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AMD's Open Source Linux Driver Trounces NVIDIA's
by Peter Reutemann 02 May '13

02 May '13

"In a 15-way graphics card comparison on Linux of both the open and closed-source drivers, it was found that the open-source AMD Linux graphics driver is much faster than the open-source NVIDIA driver on Ubuntu 13.04. The open-source NVIDIA driver is developed entirely by the community via reverse-engineering, but for Linux desktop users, is this enough? The big issue for the open-source 'Nouveau' driver is that it doesn't yet fully support re-clocking the graphics processor so that the hardware can actually run at its rated speeds. With the closed-source AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce results, the drivers were substantially faster than their respective open-source driver. Between NVIDIA and AMD on Linux, the NVIDIA closed-source driver was generally doing better than AMD Catalyst." -- source: http://news.slashdot.org/story/13/05/02/1421258/amds-open-source-linux-driv… 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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Lightworks for Linux now in open beta
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '13

01 May '13

"EditShare has opened the beta programme for the Linux version of its Lightworks editor for public testing. Lightworks is one of the oldest video editing packages still being developed, its initial release dating back to 1989." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1854081 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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Open Build Service 2.4 understands Arch Linux packaging
by Peter Reutemann 01 May '13

01 May '13

"The openSUSE developers have released version 2.4 of the Open Build Service that powers the openSUSE Build Service. New features include support for Arch's PKGBUILD format and AArch 64" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1853966 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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Dual boot
by Wolfgang 30 Apr '13

30 Apr '13

Hi I am trying to install Ubuntu Gnome 13.4 on my new HP520. Installation from disk went without hitch, but on restarting the grub2 bootloader is not starting. Instead, the windows loader loads Windows 7. Partition information is as follows (taken from the ubuntu install disk output): Device Type Mount Point Size Used System /dev/sda /dev/sda1 ntfs 104 MB 35MB Windows 7 (Loader) /dev/sda2 ntfs 95000MB unknown /dev/sda5 ext4 14999MB 3676MB Ubuntu 13.04 (13.04) /dev/sda6 ext4 14998MB 406MB /dev/sda7 swap 4998MB 0MB /dev/sda8 ext4 348996MB 5681MB /dev/sda3 ntfs 21004MB 18359MB Windows recovery Environment (loader) sda5 contains the root (/) partition, sda6 the /home partition, and sda8 will contain all my data, so that I may format both sda5 and sda6 once I re-install or update to a new version without data loss. grub 2 is supposed to be installed on /dev/sda. The BIOS is UEFI, without locks, and may also be run in classic mode. I have tried both, but do not gain access to grub2. Should I have installed grub2 on sda1 and loose the Windows loader? Any other suggestions? Thanks Wolfgang

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How to Bring More Women to Free and Open Source Software
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

"As an undergraduate engineering student Karen Sandler was used to being the only woman in a class. At the time she didn't want to talk about why there weren't more women in technology, though, believing the attention would only make things worse. That attitude has changed over time, however, as she experienced sexism more directly. At tech conferences, for example, her male colleagues would sometimes ask her whose spouse she was, not knowing that she was actually a speaker at the event. Now as a FOSS attorney and the executive director of the GNOME Foundation, Sandler is taking a different approach by addressing sexism head-on. ... 5 tips for Bringing More Women into Open Source 1. Address women directly. 2. Accept non-students and non-coders. 3. Connect women with mentors. "There's a feeling that women are less likely to ask for help, and find a mailing list intimidating... Mentors respond to newcomers and make them feel welcome," Sandler said. 4. Require a contribution as part of the application. It can be small like fixing a minor bug or rewording a pagraph of documentation. It gives people a head start for joining the community and also gives program administrators a better idea of who is applying and whether they're good. 5. Make sure women don't feel pressure to propose really ambitious projects." -- source: http://www.linux.com/news/featured-blogs/200-libby-clark/714599-women-in-fr… 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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BitTorrent Sync creates private, peer-to-peer Dropbox, no cloud required
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

"BitTorrent today released folder syncing software that replicates files across multiple computers using the same peer-to-peer file sharing technology that powers BitTorrent clients. The free BitTorrent Sync application is labeled as being in the alpha stage, so it's not necessarily ready for prime-time, but it is publicly available for download and working as advertised on my home network." -- source: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/04/bittorrent-sync-creat… 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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Geeksphone Firefox OS phones now available
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

"Following their unveiling at Mobile World Congress, smartphones running Mozilla's open source OS are now available to buy online from Geeksphone. The phones are aimed at developers and interested end users" -- source: http://h-online.com/-1847833 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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13.04 based Ubuntu Touch arrives with few changes
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

"Although billed by some as "beta", the latest images released for Ubuntu Touch are just marking its underlying switch of foundations to the newest release on Ubuntu, 13.04. Beyond that, little has changed in the fledgling mobile operating system. These "Raring Ringtail" images, available for the Galaxy Nexus (codename: maguro), Nexus 4 (mako), Nexus 10 (manta) and Nexus 7 (grouper) – the four officially supported devices." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1846907 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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Ack 2.0 enhances the "grep for source code"
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

"Version 2.0 of ack, a grep like tool optimised for searching source code introduces a more flexible identification system, better support for ackrc configuration files and the ability to read the list of files to be searched from stdin." -- source: http://h-online.com/-1847056 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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meeting tonight!
by Peter Reutemann 23 Apr '13

23 Apr '13

Hi everyone Looks like the latest crash of the blades killed the meeting reminder. Thanks for Ian of reminding me and apologies for the (very) late reminder for tonight's meeting. We do have two talks scheduled for tonight: - Review of Linux live CDs (openSUSE, Slax, Porteus): Ian Young - Anti-aliasing / Code design / LibreOffice: Ian Stewart http://elgg.wlug.org.nz/event_calendar/view/731/meeting http://www.wlug.org.nz/MeetingTopics.2013-04-22 See you tonight! 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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