12.04.08

IRC: #boycottnovell @ FreeNode: December 3rd, 2008

Posted in IRC Logs at 8:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Enter the IRC channel now

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Links 04/12/2008: GNU/Linux in China, ODF in Germany

Posted in News Roundup at 8:00 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNU/Linux

• Using Linux to Overcome Comcast’s Policy of FUD
• Dell customer awarded Windows refund
  

  Devir was not interested in the Windows Vista system on his Dell laptop, opting for Linux – an open source system – instead.

• Unix and Linux Troubleshooting E-Book
• You’re Never Too Old For Linux!
• Just what does it take to switch to desktop Linux (part 2)?
• How Windows Users are Changing Linux and What We Should Do About It
• Metastasis
• Tux on a Groom’s Cake
• Opengear Extends Console Server Product Line to Include Comprehensive Power and Environmental Management

• China

  • Chinese ordered to stop using pirate software
    

    Officials push for Linux OS

    A CITY IN CHINA has required Internet café operators to replace pirated software with legitimate versions – the officials primarily pushing Linux.

  • Chinese city requires Net cafes to use legitimate software
  • The world’s worst way to market Linux

• Kernel

  • Linux 2.6.28-rc7
  • Real World Benchmarks Of The EXT4 File-System
    

    In Nexuiz, World of Padman, and Unreal Tournament 2004 to represent gaming on the Linux operating system, the results were virtually identical. To the Linux gamer, switching to EXT4 or XFS will not really mean much in the way of improved frame-rates. If though you deal with compressing files often, of the four file-systems tested, the best appears to be EXT4 or XFS. When it came to multimedia encoding, we cannot call a decisive winner. In our GnuPG encryption test, EXT3 was the fastest followed by XFS. However, in the Bork encryption test, EXT4 was the fastest followed by EXT3. EXT3 does still appear to have some advantages.

• Graphics

  • NVIDIA 180.11 Linux Driver Released
  • Compiz? Emerald? Metacity? What’s the Difference?
  • Blender Render Grid
  • Open Source film wins audience award in Amsterdam

  • 3-D

    • Widgets enter the third dimension: WolfenQt
    • Running DOS Programs on Linux: Duke Nukem Lives!
    • The Best Way To View Youtube in Ubuntu
    • S3 Graphics Unleashes Full OpenGL® 3.0 API Support

• Desktop Environments

  • GNOME 2.25.2 released !
  • Hands-on: KDE 4.2 beta 1 brings impressive improvements

• Compatibility

  • Yet another reason to use Linux instead of (Windows) Vista
  • Yes, Linux can run Crysis!

• Video

  • Mingle brings group video chat to Linux
  • mplayer, real support

• Sub-notebooks

  • OLPC Oceania: One Laptop per Pacific Child
  • Linux netbooks look likely to save Australian government education election promise
  • Who Else Wants a Cloudbook?
  • WiMAX deal “clears” Linux for takeoff
  • 10 Ways To Trick Out Your Netbook for Free

• Phones

  • Nokia eyes wider use of Linux software in phones
  • Nokia dismisses Android, eyes Linux for its high-end phones
  • Android not for Nokia
  • ACCESS Signs Software Development Agreement with NTT DOCOMO Regarding Operator Pack

• Distributions

  • DSL – Damn Small Linux 4.4.10 review
    

    As part of a survival toolkit, Damn Small Linux could be something of a saviour. Earlier this year, this writer used a previous release of the distribution to excise a couple of gigabytes of files from an otherwise-locked-down Vista installation, and while it didn’t save the machine concerned from complete reinstall, it did rescue an awful lot of data. It did it with no fuss, utter simplicity and earned a lot of appreciation as a result.

  • Gentoo, build it like Lego.
  • Excelixis 1.0: A new workbench

  • Red Hat + Clones

    • Scania Expands Use of Red Hat Enterprise Linux Advanced Platform for Virtualization Capabilities
    • Red Hat and SpringSource square up on Tomcat
    • Red Hat: Moving beyond ‘rip and replace’
    • Oracle contributes Linux code for detecting ‘silent data corruption’
    • Differences between Ubuntu and Redhat Linux

    • Fedora

      • Ubuntu or Fedora?
        

        In most cases, choosing between Fedora and Ubuntu comes down to personal preference, although Ubuntu’s support and package management make it a contender for the best Linux distribution.

      • A Visual Desktop Tour of 10 Fedora Releases
        

        Fedora is without doubt one of the most prolific Linux distributions around. In the span of only 5 years, the Fedora Project has already unleashed 10 major versions of Fedora.

      • Video: Fedora 10
        

        Fedora 10 is out, and to celebrate that milestone, Fedora Project leader Paul Frields sat down with Red Hat community guru Greg DeKoenigsberg to talk about where Fedora’s been over the past five years and where it’s going. Along the way they discuss KVM improvements, the debut of new Fedora artwork, and the future of codec support. Watch the video, then head on over to fedoraproject.org to fire it up!

  • Debian

    • Debian Project News – December 2nd, 2008
    • Re: about software patents
    • AGPL Declared DFSG-Free

  • Ubuntu + Derivatives

    • Review: Crunchbang Linux
      

      All Windows Media, Quicktime *.mov, *.mp4, and Flash *.swf, *.flv files played without problem. I did note that Totem video frame transitions seemed a little lower quality than the TinyXS’s mPlayer video, but the embedded Totem *.wmv videos loaded faster and with fewer hiccups than with the mPlayer plugin.

    • The Install
    • Reason To Stay With Ubuntu 8.04
    • Three Reasons Why All Linux Users Should Support Ubuntu, Even If They Don’t Use It

F/OSS

• 10 Myths of Free & Open Source Software
• OpenSolaris 2008.11 is ready

• Adoption

  • Bugzilla 3.2 has shiny NASA interface enhancements
  • NHL using Drupal
  • Google: Open source lets us control our destiny
  • The Ilumina: Philippine Tech Trades Outsourcing for Open Source

• Firefox

  • 10 essential Firefox add-ons
  • about:mozilla – Add-on-Con, tree logistics, updating add-ons, Mozilla Manifesto, Bugzilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, and more…

• Songbird

  • Music and browsing take flight in Songbird
  • Songbird’s Open-Source Music Player Finally Takes Flight
  • Open Source iTunes Competitor Songbird Officially Released
  • 10 of the Best Songbird Add-ons
  • A media player for the times: Songbird
  • Songbird 1.0.0 Released [Featured Download]

• Strategy

  • 2020 FLOSS Roadmap and Looking Forward
  • Open-source developers set out software road map for 2020
  • Interview: Anthony Gold Takes Over as President of Open Solutions Alliance

• Literature

  • Virginia to get open-source online textbooks – December 02, 2008
  • I Want Sandy Back, Says Open Source Project
  • Plano Independent School District Chooses Koha and LibLime

• Data Warehouses

  • Disruptor: The Rise of the Open Source Data Warehouse
  • Test Center review: Open source data aces

• Education

  • Unlock the Web with Open Source
  • Lessons from Open Source – SmartCause.org in Public Beta

• OpenOffice.org

  • German Federal Government to Support ODF
    

    State Secretary Dr. Hans Bernhard Beus, Federal Government for Information Technology and chairman of the IT Council, described the decision as “a major step to increase competition among software vendors to promote the IT security and strengthen the interoperability to improve because open document formats will be fully and regularly published.”

  • OpenOffice’s UI will be getting a refurb

Leftovers

• DRM

  • 35 Days Against DRM — Day 7: Prince: Friends without benefits.
  • Valve boss lets off steam about DRM

• Internet

  • European Council Rejects EU Parliament’s Amendment Against Three Strikes Rule
  • Free (but censored) wireless Internet for the Land of the Free

• Copyrights

  • Copyright Office Should Right DMCA Wrongs in Rulemaking
  • Why Copyright, O Canada?

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