January 2013 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

AGM second attempt
by Bruce Kingsbury 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

Following the failure to reach quorum at the 2012 AGM, we will have a second attempt at an AGM on Monday 25th February. This meeting will be at MS4.G.02, from 7:30pm onwards

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Valve Starts Promoting Steam For Linux To Windows Users
by Peter Reutemann 22 Jan '13

22 Jan '13

"Steam is now being used by thousands of gamers running a Linux OS, and Valve has got to the point where they are happy to start urging Windows users to make the switch. Proof of that comes from a 'Join the Beta' promotion on the homepage of Steam suggesting you try Steam for Linux. There's even a download link to get Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, which removes yet another barrier to entry. With Gabe Newell's clear hatred of Windows 8, this shouldn't be a surprising move. We aren't going to see another version of Windows appear for a few years, so in Valve's eyes pushing Linux to gamers makes a lot of sense." -- source: http://games.slashdot.org/story/13/01/21/2021206/valve-starts-promoting-ste… Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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GPLv3 driver for exFAT reaches version 1.0
by Peter Reutemann 21 Jan '13

21 Jan '13

"ExFAT project member Andrew Nayenko has released version 1.0.0 of fuse-exfat, a filesystem driver that can read and write to Microsoft's exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) filesystem. Like the Ntfs-3G NTFS driver that is used in Linux distributions, the exFAT driver is based on FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) and works under Linux as well as OS X." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1788226 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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64-bit Window version of Scribus open source DTP program available
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Those who use the open source Scribus layout program under Windows can, like those who use it under Linux, finally install the new version 1.4.2 as a native 64-bit application on the 64-bit versions of Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This means that the program is no longer subject to the memory limit of 2 GB per process that exists with 32-bit applications. Those who use an older version of Windows can still download and install a 32-bit version of Scribus." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1785023 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Kolab 3 debuts new user interface
by Peter Reutemann 16 Jan '13

16 Jan '13

"Kolab Systems has released Kolab 3, the latest incarnation of their open source groupware server. Kolab 3 has been in development for quite some time and was originally expected to arrive in the third quarter of 2012. Kolab 2.4, released in May 2012, included a preview of some of the new features, including a new web interface based on the Roundcube email client, that supports mobile use on smartphones and tablets. Development of Roundcube is being funded by Kolab Systems." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1784192 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Fedora 18 - released
by Peter Reutemann 15 Jan '13

15 Jan '13

Fedora 18 has been released. You can review the flavours of desktop iso's available for download here... https://fedoraproject.org/en/get-fedora-options The default desktop iso uses Gnome. Others available include KDE, LXDE and Xfce The nearest download site for Gnome and KDE seems to be in Aussie at... http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/i386/ Fedora-18-i686-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:48 889M Fedora-18-i686-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:38 805M http://fedora.mirror.uber.com.au/fedora/linux/releases/18/Live/x86_64/ Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-Desktop.iso 10-Jan-2013 04:49 916M Fedora-18-x86_64-Live-KDE.iso 10-Jan-2013 05:51 831M -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Report: ZTE to bring Firefox OS to Europe
by Peter Reutemann 11 Jan '13

11 Jan '13

"The Chinese phone maker ZTE says that it is working with an unnamed European wireless carrier to bring smartphones based on Mozilla's Firefox OS to the market this year. According to the Bloomberg report, Cheng Lixin, the CEO of ZTE's US business revealed the plan during an interview at CES, the consumer electronics show taking place in Las Vegas." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1780805 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Plasma Active, Sailfish, and Ubuntu Phone Developers Discussing Common APIs
by Peter Reutemann 10 Jan '13

10 Jan '13

"Jolla's Sailfish, Canonical's recently announced Ubuntu Phone, and KDE's Plasma Active environments are all using Qt5's QML for interface design. Unfortunately, the set of UI components provided by each, although similar, are incompatible with the others. After a chat on IRC between developers of all three platforms, they've decided to discuss the reasons behind each implementation, in the hopes that they can work toward a common architecture." -- source: http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/13/01/10/1513251/plasma-active-sailfish-an… Now that would be quite a feat! Fingers crossed... Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Linux Mint 14 Is a Breath of Fresh Air
by Peter Reutemann 09 Jan '13

09 Jan '13

"Linux Mint 14 contains some well-needed facelifts. For example, the Mint Display Manager used for the login screen is refreshingly improved. MDM now supports legacy GDM 2 themes with some 30 installed by default and about 2,000 more available for download. Even better, the format is so easy to apply for making themes that you can quickly add your own personalization to make your login screen look your way." -- source: http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/76989.html Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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Mindstorms EV3: Lego announces new robotics kit
by Peter Reutemann 08 Jan '13

08 Jan '13

'Announced for the second half of 2013, Lego's Mindstorms EV3 robotics kit includes a completely new central operating component, which Lego calls the "Intelligent Brick". The controller uses an ARMv9 (the company's previous NXT 2.0 products work with ARMv7) and includes 16MB of flash memory that can be further expanded with an SD card. A quite generous 64MB of RAM is probably required by the new operating system. According to the specifications, it is Linux-based and should, therefore, be "hackable".' -- source: http://h-online.com/-1778671 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Waikato, NZ http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ Ph. +64 (7) 858-5174

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