Links 23/3/2012: Commodore Linux, Iceland Moves to Free Software
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
- Modified: 2012-03-23 09:21:20 UTC
Contents
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Commodore USA has released the new AMIGA mini and the VIC mini, two small form factor PCs with a bit of retro styling, but very new and powerful guts
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Kernel Space
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Graphics Stack
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The Gallium3D compute infrastructure, which is the underlying work for supporting OpenCL over this open-source graphics driver architecture, is on approach for landing in the very near future. This has been one damn good day for open-source Linux graphics drivers following the earlier Nouveau surprise announcements.
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Soon, the kernel will support several AMD graphics cores that are used in recent Radeon graphics cards and in various upcoming processors. In systems with Intel graphics, using hibernation can cause memory corruption. The development of Linux 3.4 has started.
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Applications
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Instructionals/Technical
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Wine
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Desktop Environments
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K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)
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Jonathan Riddell, the KDE developer, recently announced that Canonical stopping funding the Kubuntu project and reassigning him in a new role. Looking at Canonical's focus on Unity, that's not a surprising move. I don't know how Canonical works, but looking at the new challenges they set for themselves with every release, I do think they need all the hands they can get. The result of that hard work is evident - Unity is shaping up really well.
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Have an old computer lying around that you’d like to use for some light web surfing, document editing, and other tasks? I mean like a PC with a 1999-era Intel Pentium III processor? It turns out there’s an OS for that… and it’s not Windows 98.
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In my last blog about Linux Live Environments, I mentioned REMnux, an environment specifically built for malware analysis. I'd spent a little time with REMnux when it first came out, but decided to take the latest version (3.0) for a test drive.
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New Releases
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Debian Family
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Derivatives
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Canonical/Ubuntu
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Canonical’s next long-term support release of its flagship Linux distribution, Ubuntu 12.04 is in late beta. This next release, due out on April 26th, is in beta now. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and so far, so good.
Indeed, the new Ubuntu is good enough already that I’ve it on my default Ubuntu system: a 2009-era Gateway DX4710. This PC is powered by a 2.5-GHz Intel Core 2 Quad processor and has 6GBs of RAM and an Intel GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) 3100 for graphics. No, it’s not fast, but unlike Windows 8’s beta, you don’t need a fast computer for Ubuntu.
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From a pool of thousands, 15 photographic wallpapers have been chosen for inclusion in Ubuntu 12.04.
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With Ubuntu remaining uninterested in systemd, the Upstart init system continues to be developed. Released today was Upstart 1.5 with a few new features.
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However, while that beefed up version may be available at some point, costs and demand will likely hold it off for a while, the popular mini-computer's designer said.
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Phones
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Android
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NASA has made great efforts to get the public interested in their various projects and avenues of research using tools such as social media networks and their suite of mobile applications. Unfortunately, those applications have almost exclusively been iPhone exclusive. Of the over 20 mobile applications NASA has released, only a scant have made it over to everyone’s favorite open source mobile operating system.
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Sometimes it’s easy to forget that Android is open source and built on Linux. Fortunately for Android enthusiasts and independent developers, however, Sony has made life a little easier by releasing the open source archive for the Xperia S device. Of course, there are some catches. Read on for what this announcement means for the juncture of Android and free software.
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Sub-notebooks/Tablets
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Oracle/Java/LibreOffice
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The Document Foundation (TDF), which produces the leading open source office software suite LibreOffice, is on schedule for the release of a cloud version of its software next month.
The team released the last update to its 3.4 build on Thursday and is now focused on developing version 3.5 further, but the group is now also ready to go live for cloud services in April. That said, the team reserves the right to hold off on launch until the last few software fixes come in, TDF spokesman Italo Vignoli told The Register.
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Project Releases
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Public Services/Government
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OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE is finding favour on the Icelandic government scene with the announcement that all of its public administration organisations will adopt it.
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Iceland's push to move its public sector to open-source software has made some headway, with most of the shift seeing Windows swapped for Linux.
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Security
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Some words just seem to go together: "bread" and "butter"; "trial" and "error"; "Microsoft" and "security breach." The MS12-020 Remote Desktop Protocol vulnerability revealed last week shows once again that when it comes to data security, Microsoft is its own worst enemy and any "secure" system can be compromised.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
- breaking/violating laws and conventions
- Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
- Links for the day
- The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
- At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
- Brett Wilson LLP Seem to Have Had Only One Litigation Client in 2025, He Was Previously Charged, Just Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (Whom They Now Represent)
- Karma is superstition, regulators are not
- Project 2030 to Cover How "Project 2025"-Styled Anti-Media Zealots From America Targeted Techrights and Tux Machines
- The common denominator is also their attacks on women
- Brett Wilson LLP Failed to Meet Deadlines Set by Judge 7 Months Earlier, Tried to Ruin Our Holiday, Then Had the Audacity to Ask Us for Over 3,000 Pounds for Its Own Lateness
- As a matter of principle we will never respond to assassin while we are on holiday
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- Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
- Links for the day
- Offloading to the Sister Site
- In the interest of not overwhelming readers
- Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
- Links for the day
- Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
- Links for the day
- Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
- Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
- Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
- some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 18, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025
- On Claims That After Bluewashing Red Hat Will Increasingly Become an Indian Company
- Discussed this week (long and detailed)
- Americans Attacking British Sites Only Months After They Leave America
- We find it kind of funny if not ironic that this site, originally an American site, got legal harassment only from Americans and only months after it had moved to the UK
- Despite Losing Over a Quarter Million Dollars a Year Software in the Public Interest (SPI) Gives Helping Hand to Libreboot
- SPI's financial state depends a lot on its public image or its reputation
- Slopwatch: Google Helps Plagiarism and Sends Traffic to Ripoff Artists
- That Google as a company helps spamfarms is noteworthy
- If You Want to Know the Future, Listen to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Andy Farnell
- We're sure the FSF will have plenty of its own output
- Links 18/09/2025: A Taliban Ban on Internet Access and Troubled US Job Market
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/09/2025: Computer Literacy and Accessing Alhena's Database
- Links for the day
- Links 18/09/2025: US War on Media (Truth Banned, Cancel Culture by the Hard Right), NYT Chief Executive Warns Cheeto is Deploying ‘Anti-press Playbook'
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 17, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025
- Slopwatch: Fake Articles, Fake Text, Fake Images, Negative Slant on "Linux"
- Google News has lost its value; the signal-to-noise ratio has fallen off a cliff
- Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Relax-and-Recover on Proxmox and New Smolweb File Transfer Service
- Links for the day
- Fact: EFF Got Corrupted by Corporate Money. Microsoft Lunduke (Political Noise): The Issue With EFF is, It Kills Babies.
- Microsoft Lunduke - as usual - finds a way to make it about abortions
- Pacing Publication Up a Bit
- The news cycles have gotten rather light and slow
- Links 17/09/2025: Power Outages, Digital Controls, and Attacks on the Mainstream Media (by Insecure and Corrupt Dictators)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Flashing LineageOS and ROOPHLOCH
- Links for the day
- Links 17/09/2025: Long COVID Study, "Exposing Pegasus", and Chatbots Exposing Sensitive Data
- Links for the day
- Links 17/09/2025: Secret Settlement for Internet Archive and Google’s LLM Slop Summaries Attracting Lawsuits
- Links for the day
- The True Cost of 'Generative Models'
- Funded and promoted by the companies that profit from the waste
- 'Big Slop' Attacks Contemporary Information/Knowledge and Creative Works, 'Big Copyright' (Cartel) Attacks the Old
- Someone at IA will hopefully "blow the whistle" on what they actually agreed
- Why We Find It Difficult to Trust Rust
- A comparison between C/C++ and Rust
- Slop Nihilism is Funded by Big Oil
- Eventually human civilisation will destroy itself
- Watching the OSI: Our Series Will Carry on Irrespective of the Chief's 'Resignation'
- the OSI isn't even the real guardian of the term "Open Source"
- Professor Eben Moglen Recovering From Open Heart Surgery
- From his public pages (this is not secret)
- Just What LibreOffice Needs? Another Language? (Rust)
- what's all this concern about memory safety?
- Many Microsoft Managers Are Leaving
- "Hey hi" chaff or chaff about "hey hi" cannot eternally distract from the difficulties inside the company
- There Are Red Hat (IBM) Layoffs, But Google News is Infested With Slopfarms
- It contributes a lot to misinformation and it encourages plagiarism
- Tomorrow, Microsoft's Tim Anderson's 'The Register MS' Offshoot Will Have Been Inactive for 2 Months (There's Also a Slop Problem)
- We've already caught The Register MS using LLM slop for articles
- Microsoft's Chief Legal Officer Leaves Microsoft After Nearly 30 Years
- And not retiring
- Even Windows Users Are Having Problems With "Secure Boot"
- When it comes to security - Microsoft strives for the very opposite
- Another Competition Crime of Microsoft, Long Facilitated and Advocated by a Bad Actor, Who is Funded by a Third Party to Commit Extortion Against People Who Have Correctly and Repeatedly Warned About It for Over 13 Year
- We must always go back to the core issues
- 3 More Reasons to Replace Mozilla Firefox With LibreWolf
- Thankfully there are de-enshittified versions of Firefox
- USA Not a Place for Free Speech
- In America, as in the US, the attacks seem more enhanced or advanced these days
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, September 16, 2025
- IRC logs for Tuesday, September 16, 2025
- Links 17/09/2025: Google Layoffs in "Hey Hi" (AI), Perplexity Hit With More "Hey Hi" (Plagiarism) Lawsuits
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 17/09/2025: Reclaiming Things in a Digital Age and Moon Phases in CGI
- Links for the day