07.15.10

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers
• Clip of the Day

GNU/Linux

• Server

  • IBM opens up beta for AIX 7

    Greg Lavender, the lead developer in charge of the Solaris operating system at Oracle, has left the company. And the OpenSolaris Governing Board, which is supposed to steer the open source version of Solaris, is thinking about disbanding because Oracle has not had any contact with the board for the past six months.

• Graphics Stack

  • ATI R300 Mesa, Gallium3D Compared To Catalyst

    Last quarter we compared the Catalyst and Mesa driver performance using an ATI Radeon HD 4830 graphics card, compared the Gallium3D and classic Mesa drivers for ATI Radeon X1000 series hardware, and ultimately found that even with the ATI R500 class graphics cards the open-source driver is still playing catch-up to AMD’s proprietary Catalyst Linux driver. In this article we have similar tests to show the performance disparity with ATI’s much older R300 class hardware. Even with Radeon hardware that has had open-source support much longer, their drivers are not nearly as mature as an outdated Catalyst driver in the same configuration.

• Applications

  • 6 of the Best Free Linux Library Management Systems

    A library management system (also known as an integrated library system) is an automated resource planning system which enables a library to operate efficiently, freeing staff from unnecessary tasks. This type of software typically offers functionality such as cataloging, searching, reporting, acquisitions, library circulation and management embodied into a central system.

  • Usenet Resource Downloader (URD)

    URD is a program to download binaries from usenet (newsgroups) through a web interface.

  • Creative Virtualisation and KVM

  • Instructionals

    • Ghosting The Machine

    • Ubuntu PPA for Firefox 4.0b2 – Tested & Working

    • Linuxables: Your First Steps with Linux vi

      We continue our look into the Linux text editor by highlighting one of the powerhouses of the bunch – vi. The vi editor came about in 1976 at the hands of Bill Joy. This first release was used for an early BSD UNIX. The name vi is a derivation of the command visual, which was used to switch from the line editor ex to visual mode. So vi = visual. Sort of.

• K Desktop Environment (KDE SC)

  • KDE e.V. and KDE España Sign Agreement to Further KDE Community

    During Akademy 2010, KDE e.V. and KDE España signed an agreement making KDE España the official representative of KDE e.V. in Spain. This will bring the international KDE community and the Spanish KDE community closer, while giving our local friends the authority to act officially as our representatives.

• Distributions

  • Pr09studio Introduces Probably The Best Collection of Ubuntu Wallpapers Ever!

• Devices/Embedded

  • Android

    • Android tablet triplets include kid-friendly model

      Velocity Micro announced three seven-inch, Android-based tablets. The $200 Cruz Reader and “kid-friendly,” drop-resistant, $150 Cruz StoryPad both offer resistive displays, while the $300 Cruz Tablet offers a capacitive multitouch display and other enhancements, says the company.

    • Android 2.2 (FroYo) review

      Each new Android SDK enables more innovative and interesting applications to be developed, filling users’ devices to the brim. Prior to Android 2.2, applications could only be installed on internal device storage—not terribly flexible, given the most device storage comes in the form of external SD cards. Starting in 2.2, developers can enable their applications to be installable on external storage, allowing for larger and more resource-intensive applications to run smoothly on the platform.

  • Tablets

    • Tablet upgrades to Android, 3G, and a 720MHz processor

      SmartDevices is readying an Android 2.1 version of its Ubuntu-based, seven-inch SmartQ R7 Linux color e-reader tablet. The SmartQ T7-3G tablet offers a more powerful 720MHz processor, provides Wi-Fi connectivity, upgrades to a 4700mAh battery, and is available with onboard 3G connectivity.

Free Software/Open Source

• Mozilla

  • Firefox 4 to get App Tabs

    Firefox 4 is set to get an amazing new tab feature that I think will change the way users think about tabs.

• Oracle

  • Top Solaris developer flees Oracle

    Greg Lavender, the lead developer in charge of the Solaris operating system at Oracle, has left the company. And the OpenSolaris Governing Board, which is supposed to steer the open source version of Solaris, is thinking about disbanding because Oracle has not had any contact with the board for the past six months.

• Funding

  • Red Hat-Backed EnterpriseDB Raises $7.5M of $12M Offering – cbl

    EnterpriseDB Corp. has raised $7.5 million from 12 investors in its $12 million mixed-securities offering, according to an SEC filing.

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • Richard Stallman to hit Australia

    Controversial free and open source software luminary Richard Stallman will hit Australia for an unknown period of time in October, with a keynote scheduled to be held at the University of New South Wales.

• Licensing

  • The Open source legal maze: an open trap?

• Open Hardware

  • Open Source Hardware Gets Defined

    Members of the open source hardware community publicly issued a list of standards that define a specific piece of hardware as open source. Among the signatures on the document were MIT Media Lab and Arduino lead software developer David Mellis, Adafruit founder Limor Fried, Creative Commons VP of Science John Wilbanks, and Wired editor and DIY Drones founder Chris Anderson.

• Standards/Consortia

  • Please Welcome Open AXIS Group

    At any given time I’m helping to set up two or three new consortia and open source foundations, and it’s always a pleasure to see one of announce their public launch. Yesterday it was the turn of Open AXIS Group, the latest in a seemingly endless string of initiatives formed to recruit the versatile magic of XML to address a global need.

Leftovers

• Environment

  • Light makes potential nuclear fuel highly reactive

    A lesser-known nuclear fuel may be more reactive than researchers thought, according to a study that breaks the fuel’s molecule open using only light. The fuel, uranium nitride, has properties that make it ideal for use in a nuclear reactor, but so far its behavior hasn’t been well characterized. Researchers have found a way to open up a complicated uranium nitride derivative with UV light and expose a core part that could be easy to generate and reprocess fuel.

  • Congress committee agrees 7 year offshore ban for BP

    A US Congressional committee has agreed measures that would ban BP from new offshore drilling for seven years.

    The House committee on natural resources voted in favour of precluding companies with poor safety records from offshore oil exploration permits.

    The proposed law does not name BP, but would apply to any company that has experienced 10 or more deaths in the last seven years.

• Copyrights

  • Curse of the Greedy Copyright Holders

    ‘Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal,” wrote T.S. Eliot. I am neither poet nor thief, so when I wanted poems at the start of each chapter in my recently published memoir, I sought permission. The poem that best describes my experience is “The Odyssey,” navigating as I did between the Scylla of non-responsive copyright holders and the Charybdis of fee-seeking attorneys.

• ACTA

  • Smokescreen on ACTA

    Nevertheless, what he surely hides is how the Commission is now liberally interpreting the E-Commerce Directive that speaks of “cooperation of ISPs” in its code of conduct as a benchmark for preserving “safe harbour” from liability. The threat of ACTA pushing dangerous self-regulation that invades privacy and sharing looms.

• Digital Economy (UK)

  • BT confident Digital Economy Act will be thrown out

    BT says it’s confident that a court will overturn the Digital Economy Act because it infringes European law.

    BT and fellow ISP TalkTalk last week asked the High Court to review the Digital Economy Act, which was rushed through at the end of the last Parliament.