gNewSense Abandons Ubuntu, Microsoft’s Mono Agenda Revisited

gNewSense Abandons Ubuntu, Microsoft’s Mono Agenda Revisited: "

gNewSense is shifting to Debian codebase, shafting Mono, and the debate about Mono and Moonlight reaches new levels

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5 ways to misunderstand Free and Open Source Software.

5 ways to misunderstand Free and Open Source Software.: "

The following are 5 ways that people misunderstand the concept of Free and Open Source Software.

1. The software industry can't keep going if programmers don't get paid.

Let's begin with one simple fact: free software programmers do like to get paid, and all need to buy lunch at some time. When we mention free software, we refer to liberty not price. You may actually pay to get free software (or 'open source' software), which you can then study, change and copy at will.

How does it work? You can think about it the following way: software is just code, code is only math. Once you view software as useful math, an elaborate language, not like ordinary property, there is no reason to restrict others' use of it.

Just like math (where nobody would claim property on an equation), software requires advanced knowledge to be adapted, improved, applied correctly. This is where programmers generally generate an income: many customers, especially companies, are willing to pay for regular security updates and improvements on software.

Free software companies benefit from a very decentralised development system with a large number of voluntary contributors. The revenues inside the free software industry might be smaller than in the proprietary counterpoint, but are by no means negligible. In the end, individual users generally end up using free software at no cost.

Free software is not about killing incentives for programmers. It's about seeing code as knowledge which should not be hidden from the user. It works with a different business model, in which many companies already do well.

2. Innovation is killed in free software.

The common perception is that if everyone can copy ideas, innovation will be stifled. In fact, freedom is often the key to innovative and successful software.

• Anyone is allowed and encouraged to work upon it;


• Many people are willing to participate;


• There is no need to re-invent everything, ideas can be improved upon directly.

Non-proprietary software stands out in many areas: consider, to name just a few:

• Applications: Firefox (web browser), Inkscape (vector drawing).


• Complete systems: Apache (web server), OpenBSD (os), and of course, GNU/Linux.


• Formats and protocols: HTML (web pages), BitTorrent (file sharing), ODF (office documents).


• Server applications: Drupal (Content Management System), Wordpress (blog).

3. Software Should Just Work (who cares about source code?)

Anyone should care about whether their software is free.

Imagine purchasing a car whose hood you are forbidden to open. It does not matter whether you know how a car works – the point is that nobody will be able to check the engine. How can you trust your car, if no one is allowed to make sure that it's reliable, that it does not leak, that it's not harmful to the society and environment?

The idea is the same with software – except that code does much more than move cars. Software runs our computers, phones, TVs, media players and more, carrying information and our culture.

Free software is as important as free speech, as a free market. If software is free, users have control and liberty over it.

The good news are: free software also Just Works. And in fact, it often Just Works Better. Pop in a GNU/Linux liveCD in your computer at start-up, to try a full-featured, well-organised system, without installation, so you can judge by yourself.

4. Free software doesn't respect authors' copyrighted and patented software.

To answer this correctly, we must first make a clear distinction between copyright and patents. Copyright is a right granted to the author over his/her creation (for example, the text of a book, or the source code of a program). A patent, on the other hand, is a purchased, registered exclusive control over a process, the application of an idea.

Copyright is very important in free software. It is the very mechanism, central to the GNU General Public License, which ensures that free software remains free, and that authors are credited for their work. Programs are copyrighted, whether they are free or proprietary.

Any proprietary software author can easily check that his copyright is not violated in a free software application, since its source code is readily available. Patents in software, on the other hand, are a very controversial concept. To put it shortly: there is no such thing as a 'patented software'. By registering for a patent, however, someone can claim ownership over a process. The patent then applies to all software that use this process, whether proprietary or free.

Software patents:

• Are expensive and are granted only several years after application;


• Are limited geographically (a patent granted in the US is worthless in Europe);


• Have long life-times (often 20 years) in a quickly-moving industry;


• Often applies to entirely trivial processes.

As such, they are seldom used to benefit innovators (and in fact, rarely used by the innovators themselves).

It's safe to say that any medium-size piece of software violates patents, in several countries, whether it's free or not. Depending on the holding company's ability to cover very large legal costs, or to retaliate with other patent threats, royalties and restrictions can be applied over these patents.

5. Free software is like communism.

Supporters of this idea argue that there can be no private ownership with free (or 'open source' ) software. Let's answer this with an example.

Let's imagine that you use one application that is free software, at home and within your company. You find a great way to improve it, so now with your modified version, your computer works better and your factories run twice as fast!

This modified version is your own version. You are not required to tell anyone about it, nor must you share any of the profits you made using it. You are simply exerting your freedom to use and modify free software.

What the free software license requires is that if you redistribute this software, then you must keep it free.

Namely, if you sell CDs with your software on them, or start letting people outside your home or company use it, then you must:

• Either give everyone the same rights you had when you obtained the original software, that is, the freedom to inspect, modify and redistribute your modified version;


• Or, make the original software and your secret addition to it clearly separate (that is, your addition should contain none of the original work).

So in fact, you have more 'ownership' over free software than over proprietary software –where the programmer decides everything you can and can't do with the software.

Free software has nothing to do with a political system. You can run free software on top of proprietary software, just as well as the opposite. The free software license is simply a legal, ethical contract between the programmer and the end-user.

Originally posted on the Get GNU Linux blog.

Re-posted by Sinaisix

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GSM encryption code cracked wide open, leaked to the Internet

GSM encryption code cracked wide open, leaked to the Internet: "

In a move to shed light on the vulnerability of GSM wireless networks, encryption expert Karsten Nohl, with the aid of 24 fellow hackers, was able to compile the multitude of algorithms behind the twenty one year old, 64-bit encryption scheme used to encrypt 80% of the world’s cellular GSM phone calls. The algorithm’s code book, comprising 2TB worth of data, has been published by Nohl and is now available on the Internet through BitTorrent. This is not the first time GSM was “cracked”. In 2003, the method by which GSM’s encryption code could be cracked was uncovered by a team of Israeli researchers and in 2008, David Hulton and Steve Muller presented at Black Hat a technique for the successful interception and decryption of a GSM stream using $1,000 of hardware and a half hour of time. Now in 2009, we have the binary code log that could potentially make GSM decryption faster and easier than ever. Before everybody panics, it is important to point out that the GSM algorithm that was cracked was the older and less secure 64-bit A5/1 algorithm, not the newer 128-bit A5/3 algorithm. Unfortunately, GSM carriers have been slow to adopt this new 128-bit encryption standard but Nohl’s disclosure may be the kick in the butt these lazy carriers need to beef up their security.

Read

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Check Motherboard, BIOS, Processor, CPU ID From Command Line In Ubuntu Linux

Check Motherboard, BIOS, Processor, CPU ID From Command Line In Ubuntu Linux: "

Most users of Linux based systems work on the command line. Remote system administrators connect to their production servers via the command line and run multiple commands to achieve tasks. Lets see how we can determine the Motherboard, BIOS and CPU information directly from the command line.

Launch the Terminal and run the following command to determine the CPU ID:

sudo dmidecode –t 4 | grep ID

The following command will display the BIOS information on the terminal:

sudo dmidecode –t o

The following command will show you the processor information.

sudo dmidecode –t 4

If you are want to see the OEM information of your machine then run the following command:

sudo dmidecode –t 11

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Ubuntu Was More Popular Than Britney Spears In 2009

Ubuntu Was More Popular Than Britney Spears In 2009: "

With 2009 drawing to a close i thought it would be interesting to kick of a series of retrospective posts about Ubuntu in 2009.

What better way than to kick off with Ubuntu's popularity this year!

Has it grown? Shrunk? Vanished?

That we can’t conclusively say, but we can get all Cluedo about it and piece together some circumstantial evidence to gauge how popular Ubuntu was in 2009.

For example…

Apt-Get Me, Baby… One more Time!

Ubuntu was more popular than Britney Spears in 2009 - at least in terms of searches.

When you consider than she's shifted more than 83 million records and commands publicity like no-other, it's a curious footnote in itself.

Ubuntu Vs. Distro

Aside from the spurious, Ubuntu's popularity has always been hard to estimate. Canonical put the figure at around 8 million users (a relatively large number for an entire market segment with a reputed <2% share of all computer users).

In terms of popularity against other distributions, we see that Ubuntu is still king of the walk.

DistroWatch’s figures for the last twelve months also bear this out with Ubuntu clearly ahead of it’s rivals in terms of hits:

No firm-figures exist for the total number of Linux users so it’s hard to extrapolate what percentage of Linux is made up of Ubuntu. Stat-Counter gauges its market share data on over 5 Billion hits – meaning at least 40 Million are Linux users thus making Canonical’s claim of 8 Million Ubuntu users even more impressive.

Netbooks – the watering-can to the seed of Linux. Or something more poetic.

One thing we can be sure of is that the number of Linux users is growing year on year thanks to netbook sales.

Microsoft once claimed Windows accounted for 98% of netbook OSes. They then reduced this figure to 93% and only a week or so ago figures release show that Linux actually accounts for over one-third of netbook sales - and this figure only takes into account netbooks with Linux pre-installed and not users who later decide to slap Ubuntu Netbook Edition on it!

So either Microsoft are incredibly bad at math or are simply posturing away the Linux threat – because it means 11 million netbooks shipped with Linux!

Over 30 million netbooks are on-course to be sold in 2009 and 32% will ship with Linux.

Ubuntu + Dell = Win

Dell shipped 1/3 of it’s Dell Inspiron 9’s with Ubuntu and with Dell being the third biggest netbook manufacturer in the world so this isn’t a figure to be scoffed at!

Linux Share in 2009

Linux’s overall market share – according to StatCounter – was 0.69% 2009, not growing from 2008. But surely given the rise in netbook sales – with so many of them being Linux based – there should be a rise?

In Europe – where Linux netbooks are more readily accessible and Linux is more popular in general – Linux accounts for 1.06% of Operating System share in 2009 – up from 0.99% in 2008.

Meanwhile in North America – where Linux-based netbooks are less commonly available – Linux doesn’t register enough individual share to be differentiated.

Given the worldwide PC market increases year-on-year, the in-roads Linux continue to make are cancelled out.

The Ubuntu Effect

Perhaps interesting to note, in the month following Karmic, the worldwide Linux share jumped from 0.68% to 0.72%. In Europe along the share jumps from 1.06% in October – to 1.12% in November, following Karmic’s release. It should be noted that OpenSuse was also released in November.

This effect is noticeable in this graph from net-applications market sgare graph for Linux in 2009.

So – is Ubuntu more popular in 2009 than it was in 2008?

On the face of it – most certainly! Not only are there more Linux users in general thanks to the ever-expanding netbook market, but the visibility of Ubuntu has increased as well, but more on that a bit later…

© omgubuntu.co.uk 2009. | Ubuntu News, Tips, Apps and more.

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Free and Open Source CAD Software for Linux

Free and Open Source CAD Software for Linux: "

Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computer technology for the design of objects whether 2D or 3D, real or virtual. It is heavily utilized in many applications, including animation, automotive, shipbuilding, aerospace industries, industrial and architectural design, prosthetics, and many others. Because of its enormous economic importance, CAD has been a major driving force for research in computational geometry, computer graphics (both hardware and software), and discrete differential geometry.

AutoCAD is a CAD software application that's popular among professionals. But since it's very expensive and is only available for Windows, Linux users may want to take a close look at some of the free and open source programs that perhaps can equal most of the features offered by AutoCAD.

Here are some of the best free and open source CAD software for Linux that you may want to check out:


BRL-CAD
BRL-CAD (BRL stands for Ballistic Research Laboratory) is a powerful solid modeling system that includes interactive geometry editing, high-performance ray-tracing for rendering and geometric analysis, image and signal-processing tools, a system performance analysis benchmark suite, libraries for robust geometric representation, with more than 20 years of active development and production use by the U.S. military. Although it can be used for a variety of engineering and graphics applications, the package's primary purpose continues to be the support of ballistic and electromagnetic analyses. In keeping with the Unix philosophy of developing independent tools to perform single, specific tasks and then linking the tools together in a package, BRL-CAD is basically a collection of libraries, tools, and utilities that work together to create, raytrace, and interrogate geometry and manipulate files and data.



Open CASCADE
Open CASCADE is a software development suite for 3D surface and solid modeling, visualization, data exchange and rapid application development. It can be best applied in development of numerical simulation software including CAD/CAM/CAE, AEC and GIS, as well as PDM applications.

Some of the main features of Open CASCADE:

* Foundation Classes provide a variety of general-purpose services such as: primitive types, strings and various types of quantities, automated management of heap memory, exception handling, classes for manipulating aggregates of data, math tools etc
* Modelling Data supplies data structures to represent 2D and 3D geometric models.These services are organized in the following libraries: 2D geometry, 3D geometry, geometry Utilities, topology
* The Modelling Algorithms module groups together a range of topological algorithms used in modelling. Along with these tools, it is possible to find the geometric algorithms that they call



QCAD
QCAD specializes in drafting in two dimensions (2d). You can create technical drawings such as plans for buildings, interiors, mechanical parts or schemas and diagrams. QCAD was designed with modularity, extensibility and portability in mind. It has an intuitive user interface that you don't need any CAD experience to get started with QCAD immediately.

Some of the main features of QCAD:

* 35 CAD fonts included
* Over 40 construction tools
* Over 20 modification tools
* Construction and modification of points, lines, arcs, circles, ellipses, splines, polylines, texts, dimensions, hatches, fills, raster images
* Various powerful entity selection tools
* Object snaps
* Measuring tools
* Part library with over 4800 CAD parts
* Scripting interface



FreeCAD
FreeCAD is a general-purpose 3D CAD modeler that is based on OpenCascade, QT and Python. It is aimed directly at mechanical engineering and product design but also fits in a wider range of uses around engineering, such as architecture or other engineering specialties. FreeCAD features tools similar to Catia, SolidWorks or Solid Edge, and therefore also falls into the category of MCAD, PLM, CAx and CAE. It will be a feature based parametric modeler with a modular software architecture that makes it easy to provide additional functionality without modifying the core system.



Varkon
Varkon is a powerful 2D/3D CAD and modeling tool used in engineering, design, architecture, etc. It will let you do anything from traditional 2D drafting to fully parametric interactive modeling in 2D and 3D, sculptured surface modeling, and even animation. Though Varkon can be used as-is right away, it's almost completely customizable, allowing you to design a special purpose application with a user interface specific to that application. Models are described in Varkon's MBS programming language, interactively in a graphical window, and or manually in a text editor. You can also use Varkon to write or change the model's -or other- code on the fly.



If you have other free and open source CAD software to add to our list above, please share them with us via comment.

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News: Linux training course beta testers and helpers needed

News: Linux training course beta testers and helpers needed: "Well, now that the holidays are pretty much over, I think it's time to get back to our other projects that are currently in progress and get them done. One of those is our "Linux Introduction Course" project. It's an open instruction course designed to take Linux, Open Source and Med ..."

Making Money by Giving Stuff Away

Making Money by Giving Stuff Away: "

Open source software is obviously extremely interesting to companies from a utilitarian viewpoint: it means they can reduce costs and – more significantly – decrease their dependence on single suppliers. But there's another reason why businesses should be following the evolution of this field: it offers important lessons about how the economics of a certain class of products is changing.

On Open Enterprise blog.

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Microsoft fears Windows XP? – or Ylmf.OS?

Microsoft fears Windows XP? – or Ylmf.OS?: "

Those pesky pirates! With Tomato Garden XP allegedly deployed to over 10 million users in China, one has to ask the question, isn't that what Microsoft wanted?

and a look at a new distro which aims to appeal to the Windows XP market with consideration of a recent ruling that has an XP “pirate” hit with a fine and jail.

Its a question Ive asked time and time again on this blog. There are many sites reporting the new Ubuntu derived distro which aims to appeal to the Windows XP user. I will cover that more towards the end of the article but for me, this poses other questions in regards to the view Microsoft seemed to have in respect of XP, the future of Microsoft with it’s recent products and the question – what is Microsoft most frightened of?

Lets rewind to August 2008 when the people responsible for China’s most popular “cracked” version of Windows XP were arrested….

For those that don’t know, the version of XP in question was called Tomato Garden Windows XP and contained other full versions of software (cracked if you will) which could be downloaded for free. And downloaded it was. Reports state that approximately 10 million people took the opportunity to get their hands on this unofficial, unauthorised Microsoft product.

Skip nearer to present day and on August 20th 2009 a judgment was reached by the Suzhou Huqiu District Court which saw the maker of Tomato Garden XP hit with a $147,000 fine and a three and a half year term of imprisonment.

Before we look at this further, let’s remind ourselves of what Bill Gates had to say about “piracy” in China. The following quote comes from Bill Gates in 2007, you can read an article on that here.

Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though……And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.

It appears he has been true to his word. Its nearly 2010, 10 million people are seemingly “addicted” to Tomato Garden and sure enough Microsoft seems to be collecting. Whilst I cannot and will not condone the “sharing” of material without the IP holders consent, does anyone see anything wrong with the way Microsoft have apparently been happy to let people “become addicted”? Microsoft cannot be holier than thou (IMO) in regards to “theft” of code since its alleged that (albeit by a 3rd party contracted by Microsoft) they have done the same thing and it seemed a year before Bill Gates was more than happy for people to “steal ours” (his words). Is this not at best entrapment?

I think we are all agreed you can’t “steal” code in the traditional sense, but for want of a better word, lets look for a minute at theft as defined in Section 1 of the Theft Act 1968 (UK Law)

A person is guilty of theft if he dishonestly appropriates property belonging to another with the intention of permanently depriving the other of it; and “thief” and “steal” shall be construed accordingly.

So by listening to Bill Gates in 2007, one could be forgiven for thinking that the “dishonest appropriation” element is absent from the “stealing” afterall Bill Gates said “we want them to steal ours” ergo no dishonesty, Bill Gates want’s you to steal it. Taking this to a rather OTT extreme, one could also consider that the creator of Tomato Garden had a defense (of sorts) there. This is, as I say, OTT, but for me highlights the hypocrisy of Microsoft.

Of course all this to me is really a moot point when you consider that Microsoft have already given XP a stay of execution and even in light of the fact its two versions behind the current product, people still want to keep using it. Is this what Microsoft is most frightened of? People’s reluctance to move to what MS is offering today? Maybe for many Windows users it’s nice to run an MS OS where your hardware exceeds the requirements of the OS itself and not find themselves in the middle of a performance battle which traditionally (IMO) was a combination of compromise and hardware upgrade.

It looks like XP but its derived from Ubuntu. I don't think Microsoft will be best pleased with a Gnome? replica of their GUI.

Here comes Ylmf OS!

With a name that rolls off the tongue? Ylmf OS appears to the casual user as XP. Currently the Ubuntu based distro has no English translation. What does this mean for Microsoft? Well if it becomes the “protest choice” of China then quite alot, its got a 10 million strong user base to attract. You can visit the website of this distro here and I would ask if anyone knows of either a translation for the distro itself and/or the homepage, please let me know!

A threat to Microsoft?

I have a some questions in regards to XP, firstly why on the eve of the Windows 7 beta did the arrests occur of the Tomato Garden creator? Why when XP is such old software (two versions behind 7 which Microsoft seem to tout as the second coming of operating systems) did Microsoft want to actively persue this XP clone? What does Windows 7 offer which is not already offered by a smaller (and less hardware demanding XP) but most important of all, if people are being pursued now for products as old as XP, what does that say about Microsoft’s latest products and their confidence in them?

These are questions which only XP users reluctant to upgrade can answer. In the meantime, I don’t think it will be long before a translation of Ylmf is available and you can bet Microsoft will be looking very closely at its options in regards to the GUI having an almost identical look to XP, even if it is Ubuntu derived.

If I had not “upgraded” to Vista from XP, I would probably not be writing a Linux blog. It was my utter dissatisfaction with Vista that caused me to look elsewhere, which now in hindsight was the best thing I ever did. As I come to the end of a long testing/review of Windows 7, I am left none the wiser as to what Windows can now offer me (that review will be here in the new year)

Maybe 2010 will be the year of the Linux desktop? Starting in China albeit with a clone of XP? – The mind boggles! What a wacky digital world we live in!

Goblin – bytes4free@googlemail.com

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