Open source enthusiasts have been patiently (or maybe impatiently) waiting for the KDE Spark tablet to be available. A couple weeks ago, it was available for preorder. Yet, the wait still continues for consumers to be be able to actually get their hands on the device. Or do we have to wait? The Spark tablet is technically a rebranded device that will ship with KDE Plasma Active. You can purchase the tablet itself NOW here for only $103.08.

With that being said, the Spark tablet (or as the unrebranded Zenithink C71 ZT280 as it is called) does not run KDE Plasma Active. It ships with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. I wouldn’t know if it has the same unlocked bootloader that would allow you download and install KDE yourself. I would image it does, just don’t quote me on that.

http://joesteiger.com

NVIDIA Is Joining The Linux Foundation

Posted by Michael Larabel on March 07, 2012

NVIDIA will be joining the Linux Foundation, per an announcement coming out in the morning. But for open-source Linux fans, will this be a reason to rejoice about NVIDIA potentially moving forward with open-source drivers? Don't break out the champagne quite yet.

NVIDIA is getting in bed with the Linux Foundation, along with three other to-be-announced companies, as the latest effort to expand this Linux organization. However, it's looking to be more of a mobile play for the company rather than to get in on the open-source GPU driver space by either supporting the open-source Nouveau driver project, to put out other code and documentation, or some other organized effort. The area that's hot right now is their Tegra platform.

NVIDIA's had years to change their position on Linux graphics driver licensing, but they haven't for well-known reasons with their shared code-base between platforms, interwoven third-party intellectual property, and other competitive reasons. They also seem quite happy with their current approach of working on their first-rate Linux/BSD/Solaris proprietary graphics driver that shares many of the same features and performance abilities with their official Windows driver. NVIDIA's stance on the Nouveau project has been to not do anything to help nor hinder the project.

NVIDIA says they are committed to the best experience and innovation with their GPU and mobile products, from Wednesday's announcement catering to Linux fans. By joining the Linux Foundation they hope to increase their collaboration with Linux stakeholders in order to benefit users and developers. (One recent example of attempted collaboration was NVIDIA trying to collaborate with Linux kernel developers about using the DMA-BUF infrastructure within their drivers, but that was largely rejected by kernel developers on licensing merits.)

Many NVIDIA GeForce customers are quite satisfied with the NVIDIA Linux status quo considering that their proprietary Linux driver does generally work very well, is actively supported, quickly supports new versions of the Linux kernel and X.Org, timely enables new hardware at launch, and all-around tends to work great for its users. The reverse-engineered Nouveau driver is available, but its performance is not always great, burns through excessive power, and has other feature limitations.

In the mobile space, the NVIDIA Tegra graphics are powered by a binary blob. They do have open kernel patches and other work already for the less controversial areas of their multi-core ARM platforms. They do make their Tegra Linux ARM experience not too bad by offering an Ubuntu-based spin and a fair amount of documentation to get started (I'm currently working on some benchmarks for them from their quad-core Tegra 3 development tablet and previously provided NVIDIA Tegra 2 benchmarks).

While some are getting excited after sharing this news of NVIDIA joining the Linux Foundation, again, it doesn't necessarily mean any fundamental changes. Joining the Linux Foundation as a corporate member basically means you're providing money and other resources to this non-profit Linux group. Members of the Linux Foundation aren't mandated to open-source their software, port their software to Linux, or to otherwise become a Linux saint.

Among the many Linux Foundation members are VIA (their open-source strategy failed and really haven't been doing anything), AMD (they're still happy with their Catalyst binary blob while the open-source support is still lagging), Adobe (they abandoned Flash Player for Linux and most of their software is not available natively under Linux), Oracle (enough said with their share of controversies in various open-source communities), and a host of mobile-focused firms like ARM / Qualcomm / Samsung that don't ship full open-source graphics drivers for Linux (the best case to date for them has been open-source kernel drivers with closed-up user-space components, some of which are being reverse-engineered).

As far as end-users are directly affected, being on the Linux Foundation member list is almost like being on the Free Software Foundation's high priority project list, which comes without any guarantees. It would be wonderful if NVIDIA joining the Linux Foundation marked some fundamental shift to dramatically enhance the NVIDIA Linux user/developer experience, but at least for now it doesn't look that way.

Startup Aplication di Ubuntu 11.10

Bukan hal baru kalau sebagian dari kita merasa jadi orang yang tiba-tiba bingung hanya untuk mengatur Startup Aplication pada Ubuntu 11.10.

Sebenarnya bisa gak sih kita mengatur aplikasi yang berjalan saat startup ubuntu 11.10 bro? Oh tentunya bisa dong, masa sih gak bisa? ha ha..


Startup Application Preferences pada Ubuntu 11.10 ini emang tersembunyi, sepertinya dia malu untuk muncul di sistem menu atau dash-nya ubuntu ya? aw..

Tapi ada kok cara untuk menemukan lokasi persembunyian Startup Application Preferences tersebut.

Caranya?

Begini :

Masuk terminal dan ketikkan

cd /etc/xdg/autostart/ dilanjutkan dengan

sudo sed --in-place 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' *.desktop


Setelah itu coba cek danjalankan Startup Application Preferences yang ada di Dash, dan atur disana apa aja yang akan dijalankan atau dihilangkan saat startup.

uyee.. segitu aja dulu

MyUnity - Unity Desktop Customizer

Salah satu alasan dulu saya kurang begitu suka dengan Unity Desktop di ubuntu adalah susahnya customisasi desktop tersebut. Padahal customisasi adalah jadi opsi menarik dalam menggunakan linux.

Ternyata ada juga satu aplikasi yang memudahkan kita untuk mengcustomisasi tampilan Unity Desktop di ubuntu. Kita bisa menggunakan My Unity, sebuah tool yang memungkinkan kita untuk melakukan tweaking dan customisasi Unity Desktop sesuai selera kita dengan cara yang mudah. Wow..

Install

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:myunity/ppa
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install myunity

Setelah selesai instalasi, jalankan dengan mengetikkan myunity pada Dash Ubuntu kita
uyee..

Intel Has 50 Patches For ACPI/Power In Linux 3.3

The fun for the Linux 3.3 kernel merge window is not over quite yet; Intel this morning published 50 patches for integration into this next Linux kernel that affect ACPI and power management, primarily around ACPI 5.0 support for the Linux kernel.

The 50 patches for the 3.3 pull were submitted by Len Brown, the Intel OSTC developer who is also the ACPI sub-system maintainer for the Linux kernel. These new patches were largely authored by him and other Intel engineers, among others.

Among the notable changes in the ACPI pull is much work on ACPI 5.0, Turbostat support for Intel Ivy Bridge, a more robust Intel idle driver (especially for systems dealing with KVM virtualization), ACPICA (ACPI Component Architecture) updates, and APEI (ACPI Platform Error Interface) updates. From patch 20 for ACPICA, "this version contains full support for the ACPI 5.0 specification." There's also a fix that will allow some new motherboards (select P67/H67/Z68 motherboards) that can suspend but are not able to wake-up on Linux 3.2 and earlier, to now wake-up properly.

ACPI 5.0 support improvements under Linux 3.3 include supporting FADT version 5, implementing the hardware-reduced option, a new interface for drivers to access AML mutex objects, support for all new resource descriptors, and other new functionality of the ACPI 5.0 specification. The ACPI 5.0 specification was published in November of 2011. Per the change-log spec on ACPI 5.0, reduced hardware support is described as "allows for ACPI systems without the usual ACPI hardware. This support is enabled by a flag in the revision 5 FADT. If it is set, ACPICA will not attempt to initialize or use any of the usual ACPI hardware." New tables define by ACPI 5.0 include the boot graphics resource, dynamic root of trust for measurement, firmware performance data, generic timer description, memory power state, platform communications channel, platform memory topology, and RAS feature table. There also other ACPI 5.0 changes as mentioned in the aforelinked spec. The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface 5.0 specification in full can be downloaded from acpi.info.

With the ACPI 5.0 specification being only a few months old, ACPI 5.0 hardware isn't yet widespread, but more hardware is certainly coming. With new products around the Intel Ivy Bridge launch will likely be an onslaught of motherboards targeting the ACPI 5.0 specification. With the Linux 3.3 kernel this support is obviously bettered, but now out of reach for the Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and its Linux 3.2 kernel, unless the support is (unlikely) back-ported to the stable branch. This would mean there's now risk of power-related issues under Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for new hardware, beyond the graphics worries, but we'll wait and see how it plays out.

The ACPI / power management patch series for the Linux 3.3 kernel can be found on the kernel mailing list. Linux 3.3 is shaping up quite nicely with many new features (see the Linux 3.3 articles for details) and just a little bit of time left to the merge window.

**http://www.phoronix.com

Linux Marketshare is Rising

Linux usage is on the rise if the latest data from net-statistics firm ‘NetMarketShare’ is to be believed.

Data collected by the company sees the market share of Linux jump from 0.96% in January 2011 to 1.41% by the year’s end – impressive if indicative of wider trends.

‘The But’

Statistics from one company alone are rarely able to paint the fullest picture. What story do statistic collected by other market share monitors tell?

I took available month-by-month data from the most prominent companies (noted on the chart below) and plotted them on the same graph. As not all firms report data for all months there are gaps – so view the chart below with this in mind.

Slightly less clear-cut, huh?

The wild variation between companies depends on the data collection method used and type of audience. But, overall, most companies are reporting an ‘upwards’ movement in Linux market share, if to varying degrees.

What would really help give a better overview of any general trend in Linux usage is an average market share percentage. So I’ve done just that, taking the average reach for each month (based on stats from all the companies) and plotted it below.

The results show that there is a steady, but definite overall rise in the market share of Linux.

*http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk

Is ‘Ubuntu Concept Design’ a Unity Phone?

The rumour mill is cranking into overdrive as to what form Canonical’s ‘Ubuntu Concept Design’ CES reveal will take.

But there may be a clue what it might be by looking at Canonical’s diary for the following month.

Unity Phone

Between 27 February – 1 March 2012 the company will be attending the GSMA World Mobile Congress, the ‘world’s largest exhibition for the mobile industry (Thanks Wikipedia).

The congress plays home to both an exhibit and a conference consisting of some of the worlds leading players in mobile technologies. From the chief executives of device manufacturers to the app houses keeping mobile platforms useful – anyone with a vested interested in the mobile sector is there.

User Mockup - NOT actual Concept Design

Canonical

Canonical will be pitching up their exhibit in Hall 7 of the event building. Hall 7 plays home to the ‘App Planet’ exhibit which is described by the organisers as:

“A forward-looking app-focused exhibition showcasing the framework that shapes, enables and drives the app industry. Visit the Upper Village where we showcase more than 200 app-specific exhibitors…”

Hold your horses

Canonical have already stated plans for a multi-platform future for Ubuntu, so their attendance at MWC 2012 isn’t entirely shocking.

Whether or not it’s indicative of a shiny concept Unity phone being unveiled next week is nothing more than mere conjecture/supposition/reading into what’s probably not there on my part.

But the connection is something to mull over in the mean time.

*http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk

Download Old Released Ubuntu

Kriing.. pagi" di tahun baru, handphone-ku berdering.. dari seberang sana ada temen yang nanyain "jo.. ente punya ubuntu Draper Drake gak?"

Tuing tuing tuing.. otak ini sejenak berputar-putar.. sambil menjawab "Drapper Drake? Hmm.. old release itu mas bro.."

Sebenarnya ada masternya, tp karena ada masalah dengan hard disk yg mengakibatkan hampir semua data yg tersimpan raib :( hikss.. maka jawabanku adalah .." yaah.. I'm sorry mas bro.. utk kali ini lagi gak ada stok :) "..

Dari seberang sana kedenger suara "yaah.." Hihihi.. dia sepertinya lemes tuh :)

Setelah beberapa lama termenung, googling akhirnya menemukan lokasi dimana kita bisa mendapatkan koleksi lawas dari release ubuntu, uyee.. #likes #happy

Kemudian dengan semangat dipagi hari.. kukirimkan pesan untuk mas bro... "ini mas, kalau mo ngambil koleksi lawas ubuntu kesini aja"

Tuing.. tuing.. tuing.. hmm lega rasanya bisa ngebantu mas bro, meski cuman bisa ngasih alamat, tapi pastinya bukan alamat palsu :)

uyee...

Convert File .flv to .swf Dengan Text Command

Is there a linux tool for coverting FLV files to SWF?

Di linux kita bisa menggunakan mmc untuk mengkonversi berbagai macam format media berbasis grafis. Kali ini kita akan menggunakan text command yang gak kalah asik... aw :)

Pertama yang diperlukan adalah menginstall ffmpeg

# sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

tunggu sampai prosesnya selesai.

Setelah selesai installasi, kita bisa segera melakukan konversi :

Masuk ke direktori dimana file.flv yang akan kita convert ada. Gunakan perintah berikut untuk mengonversinya :

# ffmpeg -i inputname.flv outputname.swf

Tunggu prosesnya selesai, maka kita akan memiliki file .swf hasil konversi dari file .flv kita. uyee... gitu aja yah?

Visual :