A Black Duck survey and the Linux Collaboration Summit both show that open-source software and the open-source method are moving well beyond where you think they live, and into all businesses.

You don't just build a cloud, you have to maintain it

Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of the Ubuntu distribution of Linux, has wanted to turn his creation into a cloud platform for years, he said during his keynote at the OpenStack Summit in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday.

Feature Do the 'getting started' guides make your first slice of Pi more tasty?

The Raspberry Pi has been out for just over a year now. It has undergone a couple of revisions during that time, most recently around October 2012, but a short while ago I decided it was time I ought to try it out and see what the diminutive, Linux-running micro can do.

Mirantis, Hortonworks, and Red Hat pull out the whips and peanuts

Batman and Robin. Peanut butter and chocolate. OpenStack and Hadoop. These are things that go together, with the latter pairing being something that commercial OpenStack distie Mirantis, commercial Hadoop distie Hortonworks, and commercial KVM and Linux distie (and soon to be OpenStack commercializer) Red Hat are putting together under a new OpenStack effort dubbed Project Savanna.

Kids these days, they just don't care

Code-sharing website GitHub has grown so popular that it and open source are practically synonymous for many developers. But new research shows that most of the projects now on GitHub are released under license terms that are unclear, inconsistent, or nonexistent, leaving their legal status as open source software uncertain.

Chipzilla wants to take over data center and telco networking

Intel has x86 chips, switch ASICs, and tweaks to the Linux operating system that it says allow it to not only make better physical switches, but is also advancing the idea of using its chip and software tech to build a virtual switch for linking virtualized servers together and to layer network application services onto the network.

Late convert to dual-protection club

Microsoft is bringing two-factor authentication to its users' accounts over the next couple of days.

Photos from the second day of The Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit in San Francisco, April 15-17. 

LCS2013 Features, performance, security, stability: pick, er, four

If there was a theme for Day One of the Linux Foundation's seventh annual Linux Collaboration Summit, taking place this week in San Francisco, it was that the Linux community has moved way, way past wondering whether the open source OS will be successful and competitive.

Jolicloud are offering users of Ubuntu a new, web-orientated experience for their desktop.

The ‘Jolicloud Desktop Environment’ puts a HTML5 launcher with shortcuts to popular websites and services front and center, in place of the traditional desktop.

Jolicloud’s ‘Desktop’ Is a big launcher

Social and cloud storage accounts can be connected to it, making managing your online files and keeping tabs on your social networks easier.

The interface is the same as that used by the French company’s Ubuntu 10.04-based ‘JoliOS’ and their recently launched online ‘JoliDrive’ hub.

Managing Files Locally

There’s a good chance that some folks were scared off when I described the ‘joliDE’ as ‘web-orientated’. Whilst that isn’t a lie – the web is an intrinsic part of the Jolicloud/Jolidrive experience, it’s also capable of managing local files and apps in addition to those online.

For example, click the ‘Hard Drive’ entry in the sidebar and you can browse through your files and folders. Clicking on certain file formats (mainly images and video) will show a preview in the left-hand pane, along with options to open the file or open the folder it resides in with a more traditional file-manager like Nautilus.

Local & Online Files Can Be Managed from the Joli Desktop

Online

Playback music from Soundcloud, or even online MP3′s stored in Dropbox and ilk

Part of the Joli desktop’s beauty is that it puts online storage on a level pegging with local files.

Dropbox, SkyDrive, Google Drive, or Ubuntu One accounts can be integrated into the file manager, letting you browse, preview, share and download files without needing to open another app.

In theory JoliDE also lets you playback MP3′s stored in your online accounts. In reality, a known issue in the version of Chromium that JoliDE uses means that this doesn’t always work -a great shame as the music player is pretty darn swish!

Applications Web Apps

Much like Google Chrome OS Jolicloud puts web apps – applications which run inside a web-browser – front and center. A curated app-store offers over 1,500 web apps, all of which are a single click away – no password prompts, no installers.

Web apps available include:

• Angry Birds
• GMail
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Soundcloud

Admittedly the vast majority of these are ‘glorified bookmarks’ that simply open the respective web-site or service in a new window. But it all feels seamless enough to not matter.

App Catalog Can Be Access from the Main Screen

Some web services, e.g. Dropbox, Google+ & Soundcloud, can be connected directly to Jolicloud. Doing this gives you access to custom views – like this carded version of Google+.

Browsing Google+ From JoliDE

Local Apps

Local applications can also be installed and used as in Unity, GNOME Shell or KDE; using JoliDE doesn’t mean you lose access to ‘native’ necessities like Skype, Rhythmbox or Thunderbird.

Find your existing apps stored in the ‘Local Apps‘ folder on the Launcher homescreen.

Desktop Apps Also Work in JoliDE

Navigating Jolicloud DE

Window management in Jolicloud is a little different to that in Ubuntu.

Firstly, all applications open maximised. And while applications can be ‘un-maximised’ after launch, some seem to lose their window controls

Secondly, the lightweight Awesome Window Manager is used in place of Metacity or Compiz, so traditional keyboard shortcuts or fancy window effects don’t work.

But there’s beauty in simplicity. Switching between open applications/windows is a cinch – just hit the correct app icon. To close a window just click its respective icon in the panel so that it gets focus, then hit the ‘x’ to the far right of the title bar in the top panel.

Managing Windows in JoliDE

To get back to the main launcher just tap the blue ‘cloud’ icon at the far left.

From the main launcher screen hit the stack of horizontal lines to toggle the sidebar.

Close the sidebar when it’s not needed

Drawbacks

But it’s not all fantastic:

• You can’t logout of Jolicloud session without signing into Jolicloud
• Search bar doesn’t include results from local apps or files
• Icon theme defaults to hi-color, resulting in a mish-mash look
• GTK theme not respected – resulting in Windows 95 grey menus making an appearance

Theming Needs Work

Video Overview

Install Joli Desktop Environment in Ubuntu

JolieDE, currently in beta, is available to install on Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10. It doesn’t replace or remove Unity, instead it runs as a separate session selected from the Unity login screen.

To install it you first need to add the Jolicloud Team PPA. This is best done by pasting the following command into the Terminal application:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:jolicloud-team/ppa && sudo apt-get update

After running the above, and putting in your user password when prompted, you can hit the button below to install it.

Click to Install JoliDE in Ubuntu

Once installed proceed to log out. Click the session-selector icon (the little ubuntu icon in the upper-right of the login box) in the Unity Greeter and, from the menu that appears, choose ‘Jolicloud’ then ‘Ok’.

Login as normal and the Jolicloud desktop will load.

Next time you reboot Jolicloud will still be selected as the default session. Why? Not because it’s a tentacled monster taking over your system, rather the Unity Greeter uses the last selected session as the ‘default’. To stop logging in to Jolicloud you need to go back to the session selector and choose Ubuntu, GNOME, XFCE, or other, click ‘OK’, and then log in.

Jolicloud Desktop Comes to Ubuntu – And Here’s How to Install It OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

New deal to earn dosh from Google's labours

Microsoft will collect a royalty for every device built by Foxconn that runs Google operating systems Android or Chrome OS.

Five Collaboration Summit attendees told us what their favorite part of the conference has been so far.

Can you hear me now, VMware ESXi and vCloud?

Hot on the heels of the open source Xen hypervisor being moved over to the Linux Foundation as an official collaborative project, Citrix Systems, which has controlled the Xen community as well as the open source CloudStack cloud controller that is one of the viable alternatives to OpenStack, has scored the Terremark cloud subsidiary of telco giant Verizon as an enthusiastic backer of both Xen and CloudStack.

You read that right: Not the year of the Linux desktop, the year of the Linux car. Major automotive companies are investing in making Linux their cars' operating system of choice.

SQL-H to link Hadoop to both Teradata and Aster databases

Another database and data warehousing vendor has adopted InfiniBand as its backbone for data transmission. While upgrading the x86 iron inside its Active Enterprise Data Warehouse appliance and rolling out a new data mart server, Teradata said it was ditching its proprietary networking hardware and moving its homegrown Bynet networking stack to run atop of 40Gb/sec InfiniBand switches and adapters.

Like many of us you are probably using your car almost every single day: commute to work, take the kids to school, run errands, go shopping, or just for fun. You name it. And while spending all this time on the road you may be using the in-vehicle infotainment system built into your ride for navigation, listening to music from the radio, accessing content stored on my mobile device, making phone calls, getting traffic updates and much more. And whether or not you are entirely happy with the solution that the maker has built into your car you may have the one or other idea on how things can be improved. Or maybe you think this is all lame and you can do a much better job. Well, here is your opportunity.

Way back in the deep recesses of, er, January we told you that Ubuntu 13.04 would ship without a music store in Rhythmbox, Ubuntu’s default music player.

Not that many people seemed to notice at the time. But that news is today officially confirmed by Canonical.

But it seems that there’s an additional sting in the tail: the Music Store will also be removed from Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and Ubuntu 12.10 through a future update.

Changing Times

So what’s prompted this about turn? And why apply it retroactively? The good ol’ conflict between effort and reward seems to be to blame.

The plugin, Ubuntu One devs say, is a bit of a chore to maintain. And with an (arguably far superior) version of the store available online, few are still using the embedded storefront in Rhythmbox. The Online Store is even included as a default item on the Unity Launcher in Ubuntu 12.10 and 13.04.

So it’s being ditched. Erased. Axed.

The Ubuntu One Music Store Is Available Online

It’s a logical, sane, and acceptable decision. The Ubuntu One Music Store is available online in an arguably slicker presentation.

And, through the Unity Dash, music can be perused and previewed – though we’ll need to wait until Ubuntu 13.1o to add ‘purchased’ to that alliterative sentence.

The Unity Dash democratizes access to the store, letting anyone use it regardless of their music player choice. And the online store gives a much more enjoyable shopping experience than that offered by the Rhythmbox storefront.

What’s not Affected

But before anyone reaches for their flaming pitchfork let’s look at what isn’t affected by the change: the cool bits. Yep, the Ubuntu One Music plugin isn’t going away entirely, just the store front.

Music bought from the online store will…

• continue to sync with Ubuntu One
• still appear in Rhythmbox (if set up)
• be available for music streaming subscribers

And the Ubuntu One Music Store can still be browsed from the desktop using the Music lens in the Unity Dash.

Ubuntu One Music Store to be Removed from Rhythmbox in 12.04, 12.10 OMG! Ubuntu! - Everything Ubuntu. Daily.

The Kickstarter project we mentioned late last month to bring open source video editor OpenShot to Mac and Windows as well as its native base of Linux has surpassed its initial funding goal, and now is just shy (just under a thousand dollars shy, at this writing) of reaching all of the items on a revamped list of stretch goals. The only goal on that list not yet funded is a tantalizing one. JonOomph writes "The lead developer has proposed a revolutionary new feature, which would allow users to offload CPU, memory, and disk cache to a local server (or multiple local servers), dramatically increasing the speed of previewing and rendering. The more servers added to the pool, the faster the video editing engine becomes (with the primary limitation being network bandwidth). If the final goal of $40k is reached in the remaining hours, this feature will be added to the next version of OpenShot." Like all Kickstarter projects, though, there's no actual guarantee that things will come to pass as hoped; ya pays yer money, and ya takes yer chances. Update: 04/16 16:53 GMT by T : Some hours remain, but they've crossed the $40,000 line. I hope the funding is adequate to support the outlined plans.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Linux Foundation's Collaboration Summit kicked off in San Francisco on Monday, April 15 with a day of keynote talks. Speakers included Jim Zemlin of the Linux Foundation, Matt Jones of Jaguar Land Rover, Sang-bum Suh of Samsung, Andreas Olofsson of Adapteva, Adrian Cockcroft from Netflix, a panel on collaborative projects, LWN.net editor Jonathan Corbet, Dirk Hohndel of Intel and Gluster Community Leader at Red Hat John Mark Walker.

 

Crooks boast of swiped privates via ColdFusion hole

Crooks claim they gained access to server hosting biz Linode's customer passwords and credit card numbers.