free software

  • 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

  • LibreOffice 3.6.4 released

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    ODF file iconThe Document Foundation has announced the release of LibreOffice 3.6.4, for Linux, MacOS and Windows. According to the Foundation, this new release of the free and open source office suite is another step forward in the process of improving the suite’s overall quality and stability for any kind of deployment on personal desktops or inside organisations and companies of any size.

    LibreOffice 3.6.4 is available for immediate download from the following link: http://www.libreoffice.org/download/. Extensions to enhance the functionality of LibreOffice are available from the following link: http://extensions.libreoffice.org/extension-center. If you work in multiple file formats like I do, I thoroughly recommend the MultiSave extension (posts passim)

    To coincide with this release The Document Foundation is inviting LibreOffice users, free software advocates and community members to support its work with a donation. There is a donation page – with many options including PayPal and credit cards – at http://donate.libreoffice.org to support the TDF’s fundraising campaign for 2013.

    For regular news about LibreOffice, follow The Document Foundation blog.

  • 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.

  • Italy’s Emilia Romagna prefers open source for smart city projects

    Steve WoodsBristol, Open Source

    Emilia Romagna flagI was recently invited to take part in some smart city sessions organised in Bristol by Knowle West Media Centre, so I was most interested to learn of recent smart cities developments in part of Italy.

    According to the EU’s Joinup open source news site, open source software is a key element in many of the Smart City projects developed by a group of IT specialists and researchers for Italy’s Emilia Romagna region. Lucia Mazzoni, an IT project manager involved the region’s smart city projects said: “We prefer to use open source modules. This type of software allows scalable and easy to configure combinations.”

    The group is building applications to monitor atmospheric conditions and air quality and collect and present data on surface waters. They are also working on IT solutions to increase energy efficiency and are building software to monitors the condition of cultural monuments and help preserve them.

    Mazzoni gave a presentation on Emilia Romagna’s smart city research projects at the Smart City Exhibition held in Bologna between 29th and 31th October last.

    One application presented was ‘Smart Catcher’, a location-aware Android phone application which allows users to locate useful urban objects, such as bookshops, filling stations, hospitals, restaurants and hotels.

    The smart city developers are also involved in building middleware software for use in vehicle to vehicle communication. The idea is to create smart vehicles that can use the information to plan their routes more efficiently. Other projects are working on using smart sensors, video cameras and personal sensors.

    NB: This is an edited version of a post originally appearing on the Bristol Wireless site.

  • 2nd LibreOffice Hackfest coming soon

    Steve WoodsOpen Source, Tech

    The second LibreOffice Hackfest 2012 will take place from November 23-25 in Munich, Bavaria.

    The event is being supported by Munich City Council’s LiMux project, which is migrating the council’s IT from proprietary systems to free and open source alternatives.

    LibreOffice Hackfest logo

    The hackfest is being jointly organised with the Debian community’s Munich Bug Squashing Party (posts passim).

    For full details such as venues, agenda and travel, consult the event’s page on the LibreOffice wiki.

  • 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.

  • Unlicensed software costs company nearly £100k

    Steve WoodsTech

    ComputerWeekly.com reports that safety specialist First Choice Facilities has been fined £18,000 by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) – the proprietary software industry’s licensing police – for unlicensed software following completion of an acquisition.

    First Choice Facilities will now also have to pay an additional £81,000 to buy sufficient software licences to cover the unlicensed Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft and Symantec products they used.

    Of course, First Choice Facilities could have avoided all this hassle in the first place in 2 ways – 1 expensive and 1 cheap. The expensive way is the route down which they’ve gone; the cheap way would have been to have used only free and open source software.

    Hat tip: Alan Lord, the Open Sourcerer

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