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Links 22/3/2012: KDevelop 4.3, Gentoo in Space





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux

  • Universal USB Installer supports four more Linux distros
    The busy folks at Pen Drive Linux have updated their handy Universal USB Installer tool to support four more distros. Which means it can now convert live CDs of Deepin Linux, LinHES Linux, Trisquel Linux and Satux Linux to run on USB keys.


  • Dell Surveys Customers on GNU/Linux


  • Carla Schroder: Whoever controls technology controls society
    CS: My first PC was an Apple LC II back around 1993. Then I got hold of a Windows 3.1/ DOS 5 PC. I spent most of my time in DOS because Windows was barely functional. I learned about Linux from a local computer magazine, Computerbits, and installed my first Red Hat around 1995. From 3.5” diskettes!

    Apple was very different then, they actually encouraged users to get under the hood and learn about the system, and you could get detailed manuals. They didn't evolve into shiny, unfriendly closed boxes until later.


  • Desktop

    • 2012 Will be The Year of The GNU/Linux Desktop
      The GNU/Linux desktop has been around and growing for a while now but 2012 will be special:

      * Android/Linux and GNU/Linux are getting together on ARM, * Many OEMs are now producing desktop/notebook machines with GNU/Linux, including some old and new styles, * thin clients, which love GNU/Linux, are now respectable (growth 20% p.a.)…, and * Android/Linux is invading the desktop space on ARM and x86.


    • How Linux Can Bring Life To Your Old PC




  • Audiocasts/Shows





  • Kernel Space

    • What's New in Linux 3.3?


    • Greg KH Readies for Collaboration Summit, Talks Raspberry Pi
      Linux kernel maintainer and Linux Foundation Fellow Greg Kroah-Hartman will be moderating the highly-anticipated Linux kernel panel at the Collaboration Summit in a couple short weeks. He was generous enough to take a few moments recently to answer some questions about what we might hear from the Linux kernel panel, as well as some details on his recent work and projects. Oh, and we couldn't resist asking him about the new Raspberry Pi.


    • Linux Kernel May Gain VMUFAT File-System Support


    • Graphics Stack

      • AMD Publishes Open-Source HD 7000, Trinity Code


      • An Updated Look At Radeon Gallium3D 2D Color Tiling


      • Intel Publishes More Haswell Graphics Driver Code


      • An Extremely Large Patch Hits The X.Org Server


      • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 "Kepler" On Linux?
        NVIDIA has finally introduced their first Kepler-based graphics card: the GeForce GTX 680. The new Kepler graphics architecture is an exciting successor to Fermi, but how well does this new graphics processor work under Linux? Here's a glimpse in what to expect for the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 600 series on Linux.

        First of all, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 is designed to compete with AMD's Radeon HD 7970 Southern Islands graphics card. The GTX 680 has a 28nm GK104 Kepler GPU with 1536 CUDA cores, 128 texture units, 1006MHz core clock, PCI Express 3.0 support and initially there's just 2GB of GDDR5 video memory on a 256-bit bus. The GeForce GTX 680 has a 195 Watt TDP and carries a $500 USD price-tag.


      • Nouveau Project Has Huge Surprises Today


        This morning I wrote about the launch of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 as the first-to-ship NVIDIA GPU based upon their brand new Kepler architecture. At the start of the morning it looked to be the usual NVIDIA launch: binary driver support should be in place with an official driver update due out at any time and it would mark the start of the usual Nouveau driver game of reverse-engineering the support in the coming months. With Fermi and past NVIDIA generations there's never been same-day open-source Nouveau support in any form, but it's generally taken months to get the display to light-up with KMS.






  • Applications



  • Desktop Environments



    • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

      • KDevelop 4.3 Brings Support for Basic C++11
        After nine long months of hard work, the KDevelop team proudly announced last evening, March 20th, the immediate availability for download of the KDevelop 4.3 software, which comes with improved performance, lots of new features and assorted bug fixes.


      • KDevelop 4.3 arrives with KDE Projects integration


      • KDE vs Unity: Is KDE Better Than Unity?


        I have been using KDE under openSUSE for a while now, and for the first time in my life started to love KDE. Last night I went on a test driver and installed couple of KDE centric distributions including Mageia and Mandriva just for the sake of comparison.

        These two distributions showed what wonders can be done with KDE, if integrated well. The moment I booted into Kubuntu, I realised why Kubuntu is so low in Distrowatch (at 27). This is ironic because the 26 spots are dominated by KDE centric distros such as Mageia, PCLinuxOS, Chakra, Mandriva, etc.




    • GNOME Desktop





  • Distributions



  • Devices/Embedded



    • Phones



      • Android

        • Year 2012 Will See More Android 4.0 Phones


          The plight of developers will soon come to an end as the industry will see more Android 4.0 phones launched in 2012.

          According to Digitimes, "The supply of smartphones running on Android 4.0 will increase substantially starting the second quarter of 2012, with mid-range to high-end models coming from brand vendors including HTC, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Mobile Communications, while China-based handset makers may launch models based on Qualcomm's 7227a solution and MediaTek's MT6565 platform for the entry-level segment, according to industry sources."


        • Sony Releases Source Code Of Xperia S
          Sony has released the source code for the Sony Xperia S phones. This is Sony's flagship device (no more Erricson) which runs on 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Dual Core processor. This is the first time the company has released source code for a product built on the Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 platform. The code is targeted at inividual enthusiasts and projects like CyanogenMod to be able to take full advantage of the hardware by creating custom ROMs.


        • Sony Starts Shipping Xperia S, Globally


          Sony has announced that they have started shipping their flagship Android phone Xperia S. The phone will be available globally. The phone is powered by a 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Dual Core processor and runs Android 2.3.






    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets







Free Software/Open Source



  • Direct from the Source: Some Good Interviews with FOSS Leaders
    It's always good to hear from the movers and shakers in the open source community, and in addition to a number of recent interviews on timely open source topics here on OStatic, a number of compelling interviews with FOSS leaders have appeared on other sites. If you're looking for some great input from the bleeding edge, check out this collection of interviews worth reading.


  • Announcing the Sixth Annual Future of Open Source Survey
    Black Duck Software and North Bridge Venture Partners, in partnership with 451 Research, yesterday announced a collaboration to conduct the sixth annual Future of Open Source Survey.

    The survey, an annual bellwether of the state of the open source industry, is supported by more than 20 open source software (OSS) industry leaders and is open to participation from the entire open source community.


  • Events



  • Web Browsers



    • Chrome

      • Chrome: The people’s Web browser choice
        Yes. It’s true. For one day, March 18th, 2012, Chrome, and not Internet Explorer (IE), was the most popular Web browser in the world. It won’t be the last day. While the start of the work week put IE comfortably back on top. When users aren’t chained to their desks, they’re choosing to use Google’s speedy Chrome.

        StatCounter, the Web-site analytics company research arm StatCounter Global Stats found that Chrome was the number one browser in the world that day. StatCounter data comes fron over 15 billion page views per month (4 billion from the US) to the StatCounter network of more than three million websites




    • Mozilla

      • For a Speedy Boot, Try Firefox-Based xPUD Linux
        Enter Linux in general--which is typically much faster, particularly on older hardware--and xPUD in particular, an Ubuntu-based distro built around Firefox that's lightweight and made for speed.


      • Thunderbird 11 Officially Lands in Ubuntu 11.10
        One week after Firefox 11 officially landed in Ubuntu 11.10 last week, a few hours ago (March 21st) Canonical announced that the Mozilla Thunderbird 11.0 email client is now available on the official software repositories of the Oneiric Ocelot operating system.






  • SaaS

    • VMware Worried About Rackspace, OpenStack Cloud Gains?
      VMware vs. OpenStack: Plenty of pundits are debating the merits of each platform for cloud computing. Now for a twist: Within the cloud storage market, the recent hot rumor involves VMware (VMW) potentially buying Rackspace (RAX) in order to disrupt potential competition from OpenStack, the open source cloud platform. Here’s a reality check from The VAR Guy.


    • Dell teams up with Canonical to put OpenStack in the cloud
      OpenStack-Powered Cloud Solutions with Ubuntu are to be offered by Dell to UK, German, and Chinese companies


    • Dell delivers one-stop cloud computing service based on OpenStack


    • Dell gets more open saucy


    • Eucalyptus Doubles Down on its Amazon Bet
      Born as a research project in the computer science department at UCSB, Eucalyptus the company was founded in January of 2009. Originally intended to replicate a subset of the Amazon cloud’s featureset in software that could be run locally, one of the project’s primary differentiators was its compatibility with the Amazon API. Importantly, however, this support was unofficial: Amazon neither supported nor legally blessed this feature. Which meant that its appeal was throttled by the uncertainty of Eucalyptus’ legal footing. More than one large vendor has privately characterized the Amazon API as a “non-starter” because their legal departments could not be assured of Amazon’s intent with respect to the intellectual property issues involved.




  • CMS

    • Drupal Usability Test Conclusions: A Missing Conceptual Foundation
      Earlier this year we announced that we would be conducting a Drupal usability study that we would live stream so viewers could watch as participants worked with Drupal 7. Becky Gessler and I are excited to announce our analysis of the results that we will also present at DrupalCon Denver to the Drupal community in a “core conversation” session with Jen Lampton called “User eXperience for Open Source: How to Galvanize a Community."


    • Drupal's Plan for Open Source CMS Success




  • FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

    • GNU Hurd/ news/ 2011-q4
      This quarter, Ludovic Courtès contributed a continuously-built Nix-based QEMU image, raising the count of GNU/Hurd distributions to three: Debian GNU/Hurd, Arch Hurd, and now Nix. His build is still pretty basic, but a step into the right direction: continuous integration is a great facility for automated testing.


    • GNU Hurd/ news/ 2012-03-21
      The Google Summer of Code 2012 is on! If you're a student, consider applying for a GNU Hurd project -- details to be found on our GSoC page.


    • The GNU C library 2.15 release!


    • GCC 4.7.0 released to mark the 25 years of GNU Compiler Collection
      The GCC development team is celebrating the 25th year of the GNU Compiler Collection, a collection initiated by the first public release of GCC (GNU C Compiler) in 1987 by Richard Stallman. Over the years the GNU Compiler Collection, renamed as other languages joined the toolchain, shaped how developers acquired the tools of their trade and provided a platform for new compiler developments. As part of the celebration, the developers have released GCC 4.7.0, a major release of the compiler collection that brings with it new functionality.


    • Happy Birthday GCC!


    • GCC Turns 25 Years Old, GCC 4.7 Released




  • Licensing

    • Enforcing the GPL with Judo moves
      "In judo, the goal is to use the momentum of the person attacking you to defend yourself, and that is exactly what copyleft does"




  • Standards/Consortia

    • Open APIs: The Fifth Pillar of Modern IT Openness
      Last year, I wrote about the key pillars of openness in today’s enterprise IT industry, highlighting open source software, real open standards, open clouds, and open data as the ‘Four Pillars of Modern IT Openness.’

      More recently, I wrote about what I now consider to be the fifth pillar, which is open application programming interfaces (APIs). Of course, when we talk about ‘open’ anything — open source, open standards, open clouds, open APIs — there tends to be debate about what is really open, how we should define open and who should or should not be able to carry the phrase. My focus on open APIs and on APIs in general generated some good discussion, as well as some pushback (Jim comment on LI, regarding the value of APIs compared to open source software, which APIs are open, and how open is open enough?






Leftovers





  • Finance

    • Goldman loses bid to end lawsuit over risky CDO
      Goldman Sachs Group Inc lost its bid to dismiss a lawsuit accusing it of defrauding investors by selling risky debt linked to subprime mortgages that it planned to bet against.

      The decision by U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero in New York keeps alive a hedge fund's claims over a $2 billion offering of collateralized debt obligations, amid intense scrutiny over Goldman's activities before and after the 2008 financial crisis.




  • ACTA





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