May 2012
1 post
## WANTED: New owner for @Linux ##
Hello everyone
My followers will have found that I haven’t posted anything in a long time.
This is because of certain changes in my life and me just having less time on my hands. I was very busy over the last few months and I can’t see it becoming any better soon.
My initial goal was to run this account so the @Linux account would be active here...
March 2012
36 posts
### TinyCore 4.4 brings updated Kernel ###
TinyCore and MicroCore Linux both got updated to version 4.4. The major change concerns the Kernel which was updated to version 3.0.21 and was compiled with a larger number of modules to support additional features and hardware.
‘Core’s package management system also got an update and now supports tags and searching for tags.
MicroCore and...
### HumbleBundle for Android 2 ###
HumbleBundle.com launched the HumbleIndieBundle for Android (and Mac, Linux and Windows) 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apnN-H4G1Vg
All five games are available on all three platforms. Part of the bundle are:
* Canabalt
* ZenBound2
* Cogs (Which had been in other bundles before)
* Avadon
For those who pay more than the average, the Bundle also...
LibreOffice 3.5.1 bug fix release available - The H Open Source: News and Features - http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/LibreOffice-3-5-1-bug-fix-release-available-1472928.html
#LibreOffice #release
## updates on CyanogenMod ##
CyanogenMod is the most popular Android ROM, having over one million registered users world wide. It’s available for a large number of Android devices and has a big and healthy community.
### CM 7.2 ###
Currently, CyanogenMod is working on two new releases: 7.2 and 9.0. The 9.0 release is the CM version of Android 4.X and still not ready to be shipped or...
### 0 A.D. Alpha 9 Ides of March ###
Wildfire Games released a new Alpha version of their realtime strategy game 0 A.D. last Friday.
In this release, they added the Roman empire as one of the factions to play. 0 A.D. plays in the time-frame of the rise of Rome and the Roman Empire...
### Linux 3.4 Merge Window opened ###
With the release of Linux 3.3, the merge window for 3.4 started. The merge window is a two week period where the big changes are submitted to the subsystem maintainers and to Linus Torvalds to be merged into the Kernel. After these first two weeks in the life of a new Kernel, rc1 is released.
Over the next weeks, only smaller changes and bug- and...
### Linux 3.3 released ###
On the Linux Kernel Mailing list (LKML), Linus Torvalds announced the availability of the Linux 3.3 Kernel. https://lkml.org/lkml/2012/3/18/132
Torvalds recommends the Kernel Newbies page as source of information on what’s new in this release. http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_3.3
With Linux 3.3. the Kernel hackers started incorporating more Android Code into the...
Firefox 11 and Thunderbird 11 released [LWN.net] - https://lwn.net/Articles/486453/rss
### Is h.264 coming to Firefox? ###
One of the major new features of HTML5 is the <video>-tag which allows webbrowsers to natively show videos - this is, without the usage of any plugins. This feature is seen as a relive by many that don’t like Aobe’s Flash plugin - or any browser-plugins at all, because they are never fully integrated in the web experience, aren’t free or...
### Cinnamon 1.4, new release after only 26 days ###
It’s only 26 days ago, that the Linux Mint team announced [1] the availability of version 1.3 of their Gnome Shell fork called Cinnamon and now they released version 1.4 already.
Despite the short time between the two releases, the list of changes and...
The Linux Mint Blog » Blog Archive » Linux Mint 12 LXDE released! - http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=1937 #Linux #Mint #LXDE #release
### CentOS and Oracle Linux 5.8 ###
Both Oracle [1] and CentOS [2] recently released version 5.8 of their RHEL (RedHat Enterpise Linux) clones. The announcement of CentOS was done only four days after Oracle announced the availability of Oracle Unbreakable Linux 5.8.
This is significantly interesting because CentOS had a really hard time keeping up with the RHEL releases only just one year ago....
### OIN expands their protection range ###
OIN, the Open Invention Network, announced an update to their definition of a Linux system and the inclusion of several new projects. The new projects now being covered and protected by the OIN are:
* KVM
* GIT
* OpenJDK
* WebKit
The OIN also changed their definition of a Linux system to make it broader and therefore protect more projects....
### LFS 7.1 ###
LFS (Linux From Scratch) released version 7.1 of their manual on how to create your own Linux distribution. The updated version includes instructions on how to use more up to date components, including the current version of the Linux Kernel.
The updated version of LFS can be viewed online or downloaded as either PDF or HTML. http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/news.html
#LFS...
### Spark tablet renamed ###
The Spark tablet got renamed to Vivaldi, because of trademark issues with the name Spark. The name Vivaldi was chosen after a famous musician.
Besides the renaming, the new Blog posting by Aron Seigo also announces more news around the tablet that will come up shortly. http://aseigo.blogspot.com/2012/03/spark-becomes-vivaldi.html
The Spark (now Vivaldi) tablet got...
### GitHub improves Security ###
I just received an email from GitHub that asks me to audit my installed SSH keys because there was recently a security vulnerability discovered in GitHub. The vulnerability allowed adding arbitrary SSH keys to GitHub projects.
You can read about the vulnerability on any major news sites, including [The H online][1] and [LWN][2], or on GitHub itself:...
### PySide for Android ###
One of the devels at our office (a big fan of both Python and Qt), sent me this link: http://thp.io/2011/pyside-android/
PySide for Android is a project that aims to bring Python applications with Qt interface to Android. They rely on several other projects to enable...
www.ipfire.org - IPFire 2.11 - Core Update 57 released - http://www.ipfire.org/news/ipfire-2-11-core-update-57-released #IpFire #Linux #Firewall
### Hardware support in Ubuntu ###
One of the important factors of a good Linux experience for new users is, that their hardware works out of the box. As a distribution aimed at mainstream users, Ubuntu has a strong focus on improving hardware support.
At the Ubuntu Hardware summit, Canonical...
### Nvidia joins the Linux Foundation ###
Nvidia and the Linux Foundation announced, taht Nvidia joined the Foundation.
At first sight, this looks promising and like very good news. But on second thought it really doesn’t mean anything. It is speculated, that Nvidia is not doing this to improve Linux support for their desktop graphics chips, but more for their ARM Socs.
Phoronix points...
### Java based X11 Server for Android ###
According to Phoronix, there’s now a Java based X11 Serer available in the Android Marketplace.
It was written by an Australian PhD student in order to get a better understanding of serializable user interfaces.
The server supports displaying remotely launched Linux applications, input via touchscreen, trackpads and virtual- as well as physical...
CeBIT 2012: Knoppix 7.0 presented - The H Open Source: News and Features - http://www.h-online.com/open/news/item/CeBIT-2012-Knoppix-7-0-presented-1464749.html
### Project Lumberjack ###
RedHat gathered the most popular and active people in the area of Logging in Linux to discuss how logging in Linux could be improved and to develop a new approach - together.
Logging of services and applications is very important for finding errors, tracking down errors, gathering system information and discovering breaches. But logging under Linux is a bit messy. The...
### Last longterm update for Linux 2.6.32 ###
Greg K-H has released Linux Kernel 2.6.32.58, the last longterm update for the Linux Kernel version that is currently used in Debian 6.0 and Ubuntu 10.04.
Greg K-H announced the end of the longterm maintenance about two months ago, when he declared Linux 3.0 the new longterm release that will be maintained for at least two years.
Greg Kroah-Hartman...
### Ubuntu for Android ###
One of the (Open Source) highlights of last weeks Mobile World Congress (MWC) certainly was Canonicals presentation of Ubuntu for Android.
The company behind the popular Linux distribution announced the product some days in advance and then presented prototypes of the...
### RHEL 4.X end of life ###
Both CentOS and Scientific Linux announced that their version 4.X OS’ are now end of life and will get no further updates.
This is a direct reaction to the end of live of RHEL 4 from which both distributions are built.
For paying customers, RedHat offers three additional years of software updates for some of the RHEL tools.
source:...
### Arch Linux for the RaspberryPi ###
As many of you probably know, the Mini PC Raspberry Pi launched on 29. February and was sold out within minutes.
The very popular ARM based computer raised demand for ARM based Linux distributions significantly. Originally, it was planned to ship the RaspberryPi with Ubuntu, but current ARM versions of Ubuntu don’t run on the device flawlessly.
The...
### X Server 1.12 with multitouch ###
It was a long way until the X Server finally got multi touch support in the official release [1] [2] [3], but now it’s here. Version 1.12 of the X Server is now available and it comes with native multi touch support. The GTK+ developers announced to support the X Server multi touch in the coming version 3.4 of the GTK framework.
X Server 1.12 will be...
### Easterhegg 2012 in Basel ###
#### English Text ####
The Easterhegg is an anual CCC event. This year it comes to Switzerland for the first time. The “Chaostreff Basel” organizes this years event.
There aren’t too many community events in Switzerland and the Easterhegg will certainly be one of the highlights of 2012.
I encourage anyone to come by and have fun. More details...
## FSFE: “Free your Android” ##
The FSFE (Free Software Foundation Europe) has started a campaign called “Free Your Android”. The goal of the campaign is to provide more free (as in freedom) software for Android devices.
As one of the reasons for why this is necessary, the project brings up the CarrierIq issue.
### The problem ###
Most Android phones that are shipped...
### HTTPS everywhere 2.0 released ###
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) released version 2.0 of the Firefox plugin “HTTPS everywhere”. According to the EFF, the plugin has been installed more than one million times until now.
Version 2.0’s most important feature is that it warns users, when the server-side implementation of SSL is weak or has security issues.
HTTPS...
### FreeNAS 8.0.4 ###
FreeNAS was released in version 8.0.4. This fourth updated to the fairly new 8.0 series brings bugfixes and some minor new features. Some of the more important are:
* Sambas was updated to fix some bugs and a vulnerability (DOS)
* When taking ZFS snapshots over the (web)GUI, errors are now reported to the user (instead of just failing silently)
* The FireFly media server...
### Foursquare switches to OpenStreetMap ###
Foursquare, an american startup that’s active in the Social Network business, switched their services from Google Maps to OpenStreetMap. The initial decision to look for alternatives came because of the new pricing of the Google Maps API.
In January, Foursquare started toying with other map data sources. When they initially tried OpenStreetMap,...
### HandBrake 0.9.6 ###
Handbrake, a popular Open Soruce application to copy DVD movies to the computer, was released in version 0.9.6.
This new version of HandBrake brings some slight improvements to Video de- and encoding and a more advanced menu to configure the audio options. There also are a bunch of Operating specific changes in this release, like the OS X version no longer supporting VLC...
### The H Online Kernel Log: Updates to Intel graphics drivers and util-linux ###
The H Online released another “Kernel Log”. This one is not directly related to the current development of Linux 3.3, but focuses on other events around Linux that have recently been going on. http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Kernel-Log-Updates-to-Intel-graphics-drivers-and-util-linux-1444731.html
...
### Tizen releases Beta version of the mobile OS ###
After the first preview version in January, The Linux Foundation now released the first beta of both the Tizen OS and the SDK.
Tizen is the successor of both MeeGo and LiMo, which are Linux based mobile Operating systems. In difference to MeeGo, which used Qt for the interface and for apps, Tizen programs are written in web languages (as...
February 2012
26 posts
### Updates on the Spark tablet ###
The Spark Open Source tablet was announced just about one month ago [1]. It will be shipped with the KDE Plasma Active Interface running on top of Mer (MeeGo reconstructed).
In several new posts, Aseigo, one of the major developers involved in the Spark tablet, gives an update on the situation around the tablet.
The pre-order registration [2] is already over,...
### RHEL 5.8 released ###
Last week, RedHat released the eight major updated to version 5 of the RedHat Enterprise Linux distribution.
RHEL 5.8 brings a number of improvements over the older 5.X releases, including some major changes to the 2.6.18 based Kernel. In version 5.8, the modified Kernel supports PCI-Express 3.0 and includes a number of improvements to both Xen and KVM virtualization,...
The H online: Kernel Log: Coming in 3.3 (Part 2) - Filesystems and storage http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Kernel-Log-Coming-in-3-3-Part-2-Filesystems-and-storage-1440033.html
Linux 3.3 will bring some major improvements for several Linux file systems and the softraid system.
As always, the H Kernel Log presents these changes in an easy-to-understand manner and points out the most...
### DragonFlyBSD 3.0 ###
Version 3.0 of the DragonFlyBSD is now available. Major changes include the removal of “the giant kernel lock” which makes the new version of DragonFlyBSD perform much better on systems with large number of CPUs and improved Hammer FS performance.
A full list of changes and improvements can be found on the release page:...
### Mesa 8.0 brings OpenGL 3.0 to Linux ###
Mesa 3D is the interface that sits between applications and the Open Source graphics drivers in the Linux Kernel. This makes it a crucial part for 3D rendering in Linux.
Version 8.0 of Mesa is the first one to bring full OpenGL 3.0 support. This makes the Linux 3D rendering much more competitive and interesting.
You can find details about the release...
### Update on Greg Kroah Hartman ###
Greg Kroah Hartman (Greg K. H.) is one of the best known Linux Kernel hackers. He maintains the USB subsystem, the driver core subsystem, invented and maintains the staging area and maintains the stable kernel releases. Besides that he wrote a number of texts to help new people getting involved in Kernel development. Until now, Greg K. H. has been working for...
### First beta version of Gnome 3.4 ###
GNOME released version 3.3.90 of their popular desktop environment for Unix like Operating Systems. Version 3.3.90 is the first beta version for the upcoming 3.4 release and is still considered unstable and not for day-to-day use. The announcement-email links to text files with more details of what exactly has changed in Gnome since the 3.2 release:...
### BTRFS won’t be standard FS in Fedora - again ###
Like in the last few releases too, BTRFS was planned to become the standard filesystem for Fedora 17 and like in the last few releases, this won’t become true and just like in the last few releases, this is mainly due to the new and improved BTRFS fsck still not being released. Another problem that was mentioned is that Anaconda,...
### Cyannogenmod’s new build infrastructure ###
With the release of both, Cyannogenmod 7.2 and the all new, Android 4.0 based, Cyannogenmod 9.0 coming very soon, the project needs a new build infrastrucutre. To provide over 50 builds a day, the project had a cluster to perform the task of building and bundling the software. For some time now, the cluster was unavailable though. This is a...
### VLC 2.0 ###
VLC Media Player, the Video Lan Client Media Player, got released in version 2.0. Except for the MAC OS X release, the new version doesn’t look much different. Apparently, the biggest changes were made to the license. A lot of the code is now licensed under the LGPL, making it easier to bring VLC to the Apple Appstore and Google Marketplace for mobile devices.
source:...
### Cinnamon 1.3 ###
The main developer of Linux Mint announced the release of version 1.3 of the Cinnamon Desktop. This is the first major update to Cinnamon after the 1.2 version. This version brings more consistency to the panel and the elements in it. In this version, all components, including the “start menu” and the tasklist are applets that can be moved around via...
### Tiny Core 4.3 release ###
TinyCore Linux distribtuion got an update to version 4.3. This update contains many bugfixes and secuirty patches, but also some new features for the SCM package management.
source: http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,12596.0.html
#release #Linux #TinyCore #MicroCore
### The Economics of the Spark Tablet ###
Aseigo, a KDE developer who is heavily involved in the development of the coming Spark tablet, has released some information on the Economics of the tablet. This includes descriptions where the money will go, what the ideals behind the project are and how the production will be payed for:...