Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Linux: OpenType Font Challenge

  To see if this is truly a difficult task, or if the challenger is just another anti-Linux FUDster that is too ignorant to know how easy it can be to administer a Linux PC. This person does not really explain what is meant by “all apps”, so I am guessing that to mean usable in Office suites and programs like The GIMP by any user on the PC to set the font for creating documents and text in graphics.

• Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 152

• This Was a First…

  The Linux user spent the next ten minutes showing the other guy his system. He fielded the “complaint” of needing Windows for certain things by opening VirtualBox and demonstrating his Windows XP install within. He let the other student navigate throughout his laptop and provided instruction when needed.

  In the end, the biggest obstacle was convincing him that the entire shootin’ match didn’t cost anything, aside from a Windows and MS Office license for his VirtualBox and even then, it was going to be largely unnecessary.

  They then retrograded into a comparison of their classes the first semester, where each was from and other mundane conversation. After a few more minutes, the Linux guy shut down his computer and stood to leave. I glanced up at him and he looked in my direction.

• Desktop

  • Why Can’t Free, Open Source Linux Beat Windows?

    The answer is simple: Microsoft has a better, more aggressive marketing strategy. Moreover, companies prefer to purchase licenses so that that they can blame somebody when something goes wrong.

• Server

  • LinuxCon Preview: Marten Mickos on Why Linux Dominates in Cloud

    Eucalyptus was one of the first companies on the cloud computing scene and Mickos is among the most respected open source entrepreneurs in the industry (having been CEO of MySQL AB before its acquisition by Sun Microsystems).

    Mickos took a few minutes to share his thoughts on cloud computing and Linux, the new Open Virtualization Alliance, and how Linux has shaped our lives over the last 20 years.

  • On Mainframes, Religions & Buggy Whips

    Mainframes are dead! I was told this when I first started working in the computer industry in 1994. However, in 2010 Mainframe revenue was approximately $2.55 billion. Perhaps Mr. Twain stated it best when he said, “the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.”

• Kernel Space

  • Xen Enters Mainline Kernel

    Future versions of the Linux Kernel (such as 3.0) will include support for the Xen hypervisor. This means that Linux distributions will typically offer out of the box support for both hosting Xen and running as a guest operating system under Xen.

• Applications

  • UM Player – An Open Source Media Wonder!

    The power of collaborative development is doing wonders in the world of computing. Open source software is no longer just a cheaper alternative to those premium software tools, but now they are technically superior and user centric too. There are open source alternatives now for all types of software’s in cloud computing, OS, editing tools, office suites and the list just goes on. Today we take a closer look into UM Player (Universal Media player), an Open Source media player which is in fact gaining huge user base in Ubuntu community too.

  • 20 File Managers for Ubuntu

    Dolphin is the default file manager in KDE and it features an easy to use interface, tabs, previews, three view modes (icons, details, columns), vertical window splitting, file and folder sorting, service menus, tags, two-mode location bar.

  • Monitoring User/Application Activity with psacct

  • Proprietary

    • Improving the Linux Ecosystem from Within: Thoughts on Adobe Axing Adobe Air for Linux

      First of, I never ever been a fan of Adobe Air apps, their lack of integration with the native OS UI (At least on Linux) is a big turn off of me. Hence when Adobe announced that they would be pulling the plugs off adobe air for Linux. My reaction, similar to that of many Linux users, was Meh

    • Debian Squeeze Samba Standalone Server With tdbsam Backend

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Virtual Users And Domains With Postfix, Courier, MySQL And SquirrelMail (Ubuntu 11.04)

    • SysPeek System Monitor Indicator

    • Monitoring User/Application Activity with psacct

    • openSUSE 11.4 with GNOME2 for the ‘cool kids’… a brief howto!

    • Install GNOME and KDE on Arch Linux

    • How To Change The GNOME Screensaver Lock Screen Background

    • An effective way changing Ubuntu 11.04 Login Screen Appearance

    • Linux 3.0 under Ubuntu ‘natty’ 11.04

    • Rewriting History with Git

• Desktop Environments

  • DS call for participation: BoF’s and Workshops

  • Call for Participation – Workshops & BoFs for the Desktop Summit 2011

    The Desktop Summit 2011 is a joint conference organized by the GNOME and KDE communities in Berlin, Germany from the 6th August 2011 to the 12th August 2011.

    The organizing team is now inviting applications to hold workshop and Birds of a Feather (BoF) sessions at the Desktop Summit. Read on for more details and how to make a proposal.

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • How can I be a KDE power user?

      How do I make my debugging with KDE more productive? What steps do I take? How have you debugged KDE-based applications? I know about the KDE wiki page, but is there anything else?

    • GNOME vs. KDE Apps: Which Are Best For You?

      A desktop is more than just panels and widgets. It’s also an ecosystem of applications specially written to use its resources and to fit its concepts of usability. That means that when you weigh GNOME against KDE, you need to consider their applications as much as the desktops themselves.

      Not all software categories vary with the desktop, of course. The time is long gone when KOffice and the only partly realized GNOMEOffice vyed with each other for users — although KOffice is becoming increasingly mature, and GNOMEOffice’s AbiWord, and Gnumeric are all going concerns, most people just use LibreOffice.

• Distributions

  • DoudouLinux 1.0 is released! Great debian based distro for Children

    DoudouLinux is a Debian-based distribution targeting young children, with a goal to make computer use as simple and pleasant as possible. The project’s version 1.0, code name “Gondwana”. DoudouLinux provides tens of applications that suit children from 2 to 12 years old and gives them an environment as easy to use as a gaming console. Kids can learn, discover and have fun without dad and mum always watching!”

  • 3 Cloud-based Linux Distributions Worth Trying

    Cloud is the next big thing when it comes to desktop computing. There are many big software companies who are busy readying themselves for the cloud in one way or the other. First it was cloud-based or online backup services, and then cloud-based music, and now cloud-based operating systems are here.

  • Specialized Linux Distributions – AV Linux 5.0

    I always keep an eye out for interesting and different Linux distributions. There are quite a few which are very specialized, either for a particular purpose or application, or for particular kinds of hardware. One of those which caught my eye recently was AV Linux, a Debian-based distribution which includes a lot of audio and video creation and editing software. It is described on the AV Linux home page as first and foremost a well-rounded OS suited for most common daily computer tasks and runs on most Windows PC’s and Intel Macs. That’s fair enough, because it is a nice, solid derivative of Debian GNU/Linux – oh, and I should mention here that it is running Linux kernel 2.6.39.1, making it the first full release I have seen running 2.6.39 – but then they go on to describe the operating system optimizations they have made and the packages they have included in the base distribution, and it becomes clear that multimedia creation and editing is where this distribution is really interesting.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • First glimpse of Ubuntu Software Centre 5.0!

          One thing in Ubuntu, which has always hit rock bottom in terms of popularity, is Ubuntu Software Centre. The reason often cited is its weak design and layout. Lot of attempts were made, but none of them brought a wind of change in perception among the user community. The guys at Canonical have been under fire recently to resolve this problem. One more attempt is round the corner, Ubuntu Software Centre 5.0 is expected to launch soon.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Bodhi Linux – Swag Store, Affiliates and Memberships

            Last month I did a post detailing Bodhi’s desktop of the week contest. If you spent any time poking around the rest of our spiffy new website you will also notice that several other useful pages have appeared.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Linux ARM support: A hot mess, an ugly clean-up

    I’ll tell you what, after all of that talk about forks last week, it’ll be nice to turn my attention to something less controversial today. Let me check my Topic O’ the Day board and see what’s next for discussion… Monday… ah, here we go…

    [...]

    But despite the quiet origins of these forks, the problem has grown to the level where Linux kernel maintainer Linus Torvalds has publicly threatened to stop pulling ARM-related changes into the mainline Linux kernel; a threat that could effect dozens of companies’ livelihoods and the course of embedded Linux development.

  • Phones

    • Formally Launching the MeeGo Community Device Program

    • Android

      • 6 free Android apps that challenge iPhones market

        Android operating system’s strong integration with existing Google products and the wide offering of devices and carriers, makes it a strong challenger for Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

      • Google’s Next Nexus: Straight Android, No Chaser

        Rumored details have surfaced concerning the Nexus 4G, the upcoming addition to Google’s line of pure-blood, no-nonsense Android phones. The 4G will reportedly feature a dual-core CPU running at up to 1.5 GHz, along with the ability to record 1080p video. Traditionally viewed as a developer phone, the Nexus line may appeal to other sorts of buyers as well.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Panasonic reveals Android tablet for the enterprise

      anasonic announced it will release a ruggedized, “enterprise-grade” Android tablet in the fourth quarter of this year. The Toughbook-branded device will have a daylight-viewable, 10.1-inch touchscreen with active stylus, a GPS receiver, “full-shift” battery life, and an optional 3G/4G cellular modem, the company says.

    • Huawei’s seven-inch tablet features Android 3.2

      Huawei announced a seven-inch tablet that will apparently be the first to include an upcoming Android 3.2 version of Honeycomb — said to be better optimized for seven-inch designs. The MediaPad offers a dual-core 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon, as well as a WSVGA display with a pixel density of 217 points per inch (ppi), and is set for a global launch in the third quarter.

    • India’s $35 tablet expected to launch this month

      It’s been a while since we’ve heard any major news about India’s ambitious $35 tablet, but a new report suggests that it’s finally inching toward reality. According to the Times of India, the controversial project is approaching the finish line with 100,000 units expected to ship this summer, starting this month. The government is expected to deliver 10,000 tablets to IIT Rajasthan in late June, while another 90,000 units will be rolled out over the next four months.

Free Software/Open Source

• Keeping the Desktop Dream Alive: Q&A With Linux Foundation’s Jim Zemlin, Part 2

  Zemlin: Yeah. When you have open source components within a product — let me back up — today if you have a dedicated supply chain, you use a product data management product or some sort of supply chain management product to have data about your bill of materials across your supply chain. You get different components from different suppliers, they’re getting integrated into a factory somewhere, and so on and so forth.

• Web Browsers

  • Friday Funnies: IE9 Reality Check

  • Chrome

    • 7 Exciting Games in the Chrome WebStore!

      Chrome Web Store is all the more important after the arrival of Chromebooks powered by Chrome OS- a radical-re-thinking of Google that assumes all the programs reside on the web. Chrome Web Store has almost anything you can look for! And thankgod, its not just apps related to work you will find some addictive games as well.

  • Mozilla

    • Download Firefox 5 Final for Linux

      Ladies and gentlemen, a few minutes ago (June 20th) Mozilla unleashed the stable version of the highly anticipated Mozilla Firefox 5.0 web browser for Linux, Windows and Macintosh operating systems.

    • Two little Firefox search helpers

    • Mozilla to release Firefox version 5 today

    • Mozilla releases Firefox 5

      As expected, the Mozilla Project has released version 5.0 of Firefox. The update to the open source web browser comes just three months after the project’s last major version, Firefox 4.0, which suffered a number of delays – Mozilla has adopted a version model similar to that used by Google for its Chrome browser.

      One of the most important additions in Firefox 5 is support for CSS animation, a feature that browsers such as Safari have offered for some time. When creating a CSS animation, a developer specifies the animation’s duration and name in the CSS rules for the HTML element in question. The @keyframes selector associated with this name is followed by the rules that describe the element’s beginning and end points as well as optional intermediate stages.

    • Webian Shell is a cross-platform full-screen browser that gives prominence to web apps

      Webian Shell is a full screen web browser that has been designed to replace your current operating system. It can be used with Windows, Linux and OS X. Get the free download here.

    • Firefox 5 Speeds to Release

      Mozilla today released Firefox 5, three months to the day after Firefox 4 was released. The new Firefox 5 release marks the successful debut of Mozilla’s rapid release process, which iterates new releases every three months.

      Firefox 5 includes new performance, standards and privacy improvements as well as improving the overall stability of the browser for Windows, Mac, Linux and Android users.

      “Firefox 5 is the fastest Firefox ever, and also the fastest ever to market,” Johnathan Nightingale, Director of Firefox at Mozilla told InternetNews.com. “Our new rapid release cycle means that the improvements get into users hands more quickly. The latest version of Firefox includes more than 1,000 improvements and performance enhancements that make it easier to discover and use all of the innovative features in Firefox. “

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • LibreOffice Visio import filter – shaping up the baby

    Maybe you were asking yourself what happened in the Google Summer of Code Visio Import filter project since last week.

  • Cross-compiling LibreOffice to iOS, Android, Windows and PPC MacOSX

  • Import PDFs with Open Office extensions and more

  • Google Throws Its Weight Behind LibreOffice

    LibreOffice gained a fresh burst of momentum last week as the makers of productivity software not only released a new, stable update but also announced the participation of Google and other big-name sponsors in its brand-new advisory board.

• BSD

  • PC-BSD: Devil With Human Face

    It is as easy to use as any other KDE-based Linux. But I don’t see much being done on this route of BSD popularisation.

  • Available: FreeBSD News website (freebsdnews.net)

• Licensing

  • Linux Foundation Releases New FOSS Compliance White Paper

    Now, we’ve released a freely available new white paper, “A Five-Step Compliance Process for FOSS Identification and Review” that discusses key aspects of two compliance actions: identifying open source in a product’s code baseline, and performing architecture and license reviews on the path to approving FOSS inclusion. The white paper reviews inputs, outputs, and essential process elements involved in five interrelated compliance steps: scanning source code; positively identifying FOSS, its licensing, and its provenance; reviewing licenses and license compatibility issues; reviewing architectural interactions of proprietary and open source components; and achieving final approval for FOSS use. So, download the white paper for some useful information!

  • German company claims it can disregard GPL requirements in aggregated software

    A Germany company that provides DSL modems, using in part the Linux kernel, is trying to deny another company the right to modify GPL’ed software. The company, AVM Computersysteme Vertiebs GmbH (AVM), says that Cybits AG is violating its copyright by distributing Internet filtering software that modifies AVM’s software. Harald Welte, who has spent a great deal of time pursuing GPL violations has intervened in the case.

• Programming

  • GCC 4.6.1 RC Arrives; Official Release Not Far Off

    Version 4.6.1 of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) is imminent. A 4.6.1 status report issued this morning signals there are no outstanding P1 regressions and that this point release branch is now frozen. The GCC 4.6.1 release candidate was subsequently issued.

  • How GitHub Saved OpenSource

    For a long time I’ve been thinking about just how much Github has revolutionized open source. Yes, it has made managing the code base significantly easier but its real impact has likely been on the social aspects of managing open source. Github has rebooted how the innovation cycle in open source while simultaneously raising the bar for good community management.

    The irony may be that it has done this by making it easy to do the one thing many people thought would kill open source, more easy: forking. I remember talking to friends who – before Github launched – felt that forking, while a necessary check on any project, was also its biggest threat and so needed to be managed carefully.

  • Release logs are important!

• Standards/Consortia

  • ODF Interoperability: Berlin ODF Plugfest, 14-15 July 2011

    This Plugfest is a two day interoperability workshop on open document exchange formats hosted by the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology in Berlin, in collaboration with OpenDoc Society, the OASIS ODF TC, OASIS ODF OIC and the OASIS ODF Adoption TC.

  • Adobe Cuts Off Linux’s AIR – ‘and Nothing of Value Was Lost’

    Adobe simply “is not serious about GNU/Linux,” said blogger Robert Pogson. “They’ve made many of their GNU/Linux releases second-rate and refused to release many products for GNU/Linux.” The longer the company continues on that path, “the more irrelevant they will become. … If Adobe cannot or will not compete in the FLOSS market, to hell with them. The world can cooperate to make the software it needs.”

Leftovers

• IBM’s Centennial

  So, as The Economist observed in 1100100 [100 in binary] and Counting in its June 9, 2011 issue:

  “The firm’s centenary is an occasion to reflect on many things digital, but one question stands out: why is IBM still alive and thriving after so long, in an industry characterised perhaps more than any other by innovation and change? This is not just of interest to business historians. As IBM enters its second century in good health, far younger IT giants, such as Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft and Nokia, are grappling with market shifts that threaten to make them much less relevant.”

• Special Feature Week 1st Digital Agenda Assembly – ITW Joe McNamee

• Haiku OS Advances With New Official Release

  The Haiku operating system, which seeks to be free software and implement compatibility with the BeOS platform, has now experienced its third official release in ten years of development. Haiku R1 Alpha 3 is this new official release and it offers a lot of changes.

• Security

  • In Sony’s 20th Breach In Two Months, Hackers Claim 177,000 Email Addresses Compromised

    Sony’s unprecedented spree of security breaches in the last two months may be finally cooling off, as profit- and attention-seeking hackers move on to other vulnerable targets. But it’s not quite over yet.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • Big media in the hot seat at CRTC hearings

      The CRTC’s hearings on vertical integration begin Monday. For the next two weeks, this means that the four major vertically integrated media companies in Canada – Bell, Shaw, Rogers and Quebecor – could face tough questions about whether they have the clout to dominate telecom, media and Internet services across the country and, if so, what should be done to curb that potential?

    • ACTA

      • Legal questions about ACTA

        Sources say that the European Parliament’s Trade Committee (INTA) will tomorrow consider asking the Parliament’s Legal service to answer questions about ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement). Here are some questions the FFII would like to suggest. The questions may resolve uncertainties regarding ACTA.

      • DEBATING ACTA & PLAYING ACTA

        Join us for an informative discussion on the effects of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on music. Known as ACTA, the agreement has been for years under international negotiation and is designed -amongst other issues- to drastically change the policies concerning counterfeiting copyrighted works.

        While ACTA has attracted strong support and fierce opposition, this talk brings together trade associations, artists and academics with different views to discuss the effects of the legislation to the creative process. The panel will tackle important questions like: How the proposed ACTA will affect ‘fair use’ and equivalent practice? What will be the effects of the enforcement practices on the creative economy and music creativity? Issues of finance, property and matters of sampling/remixing will also be discussed.

Contents

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

GNU/Linux

• Just how hard is Linux to use?

  As an example, to my knowledge the Android operating system is the most popular one for smart phones right now. Why? Presumably because of it’s ease of use. Android is at it’s heart a Linux distribution. It has simply been configured to provide an easy to use interface between you, the user, and the hardware.

• A Linux User Tries Mac OS X

  I was bothered to learn that my customization options for OS X were much more limited than I had anticipated.

• New ‘Commodore 64′ systems start shipping this week

  The new Commodores come with Ubuntu Linux installed, but eventually the company promises to offer a copy of ‘Commodore OS 1.0 ‘ which supports all old Commodore compatible software via emulation. Too bad the device doesn’t include a floppy drive or we could all dig out our copies of Lode Runner and Raid on Bungeling Bay and relive the 80′s. Er, assuming the disks are still good after sitting in a damp basement for 25 years. The company does say a “classic game pack” will come with the Commodore OS pack.

• Commodore C64 Units Begin Shipping Next Week, Custom Orders Available

• Server

  • Japan’s 8-petaflop K Computer is fastest on earth

    The K Computer’s success marks the first time Japan has claimed the number one spot on the Supercomputing Top 500 since November 2004, when NEC’s Earth Simulator was dethroned after a two-year reign.

  • New Managed Virtual Private Servers by Bitpalast

    In a race for new customers web space provider Bitpalast makes additional In addition to its Managed FreeBSD servers, web space provider Bitpalast now also offers Managed Red Hat Linux servers.

• Kernel Space

  • Graphics Stack

    • Gallium3D Clover Can Now Execute OpenCL Native Kernels

      One of the Google Summer of Code projects pertaining to Mesa / X.Org is to bring-up open-source OpenCL support with the Gallium3D driver architecture. There’s long been a branch of Mesa dubbed “Clover” that provides an OpenCL state tracker for the Gallium3D driver architecture, but it hasn’t been usable as there’s a lot of work to be finished. This GSoC project attempts to change that and there’s already been a big milestone achieved.

• Applications

  • 6 Torrent clients for Linux

    When people talk about BitTorrent probably thinks to download movies and music, often illegally and without permission of the copyright.But there is also a legitimate and legal torrenting you can do, especially on Linux.Forexample, most Linux distributions are available through the same ISO images via BitTorrent.

    Having a good BitTorrent client is imperative if you are a Linux user,what is the right one depends on what you do and how you plan to use the sources.With this in mind let’s look at some of the best BitTorrent client available for Linux.

  • PlanetLab creates a more advanced sudo

    Researchers at the PlanetLab global research network have developed a potential replacement for the widely used Unix sudo tool, called Vsys, that will offer administrators far greater control over what end users can and can’t access.

    “Vsys is a tool for restricting access to privileged operations,” said Princeton University’s PlanetLab researcher Sapan Bhatia, who introduced the technology at the Usenix conference held last week in Portland, Oregon.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Online resource collection for Linux Administrators

    • Managing your e-book collection

    • Installing a package through a Dolphin action

    • Correcting a Misaligned VGA Image on your Monitor or TV in Xorg, e.g. when you see a black border or frame, the image badly aligned to one side of the screen

    • Add More power Options To User Menu ” Power Off, Hibernate ” | Gnome Shell Extension

    • LC_CTYPE to default locale: No such file or directory

    • All the Free Linux Documentation Resources You’ll Ever Need

    • Ubuntu 11.04 Desktop Customization Guide

  • Wine

    • PlayOnLinux – There are no miracles

      PlayOnLinux is a gaming framework, based on Wine, designed to help you install and run Microsoft Windows games and programs more easily. Simple enough mission, dire-hard results. Playing Windows games on Linux using Wine is not a new concept, nor an easy one. The success of such endeavors depends on many factors. Some titles will run just fine. Others will plain refuse to even start. In between, there are thousands of games that can be run with varying degrees of luck and compatibility, mainly depending on user skill. PlayOnLinux tries to remove the user from the equation, creating an automated solution that should solve the setup issues so that you can focus on actual games.

  • Games

    • SpaceChem, One of the Best Indie Puzzle Game Released this Year for Linux

      SpaceChem is one of the most addictive indie puzzle game released this year for Linux. The game has received great reviews from critics as well as users all around the world.

    • Magical Diary: Horse Hall Coming Soon

      Spiky Caterpillar with the collaboration of Hanako Games the developers of Date Warp and other visual novels for GNU/Linux are proud to release their next game Magical Diary: Horse Hall out of beta this month.

    • Some thoughts on commercial FOSS game development

      There’s a common misconception out there (although I’m guessing a majority of the readers of this blog are aware of it) that software can’t be both libre and commercial (I use libre here instead of free to make it clear that I’m referring to free as in speech and not as in beer). This is a problem that the FOSS community has struggled with since the very beginning. Writing FOSS full time is difficult because, let’s face it, your internet connection costs money (not to mention other minor things like food and rent). As such, a lot of FOSS development, particularly game development, is done as a hobby.

• Desktop Environments

  • The Grand Review of three new desktops, pt. 2: the Unity experience

    In a very short while, I have had the opportunity to try three new desktops. KDE 4 (not new but completely unknown to me previously), Unity on Ubuntu Natty (not a new desktop, but a novel shell nevertheless), and GNOME 3. I shall describe my experiences in a big review of each, in three parts.

    Part 1 concerned my experience as a KDE newbie and also provided some historical background on my desktop habits. This one is about Unity, Ubuntu’s new desktop shell.

• Distributions

  • What’s cooking? It’s SliTaz

    The system installer is probably the most obvious weak point in SliTaz. It’s brief, which is nice, but it’s missing options. It would also be nice if the installer handled partitioning (or offered to launch GParted) and made setting mount points easier. There are just over 2,700 packages in SliTaz’s repositories and the amount of available software (or the lack of) may be an issue for some users. The basics are in there, but it’s a small selection compared to the big name Linux projects. On the positive side, SliTaz is the smallest distro I’ve used that’s useful as a desktop OS right away. The speed is impressive, especially when running from RAM, and the flexibility shown by the developers, for example providing floppy images, is welcome. This is a good project to look at if you’re in possession of older equipment or plan to perform hardware testing, data recovery or other tasks requiring a live disc. I wouldn’t recommend SliTaz to newcomers to Linux, but for people who don’t mind seeing the command line occasionally and are passingly familiar with device naming, this distribution packs a lot of tools into a small bundle.

  • New Releases

    • Greenie 9N

    • Clonezilla 1.2.9-7

    • Absolute 13.38 released

    • Webconverger 8.0

    • PelicanHPC GNU Linux

      15 June 2011. Out a bit earlier than expected, v2.5 is available. The virtualbox guest stuff seemed to be causing some trouble, so it has been removed. Added dynare 4.2.1 (from source) and some examples for a research paper. If you would like to replicate results from “Indirect Likelihood Inference” by D. Kristensen and myself, see the directory /home/user/Econometrics/MyOctaveFiles/Econometrics/IL. Most PelicanHPC users will have no interest in that, of course!

    • DoudouLinux – The computer they prefer!

      DoudouLinux [1] is specially designed for children to make computer use as easy and pleasant as possible for them (and for their parents too! [2]). DoudouLinux provides tens of applications that suit children from 2 to 12 years old and gives them an environment as easy to use as a gaming console. Kids can learn, discover and have fun without Dad and Mum always watching!

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat Bulls Shop for Calls

      Bulls led the way in Red Hat’s options with the Raleigh, N.C., company due to release quarterly earnings after the close Wednesday. Buyers shopped for July $45 calls. Shares rose 75 cents, or 1.8,% to close at $41.95.

    • Fedora

      • Updating to rawhide is harder than I thought.

  • Debian Family

    • apt-get, aptitude, … pick the right Debian package manager for you

      This is a frequently asked question: “What package manager shall I use?”. And my answer is “the one that suits your needs”. In my case, I even use different package managers depending on what I’m trying to do.

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Why Google will not buy Canonical

          I personally don’t see google buying canonical happening any time soon. (Nor should they) Canonical’s business model is built round the very thing google wants to kill – The Desktop (as we know it)
          Google’s business model is built round ads and cloud services, imperative to this model is the need to get everyone to the browser, the cloud and away from the traditional means of using the computer which involves having an OS built around local computer resources Hard drive, CPU, etc.. Ubuntu (Windows and Mac OSX) represent the very thing google is trying the get the world away from.

        • Is Ubuntu on the way out?

          A distinguished Website is asking the question: “Is Ubuntu on the way out?” They cite Distrowatch’s Page Hit Rankings as the catalyst for this query. According to said PHR, Ubuntu has fallen to the number three position in the one month tally behind Linux Mint and Fedora.

          The the past year Mint has remained in the number two spot with Fedora occupying the third position. For the last six month Ubuntu’s popularity remained stagnant and fell within the last three months. And as said it actually fell down the chart this past month.

          Some initial comments seem to indicate that premise is incorrect. Several assert that Ubuntu is probably just finding a new audience. One said, “I think the real question is ‘Is Ubuntu on the way out for new users?’” Another said, “I get the feeling that those of who are more power-users are moving over to other distros such as Fedora and Arch. Another echoed similar thoughts by saying, “Ubuntu is repositioning itself. It obviously is no longer targeted at the new comer. That role has been taken over by Mint.”

        • How the open source community reacts to poor design

          As you well know, I’ve been going off a lot lately on how Canonical and Ubuntu made quite the mistake with Unity. Not only has it seemingly had the opposite effect of its name, it was quite poorly designed. Unity is filled with design flaws (such as the window menu system and the horrible new scroll bars that don’t always work) that make its usage less than ideal.

        • Flavours and Variants

          • A Quick Look at Pinguy OS 11.04

            Ubuntu may be the most popular desktop Linux choice, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the total install-base of its derivatives proved to be the more impressive of the two. Out of the box, Ubuntu does a lot right, but it does leave a lot up to the user in terms of installing codec support, tweaking tools that are actually worth using, common proprietary applications and of course, some eye candy. For that reason, distros like Linux Mint have deservedly earned a die-hard fanbase over the years, as it looks good, takes care of many basic post-install chores for you, and is enjoyable to use.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Ready or not, here come the business tablets

      It’s not just iPads, though. At CES, everyone and his OEM announced tablets, including the BlackBerry PlayBook from RIM, numerous Android tablets such as the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, HP’s webOS tablets and even some Windows tablets. But, while everyone might want a tablet, or maybe two if they’re small, will these mobile devices find a home in business?

    • Netbook charges via built-in solar panel

      Samsung announced a netbook with a built-in solar panel and 14.5-hour battery life. The NC215S also offers hybrid fast start technology, the ability to charge portable devices even when it’s turned off, a choice of Atom processors, and a 250GB or 320GB hard disk drive.

Free Software/Open Source

• Ad Bard, The Advertising Network Serving FOSS Only Ads, is Shutting Down

• No more technology lock-in

  With the open source adoption, the company estimates cost savings of close to ` 5 crore a year. With the deployment, MMFSL has reduced connectivity, power and other recurring costs by almost 90 percent. ROI was seen within three months of implementation.

• Why ‘Free and Open’ matters

  Adobe is drop­ping Linux sup­port for their Adobe AIR devel­op­ment plat­form. To be hon­est, I don’t really care. Why? Because I’ve been care­ful enough to not tie my efforts to a pro­pri­et­ary platform.

  I’ve had sev­eral groups offer to write applications/activities for OLPC Aus­tralia using pro­pri­et­ary tools like AIR. I’ve dis­cour­aged them every time. Had we gone with the ‘con­veni­ent’ route and acqui­esced, we would have been in quite a spot of bother right now. My pre­cious resources would have to be spent on port­ing or rewrit­ing all of that work, or just leav­ing it to bit-rot.

• Web Browsers

  • For Mozilla, Google and Bug Hunters, Bug Bounties Are Big Business

    We’ve written before about bug bounties–cash prizes offered by open source communities to anyone who finds key software bugs–ranging from FOSS Factory’s bounty programs to the bounties that both Google (for the Chrome browser) and Mozilla offer. Over time, these cash rewards for the identification of software problems have become essential parts of the quality control process for many major open source projects, and not just browsers. Now, some interesting, specific information is emerging about exactly which kinds of bug discovers are capitalizing on this trend. You may be surprised at what some of the big earners in the bug bounty business are paid for their efforts.

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla Firefox 5 web browser arrives early

      It’s only three months since Mozilla outed the official Firefox 4 browser, but the fifth generation is already ready to roll.

      The Firefox 5 release candidate emerged on Mozilla’s ftp server over the weekend, and barring a few tweaks here and there, the complete version is now available to download.

    • 10 Must-Have Firefox Extensions

      Using browser extensions is a lot like tricking out your car with a new air spoiler, tinted windows, chrome rims, and big flame decals. Too much junk, and you bog down your ride and look silly. With thousands of Firefox extensions to choose from, the main challenge is finding the right ones–and avoiding the lame ones.

    • To understand recursion…

    • Firefox 5 Ready To Launch: Why It Matters

      The final build of Firefox 5 has been available for a few days from the Mozilla HTTP server and it appears that the company has successfully transitioned to a rapid release process. However, Mozilla will face headwind and criticism that Firefox 5 does not offer anything new over Firefox 4. Such claims aren’t exactly accurate: Firefox matters more than it has ever before, but Mozilla needs to realize that it has problems communicating what Firefox really is.

    • Firefox 5 Benchmarked – Faster And Better Than Ever Before!

      Officially, Firefox 5 is scheduled for release tomorrow. However, users of the beta channel have already got their hands on it. One of the promises for Firefox 5 is better performance. We took tested Firefox 5 and benchmarked it against two other browsers – Google Chrome and Opera. We used the latest version of Google Chrome from the beta channel and the latest stable version of Opera – Opera 11.11.

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Developer Interview : Markus Mohrhard

    Coding LibreOffice to relax a bit from studying tough mathematical problems? Reed why and how Markus Mohrhard works on LibreOffice!

  • A totally unscientific look at the historical trends regarding forks

    Back in September last year, as the LibreOffice announced its separation from OpenOffice.org and Oracle, I published a quick post comparing the relative success of a variety of forks.

    [...]

    Almost three quarters after the split, LibreOffice (in red) has certainly narrowed the gap on OpenOffice.org (in blue), but not by a significant margin. However, it is too early to draw any conclusions.

  • Oracle v. Google – Posturing Over Damages – UPDATED

    More filings with and orders from the court this past week with respect to the damage claims asserted by Oracle. You may recall that Oracle hired Boston University finance and economics professor Iain Cockburn to serve as its expert witness on damages it is asserting in its patent infringement claims against Google. The report Cockburn prepared has not been made public, but a copy was delivered to Google. Google perceived the report to be inaccurate, grossly overstating the potential damages, and possibly inflammatory. So Google’s next step was to challenge Cockburn as an expert (this is referred to as a Daubert motion) and supporting their motion with a précis (a summary of the Cockburn report) explaining their position. At the same time, Google asked the court’s indulgence in suppressing a good deal of the précis lest it become public and have the exact inflammatory effect Google was seeking to avoid.

• Licensing

  • AVM violating license of the Linux kernel

    Tomorrow on June 21st a legal case will be heard before the District Court of Berlin which may have enormous consequences for the way that software is developed and distributed. The adversaries in the case are the manufacturer and distributor of DSL routers AVM Computersysteme Vertriebs GmbH (AVM), and Cybits AG (Cybits) which produces children’s web-filtering software. Both companies use the Linux kernel, which is licensed under the GNU General Public License, version 2 (GNU GPL); a Free Software license permitting everyone to use, study, share, and improve works which use it.

    The case was brought to court by AVM with the aim of preventing Cybits from changing any parts of the firmware used in AVM’s routers, including the Linux kernel. The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and gpl-violations.org consider AVM’s action as a broad attack against the principles of Free Software, and thus against the thousands of individuals and companies developing, improving and distributing Free Software.

  • With GPLv3, Everything Old Can Be New Again

    I was invited last week to keynote at the Sixth OpenFOAM Conference held at Penn State University in State College, PA. OpenFOAM is a computational fluid dynamics software package released under GPLv3. I was grateful for this opportunity, because rarely do I get the opportunity to meet what I think of as insulated Free Software communities.

    By “insulated”, I don’t mean that these communities are naïve in any way. They are, however, insulated from the usual politics of the general software freedom community. While the users of OpenFOAM are all familiar with GNU/Linux and other interesting software freedom packages, OpenFOAM users and developers aren’t generally reading blogs like mine or following the weekly discussions about copyleft and non-copyleft licensing, or debating with Simon Phipps what “Open By Rule” means.

  • An Attack that Goes to the Heart of Free Software

    The key hack that made free software possible was a legal one: using copyright to keep software free. It did that by demanding a quid pro quo: if you use software made available under the GNU GPL, modify it and distribute it, you too must make it available under the GNU GPL.

    [...]

    Let’s hope the German judges see through this ploy – and realise just what is at stake here. The current case is nothing less than an attempt to remove what is a key guarantee for the sustainability of the free software movement. If AVM win, the danger is that the whole legal underpinnings of free software may be seriously compromised.

Leftovers

• Hardware

  • USB 3.0: Great technology, but hard to find

    Over the last few years, the Universal Serial Bus (USB) has become the universal interface. Starting in 1995, when USB 1.0 could only transfer 12 Mbps (Megabits per second), the standard started up slowly. But when USB 2.0 came along in 2000, with its 480 Mbps, the days were numbered for PS/2, serial, parallel, and even the FireWire interface. So, why hasn’t USB 3.0, also known as SuperSpeed USB, with its 5 Gigabits per second (Gbps), become the interface of choice since its introduction in 2008? Well, there are several reasons.

• Health/Nutrition

  • An American robs a bank of $1, just for free health care in jail

    9News, a local North Carolina news site has posted an unusual story of James Verone, who robbed an RBC bank on Thursday of last week. He had no gun but handed the teller a note that said, “This is a bank robbery, please only give me one dollar.”

    Then he said, I’ll be sitting here on the chair waiting for the police. So, why did he do everything he could to get arrested? He says he did it for medical reasons. Verone has a growth on his chest, two ruptured discs and a problem with his left foot. At 59 years old, no job and a depleted bank account, he thought jail was the best place he could go for medical care and a roof over his head. Verone is hoping for a three-year sentence.

• Security

  • Why even bother with accurate information? The Sony and Sega Sagas

• Cablegate

  • Glenn Greenwald: Supporters of Bradley Manning Risk Jail for Refusing to Testify in WikiLeaks Probe

    Earlier this month, the FBI served a subpoena on David House, one of the founders of the Bradley Manning Support Network who helped publicize the oppressive conditions of Manning’s solitary confinement at the Quantico Marine Corps Base. U.S. Army Private Manning has been imprisoned without charges for his alleged role in releasing classified U.S. documents to the online whistleblowing website, WikiLeaks. House testified before a grand jury last week investigating WikiLeaks and invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Political and legal blogger Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com says if House and other witnesses are offered immunity, they will no longer be able to invoke this right and may refuse to cooperate with the grand jury, risking jail time rather than aid the investigation. [includes rush transcript]

• Finance

  • Goldman Sachs Fined by ICE Exchange for ‘Disorderly’ Trading

    An ICE committee that investigated the trades “found no evidence of intentional manipulation of the market; nevertheless it considered the breach to be of a serious nature,” ICE said in a circular on its website dated June 17.

    Kelly Loeffler, Atlanta-based spokeswoman for IntercontinentalExchange Inc. (ICE), which owns ICE Futures Europe, said the company doesn’t comment on investigations. Joanna Carss, a London-based spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, said she couldn’t comment on the matter immediately.

  • Too Big to Fail Redux?

    We spent $700 billion to bail out the too big to fail banks on Wall Street.

    And yet, we might have to do it again.

    Why?

    Because the big banks are still too big to fail.

    And next time, we might have to spend $5 trillion.

    It ain’t a pretty picture.

    As Neil Barofsky knows better than most.

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Duke Nukem PR firm dropped following online review row

    US games publisher Take 2 has parted company with public relations firm The Redner Group, following Twitter comments concerning Duke Nukem Forever.

    Redner’s contract was terminated after it said journalists who gave the game a poor review would be blacklisted.

• Intellectual Monopolies

  • Copyrights

    • British Library makes Google search deal

      Thousands of pages from one of the world’s biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals are to be made available on the internet.

      The British Library has reached a deal with search engine Google about 250,000 texts dating back to the 18th Century.

Reader’s Picks

• Kingston Technology: Smartphones and Tablets Here to Stay

  A slowdown in the PC market has cast a shadow over the outlook for DRAM memory. However, losses in PC consumption of DRAMs are being offset by rising demand coming from the smartphone and tablet PC sectors. … The market for tablets looks promising for the foreseeable future

• Health/Nutrition

  • Forchlorfenuron alters mammalian septin assembly, organization, and dynamics. This compound is commonly used to increase fruit size, so buy organic until the long term effects are better known.

• Environment/Energy/Wildlife

  • Fukushima: It’s much worse than you think. [2, 3]

    Fukushima has three nuclear reactors exposed and four fuel cores exposed. You probably have the equivalent of 20 nuclear reactor cores because of the fuel cores, and they are all in desperate need of being cooled … TEPCO announced that the accident probably released more radioactive material into the environment than Chernobyl, making it the worst nuclear accident on record. … It will be at least a year before it stops boiling, and until it stops boiling, it’s going to be cranking out radioactive steam and liquids … a 35 per cent spike in infant mortality in northwest [US] cities that occurred after the Fukushima meltdown [may be the result of fallout]

  • Fukushima halts water decontamination

    Radioactivity in one of 24 cartridges, which was expected to last for a few weeks, had already reached its limit within five hours …

    Unless the plumbing was hooked up wrong, they underestimated the damage and contamination by orders of magnitude.

  • US still cutting back on weather satellites.

• PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

  • Network world almost calls out Windows, ICS-CERT fails to mention Microsoft when describing yet another SCADA problem.

    Network World mentions Siemen’s WinCC software which hosted the Stuxnet worm that derailed Iran’s nuclear fuel processing centers but does not mention that the researcher who disclosed Stuxnet also disclosed this new problem or that the company making the SCADA modules is a Microsoft partner. ICS-Cert only mentions Sunway ForceControl and pNetPower, so others take the fall for what’s probably a Microsoft problem.

• Censorship

  • The US continues to file criminal charges against unauthorized disclosures by going after publishers.