mintCast 184 – Point Linux

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News:

  • Linux Mint 16 release candidate available for download- Clement Lefebvre has announced that the release candidate for Linux Mint 16 is out and ready for testing: “The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 16 ‘Petra’ RC. Linux Mint 16 is the result of six months of incremental development on top of stable and reliable technologies. This new release comes with updated software and brings refinements and new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.”. (Cinnamon) (Mate)
  • Debian finds itself caught up in the “init war”, technical panel to decide direction for next release – The leader of the Debian GNU/Linux project, Lucas Nussbaum, has announced that the question of which init system will be the default in the next release, Jessie, will be decided by the project’s technical committee. (itwire.com)
  • Google Books are ruled legal in a huge win for Fair Use – A long-running copyright lawsuit between the Authors’ Guild and Google over its book-scanning project is over, and Google has won on the grounds that its scanning is “fair use”. (arstechnica.com)
  • Sourceforge responds to the GIMPs departure – A week after the developers of popular graphics-wrangling app the GIMP bailed from SourceForge rather than endure the many odd ads it encourages, the site has responded with a scheme that makes its users the arbiters of acceptable ads. (theregister.co.uk)
  • Sailfish OS Smartphones to hit the market later this month – Finnish startup Jolla has revealed when the first batch of its Sailfish OS based smartphones will be available to customers, along with new information about what software will be on offer when the devices ship. (theregister.co.uk)

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mintCast 183 – Python, Twitter, and Pi

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News:

  • Low-end laptops:The rise of the Chromebook- Some people are still in denial about the rise of the Linux operating system with the Chrome Web browser interface, Chrome OS, and its hardware: the Chromebooks. The experts say, however, it’s the one segment of the PC market that’s growing while everything else shrinks. (zdnet.com)
  • Slackware Linux 14.1 – 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. (distrowatch.com) (slackware.com)
  • Canonical “abused trademark law” to target a site critical of Ubuntu privacy – “Fix Ubuntu” site accused of trademark violation, asked to change domain name. According to Micah Lee, Canonical sent him an e-mail this morning asking him to stop using the Ubuntu logo and also to stop using the word “Ubuntu” in his domain name. Lee reprinted the entire e-mail in a blog post. (arstechnica.com) (muktware.com) (markshuttleworth.com) (softpedia.com)
  • The future of Linux: Evolving everywhere – Mark Shuttleworth’s recent closure of Ubuntu Linux bug No. 1 (“Microsoft has a majority market share”) placed a meaningful, if somewhat controversial, exclamation point on how far Linux has come since Linus Torvalds rolled out the first version of the OS in 1991 as a pet project. But where from here? (itworld.com)
  • Linux Voice – A new Free Software and Linux magazine that gives profits back to the community – from an all-star team of ace Linux journalists. Linux Lifestyle originally shared: OK folks here it is. We’re launching a crowd funding campaign to create a new Linux magazine that puts the community first. That means we’ll donate half of our profits back to the community. There’s loads more details on the campaign page.  (linuxvoice.com) (indiegogo.com)
  • Humble Store Opens with 24-Hour Debut Sale – First there was the Humble Bundle, and it was good. Then came the Humble Weekly Sale, and it was pretty cool too. Now it’s time for the next step in the Humble evolution: The Humble Store, where games go on sale and proceeds go to charity. (escapistmagazine.com) (humblebundle.com)

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mintCast 182 – Ubuntu 13.10

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News:

  • The Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF, is a non-profit that has taken to the courts to fight the good fight in the digital world since 1990.  They’ve initiated legal challenges against the NSA’s warrantless wiretapping.  (talkers.com) (eff.org/)
  • Patent war goes nuclear: Microsoft, Apple-owned “Rockstar” sues Google – Canada-based telecom Nortel went bankrupt in 2009 and sold its biggest asset—a portfolio of more than 6,000 patents covering 4G wireless innovations and a range of technologies—at an auction in 2011. (arstechnica.com)
  • Can Open Source developers fix HealthCare.Gov? As computer experts hired by the U.S. government scramble to fix the much-maligned healthcare.gov website, a corps of independent kibitzers is chiming in from around the world, publicizing coding flaws that they’ve discovered and offering suggestions for fixing them. “It’s not the worst code I’ve ever seen.” (nbcnews.com)
  • Fedora 20 beta delayed yet again – The release of Fedora 20 has been delayed by another week — both the due-out beta and the final release — over unresolved bugs. (phoronix.com)
  • But it will have some cool features when it finally comes out – The latest edition of Fedora Linux, the open source operating system that helps form the basis for Red Hat’s (RHT) enterprise server platform, is set to debut soon — though a couple weeks later than initially planned, as bugs have held up the release. Still, it could bring some of this autumn’s biggest changes in desktop Linux when it appears in December. (thevarguy.com)
  • The Seattle Times goes hands-on with a Valve Steam Machine prototype – “It’s an audacious effort to convince the vast and established PC industry that there’s another path to the living room besides the one blazed by Microsoft and Intel.”(seattletimes.com)

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mintCast 181 – Manjaro… Mint for Arch?

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News:

  • SteamOS could really help desktop Linux adoption, says Torvalds – Valve’s Steam efforts could be a big opportunity to drive desktop Linux because it could force the various desktop Linux distributions to standardize their technology. (pcworld.com)
  • Closing Doors – Posted on October 24, 2013 – “It is with a heavy heart that I must announce the closure of SolusOS. Simply put, there is no longer enough manpower to fulfill the vision. What began as a Debian derivative evolved into an independent distribution, without the large development team required to back such an effort.”
    (networkworld.com) (fossforce.com) (solusos.com – dead link?)
  • First Tizen tablets ship to developers – As originally reported, the tablet features a 1.4GHz, quad-core Cortex-A9 processor along with 2GB of DDR3 RAM, 32GB of flash, and a microSD slot. The 10.1-inch display offers 1920 x 1200-pixel resolution, and there’s both a 2-megapixel rear-facing camera, as well as a 0.3-megapixel front-facing camera. Bluetooth 3.0 and WiFi round out the mix. (linuxgizmos.com)
  • LG unveils the Fireweb, its first Firefox OS smartphone – LG is expanding the platform’s reach today by releasing its inaugural Mozilla-powered handset, the Fireweb.  (engadget.com)

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