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Twitter set to become the newest addition to the Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation's been racking up big-name brands since its early days, and one of the latest is mostly everyone's favorite rapid-blogging service, otherwise more commonly known as Twitter. Following in the steps of chip-maker NVIDIA and that Platinum-leveled Samsung, the Blue Bird recently announced it'll be joining the open-source association come next week, with the official revelation set to take place in a few days at the LinuxCon North American gathering in California. Twitter's Manager of Open Source, Chris Aniszczyk, says that by doing so "we can support an organization that is important to us and collaborate with a community that is advancing Linux as fast as we are improving Twitter." Needless to say, this is a win-win situation for all parties involved.
NVIDIA responds to Linus Torvalds' critique: 'supporting Linux is important'
Linux creator Linus Torvalds didn't mince any words with his criticism of NVIDIA earlier this week -- calling it, among other things, the "single worst company we've ever dealt with." That unsurprisingly didn't go unnoticed by NVIDIA, which has today issued a statement that attempts clarify its position on the open source OS. It leads off by flatly stating that "supporting Linux is important to NVIDIA," before addressing some of the criticisms that have been leveled at it from Torvalds' and others. That includes its lack of Linux support for its Optimus laptop graphics, to which NVIDIA points to its support of the Bumblebee open source project, and its decision to not provide detailed documentation on all of its GPU internals -- on that, it says that it's "made a decision to support Linux on our GPUs by leveraging NVIDIA common code, rather than the Linux common infrastructure." The company goes on to note that it supports a variety of GPUs on Linux and is an active participant in the ARM Linux kernel, but acknowledges that its position "may not please everyone." We're going to go out on a limb and guess that includes Torvalds. Hit the source link below for the full statement.
Linus Torvalds: 'NVIDIA is the worst we've ever dealt with' (video)
Fresh from receiving technology prize plaudits, Linux creator Torvalds is still telling it how it is. In a recent Q&A session at Aalto University in Finland, he said that NVIDIA was "single worst company we've ever dealt with," responding to an audience member's question on her Optimus-powered laptop and its lack of Linux support. While she was finally able to get it working on her machine through some GitHub help, Torvalds was unequivocal about his thoughts on NVIDIA. Throwing in a middle-finger gesture to the camera, he was particularly irritated with the fact that the chipmaker's own Tegra range were faring so well on the wave of Android devices currently hitting stores, as Google's mobile OS itself came from a strong Linux background. Aside from hardware manufacturer gripes, Torvalds goes on to discuss his work with open source development in greater detail -- the full talk is right after the break. You can jump through to the 49th minute mark to hear the Linux founder's complaints, but be warned, family readership -- he drops the f-bomb.
GamersFirst talks Fallen Earth account changes
If you're a current Fallen Earth subscriber, you'll want to head over to the official Fallen Earth dev blog to get the skinny on the upcoming account shenanigans scheduled to take place on August 1st and beyond. In a nutshell, Fallen Earth's acquisition by GamersFirst has necessitated that all users acquire a GamersFirst account to log into the game. Never fear, though, it's a free account, and it's just another step in the changeover process. In fact, GamersFirst's Joseph "Linus" Willmon writes that the account gymnastics are part of "phase two, where we fully integrate Fallen Earth into the GamersFirst publishing platform." Phase one has already been completed, and it involved a lot of behind-the-scenes hardware moves and the like. This week's Fallen Earth dev blog contains a complete rundown of the rest of the changes scheduled to occur in phase two, including payment and subscription tweaks.
Inaugural Fallen Earth dev blog talks PvE, PvP, and roleplay content
Yesterday we broke the news that GamersFirst had acquired Fallen Earth and has set about molding the post-apocalyptic sci-fi title into a free-to-play experience. Today we're happy to tell you about the new Fallen Earth dev blog and its lengthy inaugural post. The entry comes courtesy of associate game director Joseph "Linus" Willmon, and he expends a good deal of virtual ink on topics that include the free-to-play roadmap, various changes that will result from the conversion, a transition time frame, and post-F2P design priorities. While the entire post is quite intriguing for fans of the game's grungy wasteland shtick, that last bit is particularly interesting since it specifically targets three groups of players (one of which is almost universally ignored in dev circles) and promises them content updates. "Anyone who's played Fallen Earth knows there are three core groups -- sometimes always at odds with one another -- that form the basis of the community: PvP players, PvE players, and roleplayers. The design priorities for the future will look towards building specific features and content aimed at each group, making the world much more robust and, we hope, exciting to experience," Willmon writes.
Boxee users without a Box on PC, Mac or Ubuntu are getting a fall update, open source release
Ever since the Boxee Box was released fans running the software on their PCs have been left by the wayside, but as we expected that changes this fall with updates for the PC, Mac and Ubuntu versions. CEO Avner Ronen announced on the official blog that while updates for the downloadable version "will most likely lag behind the versions of Boxee for devices" the company hopes to keep them more up to speed going forward. Still think you could do a better job of updating the software yourself? Done, since Boxee also plans to make an open source version available. There's no date attached to that effort and given past experience with delayed Boxee releases we wouldn't clear our college football watching schedule just yet, but for everyone who would rather roll their own media device there is still a future in the Boxee platform.
Mozilla's Webian Shell interface will cloak your OS in a browser (video)
With Google's fleet of Chromebooks making their way to market, Mozilla Labs has decided to release a similarly browser-based desktop interface, known as the Webian Shell. As of now, the prototype app consists of a screen-encompassing web browser, which essentially replaces your desktop interface. There's an address bar running across the top of the screen, a clock in the bottom right corner, and a tab button for all your web apps. Developed as part of the company's Mozilla Chromeless project, the tool was written entirely in HTML, CSS and JavaScript and, unlike Chrome OS, is designed to run on top of existing operating systems, rather than replace them. For now, the Shell is still in an early phase of development, looks pretty spartan and can't control a system's hardware. Mozilla, however, says it has plans to incorporate multiple home screens, split screen views and an on-screen keyboard, among other features. Windows, Linux and Mac OS X users can download the Shell now, from the source link. Otherwise, you can just head past the break to see a brief demo video.
Linus Torvalds is now a happy Nexus One owner, pinch to zoom put him over the edge
Linux originator Linus Torvalds isn't really big on these "phone" things, but he's finally caved to his Nexus One lust. In a recent blog post he explains how the G1 never did it for him, despite his love of the "concept" of having a Linux-based phone. He finds phones in general irritating, and cellphones "an opportunity to be irritated wherever you are," but the Nexus One's offer of car-friendly GPS navigation got him thinking he'd have a good excuse to bring it with him places, and the recent announcement of pinch-to-zoom capabilities somehow put him over the edge. He still says the phone part is "kind of secondary," but we sure he'll eventually be won over to the dark side and be just as annoying as the rest of us phone talkers at restaurants.
Metz unveils 100Hz Linus 32 LCDs, includes hybrid tuners and HDD
Amidst the onslaught of releases surrounding IFA comes one from Metz, which is introducing a pair of feature-laden LCD HDTVs for the European market. The 32 HDTV 100 and Linus 32 HDTV 100 R both tout 100Hz technology, integrated "double-hybrid tuners" for cable and aerial (DVB-C / DVB-T) reception, Dynamic Motion Compensation to nix the jaggies, and two "externally accessible input slots for CA modules with smart cards that open up the possibility of being able to receive various pay-TV channels." Moreover, the "R" model comes equipped with a 160GB hard drive, which enables users to store up to 200-hours of SD content, 30-hours of HD programming, or any combination of the two sans a traditional DVR. You'll also find a trio of HDMI ports, DVI, and even a USB interface for loading up photo slideshows. Mum's the word on pricing at the moment, but both of these sets should be hitting the streets next month.[Via Messe-Berlin]
The mecca of used game stores
You know that old game you loved but can't seem to find anymore? The one you think you may have lent to a friend, but your memory isn't clear enough to accuse them of anything? Well don't yell at your best mate just yet. We think we may have found your lost game, along with every other person's lost game ever.A used game store in Japan has such an insanely large collection of used video games on sale that I can only assume that the owner has a super-large magnet in his basement that can pick up loosely place NES carts by the thin metal connection strip and transport them from as far away as Brazil. You're thinking, "but CDs are made out of plastic, how does he manage to collect them with a magnet?" He doesn't. Two words: Oompa loompas. Trillions of them.[Via Insert Credit; thanks linus]
