● 10.11.09

● Links 11/10/2009: Mandriva 2010 @ RC2, Tiny Core Linux 2.4 Released

Posted in News Roundup at 3:50 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Last spring one of my co-workers went to college campuses to recruit prospective “young mainframers.”

• Young mainframers? Isn’t that an oxymoron?

• My co-worker, Tim, explained that our company, a major software vendor, is seeing its mainframe workforce rapidly approaching the age of retirement. Tim said IBM and most other firms whose businesses depend on mainframes are also dealing with this industry-wide problem.

Kernel Space

• Since the release of Fedora 11 (early June), the Nouveau driver has matured with its kernel mode-setting, support for G80 series kernel mode-setting, improvements to its NVIDIA video BIOS reading abilities, a new method for submitting commands to the display engine (display push buffer), tiled scan-out, and suspend-and-resume support with Nouveau KMS. Kernel mode-setting for NVIDIA hardware with the Nouveau driver will be the default in Fedora 12.

• According to this update, the status of Gallium3D on ATI R300 through R500 hardware has changed from “TODO” and “WIP” to being “DONE” for the Softpipe pass-through and being “MOSTLY” for the core driver.

• I’m taking Stanford’s Open Courseware “Programming Methodology” this semester, but I got stumped early on by the problem of setting up the special Stanford class libraries in my Debian-standard Eclipse installation.

Applications

• StreamMyGame Server enables PC games to be played remotely by converting the game’s video and audio into a Game Stream and sending it over a home network to a second computer where you can view and play the game with the free StreamMyGame Player. The second computer can be a PC, laptop, PS3 or Linux device. The game can be played on the second computer without any lag

• To help you further enhance the functionality of GIMP, I have here a huge collection of awesome, high-quality brushes that can be utilized for whatever projects you may have. But before that, let me show you how you can install these brushes on Linux.

Windows – Linux

• If you currently have Windows OS running and you need some files for your work which you have stored on the Linux installation, you no longer have to shut down Windows and boot Linux!

• There are several ways to run a remote desktop from Linux. The X server itself was designed to run remotely, and you can still forward windows from a local server to a remote one with relative ease, especially if you use SSH.

• But the X protocol is inefficient, and only fast enough for general use if you’re connected to the same network as the server.

• A far better alternative is FreeNX. This breaks window and cursor movement up into a series of commands that can be transferred much more efficiently than X, and the remote desktop is much more responsive as a result.

• Overall, PD4 fails to live up to its price tag. Most of its touted features work only on Windows guests, and you can get the bulk of them with cheaper alternatives.

Desktop Environments

• Gnome 3, which will be available to install in Ubuntu 10.04, Fedora 13 will mark the first radical change to the Gnome Desktop since it’s inception, thanks to it’s “new” interface ‘Gnome-Shell’.

Distributions

• Tiny Core lead developer Robert Shingledecker has announced the availability of version 2.4 of Tiny Core Linux. Tiny Core is a minimal Linux distribution that’s only about 10 MB in size and is based on the 2.6 Linux kernel. The maintenance release includes several changes, updates and bug fixes.

Mandriva

• These isos are hybrid isos which means you can dump it on an USB key to install it. Use Mandriva-seed available in isos repository, it’s as easy as a click!

• Let me preface this by saying that I do not usually have good experiences with Mandriva based releases. Knowing PCLinuxOS is based on Mandriva, and knowing that it was supposed to be a live CD release, I booted up my VirtualBoxOSE and set about running and possibly installing PCLinuxOS.

• I noticed quickly that it seems to be running KDE 3.5 as the desktop environment. This is a good thing because KDE is a very new-user friendly environment and looks a lot like what people would expect from a more familiar environment.

Gentoo

• Instead of being binary based (like nearly every other distro), Gentoo’s history is in the source. The benefits are that users get to actually compile applications (and the operating system itself) on their own machines.

• Additional programs on Boot DVD: Gentoo Linux 2.6 Kernel – Opyimized for Forensics Use XFCE – GUI Apache2 – Server

• solar was asking about release statistics, so I grabbed the current data from Bouncer. The nearly 34k releases for 10.0 is just in the 5 days that it’s been out. I included the various architetures that were part of each released ‘product’, to make some degree of comparision possible.

Red Hat Family

• Messer said this opens up more customers to adopt virtualization solutions of their choice, including Red Hat’s four main offerings for businesses: the Red Hat Enterprise Linux, the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualizaton Manager for Servers, the Red Hat Virtualization Manager for Desktops, and the Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor.

Debian Family

• A robotic submarine driven by Debian has won first place in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) competition run at a U.S. Naval facility. The Debian project lauds the participating undergrads from Cornell University.

Devices/Embedded

• Although you could do the development work on either a Windows- or Linux-based computer, it really makes the most sense to use a Linux system for a number of reasons. The build-test-build cycle goes more quickly when you run on the same operating system. The only exception might be when using a language like Python that doesn’t really require compilation. In addition, Linux target device emulation has the best support from the Linux operating system.

• Choosing a stable, popular distribution like Ubuntu makes it easier to get the tools you need up and running quickly. It also increases your chances of finding help for problems you might run into, as more often than not, someone else has already found a solution. Ubuntu is also one of the distributions — along with Fedora 9 — directly supported by the Moblin project. We chose Ubuntu 8.10 to use on our development system for this project.

• Last month from the Intel Developer Forum a preview copy of Moblin 2.1 was released, which introduces the Moblin Garage and other new capabilities to this mobile Linux operating system that is targeting Intel Atom netbooks and nettops but will be moving to smaller devices too. The first preview spin of the next Moblin release was nice, but this week Intel has put out a new build of Moblin 2.1. Of course, we fired up this new release for a look.

Phones

• After a slow start, the open-source software platform has lined up a host of hardware partners including HTC, Samsung, LG and Motorola, the beleaguered American handset maker that is betting its future on Android.

• Autumn is shaping up to be quite a good time for Android, the open source mobile operating system from the Google-led Open Handset Alliance.

• Yet another feature which helps the open-source Google Android Phone score a notable edge over the other smartphones including Apple’s iPhone, is Google’s newly-released Android- specific Quick Search Box (QSB), which essentially combines the users’ web search with search inside the Android Phone.

Free Software/Open Source

• Asterisk is one of the most popular open source VoIP PBX applications out there and it is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.

• Much of what goes into partner and user group events focuses on use cases and technology innovation, after all, that represents the market success and development of any product. The same trend will be true at AstriCon 2009, when Asterisk (News – Alert) users and developers from around the globe congregate in Glendale, Arizona to discuss how they are leveraging the Digium-driven Asterisk open source software and their latest innovations around Asterisk.

• NetXMS is an enterprise grade multi-platform open source network management and monitoring system. It provides event management, performance monitoring, alerting, reporting and graphing for all layers of IT infrastructure — from network devices to business application layer.

• Everybody likes award ceremonies, especially those in which regular people vote for the winner. Maybe this is the reason why the Packt Open Source CMS Award has managed to consolidate itself as a realistic and meaningful prize for the best open source CMSs around. After a month-long open nomination process, voting has started for the greatest open source CMS of 2009.

• First introduced by Djanga Interactive almost six years ago to scale out LiveJournal, Memcached is easily among the most popular open-source software projects in use today. And its use has been organic and widespread for so-called LAMP, or Linux/Apache/MySQL/Perl/PHP/Python sites.

• Professor Rahul De, Hewlett-Packard Chair Professor for Sustainable Economic Development, IIM Bangalore presented his detailed report on economic impact of using open source. “India can save potentially Rs 10,000 crore by adopting open source technologies,” he said. “Government must consider educating public about virtues of free and open source software, and help reduce costs.”

• Playdar is an open-source software platform that knows the location of all the music on your computer and home network. This doesn’t sound impressive on its own, but Playdar grows in power when combined with services and plug-ins through its open architecture, enabling music services to save money and increase their revenue, among other things.

• THERE is growing interest in open source software (OSS) in Singapore, led by demand from small and medium enterprises. And this trend is likely to continue over the next 18 months, according to a study by IT research agency IDC.

• Speaking to BizIT, IDC’s Ridhi Sawhney said verticals such as manufacturing, government, telecommunications and financial services are also either adopting or evaluating OSS in Singapore and elsewhere in the Asia-Pacific.

• With open source already mainstream, companies are now arriving at the point where they are prepared to invest in this area for business applications.

• So claims the chairman of the recent Open World Forum and chief executive of Wallix Jean-Noel de Galzain, in a recent interview.

• Galzain said that open source was a mainstream part of IT, found in internet infrastructure and high-performance computing, and would offer opportunities in cloud computing and network technologies.

• Habl Consultancy, an Open Source IT solutions provider headquartered in Dubai Silicon Oasis has been appointed as a Value Added Reseller (VAR) for the Middle East, by Zimbra, a business unit of Yahoo, and Opennet MEA, Zimbra’s distributor in the Middle East.

Licensing

• “With respect to the default firmware, we have used our best efforts to comply with and believe we have complied with the applicable GPL requirements,” he said. “Nevertheless, we understand that the open source community generally takes exception when factory loaded firmware written in Linux that is placed on routers or other hardware includes binary only kernel.”

• We recently launched our 802.11n open source platform, the WNR3500L. Many of the feature requirements of the powerful 802.11n open source platform came from this online community and forum members as we learned and fine tuned the WNR3500L. Many of you contributed heavily to the DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato builds and patches and have already started custom building applications on WNR3500L via the Development Partner program.

• Multiplatform game creation tool is now Open Source! Game Editor is a powerful game creation application that lets you design and create exciting, interactive games for the Windows, Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, Smartphone, GP2X and Linux markets.

Openness

• GRANNY’S GONE GEEK: You’ve seen the complex and beautiful inside of a computer, but can you sew it? The Museum of Craft and Folk Art’s latest exhibit, Open Source Embroidery,

• This transparency not only makes the inclusion of the community simple, it makes the process of doing the story simple. No passwords, no central command-and-control. Instead we are creating an organic and open story development process that engages a community of people who can act as evangelists for our work. In the world of the social web that creates an expanding virtuous circle of network links and reposts that gives us access to expertise we would otherwise have missed.

• The open education movement is a new and exciting way to promote access to high quality educational content and to better engage teachers in using and developing curriculum. Truly, the movement has the potential to be a disruptive change to education and publishing. Yet when it comes to sustaining the movement, creative and as-yet unproven business models must be evolved and refined to keep the momentum going.

• Yes, FREE and open is inevitable. How exactly FREE navigates the highly governed, deeply entrenched waters of education is a journey just starting to unfold.

• So why is that? It is often the job of service providers and manufacturers of scientific computing systems and applications to allow some user control over their systems. Or in the case of open source, to provide code access to developers. Open source is also one of the key success factors of web 2.0. How about if the users themselves customize scientific software architectures and built-in features to suite their specific needs? Or even better, design their own user interface for any given informatics and analytical applications. For example, creating their own functions, toolbars, data types and resource management tools. In other words, users utilize such applications to create their own applications.

Leftovers

AstroTurf

• A business news website notes, “Since early summer Wendell Potter, a former public relations executive for the health insurer CIGNA, has testified before Congress, given speeches and granted interviews aimed at boosting the cause of health care reform and especially a strong public alternative to private industry. He’s done it with the backing of Center for Media and Democracy, a progressive-leaning watchdog that seeks to expose and counteract business and government PR campaigns. Since CMD appointed him Senior Fellow on Health Care earlier this year, Potter has been busy.

• As the war in Afghanistan entered its ninth year, the Labor Department recently released new figures for the number of civilian contract workers who have died in war zones since 9/11. Although acknowledged as incomplete, the figures show that at least 1,688 civilians have died and more than 37,000 have reported injuries while working for U.S. contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Censorship/Web Abuse

• The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to extend the controversial Patriot Act, an antiterrorism law passed shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

• Supporters of the Patriot Act say it gives law enforcement important powers to track down and investigate terrorists. Without the Patriot Act, U.S. law enforcement efforts to find terrorists would be significantly harmed, members of former President George Bush’s administration argued.

Intellectual Monopolies

• The U.S. Olympic Committee is protesting an effort by the parent company of The Olympian to trademark the newspaper’s name.

• In August, Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN won its case against The Pirate Bay, and the court ordered the defendants to block access to Dutch visitors. The case was appealed today and rightly so. It appears that the evidence presented by BREIN was faked in an attempt to mislead the court.

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