He’s like Dave Packard or Steve Jobs or Sergey Brin — at least up to a point. The difference is that, from his vantage point here in the 21st century, Polvi views his garage with a certain sense of irony — “straight-up Palo Alto-style,” he says — and he harbors ambitions that suit our particular time. He wants to change the way we build the entire internet, making this worldwide network of computer servers as easy to update as the browsers on our laptops.
Inside that Palo Alto garage — the door open to the Silicon Valley summer sun, and the camping gear stacked against the wall — Polvi and his colleagues are fashioning a new computer operating system known as CoreOS. This isn’t an OS for running desktop PCs or laptops or tablets. It’s meant to run the hundreds of thousands of servers that underpin the modern internet. Keep watch on this. (Thanks #ClarkeViper for the link.)]]>
Samsung wasn’t doing that. But then, last spring, a strange thing happened. Someone posted Samsung’s source code to GitHub, and a few months later, “rxrz” anonymously re-posted the ExFAT code, saying that it was now freely reusable under the terms of the GPL. (Thanks #ClarkeViper for the link.)]]>
Evgeny then describes an orchestrated coup. This is just plain ridiculous. It did not exist, it did not happen.
It might be entertaining to read, but it is a fabrication.
There was no power to wrestle from anyone. There was no central planning.
The entire idea is ludicrous.
The FSF while an important force in 1998 was not the only player. The FSF in fact had failed at their most ambitious goal, to create a full operating system. They had done by a combination of having a technical vision that was too hard to implement with the manpower they had and by alienating those that wanted to help, causing defections to other platforms. By 1998 three major BSD-based operating systems were in use, a dozen Linux variations were in use.
There was no central control, just hundreds of independent efforts. And Linux was the poster child of decentralized development. And he speaks as someone who was there.]]>
First, Chromebook was initially rejected by Google management. In fact I wrote the first version as early as July 2006 and showed it around to management. Instead of launching a project, the response was extremely tepid. My boss complained, "You can't use it on an airplane." Actually, you could as, under the covers, it was still a bare-bones Linux distribution and could execute any Linux program installed on it.
Second, Google OS was not originally written for Chrome or called "Chrome OS". The first versions were all based on Firefox. When I wrote the first version in 2006, Google had not yet started developing a web browser of its own, nor did the name "Chrome" exist as a Google product. Chrome versions followed in 2007, after internal beta test versions of Chrome started to be passed around inside Google.]]>
Without noticing, I stopped turning on the screen for my Linux machine during 2012. By the time I moved to a new apartment in October of 2012, I did not even bother plugging the machine back and to this date, I have yet to turn it on. In case you don't know de Icaza, he's the brains behind Mono, the Linux implementation of Microsoft's .Net framework. ]]>
Personally I think everyone translates “Office for x” into full ports of Office for platform x. But I doubt that is in the cards. These other platforms, be that the iPad or Linux, are likely to get subset offerings targeted at the Office 365 service and usage scenarios Microsoft prioritizes.]]>
Having used a Samsung Windows 8 tablet for a few months, I have a theory as to why: you think you want a full desktop computer on your tablet - I certainly did -- but you don't. It simply doesn't work.
In the case of Windows 8 you can blame some of the "not working" on the buggy, incomplete software that is Windows 8, but not all of the problems can be attributed to a shortcoming of touch APIs.
Much of what makes a full desktop interface terrible on a touch screen tablet is simply the whole desktop paradigm was never designed to be used on a tablet and it shows. The Metro interface for Windows 8 is excellent; different, but in my experience really well done.
Where Windows 8 on a tablet falls apart is when you try to bring the software keyboard to the traditional desktop interface on a tablet. The software keyboard takes up half the screen, which makes even simple tasks difficult. How to you rename a file and move it? First you tap it to select it, then you tap the button to bring up the keyboard, then you type, then you touch away the keyboard, then you touch the file again. It isn't just awkward and slow; it's downright antagonizing…
[But] There is a device that just might fit the bill for many a Linux user who thinks they're dreaming of a Linux tablet - the touchscreen laptop.
The touchscreen laptop is exactly the place for an only slightly tweaked OS - touch "optimized" if you will - to succeed. When it's more convenient to touch the screen you can, but when you need to type there's a keyboard available.]]>
As The Reg reported previously, the Secure Boot feature of the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) found on modern Windows 8 PCs will only allow an OS to boot if its code has been digitally signed with a key obtained from Microsoft.
That's a problem for many Linux distributions, because some lack the resources to purchase a Microsoft key, while others simply refuse to. Aren't Chromebooks good enough and fast enough for this? And they are pretty much running Linux already.]]>
Posted anonymously to Full Disclosure on 13 November by an annoyed website owner, the rootkit has since been confirmed by CrowdStrike and Kaspersky Lab as being distributed to would-be victims via an unusual form of iFrame injection attack. Dozens of people could be at risk. (Thanks @sputnikkers for the link.)]]>
The hard disk that hosted my /home directory on my Linux machine failed so I had to replace it with a new one. Since this machine lives under my desk, I had to unplug all the cables, get it out, swap the hard drives and plug everything back again.
Pretty standard stuff. Plug AC, plug keyboard, plug mouse but when I got to the speakers cable, I just skipped it.
Why bother setting up the audio?]]>
Most of the computers’ problems could be fixed by wiping the disks and reinstalling the operating system—but buying new software for every donated computer would be prohibitively expensive. You've probably guessed what happened next.]]>
“In response to our recent Ulm site closure announcement from Nokia HQ, we (the employees) openly invite you to discover our world of talent on offer,” a flyer on their new website reads. “Welcome to Project KYVYT’.” Low-end Linux handset expertise. Who wants it? ]]>
Nothing unusual so far, you might think. Except that Elton works for LinkNet Zambia. His 'patch' is a small rural village called Macha in the south of the country. The nearest tarmacked road is more than 15km away, and it's a 45-minute drive to get to the closest town, Choma. Inspiring.]]>