Barnes & Noble Asks DoJ to Investigate Microsoft’s Patent Trolling

Legal 89 Comments
To anyone who has been reading anything on the web over the past few months, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Barnes & Noble is currently embroiled in a patent lawsuit started by Microsoft, after the bookseller/tablet maker refused to pay protection money to Redmond. Barnes & Noble has now openly said what we already knew, and has filed an official complaint at the US Department of Justice: Microsoft is engaging in anticompetitive practices. Update: Here's the slide deck B&N presented to the DoJ.
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Adobe: HTML5 > Mobile Flash

Wireless 50 Comments
"Sources close to Adobe that have been briefed on the company's future development plans have revealed this forthcoming announcement to ZDNet: Our future work with Flash on mobile devices will be focused on enabling Flash developers to package native apps with Adobe AIR for all the major app stores. We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations.. . ."
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Fedora 16 Released

Fedora Core 63 Comments
"The following are major features for Fedora 16: enhanced cloud support including Aeolus Conductor, Condor Cloud, HekaFS, OpenStack and pacemaker-cloud; KDE Plasma workspaces 4.7; GNOME 3.2; a number of core system improvements including GRUB 2 and the removal of HAL; an updated libvirtd, trusted boot, guest inspection, virtual lock manager and a pvops based kernel for Xen all improve virtualization support."
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Mozilla Releases Firefox 8

Mozilla, Gecko 41 Comments
Mozilla has announced the release of Firefox 8 for Windows, Mac, Linux and Firefox for Android. This release appears to be a relatively minor update. Perhaps the main feature of this update is the ability for user control over third-party addons. "At Mozilla, we think you should be in control, so we are disabling add-ons installed by third parties without your permission and letting you pick the ones you want to keep." A detailed technical description of this new Firefox release can be found in the release notes.
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Synaptics Maps Windows 8 Gestures to Touchpads

Windows 10 Comments
Windows 8 is still in heavy development, and still has a long way to go before it ends up on our desktops, laptops, and tablets. One of the major concerns is how Windows 8 is going to deal with a traditional keyboard and mouse/trackpad combination - especially on non-tablet computers where touch input is pretty much not an option. While Microsoft assures us it's all good, Synaptics decided to see what it, as trackpad maker, can do.
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U.S. Senate to Vote on Net Neutrality

Internet 16 Comments
According to Wired, "The Senate is likely to vote within days on a measure that would undo net-neutrality rules adopted by the Federal Communications Commission in 2010, even though they've yet to go into effect... The House passed a similar measure, but Obama has threatened to veto it. It was not immediately clear whether the Senate has the necessary votes for passage."If you care about net neutrality, now is a good time to head on over to Save The Internet and get involved in this issue.
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Nokia N950 Running Plasma Active on Mer

KDE 6 Comments
MeeGo community member Vgrade. who is involved with the Mer Core project, describes his experiences with adapting Plasma Active for ARM architecture and running in on top of Mer. Even though Plasma Active One is targeted for tablets, it runs as a usable UX on a Nokia N950 handset. Mer itself is an open, inclusive, meritocratically governed and openly developed Linux core, providing a mobile-optimised base distribution for use by device manufacturers. The Plasma Active team plans to focus on a handset UI in Plasma Active Three, which is scheduled for summer 2012.
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The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Released (For Some)

Games 6 Comments
This is massively off-topic since we barely cover the video game industry on OSNews, but in select cases, I'm willing to make exceptions. I just got home from picking up my pre-order copy of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim - Special Edition (Xbox 360), and just want to gloat a little bit for all the peasants among us that won't get it until Thursday or Friday. You can imagine OSNews will be shutting down for the coming, oh, seven months or so.
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In Favor Of FreeBSD On The Desktop

BSD & Darwin 69 Comments
Deep End's Paul Venezia wonders why more folks aren't using FreeBSD on the desktop. 'There used to be a saying -- at least I've said it many times -- that my workstations run Linux, my servers run FreeBSD. Sure, it's quicker to build a Linux box, do a "yum install x y z" and toss it out into the wild as a fully functional server, but the extra time required to really get a FreeBSD box tuned will come back in spades through performance and stability metrics. You'll get more out of the hardware, be that virtual or physical, than you will on a generic Linux binary installation.'
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Simplicity vs. Customizability in Desktop Design

Graphics 78 Comments
In the commercial software world, user interfaces are generally designed by one group. Like Microsoft for Windows or Apple for Mac OS. Those desktop environments were designed by one company who did things like user testing and statistical analysis to try and make the desktop they thought would work best. Linux is different. Large groups definitely DO perform user testing and statistical analysis, but one group can also say "Here's what we want" and, if they have the ability to code it, their idea comes into being. It's pretty amazing, when you think about it. Linux lets people create what they want. If you don't like what's out there, fork it! Or start from scratch! You're in control!
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German Court Grants Motorola Injunction Against Apple

Legal 99 Comments
Why oh why does big news always break when I'm already in bed? This is a big one, guys: Motorola has been granted an injunction in Germany against Apple, which, as far as we can tell right now, covers Apple's entire portfolio of mobile products. Motorola can enforce this injunction, barring all of Apple's mobile products from the German market. In addition, Apple has to pay Motorola damages from 2003 and onwards. Update: Apple has responded (see Engadget article linked to above): "This is a procedural issue, and has nothing to do with the merits of the case. It does not affect our ability to sell products or do business in Germany at this time." At this time huh? Huh.
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Google Mulls Divorcing Chamber of Commerce over PROTECT IP

Google 16 Comments
"Google is considering ditching the U.S. Chamber of Commerce out of frustration with its support for legislation that would force Internet companies to police websites that peddle pirated movies and fake Viagra. The rumblings of a defection - a potentially serious blow to one of Washington's most powerful lobbies - come weeks after Yahoo left the Chamber in October, largely over its support of Sen. Patrick Leahy's online piracy bill, the PROTECT IP Act." What, the US Chamber of Commerce is a front for the pharmaceutical and content industries? I'm shocked.
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Linux Mint 12 Builds Custom Desktop on Top of GNOME 3

  Submitted by Dart Linux 63 Comments
When GNOME did its version 3 and Ubuntu came up with Unity, the popularity of Linux Mint sky-rocketed, because they stuck with GNOME 2.32. The Mint team has been working on their next version for a while now, and today, they first unveiled what they're working on. There's good news - the team is working on making GNOME 3 likeable. Their question for this release: "How do we make people like Gnome 3? And what do we provide as an alternative to those who still do not want to change?"
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