● 09.29.09

● Links 29/09/2009: Microsoft Researches Linux, Dell Puts Linux on Board

Posted in News Roundup at 6:38 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Yesterday, I read about a new OS called Barrelfish in this article in OS news. It is a collaboration between researchers at ETH Zurich and Microsoft Research, an open source multikernel operating system. I liked the idea and decided to get it; I was pretty shocked when I was reading its README file and saw that the OS is created on Linux! As an OS related to Microsoft, I didn’t expect it!

• Anyway, it seems that this project is not much related to Microsoft itself, so being developed under Linux is not that shocking!

• Well, now I’m much more interested in the OS as I can investigate it in Linux .

• My girlfriend, who is in no way interested in computers or open source, now complains about having to use Windows in university, because Ubuntu is so much easier and faster to use. I can imagine the same story is playing out all over the world. Hopefully at least

Desktop

• How do I convince my neighbor to switch?

• Within the F/OSS community we frequently want to tout the virus-free nature of Ubuntu and how it’s free. In some ways I believe we’ve already converted most of the adventurous folks we can convert by using these arguments and randomly giving out LiveCDs

• When I got back from doing that, I got a phone call from one of my sisters. I had given her my mom’s old machine with Ubuntu Linux installed on it, and she had a bunch of questions. I was able to answer all but two of them. Those two I had no experience with. Her first question was how do you install a printer driver on Linux? I had her bring up the Printers support dialog and her printer was already there. She was amazed, considering her experience with Windows on that subject.

• Tiny system-on-a-chip module combines fast-boot Linux OS and ARM processor to check email, browse the Web and run for days on a standard laptop battery.

Server

• Update 5 for HP-UX also has also embedded the open source Bastille security lockdown tool inside the HP-UX operating system. Since 2002, HP has offered it as an add-on, using the Linux version and making tweaks to graft it onto HP-UX. The latest iterations of Bastille allow it to automatically harden an operating system, locking down ports and other kinds of unauthorized access.

Kernel Space

• There is a generic DRM renderer plug-in that was committed containing non-driver/hardware specific code and then following that was initial support for NVIDIA, Intel, and AMD hardware with this DRM plug-in.

Games

• Also, Quake Live is surprisingly 100% more fun than Farcry 2. Sad but true.

Desktop Environments

• GNOME Shell’s ambiguous potential lies in the fact that it is an attempt to redraw the computer desktop. Since users neither seem greatly dis-satisfied with the current state of the desktop nor in any agreement about how it could improved, this departure is risky. Some users will undoubtedly reject it simply because it is different, no matter how innovative or useful it is, much as they did with KDE.

Distributions

• Zenwalk is version 6.0 w/ kernel 2.6.28.7 VectorLinux Light is version 6.0 w/ kernel 2.6.27.12

Ubuntu

• We posted the video of the LinuxCon Shuttleworth keynote online. I think it’s important to note that live streaming and video archives was provided in partnership with the Linux Foundation. The Linux Foundation opted to make all the keynotes available for free in an effort to allow as many people as possible to participate in the first LinuxCon.

Devices/Embedded

• The NMP-1000 incorporates NAS technologies found in Qnap’s Linux-based Turbo NAS servers, such as the SS-439 Pro Turbo NAS.

• PERC Ultra’s AWT/Swing implementation is supported on Linux/x86, Linux/ppc with hardware floating point, and Linux/arm-eabi with hardware floating point, says the company.

Phones

• Google has angered the Android enthusiast community by sending a cease and desist notice to a third-party developer who is building a popular custom version of the open source platform. Google doesn’t want its proprietary bits included in cooked ROMs.

• What began as a story of evil Google seeking a monopoly on Android apps has become a kerfluffle.

• The opening shot was a cease-and-desist letter issued by Google against Steve Kondik, aka Cyanogen, Kondik was producing a modified Android ROM that included proprietary Google applications.

• Kondik has responded to Google’s cease-and-desist letter by agreeing to develop a workaround, through which he will release a version of his Android-based framework minus Google applications, but allow anyone who has Google applications on, say, a phone, to reinstall them on his own software framework. That’s a creative solution.

Sub-notebooks

• Netbooks have very much become an integral part of our hyperconnected lifestyles. These smaller computers slot right in between the functionality of a proper smartphone and a larger laptop, making them an affordable way to gain access to the “real” Internet without lugging around a big notebook. While a lot of people prefer to take the route of Windows or even a Hackintosh’d Mac OS X-powered netbook, the cheapest and least resource-heavy route is that of Linux.

Free Software/Open Source

• Cybersource has packaged a bundle of open source software on CD that includes popular applications like Audacity, Celestia, Blender 3D, and OpenOffice. It also includes fun apps like Tux Paint and Battle for Wesnoth. Cybersource provides a pamphlet [PDF] that explains the CD’s contents and the concept of open source to potential donors, along with artwork for the CD and jewel case.

• And just like PC vs. Mac, the open source vs. proprietary decision involves considerations that go beyond pure preference. Let’s discuss these considerations and look at how you can make a better decision for your company.

• A software application that gives users the ability to compose and edit vector graphics images interactively on a computer is called a vector graphics editor. CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator are some of the most popular proprietary vector editors for Windows. But if you are looking for a capable free alternative that can also work on your Linux box, there are a lot to choose from.

• The microsoft programs would be ported to run on more architectures and processors. There would be native versions of msoffice, visio, etc. running on Linux, BSD, Solaris and MacOS. I also think that microsofts programs would get a thorough going over with a fine toothed comb and become more efficient with many bugs and security problems being fixed. There would also be faster and more timely patches being released resulting in less zero day exploits.

• Mozilla today denied that it will “ribbonize” upcoming Windows versions of Firefox, saying that its plans to eliminate the traditional menu bar will result in something much less complicated than Microsoft’s often-derided user interface.

OpenOffice.org

• 66% responded that they agree or agree totally with this statement about the prototypes, whereas only 14% said they disagree or disagree totally. That means, that in these early stages of the project, conformity with user expectations is pretty good. From the comments (see Calc file), the live previews for formatting changes seem to have been especially well received.

• Lyngby-Taarbaek switches to OpenOffice: Will prevent illegal downloading

• All students and teachers in Lyngby-Taarbaek Municipality is now offered free office suite OpenOffice. It may be the same, and students are not tempted to illegal downloads of Microsoft Office, says the CIO.

Licensing

• One way to meet the intent of the LGPL is to provide the object code for your application and a makefile that re-links your object files with any updated Linux libraries covered under the LGPL. A better way to satisfy the LGPL is to use dynamic linking, in which your application and the library are separate entities, even though your application calls functions in the library when it runs. With dynamic linking, users immediately get the benefit of any updates to the libraries without ever having to re-link the application.

Openness

• Open Source is the name for what used to be called the Free Software Movement. Their motto was free as in “freedom”, not free as in “beer”. It was a revolution in grassroots collaboration, and together, as a global team, sharing what they knew and building upon the work of their fellows, they created a computer operating system called Linux. The idea of the GNU license is that you can have it for free, use it, build on it, and even sell it, but you can’t turn around and be all proprietary about it. You, in turn, have to allow your work to be freely built upon.

Leftovers

• Assuming that the second comma is a typo, and that Chiscolm actually demanded 1,784 billion trillion dollars, to my knowledge that is at least a new record for stupidly large lawsuit demands. In 2008, someone sued the federal government for more than three quadrillion dollars, but a quadrillion is only a thousand trillion. These days, maybe that just doesn’t seem like a lot of money to people.

• The municipality of Dongying will deploy IBM’s new CloudBurst software and services package to run the region’s planned Yellow River Delta Cloud Computing Center.

• Clearly, IBM has been an important contributor to the GNU/Linux community and has played a major role in facilitating adoption of GNU/Linux in business.

AstroTurf

• We’ll let you draw your own conclusions on their debate. We wanted to check Moore’s statement about Obama’s contributors and the financial services firm Goldman Sachs.

• I was so sure that I was missing something that I started asking around. “If you are confused, you are not alone,” one economist wrote back to me. “I have no idea why they are conflating short selling and naked short selling. Members of Congress are probably confused as well.”

Censorship/Web Abuse

• On September 25, 2009, the Great Firewall of China blocked the public list of relays and directory authorities by simple IP address blocks. Currently, about 80% of the public relays are blocked by IP address and TCP port combination. Tor users are still connecting to the network through bridges. At the simplest level, bridges are non-public relays that don’t exit traffic, but instead send it on to the rest of the Tor network.

Intellectual Monopolies

• The US-EU Working Group on IPR Enforcement is holding a meeting in Washington today and Canada has apparently been a regular topic of discussion.

• Local school boards face unexpected six-figure retroactive bills, after a decision by the Copyright Board of Canada.

• For the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School Board, the retroactive bill amounts to $392,563. The Peterborough Victoria Northumberland and Clarington Catholic District School Board was hit with a bill for $157,499.

• A U.S. judge in Los Angeles dismissed remaining claims by the estate of long-time Winnie the Pooh licensee Stephen Slesinger against the Walt Disney Co in a copyright infringement case, court documents showed on Monday.

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