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Submission + - Systemd Devs Fork Linux Kernel (distrowatch.com) 3

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Now it appears as though the systemd developers have found a solution to kernel compatibility problems and a way to extend their philosophy of placing all key operating system components in one repository. According to Ivan Gotyaovich, one of the developers working on systemd, the project intends to maintain its own fork of the Linux kernel. "There are problems, problems in collaboration, problems with compatibility across versions. Forking the kernel gives us control over these issues, gives us control over almost all key parts of the stack."

Submission + - India Mandates Use of Open Source Software in Government (trak.in)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: The Indian government announced a policy yesterday that makes it mandatory to use open-source software in building apps and services, in an effort to “ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs.” The new policy [PDF] states that all government organizations must include a requirement for their software suppliers to consider open-source options when implementing e-governance applications and systems. The move will bring the Indian government in line with other countries including the US, UK and Germany that opt for open-source software over proprietary tools.

Submission + - European Commision Will Increase Use of Open Source Software (europa.eu)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: The European Commission has updated its strategy for internal use of Open Source Software. The Commission, which is already using open source for many of its key ICT services and software solutions, will further increase the role of this type of software internally. The renewed strategy puts a special emphasis on procurement, contribution to open source software projects and providing more of the software developed within the Commission as open source.

Submission + - Why Not Utopia? Mark Bittman on basic income and increasing automation (nytimes.com)

Submitted by Paul Fernhout
Paul Fernhout writes: Mark Bittman wrote an op-ed in the New York Times suggesting a basic income as a solution to increasing automation leading to job loss. He concludes: "We have achieved a level of social equality barely imagined by progressives 50 years ago, but economic equality has gotten much worse. No one knows what the world will look like in 50 years, but if we resign ourselves to dystopia — in which capital has full control, as it nearly does now — we'll surely have one. Let's resolve to build something better. In the long run we know that we'll make the transition from capitalism to some less destructive and hopefully more just system. Why not begin that transition now? If there is going to be a global market that will further enrich capitalists, there must be guarantees that the rest of the population can at least afford housing and food. And things can be even better than that: We'll have the robots work for us."

Submission + - Stallman joins Internet, talks net neutrality, patents and more

Submitted by alphadogg
alphadogg writes: According to Richard Stallman, godfather of the free software movement, Facebook is a “monstrous surveillance engine,” tech companies working for patent reform aren’t going nearly far enough, and parents must lobby their children’s schools to keep data private and provide free software alternatives. The free software guru touched on a host of topics in his keynote Saturday at the LibrePlanet conference, a Free Software Foundation gathering at the Scala Center at MIT.

Submission + - Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 released ( "LDME Betsy" )

Submitted by MouseTheLuckyDog
MouseTheLuckyDog writes: The latest version of Linux Mint Debian Edition 2 released ( "LDME Betsy" ) the web page offering ther MATE version describe Mint as

LMDE (Linux Mint Debian Edition) is a very exciting distribution, targeted at experienced users, which provides the same environment as Linux Mint but uses Debian as its package base, instead of Ubuntu. LMDE is less mainstream than Linux Mint, it has a much smaller user base, it is not compatible with PPAs, and it lacks a few features. That makes it a bit harder to use and harder to find help for, so it is not recommended for novice users. LMDE is however slightly faster than Linux Mint and it runs newer packages. Life on the LMDE side can be exciting. There are no point releases in LMDE 2, except for bug fixes and security fixes base packages stay the same, but Mint and desktop components are updated continuously. When ready, newly developed features get directly into LMDE 2, whereas they are staged for inclusion on the next upcoming Linux Mint 17.x point release. Consequently, Linux Mint users only run new features when a new point release comes out and they opt-in to upgrade to it. LMDE 2 users don’t have that choice, but they also don’t have to wait for new packages to mature and they usually get to run them first. It’s more risky, but more exciting.

Downloads available are:

For those wanting different window managers, other can be downloaded and installed from the repositories.

Submission + - OEMs Allowed To Lock Secure Boot In Windows 10 Computers (arstechnica.com) 1

Submitted by jones_supa
jones_supa writes: Hardware that sports the "Designed for Windows 8" logo requires machines to support UEFI Secure Boot. When the feature is enabled, the core software components used to boot the machine are verified for correct cryptographic signatures, or the system refuses to boot. This is a desirable security feature, because it protects from malware sneaking into the boot process. However, it has an issue for alternative operating systems, because it's likely they won't have a signature that Secure Boot will authorize. No worries, because Microsoft also mandated that every system must have a UEFI configuraton setting to turn the protection off, allowing booting other operating systems. This situation is bound to change now. At its WinHEC hardware conference in Shenzhen, China, Microsoft said that the setting to allow Secure Boot to be turned off will become optional when Windows 10 arrives. Hardware can be "Designed for Windows 10", and offer no way to opt out of the Secure Boot lock down. The choice to provide the setting or not, will be up to the original equipment manufacturer.

Submission + - New Descent on Kickstarter, for Linux! (kickstarter.com)

Submitted by elfindreams
elfindreams writes: Several of the Star Citizen team have separated out and are re-birthing Descent, the original 6doF space shooter. It will be being released as a PC/Mac/Linux game and will include a single player campaign and multiplayer with up to 64 combatants on a map!

They are working with a number of members of the current D1/D2 community to make sure the flight/gameplay feels "old school" and they are updating the technology and game to a new generation.

Head to the kickstarter to get your descent on or read more about it on the ars technica article (http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/03/classic-fps-descent-to-be-rebooted-by-star-citizen-alums/).

Submission + - The Pirate Party now the biggest party in Iceland (visir.is)

Submitted by jrepin
jrepin writes: The Pirate Party now measures as the largest political party in Iceland, according to a new servey from the Icelandic market and research company MMR which regularly surveyes the support for the political parties in Iceland. Support for political parties and the government was surveyed in the period between the 13thand 18th of March. The results show that The Pirate Party has gained increased support. Now, support for The Pirate Party totals 23.9%, compared to their previous 12.8% in the last MMR survey.

Submission + - Apple dismisses screen faults as cosmetic damage

Submitted by Andy Smith
Andy Smith writes: MacBook owners who have experienced large "stains" on their laptop screens are trying to force a change of repair policy from Apple, who have dismissed the damage as cosmetic and want to charge $800 for repairs. So far 480 people have registered with the Staingate web site.

Submission + - SeaLion – Linux server monitoring tool gets a major revamp (sealion.com)

Submitted by stylusbroke
stylusbroke writes: SeaLion was built for users who need to monitor hundreds of categories and servers from a single dashboard. However, some of you have 2-3 categories to monitor, resulting in lot of empty space. The new adaptive layout now magnifies your graphs, utilizing all screen real estate available.

Submission + - The GNU Manifesto Turns Thirty (newyorker.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It was March, 1985 when Richard M. Stallman published the GNU Manifesto in Dr. Dobb’s Journal of Software Tools. Thirty years on, The New Yorker has an article commemorating its creation and looking at how it has shaped software in the meantime. "Though proprietary and open-source software publishers might appear at the moment to have the upper hand, Stallman’s influence with developers (among whom he is known simply by his initials, 'rms') remains immense. When I asked around about him, many people spoke of him as one might of a beloved but eccentric and prickly uncle. They would roll their eyes a bit, then hasten to add, as more than one did, 'But he’s right about most things.' I told Stallman that I’d spoken with several developers who venerate his work, and who had even said that without it the course of their lives might have been altered. But they don’t seem to do what you say, I observed; they all have iPhones. 'I don’t understand that either,' he said. 'If they don’t realize that they need to defend their freedom, soon they won’t have any.'"

Submission + - Asian Penguins middle school Linux club inspires community (opensource.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: The Asian Penguins saw what Free Geek was doing in Minneapolis by recycling computers to help people, and then they looked around at our school. Many of our school's students do not have computers at home, with the main reason being cost. For a poor immigrant family, a computer on sale at Best Buy might as well be on the moon. The kids looked at our digital divide and asked the question, "If Free Geek can do something about it, why can't we?"

We got ahold of some older machines, the kids learned how to install Linux on them, and we found families to help. The first one was a Karenni, a family of eight that had only been in America for about two months. They welcomed us into their home and the kids set up the computer. It was our first attempt and we had to make a lot of it up as we went, but when we left the family had a working computer, the kids had shown the family the basics of how to use it, and we had made some new friends.

Submission + - Kolab Summit 2015 Announced (kolab.org)

Submitted by stilborne
stilborne writes: The Kolab Collaboration Suite, the open source groupware system that scales from "Raspberry PI" installations to 100k+ seat enterprise deployments, has been adopted by companies and governments around the world, making it one of most successful "poster children" for Free Software and Open Standards. In order to chart the next steps forward, the Kolab community has announced the inaugural Kolab Summit to be held in The Hague on May 2-3, 2015. Along with workshops, BoFs and coding break-out sessions, presentations will be given by key developers from a number of open source projects including Kolab, Roundcube, cyrus imap, and KDE among others. Registration is free, and the call for presentations is live for the next few weeks.

Submission + - VMware expands desktop virtualization to Linux (infoworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: VMware Horizon 6 will be able to deliver Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux desktops. It will allow end-users to remotely access Linux desktops and applications from mobile devices without compromising security while fostering collaboration.

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