Development
The Elisa Media Center project
Fluendo has announced the initial release of the Elisa Media Center:
Elisa is a project to create an open source cross platform media center solution. While our primary development and deployment platform is GNU/Linux and Unix operating systems we also currently support Microsoft Windows and also hope to support MacOSX in the future. Elisa runs on top of the GStreamer multimedia framework. In addition to personal video recorder functionality (PVR) and Music Jukebox support, Elisa will also interoperate with devices following the DLNA standard like Intel's ViiV systems.
The current
feature list
of Elisa includes:
- The ability to play music, video and images.
- Support for Ogg Vorbis, Ogg Theora, Matroska, MPEG 2, MPEG4, Quicktime and Windows Media formats.
- Support for web radio station playback.
- Support for DVD playback.
- The display of jpeg and png images with image rotation capabilities.
- Remote control support via the Linux Infrared Remote Control (LIRC) project.
- Support for the connection to Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) compatible multimedia devices.
- Support for interoperability with Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) format servers.
- Cross-platform operation on Linux, Unix and Windows.
- Support for OpenGL 1.3 rendering.
- An Extensible plugin framework for user-added features.
- Support for Personal Video Recorder (PVR) features such as video time shifting.
- Support for Intel ViiV multimedia hardware.
- The ability to do fast-forward, slow motion and reverse playback of media.
- Support for videoconferencing and Voice over IP (VoIP).
The core Elisa system is licensed under the GPL with a special exception for use with the proprietary Fluendo plugins and DVD player. The plug-ins are mostly licensed under the MIT license."
The initial release of Elisa, version 0.0.1, was announced this week.
The 0.0.x series is aimed at developers and early adopters with later releases targeting the wider user community. This particular release is mainly a technology preview aimed to show the current features and user interfaces of Elisa to enable us to get early feedback and input from the wider community. The APIs are subject to change very soon though.
For a look at Elisa in action, take a look at the screenshots page, the code is available for download here.
System Applications
Database Software
PostgreSQL Weekly News
The July 9, 2006 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is out with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS news.Managing Many-to-Many Relationships with PL/pgSQL (O'Reilly)
David E. Wheeler works with PL/pgSQL on O'Reilly. "A common pattern when managing the relationship between object-oriented applications and databases is the many-to-many relationship. Object-relational mappers usually manage these relationships as collections of objects, wherein one class has an accessor that returns a collection of related objects."
Interoperability
Samba 3.0.23 is available
Version 3.0.23 of Samba has been announced. "There has been a substantial amount of cleanup work done during this development cycle. We would like to thank both Coverity and Klocwork for analyzing the Samba source code. As a result, this release includes fixes for over 400 defects."
Libraries
FreeImage 3.9.0 released (SourceForge)
Version 3.9.0 of the FreeImage imaging library is available. "Release 3.9.0 brings two new plugins for SGI and raw FAX G3 formats, better support for HDR images in the rescale function, a new thumbnail generation function, as well as several internal code enhancements. The library has been updated with the new libtiff (3.8.0) and libpng (1.2.12) libraries. FreeImage is also distributed with improved wrappers (VB6/VBA, C++ and Delphi). Lastly, many bugs reported by our users have been fixed (check the changes log for details) and the PDF documentation has been updated."
First version of ImgFusion released (SourceForge)
The initial release of ImgFusion has been announced. ImgFusion is an: "Open source library for image fusion (i.e. combining several images while preserving as much information from each image as possible) written in C++. Fast and memory efficient. This is the first version of ImgFusion, still needs more testing but works flawlessly in most cases."
Security
SELinux Policy Editor 2.0 Released (SourceForge)
Version 2.0 of SELinux Policy Editor has been announced. "SELinux Policy Editor(seedit) is a tool to make SELinux easy. It is composed of Simplified Policy and its tools. The main feature is Simplified Policy. Simplified Policy hides detail of SELinux. I am glad to announce that SELinux Policy Editor 2.0(seedit 2.0) has been released. We have renewed the tool. Almost everything have been changed. Policy generator and new GUI are developed, and many others."
Sussen 0.25 released
Version 0.25 of Sussen, a vulnerabilities and configuration checking tool, is out with new features, bug fixes and code cleanup.
Web Site Development
Release of Campsite 2.6.0 "Joey"
Version 2.6.0 of Campsite, an open-source multi-lingual content management system for newspaper and magazine web sites, is out with numerous new capabilities and bug fixes.MediaWiki 1.7.1, 1.6.8 released (SourceForge)
Two new versions of MediaWiki have been announced. "MediaWiki is the collaborative editing software that runs Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, and other projects. It's designed to handle a large number of users and pages without imposing too rigid a structure or workflow. New Bugfix/security releases for Summer (1.7) and Spring (1.6) 2006 snapshot branches. A potential HTML injection with some vulnerable versions of PHP in a debugging script has been fixed. Some installer issues in 1.7 have been fixed."
MoinMoin 1.5.4 released
Version 1.5.4 of MoinMoin, a Python-based wiki software package, has been announced. "MoinMoin 1.5.4 is a bug fix release and a recommended update. The 1.5 branch brings you several new features such as the GUI editor, which allows the users to edit pages in a WYSIWYG environment, and many bug fixes."
Plone 2.5 released
Version 2.5 of Plone, a web Content Management System, has been announced. "This is an infrastructure oriented release with a focus on getting Plone ready for the future. This means integrating Zope 3 technologies where sensible, and utilizing new technology from CMF as much as possible. The long term goal is to make the distinction between Plone as end-user product and Plone as infrastructure more clear."
Desktop Applications
Audio Applications
Calliope 1.0 alpha_rc15 announced (SourceForge)
Release 1.0 alpha_rc15 of Calliope, a jukebox music server/content and music-management system, is available. "Calliope now supports CD burning, command line song play, and has way fewer bugs".
Sfront 0.90 released
Version 0.90 of Sfront is out with a number of new capabilities. "Sfront compiles MPEG 4 Structured Audio (MP4-SA) bitstreams into efficient C programs that generate audio when executed. MP4-SA is a standard for normative algorithmic sound, that combines an audio signal processing language (SAOL) with score languages (SASL, and the legacy MIDI File Format). Under Linux and Mac OS X, sfront supports real-time, low-latency audio input/output, local MIDI input from soundcards, and networked MIDI input using RTP and SIP."
Traverso 0.30.0 announced Traverso 0.30.0 announced
Version 0.30.0 of Traverso, a multi-track audio recording editing and mixing program, is out. "This release is the first in a series towards the final 1.0.0 release. Traverso offers an innovative User Interface concept, with which it tries to differ from other multitrack audio applications and, more importantly, provides a powerfull tool to easy and quickly record or import, edit and mix songs."
Desktop Environments
GNOME Software Announcements
The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:- Alacarte 0.9.2 (bug fixes and translation work)
- Dasher 4.1.6 (new features and bug fixes)
- Dasher 4.1.7 (build fix)
- Elisa Media Center solution 0.0.1 (initial release)
- Evince 0.5.4 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- gcalctool 5.8.17 (translation work)
- GDM2 2.15.6 (new features, bug fixes, security fix and translation work)
- gedit 2.15.4 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- gedit-plugins 2.15.4 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- gnome-games 2.15.4 (new features and bug fixes)
- gnome-mag 0.12.6 (bug fixes and translation work)
- gnome-mag 0.13.0 (version renumber)
- GNOME Power Manager 2.15.4 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- GnomePython 2.15.3 (unstable testing release)
- GnomePythonDesktop 2.15.4 (unstable testing release)
- GnomePythonExtras 2.14.1 (build fixes)
- gnome-speech 0.4.1 (bug fixes)
- gnome-terminal 2.15.2 (unstable testing release)
- gtk-engines 2.7.5 (unstable testing release)
- Last Exit 1.0 (unspecified)
- Orca 0.2.6 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- Pango 1.13.3 (unstable testing release)
- vte 0.13.3 (bug fixes)
- Yelp 2.15.4 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
KDE Commit-Digest (KDE.News)
The July 9, 2006 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. Here's the content summary: "Kamefu (a multi-machine emulator frontend) has been renamed Gamefu. Physiks, a physics educational project, and a project for advanced session management, both a result of the Summer Of Code, are imported into KDE SVN. Work progresses in the "GMail-style conversation view for KMail" and "WorKflow" projects. KDE 4 changes: KPat, a card game application, gets OpenGL bling, while kwin gets experimental compositing support and compiz-like effects. Okular gets support for the TIFF file format. Akonadi advances towards its goals with the import of a command-line and GUI client."
Xfce 4.4 beta 2 (4.3.90.2) released
Version 4.4 beta 2 of Xfce, a lightweight desktop system, is out. "Besides Mousepad and Thunar, this release also includes the new Xfce archive manager Xarchiver. Other than that a large number of bugs were fixed, and several core components were improved." See the changelog file for details.
Financial Applications
GnuCash 2.0.0 released
GnuCash 2.0.0 - the first stable version of GnuCash using the GTK2 toolkit - is now available. While there are some new features in this release, its main selling point is the move to a contemporary toolkit. LWN reviewed a 2.0 beta release back in May. Click below for the full announcement.
Interoperability
Wine 0.9.17 released
Version 0.9.17 of Wine has been announced. Changes include: Still more work on Direct3D shaders, Now using the Gecko engine directly for MSHTML, Better support for apps switching to full screen mode, Support for multiple joysticks and Lots of bug fixes.Wine Weekly Newsletter
The July 10, 2006 edition of the Wine Weekly Newsletter is available with the latest Wine project news. Topics include: CrossOver Update, Mac News, Changes to Fedora Packages, ClamAV Integration, Safedisc RPM, Win64 / 64-bit Winelib, DWARF2 Testing Needed, Indenting Traces and GUID List.
Mail Clients
SquirrelMail 1.4.7 Released (SourceForge)
Version 1.4.7 of SquirrelMail has been announced. "SquirrelMail is a PHP4-based Web email client. It includes built-in pure PHP support for IMAP and SMTP, and renders all pages in pure HTML 4.0 for maximum compatibility across browsers. It has strong MIME support and a flexible plugin system. It's our proud pleasure to announce the release of SquirrelMail 1.4.7. This release contains a number of fixes, including two security updates. Details about this release can be seen in the ChangeLog."
Music Applications
Initial release of naconnect
The initial release of naconnect is available. "naconnect is, like its inspiration aconnect, an ALSA MIDI sequencer connection manager. However, it uses ncurses instead of simple command line."
RSS Software
RSSOwl 1.2.2 Release Candidate 1 available (SourceForge)
Version 1.2.2 Release Candidate 1 of RSSOwl has been announced. "RSSOwl is a RSS / RDF / Atom Newsreader written in Java using SWT as fast graphic library. Read News in a tabfolder, save favorites in categories, Export to PDF / RTF / HTML / OPML, Import Feeds from OPML, perform fulltext-search, use internal browser. The first release candidate of upcoming RSSOwl 1.2.2 is now available for all supported operating systems".
Video Applications
xvidcap releases completely overhauled 1.1.4 preview 3 (SourceForge)
Version 1.1.4 preview 3 of xvidcap is available. "xvidcap is a screen capture enabling you to capture videos off your X-Window desktop for illustration or documentation purposes. It is intended to be a standards-based alternative to tools like Lotus ScreenCam. This is a major refactoring of the project to increase ease-of-use and ease-of-installation. The project has dropped a number of peripheral features to put more speed into the central functionality."
Web Browsers
Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 Release Candidate Builds Available (MozillaZine)
MozillaZine reports on the availability of release candidate builds of Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Beta 1. "Over the past few days, several release candidate builds of Mozilla Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 have been posted to the bonecho-beta1-candidates directory on ftp.mozilla.org. However, contrary to the indications given by some news outlets, Firefox 2.0 Beta 1 has not yet been released. In common with many software projects, several release candidate (test) builds of Firefox are made available in the run-up to major milestone releases. These builds are similar, but not identical to, the final milestone releases and are designed to allow the testing community to discover any last-minute problems."
Word Processors
AbiWord 2.4.5 released (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for AbiWord 2.4.5, a word processor. "This release a bugfix release only, but this time the amount of bugfixes is rather huge. Especially the import and export filters have received a lot of attention due to the Google Summer of Code program, which is funding these developments."
Languages and Tools
Caml
Caml Weekly News
The July 11, 2006 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.
HTML
WebKit Ported to Qt 4 (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the new Unity project. "Today the KDE team announces a new project to re-synchronize our HTML engine, KHTML, with the WebKit engine. Code named Unity, the project has so far focused on porting the WebKit engine to Qt 4 with minimal changes to the existing code-base. WebKit is a derivative of the KHTML engine developed by Apple Computer Inc."
PHP
phpMyAdmin 2.8.2 is released (SourceForge)
Version 2.8.2 of phpMyAdmin is available. "phpMyAdmin is a tool written in PHP intended to handle the administration of MySQL over the Web. Currently it can create and drop databases, create/drop/alter tables, delete/edit/add fields, execute any SQL statement, manage keys on fields. Welcome to version 2.8.2 which fixes an XSS vulnerability and a few bugs."
Python
Python 2.5 beta 2 released
Version 2.5 beta 2 of Python is available. "Since the first beta, a large number of bug fixes have been made to Python 2.5 - see the release notes for the full details. There has been one very small new feature added - the sys._current_frames() function was added. This is extremely useful for tracking down deadlocks and related problems - a similar technique is already used in the popular DeadlockDebugger extension for Zope."
python-dev Summary
The June 1-15, 2006 edition of the python-dev Summary is online with coverage of the python-dev mailing list.Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!
The July 12, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is out with new Python language articles and resources.
Ruby
Ruby Weekly News
The July 9th, 2006 edition of the Ruby Weekly News looks at the latest discussions on the ruby-talk mailing list and comp.lang.ruby newsgroup.
Tcl/Tk
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!
The July 11, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
IDEs
EasyEclipse 1.0.2 Final announced (SourceForge)
Version 1.0.2 Final of EasyEclipse, an Eclipse plugin installer, is out. "Compared to 1.0.1, there are very few updated plugins, but many bug fixes and tests and checks."
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