We are pleased to announce the release of our first SD card image based on the Raspbian distribution. This is the result of an enormous amount of hard work by Alex and Dom over the past couple of months, and replaces the existing Debian squeeze image as our recommended install. Notably, it is the first official image to take full advantage of the Raspberry Pi’s floating point hardware for, amongst other things, much faster web browsing.
Category Archives: Operating Systems
Firefox OS Will Get Overwhelming Developer Support
The Mozilla Foundation has just renamed the project Boot to Gecko “Firefox OS”. But can we really talk about an operating system?
Absolutely. In terms of architecture, it is an operating system based on Linux, just as Android is. But we rely on Gecko, the Firefox web browser layout engine, to run applications written entirely in HTML5. We dropped XUL (the XML User Interface Language) in favour of HTML5, a language known to all web developers.Even native applications, such as the dialer or address book, are written in HTML5, and users will be able to examine the source code to check it.
via Firefox OS Will Get Overwhelming Developer Support – Mozilla.
Voyage Linux | { x86 Embedded Linux = Green computing }
Voyage Linux is Debian derived distribution that is best run on a x86 embedded platforms such as PC Engines ALIX/WRAP, Soekris 45xx/48xx/65xx and Atom-based boards.
It can also run on low-end x86 PC platforms. Typical installation requires 128MB disk space, although larger storage allows more packages to be installed. Voyage Linux is so small that it is best suitable for running a full-feature firewall, wireless access point, Asterisk/VoIP gateway, music player or network storage device.
via Voyage Linux | { x86 Embedded Linux = Green computing }.
GRUB 2.00 Boot-Loader Officially Released
The GRUB2 boot-loader features an EHCI driver, an official theme, ports to Itanium and SGI MIPS architectures, better default video mode selection using monitor EDID information, new drivers (EHCI / AHCI / ESCC serial / EFI / Network stack / VBE on Coreboot), new file-system support, improved file-system capabilities, new boot protocols, performance improvements, better internationalization, and improved installation support.
AMD To Open-Source Its Linux Execution & Compilation Stack
This work is coming due to the new Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation .
The slides that Bridgman references can be found at SlideShare.net. The page cited is entitled “AMD’s Open Source Commitment To HSA” and says “We will open source our Linux execution and compilation stack.” This is being done to jumpstart the HSA ecosystem, allow a single shared implementation where appropriate, and to enable university research in all areas.
via [Phoronix] AMD To Open-Source Its Linux Execution & Compilation Stack.
From: Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation .
The Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation is poised to “define and promote an open, standards-based approach to heterogeneous computing that will provide a common hardware specification and broad support ecosystem to make it easier for software developers to deliver innovative applications that can take greater advantage of today’s modern processors.” The HSA Foundation goes without Intel’s support. The HSA press release can be read at AMD.com for more details as to what’s been announced thus far.
Android Open Source
Here you can find the information and source code you need to build an Android-compatible device.
Android is an open-source software stack for mobile devices, and a corresponding open-source project led by Google. We created Android in response to our own experiences launching mobile apps. We wanted to make sure that there was no central point of failure, so that no industry player can restrict or control the innovations of any other. That’s why we created Android, and made its source code open.
Linaro: open source software for ARM SoCs
Linaro is a not-for-profit engineering organization consolidating and optimizing open source Linux software and tools for the ARM architecture. Find out more…
via Linaro: open source software for ARM SoCs.
From:Android is about to get a lot faster thanks to Linaro
The folks behind the Linaro open source software project have put a little time into tweaking Google Android to use the gcc 4.7 toolchain. The result is a version of Android that can perform many tasks between 30 and 100 percent faster than the version of Android Google 4.0 Google currently offers through the AOSP (Android Open Source Project).
Is OpenStack the new Linux?
OpenStack is an evolving mountain of Apache 2-licensed code billed as a “cloud operating system” for the data center. At the same time, OpenStack is a movement, confirmed by the high-energy jabber in the air around me. As with the early days of Linux, the buzz around OpenStack has risen to a roar, with thousands of community members flocking to conferences from Paris to Seoul. The level of interest and growth is phenomenal.
via Is OpenStack the new Linux? | Cloud Computing – InfoWorld.
Red Hat | UEFI Secure Boot
The resulting mechanism planned for getting the keys automatically distributed is to utilize Microsoft key signing and registry services. This obviates the need for every customer to have to round up a collection of keys for multiple operating systems and device drivers. Microsoft will provide keys for Windows and Red Hat will provide keys for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora. Similarly other distributions can participate at a nominal cost of $99 USD – allowing them to register their own keys for distribution to system firmware vendors.
Flame Malware Hijacks Windows Update Mechanism
According to Symantec’s Security Response team, the Snack module sniffs NetBIOS requests on the local network. NetBIOS name resolution allows computers to find each other on a local network via peer-to-peer, opening up an avenue for spoofing.
“When clients attempt to resolve a computer name on the network, and in particular make WPAD (Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Protocol) requests, Flamer will claim it is the WPAD server and provide a rogue WPAD configuration file (wpad.dat),” Symantec noted. “NetBIOS WPAD hijacking is a well-known technique and many publicly available hack tools have implemented the technique.”
via Flame Malware Hijacks Windows Update Mechanism | SecurityWeek.Com.
This is why automatic Windows updates should always be off. Only update manually when you know your network is secure.