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
- August 2026 Microsoft Layoffs Are "Secret Layoffs" or "Silent Layoffs"
- It's all about secrecy, isn't it?
- Newer Not Better: Treadmill Updates Cause Problems
- after 2 years the un-updated machines still fine
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 136 Out of 200: Lawyers That Get Paid to Mess About
- They were already outnumbered and understaffed
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- Sharing and Empathy
- Be more like Stallman, not Linus
- Fedora 'Community' Became 100% IBM Staff, Drawing Up Policies Like CoC and CoI (Where the IBM is Excepted From Conflict of Interest Policies)
- IBM has in effect killed Fedora
- Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Planner Season is Upon Us, Slop "Apocalypse", and USENET
- Links for the day
- Cuts at IBM, Allegedly More Shutdowns to Come, CEO Visits Complicit Media to Promote Lies and Products That Will Never Exist (Misleading Shareholders)
- IBM is collapsing
- Links 01/08/2026: GAFAM Falling Deep Into Trillion in (Secret) Debt to Keep the Slop Bubble From Popping Already, Anger Over "FIFA’s World Cup Privatisation Plan"
- Links for the day
- The Cyber Show on the Slop Bubble
- new article about the implosion of the slop bubble
- Links 01/08/2026: New York Times Trying to Inflate the Slop Pyramid Scheme (at Cost to Its Own Reputation) and "Iran Appears to Be Blasting Amazon Data Centers Off the Map"
- Links for the day
- Positive Political Momentum
- Daniel Pocock is taken seriously by many people who contact us privately
- Google "AI" is Plagiarism, the Case of Richard Stallman (RMS)
- Why would anyone choose LLM slop over the originals, curated and fact-checked by domain experts?
- Explaining That Software Patents Are Neither Legal Nor Desirable
- Many of our readers work in the legal sector
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, July 31, 2026
- IRC logs for Friday, July 31, 2026
- Gemini Links 01/08/2026: Retirement, Bike Trips, Quake Stuff, Usenet Reborn
- Links for the day
- Links 31/07/2026: Microsoft Now Says Slop is Bad (LinkedIn Cracks Down on It), LinkedIn Narrows Down Size (No Expansion)
- Links for the day
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: From Alicante to Munich: Another Smooth Ride
- Campinos is intent on transforming what was originally envisaged as a temporary public office into his own permanent personal feather-bed
- Daniel Pocock and the Important Observation About Threats of Cult-Like Behaviours (No Rationality, No Reason, Just "Mob Rule")
- It's a threat to Europe's sovereignty
- The "PIP Parade" of IBM's Lousy Management, Which Said "Blockchain" Was the Future
- In a healthy company such a CEO would be punished for utterly wrong visions and predictions. Not at IBM...
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 135 Out of 200: Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) That Does Not Disclose Financial Activities Before August
- It certainly looks like they keep losing the remaining women that still exist in the firm
- Links 31/07/2026: "Climate Cover-Up Continues" and Pesticides "Cook the Planet"
- Links for the day
- Datacentre 'Boom' Sceptics Aren't Luddites, They Recognise a Threat to Human Survival (Not Limited to Climate Change)
- Archaeologists very well know that no species will survive forever
- Microsoft's Claims Are Based on a Big Lie
- the bubble is coming to its hard limits
- Don't Lose Sight of the Impact of "End of 10" (Vista 10)
- GNU/Linux has taken off fast
- Microsoft's Debt Continues to Steadily Increase, Not Counting Hundreds of Billions in Secret/Hidden Debt
- The mass layoffs will carry on, maybe labelled LITE
- IBM is Circling Down the Drain, the 'Growth' Comes From Beancounting Tricks and Salary Cuts
- IBM was down 2.17% yesterday
- Microsoft's "Headcount" Distracts From How Big a Cull It Had This Month
- It also speaks of numbers "[a]s of June 30" though the "buyouts" were effective July 1 and since then well over 10,000 workers have vanished
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, July 30, 2026
- IRC logs for Thursday, July 30, 2026
- Gemini Links 31/07/2026: Music, Journaling, and Longing
- Links for the day
- More Fake News From (and for) IBM, Nobody Ever Held Accountable for Fraud
- Companies that turn a blind eye to their own corruption end up recruiting more corrupt people and sacking those who object to the corruption
- Links 30/07/2026: Smol Document Server and More PalmOS-ing
- Links for the day
- Links 30/07/2026: Microsoft Refuting Its Own Slop Hype and "Amazon Is Gutting Its Hey Hi (AI) Division" (GAFAM Bubble)
- Links for the day
- Today The Register MS Published "AI" Spam and Fake Article by "Senior Technical Marketing Engineer"
- unethical practices
- Cult inquiry parliament leak fallout
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Techrights Will Always Protect Sources
- Our #1 priority is sources
- European Patent Office (EPO) Series: Legal Concerns and Suspicions of Irregularities
- complaints submitted to OLAF
- The Era of Silence
- So stay silent, remain hidden
- GAFAM and IBM Dying in Massive Debt, Hence the Mass Layoffs (Increasingly Silent Layoffs That the Media Fails to Mention)
- the integrity of this economy is only as good as its leaders or those who govern the market
- TheLayoff.com Deletes Comment That Called IBM's Previous CEO, Ginni Rometty, "Gin 'n Tonic"
- It is hard to believe the comment was deleted for being a duplicate (in another thread)
- The Mainstream Media Continues to Overlook or Intentionally Ignore Hundreds of Billions in Hidden/Secret Microsoft Debt
- the issue is that Microsoft's crisis is a lot greater and broader than this
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 134 Out of 200: What "Majority Rules" Tell Us About the Litigant
- we press on with this series
- Overshoot Day Sites That Contribute to the Problem
- Some of these are not even accessible (at all) without JavaScript
- Microsoft May Have Gotten Rid of 8% of Its Workforce This Month
- It's hard to know what's really going on because there's no transparency due to NDAs
- Links 30/07/2026: "Age of Irrationality", Google Losing Money, and "House of Ellison is on the Brink"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 30/07/2026: Homeworlds Notes and Manuscript Submitted
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 29, 2026
- IRC logs for Wednesday, July 29, 2026