08.09.08

Links 09/08/2008: GNU/Linux Makes Way Into More Devices, Microsoft Savings Keep Dropping

Posted in News Roundup at 7:27 am by Roy Schestowitz

Laptops

• Linux-compatible netbook sports multiple colors
• Netbooks spark Linux redesigns
• Ubuntu & webbook now available online at CPW
  

  Good news!

  When we first announced the Elonex webbook, you could only get the Ubuntu version by visiting one of Carphone Warehouse’s bricks-and-mortar shops. Online they only had the old XP version listed.

  Today that has changed. Now you can order a webbook, with Ubuntu pre-installed without having to go out at all!

• MID-friendly display reference design runs Linux

Mobile

• Google Says Android’s Fine, No Need To Join LiMo
• LiMo-ready mobile stack firms tidy up partnerships
• ACCESS, NTT DOCOMO Conclude Technical Specification Development Agreement for ACCESS Linux Platform
• OpenMoko 2008.8 Released

Embedded

• From Lego robots to hammers and nails, Linux gets embedded
  

  From a wirelessly controlled Lego robot to a device designed to aid information sharing in third-world countries, a number of small vendors and independent thinkers were on hand to showcase the possibilities inherent in embedded Linux.

• Linux-based panel PCs target HMI

Desktop

• Linux Manfest Destiny: Servers to Gadgets to Desktop
  

  Yes, you read that correctly: Servers to Gadgets to Desktop. It seems that Linux Operating System expansion will occur in that order. First, Linux was in the Data Center booting Apache to the top spot for worldwide web services. Next, Linux was found on gadgets as small as cell phones, wristwatches, and microservers. Finally, Linux will hit the Desktop.

  Why is the Desktop the final destination for Linux? It is the one place that seems unconquerable.

• From a pile of components to Ubuntu Linux in 25 minutes
  

  Kudos to my son for being so darned clever, but the real credit goes to Ubuntu and Canonical for making Linux so easy to install and use.

• Linux Install 101, or How I Helped Build Refurbished Linux PCs for Disadvantaged Schoolchildren at LinuxWorld 2008

Routers

• Vyatta Linux Router, Pt 2.

Servers

• Red Hat to net $6M in Rackspace’s IPO

Supercomputers

• Open Source and the Poor Man’s Supercomputer
• Lessons Learned, Again

GNU and Linux

• Btrfs 0.16, Improved Scalability And Performance
• You keep using that phrase “operating system”…
  

  From the article: Linus Torvalds needs no introduction in operating systems or open-source circles. He’s the creator, muse and chief developer of the Linux operating system. Torvalds started Linux while he was in college in 1991.

  Linus seems to be saying some pretty reasonable things lately, but the people who interview him keep crediting him with creating an “operating system” called “Linux”.

• Richard Stallman in Auckland: On copyright in a networked world
  

  I just came back from Richard Stallman’s lecture at the University of Auckland. I was surprised by the amazing interest in his talk, the lecture hall being entirely jam-packed full, people standing along the back and all the way out into the hallway. I was lucky to be there early enough to get one of the last few chairs.

Free Software

• Project SocialSite opens up!

OSS

• Reader Report from OSCON: The Tenth Annual Open Source Conference
  

  Benjamin Mako Hill from the MIT Center for Future Civic Media presented on the ways that errors in everyday technology can present opportunities for encouraging the right kind of thinking. He used ATM crashes as an example of how typically invisible thinking becomes visible to users, stimulating immediate public discussion. Open Source Software can be used to further decentralize control over the technology that has such a powerful role in our lives.

Copyrights

• DRM down under
  

  The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s Federal Government-funded public broadcaster, and has responsibilities under the ABC Act 1983 to provide services to the Australian people.

  The new ABC Shop has recently launched, with downloads of TV programs made available — but only to Windows users willing to install Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) software on their computers. Like the BBC iPlayer, and Channel Four’s “4OD”, ABC is using the Kontiki platform — Kontiki uses peer-to-peer technology to deliver the show to other people, so as well as locking you into its restrictions, ABC is using your computer, and your internet connection, to distribute programs.

• Air Force cracks software, carpet bombs DMCA
  

  It appears that Congress took a “do as we say, not as we need to do” approach to strengthening digital copyrights.

• Controlling copies isn’t necessarily part of an artist’s livelihood, but getting them accurately attributed is
  

  I’m reminded of the fact that the original Creative Commons license allowed creators to choose whether they wanted their works attributed to them or not, but after a year or two, it was discovered that nearly every CC user turned the attribution switch on while generating the license — everyone wanted correct attribution, even when they were giving away free copies. Copyright, Fraud and Window Taxes (No, not that Windows)

Microsoft

• Some advice for Microsoft: Dump Windows
  

  In light of the new Windows flaws announced yesterday, I think it’s time to reiterate a point I made a long time ago:

  It’s time for Microsoft to dump Windows.

• 1&1 botches Microsoft Exchange update
  

  Budget hosting provider 1&1 Internet has hit problems while updating its Microsoft email platform. Customers have been unable to access web mailboxes for more than 24 hours.

• Chart: Apple cash balance rivals Microsoft
  

  Here’s an interesting trend to watch: As Microsoft has been reducing its cash balance through stock buybacks, dividends and acquisitions in recent years, Apple has been amassing its own pile.

Leftover

• Judge rules on internet forum comments

Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day

Larry Augustin, GNU Linux business visionary 11 (2005)

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