Open source won

What does winning look like? No enemy has been vanquished, but open source is now mainstream and a new norm.

by Roger Magoulas | @rogerm | +Roger Magoulas | Comments: 16 | July 30, 2012

I heard the comments a few times at the 14th OSCON: The conference has lost its edge. The comments resonated with my own experience — a shift in demeanor, a more purposeful, optimistic attitude, less itching for a fight. Yes, the conference has lost its edge, it doesn’t need one anymore.

Open source won. It’s not that an enemy has been vanquished or that proprietary software is dead, there’s not much regarding adopting open source to argue about anymore. After more than a decade of the low-cost, lean startup culture successfully developing on open source tools, it’s clearly a legitimate, mainstream option for technology tools and innovation.

And open source is not just for hackers and startups. A new class of innovative, widely adopted technologies has emerged from the open source culture of collaboration and sharing — turning the old model of replicating proprietary software as open source projects on its head. ThinkGitHub, D3, Storm, Node.js, Rails, Mongo, Mesos or Spark.

We see more enterprise and government folks intermingling with the stalwart open source crowd who have been attending OSCON for years. And, these large organizations are actively adopting many of the open source technologies we track, e.g., web development frameworks, programming languages, content management, data management and analysis tools.

We hear fewer concerns about support or needing geek-level technical competency to get started with open source. In the Small and Medium Business (SMB) market we see mass adoption of open source for content management and ecommerce applications — even for self-identified technology newbies.

MySQL appears as popular as ever and remains open source after three years of Oracle control and Microsoft is pushing open source JavaScript as a key part of its web development environment and more explicit support for other open source languages. Oracle and Microsoft are not likely to radically change their business models, but their recent efforts show that open source can work in many business contexts.

Even more telling:

• With so much of the consumer web undergirded with open source infrastructure, open source permeates most interactions on the web.
• The massive, $100 million, GitHub investment validates the open collaboration model and culture — forking becomes normal.

What does winning look like? Open source is mainstream and a new norm — for startups, small business, the enterprise and government. Innovative open source technologies creating new business sectors and ecosystems (e.g., the distribution options, tools and services companies building around Hadoop). And what’s most exciting is the notion that the collaborative, sharing culture that permeates the open source community spreads to the enterprise and government with the same impact on innovation and productivity.

So, thanks to all of you who made the open source community a sustainable movement, the ones who were there when … and all the new folks embracing the culture. I can’t wait to see the new technologies, business sectors and opportunities you create.

Linux Foundation Briefing Book: July 30, 2012

This Week's Original Content From The Linux Foundation

My Top Five Sessions at the CloudOpen Conference
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Openfiler Enterprise NOS: Capable but Tricky
Carla Schroder

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Top Open Source Cloud Headlines Week of July 23
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OpenStack Quantum Project Aims to Define Future of Networking
Libby Clark

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Katherine Noyes

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GNOME Committed to Accessibility
Juanjo Marin

A commitment to accessibility and the efforts of many dedicated developers helped GNOME 2 become an award-winning, free and accessible desktop environment. But the project has lot of work ahead to make sure GNOME is a great desktop usable by all.

Citrix’s Hinkle Proposes Linux Model for an Open Source Cloud
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As the Senior Director of Cloud Computing Community at Citrix, Mark Hinkle oversees Citrix efforts around the open source Apache CloudStack IaaS platform and Xen hypervisor projects. We talked recently about the company’s involvement in the open source cloud and how it might model Linux. 

30 Linux Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks: Paul Mundt
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In this week's 30 Kernel Developers in 30 Weeks profile, we talk to Paul Mundt, who works on the SuperH architecture and core parts of the AMR-based SH/R-mobile platforms. He shares a variety of stories from his nearly 20 years of experience working on the kernel, including one that proves collaboration never sleeps, even during an inter-continental flight.

Featured Linux.com Video Content

Linux Training: Be Part of Something Big

Linux careers mean both financial reward and being part of something bigger than any one person or company. Contributing to Linux as a developer or user also means working on the most cutting-edge technologies emerging around the globe before anyone else. The Linux Foundation's Linux Training courses open up this world for many people in the community. Learn more at http://go.linuxfoundation.org/e/6342/2012-07-30/bxmp3/301865302.

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Adding Medibuntu Package Repository

Medibuntu repository provides all the playback and encoding capabilities that most Windows and Mac systems contain, but which Ubuntu’s creators decline to include by default in their systems, due to licensing restrictions and a lack of open-source code for those features. If you just want to get AAC playback, copyright DVDs playing, and newer versions of all the audio, video, and font files, load Medibuntu into your system. (Required)

Open your Terminal, copy and paste:

sudo wget --output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get --quiet update && sudo apt-get --yes --quiet --allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get --quiet update
sudo apt-get -y update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade
sudo apt-get install app-install-data-medibuntu apport-hooks-medibuntu

If you are running a 32-bit version of Ubuntu, copy and paste in Terminal:

sudo apt-get install w32codecs libdvdcss2
sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4
sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/./install-css.sh

If you are running a 64-bit version of Ubuntu, copy and paste in Terminal:

sudo apt-get install w64codecs libdvdcss2
sudo apt-get install libdvdnav4
sudo apt-get install libdvdread4
sudo /usr/share/doc/libdvdread4/./install-css.sh

Chasing Science as a Service

Texas Advanced Computing Center
(07/18/12) Aaron Dubrow

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) has developed the A Grid and Virtualized Environment (AGAVE) advanced programming interface (API), which aims to extend the U.S.'s advanced computing resources to a much larger audience. "When services have been built to that level, research starts moving really fast," says TACC's Rion Dooley. "You can start leveraging manpower and focus exclusively on the science rather than the computation and technology needed to accomplish that science." Dooley says AGAVE is a flexible, Web-friendly platform that enables researchers with little programming experience to add functionality to their scientific computing software. "If we can give thousands of researchers a few percent of their time back, that's a win," he says. AGAVE also gives developers access to some of the U.S.'s most powerful supercomputers to facilitate their research. For example, AGAVE is being used as part of the iPlant project, leveraging supercomputing resources at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, the San Diego Supercomputing Center, and TACC. The second major release of the AGAVE API will include support for new types of systems, such as public and private clouds, that will give users faster turnaround times on their experiments.

View Full Article
http://www.tacc.utexas.edu/news/feature-stories/2012/agave-api

OSLM, Open Source Lebanese Movement

Windows 8 Catastrophe Pushed Valve To Linux - Muktware

Windows 8 Catastrophe Pushed Valve To Linux - Muktware

Tech Policy Download: Cybersecurity Bill Improvements Clear Way for Vote

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In a second important change, companies will be encouraged to share cybersecurity information with civilian agencies, not with military entities such as the National Security Agency. Further, the amendments specify that information shared with the government would be used only for cybersecurity and to protect against serious threats to children or imminent threats of death or serious bodily injury, and not for other purposes unrelated to cybersecurity. Concerns still remain, however, not only with the information sharing language and with provisions on countermeasures and monitoring, but also with Title I of the bill, which seeks to promote improvements in the cybersecurity practices of critical infrastructure operators. A vote testing support for the bill, on a motion to invoke cloture (that is, to limit debate), could come later this week. 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CDT and other civil society groups around the world are urging each Member State of the ITU to publicly release preparatory documents for the treaty revision process, including the Member State's own proposals for revising the treaty, and to convene open, public consultations to solicit input from all stakeholders to inform the Member State's positions in advance of the December meeting. CDT Issues Updated Privacy Guidelines for Mobile Apps On July 12, the Commerce Department held the first in a series of forums aimed at developing "an open, transparent, consensus-driven process to develop a code of conduct regarding mobile app transparency," according the National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA), the agency hosting the meetings. To help jumpstart the process, and to guide industry in the meantime, CDT and the Future of Privacy Forum released an updated version of their "best practices" guide for mobile app developers. The guide is intended to help developers as they build privacy into their products. The 20-page guide, developed through a consultative process chaired by CDT and FPF is intended to be a road map for mobile app developers to build privacy into your apps, better inform and empower end-users, and foster trust and confidence in the mobile app ecosystem. As ACTA Tanks in Europe, USTR Announces Potentially Important Shift for TPP Talks A loose coalition of Internet companies, advocacy groups and individuals that helped defeat SOPA/PIPA have launched the Internet Defense League, which is intended to fight for an open and innovative Internet by enlisting millions of people around a shared set of values. Victory for Internet Freedom: Data Retention Mandate Absent from Bill Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) recently introduced the Child Protection Act of 2012 (HR 6063), and unlike a similar bill he introduced last year, HR 6063 does not contain a data retention mandate. 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The cloud made easy and open

Features

Linux Copy One Hard Disk to Another Using dd Command

Q. How can I copy one hard disk to another using dd command?
A. dd command can copy disk in raw format. It will copy partition table and bootloader and all partitions within this disk. For example, you can copy /dev/sdai to /dev/sdbj (same size) using the following dd command. dd should complete with no errors, but output the number of records read and written.

Login as the root user (use sudo or su command)

Open terminal or shell prompt and type the following dd command:
# dd if=/dev/sdai of=/dev/sdbj

GRUB 2 bootloader - Full tutorial

In this tutorial, you will learn how to work with GRUB 2, add and remove menu entries, customize titles and boot options, dual-boot and triple-boot operating systems, combine legacy GRUB and GRUB 2, and we will even see how Windows fits into this scheme. After that, we will learn how to recover from errors and mistakes.
GRUB 2 bootloader - Full tutorial

Facebook actions, shares

@zdnetfr: Nouveau bouillon de l'action Facebook. En cause la baisse du nbre d'utilisateurs.
http:/:http://zdnet.fr/39774287

Everyday Linux User: 5 ways to use Puppy Linux and Puppy arcade

http://everydaylinuxuser.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/5-ways-to-use-puppy-linux.html

Mapping Research With WikiMaps

AlphaGalileo (07/02/12) 

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View Full Article

Sign the Declaration of Internet Freedom

http://act.freepress.net/sign/internetdeclaration/

Open data

Open Data, Government and Transparency  http://ow.ly/c4sgl

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Google Says New 'Jelly Bean' Version of Android Coming in July

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http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9228570/Google_says_new_Jelly_Bean_version_of_Android_coming_in_July