● 10.04.11

● Links 4/10/2011: Parted Magic 6.7, Red Hat’s Latest Takeover, Fedora 16 Beta

Posted in News Roundup at 7:18 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

• The restored kernel.org is back on line – partially. It holds the mainline tree, the stable tree, and linux-next; as of this writing, all hold their pre-shutdown contents. Expect those trees to be updated soon; other trees will slowly reappear as their developers obtain new credentials on the site. Services other than git and FTP (the wiki, mirrors, etc.) remain offline. (Note that there appears to be some residual weirdness around the site’s SSL certificate, leading to “untrusted connection” warnings if you try to use HTTPS).

Graphics Stack

• As was pointed out in the forums, new binary NVIDIA Linux drivers were pushed out today. The new version is the 285.05.09 pre-release.

• As you already know, since August I am working at Intel, within the Intel Linux Graphics group. And, as many of you know as well, the news about Intel Linux graphics out there vary a lot, but usually just between the “it just works” and “nothing works” states, with few intermediate points in between (many of which are usually covered by phoronix news).

Applications

Instructionals/Technical

Games

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

• In this week’s KDE Commit-Digest:

• * New sorting options in KDEBase * Work on screen locking as an effect * Optimization of message list update in KMail * VPN status overlay icon reworked in Network Management * Optimization of QVector usage in Undo manager in KDElibs * Optimization of item addition and deletion to a project in K3B * Bugfixes in Calligra, including date entering in Kexi forms.

GNOME Desktop

• The Attachmate/SUSE-backed OpenSUSE and Red Hat-backed Fedora community Linux projects have been released in beta versions that include the GNOME 3.2 desktop environment. The Fedora 16 (“Verne”) beta also adds support for the GRUB2 bootloader, as well as updates to applications including Firefox, Blender, Perl, and Python, while the OpenSUSE 12.1 (“Asparagus”) beta to be more of a developers alpha release masquerading as a beta.

Distributions

• Dave needs a new 64-bit Linux for his primary audio production machine. What shall he do ? Read on to learn how and why he decided upon the Arch Linux distribution.

New Releases

• Parted Magic 6.7 has been released. The latest update to the partitioning tool and distro comes with some rather big changes. A couple of big components have been updated to their latest version, both the Linux kernel and GParted, the main tool in the suite.

• Version 6.7 of the Parted Magic open source, multi-platform partitioning tool has been released. According to lead developer Patrick J. Verner, the update is a “major enhancement release” that has a number of notable improvements and updates.

Red Hat Family

Fedora

• Dubbed “Verne” and sporting desktop artwork that echoes Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Fedora 16 is shaping up to be a worthwhile alternative to Ubuntu 11.10, particularly for those that aren’t happy with Canonical’s home-brewed Unity shell.

• Among the big changes in Fedora 16 is GNOME 3.2, the latest version of the GNOME 3 shell Ubuntu ditched for Unity.

• The Fedora Project has made the first and only beta of Fedora 16 available for download. It should include all of the major changes for the new distribution, code-named “Verne”. Over the next five weeks leading up to the final release, development will focus on fine tuning and bug fixes.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• Canonical introduced this weekend the new wallpapers that will be part of the final release of the upcoming Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system.

• There are fourteen new wallpapers in total, for the new Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot) operating system, due for release on October 13th, 2011.

• In order of appearance, their names are: Buck off!, Darkening Clockwork, Dybbølsbro Station, JardinPolar, Langelinie Allé, Momiji Dream, Mount Snowdon – Wales, Not Alone, Power of Words, PurpleDancers, Small flowers, Stalking Ocelot, The Grass ain’t Greener and WildWheat.

• As we’ve reported before, the official release of Ubuntu 11.10, Oneiric Ocelot, is due on October 13th. In addition, many people are already using the beta releases. In case you missed it, at ThisisTheCountdown.com you can track the minutes and seconds leading up to the next major release of Ubuntu, and get QR codes and URL strips. The previous release of Ubuntu, Natty Narwhal, provoked some controversy among users, especially due to its desktop interface, but version 11.10 has some much desired improvements. Here’s an updated look at what’s under the hood.

Flavours and Variants

Devices/Embedded

Phones

• Amazon is rumored to be negotiating with HP to buy its Palm division, including its WebOS assets — either to create an update to the Kindle Fire tablet, or just to gain patents. Meanwhile, an IHD iSuppli analysis suggests Amazon is selling each Quanta-manufactured Fire for $10 less than it costs to build.

• NewEgg.com has begun shipping an unlocked, camera-focused Sony Ericsson Android 2.3 smartphone for $380. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray is equipped with a 1GHz Snapdragon processor, a 3.3-inch display, both 8.1-megapixel and VGA cameras, plus a 3G radio said to be suitable for AT&T’s network.

Android

• Since Linux is released under the GNU Public license, Google is forced to release the source code for the Linux kernel that Android runs on.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

• An Android-based “I-slate” tablet prototype developed in part by Rice University has completed year-long trials in Indian public schools, and a $50 solar-powered version with a new power-sipping processor is set to enter full production for a mid-2012 release. Meanwhile, the much-delayed “$35 Indian Tablet” aimed at Indian students will launch Oct. 5, the Indian government now claims.

• Since releasing its new Kindle Fire tablet last week, which is based on the Android mobile operating system, Amazon hasn’t released official numbers for how many of the units it is selling, but there are some reports that the Kindle Fire could become one of the biggest selling Android hardware devices ever. The Cult of Android blog is running a screenshot that it claims is leaked from Amazon and shows that the units are selling “at an average rate of over 2,000 units per hour, or over 50,000 per day.” If the sales numbers are correct, that would put the Kindle Fire on track to be a bigger seller than the iPad was fresh out of the gate. It goes to show that Amazon’s big bet on open source is paying off.

• Toshiba kicked off proceeding’s at this year’s CEATEC with news that it has created the world’s thinnest tablet – the Toshiba Regza AT700.

• TechRadar was in Japan to get a first glimpse of the tablet, which looks mightily similar to the one it announced in IFA in September – the AT200.

Free Software/Open Source

Web Browsers

Chrome

Mozilla

• My recent post on the rapid release cycle generated a lot of response, some very thoughtful and some also very frustrated. Many of the comments focus on a few key issues listed below. We’ve been working on how to address these issues; I’ll outline our progress and plans here.

• Mozilla’s Gladius game engine is part of the outfit’s Paladin project, which is trying to push 3D gaming in the Firefox web browser. The Rescuefox prototype was used to highlight any problems between the Gladius game engine and Firefox’s Gecko rendering engine, and it also works on Google’s Chrome.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• Once in the mists of time, I was the head of open source at Sun Microsystems. One of my chief delights in that role was the OpenOffice.org project. I attended the Open Source Convention (OSCON) in Monterey, California in 2000 where the project was created out of a product Sun had acquired the previous year, StarOffice. I watched as it grew in polish and capability. I also helped as it submitted its ideas to the OASIS standards group for an “Open Office Document Format”, a project that evolved into ODF and changed the world of enterprise document handling.

Education

• Megatotoro described here how the recently announced University migration to free software made a big splash in national newspapers and even on TV news. The idea is to start by replacing MS Office suites by free software equivalents (Open Office.org/Libre Office) and, eventually, dump Windows and implement Linux.

• I visited the online page of one of those newspapers to see the coverage and the comments I read were, for the most part, very encouraging and positive. Of course, the public is congratulating the University for the initiative of saving a LOT OF MONEY (that was used to pay MS licenses) through the use of Free Software and to invest this growing amount on improving the campus and on resources available to students.

Funding

• I tweeted last week that VC funding for open source related vendors was up 95% in Q3, driving by significant investment in ‘big data’ related vendors.

Project Releases

• The Sourcefabric development team has released version 1.9.4 of its open source Airtime radio software. Airtime is a server application which allows users, from any modern web browser, to upload audio, create playlists with drag and drop, incorporate track transitions, build complete shows and then schedule them for transmission.

Openness/Sharing

Programming

• The developers of Sinatra, the light-weight web framework for Ruby programmers, have announced the availability of a new feature release, Sinatra 1.3.0, which allows applications to keep connections open over time while still delivering data over the connection.

Leftovers

Finance

• U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone used to say “sometimes you have to pick a fight to win one.”

• Now Occupy Wall Street has picked one, right in Jamie Dimon’s backyard.

• But it won’t stay contained in Zuccotti Park. While Brookfield Properties called the park a “public sanctuary” in 2005, they have apparently changed their minds. Mr. Zuccotti wants his park back and the police are preparing to clear it with new rules barring camping, sleeping and breathing.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Synagro is in the business of marketing sewage sludge as “compost,” or, as the company’s new, PR-approved website puts it, “Transforming natural waste challenges into sustainable, planet-friendly solutions.” The company is a subsidiary of the Carlyle Group, the largest private equity firm in the world. Carlyle is also a sizeable part of the military-industrial complex with ties to numerous national politicians, including former British Prime Minister John Major, Alice Albright (daughter of former Secretary of State Madelyn Albright), and both George W. and George H.W. Bush.

Privacy

• Earlier this week dozens of people from the loose open data movement gathered in London to discuss the current government consultations on this policy area. Open Rights Group had organised these workshops to present the policy proposals and our initial views, but also to gather feedback from the community. The main message we took home is that the Public Data Corporation in is current shape is widely perceived as a missed opportunity and huge step backwards, while the Making Open Data Real paper got a much more nuanced response.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

• I am happy to announce that today the party is kicking off its public policy process. To get involved simply take a look at www.pirateparty.org.uk/policy2011 and then go to piratethispolicy.co.uk to let us know what you think.

• As you know, over the last year I have been listening to members, voters and the public as well as going out and speaking to the people who had an opportunity to vote for one of our candidates in Gorton, Oldham and Bury. I watched as our brothers and sisters in Berlin reinvigorated their voters and overturned a legacy of decline and apathy. I saw that it was not just because they had money, not just because the electoral system in Berlin is fairer, but because they had ideas that people could vote for; ideas that came from the same guiding principles as our own, ideas that were well presented, sensible and relevant. They were ideas that won 8.9% of an election and they were good ideas.

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