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Submission + - School system goes "all in" on open source

Submitted by Czech37
Czech37 writes: Open source is playing an ever-expanding role in education at all levels. One school board that’s embraced open source is the Penn Manor School District in Pennsylvania. The District has rolled out the largest open source student laptop program in the state, with 3,500 Linux-powered computers distributed to students. But Penn Manor’s commitment to open source goes deeper than just handing out laptops. The schools themselves are now run on open source, and in this interview with Opensource.com, district IT manager Charlie Reisinger discusses why the schools' open source efforts have been so successful.

Submission + - Free Software Foundation issues response to inquiry about Shellshock bug (fsf.org) 5

Submitted by mctaylor
mctaylor writes: The Free Software Foundation issued a rambling and evasive response to inquiries into the Shellshock bug reported here previously. In response to inquiries, the Free Software Foundation reasserts the superiority of free software over proprietary solutions, but notes:

Free software cannot guarantee your security, and in certain situations may appear less secure on specific vectors than some proprietary programs

, and concludes by stating:

the solution is to put energy and resources into auditing and improving free programs.

. But shouldn't the GNU project have been doing that already? If it is not, or can not, then perhaps we should be asking ourselves where our donations have been going. What are your thoughts? Is the FSF really spending our donations wisely?

Submission + - OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 Released (openmandriva.org)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: OpenMandriva is proud to announce the release of OpenMandriva Lx 2014.1 distribution of the GNU/Linux operating system. Most of developers efforts were focused on reducing system boot up time and memory usage. This version brings Linux kernel 3.15.10 (with special patches for desktop system performance, responsiveness, and realtime capabilities), KDE Software Compilation 4.13.3, Xorg 1.15.1, Mesa 10.2.6, LibreOffice 4.3.1, Firefox 32, GNU bash with latest security fixes, and many other updated software packages.

Submission + - Open Source email solution ownCloud Mail is coming! (themukt.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: The most important app, which was announced during the ownCloud Contributor Conference is ‘Mail’. ownCloud teams are working on the 0.1 release and the way any open source product works, if you are interested in it, grab the code, install on your server, test it and help developers in making it better. At the moment it is just a basic IMAP client and is under heavy development.Along with Kolab, ownCloud mail will fill the gap of easy to install and configure email server.

Submission + - Soon you may be able to access ownCloud from Chrome OS (themukt.com)

Submitted by sfcrazy
sfcrazy writes: If there is ownCloud integration within the File Manager of Chrome OS, then it will be much easier to work on files stored on your ownCloud. You will also be able to save files to your ownCloud, instead of Google Drive, easily. Google has created “File System Provider API“ which enables “extensions to support virtual file systems, which are available in the file manager on Chrome OS.”

These file systems will allow users to access content from external sources (such as your ownCloud server or Dropbox).

Google developer Jun Mukai is maintaining the ChromeOS Filesystem Providers project on GitHub which enables 3rd party cloud providers to integrate with Chrome OS File Manager.

There are primarily two kind of providers, one is protocol provider such as FTP or WebDAV (which can be used to access ownCloud) and Cloud providers which will allow users to connect the file manager with cloud providers like Dropbox, Amazon S3 or ownCloud.

Submission + - Digia Spins off Qt as Subsidiary (linuxgizmos.com)

Submitted by __aajbyc7391
__aajbyc7391 writes: Digia has spun off a subsidiary called The Qt Company to unify Qt's commercial and open source efforts, and debuted a low-cost plan for mobile developers. The Linux-oriented Qt cross-platform development framework has had a tumultuous career, having been passed around Scandinavia over the years from Trolltech to Nokia and then from Nokia to Digia. Yet, Qt keeps rolling along in both commercial and open source community versions, continually adding support for new platforms and technologies, and gaining extensive support from mobile developers. Now Qt is its own company, or at least a wholly owned subsidiary under Digia. Finland-based Digia has largely been involved with the commercial versions of Qt since it acquired the platform from Nokia in 2012, but it has also sponsored the community Qt Project as a relatively separate project. Now, both efforts are being unified under one roof at The Qt Company and the new QT.io website, says Digia. Meanwhile, Digia will focus on its larger enterprise software business.

Submission + - European Union: We don't want public input on TAFTA/TTIP or CETA (techdirt.com)

Submitted by sandbagger
sandbagger writes: One of the most glaring problems with TAFTA/TTIP is the lack of input from the public in whose name it is being negotiated says TechDirt. One million signatures must be gathered within one year to force the EU to respond to a public petition. Additionally, in seven EU states a specific minimum of supporters must be achieved, e.g. 72,000 signatures in Germany, 55,500 in France, or 54,750 in the United Kingdom et cetera.

This comes from a new site set up by the Stop TTIP Alliance, a pan-EU coalition that aims to seek support for the following petition: We invite the European Commission to recommend to the Council to repeal the negotiating mandate for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and not to conclude the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).

Submission + - Google's Android One initiative launches in India with three $100 phones

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Google has unveiled its first set of Android One low-cost smartphones in the Indian market, partnering with Indian hardware vendors Spice, Micromax and Karbonn. The three phones will be available online on Flipkart, Amazon and Snapdeal and via Reliance Digital, Croma and The Mobile Store, offline. The phones provide a minimum set of features determined by Google, which has sourced several of the components to help cut manufacturing costs. The company has also teamed up with a local network to make it cheaper to download Android updates and new apps.

Submission + - Tivoisation of linux (0pointer.net)

Submitted by jbernardo
jbernardo writes: One thing I have yet to see discussed about systemd and the "unified package manager" proposed by Poettering is the stated objective of tivoisation of linux:

"We want our images to be trustable (i.e. signed). In fact we want a fully trustable OS, with images that can be verified by a full trust chain from the firmware (EFI SecureBoot!), through the boot loader, through the kernel, and initrd. Cryptographically secure verification of the code we execute is relevant on the desktop (like ChromeOS does), but also for apps, for embedded devices and even on servers (in a post-Snowden world, in particular)."

Am I the only one who is scared of this "tivoisation" by design? If this ever makes it to arm devices, say goodbye to DD-WRT, OpenWRT, Tomato, etc. And that will be just the beginning. Be ready for all your devices becoming appliances, non-customizable and to be thrown out as soon as they become obsolete by design. Being allowed to only run signed code will probably be good for redhat, but will it be good for the user?

Strange that a few years ago "trusted computing" was stopped, and now it seems almost inevitable even in Linux.

Submission + - diaspora* version 0.4.1.0 released (diasporafoundation.org) 1

Submitted by jaywink
jaywink writes: A new diaspora* version 0.4.1.0 is out. It includes a lot of pages ported to Bootstrap, many bug fixes and small enhancements. Also included is a Terms of Service -feature for podmins. Diaspora* is an open source social networking server that joins all running pods into one big decentralized social network.

Submission + - Justice Sotomayor Warns Against Tech-Enabled "Orwellian" World (arstechnica.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor spoke on Thursday to faculty and students at the University of Oklahoma City about the privacy perils brought on by modern technology. She warned that the march of technological progress comes with a need to enact privacy protections if we want to avoid living in an "Orwellian world" of constant surveillance. She siad, "There are drones flying over the air randomly that are recording everything that’s happening on what we consider our private property. That type of technology has to stimulate us to think about what is it that we cherish in privacy and how far we want to protect it and from whom. Because people think that it should be protected just against government intrusion, but I don’t like the fact that someone I don’t knowcan pick up, if they’re a private citizen, one of these drones and fly it over my property."

Submission + - Linux distro to vampire XP install? 10

Submitted by johnpagenola
johnpagenola writes: Many people cannot upgrade Windows XP because of driver issues with old peripherals. Would it be possible for a Linux install to reuse the XP drivers sort of like Wine reuses the programs? I am envisioning a Linux install that would scan an XP install, store drivers and programs on a flash drive, wipe the hard disk and then install Linux, reusing the drivers and programs. Is this idea ridiculous?

Submission + - Software patents are crumbling, thanks to the Supreme Court (vox.com)

Submitted by walterbyrd
walterbyrd writes: This doesn't necessarily mean that all software patents are in danger — these are mostly patents that are particularly vulnerable to challenge under the new Alice precedent. But it does mean that the pendulum of patent law is now clearly swinging in an anti-patent direction. Every time a patent gets invalidated, it strengthens the bargaining position of every defendant facing a lawsuit from a patent troll.

Submission + - Windows tax shot down in Italy (fsfe.org)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Italy's High Court has struck a blow to the practice of forcing non-free software on buyers of PCs and laptops. According to La Repubblica, the court ruled on Thursday that a laptop buyer was entitled to receive a refund for the price of the Microsoft Windows license on his computer.

The judges sharply criticised the practice of selling PCs only together with a non-free operating system as "a commercial policy of forced distribution". The court slammed this practice as "monopolistic in tendency". It also highlighted that the practice of bundling means that end users are forced into using additional non-free applications due to compatibility and interoperability issues, whether they wanted these programs or not.

"This decision is both welcome and long overdue", said Karsten Gerloff, President of the Free Software Foundation Europe. "No vendor should be allowed to cram non-free software down the throats of users."

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