10 ways you might be breaking the law with your computer: UPDATED 10 Things: "Legislation that affects the use of Internet-connected computers is springing up everywhere at the local, state and federal levels. You might be violating one of them without even knowing." (Mar 12, 2010)
Linux Today Features
Linux Today Sticky Page On this page we'll maintain links to important articles and documents that pertain to Free Software, Linux, and the tech industry. Please submit your suggestions to editors@linuxtoday.com. Thank you! (Jun 15, 2009)
Small Features
The 10 Most Downloaded Open Source Apps Of All Time! Geek Trio: "Everyone loves open source software. After all… its free! Many times I’ve heard the question, “what is the most popular open source application of all time?” I decided to find out." Mar 10, 2010
Banish boring terminal windows with Bashish (Mar 16, 2010, 18:32 UTC) (334 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Sourceforge: "Swedish student Thomas Eriksson says a lot of advanced computer usage is still best done from the terminal. Given that, he’s developed Bashish to provide a more useful and beautiful terminal environment."
Mozilla Launches Firefox Mobile Add-On Challenge (Mar 16, 2010, 13:32 UTC) (591 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux.com: "Mozilla has launched a contest to spur on development of add-ons for its recently-released Firefox for Mobile browser. Between now and April 12, developers are encouraged to create extensions or other add-ons tailored for the mobile browser."
Android vs. iPhone: Google Hires Tim Bray (Mar 15, 2010, 21:04 UTC) (2137 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux Planet: ""The iPhone vision of the mobile Internet’s future omits controversy, sex, and freedom, but includes strict limits on who can know what and who can say what," he wrote. "It's a sterile, Disney-fied walled garden surrounded by sharp-toothed lawyers.""
Introducing the PyPy 1.2 release (Mar 15, 2010, 18:04 UTC) (1608 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) PyPy Status Blog: "We are pleased to announce PyPy's 1.2 release. This version 1.2 is a major milestone and it is the first release to ship a Just-in-Time compiler that is known to be faster than CPython"
Debian: DebConf10 & 2010 Project Leader Elections (Mar 15, 2010, 16:04 UTC) (742 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "The DebConf organisers have announced they are now accepting proposals for contributions to this year’s Debian conference. The organisers ask attendees to contribute to the annual Debian developers meeting by submitting presentations on a variety of topics."
The Microsoft Elephant in the Open Source Room (Mar 15, 2010, 08:04 UTC) (3059 reads)
(3 talkbacks)
(feedback) Boycott Novell: "Summary: Assorted new reports about how Microsoft abuses “open source” to gain control of it, change its direction and goals, or even to misuse the label to promote proprietary software that harms standards and promotes patenting of software"
Proof Of Concept: Open-Source Multi-GPU Rendering! (Mar 13, 2010, 12:02 UTC) (2981 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Phoronix: "David's goals with Prime are to allow a second GPU to render 3D applications onto the screen of the first GPU, with it being configurable by the client, and just to handle the rendering side."
Digg Moves From MySQL to NoSQL (Mar 12, 2010, 23:02 UTC) (3681 reads)
(2 talkbacks)
(feedback) Datamation: "Social networking and voting site Digg is rewriting its underlying software infrastructure in an effort to improve performance and scalability. Part of that effort involves moving away from the MySQL database that has helped to power Digg since its creation."
Design firm accuses Mozilla of UI plagiarism (Mar 12, 2010, 16:32 UTC) (1639 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Computerworld: "A Canadian interface design firm accused Mozilla of stealing user interface (UI) elements for a development tool in the browser maker's Jetpack project, which aims to simplify add-on making."
SECURITY: Q&A: Google hacking (Mar 12, 2010, 16:02 UTC) (2268 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Help Net Security: "Anything connected to the web, is indexed by Google. Even administrator's portals of devices connected to the web, such as printers and webcams are crawled and discovered by Google. You’ll be surprised by how many unprotected webcams are connected to the internet..."
A Modest Proposal for Toyota: Release the Code! (Mar 12, 2010, 14:32 UTC) (2612 reads)
(9 talkbacks)
(feedback) Bnet: "Things look bad for Toyota. There was yet another unintended acceleration incident involving a Toyota yesterday. A Prius in New York on its way to the dealership to have its gas-pedal checked out crashed into a stone wall."
Deferrable functions, kernel tasklets, and work queues (Mar 12, 2010, 13:02 UTC) (1428 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) IBM Developerworks: "For high-frequency threaded operations, the Linux® kernel provides tasklets and work queues. Tasklets and work queues implement deferrable functionality and replace the older bottom-half mechanism for drivers."
Simon Phipps elected as OSI director (Mar 12, 2010, 12:32 UTC) (1108 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "The Open Source Initiative (OSI) has elected Simon Phipps to the board of directors; Phipps recently left Oracle after serving as Sun's Chief Open Source Officer."
Beginner’s Guide to Git (Mar 12, 2010, 12:02 UTC) (2597 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Make Tech Easier: "Git is the revision control system created by the Linux kernel’s famous Linus Torvalds due to a lack of satisfaction with existing solutions. The main emphasis in the design was on speed, or more specifically, efficiency."
AMD to Introduce Netbook Chip in 2011 (Mar 12, 2010, 09:02 UTC) (2235 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Hardware Central: "Advanced Micro Devices plans to release a processor in its "Fusion" line that will be positioned for the netbook market, putting it in competition with the Intel Atom, and, to a lesser degree, the ARM processor."
How to Install Debian Linux on an Embedded System (Mar 12, 2010, 01:32 UTC) (1788 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The Bitsource: "In this article, I will describe how to bring up Debian Linux on an Embedded System. The hardware chosen for the embedded system is a PowerPC 440EPxX. "
First Fedora 13 Linux Alpha Shows Promise (Mar 12, 2010, 00:02 UTC) (2817 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Netstat -vat: "The first alpha milestone of the Fedora 13 Linux distribution is now available and it's loaded with a number of innovative features."
Commercial Gaming, Coming Soon to Linux? (Mar 11, 2010, 17:33 UTC) (2304 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux Magazine: "The inability to play the latest off the shelf commercial games has been a thorn in the side of Linux for a long time. With companies such as Valve starting to embrace other platforms, will that be the catalyst Linux needs to become a first class citizen? "
Open Source NoSQL Databases Ramp Up (Mar 11, 2010, 16:33 UTC) (2347 reads)
(8 talkbacks)
(feedback) Database Journal: "For most of the Web era, Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMS) based on SQL have dominated the database landscape. But over the course of the last year, a new approach has begun to take hold known as NoSQL, offering an alternative to the traditional RDBMS."
Get started with Omnis Studio (Mar 11, 2010, 15:33 UTC) (1683 reads)
(2 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux User and Developer: "Omnis Studio is a cross-platform (Windows, Mac and Linux) Rapid Application Development tool. It allows you to quickly build applications using a combination of graphical elements as well as a code editor."
CodePlex refresh, FOSS projects more compatible with Windows (Mar 11, 2010, 00:03 UTC) (1395 reads)
(2 talkbacks)
(feedback) ars Technica: "Microsoft's role in forming the CodePlex foundation reflects the company's growing acceptance of the open source development model and willingness to collaborate with other commercial vendors on open source technology."
Kernel Log: Linux 2.6.34 goes into testing (Mar 10, 2010, 22:02 UTC) (1767 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "Improvements include graphics drivers for recent Radeon GPUs and for the graphics cores of some Intel processors that are only expected to be released early next year. Another new addition is the LogFS SSD file system."
Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux for GPU computing (Mar 10, 2010, 20:32 UTC) (1273 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "The Japanese Fixstars Corporation, which specialises in software for the Cell processors, has announced the release of Yellow Dog Enterprise Linux (YDEL) 6.2 for CUDA, the first enterprise Linux OS optimised for GPU computing."
Updating the MPL (Mar 10, 2010, 19:02 UTC) (821 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Mozilla.org: "On March 10th, 2010, Mozilla announced a public process to help create the next update of the Mozilla Public License. Here you can find information on the process, details, and learn how to get involved."
Freescale’s Sub-$200 Tablets to Be Compatible with Linux, Chromium OS, Android (Mar 10, 2010, 17:32 UTC) (2247 reads)
(4 talkbacks)
(feedback) eHomeUpgrade: "Attached here is a video from Mobile World Congress 2010 with Freescale’s product manager of software development explaining that Freescale’s sub-$200 ARM (i.MX51 Cortex-A8) tablets will be compatible with just about any Linux distribution that supports ARM..."
Fedora 13 Alpha released (Mar 10, 2010, 12:32 UTC) (1931 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Test-Announce: "
The Fedora 13 "Goddard" Alpha release is available! What's next for the
free operating system that shows off the best new technology of
tomorrow? You can see the future now..."
Last Day At Sun (Mar 10, 2010, 12:02 UTC) (2178 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Wild Webmink: "Today is my last day of employment at Sun (well, it became Oracle on March 1st in the UK but you know what I mean). I am a few months short of my 10th anniversary there..."
Improving in the MonoDevelop user interface (Mar 10, 2010, 03:02 UTC) (1614 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Food For Monkeys: "In the past weeks (actually, months) I've been doing some changes in the MonoDevelop GUI to make it more functional and better looking. Here is the result:"
Open Source CouchDB Heads to the Cloud (Mar 9, 2010, 22:36 UTC) (1929 reads)
(1 talkbacks)
(feedback) Developer.com: "SQL-based relational database management systems (RDBMS) are beginning to be challenged by a new movement of NoSQL databases. Among those NoSQL databases is the open source CouchDB..."
Kernel Log: Stable kernels analysed, Linux without firmware, new graphics drivers (Mar 9, 2010, 18:36 UTC) (1993 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "The development of Linux 2.6.34 has started and is causing heated discussions on the LKML. LWN.net has analysed Linux 2.6.32.9 for security fixes and found almost twenty of them. Linux-Libre removes proprietary files from the kernel, and new graphics drivers for Radeon cards offer numerous improvements."
400,000+ lines added in Linux 2.6.34-rc1 kernel
(Mar 9, 2010, 14:48 UTC) (3653 reads)
(4 talkbacks)
(feedback) Netstat -vat: "Linux founder Linus Torvalds has just pushed out a the first Linux 2.6.34 kernel release candidate and he's included some big stats as part of the announcement."
Oh Linux, how shall I count thy installs? (Mar 9, 2010, 04:34 UTC) (1998 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Toolbox for IT: "Everybody loves statistics. Statistics can be used to say just about everything when they are boiled down to a nice colourful pie chart. I have also heard it said that 76.3% of people believe that you put a percentage sign behind any random number they will believe it to be true."
Google open sources reMail
(Mar 8, 2010, 22:31 UTC) (2828 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) The H Open: "Following its recent acquisition by Google last month and removal from the App Store, reMail has now been released to the open source community."
James Bottomley Speaks (Mar 8, 2010, 21:07 UTC) (1558 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Linux User: "I’m a distinguished engineer at Novell. My primary role for the Linux kernel is to be SCSI subsystem maintainer, which means I have to run a Git tree for Linux and manage a mailing-list-based community."
Five Indispensable MySQL Tools (Mar 8, 2010, 04:02 UTC) (3146 reads)
(0 talkbacks)
(feedback) Developer.com: "Thanks to a number of well-designed tools, MySQL simply is a very easy database to "talk to," a convenience which is particularly important because developers often are tasked not only with constructing very complex schemas and queries, but also with monitoring overall server health and performance."
