Episode 034 – SUSE and Venus
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Total Running Time: 1:17:42
Summary
Kernel News: Mat
Time: 12:18
Distro Talk: Tony
Time: 15:12
Mary Distro Review
Time: 30:16
Review of Siduction (Razorqt Desktop)
Convention Scene
Time: 39:50
Tech News:
Time: 41:25
Finally A Judge Who Gets It, Oracle Loses To Google
Microsoft Finds First Extortion Victim For UEFI
We Love Linux Says Microsoft Azure Team
Overall Server Revenue Down 2.4% Worldwide, Linux Server Revenue Up 16.0%
Facebook unveils Folly
Ubuntu One For KDE Has Arrived!
A KDE Services Menu for All Seasons…and reasons.
Top 500 super computers and their Operating systems
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time: 59:04
Is It Alive (or is it a Drink)?
Listener Feedback
Time: 1:04:10
Mat’s Soapbox
Outtro Music
Time: 1:12:30
Intro:
Mat Enders, Tony Bemus, and Mary Tomich
Intro Sound bite by Mike Tanner
Kernel News: Mat
Time: 12:18
Release Candidate:
On Sat Jun 2 18:29:26 PDT 2012
Linus Torvalds Released kernel 3.5-rc1
Mainline:
3.5-rc1
Stable Updates:
Kernel Developer Quote:
From the Linus really thinks that Gnome3 sucks bag:
“Who do I need to fuck to get standard font size and panel options, instead of having to wade through this kind of “unsupported and random extensions that look ugly as hell and break randomly” crap? Maybe if I told people I was going blind, and claimed the font size was an “accessibility” feature, people would care? Never mind that I want to make the fonts smaller.”
— Linus Torvalds
Distro Talk: Tony
Time: 15:12
- 5-27 – Bridge Linux 2012.5 – a desktop-oriented distribution based on Arch Linux
- 5-29 – Caixa Mágica 18 – a Portuguese Linux distribution for desktops and servers based on Ubuntu, has been released
- 5-29 – Fedora 17 – he latest stable version of the Red Hat-sponsored community distribution of Linux
- 5-29 – Grml 2012.05 – a Debian-based live CD designed for system administrators and users of text tools
- 5-30 – KNOPPIX 7.0.1 – Debian-based live DVD consisting of a representative collection of GNU/Linux software and automatic hardware detection
- 5-30 – Clonezilla Live 1.2.12-60 – a new stable version of the specialist Debian-based live CD with free disk cloning software
- 5-30 – Parted Magic 2012_05_30 – a utility live CD designed primarily for disk management and data rescue tasks
- 6-1 – VectorLinux 7.0 “SOHO” – a Slackware-based distribution with KDE optimised for business and office use
- 6-1 – SolusOS 1.1 – based on Debian’s stable branch but with a newer kernel and up-to-date software packages
Distro of the Week: Tony
- Bridge – 1310
- Ubuntu – 1710
- Mageia – 2149
- Fedora – 3449
- Mint – 3754
Mary Distro Review
Time: 30:16
Review of Siduction (Razorqt Desktop)
Button, Button, Who’s Got the Button…
Siduction! come on, admit it… The name of this distro is a cute play on words but since cute is not in the vocabulary of most guys I know—clever will have to suffice. I decided to take a look at this cleverly-named distro after I messed up my mention of it during the distro releases segment in episode 33.
One of the available versions on Siduction’s site included the RazorQt desktop—a development release. Since I had not really had a chance to check RazorQT out, I decided now was as good a time as any. (so what started off as a review of Siduction became, instead, more of a review of Razorqt)
I booted the live DVD and after running through the standard boot-up scrolling text, I was presented with a GRUB screen, complete with an over-sized razor blade. A real attention getter. I selected Start Siduction 686 and was soon staring at a desktop that was simple and clutter-free…just a modern analog clock and a few icons, including the requisite installer icon…and that razor blade, although smaller and off to the side. Well, time to explore.
The first thing I do when testing a new desktop is change the mouse buttons because I am a leftie. Preferences > Razorqt Settings > Razor Mouse Configurator seemed like the place to find the mouse button settings. Wrong! The Razor Mouse Configurator only allowed me to change the cursor color. They should have named it Razor Cursor Color Configurator. Of course I pulled out my own curse configurator and muttered a few. Oddly enough, also under the Razor qt settings was the power off button. Apparently the developers wanted to make it convenient to shut off your computer in disgust, after discovering you can’t change your mouse buttons Very thoughtful.
But wait…I saw the Razor Configuration Center. Could the mouse button option be there?? No. And it was not found in the fully stocked Debian application menu, either
So I went to the razorqt site (url) to see if others had noted it. A SuSE user had. The initial response from the forum admin was to use YaST. Another suggested making changes to Xorg.conf. Hmmm, This desktop needs a little polish, so I closed the book on RazorQT.
In addition for the not quite ready for prime-time Razorqt, you can download Siduction with XFCE, LXDE, or KDE version. My plan was to check out the Gnome version but there was none to be had, so I downloaded the KDE version.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The live version does not automatically install proprietary software, so if your system uses a wireless chipset that has a proprietary driver like my Zareason laptop, you’re out of luck. However, you do have the option to install these kernel modules during the install process. Speaking of the install process, Siduction fires up the well-known browser QupZilla on localhost port 8086 to walk you through the process. I liked the port number!
On the partition page, Gparted opened easily unlike the live version of razorqt where it did not open at all. I selected my partition and file system format and moved forward. (Note to self: Do not select btrfs unless the distro appears ready to support it. That file system error during booting was a drag to see.)
Install log appears at the end of the install, along with a reboot button.
The 2012.1 release is called Desperado and true to form, as each phase of the boot concludes, a bullet hole appears on the boot-up splash screen. After the fifth bullet hole, the system transitions to a KDE 4.8.3 desktop.
What I noticed:
1. Two image scanning programs installed but no office suite.
2. Konqueror browser installed but not Rekonq or Firefox.
3. Krusader (both root and non-root) already installed, as well as Midnight Commander, and Dolphin. There is no shortage of file managers in Siduction.
4. The wireless kernel module did not install despite my preference and selection that it be installed.
5. In All Applications > System, they have Kernel-Remover, a utility which removes old kernels.
6. Yakuake, my favorite terminal utility is installed.
7. Open source Nvidia module, Nuveau, also installed.
8. KdiskFree – which shows usage by partition is installed in the systems menu.
9. Full Debian menu available.
10. Ceni– An Ncurses network interface configuration, appears to be the primary networking tool, which was a little surprising but it does have a lot of options.
11. Menu option to install directly to USB
12. Music player is called DeaDBeef, probably killed by one of the bullets during the boot process. I am sure Fedora’s latest release, Beefy Miracle, doesn’t have this music player. But its next release, Spherical Cow could—who knows.
Siduction – Some may be seduced by this Linux distro, but for me—not so much. Siduction has not replaced Chakra as my favorite-but-not-default distro.
http://www.webupd8.org/2011/12/razor-qt-new-lightweight-desktop.html
Convention Scene
Time: 39:50
June 2012
6-8 June 2012
LinuxCon Japan · Pacifico Yokohama · Yokohama, Japan
LinuxCon Japan is the premiere Linux conference in Asia that brings together a unique blend of core developers, administrators, users, community managers and industry experts.
https://events.linuxfoundation.org/events/linuxcon-japan
————————–
8-10 June 2012
SouthEast Linux Fest Blake Hotel – Charlotte NC, USA –
The Southeast LinuxFest is a community event for anyone who wants to learn more about Linux and Free & Open Source software. It is part educational conference, and part social gathering.
http://www.southeastlinuxfest.org/
——————————-
19-21-June 2012
Solutions Linux Open Source, CNIT Paris La Defense, Paris, France
Solutions Linux Open Source is the finest event pertaining to software industry.
http://events.hellotrade.com/tradeshows/solutions-linux-open-source/
—————————-
26-29 June 2012
Open Source Bridge (OSBridge) 2012, The Eliot Center Portland, OR, USA –
Open Source Bridge is a conference for developers working with open source technologies and for people interested in learning the open source way.
Tech News:
Time: 41:25
Finally A Judge Who Gets It, Oracle Loses To Google
Oracle’s attack on Google goes down in flames. Federal Judge William Alsup put the final nail in Oracles coffin with a ruling this week that says you can’t copyright an API. Judge Aslup equated it to copyrighting a set of How To instructions. This is in part what he said in his ruling:
“So long as the specific code used to implement a method is different, anyone is free under the Copyright Act to write his or her own code to carry out exactly the same function or specification of any methods used in the Java API,”
Less than a month ago a European court made a similar rilling. In that case the court found that programming APIs couldn’t be copyrighted as that would have in effect “monopolize ideas.”
Oracle is going to appeal as they spent ten of millions on this suit already and Larry Ellison is like a dog with a bone. If he is not careful though he will be like that dog from Aesop’s fable that winds up losing all the bones because he is greedy. Right now Oracle’s compensation will be limited to statutory damages for the nine lines of code that were found to be infringing. That means that their maximum damages would be around $150,000.00 and may be much less.
If Oracle wants to win on appeal they will not only have to get Judge Aslup’s ruling overturned but also win a completely new trial. That may prove difficult as in an interview after the trial the foreman said that Oracle was never even close to proving their case. He also said that the only reason that the jury found Google guilty of any infringement was because the Judge’s instructions made it seem like they had to.
In his ruling Judge Aslup had to say about the one copied function called rangeCheck():
“This was an innocent and inconsequential instance of copying in the context of a massive number of lines of code,”
So Larry I would not pin any hopes on getting even close to the $150,00.00 possible on this one. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Also on a side note my favorite title of any article on this topic this week came from Internet News dot com: Oracle Loses. All Your APIs Are Belong to Us
Microsoft Finds First Extortion Victim For UEFI
Fedora has become the first distribution to cave into MS. Fedora 18 will include a digital key that will allow it to boot up on UEFI enabled hardware. granted the keys are not very expensive being $99.00 per key. But this is an ongoing expense as every time you have a new release you need a new key. If your a distribution that has a release every six months then you will need a new key every six months. What about rolling releases like openSUSE’s Tumbleweed or Linux Mint Debian Edition, will these distributions only need one key ever or will they tie it say to the kernel version.
The fedora project faced a couple of solutions to this problem just like every other distribution out there. They chose to accept the extortion demands. Their other options where to produce their own key, or ignore the digital key entirely. These present their own problems. Producing your own key means getting every hardware vendor to accept your key or face the fact that there will be large amounts of hardware that your key does not work with. In its current state ignoring the key means having to fiddle with the computers firmware to get it to boot. This is unacceptable as it creates a large barrier to non-techies, it is like Matthew Garret says:
“The cause of free software isn’t furthered by making it difficult or impossible for unskilled users to run Linux,”
Having the key allows the machine to ensure that the binary version of the distribution is the same as the one sent to the key signer. The Fedora engineers are going to develop a separate bootloader to provide the key to the UEFI system then hand control back over the regular bootloader. There are problems with even this method as some of the kernel functionality will need to be locked down. Then kernel modules would also need to be signed. What if you are compiling your own kernel how are you going to get it signed.
Those are the facts as they currently exist Stay tuned for the Mat’s Opinion segment where I will be expounding upon my thoughts on this.
We Love Linux Says Microsoft Azure Team
Does anybody else remember Steve Ballmer referring to Linux as a cancer. Well not any more as the Azure team makes the necessary changes in order to embrace Linux. They are doing this in order to try and gain some market share away from the likes of Amazon and Rackspace. Currently you can not run a persistent instance of Linux on Azure which means that when it goes down, yes I said when not if, you loose all of your data. A completely unacceptable situation for any business. Well in the next release of Azure you will be able to run persistent instances of Linux. I personally do not understand why anyone would want to run an instance of Linux on top of Azure. That would be like trying to run a Ferrari with a VW engine in it.
Overall Server Revenue Down 2.4% Worldwide, Linux Server Revenue Up 16.0%
The International Data Corporation (IDC) have put out their 2012 Q1 report. Last year Linux server revenue was about 2.07 billion in the first quarter and this year it was 2.4 billion. In the same time frame Windows server revenu grew by 1.3 percent from 5.8 billion to 5.9 billion. This leaves Windows with 50.2% of the market and Linux with 20.7%. Now let’s look at what that growth means. Unlike back in episode 21 on March 4th when I figured out that at the current rate of growth Linux would overtake Windows on the desktop in 59 years this time it is much closer. At the current standing with Linux server revenue at 2.4 billion and Windows server revenue 5.9 billion. The current rate of growth for each respectively is 16% and 1.3%. With these figures we can estimate that Linux server revenue will overtake Windows server revenue in 7 years. Now seven is a lot closer than 59. If current trends stay the way the are or reasonably close to what they are we can realistically see Linux revenue overtake Windows revenue in the server market in the next ten years. Rock on!
Facebook unveils Folly
and a old artical about Facebook OSS Facebook opens up about open-source software
Ubuntu One For KDE Has Arrived!
Sunday, developer and blogger ShaneQFul posted about a new project that he’s been working on. It’s a plugin that integrates Ubuntu One with Dolphin. I
http://www.thepowerbase.com/2012/05/ubuntu-one-for-kde-has-arrived/
A KDE Services Menu for All Seasons…and reasons.
Wow…is all I can say after I installed and clicked the right mouse button (which, for me actually, is the left one because I am left handed). The list of options available to me was amazing. Suddenly the Konqueror file manager is a distant thought…yesterday’s wine as I marveled what was listed before me.. There are tools for practically any system admin task you have to perform…and some that you probably have never thought to do. I am surprised there is not a naming dictionary for Ubuntu distributions. A full list of features appears below—which was taken from the KDE Apps site.
Enables the following functionalities on the Dolphin’s right click menu of KDE:
– Convert several video formats to MPEG-1, MPEG-4, AVI, VCD, SVCD, DVD, 3GP, FLV.
– Extract the audio track of several video formats and convert them to MP3.
– Convert several audio files to MP3.
– Sending files to Thunderbird as email attachments.
– Burn ISO image; in place ISO image mounting and unmounting…
– Execution of scripts.
– PDF tools.
– AVI tools.
– Low level information of video files.
– Build an ISO image from a selected folder.
– Text replacing. – Searching tools.
– SSH tools. – CheckSum tools.
– Dolphin tools.
– Midnight tools (Midnight Commander).
– Play videos from selected folder.
– System Tools => Build Custom Kernel ( Now you can customize your own kernel easily… )
– Network Tools => Connect Sentry ( ..see on your notification widget, every established connection ).
– [Backup|Restore] Tools.
– SaMBa Tools.
– Extract subtitle from MKV video files.
– YouTube Tools.
– DVD tools
http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/kde-services?content=147065
Top 500 super computers and their Operating systems
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Operating_systems_used_on_top_500_supercomputers.svg
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time: 59:04
Is It Alive (or is it a Drink)?
During this segment of the show, Mary challenges Mat and Tony to identify whether a Linux Distro is alive or dead? This week’s segment takes a slightly different tack when Mary challenges Mat and Tony to decide whether the named entity is a Linux distribution or a bar drink. Bar drink? Yes, a bar drink. The items for the June 3 show:
====================================
Sabra
Sabra liqueur is a chocolate-orange flavored liqueur produced in Israel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_liqueur
MAT: Linux
TONY: Linux
VERDICT: Drink
====================================
Liquid Lemur
Liquid Lemur Linux provides a usable – but minimal as possible – set of pre-installed applications and packages. Liquid Lemur Linux (Lemur) was previously based on the Debian Testing (Wheezy) branch. However, due to complications with packages, that often could break the distro, they moved to an Arch-based distro from Debian.
http://liquidlemur.com/cms/
MAT: Linux
TONY: Drink
VERDICT: Linux
===================================
Black Panther
The blackPanther OS development has started in 2002. The last stable version, v10.1 became available in January 2010. It was among the 5 top popular distributions in January at www.distrowatch.com.
MAT: Drink
TONY: Drink
VERDICT: Linux
===================================
Tiger Paw – Drink
A delicious alcoholic drink recipe for Tiger Paw with citrus vodka, lemon juice, sugar, ice, orange soda.
http://www.drinksmixer.com/drink2410.html
MAT: Drink
TONY: Linux
VERDICT: Drink
===================================
Pacifica
1 1/2 oz. Bourbon
1 tsp. Vermouth, red
1 1/2 oz. Pineapple Juice
Mixing Instructions: Stir in a shaker with ice and strain into a glass.
http://www.drinknation.com/drinks/name/P
MAT: Linux
TONY: Drink
VERDICT: Drink
===================================
Viperr
Viperr is a Fedora Remix that aims to merge CrunchBang qualities with a Fedora base benefits.
http://darthwound.org/viperr/ww/
MAT: Linux
TONY: Linux
VERDICT: Linux
===================================
Mat: 3
Tony: 2
Listener Feedback
Time: 1:04:10
Kevin O’Brien – Licenses
Pagel – Really Likes IIA and got 3
Tom in Israel – Condescending to Mary
David Ellis – Fedora and Yum no rpm hell http://www.thelostforest.org
Mat’s Soapbox
Outtro Music
Time: 1:12:30
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