Archive

"Mark Shuttleworth has announced at the OpenStack conference that Canonical has received a ringing endorsement from HP in the form of certification for Ubuntu 12.04 LTS on the ProLiant server systems. Responding to customer demand, HP has decided to officially support the popular flavor of Linux giving sysadmins another flexible software option to leverage their current and future hardware."

Not being content with the state of open source graphics drivers for Linux, a developer working for Texas Instruments has reverse-engineered his competitor's (Qualcomm) driver and written an open-source Snapdragon driver. With being tainted by legal documents at Texas Instruments, the developer who is also involved with Linaro, had no other choice but to work on an open source graphics driver for his competitor in his free time. The open source Qualcomm Snapdragon/Adreno driver is called Freedreno.

After two months of testing the release candidate, the Syllable project presents Syllable Desktop 0.6.7. The release notes detail many changes and additions, such as the first 3D functionality in Syllable (screenshot - the screenshot shows tearing because the demos are animating at full speed. This is an artifact of the screenshot process, not of the actual display). Other highlights include that REBOL 3 and Boron are now included and that the system is now prepared for the upcoming high-level Red programming language.

I don't actually have a reason for trying to build a Linux kernel with the CONFIG_PREEMPT_RT patch set. There's no way I can even measure the impact of it. Still, I felt like having a "real-time" Linux box, and set out to make one. Little did I know how difficult it would be to even get started.

"Over a thousand developers contribute code to any given Linux kernel release. It's a process that works well from a technical perspective, but it's also one that has its fair share of shortcomings. In a panel at the Linux Foundation Collaboration summit this week, top Linux kernel developers detailed their common pet peeves about the Linux development model. It's a model that is not for the feint of heart ."

"Linus Torvalds just can't help but be a thorn in Microsoft's side. First, he created an open source project that completely upset Microsoft's business model. And now, he has helped shoot down an important Microsoft patent in Redmond's crusade to wring licensing dollars out of Google Android and other versions of Linux."

"In an unexpected turn of events, one of the key committees in the European Parliament voted recently to weaken a reform of the copyright monopoly for allowing re-publication and access to orphan works, pieces of our cultural heritage where no copyright monopoly holder can be located. There's a problem with this. There are 24 seats in the committee, and one group (non-inscrits) was absent, lacking deputies to fill that person's vote. So, there should have been 23 votes at the most. But we just counted 12 votes for reform and 14 against. That's 26." Sometimes, people complain that the EU has a democratic deficit. It looks like we had a democratic surplus this time.

Version 0.2.5 of the new Red/System programming language has been released, after it celebrated its first birthday at the third Red Developers Conference. Bindings with the standard C library, cURL, SDL and SQLite that were developed over the past year are now properly supported on Syllable Desktop. Conference videos introduce Red/System and the bindings. Earlier, new floating point support was released (Mandelbrot screenshot; demo source, see the .reds file).

"A US judge has ordered Motorola Mobility and Google to turn over information to Apple on Google's acquisition in 2005 of Android, its development of the Android OS and the proposed acquisition of Motorola. According to Motorola, the information Apple seeks regarding Google's acquisition of Motorola and Android is not relevant to any damages asserted in the case."

Woody Leonhard provides an in-depth, hands-on look at Windows 8 Consumer Preview, finding Microsoft's old Windows desktop and tablet-friendly Metro UI to be strange bedfellows. "In my experience, with rare exceptions, longtime Windows users don't like Windows 8. There's too much change, and it isn't at all clear that the adjustments benefit people who've grown accustomed to mice and 'legacy' programs. And though Windows 8 introduces some nice new features, they're minimal. If you're looking for a business desktop OS with revolutionary improvements comparable to Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 95, or even Windows Vista, it has yet to be seen. But if you're considering a move to a Windows-based tablet, you'll want to dive into Windows 8 with both feet", Leonhard writes, offering a guide to some of the lesser-known nooks and crannies in Windows 8 and an extensive visual tour of features and hidden menus.

"Don't expect RIM to open source its entire operating system, or its radio stack. But the original smartphone company is gambling its future success on open source, and it has an expert on board to help. Mary Branscombe asked Senior Technical Director for Open Software, Eduardo Pelegri Llopart, where open source fits in at RIM."

DragonFly BSD 3.0 was released today, bringing the improved performance on MP systems (MP kernel became the default one in ths release), TrueCrypt-compatible disk encryption, enhanced POSIX compatibility and other improvements. The next big thing for the project will be the major revision of the HAMMER file system (HAMMER2). The DragonFly founder Matthew Dillon said it to be the main focus of his effort for the whole yaer, though the full implementation is expected only in 2013.

What your interface communicates to users can be just as important as what your software does, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister in discussing the latest edition of the 'Microsoft Manual of Style,' a style guide aimed at designers and developers who create Microsoft software, as well as those who write about it. 'The gist of much of Microsoft's advice is that a user's relationship with computer software is a unique one, and it's important to craft the language of software UIs accordingly,' McAllister writes. 'Occasionally, Microsoft's recommendations verge on the absurd. For example, you might not think it necessary to admonish developers to "not use slang that may be considered profane or derogatory, such as 'pimp' or 'bitch,'" but apparently it is.'

"Research in Motion has said the native software development kit for Blackberry 10 will be committed to open source. The firm, which has a history of basing its business on being a closed system, is shifting more and more to open source. Its upcoming Blackberry 10 native SDK will include many open source code resources."