● 11.09.11

● Links 9/11/2011: Firefox 8 Launches, Linux 3.2 RC 1

Posted in News Roundup at 1:39 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Server

• Linux and open source software are spreading out — cloud computing, mobile computing, supercomputing — and an increasing number of use cases large and small. One area where Linux and open source have history and continue to remain strong is banking and financial services, highlighted by the latest open source messaging technology in the space: the new OpenMAMA middleware messaging project and the AMQP messaging standard, recently released in version 1.0.

• This strength of open source software, similar to what we’ve seen in cloud computing, bodes well for Linux and open source in a number of other key verticals, as well.

Kernel Space

• So it’s been two weeks since 3.1, and you know how it works by now.

• I have to say, this wasn’t my favorite merge window ever. I really wanted to take only things that had been in -next, but verifying it was fairly painful, since a lot of the trees had been rebased, and the ones that hadn’t been rebased often had some extra patches that still showed up when I did my “git log linux-next..FETCH_HEAD” thing.

• On the whole, most of it was all good, and I didn’t really end up complaining to people. I’m pretty sure that there were trees I shouldn’t have let through, but the majority really had been in -next.

• We met Linus Torvalds at LinuxCon Europe 2011 and did a long interview. We covered sevaral topics including his stand on Secure Boot, Patents and Copyrights. What he thinks of Apple without Steve Jobs and how influencial Steve Jobs was in Apple. He also talks about his differences with FSF and GNU GPL v3. We also talked about Android and the contribution of Amazon and Google. The lighter topics included what is his primary language, what his kids use at home — Windows or Linux.

Applications

• Azul Systems have today announced Zing 5.0, eliminating their previous requirement for a hypervisor, and therefore bringing their pauseless JVM to unmodified 64-bit Linux for the first time.

• Matrox Graphics is pleased to announce the latest generation of Extio F2208 and Extio F2408 KVM extenders and Extio F2408E Expander units now support a broader range of Linux operating systems and showcase a new degree of remote multi-display flexibility using a minimum of fiber-optic cabling. The Matrox Extio product line, which extends keyboard, mouse, USB, audio, and multi-monitor functionality from the host computer by up to one kilometer (3280 feet) enables new capabilities including cloning, stretched desktops, multi-GPU, and multi-unit support.

Instructionals/Technical

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

• Compositing window management in 4.8 can be built with support for OpenGL ES. This means hardware acceleration using a more modern revision of OpenGL and one that is supported on mobile devices.

• During development of this feature, Martin Gräßlin did a lot of clean up to the existing code bringing performance enhancements to how effects are handled and windows are painted. The blur implementation also received a significant improvement to its performance thanks to improved caching written by Philipp Knechtges; this provides quite noticeable results on many systems. In all, many fewer cycles are spent rendering and displaying the beauty that is the Plasma Desktop.

Distributions

• My first thought was to give Arch Linux a whirl. The amount of noise and adulation people generate about it borders on the cultish. They consider themselves “advanced”, which is nice. They seem to consider themselves advanced because it takes a certain amount of tinkering to successfully run and maintain Arch. Interestingly, many Arch users also claim Arch is easy. C’est la vie, and I’ve learned it almost always takes getting naked and swimming for yourself before you make any judgments.

New Releases

• Now available Elastix 2.2 and the elastixWorld 2011 attendees were the first to witness the improvements in this new Elastix stable version. In this version you will enjoy a new and improved interface and the upgrading of Asterisk among other additions such as:

• With a little delay I can announce the release of Scientific Linux 5.7 LiveCD/DVD.

• Scientific Linux Live CD/DVD 5.7 can now be downloaded for 32 and 64 bit:

• ftp://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/livecd/57/i386 ftp://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux/scientific/livecd/57/x86_64

• Public mirrors of Scientific Linux 5.7 LiveCD/DVD can be found here

• https://www.scientificlinux.org/download/mirrors

• It’s already been four years since IPFire 2 was released for the first time. There has been huge progress until today, the release of version 2.11.

• As in every single IPFire release we have made so far, there have been updates that brought new features and despite of that kept the systems always up to date.

• With the recent release of Fedora 16 it’s time to release a new version of VortexBox based on it. VortexBox 2.0 is based on Fedora 16 and also includes the new Logitech Media Server 7.7.0. We have added some other fixes and updates as well including new versions of MPD and our built in DLNA server.

Red Hat Family

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced a collaboration with Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) (NYSE: SAI), to demonstrate and deliver innovative solutions that maximize the use of open source cloud computing technologies.

Fedora

• The new Fedora has an updated set of components as well as improvements in the areas of virtualisation and cloud computing. Fedora now uses different technologies to partition hard disks and when booting.

• Dedicated To Dennis Ritchie

• In its release note, Fedora team has dedicated this version to Dennis Ritchie — the co-inventor of Unix and the C language. He also co-authored The C Programming Language, a book that taught many programmers just at the time personal computing was exploding. Without Ritchie computing would be nothing like it is today.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• Unity’s Application Lens is pretty much perfect: you can search apps by text, or by category.

• One of the big problems that any company faces when it decides to get into the GNU/Linux business is how to deal with users, a group who have an extraordinary sense of entitlement.

• Mark Shuttleworth recently announced his plans to take Ubuntu beyond desktops and servers. The news recieved appreciation from seasoned bloggers. What leaves on wonder how Ubuntu Unity will look like on tablets and smartphones.

Flavours and Variants

Devices/Embedded

• One week after the end of the Embedded Linux Conference Europe 2011, we are pleased to release the videos of all talks that took place during this event. We would like to thank the Linux Foundation for allowing us to record those talks and to share freely the resulting videos on-line, and also thank the Clarion Congress Hotel technical staff for helping us with technical details related to video recording.

Phones

Android

• That message came from Google’s chairman Eric Schmidt, who is taking a bit of a tour and making a lot of comments along the way. Earlier while roaming South Korea, Schmidt said that Google’s upcoming acquisition of Motorola would not make it a favourite amongst its Android partners, and he criticised Microsoft’s litigation against phone makers that are using Android. Today in Taipei, he has gone further. “We tell our partners, including the ones here in Taiwan, we will support them. For example we have been supporting HTC in its dispute with Apple because we think that the Apple thing is not correct,” Schmidt told reporters during his first visit to Taipei, according to Reuters.

• Republic Wireless announced a contract-free cellular plan that offers unlimited text, data, and voice for $19/month. The service requires a customized LG Optimus Android 2.3 phone ($199 with one free month of service) that switches automatically to Wi-Fi connectivity whenever it’s available, according to the company.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

• Android 3.2 tablet introduced alongside Tegra 3

• Idolian.com announced a seven-inch Android 2.3 tablet for a temporarily discounted price of $149. The MiniTurbo T8 is equipped with a seven-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive display, a 1.2GHz Telechips processor, 512MB of RAM, 4GB of storage, an HDMI port, and Android Market access, says the company.

• Samsung Series 5 Chromebook is a new notebook powered by Google’s Chrome OS, a Linux-based Operating System geared towards mobility and cloud applications. The Series 5 Chromebook comes in a Slick Arctic White or Titan Silver, and offers a 3G or Wifi Model. The design of the Series 5 is smooth and rounded, with a thin form-factor.

Free Software/Open Source

• That said, it is my belief some within Microsoft are embracing open source in a genuine way–but only as far as they can influence the projects in question to their benefit.

Events

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• Mozilla is one of the open source players which is seeking to replicate PC-based success by creating a mobile platform. Earlier this year, the Foundation talked about its plan to develop one of the new breed of browser operating systems, rather like Google’s Chrome OS, with its ‘Boot to Gecko’ project. Now it has published a timeline and published the first images of its planned user interface, with developers able to test the new system as early as December.

• Mozilla announced more details and a project roadmap for its Android-based, web-centric Boot to Gecko (BTG) mobile operating system, including plans to release a version in the second quarter of 2012. It also announced an updated Firefox 8 web browser for desktop and mobile devices, featuring improved HTML5 support, Twitter integration, and an enhanced password function for Android.

Databases

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

Project Releases

Public Services/Government

• It is wrong to believe that open source software is implicitly insecure, according to the government’s main official on the subject.

• Qamar Yunus, assistant director in the Cabinet Office ICT policy team, made the assertion in outlining the guidance the organisation has produced on the subject at the EHI Live event in Birmingham.

• “There was a myth being circulated around the SIs, saying you can’t use open source software in government as it’s not secure,” Yunus told the conference, referring to the systems integrators that account for large amounts of government ICT spending.

• To counter this, the Cabinet Office asked CESG, the National Technical Authority for Information Assurance, to produce guidance on the subject. The result is already available to users of the Government Secure intranet, and will be published on the Cabinet Office website in the next couple of weeks.

• “That document clearly states there is no difference between open source and proprietary software. That’s one myth busted,” Yunus said.

• He told the audience that the government is not in favour of open source in all cases, but wants to see a “level playing field” with proprietary software based on total cost of ownership over its lifetime. “I do not believe it is always the best value for money,” he said, but added that he wants government ICT buyers – including systems integrators planning technology refreshes – always to consider open source as an option. This should involve software procurements stating an outcome rather than a brand.

• Yunus said that he has carried out extensive research with both departments and integrators. “There was a realisation that neither really understood open source,” he said. As a result, the Cabinet Office has established a Government Open Solutions online forum, a model to assess the total cost of ownership of the two types of software, a catalogue of case studies and an asset register of government ICT that will indicate whether a project uses open source.

Openness/Sharing

• Wikimedia UK – the chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation that covers the United Kingdom – has been registered as a charity by the Charity Commission. Charity law specialists Stone King LLP, who advised Wikimedia UK on the application, described this decision as “a milestone in the development of charity law in England and Wales” as it marks “a significant step toward the updating of charity law to reflect developments in modern communications and the evolution of user-generated content”.

Programming

• The Eclipse Foundation has quietly launched a new language, Xtend, which it says is designed to address shortcomings of Java without replacing it.

• The aim of Xtend is to create more readable code, to add features that Java needs but doesn’t have, and to offer “a convenient alternative in situations where Java doesn’t shine”.

• ava runtime maker Azul Systems released a new Java Virtual Machine (JVM) today specifically architected and optimized for the Linux operating system and x86-based servers. The company is billing Zing 5.0, now available, as the most scalable JVM for enterprise Java workloads.

• “Java is the most popular language in the enterprise,” said Azul co-founder and CEO Scott Sellers, “and Linux is the most popular operating system. Instead of trying to create a JVM that does all things for all operating environments, as Oracle (and previously, Sun) has done, we decided to get laser focused on developing the best JVM for Linux.”

Leftovers

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• The Center for Media and Democracy filed a letter this week requesting that the Internal Revenue Service investigate Prosperity USA, a charity founded by Herman Cain’s Chief of Staff Mark Block, for potentially violating the Internal Revenue Code by fronting tens of thousands of dollars worth of Mr. Cain’s campaign travel expenses. But Prosperity USA is only one node in a network of charities and nonprofit organizations associated with Mr. Block, the former head of the Wisconsin arm of the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity.

• A new film from the Brave New Foundation outlines the role of the Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council in new voter suppression tactics; the Center for Media and Democracy is one of the voices featured in the film.

• Through the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), global corporations and state politicians vote behind closed doors to try to rewrite state and federal laws that govern your rights. The so-called “model bills” of this corporate bill mill–which has been funded by Koch profits and other corporations–reach into almost every area of American life, including the right to vote.

Copyrights

• Unfortunately Osgoode Hall is heavily involved on the Corporate side of copyright. This is not surprising, most copyright lawyers are employed by large companies like Warner Music Canada. After the Federal Copyright Consultation a lawyer from Stikeman Elliot wrote an article at IPOsgoode complaining about the consultation. Some of you may remember my satirical answer to him.

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