Feed Ars Technica: Rare breed: Linux Mint 17.2 offers desktop familiarity and responds to user wants (arstechnica.com)
Review: Even if using Cinnamon or MATE elsewhere, new release offers handy improvements.
Submission + - A 'Star Trek' Economic System May Be Closer Than You Think
HughPickens.com writes: Anna North writes about “Star Trek’”s “post-economic” system, in which money no longer exists and anything you want can be made in a replicator, essentially for free. According to Manu Saadia, the author of “Trekonomics,” a forthcoming book about the economics of the “Star Trek” universe, when everything is free objects will no longer be status symbols. Success will be measured in achievements, not in money: “"Instead of working to become more wealthy, you work to increase your reputation," says Saadia. "You work to increase your prestige. You want to be the best captain or the best scientist in the entire galaxy. And many other people are working to do that, as well. It's very meritocratic"
In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone’s needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away but a post-scarcity economy is actually far more within reach than the technological advances for which “Star Trek” is better known. If productivity growth continues, Saadia believes there will be much more wealth to go around in a few hundred years’ time. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: “You work to live rather than the other way round.” Wealthy retirees today also already live an essentially post-money existence, “traveling and exploring and deepening their understanding of the world and being generally happy.” According to Saadia we're beginning to get a few hints of what the post-money, reputation-based economy might look like. "If you look at things like Instagram, Vine, places where people put a huge amount of work into basically just gaining a certain amount of reputation, it's fascinating to see. Or even Wikipedia, for that matter. The Internet has begun to give us a hint of how much people will work, for no money, just for reputation."
In a time of rising inequality and stagnating wages, a world where everyone’s needs are met and people only work if they feel like it seems pretty far away but a post-scarcity economy is actually far more within reach than the technological advances for which “Star Trek” is better known. If productivity growth continues, Saadia believes there will be much more wealth to go around in a few hundred years’ time. In general, society might look more like present-day New Zealand, which he sees as less work-obsessed than the United States: “You work to live rather than the other way round.” Wealthy retirees today also already live an essentially post-money existence, “traveling and exploring and deepening their understanding of the world and being generally happy.” According to Saadia we're beginning to get a few hints of what the post-money, reputation-based economy might look like. "If you look at things like Instagram, Vine, places where people put a huge amount of work into basically just gaining a certain amount of reputation, it's fascinating to see. Or even Wikipedia, for that matter. The Internet has begun to give us a hint of how much people will work, for no money, just for reputation."
Submission + - Linux Foundation's Census Project Ranks Software At Risk
jones_supa writes: The Core Infrastructure Initiative, a Linux Foundation effort assembled in the wake of the Heartbleed fiasco to provide development support for key Internet protocols, has opened the doors on its Census Project — an effort to figure out what software projects need support now, instead of waiting for them to break. Census assembles metrics about open source projects found in Debian's package list and on openhub.net, and then scores them based on the amount of risk each presents. Risk scores are an aggregate of multiple factors: how many people are known to have contributed to the project in the last 12 months, how many CVEs have been filed for it, how widely used it is, and how much exposure it has to the network. According to the current iteration of the survey, the programs most in need of attention are not previously cited infrastructure projects, but common core Linux system utilities that have network access and little development activity around them.
Submission + - The 12 most influential programmers working today (businessinsider.com)
Gamoid writes: I listed the 12 most influential programmers working today for Business Insider, which is a totally non-controversial topic that should engender no discussion whatsoever. NONE.
Submission + - Lenovo will sell Ubuntu laptops in India (tomshardware.com)
puddingebola writes: From the article, "Lenovo is preparing to ship laptops preloaded with Ubuntu in India. The first of these systems will be the Lenovo Thinkpad L450, featuring only one of two CPUs, but the selection may widen over time and expand to other countries...Overall, switching to Ubuntu reduces the system cost considerably. Currently, the standard L450 system with Windows 8.1 Pro utilizing a Core i3, 4 GB of RAM, and a 500 GB HDD costs 59724 INR ($943.02 USD). An Ubuntu version of the system with the same hardware specs, however, will only cost 48000 INR ($757.91 USD). Although most people are accustomed to using Windows nowadays, that is a significantly reduced price."
Submission + - French Government IT Directorate Supports ODF, Rejects OOXML (april.org)
jrepin writes: The final draft version of the RGI (general interoperability framework), still awaiting final validation, maintains ODF as the recommended format for office documents within French administrations. This new version of the RGI provides substantiated criticism of the OOXML Microsoft format. April thanks the DISIC (French Inter-ministerial IT directorate) for not giving in to pressure and acting in the long-term interest of all French citizens and their administrations.
Submission + - Samsung SSD doesn't support Linux because its "open-source". (launchpad.net)
First Fedora Image For the MIPS Available For Testing 28
New submitter alexvoica writes: Today Fedora contributor Michal Toman has announced that the first Fedora 22 image for 32-bit MIPS CPUs is available for testing; this version of the operating system was developed using our Creator CI20 microcomputer, which includes a 1.2 GHz dual-core MIPS processor. In addition, Michal announced he is working on a 64-bit version designed to run on MIPS-based Cavium OCTEON III processors.
Submission + - First Fedora image for the MIPS architecture is available for testing (imgtec.com)
alexvoica writes: Today Fedora contributor Michal Toman has announced that the first Fedora 22 image for 32-bit MIPS CPUs is available for testing; this version of the operating system was developed using our Creator CI20 microcomputer which includes a 1.2 GHz dual-core MIPS processor.
In addition, Michal announced he is working on a 64-bit version designed to run on MIPS-based Cavium OCTEON III processors.
In addition, Michal announced he is working on a 64-bit version designed to run on MIPS-based Cavium OCTEON III processors.
Submission + - Linux To Receive More Assembly Code Rework
jones_supa writes: Couple of months ago Linux received an extensive x86 assembly refresh to make code easier to understand and maintain. According to some Linux developers, the assembly code of the kernel is still complicated and poorly maintained. Thus, Linux 4.1 will receive another cleanup, in which a lot of assembly code is rewritten in C. The first big batch of x86 asm-to-C conversion patches, as Andy Lutomirski details on LKML, will focus on the exit-to-userspace code. That particular code is currently copied in several places, is written in a nasty combination of asm and C, and is just hard to work with.
Submission + - Linux 4.1 Kernel Released With EXT4 Encryption, Performance Improvements (phoronix.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Linux 4.1 kernel has been announced and its release brings expanded features for the Linux kernel including EXT4 file-system encryption, open-source GeForce GTX 750 support, performance improvements for Intel Atom / Bay Trail hardware, RAID 5/6 improvements, and other additions.
Submission + - Open Source Security Projects Get $452,000 From The Linux Foundation
An anonymous reader writes: The Core Infrastructure Initiative (CII), a project managed by The Linux Foundation that enables technology companies, industry stakeholders and esteemed developers to collaboratively identify and fund critical open source projects in need of assistance, today announced financial support of nearly $500,000 for three new projects to better support critical security elements of today’s global information infrastructure.
The CII provides funding for key developers to work full-time on open source projects, security audits, computing and test infrastructure, travel, face-to-face meeting coordination and other support. The project is organized by The Linux Foundation and supported by Amazon Web Services, Adobe, Bloomberg, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, NEC, Qualcomm, RackSpace, salesforce.com, and VMware.
The CII provides funding for key developers to work full-time on open source projects, security audits, computing and test infrastructure, travel, face-to-face meeting coordination and other support. The project is organized by The Linux Foundation and supported by Amazon Web Services, Adobe, Bloomberg, Cisco, Dell, Facebook, Fujitsu, Google, Hitachi, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, NetApp, NEC, Qualcomm, RackSpace, salesforce.com, and VMware.
Submission + - Linux containers set for surge, but security concerns remain
stephendavion writes: A new survey has revealed that even though deployment of Linux application containers is likely to rise in the next few years, concerns about security and certification remain. The survey found that two-thirds are planning Linux container production roll outs in the next two years. Of those, 83% said they are planning deployments on top of virtual environments. Half of the respondents plan to use container-based applications in cloud deployments, while 56% intend to leverage them as vehicles for web and e-commerce software.
Submission + - CRYENGINE finally lands on Linux (androidauthority.com)
An anonymous reader writes: CRYENGINE, from Crytek, is to run natively on Linux starting from version 3.8.1
Other improvements include the ability to run on Oculus Rift and Android TV, support on OpenGL 8-weight GPU vertex skinning, and improved POM self-shadowing
Other improvements include the ability to run on Oculus Rift and Android TV, support on OpenGL 8-weight GPU vertex skinning, and improved POM self-shadowing
Submission + - Pirate Party founder Rick Falkvinge launches news service (falkvinge.net)
lillgud writes: Rick Falkvinge, the founder of the first Pirate Party, unveiled a news service to compete against "old media". The storys will be maximum three sentances and distributed as images, thus avoiding ad block. The service is targeted to be operational in Q3 and each writer will be payed in accordance to a revenue sharing model and the calculations points towards each writer targeted to receive €125/month for 12 sentances.
