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Linux and Open Source News for 17th December 2006
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Linux Today News Service
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Source: Linux Today Linux and open source software provider Red Hat appears to have found a strong ally in Kerala chief minister V.S. Achuthanandan in promoting the free software concept
Source: Linux Today The 13-pound NotePAC is based on an Intel Core Duo processor, runs Linux, and tolerates rain, blowing dirt, temperatures well below zero, and atmospheric explosives, Kontron claims
Source: Linux Today Damn Small Linux is a thumb-drive-sized Linux distribution that, despite its minuscule size, strives to be a functional and easy-to-use desktop
Source: Linux Today Good documentation has helped keep the two-year-old Ubuntu project among the most popular Linux distributions
Source: Linux Today There has been a lot of talk on Linux as a Desktop OS, including rumors, myths, facts, etc. I think is it time to destroy some myths about Linux and confirm facts
Source: Linux Today Yogi Berra once said, it's like 'deja vu all over again.' And that's the feeling I got using the new Linux distribution Ulteo
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News for nerds, stuff that matters
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Source: Slashdot: Linux An anonymous reader tipped us off to an article on the Information World site looking at the Novell/Microsoft deal from a new angle. Article author Tom Yager is of the opinion that the deal is Microsoft's punishment for throwing in with SCO. The very public announcement was made, in his opinion, as a stopgap measure against a future lawsuit on Novell's part. From the article: "Novell has exhibited the patience and cunning of a trap door spider. It waited for SCO to taunt from too short a distance. Then Novell would spring, feed a little (saving plenty for later), inject some stupidity serum, and let SCO stride off still cocksure enough to make another run at the nest. That cycle is bleeding SCO, which was the last to notice its own terminal anemia. When it became clear that SCO wouldn't prevail, Microsoft expected only to face close partner IBM. Microsoft did not brace for Novell, an adversary with a decades-long score to settle with Redmond. Through discovery, Microsoft's correspondence with SCO is, or soon will be in, Novell's hands, and it's a safe bet that it will contain more than demand for a license fee and a copy of a certified check."
Source: Slashdot: Linux -=Moridin=- writes "The Fedora Project has announced plans to revitalize RPM, the package manager used by many Linux distros. According to the announcement, 'Job #1 is to take the current RPM codebase and clean it up, and in doing so work with all the other people and groups who rely on RPM to build a first-rate upstream project.' For more information, see the the RPM web site and the new wiki-based RPM FAQ. The issue of RPM's upstream development has been a thorny issue ever since Jeff Johnson, the original maintainer of RPM, left Red Hat."
Source: Slashdot: Linux peterdaly writes "MythDora 3 is the first MythTV 'in-a-box' style distribution to include MythTV 0.20. Based on Fedora Core 5, MythDora 3 is designed to format your hard drive then install everything needed for a fully functional MythTV System. Here is a walkthrough of the entire MythDora installation process, including screenshots and a screencast."
Source: Slashdot: Linux microbee writes "On LKML's periodic GPL vs. binary kernel module discussion, Andrew Morton hinted that he favors refusing to load binary modules in 12 months. Greg Kroah-Hartman then posted a patch to do exactly that. Surprisingly Linus chimed in and called it 'stupid' and a 'political agenda,' and even compared it with the RIAA's tactics. Later in the same thread Greg withdrew his patch and apologized for not having thought it through."
Source: Slashdot: Linux volts writes "MySQL quietly deprecated support for most Linux distributions on October 16, when its 'MySQL Network' support plan was replaced by 'MySQL Enterprise.' MySQL now supports only two Linux distributions — Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. We learned of this when MySQL declined to sell us support for some new Debian-based servers. Our sales rep 'found out from engineering that the current Enterprise offering is no longer supported on Debian OS.' We were told that 'Generic Linux' in MySQL's list of supported platforms means 'generic versions of the implementations listed above'; not support for Linux in general." Update: 12/13 20:52 GMT by J : MySQL AB's Director of Architecture (and former Slash programmer) Brian Aker corrects an apparent miscommunication in a blog post: "we are just starting to roll out [Enterprise] binaries We don't build binaries for Debian in part because the Debian community does a good job themselves If you call MySQL and you have support we support you if you are running Debian (the same with Suse, RHEL, Fedora, Ubuntu and others) someone in Sales was left with the wrong information"
Source: Slashdot: Linux christian.einfeldt writes "Our very own Roblimo Miller was invited to an all-expenses-paid tour of the Microsoft campus because he is supposedly 'not friendly' to Microsoft. Writes Roblimo: 'I came away with a sense that Microsoft doesn't currently have a clear sense of what Microsoft should be and where Microsoft should be going I also think, from what I heard during my visit and what other Microsoft employees and customers have told me at other times, that it has degenerated into a series of disconnected fiefdoms that aren't all moving in the same direction.'" Linux.com and Slashdot are both owned by OSTG.
Source: Slashdot: Linux It looks like the newest version of the Linux kernel (2.6.20) will include KVM, the relatively new virtualization environment. From the article: "Thanks to its approach KVM already runs in the current kernel, without any extensive bouts of patching and compiling being required, after the fairly simple compilation of a module. Virtual machines that run unmodified operating systems are meant to appear in the host as a simple process and work independently of the host kernel. In a fashion comparable to that of Xen a modified QEMU is used for the supportive emulation of typical PC components of the virtual machines."
Source: Slashdot: Linux h2g2bob writes "VideoLAN yesterday released a new version of VLC media player. A shout out goes to ffmpeg for many of the codec improvements." From the blurb: "Building on feedback from the 29 million downloads of VLC media player 0.8.5, we bring you version 0.8.6 with many bugfixes, as well as a couple of new features we think you will truly enjoy. Most prominent are probably Windows Media Video 9 and Flash Video. Other important changes are improved H.264 decoding, better Windows Unicode support, a Fullscreen controller, and Apple Remote support for Mac OS X."
Source: Slashdot: Linux Rob writes "Red Hat Inc's executive vice president of worldwide sales, Alex Pinchev, has dismissed the impact that Oracle Corp's entry into the Linux support business could have on Red Hat, insisting Oracle does not really know what it is doing. Pinchev also described Microsoft's recent interoperability and patent peace deal with Novell Inc as a "non-event" and dismissed the suggestion that Linux users are at risk of a patent infringement lawsuit from Redmond."
Source: Slashdot: Linux Ditesh writes "The Malaysian Open Source Masterplan, which favoured open source over proprietary public sector procurements when all other evaluations are equal, has been reversed to a purely 'neutral technology platform' policy due to 'negative reaction towards open source (from the IT market)'. This comes after months of hard lobbying by Microsoft Malaysia. This reversal is certainly unfortunate, as the policy has helped raise comfort levels of other policy makers worldwide in pursuing similar goals. The Malaysian Open Source Alliance has published a position statement asking for clarification of the term 'neutrality', and has received support from MNC's, local companies and free software developers in Malaysia."
Source: Slashdot: Linux mu22le writes "A few Sony patches to the Linux kernel have just been merged in the mainline tree, to be included in the 2.6.20 release. The patches add 'core platform support for the PS3 game console and other devices using the PS3 hypervisor.'" From the Linux Devices article: "Linux gained generic support for the Cell processor, on which the PS3 is based, with the 2.6.13 release in June of 2005. The new Sony-contributed patches to the 2.6.20 kernel appear to add machine-specific support for technology such as the PS3's memory architecture, DMA (direct memory access) model, and SMP (symmetric multiprocessing) model. A Yellow Dog Linux (YDL) distribution has been available for the PS3 since October, thanks to a development deal between Sony and YDL publisher TerraSoft. However, YDL so far has not been bundled with early PS3 shipments, despite earlier indications from Sony Entertainment's CEO, Ken Kuturagi."
Source: Slashdot: Linux jamienk writes "PJ from Groklaw has taken the time to really explain the big picture of the Novell/MS deal and how it all fits into the SCO case and the strategy some have employed to attack Free Software. If you thought PJ was becoming too shrill before, or if you haven't understood what the big deal is with Novell's agreement, it's really worth a read." From the article: "This is Groklaw's 2,838th article. We now have 10,545 members, who have worked very hard to disprove SCO's scurrilous claims, and we did. We succeeded, beyond my hopes when we started. But here's the sad part. As victory is in sight, Novell signs a patent agreement with Microsoft "
Source: Slashdot: Linux digihome writes to point us to an appreciation of the state of Indiana's project of moving students from Windows desktops to Linux. In about a year, 22,000 students have made the switch, using a variety of Linux distributions. The crn.com writer tried switching his own two children to Linux laptops. From the article: "'So Dad,' [the 10-year-old son] asked. 'What is the difference between Linux and Windows?' I tried to explain but it was a waste of breath. 'What difference do you see?' I asked back. 'Nothing, really.'"
Source: Slashdot: Linux An anonymous reader writes to tell us Phoronix has posted an article that covers the basics of GPU and CPU overclocking utilities available for Linux. From the article: "In 2005 we had featured several articles on the state of NVIDIA graphics card overclocking under Linux. In early 2005 the only option for Linux users was NVClock. The open-source NVClock was started by Roderick Colenbrander in 2001 and since then has been evolving. However, coming out in June of 2005 from the NVIDIA camp was CoolBits support for their alternative operating system drivers."
Source: Slashdot: Linux holden writes "OpenAddict has a review of the new Xandros 4.1 professional.Some of the big changes in professional include a newer kernel, AIGLX, and support for 3G wireless. One of the subtle, but still very important changes, is that Xandros has finally removed the registration requirement, and users can now access Xandros Networks without registering first. Techworld is one of many that is already looking at Xandros as a possible challenger to Windows Vista"
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The O'Reilly Network ONLamp Articles and Weblogs
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Source: ONLamp.com This week on the Perl 6 mailing lists
“With the little sense of smell I have left, this smells like INTERCAL’s
‘COME FROM’ statement to me…”
– Larry Wall, who has a cold, in ’supertyping’
Language
supertyping
In this thread, TSa brought up the concept of supertyping again. The
example of Square was included, along with others. TSa’s
question involved an example where the object’s type was changed while
its identity was preserved. Additionally, TSa asked if supertyping will
exist in Perl 6, and if so, how would ’superdoes’ and ’superis’ concepts
be expressed.
Jonathan Lang attempted to rewrite the question for a larger audience.
He explained that the suggestion was to go from specific to general,
rather than the other way around.
Jonathan then noted that there are four approaches to code reuse,
three which add functionality, and one which restricts it. This led
him to see supertyping in terms of exemptions for the fourth case.
Luke Palmer responded with an equation to express the relationship,
and his answers to the questions of whether it should be illegal
to add a required method to A if B does not implement it, given
role A superdoes B, and if a required method for A should
automatically become a required method for B.
There was some discussion on how ’superdoes’ would be written,
with ‘done_by’, ‘bequeath’, and ‘by’ being proposed. Ruud H.G. van Tol
offered more suggestions than a thesaurus.
Larry Wall first wanted to see use cases which go beyond the number
examples in order to see the value of the proposal to those who aren’t
interested in type theory. Luke Palmer, on the other hand, expressed
his interest in continuing to consider the idea until it is solid enough
that he would be comfortable with it. Larry added his thoughts concerning
namespace issues. There was a great deal more discussion formulating
the specifics of the proposal.
Gather/Take and threads
Given a gather block which spawns multiple threads,
Joe Gottman wanted to know if it is guaranteed that no object returned
is lost, given that the relative order of items returned is
indeterminate.
This week, Larry Wall responded that gather/take is defined over a
dynamic scope, and each thread is a different dynamic scope, so by
default there would be no results from other threads. He also entertained
the converse, that gather/take is a normal way to set up inter-thread
queuing. The short answer seemed to be that this has not yet been
decided.
Parrot Porters
RFC: Proposal for dynamic binding
This thread was started by Bob Roger’s proposal for dynamic binding.
To date, it has included an extended discussion between Bob and Allison
Randal, plus a request from Leopold Toetsch.
Allison began this week by explaining her understanding of the terms
dynamic scoping, assignment and binding. Her view of the proposal
is that it offers a textbook definition of dynamic scoping. The discussion
has included dynamic binding, dynamic scoping, and temporization, however.
With the terms defined, she went on to propose that Bob create a new
proposal for implementing dynamic scope which does not contain any
references to temporization. Bob agreed to do this, but asked for a few
clarifications first.
[perl #40958] [BUG] - can't iterate subclass of ResizablePMCArray
chromatic responded to ticket [perl #40958] with a second patch,
which improves upon his earlier attempt. However, he noted that it
seems to work poorly with Data::Dumper and that his solution, while
non-invasive, was not ideal. He described his preferred fix.
[perl #41055] [BUG]: 'Argument is not numeric' warning in Darwin configuration
Last week, in ticket [perl #41055], James Keenan registered a bug
with running perl Configure.pl, which seemed to be related to having
a 3-level version number.
This week, Lee Duhem commented that it would probably be enough to get
the major OS version.
[perl #41064] Not-so-new 'make' failures on Darwin
Ticket [perl #41064] was created by James Keenan to report another
failure to make Parrot on Darwin. He expressed frustration that he is
still seeing the same problem which he encountered at the Chicago
Hackathon and described the measures he has taken to resolve it.
Will Coleda found a possible file ownership problem, and suggested
trying a new checkout. After determining that this was not the cause,
Will asked several questions in an attempt to pinpoint the cause.
Several further posts were made by both James and Will as they tried
to determine the source of the problem. Eventually Will concluded that
the most likely culprit was James using another compiler, rather than
the Apple version of gcc/g++.
yield from a method
Will Coleda showed how the current :method and .yield implementations
and asked if it was desirable for them to work in this way. He was
working on the ‘Range’ object and encountered this problem.
Bob Rogers
thought the proper fix would be to build Coroutine on Continuation instead
of Sub. He also suggested storing the coroutine state explicitly in the
object, and emulating yielding the method.
Allison Randal responded that the current functionality is desired for class
methods, although it makes no sense for instance methods. She advised
making yield object-specific within methods.
Side effect between exit & .HLL
François Perrad
showed some example code where an error of ‘no exception handler’ was seen
when a .HLL directive was added before a simple subroutine. He wondered
if that was a feature or a bug.
Past-pm basic string types
Allison Randal asked how to best pass-through string types from a compiler
to Parrot without doing string processing. Patrick R. Michaud replied
that it is expected that it will be rare for a HLL string literal format
to exactly match a string literal in PIR. Consequently, it expects that
the HLL will have decoded the strong constant according to the HLL rules,
and PAST-pm will re-encode the string to work in Parrot. He offered to
modify PAST-pm to provide a “send literal” option.
Allison thought that
was a good idea, and appreciated that the current system makes no assumptions
about what constitutes a string. Later Patrick realized that the
functionality already exists, if the ctype isn’t set. This is subject
to change, however, so he included more specific instructions for performing
the task.
Past-pm printing the return value of the main routine
Allison Randal cited an example of printing a simple statement, ‘2′, which
would actually print ‘21′ because the main routine is returning the value
of the last statement (true), which is correct for Perl but not all languages.
Also, the HLLCompiler is printing out this return value, and she
wanted to know why that was happening. Patrick R. Michaud reported
that this has since been fixed.
[perl #41082] [PATCH] Cygwin: conflicting types for _LIB_VERSION
Greg Bacon opened ticket [perl #41082] to report a failure with
building r16097 on Cygwin. He supplied a patch. After Jerry Gay
closed the ticket, he asked if it was a known issue, and what the
solution was.
Bug Day
Will Coleda created a page to prepare for
bug day.
December 16th was bug day.
Users
Error running Pugs tests
Ovid reported that Pugs r15881 gave some errors with his new GHC 6.6
if he ran a test without -lblib6/lib. He wondered why it would generate
a syntax error if he left out that portion of the line. Gaal Yahas suggested
that it was due to an old version of Test.pm from the earlier installation.
Introspection and list question
Ovid had a quick question on how to do introspection in Pugs. He also
wanted to know how to flatten nested lists in Perl6. Jerry Gay responded
that introspection is mostly unimplemented. He also pointed Ovid to S02
for the answer to his other question. Gaal Yahas suggested that
the Official Perl 6 Documentation was the
best place to look for updated synopses. He proposed gather to flatten
a list, but noted that it was not yet implemented. Larry Wall replied
that that would only flatten a recursive structure with help, and noted
that Pugs implements the block form of gather.
jerry gay
Gaal Yahas
Larry Wall
Strange error message with anon subroutine
Ovid showed some code he had written to compress a list. He showed that
once he had added some return statements inside an anonymous subroutine,
he received an error message about using a control structure outside
a routine. Ovid wondered if he had made a mistake or if there was a bug.
Larry Wall replied that it was expected to work that way. He quoted
a section of S06, and also referenced S04. He advised changing the pointy
block in to an official sub. Gaal Yahas also gave similar advice.
Compiler
6-on-5 and read only aliasing
Nicholas Clark announced a placeholder named BIND for 6-on-5 aliasing,
which should replace the need for the Perl 5 internal type PVBM as of
r29544. He included a list of features he thought were needed for
6-on-5, and asked for other 4-letter (or shorter) words which were
better than BIND.
David Nicol noted that increasing internal types to 32 instead of
keeping them at 16 would allow the top ones to accelerate tied and overloaded
types. Nicholas replied that there were too many switch statements in
the core, and he would prefer switching to vtables.
David Landgren thought BIND was an alias, which was like a nickname,
and therefore proposed NICK.
Acknowlegements
This summary was prepared using
Mail::Summary::Tools,
available on CPAN.
If you appreciate Perl, consider contributing to the Perl
Foundation to help support the
development of Perl.
Thank you to everyone who has pointed out mistakes and offered
suggestions for improving this series. Comments on this summary can be
sent to Ann Barcomb, kudra@domaintje.com.
Distribution
This summary can be found in the following places:
use.perl.org
The Pugs blog
The perl6-announce mailing
list
ONLamp
See Also
Perl Foundation activities
Perl 6 Development
Planet Perl Six
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