http://www.osnews.com/ Exploring the Future of Computing en-us Copyright 2001-2009, David Adams OSNews version 4 donotreply@osnews.com (Adam Scheinberg) donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:11:40 GMT http://www.osnews.com/images/osnews.gif http://www.osnews.com/ 120 http://www.osnews.com/story/21766/Linux_Kernel_Patch_Works_Around_Microsoft_s_FAT_Patents/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21766/Linux_Kernel_Patch_Works_Around_Microsoft_s_FAT_Patents/ The FAT file system is the file system used by MS-DOS and earlier versions of Windows. It's a relatively simple and straightforward file system, supported by just about any operating system, making it the favoured file system on memory cards and the like. FAT is an ECMA and ISO standard, but these only apply for FAT12 and FAT16 without support for long file names, and therein lies a problem. Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:17:48 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 29 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News lemur2 http://www.osnews.com/story/21751/KVM-87_Released/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21751/KVM-87_Released/ A couple of days ago kvm-87 was released featuring bug fixes, performance improvements, a preview of irqfd, new support for http protocol using curl version 6., and additional support for port redirection. The most notable of these from the end user perspective is the new http support. A good use case for this new feature is booting a livecd over http with a command like "qemu-kvm -cdrom http://www.sample.com/linux.iso". Awesome! Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:28:38 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 2 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News diegocg http://www.osnews.com/story/21743/The_Pros_and_Conns_of_Intel_s_ConnMan_for_Linux/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21743/The_Pros_and_Conns_of_Intel_s_ConnMan_for_Linux/ "Intel has created a new network management and configuration system for Linux called ConnMan - but not everyone is pleased to see it challenge NetworkManager. Ars looks at the pros and "conns" of the decision to create the new software." Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:51:32 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 27 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21691/Amazon_Kindle_Powered_by_Linux_FSF_Not_Impressed/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21691/Amazon_Kindle_Powered_by_Linux_FSF_Not_Impressed/ "As my colleague Michelle Menga is reporting, Amazon is now making new source code available for its Amazon Kindle. Basically what it represents is, Amazon's responsibility to make the GPL licenced source code that is used in the Kindle available to others. That's part of the GPL license and Amazon is doing its part. Digging into the code that Amazon is now making available, provides some really interesting insight into the underlying structure of the Kindle." Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:49:45 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 46 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21648/SquashFS_Not_Just_for_Embedded_Systems/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21648/SquashFS_Not_Just_for_Embedded_Systems/ "Let's take a look at SquashFS. SquashFS is a read-only compressed file system that has a variable block size. The primary intent of the file system is for constrained block device/memory systems. The classic example targets SquashFS for embedded systems but there are other uses for it that fall outside of the embedded world, and could surprise you." Wed, 10 Jun 2009 18:50:29 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News linuxmag http://www.osnews.com/story/21644/Linux_Kernel_2_6_30_Released/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21644/Linux_Kernel_2_6_30_Released/ Linus Torvalds has announced the release of version 2.6.30 of the Linux kernel. "I'm sure we've missed something, and I know we have some regressions pending. At the same time, we do need the coverage of a eral release, and on the whole it looks pretty good. We've fixed a few regressions in the last few days, and there's always 2.6.30.x." The list of changes is interesting. Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:46:09 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 16 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News RJop http://www.osnews.com/story/21629/CRUX_PPC_2_5_Released/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21629/CRUX_PPC_2_5_Released/ "CRUX PPC 2.5 is now available. Supports Apple 32bit "NewWorld" G3/G4 and Apple 64bit G5, Genesi PegasosII and Efika, Acube Sam440ep, IBM RS/6000 CHRP32 (604e), YDL Powerstation, IBM Intellistation POWER, and IBM pSeries RS64/POWERn. CRUX PPC 2.5 is released as two different installation ISO: 32bit and 64bit. The 32bit version is based on a single lib toolchain instead the 64bit one comes with a multilib toolchain. These two versions share the same ports tree. To increase CRUX PPC usability on pSeries, starting from 2.5 we do provide ports for some IBM utils." Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:49:27 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 2 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21614/NILFS_a_File_System_to_Make_SSDs_Scream/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21614/NILFS_a_File_System_to_Make_SSDs_Scream/ The 2.6.30 kernel is chock full of next-gen file systems. One such example is NILFS, a new log-structured file system that dramatically improves write performance. Thu, 04 Jun 2009 11:12:46 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 12 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News linuxmag http://www.osnews.com/story/21604/Anatomy_of_a_Linux_Hypervisor/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21604/Anatomy_of_a_Linux_Hypervisor/ The battleground has shifted from the Operating System to the hypervisor, and Linux has a clear role to play. One of the most important modern innovations of Linux is its transformation into a hypervisor. Learn about KVM and Lguest and why the most important modern innovations of Linux is its transformation into a hypervisor. Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:24:07 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 0 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21573/Linux_Unified_Kernel_Aims_to_Combine_Linux_NT_Kernel/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21573/Linux_Unified_Kernel_Aims_to_Combine_Linux_NT_Kernel/ There are several ways to run Windows programs on Linux (virtualisation, WINE) and vice versa really isn't a problem either with Cygwin, or better yet, native ports thanks to the Windows variants of Gtk+ and Qt. Still, what if Windows support was built straight into the Linux kernel? Is something like that even possible? Sure it is, and the Chinese figured it'd be an interesting challenge, and called it the Linux Unified Kernel. Thu, 28 May 2009 12:08:44 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 68 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News lemur2 http://www.osnews.com/story/21561/Introducing_SELinux_Sandbox_Confines_Untrusted_Binaries/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21561/Introducing_SELinux_Sandbox_Confines_Untrusted_Binaries/ Eric Paris, a SELinux developer, has announced today a new SELinux feature: "Dan and I (mostly Dan) have started to play with using SELinux to confine random untrusted binaries. The program is called 'sandbox.' The idea is to allow administrators to lock down tightly untrusted applications in a sandbox where they can not use the network and open/create any file that is not handed to the process. Can be used to protect a system while allowing it to run some untrusted binary." Tue, 26 May 2009 18:32:43 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 5 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News diegocg http://www.osnews.com/story/21545/Boost_Linux_Performance_on_Old_hardware/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21545/Boost_Linux_Performance_on_Old_hardware/ The ideas in this article may help you breathe life (and some additional security) into your old machines and make better use of Linux on aging hardware. A lack of physical memory can severely hamper Linux performance. Llearn how to accurately measure the amount of memory your Linux system uses. You also get practical advice on reducing your memory requirements using an Ubuntu system as an example. Fri, 22 May 2009 20:29:35 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 10 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21534/Install_the_GNU_ARM_Toolchain_Under_Linux/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21534/Install_the_GNU_ARM_Toolchain_Under_Linux/ There is a crying demand among mobile phone vendors for talented ARM programmers, and there's plenty of work to be done. This article provides a starting point for understanding the software side of embedded systems development by describing one set of commonly used tools: the GNU ARM toolchain. Thu, 21 May 2009 17:19:20 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 3 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News http://www.osnews.com/story/21521/Moblin_v2_User_Interface_Very_Impressive_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21521/Moblin_v2_User_Interface_Very_Impressive_/ "We first got excited for Moblin 2.0 back in January when seeing how fast this Linux distribution had booted on Atom-powered netbooks. This Fedora-derived distribution booted even faster with a newer development release that came out this past March. While Moblin 2.0 final is not yet released, there is now more to get excited over than just amazing boot times. Moblin 2.0 will introduce a Clutter-based user interface and from our initial encounters with this release, it is very impressive! In this article we have more information on this new Moblin UI along with screenshots and videos." Tue, 19 May 2009 21:03:42 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 24 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News Michael Larabel http://www.osnews.com/story/21510/_Why_Linux_Is_Not_Yet_Ready_for_the_Desktop_/ http://www.osnews.com/story/21510/_Why_Linux_Is_Not_Yet_Ready_for_the_Desktop_/ We all know them. We all hate them. They are generally overdone, completely biased, or so vague they border on the edge of pointlessness (or toppled over said edge). Yes, I'm talking about those "Is Linux ready for the desktop" articles. Still, this one is different. Mon, 18 May 2009 19:06:08 GMT donotreply@osnews.com (Thom Holwerda) Linux 335 http://www.osnews.com/topics/9 News