Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

In the earliest days of computers, just about everything could be considered free software. Computers were so large, unwieldy and difficult to understand that any reasonably well-written program would be passed around via punch cards or paper tape. Into that free software world Richard Stallman was born. In the 1960s, he programmed IBM System/360 mainframes in PL/I, a procedural language that itself is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. In the 1970s, Stallman worked at the famous MIT Artificial Intelligence laboratory. Along the way, he saw software developers change their attitudes and move away from openness toward the proprietary. It was this shift in the hacker culture, as he called it, that eventually led him to strike out on his own in 1983.

With 22 months of development now behind them, the Debian team today released Debian Gnu/Linux 5.0, codenamed Lenny. The release supports no less than 12 processor architectures and includes the KDE, Gnome, Xfce, and LXDE desktop environments. It also features compatibility with major standards including the filesystem hierarchy standard (FHS 2.3) and version 3.2 of the Linux Standard Base.

Novell has signed a cooperation agreement with China Standard Software Company (CS2C), the leading Linux firm in China. The two companies will promote the development and adoption of Linux in the country, and combine resources on distribution of technology and services for the Chinese market. "Together, we will drive the acceptance of Linux in the industry," said Qin Yong, CS2C executive vice president in a statement. "We are looking forward to closer cooperation with Novell in the future."

Green computing frequently makes the news either for its cost-saving potential to businesses, or as a way for eco-conscious consumers to reduce their environmental footprint. But UK-based Aleutia, Ltd takes a different approach, using green to produce ultra-low-power-consumption Linux PCs for classrooms and businesses in developing countries. The company's flagship product is the E2, a compact desktop system that consumes just 8 watts.

Why does nearly every modern computer – whether it runs OS X, Vista or Linux – take considerably longer to boot than an ancient Amiga? With a hard drive, an Amiga could go from power socket to Workbench in around five seconds. With a modern multicore processor and a 12-month-old installation of Windows, you're lucky if your desktop is responsive before the kettle boils. Even a modern distribution of Linux can take a while. It seems like boot speed is the inverse of Moore's Law.

All of the recordings from the X.Org meetings that took place during FOSDEM 2009 are now available on Phoronix. There were nine topics in total from RandR 1.3 to shader compiler optimization strategies. Novell's Matthias Hopf had explained RandR 1.3 with all of the work involved in this update to the Resize and Rotate extension for the X Server that now has panning support and other new-found capabilities. An RandR 1.3 demonstration was also done by Keith Packard. Later on, Matthias had provided a 3D understanding of the ATI R600/700 series.

I have an announcement. The error of Microsoft’s ways is finally catching up and will cause the once-invincible juggernaut to kneel before that which is Linux. How is this? Microsoft started a tiny snowball when it released Windows Me. That snowball did nothing but gain momentum. There have been ups and downs along the way (XP being an up, for sure). But for the most part, the court of public opinion has steady lost faith in what once was considered the heart of personal computing.

Linux lovers rejoice -- you'll also be getting a present this Valentine's Day in the form of the Debian Lenny release. Lenny, named after a character in the Disney/Pixar film "Toy Story," marks the first major Debian release since Etch in April 2007. It's an important milestone for the distro, which is the basis of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution and competes in the broader Linux ecosystem against Red Hat and Novell SUSE, among others. In 2008, Debian celebrated its 15th anniversary as it continues to remain a relevant community-based Linux distribution.

Google has inched closer to having a working version of the Chrome web browser on the Mac platform. A report noted that the document tracking "Browser bootstrapping", the process of getting the Chrome browser working on Mac and Linux, was showing some progress on the Mac port, with entry 12 reading "CommandUpdater working for browser and application, can create new windows at will! Go browser go!".

A major complaint about Google's Chrome web browser has been that so far, it is still not available on anything other than Windows. Google promised to deliver Chrome to Mac OS X and Linux as well, but as it turns out, this is a little harder than they anticipated, Ben Goodger, Google's Chrome interface lead, has explained in an email. It has also been revealed what toolkit the Linux version of Chrome will use: Gtk+.

The free Linux operating system doesn't reveal its charms easily, but charms it has. You just have to know how to make the software work for you. That will become easier next weekend for those in the Los Angeles area, which plays host to the annual Southern California Linux Expo at the LAX Westin hotel.

Microsoft and its channel partners are bound together with the glue of mutual commercial success. That's a big reason why Microsoft VARs are always quick to defend the software giant's interests. Criticize Microsoft in front of a group of partners and you may find yourself being forced to run for cover.

[My issue with this article is the author uses some anonymous poster in a "Slashdot Report" as reference material. An anonymous post on Slashdot is not anything even remotely close to a reliable source if you ask me. - Scott]

In January, a whole slew of Red Hat engineers and Fedora Project volunteers got together at the Fedora Users and Developers Conference (FUDCon) to collaborate on features for Fedora 11, setting team objectives, and other initiatives. Contributors including QA experts, marketing gurus, community managers, and our friends from the One Laptop Per Child project all came together. They presented new ideas at technical talks, worked on tasks, and most of all had fun in the brilliant, vibrant atmosphere that defines Fedora

Red Hat's Matthew Garrett has actively been working on improving power management with graphics processors via the various open-source X.Org drivers. There is quite a lot of work involved, but at the FOSDEM X.Org meeting he shared an update on his progress. In particular, Matthew is trying to conserve power with the GPU, memory, outputs, and displays.

As I commented last night, this is ridiculous - why can't OLPC perform remotely as well as every other computer manufacturer on the planet? Especially with a first-mover product with (for now) unmatched features. I want 1-laptop deployments, 5-laptop deployments, and 10-laptop deployments. I really hope there's a good reason why that's not as easy as it seems. Here's a business plan for selling laptops, the profits (if any) can go back into (re-)hiring and paying programmers, continuing R&D for the next generation OLPC XO-2, deployment personnel, and any excess could be offered as grants to create low-cost pilot projects or backstop community/peer support groups by defraying shipping costs and providing free parts.

The open source community is not quite as free-wheeling as it was a decade ago. Now, industry titans like IBM and even one-time nemesis Microsoft are part of the ecosystem, blurring the lines between open and proprietary models.

Mozilla Labs has shown Bespin for the first time. Bespin is a project to create a new cloud and web based development environment which will act as a collaborative working space for coders. The project has been incubating for some months and in it's debut the Mozilla developers show web based editing and project browsing using HTML5 features, such as Canvas, to create a clean and stylish interface, which is already quite responsive.

As Valentine's Day once again approaches, can we help it if our attentions turn to Linux? Of course not. So, here are a handful of tips for spreading the Linux love to your heart's desire. After all, what's *not* to love about Linux?

The release of a stable version of Debian GNU/Linux is normally a time of rejoicing and celebration for the 1000-plus geeks who provide Linux users with one of the best distributions going. But the emergence of Lenny, or version 5.0, on Saturday, February 14, will be tinged with some sadness as well, following the death of a developer in a tragic accident last year. Debian project leader (DPL) Steve Mcintyre said: "We will be dedicating the Lenny release to our long-term contributor and friend Thiemo Seufer, who was tragically killed in a car accident in Germany on December 26 last year.

Google's expertise in translation has begun to pay dividends for an entirely separate project, its Chrome browser--as well as any other software using the open-source spell-checking package called Hunspell. Chrome combines WebKit's spell-check infrastructure with Hunspell's multilanguage library of correctly spelled words to supply spell-check in 27 languages. But many widely used words were missing from Hunspell, and Google used its translation expertise to fill in the gaps.