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Posted in News Roundup at 11:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
ContentsGNU/LinuxDistributionsDevices/EmbeddedFree Software/Open SourceDigital Tipping Point: Clip of the DayGNU/LinuxLinux Outlaws 103 – It’s a Trap!On the massively tardy show for this week, Dan & Fab talk about Microsoft submitting code to the Linux kernel, one-second boot times, Apple screwing with Palm, a cool RTS game that recently went open source and much, much more.DesktopEven a 2 Year Old Can Use LinuxMy son arrived to identify what I was mumbling about and found the same scene. However, to him it was business as usual and he walked in to join Annie.I asked him when he had learned to use Linux, to which he replied without hesitation, “Everybody knows Linux.”He and Annie just kept playing and trying out some other games to see what I had loaded on the test machine.Needless to say, for the next few minutes I just enjoyed the sight of my two kids fiddling with Linux, as if they had been using it for years. I couldn’t resist taking a few photos, and then of course it was time to get back to testing.But in my amusement, I realized the significance of what had happened to me personally.I realized that all of those years and countless people helping to promote Linux to schools had made a big difference. Why aren’t schools adopting open source?I’ve had many a discussion with people in various sectors of the professional world. Nearly every person I spoke with agrees with what I assumed to be a truth: At one point teaching school-age kids Microsoft, and only Microsoft, software was a safe bet. But things have changed. No longer is it safe to assume that every business uses MS software. Although most businesses are still sticking with one form of Windows or another, many of those same businesses are adopting OpenOffice, Firefox, and more as their software of choice. And thankfully for the students (and users of all ages and sorts) OpenOffice has done a great job of creating an interface that anyone used to MS Office will be comfortable with. So the preconceived notion that schools HAVE to teach Microsoft Office is not longer a given truth.Does Linux Have a ‘Safe Mode’?The moral to this story is that people often associate the unknown with their problems. Linux was the thing that was different for him and, of course, it was to blame for his problem.Kernel SpaceProper Multi-Seat X Support Is On The WayWhile multi-seat computing has been available on Linux for years, it’s often been a chore to setup and required some time. Beyond just being time consuming and an unnecessary hassle, the way of setting up a multi-seat computer through an X Server with multiple nested Xephyr servers is not pleasant. There have been several attempts at improving the multi-seat Linux experience by creating a multi-seat display manager and taking various other steps, but to date this is still a challenge to setup. The good news though is that this may soon change. ApplicationsChrome v Firefox: Can Innovation Happen Without A Fight to the Death?But for the moment, Google sounds content to have Mozilla in the market. Mozilla and Google have been close, a relationship greased by a deal that makes Google the Firefox browser’s default home page and accounts for the lion’s share of Mozilla’s revenue.Linux Games: Zsnes (Super Nintendo Emulator)I can’t tell you how much fun I am having reliving my youth as I destroy those “muhah’ing” zombies. If you miss the days of SNES, I suggest you grab a copy of Zsnes and find your favorite ROM asap!How to build a desktop WYSIWYG editor with WebKit and HTML 5DistributionsMini-Distro-Review: Tiny Core LinuxIn conclusion, the concept of Tiny Core Linux is an excellent one, and given it is a new distribution on the block I hope to see further development and expansion upon this concept.UbuntuLaunchpad Open-Sourced. Now What?Shuttleworth, a former Debian developer, has spent millions of his own dollars funding Ubuntu and by all indications is genuinely committed to free software. If he decides to keep some code proprietary, he’s doing what he truly believes to be in the long-term interests of Ubuntu. But only time will tell whether Canonical’s policies will pay off.Community inertia in Debian and UbuntuFinally, Ubuntu is a branch of Debian. Once a project grows beyond a certain point, it becomes difficult to make major changes on the spot. Major changes rarely come out perfect the first time, so they may need intensive regression testing before they can be considered stable enough even for development purposes. The changes also need to be coordinated with other developers, because they may interfere with their work. Face off with Fedora and Ubuntu LinuxIf you are going to try Linux, Rightardia recommends Ubuntu. You will get up to speed faster with Ubuntu. Top 25 Ubuntu ProgramsI am using Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope Netbook-Remix, but these programs shoudl be platform independent. I will go with the pre-set menus that Ubuntu gives us all.Ubuntu Desktop: Contacts as Indexed FilesTo index progressively the changes as they happen, we should use inotify, this would then pass off the management process to the immediate computer run time. Threaded obviously.Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 152Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue #152 for the week July 19th – July 25th, 2009. In this issue we cover: Karmic Alpha 3 released, Launchpad is now open source, Ubuntu-US-NY is now an approved Ubuntu LoCo team, Focusing on the Launchpad UI, Answer contact can assign questions, Automatically import files to Launchpad using product release finder, Ubuntu Forums tutorial of the week, Kubuntu Translation Days, Ubuntu Podcast #31, and much, much more!Devices/EmbeddedGoogle Gives Android Developers a DonutAccording to multiple reports, Google is now offering developers a crack at some Android 2.0 features at the Android code repository. Android 2.0, which was codenamed “Donut,” was discussed at the Google I/O developer conference earlier this year. To listen to what Google had to say, watch the following clip (the Android part starts a couple minutes in).Android Is Still Headed Beyond Just SmartphonesEarlier this month, when Google announced its Chrome OS and made clear that it is headed for netbooks, the news curbed many of the predictions people were making about the Android operating system’s prospects on netbooks. Google officials made clear that they were steering Android toward smartphones. That hasn’t stalled all of the efforts to bring Android to platforms other than smartphones, though. As PC World points out, device maker Touch Revolution is working on several types of touch-screen devices based on Android, including a line of cutting-edge remote controls for homes. Meanwhile, Japan’s OESF (Open Embedded Software Foundation) continues to push forward with plans to deliver devices running Android as an embedded operating system.Free Software/Open SourceRandom musings on GPL and MicrosoftAfter all, nobody is forcing anyone to use GPL code in their solutions. Well, at least I haven’t heard of anyone complaining of having RMS threating them with using GPLed code in their solutions or…. So if you don’t like the GPL, then don’t use code released under its terms. Stop wining about how bad the GPL is, do your homework and write your own code instead. I know…. there’s excellent GPL code out there and it’s gonna take time to reproduce it but… if you choose to use it, then abide by its rules. That’s all their creators asked for when they released the code under its terms after all, right?Standards/ConsortiaInternet Explorer 8 provides best web browsing experienceWow! Now it says, “FAIL” in giant letters just to let you know that it does, in fact, fail. It probably says that in the IE7 rendering as well, but it’s difficult to tell what with all the mangled distortion of crap way up there.Another Vendor to Fully Support ODF: GemBox SoftwareFurthermore, this demonstrates two existing IT trends. First one is wider adoption of ODF. Second is replacement of old, proprietary document formats with new, XML based, open and standardized document formats.
Luis Casas Luengo, Director of Extremadura’s Fundecyt foundation 04 (2004)
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