Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

R&D company PrimeSense, the company responsible for the technology behind Microsoft's Kinect camera system, has, in conjunction with Willow Garage and Side-Kick, released official Windows and Linux (Ubuntu version 10.10 and later) open source drivers for Kinect. What was previously the work of several independent programmers has now been given the vendor's official seal of approval. Microsoft also now seems to have recognised the innate potential of amateur programmers in developing new ideas for using the Kinect for gesture control and is now actively supporting them.

ARM Holdings has officially acknowledged its plans to take on Intel in the server market. However, CEO Warren East is quoted as adding that ARM licensees won't begin to erode Intel's market share until 2014. As Intel pushes to expand its technology into the rapidly growing mobile device space, officials with ARM Holdings -- whose chip designs dominate the smartphone market -- are countering by saying they plan to take on Intel in the server arena.

The Linux Foundation announced that OpenEmbedded developer and Yocto Project maintainer Richard Purdie has been appointed to the position of Linux Foundation Fellow. The appointment signals the growing importance of embedded in the Linux pantheon, as well as the LF's commitment to its new Yocto Project for standardized embedded Linux builds.

Packetfence is one of the most powerful network access control applications available. With this tool you can control who (what, and when) has access to your network. If you are concerned about network security, and you want the absolute most control, Packetfence is what you need.

Google is revising its Android Market client app with a new carousel view as well as a streamlined discovery and purchasing process. Other Android Market revisions include content ratings, a more limited return window, more categories, and better device targeting tools for developers, says the company.

The Linux Foundation has announced that Richard Purdie has been appointed to the position of Linux Foundation Fellow. Purdie, an OpenEmbedded core developer and Yocto Project maintainer, previously worked as an embedded Linux architect in Intel’s Open Source Technology Center and, from 2005 to 2008, was a Software Engineer at OpenedHand where he worked on several other open source projects, including Clutter, X server, Zaurus and Oprofile.

LXer Feature: 12-Dec-2010

The big stories this past week include a Linux Mint 10 review, Matt Asay leaves Canonical, more information on Novell's patents, a nail in Flash's coffin, Chrome OS notebooks will be Windows proof and my interview of Ulf Sandberg of SkySQL. Enjoy!

The kernel has historically been developed independently of anything that runs in user space. The well-defined kernel ABI, built around the POSIX standard, has allowed for a nearly absolute separation between the kernel and the rest of the system. Linux is nearly unique, however, in its division of kernel and user-space development. Proprietary operating systems have always been managed as a single project encompassing both user and kernel space; other free systems (the BSDs, for example) are run that way as well. Might Linux ever take a more integrated approach?

Earlier this year Google announced they would be switching to the EXT4 file-system on their Linux servers (previously they were still using the mature EXT2) and at the same time it was made available they had hired Ted Ts'o, the lead developer of this file-system currently in use by a majority of the new Linux desktop distributions. Google's continuing to love the EXT4 file-system and now with their new Android 2.3 "Gingerbread" operating system for smart-phones and other mobile devices, they are switching to EXT4 there too.

Ubuntu Brainstorm is a wiki-like interface that allows the Ubuntu community to input ideas that might make Ubuntu more usable, friendly, or fun. Almost 20,000 ideas have been entered and have received 2.5 million votes in the two years since its introduction. Entries can be sorted by all ideas, popular ideas, ideas in development, or implemented ideas. Matt Zimmerman, Debian developer and Canonical employee, thinks it might be a good idea to periodically collect and discuss the current status and future possibilities of the most popular ideas.

The holiday season is upon us, and you know what that means: relatives coming over wanting to use your WiFi. If you'd like to find a solution somewhere between "run an open, unsecured AP" and "hand out your WPA2 password to people who write things like that down on sticky notes" then setting up a captive portal is a convenient option.

Many mobile application developers are frustrated by the complexity involved in creating apps that work across all platforms. What works on an iPhone won’t necessarily cut it on a BlackBerry and apps that sing on an iPad need to be completely overhauled for an Android-based tablet. An open development ecosystem would go a long way toward getting apps to market faster, and potentially mean less wear-and-tear on developers trying to keep up with evolving technology. Kurt Daniel, COO of mobile application development platform Workllight, makes a great case for the necessity of open mobile app development and has some tips on what developers should consider before writing their first line of code.

/proc is a virtual filesystem generated at boot and updated regularly by the kernel. With /proc you can investigate exactly what hardware your Linux kernel sees, what processes it is running, boot options, and also manipulate kernel events.

Last month Oracle renominated Apache to the Java Executive Committee because we valued their active participation and perspective on Java. Earlier this week, by an overwhelming majority, the Java Executive Committee voted to move Java forward by formally initiating work on both Java SE 7 and SE 8 based on their technical merits. Apache voted against initiating technical committee work on both SE 7 and SE 8, effectively voting against moving Java forward. Now, despite supporting the technical direction, Apache have announced that they are quitting the Executive Committee. Oracle has a responsibility to move Java forward and to maintain the uniformity of the Java standard for the millions of Java developers and the majority of Executive Committee members agree. We encourage Apache to reconsider its position and remain a part of the process to move Java forward. ASF and many open source projects within it are an important part of the overall Java ecosystem.

At this point in time, if you are the kind of person who loves your visits to Facebook, then it is reasonable to conclude that you are the kind of person who also enjoys suffering and pain. Not that there is necessarily anything wrong with liking suffering and pain. There are many people who do, and they typically pay beautiful and mean women or handsome and punishing men to dole out Facebook-style sessions. They charge by the hour, in fact.

The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) announced today that it is resigning from the executive committee of the Java Community Process (JCP), the governance body responsible for managing standards related to the Java programming language. The move is a response to Oracle's ongoing failure to comply with the intellectual property policies established by the JCP.

So will Chrome OS notebooks also have the option to dual-boot another operating system like Windows? Google says no, as "certified" Chrome OS notebooks will only be able to run the single operating system. Part of that may be due to Chrome OS's use of protected flash memory, which is great for security, but isn't so great for custom installs and for spaciousness.

This is strictly a matter of taste, but I think that Linux Mint 10 may be the prettiest Linux I’ve seen. Now, I know that isn’t a great reason to pick a distribution — but out of the box, it helps. Especially for those of us who want to convince Windows XP refugees to switch to Linux instead of Windows 7 or Mac OS X. If you’re going to be staring at a system for a few hours — or all day, you want it to look good. Good is relative, and what looks spiffy to an expert user who spends much time at the command line is probably going to be slightly different than what looks good to novice Linux users. Suffice it to say, they’ve done good.

Most people think “graphical interfaces” when they think of surfing the Web. And, under X11, there are lots of great programs, like Firefox or Chrome. But, the console isn't the wasteland it might seem. Lots of utilities are available for surfing the Web and also for downloading or uploading content.

Earlier this year there was the "Humble Indie Bundle" where anyone could purchase a set of four Indie computer games (that are Linux compatible) for any price they wanted. The games included World of Goo, Aquaria, Gish, Lugaru, and Penumbra Overture. This ended up being such a success with the game developers that they ended up open-sourcing the games after raising quite a bit of money off this bundled deal. Now it appears the developers are working on a second Humble Indie Bundle.