Showing headlines posted by Fettoosh

The year of the Linux tablet is, like the year of the Linux desktop, destined never to arrive.

That doesn't mean we won't see Linux on a tablet, but you'll see Linux on a tablet the way you see it on the desktop - clinging to a tiny percentage of the market.

There is of course Android, which does use a Linux kernel somewhere under all that Java, but when Canonical or Red Hat talk about building Linux tablets, obviously Android is not what they have in mind.

For most, the dream of a Linux tablet means running a distro like Ubuntu, Mint or Fedora on some sort of tablet hardware.

Samsung's recent Android 4.1.2 upgrade for the Galaxy Note 10.1 adds power and flexibility to the company's unique offering of Android multiwindowing features. With this update, the Galaxy Note 10.1 can run up to 16 multiwindow-enabled Android apps at once, Windows/Mac-like, on a single screen. Apps endowed with Samsung's multiwindow technology are usable in three viewing modes: full screen, dual view, and cascade view, as shown below.

Steam is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS, and Valve has got to the point where they are happy to start urging Windows users to make the switch. Proof of that comes from the screenshot you see above. It’s the Steam website, and placed prominently near the top of the page is a “Join the Beta” promotion suggesting you try Steam for Linux. There’s even a download link to get Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which removes yet another barrier to entry.

Following up on my previous post, a different type of image has been made by the openSUSE KDE community members. In particular, alin has created images sporting the same software from KDE (4.10 RC2) but using the upcoming openSUSE 12.3 as base.

This is the latest version of the Fedora Linux operating system's Desktop Edition. It's everything you need to try out Fedora — you don't have to erase anything on your current system to try it out, and it won't put your files at risk. Take Fedora for a test drive, and if you like it, you can install Fedora directly to your hard drive straight from the Live Media desktop if you like.

Download Link: Fedora 18

I recently got a Raspberry Pi from RS online store. I wanted one so bad and it took so long before I got to play with it that by the time I got it, I was pretty much drooling over it. I started off by installing Raspbian which worked out of the box (what fun it is! :( ). I then moved on to try Arch and the fun began. Arch Linux install guide at elinux is pretty good but it only helps you to get bare bones Arch up and running. After that you are on your own. So here I am going to discuss how I managed to get Arch up and running with XFCE, a login manager and a web browser.

LAS VEGAS--Microsoft launched Windows RT with grand ambitions only a few months ago, but CNET has learned the operating system is facing yet another setback. This time it's Samsung having second thoughts about the computer software that runs on cellphone chips. Mike Abary, the Samsung senior vice president who oversees the company's PC and tablet businesses in the U.S., told CNET today at the Consumer Electronics Show that the Korean electronics giant won't be launching its Qualcomm-powered Windows RT device in the U.S. It's unclear what the company's plans are for the non-U.S. markets.

Earlier this week, reports surfaced that the Windows RT operating system had been jailbroken to allow for the execution of unsigned ARM desktop applications. Microsoft quickly issued a statement saying it does not consider the findings to be part of a security vulnerability, and applauded the hacker for his ingenuity. Now, an enthusiast over at XDA Developers by the name of netham45 has released a Windows RT Jailbreak tool.

The hack, performed by Clokr, exploits a vulnerability in the Windows kernel that has existed for a long time — since before Microsoft ported Windows from x86 to ARM, in fact. Basically, the Windows kernel on your computer is configured to only execute files that meet a certain level of authentication. There are four levels: Unsigned (0), Authenticode (4), Microsoft (8), and Windows (12). On your x86 Windows system, the default setting is Unsigned — you can run anything you like. With Windows RT, the default, hard-coded setting is Microsoft (8); i.e. only apps signed by Microsoft, or parts of Windows itself, can be executed.

Every so many months we roll a new Plasma Active release. We've done three big releases so far and are working on a fourth for release in the early Spring. These releases are great for people using Plasma Active on a device or for device integrators looking to make a releasable product.

If you want to stay on the leading edge, however, you can follow the devel repositories from the Open Build Service. This is fun as you get to see our work in near real-time. At least when things build, and since we're talking about an entire operating system stack for these images that doesn't always hold. The devel repositories not only include our own work, but also new work done by the Mer community. Sometimes it can get a bit chaotic.

Remember that era where the original RAZR elevated Motorola's name in the mobile realm to god-like status? Evidently, folks in that inner circle are angling for that to happen once more. A breaking report from The Wall Street Journal has it on good authority that engineers at Moto are toiling on a so-called "X phone," which is obviously being built under the stewardship of Google. The goal? To produce a singular handset that can immediately rival the iPhone and Samsung's flagship Galaxy handsets.

Team Google – technically, Team Motorola within Team Google – is apparently working a new smartphone that's designed to up the ante against hotshot smartphone competitor Apple. The problem? It's apparently taking a bit longer than expected for Google to produce results, which might allegedly cost the rumored "X Phone" some of its more eye-catching features. The Wall Street Journal has all the details on the new device, but we use that term loosely, because the smartphone is more cloaked in secrecy than confirmed with facts at this point. Some of the potential features being tossed around, however, do seem a bit innovative, like the phone's rumored bendable screen – one of the attributes that might get the axe as a result of "manufacturing" and "supply-chain management" issues, reports Amir Efrati.

We are very happy to announce the first testing release of Plasma Active for Nexus 7. Plasma Active, in a nutshell, is a Linux distribution (based on Mer as a core) that is specifically optimized for tablet computers.

Tuomas Kulve and me had been working on the Mer “hardware-adaptation” for Nexus 7 that enables to run Mer-based distributions like Plasma Active on the Nexus 7. Based on this hardware-adaptation and the work from Plasma Active we created an installable “image” that can be used to “flash” the current Plasma Active 3 on the Nexus 7.

KDE developers have succeeded in running the touch-optimized Plasma Active Linux Distribution on Nexus 7.

Earlier Ubuntu developers managed to create a installer for Nexus 7, but those builds also showed that Unity, in its current form, is not ready for touch-based devices. KDE has an edge here as it has optimized versions for netbooks, desktops and touch-based devices so a user doesn't have to make any compromises as one has to do with other DEs or shells which are focusing more in touch-based devices only.

ownCloud offers a Free software solution to synchronize your files across different devices. I’ve been working on a KDE Plasma client for this server technology. In this article, after giving a bit of background of the problem, I explain the design concepts behind the new ownCloud Plasma client and demonstrate how it works and integrates with different Plasma workspaces.

The city of Limerick, Ireland, is known for a lot of things: the infamous “broken treaty” of 1691, Gaelic sports and the eponymous form of poetry. Now, the town is also aspiring to become a model for deploying open source in government. It completed the latest move in that process this week with the adoption of the Zentyal Small Business Server and Zarafa groupware suite.

Desktop Linux for brand new computers has come a long way. Not too many years ago, consumers had fairly limited options in this space, but today we have more options than I could have ever imagined. One company offering desktop Linux on new systems is Dell. After seeing mixed success with its first line of Ubuntu PCs, Dell dumped Ubuntu almost entirely. But now Ubuntu is back with Dell's new ultrabook offering.

I’ve attended FOSS.in in Bangalore two weeks ago. FOSS.in is the largest Indian Free software conference, and has been on my list of conferences to ever attend for a long time. I’m back home for a good week now, so it’s time to recap a bit my experiences there. I travelled together with Lydia, a.k.a. Nightrose, who was attending on behalf of Wikimedia to tell about Wikidata. For the conference, I was scheduled for a talk about Plasma Active, and we also did a workshop on creating device-adaptive interfaces. More on that later.

Among major computer hardware makers, Dell continues to show growing signs of having a cohesive, far-reaching strategy surrounding open source. We've reported on the company's work with Canonical to bring Ubuntu-based systems to both India and China, including an expansion of this effort. Dell also recently announced its Ubuntu laptop, part of its "Project Sputnik" effort, targeted at developers. And, Dell is offering new laptops with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) pre-loaded. According to the latest reports, we're going to see more open source-friendly moves from Dell going forward.

The move away from open source solutions by the German city of Freiburg didn't seem to add up. With some help from German friends I've dug into the report - and it is indeed suspect. We recently saw the news that the German city of Freiburg had decided to end its open source migration and instead switch to using Microsoft products again. The rationale provided seemed curious to me - after all, at the same time the German city of Munich announced total savings amounting to €10 million from its own successful and ongoing migration. What seemed odd was there was no account of how they changed course to make the migration succeed. Munich learned lessons from early challenges and updated its strategy in order to succeed. But not Freiburg.