● 09.17.09

● Links 17/09/2009: Citrix Enters Linux Foundation, Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” XFCE Praised

Posted in News Roundup at 6:40 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• We are happy to announce the release of Port Report 1.11. In this release, we have fixed quite a few bugs that were in the previous release. Included in this release is the ability to follow EtherChannel aka PortChannel Ports using the Port Agreggation Protocol.

• Foote Partners periodically puts out a list of the ‘hottest’ IT skills, based on the salary of jobs requiring the skill and how much that salary has risen in recent months. On their most recent list, Linux comes in second, trailing only Java.

• Datalogics, Incorporated, the premier source for Adobe PDF developer technologies, today announced the availability of the Adobe PDF Library SDK on the Linux i686 (64-bit) platform. Software developers building applications on this platform can now leverage native 64-bit PDF processing capabilities of Acrobat’s core API within their own applications.

• SteelEye, a supplier of business continuity and disaster recovery solutions for multi vendor IT infrastructures, recently announced that their SteelEye Serviceguard Program will greatly assist users of HP Serviceguard for Linux to move effortlessly to the LifeKeeper for Linux platform.

• The Gates Foundation has been a source of computer donations to public libraries in the U.S., but it only supplies them with Windows-equipped computers. An indirect effect of this philanthropy has been to boost Microsoft’s market share. “Schools should not accept ANY support from organizations promoting proprietary software and not education primarily,” argues educator Robert Pogson.

• If you think Ubuntu is a just-discovered African tribe, mosey on over to Atlanta Linux Fest on Sept. 19.

• The day-long event at IBM’s Northside Parkway campus is part geekfest, part coming out party for Atlanta’s growing Linux community.

Desktop

• witching them to Linux or a Mac really is the easiest, most efficient way to keep them out of trouble and save you some time.

• Now that we have the basic system up and running, it’s easy to see that it will be a screamer. The combination of the latest AMD processor and 8GB of memory will make it the perfect platform to test out all the current virtualization options. With the hardware up and running the rest should be easy.

• MG: Don’t you have to be an engineer to configure “open source” programs, apps and modules?

• Bob Murphy: No. Linux, and Ubuntu in particular have gotten much easier to install. For many systems, it is as easy to install as Windows is, if you were to install it yourself. You can of course buy computers from vendors like system76 and Dell with Linux installed, if you prefer not to get your hands dirty.

• Applications like OpenOffice and GIMP are as easy as clicking on an icon, are typically included in Linux, and on Windows, it’s a matter of clicking an icon, and installing like any other software.

Kernel Space

• The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that Citrix Systems has become its newest member.

Applications

• Nero, creators of liquid media technology, announced today the release of Nero Linux 4, the latest version of the definitive burning application for the Linux operating system. This new offering also includes a new application, Nero Linux Express 4 – designed to meet the diverse needs of Linux users with a range of experience levels. Nero further expands their Linux portfolio with Nero Linux 4 Essentials, catering to the needs of their OEM partners.

Distributions

• Since its inception, LightCube Solutions has run on a custom-built Linux machine. Being a former LFS developer, I hail from the Linux world of ‘Do It Yourself’, and so I prefer to use self-configured servers, tuned and set exactly the way I like. This is no Fedora or Ubuntu where a host of unnecessary packages are forced on you and custom configuration files mask the generic and standard configuration files that come with the original software. This is ultimate flexibility.

• Although free disk imaging sounds enticing, Clonezilla Live is only for more advanced users. The program runs off of a Linux Live CD (or USB flash drive), and it worked perfectly for me. But to be blunt: The Linux command line and character-based dialog UI makes R-Drive Image’s character-based GUI, which most people find intimidating, look like Mac OS X.

• Given what Naffis’ customers are saying and paying for, it’s understandable that he’s going in the software direction. Just announced is a new self-install kit: Companies can sign up for free online and get a 30-day free trial license for the Linux version of the software (for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 or CentOS 5). There’s a predictable, one-time license fee of $2,000 (for up to 1,000 users) with maintenance fees running 5 percent to 20 percent a year on top of that, depending on services needed.

• With that in mind I’d mention Linux Mint 7 Gloria is GORGEOUS. First impression wise it most definitely gets it right.

• [...]

• I have switched back from Crunchbang 9.04 to Linux Mint 7 XFCE CE and I’m loving it. It was always the distro I recommend to new users regardless of what I use, this has not changed. I tip my hat to everyone involved and thank you all for making me very happy.

Devices/Embedded

• K-micro (Kawasaki Microelectronics America), a leader in advanced ASICs, announced the availability of MontaVista Linux for the CatsEye development platform to speed up the hardware and software development time associated with complex ASIC designs. With the Linux OS ported to the CatsEye platform, the designer is free to focus on developing the firmware and drivers for their functions rather than spending time developing the OS port on the base platform.

• The SDK will support development of two driver options: the Emulex Linux Target Mode Driver for customers supporting Linux-based or custom operating system (OS) proprietary hardware and storage solutions, and the Emulex Linux SCSI Target Subsystem for Linux (SCST) Driver for developers of Open Source Linux storage solutions using the SCST infrastructure. All drivers created using the SDK will be compatible with Emulex`s entire LightPulse adapter product line.

• Cisco is launching a major new push into the small-business network security market. And Linux lies at the heart of the company’s strategy.

• Translation: the world’s first high resolution DAB and web radio with a large, colour touchscreen and gobsmacking finger friendly Linux-based user interface.

• Wind River today announced that Wind River Linux 3.0 for MIPS® architectures complies with the Carrier Grade Linux (CGL) 4.0 specification from the Linux Foundation, a critical requirement for the telecommunications and high-end data networking markets. This includes MIPS-based multicore processors from Cavium Networks and RMI Corporation, and also extends existing CGL 4.0 support for PowerPC and x86 architecture-based processors from Freescale and Intel.

Phones

• Media player specialist Archos will launch an Android-based mobile phone next year, the company has revealed.

Nokia

• Even as it gets caught up in a debate over the openness of its Maemo Linux operating system, Nokia has announced a developer contest designed to boost the applications available for the OS, and particularly its new N900 smartphone.

• KOffice2 is still a fresh set of office tools. We released the 2.0, called platform release, just 3 months ago and work continues to make the suite more stable and to add the minimum set of features people should be able to expect.

• Anand Chandrasekher, a senior vice president at Intel and general manager for the ultra mobility group, also said the company is open to joining forces with the world’s largest cell phone maker, Nokia, on a Linux-based operating system.

• As mentioned above, the new Maemo 5 OS is designed to offer powerful new options that we haven’t seen on Symbian-powered devices before.

Sub-notebooks

• [As a] release from an open-source perspective, it’s a milestone more than it is a product release — product releases come from OS vendors and OEMs [manufacturers]. Soon you will start to see OEMs shipping netbooks with Moblin. You will see an announcement over the next week or two.

• Embedded core designer ARM Ltd. on Wednesday announced a 2-GHz version of its Cortex-A9 microprocessor that may eventually appear in smartphones and smartbooks.

• ARM will deliver the core IP itself during the fourth quarter, so any products based on the technology will likely have to wait until the new year.

• ARM, whose processor designs are used in the vast majority of mobile devices, is increasingly becoming a power broker in the mobile web world, allying with a range of larger partners to create an open platform that is geared to the ARM architecture, rather than Intel’s x86. The latest is the Linux Foundation, the non-profit organization that recently took on responsibility for Intel’s own Linux system, Moblin.

Free Software/Open Source

• The hardware design for iCub is publicly shared, and the software for iCub is open source. You can find the hardware specs here, and links for the software here. Recently, iCub has been in the news, with some interesting videos of its newfound capabilities, and evidence that it is one of the more advanced humanoid robots anywhere.

OpenOffice.org

• Since the release of OOo 3.0 our dictionaries are extensions. This made it a lot easier to deploy them and also allows to update them more frequently. It’s easy to browse our extensions repository and find dictionaries for many languages.

• I just uploaded a new version of the Export Freemind extension. Now you can export any document with any headings. The mindmap structure will be based on the documents outline numbering (Tools – Outline numbering).

Google

• Over the last seven years, Google has scanned millions of dusty tomes from deep in the stacks of the nation’s leading university libraries and turned them into searchable documents available anywhere in the world through its search box.

• Software developers in Russia and the Czech Republic will soon get the chance to learn more about Google’s API and developer tools right from the source at two new Google Developer Days events announced this week. The seminars will be held November 6, 2009 in Prague and November 10, 2009 in Moscow.

Leftovers

• In the spirit of BeOS, Haiku’s boot performance is very good. In my tests, I got from the startup splash screen to a fully usable desktop in roughly four seconds. This is one of Haiku’s strengths relative to modern operating systems and it is the envy of prominent Linux distributions that are ambitiously aiming for similarly fast startup.

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