I was a bit busy with my new job and now my plans for BarCamp Bangalore has been finalised. I am leaving to Bangalore tomorrow afternoon and will be there for BCB4 for 2 days. This time the entire event has many small collectives and the response is great. Will try to post pics and blog about it later.
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Archive for the 'News' Category
GNU General Public License has been atlast updated to version 3 after nearly a year of drafts and lot of arguments. It was release yesterday - which is also the release date of Apple’s iPhone. The final text of GPLv3 is accompanied with a rationale document explaining the few changes since the “Last Call” draft. The final text of LGPLv3 is available as well. The GPL FAQ has already been updated with additional information and will be improved over the next few weeks. AGPLv3, FDLv2, and SFDL are still being revised.
Google has brought another app over to linux. Google Desktop which is brings the power of Google search to your personal files, is now available for linux. It is really nice to see that it doesn’t run on a emulated layer(wine) like picasa or maps instead requires glibc 2.3.2+, gtk+ 2.2.0+.
Google Desktop for linux has various features like:
- Quick Search box: Just press ctrl twice and you get the quick search box.
- Search your Gmail and web history: Allows you to search your email and history even if you are offline as the index is stored on your computer
- Many file types: Searches your Gmail, text, source code, PDF, postscript, html, Thunderbird mail, OO.o documents, images, music, man and info pages, files and folder names. Phew!
- Familiar results: The search result is same as your regular Google search result
- Smart indexing: Indexes the files automatically
- Google integration: If you search for something on the web, it will show related information present on your harddisk too
- File Versioning: Creates cached copies(snapshots) of your files - so you can get previous versions of files or even accidentally deleted data (now someone must complain about it)
- Multi-Language support: Supports multiple languages based on the language setting.
You can download Google Desktop for linux .deb / .rpm or there are information which gives clear steps to install on your favourite distro.
I was not able to blog for some days due to the exams (bye bye to college). Let me just post about a quick happening in the Free Software world.
- Debian’s latest release etch 4.0 is released on April 8. You can get the debian CDs here.
- Ubuntu Feisty Fawn 7.04 was released on April 19. Here are the release notes and you can download the cds or ship them for free.
- Dell has announced that it will ship computers running Ubuntu Feisty Fawn. It is good news as users need not have to pay $50 extra as Microsoft tax.
- Microsoft has openly said that Linux and the various open source softwares infringe on 235 patents. It hasn’t named the patents yet and it wont do it as it is happy with the FUD it has created.
The Ubuntu team has announced that there would be a Ubuntu Mobile edition in October for the 7.10 release. They would be working with Intel, which recently announced a low-power processor and chipset architecture for full Internet use.
Gaim project, the famous open source instant messenger is now renamed to Pidgin IM. This is because of a lengthy and secret legal process with AOL. This legal problem prevented any code release except betas. Now Gaim will be called as Pidgin IM and the official website is Pidgin.im and the development is moved to developer.pidgin.im.
Here is a quick roundup of interesting news during the blog downtime.
- After I installed enlightenment, I bought a new NVidia FX 5200 and installed beryl on my ubuntu. It is really cool. After working in beryl it is difficult to work in a 2D desktop environment like metacity or windows. Will write a guide to installing beryl soon
- Google’s Summer of Code is up and they are inviting projects from students. This time they plan to take about 800 students and the deadline for the applications is 24 march. As I was busy with my final year project, I still haven’t written the application. Got to go write it now.
The Enlightenment project is raising funds for purchasing a new dedicated server. The target amount is $4000 and almost 48.6% of it is done. Donate as much as you can to support a open source project. Do read my previous post on installing E17 on Ubuntu.
Xfce the light-weight desktop environment and the latest version 4.4 was released two days back. It has been a favorite desktop for many users and the latest version has numerous features like Desktop icons, File Manager, text editor, removable drives or media. Read about the many features in this version in this tour.
Drupal the most popular open source content management system has moved on to version 5 after almost 8 months of development. The most important feature included in this version is the easy to use web based installer. The UI is also greatly improved and is easy to use. This version also allows themers to develop better themes for Drupal.
Drupal also celebrates its 6th birthday with its release of version 5.