04.04.12

Links 4/4/2012: GNOME 3.4 Live CD, GIMP 2.8.0-RC1

Posted in News Roundup at 5:20 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

GNOME bluefish

Contents

GNU/Linux

  • Desktop

    • Little Drive, Big Deal

      You’ve heard of Linux, but haven’t had a chance to see what all the fuss is about. After all, your computer runs Windows. But what if you could plug in your USB drive and temporarily turn your PC into a Linux system? Even better, when you’re done, your machine will go back to its regular Windows-powered self, with no trace of Linux left behind?

      You can work this bit of OS prestidigitation with UNetbootin, a free Windows utility that downloads and installs any version of Linux to your flash drive, then makes that drive bootable. It’s an easy, hassle-free way to test-drive the OS, which runs entirely from the drive, making no changes whatsoever to your

  • Server

    • Dell-Clerity: Shifting IBM Mainframe Apps to Linux, Windows
    • Can An ARM-Based Supercomputer Become the World’s Fastest?

      Ramirez, a manager with the center, is in the midst of building a new supercomputer, called Mont-Blanc, that will use the same kind of low-power chips that you can find in tablets and smartphones today. Starting next month, his team will start assembling the first Mont-Blanc prototype using Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processors instead of the RISC or Intel x86-compatible processors that are used on virtually all of today’s supercomputers. The Tegra 3 will handle communications between different parts of the system while the actual number crunching will be done by yet-to-be-determined low-power multicore Nvidia graphics processors similar to the GeForce 520MX.

  • Kernel Space

    • Android As A First Class Citizen To Linux Kernel

      Greg Kroah-Hartman was asked today during a panel he was moderating at the 6th annual Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit about Google’s Android on the mainline Linux kernel.

      For those that haven’t been paying attention, since last year there’s been a concerted effort to mainline more of Google’s Android changes into the mainline Linux kernel. Android patches that went into the mainline Linux kernel previous suffered some rot, but this latest effort has the backing of several companies and is finally coming to fruition within stable kernel releases.

    • Who Are the ‘Unkown’ Linux Kernel Developers?

      There are a lot of different people that contribute code to the Linux kernel. In fact, according to the 2012 Linux Kernel Development report from the Linux Foundation, more than 7,800 developers from nearly 800 different companies have participated in Linux kernel development.

      Not all of those companies and developers participate in every kernel release. According to the report, for the recent Linux 3.2 kernel release, some 1,316 developers contributed, representing 226 different companies. While there is lots of participation, over the last five years the top 30 developers have contributed 20 percent of the total code.

    • The Linux Foundation Releases Annual Linux Development Report
    • How is Linux Built? Our new report and video.

      When you work for the Linux Foundation you get a lot of questions on just how Linux is built. Given the massive scale of the development and ubiquity of Linux today, some of us in the community might think everyone understands how the largest collaborative project in computing works. How you submit a patch. How maintainers work with Linux creator Linus Torvalds. But because of Linux’s unprecedented growth in mobile, embedded and cloud computing, among other areas, new companies and developers are looking to participate. More than ever before, actually.

    • How Linux is Built
    • Linux boss: We’re number one where it counts

      “We want to continue our trajectory in every corner of the industry,” Zemlin told The Register. “We’re seeing Linux as the primary platform for greenfield sites in large enterprises, the primary operating system for cloud computing build outs, and we’re seeing tremendous growth in mobile and the embedded markets.”

      While some in Redmond might point to the fact that Linux is still not king of the corporate desktop, Zemlin said that that battle isn’t particularly relevant anymore. People use a wider variety of computing devices to use computers, and the browser is the becoming the most common interface for most users.

    • Linux Kernel 3.3.1 Is Available for Download

      Greg Kroah-Hartman announced on April 2nd the immediate available for download of the first maintenance release for the stable Linux 3.3 kernel series.

      Linux kernel 3.3.1 incorporates ARM fixes, updated drivers (wireless, Radeon), USB updates, as well as some improvements to various filesystem, such as CIFS, EXT4, XFS and NFS.

    • Slideshow: Live from Collaboration Summit
    • How Linux Talks to the Internet of Things: A Look at IEEE 802.15.4

      If you pay much attention to the futurists on the Web these days, no doubt you’re familiar with the term “Internet Of Things.” It may be yet-another-buzzword, but the central concept is quite real: the spread of low power, Internet-connected devices that use wireless networks to communicate with our PCs and servers. After all, you don’t need a computer in your water heater or electric meter: you just need a sensor, and way to read it remotely. Linux will be a major player in this space, but most developers still aren’t familiar with the network standards that make it work, like IEEE 802.15.4.

    • What is tmpfs ?

    • Graphics Stack

      • Non-Linux OSes Still Playing In An Intel UMS World

        While Intel has a lot of interesting work going on right now within their Linux kernel DRM driver and elsewhere within their open-source graphics stack, operating systems like OpenIndiana/Illumos and FreeBSD are still catching up, but they’re still a ways off.

        Pushed out yesterday was an updated Intel graphics driver for the OpenSolaris-derived OpenIndiana. This new Intel X.Org driver is derived from xf86-video-intel 2.9.1… Yes, what was released as upstream in October 2009 while the latest Linux users are now running xf86-video-intel 2.18.0 with many, many features and changes since that point.

      • Intel outlines open source development projects

        The director of Intel’s Open Source Technology Center Imad Sousou outlined the chip giant’s plans to invest in the open source community and provided an update on two key projects, speaking at the Linux Foundation’s Collaboration Summit in San Francisco.

      • Kernel Log: Intel hibernate bug fixed

        New versions of the Linux kernel fix a bug in Intel graphics drivers which could cause memory corruption. AMD has released X.Org drivers for its new Trinity processors. In September there will be a conference for X developers in Nuremberg. Progress has been made on GPGPU support in Mesa 3D.

  • Applications

  • Desktop Environments

  • Distributions

    • What DEFT brings to the table

    • New Releases

    • Red Hat Family

      • CentOS Desktop

        I may be (half) joking sometime, but it happens to be serious too: encountered an old laptop (in bad shape, lot of dead pixels and such, it was a workhorse back in its time) which refuses to play along with Windows: bluescreen at startup, bluescreen at fresh install, hardware problems. The first thought: memory problems but memtest96 running from a Fedora live CD disagrees… but if I booted the device from that CD, just for the kicks I booted the distro (F14): works correctly, no lock-up, even WiFi is supported OOTB (so I suspect the hardware problem lies with the video card and is triggered by real use, not by the VESA driver).

      • Red Hat’s $1B milestone notable but chump change vis-a-vis overall Linux industry

        The Linux Foundation’s exec director saluted Linux distribution leader Red Hat for reaching $1 billion in revenues but pointed out that the overall Linux industry is worth many, many billions today.

      • Red Hat Turns More Into More

        Margins matter. The more Red Hat (NYS: RHT) keeps of each buck it earns in revenue, the more money it has to invest in growth, fund new strategic plans, or (gasp!) distribute to shareholders. Healthy margins often separate pretenders from the best stocks in the market. That’s why we check up on margins at least once a quarter in this series. I’m looking for the absolute numbers, so I can compare them to current and potential competitors, and any trend that may tell me how strong Red Hat’s competitive position could be.

      • Porticor Joins Red Hat Innovate Initiative

        Porticor®, the leading cloud data security company delivering the only cloud-based data encryption solution that infuses trust into the cloud by ensuring customer keys are never exposed, today announced it has joined the Red Hat Innovate™ program, enabling Porticor to leverage the power, openness and collaborative nature of open source communities, including enhanced access to Red Hat collaboration initiatives and software programs.

    • Debian Family

  • Devices/Embedded

    • Mentor Embedded Linux supports open source Yocto Project

      Mentor Graphics Corporation has released its next generation Mentor Embedded Linux platform that includes support for the Yocto Project, an open source collaborative project established by The Linux Foundation. The Mentor Embedded Linux platform helps developers build Linux-based embedded systems, independent of hardware architecture. With the new Mentor Embedded Linux platform, developers also gain the ability to easily select the best Linux kernel for their needs, irrespective of the kernel developed by Mentor Graphics or by a semiconductor company or by any third party.

    • Phones

    • Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

Leftovers

  • Security

  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife

    • The Fracking Frenzy’s Impact on Women

      Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” has generated widespread media attention this year. The process, which injects water and chemicals into the ground to release “natural” gas and oil from shale bedrock, has been shown to contribute significantly to air and water pollution and has even been linked to earthquakes. But little has been reported on the ways in which fracking may have unique impacts on women. Chemicals used in fracking have been linked to breast cancer and reproductive health problems and there have been reports of rises in crimes against women in some fracking “boom” towns, which have attracted itinerant workers with few ties to the community.

  • Finance

    • Exclusive: The $1.3 billion bond deal haunting Goldman

      The Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to bring charges soon against Goldman Sachs (GS) for a 2006 mortgage investment deal. The agency hasn’t said which one yet, but Fortune has learned there’s a good chance the SEC’s case will focus on Fremont Home Loan Trust 2006-E, a bundle of more than 5,000 mortgages that has cost investors, including mortgage guarantor Freddie Mac and by extension U.S. taxpayers, an estimated $545 million.

  • Intellectual Monopolies

    • Copyrights

      • Copyright paradigm shift in visegrad countries

        The field of copyright is associated with important cultural, social, and technological aspects, all of which have to be taken into account when formulating policy in this field. In the last 20 years, copyright and patent holders in different fields of industry and art have entered into a period of redefinition. Today, the copyright that served to protect the interest of creators in the last centuries is a barrier of invention and knowledge-sharing.

      • US government: We hear there’s child porn on those Megaupload servers, judge!

        Megaupload wants the servers back to help with its defense, but with most of its assets seized by the federal government, it can’t pay for them. Carpathia would normally wipe the servers and lease them to new clients, but the Electronic Frontier Foundation is demanding that legitimate users of the site be allowed to retrieve their personal data first. The Motion Picture Association of America doesn’t want this to happen without assurances that its copyrighted content won’t be retrieved and distributed again; besides, it might want the servers for a future lawsuit of its own. And the federal government yesterday announced that the servers “may contain child pornography,” which would render them “contraband” and limit Carpathia’s options for dealing with them.

Microsoft Patent War on Android/Linux is Backfiring, Oracle is Still Unable to Win a Single Case

Posted in GNU/Linux, Google, Patents, TomTom at 1:52 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: A few updates on the patent wars which target Linux and Android

THE fight against TomTom gave considerable force to Microsoft’s extortion-esque attacks on Linux. Unlike the Novell deal, this court case was about resistance to Microsoft, whereas Novell was the one that came to Microsoft, asking for the deal. Here we are in 2012, merely 3 years after the TomTom case and nearly 6 years since Novell came to Microsoft.

“Microsoft [is running scared from Germany because of #swpats”, writes Alan Lord, noting that just after the FAT decision and involvement from Linus Torvalds the Motorola case is weakened even further. We wrote about FAT recently because Microsoft is losing its patent teeth, which are rooted in lousy patent gums. One report on this subject comes from Reuters:

Microsoft (MSFT.O) is moving its European software distribution to the Netherlands from Germany after being caught up in patent disputes with mobile phone and tablet maker Motorola Mobility Inc (MMI.N).

“We would have preferred to keep our European distribution center in Germany, where it has been for many years. But unfortunately the risk from disruptions from Motorola’s patent litigation is simply too high,” Microsoft spokesman Thomas Baumgaertner said on Monday.

Foolishly enough, Reuters quotes another Microsoft mouthpiece and lobbyist (Florian Müller). As Microsoft is grooming its lobbyists and paying them to spread lies, it is possible to inject yet more Microsoft talking points into articles, then pretend they are from an “independent” source.

As under pressure this lobbyist admitted to be paid by Microsoft, a reputable news source like the above should refrain from quoting him in articles about Microsoft (also its rivals).

As one commenter put it in an external comments section when he saw the lobbyist quoted:

This is where I stopped reading, as I knew at that point that the article was going to be worthless.

This guy is like Gartner: always wrong, but somehow always quoted. How do I get a job where I can just make stuff up, always be wrong, and still get paid?

Microsoft lobbyistHe is still spreading Android-hostile disinformation. “Both Oracle and Google, not content with letting Dr. Kearl, the court-appointed damages expert, introduce his damages report and testimony without challenge, have filed Motions to exclude portions of Dr. Kearl’s report. However, each party only seeks to exclude one narrow area of Dr. Kearl’s testimony,” says Groklaw when it became clearer that the trial goes on:

Oracle and Google are now set to go before the US District Court of San Francisco on 16 April. Oracle had turned down a settlement offer from Google last week which has led Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal to decide that the case will go ahead.

The war on Android is always based on software patents. Get rid of software patents, then the problem will mostly go away. SJVN notes that CISRO [1, 2, 3] is still exploiting Wi-Fi patents to essentially troll real companies:

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CISRO) has snatched picked up $229-million from technology companies for their Wi-Fi patent. This time around, CISRO hit up Lenovo, Acer, Sony, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. These companies settled with CISRO rather than face in the infamously pro-patent Eastern District Court of Texas, United States.

This isn’t the first time CISRO has cashed in big with its overly-broad patent. The research arm of the Australian government hit up 14 companies in 2009, including HP, Microsoft, Intel, Dell, Netgear, Toshiba, 3Com, Nintendo, D-Link, and Buffalo Technologies, for over $200-million.

During Easter we shall catch up with patent news. We fell behind a bit. █

Microsoft Antitrust and Microsoft SUSE

Posted in GNU/Linux, KDE, Microsoft, OpenSUSE at 1:50 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Certification for SUSE
Picture contributed by a reader

Summary: Bits of news about Novell and SUSE (after Microsoft sponsorship)

THE case of Microsoft and Novell carries on and so does the SCO case, which changes focus somewhat.

It is rather sad that SUSE was bought by Novell, only to become a Microsoft-taxed distribution even for POS (more coverage here). A new post from Jos Poortvliet (SUSE) comes to KDE.org, further blurring the line between Microsoft and Linux (amid lots of sensationalist coverage about Microsoft pretending to ‘contibute’ to Linux). SUSE influence in KDE is not too healthy because of the strings, but it hopefully won’t do too much damage. █

Xamarin to Collaborate With Microsoft

Posted in Microsoft, Mono at 1:35 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Xamarin site

Summary: Xamarin to help develop Microsoft software and assist the monopolist’s openwashing effort

Our joke from April first was not far from reality because Microsoft gave code to Mono and Xamarin continues the tradition of sidling next to Microsoft. Mono proponent SD Times says that Xamarim will contribute to Microsoft code:

Microsoft releases ASP.NET Web API as open source; Xamarin plans contributions

[...]

The Mono project is adopting code from Microsoft, such as the JSON engine and part of the ASP.NET Web Stack. That’s because Microsoft has released ASP.NET Web API and ASP.NET Web Pages (also known as Razor) as open source under the Apache 2.0 license. That’s in addition to ASP.NET MVC, which was already available to the open-source community.

Miguel de Icaza, CTO of Xamarin and founder of Mono, said that he is working to contribute back to the ASP.NET Web Stack, as well as adapt parts of Microsoft’s code into Mono. For example, he cited the JavaScript Object Notation stack. “As of today, we replaced our System.Json implementation (which was originally built for Moonlight) and replaced it with Microsoft’s implementation,” he wrote in his blog.

Good to know whose side Xamarin is on. █

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