigger” and prove itself as the open alternative.

    • HP: ‘We’re Completely Committed To OpenStack’

      HP’s cloud strategy will rely heavily on its participation in OpenStack open source cloud community, the tech titan said Thursday at the OpenStack Conference in Boston.

      “We are completely committed and on-board with OpenStack,” said John Purrier, HP’s vice president of cloud infrastructure, at the event.

    • New Chef Cookbooks Developed With Dell and Rackspace

      Opscode Chef Cookbooks is a software tool designed to help deploy core components of the newly released version of the OpenStack open source cloud computing platform, codenamed “Diablo.” In collaboration with Dell and Rackspace, Opscode says it developed Chef Cookbooks to address automation and management of OpenStack.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Education

    • Leading Open Source in the Community College

      But Belarmino, who retired Oct. 1, pointed to his institution’s commitment to open source as its single most significant move under his leadership. It was just seven years ago when he and his president at the time, Raul Rodriguez, decided that in order for the college to best leverage technology to support the institution’s mission, it should join with other leading institutions in the community source model.

  • Semi-Open Source

  • Public Services/Government

  • Openness/Sharing

    • Intellectual worlds collide at ‘indie spirit’ Open Source Project cafe

      It’s no wonder Open Source Project cafe attracts hipsters, jocks, DJs, graffiti artists, techies, chess savants and coffee connoisseurs. An eclectic clientele is to be expected when a Tempe singer and painter with a penchant for mosh-pit dancing, a former Scottsdale resident with a business degree, and a global-studies student earning a living as a coffee barista decide to go into business together.

      Open Source Project is the brainchild of Tempe native and musician/painter Ryan Gentry, 35, and Michael Witham, 26, an Arizona State University W.P. Carey School of Business graduate. After graduating last year, Witham decided to move to Tempe to open his dream business.

    • Open Access/Content

Leftovers

  • We Are All New Immigrants to the Hyperconnected World

    “We all have to bring something extra in this hyperconnected world,” were Tom’s parting words to the THINK Forum audience. In the end, the fundamental question we all need to wrestle with is whether the US is slowly but surely on the way down, or whether it can arrest its decline, recapture its immigrant heritage and bring whatever something extra is needed to lead in our emerging hyperconnected world.

  • Security

    • Stanford Hospital Data Breach Exposes 20,000 Patient Records

      A medical data breach exposed the 20,000 private medical records of emergency room patients at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. incorporating detailed information such as names, diagnosis code and discharge dates.

      Altogether the leaked information included patient names, diagnosis codes, account numbers, admission and discharge dates and billing information for patents at Stanford Hospital’s emergency room during a six-month period in 2009, according to The New York Times.

      The hospital confirmed the breach to CRN, but could not immediately provide details.

  • Finance

    • Too big to fail is too big
    • Obama Flip-Flops Off Trade Cliff

      Apparently, Obama has a plan for winning re-election that does not involve Ohio… oh, and he is tired of talking about job CREATION.

      Yesterday, after months of seeming ambiguity about whether to really take ownership of the three job-killing, Bush-signed, NAFTA-style Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, he sent them to Congress for approval. Keep in mind that even the official U.S. International Trade Commission studies show that the Korea deal, the most economically significant since NAFTA, will increase our trade deficit. It’s projected to cost 160,000 jobs — many in the jobs of the future categories like high-speed trains, solar, computers etc.

    • Senate vote on free-trade deals may happen next week, Reid says

      Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday that he is hopeful the Senate will vote next week on proposed free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.

      “In spite of my not feeling so strong about these — I’m not a big fan of these matters — I’m doing my best to advance this so we can have a vote; hopefully as early as Wednesday of next week,” he said on the Senate floor.

    • United in Disdain for Dodd-Frank, Wall Street Is Split on the Details

      While the biggest rivals on Wall Street share a common disdain for new constraints on financial risk-taking, they’re fighting over exactly how to tame the sprawling regulatory overhaul.

    • Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan: ‘A right to make a profit’

      Under fire from President Barack Obama, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan defended his company’s new $5 monthly fee on debit cards, arguing that “we have a right to make a profit.”

      “I have an inherent duty as a CEO of a publicly owned company to get a return for my shareholders,” Moynihan said in an interview with CNBC’s Larry Kudlow at the Washington Ideas Forum.

    • The 4 Trillion Euro Fantasy

      Some officials and former officials are taking the view that a large fund of financial support for troubled eurozone nations could be decisive in stabilizing the situation. The headline numbers discussed are up to 2-4 trillion euros – a large amount of money, given that German GDP is only 2.5 trillion euros and the entire eurozone GDP is around 9 trillion euros.

    • Short list of articles on Occupying XX

      Mark Engler, Five Things That #OccupyWallStreet Has Done Right

      Micah Sifry, #OccupyWallStreet: There’s Something Happening Here, Mr. Jones.

      Mike Konczal, Understanding the Theory Behind Occupy Wall Street’s Approach

      Doug Henwood, The Occupy Wall Street non-agenda

      Glenn Greenwald, What’s behind the scorn for the Wall Street protests?

    • Obama to GOP: Act on jobs or get run out of town

      A combative President Barack Obama challenged a divided Congress on Thursday to unite behind his jobs bill or get ready to be run “out of town” by angry voters. Hoping to use public frustration and economic worry as leverage, he called his proposal an insurance plan against a painful return to recession.

      In a news conference long on restatements of his ideas, Obama laid bare the dynamic that now is Washington: The era of compromise is over.

    • Obama acknowledges Wall Street protests as a sign

      Concerns over Wall Street practices and economic inequality that have led to sit-ins and rallies in New York and elsewhere reverberated up to the White House on Thursday, with President Barack Obama saying the protesters are expressing the frustrations of the American public.

      Thousands of protesters, including many in union T-shirts, marched the day before in lower Manhattan, joined by labor leaders who say they will continue to support the protests with manpower and donations of goods and services.

    • Obama calls Wall Street protests an expression of the public’s frustration

      Concerns over Wall Street practices and economic inequality that have led to sit-ins and rallies in New York and elsewhere reverberated up to the White House on Thursday, with President Barack Obama saying the protesters are expressing the frustrations of the American public.

    • Michael Bloomberg tells Occupy Wall Street protesters to lay off banks

      New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg slammed the Occupy Wall Street protesters on Friday, saying their attacks on banks could harm one of the city’s major employers.

    • Obama: Wall Street rally reflects frustration

      US President Barack Obama has said that the “Occupy Wall Street” protests in New York and other US cities reflect “broad-based frustration” among Americans with how the US financial system works.

    • Labor Unions To Participate in Occupy Wall Street
    • Occupy Wall Street Has No ‘Message’, But It Has A Reason

      One of the most well-rehearsed axioms of the Occupy Wall Street event is that “the media does not know how to talk about it,” and, as a result, is talking about it to as minimal an extent as is possible. Fortunately for the occupation’s supporters, their presence is getting harder and harder to ignore. And so the media’s problem is slowly but steadily becoming the nation’s problem.

  • Copyrights

    • Copyright discourages innovation, the more the worse

      He writes in response to PETER DECHENEY’s piece which provides details on US trade agreements and legislation that extend copyright to foreign copyrighted works that had not previously been covered as they were in the public domain and the period of copyright by another 20 years link here. Yglesias point was a simple one: that so much of what is produced in the arts is derivative (i.e., it has a hard time being anything else), covering more and more works with copyright greatly complicates and raises the cost of producing new works you have to get “rights” or permission at cost in both time and money.

    • Chaos feared after Unix time-zone database is nuked

      The internet’s authoritative source for time-zone data has been shut down after the volunteer programmer who maintained it was sued for copyright infringement by a maker of astrology software.

      David Olson, custodian of the Time Zone and Daylight Saving Time Database, said on Thursday he was retiring the FTP server he’s long maintained. Also known as the Olson database, it’s the official reference Unix machines use to set clocks to local time and is used by countless websites and applications to reconcile time differences across the world.

    • ACTA

10.06.11

Links 6/10/2011: Linux 3.1 is Imminent, Android Extends Lead Over iOS

Posted in News Roundup at 7:19 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Adventures in Brickdom: Installing Windows 8 on a CR48
  • 20 ways to break Linux

  • Audiocasts/Shows

  • Kernel Space

    • Linux 3.1-rc9

    • Graphics Stack

      • 3 independent displays are getting really close..

        Continuing my updating on latest intel linux graphics-related activity, some hours ago Jesse Barnes’ patches which add support for 3 display pipes to our Linux i915 driver have landed onto intel-gfx mailing list. This is one feature I am particularly very interested in, and it is great to have those patches available in the open-source world now – months before the IVB-based hardware will arrive at the consumer market.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDE to Celebrate 15th Birthday

        KDE is having a global birthday party to celebrate 15 years and everyone is invited. Well, since we all can’t actually get together in one spot, they’d like to inspire a bunch of parties happening simultaneously across the globe on October 14.

        It all began much the way Linux began, with a message to a Usenet usergroup. Matthias Ettrich posted, “Programmers wanted!” for a “New Project: Kool Desktop Environment (KDE)”. The rest is history. 15 years ago Ettrich was looking to create an interface for endusers – the regular desktop user and he and his fellow developers succeeded. KDE became the most popular desktop environment for free Unix desktops and remained so until the rise of Ubuntu propelled GNOME into that position. It will be interesting to see where the dueling desktops end up in the coming years.

      • KDE’s October Updates Improve Kontact Performance

        September 7, 2011. Today KDE released updates for its Workspaces, Applications, and Development Platform. These updates are the second in a series of monthly stabilization updates to the 4.7 series. 4.7.2 updates bring many bugfixes and translation updates on top of the latest edition in the 4.7 series and are recommended updates for everyone running 4.7.0 or earlier versions. As the release only contains bugfixes and translation updates, it will be a safe and pleasant update for everyone. KDE’s software is already translated into more than 55 languages, with more to come. The October updates are especially interesting for those using the new Akonadi-based Kontact Suite, as it contains many performance improvements and bugfixes for applications such as KMail, and others retrieving information using Akonadi.

      • Freedom. 15 years. Party!

    • GNOME Desktop

      • GNOME 3.2: Tactical Brilliance and Strategic Stubbornness

        If you’re still waiting for the GNOME 3 series to tolerate more than one work-flow, then GNOME 3.2 is going to disappoint you.

        Although the new release contains dozens of improvements, both practical and aesthetic, it still supports only a single work flow, just like GNOME 3.0. Despite six months of protests, the GNOME team seems to have decided that, if it just ignores the complaints, eventually they’ll go away.

        That said, some of the improvements might just be enough to reconcile you to the GNOME 3 series. While some improvements are useful but minor refinements, others ranging from task-oriented documentation and accessibility improvements to online integration tools, would be welcome additions to any desktops.

      • Official GNOME Shell Extensions Available In The WebUpd8 GNOME 3 PPA For Ubuntu 11.10

  • Distributions

    • ArchBang Is Lightweight & Always Up To Date [Linux]

      Install a lightweight operating system that’s always up to date. Featuring the speedy Openbox desktop and built on the rolling release Arch Linux, Archbang delivers both minimalism and up-to-date software. Best of all, it’s a lot easier to set up and use than a vanilla Arch installation.

    • New Releases

      • Salix OS 13.37 Features Ratpoison Window Manager

        George Vlahavas from the Salix OS development team, proudly announced on October 4th that the a new edition of the Salix OS operating system is now available for download, featuring the Ratpoison window manager.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • PCLinuxOS Build server moved to rpm 4.8.x

        The build server that produces RPMS for the software repository for PCLinuxOS has switched over to RPM 4.8.x as of today. This comes after a month worth of notices and reminders posted.

      • Mageia 1 review – Confusing

        My test box was the old and abused T60 laptop, with 2GB RAM and an ATI graphics card. It never had hardware issues with Mandriva or PCLinuxOS or many other distributions, which indicates there might be some deep problem in the Mageia core. A shame really, as I wanted to see what the distro could do when committed to hard disk and running.

        Based on the live session testing and the installation, there’s a lot to be done still. Mageia needs a lot of bug fixing and polish. There are too many bugs and errors to allow a smooth and seamless desktop experience. The visual aspect also needs improving. My biggest gripes were the slew of errors and warnings that the user just need not see, the archaic layout of the desktop and the selfish installation that simply ignored my Windows.

        I ought to give the Mageia team some slack, given the fact this is their first release. So yes, more work is needed, and the distribution will mostly likely improve over time. I hope some of my finding will make into the future editions. For the time being, based on my testing, Mageia is not mature enough for desktop use. Will keep in touch.

    • Red Hat Family

      • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 Beta is out now

        When you’re talking serious server Linux, chances are you’re talking Red Hat’s Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) , so it’s good news that the beta is now ready for the next edition: RHEL 6.2

        Coming on the heels of the news that Red Hat is acquiring Gluster, a cloud-storage software company, it should come as no surprise that it will offer improved cloud deployment support. Of course, there’s a lot more here than just better cloud support.

      • Red Hat (RHT) Shares Given New $50.00 Price Target by UBS AG (UBS) Analysts

        Equities research analysts at UBS AG (NYSE: UBS) lowered their price target on shares of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) to $50.00 in a research issued note to investors on Wednesday. They currently have a “buy” rating on the company’s shares.

      • Video: Default to Open

        Red Hat produced a video entitled Default to Open: The History of Open Source and Red Hat. Since it is about history, it has a number of older clips… bits and pieces I’ve seen before but quite a bit of new stuff too. Enjoy it embedded in webm format or use the link below to download it for local playback.

      • Gluster is Likely to Be One Among Many Upcoming Red Hat Buys

        It’s no secret that as the last remaining public, U.S company focused on open source (after the acquisitions of Novell and Sun Microsystems), Red Hat is on a tear. The company is on track to become the first $1 billion a year open source firm, and we’ve predicted before that acquisitions are on the horizon for the company as it rakes in the revenues. Sure enough, enhancing its increasing focus on cloud computing and Big Data, Red Hat has announced that it is paying $136 million for Gluster, a privately held storage firm. This is just one of what will likely be several upcoming acquisitions from Red Hat.

        As the Register notes, Gluster’s name comes from the combination of GNU and cluster, and the firm specializes not only in storage solutions but in solutions that help organizations crunch and manage large data sets. Gluster was originally created at California Digital Corp., which makes supercomputers.

      • Beta version of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 released
      • Oracle previews RHEL-ish 2 Linux kernel

        As part of the OpenWorld extravaganza being hosted by Oracle in San Francisco this week, Edward Screven, chief corporate architect at the software giant and the guy who is responsible for the company’s Linux and Xen hypervisor variants, gave a brief preview of the next iteration of Oracle’s homegrown Linux kernel.

      • Fedora

        • Fedora 16 Beta Has GNOME 3.2 and Linux Kernel 3.1

          The Fedora Project proudly announced last evening, October 4th, the immediate availability for download and testing of the Beta version of the upcoming Fedora 16 operating system, due for release in November 2011.

        • F17 Might Be The Beefy Miracle To The Precise Pangolin

          Yesterday there was the announcement by Mark Shuttleworth that Ubuntu 12.04 is codenamed Precise Pangolin. But what will its friendly competition be called? The voting is taking place right now for the Fedora 17 codename. Beefy Miracle is again a contender for the next release of this Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution.

    • Debian Family

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • Community-Canonical Relationships – The honeymoon might be over, but the love is still there.

            When I got home yesterday I had a few messages asking about whether or not I had seen yesterday’s CC (Community Council) Meeting. I was away from my computer for most of the day yesterday so I didn’t get a chance to read the log of the meeting until late last night. This is one CC meeting I wish I had been able to attend.

          • P is for…

            Balancing all of those options, I think we have just the right mix in our designated mascot for 12.04 LTS. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Precise Pangolin.

          • Ubuntu 12.04 LTS named “Precise Pangolin”

            Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth has announced that Ubuntu 12.04 LTS (Long Term Support) will be named “Precise Pangolin”. Shuttleworth’s inspiration came when he “recently spent a few hours tracking a pangolin through the Kalahari”, and noted their precision and toughness. Many alternative suggestions including “Perky Penguin” and “Porangi Packhorse” were rejected for a variety of carefully considered reasons.

          • Well That’s One Way to Pimp Ubuntu…
          • Interview with Rubi1200
          • Million Cloud Monkeys create MonkeyBeth

            AK: Your story about how “A Few Million Monkeys Randomly Recreated Shakespearean work” Got you featured on many tech-news websites. Can you introduce yourself to cloud.ubuntu.com readers. (Your background, Studies, where you work, your hobbies, your future dreams…etc)

            I work at Intuit in Reno, NV as a Senior Software Engineer. I love watching The Simpsons (which finally paid off). I like to try out new technologies and try to do things that have not been done before. Trying out these technologies usually leads to a personal project – none of which has been as successful as the Million Monkeys project.

          • Computers provide path for humanity to others

            Is it possible to reduce the need for upgrading by reusing a computer? Absolutely! There is a very green solution that can extend the useful life of any PC. It can result in less frequent purchases of new hardware and software, or breathe new life into a computer that can then be reused by someone else who could benefit from it. It’s called Ubuntu.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • How to make a voice-controlled robot arm for $55

      Okay, so we might have made most of that up, but the developer of the robotic arm really is an aerospace engineer, he really does have a broken wrist, and he really did create a voice-controlled arm for under $60 — and better yet, he did it using an open-source operating system (Linux), a bunch of open-source tools, and of course he made all of his work open source so that you too can make your own robotic helping hand.

    • Phones

      • Intel and Samsung Mount Android Attack

        The Limo Foundation along with the Linux Foundation are joining forces to create Tizen as an open source alternative to Google’s Android. The game plan will launch with a SDK in early 2012. This means Intel will say bye-bye to MeeGo.

        Adobe folks must be feeling the roller coaster ride of the Kindle Fire supporting Adobe’s Flash, while Tizen will be HTML 5 based.

        Tizen is aimed at tablets, smartphones, netbooks and in-vechicle systems.The Limo Foundation has a number of backers with Motorola, NEC, Panasonic, Orange, Samsung and others. Add Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, Qualcomm and others in the LinuxFoundation.

      • Android/Ballnux

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • Government of India launches the elusive $35 tablet, retail availability in November

        When Tata Motors unveiled the Tata Nano—the $2500 car, the automative world was taken by storm. The engineering minds behind the cheapest family car pulled off something no other company could. The Government of India had similar plans for computers. The OLPC project showed promise but did not catch up. They (the organization behind OLPC) have however been able to attract some state governments to join them.

      • OLPC XO-1.75 Laptop Preview

        Last month at XDC2011 Chicago, I managed to get my hands on what should be the production hardware model of the XO-1.75 laptop that is expected to be released in the coming months by the OLPC project. The low-cost OLPC laptop targeted for students is now ARM-based and consumes very little power.

      • India’s $35 Tablet ‘Aakash’ Launched, Runs Android 2.2

        India’s much talked about US$35 tablet running Android 2.2 Froyo is finally launched. World’s cheapest tablet will be called ‘Aakash’ and it’s exact price is Rs.2,276. At current rates, final cost will be around US$50, which still makes it the world’s cheapest tablet. If the price point of this Android tablet impressed you already, specifications are going to impress you even more.

      • ‘$35′ Android tablet launches in India, but it’s now $61

        India’s “$35″ tablet has launched at a price of $61, but may be subsidized by the government to as low as $30 for students, according to one report. Developed by U.K.-based Datawind, the “Aakash UbiSlate 7″ tablet runs Android 2.2 on a 366MHz Conexant processor, with 256MB RAM and 2GB flash, and features a seven-inch, 800 x 480 resistive display.

      • Pondering the Prospect of a Completely Open Linux Tablet

        “In the end it won’t be Linux that makes it a niche, it will be simple economics,” said Slashdot blogger hairyfeet. “Nobody will pay even close to iPad pricing on anything but an iPad, and ZaReason will have to charge close to iPad money to get decent hardware in the thing.” So, ZaReason will likely “sell enough to stay in business and make a little profit, but it won’t set the world on fire.”

      • ZTE’s V55 Android Honeycomb tablet hits the FCC on its way to Sprint

        ZTE is better known for its OEM feature phones, but the company has recently started to roll out a suite of Android tablets. Today, one of the company’s latest tablets, the V55, won FCC approval and judging from the label pic above the device appears to be headed for Sprint.

      • ASUS Not Scared By Kindle Fire Threats, Will Release Transformer 2 As Planned

        Jerry Shen, the CEO of ASUS, has recently gone on the record about the new tablet arena that Amazon’s Kindle Fire has created. First off, he said that he has no immediate plans to slash the price of the original ASUS Eee Pad Transformer to keep up with the Fire. We have already seen some companies do this in the wake of Amazon’s rumored 100,000 pre-orders of their new tablet, but ASUS says they are still gaining successful results from their tablets.

      • Amazon Kindle Fire pre-orders over 2,000 per hour

        With Apple news everywhere today because of the iPhone 4S release, it’s hard to remember other new products. But it’s hard to ignore a leaked screenshot of Amazon’s order system showing Kindle Fire orders coming in at over 2,000 per hour.

Free Software/Open Source

  • Interview: Alan W. Irwin, developer of Time Ephemerides

    F4S: Please, give us a brief introduction about yourself.

    I got my Ph.D in astronomy in 1978, and my research work afterwards has been primarily concerned with developing Fortran and C software to support my astronomical research. My development environments over the years have been IBM System/370, VAX minicomputers, Solaris boxes, and then Linux on PC’s from 1996 to the present. That Linux development environment has been an enormous benefit for me so I have been happy to contribute back by participating in such open-source projects as PLplot (plplot.sf.net), FreeEOS (freeeos.sf.net), and now the Time Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net).

  • Events

    • Videos: KVM Forum 2011 Presentations

      The KVM Forum 2011 was held at the Hyatt Regency in Vancouver, Canada on August 15-16. It was co-located with LinuxCon North America 2011.

      LinuxCon and the KVM Forum were both sponsored by The Linux Foundation who recorded a large number of videos from both events. Unfortunately, The Linux Foundation had few security breaches to deal with on their kernel.org and linux.com domains which (I’m guessing) has greatly delayed them doing post-production work on the recordings and posting them publicly.

  • Web Browsers

    • Chrome

    • Mozilla

      • Firefox for Tablets available for download in Aurora Channel

        It’s been quite a while since we did that post on Firefox’s upcoming tablet User Interface, and guess what, it’s finally here! Firefox for Tablets has just landed in Aurora channel, which means, you can now download it, test it, and make the product even better. The tablet version includes all the features we discussed in our earlier post along with some additional features. Here’s more about it :

      • Firefox and SeaMonkey users warned to disable McAfee ScriptScan

        A major incompatibility between Mozilla’s browsers Firefox and SeaMonkey, and McAfee’s ScriptScan plug-in has caused “a high volume of crashes”, according to Mozilla. The problem first came to light in September, when members of the McAfee forum began reporting problems with version 14.4.0 of ScriptScan, a tool which checks web pages, as they are loaded into the browser, for malicious code. This is the first time since July that Mozilla has found it necessary to block a plug-in.

      • Privacy Extension for Firefox, Priv3

  • SaaS

    • EngineYard Brings JRuby to Cloud

      “This is the first commercially supported way to run applications on JRuby in a production environment,” Mike Piech vice president of product management and marketing for Engine Yard told InternetNews.com. “JRuby is really important to both the Ruby and Java world.”

    • OpenStack Foundation to Form in 2012: A Spin-Out from Rackspace

      It’s official: After some early posts that reported that the OpenStack cloud computing platform will be spun out from Rackspace, OpenStack officials have confirmed that a new nonprofit foundation will oversee development and evangelism beginning in 2012. OpenStack is presenting significant challenges to proprietary cloud computing platforms and offering a flexible, open source alternative, so this promises to be good news. OpenStack’s oversight will also differ significantly from some of the open source cloud platforms backed solely by commercial entities.

    • Rackspace to create an OpenStack Foundation

      Rackspace says that it is planning to create an OpenStack Foundation next year to take over the governance and ownership of the OpenStack trademark. The OpenStack project was launched in July 2010 to manage a new open source cloud platform created by Rackspace and Nasa; since then Citrix, Dell, Intel, AMD, HP, Cisco, Canonical and others have joined the initiative. However, there have been concerns about the governance of the project, specifically that Rackspace has too much control since buying Anso Labs which gave it a majority of seats on the project board. A reformation of voting processes within the project in March this year did little to reduce those concerns.

    • Linux Labs Unveils Strategy for Its SaaS Business With Full Launch Targeted for Next Quarter; Software as a Service (SaaS) Market Forecasted to Reach $40.5 Billion by 2014

  • Databases

    • Oracle Goes Big for NoSQL

      There is a lot of buzz around the term “big data.” It’s a topic that Oracle is now jumping into with both feet with a new big data engineered system as well as new Hadoop and NoSQL software offerings.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • Oracle Updates Linux, Sticks with Intel and Promises Solaris

      Oracle remains committed to Intel and to Linux even as it continues to promise the delivery of Solaris 11. That’s the message that Oracle executives delivered during a keynote at the OpenWorld conference this week.

      The commitment to Intel is particularly key, since Oracle CEO Larry Ellison’s comments during the company’s recent earnings call. Ellison said that he didn’t care if Oracle’s Intel x86 server business dwindled down to zero. Oracle Executive Vice-President John Fowler said during his OpenWorld keynote that he received a few calls about his boss’ comments. He stressed that Oracle remains comitted to Intel.

    • Java 8 delayed, but only a little

      During his keynote on Oracle’s Java strategy at the JavaOne conference, the Vice President of Development for the Fusion middleware, Adam Messinger, had to announce that the release date of Java 8 has been postponed. Instead of late 2012, the new version is now only likely to be released six months later, in summer 2013. Around nine million Java developers, as counted by Oracle, had to wait more than four-and-a-half years for Java 7, which was released this summer after repeated delays. To make up for the postponed release date, Oracle’s Java developers plan to use the extra time to extend the feature set.

    • New fonts, unique features for LibreOffice DTP

      Based on the excellent SIL Graphite font technology and Philipp H. Poll’s Libertine Open Fonts project, LibreOffice has got extraordinary DTP capabilities with the extended Graphite version of Linux Libertine and Biolinum font families.

    • Lively Alphabet – coloring book and DTP example
    • Oracle’s Plans for Java Unveiled at JavaOne

      Oracle made a number of announcements about current and future versions of Java at the annual JavaOne conference this week, including the availability of an early access version of JDK 7 for the Mac OS, plans to “bridge the gap” between Java ME and Java SE, an approach to modularizing Java SE 8 that will rely on the Jigsaw platform, a new project that aims to use HTML5 to bring Java to Apple’s iOS platform, the availability of JavaFX 2.0, a pending proposal to open source that technology, gearing up Java EE for the cloud and a delay in the release of Java 8.

    • VirtualBox 4.1.4 features automatic extension updates

      The Mac OS X version of VirtualBox has seen comparatively few changes, with an issue that caused the VirtualBox GUI (Graphical User Interface) to lock-up during the start-up of a VM being one of the major fixes. For Linux, a bug that prevented removable storage from being detached after restoring a VM snapshot has been fixed, and hard-links that caused the installation of VirtualBox to fail on file systems such as OpenAFS have been removed. Two hardware acceleration issues, one causing incorrect rendering and potential crashes when switching to/from full screen, the other causing problems when using Compiz under Ubuntu 9.10, have also been fixed.

    • As LibreOffice Turns One, a Peek Ahead at What’s to Come

      It was just about a year ago that I was writing about the launch of LibreOffice, and now here we are today, marking the free productivity software suite’s first year.

    • LibreOffice – a dive into the unknown

      The Document Foundation (TDF) and LibreOffice turned one year old last month, and it has been a good year. LibreOffice was a dive into the unknown, and an opportunity to prove what the community already knew: that a chance to swim free could only bring positive results.

  • Healthcare

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Project Releases

    • Gephi 0.8 beta released

      The latest beta version of Gephi has been released, download it for Windows, Mac OS and Linux platforms. This release focus on new features for both users and developers, and the new license unlocks opportunities for business. The Ranking and Preview modules have been completely rewritten in a modular way and can be now extended with plug-ins! Preview can now be extended in many ways, for instance group shapes or edge bundling. Moreover, continuous progress have been made on the dynamic network support and we release today the last big part: statistics over time, available from the Statistics module when the network is dynamic. Thanks to users who reported bugs, it’s the only way to fix them.

  • Open Hardware

  • Programming

Leftovers

  • Google Docs Still Not Ready For Tablets

    Google has updated its Google Docs app for Android tablets, but the cloud-based office suite is far from ready for the prime time on Android tablets.

    The app doesn’t come with and WYSIWYG text editor which may enable a user to do any ‘real’ work on Google Docs using the tablet. All you get is a simple text editor where you can type content.

  • Finance

    • Christie Speculation Gives Campaign Top Billing

      Depending on how you count, anywhere from seven to more than a dozen Republican candidates are running for president. But it was a non-candidate who fueled one of the biggest weeks of campaign coverage to date.

      Speculation that New Jersey Governor Chris Christie might enter the fray made the 2012 presidential election the No. 1 story in the news media the week of September 26-October 2, according to the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. Coverage of the campaign accounted for 15% of the newshole studied last week. That was the third-biggest week for campaign coverage this year—and the biggest not to involve a candidate debate.

    • Coverage Grows for Wall Street Protest
    • Goldman Sachs Requests A Correction

      And, the GS sp0kesperson reminded me, since Goldman bought part of Abacus for itself, I w as not permitted to describe the entire event as a “fraud.”

  • DRM

    • The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 4: Canadian Council of Archives

      The Canadian Council of Archives is Canada’s leading archivist organization, with a mandate “to preserve and provide access to Canadian documentary heritage by improving the administration, effectiveness and efficiency of the archival system.” The CCA’s comments on the C-32 digital lock provisions:

  • Copyrights

    • Astrologers Attack TZ Database

      Just when you think you have seen it all a case of copyright violation has been filed by an astrology publisher against a keeper of a timezone database. This has caused the TZ database to shut down pending further proceedings. TZ is widely used in the GNU/Linux world.

10.05.11

Links 5/10/2011: India’s $35 Linux Tablet, OpenNebula 3.0

Posted in News Roundup at 7:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Computer-Aided Engineering in Linux

    Engineers are some of the heaviest number-crunchers around. If you are a grad student, post doc or undergrad, you usually get whatever is lying around as your work machine. Also, depending on how inflexible your local IT department is, you may be forced to use one of the commercial operating systems around these days. What are lowly students to do when they need to do heavy computational work? You may be interested in looking at CAELinux (Computer Assisted Engineering). This project provides a live CD that gives you all the open-source tools you might need for your engineering work. And, because it is a live CD, you can use it without touching the local drive of the machine you are using.

  • Desktop

    • The Linux Desktop Advances

      Many different things make the Linux Planet go around, and one of them is the desktop. This past week, two key Linux desktop technologies advanced — the new GNOME 3.2 release and the 1.0 release of PulseAudio.

  • Server

    • Dell building its own Exadata killer

      Way back when, before Oracle bought Sun Microsystems, and even before Hewlett-Packard became hardware buddies with Big Red with the original Exadata Database Machine, Dell was Oracle’s chosen buddy for running parallel Oracle databases using Real Application Cluster on top of Linux. But now Oracle is in the hardware business, and it looks like Dell is fixing to take the parallel Oracle database fight to Oracle.

    • Oracle Big Data Appliance stakes big claim

      With its latest appliance, Oracle has officially embraced big data, including Hadoop and NoSQL.

  • Kernel Space

    • Kernel.org partially back online

      The kernel.org web servers are back on line and are once again delivering the Git repositories of some Linux developers – including the main repository of the development branch of Linux maintained by Linus Torvalds. However, the frontpage links to the archives with the sources for the Linux kernel point to files that have yet to be uploaded. Following four weeks of downtime, kernel.org is thus at least partially back in business. The administrators took the servers offline for maintenance work around a month ago, following the discovery in late August that an attacker had obtained access to some servers.

    • Changes in Enterprise Computing Bring New Members to Linux Foundation

      Eucalyptus Systems, Nebula and Virtual Bridges look to Linux to enable innovation in the new enterprise

      SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., October 5, 2011 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that three new members have joined the organization: Eucalyptus Systems, Nebula and Virtual Bridges.

    • There’s A Linux 3.1-rc9 Kernel Release

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • GNOME Desktop

      • Top 8 Gnome Shell Extensions

        The power of Gnome Shell lies in its extensionability. It is this power that transforms the barely unusable vanilla Gnome Shell desktop environement into a powerful and extremely usable and productive desktop environment. Gnome shell has a number of useful installations to enhance the user experience. To learn how to install and enable them using the Gnome Tweak tool check out our post on Installing and using Gnome Shell. In this post we will look at some must have Gnome shell extensions

  • Distributions

    • Deep in the heart of TexOS

      The link in question is for TexOS, the Texas Open Source Project. The Texas Open Source Project, according to its site, “is working with local, non-profits in the San Angelo, Texas, area to provide technology to students who don’t have access to it at home.”

    • New Releases

      • AgiliaLinux 8.0.0
      • Clonezilla 1.2.10-16
      • Salix Ratpoison 13.37

        Salix Ratpoison 13.37 is released! This is probably the first ever linux distribution release featuring Ratpoison as the main window manager. The aim of the Ratpoison edition is to create a system that is fully usable with the keyboard only, no mouse required! For everyone that is not familiar with Ratpoison, Ratpoison is a window manager for X “with no fat library dependencies, no fancy graphics, no window decorations, and no rodent dependence”. Ratpoison uses a workflow that is similar to that of GNU screen, which is very popular in the terminal world. All interaction with the window manager is done through keystrokes.

      • 10/2/2011: Parted Magic 6.7

        Major enhancement release with many updates. Most notable updates include, Linux 3.0.4 and GParted 0.9.1. We have dropped the legacy PCManFM for PCMan-Mod, and man is it nice. Lots a little PCManfm bugs that have existed for years are now quashed. Xfburn replaces SimpleBurn for burning CDROM/DVD media. Chntpw was added to the boot menu. Adding Luxi fonts improved international language support. Although it’s not the newest released, Firefox is updated to firefox-6.0.2 and is compiled for i486 (official branding included) with permission from the Mozilla Foundation. OpenSSH is updated to 5.9p1 with the ecdsa key created by default. People have been complaining about Parted Magic being hard on laptop batteries, so CPU frequency scaling on anything with a battery is now set to “on-demand” at boot. See the changelog for all the updates. There are many.

      • Now, pay attention to the latest Calculate Linux 11.9

        typically ‘calculates’ the necessary utilities for configuration, building and installation of systems.

    • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

      • Mageia, Mandriva and IBM: Battle of Giants

        My laptop is very old, so old that many people don’t even remember the model. This is one of the last models designed and actually produced by IBM before it was sold to Lenovo – a good old IBM X31, upgraded to 2Gb RAM at the day of purchase in 2005. There is no single thing it cannot do for me – it works just perfectly for many years, and, perhaps, for a few years to come.

    • Red Hat Family

    • Debian Family

      • Help release Debian from the French!

        Debian gurus Raphael Hertzog and Roland Mas, are looking to raise money to fund the translation of their seminal Debian book “Cahiers de l’Admin Debian Squeeze” into English. The pair have set up a crowdfunding campaign here to finance the three-month task of translating the book’s 450 pages.

      • Derivatives

        • Canonical/Ubuntu

          • uBuntu 11.10 aka Oneiric Ocelot: This Is The Countdown!
          • Official Oneiric T-Shirts Appear in Ubuntu Shop

          • Flavours and Variants

            • Linux Mint – The Trio

              Linux Mint’s claim to fame is usability and the search for the perfect Linux desktop. As a distribution Mint arrived on the scene in 2006 with release 1.0 code named “Ada”. It never formally made it as a stable release, resulting in little fan fare. However with release 2.0 codenamed “Barbara” Linux Mint made its mark on the community. Over the next 2 years Mint released 5 versions and if you haven’t guessed it already they were all codenamed after feminine first names.

  • Devices/Embedded

    • RoweBots Transforms Medical Equipment Design – Unison Ultra Tiny Linux Supports Xilinx FPGA Microblaze Softcore

      RoweBots Inc., the leading supplier of tiny embedded Linux-compatible real-time operating systems (RTOS) products, today announced that the Unison™ Operating System (OS) is a core component in a variety of medical equipment. The Unison OS controls operating room equipment, intelligent eyewear and other advanced medical devices for the home, physician’s offices and hospitals.

    • Phones

      • Will the Mer Project Keep MeeGo Alive?

        In a message on the MeeGo email list today, Carsten Munk proposes the Mer project as a sustainable way for MeeGo and other communities to work with Tizen. Munk explains that many MeeGo project contributors originated from the Mer project, which stood for Maemo Reconstructed. “We were big on open governance, open development and open source,” he says.

      • The Power of Asterisk Revealed: What the Open Source Software Can Do for You

        Nokia is rumored to be developing an open-source OS for its low-end handsets, codenamed Meltemi, despite having failed to drive MeeGo to the point where it could save the company’s smartphones. Apparently being led by Nokia EVP of Mobile Phones Mary McDowell, so the WSJ‘s sources tell them, Meltemi named after “the Greek word for dry summer winds that blow across the Aegean Sea from the north.”

      • Linux is just good for Nokia business

        So why would Nokia appear to do a 180 and try a product release based on another form of Linux, codenamed “Meltemi”? Wasn’t MeeGo good enough? And what about Symbian, which Nokia just completed outsourcing development and support to Accenture?

        Like any detective, I started out making a list of possibilities.

      • Nokia working on new Linux OS for low end smartphones

        By going for the Windows Phone platform, Nokia has put itself in a difficult spot as far as low end phone segment is concerned.

      • From Moblin to MeeGo to Tizen, Oh My!

      • Android

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

      • The $35 android tablet, a snip at $50

        The Aakash is designed and built by UK firm Datawind, known for their cheapo web-browsing kit. It features a resistive screen, a 366MHz processor and 2GB of storage, along with a couple of USB ports and space for a micro SD card. Connectivity is Wi-Fi, though cellular is already in production, and the government will be selling it to students for a shade under £20 a pop.

      • OLPC India head disappointed with govt’s $35 tablet
      • India’s $35 tablet computer meant for students to be launched today

        India’s Human Resources minister Kapil Sibal will unveil the country’s $35 tablet computer meant for students, officially on Wednesday.

        The tablet was developed as part of the National Mission on Education as a low cost alternative to high-end tablets which were available at $200. Even the latest tablet made by an Indian company called Pepper was priced $99.

      • Linux Tablet Will Be Fully Open Source

        It’s possible the launch of Tizen will eventually add some more variety to the mix, but in the meantime a California vendor of Linux PCs has set its sights on delivering what it believes will be the first fully open source tablet.

Free Software/Open Source

  • PhoneGap Build in Open Beta
  • Adobe Acquires Developer Of HTML5 Mobile App Framework PhoneGap Nitobi
  • Adobe buys PhoneGap, TypeKit for better Web tools
  • PhoneGap Creator Nitobi Acquired by Adobe
  • PhoneGap Applies to Apache Software Foundation, Contemplates Name Change
  • PhoneGap to become an Apache project as Adobe acquires Nitobi

    Adobe has entered an agreement to acquire Nitobi, the startup behind PhoneGap. Alongside news of the acquisition, Adobe and Nitobi have jointly announced plans to donate the PhoneGap project to the Apache Software Foundation.

    PhoneGap is an open source mobile development framework for building applications with standards-based Web technologies. The project provides a cross-platform Web runtime that allows application developers to reach multiple mobile operating systems with a single code base. It includes a custom API stack that enables platform integration and exposes device capabilities.

  • Adobe Announces Agreement to Acquire Nitobi, Creator of PhoneGap
  • IBM open sources Blue Spruce to aid medical research

    Big Blue has passed the code to the Dojo Foundation’s Open Cooperative Web Framework (OpenCoweb), where it is already being used in a National Institutes of Health funded study of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPDGeneR). The COPDGeneR team is studying the CT scans and medical records of over 10,000 patents in an attempt to understand causation factors and find cures.

  • The open source code “provenance” audit concept

    Proprietary software vendors like to scaremonger over the use of open source software. They like to highlight the “inherent dynamism” that exists in open source libraries that are exposed to community development at all times.

  • 26 helpful open source network management tools
  • Gnucash accounts for a successful summer

  • Events

    • The art of the Linux conference

      When Ballarat makes its debut in January 2012 as the first regional centre to host Australia’s national Linux conference, it will also see a number of first-timers involved on the organisational front.

  • Web Browsers

    • For Fast, Light Web Browsing, Dillo’s No Dallier

      First things first: Unless you visit only very simple websites, Dillo will probably not be your one and only Web browser. However, you may find it very useful as a secondary browser because of its speed. It loads in under a second and renders just as quickly. It can be your go-to tool when you want a fast means to enter a site and find key information.

    • Chrome

    • Mozilla

      • The current (and poor) state of Firefox

        Firefox 7 was recently released. That’s right, less than a month after the release of Firefox 6 comes numero 7. But why? Why would one of the most popular browsers out there put out major releases so close together? Could it be the fact that 6 was so bad they wanted to call “do-over!” to try to make things right?

      • Mozilla aims to add silent updating to Firefox 10

        A year after it pulled the plug on silent updates in Firefox 4, Mozilla said it will debut most of the behind-the-scenes feature by early next year.

      • Firefox developer reveals changes and new update service

        In a post on his blog, developer Brian R. Bondy says that, while Mozilla’s rapid release process has allowed the development team to release a new version of the Firefox browser every six weeks, modifying restricted files under Windows has been difficult due to the introduction of User Account Control (UAC). By default, UAC prevents software from making changes to c:\Program Files\ without the user’s permission, in the form of a confirmation dialogue box. Bondy argues that “if a user with administrative access gives permissions to Firefox one time via a UAC prompt, and that user has automatic updates on, then there is no reason we should continue to ask them to elevate the permissions each and every time we want to apply an update.”

      • Firefox 3.6 Update To 7.0

        Firefox users who are still running a 3.6 version of the web browser should prepare themselves for receiving an advertised update on Thursday. Users will receive a prompt with the option to update the browser from their version to the very latest. Mozilla is quick to note that this has “no bearing on support levels”, which means that Firefox 3.6 will continue to receive updates after the update prompt has been launched.

  • SaaS

    • The Community Effect

      Owen O’Malley recently collected and analyzed information in the Apache Hadoop project commit logs and its JIRA repository. That data describes the history of development for Hadoop and the contributions of the individuals who have worked on it.

    • OpenNebula 3.0 features ACLs and updated interface

      Version 3.0 of the open source cloud toolkit OpenNebula has been launched; according to its developers this is used by thousands of organisations to build IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) clouds. The release includes “new innovative features” which have been “developed to fulfill the needs of leading IT organizations running production environments”.

    • Mirantis Establishes Center of Excellence for OpenStack

  • Databases

    • Firebird 2.5.1 is officially released

      Firebird Project is happy to announce general availability of Firebird 2.5.1 This sub-release introduces several bug fixes and many important improvements – for example, performance improvements during a database restore, the ability to write to global temporary tables in read-only databases, etc. For the full list of changes please refer to the Release Notes, Chapter 2 “New in Firebird 2.5″. Firebird 2.5.1 has 100% compatible on-disk structure with Firebird 2.5.0, so it is recommended to migrate to 2.5.1 as soon as possible.

    • Amid NoSQL hubbub, Oracle tweaks fan-fave MySQL

      Oracle’s rumored NoSQL database made its splashy debut, along with Oracle’s Big Data Appliance, on the Oracle OpenWorld 2011 main stage Monday. Less trumpeted was news that MySQL, the venerable open-source database, got an update that vows to speed query and improve cluster capabilities.

    • Oracle Defies Self With ‘NoSQL’ Database

      Oracle’s extended diatribe against the NoSQL crowd — including Cassandra, MongoDB, CouchDB, and Redis — sought to expose their limitations and sow some serious doubt over their open-source roots. But the white paper has now vanished from Oracle’s website, surviving only through Google’s search cache, and Oracle has launched a new attack on the NoSQL movement. On Monday, at its massive Oracle OpenWorld conference in downtown San Francisco, Oracle unveiled its own NoSQL database.

    • Oracle tweaks MySQL with milestone update

      While the news about NoSQL has garnered much attention, Oracle has quietly published a development milestone release (DMR) for MySQL.

      The MySQL 5.6.3 DMR includes a major revision of the software’s optimizer, which the company claims will make file-sort optimizations up to three times faster by searching more intelligently and dumping unneeded data during the process.

  • Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

    • VirtualBox 4.1.4 for Linux Supports X.Org Server 1.11

      Oracle announced last night, October 3rd, a new maintenance version to its popular and powerful VirtualBox virtualization software, VirtualBox 4.1.4, which brings many improvements and lots of bugfixes.

    • ODF 1.2 has been approved as an OASIS standard

      Standard document formats are key for liberating the user from the lock in of proprietary formats. ODF has been developed by OASIS based on OOo document format, and is now supported by most personal productivity software and many other computer programs. TDF is committed to supporting ODF and contribute to its development. ODF will be one of four main topics at the upcoming LibreOffice Conference in Paris.

    • Java FX 2.0 tries again

      The first time round, JavaFX was a closed source attempt to dislodge Flash, Silverlight and the other plugin runtimes from being the way that people delivered rich applications on the internet. This time around, Oracle has released version 2.0 of its JavaFX RIA (rich internet application) technology as an open source based platform. The release was announced at JavaOne, which is being held in parallel with the company’s in-house OpenWorld conference in San Francisco.

      In contrast to previous attempts, in the opinion of many of the Java experts who have been testing the beta since February, it comes across as a much more rounded product. Whether Oracle will be able to compete with alternatives such as Microsoft’s Silverlight or Adobe’s AIR/Flex is, however, open to question, especially as those platforms are already under pressure from the emerging HTML5 ecosystem.

    • Oracle v. Google – Settlement Discussions Continue
    • Oracle v. Google – Google Files Case Management Statement

      Oracle filed its case management statement last Friday specifying the claims it would assert. (Oracle v. Google – Oracle Specifies Claims It Will Assert) In its statement Oracle identified 26 claims it would be asserting, although it also suggested that there were only 15 unique sets of claims because of what Oracle described as “claim mirroring.” Monday Google responded with its own case management statement identifying the grounds for invalidity it would assert against each of Oracle’s asserted claims.

    • Oracle v. Google – Stay or Not to Stay, That Is the Question – Redux

      Each of the parties has now come forward and filed an additional Case Management Statement (Google Statement – 480 [PDF]; Oracle Statement – 481 [PDF]) on the issues of the patent reexaminations; whether the case should be stayed pending those reexaminations; the amount of time required for direct and cross-examination at trial, and the issue of damages. Not surprisingly, the positions of the parties are diametrically opposed.

  • Education

    • iSchools bats for open-source in Software Freedom Day

      The iSchools Project, a government-funded ICT for education integration initiative, recently made a push for open-source software during the Software Freedom Day (SFD) 2011 held at St. Paul’s University in Tuguegarao, Cagayan Valley last September.

      Working on the theme “Smarter Communities Choose to be Free”, this year’s SFD aimed to educate and convince technology users to choose open-source software instead of using proprietary software or unlicensed software.

  • Business

  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • Nominations are open for the 14th annual Free Software Awards

      The Free Software Foundation Award for the Advancement of Free Software is presented annually by FSF president Richard Stallman to an individual who has made a great contribution to the progress and development of free software, through activities that accord with the spirit of free software.

      Last year, Rob Savoye was recognized with the Award for the Advancement of Free Software for his contributions to compiler and testing tools, and his leadership of the GNU Gnash project, a fully-free replacement for Adobe Flash. Savoye joined a prestigious list of previous winners including John Gilmore, Wietse Venema, Harald Welte, Ted Ts’o, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Alan Cox, Larry Lessig, Guido van Rossum, Brian Paul, Miguel de Icaza and Larry Wall.

    • Merging In The GNU D Language Compiler To GCC

      Nearly one year ago I wrote about Digital Mars wanting to merge the GNU D Compiler into GCC. Finally it looks like merging the compiler for the D programming language is nearing a point of reality.

  • Public Services/Government

    • The Kerala State Electricity Board Saves a Whopping Rs 8 Crore, Using FOSS

      For the last four years, KSEB has created over 840 databases across the state. Almost all its applications in major functional areas, operating either in a centralised or local architecture, use PostgreSQL. About 700 PostgreSQL databases have been used in the Oruma project, and over 4,000 employees of KSEB access these databases on a daily basis. Saras has about 140 databases, which are used by about 1,000 users for daily transactions. Three projects under implementation (the Human Resource Information System or HRIS, the Supply Chain Management or SCM, and HT/EHT billing software) also use PostgreSQL databases. The HRIS will have a single database, and over 500 users are expected to use it on a daily basis. The SCM system uses PostgreSQL, and about 1,000 users are expected to access this centralised database for daily transactions. And about 30 people will use the HT/EHT billing software, every day.

  • Openness/Sharing

    • OCCUPY WALL STREET (the theory)

      Occupy Wall Street is an open source protest.

    • Open Data

      • Synchronously Replicating Databases Across Data Centers – Are you Insane?

        Well actually….no. The second Development Milestone Release of MySQL Cluster 7.2 introduces support for what we call “Multi-Site Clustering”. In this post, I’ll provide an overview of this new capability, and considerations you need to make when considering it as a deployment option to scale geographically dispersed database services.

        You can read more about MySQL Cluster 7.2.1 in the article posted on the MySQL Developer Zone.

        MySQL Cluster has long offered Geographic Replication, distributing clusters to remote data centers to reduce the affects of geographic latency by pushing data closer to the user, as well as providing a capability for disaster recovery.

    • Open Access/Content

      • Open-access R&D for drug industry

        LONDON: Drug companies are learning how to share. In a bid to save both time and money, some of the industry’s biggest names are experimenting with new ways to pool early-stage research, effectively taking a leaf out of the “open-source” manual that gave the world Linux software.

  • Programming

  • Standards/Consortia

    • UK.gov coder defines open standards: ‘A lot like porn’

      As the government works on drawing up yet another definition for open standards, the man in charge of the Cabinet Office’s team of IT coders is keen to talk about a future where all government tech is based on, well, open standards.

Leftovers

  • Health/Nutrition

    • Food Rights Network Interviews Food & Farm Hero John Kinsman

      This month, the Center for Media and Democracy’s new Food Rights Network launches a series of interviews with “food and farm heroes.” It’s easy for an organization dedicated to exposing corporate spin to focus on negative corporate propaganda with its ubiquity, but we would be remiss not to highlight courageous people who fight corporate agendas and spin in other ways, large and small. Some devote their lives to it.

    • Los Angeles and Kern County’s Epic Sewage Sludge Battle

      Sewage sludge can contain heavy metals, pesticides, dioxins, flame retardants, pharmaceuticals, perfluorinated compounds, nanoparticles, pathogens, known endocrine disruptors, and more. Of those, only 10 heavy metals out of dozens are regulated in sewage sludge that is applied to land where animal feed is grown as fertilizer. The strictest regulation, which the EPA calls “Class A Biosolids” (“biosolids” is a term the sewage industry made up to make sludge sound more palatable), has the same restrictions on heavy metals, plus two other criteria: it must have no detectable salmonella or fecal coliform, and it must be treated so that it is not attractive to disease-carrying organisms like rats or flies. But this leaves in and unaccounted for numerous other pathogens, as well as an array of heavy metals and other substances like PBDEs concentrated in the resulting sludge.

  • Finance

    • O.co aka Overstock.com vs. Goldman Sachs: A True David & Goliath Story

      For six years Overstock.com has waged a war to expose Wall Street mischief. We did not go looking for a fight, but our company was attacked, and we learned we were not alone: the same manipulation-for-profit tools that Wall Street had deployed against us had also been deployed against many American companies, harming job creation, innovation, and economic growth. We knew that if left unchecked and unexposed, Wall Street’s games could ultimately damage U.S. capital markets.

      So in 2005 and 2007 we filed two lawsuits. The first case was against a hedge fund (Rocker Partners) and hatchet-job-for-hire research team (Gradient Analytics), both with ties to Jim Cramer. The second case was against a group of eleven Wall Street prime brokers, culminating in Goldman Sachs. The hedge fund in question (Rocker Partners) hired famed lawyer David Boies, and the prime brokers showed up with an army of the most prestigious law firms in America. Our lawyers were Dore Griffinger, Ellen Cirangle, Jonathan Sommer and Catherine Jackson of Stein & Lubin, a small but excellent San Francisco law firm.

    • Ratigan With Denninger: How To Get Money Out Of Politics

      Three years ago, I left my 15-year career as a financial professional, because I was disgusted and disturbed by the rampant evidence of corruption in the relationship between our banking system and our government.

      At the time the Tea Party was emerging and I was confident that between their exploding wave of anger and our newly minted president’s soaring aspirations for all of us — we would align to confront and resolve the blatantly corrupt relation ship between banking and our government and more broadly BUSINESS and STATE.

    • Molly Crabapple’s Occupy Wall Street “Vampire Squid” poster, for your printing/stenciling pleasure

  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

    • Koch Industries Exposed for Bribery, Secret Iran Sales and More

      Late Sunday night, after a flurry of PR flack-directed prebuttals that had eyebrows arching and anticipation building, Bloomberg Markets Magazine released an epic exposé about Koch Industries’ misdeeds during the last three decades.

      Fifteen Bloomberg journalists from around the world contributed to the story.

    • U.S. House Passes ALEC-Inspired TRAIN Act

      The TRAIN Act, introduced by ALEC alumnus Rep. John Sullivan (R-OK), “would create a special committee to oversee the EPA’s rules and regulations, and require the agency to consider economic impacts on polluters when it sets standards concerning how much air pollution is too much.”

  • Censorship

  • DRM

    • The Daily Digital Lock Dissenter, Day 3: Retail Council of Canada

      The Retail Council of Canada represents more than 43,000 store fronts of all retail formats across Canada, including department, specialty, discount, and independent stores, and online merchants. It board of directors include representation from Canada’s largest retailers. The RCC’s comments on digital locks in Bill C-32:

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