● 05.30.14

● Links 30/5/2014: GOG GNU/Linux Expansion, LGP Down, Valve Delays

Posted in News Roundup at 3:56 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

Kernel Space

• btrfs (butter filesystem) is something that many of us have been interested in for years. Here is a very recent talk from LinuxCon Japan 2014. There is some Japanese at the beginning of the talk, but fear not, it is in English. The presenter is Marc Merlin… who if I remember correctly used to make really extensive LinuxWorld reports back when LinuxWorld still existed. Anyway, enjoy this btrfs update. Here’s the slide deck PDF that goes along with the talk.

Graphics Stack

• PathScale, the company behind the EKOPath compiler and other compiler technologies for both CPUs and GPGPU solutions, is looking to hire one or two kernel developers to work on improving the open-source AMD Linux graphics drivers… Particularly, to improve the GPGPU/OpenCL compute support in the driver, improve the Hawaii GPU and APU support, and potential optimizations for GPUs with 4GB+ of video memory.

• In a new mailing list thread, Eric Anholt expresses regrets a few years ago when they began sending GLSL IR into their driver rather than using Mesa IR and improving that intermediate representation. Eric is now trying to get the Mesa IR support up to scratch so that it can be sent directly to classic Mesa drivers.

Benchmarks

• With it looking like LLVM Clang 3.5 might finally have OpenMP support, I tested out Intel’s latest out-of-tree LLVM/Clang OpenMP code to see how the performance compares to GCC for this multi-processing API. Overall, the Clang results increase the level of competition against GCC.

Applications

• Calibre, a software used for reading, managing, and converting eBooks, has been updated to version 1.39 and brings a few new features, including one for Kindle devices.

• Calibre is mainly used for eBook conversion and as an eBook reader, but the application is capable of doing much more. Lately, the developer has been focusing on the editing part of the software and it shows in the release notes.

• QEMU 2.1 should be released two months from today and with it will come ARM architecture improvements and other enhancements.

• QEMU 2.1 just passed the mid-point in its development cycle with the release being planned for a 29 July debut. The soft-feature freeze is expected to happen in mid-June, the hard feature freeze at the start of July, and then three release candidates before the official release. The QEMU 2.1 schedule is available via the QEMU Wiki.

Instructionals/Technical

Wine or Emulation

• GOG.com is a digital distribution platform that is specialized mostly in old games, but the company that owns it, CD Projekt Red, wants to also extend the support to include Linux. They are now looking for people to help them with Linux ports, although it seems that some of them will be distributed in Wine wrappers.

Games

• The first thing to note is that I feel like my mind has done a complete turn-around on games being ported to Linux that aren’t “native”. Native ports are great yes that’s true of course, but I doubt we will ever have every developer and publisher on board with that. Publishers & Developers are in it for the money, no matter what they say if they didn’t sell well they would be in trouble and wouldn’t be able to continue, time is also money and time-saving for a tiny platform where they are likely to see ~5% of their sales from will probably look appealing.

• OpenELEC 4.0.3, an embedded operating system built specifically to run XBMC, the open source entertainment media hub, has been released and integrates some of the latest proprietary drivers available.

• The OpenELEC developers have outed yet another maintenance version of their distribution, but nothing major has changed since the 4.0.2 build. The most important changes are the upgrades for the drivers and for some of the other packages.

• First, it’s now been a month that Linux Game Publishing has been offline. It was on 29 April when they were going to do “be migrating hosts and servers over the next few days” in an effort to improve reliability of their hosting infrastructure, etc. They’ve now been offline for one month with no further communication with their main web-site resolving, etc. The state of their Internet-based DRM solution for their recent titles is not clear and LGP hasn’t responded to any requests for comments, including Facebook comments by their customers earlier this month.

• I’m willing to bet you have a dilapidated HP, Gateway, or Dell laptop gathering dust in a closet somewhere. Or perhaps like me you have a MacBook Air that you tote around to conventions or use at home for work, writing, and browsing the web. Maybe an Ubuntu or Linux Mint box is more your speed. What if you could resurrect those aging notebooks and put them to use playing the newest PC games? Or inject your Mac and Linux machines with the ability to play all those Windows PC games they only dream of? You can do precisely that with a new feature from Valve’s Steam software and these instructions.

• The Steam developers usually make a number of intermediary releases before a stable and a large version of the application are launched. The current update is just one of these versions and, even if it’s a Beta, some users might notice improvements.

• Valve takes its time when it comes to improving the Steam client and its updates take care of just a few things. This way, it is easy to spot a problem if something goes wrong after an update for the software.

• Painkiller Hell & Damnation, a remake and a sequel for the immensely popular Painkiller made by People Can Fly in 2004, has been available on the Linux platform for quite some time and now the fans get to buy it with an 80% discount.

• Epic Games has shared their “first play” (albeit rather short and basic) footage of the new Unreal Tournament game that’s in early stages of development with the community.

• Epic Games shared the news earlier this month that there’s going to be a new Unreal Tournament game powered by Unreal Engine 4, will be free, and will have native Linux support. Epic is pushing Unreal Engine 4 for Linux gamers to the extent they’re also after Phoronix Test Suite support, etc.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

• Now with System Settings this is a “way into the future” job – because we are working on the “bit-by-bit” production model AND lets be frank here, the devs are more or less working 24/7 getting the first version of Plasma Next out the door.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

• The 3.13.x branch of GNOME is strictly for development and it will eventually evolve into the stable 3.14, but that’s a long way ahead. Until then, the developers free to implement changes and new features.

• The previous version in this branch brought some very interesting changes and the developers removed Windows and Twitter support from the software, among other changes.

• Mutter, a window and compositing manager that displays and manages your desktop via OpenGL, has reached version 3.13.2.

• Owen Taylor has announced that Mutter 3.13.2 has been released, repairing several problems and bringing a few new features, and some of them are pretty interesting, to say the least.

• The latest development version of the GNOME desktop in the road to GNOME 3.14 is now available.

• I spent last weekend in Beijing attending GNOME Asia 2014; yeah, long trip from Europe just for 3 days, but it was totally worth it. The worst part of it was of course fighting jet lag when I arrived, and fighting it again 3 days later when I came back to Spain

Distributions

• There are hundreds and hundreds of Linux distributions available at this point in time. Most users stick with the major Linux distributions. But what is a major Linux distribution?

• Off the top of my head I can think of Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, PCLinuxOS, Zorin, Elementary, Mageia, Slackware, Gentoo and Puppy. Then there are the Ubuntu spin-offs such as Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Gnomebuntu and Edubuntu

• Behind all these distributions there are a host of other distributions that you may have heard of but not yet tried. Peppermint, Manjaro, Point Linux, Crunchbang, Kali, Bodhi, Knoppix, SLAX, SolydXK, Antix, Chakra, OS4, Korora, KWheezy and SparkyLinux. I could go on and on.

• The Clonezilla team released a new development version for their Linux distro, but this is not a very large update and it only integrates a small number updates and changes.

• “The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian Sid repository, as of May 27, 2014,” reads the official announcement.

Screenshots

Red Hat Family

• Earlier this month, when Red Hat was busy delivering a flurry of OpenStack-related announcements, news also came from the company that it is collaborating to drive Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and telecommunications technology into OpenStack. Red Hat is forming alliances aimed at delivering a carrier-grade telecommunications offering based on Linux, Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), and OpenStack.

Fedora

• Last week I shared a concept for the Fedora.next logos with you, and I received quite a lot of feedback. Thank you for that. Smile The feedback I received mostly clustered along these lines in some form or another:

• The server logomark doesn’t read as a server to everyone – it’s too rounded. The workstation logomark looks too much like a flip phone to read as a laptop. Okay. I thought I might take that feedback and fart around with the designs some more, and record a bit of a stream of consciousness of what the heck I did so you can follow along and see where it’s coming from. I opened up the SVG source of the original designs in Inkscape and poked around a bit.

• Fedora 21 when released late in 2014 will effectively retire support for a lot of old graphics card drivers.

• Going back to last year have been plans to drop support for really old GPUs from Fedora 21. It’s been a few months since then and these really old X.Org drivers are still set to be slaughtered from the Fedora repository.

Debian Family

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

• “We are pleased to offer the first ARM 64-bit Server-on-a-Chip production silicon with full certification for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, including all the relevant server workloads and tools to allow commercial hyperscale deployments on X-Gene,” Applied Micro’s vice-president Gaurav Singh said in a statement. “The X-Gene plus Ubuntu offering means enterprises can now capture substantial TCO savings for their scale-out datacenters.”

• Canonical wants to make it as easy to manage Ubuntu-powered clouds from your smartphone as from a traditional PC. That’s the goal behind a new mobile-friendly interface for browsing open source Juju charms that Canonical’s design team outlined recently.

• Presumably, Google’s new prototype still runs Linux, like its earlier, Ubuntu-based autonomous Prius.

• Google has experimented in the past with its self-driving cars by modifying production cars from automakers. Now Google plans to build its own cars from scratch.

• An “emergency cleanup interface” has been added to the Mir server for trying to better recover the system in case of problems.

• Alexandros Frantzis and Alan Griffiths of Canonical added the EmergencyCleanup interface on Wednesday. What this new Mir display server interface does is allow handlers to be defined that will be called in case of Mir hitting fatal errors. The hope is that if these handlers are called if Mir is going to crash or run into other serious problems, they’ll be able to return the system to a usable state in order to provide a clean user experience.

Flavours and Variants

• This tutorial shows how you can set up a Xubuntu 14.04 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e.that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge. Xubuntu uses the lightweight XFCE desktop environment.

• Elementary OS “Isis,” the next iteration of the famous operating system that managed to capture everyone’s attention in just a couple of years, now has a development version available for download.

Devices/Embedded

• An open-spec COM that runs OpenWRT Linux on a MIPS-based Ralink RT5350 SoC has won its Indiegogo funding. The $20, IoT-focused “VoCore” measures 25 x 25mm.

• How low can you go? Tiny computer-on-modules (COMs) for Internet of Things (IoT) applications are popping up everywhere, with recent, Linux-ready entries including Intel’s Atom or Quark-based Edison, Ingenic’s MIPS/Xburst-based Newton, Acme Systems’s ARM9/SAM9G25 based Arrietta G25, and SolidRun’s quad-core i.MX6-based MicroSOM. Now, an unnamed Chinese startup has raised over six times its $6,000 Indiegogo funding goal for what could be the smallest, cheapest Linux COM yet.

• The chip maker wants its In-Vehicle Solutions to be the foundational technology that drives the development of autonomous cars.

• Intel announced a Linux- and Atom-based hardware/software platform called Intel In-Vehicle Solutions for assisted driving and eventually self-driving cars.

• Intel says its Internet of Things Group achieved revenue of $482 million in the first quarter, up 32 percent year-over-year, “driven by strong demand for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems.” While some of that appears to be Windows-based, Linux is the chief platform going forward in its current line-up of Tizen Linux based IVI reference systems. Linux is also the platform driving the newly announced Intel In-Vehicle Solutions (IIVS), which initially combines IVI with advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) features. IIVS will eventually migrate to semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicles, says Intel.

Phones

Android

• Codenamed Moorefield, Intel’s latest 64-bit chip is expected to make a high-profile appearance at the upcoming Computex conference.

• Intel made a strong pitch to Android developers at AnDevCon in Boston on Thursday, underlining the company’s determination to play a larger role in the mobile market.

Free Software/Open Source

• This week Samsung is drawing a lot of buzz with its announcement of the Samsung Digital Health Initiative, which will be based on open hardware platforms and open software architecture. The initiative has several arms, but one primary area of focus will be on delivering very smart wearable devices that go well beyond the capabilities of wearable health devices such as Fitbit. In fact, Samsung officials are touting wearable devices that monitor blood pressure, deliver electrocardiogram (ECG) readings, and more.

• Samsung has announced open hardware and software platforms that will enable developers and researchers to create innovative wearables and digital health algorithms.

• If publishers tune out at the mention of “open source” approaches to publishing, it’s largely out of habit. For many, the idea of making content freely and publicly available is akin to surrendering the central asset of their businesses. But open source digital technologies are encouraging some to reconsider, according to experts who spoke in New York yesterday afternoon at the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF) at Book Expo America.

• With a grant from Intel, LSU CCT is being asked to develop open-source software focusing on simulation of flows through microscopes, such as those found in rocks involved in oil and gas extraction, by extending OpenFOAM, a popular open-source simulation software, according to the release.

Web Browsers

Chrome

• Google Chrome 37 Dev, a browser built on the Blink layout engine that aims to be minimalistic and versatile at the same time, has been released and is now available for testing.

SaaS/Big Data

• The solution builds off HP’s larger efforts in the cloud, including the $1 billion being invested in R&D.

BSD

• The developers of GhostBSD didn’t waste any time and released yet another development version, although they are now out of the Alpha stage. Maybe we won’t get as many Beta releases so that the final version is not delayed.

• According to the changelog, cpio has been replaced with rsync for copying files during the installation, the kernel is now writable on the live DVD, which solves graphic card kernel loading for Intel and ATI, and the base of the distribution, FreeBSD10.0-RELEASE, has been updated to version 10.0-RELEASE-p3.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

• Copyright developed in the age of the printing press, and was designed to fit with the system of centralized copying imposed by the printing press. But the copyright system does not fit well with computer networks, and only draconian punishments can enforce it.

Public Services/Government

• Cities and states around the country such as San Francisco, Oklahoma, and New Hampshire have passed bills to require municipalities to use open source software when possible. Why not a tech hub like New York City?

• On Thursday, Council Member Ben Kallos will introduce the Free and Open Source Software Act that, if passed by the City Council, would bring the requirement to New York. The law would require the City to look first to open source software before purchasing proprietary software. In addition, Kallos, chair of the Council’s government operations committee, will introduce a Civic Commons bill to create a central site to store all of the open source software the City uses which could promote sharing among cities.

Openness/Sharing

• Groundbreaking comics writer Alan Moore has teamed with a group of fellow creators to create a digital comic reading and creation platform.

• NanGate, Inc. – a provider of design-specific standard cell library IP and EDA tools for layout automation – announced that it has released the first edition of a new 15nm open cell library (OCL). NanGate developed the library IP based on North Carolina State University’s FreePDK 15nm open-source, non-manufacturable process. Challenges such as designing with FinFET transistors, metal double patterning, advanced interconnect layers and metal gate restrictions are represented in the new PDK.

Open Data

• Technology enables us to understand today what risks may come tomorrow. The World Bank Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) works with governments, communities and other actors to bring together technology and information to help them understand and reduce natural disaster risks.

Open Hardware

• 3D printing is not yet a mainstream business activity, but the technology has progressed to the point where users can print three-dimensional objects and manufacture their own prototypes and replacement parts with relative ease. The open source community is advancing 3D printing technology by conducting experiments that could take it to the next level.

• Intel will have a open-source robot available for consumers by the end of the year, the company announced today during Re/Code’s tech conference.

Programming

• The latest feature release Git v2.0.0 is now available at the usual places.

• The Hip Hop Virtual Machine (hhvm) makes PHP faster by providing Just-In-Time (JIT) compilation and it’s now something being baked into the PHP next gen branch.

Leftovers

Health/Nutrition

• Even though the state of Oregon enacted a law to override the ability of localities to regulate their own food systems, local ballot measures to ban GMO crops passed overwhelmingly in Jackson and Josephine Counties on May 20, according to news reports. “We fought the most powerful and influential chemical companies in the world and we won,” Elise Higley, a local farmer with the anti-GMO group Our Family Farms Coalition, told The Oregonian. The Progressive magazine tells the backstory below and reveals that the preemption measure shares language with an ALEC model bill.

• That’s right. If you don’t buy into everything told you, it’s bad for your health. This is the stuff of dreams for anyone who wants you to buy into everything they say. I’m currently writing about the City of London Police so I’ll pass this link onto them, I’m sure they can use it. The researchers, who amongst the many things they fail to grasp (from the report I read) go on to say:

Security

• The Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) is a not-for-profit charitable organization focused on improving software security. OWASP works on the principles of open source software, particularly the idea that the community is the force of creation and contribution. The unique aspect here is that OWASP is not software, rather a set of guidelines created by the community to help developers plug security holes in their code.

• Security has become a very important aspect of software development lately, but not everyone is aware of ways to write secure code. You may think, “my team of developers is very experienced/skilled/efficient, they can write 100% secure code,” but if you follow the news you are aware that even bigshot websites are regularly brought down or have their user data compromised. Your website should be well-prepared to avoid such attacks by following these guidelines by OWASP.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

• TransCanada will have to meet two extra safety conditions if it gets the go-ahead to build the northern portion of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, due to concerns from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) that defects could occur during construction.

• PHMSA slipped in the two conditions towards the end of the appendices of the State Department’s Environmental Impact Statement, released this January. They dictate that TransCanada hires a third-party contractor chosen by PHMSA to monitor Keystone XL’s construction and report any faulty construction techniques back to the agency. In addition, TransCanada will be required to adopt a quality management program to make sure that Keystone XL is “built to the highest standards by both Keystone personnel and its many contractors.”

Finance

• It is so deeply embedded, so seamlessly rooted and integrated into what we think of as ‘our self’, that when expressed oftentimes it is (intentionally) mistaken for something else entirely. Our indoctrination begins at birth in tiny little ways, mostly personal in nature, with our parents and care givers the initial delivery system. From day one out of the womb we are conditioned via adoring smiles and Coochie Coochie Coo’s that we are exceptional, one of a kind and King of the house. A few minutes of screaming has everyone running to stem the tears and change the pee pants. And it is all downhill from here.

• The collapse of the monetary system awaits the world in the near future, says financial expert James Rickards. Russia and China’s desire to rid the US dollar of its global reserve currency status is an early sign of the “increasingly inevitable” crisis.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

• Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign is reportedly negotiating a settlement with prosecutors in the long-running “John Doe” criminal campaign finance probe — and the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which for months has attacked prosecutors and portrayed the investigation as baseless, is livid.

Censorship

Privacy

• Are you aware that smart devices can collect information about your personal activities? If not, you are one of the 53% of British internet users that were unaware that smart devices such as smart TVs, fitness devices and in car-navigation systems can collect data.

• Sometimes you have to wonder about people who hold government positions and the absolutely ludicrous statements they make. Following Ed Snowden’s big NBC interview, NBC apparently asked former US ambassador to Russia, Michael McFaul, to respond to Snowden’s pretty convincing claims that all the hand-wringing about “harms” he caused have no basis in fact. In the interview, Snowden points out, accurately, that no one has yet been able to show a single individual harmed by the revelations. McFaul then makes what may be the single dumbest statement we’ve heard to date on this whole debate, arguing that the “harm” is that other countries now trust us less — and that this is somehow Snowden’s fault, rather than, you know, the fault of the NSA which is doing the surveillance…

• A near-complete failure as Secretary of State (if you are not sure, read this), Kerry is apparently relegated within the Obama administration to the role of mumbling bully-boy statements, faux-machismo rantings whose intended audience and purpose are very, very unclear. Did Kerry think he might persuade Snowden to take up the challenge and fly back to the U.S.? Maybe meet Kerry in the Octagon mano-a-mano? No, Kerry sounded much more like Grandpa Simpson than America’s Senior Diplomat. – See more at: http://wemeantwell.com/blog/2014/05/29/kerry-tells-snowden-to-man-up-and-come-home/#sthash.PUdzNxZj.dpuf

• The Cabinet Office has started an early pre-consultation process looking at removing barriers to sharing or linking different databases across government departments. The rationale is that this can help Government “design and implement evidence based policy, for example to tackle social mobility, assist economic growth and prevent crime”.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

• iracy is wrong, piracy is theft. That’s that we are told. I personally refuse to watch the trash from Hollywood or your mainstream music et al, mainly because I think its manufactured nonsense aimed at markets either too lazy or too slow witted to find entertainment in more engaging mediums (such as reading, listening to the radio…you heard of those?)

• Now despite Piracy NOT being theft (if applied to Sec 1 of the Theft Act in the UK, which for me clearly defines what theft is), today we are looking at some claims made by the City of London police and finding out exactly what they are doing to combat the threat they claim of “piracy”.

• This is not an article on if you agree with infringement of copyright or not. I support CC and FOSS – I have no care or interest in the industries which make these multi-million pound movies, nor the movies themselves.

• [...]

• City of London Police – Why won’t you name the sites you claim to have closed down? – I believe I know the answer and its because they are not closed at all and just some word play by people who either don’t understand the concepts they are talking about or are intentionally looking to mislead. – Is there any other reason? Are my opinions incorrect? Please by all means give your reasons.

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.