● 09.24.12

● Links 24/9/2012: New Distros, GNOME 3.7 is Coming

Posted in News Roundup at 11:17 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Vehicles have been an emerging platform for Linux for some time now, with much of the momentum driven by auto makers and a few technology standards bodies, plus steadfast support for the trend from The Linux Foundation. Now, The Linux Foundation has announced the Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup (AGL). It will “facilitate widespread industry collaboration that advances automotive device development,providing a community reference platform that companies can use forcreating products,” according to the Workgroup announcement. News of it arrives amidst other news related to Linux in vehicles.

• The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced the Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup (AGL). The Workgroup will facilitate widespread industry collaboration that advances automotive device development, providing a community reference platform that companies can use for creating products.

• Every year for the past four years, Jim Zemlin, the Executive Director of the Linux Foundation gets in front of thousands of Linux developers and users at the LinuxCon conference to detail the success and the State of Linux.

• That’s something I’ve been wanting to happen for a while. Until recently, we were 2/3 the way there – with the laptops and mobile devices that my daughter and I use all running Linux or Android. But I finally got my wish of living in a completely Linux household a few weeks ago, all thanks to my wife’s laptop.

• It all started one Saturday morning when my wife wanted to scan some documents. Her laptop went into rather scary boot-shutdown loop, and the hard drive started clicking. This had happened a few months ago, and as it turned out the particular model of hard drive used in her laptop (which the manufacturer replaced) is one that’s prone to failure.

• One of the strong points about Linux is its hardware detection at boot time.

Desktop

• It’s the end of August, and in case you missed it, Google closed out the month by delivering a new stable release of Chrome OS that does a few things that many users have been clamoring for. As noted on VentureBeat, the update “…finally gives the browser-based operating system file management to match the original product vision: a thin layer on hardware that puts intelligence and storage in the cloud. Now, users will have the option to save a file directly to Google Drive, instead of being forced to save it locally and then upload it.” Indeed, the update solves long-standing file management problems that Chrome OS has had.

• This is a wise strategy from Google as it seeks to turn the enterprise into its next large market to conquer. Putting Chrome OS-based hardware in enterprises could be the final step in validating the operating system.

• I was reading the back-and-forth between Miguel de Icaza and Linus Torvalds (with special guest star Alan Cox) over the holiday weekend, and I was hardly surprised by the amount of finger-pointing going on.

• In case you missed it, de Icaza got the ball rolling with a blog entry a week ago opining on What Killed the Linux Desktop. The fault, de Icaza stated, lay in the way that Linux developers would consistently deprecate APIs just to improve them, coupled with the myriad of configurations between each separate distro.

• The Gazelle Professional is the flagship laptop from Ubuntu computer maker’s System76.

• Linux history teaserLinux has been around for more than 20 years and serves happily in both desktop and server roles. But it didn’t show up overnight. Linux is the result of the collaboration of lots of people over the years.

• If you haven’t noticed, if you’re looking for a Linux distribution, you’re spoiled for choice. Sites like DistroWatch list hundreds of different Linux distros on the site. But where did they all come from?

• Since Linux is just a kernel, as Richard Stallman is fond of pointing out, it’s not really that useful by itself, and regardless of how you feel about the GNU/Linux naming controversy, it really is a misnomer to call Linux an operating system. As a kernel, it just does basic things like storing files on a hard drive or accessing a network. It requires utilities to make it useful.

Server

• vmwareMaybe I’m getting old. Perhaps that’s why I just don’t get it anymore when I see the direction of the virtualization industry, and specifically, VMware. The virtualization giant has been swinging around the buzzword, and of course, accompanying acronym, “Software Defined Datacenter”, SDDC for short, to explain their take on how VMware can be the center of the IT world. However, when I look at their latest offering, I see layers upon layers of complexity, hiding beneath the veneer of their slick GUI. I have a simpler solution, a programmable datacenter.

• How cheaply can you build a supercomputer? A group from the University of Southampton just made one using 64 Raspberry Pi ARM GNU/Linux boxes ($25 each) and Lego blocks. The machine, named “Iridis-Pi” after the University’s Iridis supercomputer, runs off a single 13 Amp mains socket and uses MPI (Message Passing Interface) to communicate between nodes using Ethernet.

• Cambridge University has joined the ranks of terribly prestigious universities giving computer science classes away online, releasing a 12-step course teaching how to create what it calls a “basic terminal Operating System” for the Raspberry Pi.

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

• After the Linux Kernel Summit was done, the Linux kernel panel had wrapped and the LinuxCon and CloudOpen keynotes were finished, there was only one thing left to do at last week’s event: Skate. You might have heard rumblings and seen pictures of the skateboards that were given away as speaker and VIP gifts at this year’s event (you might have even scored one). Well, on Friday we took them out to the curb and put them to work – - with a little help from Linux kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman.

• How do the Linux and open source communities define the open cloud? Our Leaders of the Open Cloud series posed this key question, along with many others, to industry heavyweights in the 10 weeks leading up to the CloudOpen conference in San Diego last month. Here, we’ve distilled their answers into a slideshow to illustrate the range of participants and viewpoints as well as some areas of contention.

• Linus Torvalds took stage tonight at the LinuxCon conference in a panel discussion about the state of Linux. Lucky for me they took questions from the audience via Twitter – though apparently i was the only one that asked questions over Twitter…

• I asked about the naming issue – many of us were almost caught of guard by how the whole Linux 3.0 name came about, with Linus pretty much saying at the time that the numbers in the 2.6.x series had simply just gotten too large. The last 2.6 kernel was the 2.6.39 kernel.

• As was the case in the beginning, Torvalds remains the leader of Linux and is responsible for maintaining the mainline kernel and pushing out its new leading-edge releases. One of the questions that has long been asked, and was asked again at the LinuxCon conference on Wednesday night, is the question of succession known as, “What if Linus gets hit by a bus?”

• Similarly to current versions of Mac OS X and Windows, Linux is now capable of a hybrid sleep state. The 3.6 kernel also provides improved randomisation and reduces the work load of EFI bootloaders.

Graphics Stack

• While some want Linux multi-monitor support removed, others are looking for it to be improved. Multiple display support for Linux has improved over the years with X.Org and desktop environment advancements, it’s still generally less than ideal, especially for Linux gamers.

• With the liaising earlier this week between a long-time Linux desktop developer (circa 1996) and a game company, besides talking about the AMD Catalyst driver being on his blacklist of junk, he had many thoughts to share on the state of Linux multi-monitor support.

• Kristian Høgsberg spoke this week at XDC2012 about Wayland and Weston. Here’s a short recap plus some videos that include new demos of this promising project.

• Kristian began with a Wayland/Weston status and overview where he reiterated information about the desktop technology that has advanced in recent months — pretty much what’s already been covered by past Phoronix Wayland articles.

• The discussion was around providing a new Linux OpenGL ABI to better focus around today’s needs and technologies rather than sticking to a decade old ABI. Backwards compatibility, however, will be maintained. That article has more information on the background of the original proposal by NVIDIA for coming up with a new Linux OpenGL ABI.

Applications

• We currently live in a brave new world of HTML5, AJAX and dynamic scripting. Most browsers, including those on low powered phones are able to render complex web page layouts and handle asynchronous requests and client side post-processing. But what if you were stuck on an old machine with nothing but a Lynx?

• You snap a bunch of pictures on your holiday, come home and find out that there’s something missing in them. Oh it’s not your beloved dog that’s missing, it’s just lacking some much-needed light. You open up your web browser, fire up Google, and start looking for some good photo-editing apps. Though there are a bunch of good online editors, none of them make the cut because offline apps are both convenient as well as fast.

• A release date for the Linux version of Editshare’s professional-grade video editor Lightworks has been set.

• October 30th will see an alpha release of the editor made available for Linux users to download.

• Geometry is the branch of mathematics that is concerned with the properties and relations of points, lines, surfaces, and solids. H.M.S Coxeter succinctly described Geometry as:

• “Geometry is perhaps the most elementary of the sciences that enable man, by purely intellectual processes, to make predictions (based on observation) about physical world. The power of geometry, in the sense of accuracy and utility of these deductions, is impressive, and has been a powerful motivation for the study of logic in geometry.”

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• Valve has promised to release a Steam client for Linux “very soon”, but we can expect that only to be a beta release. The final release will ship next February, as per a report published by Phoronix. The initial Steam will feature Left For The Dead 2.

• Steam for Linux is coming, and Left For The Dead 2 will be the first game that will be supported in Linux. The good news is you can now vote for your favorite game titles in Steam community and get them included in the Steam Client.

• It’s becoming increasingly apparent that video game development and online distribution company Valve is serious about Linux. But desktop Linux has a 1 percent usage share. Surely there’s more to this development effort than meets the eye?

• Some time ago, we did o comparison of StuntRally and Speed Dreams, and analyzed how two completely different bases result in what you’d expect from their forks.

• Although I found StuntRally very unfinished, buggy and “cheap” then, I was sure that as VDrift becomes more mature and more settled down as a project it would result into a better road of development for Stunt Rally. As version 1.7 was released a few days ago, I had to take a look and see what changed since 1.5.

• Humble Indie Bundle is an occasional collection of games from independent developers. Fans can pay any price that they want to get access to the pack. The games are also free of digital-rights management and are playable across multiple platforms like Windows, OS X, and Linux. The proceeds are then split between the developers, advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and charity Child’s Play.

• Multiplayer airship pirate game AirBuccaneers HD will have a Linux version.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

GNOME Desktop

• Gnome 3.5.92 has been released few days ago and nothing more than translations and bug fixes will arrive till the stable release at September 26.

• Gnome Shell and Nautilus were the two modules that received huge development from 3.5.91 to .92 and more development is expected in 3.6.1 version in October 17. Gnome Shell 3.6 brings major changes in optics and huge improvements underneath.

• Today I want to take a look at one of the bigger new features in the upcoming GNOME release, Input Sources. I have written some early code for this, but the credit for getting it all working and completed really goes to Rui Matos and Takao Fujiwara.

• Of course I was asked quite often about the current state of Wayland in KDE and I honestly replied which resulted in rather incorrect “news” postings about Wayland in KDE not happening “any time soon” (whatever that is supposed to mean) to “Wayland for KDE will be delayed” (given that we never had a schedule in the first place, it cannot be delayed).

• KDE, while extremely customizable, always lacked a tool which resembles the eye candy Ubuntu Software Center. One may argue that USC is not as powerful as plain Synaptic Package manager, yet it is polished enough to attract average user. KDE’s own Apper comes close but there are some missing features which keep it below the USC.

• Qt, a C++ GUI and application framework is up for a new major release. Lars Knoll announced the release of Qt 5 beta in the Qt Labs developer blog and this release has got some exciting features.

• Among the major changes, developer will enjoy improved graphics and advanced UIs for apps written in QML and JavaScript. For those who wish to make their Qt apps more connected with the web, Qt 5 will be a blessing. High performance and better tools are also some major milestones achieved in this release.

• The sun has risen this morning to reveal the beautiful valley which a some 20 or so KDE community members have gathered to work on 3 main topics (multimedia, accessibility and Plasma). People were awake and hacking here in Randa until the early hours of the morning of our first day here. In the Plasma room we spent the day catching up with each other and what we’re working on as well as starting in on libplasma2, the next version of the underlying Plasma library, with the goal of having it in top shape for inclusion in the first release of Frameworks 5.

• A release candidate of Gnome 3.9 is already out and Gnome 3.6 stable release is scheduled on September 26. However, development never stops in Linux world, and the developers are already making plans for the next releases. Currently, you can suggest some features for future Gnome releases as we announced earlier, and Gnome 3.8 feature freeze is on October 22nd this year.

• Accessibility is an always important factor for Gnome designers/developers. All the people of the world should be able to use and contribute to our favorite desktop environment no matter their physical disabilities.

• Two new accessibility oriented/related features are now discussed and initiating with the purpose of being ready for the 3.8 release. These are the color tinting in Gnome Shell and the focus-caret tracking.

• In Google Summer of Code this summer, Gnome apps and games got major enhancements and bug removals. One of the games that specially was given importance was Gnome Sudoku. Chris Baines has posted a screenshot on his blog about the final look of this game.

• The Activities Overview has seen some improvements too that Clasen says will make a big difference in one’s overall GNOME experience. He explains, “Applications can now be accessed using the grid button in the dash, rather than by clicking on the applications tab. This improves the layout of the overview, and enables us to highlight the all-important search bar. It also addresses an issue that we saw when observing people use GNOME 3, where the applications button sometimes went unnoticed.”

• A new version of Gnome shell is out. This version is mostly a bug fix release and will be merged with the 3.6 release cycle. As its quite unstable, its not recommended to be installed as default work environment. You can, however, install it to get a taste of Gnome 3.6 and report bugs to the Gnome team.

• With Gnome 3.6 release coming closer, a lot of visible improvements are arriving in the desktop front. Some applications have got some renovated looks, namely Nautilus, Gnome Disk Usage Analyzer, Empathy and the Gnome Message Tray. Gnome Disk Usage Analyzer (Baobab) has got some visual improvements and looks cleaner now. Some screenshots below…

• Since GNOME 3 was released in April 2011, the criticism has often been harsh (and, yes, I contributed to it myself). Seventeen months later, it shows few signs of ending, and Linux Mint has released Cinnamon and Mate, two popular re-creations of GNOME 2, as an alternative. Yet aside from the occasional comment from individuals, the GNOME Project itself has refrained from answering.

• The GNOME development team shot another bullet in their foot when they removed some beloved features from the Nautilus file manager. Read Jack Wallen’s take on how this serves as the final blow to GNOME’s relevancy.

• Some great news come from Mint camp this month. First, Mint has been ranked “Best Distro 2012″ by Linux Format! Then, Mint is proud to have in his side one of the most talented hackers, the just 13 years old Esteban -esteban1uy- who was announced as the developer of the month (in Mint).

• Despite public perception to the contrary, GNOME developers pay a great deal of attention to the opinions of users, senior GNOME developer Vincent Untz told iTWire today.

• Untz is in Orlando, Florida, to attend the first SUSECON, the first annual conference of the Linux company; the quiet-spoken Frenchman, who was on the GNOME Foundation board from 2006 till 2010, has been working for SUSE since 2008.

Distributions

• There’s a new distro in town and it is not based on Ubuntu. In fact, almost the opposite – it’s based on and completely compatible with Arch Linux. Well, maybe not opposite because they aim to make Arch easy to install and use. The main version features Xfce 4.10, but they also offer GNOME and KDE DVDs. Best of all, it’s an install live CD/DVD.

• One of my first experiences with network security was building firewalls for small offices and Internet cafés. Our boss at the time was adamant that we use open source, and directed us to OpenBSD and “pf”, their packet filtering firewall. It was a good call. OpenBSD proved to be rock solid, and pf was easy to configure and easy to maintain. Fast-forward a little over a decade and I’ve just finished installing a new pf-based firewall, this time as an entire FreeBSD distribution called pfSense.

• One of my favorites is a quote from King Linus himself. “Everything would be easier if there was no choice.” That’s his way of saying freedom is messy. Many think freedom always results in more choice and that’s always a good thing.

• The problem with Open Source Software and freedom is that sometimes no one chooses the difficult or seemingly boring and unappreciated aspects. However, many times someone comes along and improves the product, Magiea and LibreOffice are two prime examples. But sometimes they don’t, like Symphony OS. Ultimately, consensus seems to be that the benefits of Open Source minus the problems associated with it are still preferable to the disadvantages even with the advantages of popular but proprietary software.

• Warren Woodford is the man behind MEPIS, one of the first ever GNU/Linux distributions that tried to be more friendly to the user. In this quick interview he talks about the distribution market, the different strategies that are followed and his opinion on what all distributions should do in order for the Linux desktop to grow and prosper.

• SolusOS is a lightweight distribution which uses Gnome 2 as its desktop interface and it is geared towards novice Linux users or those who do not need a heavy distribution.

• Coming off the heels of an impressive first release earlier this year, we are back with an updated version of this distribution. The main focus is still the same but it now has some updated offerings.SolusOS 1.2 now comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors which for those who have more than 4GB of memory can now access all of it making a huge improvement in performance and multitasking. This distribution still comes as a Live media so you can try it before installing it.

• After recently installing the Debian based edition of Linux Mint operating system on my home office desktop, I decided to take a look at another Debian based Linux distribution, SolusOS.

• This is my first time trying SolusOS, so I dived in with an innocent fresh mind. Upon booting the LiveCD, I couldn’t help but notice how fast the SolusOS boot process is. Whether it has been tweaked by the developers or whether it is due the lightweight nature of the distribution, I’m not too sure.

• The world of preferred Linux window manager is dominated by Gnome, KDE, XFCE and LXDE primarily. About 90% of the new releases I see are based on either of the four desktops because of the extremely elegant graphical interfaces they offer. However, with changing priorities and a need to provide aesthetically pleasing visual effects, Linux world is also undergoing tremendous transformation, specially Gnome 3. Most of the today’s highly sophisticated Linux distros no longer run well on low resource environment or support desktops less than 512 MB RAM.

New Releases

• The Linux world received two exciting announcements recently. Two popular distributions have released alphas of their next versions. Fedora 18 Alpha “offers a preview of some of the best free and open-source technology currently under development” and Mandriva 2012 Alpha sports “quality closer to what one would expect from a RC.”

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

• To start with, I became a big fan of PCLinuxOS since February this year. First time, I used PCLinux (I am still a Linux n00b) when I downloaded the Feb’12 release and installed it in one of the systems I have. I am not a KDE fan but PCLinuxOS is different! I have used Ubuntu mostly in last 2 year or so and I could never successfully update Ubuntu – I had to do fresh install every time! PCLinuxOS is actually the first Linux OS which I could upgrade without breaking anything. Also, there’s a knowledgeable and helpful forum in place to help you out of issues like screen not displaying proper resolution and stuff like that!

• The PCLinuxOS Magazine staff is pleased to announce the release of the September 2012 issue of the PCLinuxOS Magazine. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is a product of the PCLinuxOS community, published by volunteers from the community. The magazine is lead by Paul Arnote, Chief Editor, and Assistant Editor Meemaw. The PCLinuxOS Magazine is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share-Alike 3.0 Unported license, and some rights are reserved.

Gentoo Family

• I used Gentoo for several years a while back, but I still remember the monthly screenshot threads. Gentoo users posted their screenshots to show off their customizing prowess or how minimal they could get. So, it always catches my eye when the Gentoo Website announces their official yearly winners. Today we found out the winners for 2012.

• Sabayon 10 was released recently bringing lots of updates and your choice of four different desktop editions. Fabio Erculiani said, “If you really enjoyed Sabayon 9, this is just another step towards World domination (yay!).”

• Gentoo Linux is one Linux OS I haven’t tried yet. But, surely this week I am going to try their 2009 Special DVD edition. The best feature of Gentoo is, it is version-less and once you make an emerge update, it has the most up-to-date packages. There are step-by-step guides available to install Gentoo and once I try it, I’ll know how complicated or easy it is!

Red Hat Family

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced it has acquired business process management (BPM) technology developed by Polymita Technologies S.L. The deal accelerates Red Hat’s entry into the BPM software segment and augments its JBoss Enterprise Middleware integration software offerings.

• Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) sent another wave of employees to downtown Raleigh this week and more Red Hatters will soon follow suit.

• Longbow Research initiated coverage on shares of Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) in a research note released on Thursday morning. The firm issued a neutral rating on the stock.

• The name Red Hat is becoming even more integrated with downtown Raleigh, with the software company now buying the rights to put its name on what has been the Raleigh Amphitheater.

• Red Hat’s Linux software products have become a foundation for cloud computing, a system that allows companies to store and access data and applications over the Internet. At the same time, Red Hat is moving into new areas, including software storage, which is also expected to become a major revenue driver for the company in the next few years.

• Red Hat (NYSE: RHT)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Wells Fargo & Co. in a note issued to investors on Monday.

• That’s the question that Tim Burke, vice-president of Linux Engineering at Red Hat, answered during a keynote address at the LinuxCon conference. Burke began by telling the audience that he originally came to Red Hat from the Unix world. Unix to Linux migration is a key starting point in the discussion about what an enterprise Linux is all about.

• Burke said that the difference between Unix and Linux is that Linux enables user innovation, and provides freedom from vendor lock-in.

• The Community Enterprise Operating System is now at version 6.3. Is the upgrade to the Red Hat-based distro worthwhile?

Fedora

• Fedora 18, Spherical Cow will be delayed by another week, due to some outstanding bugs that are blocking its release. Earlier this release was delayed by a week for the same reason. This makes a total of two weeks delay for the release.

• Mo Duffy is a senior interaction designer at Red Hat, a billion dollar company that is the world’s leading open source and Linux provider. I met Mo this past spring when we spoke on a panel at SxSW. I was struck by her insights into her profession and how those insights relate to all design professions. Not only does she get into the nitty gritty of the politics of the workplace and the realities of usability testing, but she is a passionate advocate for open source and the democratization of design.

Debian Family

• Joerg Jaspert sent some bits from the FTP Team, announcing the ongoing sprint during which the team is working on optimising the current code behind the main archive, finalising a proposal for Debian Personal Package Archives (PPAs), and merging backports.debian.org into the main archive host. This year, participation in the Google Summer of Code initiative helped the team in implementing a true multi-archive capability, making it possible to merge separated parts of the Debian archive (like security and backports) into the main archive. Joerg also added a call for volunteers: if you are a Debian Developer and want to help one of the key teams of the Debian infrastructure, please consider joining them.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• It’s here. We have been writing about the ‘official’ edition of Ubuntu Gnome for almost a year now and it’s finally here. The first ISO (alpha) images of Gnome Shell edition of Ubuntu is now available for download and testing, Jeremy Bicha just told me on Google+.

• As a long time Ubuntu user I was essentially a Gnome user but Unity changed everything. Unity did bring a new UI but it also enabled Canonical to drive the development of Ubuntu in the direction they wanted to increase the market share of Ubuntu. We are noticing the results in the market as Ubuntu’s adoption is increasing.

• Unity is extremely rich when it comes to new features and services. You can keep an eye on OMG! Ubuntu or our Ubuntu section to see how Unity is shaping up. However, there are Gnome users who are still looking for the pure GNOME experience on top of the stability and app ecosystem of Ubuntu.

• Earlier this month fans of the good old GNOME 2 desktop environment got some exciting news when it became clear that a version of Ubuntu Linux featuring the classic desktop was in the works.

• As days advance towards the Ubuntu Quantal release, new and exciting features are being added to Ubuntu; the old features and bugs are being squashed and Canonical is making sure that Ubuntu 12.10 will be the best Ubuntu release ever.

• Canonical has decided to drop alternate Ubuntu installation CDs from the next Ubuntu release. This CDs were previously used to install Ubuntu with encryption and also configure RAID arrays for data storage. As per Ubuntu developer Steve Langasek, Ubuntu 12.10 default installation CD will support encrypted installations. Also RAID can be configured easily after installation.

• Ubuntu 12.04 is an alternative to the Microsoft Windows and Apple OS X operating systems. It features a functional and intuitive desktop environment.

• Ubuntu’s Unity desktop has similarities to both Windows and OS X, meaning that users considering the switch to Ubuntu should not have much difficultly becoming familiar with this alternative operating system (OS), which is based on Linux, a popular open-source OS.

• Linux is the supreme software conquest for me, and one particular distribution has tormented my early adopter “lifestyle” — Red Hat Linux. It’s now long gone, abandoned by parent company Red Hat, though it was given a new lease on life through Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

• Ten years ago, I stumbled upon a magazine that came with a copy of Red Hat Linux 7, and I was so tempted to try it and see how it felt to run something other than the Windows editions of the day. My experience was less than ideal back then, but I’ve re-encountered Ubuntu and the spark has reignited…

• Any company that wants to save a bundle in software licensing fees and build a productive, stable and secure computing environment for its users should download a free workbook entitled “Five Golden Rules for a Successful Ubuntu Desktop Migration.”

• Produced by Canonical, the commercial sponsor of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution, the book offers some pragmatic advice to companies that want to migrate from a proprietary system like Microsoft Windows to a free and open source platform.

• Now go ahead and try to install something via apt-get. Chances are, it’s working now! And that is awesome. Sadly though, Synaptic and the software center still aren’t working quite right. So let’s fix that issue next.

• The Ubuntu developers are moving quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source community has to offer. The Quantal Quetzal Beta 1 Release of Ubuntu 12.10 give you a preview of the next version of Ubuntu.

• The first beta build of Ubuntu 12.10 drops Unity 2D, retains Nautilus 3.4 and adds a new Dash preview, a Photo lens and new centralised Online Accounts management.

• For me one of my favorite things is listening to music and I use music as an aid to help make me more productive when working on projects. Luckily there are a variety of applications that “just work” on Ubuntu to help me get my music fix.

• I’ve been using Ubuntu 12.04 on my MSI netbook for about a week now. The netbook is a 10″ model with a 1.66 Gig dual core Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1 Gig of RAM and Intel Mobile 945GSE Integrated Graphics, 3 USB ports, VGA out, and Microphone and Headphone sockets, and an SD card slot.

• I’ve been using Ubuntu 12.04 on my MSI netbook for about a week now. The netbook is a 10″ model with a 1.66 Gig dual core Intel Atom N280 CPU, 1 Gig of RAM and Intel Mobile 945GSE Integrated Graphics, 3 USB ports, VGA out, and Microphone and Headphone sockets, and an SD card slot.

• I’ve been using it with Ubuntu Studio, with XFCE desktop and Audio applications, but became quite annoyed with it because it kept losing the network applet, and it never seemed to connect with the wireless network unless I was within a meter of the transmitter.

• So as I had a copy of Ubuntu on hand, I decided to give that a go.

• Just a quick update on my experience running the pre-release version of Ubuntu (this time upgraded to Ubuntu 12.10 Beta 1!). Not a whole lot new to report – Beta 1 is basically the same as Alpha 3 but with the addition of an option to connect to a Remote Server directly from the login screen. Unfortunately the bugs that I have filed so far have yet to be resolved, but I’m still hopeful someone has a chance to correct them prior to release.

• When was the last time you paid any attention to the icons used inside Ubuntu’s window controls?

• The beta version of the next Ubuntu release – 12.10 Quantal Quetzal – is now available for testing. There are several new and interesting features added and whether you like it or not, the Unity desktop is here to stay and it is getting better with each release.

• You may have noticed that over the last year, I’ve spoken quite a lot about Ubuntu Unity. More specifically, I’ve become quite the champion for Unity being one of the most efficient desktops on the market. I thought it might be helpful to take you on a walk through of the default Ubuntu desktop to help you see just how it could be that a completely different desktop could possibly be so user-friendly and efficient.

• You’d think someone had just kicked some Ubuntu Linux fans’ puppy. Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, has added Amazon search results to the upcoming Ubuntu 12.10 Unity Dash search function. Some users hate this and have declared Ubuntu to be adware. Mark Shuttleworth, Ubuntu’s founder, has replied that this response is FUD. Here’s what’s really happening.

• First, yes, when you do a search from Unity Dash in Ubuntu 12.10, besides the usual search results you’ll also see a More Suggestions results box. This will contain, not ads, but search results from Amazon. This is part of the integration of Web apps into the Ubuntu desktop. In addition to the Amazon integration into Ubuntu search, there’s also a separate Amazon search app. More than 40 other “Web site apps” such as BBC News, Facebook, and Reddit also will be available.

Flavours and Variants

• Before I get into my review this week I’d like to take a moment to acknowledge a good suggestion I received earlier this year. One of our readers pointed out that burning distribution images to CDs and DVDs was wasteful as, eventually, the discs typically end up in the trash. The reader suggested switching to a USB thumb drive in order to be more environmentally friendly. At the time I had been testing most distributions on two machines, one of which was old enough that it did not support booting from a USB device. This situation limited my options and was the main reason behind using optical media. Still, after some consideration I decided that reducing my environmental footprint is more important to me than testing distributions on hardware which I rarely use any more.

• With that in mind, I have switched to using a (second hand) USB drive in place of optical media. It is rare these days that I encounter Linux distributions which do not run smoothly on both of my test computers and I feel that the additional testing and use of resources does not provide significant benefit to justify the time and media expended. Going forward I intend to limit hardware testing to one machine and load distributions onto the hardware using a USB drive. Should you have any thoughts on this change one way or the other, please feel free to comment below or e-mail me.

• Ubuntu or Linux Mint. This is the question most people ask me when they set mind to install first Linux distribution in their machine. When you plan to use Linux, you are surrounded by the choice. There are 100′s of Linux distribution available, each having their own specialty. People pick their favourite distros because they find it convenient and easy to use. The same distro can be disgusting and ridiculous to other people. So, its the choice that matter. however this articles will helps you to visualize the differences between Ubuntu and Linux Mint and helps you to find the appropriate choice for you.

• The path to Enlightenment is long. In fact, Enlightenment 17 has been in the works for 12 years now. The first version of this unique desktop environment was released by Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) in 1997. Version 0.17 (E17) was born in December 2000, and is a complete rewrite of E16. A number of distros (Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, to name a few) have long included an E17 package. However, these versions have so far failed to exploit the amazing eye-candy potential of the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL).

Devices/Embedded

• Wind River has introduced the latest version of Wind River Linux, which was developed from the Yocto Project open source development infrastructure and has achieved Yocto Project Compatible registration. Wind River Linux supports an array of hardware including ARM, Intel, MIPS and Power architectures.

• With flexible I/O options and Linux capability, the Raspberry Pi offers enormous potential for hardware development. Andrew Back takes us through the possibilities with his hardware-hacking getting-started guide for the credit-card-sized Linux computer.

Phones

• Mozilla, the company that makes the popular Firefox browser, is working on a mobile operating system that will launch on a smartphone built by ZTE, Reuters reports.

Android

• Android continues to win market share despite being a very young mobile operating system, and as that happens, the number of impressive applications for it is rising too. Many of us have favorite Android apps, but we use them almost exclusively on smartphones or tablets. As we’ve covered before, you can also run Android apps on your desktop computer or laptop. BlueStacks App Player has been available for some time for Windows users who want to run Android apps on PCs. Now, BlueStacks App Player is out in an alpha version for Mac users.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

• The Vivaldi tablet is a project from the KDE development team aimed at introducing a tablet with open source Linux-based software with the KDE Plasma Active user interface.

Free Software/Open Source

• We have been overwhelmed with your support the past week after our announcement of Makr.io and the opening up of signups on joindiaspora.com. This week, we are excited to share with you some important Diaspora announcements.

• When we started Diaspora two years ago, the project kicked off with amazing reception and support from people that believed in our ultimate goal: giving users ownership over their data. It’s a powerful idea, one that captured the imaginations of millions of people across the world. This vision has expanded and evolved over the past two years that we have been working on it as the project has grown.

• Some people may have been surprised when Twitter recently joined The Linux Foundation. You couldn’t tweet about your dinner, your latest game, or the newest political rumor without open-source software.

• Chris Aniszczyk, open-source manager at Twitter, explained just how much Twitter relied on open source and Linux at LinuxCon, the Linux Foundation’s annual North American technology conference. “Twitter’s philosophy is to open-source almost all things. We take our software inspiration from Red Hat’s development philosophy: ‘default to open.””

• It’s back — and bigger and badder than ever! Our sixth annual Bossie Awards call out more than 100 open source products in seven categories

• One of the best benefits to open source software is how it can fill in the gaps when developing applications. At times it makes sense to look around and see if anyone else has already solved the problem you are looking at, especially if it is a common feature. Unfortunately, not all open source projects are built the same, and deciding to adopt someone else’s code into your project must be carefully considered. Here are seven steps to starting a successful long-term relationship with an open source project.

• For more than a decade, some of the more interesting work in the field of robotics has been driven by open source efforts. As we’ve noted, there is now even an Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF). While companies such as Willow Garage have grabbed most of the headlines on the open source robotics front, a new one is generating buzz: Rethink Robotics. It’s the brainchild of noted roboticist Rodney Brooks.

• I’m a graduate student at Abertay University in Dundee, Scotland. I got my BSc in Computing then was accepted for a PhD studentship in 2008 – I’m currently writing my thesis on biological metaphors for critical infrastructure networks. I also work remotely part-time for the open source consulting company Lanedo. I believe that open data and communication can have a massively positive impact on how the world connects, so a job programming open source software is a dream come true. I’m fascinated by coding (C, C++, Python, Ruby, Java), music (composition and consumption), physics, mathematics and more generally, learning how things work. FLOSS is a fantastic bridge for all of these things and has the additional benefit of bringing people the world over together. I also like functional programming languages, reading (particularly but not exclusively sci-fi and fantasy), gaming (Valve’s recent porting efforts are very hopeful), electronics, writing and drawing.

• It’s a problem as old as the microprocessor: How do you provide important information to users without getting in the way of their workflow? On most open source platforms, the answer to this conundrum currently lies in passive notification popups or bubbles. And while some interfaces get it right, others — especially GNOME Shell — could do a lot better. Here’s how.

Events

• Earlier this week we published the full schedule for LinuxCon Europe and Embedded Linux Conference Europe. In many ways, I think the technical content for LinuxCon Europe may be the best collection of speakers we’ve ever had. I wonder if the location in Barcelona has anything to do with that….

• Australia’s premier open source conference, Linux.conf.au (LCA), will be without a host city after next year’s conference, which will be held in Canberra.

Web Browsers

Chrome

• By StatCounter’s count, Chrome passed Internet Explorer during the week of May 13th. StatCounter’s stats are based on a sample of 15 billion page views in the company’s network and they show that Chrome was gradually pulling away from IE. As Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter’s CEO wrote in a blog posting in July . “There is much greater competition now. Although IE still leads in countries such as the US and UK, on a worldwide basis Google’s Chrome overtook IE in May and maintained a narrow lead in June.”

Mozilla

• Users have complained about the performance of Firefox for years and although each release promises better resource management, the complaints keep coming. Now a new feature will help users and developers pinpoint the reasons Firefox may not be as peppy as it should be.

• The Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of the popular and free browser, Firefox. Firefox 15 comes with major changes that will make the browser more lightweight and prevent memory leaks.

• Following the release of Firefox, the Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of their email client: Thunderbird. Now along with E-mails, you will be able to chat with your online buddies right from the application. For the time being, Facebook Chat, Google Talk, IRC, Twitter and XMPP/Jabber are supported. You can read about the configuration instructions from here.

• Back in February, we reported on how Mozilla is in an alliance with Telefonica and Qualcomm to become a serious player in the smartphone arena with its own open mobiile operating system. And, just recently, we reported on Techweek Europe’s posts of a series of screenshots, seen here, showing Mozilla’s mobile operating system with a look and feel that Mozilla claimed was non-representative of the final OS. What’s being called “Firefox OS” looks very compelling, and is even showing up for the Raspberry Pi.

• The Mozilla Foundation has been moving ahead quickly with its plans to become a big player in the smartphone business, and is retaining its focus on emerging markets, according to several recent update posts. And, photos of its “Firefox OS” have been appearing everywhere, including collected updates found here. Many people don’t have a firm grasp on Mozilla’s strategy, though, and recent comments from Mozilla’s CTO can clear any confusion up. Here are details.

• As Mozilla jumps into the smartphone and mobile operating system arenas, its big partners are Qualcomm and Telefonica. As we’ve reported, these big telecom players can help Mozilla compete in emerging markets. Telefonica, for example, has a huge presence in Latin America.

• If everything goes as planned, Mozilla will release an update for Firefox 14.0.1 that will bring the version of the Internet browser to 15.0. The stable version of the browser won’t be the only version that will receive an update in the coming days. Firefox’s extended released support version will be updated tomorrow as well, followed by updates for Firefox Beta on August 30, and Firefox Aurora on August 31 (you can check out the regularly updated Mozilla Firefox Release Schedule to find out about future Firefox releases).

• Even before the bits have dried on Firefox 15, Mozilla want to talk about Firefox 16. One of its big “innovations” is a command line for debugging but this isn’t your father’s command line – it’s all new and reinvented.

• Firefox 16 is still in the beta channel, but you might want to check out its new developer feature – a command line. It doesn’t add much that is completely new, just a keyboard-oriented way of getting at the existing developer tools.

SaaS

• To seasoned software standards expert Angel Diaz, today’s effort to create interoperability in the cloud is reminiscent of the mid-90s when HTTP emerged as a state-of-the-art technology. Every application server had to do that same function but there was no standard, he said. And so IBM helped create Apache web server software and the standard code for building web pages.

• In the past two weeks, many momentous announcements have arrived surrounding OpenStack, the open source cloud computing framework. As we reported, Rackspace, which has begun calling itself “the open cloud company,” announced the release of Rackspace Private Cloud software, built on OpenStack and designed for companies that want to install, test and run a multi-node OpenStack-based private cloud environment. That news, of course, immediately followed Red Hat’s announcement of its upcoming OpenStack-based cloud platform, already available in a preview edition. And now, as it releases a significant update to Ubuntu 12.04, Canonical is also doubling down on its OpenStack focus.

• It’s official: OpenStack, the open source cloud platform, has formed an independent entity, the OpenStack Foundation, to promote the project and open source cloud computing more generally. Here’s the scoop, and what it means for the open source channel.

• Founded in 2010, the OpenStack project has enjoyed broad support from a host of big names for some time. In addition to Rackspace Cloud and NASA, which launched the project, several major companies in the open source channel and beyond have worked closely with it for a while. The platform provides the main cloud computing solutions for the Ubuntu and Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) Linux distributions, and is endorsed by Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Dell (NASDAQ: DELL), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and AMD (NYSE: AMD), among other organizations.

• Upon the occasion of the launch of the OpenStack Foundation, which will put an enormous amount of backing behind the open source cloud computing platform, the OpenStack team at Red Hat is out with a post that discusses how the team will transform OpenStack into a meaningful product. As we’ve noted before, and as Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols reports, Red Hat intends to do for OpenStack what it did for Linux. There are several reasons to believe that Red Hat can do just that, not the least of which is that Red Hat knows exactly how to provide world-class support for open source software.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• The Document Foundation has announced a new bug-fix release of the open-source office suite, LibreOffice. LibreOffice 3.6.1 is fixes some of the bugs and enhances stability of the application. LibreOffice 3.6 was released last month and this version includes some enhancements over that release.

• Adopting Linux as a platform has helped change Oracle over the past 15 years from a fragmented, decentralized behemoth to a sleek, consolidated service provider, said Senior VP and CIO Mark Sunday in Oracle’s LinuxCon keynote presentation Friday morning.

• I’m starting to realize it’s like pulling teeth to get Wall Street analysts to say something indiscriminately positive when discussing the prospects of database giant Oracle (ORCL).

• f you’re considering upgrading to LibreOffice 3.6, my advice — at least for the present — is DON’T. Or if you do, proceed with caution. (Instructions below.)

• In the past, upgrades have been flawless, but I do still regularly backup my Profile folder. The wisdom of doing so was proved at the weekend when I upgraded from LO version 3.5 to 3.6. It all went swimmingly as usual, but when I can to use the new version I discovered some anomalies. Gone: 40+ macros I’ve built up over years of using OpenOffice.org and LibreOffice. Gone: some basic settings such as Page Format (A4 went back to Letter) and Measurement Units (Millimetres went back to Inches).

CMS

Funding

• Ceph is an open-source storage subsystem that proponents say is more adaptable and less expensive than proprietary storage systems. Probably more to the point, it is also a competitor or alternative to the Swift storage system that is part of the OpenStack cloud platform. Ceph claims API compatibility with both Amazon S3 and Rackspace Cloud Files.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• The first ever professional grade GIMP Magazine will launch on September 5th this year.

• Steve Czajka of GIMP Magazine tells Muktware, “GIMP Magazine features the amazing works created from this world wide community. Photography, digital arts, graphic arts, web design, tips & tricks, step by step tutorials, master classes, help desk questions, product reviews and so much more are showcased and explored in this quarterly publication. This publication is available for free and is licensed Creative Commons CC-AT-SA 2.5.”

• GIMP is one of the most important applications for Linux users. It gives them some of the capabilities found in other popular image manipulation programs without the expense. Well, a group of enthusiasts have banded together to produce a new magazine just for GIMP users. GIMP Magazine “features the amazing works created from an enormous community from all over the world estimated at around 8-10 million people.”

• Software freedom activist Richard Stallman, speaking at IIT-M, argued that non-free software created a system of “digital colonisation” and applauded the states that have introduced GNU/Linux operating systems in their schools. He declared, “More Indian states should open their windows to free software. It is safer and cheaper than available alternatives.”

• I was impressed. When a Linux-lover offered to change the OS on my desktop to Ubuntu (Linux), I nodded. I was thrilled this would let me modify and personalise programmes on my PC. It was a 160-GB version of 12.04 LTS (long-term-support for five years) and free, free!

• Join the FSF and friends on Friday September 21st, from 2pm to 5pm EDT (18:00 to 21:00 UTC) to help improve the Free Software Directory by adding new entries and updating existing ones. We will be on IRC in the #fsf channel on freenode.

• GCC 4.7.2 has been released with fixes for regressions and serious bugs on GCC 4.7.

Public Services/Government

• A day after the Federal elections were over, Belgium government has open-sourced the code used for voting machines. The move is, however not for sharing and reuse, but for showing that the machines were not fraudulent.

Licensing

• Over the past several years, Creative Commons has increasingly recommended free culture licenses over non-free ones. Now that the drafting process for version 4.0 of their license set is in full gear, this is a “a once-in-a-decade-or-more opportunity” to deprecate the proprietary NonCommercial and NoDerivatives clauses. This is the best chance we have to dramatically shift the direction of Creative Commons to be fully aligned with the definition of free cultural works by preventing the inheritance of these proprietary clauses in CC 4.0′s final release.

• As I’ve written about before, I am always amazed when suddenly there is widespread interest in, excitement over, and focus on some particular GPL violation. I’ve spent most of my adult life working on copyleft compliance issues, so perhaps I’ve got an overly unique perspective. It’s just that I’ve seen lots of GPL violations every single day since the late 1990s. Even now, copyleft compliance remains a regular part of my monthly work. Even though it’s now only one task among many that I work on every day, I’m still never surprised nor shocked by some violation.

• When some GPL violation suddenly becomes a “big story”, it reminds me of celebrity divorces. There are, of course, every single day, hundreds (maybe even thousands) of couples facing the conclusion that their marriage has ended. It’s a tragedy for their families, and they’ll spend years recovering. The divorce impacts everyone they know: both their families, and all their friends, too. Everyone’s life who touches the couple is impacted in some way or other.

Openness/Sharing

• Open Source is everywhere. When fossils fuels are depleting fast and humanity is worrying about how to supply power to the next generations, Zenman Energy is building a solar steam engine that will be affordable to the masses and also cost fraction of current photovoltaic solutions. On the top of it, it will be open-source.

• Scientists celebrated a breakthrough in their understanding of the human genome this month – the results of a large collaborative project driven by big data and built with Linux.

Open Access/Content

• Many universities, including U.C Berkeley and M.IT. have been involved in e-learning for a long time, and, not long ago, M.I.T. and Harvard teamed up to deliver online learning to millions of people around the world, through their new edX initiative. Not to be outdone, Stanford University is going to offer 16 courses and two new, interactive e-learning platforms this fall. Here are details.

Programming

• The abundance of you that have contacted me regarding my offer to teach you C is heart warming and clear evidence of GNOMEs future potential.

• Gnome University Project (GU) is an effort by Christian Hergert to push people in Gnome developing. GU is all about C and Gnome technologies, but it also a nice way to start learning C programming within a big scale project.

• GU is still on early stages and it is a work in progress but there is already a repository with some beginner chapters.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition

• The drought that descended on the United States this summer will translate into higher prices for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The inevitability of this scenario introduces an old question that has become new: When weather strikes, what can curb food inflation?

• Recent suggestions cover a wide range of complicated approaches, from GPS-guided drip irrigation techniques to genetically engineered crops and from new federal biofuel standards to new farm insurance programs to new commodity-markets regulations. How ironic that the oldest agricultural technology of them all may provide the simplest and most timely solution.

Finance

• A group of shareholders has filed a lawsuit against health insurer Amerigroup Corp. and its adviser, Goldman Sachs & Co., alleging that the company eschewed more lucrative offers from other companies before agreeing to be acquired by WellPoint Inc. for $4.5 billion.

• This book is about corporate crime – although that phrase doesn’t appear anywhere in its 288 pages.

• Unfortunately, corruption is so endemic on Wall Street that Goldman Sachs really does not seem out of place. The truth is that a lot of the things that are said about Goldman could also be said about JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley.

• The close relationship between Wall Street and Washington belies their 200 mile separation and theoretically differing goals.

• By spending money on campaigns and lobbyists, The financial industry has managed to give itself something of a voice in the halls of Congress, regulators’ offices and even the White House. Of the top ten firms with employees donating to Romney’s campaign, eight are big banks, according to Federal Election data cited by Bloomberg. In addition, Wall Street spent more than $100 million last year on lobbying while the provisions for the Dodd-Frank financial reform law were being finalized, according to The New York Times.

• One thing you learn rather quickly when working at the International Monetary Fund is that no one is ever very happy to see you. Typically, your “clients” come in only after private capital has abandoned them, after regional trading-bloc partners have been unable to throw a strong enough lifeline, after last-ditch attempts to borrow from powerful friends like China or the European Union have fallen through. You’re never at the top of anyone’s dance card.

• Back in the first quarter of this year, SFW covered Goldman Sachs’ ill-fated sojourn into the world of Islamic bonds (sukuk). Goldman had planned on floating a $2 billion sukuk but the entire project was shot down by Shariah scholars.

• When central bankers talk about more quantitative easing to help spur markets, remember this. While millions around the world go hungry or pay more for food, the bankers are cashing on enormously on the crisis. Barclays is being named here but don’t forget that both Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley also operate in this space.

Copyrights

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.