Free Open Source Software News 1

Foss News Weekly

Issue : 39
Team : A.Yaassir Arrafath ( yassirarrafath.a@gmail.com )
T.Shrinivasan ( tshrinivasan@gmail.com )
Date : 07-01-2011
Subscribe at http://groups.google.com/group/fossnews/

Contents
1. 22 ways to convert your friend to Linux
2. Wine 1.3.10 Released
3. Puppy Linux 5.2 Is Based on Ubuntu 10.04
4. Learn Linux, 101: Runlevels, shutdown, and reboot
5. Switching to Linux (For the Right Reasons)
6. Blender 2.56 beta released – Update
7. Configuring PostgreSQL for Pretty Good Performance
8. Android tablets sweep CES 2011
9. Drupal 7 Integrates Modules to Open Source CMS
10. Linux 2.6.37 Kernel Promises to Unlock OS
11. Virtualization With KVM On An OpenSUSE 11.3 Server
12. Understanding Linux File Types
13. KOffice 2.3.0 Released
14. Why I am still supporting Free Software?

1. 22 ways to convert your friend to Linux

Are your friends convinced that they should be paying for their operating systems because
Linux sounds too complicated or because they think it won't do what they want it to?
Fear not, here's your guide to brining your friends over to the light side...
1. First you need a non-geek friend
If your idea of getting out is a monthly trip to the local LUG, you need
to cultivate some more mainstream friends before you can start to
convert them. Getting a Fedora fan to use Ubuntu does not count.
2. Don't evangelise
Pushing Linux like it's the greatest thing since sliced bread, or that it's at
least 10 times better than Windows, will have one of two effects. It will
either cause your friends to push back, making it harder to convince
them; or they'll agree to try it but have such high expectations that
they'll feel deceived the first time something doesn't work as they
expect. Be subtle – use Jedi mind tricks instead.
3. Drop hints
Instead of pushing, just mention it from time to time – especially when
the issue of online security, viruses and malware comes up. Let your
friends' curiosity get the better of them, let them ask you about it, then they'll want you to show
them Linux.

http://www.techradar.com/news/software/operating-systems/22-ways-to-convert-your-friend-to-
linux-914717#ixzz199aISqmO
 Free Open Source Software News 2

2. Wine 1.3.10 Released

The Wine development release 1.3.10 is now available.

What's new in this release:
• Support for notification balloons in system tray.
• Obsolete AudioIO sound driver removed.
• More work on ActiveX support.
• Various MSI fixes.
• Preloader now used for 64­bit too.
• Translation updates.
• Various bug fixes.
The source is available now. Binary packages are in the process of being built, and will appear soon
at their respective download locations.

http://www.wine-reviews.net/wine-reviews/wine-release/wine-1310-released.html

3. Puppy Linux 5.2 Is Based on Ubuntu 10.04

Puppy Linux 5.2 features lots of updated and improved applications, the new Quickset
dialog to easily setup your system (language/locale and keyboard settings, timezone, video
resolution), Browser Installer, Browser-Default, Quickpet, improved Puppy Package Manager, and
a lot more for you to discover.

"Lucid Puppy 5.2 is a Puppy through and through. What

that means is that the *architecture* is pure Puppy--it just
happens to be that many of the building materials
(applications, utilities, libraries) are Ubuntu binaries. With
Puppy founder Barry Kauler’s Woof Build System the
packages could just as easily have been Slackware or Arch
binaries."

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Puppy-Linux-5-2-Is-Based-on-Ubuntu-10-04-176685.shtml

4. Learn Linux, 101: Runlevels, shutdown, and reboot

In this article, learn to shut down or reboot your Linux system, warn users that the system is
going down, and switch to single-user mode or a more or less restrictive runlevel. Learn to:
• Set the default runlevel

• Change between runlevels

• Change to single-user mode
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• Shut down or reboot the system from the

command line
• Alert users about major system events,
including switching to another runlevel
• Terminate processes properly
Unless otherwise noted, the examples in this article
use a Fedora 8 system with a 2.6.26 kernel. The
upstart examples use Fedora 13 with a 2.6.34
kernel, or Ubuntu 10.10 with a 2.6.35 kernel. Your
results on other systems may differ.
This article helps you prepare for Objective 101.3
in Topic 101 of the Linux Professional Institute's
Junior Level Administration (LPIC-1) exam 101.
The objective has a weight of 3.
Prerequisites

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-lpic1-v3-101-3/index.html?ca=drs-

5. Switching to Linux (For the Right Reasons)

.
Why are you using Linux on your desktop?
Before answering this question, consider the advantages and disadvantages and then come back full
circle to your own motivation for using Linux. Nearly every week, I find my news feeds filled with
the usual generic articles describing rather vanilla reasons for using Linux on the desktop.
Why do I have a problem with this? Perhaps because
the reasons often being shared are just echoes of other
opinions that clearly aren't that of the author. Instead,
we are reading the thoughts and ideas of many articles
since past.
Great platform for the wrong reason
Take, for example, promoting Linux as the malware-
proof OS. Sorry to break this to you, but this doesn't
exist. Or my personal favorite, Linux means you never
need to upgrade your hardware.

http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3919321/Switching­to­Linux­For­the­Right­
Reasons.htm

6. Blender 2.56 beta released – Update

The Blender Foundation and associated online developer community have released Blender
2.56 Beta, the fourth official beta release of the Blender 2.5 series. On final release this
development code will become Blender version 2.6.
 Free Open Source Software News 4

This beta is for the most part feature complete and over 440 bugs have been fixed since the 2.55
beta, although a very bad bug in "undo" for the Cloth / Fluid sim was discovered the day after the
initial release. This bug has now been fixed and the
developers say they will probably release a 2.56a update
including the fix, soon.
The developers say there have been extensive changes in
the Python API, most notably in naming conventions and
in the creation and access of properties. They also point
out that extensive renaming operations between version
2.53 and 2.56 have considerably changed the scripting
API; this effects loading 2.53.blends with animation into
2.56. Users are also instructed to try the FCurve / Driver
2.54 fix entry from the Help menu.

http://www.h­online.com/open/news/item/Blender­2­56­beta­released­Update­1162915.html

7. Configuring PostgreSQL for Pretty Good Performance

PostgreSQL is a highly customizable relational database management system (RDBMS)
with a dazzling array of configuration options. Fortunately, especially in recent versions of
PostgreSQL, most of these settings do not need to be changed. The trick is to figure out which
options do need to be changed and what values are most appropriate.
A few minutes spent adjusting your postgresql.conf file can result in major performance
improvements. Further improvements may be possible with sufficient time and thought, but in this
article I'll focus on how to quickly get your settings into the right ballpark.
One of the most important methods of improving PostgreSQL
performance, especially on large data sets, is to increase the
parameter shared_buffers, which controls the amount of memory
PostgreSQL uses for its private buffer cache. Because
PostgreSQL also makes use of the system buffer cache, and for
other reasons, experience has shown that it's usually best to set
this parameter to about 25% of system memory on UNIX and
Linux systems, but not more than about 8GB. (Sometimes 8GB
is already too much.)

http://www.linux.com/learn/tutorials/394523:configuring­postgresql­for­pretty­good­performance

8. Android tablets sweep CES 2011

As with last year, this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) taking place in Las Vegas is
nearly all about the latest and greatest Android devices, specifically tablets. Many of the newly
announced Android tablets will reportedly run recently confirmed next major update to Google's
open source Android mobile operating system, Android 3.0 code named "Honeycomb".
 Free Open Source Software News 5

Previewed by Android chief developer Andy Rubin at the D: Dive into Mobile technology
conference in San Francisco last month, Motorola officially announced its XOOM Tablet. The
XOOM features a 10.1-inch widescreen HD display, a
1 GHz dual-core processor, and built-in 3G and 4G
LTE support for US CDMA mobile phone carrier
Verizon Wireless. Other specs include a 5 megapixel
camera capable of 720p HD video recording, 802.11n
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR and 32 GB of on-board
storage. The XOOM is expected to launch in the first
quarter of 2011 with an upgrade for 4G LTE arriving
in Q2 – ahands-on video is available from Engadget.

http://www.h­online.com/open/news/item/Android­tablets­sweep­CES­2011­1164362.html

9. Drupal 7 Integrates Modules to Open Source CMS

The latest version of the Drupal content management system, integrates several popular
modules that were previously separate from the core system.

The Obama administration has been by far the most aggressive adopters of
open source technology compared to previous administrations. One of those
open source tools has been the Drupal content management system (CMS),
used to run the Whitehouse.gov site. It's a system that's also proved popular
among a growing number of startups, smaller companies and enterprises.
Now, as Developer.com reports, the company behind Drupal has unveiled a
new version that integrates what used to be separate modules and adds new
Semantic Web features.

http://www.internetnews.com/webcontent/article.php/3919496

10. Linux 2.6.37 Kernel Promises to Unlock OS

Linus Torvalds is starting 2011 off with a bang with the release of the 2.6.37 Linux kernel.
The new kernel is the first release since 2.6.36 debuted in October.
The goal of the new 2.6.37 kernel is to provide
developers with improved Linux performance,
security and scalability.
From a performance perspective the 2.6.37 kernel
removes the Big Kernel Lock (BKL). The BKL is a
legacy part of the Linux kernel that has now been
fully supplanted by more modern and efficient
locking mechanisms for kernel processes.

http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/newss/7262/1/
 Free Open Source Software News 6

11. Virtualization With KVM On An OpenSUSE 11.3 Server

This guide explains how you can install and use KVM for creating and running virtual
machines on an OpenSUSE 11.3 server. I will show how to create image-based virtual machines
and also virtual machines that use a logical volume (LVM). KVM is short for Kernel-based Virtual
Machine and makes use of hardware virtualization, i.e., you need a CPU that supports hardware
virtualization, e.g. Intel VT or AMD-V.
I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

1 Preliminary Note
I'm using an OpenSUSE 11.3 server with the hostname server1.example.com and the IP
address192.168.0.100 here as my KVM host.
We also need a desktop system where we install virt-manager so that we can connect to the
graphical console of the virtual machines that we install.
I'm using an OpenSUSE 11.3 desktop here.

2 Installing KVM
OpenSUSE 11.3 KVM Host:
First check if your CPU supports hardware virtualization -
if this is the case, the command
egrep '(vmx|svm)' --color=always /proc/cpuinfo

http://www.howtoforge.com/virtualization-with-kvm-on-an-opensuse-11.3-server

12. Understanding Linux File Types

You can use the “ls -l” command to see the various types of files.In the following example,
the first character in the output is a “-”, which indicates that it’s a regular file.

ls -la /var/log/messages
-rw——- 1 root root 204909 Jun 5 10:50 /var/log/messages
The next example shows that it is a directory as it starts with a “d”.
ls -ld /etc
drwxr-xr-x 105 root root 04111 Jan 5 08:36 .
File Type Encoding When Using ls
Regular file-
Directory d
Character Device c
Block Device b
Local Domain Socket s
Named Pipe p
Symbolic Link l
Device files facilitate the communication between hardware and software. The kernel manages
 Free Open Source Software News 7

modules that know how to communicate with system devices. These device drivers create a
standard method of communication with the hardware. They look like regular files. When the kernel
receives a request for a character or block device it contacts the right device driver to take care of
the communication.

http://bashshell.net/file­permissions­and­attributes/understanding­linux­file­types/

13. KOffice 2.3.0 Released

The KOffice team is happy to announce the 2.3 release of KOffice. This release brings many small
improvements to all the KOffice applications, but not as many large new features. Among the most
important new features are:
• Krita is now ready for professional artist use. This is thanks to the
very focused effort by the Krita team after a meeting which
resulted in a clear vision and well defined goals. More details are
available in Krita 2.3.0 announcement
• A new slide sorter view in KPresenter, which has been greatly
missed by some users. There is also a new shape animations
feature for KPresenter.
• Improvements of the core engine and plugins in the support of the
OpenDocument Format. Especially text rendering has seen much
work.
• Even more improved support for reading Microsoft file formats (doc, xls, ppt, docx, xlsx, pptx).
A new report engine used in KPlato and Kexi.

http://www.koffice.org/news/koffice-2-3-0-released/

14. Why I am still supporting Free Software?

Today I was debating with a friend the relevance of Free Software, he pointed that at the
current development rate is very unlikely that Linux (most
common Free Software subject) will have a significant end
users market share in 50 years. I remembered him that
Linux powered devices already a significant mobile market
share. He noted that most of the mobile users do not care
or do not know that they use a Free Software powered
mobile phone – I had to agreedon this.

Later today while providing some answers at

askubuntu.com I have kept this debate on my head and
asked myself, why I am still supporting Free Software ?

When I started getting involved in free software

development, about 15 years ago, I was a young
programmer wanna-be, I was eager to learn all these bunch
 Free Open Source Software News 8

of languages, protocols, libraries, etc. As if it wasn't good enough I could even get help and help
other people, which I always loved to do. I never managed to get a job with free software/open
source (and probably will never do) but despite having a good job I always felt that working and
programming with free software was closest to what I love doing, knowledge sharing.

http://handypenguin.blogspot.com/2011/01/why-i-am-still-supporting-free-software.html
 Free Open Source Software News 9

Thanks
http://linuxtoday.com
http://fsdaily.org
http://lxer.com
http://linux.com

To meet the FOSS users and to know/discuss more about FOSS, Join in
Indian Linux Users Group - Chennai (ILUGC).
http://ilugc.in
http://www.ae.iitm.ac.in/mailman/listinfo/ilugc

Please read and share with your Friends

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this

document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software
Foundation.

http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html

Prepared with OpenOffice 3.2