This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2012/10/13/new-zenwalk/.

● 10.13.12

● Links 13/10/2012: Stallman on Canonical, New Zenwalk

Posted in News Roundup at 6:06 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ The Linux Labs – how it was done

• Earlier this year we launched an appeal. We wanted you to help us with our Linux Labs. We didn’t want you to answer a few multiple choice questions; we didn’t want plain numbers. We wanted you to help us write the reviews themselves.

• So, via the medium of The big PC Pro Linux Labs wiki, hosted by our friends over at Memset, we set about building a collaborative Labs of the likes never seen before in the pages of the magazine.

=> ↺ TLWIR 46: Limerick Loves LibreOffice

=> ↺ We Invite You to Share the World’s Most Inspiring Linux Stories

• Linux inspires. It is enabling nearly every technology innovation of the 21st century and is supporting the growth of numerous industries from mobile to the cloud. And, its reach goes far beyond these markets to also enable scientific discovery, smart cities, new companies and young students.

Desktop

=> ↺ A California School District Is the Latest to Adopt Chromebooks

• Slowly but surely, Google is getting traction for Chromebooks–portable computers running the Chrome OS operating system–in schools. In the latest example of a school system standardizing on Chromebooks, California’s Milpitas Unified School District has put Chromebooks in the hands of more than 1,000 students. It’s only the latest example of Google’s global efforts to woo schools and educators over to its concept of cloud computing and what a modern operating system should do.

=> ↺ Chromebooks allow students to navigate online learning

=> ↺ Windows 8 vs Ubuntu: battle of the operating systems

• When Windows 8 is released on 26 October, it will be the third straight time a major Windows version is launched close to the release of arguably the world’s most popular Linux distro – Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Samsung Series 5 550 Chromebook: Day one

• After a full day of using the latest Chromebook from Samsung it’s clear the Chrome OS has evolved to be a powerful platform. It handles my work so perfectly it is like an OS made just for me.

Server

=> ↺ Video: Puppet Labs – Making System Administrators More Productive

=> ↺ SAP HANA Comes to Cisco and HP

• SAP HANA runs on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server and is a core component of SAP’s overall application delivery approach. It’s an approach that the big server vendors want to enhance with their own respective hardware offerings.

=> ↺ Here Comes Parallella : A $99 Open Supercomputer For Everyone

• Adapteva, a semi-condutor startup company has announced a credit card sized, open $99 supercomputer that everyone can use. The board is expected to have over 50 times more power than its counterparts like Raspberry Pi. This is achieved by Adapteva’s 16-core and 64-core Epiphany microprocessor chips that lead the world in processor energy efficiency.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux Kernel Support For The Loongson-3

• Lemote has published new Linux kernel patches for enabling the Loongson-3 processor support plus Loongson-3 based systems.

• The Loongson-3, which is codenamed Goson-3, is a quad-core MIPS64-compatible CPU that runs at around 1.0GHz. The Loongson-3 is manufactured on a 65nm process and has a sub-15 Watt TDP. Eight and sixteen core versions of the Loongson-3 are also expected to be released in the future.

=> ↺ Linux 3.6 Debuts with 5 Major Advances

• Late last month Linux creator Linus Torvalds had been considering publishing an eighth release candidate of the Linux 3.6 kernel, but on Sunday Torvalds decided to skip that step and launch the final version instead.

=> ↺ One Kernel Can Now Handle Multiple ARM Platforms

=> ↺ Intel SMAP Comes To Try To Better Secure Linux

• The Supervisor Mode Access Prevention feature is an instruction set extension whereby the kernel cannot access pages that are user-space. However, when the need comes about for the kernel to access a user-space page, an override is available. This work from Intel was originally published last month and has now been merged into the mainline kernel for Linux 3.7.

=> ↺ 30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: Jiri Slaby

• Welcome to week 16 in our 30-week series that profiles the world’s leading Linux kernel developers. This week we talk to Jiří Slabý, a young developer who tells us why he likes working on the Linux kernel: “Because no one can really understand the kernel fully. It is a constantly changing ecosystem and one still has to learn something new. And, it is also the people. They taught me real programming.”

=> ↺ Linux on ARM breakthrough to take away Torvalds’ arse pain

• A single Linux kernel build that can run on various ARM-powered kit from competing manufacturers has come closer to reality, much to Linus Torvalds’ relief.

=> ↺ Fluendo Advances Multimedia for Linux

• The Linux Foundation in March announced that Fluendo was becoming a member. The company has been at the forefront of building legal multimedia solutions for open environments and works very closely with the Gstreamer community. In this exclusive Q&A with Fluendo’s VP of Business Development Michael Pizzoli we get to learn more about the company’s work and perspective on the Linux desktop, embedded Linux and infotainment for cars.

=> ↺ AMD Turbo Core Performance Under Linux

• As the latest AMD A10-5800K Trinity APU benchmarks under Linux, here’s a quick look at the impact that Turbo Core Technology has under Linux.

• AMD Turbo Core is the technology that’s been around for about two years going back to the AMD Phenom II CPUs that automatically shift the CPU frequency to a higher state when greater performance is desirable. Similar to Intel’s Turbo Boost, it’s basically the reverse of Cool ‘n’ Quiet and Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology.

=> ↺ Xen For ARM Is Set For The Linux 3.7 Kernel

=> ↺ ARM64/AArch64 Support Going Into Linux 3.7 Kernel

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds Compares Hard Disks to Satan

• In a chat with tech lovers at Slashdot on Thursday, Torvalds compared the hard drive to Satan. Yes, Satan — as in “Get thee behind me, Satan.”

=> ↺ Linus Torvalds interviewed by Slashdot readers

• Slashdot, the 15-year old popular technology discussion site, recently had their readers come up with a list of their top questions to ask Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator. The results were interesting.

• For example, the first question presumed that Torvalds was anti-patent and copyright. Eh… no, he’s never really been either. As Torvalds explained, “I like copyrights, and even on patents I’m not necessarily in the ‘Patents are completely evil. camp. When I rant about patents or copyrights, I rant against the excesses and the bad policies, not about them existing in the first place.”

=> ↺ 64-bit ARM support merged into Linux kernel

=> ↺ Yocto-Compliant Enea Linux Reaches Version 2.0

• The past year or so has seen a number of new technologies emerge based on The Linux Foundation’s Yocto Project, including several that have gone on to be certified as officially Yocto-compatible through the project’s new Compliance Program.

=> ↺ Linaro Introduces “Boottime” For Linux Kernel

• Up to this point if you have wanted to monitor the start-up/boot performance of a Linux system, namely how long it takes the Linux kernel to boot, you have had to use an independent utility like Bootchart. Now with work done by the Linaro project, there is an in-kernel measurement capabilities via a new “Boottime” patch.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ The DRM Graphics Pull Goes In For Linux 3.7 Kernel

• Part 1 of the Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) pull for the Linux 3.7 kernel was merged this morning.

=> ↺ Wayland prototype for rendering software that runs remotely

• Wayland chief developer Kristian Høgsberg has presented an extension for the Weston compositor for Wayland that allows a local version of Weston to display individual windows of a Weston instance that is running on another system. Within the Wayland display server architecture, such tasks are handled by the compositor, which functions as a display server because Wayland itself offers no rendering API and mainly focuses on bitmap rendering features. Therefore, the remote display solution for Weston doesn’t require any remote drawing commands to be transferred through the network; instead, the system transmits complete images together with any updated image areas, and the local Weston simply displays them.

=> ↺ AMD Catalyst 12.9 Beta Linux Driver Released

• AMD has released a beta proprietary Linux driver for Catalyst 12.9.

=> ↺ wlterm: the native Wayland terminal emulator

=> ↺ ATI Rage Driver With EXA Support Released

Applications

=> ↺ PowerTOP Finds Power Hogs on Your Linux PC

=> ↺ Best Free Linux Cad Software & Their Features

• Forget about Windows, the Linux OS provides amazing opportunities for creativity when it comes to computer aided designs applications and implementations. But, as a designer trying to experiment with ideas or striving to come out with a unique result, you are tempted to try out free CAD software which you can easily download and start making use of. But there are many of this software all over the places, many of which are not very easy to understand. To make things easier for you, here are six of the very best free CAD programs that are Linux based.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ Building a Private Cloud with Open Source Ganeti: Pros and Cons

=> ↺ Y PPA Manager – Manage your PPAs efficiently in Ubuntu

=> ↺ Virtualization With KVM On A Fedora 17 Server

=> ↺ Virtualization With KVM On A Fedora 17 Server

=> ↺ How to Reset Unity in Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal

=> ↺ How to Installing CMS Joomla 3.0 on Ubuntu Server 12.04

=> ↺ How To Make Movies in Linux With OpenShot

=> ↺ Basics of GCC compilation process

=> ↺ Ubuntu – WUBI Installs vs Virtual Box

=> ↺ Virtual Hosting With vsftpd And MySQL On Ubuntu 12.04

=> ↺ Virtual Hosting With vsftpd And MySQL On Ubuntu 12.04

=> ↺ Install additional drivers in Ubuntu 12.10

=> ↺ Neo4j 1.8 adds creation to Cypher query language

=> ↺ How to Make Your Boss Angry — Bad Linux Sysadmin Practices

• “You’re fired!” yells a red-headed, more or less bald guy in a suit. You’ll probably recognize this from any of a dozen comedy series. Would you like to play the role of the employee in such a scene, in real life? If you happen to be a Linux sysadmin, it’s your lucky day! We’ve got just the right tips for you. Read on for a comprehensive list of ways to make your boss hit the roof and bounce back again.

Wine

=> ↺ Wine 1.5.15 Now Fully Supports Layered Windows

• A new update is available for Wine and this time, it will fully support layered windows. This update also fixes over 86 bugs and comes with a new version of Gecko engine compatible with Firefox 16.

Games

=> ↺ 3D Space Combat Game ‘Salvation Prophecy’ Coming to Linux

• Salvation Prophecy is a space combat and exploration game where Human, mutant, and robotic factions are at war for galactic domination.

=> ↺ FTL: Faster Than Light Review (PC/Mac/Linux)

• “So what’s this FTL game you guys have been raving about?” I asked my friend, attempting a more gentle phrasing of “what’s this thing you won’t shut up about?”

=> ↺ An Attempt To Push Ubuntu As A Gaming Platform

• At the Ubuntu Developer Summit later this month in Copenhagen, a number of gaming-related development sessions are scheduled as Ubuntu developers try to push their Linux distribution as a first-rate gaming platform.

=> ↺ Kickstarters Dangling the Linux Carrot

• Linux gaming is seeing some much needed attention of late, and a lot of this seems to come from Kickstarter projects. There are some trends however that raise a few questions for me, and perhaps a gripe or two.

Desktop Environments

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Update to Trinity KDE 3.5 fork brings improvements

• Trinity, the fork of the classic version of the KDE desktop which appeared in wake of the backlash against KDE 4.0, is still being developed and, after a year of work, a new stable release, version 3.5.13.1, of the desktop environment is now available. Trinity is a fork that continues development of the old 3.x branch of the KDE desktop and which has been enhanced with additional features but is also designed to be both compatible with newer hardware and responsive on older systems.

=> ↺ 2012 Randa Report

• In September, several teams met in Randa, Switzerland for the fourth such Sprint Intensive. As expected, there was substantial progress as the teams worked on their individual projects and across projects. The work done at the Randa meetings involves both future-oriented discussions and detailed bug fixing and coding, all done ultimately to delight KDE users.

• Each of the project teams—Accessibility (a11y), Plasma, KDE Edu and Multimedia—have provided a synopsis of their accomplishments below. The actual results of their work will appear in future versions of KDE software.

=> ↺ KDE Plasma, Applications and Platform 4.9.2

• Packages for the release of KDE SC 4.9.2 are available for Kubuntu 12.04.1 LTS releases. You can get them from the Kubuntu Backports PPA. They are also in our 12.10 development release.

=> ↺ KDE celebrates 59 successful Summer of Code projects

• The KDE project has announced the outcome of its participation as a mentoring organisation in the Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2012. According to the announcement, KDE was the biggest participating organisation in the event and 59 out of the 60 different projects it mentored were successful. Under the project’s stewardship, students worked on a diverse range of KDE sub-projects from core libraries to entertainment and multimedia applications.

GNOME Desktop

=> ↺ New versions of GTK+, GLib and Clutter

• Theming support for CSS animations and blur shadows are just two of the new features in the recently released GTK+ 3.6. Also new are the GtkMenuButton widget, which generates a button for a pop-up menu, GtkSearchEntry, an entry field with added “search” icon and “clear” button, and GtkLevelBar, which can be used to display Wi-Fi signal strengths or other levels.

Distributions

=> ↺ Which Distros Would Obama and Romney Use?

• With fewer than 30 days remaining until the U.S. presidential election, it’s become more or less impossible to hear ourselves think here in the Linux blogosphere, so loud is the din emanating from the land of stars and stripes.

• Of course, misery loves company, as the old saying goes, which probably explains why there’s nary an unoccupied barstool to be found lately in any of the blogosphere’s many bars and saloons.

=> ↺ LIF by numbers

• A couple of days ago I wrote my impressions after the Linux Install Fest, but didn’t have exact numbers to back my impressions. Now the organizers published the stats, I can see the numbers and play with them.

=> ↺ CAINE 3.0 Screenshots

=> ↺ SimpleWelcome gets a new look, and goes social

• The second alpha version of what will become ROSA Desktop 2012 was released yesterday. It is a showcase of the very bright future ahead for this Russian distribution.

=> ↺ Zenwalk 7.2 has been launched

• We are happy to release Zenwalk 7.2. After several months of rescheduling we think it’s time to let this new jet fly. Zenwalk 7.2 is loyal to it’s design : providing 1 application per task, everything needed to work / play / code / create, in a single 700MB ISO image, through a 10 minutes automatic install process on any recent computer. Zenwalk is aimed to be really fast in the club of “modern desktop” Linux systems, due to many optimizations at different levels : kernel, applications, desktop. The challenge that we faced, and made them delay the 7.2 release date, was to achieve 100% Slackware Linux compatibility while keeping most of the optimizations that were introduced during the last years of development, started in 2004. Zenwalk 7.2 runs on kernel 3.4.8 with BFS scheduler. The Zenwalk desktop is based on the XFCE 4.10 / GTK 2.24.10/3.4.4 team, with unique look and feel and perfect ergonomic integration of the application set : Libreoffice 3.6.2, Firefox/Thunderbird 15.0.1, Gimp 2.8.2 and much more… The Netpkg package manager has been improved with multiple mirrors support and better performance.

=> ↺ Qubes 1.0 Review – Absolute Security

• Don’t you trust the websites you’re visiting? Thanks to Qubes, you can visit them in disposable virtual machines and isolate many other applications from each other

New Releases

=> ↺ Parted Magic 2012_10_10

=> ↺ Blender 2.64 improves green screen and compositing

=> ↺ Snowlinux 3.1 Has Been Officially Released

• Lars Torben Kremer proudly announced yesterday, October 10th, the immediate availability for download of the stable release of the Snowlinux 3.1 operating system.

=> ↺ Zenwalk 7.2, Now Compatible with Slackware

• Zenwalk Linux 7.2 was released today with “many optimizations at different levels.” Zenwalk is based on Slackware Linux, but aims to be faster, easier, and smaller. It’s been a long time coming, but Jean-Philippe Guillemin says they’ve finally achieved 100% compatibility with Slackware.

=> ↺ Tiny Core Linux: A Barebone Linux Distro That Boots Very Fast

• Lightweight Linux distro usually comes in the file size ranging from 20MB to 50MB and they are best suited to use on a old computer. Recently, I come across this tiny Linux distro that weighs only 12MB and it boots up really fast. I am referring to Tiny Core Linux.

=> ↺ Absolute Linux 14.0 – Still Needs Refinement

• As expected Absolute Linux 14.0 is not radically different from 13.1, details of which you can read here. Besides the usual package updates that Slackware itself has undergone as well there isn’t a lot to tell on the surface. Underneath Slackware is now using kmod to load modules but that is pretty irrelevant to the desktop user experience. Absolute is still centered around IceWM which is why it was tailored in the first place but also offers Fluxbox as another light weight alternative. It is still 32-bit for the i686 architecture only, in keeping with its target market of older but not too old PC’s, i.e. no 486 processors any longer. It is fully compatible with SlackBuilds and Slackware repositories. Like other derivatives it also still uses a slightly modified version of that old ncurses installer, only in gray.

PCLinuxOS/Mageia/Mandrake/Mandriva Family

=> ↺ A few thoughts on cloud computing

• The problem with cloud computing is it creates situations that were unknown before and therefore new, unforeseen problems may arise. We at Mandriva have been thinking for quite a while about this, and we feel we owe our customers and the market in general a few clear and simple answers on our vision of what cloud computing should be :

• • It should work well : if you can’t make it work and provide the right, efficient service to your customers then it’s not worth it.

• • It should be open : your data should not go into a black box, and more often than not, the cloud stack should be based on standards.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat Enterprise MRG 2.2 brings Deltacloud support

=> ↺ Red Hat Delivers New Beta Version 5.9 of RHEL

=> ↺ JBoss seeks new name for community edition

• Red Hat is seeking a new name for its JBoss Application Server project (JBossAS). This is the upstream project that Red Hat uses as the foundation for its commercial product JBoss Enterprise Application Platform. “We believe that the time has come to change the name of our project to better reflect the changes we’ve seen in its reason for existence so far, but also for what’s to come in the future,” said JBoss technical leader Mark Little.

=> ↺ Red Hat announces six appointments across Asia Pacific

• Red Hat, Inc. has recently announced six key appointments across the Asia Pacific in line with its expansion in the region.

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora is retiring Smolt hardware census

Debian Family

=> ↺ Debian Project News – October 1st, 2012

Derivatives

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Unity 6.6 arrives, is headed for Ubuntu 12.10

• Canonical’s Unity desktop has been updated to version 6.6 and includes several improvements in the functionality of its lenses as well as better windows and work space management. While the current beta of Ubuntu 12.10 “Quantal Quetzal” is shipping with Unity 6.4, the second beta, which is supposed to arrive on 27 September, is expected to include the new version of the desktop environment.

=> ↺ Intel Atom D525: Ubuntu 10.10 To 12.10

=> ↺ The Quantal Quetzal takes flight

=> ↺ Here Comes The Unity Unzipper Lens

• We deal with archives and compressed files everyday. As most open-source projects are distributed in some sort of archive format, users need an unzip utility installed in their computer. The good news is a developer has created a Unity lens that allows you to view the contents of an archive right from the Unity dash.

=> ↺ Further Online Dash Clarifications

• Recently there has been some concerns in our community about the online dash search feature, and these concerns have been orientated around the privacy of your data, the legal requirements for how this data is handled, and the effectiveness of the search.

=> ↺ Mac users get Ubuntu One beta as partial iCloud rival

=> ↺ Searching in the Dash in Ubuntu 12.10 – an Update

=> ↺ Monetising Ubuntu

• Ubuntu is one of if not the most popular Linux-based operating systems aimed at the desktop market. Ubuntu’s development is primarily sponsored by Canonical, a UK-based company founded by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth funded the launch of both Canonical and Ubuntu from his personal fortune, raised from the sale of his company Thawte Consulting to VeriSign in 1999. Since then, he’s continued to provide financial support for the project, and retained his position as the project’s “Self-Appointed Benevolent Dictator For Life“.

=> ↺ Ubuntu To Consider Ridding GNOME Fallback Code

• Later this month in Copenhagen at the developer summit for Ubuntu 13.04, getting rid of the GNOME fallback code is a likely discussion item.

• The Ubuntu Unity desktop currently relies upon the GNOME 3′s “fallback” code for items like the Bluetooth indicator, Keyboard indicator, and the GNOME fallback session code is also used for dealing with disk mounting in Unity.

=> ↺ 10 Things To Do After Installing Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal

=> ↺ Hello Planet Ubuntu, the Hundred Papercuts project needs your help

=> ↺ Preview Of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS vs. Ubuntu 12.10 Performance

• When Ubuntu 12.10 “Quantal Quetzal” is officially released there will be more Ubuntu 12.10 performance figures to publish beyond what’s already been benchmarked. In this article are a preview of some Intel performance figures comparing an updated Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS installation to Ubuntu 12.10 with its near-final packages as of this week.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Add Legal Disclaimer to Unity Dash

=> ↺ Ubuntu to allow users to decide where donations go

• LINUX DISTRIBUTION Ubuntu has introduced a donation method in which money can be given to specific parts of the project.

• Canonical, which is Ubuntu’s primary sponsor, has been looking to make money out of the operating system by offering support contracts to large businesses, however the project still gently reminds users that it could do with a bit of extra cash to keep the lights on. Ubuntu’s website now has a form in which donations can be directed to specific branches of the project, providing some level of control over how donations are spent.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Download Now Comes With Optional Donation Selection Page, Give It Money

=> ↺ Richard Stallman: Canonical will be forced to hand over data to various governments

• I have exchanged e-mails and been having chats with people about the new Amazon Product Results in the Ubuntu 12.10 Unity Dash one of those people I reached out to was Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation a visionary who I have much respect for after all he pioneered much of the foundation and principles that guide much of the Open Source Community.

=> ↺ Canonical Will Be Forced To Hand Over Data To Various Governments, Richard Stallman

=> ↺ Ubuntu Multi-Monitor Tweaks (Full Screen Flash Fixes, Span Wallpaper Across Monitors, More)

• Ubuntu (with Compiz/Unity) lets you move a window to a specific virtual desktop using keyboard shortcuts, but by default, this doesn’t work if you want to move a window to a specific monitor.

=> ↺ Early Boot Speed Results For Ubuntu 12.10

• Here’s an early look at some Bootchart numbers for two systems running Ubuntu 12.10 development snapshots compared to earlier releases.

=> ↺ Amazon Lens Privacy Issue Taken ‘Very Seriously’ Inside Canonical, Jono Bacon

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Texas Instruments wants to ditch smartphones, switch focus to embedded processors

=> ↺ Linux-Based Servergy Advances Data Center Efficiency

• Energy efficiency has been a hot topic in the cloud computing world recently following the publication of a New York Times story last weekend entitled, “Power, Pollution and the Internet.”

=> ↺ SmartSim: GPL-ed digital logic circuit design and simulation package for Linux and Raspberry Pi

• If the name is new to you, SmartSim is a digital logic circuit design and simulation package that lets you “create your own custom components and including them in other circuits, as if they were any other built-in component. These larger circuits can then also be included in other designs as sub-components.”

=> ↺ Raspberry Pi: Broadcom teaches kids coding in an hour

• This week, the network and communications giant gave the popular Linux computer to middle-school students — most with no background in programming, understandably — and taught them how to program.

=> ↺ So You Want to Be an Embedded Linux Developer

• Android smartphones and tablets represent only the most visible part of a larger embedded Linux ecosystem that extends throughout industries like consumer electronics, telecom, manufacturing, and transportation. As device requirements call for more intelligence and networking savvy, Linux has become the oft-hidden secret sauce in everything from set-top boxes to home automation systems to rugged field handhelds.

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Google, LG to debut Android 4.2 next month, report says

=> ↺ This Giant Cluster Simulates 300,000 Androids to Check They Play Nice

=> ↺ Parrot adds three more Android-powered Asteroids to its belt

• Parrot releases the details surrounding the upcoming Asteroid Smart, Tablet, and Mini: three car stereos based on the popular Android operating system.

=> ↺ ROM Toolbox Pro’s Pretty Nifty for Rooting Around in Your Phone

=> ↺ Microsoft Office coming to Android and Apple devices in early 2013

• A Microsoft executive let slip in the Czech Republic that the long-rumored Microsoft Office for Android smartphones and tablets and Apple iPad and iPhones will be arriving in early 2013. Microsoft now denies that their executive was speaking accurately.

=> ↺ Smartphone shipment to reach 1.7B in 2017

• Worldwide smartphone shipment will reach 1.7 billion units in 2017, driven by growth from emerging markets especially China.

• In a statement Monday, analyst firm Ovum said emerging markets last year accounted for 160 million of 450 million smartphones sold worldwide. China accounted for about 66 percent of smartphones sold in developing markets, it added.

=> ↺ Motorola not developing Webtop on future devices

• Motorola has confirmed that its Webtop technology is no longer going to be included in future Android-based smartphones. An official announcement from the hardware maker advises that even though there was a good level of interest and community support, the ends do not justify the means. To that end, Motorola will cease developing handsets with Webtop capability.

=> ↺ Android-based Nikon S800C now shipping

=> ↺ This $50 Stick Turns Any HDTV Into an Android-Powered Smart TV

=> ↺ CyanogenMod resurrects OTA updates for latest CM10 nightly builds

• CyanogenMod ROMs give Android users the latest Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean treats to their otherwise-neglected smartphones, and it’s mostly open-source except for one piece: the boarded-off ROM Manager.

=> ↺ Clash Of The Titans: Samsung Galaxy S3 vs iPhone5 vs Galaxy S3 Mini

• Both Samsung Galaxy S3 Mini and Apple iPhone5 features 4-inch screen, contrary to the 4.8-inch one of the S III. While iPhone5 comes with 4 inch IPS LCD and has Apple’s very own retina display, on the other hand Samsung Galaxy S3 and Galaxy S3 Mini features Super Amoled technology. Apple iPhone5 comes with a pixel density of 326ppi whereas Galaxy S3 Mini and Galaxy S3 has got 223ppi and 306ppi respectively. Samsung Galaxy S3 has upped the bar larger screen resolution of 720 x 1280 pixels over iPhone5 which has 1136 x 640 pixels. While little brother Galaxy Mini has 480 x 800 pixel screen resolution.

=> ↺ Apple vs. Google is the Most Important Battle in Tech

• In the 1990s, Microsoft Internet Explorer battled Netscape Navigator in the great Web browser wars. In the 2000s, Google and Yahoo locked horns over Internet search — and we know how that turned out. Today, the latest high-stakes tech conflict is between Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android mobile operating system for supremacy in the smart phone market.

• Each of these clashes defined an era of Internet history. Apple vs. Android is no different. Everyone agrees that the struggle for Internet advantage is shifting to the mobile realm, and iPhone and Android have surged to the front of the pack with diametrically opposed business models. Neither of these players will be vanquished anytime soon — these battles take years to play out — but the company that gains the upper-hand will be best-positioned to take advantage of the massive structural shift from desktop PCs to smart phones and tablets.

=> ↺ New DROID RAZR Smartphones Available Oct. 18

=> ↺ Google posts Android 4.1.2 factory images for Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus

• Google released factory images for Android 4.1 Jelly Bean about a month after announcing the mobile operating system during its developer conference in June. But the Mountain View, Calif.-based corporation only waited two days after releasing the Android 4.1.2 update to post Google Nexus 7 and Galaxy Nexus factory images.

Sub-notebooks/Tablets

=> ↺ Nook HD Tablets Take On Fire HD, Go Where Amazon Can’t: Walmart

=> ↺ Best Buy’s Insignia brand Moving into Android Tablets

• Best Buy’s Insignia brand is moving into Android Tablets. They have put a teaser and a pic of the new Tablet, the Insignia Flex, on their Facebook page, with a release date of a month from now.

=> ↺ HTC bids farewell to tablets in United States

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ mod_pagespeed Out Of Beta, Helps Developers Boost Page Speed Significantly

• When it comes to developing a complete website, page speed is one of the key factors to make a site successful. For this reason, Google, along with a community of developers had created a new Apache module called mod_pagespeed back in 2010. The good news is, this module is now out of beta and can be used in enterprise and business environments.

=> ↺ Google’s Latest Web Speedup Strategy Aims at Apache

=> ↺ There Must Be 50 Ways To Profit From FLOSS

• The old school types constantly complain that FLOSS and */Linux cannot possibly succeed because there’s no profit to be made selling software licences. That argument is irrational because it assumes selling licence is the only way to make money from software.

• I have made part of my living just using FLOSS. That’s huge. There are lots of businesses making money other ways:

• • selling support for FREE software like RedHat, * selling hardware that uses FLOSS, like most OEMs lots of specialists, and * selling some other good or service with FLOSS in the mix somewhere.

=> ↺ Quantcast Open Sources Hadoop Distributed File System Alternative

• Quantcast, an internet audience measurement and ad targeting service, processes over 20 petabytes of data per day using Apache Hadoop and its own custom file system called Quantcast File System (QFS). Today, it’s making that technology available to as open source under an Apache license. You can now find it on GitHub.

=> ↺ SOFA Statistics: An Interview with developer Dr. Grant Paton-Simpson

• I have been a data analyst and researcher since the mid 90s, mainly in the health sector. Was an SPSS user from about 1989. Discovered that most analysis in many sectors is very rudimentary (simple descriptive tables, maybe a barchart, possibly a t-test). Thought there would be a gap for a program that makes the 20% of functionality used 80% of the time very easy to use. I have four children but still find enough peace and quiet to think and program. Badminton makes a nice change from sitting in front of a keyboard.

=> ↺ It’s official: Open source is an engine for growth

• When I wrote about open source as a stealth stimulus package this summer, some readers expressed skepticism. But two reports from Europe today support the growing hypothesis that open source provides an excellent monetary bundle for economies that embrace it. More than that, it can be a springboard for businesses that engage it on the basis of delivering flexibility rather than restricting their vision to cost savings.

=> ↺ Open source software helps artists create music

• TruthLogik, a New York based hip hop artist, says that in a million years he could not have imagined he would be recording an album using entirely free software. When he first stumbled on open source music-making tools, he thought about the computer classes he took in school. He had never been exposed to the idea that free software could be so well-made and uniquely useful.

Events

=> ↺ Linux Event TV: One-on-One with Open Source Visionaries

• Linux Foundation events are studded with Linux and open source community leaders, as well as some eccentric personalities. What better place than one of these events to sit down and talk to the people who are making innovation happen in software development and cloud computing?

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ Sites can slurp browser history right out of Firefox 16

=> ↺ Make your own political campaign ad

• Mozilla and PBS Newshour launch innovative new election video tool — starring YOU

=> ↺ Mozilla Firefox 17 Gets Social

• Firefox 16.01 (updated today) is out the door and that means Firefox 17 is now in Beta (those trains move fast!).

• This release like the the last half dozen before it – adds new developer goodness – but this time it’s more sociable than just CSS3 support.

• Firefox 17 includes the new SocialAPI , which is described as an attempt to integrate social content (i.e Facebook) into the browser.

SaaS

=> ↺ OwnCloud: Build your own or manage your public cloud storage services

=> ↺ Latest Version Of ownCloud Released

=> ↺ OwnCloud 4.5 Mounts Open Source Storage Alongside Amazon, Dropbox

=> ↺ OpenStack’s Folsom released

• OpenStack has released Folsom 2012.2, the organisation’s sixth release of its Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud platform. The enhancements in Folsom come from over 330 contributors. The organisation is dedicated to creating software for public and private cloud systems and has nearly 200 member companies from across the industry, including AMD, AT&T, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and VMware. It recently became a foundation with founder Rackspace handing control over to the newly independent group.

=> ↺ OpenNebula survey shows industry use dominating

• OpenNebula, the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud project, sees the majority of its deployment in industry, according to C12G’s latest Cloud Architecture Survey. The survey, conducted by the commercial company behind OpenNebula over the second and third quarters of 2012, polled 2,500 users of OpenNebula and only analyses the responses from the 820 who reported having OpenNebula up and running.

Databases

=> ↺ SkySQL launches Cloud SQL Suite and Enterprise Suite

• SkySQL has announced a beta release of Cloud Data Suite, a platform for deploying high availability MariaDB databases to Amazon’s EC2, and, Enterprise Data Suite, comprising a carrier grade database, a high availability tool and analytics applications. The Cloud Data Suite is free to use and includes open source components, while the Enterprise Data Suite is designed to be part of the company’s commercial service and support subscription model.

=> ↺ What is NoSQL, and why do you need it?

• Imagine that you have coupons that you wanted to push to mobile customers that purchase a specific item. This is a customer facing system of engagement requires location data, purchase data, wallet data, and so on. You want to engage the mobile customer in real-time.

=> ↺ Is Oracle squeezing the MySQL lemon too hard?

• Despite what many feared, Oracle has not abandoned development of MySQL. Indeed, as announced at Oracle OpenWorld this week, Oracle just released MySQL Release Candidate 5.6 with a host of new features.

Oracle/Java/LibreOffice

=> ↺ LibreOffice Writer now supports first page header/footer

=> ↺ LibreOffice vs. OpenOffice Part 2: All Bugs Are Shallow When Blogged to a Linux News Feed

• In my prior blog post, my intended lessons for OpenOffice vs. LibreOffice were 1. Try both. 2. Use both. 3. Use what works best for particular cases. 4. Where there is no problems with either, prefer LibreOffice for its community support. 5. I had a specific important case for my usage where I had to use OpenOffice. Now it appears my options will expand in a month.

=> ↺ Review: Free, open source VirtualBox lags behind VMware and Parallels

• Our Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion shootout took a deep dive into the two most successful commercial virtualization products for the Mac, but many of you had questions about VirtualBox, the free and open source desktop virtualization software currently offered by Oracle. Both Parallels and VMware offer plenty of features for home and business users, but is VirtualBox an acceptable alternative for the cash-strapped?

Funding

=> ↺ Hardware startup creates open source Kickstarter alternative

• After having their project rejected by Kickstarter, the designers of the wireless lock system Lockitron went away and wrote their own crowdfunding platform, which they have now open sourced. Apigy Inc’s Selfstarter enables companies to set up their own crowdfunding site, similar to Kickstarter, to host financing campaigns for their products. The very successful funding drive for Lockitron is already being run using the software.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ FSF rallies support for GNU MediaGoblin to make media publishing free “as in freedom”

• BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA — Thursday, October 11th, 2012 — Today the Free Software Foundation (FSF) announced its support for the GNU MediaGoblin project’s fundraiser at http://mediagoblin.org/pages/campaign.html. MediaGoblin is community-developed free “as in freedom” software that enables users to share their experiences through photos, videos, and audio, in a decentralized way that sidesteps current media-publishing gatekeepers.

=> ↺ GnuTLS 3.1.3

Project Releases

=> ↺ Calibre 0.9.0 released

=> ↺ Git 1.8 Is Being Readied With New Features

• Version 1.8.0 of the popular Git revision control system is nearing. With this version bump also comes new features to this popular open-source project started by Linus Torvalds.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Leipzig on course with free office package

• The Münchner IT-Blog, the IT blog of Munich city council in Germany, reports that its fellow council in Leipzig started a migration to the free open source office suite OpenOffice earlier this year.

=> ↺ Romanian animal monitoring program proves open source’s reliability

• Romania’s for the past seven years has been using open source for all servers, PCs and laptops for its country-wide farm animal monitoring program. It proofs the reliability and sustainability of this type of software, says Teodorescu Constantin, the project’s IT manager. “We chose Linux and other open source solutions because we wanted trouble-free workstations.”

Licensing

=> ↺ Choosing a license for your work

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Clay Shirky on how the Internet will one day transform government

• Clay Shirky has done it again. In a fascinating TED Talk, Shirky examines the impact that collaboration tools developed for and by open source communities will have on the way citizens participate in public life and how they can steer the political processes.

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Research Intelligence – Unbound possibilities

• Non-profit, scholar-run publisher impresses with its open-access monograph list. Paul Jump reports

Open Hardware

=> ↺ Inside Facebook’s lab: A mission to make hardware open source

• A look behind the scenes of Facebook’s hardware lab, the spiritual home of the Open Compute datacentre hardware movement, which may radically change the type of IT enterprises use, and who they buy it from.

=> ↺ Build Your Own Arduino Powered Automatic Blinds

• Build Your Own Arduino Powered Automatic BlindsOne of the easiest tricks to keeping a house warm (or cool), is to open and close the blinds in time with the sun. Of course, that’s only helpful if you’re home all the time to do that. Instructables user FreedomToCreate has made an Arduino powered system that opens and closes the blinds on a schedule, based on room temperature, or outdoor light.

=> ↺ Open-Source Kits Put Robots in Many Hands

• I recently received an interesting press release about Multiplo, a four-person startup seeking venture funds in small amounts to create and manufacture kits for anyone interested in robotics.

• The company has used Kickstarter, a Web-based business that helps connect sponsors with small groups that want to pursue a specific project. The Kickstarter approach lets people involved with a project — which must have a specific goal — solicit funds and offer “rewards” to people who contribute funds.

Programming

=> ↺ Google launches its third junior Code-in event

=> ↺ Perforce Aims to Bring Git to the Enterprise

• It’s no surprise that the pace of technological innovation in the startup and web development world greatly eclipses the pace of technology adoption at most enterprise organizations. Enterprises are generally slow, risk averse, and demand long-term support for products in which they invest. Startups, web development shops, and open source enthusiasts move at a significantly faster pace. While some enterprises are just now moving from the venerable CVS version control system to something like Subversion, the bulk of today’s generation of developers are using git (and GitHub).

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Using the HTML5 Fullscreen API for Phishing Attacks

Leftovers

Finance

=> ↺ Q & A with Journalist & Author of “Bet the Farm” Frederick Kaufman

• What would be a significant first step in reducing hunger in America?

• A: Hunger in America isn’t about not having enough food; it’s about not being able to afford food. One proven remedy has been the availability of food stamps, which depends on the fate of the next Farm Bill. Many would like to cut programs that make food available to children in schools, and adults in need, a “reform” that would bring this country a step closer to food insecurity. In this country, not having the money to purchase food also translates into obesity, as cheap calories generally come with too much fat, sugar, and boatloads of artificial everything. In order to consume better calories at lower prices, Americans need to learn about nutrition and home food preparation. Education can help, along with support for purveyors of produce in urban food deserts. Above all, we need jobs for Americans. Food often accounts for 12-15 percent of a weekly paycheck, but first Americans need the paycheck.

Censorship

=> ↺ Internet censorship: Let it rot in walled gardens

• John Gilmore, an internet activist who was also one of the co-founders of both the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the first free software company, Cygnus Solutions, once wrote that “the net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it”.

Privacy

=> ↺ Party conferences and the Comms Data Bill

• The usefulness of data comes in part from its intrusiveness. So the collection and access to communications information is balanced against the fundamental right to privacy. As a start, many politicians accept that the police should have access to communications traffic data. Of course, sometimes law enforcement have had access to this data, as with phone bills.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Snooper’s Charter: 19,000 Emails Against, 0 In Favour

• Back in August, I urged people to respond to the consultation on the truly dreadful Draft Communications Bill, aka Snooper’s Charter. Obviously, I wasn’t alone in doing that: many organisations concerned about the impact on civil liberties in this country have done the same. For example, both 38 Degrees and Open Rights Group (ORG) provided suggested texts and asked people to contact the Joint Parliamentary Committee that has been considering the Bill – and doing rather a good job of it, I must say.

DRM

=> ↺ Txtr Beagle – Concern to Amazon? – No.

• I’m looking at the Guardian today for the purposes of this article which is reporting a new e-ink, ebook reader which they write about under the title of “Kindle under fire from low-cost ‘txtr beagle’ e-reader” – A dramatic and wholly inacurate headline in my view, but then this is the Guardian so I don’t expect either Guardian staff or its readerbase will see any problem with that. Reported at being available for around £8 this twin AAA powered device with significantly less storage capacity, a slightly smaller screen, no WIFI or 3G and having to be loaded with ebooks via Bluetooth on an Android or iPhone, is going in some way to disturb Amazon or indeed any of the other great e-ink devices.

=> ↺ Kindle Owners’ Lending Library Coming to the UK, Germany and France

• Amazon is bringing the Kindle Owners’ Lending Library to the UK, Germany and France later this month, giving European Kindle owners (with Prime membership) the choice of over 200,000 books to borrow for free as frequently as a book a month, with no due dates.

Intellectual Monopolies

Copyrights

=> ↺ DEAct: Concerns about copyright infringement evidence gathering

• Consumer Focus have today written to the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) about the way the MPAA collect evidence of copyright infringement by individuals on P2P networks. The letter relates to a presentation the MPAA gave to Consumer Focus and security expert Dr Richard Clayton (also a member of Open Rights Group’s advisory council), about the process they will be using for the US’ ‘six strike’ copyright infringement process. In his analysis, Dr Clayton found a number of issues that could lead to errors in the gathering of evidence of infringement.

ACTA

=> ↺ CETA: Governments Must Protect our Freedoms!

• La Quadrature du Net publishes a letter sent to French ministers in charge of negociating CETA, the Canada – UE Trade Agreement, and calls them to act to protect our freedoms, in accordance with previous commitments.

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

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.