● 08.26.09

● Links 26/08/2009: Ubuntu’s Firefox and JPEG 2000

Posted in News Roundup at 8:33 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• In fact, I cannot remember the last time I have had to re-install Linux at all. Thinking about it, the last time I…., nope not even then. Since Redhat 6.2 I have not had to do a complete reformat and reload, ever!

• NEC Electronics is shipping a Linux-ready image-processing system-on-chip for IP set-top boxes (STBs). The EMMA3SL/P offers dual MIPS32 cores, is compliant with H.264 high definition (HD) and China’s audio/video standard (AVS), and offers multi-format video support for IPTV, says the company.

• It’s not entirely their fault. Windows, for release after release, is just one big broken promise. The slick happy interface promises a smooth, high-tech, trouble-free experience, and Microsoft’s marketing takes full advantage of that misconception. But that promise is never, ever fulfilled. Sooner or later, on every computer it’s installed on, Windows’ inherent flaws break the system. We all know what happens. More and more frequent reboots. Slow performance. Junkware and crapware and spyware slowing things down, and even if they’re not there to do it, the scanners to catch them slow things down on their own. Viruses and incompatible .dll files and broken drivers and too many things being loaded as services that have no reason to exist. Disk fragmentation and registry cruft. Eventually the system gets too weighted down with all this crap to be usable, and it grinds to a useless halt, and you have to reinstall the operating system to clean things up and start fresh.

• [...]

• So I’m cutting everyone off. Well, no, not everyone. I’ll still help my non-technical friends who are running Linux now, because I got them started on it. But strangely, they don’t seem to need much help, after the initial learning curve.

• So I thought wow, what a great tool. I’ve recommended it to others before, but never actually used it. I’m glad UNetbootin added in the support for Sabayon Linux. I’m not sure how one goes about getting the options updated for the newer ISOs tho, but it will work with 5.0 when it comes out.

• The Power7 chip is running in the IBM labs right now supporting its AIX and i operating systems as well as Linux.

• If you use virtualization on Linux, chances are that you’ve implemented a system based on the Xen hypervisor. Because the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) has become increasingly popular on Linux, you may want to consider switching your Linux-based virtualization environment from Xen to KVM. This article provides a six-step tutorial on migrating Xen-based virtual machines (VMs) to KVM.

Applications

• Instant messaging is supposed to be quick and easy. One of my favorite open-source projects actually delivers on that promise.

• Another on-line backup service that uses rsync is rsync.net. It is a very popular service, primarily because of it’s support (i.e. engineers man the phones for the most part). Currently, rsync.net supports:

• * rsync/scp/sftp

• * unison

• * rdiff-backup

• * It also supports certain commands using ssh

• * You can mount the file system using sshfs

• * An encryption tool called duplicity that uses rsync but also performs GPG encryption in the process

• * Remote subversion repositories

• * Remote data dumps of MySQL and PostgreSQL databases

• For a long time I relied on an external hard drive and Jungle Disk as my daily backup solution. This wasn’t the most advanced backup setup, but it did the trick. Recently, however, I added a new device to my local network: a tiny Linux-based server with the silly name Bubba Two. Initially, I planned to use it for hosting my private wiki and testing LAMPP-based applications.

Desktop Environments

• The GNOME Marketing team is pleased to announce the creation of the GNOME Press Team. The Press Team is a subset of the Marketing team, with a focus on tracking GNOME events worldwide, and communicating and engaging with journalists all over the world to help spread GNOME news.

KDE

• For example, in the current release of KDE, you can use the new geolocation support to connect to locate other KDE users nearby so that you can socialize or exchange information. If you want information about the music album you are playing in Amarok, you can access Wikipedia without troubling to open up your browser. If you want to download your photos from Facebook, you can do so from within digiKam. Although these are far from the first applications to access the web directly, the extent to which the latest releases of KDE applications are doing so amounts to an integration of the desktop and online resources that provides a clear alternative to the idea of online applications.

• While the KDE community busied itself with preparations for the 4.3 release, KDE 4 continued to spread to new platforms with ReactOS user Davy Bartoloni reporting (machine translation of original Italian) some success in running KDE applications on that operating system.

• [...]

• ReactOS is still in alpha stage and not recommended for everyday use. Attempting to use the latest KDE Windows installer on ReactOS resulted in a blue screen of death and so this demonstration of running KDE applications required compiling them on Windows and then transferring the binaries to ReactOS.

Distributions

• There are some great distributions in our wonderfully cluttered Linux distro landscape. Some are very similar to others, and some are wildly different from the rest. The one thing to remember is that while these distributions may be amazingly well thought out, and amazingly well put together their obscurity will present two problems.

• MEPIS LLC has released SimplyMEPIS 8.0.10, an update to the community edition of MEPIS 8.0. The ISO files for 32 and 64 bit processors are SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.0.10-rel_32.iso and SimplyMEPIS-CD_8.0.10-rel_64.iso.

• On Ocotber 24, 2009 the HAM Radio operators attending the Florida Linux Show 2009 Orlando sponsored by Red Hat will be contacting the Ontartio Linux Fest through HAM Radio operators attending that Linux show on the same day.

Debian Family

• Big thanks to all the people that have helped and guided me since I came to Debian, including (but not limiting to) Piotr Ożarowski, Loïc Minier, Josselin Mouette and Sebastian Dröge! I also want to thank all the people involved in the NM process, including my application manager Patrick Schoenfeld.

• Canonical picking up a JPEG 2000 patch for Ubuntu’s Firefox would certainly be interesting and welcome, although it doesn’t change the matter of JPEG 2000 image files largely being unused by a majority of Linux desktop users.

Devices/Embedded

• Brazilian independent software vendor (ISV) Handcase has ported 60 applications from PalmOS to the Android and Moblin platforms, with another 40 said to be on the way. The apps are available in English via web-based subscriptions, in a variety of free, advertising-driven, and paid plans.

• Timesys announced a new version of its LinuxLink software development framework for embedded Linux that supports the 2.6.30 kernel and Atmel’s industrial- and PoS-focused, ARM9-based AT91SAM9G45 processor. LinuxLink now supports Atmel’s SAM9G45 evaluation kit and provides a wide variety of peripheral drivers, says the company.

• Eyecon Technologies has announced a media “control point” reference design based on Marvell’s tiny, Linux-based SheevaPlug Plug Computer reference design. Due this fall from unnamed consumer electronics companies, the device offers an embedded version of Eyecon’s UPnP/DLNA-compatible home media content aggregation software, says the company.

Phones

• The time has come! The submission site for Android Developer Challenge 2 is now open. You can now submit applications for the Challenge at http://market.android.com/adc. Full instructions are also available on the site.

Sub-notebooks

• Mandriva Linux One is the best way to test, install and switch to Linux thanks to Mandriva Linux 2009 Spring.A full Linux operating system on a single CD for both new and experienced Linux users, it is fast to download and install, and also safe to try with a live mode. Install Mandriva One in a few clics and get a complete desktop with full hardware support.

• Battery life is surprisingly good on this little thing. I’ve been working on it for what must be over two hours now, and I’m still at 30%. CPU load is something like 10% on average, and memory usage has yet to rise over 200 MB, and that’s with Firefox open.

• Australian sales of mini-notebooks jumped a massive 398.4% in the second quarter of this year, compared with 12 months ago. It’s clear evidence that consumers prefer mobile PCs, even when they come with a higher price tag than a desktop equivalent.

Free Software/Open Source

• The Spencer System allows the Open Source advocate to counter the machinations of the cosy relationships between established vendors and government.

• Larry Augustin: Increase our focus on our customers, continue to support the very strong developer and open source community and continue to drive the business along those directions. I think we’ve got a great customer base here. We have a product that people love. I think that’s witnessed by the developer, open source traction we have. We’re going to continue to leverage that.

• In this pocast, SugarCRM Interim CEO Larry Augustin discusses the company’s search for a permanent CEO; the company’s cloud- and SaaS-focused channel partners; working with Microsoft and Windows Server; and SugarCRM’s growth strategy for open source CRM. Plus: Will SugarCRM run in Microsoft’s Windows Azure cloud?

• An alternative scenario is that Mark simply made a local fix to their Moodle code. Doing that would miss out on the opportunity to engage with and learn from the development community. Worse that fix would have to be reapplied each time a new Moodle release is installed, something that could involve costly merging of changes.However the actual result is that Mark now has better understanding of the code, Moodle has bug fix and both parties have a positive interaction to look back on and that will hopefully encourage further work together. Mark also has a good standing with the Moodle community, something of benefit to him personally as well as his employers.

• The Zenoss Core project recently hit the 1 million downloads mark on SourceForge. That means on average someone downloads Zenoss every 90 seconds. These downloads have translated into over 1M managed servers & network devices, and 75K active end users from over 23K organizations across 175 countries . Needless to say we’re thrilled with the up-take over the past 27 months. This is a good sign that we are moving the ball forward in enterprise IT operations and there is clearly a lot of interest in better ways of managing infrastructure.

• The New Zealand Open Source Society is launching a project to demonstrate the viability of free open source software on public sector desktops.

• The Public Sector Remix project aims to help public agencies reduce the cost of desktop computing. The project will deploy free open source software for nominated staff to use for common business tasks and evaluate the results.

• Zimbra, which is a Yahoo! company, specialises in open source server software for e-mail and collaboration and claims its software provides a set of end-user and administrator benefits that make it a flexible solution for deployments of all sizes.

• Leading open source server software for email and collaboration now available across the Middle East

• If you’re stitching together open source code or deploying applications, Hewlett-Packard’s free application Fossology is designed to analyze the source code for any project and report accurately on which licenses are being used.

• In this issue…

• * Mozilla Creative Collective launches * Mozilla Service Week: Act now! * Extend Firefox 3.5 contest * New Mozilla Labs website * BBC experimenting with open video * Web accessibility and CSS3 transforms * Jetpack developer contest * Fennec 1 beta 3 for Maemo * AMO upcoming projects * Multitouch in Firefox

Business

• You might think that Acquia is to Drupal as Red Hat is to Linux, but that analogy doesn’t quite work. For one thing, Red Hat charges for its version of Linux, while all versions of Drupal, including Acquia’s, are free. Imagine that Linus Torvalds wasn’t merely the gatekeeper for the Linux kernel but also chief technology officer at a company aiming to be the central source for Linux support; that’s the somewhat precarious position Dries Buytaert, and therefore Acquia, occupies. So the company has to be extra careful not to make changes that might alienate the thousands of volunteer Drupal developers. “In every major action, we talk about how do we make sure the community stays together,” says Erickson. “But Dries and Drupal are so tied at the heart, it’s in Dries’s DNA for that to happen.”

• Computerworld speaks with Drupal’s lead developer and several Drupal shops about the open source CMS used in a growing number of organisations around the world, including the Prime Minister’s office.

• [...]

• “It is a great time for open source technologies and Drupal is thriving in this environment.” There are now more than 400,000 Drupal sites around the world, and drupal.org has a million unique visitors per month.

• In a new study on open-source adoption in the business intelligence (BI) market, it’s becoming clear that both the benefits and shortcomings of open source software are nearly universal across all technology segments.

Fog Computing

• Cloudera is clearing making a credible play to become the commercial brand associated with Apache Hadoop. Not only did Hadoop founder Doug Cutting recently join Cloudera from Yahoo!, Cloudera is set to announce the inaugural Hadoop World Conference, scheduled for October 2nd in NYC. The conference is being organized by Cloudera founder Christophe Bisciglia with sponsorship from Yahoo!, IBM, Intel, eHarmony and Booz Allen Hamilton. The tentative agenda has presentations from, amongst others, Cloudera, Yahoo!, Facebook, IBM, Microsoft, eBay, Visa, About.com, NYTimes and JPMorganChase.

Leftovers

• I think that is no more valid a response than those who offered by filesharers who argue that its OK for them to do what they are doing because the labels screw the artists. Not only does iTunes refute the idea that people just want free stuff, but look at what happened in January of this year when Monty Python started a YouTube channel and gave away free streams of their stuff: their DVD sales on Amazon.com went up 23,000% (not a typo). Here’s another example. My wife owns a cafe. She makes espresso there and the guy who makes it used to work at Starbucks. I obviously can get espresso for free there. But I don’t, I drive two miles away to a Starbucks store and pay $2.01 for it because I like the way it tastes.

• GLOBAL GAMING FACTORY (GGF), the Swedish firm attempting to buy file sharing site The Pirate Bay, has claimed it has been the subject of a smear campaign orchestrated chiefly by former GGF board member and chief technology officer Johan Sellström.

• FACT, I say to you that I believe whilst you have had an impact (albeit small, since Im constantly being harassed by sellers in our local area) at local car boots and places where counterfeit DVD’s are sold, your stance on file sharing and how you intend to tackle it is, IMO very vague.

• The National Music Publishers Association filed copyright-infringement suits against two businesses, including one owned by MySpace cofounder Brad Greenspan, that publish lyrics online for profit.

• A number of commentators, led by blogger Alan Mutter, have noted lately that the paid online content bandwagon seems to be stalling into a lot of talk and not much action. But what if newspapers rally and act in unison to make much of what they offer online available only to those who pay?

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