KDE

Submission + - KDE Plasma Active 3 Improves Performance, Brings New Apps (kde.org)

Submitted by
jrepin
jrepin writes: "KDE has released the 3rd stable version of Plasma Active, KDE's device-independent user experience. The Plasma Active user interface is touch-friendly and works well across a range of devices. Its Activities function gives users a natural way to organize and access their applications, files and information. Plasma Active Three noticeably improves the user experience with its enhanced and expanded set of apps, improved performance and a new virtual keyboard."
Operating Systems

Submission + - OS upgrades powered by Git (webconverger.org)

Submitted by JamieKitson
JamieKitson writes: The latest Webconverger 15 release is the first Linux distribution to be automagically updatable from a Github repository. The chroot of the OS is kept natively in git's format and fuse mounted with git-fs. Webconverger fulfills the Web kiosk use case, using Firefox and competes indirectly with Google Chrome OS. Chrome OS also has an autoupdate feature, however not as powerful, unified & transparent as when simply using git. bod
Linux

Submission + - Mesa 9.0 Supports Open-Source OpenGL 3.1 Drivers (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Intel released Mesa 9.0 with open-source OpenGL 3.1 driver support. This de facto OpenGL Linux implementation now supports the several year old OpenGL 3.1 specification for Intel hardware while the other drivers are still at OpenGL 3.0 or worse. Other features to Mesa 9.0 include completing MPEG1/MPEG2 video acceleration, early OpenCL support, bug-fixes, and new hardware support.
Android

Submission + - Samsung Creates New File System F2Fs For Linux & Android (muktware.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: Samsung has created a new Linux file system called F2FS. Jaegeuk Kim of Samsung writes on the Linux Kernel Mailing List: F2FS is a new file system carefully designed for the NAND flash memory-based storage devices. We chose a log structure file system approach, but we tried to adapt it to the new form of storage. Also we remedy some known issues of the very old log structured file system, such as snowball effect of wandering tree and high cleaning overhead.
Open Source

Submission + - Linux 3.7 Kernel to Support Multiple ARM Platforms (paritynews.com)

Submitted by hypnosec
hypnosec writes: The yet to be released Linux 3.7 kernel is getting exciting by the day prior to its release as it has been announced that the kernel will be supporting multiple-ARM System on Chips (SoCs) / platforms. Up until now there is a separate Linux kernel build for each of the ARM platform or SoCs, which is one of the several problems when it comes to ARM based Linux. The merging of ARM multi-platform support into Linux 3.7 will now put an end to this problem thus enabling the new kernel to not only target multiple platforms but, also be more in line with its x86 counterpart.
Linux

Submission + - Slackware 14.0 is released! (slackware.com)

Submitted by SgtKeeling
SgtKeeling writes: After 5 release candidates, a new version of Slackware has been released. From the website, 'Yes, it is that time again! After well over a year of planning, development, and testing, the Slackware Linux Project is proud to announce the latest stable release of the longest running distribution of the Linux operating system, Slackware version 14.0! We are sure you'll enjoy the many improvements. We've done our best to bring the latest technology to Slackware while still maintaining the stability and security that you have come to expect. Slackware is well known for its simplicity and the fact that we try to bring software to you in the condition that the authors intended. We will be setting up BitTorrent downloads for the official ISO images. Stay tuned to http://slackware.com/ for the latest updates.'
Linux

Submission + - FFmpeg 1.0 MultiMedia Library Released (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The free software FFmpeg multi-media library that's used by VLC, MPlayer, Chrome, and many other software projects has reached version 1.0 since being in development since 2000. The 1.0 release incorporates new filters/decoders and other A/V enhancements. The code is available from FFmpeg.org.
Games

Submission + - Valve blog announces dates for Steam Linux external beta (valvesoftware.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: In the third post to the new Valve Linux Blog, the linux team have announced that starting next week they will begin their internal beta, with an external beta of 1000 users to begin mid "some time in october".
There will be an external beta sign up page made available "soon".
Software

Submission + - French government to use PostgreSQL & LibreOffice in free software adoption (computerworlduk.com)

Submitted by concertina226
concertina226 writes: French government agencies could become more active participants in free software projects, under an action plan sent by Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault in a letter to ministers, while software giants Microsoft and Oracle might lose out as the government pushes free software such as LibreOffice or PostgreSQL in some areas.
Linux

Submission + - Torvalds calls Romney 'a f***ing moron' (networkworld.com) 16

Submitted by
netbuzz
netbuzz writes: "Last night Linux creator Linus Torvalds took to his Google+ page and called Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney “a f***ing moron.” Torvalds’ stated reason? Romney’s much-ridiculed suggestion that air passengers would be safer in emergencies if aircraft windows could be opened (a suggestion which some, including Snopes.com, have taken as a joke). Torvalds also recently called Mormonism, Romney’s religion, “bats**t crazy.” Is this just Linus being Linus? Or does such outspokenness on non-technical matters reflect poorly on the Linux community that Torvalds leads?"
Linux

Submission + - You use Linux? What was your distro order? (networkworld.com) 6

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Linux dude Bryan Lunduke blogged here about the top three approaches he thinks are the easiest for new users to pick up Linux. Lunduke's, for example, went Ubuntu -> Arch -> openSUSE.

It begs a question that Slashdot could answer well in the comments: what's your distro use order from beginning to now? Maybe we could spot some trends.
Mars

Submission + - Curiosity Rover To Get Instagram (informationweek.com)

Submitted by
DevotedSkeptic
DevotedSkeptic writes: "Well not really Instagram but Curiosity will be getting a software upgrade called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science (AEGIS) which will allow her to take on the go photos to save precious time while exploring our red neighbor.

Another interesting feature AGEIS may be able to provide is the ability for Curiosity to call home when it sees something interesting.

It won't be a quick upgrade, AEGIS, which has been used on the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity since 2009, will be installed on Curiosity in the next nine to 12 months, Estlin said in an interview with InformationWeek. The AEGIS software, developed by JPL, was named NASA's "software of the year" in 2011.

JPL developed AEGIS on Linux-based systems, then tested the software on research rovers. Opportunity uses the software to take a wide-angle image with a low-resolution camera, then picks out rocks in the image to see if there's something of interest. If so, it takes a high-resolution image using an on-board science camera that's capable of zooming in on the subject. The software has potential beyond picture taking. Its see-and-react code could be adapted to other instruments."
Privacy

Submission + - Ubuntu Will Now Have Amazon Ads Pre-installed 1

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Scheduled to be released next month, Ubuntu 12.10 now includes both amazon ads in the user's dash and by default an amazon store in the user's launcher. The reason for these "features"? Affiliate revenue. Despite previous controversies with Banshee and Yahoo, Canonical is "confident it will be an interesting and useful feature for
our 12.10 users." But are the "users" becoming products?
Linux

Submission + - NVIDIA To Publicly Release Some Tegra GPU Documentation (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It was revealed today during the annual X.Org Developers' Conference in Germany that NVIDIA will be publicly releasing Tegra graphics programming documentation. Initially this will cover their Tegra 2D engine but it's thought they might also be providing 3D engine documentation too. A slide shown at the conference says NVIDIA is committed to open-source. NVIDIA also allegedly has supplied documentation under NDA to one Nouveau developer and taken other covertly supportive steps. These actions come after NVIDIA has been notoriously unfriendly to open-source and months after Linus Torvalds pubilcly slammed the NVIDIA Linux support.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - Bringing Free Software to a street near you. (softwarefreedomday.org)

Submitted by Blug_fred
Blug_fred writes: It's that time of year again; the nights are drawing in, the leaves are beginning to turn, and literally hundreds of teams of dedicated F/OSS enthusiasts from around the world are preparing to hit the streets in celebration of Software Freedom Day 2012. In an effort to increase awareness of free and open source software among the general public, SFD teams will be standing around town centers and shopping malls, holding talks at schools and universities, giving demonstrations and handing out GNU/Linux and FOSS collections for Windows on CD. With money being tight and paranoia about malware and viruses at an all-time high, the time is right to help consumers switch to the myriad of quality open source applications available. If you would like to check for an SFD team in your area and consider attending, be it to help out or simply learn more about free software for yourself, there's an interactive map to help you find your way."
Open Source

Submission + - X11 Window System Turns 25 Years Old (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The widely used X11 Window System has turned 25 years old today. Version 11 of the X Window System is likely to remain in use for many years to come for backwards compatibility with the many legacy applications, BSD/Solaris systems, and Enterprise Linux distributions. Meanwhile, Wayland is still working to unseat the X Server for the common Linux desktop.
Linux

Submission + - Are commercial games finally going to make it to Linux? (networkworld.com) 1

Submitted by colinneagle
colinneagle writes: Those of us who actively promote Linux as a viable desktop alternative to Windows are often greeted with the following refrain: "Nobody will use Linux because there are no good games." The prevailing wisdom being that the abundance of high-quality, commercial video gaming is a key factor in the market-share dominance that Microsoft Windows enjoys.

And, in all reality, this is somewhat true. So, then, the obvious course of action is to convince the video game publishers and developers of the world that Linux is a viable (if, perhaps, a bit niche) market. And by "viable" I mean one thing and one thing only – "profitable."

Luckily, there have been three high-profile recent examples of Linux users going absolutely nuts over video games, forking over their hard-earned cash in the process: the Humble Indie Bundle (drawing in huge numbers of sales — for a DRM-free product, no less — with sales numbers by Linux users consistently beating out sales to MacOS X users); Canonical's Ubuntu Software Center (where video games make up the top 10 paid software packages); Valve's announcement that it is bringing the Steam store, and community portal, to Linux desktop (specifically Ubuntu).

Will the indie game developers (along with Valve) reap the bulk of the rewards that releasing games on Linux is offering...or will some of the big publishers realize what they're missing out on and join in the fun?
Open Source

Submission + - Red Hat Fights Patent Troll With GPL (itworld.com)

Submitted by
jfruh
jfruh writes: "Red Hat is in the middle of a patent lawsuit with Twin Peaks Software, which claims that a Red Hat subsidiary is abusing a Twin Peaks filesystem lawsuit. Now, Red Hat is launching an intriguing countermeasure: the company claims that Twin Peaks' own closed source software violates the GPL because it makes use of an open source disk utility that Red Hat holds the copyright no. Is this a smart move on Red Hat's part?"

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