● 10.11.12

● Links 11/10/2012: Ubuntu Donations, Humble Bundle

Posted in News Roundup at 9:16 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Hooray! The Airbus finally brought me to the land where law is taken slightly more seriously than in Russia. With great responsibility, however, usually comes great power, and a lot of absolutely legal video streaming services are available in the U.S. Moreover, my corporate-sponsored temporary apartment has a large, like, 30-inch TV, and it would be a sin to just let it collect dust in silence.

• No, I couldn’t just watch cable TV! The very idea that I watch something on a predefined schedule is not appealing to me. I’d have to spend money on a TiVo or something that records TV shows anyway. And what about DVDs and feature movies? TV shows isn’t the only thing I watch, by the way. And what about shows that are not airing? how to watch older seasons? No, TV is for the weak.

• If, one day, we really are all going to be carted around in driverless cars from the likes of Google and others, then we may as well have some apps on board to keep us occupied. Today, the Linux Foundation announced that it was throwing its hat into the car-apps ring, with the creation of the Automotive Grade Linux Workgroup. Early sign-ups among car companies include Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan and Toyota. Tech companies include Harman, Intel, NEC, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Texas Instruments, along with Tizen, the Linux-based platform backed by Samsung and Intel.

• The Linux Foundation is not exactly an early mover here. We’ve already seen “car of the future” odes from the likes of Ford and Honda – not to mention Google — even some suggestions that Apple is working on concepts, too. The point with the Linux news, it seems, is to try to keep it relevant in that wider picture of development, and to try impart some standards in the process.

• Linux went from being a cool personal hack in a bedroom to software that would eventually change world just over 21 years ago when Linus sent out his famous “Hello everybody out there using minix” message that invited people to join in. As I noted last month, that open, collaborative approach was really quite new and proved key to the uptake and development of Linux.

• That was possible because the internet was sufficiently widely available for enough people to join Linus’ distributed team of volunteers. In other words, the rise of free software is intimately bound up with the internet. Indeed, the rapid take-off of Linux compared with the rather slower progress of the GNU Project is probably due, at least in part, to the fact that the latter could not take global connectivity for granted. It was thanks to this that Richard Stallman was able to live off the sales of GNU Emacs, which he sent out on tapes.

• Linux, unfortunately has been long surrounded by myths. Despite the speedy adoption of Linux as mainstream operating systems for enterprises particularly, the common misconceptions about Linux seem to continue. The post enlists five traditional myths about Linux Security and attempts to debunk each; discussing real facts.

• There exist mainly two schools of thoughts regarding security of Linux. One group that assumes ‘ Linux is Virus Proof’ and the other, advocating a completely contrary thought i.e. ‘Linux is more insecure (when compared to contenders), as it makes source code available to everyone’. Let’s investigate in detail.

Desktop

• Everyone agrees that desktop Linux has become more diverse in the last couple of years. But how diverse? And how are the dethroned dominant environments responding?

• Those are questions that nobody is asking — although they probably should.

• So far, 2012 has yet to see one of those magazine polls that are our main — although imperfect — indications of what desktop environments users prefer. However, with a little digging, a few indicators can be unearthed.

• Several indicators are available from Distrowatch, the site that attempts to track distributions.

• Like an evangelist, I frequently tell people about a free Windows-like alternative that is faster and more secure than Microsoft’s OS. The most common response I get is, “Linux, what’s that?”

• Often I also hear, “I can’t switch systems. I am too busy to start from scratch with all my files.” Or, “I’m too busy to go back and forth between two sets of files, one on my Windows computer and the other in my new Linux set up.”

• I didn’t blog yesterday. I’m sorry. I know the internets were in a frenzy arguing over whether I quit or gave up or what have you, but I didn’t. I was just busy doing boring stuff that wasn’t worth blogging about.

• CAINE, acronym for Computer Aided INvestigative Environment, is a Linux distribution specially crafted for performing computer (digital) forensics. It started life as the graduate thesis of Giancarlo Giustini at the Information Engineering Department of the University of Modena e Reggio Emilia, Italy. It is now a project of Digital Forensics for Inter-department Center for Research on Security (CRIS) at the same university.

Server

• IBM is expanding its portfolio of PureSystems today with new offerings for transactions, analytics and operational analytics.

Audiocasts/Shows

• In this episode: More jury confusion on the Apple vs. Samsung case. Blue Systems sponsors KWin. Linux kernel 3.6 is out, and 3.7 is going to be ARM-unified. You can now shutdown Gnome 3.6 and the French adore le logiciel libre. Plus, hear our discoveries, our rants and raves, and your own opinions in the Open Ballot.

Kernel Space

• While it will still be a while before the Linux 3.7 kernel is even released, the Linux 3.8 kernel may end up having better Nouveau driver re-clocking support for the common “NV50″ NVIDIA GPU family.

• In the forum discussion surrounding the significant underlying Nouveau driver changes found in Linux 3.7, Nouveau’s Martin Peres wrote, “No luck for this kernel, but I think I’m not that far from delivering good reclocking support for the nv50 family. Maybe next kernel?” His comments were in response to a Phoronix reader asking about dynamic re-clocking and voltage changes.

• This week The Linux Foundation is hosting its first-ever event in South Korea, the Korea Linux Forum in the Gangnam District. This was planned long before PSY’s Gangnam-style videowent viral but who are we not to do our part in contributing to this craze and honoring our host location?

Graphics Stack

• While the Linux 3.7-rc1 kernel has not even been released yet, most of the feature pulls have now made their way into the mainline Linux kernel tree. Here are some of the first benchmarks of the Linux 3.7 kernel to see if anything has changed for the Intel x86_64 Linux performance with this very exciting kernel.

Applications

• MyPaint is an easy to use open source digital painting application that also works with Wacom tablets supporting pressure susceptibility.

• The application is designed with simplicity in mind, while also ensuring a seamless and undistracted drawing experience for the artist. It is all about you and the canvas, with the interface showing only when needed.

• Modern operating systems lay so much emphasis on perfecting the desktop environment. Both Windows and OS X incorporate the desktop environment directly into the operating system. Windows 8 extends this further by adding touch technologies to the desktop environment. Apple has spent 12 years enhancing Aqua, the graphical user interface and visual theme of Mac OS X.

• Task management programs are commonplace in our busy lives, but it seems that every system lacks something. Google Tasks is nice, but it lacks the features of a more robust task management system. Remember the Milk is nice, but it charges for some of its features. Many standalone task management programs are great, but they don’t sync between devices.

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• Rigs of Rods is one of the most amazing open source simulation projects that we reviewed a while ago. It is distinguished for its vehicle plethora and the realism of the vehicles body movement and damage.

• The Humble Indi Bundle has released it’s new offering – a bundle of ebooks where the customer pays what they want. It’s an an idea that has proved successful in the past and also highlighted that far from being “freetards” as some Microsoft Advocates would suggest, Linux users are willing to spend more money than Windows.

• Sometimes, in our busy lives, it is necessary to cut ourselves a little slack and play a quick game just for fun. After all, we cannot procrastinate for a long time!

• Sometimes, our gaming needs are not very demanding: we don’t want great graphics, involving plots, or adrenaline-releasing games…especially when we can barely spare from five to ten minutes to gaming.

• Yesterday (following their monthly release cycle) a new alpha from Unvanqished was released. For those with bad short term memory: Unvanquished is trying to revitalize the RTS/FPS hybrid Tremulous.

• In this post I’ll show you 4 NEW RPG games, they are all developed from the scratch to run on our beloved Penguin: Questverse, Hale, Dawn, Flare and Arakion

Desktop Environments

• Snowlinux 3.1 is a bug fix release for GNOME, XFCE and E17. It solves many bugs and it also brings many features to the users. CTRL_ALT_Backspace restarts the x-server if it has hung up. Click on tap was activated and lots of bugs were solved.

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• With the push towards Wayland and other various advancements being desired out of KDE’s compositing window manager, Martin Gräßlin is joining Blue Systems to further work on KWin.

• Beginning a new blog post by Martin, “Very soon after joining the KWin development team almost five years ago, I realized that KWin would need at least one full time developer. It is one of the most important parts for the user experience of the KDE Plasma Workspaces and we have seen quite often that important changes for the user experience could not be implemented due to lack of manpower.”

• KDE developer Martin Gräßlin has announced that he will be joining Blue Systems to continue his work on KWin window manager for the KDE Plasma Desktop full time. The developer says that soon after joining the KWin development team nearly five years ago, he realised that the project would eventually need at least one full time developer. “With the upcoming required changes like Qt 5 and Wayland the need for developers is increasing,” noted Gräßlin.

• Citing the benefits of a KDE project the site says: Being part of the international KDE community conveys certain benefits and rights.

• Amarok, popular KDE music manager, is turning 10 years old this month and the project is taking this opportunity to review the last year and look head to the future. Amarok 3 will debut at FOSDEM next February, and planning has already begun. So, it’s time for the team to raise some money.

• I’ve recently replaced Unity, on the little MSI Netbook, that I wrote about recently after installing Ubuntu/Unity on it.

Distributions

• I haven’t gotten the chance to do a review in a while. It’s a long weekend, so I finally do have some more free time now, and I need to take a break from the otherwise endless stream of work, so I’m taking a look at Cinnarch now.

• Cinnarch is a relatively new distribution on the scene. True to its name, it is based on Arch Linux and uses GNOME 3/Cinnamon as its primary DE. At first I figured that the packaging would be fairly stock, but as it turns out (and as you will see later in this post), there are a few other mild customizations present as well.

• For many newcomers to Linux, Zorin has a deal maker that is unmatched in any other Linux distribution. It comes with several integrated tools that let you modify Zorin’s appearance. Look Changer lets you decide how the desktop looks and acts. You can tweak the look and feel even more with Splash Screen Manager, Internet Browser Manager and Background Plus.

New Releases

• Version 3.0 of the Zentyal small business server is now available; the new version upgrades the underlying operating system and integrates Samba 4. Aimed at small and medium businesses (SMBs), Zentyal is a Linux-based server distribution that can act as a Gateway, Unified Threat Manager, Office Server, Infrastructure Manager, or Unified Communications Server, or as a combination of these. The system can also be extended using over 30 modules, such as HTTP Proxy, firewall and the Zarafa collaboration platform.

Gentoo Family

• Sabayon 10, the latest release of the Gentoo-derived Linux distribution, introduces a new edition of the operating system with version 1.4.1 of the MATE desktop, a fork of the older 2.x branch of GNOME. For the first time, Sabayon also provides Amazon Machine Images (AMI) to deploy the distribution on Amazon’s EC2 cloud platform.

Red Hat Family

• Red Hat has expanded its OpenShift Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) ecosystem by collaborating with Zend, the PHP Company.

• The new Zend Server for Red Hat OpenShift gives professional-grade PHP development and runtime environment, alongside the benefits of the OpenShift PaaS. PHP applications deployed to Zend Server for OpenShift can access built-in debugging, monitoring and application performance tuning capabilities, making application development and management easier.

• Red Hat is still only previewing its OpenShift platform cloud, and one of the reasons why is because it had not yet inked a deal with Zend Technologies, the commercial entity that is to the PHP programming language as Linux Torvalds and Red Hat together are to the Linux operating system.

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT), the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, today announced six appointments across the Asia Pacific region to support market interest in open source technologies and the company‘s growth plans across the region.

Fedora

• Fedora 18 Beta codenamed Beefy Miracle is going to be delayed by another week. This is mainly because of unfinished/non-testable nature of its build. The decision was taken in Fedora 18 Beta Change Deadline readiness meeting and its expected that this delay will make the beta release possible soon.

• Naming suggestions are now open for Fedora 19, which is scheduled to be released sometime next year. The upcoming release, Fedora 18 Beefy Miracle is going to release end November 2012. Fedora maintains a 6 month release cycle while older releases get unsupported after a period of 1.5 years.

• That was a popular exchange at the Fedora booth during this year’s Ohio LinuxFest. The iconic Model B Raspberry Pi, running Fedora Remix and proudly displaying the Beefy Miracle fireworks on a XFCE desktop, was drawing lots of attention.

Debian Family

• As we all know ‘Waldorf’ is the testing branch of CrunchBang Linux based on the upcoming Debian ‘Wheezy’. Two weeks ago I wrote a shortish post about how the latest testing image failed to install, and promptly an update got released with the release announcement pointing to a known bug in the Debian installer. So, time to try again now that we’re back home.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• It’s almost half year since the last major release of Ubuntu Tweak. In 0.7.x release, I polished the UI of Ubuntu Tweak, and also brought back the App Center & Source Center that you miss.

• Canonical has opened up donations for the Ubuntu project and users who do not have much time to contribute to the project in kind, now can help it in cash. The donation mechanism is similar to the Humble Bundle, where users will be able to select the exact usage of the donations.

• Allison Randal is such a brilliant speaker that she could keep us interested in anything, for hours.

• Fortunately, when our sister title Linux Format met her she was talking about the best ways to engage the next wave of Ubuntu users to join in and become good citizens.

• As technical architect of Ubuntu, it’s her job to, as she puts it: “champion the community’s vision for Ubuntu; to facilitate conversations as we integrate multiple perspectives and balance multiple needs; to ask good questions that help us find better solutions.”

• A couple weeks ago, I reviewed the book Ubuntu Made Easy, and a few days after that, I thought “why not do an interview to the authors”? So, here it is. Rickford Grant and Phil Bull both agreed on making it. I also got a few questions from you on Reddit, which got asked here.

• Jono Bacon, the community manager for Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux, believes in open-source software, but even more, he believes in the ability of open-source communities to help move code forward to drive success for enterprises. By getting their developers more involved in open-source communities, Bacon believes that enterprises will reap far more than they sow by benefiting from better code that helps solve their business challenges. That’s why, he argues, more enterprises today are correctly hiring community managers to nurture and grow such efforts. Bacon was in San Francisco Oct. 8 to speak on the subject at the Liferay Symposium. There he sat down with eWEEK’s Todd R. Weiss to answer questions about the state of open- source software in 2012 and why participation in open-source communities should be taken even more seriously by enterprises. Bacon authored a book on the topic, “The Art of Community,” which was updated in a second edition this past May by O’Reilly Media, and is the founder of the Community Leadership Summit. Begun in 2009, it’s been held each year in Portland, Ore., just before the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON).

• The new Shopping lens that received so much publicity in the last month, both positive and negative, could be illegal in Europe.

• Ubuntu 12.10 ‘Quantal Quetzal’ is due for release in approximately one week. But before we start preparing a full review of the new version, we thought we’d give Unixmen readers a small preview of what we should all expect from the ‘Quantal Quetzal’.

• I’ve spent some time with the latest Beta 2 in the last few days. And I must admit, the past few releases of Ubuntu I have found to be rather uninspiring and I think there are much better Linux based operating systems currently available. Yet, I think 12.10 could be the version that gets back my respect for Ubuntu.

• Just a few weeks after Canonical integrated Amazon product results into Unity’s Dash in an effort to generate more money through affiliate/referral revenue, they have taken another step today to try to increase their cash flow.

• Ubuntu has long accepted donations for the project, but now they have made it more apparent with changes to the Ubuntu web-site.

• Ubuntu is a free operating system, free as in speech and free as in beer. And Canonical are keen to reinforce this Richard Stallman ethos as they announce a new way for users to optionally contribute to Canonical before they download the desktop version of Ubuntu.

• Here’s a look at how the open-source Intel Linux graphics performance has changed in Ubuntu 12.10 when comparing benchmarks results of Ubuntu Quantal development snapshots from the end of August to the beginning of October.

Flavours and Variants

• With the 2.1.0 update release, the developers of the minimal desktop distribution Bodhi Linux have introduced a new file manager, improved the login manager and given users four new themes for their desktop. Bodhi Linux is based on the Enlightenment E17 desktop and the latest version drops the PCManFM file manager in favour of the desktop’s own alternative called Enlightenment File Manager (EFM).

• Debian gave birth to Ubuntu and Ubuntu, in turn, gave birth to hundreds of other distros like Linux Mint, Pinguy OS, Zorin, Crunchbang, Pear OS, Luninux, OS4, Super OS, Ultimate OS, Kiwi, etc. to name a few apart from the usual Kubuntu, Xubuntu and Lubuntu. When I read the release news of AriOS 4.0 on distrowatch, I was expecting something in the similar lines – just another remix of Ubuntu with plenty of necessary and unnecessary applications and other stuff! Needless to say, once you have a Linux Mint, do you really need any other Ubuntu derivative? These days, Linux Mint is my benchmark after my experiment with 20 odd Linux distros and I start comparing any distro I test with Linux Mint. If Linux Mint is 100, where do others lie?

Devices/Embedded

• The open source AllJoyn framework is designed to enable peer-to-peer communication between mobile devices without the need for servers to be involved in the process. The Apache 2.0 licensed framework supports near field communication (NFC), Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, and can be used for a variety of tasks. Accordingly, there are several different application technologies for the Peer-2-Peer App Challenge, including Best Gaming App, Best Educational App, Best Social App and others. Qualcomm is providing prizes with a total value of $170,000. The application deadline is 27 December.

• The Raspberry Pi Foundation has performed testing on the effects of overclocking and overvolting, and is now providing what it calls a “turbo mode” for the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. While the Foundation has always supported these kinds of modifications, they have in the past voided the customer’s warranty for the product – a sticky bit in the BCM2835 chip makes sure this operation cannot be performed undetected. The turbo mode option enables users to get more performance out of their Raspberry Pis without having to be afraid of affecting their warranty.

Phones

• HP bet big on the smartphone world when it purchased Palm, but the company fell flat on its face and webOS failed to take off. The reasons for the failure are numerous, but the new CEO Meg Whitman is smart enough to realize it can’t simply abandon the market entirely. In an interview with Fox Business, she said that HP “ultimately has to offer a smartphone.”

Android

• French publication “Le Figaro “says that LG Nexus 4 is scheduled for a worldwide release on October 29. With Nexus rumors at its peak, this news has certainly been the most delighting of all for all the Nexus fans.

• More significantly, the battery is claimed to last much longer than on earlier phones featuring Medfield chips. Battery life has long been a challenge for Atom-based mobile devices, but if Motorola’s claims are true, the issue may be moot. The Razr i and its 2000mAh battery is claimed to offer up to 20 hours of use — almost as long as the long-lasting Razr Maxx and 40 percent longer than the iPhone 4S.

• Apple iPhones aren’t seeing the uptake in some markets due to price. Android devices are more affordable and therefore more accessible.

• HTC will not be making a Windows 8/RT-based tablet, but that might turn out to be a good thing for competition as now more details surface about an upcoming HTC Flyer 2, the second generation of HTC’s 7-inch Android tablet.

• The second-gen Flyer is said to feature a 7-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768 pixels and the same gorgeous anodized aluminum body like the HTC One S, according to a source in the know

• According to him, Android is now at 480 million install base and is growing at a rate of 1.3 million per day.

• MOGA, the first complete mobile gaming system for Android devices, will be available in more than 7,000 stores in the U.S. starting on October 21, 2012.

• Telecom minister Kapil Sibal hopes that the Aakash tablet will be launched on 11th November. Speaking at the Economic Editor’s Conference, he said, “Hopefully on November 11, you will see the President talking to 20,000 students across the nation who will have their hands on Aakash”.

• Sprint is lining up four new 4G LTE Android phones – Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1, LG Optimus G, LG Mach and Sprint Plug-in-Connect Tri-mode USB. The company is holding back on pricing and availability for the moment.

• Features to attract your interest include, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 is the first tablet to combine the benefits of Sprint 3G and 4G LTEand comes with a 10.1-inch touchscreen display, Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich and a 1.5GHz dual-core processor.

• The release of Android 4.1.2 to AOSP was announced by Jean-Baptiste Queru, (Technical Lead, Android Open Source Project, Google) today via Android Building Group. This will just be an incremental update over Android 4.1.1, as stated by the update notification “improves performance and stability and fixes bugs.” Nexus 7 tablets will be the first to receive these updatess.

• Things are heating up on the open source gaming front. The buzz continues over the open source Ouya gaming platform. A Los Angeles-based project, Ouya is billed as “a new kind of video game console” and famously pulled down millions in funding on Kickstarter. As Ouya’s plans ramp up, there are also new details emerging about Steam for Linux, which looks like it may include many more advanced games than previously thought.

• MetroPCS today announced yet another affordable 4G LTE Android with the debut of the Coolpad Quattro 4G. As the second smartphone of its kind to cost less that $150, the handset runs Android 2.3 Gingerbread and features a 1GHz processor. Additional details include a 4-inch touch display, a 3.2-megapixel camera, front-facing VGA camera, and your standard fare of connectivities.

• Huawei announced at IFA that they’ve got a 7-inch tablet for those of you with eye for both fashion and function. Called the MediaPad 7 Lite, the device runs Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and features a 1.2GHz dual-core processor, a 7-inch 1024×600 IPS display, 1GB RAM, 8GB internal storage, and pair (3.2-megapixel rear, .3-megapixel front-facing) of cameras.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

• Today, I discovered that the Quiros-Tanzi Foundation, the NGO that handles the XO computers of OLPC, launched its first TV campaign to promote the goal of distributing the inexpensive computers. The TV ad features a simple concept: children are afraid of a hideous creature called “The Browser,” who can find them anywhere. The point of the ad is that children should not see technology as a monster. Interestingly, this 2009 video proves that even adults ignore what a browser is!

• The new tablet, which has disadvantages and advantages when compared with the Google Nexus 7, is clearly priced as a reaction to that and other recent devices – the last Acer seven-incher launched at £300.

• Labeling desktops, laptops, and tablets all as personal computers, the ACSI gave the category a grade of 80 out of 100. That proved a 2.6 percent gain over the 78 score earned last year and in 2010. Though some may disagree with the tagging of tablets as PCs, the iPad and its brethren were partly responsible for the bump in satisfaction among computer buyers.

• This week may belong to Amazon and whatever information the mega-retailer decides to drop on our heads tomorrow at its press conference in Santa Monica, but Barnes & Noble’s apparently won’t be letting the Kindle maker hog the spotlight for too long.

• A 10 inch tablet from Google is on its way, presumably the Nexus 10. CNET has learned from Ricard Shim (analyst at NPD DisplayDearch), that Google will partner with Samsung to produce this device and it is going to be a high end device compared to the $199 Nexus 7 or rumored $99 Nexus tablet.

• The blockbuster Android Tablet, Nexus 7 from Google has added another jewel to its crown. Nexus 7 by Asus has won the T3 Gadget Awards for “Tablet of the Year” as well as the “Gadget of the Year.

• The Verge has obtained images of what appears to be the next version of the Kindle Fire, Amazon’s Android-based tablet that’s expected to be announced next week, following news that the current model is “sold out.” We’re being told that a “pair” of Fires is likely — a 7- and a 10-incher — though it remains unclear whether both models will be introduced at the same time. We’re not sure which model we’re looking at here, but the scale of the keyboard suggests that seven inches is more likely.

Free Software/Open Source

• At Synnex National Conference, scores of VARs last week discovered open source business solutions from Digium, Red Hat (NYSE: RHT) and Open-Xchange. Many of those channel partners investigated Asterisk (an IP PBX), unified communications, virtualization and cloud-based email solutions that leverage open source at the core. This certainly is not Synnex’s (NYSE: SNX) first move to promote open source business partners. But it may be the most successful effort yet. Here’s why.

• The developers at OpenGeo worked on improving the server side of their geodata platform in version 3.0 of the OpenGeo Suite to make it a more comprehensive platform for processing spatial data on the web. Features include a OGC Web Processing Service (WPS) which allows geospatial processing to be run against the GeoServer, rendering transformations for cartography and support for serverside scripting in Python and JavaScript.

• Red Hat CEO Jim Whitehurst used his company’s Boston user summit this June to explain the core concept behind open source innovation and Computer Weekly reported on the former Delta Airlines chief’s comments at that time.

• Whitehurst reminded us that it was only 100 years between the invention of the ‘autolathe’ machine to manufacture “standard components parts” in physical engineering such as the standard screw and, then, subsequently, the invention of the combustion engine and the jet plane.

• NoteCase Pro’s forte is organizing notes in a sensible, tree-like system. Note-taking is not confined to data you manually enter. Rather, it stores scanned images and customizable text formatting for fonts. These include bold, italic, strike-through, text and background color. One of the most useful features is the ability to embed pictures in the text note.

• For all the freedom promised by cloud computing, businesses may be really looking at less choice and more constraint than ever before. Whether that happens is the technology industry’s next great battleground.

• On one side are large incumbent tech providers like Oracle and Hewlett-Packard, who already have broad portfolios of technology and deep corporate relationships after years of selling products. On the other are younger companies, whose products and services were built for cloud computing and thus may offer more innovative approaches.

Events

• Registrations are now open for India’s one of the largest conferences on free software and open source. The normal entry fee is Rs 2500, but you can get it at early bird discount of Rs 1500 till October 21st.

• The event will be held in Bangalore, India from November 29th to December first. If you are looking to attend this event, this will be a good time to purchase your tickets and save a lot.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• The Mozilla Foundation has released a new version of the popular and free web browser, Firefox. This version comes with a developer toolbar that will make web developer’s life even easier.

• Firefox makes developing for the Web faster and easier with a unique Developer Command Line. The new tool provides easy keyboard control over Firefox Developer Tools and is intuitive, completing commands and parameters for you.

• Mozilla’s Firefox 16 open source web browser is now generally available and with it comes more goodies for developers.

• That’s right. While Firefox has long positioned itself as browser for users, the focus since moving to the rapid release train cycle has clearly shifted – towards developers. I personally think that’s a good thing because it’s not something that any other major browser vendor does.

• The Mozilla focus on developers means that developers will use Firefox more than other browsers. If developers use it more, I suppose that the prevailing notion is that they will also be more prone to recommend it to others, thus feeding a virtuous cycle of referrals and future adoption.

• Mozilla has uploaded a few minutes ago, October 9th, the final packages of the Mozilla Firefox 16.0 web browser for all supported platforms, including Linux, Mac OS X and Windows.

SaaS

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• After a bumpy start, Oracle’s stewardship of Java has steadily improved, except for the Google mess and a feckless JCP.

CMS

• The recently released Joomla 3.0 upgrade will be a treat for web content producers that want to improve the functionality for mobile users.

• Most notably, version 3.0 leverages Bootstrap, Twitters’ tool collection for creating websites and web applications, for ntaively optimizing how content is displayed on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices.

Education

• Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. For many years, it was regarded as the breadbasket of Africa. But since Zimbabwe gained independence from Britain in 1980, Robert Mugabe has been the leader, and the fate of the country has largely been tied to him and his policies.

BSD

• A new version of DragonFlyBSD 3.2 is expected by month’s end and it will possess several new features.

• DragonFlyBSD 3.2 was branched this morning as the developers of this BSD operating system prepare to release the new version on the 22nd of October. The branching announcement was made by Justin Sherrill today on the project’s mailing list.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• We are pleased to announce the availability of GNU Xnee 3.14

• Software freedom is not just about software, it’s also about the hardware it runs on. The Free Software Foundation has launched the “Respects Your Freedom” computer hardware product certification program to encourage the production of hardware which respects user’s freedom.

Project Releases

• The OISF development team is proud to announce Suricata 1.4beta2. This is the second beta release for the upcoming 1.4 version.

Public Services/Government

• Malaysia continues to promote and to implement FLOSS in government. Adoptions of FLOSS on servers is widespread. Adoptions of FLOSS on the desktop are ramping up. The latest figures show 33872 seats of OpenOffice.org.

• For twelve years now, the administration of Vieira do Minho, a municipality in the north of Portugal, is using open source wherever possible. “These IT solutions are flexible, easy to study, test and switch”, says António Rebelo, head of the IT department. “It keeps us free from IT vendors and, because of the lower costs, results in a more sustainable IT infrastructure.”

Openness/Sharing

• The Humble Bundle Project is now limited to games alone. While the Humble Bundle 6 finished successfully with raising over $ 2 million, the Humble Bundle team has released another Humble Bundle, but this time, with digital ebooks.

• Our Beat Making Lab is applying for an Open Art grant, which would allow us to start development on our dream: open source beat making software we are calling PAMOJA, which means oneness or solidarity.

Programming

• The prominence and pervasiveness of open source software in cloud computing is something I’ve researched and written about quite a bit. I’ve also discussed how open source software is a key component and catalyst for the devops trend that blends application development and deployment via IT operations. Now I’m seeing the same effect from open source software yet again in a disruptive trend: polyglot programming.

Standards/Consortia

• The W3C has announced the alpha release of Web Platform Docs (docs.webplatform.org), a new site which it hopes will become a comprehensive and authoritative source for web developer documentation. Such documentation has been been available, but scattered over many sites, some of which have been less up to date or less informative than they should be over how elements of HTML5 and CSS work across browsers, operating systems and devices.

• Tech heavyweights Apple, Adobe, Google, HP, Microsoft and many others have joined forces and launched a new resource – the Web Platform in a bid to create a “definitive resource” for all open Web technologies.

Leftovers

• Last week Tim Cushing wrote about the hugely-worrying new “cybercrime” law passed in the Philippines that seemed likely to criminalize all kinds of everyday online activities. As an article on Radio Australia’s site reports, the Philippines’ highest court has now stepped in after being petitioned to block the legislation…

Privacy

• Jim Killock, who is an invited expert on the W3C panel for Do Not Track (DNT), welcomed Neelie Kroes’ demands for DNT to be rich and meaningful.

Civil Rights

• The Supreme Court refused to hear a case on Tuesday that holds telecom companies accountable for letting the National Security Agency spy on unknowing Americans without a warrant. Dating back to 2006 when the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation first filed the class-action lawsuit, the case accuses AT&T of providing the NSA with customers’ personal information — phone calls, emails and web browsing history — without seeking a court order. Verizon and Sprint are also mentioned. The plaintiff, former AT&T technician Mark Klein, even provided internal documentation that showed evidence of the NSA surveilling Americans’ Internet traffic from a secret room in San Francisco. That case, Hepting v. AT&T, has now been thrown out, and the Supreme Court didn’t even comment on why.

• This sound very important! After all, doesn’t the Constitution protect American citizens from being spied on by their government without their knowledge or consent? Well, yes and no. Warrantless wiretapping sounds invasive and terrible, sure, but it’s actually technically legal under a 2008 law that retroactively granted immunity to all of the telecom companies that were spying on Americans at the government’s behest. Unsurprisingly, the practice can be traced back to President George W. Bush’s anti-terrorism program following the 2001 World Trade Center attacks. Once things calmed down and people actually started suing the government for eavesdropping on everyday Americans, Congress passed the FISA Amendements Act. (FISA stands for the original law, the Federal Intelligence Surveillance Act.) That law is currently up for renewal in Congress.

Internet/Net Neutrality

• The Internet Association, a lobbying group made up of some of the Web’s most powerful companies, has officially launched.

• The organization today announced that it’s now operating in Washington, D.C. under the leadership of president and CEO Michael Beckerman. First announced earlier this year, the Internet Association is backed by 14 giants of the Web, including Amazon, AOL, Google, Facebook, Yahoo, and others. The companies hope to have their voices heard in Washington, Beckerman says.

Copyrights

ACTA

• Brussels, 10 October 2012 – The EU Commission has confirmed that ACTA-like criminal sanctions are currently present in CETA, the Canada-EU Trade Agreement. This attempt by the EU executive to impose repression of online communications through the backdoor is unacceptable. La Quadrature du Net calls on EU citizens to demand their governments remove copyright provisions from CETA during the upcoming round of negotiations1; failing to do so, the final text would have to be opposed as a whole.

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