In John’s review of the new HP TouchPad, he claimed that “WebOS is the real star of this show. The OS offers true multi-tasking and uses a system of “cards” and “stacks” to display active applications.” I think it’s worthwhile to remind everyone that WebOS is built atop the Linux kernel, and that has several interesting ramifications. HP has continued Palm’s dedication to user experience, and WebOS should make it abundantly clear that “Linux” need not be synonymous with “complex and arcane”. But there’s a lot more than just superficial window dressing to consider.
Read on for more. → Read More
Behold, the winner of the Linux Foundation‘s “20 Years of Linux” t-shirt contest! “After twenty years of hard work, this penguin has managed to take off,” says artist Kim Blanche, creator of the winning image. “Tux is now sailing smoothly above the competition into a very bright future.” Kim has won a free trip to Vancouver to attend LinuxCon in August. Her design, aptly entitled “Flying Penguins”, will be the basis for the official LinuxCon t-shirt and will soon be available for purchase from the Linux.com store. Congratulations, Kim! → Read More
The Linux Foundation‘s 20th anniversary of Linux celebration is happening in August at LinuxCon. As part of the buildup to the big shindig they had a t-shirt design contest for LinuxCon. The creator of the winning design will get a free trip to LinuxCon to rub elbows with the likes of Linux creator Linus Torvalds himself. In addition, the winning design will be the official shirt of LinuxCon. This year’s contest had more than 130 submissions, and the Linux Foundation has narrowed this down to six finalists. → Read More
Word comes today that search pioneer Yahoo! is joining the Linux Foundation. Yahoo! spoke at The Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit earlier this month and demonstrated its use of Linux throughout the enterprise, and specifically for cloud computing. As a member of the Linux Foundation, they can “maximize these investments through collaborative initiatives that advance the platform in specific areas.” Even though we don’t hear as much about Yahoo! these days, it’s still nice to see them throwing their weight not only behind Linux, but behind the Linux Foundation. → Read More
Linux, first released to the public in 1991, is celebrating its 20th birthday this year. The history of Linux is an interesting thing in its own right, and even more interesting when taken in context of the history of computing in general. The Linux Foundation has a number of events lined up to celebrate Linux’s 20th birthday, including a new 20th Anniversary Website and a video contest to be judged by Linux creator Linus Torvalds! → Read More
Ars Technica has a terrific look at the Linux graphics stack, from the original X protocol pioneered by MIT computer scientist Bob Scheifler up to the new Wayland display manager (for lack of a better word) by Kristian Høgsberg. Many of the current crop of Linux users might well be completely unaware of the robust network functionality built into X.org, the current iteration of the X protocol, because the way we use personal computers today is vastly different from the way computers were used in academia back in the early 80s. → Read More
If you give a senior citizen a fish, he’ll eat for a day. If you give a senior citizen a low-end Linux PC with big keyboard and a specially-designed UI, he’ll be able to forward you funny pictures he gets from his friends and read Drudge and Fox News.
This $499 PC includes Kiwi’s own version of Linux for the aged. While I’d normally be all gung-ho about the prospect of sharing open source love, considering you can get this Gateway for $449 and Ubuntu for free, I’m a bit concerned about the validity of this PC in the marketplace. However, as a person who once gave his father a Linux PC after he filled the Windows machine I gave him up with viruses and who recently deleted a wonderfully scary bit of malware on his aged neighbor’s machine, I wholeheartedly support anything that makes home tech support simpler and easier for our aging population. → Read More
Word comes today that consumer electronics giant Panasonic is joining the Linux Foundation at the Gold level, which is the Linux Foundation’s second highest tier. Panasonic joins AMD, Cisco, HP, Google and other big names at the Gold level, confirming beyond any doubt that Linux is an integral part of the consumer electronics market. Panasonic had been a founding member of the Consumer Electronics Linux Forum, which merged with the Linux Foundation last year. All members of the CELF were brought into the Linux Foundation at the Silver level, but Panasonic has decided to step up their commitment to embedded Linux by raising their support to the Gold level. → Read More
The crusading Phil Torrone offers us a long and detailed list of things Sony has done in the past decade or so to stifle CE innovation and prevent the unauthorized use of their hardware. Whether you’re on the side of “hack everything every day” or, on the other hand, wish these script kiddie pirates would just shut up, you have to admit that Sony’s often ham-handed techniques have diminished their reputation in the hardware hacker community and, in some way, has reduced their overall market share.
This is just the first part in Torrone’s long rant against the company. Here’s his opener, an inspiring jeremiad against Sony’s long-departed power and modern failures. → Read More
Like it or not, but the robots are coming, and they’re not messing around. I know this because I’ve seen an IBM-developed artificial intelligence (AI) named Watson defeat two human opponents (all-time great champions, no less) in a round of Jeopardy. Granted, it was merely an exhibition round—the actual robot versus human tournament airs in mid-February—but it portends something fantastic: a world where our benevolent masters, mechanical men, will lead us to sweet salvation. Or, failing that, a world where AI is useful enough to assist humans in areas like healthcare and government. That’s cool, too. → Read More
2010 was a busy year for the Linux Foundation, and their recently posted 2011 schedule suggests that this year will be just as interesting. In addition to LinuxCon and the Collaboration Summit in the US, there’s also LinuxCon Brazil, LinuxCon Japan, and for the first time ever LinuxCon Europe. The latter is running concurrently with the Linux Kernel Summit and the Embedded Linux Conference Europe. → Read More
OK, now that the big iPhone story is out of the way we can move onto some other stuff. (I’m sure there will be enough iPhone stories today and tomorrow to fill a swimming pool.) Specifically, let’s move onto some fun stuff, some fun Linux stuff. InfoWorld has put together a Linux IQ test to see just how learned you are vis-à-vis the free-and-open-source operating system that makes the world go ’round. (You do know that Android is based on Linux, right?) Let’s see how well you do! → Read More
Darn shame that none of us thought to attend the Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin. Why cover fun stuff, right? Thankfully PSGroove made it out there, and came away with video of a video game console security discussion. The Wii has been “broken” (hackable, in other words) pretty much since Day One; the Xbox 360 has been hackable for a few years now (JTAGing is the way to go these days); and the PS3′s security is dead as disco. This, despite all of Sony’s huffing and puffing, particularly with regard to its stance toward Linux. In other words, Sony’s security can now be considered an “epic fail.” Note to self: do not get on the Linux’s community’s bad side. → Read More
Tired of dealing with the legal hassles with Microsoft, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has ordered that all government agencies will be running on open-source software by 2015. Russia has a rocky relationship at times with Microsoft, and started this whole process by first proclaiming that schools will run only open-source software, and now proclaiming that the government would follow suit. → Read More
Heading off to college? Here’s my suggestion: buy a used laptop from Craigslist and install Ubuntu onto it. Seriously. You don’t need a new computer for college. If you’re pursuing a liberal arts degree, you really don’t need a brand new computer just to write all the papers you’ll write. If you’re pursuing an engineering degree, the chances are high that your department’s computer labs are better than anything you can buy for yourself. → Read More
Ksplice, the technology that allows Linux kernel updates without a reboot, is now free for users of the Fedora distribution. Using Ksplice is like “replacing your car’s engine while speeding down the highway”, and it can potentially save your Linux systems from a lot of downtime. Since Fedora users often live on the bleeding edge of Linux development, Ksplice makes it even easier to do so, and without reboots! → Read More
The eighth annual Ohio LinuxFest is September 10-12 in lovely Columbus, Ohio. As always, this is a free event chock full of interesting hands-on Linux and free software solutions. Register at the Supporter level for $65 and you’ll get lunch, one of the gorgeous t-shirts pictured here, and that warm fuzzy feeling that comes from supporting an event like this. → Read More
