Linux

  • China to launch a sovereign OS to counter Windows

    Steve WoodsLinux, Politics, Tech

    According to the official Xinhua news agency, China is hoping to launch a sovereign operating system in October in order to “wean” itself off operating systems developed abroad such as Windows, Le Monde Informatique reports. The Chinese OS, which still has no official name according to Xinhua, will be offered initially for desktop PCs, before being rolled out subsequently for smartphones. It will probably be a Linux distribution that has been revised and fixed by the Chinese security agencies and will be named China Operating System (COS). Xinhua quoted a report by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technologies (MIIT), the organisation entrusted inter alia with the regulation and development of the software sector in China. “We are hoping to launch a desktop PC operating system in October to support [local] app stores,” said Ni Guangnan of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Mr Ni heads up the alliance for the development of the official operating system created last March in the People’s Republic of China.

    China Operating System image

    According to the MIIT, Mr Ni cites the end of support for Windows XP and the ban on Windows 8 on Chinese government computers as an opportunity for the launch of a domestic OS. Earlier this year the Chinese authorities banned the use of Windows 8 on government computers, a move triggered following the end of support for Windows XP in April. Prior to that the authorities denounced Microsoft regarding the ending of security updates for the 13 year-old operating system. China was historically a bastion of Windows XP, largely due to the large-scale pirating of Microsoft software. Another reason for China’s discontent is thought to be the revelations by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

    China has long disagreed with foreign technology companies, particularly Microsoft and Google – but also sometimes with Apple – as regards their impact and influence in the country. However, the animosity increased considerably last month when the Chinese anti-trust authorities raided several Microsoft offices, seizing computers and documents within the scope of their investigation. This investigation was launched following complaints made in July 2013 into the manner in which Microsoft Windows and Office are linked and the compatibility between Windows and Office.

    A Red Flag base for the sovereign Chinese OS?

    Screenshot of Red Flag Linux
    Screenshot of Red Flag Linux. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
    China has been working on its own operating system for nearly fifteen years. Launched in August 1999, the Red Flag Linux distribution was partly financed by the government’s Information Ministry. The same year Red Flag was recommended as the replacement for Windows 2000 on all government PCs. The tensions at that time between the Chinese government and Microsoft were the origin for this directive. However, this local Linux distribution never took off and Red Flag Software, the company behind this local Chinese OS, closed down this year. However, the Red Flag OS is going to be revived.

    A report published by the MIIT on 20th August states that the assets of Red Flag Software have been acquired by Penta Wan Jing Information Technology Industry Group for RMB 38.62 mn. This sudden new development was also officially recorded by Mr Ni, who approved Penta Wan Jing’s acquisition and stated that a revitalised Red Flag distribution could contribute to the project to create a sovereign operating system.

  • Happy birthday, Linux

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Tux - the Linux kernel mascotThe operating system based on the Linux kernel (sometimes also called GNU/Linux. Ed.), in all its myriad forms, is 23 years old today.

    It all began with an email by a young Helsinki University student called Linus Torvalds to the comp.os.minix newsgroup.

    Linus’ original email is reproduced below.

    Hello everybody out there using minix –

    I’m doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won’t be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since april, and is starting to get ready. I’d like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

    I’ve currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I’ll get something practical within a few months, and I’d like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won’t promise I’ll implement them 🙂

    Linus (torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

    PS. Yes – it’s free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that’s all I have :-(.

    I love Linus’ modest assertion that his creation wouldn’t be big and professional like GNU! 🙂

  • LibreOffice 4.3 ready for download

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    Via its blog, The Document Foundation has announced the release of LibreOffice 4.3; this is the 8th major release of the free and open source office suite since the birth of the project in September 2010.

    image of LibreOffice Mime type icons
    LibreOffice for all your office suite needs: word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, database, drawing and formulas

    LibreOffice 4.3 offers a large number of improvements and new features, including:

    • Document interoperability: support for MS’ OOXML Strict, OOXML graphics improvements (DrawingML, theme fonts, preservation of drawing styles and attributes), embedding OOXML files inside another OOXML file, support for 30 new Excel formulas, support for MS Works spreadsheets and databases, as well as Mac legacy file formats such as ClarisWorks, ClarisResolve, MacWorks, SuperPaint and more.
    • Comment management: comments can now be printed in the document margin, formatted in a better way, and imported and exported – including nested comments – in ODF, DOC, OOXML and RTF documents, for improved productivity and better collaboration.
    • Intuitive spreadsheet handling: Calc now allows several tasks to be carried out more intuitively, thanks to the smarter highlighting of formulas in cells, the display of the number of selected rows and columns in the status bar, the ability to start editing a cell with the content of the cell above it and the user being fully able to select text conversion models.
    • 3D models in Impress: support of animated 3D models in the new open glTF format, plus initial support for Collada and kmz files that are found in Google Warehouse, in order to add a fresh new look and animations to keynotes (support for this feature is currently on Windows and Linux versions only).

    LibreOffice 4.3 also supports “monster” paragraphs exceeding 65,000 characters in length. This is an example of an 11 years old bug solved thanks to the modernization of the old OpenOffice source code. In addition, the accessibility technology on Windows has become a standard feature, thanks to the improvements based on IBM’s IAccessible2 framework.

    The full list of new features and improvements of LibreOffice 4.3 is available on the wiki.

    According to the Coverity Scan service, the quality of LibreOffice source code has improved dramatically during the last two years, with a reduction of the defect density per 1,000 lines of code from an above the average 1.11 to an industry leading 0.08. Read Coverity’s report for more information.

    LibreOffice 4.3 and LibreOffice 4.2.6 – which will be released on Friday – are available for download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Extensions and templates to enhance the software’s functionality and add specific features can be found at http://extensions.libreoffice.org/.

  • Fortune and cowsay get egalitarian

    Steve WoodsLinux, Oddities, Open Source, Tech

    Fortune is a simple program that displays a pseudo-random message from a database of quotations that first appeared in Version 7 of Unix and runs on the command line on Unix-like systems.

    Cowsay is another simple program running on the command line which generates ASCII pictures of a cow with a message.

    I have used fortune and cowsay in the past to demonstrate the use of a pipe | which feeds the output of one program and uses it as the input for the next program.

    Today running fortune | cowsay yielded the message in the image below.

    cowsay showing output reading equal bytes for women

    The message is most apposite as half the human race is under-represented in IT and other technical fields.

    In March this year The Guardian reported as follows:

    In 2005, women made up 24% of computer science students. By 2010, that figure had dropped to 19%, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency. A 2012 report from Creative Skillset found that only 29% of the interactive media industry in the UK is female, and the majority hold positions in art and design and communications rather than engineering.

    The Guardian’s report concluded that

    There is a long way to go before there is parity between the genders in the technology industry. But every baby step made has a tiny effect on the representational content of the diverse audience that uses software and hardware. Developers are known to develop solutions for themselves.

  • LibreUmbria@Scuola nominated for Egov 2014 prize

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    News arrived via my inbox this morning that LibreUmbria‘s programme in schools (LibreUmbria@Scuola), which took place in recent months in collaboration with Perugia’s third teaching district (posts passim), has been nominated for this year’s Egov Prize. LibreUmbria is the project that is promoting the use of free and open source software amongst public sector organisations in Italy’s Umbria region.

    Egov Prize logo

    The basic idea behind the Egov Prize has always been the fusion and sharing of good practice which other public sector organisations can use as an example and from which they can benefit. This will be the 10th year the prize will have been awarded.

    LibreUmbria@Scuola aims to raise awareness and promote the use of free software in schools, from the primary level upwards by training parents and teachers who will in turn train others by acting as mentors.

    The LibreUmbria@Scuola project has been implemented in arranging free seminars at schools for parents and teachers, on digital culture topics (the relationship between boys and technology, shared knowledge and free software, security, use of social media, cyberbullying). In addition to the seminars, computer courses in using the LibreOffice productivity suite running on Ubuntu Linux were also provided.

  • GNU licences now adapted to Swiss legal language

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    According to www.opensource.ch, reading the original text of open source licences is very challenging. Swiss IT legal specialist Wolfgang Straub has made a new translation into German of three major open source licences, the GNU GPL, GNU LGPL and GNU Affero GPL and aligned them with Swiss legal language. In addition, he is also providing an introduction to the law on open source licences and various checklists for download free of charge at www.opensource.ch.

    The licences of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) have been amongst the most frequently used open source licences for many years. In 2007 the FSF published version 3 of the GNU General Public License (GPL), the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). The Berne-based IT legal specialist Wolfgang Straub has now made a new translation of the text of these three licences.

    Linguistically, the initial German translations of the GNU GPL and the GNU LGPL by Peter Gerwinski are based as closely as possible on the original English text. They are based upon German legal language. Wolfgang Straub has made a new translation of the licences and adapted them to Swiss legal language. The wording and presentation are aimed at the best possible comprehensibility. The new translations are published under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 licence and are available for download free of charge at the Swiss Open Source Portal www.opensource.ch as PDF and ODF files.

    Wolfgang Straub is the author of several publications on Swiss information technology law. He is also the author of the book “Softwareschutz – Urheberrecht, Patentrecht, Open Source” (Software Protection – Copyright, Patent Law, Open Source) published by Dike Verlag in 2011. The chapter on open source software is now available free of charge for download (PDF). It contains a systematic overview of legal matters concerning open source licences, a bibliography and various checklists for practical use.

  • LibreOffice command line magic

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    One of the delights about using Linux is the command line interface (CLI), where the user issues program commands by typing in successive lines of text.

    ODF file iconEven programs which rely on a graphical user interface (GUI) can be controlled from the command line, including the LibreOffice office suite.

    One of the great features of LibreOffice is the integral PDF converter and this can even be controlled by command line using the command below without launching the program in a GUI.

    $ libreoffice --headless --convert-to pdf name_of_file.odt

    Just replace name_of_file.odt above with the actual file name you wish to convert, hit enter and the job’s done!

  • New version of Scribus open source DTP package released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Scribus logoThe developers of the Scribus open source DTP software have probably released the last version of the 1.4.x development branch with the release of version 1.4.4. From now on they want to concentrate solely on the next major release in the form of the 1.6.x series, whose first alpha version (1.5.0) should be made available for testing later in 2014.

    The Scribus version that has just been released contains a script to allow users to align images in frames and it is now possible to use page borders as guides for the snapping of objects. The autoquote script has been rewritten and has more available options. In addition, problems with the spellchecker that resulted in crashes have been resolved. A further new feature is and option for exporting work as PDF/X-1a.

    A new colour palette has been added for geographers, whilst Scribus now comprise a further CMYK colour palette created by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA) for newspaper advertisements.

    All the changes in the new version can be seen in the release notes.

    In addition to the release of the new version, the Scribus team has also announced a new industry partnership. By collaborating with Software Consulting Services (SCS), which was involved in the invention of Quark-XTensions, commercial support will now be available for migration to Scribus. Furthermore, SCS is willing to work on future Scribus development and already offers a plug-in for the import of Layout-8000 geometry files into Scribus.

    Scribus is available for the following platforms: Linux, BSD UNIX, Solaris, OpenIndiana, GNU/Hurd, Mac OS X, OS/2 Warp 4, eComStation and Windows.

  • New Alpha of 0 A.D. released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Wildfire Games has published a new version of its free real-time strategy game 0 A.D. The game comes with an open source licence and can be played on Linux, Windows and Mac OS X. New translations have made their way into 0 A.D. Alpha 16 “Patañjali” and the game can now be played in 13 different languages. Additional languages will follow. A Japanese translation is also ready; however, it has not been incorporated into the latest release due to the size of the script files. In addition, these make heavy demands on the hardware. The Japanese translation with its script files is therefore available as a separate download.

    A new AI called Petra should demand more of players and behave more aggressively during expansion and fighting. Just like human opponents, it builds defensive towers and fortifications. Petra will handle resources better than its predecessor (called Aegis) and also conduct trade with allies.

    The interface style introduced with the multi-player lobby in version Alpha 15 is now used throughout the game. Biolinum, a font from the Libertine Open Fonts Project is used as the game’s new font. In a multi-player game all players must now conform the game settings using “Ready” before it can start. A new version of the SpiderMonkey JavaScript engine, which provides new functions, has also been incorporated in 0 A.D. Alpha 16. Information about additional new features in 0 A.D. can be found in the release notes.

    Download 0 A.D. Alpha 16 Patañjali.

  • Introducing Novena open source computer hardware

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Open Standards, Tech

    German IT news website Heise reports that Andrew “bunnie” Huang has successfully financed his open source Novena Computer hardware, although the crowdfunding campaign is still running until the end of this week.

    Novena is an open source hardware of software platform for hackers who appreciate a development platform that’s as open as possible. Huang originally wanted to fulfil his own wish for a laptop specifically for hackers; due to heavy demand the hardware can be ordered via the crowdfunding project until the end of the week.

    The motherboard is on its third revision although the essential performance characteristics have not changed. Freescale i.MX6 is used as the CPU; this has four Cortex-A9-cores with a frequency of 1.2 GHz. The Vivante GC2000 GPU is used for the graphics. The connections and specifications for the laptop are comparable with other netbooks and are on average as follows: up to 4 GB of RAM (1 SODIMM, DDR3-1066), SATA II interface, USB 2.0 interfaces, HDMI output and Mini-PCI Express. A dual channel LVDS LCD connector can supply a screen resolution of 2048 × 1536 pixels at 60 Hz. The exclusivity of such a “handmade” product is clearly reflected in the price. Huang has stated in the past that this is not a cheap PC system.

    The Novena platform is available in 4 variants. The motherboard on its own costs US $500. The desktop version is available for US $1,195 and the laptop variant for US $1,995. In addition, the Heirloom version is a designer variant for lovers of handmade cases. The work of designer Kurt Mottweiler costs a hefty US $5,000 and this Novena variant comes with a hand-crafted wood and aluminium housing.

    As far as the operating system is concerned, Huang is using Debian GNU/Linux.

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