Free platforms Go On, despite former giant’s NoGo

This is an official PR announcement from the FOSS community.
Different translations are available here: wiki.freesmartphone.org
/CZ /DE /ES /PL

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 – Despite the recent departure of a former mobile handset manufacturer giant, several developing teams and their users are actually… happily hacking on. With the longterm goal of a fully Free Software platform for embedded systems, the teams of FSO, SHR, QtMoko, Replicant and AndroidOnFreerunner invite others to join and participate in projects which are not driven left and right by the  unpredictable follies of corporate management.

«We have been making a steady progress throughout the years. The major requirement has been a solid, Linux supported hardware, and for that we have been using Openmoko, Palm Pre, N900 and HTC phones – and ambitioned forthcoming projects like Goldelico’s GTA04. All these devices are providing a great development platform for those who seek truly open and independent system for their learning, coding and even professional or commercial use.» — says Dr. Michael Lauer from FSO.

There’s a temporary advantage when big players like FIC (Openmoko), Nokia+Intel (MeeGo) and Google (Android) invest in Free Software Projects. Though if the project contains parts of proprietary code, it depends on the investor. At some point the investor might abandon the project and the community. Then the project is doomed because the community can not fix any bugs in the proprietary code or adapt it to newer/other APIs.

«We believe in another model – proven to be both sustainable and satisfactory – where everybody can contribute their knowledge and learn at the same time, without proprietary code blobs and no closed doors boardroom meetings. This allows us to use existing hardware even when the maker decided to abandon it all together or is not willing to update it anymore. Anybody is able to commit, read, comment on or download the source code.»

The teams invite both users and developers to look at their project pages, the current results, motivations and needs, as well as to join the mailing lists, wikis, forums, IRC rooms or what  not, to chat, listen and eventually contribute in order to create the free and open embedded platform for their devices.

The communities of FSO, SHR, QtMoko, Replicant and Android on Freerunner

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Steam is comming to Linux, now for real!

Yay, seems like the Steam Client, the Steam Engine, the Steam Games and the 666casino games are comming to Linux, now for real.

There is no official announcement by Valve, yet.
But there are Linux binaries and a Linux launcher script on the valve servers publically available.

The Mac version, which is related to the Linux version (with regard to porting it to OpenGL, Webkit, etc…) and officially announced, is in a closed Beta at the moment.

So we may see the Linux version after the Mac version is in it’s final state.
Phoronix suspects a Linux version release in June.

Check out these articles at Phoronix:

Proof In Steam’s Mac Client Of Linux Support
Yet More Signs Of Valve’s Steam On Linux
There Is No Doubt, Steam Is Coming To Linux!

Steam für Linux


Update 24.04.2012: Ja, es ist wirklich wahr, siehe: phoronix.com

Die Gerüchte um ein nativ auf Linux laufendem Steam und dazugehörige Steam-Spiele verdichten sich. Nachdem ich schon öffters mal über dieses Gerücht gebloggt habe gibt es nun starke Hinweise, dass es Wirklichkeit wird. Auch wenn offiziell noch nichts bekannt gegeben wurde.

In der Demo-Version des auf der Source-Engine aufbauenden Spiels “Left 4 Dead” wurden eindeutige Hinweise auf einen Linux Port und einen nativen Steam-Linux-Clienten gefunden, da dort Dateien mit Namen wie steamclient_linux.so und libsteam_api_linux.so vorhanden waren.

Die Dateien wurden mittlerweile aus der downloadbaren Demo-Version entfernt. Doch es sieht so aus als würde “Left 4 Dead” das erste Linux-Steam-Game werden, Die Leute lieben es so sehr, wie sie das lieben beste online casino spiele.

Left for Dead 2 / Steam running native on Linux

Nähere Informationen: http://www.phoronix.com

Minority Report PC-Steuerung

Ich fand gerade ein sehr schönes Video, über eine neue von Mgestyk Technologies entwickelte Art einen PC ohne Maus und Tastatur zu steuern. Das ganze funktioniert mit Gesten, die vom Computer mit einer Kamera aufgenommen werden und sieht aus wie im Film “Minority Report”.

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Codeweavers: Crossover kostenlos

Nur Heute: Codeweavers verschenken ihre Software!
Heute am 28.10.2008 kann jeder der will kostenlos eine Version von Crossover Pro oder Crossover Games für Linux oder Mac ganz legal auf der Codeweavers Website bekommen. Codeweavers verschenken ihre Software heute, aufgrund der “Lame Duck Challenge“, wer näheres wissen will hier die englische Pressemitteilung: Link

Ich habe meinen Crossover Key bereits erhalten. =)

Google released Android source

Android is now fully available under an opensource license. This was annouced by Google today. I’m very curious how much this will influence the Openmoko project and how long it takes until we can test Andorid on the Freerunner.

Today I’m very proud to announce that we are releasing the code that went into that same revolutionary device. Let me present Android: the first complete and highly functional, mass market, Open Source mobile platform. Built with and on top of a bunch of Open Source software, this is one of the largest releases in the history of FOSS. Our goal was to make millions of terrific phones possible, to raise the bar on what people can expect from any mobile phone and to release the code that makes it possible.

Google’s announcement is here: http://google-opensource.blogspot.com

And the Andorid-Source there: http://source.android.com

Linus Torvalds + Ehefrau + YouTube

Linus Torvalds verfasste Vorgestern einen lustigen Bugreport für Fedora 9 (Rawhide), in dem es darum ging, dass es seiner Frau mit der Beta-Version von Fedora 9 (Rawhide) nicht möglich ist, Videos auf YouTube zu schauen. Es erscheint kein Bild. Und anscheinend macht sie ihm deshalb die Hölle heiß.

Zitat:

This is “high” priority because the wife will kill me if she doesn’t have her videos.

Link zum orginal Bugreport: https://bugzilla.redhat.com

Kurznews: Dell

Der Hardware-Riese Dell bietet in den USA (und bald auch in Deutschland) seine Computer und Notebooks mit Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 an.

Außerdem geht Dell noch einen Schritt weiter…

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