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● 08.21.10

● Links 21/8/2010: Wine 1.3.1, Urbi Goes AGPLv3

Posted in News Roundup at 2:10 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Podcast Season 2 Episode 15

• In this episode: Ubuntu 10.10 is going to add gesture support and 11.04 is going to be called the Natty Narwhal. Debian 6.0 has been feature frozen while Oracle sets its sights on Google. Discover how we fared with our Nethack challenge and how we filled the Open Ballot section without an Open Ballot.

=> ↺ FLOSS Weekly 131: Vyatta

IBM

=> ↺ IBM: Innovation is the key driver for CIOs, not Cost

• Remember ten years ago, IBM made a $1 billion bet on Linux, and in so doing, helped create the momentum for Linux in the enterprise data center that we all enjoy today. Back then, IBM concentrated on three areas:

• • Making Linux better – providing contributions to help improve Linux with respect to reliability, availability and serviceability

• • Enabling IBM products – both across major server lines and throughout the IBM middleware portfolio

• • Extending Linux into new opportunity areas – Helping to expanding the total addressable market for Linux (e.g. Real-Time, HPC, SoNAS)

Kernel Space

=> ↺ DisplayLink Is Already Looking Towards Linux 2.6.37

• The Linux 2.6.36-rc1 kernel was released earlier in the week and while it will still be a couple months until the Linux 2.6.36 kernel will be officially released, the developers behind the open-source DisplayLink graphics driver are already looking forward to the Linux 2.6.37 kernel. This next kernel release that will make it out in early 2011 will bring new features and fixes to this driver that supports many graphics products over USB.

=> ↺ Decorate with Linux

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Progress On The ATI R600g Gallium3D Driver

• Since our last R600g status report, some of the changes to this driver that will eventually replace the R600 classic Mesa driver include support for new TGSI opcode instructions, segmentation fault fixes, OpenGL occlusion query support, fixed pitch alignment, user-clip plane support, an improved texture format checker, point/sprite rendering support, and various other technical changes. Some of the new instructions supported include POW, COS, SIN, SSG, SEQ, SGT, SNE, FRC, FLR, DDX, DDY, SGE, SLE, TXB, and many more. You get the point.

=> ↺ The ATI Evergreen Mesa Code Has Now Landed

• Nearly two hours ago we shared the news that there’s finally open-source 2D/3D/video acceleration for ATI’s Radeon HD 5000 “Evergreen” family of graphics processors, which is currently the newest and best consumer-grade GPUs from AMD’s GPG unit. At the time though only the xf86-video-ati DDX driver code was publicly pushed into a branch of the driver, but now the 3D portion of the code has publicly landed.

=> ↺ Notes from the LSF summit storage track

• LWN readers will have seen our reporting from the Linux Storage and Filesystem Summit (day 1, day 2), held on August 8 and 9 in Boston. Your editor was unable to attend the storage-specific sessions, though, so they were not covered in those articles. Fortunately, James Bottomley took detailed notes, which he has now made available to us. Many thanks to James for all of what follows.

=> ↺ How To Configure The AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) File Integrity Scanner For Your Website

• A file integrity scanner is something you need to have. Imagine a hacker placing a backdoor on your web site, or changing your order form to email him a copy of everyone’s credit card while leaving it appear to be functionally normally.

Applications

=> ↺ IBM Lotus Symphony – Weird but good

• Lotus Symphony is an interesting project. Although somewhat archaic and seemingly outdated, it is a very useful office suite, with many new, modern features on top of an older design.

• The 32-bit only version and the Hardy stamp for the Ubuntu version give an impression that IBM does not place too much focus on this program. And yet, lots of cool and modern options are available in the software, making it quite useful and relevant. It’s a confusing mix of old and new, wrapped in unique.

• Overall, Lotus Symphony performed well. If you don’t mind spending some time getting used to new looks and some non-standard features, the office suite will serve you rather well. It has that deep, corporate tinge that only giants can offer. Well, it’s free, so you’re welcome to try and see for yourself.

• Version 3 is coming soon and it will be based on OpenOffice 3, so you should expect a very decent, very modern office suite, with lots of IBM-specific additions. I believe Lotus Symphony 3 will be a very useful software. But only time will tell.

=> ↺ Gmail Voice and Video Chat – Too Little too Late?

• After waiting two years for the service, most Linux users that want video chat capabilities are probably already using Skype or something similar by now. The next few weeks will tell for sure, but this service may not be of much interest to Linux users anymore anyway.

=> ↺ Guake drop down terminal

• Drop down terminals were originally inspired by in game consoles like ones found in first person shooters like Counterstrike and Quake. Yes, Guake is just Quake starting with a ‘g’ instead of an ‘q’. Drop down terminals run in the background and can generally be toggled on and off by pressing one of the function keys (F12 by default in Guake). This simplifies life for people that make regular or sporadic use of the command line. Instead of starting a new terminal window or navigating to a currently open one, you can toggle the terminal on, execute the necessary commands, and have it out of your way again by just hitting one key. It really simplifies tasks like compiling code while working on a project and routine administration tasks.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Wicked simple networking with Wicd

=> ↺ Installing And Using OpenVZ On Ubuntu 10.04

=> ↺ Caching With Apache’s mod_cache On Ubuntu 10.04

=> ↺ Remove DRM from Amazon Kindle’s ebooks using Linux

=> ↺ How to install Mint Style Gnome Menu in Ubuntu

=> ↺ How To Set Up A Webgui Based Print Server On Ubuntu Server Using SWAT, CUPS, And SAMBA

=> ↺ How to integrate Google Docs with your Ubuntu desktop

=> ↺ http://shallowsky.com/blog/programming/fontasia.html

=> ↺ Speaking UNIX: Bazaar

=> ↺ Convert eBooks in Linux

Wine

=> ↺ Wine Announcement

• The Wine development release 1.3.1 is now available.

• What’s new in this release (see below for details): – Support for drag & drop between X11 and OLE. – New ipconfig.exe builtin tool. – Support for favorites in builtin Internet Explorer. – Beginnings of a shell Explorer control. – A number of DirectDraw code cleanups. – Improvements to the calendar control. – Various bug fixes.

Desktop Environments

Xfce

=> ↺ Lightweight Linux Desktop Alternative: Xfce

• GNOME and KDE may be the first desktops that come to mind when you think of the Linux desktop, but they’re not the only ones. From the overly minimalistic Rat Poison window manager to the eye candy of the Enlightenment E17 desktop, Linux has just about every type of desktop you can imagine. Want a desktop that’s lean and resource friendly without giving up features? It’s time to take a look at Xfce.

• For many users, the major desktops feel a little bloated. Fast hardware is cheaper than ever, but performance is still king on the Linux desktop. The ideal desktop is somewhere in the middle ground, between overly minimalistic and overly bloated. Xfce is right at the center of the Venn Diagram of features vs. speed. It’s lightning fast and still offers most of the features users have grown accustomed to. The problem? Most new users, and even some experienced Linux users, aren’t familiar with Xfce.

Distributions

=> ↺ Linux distribution popularity trends plotted

• Next, we take a look at the popularity trends of PCLinuxOS, Puppy, Sabayon, and Linux Mint, with CentOS as a reference. Note how Linux Mint rises up above this group — apparently following in the footsteps of Ubuntu, on which it is based.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat Approaching its 50 Day

• Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE:RHT) develops and provides open source software and services, including the Red Hat Linux operating system.

=> ↺ Red Hat Inc. Reports Operating Results (10-Q/A)

=> ↺ Red Hat (RHT) Moving Average Crossover Alert

Debian Family

=> ↺ How to thank Debian for 17 great years

• More than 1000 developers from all over the globe are part of the Debian community, their often-noisy debates and insistence on the values of free software often causing ructions far beyond their own mailing lists – which are open to the public.

=> ↺ Membership structures in Debian and Ubuntu

• Debian and Ubuntu have a set of official membership roles that can be granted to regular contributors. Those roles come with rights that enable the contributors to do their work and to participate in the project governance (elections and other official decision-making processes). It’s also a way for the distributions to acknowledge the work done: most contributors are proud of the status they reached.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu One has cool new features for Maverick

=> ↺ What would persuade you to ditch Windows for Ubuntu 10.04?

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ ASRock Core 100HT NetTop

• Last summer we reviewed the ASRock NetTop ION 330, which was the first Atom-powered NetTop computer that had come out of this vendor known for their affordable motherboards. The NetTop ION 330 combined an Intel Atom 330 CPU with NVIDIA’s ION platform to provide a low-power PC while offering modest computing and graphics capabilities.

=> ↺ Hardware manufacturers and the proprietary problem

• This is why I get so frustrated when people quickly dismiss Linux. I don’t have a problem with them preferring Windows, or even passing up the idea of giving Linux a try. But I do find it quite depressing that there’s no appreciation of what’s going on under the surface. I’m not talking about a sudo command, or lines of code. I’m talking about an ethos that standards are there to help consumers, to provide a level playing field for us all.

• Instead, it seems the legwork is being done, and then greedy manufacturers are rubbing their hands with glee as they mess around with said standard in a bid to line their own pockets. It can and should be stopped. But sadly, I fear that not enough people – aside from a quick grumble in a pub – really care that much. For what it’s worth? I do.

=> ↺ Mini PC includes dual-core Atom, Ion 2 graphics

=> ↺ Video-focused ARM/DSP SoC gains Linux development kit

• ChipWrights announced a Linux application development kit (ADK) for its CW5631 SoC, aimed at low-cost IPTV STBs and IP cameras. Like ChipWrights’ Linux-based CW5631 SDK announced earlier this year, the H264-ready ADK supports the CW5631, which combines a 400MHz ARM9 core, a DSP, and a RISC core.

=> ↺ Low-cost PowerQUICC chips offer flexible interconnect options

• A Linux-ready evaluation kit called the MPC830x-KIT is available, containing a single MPC830x carrier card. There are also system-on-modules available for each of the MPC830x devices, and Freescale also offers an MPC8308-RDB reference design board.

• All the evaluation boards and modules are provided with a Linux 2.6 board support package (BSP) that includes optimized drivers to support peripherals, says the company. The BSP is also said to include a quick-start guide and a six-month evaluation license for CodeWarrior development tools.

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Exclusive: Dell Thunder prototype preview (video)

• Christmas came early at Engadget HQ this year, as evidenced by the picture above — you’re looking at two Dell Thunder prototype smartphones, each with some surprising quirks, and hints that they might include global HSPA, AWS for the likes of T-Mobile, and maybe even a dash of CDMA support. We’ll warn you ahead of time that these are labeled EVT1 for “engineering verification test” and date back to the April leak, so they’re about as early as you can get — don’t expect the final handset to arrive without some significant differences. Good? Then peek the gallery below, hit the break, and let’s get on with the show.

=> ↺ Exclusive: T-Mobile G2 in the wild!

• These shots of a real, live G2 confirm what we’d already suspected from renders: this is basically an Americanized version of the upcoming HTC Vision.

=> ↺ Next Version of Android to be Called “Honeycomb”?

=> ↺ Android 3.2 Honeycomb to Follow Gingerbread 3?

• Android 2.2, or Froyo, is just now rolling out to smartphones including the Droid 2 and HTC Evo 4G, but the blog TechRadar today is citing “multiple sources” as confirming that the next version of Android will be called Honeycomb, following the dessert-themed monikers of the mobile OS. Prior versions of Android were codenamed Cupcake, Donut, Eclair and Froyo.

=> ↺ Droid X upgrade to Android 2.2 leaks out

• What we’re looking at here is allegedly the leaked over-the-air update to Froyo that Verizon plans on deploying to Droid X customers in the next few weeks, which means two critical things for customers: it should generally be faster all the way around, and — of course — you’ve got support for Flash, which was a big topic of interest at Motorola’s launch event for the phone a couple months back.

=> ↺ Ubuntu ported on Galaxy S

=> ↺ Ubuntu ported on Samsung Galaxy S

• It was merely a week back when Coralic, through his blog enlightened how to develop a chroot environment for ARM architecture based processors and run Ubuntu Linux OS.

• A week back Armin Coralic, posted on his blog details on how to create chroot environment for ARM architecture based processors and run Ubuntu Linux OS. However this Ubuntu Linux version is a stripped down form of the same. Later, Coralic posted a step-by-step method of porting Ubuntu on Galaxy S.

=> ↺ 7 Best Android Apps for System Administrators

• System Administrators are always in need of applications to remotely monitor their networks, administer the servers, and get stats. The Android smart phone comes to the rescue with an enormous number of such remote apps to help the administrator remotely access his system. Seven of the best android apps for system administrators follow.

=> ↺ Will Google Drop a Chromlet on Black Friday?

• If true, the move will fulfill Google’s announcement earlier this year that it would launch Chrome OS tablets in time for the holiday season.

• However, it’s not yet clear how Chrome OS tablets will coexist with those running the Android operating system, which is also offered by Google. Will they be targeted at different markets?

• Also, could Oracle’s (Nasdaq: ORCL) lawsuit against Google hamper sales of Chrome tablets?

=> ↺ 75 Awesome Android Apps

=> ↺ Adobe AIR to arrive on Android later this year

• Adobe has confirmed that it will deliver its cross-platform Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR) environment for Google’s open source Android mobile operating system by the end of this year.

Tablets

=> ↺ Canonical takes a step in bringing Ubuntu to tablets

• While most smartphones and tablets have touch capabilities, the feature has been slow to reach netbooks and laptops. A few laptops, like Dell’s Latitude XT2, have touch capabilities.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ The Urbi Robotic Software Platform Goes Open Source

• Urbi is an advanced robotics operating system, already available for a large number of robots like Aldebaran® Nao, Segway® RMP or Lego® Mindstorm, among 15 other different robots. One of its main innovations lies in a new orchestration script language called urbiscript, which natively integrates parallelism and event-based programming. Next to Urbi, Gostai also offers the Gostai Studio graphical programming tools, and compatibility with various simulators, making the Urbi framework one of the most advanced and complete solution for robot and complex system programming available today.

=> ↺ Urbi robotics software open sourced

• Urbi source code is licensed under version 3 of the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPLv3).

=> ↺ The State of Open Source System Automation

• The number of servers (both physical and virtual) is becoming uncountable. Automation of system administration is a must to handle the deluge; else swarms of sysadmins would be needed to handle all these systems.

Events

=> ↺ Conference Videos – My $0.02

Web Browsers

=> ↺ Google patches 10 Chrome bugs, pays out $10K in bounties

• Google on Thursday patched 10 vulnerabilities in Chrome, but it didn’t award any of the researchers who reported bugs its new top-dollar reward of $3,133.

Mozilla

=> ↺ Fennec 2, aka Mozilla Mobile, to be released on Android and MeeGo [Beta this fall]

Healthcare

=> is the chance to be heard that everyone has been waiting for. ↺ VA Issues RFI on Open Source for VistA

Project Releases

=> ↺ Phoronix Test Suite 2.8 Beta 2 Is Shining

=> ↺ The OpenSolaris-Based Nexenta Core Platform 3.0 Released

• Nexenta Core Platform 3.0 is derived from OpenSolaris Build 134, which is roughly what was supposed to be released as OpenSolaris 2010.02, then OpenSolaris 2010.03, and lastly prior to its slow death was just referred to as OpenSolaris 2010.1H. Nexenta CP 3.0 is also carrying various back-ports and other fixes onto the b134 stack.

=> ↺ Javascript server Node.js moves to 0.2.0

• Inspired by frameworks such as Ruby’s Event Machine or Python’s Twisted, Node.js avoids thread based networking and moves to an event driven model, where one thread executes all the code as demanded by events, such as the opening of network connections, or the completion of I / O operations. This has the advantage of being memory efficient and avoiding dead-lock issues, as there are no locks. Within Node.js code, HTTP is a first class protocol, with a library designed to allow for the handing of streamed data through the framework.

=> ↺ Clojure 1.2: A combination of scripts and functional programming

• The Clojure developers have released version 1.2 of their dynamic programming language. Clojure is one of the youngest programming languages executable on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and has recently been competing for public attention with the increasingly popular Scala language. The Lisp dialect is dynamically “typed” and was developed specifically for the JVM. A general-purpose language, it aims at combining the advantages of script languages with those of multi-threaded programs.

Licensing

=> ↺ Which Licence is Best for the Future?

• The GNU GPL might seem the obvious answer. After all, the GPL was drawn up specifically to make collaboration work and to create a community based on sharing code. But the experience of the last ten years of open source business has shown that, ironically, the GNU GPL actually allows companies that adopt it to act more, not less, like a traditional closed-source company.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Open-source’s roots in the 19th century

• Wired states that the first instance of open-sourcing occurred in 1839, which is much earlier that most people might think. This progenitive incident also has some basic principles in common with more recent events in the computer field of somewhat dubious distinctions. I will leave those particulars out, but it shouldn’t be hard to figure out which companies I’m talking about in the events to follow.

• Try to guess which modern examples follow the example set by Louis Daguerre if you want.

• Before Daguerre came along, a permanent photo would take about eight hours to make. At the time, photographers could only make a negative image on a pewter plate. Daguerre worked out a chemical process that reduced this time to mere minutes, and etched out a positive image. Without that process, a significant step in the history of photography might never have happened. So what tips can we glean from Daguerre’s example

Leftovers

=> ↺ My Favorite 10 xkcd Comics Part-1

=> ↺ Five billionth device about to plug into Internet

• Sometime this month, the 5 billionth device will plug into the Internet. And in 10 years, that number will grow by more than a factor of four, according to IMS Research, which tracks the installed base of equipment that can access the Internet.

Security/Aggression

=> ↺ ‘Council will not let me sell car’

• On Friday Pete was informed that he needed to fill in a form for permission to sell his car – and would need to renew it after four weeks.

Censorship/Privacy/Civil Rights

=> ↺ Spain investigates Google Street View wi-fi snooping

• Spain has become the latest country to launch an investigation into the collection of sensitive wi-fi data by Google.

• Google has admitted that its Street View cars had “accidentally” collected data from unsecured wi-fi networks in more than 30 countries.

=> ↺ Wikileaks encryption use offers ‘legal challenge’

• Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange responds to a BBC question about why it provides encrypted files for download.

Internet/Net Neutrality/DRM

=> ↺ Tech industry holds closed door talks on open internet

• Last week a crowd of about 100 people marched to Google’s headquarters in California to present boxes that they said contained 300,000 signatures upholding the values of net neutrality, a founding principle of the net that states that all web data is treated equally no matter where it comes from.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ Should you be able to copyright a shirt?

• On Aug. 5, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) introduced S.3728: the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prevention Act. He’s got 10 co-sponsors — including three Republicans — and a big idea: to extend copyright protections to the fashion industry, where none currently exist. That’s right: none. I — well, not I, but someone who can sew — can copy Vera Wang’s (extremely expensive) dress and sell it to you right now (for much less), and Wang can’t do a thing about it.

• We’re used to the logic of copyright. Movies, music and pharmaceuticals all use some form of patent or copyright protection. The idea is simple: If people can’t profit from innovation, they won’t innovate. So to encourage the development of stuff we want, we give the innovators something very valuable — exclusive access to the profit from their innovations. We’ve so bought into the logic that we allow companies to patent human genes.

=> ↺ 7 Sources of Free Sounds for Multimedia Projects

• In my posts 11 Techy Things for Teachers to Try This Year and How To Do 11 Techy Things In the New School Year I mentioned podcasting and video creation. When creating podcasts and videos adding music and other sounds can enhance your students’ presentations. Here are seven tools that your students can use find and or create sounds for their multimedia presentations.

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