Showing headlines posted by Sander_Marechal

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 86 for the weeks April 6th - April 12th, 2008. In this issue we cover: Ubuntu 8.04 LTS archive freeze, Ubuntu 8.04 LTS LoCo Team CDs, Brainstorm update, Ubuntu UK Podcast #3, Euro-Parliament testing Ubuntu, and much, much more!

The GIMP team announced today the first release from the 2.5 development series. It is true that this version is unstable, but a little bird told me to give it a try and see what's it capable of. First of all, let me tell you that its interface is quite redesigned and I think that some users will have problems adjusting with it, but that's just my two cents. On the other hand, version 2.5.0 of The GIMP includes some hot new features, like the integration of GEGL (Generic Graphics Library) which will finally get support for higher color depths, more colorspaces and eventually non-destructive editing. But enough chitchat, and let's take a closer look at some of the new features and improvements to be found in The GIMP 2.5.0.

After failing to get any response from Linspire as to why they are not holding annual shareholder meetings, I asked them publicly to do so in my last blog, in a hopes that pressure from customers, partners and shareholders would encourage them to do the right thing. Their lack of responsiveness only heightens my concern with Linspire's present management and the company's future prospects. As a shareholder, seeing Linspire's new management destroying the company gives me great concern. This week I am working on my next blog which will outline the facts as to what Linspire has done since my resignation.

You will all no doubt be aware that a few months back I reviewed the original gOS, and I was enthusiastic about it. In my opinion, the original gOS was a great Linux distribution for the average computer user - someone who used it to write up a few documents, send a few emails, and surf the Internet a bit. With its emphasis on web apps, it was not only an ideal operating system for casual users, but was an indication of where desktop computing appears to be headed, with the real work being done "in the cloud", with the desktop just the front end for that. But now, gOS Space is here, and it's a radical departure from the original. So, once again I downloaded a copy and gave it a try.

The winner of the election is Steve McIntyre. I would like to thank all the candidates for their service to the project, for standing for the post of project leader, and for offering the developers a strong and viable group of candidates. Finally, I would like to congratulate Steve McIntyre, the Project Leader-elect, for his success.

Circumstantial evidence is mounting of one or more private deals having been struck to approve DIS-29500 Office Open XML ("OOXML") as an international standard, a deal that may have played a role in several key national standardization bodies changing their voting position to approve OOXML.

Brian Jones of Microsoft feels that the storm of publicity about shortcomings in OOXML is largely due to IBM investing its money and time in developing the expertise to consult for ODF-using products.He says that he really stands for choice. In fact, he wants the end-user and the developer to be able to choose freely whether to support ODF or OOXML or perhaps even both. Mr. Jones, if you really care about choice, implement ODF as a fully-native peer to OOXML and automatically download it in the next batch of updates, rather than using a partially-functional plug-in that has to be searched out and then downloaded. Or is it really Microsoft that is afraid?

The demonstration was completed about an hour ago - more about that later (with pictures). Here is the speech by Steve Pepper held during the demonstration - and it is a very good summary of the whole OOXML case.

The NSW Department of Education has put Microsoft on notice after it agreed to extend its software licensing agreement with the company for just one year instead of renegotiating a new three-year contract. At the same time, technology chief Stephen Wilson announced the department will install a free alternative to Microsoft's Office suite, referred to in industry circles as OpenOffice, on 41,000 computers due to be distributed to schools across the state by the end of 2008. The NSW Department of Education is also resisting Microsoft's attempts to upgrade users to the latest version of its Vista operating system. Instead, Wilson's team is downgrading every new computer it buys from Vista to Windows XP.

Meet "Zorro, master of the night". Zorro is a Java developer for a major US bank that makes widespread use of open source software. Zorro is keen to participate in open source projects, too, except for one thing - his employer won't let him. "For me, to contribute back to open source, I'd have to become 'Zorro, master of the night' - you have to go underground," our programmer said during last week's MuleCon in San Francisco, under condition of, yes - you guessed it - anonymity. "You have to understand the risk that we take."

There are many ways of peering into the future. This page lists 163 of them, including cephalonomancy (divination by boiling an ass head), coscinomancy, (divination using a sieve and a pair of shears), ololygmancy (fortune-telling by the howling of dogs) and tiromancy (divination using cheese). Me, I prefer to stick with the tried-and-trusted method of reading between the lines of Microsoft press releases.

GNOME’s Totem Movie Player now includes a plugin for searching and playing YouTube videos without leaving the player, and without Flash. It’s installed by default in Ubuntu 8.04, and works fabulously!

Imagine the next time you are trying reading a great list of Ubuntu programs. One of them catches your eye, and you want to try it. Instead of either using Add/Remove or opening a terminal to install the program, you simply click a link. A message box pops up asking you if you want to install the program, and then you enter your password. Before you could have found the program in Add/Remove, the program is installed! With Apturl, this is now a reality.

In the words of Nelly, “It’s getting hot in here!” In the low-cost laptop market that is. We can now welcome HP, the number-one PC manufacturer, to the sub-$500 notebook club. Today the company released its long-rumored low-cost laptop—the Mini-Note. The HP 2133 Mini-Note is a full-function mini-notebook, starting at less than $500, and according to HP is designed for the education market.

The "Podzilla" open source application suite was ported to a relatively inexpensive line of flash-based mp3 players. Originally developed by the iPod Linux project, the software now runs on SanDisk's $100-$150 Sansa e200 devices, reports Sebastian Duell, chief SansaLinux project developer.

Yes, as you see the market of low-cost laptops is very hot. Today we are learning about a new low-cost laptop from Netherlands. Van Der Led Jisus laptop comes with 8.9" display means that it want to compete with the second generation of Eee PC ( Eee PC 900) or second-gen of CloudBook ( CloudBook Max) or Wind PC ,…. This laptop will be available for purchase from May 25th 2008.

It's just a rumor, though it's likely spot-on given DigiTimes' past success with its well placed ASUS source(s). Apparently, ASUS is looking to get a jump on HP's new Mini-Note and that upcoming ultra-portable from Acer by launching its second generation 8.9-inch Eee PC early. As such, they'll have to forgo Intel's new Atom processor (shipping in June) and slap in an older-generation dual-core ULV instead.

I must confess to a certain disappointment with Red Hat. On the one hand, it is clearly the leader of the open source world – both historically and in terms of its size. On the other, it is remarkable for the low profile it keeps: it is striking, for example, how much more influence Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth seems to command, even though his company is a tiddler by comparison to Red Hat's whale shark.

Today, Red Hat took a public stand challenging the standards for patenting software. In the Biliski case that is now before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, this patent issue is ripe for consideration. In a friend of the court brief submitted to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in the Bilski case today, Red Hat describes the special problems that patents pose for open source and seeks modification of the standards for patentable subject matter that take open source into account. Here is a quick summary of our brief.

Software giant Microsoft has said in an interview that allegations that it had improperly influenced the vote on OOXML as an ISO standard were unfounded and arose mostly from individuals and companies unhappy with the vote’s result. “People who didn’t like the outcome are attacking the outcome,” said Tom Robertson, Microsoft’s general manager for interoperability and standards, in an interview Friday. The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) last week anounced that its members had voted in favour of approving OOXML as a new document format standard.