04.03.12

Contents

• GNU/Linux
  • Distributions
  • Devices/Embedded
• Free Software/Open Source
• Leftovers

GNU/Linux

• Commercialized Linux – The Great Divide

  I have been quite absent from Unixmen for almost 2 weeks now. I do apologize, but have been very busy with other work tasks and projects.
  I actually started this article during my absence, but there was a reason it has taken me so long to finish. Read on and see why.

  There’s an ugly side to Linux. Or to be more specific, Ubuntu Linux. It has suffered from the evil grips of what I describe as ‘Commercialism’.

• Softpedia Linux Weekly, Issue 193

• Shibboleet syndrome

  A very short time after both my brother and I migrated to Linux, we began experiencing the frustration of seeing the reality of the computer world: lazy technicians that charge to destroy your data, incompetent tech support staff who think that Linux is an anti-virus, unscrupulous companies that avoid their responsibilities and blame their helpless users by chanting their eternal mantra: “Your computer must be infected”…

• Desktop

  • Why Linux on the Desktop is Alive!

  • Desktop Linux: a dose of FUD from The Economist

    The article which I am referring to is titled: “Difference engine: free is too expensive.” The blog in which the entry is made is titled Babbage. That, of course, gives it respectability – Charles Babbage is a man whom every computer science student knows about. But the entry itself is mostly specious.

    The author first tries to get the Linux crowd on-side – he/she/it has used Linux, and the software (oh, how condescending can you be?) has several good points. Why it can even run on an old Pentium!

    But then we get to the meat of the confused reasoning – the large number of distributions and the fact that one distribution may have a different file layout to another is a big minus, and unless Linux conforms to the same pattern that Mac OSX and Windows do, it will not succeed in business. We all need to march to the same tune; monoculture will save the earth.

  • Booting Ubuntu on an 8-bit Chip: the Lowest-end Linux PC

  • Linux on the Desktop – Dead Again?

• Kernel Space

  • Linux 3.4-rc1

  • Graphics Stack

    • Icculus Grows Fond Of Open-Source GPU Drivers

      Ryan “Icculus” Gordon, the famed Linux game developer, in the past has sharply criticized open-source Linux graphics drivers as not being mature and putting the Linux desktop into a dangerous position. In speaking to Ryan this weekend, his views on the open-source graphics drivers have changed.

• Applications

  • 7 Essential Free Linux Speech Tools

  • DamnVid : User-Friendly Video Downloader and Converter from Popular Video Sharing Site

  • Don’t issue Direct Shutdown or Halt in Unix and Linux – Examples

  • Monitorix : Lightweight System Monitoring Tool Run Under Apache

    Monitorix is an free and open source system monitoring tool that allows users to monitor via web browser. Monitorix also monitoring services including CPU temp and load, Active processes, Allocated memory, Hard disk temp, Kernel usage, Network activity,Graphic Card temp and usage, and More.

  • Instructionals/Technical

    • Enhance your GIMP with GIMP plugins and scripts

    • Dave’s Top

    • AMD released ATI Catalyst 12.3, howto Install in Ubuntu and LinuxMint

    • How To Change the Login Screen Wallpaper on Ubuntu 11.10

    • Learning Linux Commands: nice & renice

    • how to determine the runtime and start time of a Linux process

    • Server Monitoring With Icinga On Ubuntu 11.10

    • How to fix the blue tint on YouTube videos problem (Flash and Nvidia)

    • Measures on the command line

    • Tutorial: Colored Man Pages & How It Works

    • How To Integrate ClamAV Into PureFTPd For Virus Scanning On CentOS 6.2

    • Set up Spice-Gtk 0.11 with USB redirection on Ubuntu Precise

    • Building an Ultra-Low-Power File Server with the Trim-Slice

  • Wine

    • Wine 1.5.1 released

  • Games

    • Quake2World Goes Into Beta With Nice Graphics

      Quake2World, a standalone game built atop the id Tech 2 engine but with sharply better graphics and other improvements, has finally reached a beta state. There’s a number of features to this latest open-source first person shooter.

    • Q3-Based Reaction 1.0 Beta Released

      Reaction 1.0, a game derived from Quake III, has been released in beta form after being in development for the past decade.

    • Trine 2 Linux Client Released

      There’s some more Linux gaming news this weekend: the Linux client of Trine 2 has finally been released.

      Trine 2 is the side-scrolling game of action, puzzles and platforming and the successor to the original Trine game that also had a native Linux client.

    • Trine 2 Finally Arrives on Linux

      Dear Linux gamers, the wait is over, as Frozenbyte unleashed a few days ago the Linux version for its award winning Trine 2 cross-platform game.

      Trine 2 is a side-scrolling puzzle adventure/action game developed by the Finnish studio Frozenbyte, will be ported to Linux and officially launched sometime during 2012.

• Desktop Environments

  • Clarifying details about E17 and Compositing

    I just wanted to take a moment to clarify the state of compositing with the Enlightenment desktop. In two recent reviews of Bodhi Linux the authors mucked up a few of the details concerning compositing and E17. I can’t really fault them for their misinformation (as a whole both are really good write ups) because the details about compositing and E17 aren’t very well documented. Today I would like to clarify a few things about using compositing with Enlightenment DR17.

  • Xfce 4.10 Goes Into Preview State

    For those unsatisfied with the state of GNOME 3.x Shell, Ubuntu’s Unity interface, and other Linux desktop options, Xfce 4.10 is approaching with an official release planned for later this month.

    As the first major Xfce update in more than one year, Xfce 4.10 Preview 1 is now available. “The Xfce development team is proud to announce the first preview release for Xfce 4.10. Together with this preview release, the Xfce project announces the feature freeze for the final 4.10 release which is set to be pushed out to the world on April 28th, 2012.”

  • K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

    • KDE Commit-Digest for 25th March 2012

  • GNOME Desktop

    • Hands-on: GNOME 3.4 arrives, introducing significant design changes

      The developers behind the GNOME project have announced GNOME 3.4, a new version of the desktop environment. The update brings several significant new features and a number of design and usability improvements.

      GNOME is an open source software stack that provides a desktop shell, applications, and development frameworks that are commonly used on the Linux platform. It is the default desktop environment in Fedora and several other Linux distributions. It’s released every six months on a time-based development cycle.

    • The Gnome 3 Meteor: Revisited

      I want to revisit this article for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, I think enough has changed in the last 6 months to invite some commentary. Journalism is sometimes just the ability to speculate widly and then put those crazy, wide-eyed presumptions onto paper. That said, not everything in this piece came true, and at the same time some of this things are still developing.

• Distributions

  • Taking an in-depth look at PapugLinux 11.1a

  • The Myth of Linux Distribution differences

    It is my hypothesis that there is a very real lack of knowledge of Linux basics even by many long time Linux users and especially by many members of the Linux press. This knowledge gap is exhibited by the fact that a large number of Linux users actually believe there are huge differences between Linux distributions. The media especially is rife with comparisons of different distributions (distros), reviews of distros and stories about each distro.

  • RapidDisk 2.1b and RapidDisk LX 1.0a Released

    First and foremost, RapidDisk 2.1b is now released and available. Second, the RapidDisk LX project is now listed as part of the Open Invention Network. Third, I just uploaded an initial RapidDisk LX 1.0 alpha release image to the project website.

  • Reviews: Taking an in-depth look at PapugLinux 11.1a

  • New Releases

    • Fuduntu 2012.2

    • Fuduntu 2012.2 Release

      The second Fuduntu quarterly ISO, Fuduntu 2012.2 is now available for immediate download. As with all Fuduntu releases, this release continues our tradition of small incremental improvements. It is important to note that existing Fuduntu users have already rolled up to this version through the normal update process, and do not need to download or reinstall from this media to benefit from this release.

  • Gentoo Family

    • Gentoo 12.1 Released With ZFS Support

      Coming out of the Gentoo camp is the Gentoo Linux 12.1 LiveDVD release with several new features.

      Packages at the heart of this updated Gentoo LiveDVD include the Linux 3.3 kernel, X.Org Server 1.12, KDE SC 4.8.1, GNOME 3.2.1, Xfce 4.8, Fluxbox 1.3.2, Mozilla Firefox 11, LibreOffice 3.5.1, Blender 2.60, Amarok 2.5, VLC 2.0.1, and others.

    • Interview with Fabio Erculiani of Sabayon Linux

    • Gentoo 12.1 Install Wizard: Real or Joke

      Gentoo released 12.1 on April Fool’s Day. I included it in my jokes roundup. But the Gentoo announcement has added a message to users and jokesters today: The installer is real.

      I said in that post that the best jokes are the ones you almost believe. But perhaps that wasn’t quite accurate. Maybe the most crafty of all are those that are real but seem like a joke. That’s the sum of the Gentoo installer. A Gentoo installer is a difficult beast to construct, I understand that. At one time the very nature of Gentoo conflicted with the traditional binary installer. However, the Gentoo team has been promoting Stage 3 installs for quite some time. What is a Stage 3 install? It’s the nearly complete install of a binary system from a tarball that needs to be rebuilt before adding all your goodies. So, why not have an install wizard like Sabayon?

  • Red Hat Family

    • m23 12.2 rock mit CentOS-Unterstützung!

    • Red Hat annual revenue crosses $US1 billion

    • Will These 2012 High Fliers Continue To Soar?

  • Debian Family

    • Derivatives

      • Canonical/Ubuntu

        • Ubuntu 12.04 Beta 2 – I Still Don’t Like It

        • Exclusive: The Official Ubuntu 12.04 CD Cover

          We can exclusively share with you the official disc artwork for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS CD and Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Server releases.

        • Here’s The Official Ubuntu 12.04 LTS CD Cover

        • Ubuntu 12.04 Default Wallpaper Unveiled

        • Introducing Ubuntu Full Text Search Lens for Unity

        • 2do’s todos are a doozie

          Having recently converted to Android from my iPhone 4, I have been very happy with the range of apps to replace what I had on iOS. In many cases, I’m finding the apps better. The Android ethos seems to be more about function, rather than design and aesthetics. However, one area where I’ve found the Android to be lacking is in respect of the “todo” category.

• Devices/Embedded

  • Phones

    • Android

      • Ice Cream Sandwich gives Android mobes brainfreeze – Sony

        Sony says its customers should avoid upgrading their Android devices to Ice Cream Sandwich, adding that many of them won’t get the option anyway.

Free Software/Open Source

• Fragmentation? Open Source? Buzzwords For Android, And Also Google’s Latest Effort, Google Campus

  London’s claim to being the hub for tech startups in Europe got a boost last week, when Google opened the doors of its latest effort, Google Campus, a seven-story centre for startups, which it has launched in partnership with several existing organizations, and big ambitions to galvanize some of the tech activity that has already marked out London to take it to the next level.

• Yahoo!’s Mojito is Now Open Source

• Events

  • OpenStack Conference Heads for San Francisco This Month

    At the end of last year, Computerworld’s Eric Knoor had this to say about the state of cloud computing: “If I had to sum up in one word the most exciting thing that happened to cloud computing in 2011, I’d have to say it’s OpenStack. This open source project, launched by Rackspace and NASA in late 2010, is assembling a private cloud ‘operating system’ for the data center that promises vast increases in operational efficiency.”

• Web Browsers

  • Mozilla

    • Mozilla opens up over Boot 2 Gecko

      With the evolution of HTML5 standards gathering pace, and developers increasingly looking to produce apps for multiple platforms, Mozilla’s plans to deliver an HTML5-based operating system for smartphones could have a major impact.

• SaaS

  • Hadoop: Big Data Opportunity, Powered by Open Source

    Wondering what comes after the cloud? Literally, usually sunshine — haha. But metaphorically speaking, the next great frontier may well be big-data. And Hadoop, an open-source project enjoying ever-increasing buzz as of late, will likely be at the fore as that niche evolves. If you don’t know much about Hadoop, it’s time to learn. Here are the basics.

• Semi-Open Source

  • SugarCRM: “Sales directors don’t care about the open source!”

• BSD

  • Apple’s LLVM 3.1 Clanging On Intel Sandy Bridge

• FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

  • GNU Health wins FSF Project of Social Benefit

    Just got back to Buenos Aires after a 10 days in the United States and El Salvador, and finally got some time to write about the award, what it means to GNU Solidario and to the community at large.

  • GNU Health wins FSF’s Project of Social Benefit award

    (You can check the original post at http://www.meanmicio.org/2012/04/gnu-health-wins-fsf-project-of-social.html )
    Just got back to Buenos Aires after a 10 days in the United States and El Salvador, and finally got some time to write about the award, what it means to GNU Solidario and to the community at large.

  • Open Source Tackles Healthcare In Places Microsoft Can’t

    OpenMRS began as a research project spanning Indiana University and Eldoret, Kenya’s Moi University.

• Public Services/Government

  • India launches “open government platform”

    The Indian government launched an ‘Open Government Platform (OGPL)’—an open source software platform which aims to provide enhanced public access to government data and documents.

    The OGPL, a joint effort from India and the United States, will make government data, documents, applications, tools and services publicly available. “By making data available through OGPL developers, analysts, media, and academia can develop new applications and insights that will help give citizens more knowledge for better decisions,” the government officials said in the press release.

• Open Hardware

  • Canadian Developer Building Open Source Tricorders

• Standards/Consortia

  • The Global Knock-on Effects of China’s Home-Grown Standards Preferences

Leftovers

• Why have just one operating system

  This magic comes about by the use of “virtualisation” – which simply refers to the creation of a virtual (rather than an actual) version of something. With the right software and a reasonably powerful PC, you can build virtual “compartments” inside your computer that look and act like a whole separate machine. That allows you, for example, to run Linux and Mac on Windows, try out a new web server or run an old operating system such as DOS or OS/2, all without disturbing your current system – or having to reboot. “Guest” systems can communicate with the underlying (or “host” operating system) via shared folders, networking or the clipboard, and you can install and run as many VMs (virtual machines) as you like, with disk space and memory the only real limitation. More amazingly, the extremely clever software is open source. And that means it’s free.

  VirtualBox, from virtualbox.org, is available for Linux, Mac and Windows and requires 40-90MB of disk space depending on your operating system. There’s also an Extension Pack containing some extra goodies and an extremely detailed manual on the site.

• Finance

  • William K. Black on the MF Global Cover-up: “All those that doeth Evil hateth the light!”

    Prof. William K. Black, you are the pre-eminent Hero of We the People in our time. You are the Man of Light, Truth, and Justice for the century. May your name ring forever in the pages of history, on a par with that of your namesake, William the Conquerer (“Johnny the Concaloo” in early R&B, you may recall), but with a higher purpose. William K. Black, you are our pre-eminent *Leader of Light*.