01.17.09
Links 17/01/2009: New Wine, ALT Linux
GNU/Linux
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ALT Linux 4.1.1 Desktop Released
Alexey Rusakov announced on January 14th the immediate availability of the desktop edition of ALT Linux 4.1.1 DVD, a general purpose GNU/Linux distribution designed to be used on workstations, laptops and netbooks. Besides the usual bug fixes and improvements, ALT Linux 4.1.1′s most important feature is the inclusion of an installation DVD ISO image with English as the default language. “ALT Linux proudly presents a new release of our desktop distribution, ALT Linux 4.1.1 Desktop. [...] We also released a separate DVD with English as the default language so that you don’t need to crawl through cryptic Russian letters on early steps. Happy using!” -
Alexey Rusakov said in the official release announcement. -
Wine Announcement
The Wine development release 1.1.13 is now available.
What’s new in this release (see below for details):
– Freedesktop.org-compliant startup notifications.
– Many fixes for 64-bit application support.
– Improved graphics support in Internet Explorer.
– Various Richedit improvements.
– Better certificate manager dialog.
– Various bug fixes. -
Fastest web serving on earth made possible by 64 Bit Linux
When aicache.com wanted to move their web acceleration software from Java to C’ they took a long look at the available operating platforms. After months of testing it became clear that 64 Bit Linux offered the most efficient network I/O model.
The multiplexed EPOLL mechanism is without question the most powerful option available. No other systems offered this particular mechanism or scale. Honestly nothing is anywhere close to how EPOLL scales.
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HP Thin Client Portfolio Now Certified for VMware View
HP Certifies Linux-based Thin Clients for VMware View Manager
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Foomatic 4 brings PDF workflow to Linux
The OpenPrinting working group at the Linux Foundation has released version 4.0 of the Foomatic printer database. The most important new development, the result of decision taken at the 2006 Printing Summit in Atlanta, is support for the Portable Document Format (PDF) in the printing work flow, rather than the traditional PostScript format. The Foomatic filter, which renders print data into a printer-specific format, now accepts both Postscript as well as PDF, and the Foomatic driver database generates PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files suitable for the PDF workflow.
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Desktop Environments
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Xfce 4.6 Beta 3 (Tuco-Tuco) released
I am pleased to announce the release of Xfce 4.6 BETA-3.
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Distributions
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Three SMALL Linux Distributions
The first thing you need to do when you start considering small Linux distributions is decide what your priorities are – what do you need it for and what are you planning to do with it? There are a number of different small/mini/tiny/whatever distributions available, and each has its own special strengths. I have been looking at three of them:
- Damn Small Linux
- TinyMe Linux
- Puppy Linux
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Ubuntu
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Ubuntu 9.04 “Jaunty Jackalope” Alpha 3 Released
The last Ubuntu 9.04 development update was in the middle of December (Alpha 2), but today Mark Shuttleworth’s development posse has come out with a new update for the Jaunty Jackalope.
In Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha 3 is the latest code based upon the Linux 2.6.28 kernel, X Server 1.6, and EXT4 installation support as we previously detailed. The Ubiquity installer also has home encryption support within this release.
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Devices/Embedded
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Linux-based platforms likely to undergo fast consolidation, says Wind River executive
The varied commercial Mobile Linux platforms, now with active involvement from the OHA (Open Handset Alliance) and LiMo Foundation, are likely to undergo a consolidation process through which two or three standard mobile Linux platforms will dominate the market by 2012-2013, according to Richard Lee, country manager, Wind River Taiwan.
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Volante POS Systems Announces Wireless, Linux POS Solution
The number of POS ( point of sale ) terminals running Linux in North America has increased dramatically in recent years. For many business owners, there’s good reason to go with a Linux POS solution. As an operating system, Linux is more cost effective, flexible, and allows for greater freedom of choice in software than more mainstream operating systems. Savings can also be found in regards to licensing, installation, administrative and support costs. Linux offers all this without sacrificing functionality. The challenge however, has been finding a flexible point of sale system that can actually run on Linux.
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Linux 2.6 BSP for Freescale i.MX27 PDK development kit now available from Adeneo Embedded
Adeneo Embedded has announced the full commercial release of the Linux 2.6 Board Support Package (BSP) for Freescale’s i.MX27 Product Development Kit (PDK_ ARM9 processor-based micro-controller. This BSP targets the i.MX27 PDK, a standard development platform from Freescale. It supports key features of the i.MX27 PDK.
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Jungo and Wisair Announce End-to-End Wireless USB Solution for Linux-Based and Embedded Platforms Used in Set-Top Boxes, TVs, DVRs, Smart Phones
Consumer Electronics Show (CES) January 8-11, 2009 Jungo, a leading provider of connectivity software solutions and Wisair, a leading provider of single-chip based Wireless USB solutions, today announced the availability of an end-to-end Wireless USB solution for Linux-based and embedded operating systems used in CE devices.
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Sony
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ACCESS Linux Platform appears as small part of new Sony Cybershot camera
The last time I posted about the ACCESS Linux Platform was in August 2007 when some screenshots were shown at LinuxWorld. If you remember, ALP was the Linux-based operating system that Palm was planning to use for their mobile phones at one time. Palm then broke off into software (PalmSource) and hardware (PalmOne) and then PalmSource was aquired by ACCESS. ACCESS then created the ALP, which Palm was intending to use in their new devices. Palm then said they were working on their own Linux OS and we now see they have launched their own Linux-based OS as Palm WebOS. It appears that ALP is still alive though as we see it being a part of the new Sony Cybershot DSC-G3 camera
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Sony Vaio P Review
Sony also includes a Linux-based instant-on interface that uses the PS3-like Xross Media Bar UI but its implementation is a mixed bag. The raw functionality and design of the software is decent, allowing you to access music, photos, movies, messaging software and a custom version of Firefox. But some of the visual design and nuanced functionality are lacking to the point where you’d rather just launch Vista.
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Sub-notebooks
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EMTEC Bows Linux-Based Netbook
The Linux-based system comes equipped with a variety of software including a Firefox Web browser…
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The evolution of the Netbook
Except when you look at the bottom line of the companies making them. Though initially thought of as a way to sell cheaper, less powerful companion devices to notebooks, Netbooks are beginning to lose their distinction, as evidenced by the new Netbooks unveiled at CES 2009. While it’s good for consumers, the blurring of lines between the two could potentially be destroying the business models of PC manufacturers.
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But Asus broke the category open for consumers in late 2007 with its Eee PC, at first equipped with a tiny 7-inch screen, little chiclet keys, solid-state memory, and Linux instead of Windows.
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F/OSS
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Here we go again
In many ways, the previous IT downturn marked the industry’s coming of age. In its wake, the industry was no longer mainly about “hot” new technologies that made maximal use of Moore’s law….Firms have since started to opt more for good-enough “cold” wares, which save them money and allow for more flexibility: commodity hardware, open-source software such as the Linux operating system and programs accessed over the Internet, or “software as a service” (SaaS). The crisis will only speed up this shift, not least because many of the cold technologies have themselves become more mature.
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Linux-Based AtMail Releases 5.6
AtMail has announced the release of AtMail 5.6. The new AtMail 5.6 version includes new iPhone push mail support, DKIM filtering and improved WebAdmin functionality.
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Firebird Roadmap for 2009
The Firebird project publishes the following roadmap. During this year, Firebird users can expect more supported releases (2.1.x and 2.5.0) and the first alpha of FB 3. Many new features are planned, as described in the roadmap.
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Evolution gets a D-Bus API for mail metadata
Philip Van Hoof, the developer behind the lightweight Tinymail e-mail framework, has written a plugin for GNOME’s Evolution e-mail client that exposes the application’s functionality through D-Bus. It is the first step towards creating a standardized D-Bus API for Linux mail clients.
The aim of the project is to provide desktop search and indexing systems like Tracker and Beagle with a more practical and efficient way to extract e-mail metadata. The current strategy employed by such indexing systems is to parse the raw mbox data files, which can be clumsy and inefficient. The new D-Bus API will require indexers to register with the e-mail client over D-Bus to receive a notification every time mail data is altered.
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Open for Collaboration
An off-the-shelf CRM solution would have made Sharma’s job much easier but he believed that a CRM tool should have customer feedback at every step and only a system based on Open Source would give him the agility that he was looking for.
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‘Open Source Activism’ Surfaces In Tyler
In Tyler that social networking and “open source activism” has been vividly demonstrated with the “Call + Response” turnout, which largely was an Internet, text-messaging, e-mail phenomenon. Open source activism is defined loosely as “add your own idea to the cause” and it’s not just surfacing here. It’s all over our city, the continent and the countries of the globe.
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OpenOffice Spreadsheet Template for Filing KVAT Returns ported by Zyxware
By Kerala IT Policy 2007, Clause 8.4, knowledge generated through public funding should be freely available to the public. So we would believe that the original excel file was already under a Free Software License. We hereby give all derived work under GPLv3.
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Teluu Shares Industry Insight with TMC
RT: How did your company get to where it is and where is it headed?
PI: Open source. We started with a pure open source project, and build a business around it. From a business point of view, it’s like having an unlimited trial license. No sales pressure. We let them know we’re easy to get in touch, and then stepped out of the way.
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Is Web 2.0 Possible with Existing Open Source Technologies?
In fact, if you sift through those eight million Google hits, you’ll find only a handful of open source technologies that address the problems associated with pushing content asynchronously to the user through standard browser mechanisms. We’ll provide an overview of those technologies later, but first some basics.
Leftover
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Learning How To Benefit From Piracy Is Not The Same As Endorsing Piracy
John Gunn, the General Manager of a DRM company, alerted us to a blog post he wrote taking me to task for the post I wrote last week concerning a software developer who didn’t freak out when his app was cracked, but used the experience to learn what the market wanted from his app. Gunn’s post is slightly odd, and a bit troubling to me, in that he says that, by showing how this developer learned to use the piracy to his advantage, I “crossed the line” I have always avoided, and “actively promoted the criminal act of software piracy.”
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And, finally, to the question “wouldn’t I do the same?” The answer is no. I wouldn’t (and don’t) limit my customers. I’d put together a business model where it doesn’t make sense to do so. I would put together a business model where I get benefits the more my content is spread widely — rather than taking an adversarial stance against my customers. Plenty of folks are doing so today, and are finding stronger and better relationships with their customers and bigger and bigger businesses. And, when my customers do something new and unique with my content, I’d learn from it and encourage it in order to make my future work that much more valuable.
Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day
Digital Tipping Point: Dirk-Willem van Gulik, road builder for the Information Super-highway 04 (2004)
Digital Tipping Point is a Free software-like project where the raw videos are code. You can assist by participating.
Software patent dealers/peddlers in the news
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