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Linux and Open Source News for 14th January 2008

Linux Software

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Source: LinuxTracker.org

Category: amaroK Size: 0.01 KB Status: no seeders and no leecher Added: 2008-01-14 18:25:12


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Source: LinuxTracker.org

Category: Wolvix Size: 0.01 KB Status: no seeders and no leecher Added: 2008-01-14 18:16:25


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Source: LinuxTracker.org

Category: RedHat Size: 2.48 GB Status: 1 seeders and 77 leechers Added: 2008-01-14 12:09:08


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Source: LinuxTracker.org

Category: Linux+ Live Size: 177.09 MB Status: 3 seeders and 9 leechers Added: 2008-01-14 00:44:28


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Source: startcom

Eddy Nigg has announced the first release candidate for StartCom MultiMedia Edition 5.0.7: "We are glad to announce a first release candidate of version 5.0.7 of the StartCom MultiMedia Edition codenamed 'Kessem'. This test release introduces a new low-latency 2.6.23 kernel in addition to many, many updated packages .


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Source: weekly

This week in DistroWatch Weekly: Feature: Distributions and KDE 4 News: Fedora's new project leader, Gentoo's deepening crisis, VectorLinux for 64-bit processors Released last week: PCLinuxOS 2008 "MiniMe", DesktopBSD 1.6 Upcoming releases: openSUSE 11.0 New additions: Greenie Linux New distributions: Doppix, Linguas OS Reader comments Read more in .



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Source: Linux Today

Blue-GNU: "Google restricts the download of entire PicasaWeb albums to users of its proprietary (and Windows only) software Picasa. A fairly simple Bash script can do that and even more "


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Source: Linux Today

developerWorks: "Much has been written about networking performance, optimization, and tuning on a variety of hardware, platforms, and operating systems under various workloads "


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Source: Linux Today

The Linux Distillery: "Can open source compete with the big boys? When it comes to spam, is there a free lunch ?"


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Source: Linux Today

ZDNet Education: "Although I still haven't been able to get my hands on an XO for a serious review, thanks to the joys of VMWare, I was able to give the Sugar OS a good test drive tonight "


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Source: Linux Today

Socialized Software: "The folks at Projity sent me a note on Friday about reaching the 200,000 download mark for their open source project management software, OpenProj "


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Source: Linux Today

Datamation: "Ever since the dawn of commercial software, piracy has been a problem without a realistic solution that meets the needs of both the software vendor and the end user "


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Source: Linux Today

Computerworld UK: "One of the reason that open source has yet to make a huge impact on business in Europe is that there are relatively few ways that it can make its voice heard.


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Source: Linux Today

internetnews.com: "With the innovations in the release of KDE 4 this week, the pundits are at it again. This time, one could argue that KDE 4 is among the most advanced desktops--for any operating system, let alone Linux.


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Source: Linux Today

The Family Guide to Digital Freedom: "Every other month we see a piece explaining 'how to convert grandma to Linux.' Forget about converting grandma or anybody else to personally use Free Software as your highest priority "


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Source: Linux Today

Tummblr: "I, and many Gentoo users and fans, have just found out that the Gentoo Foundation ceased to exist a few weeks ago because the current trustees failed to renew and file mundane NPO paperwork in New Mexico "


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Source: Linux Today

InformationWeek: "Until recently, Linux PCs were about as easy to find in stores as a vinyl record "


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Source: Linux Today

AP/The New York Times: "Taiwanese computer parts maker Asus obviously didn't get the memo "


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Source: Linux Today

Fedora: "I am very pleased to announce that Paul Frields has accepted a job with Red Hat, and he will be taking over as Fedora Project Leader in February "


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Source: Linux Today

Fear and Loathing: "This past holiday my good friend Don Hopkins got a lot of work done on the finishing touches on releasing the original SimCity source code under the GNU General Public Library "


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Source: Linux Today

Linux.com: "Osmo, a compact yet feature-rich personal information organizer for Linux, separates itself from the pack of other calendar applications due to its light weight and easy-to-use design "


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Source: Linux Today

Linux Journal: "Konqueror, KDE's default file manager and browser, is a good all-around tool, but that doesn't necessarily mean it fits all your file management needs "


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Source: Linux Today

Linux.com: "Thanks to Linux kernel updates and newly added drivers, wireless broadband access is now easy to set up on laptops "


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Source: Linux Today

Ubuntu Geek: "KDE 4.0 is the innovative Free Software desktop containing lots of applications for every day use as well as for specific purposes "



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Source: Slashdot: Linux

Steve writes "Originally based on the Freerock GNOME project, GNOME.SlackBuild (GSB) brings the latest GNOME Desktop, 2.20.3, to Slackware Linux. It provides both a binary distribution and a complete GNOME source build system. The GSB project has been revitalized by a new development team that has, over the past several months of hard work, re-engineered the GSB source build system and brought the project back to the forefront of the GNOME packaging projects for Slackware. This project also supports and provides binary packages for x86_64 ports of Slackware, such as Slamd64. Follow the link for information about the project, screenshots, and downloads."Read more of this story at Slashdot.



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Source: ONLamp.com

My last two blog posts on egg-related topics had a title prefix of “easy_install tip”. This post is related, but since it’s handled with setuptools rather than easy_install, I’m prefixing it accordingly.
Have you ever wondered how various packages you install put scripts into your path, such as into /usr/bin? If they’re using setuptools to define their package, then they may be using a script entry point. Here is an example taken and modified from a toy setup.py I have sitting around:

entry_points = {
'console_scripts': [
'my_wonderful_script = my_wonderful_module:my_wonderful_function',
]
},

If you run
python setup.py install
, it will create a script named “my_wonderful_script” in your scripts directory. On Linux, this is typically the same directory that the Python executable itself is in. If you’re on Windows, this is a directory that looks something like C:\Python25\scripts. When you run the generated script, it will call `my_wonderful_function` from the module `my_wonderful_module`. This is something that is really easy to setup and can come in very handy. Next time, I’ll write about how to control where stuff goes when you easy_install it. I guess we’ll be back to the “easy_install” tip prefix.


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Source: ONLamp.com

Not only is free software development unprecedented in its size and
geographic spread–hundreds of people from countries around the world
collaborating on individual projects–but it brings together people
who are notorious for having trouble dealing with other people. That’s
really impressive when you think about it.



Of course, the stereotype of the computer programmer with Aspergers
Syndrome is overblown. I used the term in my title to attract
attention, but I’ve worked with enough programmers to know that many
warm and socially sophisticated people take up the job.



Let’s put it more gently: many programmers have the feeling their
people skills haven’t kept up with their technical mastery. That’s why
they are attracted to sites such as Perl hackers Michael Schwern’s
geek2geek,
whose motto is “What we have here is a failure to communicate.”



How does free software development work so well, then? People often
remark that the Internet made the explosion of development in the
mid-1990s possible, but they focus (wouldn’t you know it!) on the
Internet’s technical functions: instantaneous transmission, exact
replication of content, etc. Occasionally a general “nobody knows
you’re a dog” comment gets thrown in too. But we have to consider the
social behavior encouraged by the tools the geeks developed.




Look at the variety of ages, cultures, nationalities, and social
backgrounds of people who work on major free software projects.
Imagine working in a cubicle and dealing with twenty of those
strangers a day, walking in to ask a question or propose a change. And
then convening in a meeting room several times a day with a few dozen
of them to plan the next project steps. Mr. Personality himself
couldn’t cope.



The structure of mailing lists, bug-tracking systems, and wiki
discussion forums tames the onslaught. They seem relatively
unstructured, but they do give people some space to take in a whole
context and gather their thoughts before they participate. They also
set a context by providing a purpose to every post.



Context makes people feel safe. Context is what the sufferer from
Aspergers Syndrome lacks when a person walks up at a party and says
hi.



A very accommodating “be liberal in what you accept” philosophy is
also encouraged by typical submission processes for code. Everything gets
dumped into a pot (and sometimes even checked into a version control
system) and tested later. That puts up a buffer between the free
expression of each developer and the tough accept-or-reject decision.



Even the trait that draws the most criticism for these media–the lack
of visual and emotional cues–can be an asset for people with people
problems. If partipants are not great at projecting their own feelings
or judging the feelings of others, it’s better to force everyone to
make their opinions explicit. Yes, misunderstandings still arise. But
what’s easier to parse and respond to: the tone of written text or the
fleeting facial expression of a person in conversation?



Some of these traits carry over into the more interactive–but still
text-based–medium of chat as well.



This leads to the interesting question: whither goes geek culture if
developers adopt the richer and more immediate media experience
provided by VoIP and virtual worlds? Will free software development
become more like the cubicle-from-hell experience I described earlier?
Will developers survive the move? Will they pull back and recognize
the older and clunkier media have their advantages?


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Source: ONLamp.com

After hearing the word FUD used on an almost daily basis in blogs, newstories, idle banter, I “fear” with little “uncertainty” or “doubt”, that it was perhaps the most overused word in IT in 2007. The word FUD is almost approaching the word “communism” in the McCarthy era. In fact, in a weird ironic twist, the use of the word FUD, is often FUD. Think about that one for a bit…
I submitted FUD to the Lake Superior State University banished words list. Does anyone else have a word they think should be banned?



previous    The O'Reilly Network's Linux DevCenter Articles and Weblogs    next


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Source: Linux DevCenter

I finally broke down and ordered a LapGenie. I would have bought one a long time ago, but at $139 my inner cheapskate just couldn’t quite take the plunge. Well I finally did, and I’m glad. It’s lightweight, sturdy, and comfortable. It supports the weight of my laptop, adjusts to a useful range of heights and angles, and I can squirm and fidget all I want to without upsetting the computer. I use it all over the place- couch, bed, and outside chair when the weather permits.
It seems to be well-made, so I expect many years of service. They have a 30-day money-back policy and a good warranty. It showed up five days after I placed the order- many thumbs up for the LapGenie.



Updated: Tue Jan 15 23:55:02 2008


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