11.07.08
Links 07/11/2008: New KDE Release; GNU/Linux Sub-notebooks Scare Microsoft
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GNU/Linux
- [ANNOUNCE] xserver 1.5.3
- Bostech releases ChainBuilder ESB 2.0 for Linux
- Road-Tripping With Linux
Customers demand the latest technology from their vehicles, especially when it comes to entertainment. However, the development cycle for cars is much longer than that of electronics, so there’s always a lag. Linux can help, writes Wind River Systems’ Paul Tu.
[...]
Linux has a heritage in the desktop market and its large community of software developers offers multiple options to support in-vehicle multimedia applications including:
* Popular, industry-standard media formats and file types
* A variety of ready-to-use audio and video codecs and players
* Solutions for speech recognition control and output - Download Free Linux Sticker Book For Your Laptop/Desktop
- Why Use Linux?
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Desktop Environments
- 10 Linux desktops you shouldn’t overlook
If you know Linux, you know there are tons of options on every level. To some, this might seem overwhelming at first. To others, it’s all about possibility. The desktop is certainly not without options. In fact, the Linux desktop might very well be the area where there are the most options. But for a lot of users, desktop selection doesn’t usually go beyond KDE or GNOME. With this article, I hope to help the average Linux user get beyond the standard fare.
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GNOME
- First GNOME 2.26 Development Packages Arrive
The first development release in the GNOME 2.25 series that will go on to form GNOME 2.26 early next year is expected to be released today. There’s still two months before any freezes go into effect for GNOME 2.26, but a few changes worth mentioning can be found in the handful of packages checked in for today’s GNOME 2.25.1 release.
- Improvements in GNOME 2.24 and Ubuntu 8.10
- First GNOME 2.26 Development Packages Arrive
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KDE
- 10 Linux desktops you shouldn’t overlook
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EMEA
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Distributions
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Red Hat
- Opennet invites reseller partners to MENA leg of Red Hat Virtualisation tour
- Redhat and AMD migrate VMs across CPUs
AMD AND REDHAT have just done the so called impossible, and demonstrated VM live migration across CPU architectures. Not only that, they have demonstrated it across CPU vendors, potentially commoditising server processors. Eeek!
- Red Hat and Ingres Offer Open Source Stack for Independent Software Vendors
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Fedora
- Fedora 10, a “Live” solution for One Laptop Per Child.
When One Laptop Per Child starts their next Give 1 Get 1 program on November 17th, there will be an option to purchase an upgrade that will allow users to run a standard Linux desktop based on Fedora 10, on their XO system (pronounced “ex – oh”). This special edition of Fedora 10 is an alternative for adults who may not find the child focused graphical interface called Sugar practical for daily use. With this “Live” release the Fedora Project is once again highlighting a fantastic feature unique to modern Linux distributions.
- Sugar-Coated Fedora LiveCD Gives A Taste of the OLPC XO
- Fedora 10, a “Live” solution for One Laptop Per Child.
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Ubuntu
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Mandriva
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Embedded/Devices
- Tiny SBCs move to faster ARM9
Calao Systems is offering a faster ARM9 processor option across its line of tiny USB and QIL (quad in-line) processor modules, which come pre-installed with Linux and U-boot. It also announced a “TinyCore” module measuring 1.4 x 1.6 inches, significantly smaller than its existing products.
- Delivery problems with Pandora Game Console
- Customizable PowerPC board comes with Linux
- Embedded Alley Launches Consulting Practice to Optimize Flash Memory Deployment in Intelligent Devices
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Fast Boot
- Tiny SBCs move to faster ARM9
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Sub-notebooks
- Linux threat to Microsoft
- Linux boom?
- These lightweight, stripped-down netbooks can get the job done
This time last year, it seemed downright weird – take a laptop and shrink it to the size of a hardcover book, throw in wireless Internet access, throw out the battery-draining CD-ROM drive, and sell the stripped-down device for under $500.
- Microsoft Missing Out on Netbook Growth as Linux Wins Sales
- No More Doom and Gloom, Please
Windows 7 has not been released yet. Reports on it range widely from sleek and fast to being a thinly disguised version of Vista. Spreading FUD is not a reasoned response. It plays on our emotions and it comes about because those spreading it have a weakness. If you are in a strong position then you don’t need to play that card.
F/OSS
- Free/Open-source Video Editing Software
- SugarCRM wants to be the Linux of the CRM world
- War of words as Zoho sticks it to salesforce.com
- Opening the Cloud
- Caterham Teams Up with Project Splitwheel to Create First-Ever Open-Source Car
- Open source opens doors for small businesses
- Retail Software: Proprietary, Bespoke, or Open Source?
- Open source valuations remain birdseed
- Open Source Systems Management Ramps Up
- Open Source Java Libraries Debut for uPortal
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Philosophy
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Firefox
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SUN
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Politics
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Collaborations
Rights/Restrictions
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DRM
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Internet
Standards
- Becta urged to find middle way on interoperability standards
- Digital Dark Age’ may doom some data
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OpenDocument
- Committee to ensure ODF apps conform to standard
- OASIS forms interoperability panel
- The Importance of the Open Standards Decision on Marketing WebSphere
- IBM Unveils Mac Support, Roadmap For Lotus Symphony
- Sun, IBM launch ODF tools project
- Nisus Software, Inc. Releases Nisus Writer Pro 1.2
Additionally, export as Word file format (.doc) and the Open Document (.odt) format has been added.
Digital Tipping Point: Clip of the Day
Dan Gillmor, creator of the phrase, “Distributed Journalism” 12 (2005)
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Jose_X said,
November 7, 2008 at 8:46 am
wrt http://www.p2pnet.net/story/17493 about mp3 push by retailers, I think businesses are seeing that the bad side of the drm coin for them is that the few controlling and getting monopoly-ish power aren’t necessarily them but can and will use this exclusivity against them.
It’s effectively the same old Microsoft sell of the “virtues” of closed source monopolies. Problem with the theory is that monopoly and secret power is not something that is shared, by those who have it, with many others. The idea is to keep people from collaborating and instead working as islands, apart from each other, making it much easier for a dominant pirate to come around and rape everyone slowly but surely.
Sometimes to gain a healthy amount you have to give a little first. If you go for too much control, you are more likely to end up controlled yourself, having allowed the tyrant to seize sufficient control.
For anyone who hasn’t caught the drift here, Microsoft is the deceptive pirate and tyrant.
pcolon said,
November 7, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Microsoft’s xenophobic attitude against FOSS came way before the netbooks. Just look at the netbooks as an accelerant (petrol) for the fire.
Roy Schestowitz said,
November 7, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Here is a similar and very memorable story
“Then, they fight you”
[May 2008]
“I asked the organizers if our Free Software Group could hold a short session about the benefits of FOSS in education, with references to Ubuntu, Edubuntu and Kiwilinux and we were given a slot after the ones which had already been planned a while ago – those of Microsoft, Cisco and a local company that sells education software for Romanian schools.
[...]
“That was two days ago but yesterday we were notified that the Microsoft representative in charge with the education strategy had requested the organizers to pull the Ubuntu presentation because it is ‘unfair competition’ to hold such a presentation at an event sponsored by them. They are indeed co-sponsors but the conference is organized by the Ministry of Education and its local office, and is being held on the premises of a public University.
“It is sad to know they are resorting to this sort of coercing and that they have such influence over the educators but looking on the bright side of it, and that’s how I perceived it after thinking a bit about it, THEY ARE SCARED
”
http://janimo.blogspot.com/2008/05/then-they-fight-you.html