 As part of Mozilla’s ongoing stability and security update process,
Firefox 3.6.6 is now available as a free download for Windows, Mac, and
Linux from http://www.firefox.com.
This release makes a small change to the crash protection feature
introduced in Firefox 3.6.4, increasing the amount of time that Firefox
will allow a plugin to remain frozen before terminating it. For more
information, see the Mozilla
Blog announcement about the release.
We recommend that all Firefox users upgrade to this latest release.
If you already have Firefox 3.6 you will receive an automated update
notification within 24 to 48 hours. This update can also be applied
manually by selecting "Check for Updates…” from the Help menu.
For a list of changes and more information, please review the Firefox 3.6.6
Release Notes.
All Firefox 3 and 3.5 users are strongly encouraged
to upgrade to Firefox 3.6 by downloading it from http://firefox.com/ or by selecting
"Check for Updates…” from the Help menu and clicking on "Get the New
Version”, then checking for updates again once Firefox 3.6 is installed. |
Five years after uTorrent was released for
the Windows platform the development team has announced that it’s
working on a Linux version of the torrent client. The massive demand
from users is cited as one of the main reasons why Linux users will have
a native uTorrent application this coming summer.  uTorrent for Windows saw
its first public release in September 2005 and soon became the most
widely used BitTorrent application. Every month, more than 50 million
people use uTorrent and this number continues to grow alongside
BitTorrent’s ever-increasing user base.
Ever since uTorrent was released, Mac and Linux users have begged the
developers to release a version of the client designed to work on their
computers. In 2006, when uTorrent was sold to BitTorrent Inc., the
company announced that a Mac version was coming. In 2008, nearly two
years after the announcement, it was finally released
to the public. With the the release of the Mac version, Linux users were the only
ones left out in the cold, but this is about to change. The uTorrent
development team has just announced that they are working on a Linux
version of the client. Further details on the time line and an eventual
release date are not available at the moment. The Linux version is the most backed idea on µTorrent’s recently
introduced Idea Bank. The Idea
Bank is prominently featured on uTorrent’s website and allows users
to submit and vote for ideas they want to see implemented. In just a
few weeks the idea of a Linux version has been supported by 3254 people.
This huge demand from users is one of the main reasons why the Linux
version is now in progress. "Since launching our Idea Bank on uTorrent.com there has been
significant demand for a native client for Linux,” BitTorrent Inc.
spokesperson Jenna Broughton told TorrentFreak. "We obviously want to do
our best to deliver whenever we see a good fit between our goals and
capabilities and what our users say they want.” "We are committed to bringing a lightweight uTorrent client that
embraces the usability and features of our Windows and Mac clients to
Linux users,” Broughton said. The exact feature-set of the Linux client
will remain a secret for now, but in common with other versions of
uTorrent it wont be Open Source. The release date for the client is unknown at this point but unlike
the Mac version it should come out relatively quickly. "While the exact
specs as well as the timing are still being developed, we expect
uTorrent for Linux to be available for download later this summer,” we
were informed. Whether or not the uTorrent Linux release will ever reach the massive
market share it has on Windows remains to be seen. The Mac version has
been well received but it is by no means the most used BitTorrent client
on the platform. Whatever happens, it’s definitely good to see that
uTorrent will soon be available on all three major platforms.
Download µTorrent |
 I've been an Ubuntu fan for some
time now. No matter which distro I tried, I always found it lacked some
feature or another and I eventually made my way back to Ubuntu. Then I
found Mint. Linux Mint is a
derivative of Ubuntu which is a derivative of Debian (Debian' = Ubuntu
and Ubuntu' = Linux Mint). Why use a derivative of Ubuntu (or Debian
for that matter) instead of just using the original product? Simple: The derivative is better.
What makes Linux Mint better than Ubuntu you ask? There are a few things that come to mind: 1.) The System Menu - Mint's menu is based off of the Ubuntu System Panel. It gives a menu that is similar to a KDE style menu in the Gnome desktop. 2.) The Update Manager
- I can't tell you the number of times I've had a working Ubuntu system
when a kernel (or some other) update comes along and foobars things.
Mint's
update program nicely divides all updates into different levels
of importance so you can toggle which ones you would like to receive
(by default, kernel updates are off) 3.) Default Software
- I like Mint's choices of default software. It contains OpenOffice and
Firefox, like most distributions, but beyond this it is still shipping
with Pidgin as the default IM client, Mozilla's Thunderbird for email,
and XChat for IRC communication. 4.) Media Codecs, Flash, and Java by Default
- This has to be one of my favorite things about Mint. With a fresh
install (or off the live CD), Mint will play just about any media
format you can throw at it, stream youtube (or hulu) videos, and run
any java application you might have laying around.
5.) Default Theme - Mint's green skin is much nicer to look at as opposed to Ubuntu's brown/orange layout. Personally, I feel there is very little reason not
to use Mint over Ubuntu. Why do I say this? In addition to all of my
above reasons, Mint stays on a very close release cycle to that of it's
parent distro, meaning it is able to stay fully backw
ards compatible
with all Ubuntu packages (For instance, Mint 8 equates to Ubuntu 9.10
and Mint 7 equates to Ubuntu 9.04 ect.). Do you have any reasons I did not list here for choosing Mint over Ubuntu? If so, feel free to share. ~Jeff Hoogland |
We are happy to tell you that Serna Free XML Editor is going to be open-source software soon!
We love Serna and wish to share our passion with anyone who wants to
make it better. Our mission is to make XML accessible to everyone, and
we believe that open-source Serna could enable much more users and
companies to adopt XML technology.
So, if
you are passionate about contributing to open-source Serna XML Editor
in some way, here are our requests for you to help make the Open Source
and XML world better:
-
Discuss open-source Serna with the community! Please share your ideas concerning technology, business or partnership at our forum.
-
Donate
to help Serna go free! Making Serna sources open requires quite an
effort and goes beyond our regular business. If you love Serna and
enjoy using it, please support us to make Serna free to the world and
serve people better.
- Spread the
news! Please mention Serna goes open source in your blogs, Twitter, and
XML mailing lists. The free Serna code needs to find its hackers! We
need to know what they think and how they can participate.
We rely on you to help us improve Serna Free XML Editor and keep it free and running!
Downloads Syntext Serna
|
 Our development team is pleased to announce the 9th increment of the
0.3 series of ReactOS, an open source Windows® compatible operating
system.
As we draw ever closer to the 0.4 series, more and more work is
being put into bugfixing existing code in an effort to get more
applications and drivers working. This release is testament to that and
is our most compatible release to date.
However, the development team have still been working on expanding the
features alongside bugfixing existing features, and quite a few
additions have found their way into this release.
Two key areas which stand out are the much improved network stack and
the emergence of sound support in the kernel via the new kernel
streaming services.
Along with the rest of the 0.3 series, this release is still
considered alpha quality software so it may not run all your apps or
run on your hardware. Changes summaryA detailed consolidation of all changes can be found in the changelog.
A sum up of some of the more important changes is as follows:
- Reduced minimum memory requirement to 32Mb. In theory ReactOS can now be installed with 24Mb and run with only 20Mb
- A new, faster Hyperspace Mapping Interface has been implemented in the kernel resulting in a speed improvement of over 300%
- Security
check improvements to the Object Manager in the kernel improves
performance by 500%. Noticeable during large file/registry operations
- Various
NDIS and AFD problems have been solved which increase compatibility
with 3rd party NIC drivers and hardening of the network stack
- Preliminary
support for sound via the new Kernel Streaming service. It's now
possible to use the ac97 driver via our new Port Class library to play
sound bytes using winamp
- A great deal of work has been put
into the command prompt to make it much more compatible. It's now able
to run very complex scripts, including our own Build Environment
- Many bugfixes to the kernel mode portion of the GDI resulting in much improved drawing engine across all bit depths
- Synchronization of most of the Wine usermode DLLs
|
 Ubuntu/Kubuntu is available free of charge and we can send you a CD of the
latest version (9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)) with no extra
cost, but the delivery may take up to ten weeks, so you should consider
downloading the CD image if you have a fast Internet connection. To order: |
At Opera, we love speed. We work hard to make our browser faster
with features that speeds you up, but your connection also plays a big
role on how fast you can go.
Some people have fast
connections, a lot have slow connections. Many are always on the run
from one place to another — making it hard to find regular fast
connection points. Even if you do, it might be that too many people are
on the Wi-Fi in the cafe or that you are browsing through your mobile
phone when commuting on the train.
That’s why we’ve been
working on Opera Turbo, a server-side optimization and compression
technology that provides significant improvements in browsing speeds
over limited-bandwidth connections by compressing network traffic. This
does not only make you surf faster, but also lowers the cost of
browsing when you are on a pay per usage plan.
Today we
start our time limited test phase for Opera Turbo, please read below to
learn a little about how Turbo works and where to download it. You can
also see it in action in the following video:
Bottom left corner is where the speed is
When
turned on, Opera Turbo will display the average compression rate. Hover
your mouse over the Opera Turbo icon to see a tooltip with the amount
of bandwidth saved as long as it has been enabled.
Throttle your bandwidth to see the big difference
Opera
Turbo will work with any type of connection, but to get the most out of
it you should be on a situation with limited bandwidth. In case you
can’t attend a crowded conference today or aren’t on a bus connected
through your phone, you can simulate a slower connection speed with: NetLimiter 2 Pro on Windows and the pipe command on the Mac. We recommend limiting your bandwidth to 100Kbps.
Opera Turbo doesn’t change the Web site
Turbo uses a technology called “Opera Web Optimization Proxy”, which is different from the Opera Binary Markup Language
used in Opera Mini. Web sites layout and text will look exactly the
same, but image resolution may appear considerably lower as a result of
the compression. Dynamic Web technologies such as Ajax
(XmlHttpRequests) and Flash are supported, but some plugin content will
load only after clicking on the empty element.
Your privacy is important
Even
when Turbo is enabled, encrypted traffic does not go through our
compression servers. This means that when you are on a SSL site, we
bypass these traffic and let you communicate with the SSL site
directly. Opera generates statistics of the usage of Opera Turbo, but
these are aggregated numbers and no information can be linked to a
single user. Opera does not store any users’ private information.
Opera Turbo will be part of future desktop versions
This
is a time-limited release, but the feedback we receive from this test
release will help us determine how and when to move forward with Opera
Turbo.
You can download the test version of Opera Turbo right here and start playing around with it right away. Please report any bugs or join the discussion at the My Opera community. Download Opera Turbo |
 OpenSynergy
is readying a Linux-based "car operating system" and an Intel
Atom-based evaluation board for automobile infotainment systems. The
COQOS platform aims to let Linux-based infotainment applications and
AUTOSAR-compliant telematics modules share the same system-on-chip
processor, which is virtualized by a "micro operating system" (μOS)
layer.
Interestingly, the technology is said to enable both
Linux and AUTOSAR apps to share a common audio and OpenGL graphic
layer, enabling AUTOSAR applications to output to multimedia displays
and audio for the first time, says the company. Additional touted
benefits of the approach include reducing the count of ECUs (engine
control units), minimizing development costs, and even increasing fuel
efficiency, by reducing the weight associated with multiple, separate
vehicular computer networks.
COQOS integrates a real-time
micro operating system, μOS, to partition a single SoC into multiple
virtual machines (VMs). The arrangement is claimed capable of
partitioning a Linux-based infotainment platform from AUTOSAR
operations, which is required for safety reasons.
COQOS architecture
(Click to enlarge)
AUTOSAR
(AUTomotive Open System ARchitecture) is an open, standardized
automotive software architecture, jointly developed by automobile
manufacturers, suppliers, and tool developers, says the AUTOSAR
organization. It is said to be designed for the development of
vehicular software, user interfaces, and management for all application
domains.
With COQOS, the μOS micro-kernel "plays the role" of
the AUTOSAR OS required by the AUTOSAR compliant software that controls
internal automobile functions, OpenSynergy says. Thus, AUTOSAR modules
would likely have to be ported to the environment. Few details seem to
be available about the OS, although a similar open source project
evolved several years ago from the "TelemetryBox" project. Both
projects appear to be defunct now, at least as open source efforts.
IPC
(interprocess communication) between AUTOSAR and Linux environments is
provided by runtime environments (RTEs) that presumably run within each
stack. A Virtual Application Bus (VAB), meanwhile, is said to handle
communications between Linux infotainment applications.
Features listed for the COQOS framework are said to include:- AUTOSAR 3.1 Basis Software
- AUTOSAR 3.1 RTE Generator
- Processor Resource Management
- Communication interface between AUTOSAR and infotainment
- Firewall between infotainment and AUTOSAR
- Linux 2.6
- Middleware for infotainment applications
- OpenGL graphic support
- Fast-boot mechanism
- Software updates
The
framework supports both x86 and ARM architectures, says OpenSynergy.
The company does not appear to have more information on the Intel Atom
evaluation board at this time.
One company currently shipping
Atom-based boards targeting automotive systems is Congatec, which in
December launched an IVI (in-vehicle infotainment) Starter-kit based on
a COM Express module with a netbook-like chipset, with added CAN bus
and other automotive goodies. The Congatec Starterkit is promoted for
use with the Intel-sponsored Moblin Project's IVI software,
although software is currently not included in the Kit, according to
reports from developers on Moblin's mailing list. Wind River announced
in May of last year it planned to drive IVI development
and also commercialize the stack, but apparently has not yet merged its
work with the IVI project, perhaps suggesting its customers have not
yet begun distributing the software. (More details on Congatec's IVI
Starter Kit to follow shortly).
OpenSynergy has launched an "ECO
Partner Program" that can be joined on several levels. The company
provides "ECO Partners" with basic access to products and installation
support. "Premium ECO Partners," meanwhile, are expected to port COQOS,
as well as promote joint solutions to potential customers.
Stated
Frank-Peter Bohm, CEO of OpenSynergy, "COQOS meets different market
trends: Reducing cost in system development and hardware components
notwithstanding increasing demand in automotive functions. We think
that modern processors [like] the Intel Atom processor are going to
play an important role in that constellation."
Availability
OpenSynergy
is close to offering release 1 of COQOS and its Intel Atom evaluation
board, says the company, and will show COQOS 1.0 and the Intel Atom
board at the the CeBIT 2009, March 3-8 in Hannover, Germany, at Intel Pavilion P33. |
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