Thom Holwerda Archive

Red Hat's OLPC lead has written an update on the OLPC project on his weblog. "I wrote up a long update on where we are in the software and hardware for the One Laptop per Child project. We've gotten a lot done, but I don't think that's been communicated to the outside world very well. So, for the first time, here's an update of where we are."

A common heard question in the operating systems world is, 'if the alternatives to Windows are so much better, why aren't people en masse switching to them?' People come up with all sorts of answers to this question, but in fact, the social psychology world already has a fairly simple answer to this question. This answer also happens to actually explain why Zeta sold so well through the usually superficial television retail channel.

Intel's planning its own version of 'Quadrophenia' for this week's Intel Developer Forum. It has already revealed the code names for the server and desktop versions of those chips: Clovertown and Kentsfield. Those models will be constructed by combining Intel's two newest dual-core processors in those categories in a multichip package. Intel also announced low-end Xeons.

A non-technical overview of the Xgl implementation, and how it relates to Compiz and the nVidia driver, has been published by Emanuele Tamponi. Interestingly, the article mentions that Compiz requires Mesa to implement the infamous GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap function; but since the new beta driver from nVidia implements said function, you can now have Compiz in 3D glory without Xgl or AIGLX (howto).

Apparantly, Gael Duval has leaked the first bits of information concerning his Ulteo project to the LXF magazine. "You can't fail to notice that in the screenshot he sent us, Ulteo is running inside a web browser. What's more, the screenshot also shows Duval creating a presentation on the 'Ulteo Connected Desktop'. Ulteo is going to be hosted on Duval's own servers, enabling users to connect to their own desktop from anywhere in the world. The system administration and upgrades will be handled at the server end, as too will application installation. Anyone with a browser will be able to use Ulteo - indeed, Ulteo is going to need a broadband connection to work - as the client will only require Java."

"The Free Software Foundation wishes to clarify a few factual points about the Second Discussion Draft of GNU GPL version 3, on which recent discussion has presented inaccurate information. The FSF has no power to force anyone to switch from GPLv2 to GPLv3 on their own code. We intentionally wrote GPLv2 (and GPLv1) so we would not have this power. Software developers will continue to have the right to use GPLv2 for their code after GPLv3 is published, and we will respect their decisions."

Alan Cox, the famous Linux kernel hacker, saw his Thinkpad explode. His wife writes on her weblog: "Alan was on the other side of the room from the laptop. I was elsewhere. He yelled out, I ambled towards the room in my own good time, and then I heard 'Fire! Real fire! Call the fire brigade, now!' and I speeded up a bit." This is the first laptop of a tech 'celebrity' to explode.

"With the recent public release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 beta 1, system administrators like myself (and their IT managers) may face major system upgrades in the near future. Given that I've got until 2012 before maintenance support for RHEL 4 ends, I need to see real value to convince me to upgrade, especially when you consider RHEL 4 has proved to meet the needs of my organization nicely. So, the question is why should enterprises upgrade from earlier releases of Red Hat Enterprise Linux when RHEL 5 is officially released?"

I just received an email from Bernd Korz informing me that the Zeta 1.21 live CD has been released for everybody to download. Korz says the first results from testers were very positive. The download page says: "Magnussoft ZETA 1.21 - An Operating System that provides a lot of new advantages combined with high performance besides general tools for your daily work."

Hackers are hitting paydirt in their search for browser bugs. According to Symantec's twice-yearly Internet Security Threat Report, hackers found 47 bugs in Mozilla's open-source browsers and 38 bugs in Internet Explorer during the first six months of this year. That's up significantly from the 17 Mozilla and 25 IE bugs found in the previous six months. Even Apple's Safari browser saw its bugs double, jumping from six in the last half of 2005 to 12 in the first half of 2006. Opera was the only browser tracked by Symantec that saw the number of vulnerabilities decline, but not by much. Opera bugs dropped from nine to seven during the period.

NetBSD held a public 'Bugathon' this weekend: developers and users gathered together on a public IRC channel where they discussed and fixed a lot of PR's (270 bugs closed in just two days). It was such a success that the NetBSD developers plan to organize such event regularly. There's also a website (still under construction).

A small registry hack in Vista RC1 will turn on the Windows Mobile Device Center, Microsoft's replacement for ActiveSync. Microsoft enables the WMDC only for internal testers, but this little hack enables WMDC for everyone. Much-needed for PDA owners.

The Elive team has released Elive 0.5, the Enlightenment-based distribution. This distribution is one of the few (the only?) Enlightenment distributions, and offers the 'legacy' E16 and the new and advanced E17. This new release comes with a Debian kernel version 2.16.15, autolaunchers for all sorts of removable media, and much more. Read the changelog, view some screenshots, and download.

"Gael Duval, the founder of the popular MandrivaLinux project, was fired from Mandriva last spring in an effort to cut costs. Almost immediately afterward, Duval began work on a new GNU/Linux distribution, Ulteo. As of this writing, Ulteo has not yet released its first beta edition, but it should be available soon. While we're all waiting, I figured I'd ask Mr Duval some questions about Ulteo, Mandriva, and starting GNU/Linux projects in general."