Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 2nd Jan 2006 16:43 UTC, submitted by Anonymous
David Reveman has made the latest XGL source code available to download. This comes a few weeks after development of the project was criticised for being done 'behind closed doors'. There have been huge changes to XGL, the most significant being restructuring of the code, allowing XGL's GLX support to function on other drivers than the proprietary Nvidia one. Xcompmgr can currently be run under XGL with full acceleration provided that the proprietary ATI or Nvidia drivers are used. An OpenGL based compositing manager, 'Compiz' is currently in the works and a release is expected in February. David intends to get the code into freedesktop CVS as soon as possible, after which the code should eventually merge with Xorg.
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RE: Don't discount those who value FOSS
by jonsmirl on Tue 3rd Jan 2006 01:04
in reply to "Don't discount those who value FOSS"
Member since:2005-07-06
If you stick with "open source or die" and ATI/Nvidia never opens their hardware then we might as well forget about Linux on the desktop.
A proprietary driver should always be optional, but never a required default. If FOSS has to go partly closed source to "win" on the desktop, it has already lost.
Optional will depend on which hardware you buy. XGL has free drivers available for a lot of hardware: http://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/Status
But a proprietary driver is not optional if you buy Nvidia hardware. If you own their hardware then the proprietary driver is required. But you weren't forced into this situation, you got there by choosing to buy NVidia. If you had chosen ATI you could choose between open Mesa and fglrx.
I should also point out that there are no free drivers available for ATI's latest chips either.
Edited 2006-01-03 01:09
RE: Don't discount those who value FOSS
by kaiwai on Tue 3rd Jan 2006 01:24
in reply to "Don't discount those who value FOSS"
Member since:2005-07-06
A proprietary driver should always be optional, but never a required default. If FOSS has to go partly closed source to "win" on the desktop, it has already lost.
Babe, there are alternatives. I used Matrox cards with UNIX's for MANY years, and guess what, they still sell the Matrox G550, which is completely opensource driver, all the features supported, is available for both AGP and PCIe.
Now sure, it isn't bleeding edge, but I am sure for what most people need to use it for, it'll do the job quite nicely - and you can use it with the nice warm fuzzy opensource feeling that you long for.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
If you stick with "open source or die" and ATI/Nvidia never opens their hardware then we might as well forget about Linux on the desktop.
A proprietary driver should always be optional, but never a required default. If FOSS has to go partly closed source to "win" on the desktop, it has already lost.
If FOSS again becomes encumbered with any dependancy on closed source it doesn't matter if it has larger uptake. Then the core reason why FOSS exists in the first place has been slaughtered.
First get a fully Free implementation out the door and then enable the choice of tainting the system for those who are comfortable with it. Otherwise I see XGL and EGL chasing the proprietary drivers of the Graphics Leader du Jour for all eternity (be it ATI, Nvidia or an unknown third party) and a fork of X.org to keep it unencumbered from CSS driver dependancies for those who do care.
Even though you don't mind giving up Freedom in core infrastructure, it doesn't mean that others don't. Dependancy on closed drivers for display is the same as the Java trap. Your software is open, but foundation is not, still shackling people to money interests of lockin companies.