10 reasons why Canonical and Ubuntu could connect the masses with Linux

source : http://www.techrepublic.com/

Could Canonical and Ubuntu give Linux a chance to gain widespread acceptance? Here are 10 reasons why it might play out that way.

When people hear Ubuntu Linux, the reactions vary greatly. Some folks hiss and spit like a cornered cat, some cheer, and some just tilt their head in confusion. But from my perspective as a long-time Linux user and a supporter of what Canonical and Ubuntu are doing, one word comes to mind: Future. What do I mean? Simple. Ubuntu Linux holds the key to mass acceptance of Linux on the desktop.

Of course, Canonical and Ubuntu aren’t perfect. They have made some missteps and isolated a good portion of the Linux community. Even so, the Ubuntu distribution still offers the best chance. Let’s look at why.

1: Mobile platform

2: Unification of devices

3: Developing for the masses

4: An eye for business

5: Beauty and simplicity

6: Partnerships

7: Global thinking

8: Innovation with purpose

9: Smart Scopes

10: Not Richard Stallman’s Linux

Still climbing

... read the full article : http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-reasons-why-canonical-and-ubuntu-will-connect-the-masses-with-linux/3716

Nokia : sans windows! Symbian n'est pas mort?

Nokia persiste sur la voie du téléphone 2G low cost

Nokia lance un mobile à écran tactile, issu de sa gamme de téléphone 2G Asha, doté du nouveau système d'exploitation éponyme, inauguré avec ce modèle.

Nokia lance sa plateforme Asha

Fort du succès de la gamme Asha, Nokia a annoncé aujourd’hui une initiative mondiale visant à ouvrir le marché du smartphone de moins de 100 dollars aux développeurs grâce au lancement de sa plateforme Nokia Asha.

Le nouveau kit de développement logiciel SDK (Software Development Kit) Nokia Asha est une suite d’outils d’aide au développement, à l’expérimentation, au conditionnement et au déploiement d’applications Java sur la plateforme Nokia Asha.

Nokia a présenté aux développeurs Web ces outils d’applications Web Nokia Asha. Ces outils comprennent un environnement de développement Web WDE (Web Development Environment), une interface IDE pour créer et modifier des applications Web Nokia Asha, un Web Inspector pour aider les développeurs à déboguer et inspecter des éléments dans leurs applications Web et un nouvel outil de conception Web pour la création d’interfaces agréables pour leurs applications Web.

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Le plan B en cas d’échec des windows phone? qu'en pensez vous?

New Activities of the Federal Big Data Initiative

CCC Blog (05/02/13) Shar Steed

The U.S. Federal Big Data Initiative, now in its second year, has launched several new activities with the goal of addressing the challenges and opportunities of big data. Federal agencies also are launching programs that use cutting-edge technologies to analyze and extract useful knowledge from big data for the benefit of society. "As we enter the second year of the Big Data Initiative, the Obama administration is encouraging multiple stakeholders, including federal agencies, private industry, academia, state and local government, nonprofits, and foundations to develop and participate in big data initiatives across the country," according to an Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) blog post. "Of particular interest are partnerships designed to advance core big data technologies; harness the power of big data to advance national goals such as economic growth, education, health, and clean energy; use competitions and challenges; and foster regional innovation." The NITRD Big Data Senior Steering Group and OSTP recently held a big data workshop and the Computing Community Consortium is working with OSTP on future events that will include industry, academia, and government in big data initiatives.
http://www.cccblog.org/2013/05/02/new-activities-of-the-federal-big-data-initiative/

Release: World Wide Web Consortium takes next step with controversial DRM proposal, Defective by Design condemns decision

World Wide Web Consortium takes next step with controversial DRM proposal, Defective by Design condemns decision

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Thursday, May 9, 2013 -- The HTML Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) today released a First Public Working Draft of the controversial Encrypted Media Extension (EME) specification, despite massive opposition from public interest organizations and members of the public. W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe also released a statement justifying the Working Group's decision. The proposal, which is supported by the entertainment industry and giants like Netflix, Google, and Microsoft, would endorse and facilitate use of proprietary Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) in HTML, and would have a dramatic impact on streaming audio and video on the Web.
Defective by Design (a project of the Free Software Foundation devoted to fighting DRM) and a coalition of 26 other organizations publicly opposed the proposal in an April letter to the W3C. Last week, on International Day Against DRM, Defective by Design delivered tens of thousands of signatures opposing the proposal, and continues to collect petition signatures at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5.
Free Software Foundation executive director John Sullivan made the following statement:
"We and the 26,000 concerned individuals who signed Defective by Design's petition so far are extremely disappointed in the W3C's statement today. The situation is actually worse than we thought, because the W3C now appears to be bizarrely insisting that Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) is a necessary component of a free Web. We were under the impression that the standardized Web was meant to be a structure that mitigated against holders of particular proprietary technologies bullying Web users and developers, or extracting royalties from them as preconditions for participation. If companies want to do such bullying, they can do it on their own time and their own dime; the W3C should not help them or endorse them. In this statement, the W3C unfortunately hitches its wagon to the contentious and frankly irrelevant empirical claim that DRM is key to what Microsoft during the Vista launch referred to as a 'next generation content experience.' In adopting the doublespeak of the Hollyweb, the W3C is betraying the interests Web users have in experiencing the amazing universe of human culture enabled by the Internet. Instead, they are backing the desire of Netflix, Google, and Microsoft, to capture those users in media silos with walls enforced by proprietary software and criminal law like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and similar laws around the world). Despite the W3C's claim to have listened, we do not feel heard. We will step up our efforts to stop them from committing this terrible error, including issuing a comprehensive refutation of this statement's reasoning."

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
This release can be viewed online at http://www.fsf.org/news/world-wide-web-consortium-takes-next-step-with-controversial-drm-proposal-defective-by-design-condemns-decision

Media Contacts

John Sullivan
Executive Director
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org
Libby Reinish
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942
campaigns@fsf.org
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10+ ways to be more productive | TechRepublic

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/10things/10-ways-to-be-more-productive/1799?tag=nl.e098&s_cid=e098&ttag=e098
Pascal Fares
ISAE - Cnam Liban informatique
OSLM, Open Source Lebanese Movement

For immediate release: "Oscar" awarded to W3C for Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb'"

"Oscar" awarded to W3C for Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb"

BOSTON, Massachusetts, USA -- Friday, May 3, 2013 -- Today, the Free Software Foundation's Defective by Design (www.defectivebydesign.org) campaign rolled out the red carpet and staged an impromptu awards ceremony during a petition delivery action outside of the W3C's offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The campaign's "DRM Elimination Crew" presented W3C with an award for "Best Supporting Role in "The Hollyweb" and delivered more than 22,500 verified signatures asking the organization not to weave Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) into the fabric of the Web. The action was part of the 5th annual International Day Against DRM. Photos of today's event are available at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/oscar-awarded-w3c-in-the-hollyweb
The petition (which is available to sign at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5) calls on W3C to reject the Encrypted Media Extensions proposal (EME), which would incorporate support for DRM -- the systems used by media and technology companies to restrict watching, sharing, recording, and transforming digital works -- into HTML, the core language of the Web. As the petition explains, "EME would be an irreversible step backward for freedom on the Web. It would endorse and enable business models that unethically restrict users, and it would make subjugation to particular media companies a precondition for full Web citizenship. Just as Flash and Silverlight are finally dying off, we should not replace them with the media giants' latest control fantasy."
"This isn't the award we would like to be giving to W3C this week, as the Web celebrates its 20th anniversary. Ideally, we'd be hailing W3C for its role in protecting Internet freedom. While companies like Netflix, Microsoft, and Google (and their friends in Big Media) are really the stars of the Hollyweb, the W3C's supporting role has been crucial to this attempt to restrict the public's freedom. W3C still has time to do the right thing, but if they don't reject EME, they will be sanctioning the use of proprietary digital restrictions in every interaction we have online," said John Sullivan, executive director of the Free Software Foundation.
"The decision that W3C makes will influence millions of Internet users around the globe. The signatures delivered today represent the overwhelming public opinion that the EME proposal would be harmful to their online freedoms and to the overall health of the World Wide Web. We will continue to keep this proposal in the public eye and work to ensure that people everywhere have an opportunity to make their voices heard," said Libby Reinish, a campaigns manager at the Free Software Foundation.
Public opposition to the proposal is growing. Last week, W3C received a letter condemning the proposal from an international coalition of over 27 organizations, including the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and its sister organizations FSF Europe, Latin America, and India; the Electronic Frontier Foundation; Creative Commons; Fight for the Future; Open Knowledge Foundation; Free Culture Foundation; April; Open Technology Institute; and several Pirate Party groups. The full text of this letter is visible at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/sign-on-against-drm-in-html.
Defective by Design encourages concerned Web users to sign the petition at http://www.defectivebydesign.org/no-drm-in-html5 and to participate directly in W3C's public process by joining their mailing list at http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-html-comments.

About the Free Software Foundation

The Free Software Foundation, founded in 1985, is dedicated to< promoting computer users' right to use, study, copy, modify, and redistribute computer programs. The FSF promotes the development and use of free (as in freedom) software -- particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants -- and free documentation for free software. The FSF also helps to spread awareness of the ethical and political issues of freedom in the use of software, and its Web sites, located at fsf.org and gnu.org, are an important source of information about GNU/Linux. Donations to support the FSF's work can be made at http://donate.fsf.org. Its headquarters are in Boston, MA, USA.
To view this release online, visit http://www.fsf.org/news/oscar-awarded-to-w3c-for-best-supporting-role-in-the-hollyweb.

Media Contacts

Libby Reinish
Campaigns Manager
Free Software Foundation
+1 (617) 542 5942 x30
libby.reinish@gmail.com
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