01.10.12

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers

GNU/Linux

• Desktop

  • CES 2012: Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Hybrid Demonstration Video

    Earlier in the weekend we heard about Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1 Hybrid notebook that combines standard Intel x86 hardware with a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor running an open-source Linux OS.

  • Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Hybrid hands on: Based on Android, won’t leverage Windows 8

  • Desktop Linux Gains Share in Recent Months

    Linux’s prospects as a desktop operating system have long been a topic of hot debate, with some arguing that it will never surpass 1 percent of the market while others–including yours truly–countering that it already has.

  • Lenovo ThinkPads at CES

    Other ThinkPad offerings run the usual gamut of T-series, W-series, and ThinkPad Edge to name a few. Lenovo has also decided to move away from the s-suffix (e.g. T420s) and created a new S-series line. The ThinkPad Edge S430 is interesting in that it’s one of the few laptops we’ve seen so far at CES with a Thunderbolt port. Another cool ThinkPad is the X1 Hybrid, which is the same as the X1 but with a mini-PCIe card that contains an SoC capable of running a Linux-style. If you need more battery life and don’t need the performance of a full Core i5/i7 processor you can switch to the SoC. At that point, the Windows environment goes into sleep mode and you switch to a Linux-based (Android-based) environment. There’s shared flash memory storage that can be accessed by both the Windows and Linux platforms, but the Linux OS can only read from the flash memory. The battery life benefit is claimed as being up to 2X when in SoC mode, though others have reported even lengthier runtimes.

  • FXI Cotton Candy Hands-On: USB Stick Computer Now Runs Ubuntu, Ice Cream Sandwich

    When we first saw FXI’s Cotton Candy, the tiny dual-core computer on a USB stick blew our minds with its ability to take over either a notebook or a standalone screen and turn it into an Android station. Now, the Norwegian company has managed to port both Ubuntu Linux and Android 4.0 Ice Cream sandwich to its diminuitive device while adding a micro USB port and working on an even slimmer design.

• Server

  • Open Source Web Server nginx Passes IIS in Popularity

  • The road to a successful open source project: Learning lessons from Drupal

    By almost any measure, Drupal, an open source content management system/Web platform, should be a poster child for open source success. The PHP-based CMS, the first version of which was released by Dries Buytaert in 2001, powers the Web presence of a number of major organisations, including, since 2009, Whitehouse.gov.

    When it comes what other open source projects can learn from Drupal’s success, Buytaert, who is now chief technology officer of Acquia and remains Drupal’s project lead, says that although he doesn’t have all the answers — and that “there’s no one right way” to do things — there are some lessons to be learned.

• Kernel Space

  • What’s New in Linux 3.2?

    What better way to kick off the new year than with a brand new kernel, fresh out of Kernel.org? Linus Torvalds released the 3.2 kernel on January 4th, with improvements in the Ext4 and Btrfs filesystems, thin provisioning features, a new architecture, and CPU bandwidth control.

  • Linux kernel hits version 3.2, plenty of power-saving features in tow

  • Linux 3.3 Kernel Has A Big, “Pretty Good” Staging Merge

    The Linux 3.3 kernel staging pull request has been submitted to Linus Torvalds. As said by Greg Kroah-Hartman, the 3.3 staging merge is big and “overall, the story is pretty good.”

    Here’s some of the highlights of the staging area pull for the Linux 3.3 kernel:

  • Reiser4 Still Lacks Mainline Ambitions

    Reiser4 is still not ready for integration into the Linux 3.3 kernel nor has the file-system even been officially updated yet for any of the recent kernel releases.

    The Reiser4 patch directory hasn’t even been restored since the downing of Kernel.org, but at least their Wiki is back online, which notes the Linux 2.6.38 kernel as the latest. On reiserfs-devel is where some discussions do take place (circa two dozen per month) with some patches for Reiser4.

• Applications

  • App of the Week: LiLi USB Creator 2.8

  • Automating the Linux Desktop With AutoKey

    AutoKey is one of those rare applications that you do not know you need until you start using it, and then it becomes an essential part of your workflow. AutoKey is a system wide service that allows you to create text shortcuts for commonly used words or phrases. For example, you could set the key combination “,,e” (without quotation marks) to automatically expand to your email address. Or, you could set “,,p” to expand into your phone number. AutoKey’s power goes beyond simple text expansion. AutoKey allows you to write your own scripts in Python, and that’s where things get interesting.

  • Top 10 free apps in the Ubuntu Software Center

    People generally don’t prefer Ubuntu for the simple reason that it does not provide the variety of apps found in other OSes. Though it is partly true , there are a lot of free apps out there that are just waiting to be found. We bring to you the list of top ten free apps for Ubuntu. Check it out to see whether your favourite app has bagged a spot.Prepare yourselves for some surprises.Here is the list of the free Ubuntu apps that we think are a cut above the rest.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Running TYPO3 4.6 On Nginx (LEMP) On Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 11.10

    • The Linux Command Line

    • How to Get Public External IP From Command Line Terminal – Linux

    • PAC Manager: All your Connection are belong to us

    • Create and Record Surveys with LimeSurvey

    • Installing Apache2 With PHP5 And MySQL Support On CentOS 6.1 (LAMP)

• Distributions

  • New Releases

    • Porteus 1.1

    • Core Update 54 + 55 released

    • Tiny Core 4.2.1

    • Porteus 1.1

    • RIPLinuX 13.6

    • Asturix 4

    • Two updates for IPFire open source firewall released

      IPFire Project Leader and developer Michael Tremer has announced the release of two new core updates to version 2.11 of his open source firewall. Core 54 includes updates for network hardware, such as new Intel network drivers, as well as updated versions of the Squid proxy server, the Snort network intrusion prevention and detection system, and the smartmontools package.

  • PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

    • Mandriva may be forced to shut down

      The French GNU/Linux company, Mandriva, may be forced to shut its doors as soon as January 16, following the refusal of one of its main shareholders to accept a recapitalisation scheme.

    • Mandriva Linux maker could enter bankruptcy next week

    • On disaster reports

      2012 started as a rather interesting year. Perhaps influenced by the so-called “Mayan Doomsday” prophecies, people today reported hearing strange rumbling noises coming from the Earth.

      Interestingly, the Linux world also has its own disaster predictions–you always listen that Linux is finished on the desktop, that the desktop computer itself is finished, and a myriad more.

      One of the predictions that I read is that 2012 will be the definite year of Mandriva’s disappearance. Since Mandriva was the distro that made me migrate to Linux, I must admit that I received the news with a grave heart.

  • Red Hat Family

    • Red Hat prepares for growth while key competitor teeters on brink of collapse

      In recent days Red Hat has announced a new enterprise storage appliance platform based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1. The company also anticipates that the growth in cloud computing, particularly as a back-end to consumer appliances, will mean the deployment of more Linux servers by business.

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • All Eyes on Ubuntu as CES Draws Near

          It’s obvious that Canonical was never about engineering,” said Slashdot blogger Barbara Hudson. “It’s always been marketing, hype, generating buzz by trying to get their fingers into the latest trend, and ‘oh look — shiny.’ Unfortunately for them, unless you have a practical monopoly like Microsoft enjoyed, you ultimately need product engineering to stand out.”

        • TV for Human Beings: Ubuntu Linux

        • Ubuntu TV Demoed At CES [Video]

        • CES 2012: Linux Ubuntu TV launched by British firm Canonical

        • I Want My Ubuntu TV!

        • Flavours and Variants

          • Blue Systems becomes Linux Mint partner and sponsor

            Clement Lefebvre, leader of the Linux Mint project, has announced that Blue Systems, a German company, has become a partner of the Linux Mint project. The partnership is focused on improving the KDE editions of Linux Mint KDE and Blue Systems-sponsored Netrunner – Lefebvre says that this should have a positive effect on both distributions even though they offer different experiences. Lefebvre also notes that Blue Systems will become the primary sponsor for Linux Mint, in a deal that has allowed the Mint developers to contract an additional full-time developer for all of 2012.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Marvell Introduces Tiny SMILE Plug Classroom Server at CES

    Not content to help students only through its partnership with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), Marvell is rolling out a new product designed to revolutionize the classroom learning experience. Not much bigger than a walwart, the tiny SMILE Plug is a Linux-based, wireless learning server that can provide unique educational content to up to 60 students at a time.

  • CES: GM Wants To Turn Your Car Into An iPhone On Wheels

    CUE is based on Linux, the same open-source software running many of the world’s servers. Cars last three to four to five years, so Cue’s open, Linux-based architecture will let GM keep the CUE’s interface up to date, Vurpillat said.

  • Raspberry Pi’s Gertboard expansion board already works (video)

    In the middle of December last year the Raspberry Pi Foundation made a surprising announcement that not only would we see the $25 PC released in 2012, it would also be getting an expansion board–possibly joining it at launch.

  • New Iomega Network Storage Gear Starts at 1TB, $220

    The StorCenter ix2 runs EMC LifeLine, a Linux-based OS created for enterprise-level storage devices. Setup via a web interface requires no CD. The two-drive units support RAID 1 (mirrored) data protection.

  • Phones

    • Tizen UI leaks ahead of Samsung I9500 debut

    • Tizen Association Launched to Drive Industry Engagement for Tizen™

    • Tizen releases some code

    • Android

      • UNVEILED: Huawei announces world’s slimmest Android smartphone – the Huawei Ascend P1 S

      • LTE Android Lineup to Expand on MetroPCS

      • Supersonic, Inc. introduces a new Android powered set-top box

        Supersonic, Inc. recently introduced a new set top box, powered by Android. The SC-66G ($199) Android-powered set-top box features a wireless full-size keyboard and Wi-Fi capability. The SC-66G, which is shipping now at a $199 suggested retail, has Wi-Fi capability, four USB ports and a MicroSD card slot, as well as SATA, Ethernet and HDMI ports.

      • ASUS announces Eee Pad MeMO ME370T and new Transformer Prime TF700T

        ASUS is bringing the Ice Cream Sandwich love in 2012 with the EeePad MeMO ME370T, and a new upmarket model Transformer Prime, the TF700T. The new Prime, which doesn’t replace the existing Transformer Prime we all know and love, has a few upgrades from the original model, namely a 1920×1200 display, a 2MP front camera for HD video conferencing, and a re-designed back plate for better Wifi, Bluetooth and GPS reception. It will use the same docking station and battery life should be very comparable to the current TF201 Transformer Prime.

      • Fujitsu leaks quad-core Tegra 3 smartphone, unwraps Ice Cream Sandwich

        Did the performance chops of the Transformer Prime whet your appetite for quad-core Android? Perhaps the UI of Ice Cream Sandwich is almost enough to push you over from your iPhone. Well, Fujitsu may be the surprising choice for your next phone. Pushing the envelope way beyond the Arrows μ F-07D, Fujitsu’s let slip that it has another phone up its sleeve. In a leaflet distributed at CES Unveiled, the brief specification reads like a wish list: a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU and Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) right out of the gates. Now, whether we’ll see it in the flesh as CES unfolds this week, well, only Fujitsu knows.

      • At Least 3 New 4G LTE Devices Launching on Sprint in 2012

      • HDMI dongle IPTV device supports Android 4.0

        Always Innovating announced a tiny open source, IP set-top box (STB) that runs Android 4.0 on a Texas Instruments OMAP4 processor clocked as high as 1.8GHz. The HDMI Dongle plugs directly into a TV’s HDMI port, and provides up to 1GB of RAM, a microSD slot, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and a remote control that offers NFC, accelerometers, and voice control.

      • CES 2012: OpenMobile Makes Android Apps Run On Everything

        There are more than just Android and iOS powering smart devices today and one company is making apps easier to get on those other platforms.

        OpenMobile announced today at CES their Application Compatibility Layer (ACL) which allows for perfect porting of the more than 300,000 apps available for Android to devices running on other OSes including Windows, Linux and more.

  • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

    • Lenovo puts Android 4.0 in dockable tablet and smart TV

      Lenovo announced two new devices that run Android 4.0 (“Ice Cream Sandwich”) on a dual-core, 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon APQ8060 processor. One is a 10.1-inch tablet with a detachable keyboard dock and up to 20 hours’ battery life (the IdeaTab S2), while the other is a television with an in-plane switching (IPS) display and voice-activated remote control (the K91 Smart TV), according to the company.

    • Verizon Announces World’s Thinnest 4G LTE Tablet – Galaxy Tab 7.7

      The newest addition to the Galaxy tablet line up was announced today at CES. The 7.7 inch 4G LTE-Enabled Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available in the coming weeks. It’s the first tablet in the United States to feature a Super AMOLED™ Plus Display. As mentioned above, it is the world’s thinnest 4G LTE tablet weighing only 340 grams (roughly 12 oz) and measuring at only 7.9 millimeters thin.

    • Verizon and Motorola announce Droid 4: Thinnest, most powerful 4G LTE smartphone with QWERTY keyboard

    • OLPC’s XO 3 tablet uses 1GHz ARM SoC to run Sugar Linux or Android

      One Laptop per Child (OLPC) demonstrated a “fully functional” version of its long-delayed XO 3.0 tablet, equipped with a 1GHz Marvell Armada PXA618 processor running Sugar Linux or Android 3.x. Like OLPC’s XO 2 laptop, the eight-inch tablet is aimed at educational systems in developing nations, and it will feature an optional sunlight-readable Pixel Qi touchscreen plus the ability to draw power from an optional solar panel or crank charger.

    • OLPC shows off XO 3 tablet running Android or Linux

    • CES 2012: £70 XO3 tablet to be unveiled by One Laptop Per Child

    • One Laptop Per Child Debuts Rugged Tablet for Students in the Developing World

    • Qooq culinary tablet: recipes and videos in a kitchen-safe enclosure (hands-on video)

    • Qooq: The French Linux-Based Tablet For Your Kitchen

    • CES 2012: New technologies unleashed at show

      The Linux-based device is splash-proof, is held off the ground by feet that allow spilled liquids to run underneath, and can shrug off temperatures of up to 60C (140F).

    • Toshiba’s ‘world’s thinnest tablet’ heads stateside

      Toshiba announced “the world’s thinnest 10-inch tablet,” measuring 0.3 inches (7.7mm) thick and weighing 1.18 pounds (535 grams). Heading for a 1Q U.S. release, the Excite X10 runs the “latest” Android build on a 1.2GHz TI OMAP4430 processor, has 1GB RAM and either 16GB or 32GB of storage, offers a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 IPS display, and includes five- and two-megapixel cameras.

Free Software/Open Source

• Prof: Schools moving to OpenSim should pay for hosting

• Google’s Open Source Video Player

  Perhaps Google isn’t all bad these days! A new open source HTML5 video player is yours for the download. As well as being a good showcase app it is also practically useful. It is the architectural core of the new 60 Minutes and RedBull.tv apps available in the Chrome Web Store.

• Google open sources new HTML5 video tool

  Google chose the PR graveyard shift slot of 4:30 USA Pacific time on Friday afternoon last week to put out its latest communiqué to us, the consuming masses.

  The ‘search giant’ has pushed its latest HTML5 video tool to open source.

  The new Video Player Sample is built with open web technology and is designed to allow developers (and other users) to wrap video up in the required code to be able to release it as a web store application.

• Rackspace open-sources Dreadnot for failure-free software deployment with Node.js

• IBM Delivers Open Source Version of EGL Tools

• Consolidation enables open source software strategy

• AT&T Signs On With OpenStack Open-Source Cloud

  AT&T on Monday officially signed on with the OpenStack cloud, the Rackspace- and NASA-created open-source cloud computing project.

• An Interactive eGuide: Open Source

• ChannelEyes Social Media Cloud Built On Open Source

• OSQA, the open source Q&A system

  OSQA is the free, open source Q&A system you’ve been waiting for. Your OSQA site is more than just an FAQ page, it is a full-featured Q&A community. Users earn points and badges for useful participation, and everyone in the community wins.

• Events

  • SCALE 10x Shows CSPs How to Build A Cloud on Open Source

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • The new MPL

      Last week the Mozilla Foundation released version 2.0 of the Mozilla Public License. Immediately recognized as a free software license by the Free Software Foundation and approved as an Open Source license by the Open Source Initiative, MPL 2.0 is a well-crafted modern license that ought to be considered by any open source project desiring a weak copyleft licensing policy.

• Databases

  • Hadoop vs. an RDBMS: How much (less) would you pay?

• Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

  • Unused LibreOffice Code Expunged

    The more code an application accumulates, the heavier it gets and the slower it performs usually. It’s just basic physics of programming. Since years of neglect left lots of unused code in LibreOffice, contributors have been busy cleaning it up. The latest scan by Michael Meeks shows the efforts are really paying off.

• Project Releases

  • LSU Releases First Open Source ParalleX Runtime Software System

    Louisiana State University’s Center for Computation & Technology (CCT) has delivered the first freely available open-source runtime system implementation of the ParalleX execution model. The HPX, or High Performance Parallex, runtime software package is a modular, feature-complete, and performance oriented representation of the ParalleX execution model targeted at conventional parallel computing architectures such as SMP nodes and commodity clusters.

• Public Services/Government

  • NASA: Prize money a bargain for better software

    In October 2010, NASA and the Harvard Business School launched the NASA Tournament Lab, an online platform for contests between independent programmers who compete to create software and algorithms and solve computational problems.

• Licensing

  • Mozilla Releases OSI-Approved MPLv2

    Last week saw a quiet landmark in the history of the open source movement with the formal release of version two of the Mozilla Public License (MPLv2) and its approval as an official open source license. While to many it may look like just another legal detail, it is significant both for the way it was conducted and for the intent with which it has been created. This is a license aimed at unity.

  • 2011: Top Ten FOSS Legal Developments

    This year, 2011, was one of the most active years in legal developments in FOSS. This activity reflects the increase in FOSS use: Laura Wurster of Gartner, noted in the Harvard Business Review blog that open source has hit a “strategic tipping point” this year with companies increasingly focused on using “open source” software for competitive rather than cost reasons http://lawandlifesiliconvalley.com/blog/?p=619.

• Openness/Sharing

  • Public Knowledge opens wireless usage caps website

    The site is sponsored by PK, Mozilla Foundation and the Open Source Democracy Foundation. PK and the Open Technology Initiative last May asked the FCC to investigate data caps generally.

  • Open Data

    • Open Source Maps Gain Ground as Google Paywall Looms

• Programming

  • Zend Updates PHP Server Stack for IBM i

    Zend Technologies has launched a major update to Zend Server for IBM i, its PHP server stack for the IBM i platform. Version 5.6 marks the general availability of the new XML Toolkit, which provides a new way for integrating RPG logic into PHP apps, and a new application deployment mechanism. DBi, the drop-in replacement for MySQL on the platform that was slated for release about this time, is not yet ready.

Leftovers

• Finance

  • REO To Rental Fed Plan Would Do Little For Housing, Says Goldman Sachs

    The Federal Reserve’s foreclosure rental program would do little to lift the ailing housing market, Goldman Sachs analysts wrote in a research paper released on Friday morning.

    The analysis, written in response to a Federal Reserve paper released earlier this week, calculates the nationwide effects of renting foreclosed properties as “positive but modest,” possibly fostering a 0.5 percent increase in home prices in the first year of program implementation, and a 1 percent increase in the second year. But those are Goldman’s maximum increases, and the researchers are quick to add that the “actual effect would likely be less.”

  • Goldman’s Infamous ‘Sh*tty Deal’ Turns Out Not To Have Been As Sh*tty As Others

    The infamous Abacus transaction that cost Goldman Sachs $550 million might have been designed to fail, but it turns out that it actually performed better than its peers, according to a new study co-authored by BlackRock and Columbia Business School.

    The Abacus CDOs’ performance, “while undoubtedly bad, was actually better than average among all bonds that had been similarly packaged.”

• Copyrights

  • Copying the copyrighted is okay if it transforms: What’s that?

    Writing in the New York Times, Randy Kennedy reports on a court decision that would make it illegal to use most work of others still under copyright as the basis for new works which “transform” the original link here.

    “The decision, by Judge Deborah A. Batts, set off alarm bells throughout Chelsea and in museums across America that show contemporary art. At the heart of the case, which Mr. Prince is now appealing, is the principle called fair use, a kind of door in the bulwark of copyright protections. It gives artists (or anyone for that matter) the ability to use someone else’s material for certain purposes, especially if the result transforms the thing used or as Judge Pierre N. Leval described it in an influential 1990 law review article, if the new thing “adds value to the original” so that society as a whole is culturally enriched by it. In the most famous test of the principle, the Supreme Court in 1994 found a possibility of fair use by the group 2 Live Crew in its sampling of parts of Roy Orbison’s “Oh Pretty Woman” for the sake of one form of added value, parody.”