Linux in the news

NetworkManager and ConnMan (Dan Williams' Blog)

Dan Williams discusses the advantages of NetworkManager over ofono and ConnMan on his blog. "Lately ofono and ConnMan have been in the news, and that’s sparked some discussion about how these two projects relate to NetworkManager. I’ve mostly just been ignoring that discussion and focusing on making NetworkManager better. But at some point the discussion needs to become informed and the facts need to be straightened out. So what makes NetworkManager great? ..." (Thanks to Paul Wise).

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Digg, Dug, Buried: How Linux news disappears (ComputerWorld)

Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols suggests the possibility of conspiracy in the burial of pro-Linux stories on sites like Digg. "Like it or lump it, the major reason that determines whether any given online story will get read or not is how much play it gets on news link sharing sites and social networks like Digg, reddit, and StumbleUpon. Unlike earlier news sharing sites like Slashdot, these sites have no central editorial control. Instead, the stories that get prominent play on these sites is determined entirely by readers. That sounds like democracy in its most basic form, but in practice what it really means that stories can be buried from sight by abusive users with an ax to grind. I became aware of this because in the last few weeks I've had several stories that were pro-Linux and anti-Microsoft-Linux, it doesn't get any faster and Macs, Windows 7, and Linux--first became popular on Digg, and, an hour later they were buried."

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Group pitches Linux for free netbooks from mobile carriers (NetworkWorld)

NetworkWorld covers a talk by Jim Zemlin. "The move by carriers to sell netbooks at a discount and seek revenue from later application downloads is an opportunity for Linux, Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation, said at a Beijing forum. He urged Chinese and global companies to consider offering devices and download stores based on Linux."

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Nvidia to Android: We're Just Not That Into You (TechNewsWorld)

TechNewsWorld summarizes a number of blog posts about Nvidia's choice of Windows CE over Android for its smartbook line. "A collective "aargh" resonated throughout the Linux blogosphere in response to Nvidia's dissing of Android in favor of Windows CE for running smartbooks. It really should come as no surprise, suggests blogger Gerhard Mack: "[Nvidia] is a company that got dragged kicking and screaming into the open source world, and they really don't want to be here.""

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Berlin art colleges switch to Linux (heise online)

heise online has a brief report that Berlin art colleges are switching to Linux. "Berlin's art colleges are completely switching over to Linux. Most of the productivity software on the workstations has already been swapped for free alternative products as part of a project that started over eighteen months ago. The IT team at ServiceCenter-IT, responsible for the migration at three colleges; the Hanns Eisler music college, the Ernst Busch drama college and the Berlin-Weissensee art college, is hoping for an easy migration, as users will be able to keep on working with their familiar applications. Starting in June, their workstation PCs will switch to Ubuntu Linux and their servers will use Debian."

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Book Reviews: A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux 2nd ed. (Slashdot)

Slashdot reviews Mark Sobell's book A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux, 2nd edition. "Let's kick things off with a rough diff on the two editions. There have been improvements made in content and some added tools to rapidly get at what one needs. With the size of the book and the amount covered, these rapid access improvements are significant. The inside of the cover on the second edition has a utility index, so that a reader searching for help with any specific utility can find it quickly. This is followed up with two tables of contents, one a brief summary and the second much more detailed and taking up twenty-two pages."

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Ksplice Boots the Reboot (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal looks at Ksplice. "If you happen to be in Berlin or Porto Alegre, Brazil this week, you can learn about the company's offerings first hand — Ksplice President Jeff Arnold and company COO Waseem Daher will present at both LinuxTag 2009 and Fórum Internacional de Software Livre this week. Coinciding with their presentations is the release of a free "demonstration" version of Ksplice Uptrack for consumers using Linux."

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Computer Logic Design with KTechLab (Linux Journal)

Mike Diehl reviews ktechlab in a Linux Journal article. "A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about a digital and analog circuit simulator called ksimus. One of my readers asked what the difference was between ksimus and ktechlab so I thought I'd take a look at ktechlab. Let me just say that both of these programs are a lot of fun to play with. My first impression of ktechlab was that it has a much richer assortment of components from which to build circuits. Unlike ksimus, ktechlab includes an addressable memory as well as DAC's, ADC's and even a PIC micro-controller!"

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Shuttle XS29f: Linux Looks Great in Green (LinuxPlanet)

LinuxPlanet reviews the Shuttle XS29f, a low power miniature desktop machine, unfortunately it is not available in the US. "At the heart of the Shuttle XS29f is the Nano, Via's first 64-bit processor in their x86 line. The Nano delivers high-end performance with low power requirements. Two memory slots support up to 4 GB of memory to go along with the Via 1.3 GHz Nano processor. It uses DDR2 memory, which is pretty inexpensive right now. Two internal SATA-II connectors support internal storage."

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Sugar on a Stick brings sweet taste of Linux to classrooms (Ars Technica)

Ryan Paul reviews Sugar on a Stick. "The official release of Sugar on a Stick (SoaS) is a significant milestone for the Sugar project. In this release, the platform exhibits a much higher level of refinement and maturity than the previous versions, which were shipped on OLPC's XO laptops. The user interface is smoother, the individual components seem better integrated, and many impressive new programs that have been added."

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Could There Be an AndroidFox? (Linux Journal)

Linux Journal speculates that future Android devices may run Mozilla's mobile Firefox, Fennec. "Android or not, Fennec development is moving forward. Two new builds were released on Friday: a second beta for the Maemo platform, and a second alpha for Windows Mobile. Developers report that the browser's user interface has been heavily improved, and gains have been made in both performance and responsiveness. Changes to the add-on system and download manager have also been incorporated. Windows, Mac, and Linux desktop builds are also available."

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LXDE: one of the largest open-source teams in the world

Mario Behling discusses the size of the desktop environment development teams in a blog post, LXDE has 26 developers. "I believe everyone in the LXDE team still considers the project as a rather small project with a small team. There have been many changes and advances, but I would have never guessed that LXDE is one of the big projects. If we see it in regards to Gnome and KDE, the relations become different though. Gnome has 432 developers according to Ohloh and KDE even 482 code contributors. XFCE shows up with 12 coders during the last twelve months."

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