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Ubuntu

Submission + - Canonical releases Ubuntu 12.04 LTS Precise Pangolin (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "No one can accuse Canonical of sitting around during the first quarter of 2012. With no less than six different release announcements since January, it seems that everything that Mark Shuttleworth’s company has been working on for the past few years is crystallizing all at once. With the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS today, Canonical is looking to end the quarter on a high note by providing a stable release that is aimed directly at enterprise deployments. Precise Pangolin doesn’t offer any new functionality that fans of the Ubuntu platform haven’t already seen — but it will be the first time that enterprise users get to use the controversial Unity UI..."
Software

Submission + - Steam for Linux (and Gabe Newell dislikes Windows 8) (extremetech.com)

Submitted by
MrSeb
MrSeb writes: "Just a tidbit from the end of Phoronix's write-up on Steam/Source for Linux — Gabe apparently expressed "stunning negativity" for Windows 8. Is the timing of Steam/Source for Linux a little bit suspicious? Perhaps Valve is hedging its bets, in case the tablet-oriented Windows 8 causes desktop gamers to migrate en masse to Linux."
Games

Submission + - Phoronix has confirmation of a GNU/Linux Steam Client (phoronix.com) 1

Submitted by nukem996
nukem996 writes: After initially reporting in 2010 that Valve is work on a native GNU/Linux client one has finally been confirmed! Michael Larabel recently visited Valve's Bellvue, WA based office and has been able to see it himself. Included in the article are screenshots of the client running and speculation of a release!
Games

Submission + - Valve's Steam & Games coming to Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Valve's Steam and Source Engine-based games are coming to Linux. Michael from well known site Phoronix.com has been invitied to Valve's office and was able to spend a day with the developers and Gabe Newell himself. He is confirming the rumours about Linux ports from Valve, and has been able to play the games and work the developers himself. Attached in the article are pictures from Valve's offices with games running on Linux.
Cloud

Submission + - Salt: an OSD case study in FOSS project success (opensourcedelivers.com)

Submitted by 3Volker
3Volker writes: from What Makes Open Source Projects Take Off? The Salt Case Study: "Last January, Salt (a remote execution and state manager) was named an Open Source Rookie of the Year, recognizing it as one of the top new open source projects initiated in 2011. While Salt is still a very young project, the Salt community has been growing at a massive pace, with over 90 individuals in IRC and about 190 members on the mailing list. According to Ohloh.net, the project now has over 80 contributors (from only 10 at the start of 2012!). And with 735 commits in March alone, Salt is moving at a pace that most open source projects only dream about." (full disclosure: submitter is personal friend of the Salt project's founder)
Ubuntu

Submission + - Codename, Theming Update Announced for Ubuntu 12.10 (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by
benfrog
benfrog writes: "In a blog post, Mark Shuttleworth announced some changes for Ubuntu 12.10 (due in October), including the code name (Quantal Quetzal--no, really) and a theme update. Some other more meaningful announcements include a focus on the cloud in the server version and the lack of a transition from Upstart to systemd."
Open Source

Submission + - £70 System On A USB Proposed For Elders (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Submitted by
judgecorp
judgecorp writes: "A Linux-based system with a simplified user interface has been proposed for older people who can't lor won't get to grips with anything more complicated. The HomeKey boots from the USB, and doesn't need any hard disk, so it can be used on obsolete recycled machines that have been ditched and gutted of their data by businesses."
Open Source

Submission + - An Interview With Linus Torvalds (techcrunch.com)

Submitted by dgharmon
dgharmon writes: In recognition of his creation of a new open source operating system kernel for computers leading to the widely used Linux operating system. The free availability of Linux on the Web swiftly caused a chain-reaction leading to further development and fine-tuning worth the equivalent of 73,000 man-years.

Today millions use computers, smartphones and digital video recorders like Tivo run on Linux. Linus Torvalds’ achievements have had a great impact on shared software development, networking and the openness of the web, making it accessible for millions, if not billions.
Windows

Submission + - Linux Desktop: Business Desktop BAD, Consumer Desktop TERRIBLE 2

Submitted by mourngrym1969
mourngrym1969 writes: Not a scoop, but a discussion. I hate Windows, but like everyone else, use it every day. Tried (again, time number six over the last 15 years), to run linux exclusively for both work and home use. I even allowed myself the installation of VMWare Workstation and was willing to run some essentials in Windows 7 VM through Unity. But after two weeks, I am booted over to Windows again. Why? Drivers, printing, TV on my PC, NETFLIX, Visio, Adobe software (not flash), VMWare Workstation Stability, NVidia Drivers, Multimonitor support (rotation), composite desktop, etc, etc, etc... Why have we not been able to get our act together and get a usable linux desktop (working 'well' on one monitor is not sufficient)?
Mozilla

Submission + - Firefox Finally Gets Gstreamer Multimedia Backend! (blogspot.ca)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: So what does this mean? I believe not much yet for the enduser, at least this is a very nice infrastructure change to enable stuff like hardware acceleration e.g. on mobile devices. And from my point of view also a good separation: Do one thing and do it well. Let gstream do the multimedia stuff and Mozilla all that compositing.
Linux

Submission + - Linus wins the Millennium Technology Prize (zdnet.com)

Submitted by
udas
udas writes: "Also on Google Plus:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/101722761973350504830/posts/iDp7MpWdRJN
This is the world’s largest technology prize. It is rewarded ever two years for a technological innovation that significantly improves the quality of human life, today and in the future. This year, Linus Torvalds, Linux’s creator, and Dr. Shinya Yamanaka, maker of a new way to create stem cells without the use of embryonic stem cells, are both laureates for the 2012 Millennium Technology Prize.

This prize, which is determined by the Technology Academy of Finland, is one of the world’s largest such prizes with candidates sought from across the world and from all fields of technology. The two innovators will share over a million Euros. The final winner will be announced by the President of the Republic of Finland in a special ceremony on June 13, 2012."
Biotech

Submission + - $4,829-per-hour supercomputer built on Amazon cloud to fuel cancer research (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by neelwebs
neelwebs writes: Farid and his team recently decided they wanted to stop cutting corners, specifically for a joint cancer research project conducted with Nimbus Discovery, which does computer-based drug discovery. The key was that instead of using Schrödinger’s internal cluster, they opted to build a 50,000-core supercomputer on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud.

It ran for three hours on the night of March 30, at a cost of $4,828.85 per hour. Getting up to 51,132 cores required spinning up 6,742 Amazon EC2 instances running CentOS Linux. This virtual supercomputer spanned the globe, tapping data centers in four continents and every available Amazon region, from Tokyo, Singapore, and Sao Paolo, to Ireland, Virginia, Oregon, and California. As impressive as it sounds, such a cluster can be spun up by anyone with the proper expertise, without talking to a single employee of Amazon.
GNU is Not Unix

Submission + - tethr: Getting online in a crisis (bbc.com)

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: "tethr builds products and services that connect people to the world, enabling the collection and distribution of critical data. The tethr Platform supports the open integration of crisis response applications. Ultimately, tethr establishes a robust communications ecosystem, deployable instantaneously, anywhere on Earth."

From the BBC article (http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20120413-communicating-in-a-crisis/1)
"What he and his team have come up with is a package of hardware that fits into a case about 6in-long, 4in-wide and 3-in tall (15cmx10cmx7.5cm). It contains the hardware necessary to connect to the net via satellite modem, wi-fi, 3G, ethernet and even dial-up. It also comes with OpenBTS, an open-source GSM messaging box and platform. This prototype runs with a version of the open-source operating system Ubuntu Linux. The software could be tailored to any situation, but right now, Huslage has it loaded up with a database, VOIP software similar to Skype, Ushahidi, and Open Street Map. The user interface, Huslage says, is like a webpage, and is designed to allow the user maximum control over what type of connections to use for certain tasks, and also giving simple instructions on how to, say, point the satellite modem in the right direction."
More information:
http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2012/03/26/untethered-hardware-connectivity-in-a-crisis/
http://newschallenge.tumblr.com/post/19450685278/tethr-evolving-networks
http://gnuradio.org/redmine/projects/gnuradio/wiki/OpenBTS
GNOME

Submission + - MATE desktop 1.2 released with new features (mate-desktop.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: For those of you that still feel that GNOME 2 is the best desktop environment, but don't want stick to old distros. MATE is a fork of GNOME 2, with all the names changed to avoid clashes with GNOME 3. Version 1.2 brings fixes, but also new features such as undo/redo in the file manager.
Open Source

Submission + - TI Developer Publishes Open-Source Qualcomm GPU Driver (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Not being content with the state of open source graphics drivers for Linux, a developer working for Texas Instruments has reverse-engineered his competitor's (Qualcomm) driver and written an open-source Snapdragon driver. With being tainted by legal documents at Texas Instruments, the developer who is also involved with Linaro, had no other choice but to work on an open source graphics driver for his competitor in his free time. The open source Qualcomm Snapdragon/Adreno driver is called Freedreno.
Linux

Submission + - Open-Source NVIDIA Driver Goes Stable On Linux (phoronix.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The open source Nouveau driver that's a reverse-engineered incarnation of NVIDIA's official proprietary driver for Linux, has reached its biggest milestone. The Nouveau driver is now being considered stable within the Linux kernel and leaving the staging area with a pledge of a stable ABI. Phoronix has summarized the state of the Nouveau driver, which works fine if you don't care about performance or are fine with running hardware that's a few generations old.
Security

Submission + - Critical Flaw Found In Backtrack Linux (threatpost.com)

Submitted by
chicksdaddy
chicksdaddy writes: "Threatpost is reporting on a critical security flaw in the latest version of Backtrack Linux, a popular distribution that is used by security professionals for penetration testing. The previously undiscovered privilege escalation hole was discovered by a student taking part in an InfoSec Instutite Ethical Hacking class, according to the post on the group's Web site.
"The student in our ethical hacking class that found the 0day was using backtrack and decided to fuzz the program, as well as look through the source code," wrote Jack Koziol, the Security Program Manager at the InfoSec Institute. "He found that he could overwrite config settings and gain a root shell." An unofficial patch is available from InfoSec Institute. Koziol said that an official patch is being tested now and is expected shortly."
Linux

Submission + - MythTV 0.25 released, new HW acceleration and audio standards support (mythtv.org)

Submitted by
unts
unts writes: "The highly configurable Linux PVR, MythTV, has reached the 0.25 release, over 500 days after the previous full release. New features include VAAPI support, E-AC3, TrueHD, and DTS-HD audio, the ability to control other home entertainment devices via HDMI CEC and additions to the API to allow HTTP live streaming. The release notes for 0.25 don't reflect the release status at the time of writing, but should contain most of the relevant changes.

MythTV can be used as a backend (recorder) and frontend (viewer), but can also feed other frontends such as appropriate versions of XBMC. Hopefully the new HTTP streaming API will lead to even more ways to get your video fix from MythTV."

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