● 10.04.09

● Links 04/10/2009: New X Server, Nexuiz, Arora, OpenSSH, Perl

Posted in News Roundup at 5:53 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

• The donated computers were equipped with Linux operating systems and free educational software. Charter Communications donated $100 worth of free Internet to each family.

• Linux does fine as it is. With Linux, I have been able to get a lot of work done. In schools, in businesses and at home. Things are getting done. Tasks accomplished.

• They are getting done at a lower cost, they are getting done With less oversight required. They are getting done without any idiot who took a programming class nailing it with a virus or other malware.

• Linux doesn’t need a community. It doesn’t need Facebook or other social site pages or channels.

• Linux doesn’t even need blogs like this.

• What Linux needs is people who are serious about getting things done. Not just java sipping cronies bragging about how little they spend or en vogue what they are using is something not everyone else is using.

• Linux needs tasks to accomplish and people who want to accomplish them.

Server

• The LSE was expected to replace its Microsoft .Net-based TradElect platform with a Linux-based system from Millennium IT, but that may change if the Turquoise deal goes ahead.

• Mobile phones, games consoles and even televisions are rapidly developing the ability to read, display and play files held on a media centre PC, and Linux is the perfect free software solution. All you need is a relatively low-powered PC, a decent amount of storage and somewhere safe to hide it.

• Hey, I’m the CTO of a small company in Sweden, and this is our short ‘success story’

• blogg.se is a Swedish blogging platform which generate 130 000 new entries, 150 000 comments and 2 500 new accounts on a daily basis. We currently (September 25th, 2009) have a reach of 2,2M unique visitors per week.

Kernel Space

• Star Micronics America is proud to announce that its lines of single and multifunction printers are compatible with the latest versions of the Fedora (v 11) and Ubuntu (v 9.04) Linux Operating Systems. Star, a long time advocate of Linux environments, is currently supporting customers who have upgraded their operating systems to either of these newer versions.

• It’s late, but it’s finally here. X Server 1.7 has been released.

• The next release in the 1.7 line is expected to be published in three weeks.

• My current work is mostly related to embedded devices with comms, and as such, I read quite a bit about linux on embedded systems on a daily basis. Mobile phone manufacturers are rushing to linux (android), and recently I became proud owner of one such thing. Many gadgets, like gps devices, pda, mobile phones, netbooks, etc. also run on linux these days.

• Linux Australia has been the only organisation to use the conf.au domain for its annual Linux Conference — linux.conf.au. Both conf.au and info.au pre-date the AUDA’s existence, but interest in their use is low.

• It doesn’t matter how big your infrastructure is, even if it’s planetary sized, Linux can handle it. Got massive amounts of data to analyze? Check out our article on IBM’s InfoSphere Streams. Need a SAN on a budget, use Linux to provide it. Messaging problems, try AMQP (Advanced Message Queuing Protocol). In addition to our feature articles, don’t miss our articles on RSpec, DEFCON, Ext3 vs XFS, Virtualization, HIPL, Pokerth, X-Moto and more.

• The best way to accomplish this is using none other than Linux’s open source platform. Intel’s version is called Moblin, aka Intel’s Linux Development Community.

• Intel, the world’s largest chip maker, reaffirmed the industry’s direction toward open source development last month at Intel’s Annual Developer Forum in San Francisco, Calif.

• Authorities say the crooks were from Eastern Europe and used that information to steal the money. Since then, the Steuben ARC has limited their employee’s internet access. They’ve also switched from a Microsoft operating system to Linux, which is said to be tougher to hack.

• Gosh, just look at all the buzzwords in the title!

• As you may have guessed, I’ll be talking a bit about the recent developments on the FOSS drivers for RadeonHD cards, specifically for R700 cards. And some other hardware stuff.

• Radeon

• Yesterday, October 3, I made some big ol’ changes to my workstation.

Applications

• After quite a long beta period we can finally release the long awaited new version of Nexuiz – 2.5.2!

• Besides Windows PCs and Macs, Mixero also works with Linux-based computers, and according to the Web site, an iPhone version is in the works.

• Arora 0.10.0 features the addition of AdBlock to block unwanted online ads and now includes the ability to save passwords so that users don’t have to re-type their information each time they log into a website. The directory listing feature included in the previous release now has the ability to hide and show hidden files when viewing a directory and several keyboard short cuts have also been added.

• 7. Download YouTube and other online videos: First grab the URL of the YouTube video page.

• And you could even have different reports that summarize the information about your collection. You could group the entries according to the filters you want. It’s really nifty. : ) You could even save those reports in HTML so you could upload them on your website, if you want to share such information with friends, family and fellow hobbyists.

Desktop Environments

• Here is a nice collection of themes for Gnome and ubuntu, some themes were updated and somes you will see them for the first time

KDE

• So new features for 4.4 are that:

• 1: plasma style selection is moved from behind right click on desktop, to system settings where are icons, themes and colors?

• 2: The independent dashboard option is moved from plasma settings what is shown when user zooms out activies, to “Desktop” place on system settings?

• I’ve followed and written about the development of the KDE 4.0 project on the old version of this blog. Until now however, I’ve never addressed the criticism that some sections of the Linux community have heaped on it. So I’ll just start with this post in the blogosphere that caught my eye.

• So, how important is KDE 4? To the KDE project, it is absolutely crucial. I hate to say it, but it looks as if KDE 4 has become KDE’s “Vista.” The KDE reputation has been tainted with a divided community, mediocre products, and a seeming lack of solid direction. I can only hope KDE becomes stable at some point in the near future, perhaps by choosing to make their “4.5″ release their stable release fit for refinement and development, much like with KDE 3.5. Perhaps creating that stable environment for people to improve upon could lead to the creation of a new, thriving community, one just as influential as the one when KDE 3.5 was around. Otherwise, they may lose the market they have fought so hard to gain.

Distributions

• Tiny Core Linux is a very small (10 MB) minimal Linux GUI Desktop. It is based on Linux 2.6 kernel, Busybox, Tiny X, and Fltk. The core runs entirely in ram and boots very quickly. Also offered is Micro Core a 6 MB image that is the console based engine of Tiny Core. CLI versions of Tiny Core’s program allows the same functionality of Tiny Core’s extensions only starting with a console based system.

Red Hat Family

• Cloudera, a startup based in Burlingame, Calif., today announced the release of its first commercial product, Cloudera Desktop. It’s a graphical interface for managing Hadoop, the open-source framework that is catalyzing the data mining renaissance. Cloudera’s Hadoop now works on almost all major cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services, Rackspace and soon, VMware’s vCloud.

Debian Family

• Hymera is a Debian-based, GNU/Linux operating system. It is a relatively brand new distribution developed and maintained by Hymera Engineering S.r.l., an Information Technology outfit based in Milan, Italy. Hymera Engineering publishes four versions of their Linux distribution – Hymera Open, Hymera Desktop, Hymera Evolution, and Hymera Server. This review is of Hymera Open, the free, desktop-oriented version.

• The new Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 release is an evolutionary improvement over previous releases in terms of basic functionality but it has significant performance enhancements which include vastly reduced boot up time.

• In general, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) doesn’t introduce a wide array of new features, however it does include small updates to many different smaller areas. As always, it includes updated versions of the pre-installed software. A full new feature list can be found here.

• If the upgrade process is successful and everything is working well, congratulations and have fun with Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala.

• * It worked extremely well. I now have a machine with Ubuntus 9.04 and 9.10 beta running side by side.

• Our sysadmins have asked me to advise people about some upcoming changes to rsync and FTP access to releases.ubuntu.com. In order to distribute CD images more effectively, releases.ubuntu.com will shortly be reorganised such that it can only support access over HTTP.

• If you have migrated from Windows to Ubuntu then you might be missing the Windows key. In Windows OS if you hit the Windows Key, the Start Menu shows up instantly but this is not the case in Ubuntu. Ubuntu keeps the launcher shortcuts for applications in the Application menu which is located in the left side of the Panel. Let me share an easy way to configure the Windows Key to launch the Application Menu.

Devices/Embedded

• Seagate announced a hard disk drive (HDD) network adapter and docking station called the FreeAgent DockStar, based on Marvell’s Linux-based SheevaPlug Plug Computer reference design. Meanwhile, Real Time Logic’s Linux-compatible application web server software has been released in a SheevaPlug-compatible version.

Sub-notebooks

• Using WebKit for its mail rendering and composing makes Anjal look very slick.

• Windows XP and Linux are both faster and better choices than the more robust Vista.

• But a Chinese manufacturer might be about to get a head-start next month by releasing a locally-manufactered netbook that comes with a pre-release version of Google Chrome OS installed, according to reports on a Chinese website that closely monitors the production lines of China’s hundreds of tiny electrical firms.

• [...]

• (Note: the current Yeelong 8089 with Linux retails at 2899 RMB (that’s US$425 or €290) in China, but sells in Europe for €335 at the moment. Not sure if any Chrome version would have the same price).

• Known as the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project, to be launched this month, all children from Grades 1 to 5 in nine remote schools, one each from a province, are to be provided laptops by the ministry, the Sunday Times understands. Three private institutions, Chart Foundation, Hatton National Bank and Tigo, have also joined in to provide laptops to four more schools.

• Bhutan’s aspiration for an information technology (IT) and a knowledge-based society could receive a major boost if the “one laptop per child (OLPC) pilot project” succeeds.

• The One Laptop Per Child association, a US non-profit organisation, and the international telecommunication union (ITU) recently donated 220 XO laptop computers, previously known as the $100 laptop, to Bhutan.

Free Software/Open Source

• The city of Münster has started a pilot using OpenOffice in schools. The city’s IT department, Citeq, will also switch all of the 150 servers used in its primary and secondary schools over to GNU/Linux. Half of these have already been migrated to open source. The changes in the school’s IT systems are part of the overall IT strategy of the city’s IT department.

• At two schools teachers are trying out OpenOffice at the moment. The suite will be made available to all schools in November. “We plan to make OpenOffice the default office application for schools”, says Citeq’s spokesperson Stefan Schoenfelder.

• The city earlier this month reported that 140 of its 360 servers are now running GNU/Linux. In a press statement published last week Wednesday, Citeq states that using open source is making it easier for the departments to share information.

• The administration is also saving considerable costs, writes Citeq. “Open source tools such as Linux are mature, so we consider their use is very economical.”

• Münster is using a mix of Suse and Debian Gnu/Linux for its servers. These are used for instance as files servers, or for running the Typo3 open source content management system. They also use it for the proprietary Oracle database management system and the proprietary ERP system SAP, Schoenfelder says.

• Next, I wanted to address the free software and freedom versus open source and business debate. While this is, similar to open source versus proprietary, also viewed often as a ‘war’ that must have a winner and loser, it is my fundamental belief what without freedom, the ideology of free software and organizations such as the Free Software Foundation, commercial open source would be nothing more than some big vendor’s or big consortium’s latest buzzword, campaign, strategy, etc. Conversely, without the billions and billions of dollars that vendors, channel players and others are making and the costs that customers and users are saving thanks to open source software, the ideology would most likely be relegated to academia and philosophy books. Thus, the two — that is free software and the ideology and open source software and the commercial use of it — are symbiotic.

Graphics

• I submitted it for the upcoming Festival but not for the competition, but Bassam, being the moderator for entries, suggested entering, so, I have under the ‘Character Animation’ category.

• If you want to make an incredible amount of money it is a good idea to learn GIMP. Sergey Brin did that, created the logo of his startup and got rich.

Programming

• It gives me great pleasure to announce the release of Perl 5.11.0.

• The software we’ve opted to use is called Zoph. It’s built using PHP and a MySQL database, and enables you to import your collection of photos through a Zip or Tar file, organise them into albums, set attributes for author and geographical location, and share them with your friends and family.

Leftovers

• Banks are not prepared, having inadequate Loan Loss Reserves, guarding their profits, denying their reserves, managing their stock prices. They deceive their share holders on continued portfolio risk. They try to shove all their garbage assets on the USFed and to Fannie Mae under the USGovt roof, amidst the shrill cries of ‘Too Big To Fail’ nonsense.

• Goldman Sachs Group Inc. must be cautious about handing out record bonuses while the banking industry is still under distress or risk spurring an outcry from Congress, U.S. Senator Mark Warner said.

• The comparison isn’t a stretch. In fact, it wasn’t just a ticker-symbol letter – “G” – that the two companies shared: GS for Goldman Sachs, and GM when General Motors was still a public company. It turns out that their underlying business models also shared similar strategic flaws. And those flaws put the two on a similar path to ruin at the hands of forces that grew out of the crises in their particular industries – crises that they each helped create.

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