Programming

Linus On Branching Practices 90

Posted by CmdrTaco from the not-the-wood-kind dept.
rocket22 writes "Not long ago Linus Torvalds made some comments about issues the kernel maintainers were facing while applying the 'feature branch' pattern. They are using Git (which is very strong with branching and merging) but still need to take care of the branching basics to avoid ending up with unstable branches due to unstable starting points. While most likely your team doesn't face the same issues that kernel development does, and even if you're using a different DVCS like Mercurial, it's worth taking a look at the description of the problem and the clear solution to be followed in order to avoid repeating the same mistakes. The same basics can be applied to every version control system with good merge tracking, so let's avoid religious wars and focus on the technical details."
Idle

Linux Radio 141

Posted by samzenpus from the free-traffic-report dept.
An anonymous reader writes "This might very well be the nerdiest site we'll ever encounter... Linux Radio is an online radio station broadcasting the Linux kernel! Each time someone visit the site, a random source file is selected and read loudly by a virtual speaker materialized through the open source speech synthesizer eSpeak. Will it prove useful to anyone is probably a difficult question to answer, but the excitement provided is worth experiencing at least once. However, this concept proves once more the advantages of open source over proprietary software making such achievements impossible : whoever in his right mind would want to listen to binary files loudly?"
KDE

KDE 4.6 Beta 1 – a First Look 224

Posted by timothy from the looking-sharp dept.
dmbkiwi writes "The first beta release of KDE SC 4.6 was released yesterday. OpenSUSE had packages up almost immediately, so being curious as to what's new, I've downloaded and upgraded to the new release. These are my impressions thus far."
Graphics

Company Seeks To Boost Linux Game Development With 3D Engine Giveaway 140

Posted by Soulskill from the for-services-rendered dept.
binstream writes "To support Linux game development, Unigine Corp. announced a competition: it will give a free license for its Unigine engine to a seasoned team willing to work on a native Linux game. The company has been Linux-friendly from the very start; it released advanced GPU benchmarks (Heaven, Tropics, Sanctuary) for Linux before and is working on the OilRush strategy game that supports Linux as well."
Graphics

Submission + - Boosting Linux gamedev with 3D engine giveaway (unigine.com)

Submitted by binstream
binstream writes: To support Linux game development Unigine Corp. announced a competition: it will give a free license for its top-notch Unigine engine to a seasoned team willing to work on a native Linux game.

The company has been Linux-friendly from the very start: it released advanced GPU benchmarks (Heaven, Tropics, Sanctuary) for Linux before and is working on a OilRush strategy game that supports Linux as well.
Ubuntu

Ubuntu's Engineering Director Debunks Rolling Release Rumours 80

Posted by timothy from the really-wrong dept.
Responding to yesterday's post indicating that Ubuntu might move to a rolling release schedule, reader ddfall writes "This is wrong! Engineering Director of Ubuntu Rick Spencer says 'Ubuntu is not changing to a rolling release.' He goes on to say, 'We are confident that our customers, partners, and the FLOSS ecosystem are well served by our current release cadence. What the article was probably referring to was the possibility of making it easier for developers to use cutting edge versions of certain software packages on Ubuntu. This is a wide-ranging project that we will continue to pursue through our normal planning processes.'"
Ubuntu

Submission + - Ubuntu Rolling release rumours wrong (h-online.com) 1

Submitted by ddfall
ddfall writes: Previously on /. — http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/11/24/1346221/Ubuntu-May-Move-To-Rolling-Releases — This is wrong! Engineering Director of Ubuntu Rick Spencer says "Ubuntu is not changing to a rolling release". He goes on to say, "We are confident that our customers, partners, and the FLOSS ecosystem are well served by our current release cadence. What the article was probably referring to was the possibility of making it easier for developers to use cutting edge versions of certain software packages on Ubuntu. This is a wide-ranging project that we will continue to pursue through our normal planning processes".
Linux Business

Ubuntu May Move To Rolling Releases 246

Posted by timothy from the gathering-no-moss dept.
formfeed writes "The register claims that 'Ubuntu is moving away from its established six-month-cycle and potentially to a future where software updates land on a daily basis.' While this sounds like a sudden change, it is apparently more of a long-term thought. The Register quotes Shuttleworth: '"Today we have a six-month release cycle," Shuttleworth said. "In an internet-oriented world, we need to be able to release something every day. That's an area we will put a lot of work into in the next five years. The small steps we are putting in to the Software Center today, they will go further and faster than people might have envisioned in the past."' But given that many of Shuttleworth's thoughts became decisions later on, it might be interesting to see, where this one leads. Interestingly enough, five years is about the time when Ubuntu will run out of letters."
Enlightenment

GNU/Linux and Enlightenment Running On a Fridge 222

Posted by timothy from the prince-albert-in-a-can dept.
k-s writes "Linux, the GNU userland and Enlightenment and its foundation libraries (EFL) are known for their resource efficiency and flexibility, key components for embedded products. Today it was announced that such features led them to be used in a fridge that runs Linux and X11 with EFL. The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party) as well as a special purpose drawer that cools your drinks and food with a beautiful UI. It also ships with handful applications for contacts, calendar, reminder, digital picture frame and even an illustrated recipe book from a famous Brazilian magazine."
Linux

Submission + - Ubuntu moving to rolling releases (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by formfeed
formfeed writes: The register claims that "Ubuntu is moving away from its established six-month-cycle and potentially to a future where software updates land on a daily basis."
While this sounds like a sudden change, it is apparently more of a long-term thought. The Register quotes Shuttleworth:



"Today we have a six-month release cycle," Shuttleworth said. "In an internet-oriented world, we need to be able to release something every day. "That's an area we will put a lot of work into in the next five years. The small steps we are putting in to the Software Center today, they will go further and caster than people might have envisioned in the past."

But given that many of Shuttleworth's thoughts became decisions later on, it might be interesting to see, where this one leads.

Interestingly enough, 5 years is about the time, when Ubuntu will run out of letters.
Enlightenment

Submission + - GNU/Linux and Enlightenment running on a Fridge (enlightenment.org)

Submitted by k-s
k-s writes: Linux, the GNU userland and Enlightenment and its foundation libraries (EFL) are known due their resource efficiency and flexibility, key components for embedded products. Today it was announced that such features led them to be used in a Fridge that runs Linux and X11 with EFL.

The Freescale i.MX25 based fridge by Electrolux (Frigidaire) provides the expected bits such as temperature controls and pre-set modes (vacation, party) as well as a special purpose drawer that cools your drinks and food with a beautiful UI. It also ships with handful applications for contacts, calendar, reminder, digital picture frame and even illustrated recipe book with a famous Brazilian magazine.
AMD

Submission + - AMD Releases Open-Source Fusion Driver (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: AMD has just released open-source Linux driver support for their Fusion APUs, primarily for the first Ontario processor. As detailed on Phoronix, this includes support for kernel mode-setting, 2D acceleration, and 3D acceleration via both Mesa and Gallium3D graphics drivers.
Businesses

Microsoft (Probably) Didn't Just Buy Unix 289

Posted by Soulskill from the how's-that-for-definitive dept.
jfruhlinger writes "Word came down this morning that when Attachmate bought Novell, certain intellectual property rights were sold to a Microsoft-led consortium as part of the deal. Since Unix is the most valuable piece of IP Novell owns, there was a certain amount of panic that suddenly Redmond is in charge of this foundational technology for Linux and a number of other open source projects. But, while MS is being cagey, Brian Proffitt doubts that Unix was part of the IP package that was sold — and believes that Linux would be safe even if it were."
Microsoft

Submission + - Microsoft (probably) didn't just buy Unix (itworld.com)

Submitted by jfruhlinger
jfruhlinger writes: Word came down this morning that, when Attachmate bought Novell, certain intellectual property rights were sold to a Microsoft-led consortium as part of the deal. Since Unix is the most valuable piece of IP Novell owns, there was a certain amount of panic that suddenly Redmond is in charge of this foundational technology for Linux and a number of other open source projects. But, while MS is being cagey, Brian Proffitt doubts that Unix was part of the IP package that was sold — and believes that Linux would be safe even if it were.

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