Linux in the News: New RC, Steve Jobs' Offer to Torvalds Recalled, OpenDaylight Summit...
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-18 09:46:04 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-18 09:46:04 UTC
Summary: Kernel-centric news items from the past few days
Kernel Space
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Linux kernel 3.14 RC3 includes several updated drivers (GPU, media, block, etc.), architecture updates (x86, ARM64, s390), filesystem improvements (Btrfs, VFS, NFS, OCFS, and kernfs fixes), as well as various mm and tooling (perf) improvements.
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Linus Torvalds, the man behind the wonderful project Linux and Git was offered job by Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Inc. Torvalds never met Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft but he met Jobs in the year 2000 when he was working with Transmeta corporation, an American fabless semiconductor company. Jobs invited Torvalds to Cupertino Camps of Apple. Torvalds was offered thick salary and remarkable position within the organization and was supposed to do Non-Linux things at Apple. This was the point, Torvalds disagreed. Moreover Torvalds did not like the Mac Kernel, Mach.
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Earlier this month at the OpenDaylight Summit, the software defined networking project announced its first code release, called Hydrogen.
Their open source controller is now available for download, published for everyone to see and use. But the structure and culture that got the project to this point, about one year after its formation, isn't so readily available for outsiders to see and understand.
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As users everywhere begin to warm up to the benefits of running multiple operating systems in tandem, virtualization has become one of the hottest corners of the technology arena. Many open source tools are helping to drive this trend, and that is making the work of the Open Virtualization Alliance very important. The group has been up and running for years, and late last year it joined the Linux Foundation in an effort to integrate its efforts more closely with the Linux community.
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All of the code for kdbus is living within its own Git repository right now and also there's code within the systemd Git while a compile-time switch must be activated now within systemd. Developers are hoping kdbus will be reviewed and merged into the upstream Linux kernel this year. Lennart shared a couple of kdbus features out on the horizon include sandboxing support, yielding CPU time to destination, priority inheritance, and priority queues.
Graphics Stack
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This new multi-touch touch-pad implementation presents support for one / two / three finger tapping, two-finger scrolling, clickfinger, drag-n-drop on clickpads, and single-touch touch-pad support. There's also work underway in the clickpad software button support and better timeout handling. Other possible features include trackstick mode support, disable-while-tapping, pinch/rotation support, and other features.
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An SGI fan and Phoronix reader happened to have an old set of SGI tapes dating back to the 90's regarding "Tech Talk" and "KGSI Radio" on SGI wares. The Phoronix reader, Steven Hill, digitized these recordings and obtained permission to release them from SGI after formally being marked confidential.
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AMD has published a second version of their open-source Linux driver code for exposing the "VCE" video engine on modern Radeon GPUs under Linux via OpenMAX for accelerated H.264 video encoding.
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The Radeon R600 Gallium3D driver has picked up support for another OpenGL extension that's mandated by the OpenGL 4.1 specification.
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For those curious how AMD's Catalyst Linux performance is doing as we get 2014 underway with the first Catalyst 14.1 beta, here are benchmarks from nine different AMD Radeon graphics cards under Ubuntu Linux and running this latest publicly available driver when looking at both the OpenGL graphics and OpenCL compute performance.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- The Register MS Has Just Published Slop Spam for NVIDIA and HP, It Says "AI" 43 Times
- As usual, The Register MS ought to be ashamed of itself for participating in it
- The Slop Debt (Trillions of Dollars, Money That Does Not Exist) is Causing the Collapse of GAFAM et al
- This slop hype will end up like "metaverse", except "metaverse" never ended up justifying trillions of dollars in "investment"
- Social Control Media is the Opposite of Information
- That says a lot about social control media
- Lack of Empathy Rampant in the Sector
- Sociopaths are sociopaths. They cannot help themselves
- Before the "Big Tech" (That Almost Everybody is Forced to Use) Was Controlled by Men Who Hate Women
- Such rejection and even hatred of women qualifies/enshrines oneself as an "incel"- a dangerous and violent online cult
- Enshittification More Than a Century Ago
- Is enshittification more than a century old?
- GNU in 1991 (35 Years Ago): Compiler and Lots More Ready, Linux Now Becoming 'Vibe Heap' (Slop Replaces Real Code)
- Without curbs in place, many Linux developers will flee
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 147 Out of 200: The SLAPP Series is 'Slow' Because Timing Matters
- It is important to stress that after this series is finished there will be many more series, with some of them showing raw evidence of what we've been illuminating and telling
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- Gemini Links 12/08/2026: Losing a Child, "The OpenWeb Needs Diversity", and Gmail Woes
- Links for the day
- Voluntary' Layoffs and 'Proper' Layoffs at IBM This Year
- When will IBM management confess that 15% of staff is already marked for potential removal?
- Links 12/08/2026: Trouble in Proprietary Chaffbot Company 'Open' 'AI' and Slop "Investors Are Suddenly Quaking in Their Boots"
- Links for the day
- Daniel Pocock in National News in Australia the Day of the Election
- "Posted 20m ago" (Thursday in Australia), it's timed nicely to help illuminate Pocock and give him last-minute exposure
- Simpler Means More Reliable
- The simple old way of local storage and local backups is still the best
- Clownflare and statCounter See GNU/Linux at ~8% in Norway
- Norway has long championed GNU/Linux compared to the rest of Europe
- Clacton manifesto: Reform UK hacking, leaks, raw sewage & 8GB Swiss Archive
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- statCounter Today: ChromeOS + GNU/Linux Measured at 10.98% Globally (Desktops and Laptops)
- Clownflare does not quite refute this
- The Register MS Has Just Published Fake Article About Replacing Linux With Proprietary Google System, "Sponsored by ASUS."
- All of those things are proprietary GAFAMware
- Links 12/08/2026: "X’s Advertising Business Continues to Tank", "Stop Feeding the Billionaires"
- Links for the day
- In Defence of Hoarding CDs, More So When Digital Restrictions (DRM) Come to More 'Content' and Even Offline/Physical Media Won't Work When Some Remote Server Says "No" (or Goes Offline)
- made to serve and entertain owners, not to allow companies like Sony and Microsoft subjugate owners
- Clownflare: In Finland, Birthplace of Linux Kernel, GNU/Linux Now Bigger Than Apple's MacOS
- It's not just in Finland where we see such trends
- More Mass Layoffs Due to Monumental Debt Excused as "Investment" (in Slop)
- They're maxing up the private debt and their country is already insolvent
- METRO Interviews Daniel Pocock a Day Before Election
- The article is behind a wall that blocks people who block ads
- Company-Wide 'Reorg' ('Redundancies') at IBM, Mark October 1st 2026 in the Calendar
- Is Oct 1 the new Apr 1?
- Even ZDNet Accepts That "Market Share" of GNU/Linux May Have Doubled on Desktops and Laptops
- GNU/Linux is definitely growing, and quite quickly in fact
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 11, 2026
- IRC logs for Tuesday, August 11, 2026
- Microsoft Layoffs and Shutdowns Continue This August, Morale Low, Employees Set Up Giant Inflatable Rat to Protest Against CEO
- nothing demonstrates their anger better than what they did to the CEO
- Gemini Links 12/08/2026: Sophomore Slump, Mandatory Phone Addiction, and Vintage Web Game Gallery
- Links for the day
- Summer Layoffs and 'Redundancies' (Cost-Cutting) at Microsoft and IBM
- IBM is merely buying its revenue - an unsustainable strategy that aims to hide the company's rapid decline
- Links 11/08/2026: Tensions South of China and Stingy "YouTube Doubles the Eligibility Requirements" (to Get Paid)
- Links for the day
- The Independent (UK) Today: "Independent candidate Daniel Pocock is concerned about media issues."
- Let's see what results say around Friday
- Gemini Links 11/08/2026: Stargate, Stargazer, Air-gapped Environments, and SystemVerilog Simulator
- Links for the day
- The Slop ('Linux') Foundation Celebrates 35 'Linux' Years a Week After GNU/Linux Turns 43
- they'll keep on trying to change history
- Keumars Afifi-Sabet Produces Useful, Informative Coverage Regarding Privacy
- And it's good for Richard Stallman
- Confirmed: Microsoft Layoffs in August 2026, Entire Operations Shut Down Too
- Microsoft is just bleeding
- Paying With Cash in 2026
- Cash isn't going away. Not any time soon.
- Blocking Tor Is Not a Solution, It's Paranoia
- Tor is not a crime
- Oligarchs and Their Footsoldiers Are Most Enthusiastically Loud About the Things They're Attacking
- Like "Microsoft loves Linux"
- FOSSY (SFC) Platforming GAFAM, Sells Endorsement
- Houston, we have a problem here
- Not Allowing Misogyny and Misogynists to Run the World
- We stand with (and for) equality, justice, and freedom
- "SPONSORED EXPLAINER" at The Register MS is Just More SPAM "Sponsored by HPE."
- This is a great example of crap 'journalism'
- IBM Won't Hire (or Hardly Hire) This Year
- IBM is bluffing with buzzwords while shrinking out of existence and reducing salaries
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 146 Out of 200: An Industry of Plagiarism, 'Normalised'
- they pursue personal enrichment by stealing from Free software developers
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 10, 2026
- IRC logs for Monday, August 10, 2026
- 5.1k Capsules Known to Lupa, Gemini Protocol Crawler
- If no limits (e.g. 10k max per capsule) were imposed on crawling, there would likely be millions of pages in the database
- Gemini Links 11/08/2026: Waking Up Earlier, Whining About LLMs as Destructive Plagiarism
- Links for the day
- Links 11/08/2026: "The Enemy Is the Platform" and 'Vibe' 'Coding' Shown to be Little But Plagiarism
- Links for the day
- IBM's Age Discrimination Leads Workers to Contemplate Suicide While the CEO Becomes Billionaire for Lying to the Press and Faking Performance (Fraudulent Accounting)
- IBM avoids issuing WARM notices
- If Your Software Project Welcomes Bots, Then All You'll Have Left at the End Is Bots (Same for Sites Which Permit LLM Slop; They End up as Slopfarms and No Human Wants to Contribute Anymore)
- A "slippery slop."
- Clownflare Affirms Disturbing Trend of Web Monoculture (Which Extents to Clownflare Itself)
- Clownflare itself is another layer of the same problem
- The Open Web Is Not Coming Back
- the open Web going out of control
- Tell Me Something I Don't Know
- Those who have a stake in the secrecy would do anything to maintain secrecy
- Gemini Links 10/08/2026: Recollections and Washing Machine That Only Last a Few Years
- Links for the day
- Claims of Mass Layoffs at IBM (in Finance)
- IBM tries hard to maintain an illusion of normality - to the point of viciously censoring critics and whistleblowers.
- The Slop Bubble (Pyramid Scheme) is Becoming Bigger and Everyone Should be Terrified (Its Implosion Will Cause More Damage)
- there's no plan for a turnaround
- Microsoft and Apple Lose Ground to GNU/Linux in the United States
- This contributes a lot to the international curve
- Escaping Ads
- When users do not want ads, then no ads should show up, period
- For Second Year in a Row Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Loses Money (Over $3,000,000 Lost in 2 Years), Bradley M Kuhn Steps Down as Treasurer
- lost almost $600,000 last year
- Microsoft/GAFAM Operating at a Loss
- Microsoft has financial problems
- Nigel Farage crisis: Taylor Swift & Jeffrey Epstein both shunned cryptocurrency bosses
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- statCounter Now Sees GNU/Linux "Market Share Worldwide" at 9.21%, Soon 10%
- If this data is more or less accurate, it's time for panic at Microsoft
- Rumours of Impending Mass Layoffs in IBM's Yorktown Office, Impacting the LLM (Slop) Staff
- Bubbles never last forever, hence their name
- Links 10/08/2026: "Long COVID Linked to Lasting Damage in The Brain's Dopamine System", Microsoft’s Weather App Uses Over 1,000 Megabytes of RAM
- Links for the day
- Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) Does Not Support Women, It Imitates Authentic Organisations, Embraces Misogynists, Then Projects
- They try to monetise for personal gain at the expense of unpaid volunteers
- When You're Evil and You're Publicly Attacking Something, That Something Will Become More Popular
- when an oppressor becomes openly oppressive and does anything to squash/censor critics, the outcome will typically be detrimental to the oppressor
- Links 10/08/2026: "Against Oligarch" and "The Invisible Women"
- Links for the day
- Social Control Media Deathwatch: After Nearly a Million Posts Sent EchoFeed Shuts Down
- EchoFeed is hardly unique
- When the LLM Chatbots Industry (Trillions in the Red) Quits Paying the Media for FOMO
- fear of missing out, or FOMO for short
- Microsoft Killing Morale
- branding the process “inhumane” and “demoralizing”
- Google's "AI Overview" as Proprietary Censorship Engine and Gatekeeper
- People do not choose to use this, Google is just shoving that in people's faces, encouraging laziness and misinformation
- SLAPP Censorship - Part 145 Out of 200: They Tried Hard to Hide the Fact Their Client Had Been Sued, Twice Even
- A month ago Brett Wilson LLP tried to take my wife "to the side" (in effect isolated) to make her an offer
- statCounter: GNU/Linux Up to 8.95% Globally
- So the estimates are being "corrected" upwards, not downwards
- Explaining How Someone Attempted to Cancel RMS This Year (and Failed)
- The process itself involved debunking some falsehoods
- Microsoft's "XBOX Ranks Last", IBM is Headed for Extinction
- If Microsoft cannot dominate its own "home turf", what prospects are there elsewhere?
- DebConf6 fight denied by Google artificial intelligence
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Sunday, August 09, 2026
- IRC logs for Sunday, August 09, 2026
- Gemini Links 10/08/2026: A Mild Monday, Sleepy Saturday, OUYA, and Moving to GNU/Linux
- Links for the day