● 01.01.12

● Links 01/01/2012: Alien Arena 7.53, Calculate Linux 11.12

Posted in News Roundup at 5:21 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• It wasn’t that long ago when we were forced to buy Windows machines, only to uninstall it and install Linux. But for most everyone, things are still the same. We shamelessly hand over our hard-earned money to Microsoft for something that we never wanted, nor planned to ever use. Most laptops are more than powerful enough for us to get by on, and those of us who know a thing or two about system requirements will gladly take a bargain system if it suits our needs. Sometimes it’s just about freedom, though many don’t know what it is as it regards to computing. You can certainly liberate any laptop (or desktop for that matter) from its shackles and regain freedom, but it goes a little deeper than that.

• Gone are the days of dirty commands on a text console. In 2012 99% users are going to use computers as just other electronic appliances. They are not going to worry what’s going under the hood as long as it works. I’m using Linux more than a decade (two of my home PCs are linux – Debian and PCLinuxOS, 100′s of my office workstations are linux – CentOS and Fedora), even administered some desktops for sometime. Here are my list of basics that go wrong in Linux, always.

Kernel Space

• According to a kernel update advisory by Red Hat, root users in a guest system that is virtualised with KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) can, in certain circumstances, gain read and write access to the Linux host’s storage devices. The advisory says that the hole exists when a host makes available partitions or LVM volumes to the guest as “raw disks” via virtio. Privileged guest users can send SCSI requests to such volumes that the host will execute on the underlying storage device – which allows the guest system to access all areas of the device rather than just the permitted partitions or volumes.

Graphics Stack

Applications

Instructionals/Technical

Wine

• Wine application allows you to run Microsoft Windows applications on Linux, BSD, and MAC OS X. This week development release Wine 1.3.36 supports dynamic devices using UDisks utility which allows you to mount, unmount, format, and safely remove devices “External USB drive, USB flash drive, hard drive,..etc”. Also this release has many enhancements, and several bug fixes.

Games

• Better late than never (Sorry!), MyGameCompany has released the next preview of the upcomming platformer mainly for the younger audience named Dirk Dashing 2!

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

GNOME Desktop

Distributions

• A few days ago a friend, being new to Linux, asked me about different distributions and that led to a long talk about their merits and failings. So, being new to blog-sphere, I decided to play it safe and write about best desktop distributions. But I also thought that I could do this a little differently. Best as in best for the Linux Desktop. First let us find some criteria for choosing distributions:

• 1. Considering an usual desktop user uses around 1000-2000 package, the distribution must have over 10000 packages. Let’s just say over 9000. 2. It must not be a cosmetic derivative, or a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a… 3. It must be up-to-date. My criteria for this is two important packages: linux (* > 3.0.6) and libreoffice (* > 3.3). This packages manage to give a good sense of up-to-dateness for the desktop. 4. It must have an active community. 5. It must support both KDE and Gnome 3. 6. It must not be a testing variant.

• Linux Mint: I particularly like the naming convention Clement Lefevbre has come up with for Linux Mint. It’s alphabetically a woman’s name ending in “a.” We’re at Julia now. I asked Clement once what he’d do when he got to “Zelda” (or whatever the “Z” name will be for Linux Mint when they get that far . . . and they will), and he said that it was simple: Start with a name beginning with “A” and end the name in “e.”

New Releases

• Alexander Tratsevskiy proudly announced earlier today, December 30th, the immediate availability for download of the Calculate Linux 11.12 operating system, all editions.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• I think the most important thing to understand about Unity is that it is not primarily a program or a desktop. It is primarily a set of specifications which are implemented in different ways. The two most prominent implementations are Unity and Unity 2D, but there are already several others. Since Unity is a set of specifications, it is possible to implement parts of it without that being considered an incomplete implementation. For instance, the indicators are supported on LXDE, Xfce, Windows, KDE and others. This is very important. For instance, people are complaining about not all Gnome Panel applets being ported to Gnome Panel 3 yet. This is because the applets become part of the panel itself, meaning that it has to be completely compatible or it won’t work. This is not the case with indicators, which is why all indicators are already supported on Gnome Panel 3. The panel just needs to support the indicator specification and then all indicators automatically work. It is also an uncomplicated specification, so it’s easy and quick to do.

• If you’ve been thinking about giving Linux a run on your computer, Ubuntu’s next major release could be the one for you.

• Ubuntu 12.04, otherwise known as Precise Pangolin, will be released in April 2012 and promises to be one of the better releases of the past year from Canonical as the Ubuntu developers finally get to grips with the major desktop changes the OS has been going through.

Flavours and Variants

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

• 2011 is about to say goodbye to all of us, but it turned out to be the best year for Android. Android enthusiasts are calling 2011 “The Year of Android”, and no doubt it is; also, it was very bright for Samsung, and there’s a proof for that as well. Samsung officially announced that they shipped more than 1 million Galaxy Note units in just 2 months. The Galaxy Note was launched by Samsung a month ago, which is actually a smartphone-tablet hybrid. The phone is available in several countries and it’s going to hit US shores in 2012. Keeping Samsung previous sale records in mind, just in 5 months after the launch of the Galaxy S II, Samsung sold almost 10 million SGSII units, which is an unbelievable record.

• Google commanded close to half the U.S. smartphone market as of November, and there is little doubt that it will command more than half in 2012.

• Instead of lugging around cumbersome manuals in the pilot flight bag, pilots can now just carry onboard the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 with the Myclip Thigh, a new gizmo designed by an airline pilot that secures the Galaxy Tab, leaving the pilot’s hands free to fly the plane.

Free Software/Open Source

• The open source movement continues to strengthen every year, such that no matter who you are, what software you use, what book you read, whatever you do somewhere along the line open source software is in use.

CMS

• It is essential to have a Web presence for your business, even if it’s no more than a simple information page. Your customers will look for a website to learn about your business before they look for a phone book or newspaper ad. You can publish and maintain your website yourself, and with these five open source site builders, it’s inexpensive and easy.

Open Access/Content

Leftovers

• It appeared to be a GoDaddy like day for Verizon and the customer broke the hell. The next day Verizon was forced to drop the plan.

Security

• On December 27, the Department of Homeland Security’s Computer Emergency Readiness Team issued a warning about a vulnerability in wireless routers that use WiFi Protected Setup (WPS) to allow new devices to be connected to them. Within a day of the discovery, researchers at a Maryland-based computer security firm developed a tool that exploits that vulnerability, and has made a version available as open source.

Finance

• So the livelihoods of a huge number of people on Wall Street and the financial press—the very people whose job it is to advise people about their investment choices—depends on perpetuating investor ignorance.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• This article was originally published by Think Progress. The Center for Media and Democracy is cross-posting it as part of our ongoing efforts to expose the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and its attempts to disenfranchise voters across the country.

Civil Rights

• Now, after the Reddit Go Daddy protest gathered steam; Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales announced that he would be moving Wikipedia’s domain names from Go Daddy; and, last but not least, aggressive ads from competiting Internet domain registry and hosting companies such as Namecheap, Adelman has had a real change of heart.

Copyrights

• This holiday season many lawyers, executives, lobbyists, and politicians will have their relatives, friends, and family members stay in their households. With the economy slumping, some out-of-town visitors can’t afford to stay at hotels. When money is tight, these visitors know they can count on the hospitality of family and friends, who will welcome them in with open arms and good cheer.

• However, these hosts need to remain vigilant and avoid being swept up in the general goodwill of the holiday season. In the rose-colored fog of the Christmas-to-New Year’s festivities, it’s easy for these situations to get out of hand. Guests have a tendency to get too comfortable very quickly and before you realize it, it’s nearly February and a variety of house guests have begun to refer to you as “Dad” or “Grandpa” and you’re on the hook for video rentals, dry cleaning bills and dental appointments. Your vehicle is now referred to as the “family car” (often by non-family members), your house has become a combination day care/animal shelter and your walk-in closet is now home to a family of Guatemalan refugees.

• What starts as selfless “giving” swiftly becomes one-sided “taking.” These interlopers are not only stealing the relatively priceless* time of their hosts, but also their unbillable goodwill. While “goodwill” would seem to be in infinite supply during the latter part of December, the available supply dwindles at a rate inversely proportionate to the number of hours the “family car” has been missing.

• *Not actually “priceless.” Billing for used time runs anywhere from $400/hr. [lawyers] to $55,000/hr. [executives] to $20+ billion/hr. [politicians].

• The result of this goodwill “piracy” is nothing short of tragic. As time and goodwill are swiftly “stolen” by house guests, the host’s direct family often finds itself having to do without. At best, they can only hope to have a few moments between meals and Immigration raids to angrily discuss efforts to block the rogue infringers, perhaps by seizing the guest bedroom and posting a sternly-worded warning on the door.

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