● 05.14.12

● Links 14/5/2012: Linux Kernel 3.3.5, Wine 1.5.4

Posted in News Roundup at 6:25 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• In April 2012, IQnection announced an agreement with Linux Online Inc. (owners of the Linux.org domain name) to create a new community oriented website, publish/maintain content and host the Linux.org site.

• The Linux.org community was started in 1994. It quickly grew in size and popularity to become the Internet’s leading resource for Linux information. Unfortunately, Linux.org went offline in March of 2011.

Desktop

• So, eventually the user was without their PC for long enough and I had to revert back to Windows XP, just to get things working for now. The PC had been brought to me because it was full of the usual Windows malware, and he wanted to switch to GNU/Linux to put an end to this. I am pretty sure that if I had more time, I could have fiddled with it and gotten things to work properly. But, it was requiring a lot of tweaking as I mentioned in a previous post about Fedora 16. I could have set up the PC to dual boot, however I decided not to get into this scenario right now as the user is a heavy gamer and it would result in booting frequently to both Linux and Windows, which I think is more hassle than it is worth. However, at some point we made a mutual agreement to try GNU/Linux again in a year or so, once different games and versions are out. Another application that is used frequently in this case during the gaming is TeamSpeak which has a Linux version available. Unfortunately, I never got that far to try and install it, but I’m sure it would have worked since there is a native Linux version available, unlike a lot of the popular games which are Windows/Mac only.

Kernel Space

Applications

• Yorba software group announced the new lightweight email client for Gnome desktop called “Geary”. It comes with a simple and organized user interface to ease the way you browse/read your emails. Also it’s written in Vala programing language.

• xplanetFX is realistic maps wallpapers and a sophisticated graphics handling produce nearly photo realistic images of our mothership. It’s GTK GUI makes it really easy to use and provides a lot of settings and a user friendly access to xplanetFX. And even the templating capabilities give xplanetFX an individual and stylish touch.

• For those of you who don’t already know about FAUmachine (FAU), it’s a virtual machine that allows you to install full operating systems and run them as if they were independent computers. FAUmachine is similar to VirtualBox, QEMU, and other full virtualization technologies. It is a project sponsored by the Friedrich Alexander University Computer Science Department in Germany (Erlangen-Nuremberg*). FAU is a computer simulator that is an independent virtual machine project. The CPU is based on the virtual CPU in QEMU.

• I work at a public library with 28 Linux stations made publicly available in four separate rooms. The room in which I spend most of my time has 10 computers, and elementary and middle school students stop by daily after school to use them. About 90 percent of the children use the computers for games, and about 10 percent use them for doing homework. Very few use the computer for creative graphics applications. I’m bent on changing that.

Instructionals/Technical

Wine

Games

• OpenMW is a free and open source engine for The Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind. It aims to be a fully playable and improved implementation of the game’s engine and functionality.

• OpenMW is released under the GNU General Public License version 3, and all source code has been written completely from scratch. It also builds on various other open source tools, most notably OGRE for graphics, and Bullet for collision (and possibly physics).

• UFO: Alien Invasion is a free and open source strategy game featuring turn-based tactical combat against hostile alien forces (human or computer controlled) which are infiltrating earth at this very moment. The game is heavily influenced by the X-COM series (mostly by UFO: Enemy Unknown).

• Being present at the Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal), Electronic Arts announced the immediate availability for download of two games in Ubuntu Software Center.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• KDE is a free and open-source advanced desktop environment. It provides a Plasma workspaces and variety of applications for different cross-platforms. Now the latest KDE plasma and applications version 4.8.3 is available to update for Kubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin and for Ubuntu Precise derivatives as well.

GNOME Desktop

• Gnome 3 developer Allan day blogged about some interesting new design concepts for future Gnome 3 releases.

• With GNOME Shell Extensions Updater, you can update all the extensions installed from extensions.gnome.org with a single click. This extension checks for updated extensions every 5 days and displays a notification in the GNOME Shell Message Tray with all the available updates:

• Democracy always wins!! It took almost two years for GNOME Developers to release that the majority of users were unhappy with the Suspend option instead of the standard Power Off.

• When Linus Torvalds sneezes the Linux world gets a cold. The father of Linux has praised Google Chrombooks for being more useful than Gnome 3 Shell.

• We interviewed Frederic Peters, the new Gnome Release Manager, to understand the future plans for Gnome 3.x, his opinion about Unity and Cinnamon and much more.

Distributions

• Chakra is a desktop Linux distribution forked from Arch Linux. It is a “pure” KDE-based distribution, with a facility to run GTK applications through a Bundle System. The latest edition is Chakra Archimedes, and being a semi-rolling or half-rolling release distribution, Chakra does not need to be reinstalled when new updates become available.

• An uninformed comment on a Linux community blog has led to questions over the stability and finances of the Slackware GNU/Linux project, but its founder assures iTWire that the project is alive and kicking.

New Releases

• Barry Kauler announced a couple of days ago, May 5th, the immediate availability for download of the Puppy “Slacko” 5.3.3 Linux distribution, based on the Slackware Linux 13.37 operating system.

• Ikey Doherty proudly announced a couple of hours ago, May 9th, the immediate availability for download of the first and stable version of the SolusOS operating system.

• Salix MATE 13.37 is now officially released! Available in both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures, this release introduces the MATE Desktop Environment. For anyone not familiar with MATE, it’s a GNOME2 fork, that continues development of the GNOME 2.x branch. MATE uses the traditional desktop metaphor that was abandoned for newer GNOME 3.x releases. All of the GNOME parts that have been forked have been renamed, so that they don’t conflict with GNOME 3.x applications, but otherwise the functionality and behavior is exactly the same as it was in GNOME 2.32.x. For example, the Nautilus file manager is now named Caja in MATE, the Evince document viewer is now Atril and the File-Roller archive manager is now Engrampa. These forked applications will probably play a much bigger part in future Salix versions, for other editions as well, especially if Slackware doesn’t decide to move to GTK+3.

• Robert Shingledecker announced earlier today, May 10th, the immediate availability for download of the Tiny Core 4.5.2 Linux operating system, including the Tiny Core Plus edition.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

• The French Mandriva GNU/Linux company has been given another lease of life it would appear from the company’s blog.

• Chief operating officer Jean-Manuel Croset said in a post yesterday that a direction for the company would be announced in the third week of May.

Red Hat Family

• When Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) recently announced its long-term strategy for OpenShift, I began to think about potential implications for cloud-focused application developers and emerging cloud consultants. Already, cloud developers are seeking to understand cloud platforms like OpenStack, CloudStack, Microsoft Windows Azure and VMware Cloud Foundry. Amid all that noise, can Red Hat attract developers to OpenShift? And equally important: Can cloud consultants explain OpenShift and its alternatives to business customers?

• Red Hat declined to provide specifics on the number of employees working in the centers.

• Its new agreement with Red Hat (RHT) is aimed at the enterprise market, specifically the telecommunications and security markets Red Hat has yet to crash but where Dell has a big presence.

• In an exclusive interview with Muktware Bryan Che, Senior Director (Product Management and Marketing for the Cloud Business Unit), Red Hat, explains what OpenShift is all about. We also talked about Red Hat’s cloud strategy.

Fedora

• The final version of Fedora 17 does not arrive until May 22nd, 2012. I have installed the final Beta version, and it is the best version of the Fedora operating system that I have ever used. In TLWIR 37, I will look under the hood of Fedora 17, and let you know what you can look forward to in the “Beefy Miracle”.

Debian Family

• The next version of the Debian GNU/Linux distribution, version 7 or Wheezy, will include software that allows users to easily set up their own cloud offerings using free software.

• A media release from the project said people were increasingly storing data in the cloud, a term that refers to software as a service offerings.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• There’s no doubt about it, Apple hardware is hot these days. It seems like everywhere you look, someone is using an iPhone, iPad or Macbook. Apple is now the top computer maker in the world, outselling giants like HP and Dell. They also have some of the best consumer satisfaction ratings in the industry. Simply put, Apple is currently making the most reliable, desirable and fashionable computer hardware on the market. Some people, however, have issues with Apple’s OS X operating system and Apple’s ever growing control over the software that runs on their devices.

• Canonical announced at UDS (Ubuntu Developer Summit) that they plan to create a truly embedded rootfs builder, in order to make an absolute minimal filesystem to make Ubuntu run on hardware with extremely limited diskspace.

• I had written an article in beta days. I want to revisit the topic. No operating system is perfect, so to consider Ubuntu to be bug free is just like saying software does not have bugs. The reality is software always has bugs. Its the amount and severity of bugs that gives a good metrics of how usable a system is.

• There was a very interesting session at UDS by Google developer Thomas Bushnell. He talked about how Ubuntu, its derivatives and Goobuntu (Google’s customized Ubuntu based distro) are used by Google developers.

• In the final day of the Ubuntu Developer Summit for Ubuntu 12.10 that took place in Oakland, USA, the Ubuntu developers talked about a possible GNOME flavor of the Ubuntu operating system.

• Question: Referring to this bug about Microsoft market share, assigned to you in Ubuntu: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 With the number of other devices in the marketplace doing what desktop pc’s did in 2004, should this still be a critical bug? Mark: Interesting question. I think the world is a much more balanced place now with iOS and Android so, perhaps we can consider that one fixed.

• A company that markets its own Java-compatible JVM, which is optimised for GNU/Linux, has extended its support to cover the Ubuntu distribution.

Flavours and Variants

• So I’m in the live environment for Xubuntu 12.04, which aside from the ugly wallpaper (including every alternative wallpaper on the ISO image) is a great-looking and -working Xfce 4.8 desktop.

• My main mission in running the live distro from a USB flash drive: Checking networked-filesystem support in the Thunar file manager.

• Today we share with you an interview with Dr. Leon Brin, professor, mathematician and maintainer of Mathbuntu a set of scripts that enhances an Ubuntu based distribution with mathematical software. Leon tells us the story behind Mathbuntu and how you can help the project. Enjoy!

Devices/Embedded

• MagPI is a new dedicated magazine for Raspberry PI will be released monthly for free. This magazine aimed to provide a variety of tutorials, articles, how to setup your Raspberry PI and much more. It has been written by many volunteers with many levels in mind. Check more information about the first issue of MagPI down below.

Phones

Android

• A text editor is software used for editing plain text files. This type of software has many different uses such as modifying configuration files, writing programming language source code, jotting down thoughts, or even making a grocery list. Given that editors can be used for such a diverse range of activities, it is worth spending the time finding an editor that best suites your preferences.

• The way we travel has evolved a lot over the years. In the early days, people used to walk around with giant folded maps, asking for directions to random strangers. Not that anything is wrong with that, it was just that those methods weren’t as great as the ones we have now. For example, not only is using GPS devices more convenient than carrying maps and guides, it’s also much more time saving.

• Reddit is a popular content sharing platform where registered users submit content to the site in the form of links. The links typically point to news and blog articles, videos and pictures. Users have the ability to vote on these submissions, with the collective votes determining what content is considered good and what is regarded as junk. This voting mechanism enables submissions to be ranked on reddit’s various pages. As such, this social news site is an ideal place to find the latest news on a wide spectrum of subjects, and to share what interests you with others. Reddit receives in excess of 1 billion pageviews per month, which is testament to the power of social news websites.

• Chinese handset maker ZTE wants to get in on some of the emerging phone/tablet hybrid market that Samsung seems to own with the Galaxy Note. Speaking with reporters, ZTE’s head of handset strategy, Lv Qianhao, recently indicated that they would be looking to the combination experience for a pair future products.

• One screen good, two screens better. That seems to be the thinking behind one of Samsung’s latest awarded patent filings, spotted in the USPTO by Forbes. The patent shows a clamshell design not dissimilar to the Sony Tablet P, but using a larger, flatter form factor that’s more like a traditional laptop in shape. Also of note is a removable controller/pointer that slides into a slot along the hinge.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

Free Software/Open Source

• Some of my colleagues were keen on broader access to AT4AM, the amendment template software of the European Parliament. It is used by Members of the European parliament to draft amendments to legal text.

• In the process of achieving world domination, the philosophizing was largely factored out of the community. I mentioned a few individuals in the “founding philosophers” entry, and I think it is interesting to examine what happened with them.

• It’s often associated that open-source is referred to Linux and FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software). But as equally as important is the community. And what I want to touch base on is not only the open-source community, but how “open” the development community is as opposed to the development community of Microsoft Windows. And particularly at a corporate and managerial level.

• Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with many gender, educational, and digital divides. Yet it is gradually being transformed by open source and digital technology. There’s little question that as Nepal seeks to help its citizens become a part of the global digital economy, it faces a series of challenges: political instability, remote physical access, poor infrastructure, and rural poverty. In April 2012, the World Economic Forum released a report that identified Nepal as one of the least networked countries in the world, at the bottom of world rankings.

• I put on my open source hat and asked myself these question:

• 1. Do I have the skills and know how to put on a good explanatory talk about Twitter? 2. Do I know how to record such a talk to video? 3. Do I know how to edit that video and upload it to the web?

Events

• [ Author's note: In contrast to my usual style, the following article is a largely non-technical account. Future articles will focus on the configuration and use of particular pieces from the Linux audio applications stack. Meanwhile I hope you enjoy this report, my first for LWN.net. ]

• I found the conference very interesting, with speakers from around the world that have described several open source products and best practices on monitoring but also on configuration and management tools. A big surprise for me has been the strong push for alternatives softwares to Nagios for monitoring in particular Shinken and Icinga have received many praise.

Web Browsers

Chrome

• I’ve been using Google Chrome for Linux since it was first made available. I use Gmail, Google Docs (now Drive), Google Plus, Google Adsense, Google Analytics, Google Music, and many more. I am the original owner of an original CR-48 Chromebook, having received mine way back in Dec. 2010. I promote Google services at work and have worked hard to point my business’ compass towards their entire suite of offerings. I use a Samsung Nexus S with an official build of Android 4.04 and I’m only interested in official devices moving forward.

Mozilla

• Back in the fall of 2011, we took a targeted look at Firefox responsiveness issues. We identified a number of short term projects that together could achieve significant responsiveness improvements in day-to-day Firefox usage. Project Snappy kicked off at the end of the year with the goal of improving Firefox responsiveness.

Databases

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• After an intense week, I decided to forget about work this weekend and have some time for my hobby, software testing. So, I downloaded Mageia 2 RC, LibreOffice 3.4.5, and a Linux distro that I had never heard of: Liberté 2012.1.

CMS

• This interview with Catalyst’s Director Mike O’Connor sheds light on how enterprise scaling of Lamp and use of CMS including DRUPAL and MOODLE can dramatically benefit companies.

• Hippo joined the growing parade of open source content management systems that are reporting big growth numbers.

BSD

• For the first three months of the 2012 calendar year, the FreeBSD project achieved a lot when it came to advancing their open operating system. Here’s some of the interesting highlights from their quarterly status report.

• The FreeBSD Q1’2012 quarterly status report can be read in full here, while below are some of the most interesting tid-bits.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Gimpshop is based on Gimp, but looks like Photoshop, and those who are used to working in Photoshop can use Gimpshop.

• I knew that though Gimp and Gimpshop were excellent free programs, there were some features he offered his customers that were not available in Gimpshop. He said he would change normal pictures to sepia or black and white or add vintage effects.

Project Releases

Public Services/Government

• It is difficult to imagine the Federal government moving in one well-coordinated direction on any matter, and so it has been with the adoption of open source software. Some agencies were early adopters, especially the academic and research communities. As it did in universities, open source adoption in the US government originated in research settings, where sharing and collaboration were already part of the culture of pedagogy. In this way, the government had been using and creating open source software even before it was called “open source.” Other agencies and departments have been more conservative, for a variety of reasons, and are only just now bringing open source software into their operations. With this in mind, the history of open source in the US government is best understood as a series of individual stories that have collectively led to the pervasive adoption of open source we see today.

Openness/Sharing

• The exploration of open government and civic participation in Kansas City has already begun. This weekend, a new chapter begins. A chapter that will include open source, open data, citizen engagement, a Bike Walk hackathon, and more. In fact, it might materialize into several chapters that could start with rapid-fire lighting talks and end with dueling mayors who are innovating beyond borders. And what would a CityCamp be without an unconference? That’s a whole chapter by itself.

Standards/Consortia

• Recently, “cloud”-based music services, from big names like Amazon, Google and Apple, have been getting attention in the press. These services allow you to store your music on a corporate server and access it through your own Internet-connected device anytime you like. It’s easy to see the appeal of these services. This is the kind of thing the Internet is for, right?

Leftovers

Finance

• Two years ago, when he signed the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, President Barack Obama bragged that he’d dealt a crushing blow to the extravagant financial corruption that had caused the global economic crash in 2008. “These reforms represent the strongest consumer financial protections in history,” the president told an adoring crowd in downtown D.C. on July 21st, 2010. “In history.”

• Since the 2008 market crash, banking interests and economists have clashed over how much of their operations banks should fund with equity as opposed to debt. Bankers and others often say that, “equity is expensive.” By contrast, a recent paper, coauthored by three faculty of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, argues that this conventional wisdom is incorrect, and that, “Quite simply, bank equity is not expensive from a social perspective, and high leverage is not required in order for banks to perform all their socially valuable functions.”

Privacy

• CNET learns the FBI is quietly pushing its plan to force surveillance backdoors on social networks, VoIP, and Web e-mail providers, and that the bureau is asking Internet companies not to oppose a law making those backdoors mandatory.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

ACTA

• During the recent Civil Liberties Committee meeting (8 may) Pedro Velasco-Martins (Commission DG Trade) claimed that ACTA only targets WTO members as participating nations. I do not read that from the text of the agreement where it says prospecting nations. I do not see any provision which says that only WTO members are eligible to join.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

----------

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.