● 09.30.09

● Links 30/09/2009: Dell and Linux, Garmin Out

Posted in News Roundup at 9:19 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Locally, a group of Linux advocates set up Sahana, a collection of web based disaster management applications that provides solutions to large-scale humanitarian coordination and collaboration in disaster situation and its aftermath. It’s a good start for us to have a centralized area for any possible communication when disaster strikes. There are also others who have been tweeting and plurking the latest news. The updates were related to volunteer work, how to give relief goods, as well as tips on how to check on your car when it gets flooded to info on which shop offers services to laptops which needed to be serviced/recovered after the flood. I also received messages from friends in other countries and amidst the time differences it is heart-warming to receive messages from those who care.

• A week ago I published a boring little post on this blog about the command line and the average user. The essence of it was that non-geeks considering switching to Linux shouldn’t even be shown the command line, as it may scare them away. Much to my surprise, that post got a lot of attention.

• The terminal has simply outlived its relevancy and has to be relegated as soon as possible. It is a big obstacle in the wider adoption of Linux among everyday computer users that just need their machines to do simple things. Why suffer these people with the language of the geeks?

• This year was the first time ever that I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to visit Ohio Linux Fest, sometimes referred to as Ohio Linux Con. This year’s theme was “40 Years of Unix” and there was a lot there that focused on that theme.

• Not everything in open source is serious and technical. Find out how to put some games worth playing on your Linux desktop

• With Linux growing in popularity on netbooks – and an option like the pre-configured Indamixx solution saving you the work of optimizing and configuring it – it’s suddenly no longer a stretch to imagine yourself a Linux music user. Of course, what you don’t want is to wind up without the arsenal of plug-ins to which we’ve all become accustomed. There are various ways of hosting Windows VSTs under Linux as though they were native plug-ins; check out dssi-vst (which also enables 32-bit VSTs from Windows under 64-bit Linux hosts), in conjunction with WINE. That should probably be the subject of a separate tutorial. (Ardour 3 also promises Windows VST support.)

• Poway-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. was awarded a $46,040,935 contract for Linux operating systems, technical orders, improved display, and spares for the Predator/Reaper.

Dell

• A wide selection of operating systems will be supported including Windows Vista, Windows XP (via a downgrade), Ubuntu Linux (in certain markets) and FreeDOS.

• ARM comes of age with a major PC design breakthrough this week.

• [...]

• The key to ARM’s success is Dell’s plan to run Linux as a second rapid boot operating system on its Windows latptop.

• The Linux suite extends battery life and provide instant access to email and web applications.

• Dell’s inclusion of Arm and Linux follows longstanding user frustration with the slow Windows boot-up process. During the US Justice Department’s antitrust case against Microsoft, the software giant lost its ability to dictate how PCs start.

Kernel Space

• JFL Peripheral Solutions, the leading independent provider of scanner driver development services and products, today announced the availability of new Linux drivers, for Visioneer and Xerox DocuMate scanners, that expand the compatibility of these scanners to Linux operating systems with exclusive image processing technology. The new standard SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy) driver enables users to scan on Linux-based operating systems including Ubuntu, Suse, Suse Enterprise, Debian and Fedora. In addition to the SANE driver, JFL also announced a soon to be available TWAIN 2.0 driver that is platform independent.

• The developers behind X.org, the foundation of nearly all graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Linux, want to change their current development model. Contrary to the initial plans, recent X.org releases have been rather irregular and unpredictable. Consequently, X.org developer Peter Hutterer has proposed the introduction of a six month development cycle.

Applications

• When it comes to choosing a data backup system tool for Linux, the problem isn’t finding options. It’s choosing the one that best matches your businesses’ needs. Here are six popular Linux data backup offerings and the pros and cons of each.

• In the heterogeneous computing world of today, documents are encapsulated in a variety of formats, from the mundane PDF to the high-resolution tiffs needed in typography. To be able to view all of them you could use four or five different applications, or you could just employ Evince. GNOME users are probably well familiarized with this document viewer. Every time you click a PDF you downloaded from the web, it will start up and, in an instant, render the document for you to view.

Distributions

• Well it’s official, Fabio is part of the Gentoo developers team now. This is a great thing for Sabayon and Gentoo. It didn’t come easy tho, but with support and his desire to do it, he did it. Our relationship with gentoo gets better and better all the time. One just has to put the negative comments aside and remember what is important, making it all better.

Ubuntu

• The Login screen for Karmic Koala has finally been pushed on the servers and made available through update manager.

• Today’s topic is a diverse one, as there are really several issues at play. So bear with me as we tackle each component of the currently lacking Linux online video experience.

• The world of Linux finally has a front-runner distro that can appeal to a wide variety of users and tasks. It’s a shame that so many who are seasoned in ‘Nix are walking around bashing the one distro that is actually bringing users into the fold, simply because it’s actually useful out of the box and easy to keep up-to-date. In my mind, that’s a success for those of us who still believe in the purpose of Linux – a free alternative with choice. If you don’t believe me, grab the latest Live CD and fire up the terminal. It’s still there – and “ls” still works, I promise. See? There’s a little something for everyone.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

• Hot on the heels of Android 1.6 (code name Donut), the Android development team has now released version 1.6 rel 1 of the Android NDK (Native Development Kit). The NDK is a toolkit comparable with the standard Android Software Development Kit (SDK), which allows Android developers to write parts of their applications in native code languages such as C and C++.

• The smartphone integrates location-based services into multiple aspects of the proprietary Linux-based operating system, and it will come with the same turn-by-turn navigation features found in Garmin’s high-end navigation units. This includes audible voice prompts for directions, as well as millions of points of interest like restaurants, gas stations, hotels, and other venues. Users can also mount it to the windshield to act like a regular navigation device.

• Is there a market for a $300 proprietary Linux-based navigation device with phone capabilities? Garmin’s Nuvifone will put that question to the test. Known for its navigators, Garmin might be following Palm’s playbook by adding phone capabilities. Given the popularity of the iPhone, the advance of the Androids, Palm’s struggle to push the Pre — can the Nuvifone find a niche?

• Both Google itself and Sprint – launch carrier for the webOS-based Palm Pre but now turning its attentions to Android with the upcoming launch of HTC Hero – were enhancing the Android experience. Sprint announced a series of additions on its Applications Developer web site to make it easier for programmers to support Android. It is providing tools to create and test Android apps for the Sprint network, plus implementation information for Hero, and location-based, messaging and other services available via the Sprint Developer Sandbox.

• With the launch of Motorola’s Cliq, the battle between mobile operating systems reaches new heights – and there may soon be a new leader. We survey the top players.

• [...]

• Android has even given traction to other open-source systems, such as Linux-based Moblin.

• Shocked by the title? So I am.

• Would you like to see Qt supported on this platform? Just two days ago the answer was like “But it’s close to impossible”.

• Now with NDK 1.6 the “little robot” OS opens more to C/C++ native code. I am eager to read some analysis on the topic.

Portables

• The Nokia N900 takes the functionality of the older Nokia Tablet devices and repackages them into a slimmed down PDA device that features some design similarities with the Nokia N97. So, we get a full QWERTY keyboard sans the tilted slide function, 3.5-inch touchscreen but with a higher resolution. However, the real added bonus is the powerful Linux Maemo OS. Needless to say, we can’t wait to get our hands on especially now the first full-on reviews are appearing.

• The Moblin Garage and App Installer aim to help users to find and install both free and commercial apps. The initial implementation appears promising.

• The recently released version 2.0 of Moblin elicited significant feedback. One frequently posed question was, why not ext4?

Free Software/Open Source

• Amidst rumors that Yahoo! is looking to sell the company, Zimbra has released a new version of its Exchange-battling open source email and collaboration platform.

• Available beginning today, version 6.0 of the Zimbra Collaboration Suite adds several administrator and mobile tools as well as countless tweaks to the client interface. This includes client-side changes meant to facilitate the addition of Zimlets, those community-created mini-apps that hook into outside web services. With one Zimlet, for instance, you can instantly open a Yahoo! map when a street address turns up in your inbox.

• Red Hat must be having a giggle, no make that a cackle, behind proprietary tech firms’ backs as they watch their revenues slide whilst the recession is still in full swing.

• The company will be celebrating as it just posted results showing a 12 per cent rise in revenues in the second quarter of fiscal year 2010.

• Enterprise content management has traditionally been very expensive to license, roll out and scale. It often requires expensive hardware and supporting software. The enterprise content management industry has been dependent on complexity, with the vendor controlling the customer through proprietary power. But there is a cost-effective alternative: open-source software. Web 2.0 sites have changed the way in which content is both accessed and mashed up. Here, Knowledge Center contributor John Newton explains how open-source software gives companies an enterprise content management solution that focuses on lower cost, greater simplicity and greater customer choice.

• The major topic was Open Source Software in medical imaging.

• Software lifecycle management vendor Protecode Inc. has made available new components in the third release of its portfolio of offerings that aim to help developers better manage the open source code they reuse.

• Funambol is an open source project, allowing you to host your own sync server. Great for DIY-ers and control freaks. If you’re not ready to manage your own sync server, you can use the MyFunambol portal, which is a hosted version of their solution.

• Red Hat President and CEO Jim Whitehurst opened the third year of Fidelity Investment’s lecture series “Leadership in Technology” with his address entitled “The Open Source Opportunity,” last night in Engineering Building II.

• What about the fact that open source applications require more customization and hands-on knowledge on the part of administrators?

• Fitzgerald admitted that open source software “requires you devote more time at the outset.” But on the other hand, he told me, “you are spending your money in-house, and the skills you acquire developing the tool stay within your school district.”

• Even as the current economic climate has compelled the Indian government to go on the austerity drive, by asking its ministers to air travel by economy class–a more compelling option may lie in looking at replacing proprietary software with open source. A recent report titled, ‘Economic Impact of Free and Open Source software-A Study in India’, by a team at IIM-Bangalore, highlights several interesting insights, that show how by replacing just 50 percent of proprietary software with open source in desktops and servers, India can save close to Rs 10,000 crore in 2010.

• Welcome to the October 2009 installment of our what’s coming from the open source CMS projects in the next 30 days.

• With the advent of Linux for netbooks and companies exploring means to cut costs, use of open source software is on the rise. The next time you need Microsoft Office and go to download an illegal copy of it, why not check out OpenOffice.org for a free equivalent. You’re guaranteed not to get a virus, not to get arrested, and you will probably be surprised when you see how good legitimately free software can be.

• As you could read with the last developer milestone ( DEV300m60) we reached the date to branch the code line for the OOo 3.2 release. The strings for translation were extracted from this milestone and were integrated into Pootle. Also the last features were integrated. So all teams can start to do their work to get released a full localized and stable build of OOo 3.2 at the end of November ’09.

• Luckily, there are enough people out there who “get it” that our business is doing very well this year. Their companies now have a competitive advantage, which, over time, will be demonstrated. Only when these advantages are demonstrated in the market place can open source be said to have “won”.

• OpenOffice is the undisputed king of open source office software. Boasting most of what you get with the big commercial packages — a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation application — the individual applications in OpenOffice are even compatible with the file formats used by MS Office and other leading fee-based software.

• Is there a leading example of an Open Source software company?

• Red Hat is an example of one of the best known Open Source companies internationally. They commercially exploit Open Source technologies by providing support and services around a technology platform called Red Hat Linux.

Leftovers

• Vanity Fair will report in the next issue of the magazine that US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson — a former head of the investment bank Goldman Sachs — tried to orchestrate secretive deals in the midst of the financial crisis but got blowback from prominent investor Warren Buffett.

Literature

• Though using a Kindle is voluntary, no one has opted out of using a Kindle in Katz’ class, so he has permitted his students to use location numbers in their written work for the course.

• This is now likely to change for the better. The DRIVER project is a co-ordinated, multi-phase effort by European information scientists to create a cohesive, robust and flexible, pan-European infrastructure for digital repositories. The researchers have already created a search engine that regroups over a million ‘open access’ articles from 260 of Europe’s leading institutions.

AstroTurf

• There are so many problems with the health care reform bill proposed by Senator Max Baucus (D-MT), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, it is little wonder that members of his committee have proposed more than 500 amendments to fix it. Unfortunately, some of the worst amendments that would make the bill even more of a gift to the health insurance industry are being offered by Republicans.

• Television ads from a new Montana-based group called CO2 Is Green claim: “There is no scientific evidence that CO2 [carbon dioxide] is a pollutant. In fact higher CO2 levels than we have today would help the Earth’s ecosystems.” The ads urge voters to contact their Senators and Representative, “and remind them CO2 is not pollution.”

• We learned that the true number of the FBI’s unilateral and secret NSL demands in 2004, the year before Bart Gellman’s article was published, was over 56,000. That is, the government made over 56,000 secret demands for personal, private information about Americans using these powers expanded by the Patriot Act in one year. Not 30,000 as Gellman had estimated based on whistleblower information, which the Justice Department strongly attacked as inaccurate. The number reported in the press was not too big, It was too small!

Abuse

• The corporation is set to betray licence-fee payers and the UK tech industry by caving in to Hollywood studios’ demands

• The federal ban on depictions of animal cruelty violates the right to free speech.

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