Episode 043 – Mat’s Birthday

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Total Running Time: 1:23:47

Un-edited Live session – http://youtu.be/nXX8p0emWGw

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Summary

Kernel News: Mat
Time: 11:05
Distro Talk: Tony
Time: 13:33
Mary Distro Review
Time: 23:46
Tech News:
Time: 36:50
Is it Alive? – Mary
Time: 52:06
Listener Feedback
Time: 1:04:09
Outtro Music
Time: 1:16:51
Kde Release Party Picture

Intro:

Tony Bemus, Mat Enders, and Mary Tomich
Intro Sound bite by Mike Tanner

Kernel News: Mat

Time: 11:05
Release Candidate:
On Thu, 2 Aug 2012 18:17:59 PDT
Linus Torvalds released kernel 3.6-rc1
He had this to say —

“Yeah, it’s actually only just over 12 days since 3.5 was released, but I hate the people who send me last-minute pull requests, so I like pulling the rug out from under people who plan on doing their pull request in day 13 of the 14-day merge window. If that was your plan, screw that.
…
Anyway, on to the stuff merged. As usual, even the shortlog is too big to usefully post, but there’s the usual breakdown: about two thirds of the changes are drivers (with the CSR driver from the staging tree being a big chunk of the noise – christ, that thing is big and wordy even after some of the crapectomy).

Of the non-driver portion, a bit over a third is arch (arm, x86, tile, mips, powerpc, m68k), and the rest is a fairly even split among fs, include file noise, networking, and just “rest”.
…”

Mainline:
3.6-rc1

Stable Updates:
On Thu, 26 Jul 2012 01:22:40 BST
Ben Hutching released kernel 3.2.24
With 110 files changed, 1212 lines inserted, and 835 lines deleted

On Mon, 30 Jul 2012 08:18:37 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.4.7
With 27 files changed, 183 lines inserted, 74 lines deleted

On Wed, 1 Aug 2012 12:48:36 PDT
Greg Kroah-Hartman released kernel 3.0.39
With 38 files changed, 826 lines inserted, and 355 lines deleted

On Fri, 03 Aug 2012 00:50:06 BST
Ben Hutchings released kernel 3.2.25
With 90 files changed, 1263 lines inserted, and 589 lines deleted

Distro Talk: Tony

Time:13:33

Distrowatch.com

• 7-29 – Kororaa Linux 17 – Fedora-based distribution optimised for desktop computing (codename ‘Bubbles’)
• 7-30 – Vine Linux 6.1 – the oldest and most prominent community distribution of Linux in Japan (code-named “Pape Clement”)
• 7-30 – Parted Magic 2012_07_28 – a specialist live CD with a large collection of utilities for disk management and data rescue tasks
• 7-31 – Stella 6.3 – CentOS remix designed specifically for the desktop – with GNOME 2
• 8-03 – IPFire 2.11 Core 61 – specialist Linux distribution for firewalls
• 8-04 – ClearOS 6.3.0 “Community” – CentOS-based distribution for servers
• 8-04 – Toorox 08.2012 “Xfce”, “Lite” – Gentoo-based live DVD

Distro of the Week: Tony

5. openSUSE – 1246
4. Zorin – 1277
3. Ubuntu – 1667
2. Mint – 2978
1. Mageia – 3149

Mary Distro Review

Time: 23:46

Luninux Review
Send in the Clones
Originally called aBsolutex3, Luninux started as a hobby in November 2010. The distro was submitted to DistroWatch under the name of Sn0wL1nuX, however when Lars Torben’s SnowLinux was introduced, the project decided to change the name of the distro to LuninuX OS to avoid any confusion.

Vitals:
Name: LuninuxOS
Maintainer: Not known
Distro Latest Birthday: 12.00 Stable on July 24, 2012
Derivative: Ubuntu 12.04 – which was obvious when I clicked on the details icon in the system settings area. (Big Ubuntu Logo)
Kernel: 3.2.0-27-generic (uname -a)
Review Desktop: Customized Gnome 3 shell

Obtaining/Downloading:
1.2GB DVD downloaded from Luninux site without a problem.

Live Environment:
I loaded Luninux to my Dell. Desktop is Gnome3 that has been customized to resemble a Mac interface. Docky configured with 3d, depth-of-vision panel, all shiny and nice, with reflections of the icons painting an attractive picture. The first things I saw were two windows: One was Nautilus restart required because apparently the Dropbox daemon has been installed on the live DVD. The second notifying me that a volume with software packages has been detected. Do I want to open it with the package manager? No, I don’t want to open it with the package manager. I haven’t even gotten in the front door yet. So I dismissed them and took a look around.
1. Wireless working? Check!– LuninuX loaded the iwl3945 module. I supplied my key and was connected without a hitch
2. Video working properly? Check! – LuninuX loaded the i915 module (Graphics Intel 965GM)

Browser: Chromium (Firefox not installed, but is available in the software center0
Office: LibreOffice 3.5.4.2
Mail Client: Evolution

Other notables about the live environment:
Had two icons on the desktop: The requisite install icon, plus a folder called Examples which held Lunixux icons and other information. Also had the How Linux is built video included in the Culture folder. Interesting video! Also a couple of music files which I thought a little odd. As it turns out, these two files play during the install process. If you’re into ethereal vocals and calm music, you probably will like the music.

We’ll take a look at the interesting apps that are installed by default later.

The Install Process:

It’s the Ubuntu install process. What more can I say? Plenty, it seems. I conducted three test installs due to problems when Luninux did its post-install boot. The first two installs produced the classic Gnome 2 layout with docky appearing as a stubby little menu with two icons. Was I supposed to open the package manager in the live environment after all? I thought I had missed an install step or something. No Mac clone look at all.

After a couple of tries I was able to get everything to install correctly and display the Mac like interface so l could continue. Reinstalled it a fourth time to make sure that the dock appearance was not a fluke.

Installed Environment:

The Mac clone desktops I have seen tend to use either XFCE or Gnome. I prefer Gnome, but that is my opinion only. The Gnome version used by this distro is 3.4.1. They did a nice job customizing it.

One puzzling thing, I had deactivated automatic login but I was still able to get to the desktop without providing a password a couple of times. Must have been a timing thing with the screensaver scripts starting.

1. Package Management
Luninux uses Ubuntu’s software center and software updater but the apt package management are available in a command line environment. I test installed Scribus via apt-get and it installed flawlessly. From the software center, I installed VLC Media Player and it, too, installed without a problem.

2. Interesting Apps, Etc.

Docky shows a standard assortment of frequently used applications, although SimpleScan (a scanning program) and BleachBit are not two apps I would expect to see on Docky.

Basic256 – an easy-to-use version of Basic designed to teach studens the basics of computer programming.

RecordMyDesktop – I recorded a short video of the desktop

Emerillon – A map viewer that is part of the Gnome project and features OpenStreetMap based maps
Cheese is called Photobooth in Luninux. The icon is interesting – Imagine Colby Jack meets Swiss.
Rating:

Despite the few glitches I was able to use this distro and appreciate its mac-like look.

3.5 cups

Tech News:

Time: 36:50
US Congress Takes On Patent trolls

A bipartisan bill introduced by Republican Jason Chaffetz and Democrat Peter DeFazio that will put burden of all legal fees on the losing party. Currently the each party to the litigation bears their own costs making it very difficult for small start ups to fight these kinds of suits, even though they may be in the right. The bill has the lengthy title of the “Saving High-Tech Innovators from Egregious Legal Disputes (SHIELD) Act”. The intent of the bill is to allow a defendant who withstands the claims to walk away without beearing any financial burden. This will hopefully cause potential litigants to think twice before engaging in a lawsuit.

This is what DeFazio had to say regarding the bill:
“Patent trolls don’t create new technology and they don’t create American jobs… They pad their pockets by buying patents on products they didn’t create and then suing the innovators who did the hard work and created the product”

The bill is specifically limited to patents involving computer hardware, computer software, along with IT systems. The definition for software in the bill reads like this “any process that could be implemented in a computer regardless of whether a computer is specifically mentioned in the patent.” The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) favored the initiative.

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Microsoft Frantically Tries To Keep Licensing Agreements Secret

There has been a big twist added to the Apple v. Samsung suit. The possibility now exists for us all to see the cross-license agreement between Microsoft and Samsung that also covers Android. This would be the first time anyone not a party to this agreement will be able to see the particulars. This of course sent Microsoft into a tizzy causing it to ask the court to seal it.

Lucy Koh, the presiding judge, has been in favor of making everything public having to do with this case. Even publicly slapping Samsung when they asked to have some material sealed, and not asking in the correct manner. Making this statement in her ruling:

“This standard may be exacting, but it is necessary in light of the Ninth Circuit’s direction that public access must be respected unless truly unwarranted.”

Other companies are also jumping the we need to keep the agreements secret bandwagon RIM, Motorola, and Qualcomm. Samsung has been letting these companies know that they intend on using their agreements in court. The intent here is to show that other companies have paid what Samsung is asking of Apple for use of their FRAND patents.

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IETF, W3C, And IEEE Make A Joint Statement On Transparency In Standards Creation

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) presented this paper in Vancouver at the IETF 84 conference. In the paper they jointly call for fair, consensus-based processes, transparency, and access for all in the standardization process. They make this statement in support of the idea that standards should not be set by a few large corporations. When Russ Housley, the head of the IETF, agreed to the statements commitment to royalty-free standards he was met with astonishment. Open Source type licenses currently are not the standard at the IETF, without moving to a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory style licensing IETF standards could become more expensive. Housley went on to point out that the document was not finalized and there was on going work on it. It will be finalized in August for presentation in November at the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly (WTSA) in Dubai. The Purpose for releasing the statement then is to send a strong message aimed right at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is often guilty being non-transparent in its processes. In this statement that focuses on being transparent and using open processes, the three organizations make their opposition to the ITU clear, saying that open, transparent standards have fostered innovation and advanced business and the economy.

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Is it Alive?

Time: 52:06

Is It Alive (or is it BSD)?

During this segment of the show, Mary challenges Mat and Tony to identify whether a Linux Distro is alive or dead? We twist the concept for this week’s show when I challenged Mat and Tony to decide if the named entity is a Linux distribution or BSD. The items for the August 4 show:

====================================

BeakOS

BeakOS is a Linux distribution designed to perform optimally in computer hardware and equipment limited very robust high performance,

http://www.beakos.org.mx/swb/es/BeakOS_GNULinux/home

MAT: BSD
TONY: BSD
VERDICT: Linux / Alive

====================================
KRUD Linux
For 8 years we maintained KRUD (Kevin’s Red Hat Uber Distribution) and KRUDserver Linux. We kept an extremely agressive release cycle, releasing new versions monthly, rather than semi-annually as the big distributions tend to.

http://www.tummy.com/Products/krud/

MAT: BSD
TONY: Linux
VERDICT: Linux / Dead

===================================
Frenzy
Frenzy is a “portable system administrator toolkit,” LiveCD based on FreeBSD

http://frenzy.org.ua/eng/

MAT: BSD
TONY: Linux
VERDICT: BSD / Alive

===================================

Pie Box
Enterprise Linux is a Linux distribution that is derived from the open source software made available by Red Hat, Inc

http://www.piebox.org/

MAT: BSD
TONY: BSD
VERDICT Linux / Dead

===================================
SharkOS

The goal of Shark Linux is to provide a stable environment with easy administration, targeting 64-bit AMD Opteron and Athlon 64 processors.

MAT: BSD
TONY: Linux
VERDICT Linux / Dead

===================================
Ging

Ging is a live CD distribution based on Debian GNU/FreeBSD (which is based on Debian, GNU and the kernel of FreeBSD).

http://glibc-bsd.alioth.debian.org/ging/

MAT: BSD/Linux – DEAD
TONY: BSD/Linux
VERDICT: BSD / Dead
===================================

Mat: 3
Tony: 3

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Listener Feedback show (at) smlr.us or 313-626-9140

Time: 1:04:09
Voice Mail – Door to Door Geek – OLF
George – http://www.itworld.com/software/287946/there-will-be-no-easy-way-install-linux-windows-8-pcs

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Mat’s Soapbox

Time:

Outtro Music

Time: 1:16:51
Station-Ska by Skastation

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