Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Rumors of the impending sunsetting of Google TV have been around at least since September when Sony, Google’s most stalwart partner for its struggling, Android-based Google TV, announced a Bravia Smart Stick media player. Sony noted “Google services” but never mentioned Google TV. The trend was confirmed by several unnamed Google TV partners in an October report by GigaOM that cited the Android TV name. In December, when Marvell announced an Android 4.2.2-ready, Armada 1500 Plus SoC update to the official SoC of Google TV — the Armada 1500 — the Android TV term was used again.

Opensource.com community manager Jason Hibbets interviewed Angie Byron, a Drupal core co-maintainer, about the latest version of this open source content management system. What can we expect from Drupal 8?

Just a few days after Amazon unveiled the Fire TV, Google will reportedly launch its own set-top box. The Mountain View, Calif. company is close to debuting Android TV, an Android-powered platform that will compete directly with the Fire TV, Apple TV and Roku.

LXer Feature: 06-April-2014

Hi, its been a while.. Forgive me for my, and by proxy the LXWR's absence but if I get my way that will not happen again. First, I would like to announce that Dr. Tony Young who many of you know for his many LXer features, forum contributions and for my part sincere friendship is our now LXer Senior Asia/Pacific Editor. He has been an integral part of LXer for some time now and I am proud to call him my friend. Second, the LXWR has taken several forms, and breaks in its continuance of which the all I take full responsibility for but it is my intent to make this more than it has been and this is my first step. Enjoy!

Migrating the city’s computer systems from Windows and NT was a long slow process, but it would be wrong to ascribe the delays just to teething problems with the use of Linux and free software in large environments. Every migration, even between different versions of Windows, brings its problems: fractured OEM deals, broken data, lost or redundant applications, single vendor tie-ins, interoperability log-jams and the transition process itself. People don’t like change.

Along with the price cut comes a more powerful Atom processor (64-bit Intel Atom E38xx Series SOC), integrated Intel HD graphics and a smaller overall footprint for the machine itself. Minnowboard Max runs Debian GNU/Linux or Android 4.4 system -- it is also Yocto project compatible.

...So while this OS cash machine chugged along and the company experimented with other tangential offerings, the marketplace changed: OS and the activities it enabled emerged apart and beyond Microsoft’s reach, as well as smack dab in the heart of where it had once ruled most overtly (Linux, and then Chrome).

One by one, established embedded board developers are experimenting with open, community backed single board computer projects. Habey USA’s “HIO” SBC project is more ambitious than most. With its Android and Linux-ready HIO-EMB-1200 SBC, the company is introducing a new 80 x 72 x 10mm “HIoTX” form-factor that is 20 percent smaller than Via’s 100 x 72mm Pico-ITX standard. With its 10mm profile, the HIO is also the thinnest SBC equipped with Freescale’s ARM Cortex-A9 based i.MX6 system-on-chip, says Habey.

After Tuesday, Microsoft will no longer provide technical assistance or automatic updates that help protect your computer that runs Windows XP. Another alternative is to install a free Linux operating system. You can first try out a system using a live CD or USB boot. Alternatively you can install a dual boot system that allows you to boot either to your Linux operating system or Windows XP. Once you are satisfied with and used to your Linux system you could do a full install that wipes out your Windows XP system.

Never one to mince words, Linux kernel chief Linus Torvalds has once again handed a verbal smackdown to a Linux developer, this time for failing to address a serious bug that could prevent systems from booting. The target of Torvald's latest tirade was Kay Sievers, one of the key developers of systemd, a system-management daemon that isn't part of the kernel but is among the first software to launch when Linux boots.

Mobile and embedded topics were the main course at this week’s Intel Developer Conference in Shenzhen this week. Intel tipped new 14nm Atom system-on-chips and announced the availability of its previously announced, Linux-ready Intel Gateway Solutions for IoT (Internet of Things). Five manufacturer partners were announced for products based on the Atom- and Quark-based gateway, and ADI announced a White Oak Canyon gateway with full specs (see farther below).

The puzzling move was disclosed to El Reg on Friday by multiple well-placed sources at multiple database companies, who were each familiar with the matter. The insiders, speaking on condition of anonymity, say relational database expert Oracle is trying to form a body dedicated to NoSQL databases, and is seeking participation from NoSQL startups. The emphasis of the standards body will be on go-to-market strategies, marketing, promotion and further commercialization of the technology rather than defining technical specifics, we understand.

If you want to be up to date on what’s going down in embedded Linux, there’s no place like ELC, as in the Embedded Linux Conference. The Linux Foundation has just posted the 90-session presentation line-up for the U.S. show, scheduled for April 29 through May 1 at the San Jose Marriott. The European version (ELCE) ran last Oct. 21-25 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

CEO Jeff Walpole of Phase2 helps persuade businesses to consider open source as a viable solution. Particularly, Drupal. Jeff says, "Phase2 invests an estimated $500,000 every year in time, code, and sponsorship to grow this remarkable open source project." And, in return? Jeff and his team show others how to use Drupal. What sounds simple in this trade-off, in fact is not. Many don't understand open source, or they don't trust it. So, Phase2 makes a business out of being their guide through the murky waters of misperception and into the land of plenty (of open source).

This past week, the OpenShift Origin repository on Github saw some major code merges from external contributors that added MSFT .Net functionality to the OpenShift Origin platform. Thousands of new lines of code were tested and merged successfully into the OpenShift Origin codebase, which was then instantly made available for anyone to download and deploy.

I never have a Twitter app crash in the middle of a Tweet. That wouldn't be too terrible to deal with. No, for me, it seems my e-mail application decides to crash after I've spent 20 minutes thumbing out a reply while sitting in a crowded airport. If you've ever lost a love letter, term paper, shopping list or world-class Facebook post, Type Machine is the perfect app for you.

By the end of December 2005, I had been blogging on ODF developments in Massachusetts for about four months, providing interviews, legal analysis and news as it happened. In those early days, not many bloggers were covering the ODF story, and email began to come my way from people that I had never met before, from as far away as Australia, and as near as the State House in Boston. Some began with, “This seems really important – what can I do to help?” Others contained important information that someone wanted to share, and that I was happy to receive.

KDE today releases the first Alpha version of the next-generation Plasma workspace. This kicks off the public testing phase for the next iteration of the popular Free software workspace, code-named "Plasma Next" (referring to the 'next' Plasma release-see below "A note on versioning and naming"). Plasma Next is built using QML and runs on top of a fully hardware-accelerated graphics stack using Qt 5, QtQuick 2 and an OpenGL(-ES) scenegraph. Plasma Next provides a core desktop experience that will be easy and familiar for current users of KDE workspaces or alternative Free Software or proprietary offerings. Plasma Next is planned to be released as 2014.6 on the 17th of June.

The wifi-enabled Fire TV brings voice search to media servers. The tiny device brings together quad-core processor, dedicated GPU and 2GB memory to drive 1080p content to HDTVs.

Rockchip is the second chipmaker to jump on ARM’s recently announced Cortex-A17 processor design, after MediaTek’s octa-core MT6595 system-on-chip. This heir to the quad-core, Cortex-A9 RK3188, which fuels Android stick computers like the Rikomagic MK802IV and Ugoos UM2, was tipped at CES as being a Cortex-A12 processor. However, Rockchip instead converted the SoC to the similarly 32-bit Cortex-A17.