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● 04.25.12

● Links 25/4/2012: FOSS Spendings Grows in France, Linux Australia Ponders Name Change

Posted in News Roundup at 9:56 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Calling out to the Linux Community to help new users

• There have several calls for help to the readers, but this post being one of them is targeting the entire Linux community. Every user who wants to install Linux on his computer starts at the scenario where he needs to boot from the CD or USB. This is something that has become natural to us, the Linux users. But it has the potential to make/break the experience for new users who want to try Linux. This is because an ordinary Windows or Mac user has never had the need to access the BIOS to set CD or USB as the boot device. Most likely Windows or Mac came pre-installed on his system.

=> ↺ LinuxDevices Killed in Ziff Davis Enterprise Acquisition?

• One of the oldest and best sources for news regarding Linux powered devices, LinuxDevices, is worryingly silent today. Attempts to reach both the main page and the forums return database errors. This comes a few months after its publisher, Ziff Davis Enterprise, was acquired by QuinStreet.

=> ↺ Linux Australia ponders name change

• Linux Australia president John Ferlito has asked the community of Australia’s peak Linux body whether it’s time to change its name, eliciting a strong response.

• “We think it is time for us to change the name of our organisation to have it more accurately represent the focus of our community,” Ferlito wrote in a message to members last night.

• Ferlito added that the organisation is now over a decade old, and its day-to-day operations are no longer accurately defined by the name Linux Australia.

=> ↺ Linux Australia: a new name is the least of the problems

• There is no move to get rid of the Linux Australia brand (15-odd years old right now) and the linux.org.au domain. These are deemed to be far too valuable.

• Then why change? The organisation has now expanded its activities – it sponsors conferences on other open source topic – Python, Drupal and WordPress as of this year.

=> ↺ Linux is Precise, Quantal and Longterm

Desktop

=> ↺ Artyom Zorin on Zorin OS, the gateway to Linux for Windows users

• Most often than not, the brand has an abstract name. General Electric, FIAT, Airbus, Pepsico, RedHat – all these companies have names which have nothing to do with names of their founders. Although, there are still some cases when person’s name becomes a name of the brand. Let me introduce a person who’s name became a brand. At least, in the Linux world. Please meet: Artyom Zorin.

=> ↺ Shifting Tide of Battle

• Despite all the good work in */Linux and efforts by government to restrain the largest excesses of M$, it is still a growing cancer in IT. The growth in the client division is radically curtailed but there’s still some. Until it quits growing, there is no hope of salvation from the cost and complexity in IT that M$ causes. I hope M$’s recent numbers are just some accountants’ tricks, but I will not declare the battle over until retail shelves are jammed with GNU/Linux everywhere.

Server

=> ↺ IBM fires Power-powered Penguins at x86′s weak spots

• Big Blue has not made any huge proclamations to date, but it is not exactly a secret that the people in charge of IBM’s Systems and Software Group want the Power7 processor and its follow-ons to grab a larger share of the systems racket.

• To that end, Big Blue is reviving a Linux-only variant of its Power Systems lineup with cheaper hardware and software pricing that it says gives better value on Linux workloads than an x86 setup.

Audiocasts/Shows

=> ↺ Linux Outlaws 262 – Leisure Suit Larry Goes to CourtLinux Outlaws 262 – Leisure Suit Larry Goes to Court

Kernel Space

=> ↺ The Linux Foundation Adds Five New Members From Japan

• The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that five new companies from Japan are joining the organization: Ashisuto, Aisin AW, JVC KENWOOD Corporation, NTT DATA MSE, and Turbo Systems.

=> ↺ Linux Hardware, Software Trends Over One Year

• These are results collected by OpenBenchmarking.org from the thousands of results and over a million component configuration statistics (there’s statistics on more than 1,506,821 computer components as of Sunday and more than 155,872 test results that are publicly available). With these statistics being from OpenBenchmarking.org, these trends are not of the “normal” Linux user-base but rather more representative towards Linux/hardware enthusiasts, the tweaking/benchmarking crowd, and enterprise users. Regardless, they provide a very interesting look at the popularity of various brands and software components on Linux.

=> ↺ systemd Status Update

=> ↺ After Whom Is The Linux Operating System Named?

=> ↺ A KMS Driver Arrives For AST Hardware

=> ↺ Intel Core i7 3770K Ivy Bridge Linux Performance

=> ↺ Long-term maintenance for Linux 3.2

• Ben Hutchings has confirmed that he will maintain Linux kernel version 3.2 as a long-term kernel at kernel.org for an indefinite amount of time. While this was announced by the developer last weekend, it has now also been mentioned by the primary stable and long-term kernel maintainer, Greg Kroah-Hartman, in the release email for Linux 3.2.16; with the release of this version on Monday morning, Kroah-Hartman has discontinued the maintenance of Linux 3.2 and handed it over to Hutchings.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ New “NV30″ Nouveau Driver Still Causes Pain

• One week ago following the committing of the major libdrm re-write for the Nouveau project, the “NVFX” Gallium3D driver was dropped and succeeded by a new “NV30″ driver for the GeForce FX/6/7 series GPUs. Unfortunately, for at least some hardware, this Nouveau support is still a busted mess.

=> ↺ ADWC: A Tiling Window Manager For Wayland

• There’s now the first tiling manager for Wayland. Called ADWC, this open-source tiling manager can already start applications using XWayland. There’s some videos showing off this Weston fork, including the Opera web-browser and KDE’s KWrite running on Wayland.

=> ↺ GPU Lockup Recovery For The Nouveau Driver

=> ↺ R600 Gallium3D LLVM Shader Compiler Hooked Up

=> ↺ Intel HD 4000 Ivy Bridge Graphics On Linux

Applications

=> ↺ 5 Best Alternative Free Linux File Managers

• Reinventing the wheel is frequently cited as a barrier to the development of open source software. Critics point out if developers worked together on projects, instead of duplicating software that already exists, this would help to simplify matters for users, and actually significantly advance the development of established open source projects. There is an element of truth that development time is wasted, and it is not hard to identify examples of developers reinventing the wheel in their code, rather than contribute their development skills to projects with broadly similar objectives.

=> ↺ Review Sunflower twin panel file manager for Linux

• Sunflower is a twin panel File manager for Linux. Sunflower is use to view or browse , cut, copy and paste several files from different directories using graphical user Interface. It also supports drag and drop functionality between different directories. The light weight and small size make it more attractive among users. It can be highly customized with handy hot keys. Moreover it can be improved and enhanced by with the help of plugin. The different tasks can be performed with sunflower like add or edit bookmark, empty history and more.

=> ↺ Nitro Task Manager Brings New Themes and More Translations

=> ↺ JBackpack – Personal backup program

=> ↺ gThumb 3.0.0 Is Available for Download

• Paolo Bacchilega proudly announced last evening, April 23rd, the immediate availability for download of the gThumb 3.0.0 image viewer and browser utility for the GNOME environment.

Proprietary

=> ↺ New Opera 12 snapshot

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to Benchmark Your Linux System: 3 Open-Source Benchmarking Tools

=> ↺ How to install Takeoff Launcher on Kubuntu 12.04

=> ↺ How to Set Up a Dhcp Server on Linux Mint 12

=> ↺ How to create Linux live multi-boot setups – Tutorial

=> ↺ Changing from Nouveau to Nvidia Graphics Drivers on Linux Mint Debian Edition 64-bit

=> ↺ TechTip: Unlock More Space in Linux

=> ↺ How to set up Raspberry Pi

=> ↺ Tutorial: setting up Gitlab on Debian 6

=> ↺ Monitoring OSX and Linux with Nagios and SNMP

=> ↺ Download and Install RedImages in Ubuntu 12.04/Ubuntu 11.10

=> ↺ TIP: Block Spam from domains on the South Africa ISPA Spam Hall of Shame using DNSBL

=> ↺ How to Install and Upgrade OpenStack Clouds: Dell Crowbar?

=> ↺ Enable multiuser logins with VNC

=> ↺ Maintaining Remote Web Sites With sitecopy (Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 11.10)

=> ↺ Maintaining Remote Web Sites With sitecopy (Debian Squeeze/Ubuntu 11.10)

=> ↺ Linux Admin Manual Is a Great Reference Tool That’s Not for Dummies

Games

=> ↺ A New GLSL Backend For Doom 3

• Oliver McFadden, the developer that wrote the Radeon Revenge reverse-engineering utility, was thinking about writing an open-source BIOS for Radeon GPUs, and brought ioquake3 to the Nokia N900, decided to write a new GL Shading Language (GLSL) renderer back-end for the id Tech 4 engine.

=> ↺ The Humble Botanicula Bundle

• New Humble Indie Bundle yaddda yadda blah blah blah, you’ve heard it all before, so a link to the webpage and a video. Go out and buy it and enjoy it.

=> ↺ Slackware Plays Nicer Than Ubuntu With Humble Botanicula Bundle

• Update: We mentioned before that the blog mentioned belongs to reader Dugan Chen. Dugan was nice enough to update us, rescinding OUR foolish and supposed assumption that he was its owner. Sorry Dugan, and thank you for the update!

=> ↺ A New Game Engine Comes To Linux

• Confirmed yesterday was a new version of a popular but proprietary game engine that will work on Linux with its next release.

• The crew at Terathon Software yesterday working on the C4 Engine tweeted, “The next version of the C4 Engine (version 2.9) runs on Linux.”

=> ↺ Overgrowth Publishes Linux Game Teaser

• If you’re not busy with going through the extensive Intel Core i7 Ivy Bridge Linux test results (the Ivy Bridge Linux Mesa graphics results will be out in the next few hours), here’s some Linux gaming news for today.

=> ↺ Arx Libertatis: cross-platform port of Arx Fatalis released

=> ↺ Phenomenal times for Linux Gaming

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Akademy Keynote: Dr. Mathias Klang – Freedom of Expression

• Dr. Mathias Klang is a researcher and senior lecturer at the University of Göteborg in Sweden. His research revolves within the field of legal informatics with particular interest in copyright, democracy, human rights, free expression, censorship, open access and ethics. He holds Master of Laws and Ph.D. degrees.

=> ↺ KDE Commit-Digest for 15th April 2012

=> ↺ LaKademy — First KDE Event for All of Latin America

• Latin America is a big place with many opportunities for KDE; major deployments of KDE software are proof. Over the years, groups of KDE developers have emerged in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru, and probably other places. These groups work together to make a better KDE. As we know, meeting and talking in person is important to strengthen the bonds in a community. So we decided to organize a Latin American meeting of KDE contributors following the lead of the first Akademy-br in 2009. Like Akademy-br, the first LaKademy will be similar to a sprint for developers and one for people interested in promoting KDE in this part of the world.

=> ↺ A look at the new Plasma Active File Browser

• Plasma Active is coming together nicely and quickly. When I watched the first videos published just a few months ago, I thought a lot of hard work was needed, but I was not the only one. Those videos were simply proving that Plasma Active was running successfully, but not even close to displaying the finished product. Today we are very close to seeing Vivaldi become available, and with it, the first official version of Plasma Active preinstalled on a device. It’s a serious thing, and Plasma Active developers are hard at work improving things like maniacs. A testament of that is the following video, which captures the Plasma Active file browser in action.

=> ↺ Calligra: The Other Office Suite Narrows the Gap

• On April 11, Calligra Suite announced its first release, version 2.4. This release takes Calligra several steps closer to being an alternative to LibreOffice, especially in its graphical applications.

=> ↺ Google Summer of Code & Season of KDE 2012 – there is place for everyone!

• Google has published the list of 60 student proposals that have been accepted for Google Summer of Code 2012 for KDE. It means that 60 students will be able to work full-time on changing the world this summer! A big thank you to Google for making this possible.

GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ GNOME 3.6 is getting serious with Initial System Setup

Distributions

=> ↺ Slackware Website is Up and Running Well

=> ↺ Five Best Linux Distributions

• Whether you’re a beginner or you’ve been using Linux systems for years, you probably have an opinion on what the best distribution is. “Best,” is obviously a relative term, and we understand that what’s best for beginners may not be best for advanced users, and so on. Still, Linux distributions come in all different shapes, sizes, complexities, styles, and types. We asked you which ones you preferred, and now we’re back to take a look at the top five distros based on your nominations.

=> ↺ Chakra Archimedes-2012.04 review

• Chakra Archimedes-2012.04, the second iteration of the latest stable edition of Chakra, a desktop Linux distribution forked from Arch Linux, was released just this week. April 16 to be exact.

=> ↺ Reports of Slackware’s death way premature

• Concerns about the apparent health of Slackware Linux were eased after the community Linux distribution’s web site was back up and running, after several days of being dark.

• The site’s unexpected unavailability led to lengthy and at times heated discussions about the overall life expectancy of the project on both LinuxQuestions.org and DistroWatch.

• The focus quickly shifted from the problems with the website to worries that Slackware itself was experiencing financial problems, when top Slackware contributor Eric Hameleers responded early in the LinuxQuestions thread with a brief “Old hardware, lack of funds…” statement.

New Releases

=> ↺ Swift 0.2.0

=> ↺ Macpup 528

=> ↺ Untangle 9.2.1

=> ↺ “Super duper program update release” of Parted Magic

=> ↺ Announcement: RapidDisk (rxdsk) 2.2b Stable release

• I just release RapidDisk 2.2b which can now be pulled from the rxdsk-2.x git repo. Also the tarball has been added to the Sourceforge project page.

=> ↺ Snowlinux 2 Has Been Officially Released

• Lars Torben Kremer proudly announced this weekend, on April 21st, the immediate availability for download of the final version of the Snowlinux 2 operating system.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ Open Source: Mageia 2 (Cauldron) Looking Good

• If you have not been following the saga of the Mageia Linux distribution then you are unaware that Mageia 2 is slated to be released on May 15th. At this point the distribution is in Beta 3 testing and then will have a Release Candidate out right around May 2nd.

=> ↺ Mageia 2 Beta 3 – A Preview

• Another Linux distribution with an upcoming release I have been looking forward to made a Beta release. Mageia Linux 2 is on a fast track now, with the final Beta released a few days ago, the Release Candidate due in less than two weeks, and the final release due two weeks after that.

=> ↺ PCLinuxOS 2012 KDE Review

• Again PCLinuxOS delivers a release of impeccable quality in the face of a community that demands the highest standards. This distribution is becoming increasingly user-friendly, and the features continue to mount up.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ What’s the Deal With Red Hat?

• Software giant Red Hat(RHT), a leader in open source technologies as well as cloud computing has now become one of these names that have placed me in the predicament of trying to justify its lofty valuation to potential investors. I’m not going to pretend that this a “rock and hard place” type of situation, but how do you rationalize taking a position in a stock sporting a P/E of 80 after it has already gained 50% on the year? It gets even more remarkable when you consider that a competitor such as VMware(VMW), which by many standards already qualifies as expensive but trades at a multiple that is 14 points less

Fedora

=> ↺ Stop wasting time and money, make the Fedora 18 release name “Fedora 18″

• Calling all Fedora users and developers. Please visit the official poll to choose the future of Fedora release names.

=> ↺ Fedora 17 + Xfce 4.10

• We are restarting the monthly LUG meetings and I planned to deliver a presentation about the imminent GIMP 2.8 release (there is a lot of disinformation about it). But since GIMP 2.8 RC1 cannot be installed on older Fedora releases due to missing dependencies, I had to move with the times and upgrade the OS on the netbook. Following are my candid impressions, as a person who skipped the last two Fedora releases, so part of it may be really old and known.

=> ↺ Fedora 18 Might Be A Frankfurter Or Spherical Cow

• After Red Hat Legal caused a delay in the Fedora 18 code-naming process, the list of possible code-names for this “Beefy Miracle” successor have been narrowed down to eight. As expected by now, all of the names are quite peculiar and the Fedora board is trying to decide whether to even continue this code-naming process.

=> ↺ Beefy Miracle Beta Review

• Well this Thursday I made my mind to install beta release of f-17. I had to make a boot able usb because my dvd drive gave up long back. So I used livecd-tools to make bootable usb. I started installing, it was going smoothly but suddenly I got notification for access Network for installing repo .. bad ah because you screwed :). Later found out there was bug in livecd-tools :(, even fedora wiki was not updated about use of livecd-tools that time (Now updated, thanks to FranciscoD). Well I install fedora in my office laptop VM, made again usb bootable with correct steps and finally able to Install.

Debian Family

=> ↺ People behind Debian: Samuel Thibault, working on accessibility and the Hurd

• Samuel Thibault is a French guy like me, but it took years until we met. He tends to keep a low profile, even though he’s doing lots of good work that deserves to be mentioned.

• He focuses on improving Debian’s accessibility and contributes to the Hurd. Who said he’s a dreamer? Checkout his interview to have some news of Wheezy’s status on those topics.

=> ↺ First look at OpenMediaVault 0.2.5

• Next on my list of open source NAS platforms is OpenMediaVault, a Debian-based project.

=> ↺ Arduino Uno on Debian 6 Squeeze Stable (2012-2014)

• I recently received an Arduino Uno board as a gift and I needed to run the Arduino software on my Debian 6 + KDE machine in order to interact with this little beast. This should work on other desktops as well, such as Gnome or XFCE.

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ History of Ubuntu: Revisited & Updated

• Ubuntu has touched the lives of many among us in different ways. I can’t speak for everyone here and hence I will share a few of my experiences with Ubuntu. For me, Ubuntu was the gateway to Linux and the whole open source way of thinking. Ubuntu taught me that computers are not all about Windows OS and that there are far better alternatives than the “default” Windows desktop which you have been made to see and learn from a younger age. Lets go back in time and see how Ubuntu evolved over the years to become what it is now – a totally awesome, user friendly and fast changing Linux based distro for human beings.

=> ↺ Running The OMAPDRM On Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

• Besides Ubuntu 12.04 on ARMv7 being much faster, thanks to hard-float and other improvements, the Texas Instruments OMAP DRM driver is also available to provide a KMS experience for some hardware.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.10 Release Schedule Published

• Alpha 1 – 7 June Alpha 2 – 28 June Alpha 3 – 2 August Feature Freeze – 23 August UI Freeze – 30 August Beta 1 – 6 September Beta 2 – 27 September Kernel Freeze – 4 October Ubuntu 12.10 Release – 18 October

=> ↺ Shuttleworth: The Internet Is Changing, Not Dying

• The world is moving increasingly towards environments where consumers and employees download apps from sanitized app stores and use software that is native to the devices on which they run. This is happening as a result of the increasingly important role of mobility in business and consumer life, and the security threats that lurk in the World Wide Web. Not only are app stores becoming more prevalent in both corporate and personal contexts, but companies are using virtualization technology that allows them to serve employees virtual images of software, with the effect that data is isolated from the web, and servers are insulated from unknown intruders. So does the emergence of these closed systems mean the web is losing relevance?

=> ↺ If my mother-in-law can use Ubuntu Linux, anyone can

• One of the great Linux desktop myths is that it’s hard to use. People still think that you need to be some kind of mad computer wizard to use Linux. What nonsense. Desktop Linux has been as easy to use as any of the mainstream desktop operating systems for over a decade. How easy is it? My 79-year old mother-in-law, Hulvia, can use it.

• She arrived a few weeks ago with her Windows laptop, but without her power cord. So, she needed a computer of her own. As I went down to garage/server room/spare computer storage locker, “What the heck, if Jason Perlow’s father-in-law could pick up Ubuntu Linux in 2007 at the age of 71, why not my mother-in-law at 79 in 2012!”

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.10 Named ‘Quantal Quetzal’

=> ↺ Theming update planned for Ubuntu 12.10, codenamed Quantal Quetzal

=> ↺ From Warty WARTHOG To Quantal QUETZAL [Ubuntu Mascots In Pictures]

=> ↺ Quality has a new name

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.10 Gets a Release Date

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin Latest New Features

• The latest Ubuntu 12.04 LTS is going to be released in (28 April 2012), that is less than a week! The latest features of Precise Pangolin are:

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.04 Review: This is the Distro you’re looking for.

• There is a lot riding on Ubuntu 12.04 (aka “Precise Pangolin”) — this is a make or break moment for Ubuntu as a desktop platform.

=> ↺ Unsettings: Ubuntu Unity Desktop Tweaking Tool

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.04 (LTS) Released This Week

• Ubuntu has done great things for the Linux community. Indeed, many of us many not be here if it wasn’t for Ubuntu and it’s newbie-friendly ways. However things have gradually changed over recent years. First the brown colour scheme changed to purple, as it seemed that Ubuntu was adopting a ‘Mac look’ (are the window maximise and minimise controls still in the top left hand corner?). Then last year, the Gnome 2 desktop evironment was dropped and replaced with Unity. Many users struggled with 11.04 as Unity was unstable, and as a result that release was for some (me included) unusable. Hwever it has been reported amongst Hull LUG members that Unity has been improved since its introduction last April, and the stability issues for the most part resolved in the last release in October 2011.

=> ↺ Hey Journalists! Know Your Ubuntu Names

=> ↺ Oscar-Winning Video Editor Demoed on Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 262

=> ↺ Interview with Canonical’s Jono Bacon | Interview

• The Linux world is preparing for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS official release to use and evaluate the next “big” version of the world’s most successful Linux distribution. Much has been said about the last Ubuntu versions and Canonical’s strategies. Many expressed delight with the new technologies introduced lately by Canonical, while others expressed disappointment with some of the changes. This week, we talk to Jono Bacon who is the community manager of Ubuntu, in an attempt to disentangle the thoughts of the linux users community, and understand how a big community is organized and guided the Ubuntu way.

=> ↺ Most Popular Linux Distribution: Ubuntu (and Its Variants)

• Most Popular Linux Distribution: Ubuntu (and Its Variants) There are Linux distributions of all shapes and sizes, with varying levels of complexity and difficulty. Some are super-easy to install, and can be installed like any other OS, with minimal knowledge of the command line—you click “OK” a few times and you’re up and running. Others require you get your hands really dirty with the underpinnings of the system you’re building, making sure it’s just right for your specific needs. So which do you prefer? Well, earlier last week we asked you what you thought the best overall Linux distribution was, understanding that “best” is a relative term. Then we took a look at the top five Linux distros, based on your over-400 nominations, and put them to a vote. Now, we’re back to crown the overall winner.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 12.04 – Jane Silber talks Unity, community and ‘continuous computing’

=> ↺ Getting Help With Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

=> ↺ Next Ubuntu Q to bring font, icon, Quantum Openstack service to Linux

• Ubuntu captain Mark Shuttleworth said the next cycle of Ubuntu releases, code named Quantal Quetzal, will incorporate new font and icon innovations to further dazzle the Linux client as well as the Quantum virtualized networking and possibly a new form factor

=> ↺ Ubuntu Linux Seeing HUGE Demand for OpenStack

=> ↺ Ubuntu Accomplishments: The Road To 0.1

=> ↺ Top things to do after installing Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin

• Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin final is almost out. The final release it scheduled to be out in the 26th of April 2012. After you actually get done with the installation, there would likely exist a heap of things you still need to take care of. This post will share some interesting insight and ideas about what you can and should do after a successful installation.

=> ↺ Canonical To Launch Partner Program

=> ↺ A Sneak Peek at Ubuntu 12.04 ‘Precise Pangolin’

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Pantheon Notify: New Notification Daemon For elementary OS

=> ↺ Kubuntu remains healthy

• While my own interest in KDE is waning presently, that has nothing to do with Kubuntu itself, or what I feel was entirely needless panic by some over its continued status and development. I continue to think Kubuntu will be fine, and I believe being freed of direct Canonical sponsorship may offer tangible benefits for it. With GNOME 2 now essentially gone (there is that Mate fork though), Kubuntu was the only Ubuntu variant remaining that I felt had any serious enterprise desktop potential. In fact, I think it is potentially a more interesting distribution freed of it’s Canonical connection, where it seemed such possibilities were blocked. I also do like that their new sponsor, BlueSystems, which calls NetRunner, itself derived from Kubuntu, a GNU/Linux distribution. Say it loud, say it proud!

• Personally I hope they could eventually merge their work with upstream Debian directly. One advantage Kubuntu offers over Debian KDE presently is that they package and adapt KDE stable releases much quicker. Or maybe thier work could also enable KDE on Trisquel, which I recall converts the Ubuntu foundation into a fully free as in freedom core distribution by removing all non-free parts and offers it with a linux-libre kernel. As a KDE mother distribution, Kubuntu by itself is easy to rebrand to target commercial entities and other kinds of institutions, as well as to provide a base distribution for other projects.

=> ↺ Triple review – Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Linux Mint

=> ↺ LMDE 201204

• I’d like to thank all the people who tested the RC release and sent us feedback. We identified 68 bugs in this release and we’re currently down to 19 bugs left.

=> ↺ Linux Mint Debian 201204 released!

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ News: The E-Pebble, gimmick evolved.

• The device sports an E-Ink display with a resolution of 144 x 168 , Bluetooth 2.1, a teeny-tiny vibrating motor for alerts, and app installation via the dedicated Pebble app store which is accessible on both Android and iOS. It also features a three-axis accelerometer which third party apps will be able to make full use of using the Pebble SDK. This is Allerta’s slimmest device to date and reduces some of the uber-geek stigma which came with its predecessors bulk.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Cisco On Board with SDN, OpenFlow

• Networking giant Cisco Systems has remained an industry leader by understanding and leading industry transitions. One such transition occurring is the emergence of software defined networking (SDN) and the OpenFlow protocol and it’s a transition that Cisco doesn’t plan to miss.

=> ↺ Graduating Apache Rave project demonstrates open innovation in software

=> ↺ Naming names

=> ↺ Design in the FOSS world

• As I told in a previous post, I came with the idea of a panel about design in the FOSS world at the upcoming Libre Graphics Meeting but then chickened-out and resumed to photography stuff, still the panel will happen anyway. I think is a good idea to write-down my thoughts on the matter, since the outcome of the panel is going to be a direct opposite of what I envisioned (that’s what I expect, giving the panelists).

• So, what’s the problems? while proper Free and Open Source Software happens in the bazaar, traditionally design is done the opposite way, in the cathedral, an unavoidable conflict. On top of that, there is also the problem of the designers being primadonas, considering their work dark magic, voodoo, incomprehensive by mere mortals. It doesn’t help a lot of volunteer developers participating in communities have big egos too, as they are doing the work for free, so they expect at least that.

=> ↺ With leaders like these, Free Software will never win

• Those are the things you should tell people first, if you want to spread Free Software. And you should do it in a balanced way, mentioning software as such just en passant. You should explain that problems like those above are tales of stupidity and incompetence that waste mountains of public and private money, at levels where it almost doesn’t matter what the license of the involved software is. Let’s help people to fight software-related wastes and proprietary standards, without caring at all if they do not give back to the “Free SW community”! This will create an environment much more conducive to Free Software than we could ever obtain by continuing to repeat ad nauseam the GNU Manifesto.

=> ↺ The role of critics in FOSS development

• I’ve been thinking a lot over the past couple of years of the role that critics play in the course of free/open source development.

=> ↺ Open source companies create shared value

• The free-market capitalistic definition of companies’ goals was, for a long time, very simple: to make as much profit as possible. With that in mind, the only difference between a success and a failure was the investor’s return on investment. Short-term profit became priority number one. However, this classic definition of capitalism hastransformed the way companies are perceived in the population over time.

=> ↺ Open source teaches people how to fish

=> ↺ Further lessons of closed source software

• Recently I was on the task of getting some scripts together for handling FTP commands to run several time a day to move files around. Unfortunately, the platform that was already in place is a Windows 2008 R2 server. But, being optimistic we moved forward on the project. After digging around we soon found out that the list of options is slim on solutions for doing FTP transfers from scripts on Windows. There are really no known good solutions that are free that offer extensible scripting abilities. We ended up selecting CuteFTP Professional which was purchased by somebody else a few years back so a license was already owned for the software. I’ve used the client for CuteFTP in the past so I felt fairly comfortable with this selection. I also thought about installing Perl for Windows and trying to script something in there, which might still be a viable option.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ First Mozilla Boot to Gecko Devices Launching by Early 2013

• The first devices with Mozilla’s Boot to Gecko OS will arrive in Brazil sometime between the end of 2012 and early 2013.

=> ↺ Firefox 12 What’s New

• You may have noticed that the usual suspects are already reporting that a new stable version of the Mozilla Firefox browser has been released by Mozilla. While it is true that a build has been moved to the release server, we have seen in the past that this version can get replaced in last minute if the build does not pass the company’s quality controls.

=> ↺ Download Firefox 12 Final for Linux

=> ↺ Firefox Puts an End to the Favicon

=> ↺ Former Mozilla President inducted into Internet Hall of Fame

• The same day as Firefox 12 is released, Mozilla Chairperson Mitchell Baker is being inducted into the Internet Hall of Fame

SaaS

=> ↺ Rackspace Cloud (Just) Now Moving to OpenStack

=> ↺ OpenStack Cloud Community Seeks Talent, Cloud Certification

=> ↺ Amazon’s Cloud Software Rental Business Leverages Open Source Apps

=> ↺ OpenStack Cloud Community Seeks Talent, Cloud Certification

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ TDF Releases Getting Started Guide for LibreOffice 3.4

• Getting Started with OpenOffice.org was a handy user guide chocked full of information on the care and feeding of the Open Source office suite. But like the suite itself, it has been superseded by the efforts of The Document Foundation. With updates, rewrites, and the addition of illustrations and images for 3.4, reading up on the popular application is easier than ever.

Healthcare

=> ↺ The power of the 1 and how open innovation changed global health

• It is sometimes said that computer scientists worry about only three numbers: 0, 1, and N, where N tends to get very large. Sometimes such oversimplifications can lead to astonishing insights, such as the one that I had 25 years ago in June of 1987.

• Do you remember 1987? Greed was good, junk bonds were king, and zero was the biggest and most important number on Wall Street. Zero drove all the arbitrage equations, because both sides of the arbitrage are supposed to sum to zero. Arbitrage is a special case of the zero-sum game, a prominent theory promulgated by all respectable business schools of the day. Zero-sum logic made it a moral imperative to ensure that success was not just about winning, but about making sure that everybody else lost. You were not forced to like the terms of the game, but you were damn sure forced to accept them as they only way to play.

=> ↺ Open source medicine puts health above profits

• Open source is powering a revolution in medicine and health care in multiple ways. Open source software and methods make large-scale collaborative research projects feasible, multiplying the brainpower applied to a project, expanding the data pool, and creating transparency and accountability. This is a huge win for the advancement of new treatments and cures, and cutting the costs of research. Open source practice and records software cut the costs of running medical practices, and puts practitioners in charge instead of software vendors.

BSD

=> ↺ Devil Live twins of OpenBSD: the project is kicking

=> ↺ FreeBSD Gets A New X.Org With Intel KMS

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ Another Hatchet Job From Michael Larabel

• Here’s my wishlist. I think there is plenty of good software in FLOSS so it is not a high priority to create more unless someone has the urge. I think the highest priority of the Free Software movement should be to educate people about Free Software.

Project Releases

=> ↺ NGINX Version 1.2.0 Released

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Sarkozy: Administration open source spending grows 30 percent annually

• French president Nicolas Sarkozy says that 15 percent of the IT budgets of the country’s public administrations is spent on purchasing services on free and open source software and that this amount is growing by 30 percent per year, reports CNLL (Conseil National du Logiciel Libre), a trade group representing IT companies providing free and open source software services. Sarkozy told the group that free software is “strategic for the development of France’s digital sector.”

Openness/Sharing

Open Data

=> ↺ Open data takes a ride with Geeks on DaBus

Programming

=> ↺ OpenStack Cloud Community Seeks Talent, Cloud Certification

=> ↺ Face Detection with Android APIs

=> ↺ The Most Interesting GSoC 2012 Projects

=> ↺ C development on Linux – Building a program – X.

=> ↺ Python modules you should know: Scrapy

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Lib-Ray Video Standard: Assembling the Matroska MKV container file with mkvtoolnix-gtk

Leftovers

=> ↺ Is Sierra Leone, without Internet and Free Software, just a knowledge landfill?

• I asked to see the library and found there mostly old Windows books, clearly “decommissioned”: technologically old, useless books. Can it be that, even when it comes to books (and, by extension, knowledge), underdeveloped African countries are just a landfill for the Global North?

=> ↺ Review: Kooky, Humble Bundle’s First Movie

=> ↺ Mind-sets in Software

• My latest career was teaching and it was natural to use IT to collect and analyze data on the performance of students but also to use IT for teaching and later to teach students how to do IT for their lives. Before I used GNU/Linux I owned a variety of PCs, some home-built but I used DOS and Lose 3.1 on them. After a few years I was using Lose ’95 in a classroom and the damned machines were frequently crashing, just like Bill Gates’ experience (He laughed. I didn’t.). I switched to Caldera GNU/Linux and was suddenly and dramatically free of crashes.

=> ↺ Generation @ – inspired by @smarimc

• I think Smári McCarthy, a fellow transnational citizen, Uberhacker and admired activist, touched a special nerve when he recently twittered:

=> ↺ Report: The alternative OS, my top 5

Security

=> ↺ Myths and Market Share and Malware

=> ↺ Spurring more vulnerability research through increased rewards

=> ↺ When You Should Disable Root Login…Or Not

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ Emerging Forces in Global Oil Consumption: The Middle East and Africa

• Over the past decade, Asia’s transition to the leadership position in global oil consumption is well known. Starting in 2002, OECD countries slowed their consumption growth for oil and subsequent to 2005 actually saw their consumption decline. This process freed up limited oil supplies to Asia, which now accounts for 31% of total global oil use, as of the latest data. | see: Regional Share of Total Global Oil Consumption (as of Q4 2011).

Finance

=> ↺ From Financial Crisis to Stagnation: An Interview with Thomas Palley

=> ↺ Goldman Sachs under pressure to reveal lobby ties

• The Needmor Fund, a small foundation based in Toledo, Ohio, wants Goldman Sachs to lift the veil on its lobbying activities and the advocacy groups it backs financially.

=> ↺ Music Stops for Wall Street Bankers

• Amid new regulation, lower profits and a dreary market for mergers and acquisitions, several banks are planning to trim investment-banking units that were built for an era of deals aplenty.

• Having already slashed bonuses, banks including Citigroup Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley are preparing to cut dozens of jobs, including some held by senior bankers, according to people familiar with the matter. As they pursue this targeted round of trims as soon as next month, they and rivals are also revisiting profit expectations for their advisory businesses, people familiar with the matter said.

Intellectual Monopolies

Trademarks

=> ↺ Apple doesn’t own iPad trademark, says Chinese official

• A Chinese official said on Tuesday that Apple does not have ownership of the iPad trademark in China, signaling that authorities could be favoring local company Proview in its battle with the U.S. tech giant over rights to the iconic brand name.

• Fu Shuangjian, the vice minister of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), made the comment as Apple faces an ongoing court battle with Proview for ownership of the iPad trademark.

=> ↺ China backs Proview in Apple iPad trademark war

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