● 03.01.12

● Links 1/3/2012: WebOS Layoffs, Eclipse Board Elections

Posted in News Roundup at 4:21 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Kernel Space

• OpenGL 3.0 can only be used with Intel’s new graphics driver if a potentially patented technology is enabled in Mesa 3D. A new version of util-linux standard utilities collection adds several new programs. Videos of ELC presentations offer useful information on testing the ktest.pl framework, the state of ARM code in the Linux kernel and function tracing with ftrace.

Applications

• In “Tweaking Text in Scribus,” I briefly described the tools available for manipulating text in Scribus. Now, it’s time to really get your typographic geek on, and look in greater detail at how to adjust the spacing of text in Scribus: how to adjust the space between lines of text (leading), between characters (kerning), and upon a line (tracking).

Instructionals/Technical

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC)

Distributions

New Releases

Red Hat Family

• 4t Networks now offers CentOS 6 for Linux-based VPS hosting and Cloud hosting services. CentOS 6 provides a free alternative to RHEL, for Linux-based clients.

Fedora

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• Last night we kicked off the new season of our little Ubuntu Podcast with some new segments. We thought we’d have a little debate between the presenters, with live listeners able to tune in and give their opinion and feedback. The motion chosen was “Unity is the best choice for the future of Ubuntu”.

Devices/Embedded

• The Raspberry Pi foundation attempted to launch its $35 Linux computer on Tuesday evening, but the organization’s retail partners couldn’t cope with the massive demand. Two British electronic component distributors that intended to sell the product were unable to do so–their websites went down, succumbing to the stampede of eager enthusiasts who sought to purchase the hotly-anticipated system.

• Suddenly tiny computers running Linux are everywhere. Norwegian company FXI Technologies has started taking the first orders for its Cotton Candy Linux computer that can run either Ubuntu or Android 4.0.

• The $199 (£139) computer’s small size – it is enclosed within a USB stick case – belies its power. Underneath lies a custom design comprising a 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex A9 processor with 1GB or RAM, supporting for up to 64GB of microSD storage.

• We spend time with Eben Upton, the man at heart of the $25 computer project known as Raspberry Pi. We learn all about the hardware, the dev board pricing scandal and – amazingly – why Ubuntu doesn’t want anything to do with it. Though otherwise candid, Eben refused to be drawn on the existence of a Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled Raspberry Pi ‘Model C’…

Phones

Android

• The Android-x86 Project has published a release candidate of its Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” port for the x86 platform. Aimed at netbooks and tablets, it includes the 3.0.8 Linux kernel with KMS enabled and, its developers say, should be able to run at most netbooks’ native resolution.

• When I show friends and colleagues the things I’m able to do on my rooted Android device, many of them end up asking me to work similar magic on their hardware. I’ve always been happy to help out, and after a bit of research at home (how to get root, custom ROMs that are available, etc) I usually come to work a day or two later equipped with my laptop and the appropriate software. Unfortunately, I’ve recently come to realize that this doesn’t always work out to the advantage of the other person, or to me for that matter.

• Now that AT&T’s lined up to get the just-revealed One X, and T-Mobile’s taken claim to the One S (with Verizon always fed a steady stream of quality hardware), HTC’s plans for Sprint seem to be up in the air, especially with the once cutting-edge EVO 3D closing in on its one-year launch anniversary. Well we’ve now learned from a trusted source that a high-end handset is in fact on its way to Sprint from the House of One, and it’s codenamed the HTC Jewel.

• French Zigbee and NFC specialist Taztag is to unveil the first Android phone to include support for both NFC and Zigbee wireless communications at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week.

Free Software/Open Source

• Equalis, the leading provider of numerical analysis, visualization and simulation solutions for engineers and scientists, built on the Scilab open source numerical computation platform, today announced the availability of its Control and Power Systems module. These sophisticated new capabilities are included as part of the Equalis Pro Plus solution.

• Robert Frosts’s classic poem, The Road Not Taken, concludes with the line “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I — I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.”

• If you’re a road-less-traveled kinda geek, then come along as we learn more about Rockbox, an open-source firmware upgrade for portable media players.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• Once the darling of the web world Firefox has lost a little of its shine of late with many users being lured over to Google’s Chrome browser.

• In response the Mozilla Foundation has turned up the heat and is now piling on the changes in an effort to keep up with the competition. Mozilla’s latest offering is a beta version of Firefox 11.

• The new version has a healthy number of new features, but will it be enough to hold off Chrome?

SaaS

Databases

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• OpenOffice.org has long been one of the top competitors to Microsoft Office, but the open source productivity suite’s future was clouded in 2009 when Oracle acquired Sun Microsystems, which had maintained OpenOffice.org since late 1999. Oracle eventually donated the OpenOffice.org code to the Apache Foundation, which promises a new release this year.

CMS

Business

Semi-Open Source

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Vastness of open source can leave anyone in confusion. Whether it is distro hunting or phrases that are used to explain related concepts. The one which annoys every single beginner is that Open source is said to distribute free software, so far so good, but what exactly we mean by free? Free as is Beer or Free as in Speech? Keep reading.

Project Releases

• Minix, the Unix operating system that inspired Linus Torvalds to create Linux, has been expanded to give users a wider range of commands and features, thanks in large part to a Google Summer of Code project from last year.

Public Services/Government

• Chris Chant, Director of the government’s G-Cloud programme, has confirmed to Computerworld UK that the next iteration of the recently opened CloudStore will be based on open source software.

Openness/Sharing

Open Hardware

Programming

• The Eclipse Foundation has opened this year’s elections for its board members. There are six seats on the board being elected, with three seats for elected representatives of the Committer Members (who contribute code to Eclipse projects) and three seats for the Sustaining Members (made up of of fee paying Solutions Members and Enterprise Members). There are four candidates for each set of three seats. The voting closes on 16 March 2012 and the final results of the election will be announced at the annual general meeting; this will take place at EclipseCon 2012, 26-29 March.

• The question is whether open sourcing can turn hardware into easyware. The concept of open source hardware came into the forefront with Facebook and its Open Compute project becoming popular. Customized server hardware is not an unknown concept though and companies like Rackspace and Google have been getting customized designs for quite a while now.

Leftovers

Security

• Google has officially withdrawn its sponsorship from the 2012 Pwn2Own security challenge. According to Google, they pulled out after they discovered that exploits demonstrated at the event did not have to be disclosed to the affected vendors.

• HP’s TippingPoint which runs the annual event, disagrees.

• “Affected vendors always receive full details for vulnerabilities discovered during the Pwn2Own contest – this is a key benefit for the vendor community,” Aaron Portnoy, Manager of the Security Research Team at HP TippingPoint, told InternetNews.com. “HP DVLabs analyzes each vulnerability it receives to determine the root problem, severity of the vulnerability, and its susceptibility to attack to help vendors assess the risks and deal with mitigating them.”

Cablegate

• The first blow came in December, when private analysis firm Stratfor – which gathers open-source and paid-source information on global issues for subscription-based clients – had its company e-mail hacked. It was reportedly the work of the loose-knit, yet well-feared group of hackers known as Anonymous.

• This week, the second blow was delivered as the website WikiLeaks began posting what it says is a body of internal Stratfor e-mails numbering in the millions and reportedly laying out just how the sausage is made at a modern-day private intelligence firm.

Censorship

• Internet freedom and innovation are at risk of being stifled by a new United Nations treaty that aims to bring in more regulation, Google’s executive chairman Eric Schmidt has warned.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

• Although we are constantly reminded (or “educated” as they like to put it) that the major studios and labels are only looking out for the interests of the artists, we are equally constantly reminded (by these artists) that this just simply isn’t the case. The latest artist to remind us exactly what’s wrong with the standing system? Director Alex Cox, best known for Repo Man and Sid & Nancy, both cult classic films and punk touchstones.

• Following Rumblefish claiming copyright via YouTube’s ContentID system (and putting ads on the video to monetize it) of a guy’s nature video because the birds singing in the background sounded too much like a Rumblefish-licensed track, Rumblefish’s CEO has gone into PR crisis mode, setting up an AMA (ask me anything) on Reddit to address the story. While he gets a smidgen of kudos for the funny title of it…

• A couple weeks ago, we pointed to an absolutely ridiculous “Africa IP Forum” that was being organized by WIPO and the US Department of Commerce, where it appeared the entire event was around forcing extreme IP enforcement on Africa, despite plenty of evidence that developing nations, such as most of those in Africa, are hurt by such enforcement.

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