Linux

  • First alpha of Ubuntu 13.04 released

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Ubuntu logoI’ve been running Ubuntu Linux on one of my machines for almost 3 years now and have found it to be very stable and reliable. Ubuntu is a Linux distribution with a very regular release cycle, with a new version coming out roughly every six months and every other release being offered with long term support (LTS), which has now been increased to 5 years.

    Yesterday an announcement was made on the Ubuntu mailing list that the first alpha release of what is to become Ubuntu 13.04, codenamed Raring Ringtail, has been made available.

    Making the announcement, Stéphane Graber wrote:

    The first Alpha of the Raring Ringtail (to become 13.04) has now been released!

    This alpha features images for Edubuntu and Kubuntu.

    At the end of the 12.10 development cycle, the Ubuntu flavour decided that it would reduce the number of milestone images going forward and the focus would concentrate on daily quality and fortnightly testing rounds known as cadence testing. Based on that change, the Ubuntu product itself will not have an Alpha-1 release. Its first milestone release will be the Final Beta Release on the 28th of March 2013. Other Ubuntu flavours have the option to release using the usual milestone schedule.

    Pre-releases of Raring Ringtail are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

    Alpha 1 includes a number of software updates that are ready for wider testing. This is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

    While these Alpha 1 images have been tested and work, except as noted in the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve Raring Ringtail. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system installation bugs identified in the Alpha 1 installer should be verified against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 13.04 the best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before reporting bugs.

    Edubuntu:
    Edubuntu is the educational flavour of Ubuntu. Based on the standard Ubuntu desktop, it features educational tools and content for schools and at home.

    The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/raring/alpha-1/

    More information on Edubuntu Alpha-1 can be found here:
    http://www.edubuntu.org/news/13.04-alpha1

    Kubuntu:
    Kubuntu is the KDE based flavour of Ubuntu. It uses the Plasma desktop and includes a wide selection of tools from the KDE project.

    The Alpha-1 images can be downloaded at:
    http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/raring/alpha-1/

    More information on Kubuntu Alpha-1 can be found here:
    https://wiki.kubuntu.org/RaringRingtail/Alpha1/Kubuntu

    Regular daily images for Ubuntu can be found at: http://cdimage.ubuntu.com

    If you’re interested in following the changes as we further develop Raring, we suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, alpha releases and other interesting events.

    http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

  • A useful browser tip

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    If you browse the web like I do, this means you’ll frequently have several tabs open in your web browser. Having said that, it’s really easy to close the ‘wrong’ tab – one you haven’t quite finished with – by mistake.

    Now courtesy of the ITDonut’s tip of the week, comes a really useful little bit of knowledge: how to reopen a browser tab you’ve just closed.

    If you’re using Firefox. Chrome or Chromium, just use the following keystroke combination: CTRL + SHIFT + T*.

    This works on both Linux and Windows machines; and on the latter the same keystroke combination also works with IE.

    * = On a Mac the equivalent combination is COMMAND + SHIFT + T

  • Introducing Vinux

    Steve WoodsBristol, Linux, Open Source

    Yesterday evening I was down Bristol’s City Hall attending an event to launch Accessible Bristol (read my account of the event for Bristol Wireless).

    Vinux logo

    While there I was talking to the City Council’s Stephen Hilton and happened to mention Vinux – Linux for the Visually Impaired – which Stephen had never heard of, despite being visually impaired himself.

    Vinux is a remastered version of the Ubuntu Linux distribution optimised for visually impaired users. It provides a screen-reader, full-screen magnification and support for Braille displays out of the box! It can be run from a Live CD on an existing machine without making any changes to your hard drive. It can also be installed to a USB pen drive or to a hard drive; as a hard drive installation this can be done either alongside Windows (dual boot) or as a complete replacement for the Hell of Gates. 🙂

    The system requirements for the main (as opposed to the command line interface) version of Linux are:

    • 1 GHz x86 processor;
    • 1 GB of system memory (RAM);
    • 15 GB of hard-drive space (although this can be split onto 2 drives, a 5Gb / and a 10Gb /home partition fairly easily);
    • Graphics card and monitor capable of 1024 X 768 resolution;
    • Either a CD/DVD drive or a USB socket (or both);
    • Internet access is helpful though not vital.

    Vinux 3.2.1 is the current experimental release and disk images of various vintages can be downloaded from the Vinux project’s downloads page.

  • Debian bug squashing parties announced

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Debian logoDebian is a great Linux distribution. Indeed, besides being a distribution in its own right, it acts as the foundation for the very popular Ubuntu distro, as well as my favourite, Mepis, and countless others.

    The Debian Project is now in the final stages of preparing for its next release – codenamed Wheezy – and has just announced that Bug Squashing Parties (“BSPs”) will take place in several countries in the next few weeks. The main focus of a Bug Squashing Party is to triage and fix bugs, but it is also an opportunity for users less familiar with the Debian bug tracking system to make other contributions to the Debian project, such as translating package descriptions or improving the wiki. Debian developers will be present to help contributors understand how the project works and to help get fixes into Debian.

    A list of confirmed Bug Squashing Parties follows, even though the project advises checking the events page to see if any more are being planned.

    • November 10-11, Banja Luka, Republika Srpska: a BSP will be held at the University Computer Centre. More information here.
    • November 14, Helsinki, Finland: a mini BSP will be held in Kamppi. See the mail announcement for information.
    • November 23-25, Essen, Germany: a BSP will be held at the Linuxhotel. More information.
    • November 23-25, Munich, Germany: a BSP will be held at the LiMux Office, together with the LibreOffice Hackfest. More information is available on the wiki page.
    • November 24-25, Paris, France: a BSP will take place during the second Paris Mini-DebConf. More information can be found on the event page.
    • November 24, Tokyo, Japan: a BSP will be held at the Plat’Home Office. Further information here.
    • December 15-16, Mechelen, Belgium: a BSP will be held at the NixSys Office. More information on the event’s wiki page.

    If you want to organise a BSP, potential organisers can find all the necessary information on the wiki. The Debian Project invites all users and contributors to attend these events and make Wheezy ready for release sooner.

  • LibreOffice 3.6.3 now available

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    the LibreOffice logoThe Document Foundation has announced the release of LibreOffice 3.6.3, the latest version of the leading free and open source office suite.

    This maintenance release fixes some 90 bugs, including fixes for layout problems, overflowing margins, a regression in chart complex category placements and problems in importing and exporting ODF documents. Several problems that caused crashes when, for example, deleting the last cell in a table, importing tables from .docx files or following an incomplete print have likewise been corrected.

    Versions of LibreOffice 3.6.3 for Linux, Windows and Mac platforms are available from the LibreOffice download page, as is the source code.

    If anyone readers need convincing to try LibreOffice, do this simple test. How much lighter will getting an office suite leave your bank balance?

    Furthermore, LibreOffice’s functionality can be enhanced by means of extensions, such as MultiSave (posts passim).

  • Today’s special offer from CodeWeavers

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    CodeWeavers, Inc., the developers of CrossOver, which enables users to run Windows software on Linux and Mac, is having a giveaway today, 31st October 2012.

    For one day only, CodeWeavers is giving away CrossOver with 12 months’ free support and product upgrades.

    If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, point your browser at http://flock.codeweavers.com/, register and download!

    For more details about the rationale behind this offer read the press release.

    This post originally appeared on Bristol Wireless.

  • GNU’s trick-or-treat at Windows 8 launch

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Last Friday saw the launch of Windows 8, the latest “best Windows ever” release from the Beast of Redmond.

    However, the launch was not without its problems for MS, as reported by the Free Software Foundation (FSF). The FSF crashed the Windows 8 launch event in New York City. A cheerful GNU and her team handed out DVDs loaded with Trisquel GNU/Linux (a Linux distribution that meets the FSF’s very strict definition of free. Ed.), FSF stickers and information about the FSF’s new pledge, which asks Windows users to upgrade not to Windows 8, but to GNU/Linux.

    The FSF crew at NYC Windows 8 launch
    The FSF crew at NYC Windows 8 launch
    A friendly gnu handing out FSF stickers
    Have a FSF sticker!

    I must concur with the FSF’s conclusion: Windows 8 is a downgrade, not an upgrade since it compromises users’ freedom, security and privacy. Some of the ‘features’ of Windows 8 identified by the FSF that Microsoft won’t tell potential users about are:

    • Restricts freedom: Windows 8 is proprietary software. At its core, it’s designed to control you as a user. You can’t modify Windows 8 or see how it is built, meaning Microsoft can use its operating system to exploit users and benefit special interests.
    • Invades privacy: Windows 8 includes software that inspects the contents of your hard drive and Microsoft claims the right to do this without warning. These programs have misleading names like “Windows Genuine Advantage.”
    • Exposes personal data: Windows 8 has a contacts cache that experts fear may store sensitive personal data and make users vulnerable to identity theft.

  • Amazon integration – the last thing I want from Ubuntu

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    Ubuntu logoThe Inquirer yesterday carried a report in which Canonical, purveyors of Ubuntu Linux, claim that Amazon integration is what users want in Ubuntu.

    Canonical released Ubuntu 12.10 on Thursday. This new release introduced tighter integration with Amazon in system search results – a move which has provoked criticism from the Ubuntu community. Canonical asserts that Amazon integration in Dash is something users expect and it will integrate other online services in future Ubuntu releases.

    The move was defended by Steve George, Canonical’s Vice-President of communications and products, who told The Inquirer that: “Users increasingly expect to search. It is driven by two things, firstly the fact that online they search, so naturally they think about searching and the other thing is the total amount of content. […] The Dash has previously been restricted to only the things that were on your desktop, so where we are taking the Dash so we are trying to pull it so that everything – your personal cloud – all of your online and offline, everything you have in your universe around you, the Dash will be able to search that and find those things for you.”

    Thanks for that Steve. I’ve been using Ubuntu happily on my laptop for two and a half years now, but if you’re going to clamber into bed with the likes of Amazon, I’m putting Debian on that machine when the long term support on my present Ubuntu install runs out.

    Update 21/10/12: Bruno Girin has been in touch since I wrote this post and informed me there are 2 options for disabling the Amazon search – turning it off in the system settings and removing the package respectively – as follows:

    1. Option 1: system settings -> privacy -> include online search results = off
    2. Option 2: sudo apt-get remove unity-lens-shopping

  • GBeers – open source and beer

    Steve WoodsLinux, Open Source, Tech

    GNOME logo
    GNOME – enjoy with a beer!
    Phoronix reports that 2 of my favourite things – beer and open source – are being combined in GBeers (GNOME + Beers = GBeers), a world-wide initiative for GNOME meet-ups with lightning talk presentations taking place while drinking beer. Madrid in Spain recently hosted the very first GBeers event. Other GNOME users and developers are being encouraged by the GNOME project to arrange GBeers in their own towns and cities.

    The proposed format of GBeers events is one hour of lightning talks (with each talk lasting 5-10 minutes. Ed.) on unrestricted topics every month, with the talks possibly being recorded for internet distribution. A further possibility is for virtual GBeers through Skype or Google hang-outs.

    GBeers have so far been organised in Madrid, Las Palmas, A Coruña, Seville (all Spain), Chicago (USA) and Lima (Peru). Further information about this initiative can be found on the GNOME Live Wiki.

    Hat tip: Roy Schestowitz.

  • Language and open source

    Steve WoodsLanguage, Linux, Open Source, Tech

    I’m intrigued by the way we advocates of free and open source software (FOSS) are viewed and described by the world outside our circle. Frequently, the terms are very loaded, e.g. ‘zealot’.

    A report today in The Register Channel on Scottish NHS IT procurement and a decision to waste millions on Microsoft Windows 7 is no exception. Mark Taylor, CEO of Sirius, a major UK open source supplier, is quoted and referred to as a ‘firebrand’.

    According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, firebrand‘s first recorded use was in the 13th century, when it was originally “a piece of burning wood“. Its meaning was extended to over subsequent centuries to include “one that creates unrest or strife“.

    Synonyms for firebrand are: demagogue, exciter, agitator, fomenter, incendiary, inciter, instigator, kindler, provocateur, rabble-rouser.

    I’ve met and spoken to Mark on a number occasions and the last thing one can describe him as is a firebrand or any of its above synonyms. Admittedly, he has a business to run, but he’s also concerned that the UK spending on ICT amounts to an eye-watering £20 billion per year. That’s three times more than is spent on the army. Most of that £20 billion is spent on proprietary software and its suppliers, in the course of which vast amounts of taxpayers’ money are exported to MS’ coffers in Redmond, USA.

    Both Mark and I feel that FOSS would be a better alternative and there’d then be more money for the NHS to spend on patient care – a far better use of resources. If that makes us ‘firebrands’, then we’ll wear the label with pride.

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