● 04.07.11

● Links 7/4/2011: Firefox 7 and GIMP 2.8 to Come This Year

Posted in News Roundup at 6:18 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• While Yahoo isn’t as big as it used to be, it still, according to Dummer, has 100,000s of servers, 640-million users, and over a 1 billion visits a months. According to Netcraft’s list of the most popular Web sites in the world, that’s still good enough to put Yahoo in as the 13th most popular Web site on the globe, or the fourth if you count all the international Google sites as one. In other words, Yahoo is still a player.

• Just for fun, I isolated the GNU/Linux-adoption algorithm

• Recently however I came across a bad situation with Windows 7 64-bit and the Intel 82567/82568 network card, which is present in a lot of desktops and laptops. The issue? Well, there are a few issues actually, but the main problems are the NIC dropping its connection at random and also not linking to some switches right away which causes the Windows 7 logon process to lag.

Server

• The customer that opted for the 10,000-core cloud cluster was biotech company Genentech in San Francisco, where scientist Jacob Corn needed computing power to examine how proteins bind to each other, in research that might eventually lead to medical treatments. Compared to the 10,000-core cluster, “we’re a tenth the size internally,” Corn says.

Google

• The first day at a new job is an exciting and stressful time. Thankfully, Google’s new CEO already has a pretty firm grasp of the company’s workings, having co-founded the company 13 years ago with Sergey Brin. Larry Page and Brin served as co-presidents for the search company until 2001, when they recruited former Novell CEO, Eric Schmidt.

IBM

• IBM may have made the open source Linux OS a staple of its software line, but the company is keeping its own DB2 database proprietary, a company official said on Wednesday afternoon.

Kernel Space

• According to Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, Linux is now moving beyond just being a server operating system.In Zemlin’s view, Linux has become the fabric of modern computing.

• In an effort to help nurture the continued growth of Linux, the Linux Foundation today announced the formation of a High Availability Linux working group, as well as the release of the Yocto 1.0 embedded Linux project.

• It was 20 years ago this summer that Linux was born. Over that time Linux has transformed both itself and the IT industry.

• According to Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, the same core fundamentals that have helped Linux to reach its current stature will help to propel it forward for the next 20 years.

• “Linux itself really has no roadmap or grand plan persay, it sort of has a direction in which it is blowing,” Zemlin told InternetNews.com. “What makes Linux so great is that there are so many self-forming communities around Linux that use a single kernel to address so many different market segments.”

• The Linux Foundation is celebrating 20 years of the famous FOSS operating system, Linux — or GNU-slash-Linux, depending on how hard-line a fossie you’re talking to — with a slew of special events, both online and IRL. Linux enthusiasts can check out the official anniversary site for details.

Applications

• Since time immemorial, I’ve been using the LastPass service and browser extension for managing all my passwords. It worked well for me, but gradually I grew uncomfortable with the idea that all my passwords are managed by a third-party service. So I’ve finally decided to do what I should have done a long time ago: migrate to the KeePassX password manager. This rather handy utility stores all data in an encrypted database file, and the tool offers a handful of useful features to boot.

Proprietary

• The crew in Oslo keeps plugging away at Opera 11.10, and the latest snapshot build includes a number of improvements to Opera’s built-in email client — as well as HTML5-related additions.

• Since we first introduced Opera 11.10 “Barracuda”, you have seen a couple of new features, countless bugfixes, and lots of snapshots. The result of all this work is soon about to culminate in the final release of Barracuda.

• Today we present you with a Barracuda Release Candidate.

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• It is a source of constant amazement to me that the Linux community will celebrate the joys of diversity and in the very same breath slam anything that tries to do anything new.

• Take, for instance, today’s release of GNOME 3, which has been five years coming and is now available as a Live-Stick Fedora or openSUSE tryout version. This is, by anyone’s estimation, a radically different graphics enviroment, from the new GTK+ 3.0 library to the new user interface.

• Rand Miller, co-founder of Myst and Riven creator Cyan Worlds, said this week in a statement that Myst Online: Uru Live is now open source, following an extended wait.

• Cyan originally announced in late 2008 that the game would go open source, allowing users to modify the game’s code and assets, and to run their own servers. But a lack of resources slowed Cyan’s progress in bringing the game to open source status.

• After years of waiting and gamboling, Myst Online / Uru has opened the source to their client and 3d max plugin. At the same time, an open source replacement server has also been made available, so it’s basically the whole package, minus the artwork.

Desktop Environments

GNOME Desktop

• …is surprisingly low. Unlike what some people would make you believe, GNOME Shell & friends don’t eat 883 MB of RAM. As you can see below, baseline memory usage is under 120 MB… And you know what? That’s less than the amount of memory that GNOME 2.30 uses on startup on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (127 MB+ even if you cut down on some useless services).

• GNOME 3 is out and of course I was very curious to give it a spin. As the GNOME developers claim they care a lot about usability and have given the new desktop design a lot of thought, I was pretty excited, since I care about these things as well. Haiku still has a lot of usability issues that we need to sort out. Maybe we can learn a few things. So what are my impressions? To be honest, I have pretty mixed feelings.

• I like the GNOME 3 fallback desktop better than GNOME 3 itself.

• Amid all the attention given to the new GNOME 3 with its overview page, you don’t hear much about the fallback. Nor are you likely to stumble across it on your own, since it’s buried in Applications -> System Settings -> System Info -> Graphics -> Forced Fallback -> On, a location that’s both obscure and deep.

• However, you might want to search out the setting if your computer lacks the hardware acceleration needed to run GNOME 3. Set it to On, and the next time you log in, you’ll be using the fallback.

• It was predicted since canonical announced unity… It was anticipated since people tried and disappointed on unity… It was desired since people saw, tried and experienced gnome 3.0 and its new shell… It was inevitable since shuttleworth commmented that no classic desktop for ubuntu 11.10…

• In conjunction with the release of GNOME 3, the GNOME Project has opened the GNOME Developer Center to help new developers find their way around the desktop environment’s technologies. The centre includes instructions on how to install tools for GNOME development, along with “ten minute tutorials” for C, C++, JavaScript, Python and Vala, covering the creation of, as examples, a guitar tuner, image viewer, WebKit-based Message board and a Clutter-based Image viewer.

Distributions

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

• After spending a week using PCLinuxOS I can say that this is definitely a distributions to rival all others. PCLinuxOS is maintained by the staff and volunteers of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. When you grab yourself a copy of this nearly flawless operating system be sure to stick around their website and freely read through the PCLinuxOS magazine archives to learn Linux while your at it. The endless variety of options when using PCLinuxOS seems to be an important focus of the project. This distribution comes in many desktop versions including Gnome, Gnome Zen Mini, XFCE, LXDE. KDE, and OpenBox. Thats not all, PCLinuxOS is available in 85 languages using the Addlocale tool, and has over 12000 packages available from the repositories. The sleek and minimalistic interface definitely improves workspace efficiency. PCLinuxOS 2010 Enlightenment 17 would be a great choice for Linux newcomers.

Debian Family

• Today I want to discuss backing up your computer in case of major problems or when your hard drive conks out. Because ALL hard drives will eventually fail, often without much warning. Backing up your computer data (photos, music files, documents), system settings and software preferences is something we should all do on a regular basis so your information and precious memories aren’t lost. And if you like to install different operating systems from time to time like I do, or just to do a clean install of a newer version of your operating system, having a recent back-up is indispensable.

Canonical/Ubuntu

• GNOME 3 introduces “GNOME Shell”, a new window display and activities management interface that uses the Mutter compositing window manager.

• One thing is certain though, the Fallback Mode is more productive and useful than the standard, default Gnome 3 session. You don’t get the full repertoire you may expect, but there’s progress, good, healthy progress. In one fell stroke, you gain some 50-60% of your expected desktop functionality, which restores a bit of sanity and hope. Theoretically, you could get your old desktop back with some careful work on extra features, backward compatibility and a dab of visual polish. Experienced Linux distribution developers could pull this off easily, rebranding the skeleton looks with their own unique touch. Once again, we go back to Linux Mint, which has shown the art of subtle visual transformation many times over in the past.

• Fortunately for GNOME, their latest version of their popular desktop environment manages to break very few eggs, if any, and still magically makes omelets regardless of that. GNOME 3 designers and developers have had a lot of time to think and plan about the design of the latest desktop and it shows very clearly in several areas. Some refinement and improvement could come in future releases (and that is actually being worked on right now), but for now I am loving the GNOME 3 desktop as it stands today just fine. Why? I’ll give you 10 reasons:

• This is part one of what will be a multipart blog series: how tremendously exciting, eh?! In all seriousness, with GNOME 3 imminent, I thought rather than do a review of the desktop it would be much more interesting to talk about it from the perspective of a relatively hardened Linux enthusiast actually using it within a business environment.

• After a lot of preparatory work, the GNOME project has released the first version of the third generation of GNOME. With its modern design approach, subtle graphics effects and fresh UI concept, the new version presents itself much more modern and sleek than its predecessor – but it also needs to be handled differently.The GNOME Shell showed no sign of stability problems during our tests. Our primary test systems were a desktop computer with Radeon HD 4350 and a notebook with Intel’s G965 chip-set; both systems were running preview versions of Fedora 15.

• Ubuntu 11.04 Natty Narwhal Beta 1 is released and it brings in some much needed UI(User Interface) improvements. I was impressed by the changes so much that I decided to install this beta release as my new default operating system instead of Ubuntu 10.10.

• Earlier today, Ivanka Majic tweeted a link to the map of where Ubuntu Servers are being used around the world and I thought that was pretty cool so I wanted to find out a little more about how this information was gathered.

• According to the website, the application shows Ubuntu logo over each city where Ubuntu Server is used and the data is collected through volunteers who visit the application and agree to add their city to the map. Also stated on the site is the fact that personally identifying information is stored in the application database. Those who visit the application website can choose to add their information using their IP address or just see where Ubuntu Server is already being used.

• Canonical has not yet built an Ubuntu Linux distribution for tablets and will continue development of the OS for PCs and netbooks, company executives said.

• So that’s Ubuntu 11.04, and its somewhat bold step forward, and somewhat away from other distributions. What do you think of it, in looks alone or after using the beta a bit? Give us your take in the comments.

• If this amount of change had been incorporated into a release some years ago, when Ubuntu was two or three years old, it is unlikely that people would have noticed and commented as much as they have. Change takes place in the early stages of development of just about anything.

• When change of this magnitude comes after six years and a half – more than four lifetimes in the tech industry – then people start to ask why.

• Is this the end of the road as far as radical design changes for Ubuntu go? Or is there more hidden up the sleeve of the Canonical founder, changes that will make it look more and more like a Dinky Toy than a serious operating system?

Flavours and Variants

• What, another Ubuntu-based Linux distro? Yes, but Elementary OS is meant to be something more than just an Ubuntu spin with a different wallpaper. We take a brief look at the new distro to see whether it lives up to its original promise…

• [...]

• Elementary OS won’t replace Ubuntu on our machines just yet, but we will definitely keep a close eye on the project.

• So many computers head for landfill when they are still able to carry out useful work. However, some organizations and individuals do what they can to put these machines into the hands of people who can use them. Naturally, this is an ideal application for Linux, and having had a quick look at it, I suspect that wattOS would make a good choice for refurbishing older computers.

• wattOS is derived from the current version of Ubuntu, giving it an advantage when it comes to hardware support. Another good thing about being tied to one of the big distributions is that there’s less of a chance of being stuck for a application that you need.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Nokia/MeeGo/Maemo

• Nokia has admitted that its “open and direct” Symbian source code is not open, proving – once again – that the word has been stripped of all discernible meaning.

• Late last week, a little over three months after the Symbian Foundation shut down its web servers, Nokia returned the Symbian source code to the web. It announced the move with a blog post entitled “We are open!”, and the post was penned by Petra Söderling, the “Head of Open Source” for Symbian smartphones.

• The first Qt Contributors’ Summit is scheduled to be held at the ParkInn Alexanderplatz in Berlin, Germany on June 16-18, 2011.

Android

• Google’s motivations in protecting its Honeycomb source code are understandable to Slashdot blogger and consultant Gerhard Mack, who notes, “they are worried their code won’t be stable on other devices. Unfortunately, they are underestimating what the community could do for them if they opened up the code. There are plenty of hobbyist programmers who absolutely love to mess with phones and would check in fixes as needed.”

• Fear ye not, Linux faithful. Thy software is no more susceptible to patent or copyright attack than any other piece of closed source software.

• That’s according to Linux Foundation executive director Jim Zemlin, who told penguins gathered as his group’s annual Collaboration Summit on Wednesday not to believe the FUD – fear, uncertainty, and doubt – claiming that violations are unique to their beloved Linux or open source in general.

• [...]

• But the challenges to Linux and open source aren’t just coming from the likes of Microsoft. They’re coming from inside the Linux camp too. Foundation member Oracle, the world’s biggest database maker, is taking fellow Foundation member Google, the web’s number-one search company, to court, saying that Google’s smartphone operating system violates its Java patents. It’s a claim Google has denied and is contesting.

• Writing in a blog, he said : “As I write this the Android team is still hard at work to bring all the new Honeycomb features to phones.

• “As soon as this work is completed, we’ll publish the code.

• “This temporary delay does not represent a change in strategy” .

• While admitting that Google was placing limitations on those seeking to ship devices with Google apps as well as tighter restrictions on entry into the Android Market, Rubin said these were always in place from the inception.

Sub-notebooks

• 2011 Year of the Arm Netbook

Free Software/Open Source

• Oregon State University issued the following news release: The School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Oregon State University is partnering with Intel to expand experiences for undergraduate students in open-source programming.

Events

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• Now, I’m a big fan of Thunderbird, but I do wonder where Mozilla is going with it. Hiving off messaging hasn’t worked, so the organisation needs to come up with a new strategy in this sector.

• Unfortunately, quite what that should be isn’t at all obvious: the patterns of online communication are changing dramatically, and coming up with a way for Mozilla to meet people’s needs is going to be hard. Perhaps it should explore whether its new Web apps approach could be applied here too….

• Mozilla’s Engineering Project Manager, Christian Legnitto, has detailed the release schedule for Firefox 5, 6 and 7. If all goes to plan, Firefox 6.0a1 will be released next week, April 12, and Firefox 7.0a1 in the middle of May. The final build of Firefox 5 should be released on June 21, exactly three months after the release of Firefox 4.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

CMS

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Here’s a list of pre-release checks I’ve found useful over the years. Most of them should apply to any package, but they’ve been used for a C library (“libfoo” in the examples below, with exported header files foo/*.h and source files src/*.c).

• The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users’ freedom to cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.

Programming

• The release of GIMP 2.8 is now managed by the new tool too. According to it GIMP 2.8 should be ready in late October 2011. On the website you can see the open tasks that block 2.8 and the time (=the “Size” on the website) needed to accomplish each task, where the number of the size is a working day for a developer.

Leftovers

Hardware

• Are two screens better than one? In recent years, device makers have been exploring this question with mixed results.

• Lenovo sold a notebook less than a year ago with a slide-out second screen, but no longer offers such a model. There are similar notebooks which incorporate slide-out dual screens, though these clunky devices are not readily for sale in North America.

Security

Censorship

• Brian McCarthy ran a website, channelsurfing.net, that linked to various sites where you could watch online streams of TV shows and sports networks.

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