The Mint Newsletter – issue 89

* News about Mint

Linux Mint 7 “Gloria” XFCE RC1 released!

Firefox 3.5 available in Gloria and Firefox 3.0.12 also available through mintUpdate (security fixes)

Command line – improvements

We are changing our workflow and will use Launchpad and git –

As Mint grows we need tools to handle the growth (announcement in the blog)

Bugs on Launchpad

Blueprints on Launchpad – Blueprints for Helena

Translations in Launchpad (for Helena)

Code on github – mintUpload (and later perhaps more) is maintained by “emorrp1” – his github

I forgot to mention that we had large scale vandalism in the wiki – we have to lock it down until we can figure out a way to monitor edits

We also had two massive spam attacks in the forum – registered spam bots laying dormant since early May, late April. Can’t do much about it sadly

mintCast episode 19

* News about Linux

Microsoft contributes to the Linux kernel – possibly because of a violation of the GPL licence

Zero day attack code for the Linux kernel (No version used by Mint though – Mint is safe from this)

Gran Canaria Desktop Summit

Shuttleworth about GNOME 3.0 (and Ubuntu will stay brown)

The latest news about the kernel is always found here

* News about Open Source

Launchpad is now open source

* News about IT

Cloning passport card RFIDs in bulk for under $250 (link to Youtube) If you search for Chris Paget and Rfid you’ll fine a bunch of scary examples. And it’s not only passports – you can get a cloning device for less that will clone the rfid used for bus fares

PCs Used in Korean DDoS Attacks May Self Destruct

Microsoft admits new ActiveX zero-day bug

Imageshack Hacked

* Hardware news

* Other news

* Comic of the week

Credit goes to xkcd

* More about Linux Mint

How to donate

Home page

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* Editors comment

As always – if you find something I’ve missed in the newsletter please tell me – you can post a comment.

Enjoy life

Husse

6 comments

  1. So MS ‘supposedly’ contributes driver code to the kernel because they got caught violating the GPL. However in reality, they bloat the kernel and can deprecate the code down the line then hold hostage (translate make them pay) the MS users wanting to continue use of Linux in the MS visor. Could that be the plan?

  2. Nice cartoon 😀

    It’s nice to see Mint has experienced it’s good to have the “work” on 1 “place” (or 2 in this case, launchpad and github).

    New theme Ubuntu delayed ’till new LTS :O That’s 2 bad. Me, and I think a lot of other people were getting a bit tired of the brownish…. (Although now I’m using only Mint (with Windows7 in dual-boot)

    Keep up the nice work Mint:)

  3. @newW2:

    I don’t think that is the plan. They have a movement called “Port25” (http://port25.technet.com) now. Based on things I’ve read on that site, Microsoft sees themselves “married” to the open-source community in roughly 10 years. I’m not sure, but I’m thinking that MS might see a new business model that they will have to adopt in order to survive in a world where open-source and Linux *will* continue to gain ground and market share. See this article from Port25’s Senior Director, Sam Ramji: http://port25.technet.com/archive/2008/07/25/oscon2008.aspx

    Remember, Bill Gates is a genius at marketing. As a coder, he is mediocre (evidenced by all the code theft he has done over the years). If he sees a shift in software trends that is irreversible, he will adjust his game in order for his company to survive.

  4. It is bad news for GNU/Linux that a distro can take so much effort to be build. It reveals a complexity that shouldn’t exist, but it does due mostly to a huge architectural weight. And a structure that was never really re-adapted to new needs, only to previous versions. Growth is the name, not simplification, like in Windows. (just pointing out)

    The lessons from AMIGA code, from DOS simplicity, where overlooked.
    Simplification, even with the pain of ending a cycle and building a new one where never taken.

    The several rings of protection from knew CPUs never used (the OS will take care of that, was said) and external drivers never had it’s own place in a monolite kernel.

    GUI does need to be coherent and simple, but scalable. None really is because none has born that way, just grown over itself like cancer.

    There are lessons in MENUET OS, like there was in AMIGA OS.
    But if the CPUs wars resulted like the Video-tape wars…
    … this is really bad news to one that hopes to see one day a clean and performant system, not one just better that the other because that was the case all the time.

    Forced evolution is no evolution, but more a cancer-like growth.

    These are just thoughts for posterity. Hope the seed remains.
    BTW: Just have a look to the SEAforth CPUs designed by the FORTH language creator… there are lessons there too… when the FORTH one was disregarded.

    A final note:
    Check for “Chuck Moore”, or “FORTH language” or the Forth CPU at http://www.intellasys.net/ … Some time in a different philosophy will OPEN one’s mind (It will be a well spent time) from the artificial myth build aroud mr. Bill.
    (Ex: the external help he got was NEVER taken into account, and innovation was certainly NOT a virtue he does possess)

    Regards,
    DuLac

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