● 06.06.13

● Links 6/6/2013: Ghana Linux Update, AMD Turns to Linux

Posted in News Roundup at 4:11 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

• Not only is GNU/Linux dominating web sites, it is running a lot of routers, DNS, DHCP servers and other gadgets that make it all work. In Netcraft’s latest Web-hosting survey, of 42 hosters:

• 28 run GNU/Linux 7 run FreeBSD and only 5 run M$’s OS.

• PC vendors have started bringing Intel’s 4th generation Haswell powered devices to the market. Fujitusi has announced LIFEBOOK UH90/L, which it calls the world’s thinnest Ultrabook. This Ultrabook has quite a lot to talk about. UH90 is powered by energy efficient 1.6GHz Haswell Core i5–4200U processor.

• AMD, the chip maker which was making chips exclusively for Microsoft’s Windows platform is now considering designing chips for Google’s open source Android and Chrome OS.

• I have been a faithful user of the Microsoft Windows operating systems for over two decades, starting with Windows 3.1 back in the early 1990s. Over the years, I upgraded to Windows 95, 98, Millennium, 2000, XP, Vista, and finally Windows 7. When I started using GNU/Linux in about 2004, I happily used GNU/Linux and Windows side-by-side, effortlessly switching between the two operating systems. However, Windows 8 would take me along a path that I cannot follow. It is time for me to finally get off of the Windows train.

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

• The Tiny Parallel Proportion Scheduler (TPPS) is a new I/O scheduler for Linux to appear on the kernel mailing list.

Applications

• In the past, when I had to manage my images (pictures) I used GQview (which started back in 2008). But the application doesn’t get many updates, and if an application does not get many updates, it either means it is no longer maintained or that it does its job perfectly. Sadly, for GQview, it is the unmaintained reason (even though the application seems to work pretty well for most tasks). Enter Geeqie, a fork of GQview to keep evolution on the application up to speed.

Proprietary

• I’m a child of the 1980s. Miami Vice! Skinny ties! Big hair! Honest, I had hair then…and every town had at least one good video game arcade.

• Thanks to the super affordable Raspberry Pi and some clever software, anyone can re-create the classic arcade experience at home. Adafruit brings the genuine “clicky” arcade controls, you bring the game files and a little crafting skill to build it.

Instructionals/Technical

Games

• Aurelien Regard, co-founder of now-defunct Pix’n Love Rush developer Arkedo Studios, announced the upcoming release of Poöf vs. The Cursed Kitty, an arcade-style action game developed in collaboration with Neko Entertainment.

• Available for Windows PC and Xbox 360 since September 2012, Gateways will be launched for Mac and Linux on July 16th, 2013, Smudged Cat Games announced. Gateways for OSX and Linux will be priced at $5, the same as the current Windows version. It will be available through Steam and directly from the Smudged Cat Games website which also includes a free Steam key.

• Your job as immigration inspector is to control the flow of people entering the Arstotzkan side of Grestin from Kolechia. Among the throngs of immigrants and visitors looking for work are hidden smugglers, spies, and terrorists. Using only the documents provided by travelers and the Ministry of Admission’s primitive inspect, search, and fingerprint systems you must decide who can enter Arstotzka and who will be turned away or arrested.

• All four are also available now through Steam individually and on the ubuntu software center. You’ve got about a week left to order the bundle at any price, but you’ll have to pay more than the average price (at the time of writing is a little under $6 USD) to get these four new games. If you’ve already bought the bundle at more than the average price the new games are on your receipt page or in your account.

Desktop Environments/WMs

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• So, I have good news about Day Five. I have nothing negative to report whatsoever. I’m over the hurdles of the adjustment period and I find myself able to operate very well in GNOME Classic.

• The GNOME Project announced a few days ago the immediate availability for download and testing of the second development release of the upcoming GNOME Shell 3.10 user interface.

Distributions

• There are plenty of free Linux flavours to choose from: we help you pick the right one

• Linux has never been more popular. Free operating systems based on the open-source kernel and applications are a great way to take control of your PC, or breathe new life into old hardware.

• First, I agree with Andy that this is a good way to use Fedora instances. With so many ways to spin up quickly a instance that does just exactly what you need it to these days, this should work great for a number of use cases. Lennart points out that containers is a even quicker/more minimal way to do things for some use cases ( https://plus.google.com/115547683951727699051/posts/G1DTXebUGGN ). Tie this to a CM like ansible and it’s easy to fire up and test your app in the next Fedora and move to it when you are ready, or even in an updated Fedora of the same version you are currently running.

New Releases

• The Alpine Linux project is pleased to announce the immediate availablity of version 2.6.1 of its Alpine Linux operating system.

Red Hat Family

• Legendary investor Warren Buffett advises to be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful. One way we can try to measure the level of fear in a given stock is through a technical analysis indicator called the Relative Strength Index, or RSI, which measures momentum on a scale of zero to 100. A stock is considered to be oversold if the RSI reading falls below 30.

• The beta release of Red Hat developer toolset 2.0 arrives this month with new features to develop applications for deployment on both Red Hat Enterprise Linux and on OpenShift. This latest version is designed to enable C and C++ developers to compile once and deploy to multiple versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux on physical, virtual, and cloud environments.

Fedora

Debian Family

• Here is the monthly report for my first full month as the Debian Project Leader.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

Flavours and Variants

• So, In this video I look over the install process and a quick look at the three launchers that Kubuntu 13.10 ships. Application Launcher, Application Launcher Menu and Homerun.

Devices/Embedded

• Meshcom Technologies, Inc. today announced its new brand name – EmbedOne – for its new embedded Linux line of business. At the same time, new publicly available suite of software and services for the embedded Linux community was announced.

• Why I bought Raspberry PI? Well, first because I was curious about it and second to gift it to one of my friends. Unfortunately she had been robbed (her laptop was gone!) and she also recently has been added to the 27% (probably more) of un-employment people in Greece.

Phones

Ballnux

• It’s raining smartphones these days, and Samsung has made it sure theirs doesn’t break when the rain hits the ground. Today Samsung announced a new flavor of their flagship Galaxy S4 — Active — that is, in their own words, “the perfect companion for exploration, activity and adventure”. In short, Galaxy S4 Active is the rugged version of the soft and delicate S4.

Android

• At the Google I/O Conference, the company announced new APIs that every developer should know about – especially those who care about location services, cloud messaging and Bluetooth.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

• I apologize for the confusion. The Plasma Active and, what’s being referred to here as the “Ubuntu Tablet”, are two different tablets – two different Linux builds. The Ubuntu tablet is of course going to run Ubuntu and the Plasma Active will run Mer Linux and KDE. Thank you to those who pointed this out! I appreciate your input and keeping me straight.

• Up to this point, the only expectation of a future Linux tablet has been embedded in the rumors (and hopes) of an Ubuntu tablet.

• In case you have any doubts that Mozilla is going to release a Firefox OS tablet in the future, we’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t be entertaining those kinds of thoughts at all. And why? Because the Firefox OS tablet is real, and it’s here, at least in pre-retail form as seen in the Foxconn booth at this year’s Computex expo in Taipei, Taiwan.

Free Software/Open Source

• A goal of Open Source is that the model allows alliances to be built among randomly distributed remote developers. The theory goes that the collective ingenuity of many remote contributors can focus together on improving and creating a much more rich product than what can be created by a single individual or small closed group. The success of Linux springs to mind immediately as an example of Open Source collaboration work well and what many people would consider to be even better than the traditional process of closed development.

• The edX learning platform has now completed its transition to open source and is available under an AGPL licence. The core of the system is the edx-platform which includes both the LMS (Learning Management System) and Studio, a tool for creating courses. Other parts of the system, such as the XBlock component architecture for courseware, machine-learning-based grading such as EASE, the discern tool, deployment tools, interfaces to external grading systems and Python execution utilities, can all be found on the new code.edx.org.

• If open-source software and technology was a brand in its own right, it might borrow the popular 1968 tagline for Virginia Slims: You’ve come a long way, baby.

• Rockchip’s RK3188 processor is one of the fastest ARM Cortex-A9 chips around. The 28nm quad-core processor outperforms the chips found in the Samsung Galaxy S III and Google Nexus 7, for instance. And it’s a relatively inexpensive chip, which explains why it’s proven popular with Chinese tablet and TV box makers.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

• French Mozillux may look a lot like LXDE-based Lubuntu Linux, but don’t be fooled. This portable Linux distro, which targets both beginners and intermediate users, offers a surprisingly comprehensive selection of installed software for users with a wide range of interests. It’s easily as flexible and usable as Puppy and Knoppix; just make sure you follow the developers’ download instructions.

• It’s been a few months since I last checked in on the progress of Australis, the new Firefox interface coming to Windows, Mac and, of course, Linux.

SaaS/Big Data

Databases

• Salesforce has been increasingly looking into PostgreSQL, an open source database, and hiring people who could provide some alternative to Oracle. The rationale is clear: Salesforce needs to diversify away from Oracle’s databases and potentially rearchitect for the future.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

• In an earlier post (http://lodahl.blogspot.dk/2013/05/exiting-new-design-initiative.html) I wrote about the new design features that will be exposed as experimental feature in LibreOffice 4.1.

Semi-Open SourceBonitasoft Open Source BPM v6 Offers Mobile-Neutral Access

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

Licensing

• It is often said that open source and open standards are different, because in open source, a diversity of forks is accepted/encouraged, while “forked” standards are confusing/inefficient since they don’t provide “stable reference points” for the people who have to implement the spec.

Openness/Sharing

• When Formlabs raised $2,945,885 on Kickstarter for its high resolution 3-D printer in October 2012, neither company was expecting a lawsuit. Still, 3D Systems, one of the biggest names in 3-D printing, sued both companies, accusing them of patent infringement. Debate swept the maker community — a 3-D printed Kickstarter project boycotted 3D Systems, and Formlabs ended up shipping their printers, undaunted by the legal threat.

• The annual Black Hat USA security conference is coming up at the end of July and the hype around big attacks has already started. One of the early hyped talks is about hacking Apple power chargers to infect IOS (iPad,iPhone) devices.

• OpenDaylight got started in April of this year as a multi-stakeholder open source group run under the auspices of the Linux Foundation. The initial group of members included Arista Networks, Big Switch Networks, Brocade, Cisco, Citrix, Dell, Ericsson, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, Juniper Networks, Microsoft, NEC, Nuage Networks, PLUMgrid, Red Hat, and VMware. Now, after not getting its way in a technical discussion, Big Switch is pulling out.

Programming

• Want to build an Android app but don’t want to bother with the backend nuts and bolts that keep it running properly? Google has got you covered. The Android maker has released a cloud-based backend kit which handles some of the nitty-gritty work of creating an app which requires authentication, cloud storage, server queries and push notifications. This offering also operates on Google’s App Engine cloud service which offers server scaling and a host of Google APIs, all manageable through a web-based dashboard. In essence, Google wants developers to not to just write apps for Android, but to write apps using their APIs and standards, and they’re willing to give away the keys to do it.

Standards/Consortia

• Actually, WebRTC is the biggest change we face today. The full impact is probably 2 years out–but it’s coming. Here are the critical issues still to be resolved.

• Google has reversed its previous decision to restrict access to CalDAV API to only select and large partners. The decision raised questions over Google’s commitment to open standard and open source. Google says that the decision was based on impression that “almost all the API usage was driven by a few large developers,” says Piotr Stanczyk, the Tech Lead of the Google Calendar APIs group.

Leftovers

Science

• Coveted by exotic pet dealers and handbag-makers, colorful monitor lizards in Southeast Asia may be facing more serious conservation threats than thought, researchers say.

Health/Nutrition

• Ice cream man­u­fac­turer Ben & Jerry’s has com­mit­ted to switch­ing to all non-GMO ingre­di­ents in its ice cream prod­ucts by the end of this year.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

• In a courtroom base near Tacoma, Washington, Army Staff Sergeant Robert Bales will plead guilty today to killing 16 civilians–most of them women and children–in an Afghan village on March 11, 2012. Bales will give his first account of the attack under oath as part of the hearing, in order to avoid the death penalty (New York Times, 6/05/13). The incident remains one of the most shocking slaughters of civilians in the Afghan War. The massacre received some media attention at the time, though much of that discussion was about the problems it would pose for the U.S. war there.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• The Illinois legislature has passed a fracking regulatory bill, expected to be signed into law by the governor, hailed by some environmental groups as the “toughest in the country.” But other groups are highly critical, both of the bill and of the way some big environmental groups worked with legislators and industry to pass it into law.

Finance

• Much attention has been paid lately to Goldman Sachs’ decision to “help” average folks (a.k.a. the 99% crowd) access the kind of high-stakes hedge funds once available only to the superrich (a.k.a. the 1%). And while all sorts of pundits and investor advocates have noted the folly of this and similar ideas, there’s a case to be made that the opposite is true — that average investors might do well by throwing some money Goldman’s way. In fact, there are two cases to be made. Allow me to explain.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Republican lawmakers in Wisconsin are fast-tracking a controversial bill to keep political donors secret, enact voter ID, and limit early voting, among other measures, with a vote scheduled for next week. The only public hearing on the bill was held Tuesday, where a representative of the business lobby made several misleading assertions about the bill’s disclosure provisions.

• “Our main message today to the committee is to please slow down,” Jonathan Becker and Mike Haas of the state Government Accountability Board told the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Elections.

Censorship

• Today, along with the Open Rights Group, English PEN and Index on Censorship, we have signed a letter to Culture Secretary Maria Miller highlighting our concerns about the current debate around ‘blocking’ internet content.

• It is absolutely right to pursue the removal of illegal content from the internet, but moving to a system where legal content is blocked poses a clear and significant risk to freedom of speech. The triviality of circumventing blocks aside, such a policy risks blocking legitimate websites and setting a dangerous international precedent. After all, who gets to decide what legal content is deemed to be unfit for the British public?

Privacy

• Facebook is on the defensive again. Members of the social networking site sued the company for co-opting their identities in online ads, and Facebook agreed to revise its “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” and offer a $20 million settlement. The case has drawn less attention than the dorm disputes portrayed in The Social Network, but the impact is far wider. An underpublicized aspect of the dispute concerns the power of online contracts, and ultimately, whether users or corporations have more control over life online.

Civil Rights

• A federal judge today halted an order that a Wisconsin man decrypt 16 computer drives the authorities suspect contain child pornography downloaded from the peer-to-peer file-sharing site e-Donkey.

• The brief ruling (.pdf) by U.S. District Judge Rudolph Randa of Milwaukee came a day after the suspect’s attorney urged Randa to halt a magistrate’s earlier order that Jeffrey Feldman decrypt the drives by today or potentially face indefinite detention until he complied.

• Hundreds of Rana Plaza workers and their families take to the streets to demand back pay and compensation

DRM

• Apple Inc goes to trial Monday over allegations by federal and state authorities that it conspired with publishers to raise the price of e-books.

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