● 04.12.12

● Links 12/4/2012: PCLinuxOS 2012.02 Reviews, GNU/Linux in the Punjab Government

Posted in News Roundup at 8:07 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• I like to think that Linux is about a flexible an operating system as you can find. But it can be easy to forget just how flexible it is. We can get ourselves stuck in our computing habits and stick with the old and familiar. And sometimes, just trying something new can sometimes seem daunting and just not worth the effort.

Server

• Proxmox Virtual Environment 2.0 lets you run and manage both KVM virtual machines and OpenVZ containers using a powerful web interface. Koen reveals all…

Kernel Space

• Linux is already being adopted by an increasing number of car makers such as GM and Jaguar predominantly for in-vehicle infotainment systems. But much work remains to ensure that Linux is automotive-grade. In this article we will discuss the opportunities for Linux in vehicles and the five requirements that need to be addressed to bring it up to speed.

• Vivek Goyal, a Red Hat developer, questioned whether CFQ as the default scheduler in the Linux kernel is still the right choice. CFQ works well on a slow, rotational media like some Serial ATA disk drives, but under-performs for faster storage arrays, PCI-E solid-state drives, virtualized disks, etc. Therefore he’s sent in a patch that would change the disk scheduler default for non-SATA drives to being the deadline scheduler rather than CFQ. Making deadline the default over CFQ for these faster storage mediums should provide a speed boost.

Graphics Stack

• The latest out of the Wayland development camp is a new, super CI repository setup by a Red Hat engineer that should make it easier to test out Wayland and its reference Weston compositor.

Applications

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• Here’s a collection of screenshots to help you decide the best looking open-source game for Linux. The screenshots are a collection of open-source games, albeit far from being an exhaustive of all available OpenGL-powered open-source / free Linux games. The point is to spark a vibrant discussion within the forums to pay tribute to the open-source (or even closed-source) Linux games with the most impressive visuals.

Desktop Environments

• Humor: Google yesterday rolled out a new layout for Google+, it’s social network. The new UI has impressed a majority of users. If Facebook’s infamous TimeLine was inspired by the horror movies “I Know What You Did Last Summer” to help stalkers and governments,”, Google has gone geek. The new design of Google+ is inspired by Gnome 3 Shell.

• “A critical piece of this social layer is a design that grows alongside our aspirations. So today we’re introducing a more functional and flexible version of Google+. We think you’ll find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google.” wrote Vic Gundotra on a Google blog.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• Dr. Will Schroeder is one of the keynote speakers for Akademy 2012 in Tallinn, Estonia. Will is the CEO of Kitware Inc., a proven leader in the creation and support of open-source software.

• The KDE Community has announced that the Simon Listens speech recognition project has successfully completed its migration from the SourceForge source code repository to KDE’s Git infrastructure. Often referred to simply as Simon, the program, which is included with some Linux distributions such as Knoppix 7.0, allows users with physical difficulties to control their systems using only their voice.

GNOME Desktop

• There’s some more progress to report on with Wayland and Weston beyond the Wayland talks at last week’s LF collab summit, including a video showing various GTK applications running within Wayland on Ubuntu 12.04 LTS.

• One of the independent developers that has been involved with the ongoing Wayland/Weston work for some time has posted a video and information about running various GTK applications under Wayland with an Ubuntu 12.04 LTS host. Additionally, he’s written an unofficial “State of Wayland” report as of early April.

Distributions

• Slitaz seems to be growing up and playing with the big boys. In the latest release, new original tools highlight the maturing nature of this tiny distro. It’s been two years in the making, but it’s been worth the wait.

• Where do Linux gurus come from? From baby newbies. How do baby newbies become gurus? One good way is with the help of the best child- and beginner-oriented distribution, DoudouLinux.

New Releases

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

• Once upon a time, PCLinuxOS used to be one of my favorite candidates for permanent desktop use, but it was back in 2009, with a truly magnificent Gnome release. Such is the trouble with great success, sequels cannot match the original. In the three years since, my experience with the distro has steadily declined. But now, there’s a fresh new release, and this means fresh new hope.

• One of the distributions I used in the years before starting this blog was PCLinuxOS. After I discovered that PCLinuxOS was a spinoff of Mandrake (the first Linux distro I ever used), I gave it a try, and used it for at least a year. It served me quite well but that was many years ago. What is it like these days? Here’s my review of their latest release.

Red Hat Family

• Hopefully you’re not too anxious to know the codename for the future Fedora 18 Linux release, which will serve as the successor to Fedora 17′s Beefy Miracle. Red Hat’s legal department has caused a delay in coming up with the codename for this Fedora release due out in H2’2012.

• Coming up with the Fedora codenames via contributor suggestions has generally been an interesting but odd event with a colorful selection of possible codenames each cycle. With Fedora 17 it’s been arguably the oddest codename with the “Beefy Miracle” title; heck, even Ubuntu developers like it. While many see the Fedora codenames as just good fun, some Fedora users have grown concerned about the names.

• Recently, there was some justified excitement that Red Hat had finally done it, and turned in annual sales of over $1 billion. A couple of years ago, I wrote a post here on Computerworld UK wondering why there were no companies based around open source that had managed to achieve such billion-dollar turnovers, and suggested that the key reason was one put forward by Red Hat’s CEO, Jim Whitehurst:

• The first iteration of the Gluster clustered file system that is going through the Red Hat annealing process is coming closer to market with the launch of a the first beta of the tool since Shadowman acquired Gluster last October.

Debian Family

• Here are some benchmarks comparing Debian GNU/kFreeBSD with the new 9.0 kernel, Debian GNU/Linux with the Linux 3.2 kernel, and FreeBSD/PC-BSD 9.0.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• As a fan of Ubuntu in particular and Linux in general, I’m always interested when new devices come out with my favorite operating system already installed.

• How does the choice of desktop environments you make for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS impact your system’s performance and power consumption? Here’s the latest round of benchmarking from the various Ubuntu 12.04 desktop environment choices — Unity, Unity 2D, GNOME Shell, KDE, Xfce, LXDE, and Openbox — when running them on three different laptops.

• It also speaks about the good battery life and the “good value” delivered by Intel Pentium Dual Core B950 based products. In so far as the operating system is concerned, the laptops are being distributed come equipped with the Linux based operating system. Ubuntu 10.10 is distributed as free and open source software. The decision of the government to avail the open source option is important for several important reasons. Firstly, it reduces dependence on proprietary software vendors and secondly it drastically cuts down on the overall cost of the machines. Since they are not bundled with expensive licensed software such as Microsoft Office they are cost-effective and provide value for money, an important factor for the government to consider which has an inherent responsibility and fiduciary duty to the taxpayers.

• Open source is also a catalyst for development as it allows users to adapt the software to their own needs. This can improve IT and programming skills that in turn promote innovation. The Ubuntu OS comes installed with Libre Office and the internet browser Firefox. Additional software that is not installed by default can be downloaded and installed using the Ubuntu Software Center without paying any additional charges – an added bonus, since this would be illegal with proprietary software. Also, Ubuntu does not need an antivirus as its kernel is designed in such a way that no spam or virus can affect it.

• UBUNTU is getting popular globally due to its open source and freeware feature. It is not only being used by students but the LINUX enterprise OS offerings are being used by world renowned education institutes for their enterprise deployments and universities in Pakistan are also using it. The primary purpose to bundle the UBUNTU OS in the machines was to save cost and promote students to take advantage of this free OS which has some great features, is easy to use and comes with a UBUNTU Liber Office (just like MS office) and also has the world renowned Fire Fox Internet Browser (similar to MS Internet explorer).

• The Punjab Government has also saved cost on bundling MS Office which is even more expensive that Windows OS. Ubuntu also has another advantage; it does not need an Antivirus as its Kernel is designed is such a way that no Spam or Virus can affect it which in turn saves cost. The selection of bundling the UBUNTU was done in order to take advantage of all the features free of cost to the government. In this regard, it is further advised to instruct all educational institutions to discourage any ads that are placed on their notice boards with regard to installation of the Windows OS as the people who are offering the students to install a Windows OS for Rupees 500/- are also using pirated versions and thus misguiding the students. Furthermore, a DVD has been provided with every laptop which contains drivers for not only UBUNTU but Windows OS as well.

Flavours and Variants

• Kubuntu — the version of Ubuntu Linux that uses the KDE desktop interface rather than the standard Unity desktop — has a new sponsor.

• That’s right, I packed it in. My MacBook Pro is now on the shelf. In a while, it goes on Craigslist — not because it’s been obsoleted by the latest version of Mac OS — Mountain Lion as mine will work okay (some MacBook Pros will not). Instead, there’s a cushy comfort zone that’s dangerous for a product reviewer to fall into.

• The beauty of Linux lies in the fact that there is a distro for everyone. It doesn’t matter whether you are a geek, beginner, Apple fan, Windows fan, gamer or developer, there’s surely one distro for you. And yes, if you are a Chinese, there is this distro just for you, and it is elegant and well-polished.

Devices/Embedded

• I like to think that Linux is about a flexible an operating system as you can find. But it can be easy to forget just how flexible it is. We can get ourselves stuck in our computing habits and stick with the old and familiar. And sometimes, just trying something new can sometimes seem daunting and just not worth the effort.

Phones

Android

Free Software/Open Source

Events

Web Browsers

Mozilla

SaaS

• The OpenNebula community has announced the release of OpenNebula 3.4 which now supports multiple data storage backends, with separate stores for VM images, disk images in file format, iSCSI/LVM for disk images on block devices and a specialised VMware store for the vmdk format. These new data storage backends work alongside new transfer drivers. The release also reintroduces the concept of load balanaced, high availability clusters.

Databases

• You’re a part of the Core PostgreSQL Team and, at the same time, the president of PostgreSQL Europe. What are your responsibilities in these positions?

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• A little under a year ago I wrote a happy post about LibreOffice. The team back then showed a strong focus on cleaning up and re-architecturing LibreOffice to make it ready for the future.

CMS

Business

• You’ve been thinking about starting an open source company. Or maybe you’ve got an idea but don’t know how to take it to the next level. You need something to accelerate your idea. Maybe you need to pitch it to investors? Perhaps you’re looking for a co-founder with skills that compliment yours? Startup Weekend could be the event that gets you moving.

Freedom/FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Liberated Pixel Cup is a two-part competition: make a bunch of awesome free culture licensed artwork, and then program a bunch of free software games that use it.

Public Services/Government

• “We used this milestone to sharpen our focus and commitment to Open Government. We see Open Government as the responsibility of every person who works at NASA and we take seriously the principles of participation, collaboration and transparency in all that we do,” Open Government program manager Nick Skytland wrote.

• One new feature of the plan is the inclusion of a citizen engagement directory, meant to provide members of the public with ways to contribute to NASA’s goals and encourage the development of broader interest in science, technology, engineering and math education.

Openness/Sharing

Open Access/Content

• One of the world’s largest research charities, the Wellcome Trust, is to support efforts by scientists to make their work freely available for all.

• The Trust is to establish a free, online publication to compete with established academic journals.

• They say their new title could be a “game changer” forcing other publishing houses to increase free access.

Open Hardware

• I was at the Palmetto Open Source Conference (POSSCON) a few weeks ago and one of the best exhibits was from SparkFun, an electronics company that sells open source hardware, offers classes, and provides online educational tutorials. A massive collection of electronic gadgets drew me to their booth.

Leftovers

Security

• Whenever you write about security in general and SSH security in particular (and for good measure also get slashdotted for your efforts), the comments inevitably turn up a variety of useful and less useful suggestions.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• Natural gas in North America broke below the $2.00 barrier today, for the first time in ten years. It’s important to remember that, unlike oil, natural gas does not trade at a converged, global price. Accordingly, a million BTU in LNG form currently trades for over $9.00 in the UK, and over $15.00 in Japan. Such low prices for natural gas unquestionably give the US a competitive advantage. But, it will take a resurgence in manufacturing and related industrialism to fully capture the price disparity. After all, the US is still very much an oil-based economy.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• No doubt about it, large unlimited donations are flowing into SuperPACs from rich individuals and corporations aimed at influencing who is elected at all levels of government in 2012. With the SuperPACs and other forms of political committees regulated by the federal and state election agencies, or by the IRS under section 527, at least we know who the donors are.

• But when political campaign expenditures are made by various forms of nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations, such as 501(c)(4) social welfare groups (like Crossroads GPS) or 501(c)(6) business associations (like the US Chamber of Commerce), there is no general law requiring their donors to be identified. So secret money in the millions, once again, flows in.

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