10.19.08

Links 19/10/2008: New Linux Kernel, Migrations to GNU/Linux, PCLinuxOS 2009

Posted in News Roundup at 9:26 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Andrew Lahde: Goodbye!
  

  My suggestion is that this great man start and sponsor a forum for great minds to come together to create a new system of government that truly represents the common man’s interest, while at the same time creating rewards great enough to attract the best and brightest minds to serve in government roles without having to rely on corruption to further their interests or lifestyles. This forum could be similar to the one used to create the operating system, Linux, which competes with Microsoft’s near monopoly. I believe there is an answer, but for now the system is clearly broken.

• Linux versus Windows: another fine Microsoft TCO Analysis
  

  So what’s the bottom line on the review? simple: if you hire someone to prove that increasing upfront spending on school computers by about 30% without getting a productivity improvement is a good thing, they’re going to have to make some pretty slick logical leaps somewhere – and I think this one got to its destined conclusions by using nicely formatted Excel tables and lots of verbiage to hide assumptions amounting to the required conclusions.

• Alien Arena 2008 Receives Graphics Improvements
  

  While not commonly mentioned at Phoronix, Alien Arena is an open-source sci-fi first-person shooter that has been around since 2004 and uses the CRX engine, which is a derivative of the Id’s GPL source-code. Version 7.20 of Alien Arena 2008 was released this week and a few features had caught our attention. In addition to a number of game-play improvements, Alien Arena 2008 has received a number of improvements to its graphics renderer with GLSL program management, parallax mapping, new lighting, new shaders, and other work.

• The Sine Qua Non of the Free Desktop
• Yakuake — yet another pop-up terminal
• Elive 1.9.10 ScreenShots
• Metro Released
• Leave It To The Little Guys…

• Versus Windows and Mac OS X

  • Why good people make bad OS choices
    

    For my mother-in-law, I picked her up an ASUS Eee 900A, which runs Xandros Linux for, with sales tax, just over $300. She loves it and she’s been reading the Miami Herald news using Firefox and playing solitaire like a fiend for the last day and a half.

  • R.I.P. – Windows XP
    

    It’s true that Ubuntu has some quirks for the user switching from XP, but I’ve found these quirks to be a byproduct of 15 years of Windows use – not any inherent problem with Ubuntu itself. In fact, once I get used to the Ubuntu way of doing things, they’re almost universally better.

    I have debated for 3 years making the switch to a linux distro, and after 2 weeks of making the switch, this is all I have to say:

    Goodbye Windows XP. May you rest in peace.

  • Linux incognito part one: the Leopard
  • If you sit out Vista, what are your alternatives?
    

    Linux proponents have seemingly declared every year since 2000 as being the year for Linux On The Desktop. Linux seems to get better with every iteration, but is it there yet? It might be.

    I spend about half my day on a Linux box. About the only time I flip to Windows is when I have to do something that Linux can’t – like working with Exchange’s calendars conveniently for example.

    With the new distributions that are constantly coming out, Linux programmers have been consistently moving the ball down the field, encroaching on Windows’ desktop territory. As decent as things are now, with another 2 years of coding 2010 just might BE the year of Linux On The Desktop.

• Ubuntu/Debian

  • 10 features Ubuntu should implement
  • History of Ubuntu, from Warthog to Ibex
    

    Ubuntu, our favorite and the largest community-supported linux distribution is gradually becoming one of the best free and open-source operating systems ever.

    [...]

    Coming later this month, Intrepid Ibex will be the ninth Ubuntu release. For all we know, it has got a new network manager with better support for 3G networks, Nautilus now has support for tabs, auto-install drivers option now works with printers, there is a whole new black theme and a better flash support.

  • Ubuntu 8.10 beta review
  • Ubuntu 8.10 Coming Soon
  • Why Ubuntu Then?
  • Lubi – Linux based Ubuntu Installer
  • Debian (Etch) Linux

• PCLinuxOS

  • PCLinuxOS 2009 Beta ScreenShots and Review
  • PCLinuxOS N1PTT-TR3 RELEASED!
  • Meet PCLinuxOS 2009 (Beta 1)
    

    To the excitement of its many loyal users, the PCLinuxOS development team released the first beta of the highly anticipated 2009 release. It’s been a long time coming but it seems it’s finally on its way. There were no big surprizes found in this release, but lots of updates.

  • PCLinuxOS – Why would you want to try it out?

• Desktop Environment

  • Join us in Jamaica next January for Camp KDE
    

    In January 2008, the KDE community celebrated the release of the much anticipated KDE 4.0 in Mountain View, CA. When the event was celebrated by a packed house, we realised that there was a strong demand for KDE events in the Americas. One year later, the community will celebrate this new conference series at Camp KDE 2009, to be held in Negril, Jamaica.

  • The 5 Best Xfce – based Linux Distributions

• Sub-notebooks

  • A really cheap Netbook
  • The 1980s Netbook
  • Laptop plan is not child’s play just yet
    

    But worse than its origins were the criticism of the software itself. Negroponte had opted for Linux and an entirely new user interface called Sugar (the rumours said that he had turned down an offer by Steve Jobs of free-to-ship version of MacOS).

• SaaS

  • Crystal Ball Sunday #13: Cloud Computing
  • Missing in the Cloud: package managment

• Kernel

  • Kernel Log: Coming in 2.6.28 – Part 1: ATA support and block layer
  • Kernel Log: Ext4 completes development phase as interim step to btrfs
  • 2.6.27 adds dual-core Feroceon support
  • Linux Foundation End User Summit: New BtrFS Filesystem and Knowledge Center
  • Linux 2.6.27.2
  • 2.6.27-stable review

F/OSS

• Red Hat Exchange Doubles Quarterly Bookings, Boosts Zimbra and MySQL
• Progress Software Touts Benefits of Open Source with FUSE ESB 4.0 Release
• Fuse ESB 4.0 is first open-source product since Iona purchase
• Apatar Accelerates Customer Data Integration Between Open Source SugarCRM Package and 3rd-party Applications
• Recession? What’s Your Plan?
• ‘Open Wide…’
• How Cisco exploits open source
• Open source licence violations manual published
• What is Firebird?

• Programming

  • Slimmer Java for the desktop
  • Looking at Perl

• Free Software

  • GPL Project Watch List for Week of 10/17
  • National Conference On Free Software, Kochi India

• Google

  • T-Mobile Android Smart Phone a Solid Device
  • Google updates Chrome so plugins will work better

• ODF and OpenOffice.org

  • Move to Subversion done
  • Sun offers govt $1 software
  • Open Source is Ideal, Open Formats are Critical
  • ODF workshop

• FOSSBazaar

  • Amazing figures on the open source adoption in Finland
  • FOSSBazaar Attacks Open Source Licensing Fears

MAFIAA

• 750,000 lost jobs? The dodgy digits behind the war on piracy
• 25 Arguments for the Elimination of Copy Protection

Leftovers

• Company without a name unveils mainframe Solaris
• Opera 9.60 Review – Awesomeness, Great Features and a Few Annoying Crashes

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

home audio video buff Marc Merlin 07 (2005)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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MicroFOSS and Other Oxymorons: How Can Anyone Be So Gullible?

Posted in Deception, Free/Libre Software, FSF, GNU/Linux, Intellectual Monopoly, Microsoft, Novell, Patents, Videos at 11:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

“Open source is an intellectual-property destroyer [...] I can’t imagine something that could be worse than this for the software business and the intellectual-property business. I’m an American; I believe in the American way, I worry if the government encourages open source, and I don’t think we’ve done enough education of policymakers to understand the threat.”

–Jim Allchin, President of Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft

Now that we understand how Microsoft may plan to embrace and extend (in hopes of extinguishing) Free software, it is pretty much established that ignorance about this issue must be addressed. It’s imperative to inform.

There are too many people and high-traffic Web sites [1, 2, 3, 4] that are willing to give Microsoft a second (or twentieth) chance, failing to recognise the serial offender-like behaviour of this company. They try to appease or discredit critics. They are passing these dangerous messages and carry the disinformation further, possibly in hope of lulling another generation of young developers.

Dana Blankenhorn, a Windows user, almost fails to see what is wrong with Microsoft luring in Free software developers. There are many comments on his blog post, which is arguably provocative (he admitted to getting more responses, for which he is paid, when he writes like this about Microsoft). Tim Patterson responds:

We have understood that Mono and moonlight and deals between Novell and MS as well as Xandros constitute a ‘Trojan horse’.

The ‘interoperability’ argument fails here. ‘open source’ is by definition accessible. MS can offer ‘interoperability’ at any time they so choose.

My computing environment is rich and very capable and includes NO Microsoft ‘technology’.

Matt Asay, who is equally deceived by Microsoft’s attempt to imprison Free software inside Windows, wrote some more Microsoft-sympathetic remarks in response to the news that Microsoft is threatening Red Hat again — something that even Groklaw has just alerted about. Here is what he wrote:

Coming from anyone other than Horacio, I might have second-guessed the intentions behind his comments. But Horacio is a straight-shooter and I think there’s a lot of truth to what he says. Microsoft is more active in open source. It’s by no means an open-source company, but it’s blurring the lines just as companies like Zimbra do. Ultimately, this is for the good of the industry.

Lots of other comments seem to have magically vanished from this post of a Microsoft mouthpiece [1, 2]. maybe it was posted in two places, but it’s still bizarre (update: yes, it was posted in two places separately, so critics were sort of ‘isolated’).

“Windows is an enemy to Free software because of its proprietor.”Anyway, why the sympathy? Who is behind the apathy at best and enthusiasm at worst? Do certain people fail to see that Microsoft is attempting to dissolve Free software in a tepid pool of lock-in, DRM, digital ‘manners’, predatory pricing, forced upgrades, data ransom, security menaces and other unwanted consequences?

If Free software developers want to maintain their freedom and have their projects survive (let alone flourish), they must not play with fire — a fire which comes from software patents preaching, remember?

Picture contributed by a reader

Windows is an enemy to Free software because of its proprietor. Developers would have no access to source code that they depend upon. Not only would they be subjected to risk from unnamed software patents Microsoft holds and might actually use shall a particular project become a threat to its crown jewels; But moreover, all developers would have is some belated and incomplete documentation which is vital.

“We will file the answer tomorrow. We feel very good and very confident on the completeness of the documentation.”

–Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft Imaginary Property Officer

That would be a “patent pill” which the Gartner Group warned about, and that’s not all. Remember what Microsoft refers to as a “rat holes.” It is against providing developers with open interfaces. This enables Microsoft to compete better using secret APIs and optimisations only Microsoft can understand (it has access to internals deep inside the system’s source code).

Matt Asay, much like others who occasionally commend Microsoft’s open source faking, may be biased. We explained this before, one context and crux of the argument being OSBC (ironically, Microsoft is partly behind it [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]). This will be discussed further in future posts.

Since our previous videos of Eben Moglen were received positively, here is another one from OSBC 2007. Matt Asay gives the podium to Professor Moglen.

Some more key issues are explained in the speech above. Those who wholeheartedly trust Microsoft must no longer trust their memory. It might — just might — be deficient, or maybe just too selective. █

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Linspire: Deep in Lawsuits Despite (or Because of) Deal with Microsoft

Posted in Boycott Novell, Courtroom, GNU/Linux, Law, Linspire, Microsoft, Patents, Xandros at 9:49 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Illusion of safety in peace deals involving software patents

IN OUR most recent post about the demise of Linspire [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11] and death of the "Linspire" brand, we did bother to reiterate the argument that the deal with Microsoft had a lot to do with it. It made Linspire seem like a sore loser among the community which it had betrayed, so it no longer received recommendations from the people who have impact on key decisions. Linspire was, in essence, passed over.

Several lawsuits are now looming over for Linspire’s founder (Robertson) to deal with, the latest of which comes from Kevin Carmony and folks. SJVN, who has several friends at what was once known as Linspire (or Lindows), reports:

Now, on October 15th, Carmony continues his war against his Robertson. Carmony reports in his blog that “Robertson and [Larry] Kettler [Linspire's CEO before its sale to Xandros] finally responded to the suit, and I got a copy of their response. From what I could see, what they produced did not provide any meaningful data on the missing cash.” So it is that Carmony still wants to know “What happened with the millions of dollars in missing cash and other Linspire assets?”

While the lawsuit seems unlikely to dissolve the acquisition of Linspire by Xandros, the battle over exactly how and why Linspire disappeared and what happened to its assets seems destined to be settled in a California court-room.

EMI has been chasing Robertson as well and here is one of the latest reports about it.

EMI’s lawsuit against Robertson’s website, however, will proceed. Sideload.com, launched in early 2006, allows users to store MP3 files in applications that make them playable with PCs, consoles, DVRs, Internet radios, and cell phones.

“I look forward to explaining to the court how MP3tunes is making it possible for more than 150,000 people to listen to their music everywhere, including some EMI person nel who have personally complimented me on our system.…

Robertson’s MP3.com was sued in 2000 by record labels and music publishers, resulting in a settlement of over $100 million. His AnywhereCD venture was shut down after being sued by Warner Brothers, and Robertson was sued for trademark infringement by Microsoft for calling another venture Lindows. He was forced to rename it Linspire.

Some people applaud Robertson, but if he proudly disregards the intellectual monopolies system, why did Linspire sign a horrible software patent deal with Microsoft? Did it fear being sued? Well, it got sued anyway (from the inside).

“Even those who were born yesterday could see Microsoft’s latest attack on GNU/Linux.”This comes to show how foolish deals with Microsoft can be. Novell too was sued just over a year ago by a patent troll which accommodates (former) Microsoft managers [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11]. Peace with Microsoft is short-lived, a farce, and therefore totally moot. Microsoft is constantly attacking GNU/Linux, so only those who were born yesterday can expect real peace. Even those who were born yesterday could see Microsoft’s latest attack on GNU/Linux.

By the way, Freespire, which is now under the ownership of Xandros, may look nice to some people (screenshot below), but it’s Poisonware and therefore it should not be touched. It’s just a Debian/Ubuntu ripoff (customised base distribution) anyway. Well, plus the unnecessary liabilities. █

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IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: October 18th, 2008

Posted in IRC Logs at 4:24 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channel now

Read the rest of this entry »

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Links 18-19/10/2008: Two-day Heap

Posted in News Roundup at 3:58 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Linux phone pioneer acquired
• PSPP brings an industry standard statistical tool to Linux
• Ten essential Linux office apps
• Vista marks end of ‘planned software’
  

  Whitehurst claimed that there are “half the number of bugs in Linux per thousand lines” compared to the Microsoft operating system, because of the open source collaborative model.

• Russia’s Open Source Revolution
  

  From what I have seen and experienced of ALT Linux, it appears to be a first class platform on which to build a strong, flexible network of Linux-driven computers.

• Hands on: Revive an old PC with Linux
  

  So what about computers more than just a few years old? Reader Graham Steel wrote to ask about his computer. He said: “I have an old IBM Thinkpad installed with Windows 98 and incapable of running newer versions of Windows, with just 96MB of Ram and a Pentium II CPU.

• Switch to Ubuntu Linux not Apple Mac OS
  

  So why are people not going over to Ubuntu? Beats me. If you are looking for commercial technical support, Ubuntu does offer that. If you are looking at extreme personalization options Ubuntu offers that, probably even more than the Mac OS. If you are looking for easy upgrades to future versions, Ubuntu offers that. If you are looking for ease of use, Ubuntu offers that. If you are looking for robustness and security, Ubuntu is the best. Ubuntu can be installed on all types of hardware and even on older hardware. Mac OS does not offer this flexibility.

  The more I use Ubuntu, the more I fail to understand the lure of the Mac OS. Is it the snob value or stupidity that make people consider a Mac over Windows and not Ubuntu?

• Linux powers ‘cloud’ gaming console
• Updating your system: GNU/Linux 5, Windows 0
  

  The pace of software development — regardless of the licence — is pretty fast these days. The state of your systems need constant monitoring. New features, bug-fixes and (most important) security updates need to be properly managed. Here, in no particular order, are five ways that choosing a free operating system will make system maintenance a lot easier and simpler. In short they are ways that — when it comes to system updates — GNU/Linux beats Windows.

• Nine Smart Tips for Becoming an Anti-Linux Troll
• Compiz-Fusion MPX Support is Complete!
  

  I have now completed the first draft of the patches to add MPX support to Compiz-Fusion. These are only the first draft patches, so there are still tons of bugs to be fixed. After I fix those bugs, I’ll begin work on the Input Redirection patches for the rest of Compiz-Fusion.

• Interesting Linux Blogs To Follow
• Linux Digital Photography Studio
• COM Express module runs Linux

• Advice

  • Introducing Open Source to the World – Part 1
  • Making The Switch To Linux – Keep In Mind … (10 Ubuntu Tips)

• Events/Forums

  • Is the Linux Foundation allergic to the media?
  • Linux Foundation to boost user ties following summit
  • The Linux Foundation End User Summit
  • Linux Kongress 2008
  • NEP Alliance redefines ‘scope’

• Kernel

  • GEM Patches Submitted For Linux 2.6.28-rc1
  • Greg K-H Recommends New Kernel Version Naming
  • Under Kroah-Hartman’s proposal the first release of 2009 would be 2009.0.0.

• KDE

  • Quick Look at KDE 4.2-SVN
  • KDE Relaunches Community Forums

• Phones

  • Almost Human: a review of Google’s Android G1 phone
  • Google is calling
  • Web surfing on Motorola Razr still outranks iPhone

• EMC’s Linux

  • Iomega tempts SMBs with low-end storage
    

    The Iomega StorCenter ix2 houses two SATA-II drives, and although it has been around now for a year or so as a storage device, it now incorporates EMC’s Linux-based LifeLine software, which has broadened the features it can offer both the small business and consumer.

• Distributions

  • Zenwalk: Slackware’s Moment of Zen
  • Upcoming Linux Distributions in Pictures
  • 25 reasons to use Linux Mint

  • Debian

    • Debian as a Desktop GNU+Linux Distribution
      

      Thinking about it, I’m not entirely sure what constitutes an “end-user distribution”. Perhaps I am equating an “end-user distribution” with a “desktop distribution”. And why not? What determines if a GNU+Linux distribution is an end-user distribution? It seems to me that the packages that are available within the distribution, and the functionality of said packages, are what determines if a distribution is an end-user distribution. And, as most people are aware, Debian contains a huge amount of packages within its repositories. Packages that deliver no less functionality than those GNU+Linux distributions that everyone can agree are “end-user distributions”. Just that fact, alone, should be enough to convince anyone that Debian is, indeed, an end-user distribution.

    • Adept 3.0 Beta 4

  • Ubuntu

    • Ubuntu debuts its Upstream Report
      

      Ubuntu has taken some heat over the years for its relationship with upstream projects, but the distribution seems determined to change that impression. To that end, Ubuntu has started by looking at bugs and bug reporting between the distribution and upstream projects. The visible result is the beta release of the Ubuntu Upstream Report, which displays the progress of getting bugs upstream.

    • Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex – Review & Tutorial
      

      Ubuntu gets a lovely 9/10 score. It feels good. As simple as that. If you disregard the Private folders option, which is merely okay, Ubuntu is another great step of the already proven family of distros.

    • I love Ubuntu, and here is why
    • Ubuntu 8.10 ‘Intrepid Ibex’ Beta Screenshots Tour

  • Mandriva

    • Mandriva One 2009 – Kaptivating KDE
      

      I can easily say that this is one of the best KDE 4 distros out there. openSUSE has the KDE 4 desktop as default for a while now, but I should say that nothing comes close to the polish that one can see in Mandriva Linux 2009. The OS is a pleasure to use.

    • Mandriva One video tour

  • OLPC

    • OLPC Releases Fedora-Based Linux Distribution for the XO Laptop
    • OLPC’s Last Billion

• Fast Boot

  • Reboot like a racecar with kexec
  • Microsoft ‘Innovates’ Again – By Copying GNU/Linux

• Proprietary

  • Siteconcept to Distribute the AXIGEN Mail Server in France
  • Benchmarking Flash Player 10 (Updated)

Notebooks

• Everex Zonbu Notebook: Greener and safer option for new users
  

  Individuals, especially new users, preferring better security for their saved files always opt for Linux as their operating system. The security system of Linux is difficult to be cracked and hence it is popular amongst professionals from varied organizations. However, most notebooks do not execute the operating system and its files with equal efficiency. Everex Zonbu Notebook, a recently launched laptop, is amongst those ones that are available with a version of Linux OS. Zonbu Notebook comes with a rechargeable Lithium ion battery. While undergoing normal load, the notebook gives an adequate 2-3 hours backup after full recharge. However, the backup time reduces considerably to 90 minutes when it is put under full load, whether by running heavy applications or putting it through a DVD playback test (as done in most laboratories).

• Sub-notebooks

  • My Dell Inspiron Mini 9 Blog
  • Ultra-Portables Creep Towards £100
  • EXTRA: Eee PC 900A netbook below $300
  • Asus and Sub-$300 Laptops: Where the Action Will Be
  • Apricot PicoBook Pro: First impressions
  • The netbook newbie’s guide to Linux
    

    Thanks to their design as appliances, you can get down to useful work straight away with any of the new breed of Linux-based netbooks. But sooner or later, a fair few folk come up against the unfamiliarity of Linux. And, like the legendary tribe of pygmies, you may find yourself jumping up and down in the head-high long grass shouting out the incantation that gave the tribe its name: “We’re the Fukarwi.”

  • What a Difference a Year Can Make

• Signs of Change

  • Netbooks: Cheap young cannibals of laptop PCs
  • Netbook explosion takes Acer to number 1, Asus to number 4 in EMEA
  • Happy Birthday Eee PC!

F/OSS

• MedinTux needs french to english translators to spread worldwide
• Lightweight, Linux-compatible browser evolves
• Fortune 50 Discovers Pentaho, Open Source Business Intelligence Software
• Free Software Community Project needs Hardware
• Songbird 0.7.0 Review – Audio Player for Linux

• Action Day

  • Blog Action Day 2008: The Obstacles to Using Open-Source to Provide Equal Opportunity and Combat Poverty
  • Blog Action Day: Free Software & Poverty

• Firefox

  • Devs Test Drive Firefox 3.1 Beta
  • Mozilla Debuts Mobile Browser Alpha
  • Firefox for Mobile: What you need to know

• Sun

  • Microsoft: OpenOffice better than Google Apps
  • OpenSolaris 2008.11 Starts Coming Together

• Healthcare

  • Open Source Software Workshop OSEHC 2009
  • Presidential Politics: $50 Billion for What Health IT?

• Free Software

  • Scandanavian Free Software Conference
  • FSFE’s Fellowship at Freedom not Fear in Berlin

• Ogg

  • New Archos 5, 7 firmware adds OGG / FLAC support, fixes bugs
  • Use Ogg – The Media Format of Freedom
  • Firefox 3.1 beta 1 adds support for OGG formats

• Free Culture

  • Jamendo goes offline to support Free culture
  • Free Culture 2008 Conference Summary
  • Swatantra Free Culture Showcase

Cloud Computing

• Cloud Computing: The Dark and Stormy Side
• The dawn of a new Cloudera

Leftovers

• Apple Sued for Monopolizing the Worldwide MP3 Market
• N.J. voting machines vulnerable, report says
• Long-term problems at pioneer Cerner smartcard site revealed in NHS document

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Colin Angle, Co-founder and CEO, iRobot 03 (2005)

Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.

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