65471017
submission
jrepin writes:
KDE Plasma 5.1 sports a wide variety of improvements, leading to greater stability, better performance and new and improved features. Thanks to the feedback of the community, KDE developers were able to package a large number of fixes and enhancements into this release, among which more complete and higher quality artwork following the new-in-5.0 Breeze style, re-addition of popular features such as the Icon Tasks taskswitcher and improved stability and performance.
Those travelling regularly will enjoy better support for time zones in the panel's clock, while those staying at home a revamped clipboard manager, allowing you to easily get at your past clipboard's content. The Breeze widget style is now also available for Qt4-based applications, leading to greater consistency across applications. The work to support Wayland as display server for Plasma is still ongoing, with improved, but not complete support in 5.1. Changes throughout many default components improve accessibility for visually impaired users by adding support for screenreaders and improved keyboard navigation.
Aside from the visual improvements and the work on features, the focus of this release lies also on stability and performance improvements, with over 180 bugs resolved since 5.0 in the shell alone.
64904853
submission
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.
64400079
submission
jrepin writes:
Italy's High Court has struck a blow to the practice of forcing non-free software on buyers of PCs and laptops. 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.
64378173
submission
jrepin writes:
The municipality of Turin in Italy hopes to save 6 million Euro over five years by switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu Linux in all of its offices. The move will mean installing the open source operating system on 8,300 PCs, which will generate an immediate saving of roughly €300 per machine (almost €2.5m altogether, made up from the cost of Windows and Office licences) — a sum that will grow over the years as the need for the renewal of proprietary software licences vanishes, and the employees get used to the new machines.
63745367
submission
jrepin writes:
Version 3.3 of Kolab.org, a free and open source groupware solution, has been released. It is now possible to add tags to email messages, work with notes right in the webclient, and manage your resources more easily. Kolab.org 3.3 introduces a new folder navigation view that allows you to search and subscribe to shared calendars, address books, task lists etc. directly from within the respective view. The calendar got a quickview mode which allows you to open an undistorted view on a single calendar. The user interface can now be fully operated with the keyboard and has support for screen readers as well as voice output as suggested by the WCAG 2.0 Guidelines and WAI ARIA standards.
63742571
submission
jrepin writes:
Computer scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, are joining the fight for open source chips with an instruction set architecture called RISC-V. They view it as a true open source project that can empower smaller companies and even researchers to innovate on chip design.
63720511
submission
jrepin writes:
The stories of Echelon, Wikileaks, Snowden and the NSA scandal lead the information society to question the notions of information privacy, transparency, common sense, and the use of personal data for commercial purposes. To be “free”, is it simply the freedom to enjoy without restraint? Freedom of speech? Freedom of opinion or free will? Freedom to use gratis everything we find on the Net? How to distinguish freedom with free access? And what is it about in our daily lives? As we know that every single click is recorded, analyzed What are the real choices we have in the digital age? These are many issues that were highlighted by our speakers, who, each in their own way, replied to these questions and shared their opinions with us.
63278431
submission
jrepin writes:
In this group test Mayank Sharma of Linux Voices looks at five humble text editors that are more than capable of heavy-lifting texting duties. They can highlight syntax and auto-indent code just as effortlessly as they can spellcheck documents. You can use them to record macros and manage code snippets just as easily as you can copy/paste plain text. Some simple text editors even exceed their design goals thanks to plugins that infuse them with capabilities to rival text-centric apps from other genres. They can take on the duties of a source code editor and even an Integrated Development Environment.
63130203
submission
jrepin writes:
Today, a child without access to a computer (and the Internet) at home is at a disadvantage before he or she ever sets foot in a classroom. The unfortunate reality is that in an age where computer skills are no longer optional, far too many families don't possess the resources to have a computer at home. Linux Journal recently had the opportunity to talk with Ken Starks about his organization, Reglue (Recycled Electronics and Gnu/Linux Used for Education) and its efforts to bridge this digital divide.
62941057
submission
jrepin writes:
The government of the autonomous region of Valencia (Spain) earlier this month made available the next version of Lliurex, a customisation of the Edubuntu Linux distribution. The distro is used on over 110,000 PCs in schools in the Valencia region, saving some 36 million euro over the past nine years, the government says.
62891029
submission
jrepin writes:
The French city of Toulouse saved 1 million euro by migrating all its desktops from Microsoft Office to LibreOffice. This project was rooted in a global digital policy which positions free software as a driver of local economic development and employment.
61076639
submission
jrepin writes:
Aspyr Media, in partnership with 2K and Firaxis Games, announced that the critically acclaimed Sid Meier’s Civilization V, and all available expansion packs and downloadable content, is now available on Linux for SteamOS. The title includes Steam Play support. This release of Sid Meier’s Civilization V on Linux targets SteamOS and features support for Valve’s upcoming Steam Controller.
60653887
submission
jrepin writes:
The newly elected European Parliament will include at least 33 members from 7 member states that have pledged their support to free software, according to advocacy groups April and the FSFE. The provisional results of their campaign show that of these, 17 come from France, 7 from Germany, 3 from the Netherlands, 2 from Italy, 2 from Spain, 1 from Belgium and 1 from Portugal.
59848841
submission
jrepin writes:
Munich city council has migrated 15,000 workers from Windows to Linux. It’s a great success story for Free Software, and it upset Microsoft enormously. We visited the city and talked to Peter Hofmann, the man behind the migration – so read on for all the juicy details about what went right, what went wrong, and what made Steve Ballmer sweat
58149793
submission
jrepin writes:
The European Commission and European Parliament are doing nothing to rid themselves of their dependance on Microsoft, two lobby groups said Wednesday, Document Freedom Day.
The Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE) and Open Forum Europe urged EU institutions to support open standards in an open letter to Giancarlo Vilella, president of the European Parliament's Directorate-General for Innovation and Technological Support. He also chairs the body that coordinates IT activities for government agencies including Parliament, the Commission and the Council of the E.U.
The letter highlights several problems, including that video streams of Parliament and Council hearings are still only available in the proprietary Microsoft Windows Media Player and Silverlight formats. This prevents EU citizens who wish to participate in the legislative process from watching without being forced to use the products of a single company, the groups wrote.
