● 08.27.11

● Links 27/8/2011: Telstra and Finnish City Choose Red Hat

Posted in News Roundup at 5:36 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• As Brian points out in his article, Linux is not really out of the picture when it comes to affecting Microsoft’s bottom line. Google’s ChromeOS is Linux and . . . um, there something I’m forgetting about how Linux is trouncing Microsoft in an area where Microsoft can’t get a foothold. Wait, it’ll come to me.

• Oh yeah: Android. Based on Linux, Android is cleaning everyone’s clock in the mobile realm, including Apple, and is light years ahead of Microsoft in a category where Microsoft has yet to leave the proverbial runway. Need I say more?

• So Microsoft can put a red line through Linux and FOSS and tell the SEC that Linux no longer matters, while Windows partisans pop their corks and chalk up another one for their side. Meanwhile, back on the planet Earth, the reality is much different.

• Over the years, Microsoft has made numerous attempts to thwart the growth of Linux and the open source culture in general and now after about 20 years of intense battle, Redmond has emerged victorious. How can Linux ever be a threat to Microsoft? Their Windows Operating System runs more than 90% of the desktops worldwide and Linux just 1-2%. Not even close. And so what if 100% of the top 10 supercomputers in the world are running Linux? They still have more than 90% desktop users. And what if that blasted Android runs half of the phones worldwide? They still have 90% destktop share, they’re still no 1. Hey and don’t start bragging about the 60% market share Linux has on the server front. They’re still the kings of the desktop; still ruling the world. From NASA to Wall Street, from Facebook to Google, Linux is everywhere, but Microsoft, they’re still obsessed about their desktop dominance. Time to wake up little puppy.

Desktop

• I have a lot of ideas about how the Linux desktop can be improved, perhaps revolutionized, and these ideas all come from running up against walls repeatedly. I’m going to write the best ones down, the ones I will eventually turn into an open-source project (years down the road, mind you) if no one else does.

• The Linux tech world has come up with numerous solutions for notifications, and I use as many as possible to satisfy my needs. Chrome has TweetDeck, Linux has libnotify, or notify-osd if you’re using Ubuntu, and all operating systems have an icon “tray.” They all serve similar purposes: they want to give you information about what’s going on right now, and that’s incredibly useful.

• There are countless Windows users who have never once tried using Linux, and in many cases, they are unaware of the benefits they can get from either switching to Linux entirely, or using both operating systems (as I do). The Linux community doesn’t tend to focus its evangelism on winning Windows users over, either. However, there are a number of free resources available for Windows users who want to take the Windows plunge. In this post, you’ll find several of them worth looking into.

Server

• Linux server demand increased for the seventh consecutive quarter in Q2 2011, with revenue growing 47.5% to $2.7 billion when compared with the second quarter of 2010.

Kernel Space

• On servers, however, Linux tells a completely different story. Take for example the bi-annual list of the world’s top 500 supercomputers. In 1998 there was just one top-500 supercomputer that ran Linux. Today 456 of the world’s biggest supercomputers run a variant of Linux.

Applications

Proprietary

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• Chess is a recreational and competitive board game played between two players. It is one of the most popular games in the world, played by millions across the world, in clubs, by correspondence, in tournaments, and increasingly over the internet.

• If you think that flight simulators are a dying breed then you have missed out on the rise of FlightGear, an open source flight simulator started in 1997 that can be regarded as a game or as a research tool.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

GNOME Desktop

• Shortly after Fedora 15 was GA’d, I decided to take the plunge and give Gnome 3 a try. Gnome 3 is, in my humble opinion, such a drastic change from the traditional desktop environment that I have had a very difficult time adjusting to how different it is. Call me old fashioned, but I like a few icons on my desktop, a fixed dock for shortcuts to my favorite applications, and a minimize button. My first Gnome 3 experience on my laptop, which I use for testing new releases, was a failure. Therefore, when it came time to upgrade my main desktop at work, I chose to once again attempt a conversion to KDE 4.

Distributions

New Releases

Red Hat Family

• The fledgling cloud service has just received ‘Red Hat Enterprise’ Linux certification, offering “certainty” to users moving into cloud environments.

• Local government IT directors in the UK can learn a lesson in open source deployment from the City of Kankaanpää, the main centre for trade, education and the commercial heart of Northern Satakunta, Finland.

• To simplify and centralise the management of desktops, Netorek, a Red Hat Advanced Partner, deployed Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation for Desktops, which allows the city’s IT department to deploy, configure and run Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows desktops in public institutions throughout the city. To virtualise the city’s server environment, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualisation for Servers has been implemented in the city’s datacentre.

Fedora

• Fedora 16 Alpha was released earlier this week while the final release is not due until early November. If you have not yet tried out this latest Fedora development release, in this Phoronix article is a brief look through the Red Hat sponsored Linux distribution.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• In the constant battle for performance and lower power consumption some OS makers are preparing for ARM-based server clusters

• Today’s updates for the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system added a new default wallpaper to the existing ones.

• With this morning’s updates, the current development release of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system got a new default wallpaper.

Flavours and Variants

• DickMacInnis.com is proud to announce the official release of Dream Studio 11.04. This exciting new version of Dream Studio (http://dream.dickmacinnis.com) has all the features that have made past releases one of the most successful multimedia software packages out there, including: multi-user, pulseaudio-integrated realtime audio via JACK, for use with programs like Ardour; the renowned Cinelerra video editor, a full graphic and web design suite; photography tools; and hundreds of assorted audio and video effects, fonts, and utilities for everything from multimedia file conversion to simple office work and web browsing. Not only that, but this latest version of Dream Studio also included hundreds of bug fixes and the following new features:

• Why Ultimate Edition 2.6.3 the 2.6 series is based on Ubuntu Lucid Lynx 10.04 a Long Term Support (LTS).

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

• O’Reilly Media opened registration for its Android Open Conference, scheduled for Oct. 9-11, in San Francisco, and announced speakers from companies including Arduino, Adobe, BestBuy, Google, Intel, LinkedIn, Motorola, Twitter, and WalMart. Meanwhile, the 10th annual Southern California Linux Expo (SCALE 10x) has issued a call for papers for its Jan. 20-22, 2012 show in Los Angeles.

• Sony Ericsson announced a mid-range, 3.7-inch Xperia Neo V phone — equipped with a Facebook-enhanced Android 2.3.4 release that will also be rolled out to all its Xperia phones in October. Meanwhile, Verizon Wireless decided not to offer the Samsung Galaxy S II that’s expected to be unveiled on AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile on Aug. 29.

Free Software/Open Source

• Here are 5 free and open source software downloads to consider for your computer.

• Open source storage: It’s an idea that makes so much sense. After all, the storage systems most of us buy simply comprise a bunch of disks with proprietary controller software on top. Such disk systems cost people the largest chunk of their storage spending, and a proprietary system locks them into their vendor’s roadmap and support structure.

• At the start of the summer, you may recall Project Harmony causing a certain amount of controversy on the subject of contributor agreements in open source communities. My position on them was and is that they are a rarely needed and exceptional tool that should be avoided unless essential, because of their negative effects on the dynamics of open source communities.

• [...]

• I can understand why an old-fashioned corporation trying to come to terms with open source in the early stages of the road to freedom might think they need a contributor agreement. But it’s churlish and contrarian to start a new business today that relies for its revenue on the artificial scarcity of yesterday. There are plenty of scarcities to monetise – cloud infrastructure, operations skill, stack integration, jurisdictional differences and many more – without the need to try to apply a gateway to open source software. The requirement for a contributor agreement in order to create an artificial scarcity is the genetic marker for a desire for control. In the meshed society that the internet is creating, that’s a sign of damage that needs working around.

Events

• I just returned from a great trip to Vancouver for LinuxCon North America 2011. Here’s a quick (and visual) report on the proceedings, with a bias toward the FOSS compliance presentations.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• Who cares if Google isn’t necessarily the patron saint of openness? However much Google may depend upon open source, due to the advantageous development economics it fosters – as recently highlighted by Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst – is Google somehow wrong to disproportionately benefit from open source even as it churns out closed products and services based thereon?

• It’s not as if Google is alone. Facebook, for example, is no different, and some argue it’s using mountains of open source code to create a Compuserve-esque Internet experience that some feel fundamentally threatens the freedom of the web.

• Open source, the great enabler of serious lock-in?

• Speed Dial is a feature first introduced by Opera almost four years. It is basically a grid of the top websites you visit. From my experience, this is a very convenient way to get to my favorite websites after firing up the browser. This feature has been adopted by Google Chrome as well. Recently, Opera added more features to its Speed Dial by introducing Live Speed Dial.

• “(Open source) has been helpful for us as we accelerate our development,” the Ottawa native says, pointing out features like translation are done by volunteers. Firefox 7 was just released in beta form this month; the 11-year-old browser also had versions 4, 5 and 6 released in 2011.

SaaS

Databases

• PostgreSQL specialist EnterpriseDB’s new Postgres Enterprise Manager aims to simplify management of large database deployments. The tool can manage both the open source PostgreSQL and EnterpriseDB’s commercial Postgres Plus Advanced Server.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Oracle VM 3 doesn’t quite have the same name recognition as its primary competitor, VMware vSphere. It’s an enterprise-focused virtualization solution that comprises Oracle VM Server for x86 and Oracle VM Manager. Oracle’s VM Server for x86 is a bare-metal virtualization solution. VM Manager provides the centralized management environment for configuring and managing the server, network, and storage infrastructure using browser-based tools.

Funding

• Grant will also take the reins of FOSS promotion as well. He says he’d like to facilitate connections with OLPC too, and connecting with FOSS groups in Nairobi as well.

Openness/Sharing

• Geeks Without Frontiers, an initiative by Manna Energy Foundation, is at the final stage of building a low-cost, open source Wi-Fi software that aims to provide affordable broadband for all, especially in areas where legacy broadband models have not been considered economical.

Open Hardware

Leftovers

Science

• The chairman of Google has delivered a devastating critique of the UK’s education system and said the country had failed to capitalise on its record of innovation in science and engineering.

Security

• The Cyber Security Challenge UK has launched its first competition, testing participant’s ability to detect hacker activity on Linux systems.

• A Chinese military television program has hinted at cyberwarfare against China’s “enemies,” as it included footage of what appears to be software meant to target specific IP addresses, a news site reported.

Civil Rights

• As part of an emerging international trend to try to ‘civilize the Internet’, one of the world’s worst Internet law treaties–the highly controversial Council of Europe (CoE) Convention on Cybercrime–is back on the agenda. Canada and Australia are using the Treaty to introduce new invasive, online surveillance laws, many of which go far beyond the Convention’s intended levels of intrusiveness. Negotiated over a decade ago, only 31 of its 47 signatories have ratified it. Many considered the Treaty to be dormant but in recent years a number of countries have been modeling national laws based on the flawed Treaty. Moreover, Azerbaijan, Montenegro, Portugal, Spain, and the United Kingdom are amongst those who have ratified within the last year. However, among non-European countries, only the U.S. has ratified the Treaty to date, making Canada and Australia’s efforts unique. The Treaty has not been harmless, and both Australia and Canada are fast-tracking legislation (Australia’s lower house approved a cybercrime bill last night) that will enable them to ratify the Treaty, at great cost to the civil liberties of their citizens.

• Following the meeting, the Home Office said in a statement that ”the discussions looked at how law enforcement and the networks can build on the existing relationships and cooperation to crack down on the networks being used for criminal behaviour.’ It looked like the Home Office were backing away from suggestions that they are seeking powers to cut off access to communications networks.

• The absence of any talk about blocking access to social networks is of course a victory. In principle giving the state greater powers to prevent people using the means to communicate with each other is worrying. And in practice, there’s little evidence that simply cutting access would have prevented some of the unrest.

DRM

• The music streaming service Spotify uses Digital Restrictions Management (DRM); push back by saying NO to Spotify’s invitations.

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