Flash Player 10.1 Now Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux Tweet

Today I'm thrilled to announce that Adobe Flash Player 10.1 is now available for Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems. You can get it now. Flash Player 10.1 for Android will be coming later this month - the beta release is currently available in the Android market.

In this post, I'd like to share some of the top new PC-specific features, many of which have mobile implications as well, as I discussed in an earlier blog post about the engineering efforts behind Flash Player 10.1. In this post, I'll cover the work we did to improve performance, power management and video, and discuss the new multi-touch and private browsing capabilities, as well as our work to provide a better Flash Player experience for Mac users.

Performance and Power Management
With Flash Player 10.1 we aligned our development efforts to create a single runtime that works across desktops and devices. Performance and power efficiency was a huge focus since different devices have varying sized processors and memory, and we needed to ensure Flash Player 10.1 would work across all of them. So we made a number of changes to Flash Player that directly translate to faster execution and reduced resource consumption. We achieved some large gains in reducing the amount of memory used at runtime, particularly for bitmap-intensive apps. The ActionScript virtual machine received some targeted optimizations, which directly benefit typed AS3 code. And, our release wouldn't be complete if we didn't improve the garbage collector - where we tuned its behavior to run more efficiently and better amortize its processing over the application's lifetime.

As noted above, the team invested a lot of time in memory optimization. Tabbed browsing is common for PC users, who often have many pages open in their browser at the same time. This is a great timesaver but also uses up lots of RAM. With Flash Player 10.1, we added new functionality that detects when memory is running low. Now, content that runs in Flash Player will automatically shut down when the available memory is running low.

The Flash Player team made a number of improvements to conserve resources, reduce power usage and extend battery life. For example, Flash Player can now automatically reduce the power consumption for content running in the background on a non-visible browser tab to improve performance when users are multitasking. In cases where audio is playing in the background, playback fidelity is maintained.

Some significant changes were made to Flash Player 10.1 to re-architect the system for managing timers and events. Without going into the details here (Tinic Uro will share a post next week that covers this topic more comprehensively), the end result is that apps for Flash Player and Adobe AIR will use significantly less CPU when the content is idle and consume less power in the process. These improvements are most pronounced on Macs.

Video improvements
From hardware decoding to better buffering, p2p video, multicast and http streaming -- there are many improvements in Flash Player 10.1 with regards to web video delivery and playback. For desktops, Flash Player 10.1 introduces hardware-based H.264 video decoding to deliver smooth, high quality video with minimal overhead across supported operating systems. Using available hardware to decode video offloads tasks from the CPU, improving video playback performance, offering smoother frame rates, and reducing system resource utilization.

The addition of HTTP Dynamic Streaming expands the delivery options for high quality live and on-demand media with full adaptive bitrate functionality. This new option enables media publishers to leverage standard HTTP networking infrastructure to help increase capacity, reach, and quality of service for video delivery using standards-based MP4 fragments. Using the Open Source Media Framework, Flash developers can easily leverage this new technology to deploy your video much more quickly. You can download the free tools for HTTP Dynamic Streaming here.

Peer-assisted networking and Multicast is available for Flash Player 10.1 by leveraging Real Time Media Flow Protocol (RTMFP), which enables peers on a network to assist in real time communication and content delivery over the web. Flash Player now supports peer-assisted networking groups, which allows an application to segment its users and send messages and data between members of the group. Application level multicast allows for one (or a few)-to-many streaming of continuous live video streams as well as real-time audio/video chat applications.

Enhanced RTMP streaming and buffering features will also greatly improve the video viewing experience for Flash Player users. Stream reconnect lets Flash Player 10.1 allow an RTMP stream to continue to play through the buffer even if the connection is disrupted, thereby making media experiences more tolerant of short term network failures and enabling uninterrupted video playback. When a connection is re-established, the stream resumes playback. Developers can add stream re-connection logic in ActionScript to re-establish server connection and resume streaming with limited disruption in the video.

New to Flash Player 10.1, Smart seek can easily make using Flash Player a DVR-like experience. Smart seek allows the video viewer to seek within a new "back" buffer so viewers can easily rewind or fast forward video without Flash Player calling back to the server, thus reducing the start time after a seek. Smart seek can speed up seeking performance of streamed videos and enable the creation of slow motion, double time, or "instant replay" experiences for streaming video. With buffered stream catch-up, developers can set a target latency threshold that triggers slightly accelerated video playback to help ensure that live video streaming stays in sync with real time over extended playback periods. Finally, Fast Switch benefits Dynamic Streaming with RTMP to improve switching times between bitrates, reducing the time to receive the best viewing experience for available bandwidth and processing speed. Users no longer need to wait for the buffer to play through, which can result in a faster bitrate transition time and an uninterrupted video playback experience, regardless of bandwidth fluctuations or client computing power.

Multi-touch
Many companies are beginning to rollout touch enabled devices, and not just smartphones, but tablets as well as PCs like the HP Touchsmart. With Flash Player 10.1, you can take advantage of the latest hardware and operating system user interaction capabilities using a new set of ActionScript 3 APIs for multi-touch and native gesture events, creating the ability to interact with multiple objects simultaneously or work with native gestures, such as pinch, scroll, rotate, scale, and two-finger tap. Multi-touch may be one of the most important features for developers and designers creating new content with the Flash Platform, knowing your implementations may be easily extended to devices with touch capabilities. To get started using multi-touch with Flash Player 10.1, check out this ADC resource.

Browser Privacy mode
Flash Player 10.1 abides by the host browser's private browsing mode (where local data and browsing activity are not cached on the local system) providing a consistent private browsing mechanism between SWF and HTML content. Private local shared objects (LSOs) behave like their traditional variants as long as Flash Player is in memory, and LSOs created during private browsing are removed when the user returns to conventional browsing mode. Existing shared objects are preserved but inaccessible until private browsing is turned off.

Mac-specific improvements
Our Mac engineers, with some help from the Safari team, made significant changes to Flash Player for Macs. Here's a partial list of the work we completed for Argo. First and foremost, Flash Player 10.1 is a full-fledged Cocoa app (though legacy Carbon support remains for some browsers that require it). We now leverage Cocoa events, use Cocoa UI for our dialogs, leverage Core Audio for sound, Core Graphics for printing support, and use Core Foundation for bundle-style text.

Mac performance was also an explicit focus for us. One improvement we made is the use of a double-buffered OpenGL context for improved full screen playback efficiency. We also investigated a number of compile-time optimizations using Xcode to improve our overall execution speed of Flash Player on Macs. Rendering performance was improved by our use of Core Animation. For Macs running OS X 10.6 or greater, we leverage the hardware acceleration in Core Animation to dramatically improve the efficiency of displaying web pages which combine both SWF and HTML content. The details and performance implications of the Core Animation work are outlined in Tinic's blog post . The overall performance improvements of Flash Player for Mac users will result in faster video playback, more efficient CPU utilization, and greater battery life.

As you can see, don't let the version number fool you! Flash Player 10.1 is more than a "dot upgrade." It was a monumental undertaking including some significant architectural improvements and a long list of enhancements that will help the more than 3 million Flash designers and developers continue to move web innovation forward. We can't wait to see what you develop. Be sure to check out the new Flash Player 10.1 product pages and ADC content to learn more.

Additionally, today we announced the immediate availability of the Adobe AIR 2 runtime. Starting today, you can download and install the new version at get.adobe.com/air/. Developers can now deploy applications built for AIR 2 on Mac OS, Windows and Linux. Read more about AIR 2 on the AIR Team blog.

Paul Betlem
Flash Player Engineering

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Mentor Graphics Introduces the New Mentor Embedded Linux Platform Tweet

Mentor Graphics releases commercial Linux® platform, Mentor Embedded™ Linux.

The acquisition of Embedded Alley one year ago, followed by the alliance between Freescale Semiconductor and Mentor Graphics, and a similar alliance with NetLogic Microsystems over two months ago, has resulted in the release of Mentor Embedded’s first commercial Linux® platform, Mentor Embedded™ Linux.

The release, initially supporting Freescale’s QorIQ and PowerQUICC Power Architecture processors, is a highly streamlined and fully integrated platform that assists development teams as they move seamlessly from evaluation on reference boards to development on custom-designed hardware.

Mentor Embedded Linux offers new opportunities for customers to develop more customized applications, fully compatible with open source packages, with no vendor lock-in and greater reliability while accelerating overall design development time.

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Fedora 13 Boasts Many Leading-Edge Enhancements Tweet

Red Hat's Fedora 13 open-source software can serve in a full gamut of Linux roles, as long as users are prepared to upgrade their systems about once a year.

Since its first version, in 2003, Red Hat's Fedora Linux has been the best place to track what's on the leading edge of Linux and open-source software. Of course, the trouble with running on the leading edge is that it's easy to get cut, and the Fedora distribution's fast development pace has required a certain amount of bug-squashing tolerance from its users.

Fedora 13, which began shipping in late May, boasts many of the leading-edge enhancements—and few of the rough spots—that I've come to expect from the popular Linux-based operating system. In particular, I appreciated the work the Fedora team has done in the area of security and permissions, with progress toward more granular rights management through Fedora's PolicyKit framework, and an implementation of the SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) framework that remained, for the most part, tucked away unobtrusively in the background.

In addition to serving as a sort of first look at the latest and greatest in Linux and open-source software in general—and future Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) releases in particular—Fedora 13 can serve in a full gamut of Linux roles, as long as Fedora-embracing users are prepared to upgrade their systems about once a year.

For this reason, smoother edges notwithstanding, enterprises in search of a more long-lived Linux distribution for production roles would do best to turn to RHEL, or, for organizations prepared to provide their own support, the freely available RHEL clone CentOS.

The fast-moving nature of Fedora 13 fits best with desktop and developer workstation roles, where users are most likely to appreciate the up-to-date versions of the desktop-oriented open-source software that ships with the distribution, including Version 2.30 of the GNOME desktop environment, Version 3.2 of the OpenOffice.org productivity suite and Version 3.6.3 of the Firefox Web browser.

Fedora 13 is available as a free download from http://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora, with separate versions that support the x86 and x86-64 platforms. Beginning with Fedora 13, the Power PC CPU architecture has been reduced to secondary architecture status, where its ongoing development will depend on volunteer efforts.

Click to read the rest of the article

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Release Notes for Fedora 13 Tweet

1. Welcome to Fedora 13
1.1. Fedora 13 Overview
As always, Fedora continues to develop (http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Red_Hat_contributions) and integrate the latest free and open source software (http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features). The following sections provide a brief overview of major changes from the last release of Fedora. For more details about other features that are included in Fedora 13 refer to their individual wiki pages that detail feature goals and progress:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/13/FeatureList
Throughout the release cycle, there are interviews with the developers behind key features giving out the inside story:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Interviews
The following are major features for Fedora 13:

*
Automatic print driver installation — refer to Section 4.3, “Printing”
*
Automatic language pack installation — refer to Section 4.4, “Internationalization”
*
Redesigned user account tool — refer to Section 4.1, “Fedora Desktop”
*
Color management to calibrate monitors and scanners — refer to Section 4.1, “Fedora Desktop”
*
Experimental 3D support for NVIDIA video cards — refer to Section 4.1, “Fedora Desktop”

Some other features in this release include:

*
A new way to install Fedora over the Internet — refer to Section 2, “Installation Notes”
*
SSSD authentication for users — refer to Section 2, “Installation Notes”
*
Updates to NFS — refer to Section 5.9, “File Systems”
*
Zarafa Open Source edition, a new open-source groupware suite — refer to Section 5.4, “Mail Servers”
*
System rollback for the Btrfs file system — refer to Section 5.9, “File Systems”
*
Better SystemTap probes — refer to Section 6.2, “Tools”
*
A Python 3 stack that can be installed parallel to an existing Python stack — refer to Section 6.2, “Tools”
*
Support for the entire Java EE 6 spec in Netbeans 6.8 — refer to Section 6.4, “Java”

Features for Fedora 13 tracked on the feature list page:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/13/FeatureList
A discussion putting these features in context may be found at:
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/Fedora_13_Talking_Points

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No Tablet with Ubuntu planned Tweet

Mark Shuttleworth has denied that there will be a tablet version of Ubuntu. In an interview with Golem.de on the edge of the LinuxTag, he reiterated Canonical's plans for the use of the Linux distribution on desktops and netbooks.
Ubuntu is the future for desktop PCs, netbooks and use are developed on servers, said Mark Shuttleworth Golem.de. Same time, Ubuntu will be optimized for use on netbooks. There were discussions with OEM partners how to distribute a new version, called Ubuntu Light, in parallel with Windows on netbooks.

Canonical Ubuntu will bring neither on smartphones or on tablets, so Shuttleworth. His colleague Chris Kenyon had been misunderstood in an interview. There were developers who uses Ubuntu on different devices, such as in video streaming devices, and, indeed, Tablets. Ubuntu plans to develop a special version for Tablets, there was not.

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Ubuntu tablet threat to iPad? Nah Tweet

Apple mops sweat from brow, puts down smelling salts.

The founder of Linux Ubuntu has laid to rest stories of a tablet version, no doubt causing widespread relief in Cupertino.

Rumours of an Ubuntu tablet circulated over the weekend, based on an interview with Canonical's VP of Alliances and OEM Services. But those rumours have now been scotched by the man in charge, Mark Shuttleworth, who told Golem.de that Ubuntu remains about desktops, netbooks and servers.

Canonical is the company that funds and manages Ubuntu. Canonical's VP reportedly said that a touch screen version of the distribution was in the offing, and mentioned all sorts of places where the distribution might turn up including tablets. At the time we commented that this would seem in contradiction to previous statements, and sure enough Shuttleworth - the man behind Canonical and sometime amateur astronaut - has clarified the matter.

In the interview with Golem.de Shuttleworth makes it very clear that while Ubuntu will be working on a lightweight version for netbooks there is no tablet-specific version planned. The original interview, it seems, was referring to the habit of Ubuntu developers to run the platform on all sorts of hardware, as Linux hackers are wont, including tablets.

Competing with Android and Meego, not to mention iOS, would seem optimistic to the point of self-delusion. Any company, open source or otherwise, who decides to take on Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and Google for ownership of a market that might not even exist is surely fanciful at the very least.

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Canonical developing Ubuntu OS for tablets Tweet

Canonical is preparing a version of the Ubuntu OS for tablet computers as the company looks to extend its presence in the mobile space, a company executive said on Wednesday.

Tablets with the Ubuntu OS could become available late in next year's first quarter, said Chris Kenyon, Canonical's vice president of OEM (original equipment manufacturer) services. The OS will be a lightweight version of Linux with a simplified, touch-friendly user interface.
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Tablets are handheld devices with multitouch screens and on-screen keyboards. This would be Canonical's first foray into the tablet market, where it will compete with Google's Android, Intel's Meego and Apple's iPhone-based OS, which is used in the iPad.

Canonical currently offers Ubuntu 10.04 for servers, PCs and netbooks. However, the company has "broader and bigger ambitions than just netbooks," Kenyon said.

With touch input and varying screen sizes, tablets are fundamentally different from PCs, Kenyon said. The focus will be on developing an OS with a simplified user interface that provides quick access to the most-used applications. Development efforts will also focus on adding on-screen keyboard features and compatibility for multitouch drivers.

"The devices world is a really exciting space right now and we're really bullish on it," Kenyon said. "Hats off to the iPad team for doing what they did."

On the hardware side, the company is also talking to tablet makers and component manufacturers for the OS to run faster while consuming less power, Kenyon said. The company has signed deals with chip makers Freescale, Texas Instruments and Marvell, which make chips based on the Arm processor for devices like tablets and netbooks. The company is also collaborating with Intel to improve power-states, and display companies like Pixel Qi, which develops battery-saving screens for laptops and tablets.

Canonical already provides cloud storage through the Ubuntu One service, and users can purchase music through the Ubuntu One Music Store. Canonical may look to make deals to bring more content to users, but Kenyon did not provide further details.

The tablet OS will be based on Ubuntu's upcoming version 10.10, which is code-named Maverick Meerkat. The company also will merge the tablet and netbook OS under a lightweight Linux version called Ubuntu Light. Canonical already offers a version of Ubuntu Light, but it is being pitched as a quick-boot companion to Windows, or as a lightweight OS for netbooks and PCs.

Canonical developed an edition of Ubuntu in 2008 for mobile Internet devices, but the category of devices failed to take off. The company is taking a renewed look at the mobile space with a new generation of mobile products and form factors emerging. However, there are no plans to release a version of Ubuntu for smartphones.

"It's a crowded space with a lot of powerful players," Kenyon said.

source

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Arduino Tweet

Arduino is an open-source electronics prototyping platform based on flexible, easy-to-use hardware and software. It's intended for artists, designers, hobbyists, and anyone interested in creating interactive objects or environments.

Arduino can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect its surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators. The microcontroller on the board is programmed using the Arduino programming language (based on Wiring) and the Arduino development environment (based on Processing). Arduino projects can be stand-alone or they can communicate with software on running on a computer (e.g. Flash, Processing, MaxMSP).

The boards can be built by hand or purchased preassembled; the software can be downloaded for free. The hardware reference designs (CAD files) are available under an open-source license, you are free to adapt them to your needs.

Arduino received an Honorary Mention in the Digital Communities section of the 2006 Ars Electronica Prix. The Arduino team is: Massimo Banzi, David Cuartielles, Tom Igoe, Gianluca Martino, and David Mellis. Credits

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Installing Arduino on Linux Tweet

For more detailed instructions, pick your distribution: Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware Fedora, Xandros (Debian derivative) on Asus Eee PC, openSUSE

Requirements

You will need to install some programs to use Arduino under Linux (the way you do this depends on your distribution):

* sun's java runtime (JRE, package sun-java6-jre)
* avr-gcc-c++ (Else you will get this error: Cannot run program "avr-g++":j ava.io.IOException:Error=2: No such file or directory)
* avr-gcc (aka "gcc-avr"), version 4.3.2 or later
o Version 4.3.0 has a major bug which affects multiplication of long int's. This is the default version in Ubuntu Intrepid (8.10). Check using "avr-gcc --version" and upgrade if necessary.
o Versions prior to 4.3.0 do not support the ATmega328 (which comes on the Arduino Duemilanove). People running distributions like Hardy Heron (Ubuntu) or Etch (Debian) and previous will need to upgrade their version of avr-gcc.
* avr-libc

You will also need a compatible kernel. For example, it needs USB serial support with the FTDI driver.

If you have brltty installed (the default on recent versions of Ubuntu), you'll need to remove it.

Download the latest Arduino Linux distribution from the arduino dowload section. Copy/extract these files to a directory (or your desktop) and Run the "arduino" script.

Installing Arduino BT on Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10

Refer to Arduino BT - Ubuntu for the full guide. This guide section was created in a new page by the author.

64-Bit Linux

The Arduino software distribution includes a couple of pre-compiled binaries that may not work on 64-bit systems:

* RXTX (Java communication library)
* avrdude (for uploading programs to an Arduino board)

Your distribution should provide a package for RXTX (probably called librxtx-java). Once installed, you need to copy librxtxSerial.so. to the lib/ sub-directory of your Arduino application directory or to the extensions folder of the JRE.

On some distributions however the version of librxtx-java supplied is still not up to date, a working version can be downloaded here: http://rxtx.qbang.org/pub/rxtx/rxtx-2.2pre2-bins.zip further instructions are available at http://chemicaloliver.net/programming/fixing-arduino-on-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-x64/ which also includes a full version of arduino-0017.tgz with a working version of rxtx included. Note: Just installed Ubuntu 9.10 64-bit (2010-02-15), required packages from repository, and latest IDE. Works out of the box.

Arduino uses a patched version of avrdude. The source is available here: avrdude-5.4-arduino-0010-src.tgz. After compiling, copy avrdude and avrdude.conf to the hardware/tools/ sub-directory of the Arduino application directory. The version of avrdude packaged with the latest Arduino software seems to work under x64 linux. The proposed source file does not include support for the latest ATmega328, and should therefore not be used with the Arduino Duemilanove.

Locking assertion failure from java when using Xinerama

To fix:

sudo sed -i 's/XINERAMA/FAKEEXTN/g' /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/lib/amd64/motif21/libmawt.so

USB-Serial Devices

Arduino's (and other USB-serial devices) end up as /dev/ttyUSB#.

If you have more than one such device then some udev magic may help avoid confusion.

Kernel Configuration

If you configured your own kernel, the driver is under "Device Drivers => USB Support => USB Serial Converter Support => USB FTDI Single Port Serial Driver", either select [Y], to have it "built in" to the kernel or [M] to have it built as a module. Dmesg then should show the device like this:

ftdi_sio 2-2:1.0: FTDI USB Serial Device converter detected

User Rights

Make sure you are in the tty group. On some distros you might need to create an udev rule for the FTDI USB Serial Device converter.

Checking the avr-gcc version

Run avr-gcc --v from a terminal window to check your version number.

Running from a menu

The current arduino script won't run from a menu because the java libraries aren't found. (You would get "Could not find the main class: processing.app.Base." error.) I suggest adding a line to the script like this:

cd `dirname $0`

before the CLASSPATH line.

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Update: HP to buy slim Linux OS Tweet

HP will buy the HyperSpace slim OS and the HyperCore embedded hypervisor from Phoenix.

Hewlett-Packard will buy Linux-based quick-boot OS and client virtualization assets from Phoenix Technologies for $12 million, Phoenix said on Thursday.

HP will buy HyperSpace, a watered-down version of the Linux OS that allows users to surf the Web, view digital images or check e-mail just a few seconds after switching on a PC. The OS works on netbooks, laptops and desktops. Phoenix has offered HyperSpace as an option to Microsoft's Windows OS, which could take 30 seconds or more to boot.

The transaction is expected to close this month, Phoenix said. HP will also buy the assets surrounding HyperCore, an embedded hypervisor that allows HyperSpace to run certain core services along with the Windows OS.

This acquisition should add some bulk to HP's already strong Linux assets. In late April, HP announced plans to acquire smartphone and mobile software company Palm for $1.2 billion. HP said it would add Palm's WebOS software platform to Internet-connected mobile devices such as printers and tablets. WebOS is built on top of the Linux kernel with Palm's proprietary software.

HP already offers quick-boot software called QuickWeb in its Mini netbooks and Pavilion laptops. HP declined to comment on how it plans to use Phoenix's assets.

Phoenix is well-known as a BIOS provider, and the company's focus will continue in that direction, Phoenix said.

HP wants to bring new technologies to mobile devices, and this is a low-risk and inexpensive buy, said Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.

The emergence of tablets has raised questions about the viability of netbooks, King said. Tablets can boot up and access the Web quickly, while netbooks are comparatively sluggish, but software like HyperSpace can change that, King said. Creative use of HyperSpace could help HP add tablet-like features to PCs.

HyperSpace's initial use will be in PCs, but HP could have plans of bundling the software with WebOS for specific-use cases such as tablets, King said. An HP spokeswoman declined comment on whether HyperSpace would be part of the WebOS software stack.

source

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SUSE Moblin is now SUSE MeeGo Tweet

SUSE Moblin combined with Intel Atom Processor-based netbooks and nettops equals a paradigm shift in computing.

Novell has introduced SUSE® Moblin, the first fully-supported desktop operating system for netbooks and nettops. Leveraging the enterprise-class capabilities of SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, SUSE Moblin is optimized for Internet, social media, and Web-centric collaboration usage.

SUSE Moblin features an array of office productivity and social media applications making it the premier operating system for the Atom-processor platform. From the business executive to the field service worker; college student to pre-teen; all users will benefit from this new release. It marries the quick boot time and usability features of Moblin with the legacy of innovation from Novell.

SUSE Moblin will have the following applications preloaded: Adobe Flash, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Novell Mono, Novell Moonlight, OpenOffice.org Novell Edition (office productivity suite), and integrations into social media applications (Facebook, Last FM, MySpace, Flickr).

SUSE Moblin was demonstrated at the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) with partners MSI and Samsung. Products are available now in select geographies.
About Moblin

Moblin is an open source project, hosted by the Linux Foundation, that provides an optimized Linux platform for the next

generation of mobile devices including netbooks, mobile Internet devices (MIDs), in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems, and other embedded devices. Moblin is optimized for Intel Atom Processor-based devices.

Novell has worked closely with Intel and the Linux Foundation to bring this innovative and completely new user experience to end-users by developing rich media management, collaboration software, and user interfaces optimized to run on netbooks with Moblin v2.1. This is the crystallization of the promise announced to the world in Spring 2009 by Intel and Novell.
About Meego

In February 2010, Intel and Nokia merged their popular open-source platforms (Moblin and Maemo, respectively) into a unified Linux-based platform called MeeGo. MeeGo will run on a multitude of hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices including netbooks, tablets, in-vehicle infotainment systems, and others. The platform will be hosted by the Linux Foundation as a fully open source project.

The extensive leadership that Novell has shown in the commercialization of Moblin v2.0 and v2.1 will remain with MeeGo. In fact, our current efforts on Moblin v2.2 are being merged into MeeGo.com. Moblin as the core operating system platform remains largely unchanged resulting in an easy transition for Novell to the new platform.

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Linpus Lite Tweet

Linpus Lite, the choice of several of the world's largest ODMs in the netbook space, is a Linux operating system specially designed for a better mobile Internet and netbook experience. It is includes an extremely intuitive user interface and is optimized for web-centric processors. The new version of Linpus Lite, Linpus Lite 1.3, is built around the concept of choice and freedom. Its new tab and icon interface gives you opportunity to completely organize your applications, your way.
You have gained control in several ways - All the default menu tabs can be renamed and the applications inside freely moved around by dragging and dropping between the tabs or from an All Applications pop-up menu. In additional, you can also create an extra three tabs by right-clicking on the menu bar and choosing the 'create a new tab' option from the pop-up menu. Once you have created or renamed a tab, you can choose or change an icon for that tab. If you delete then you can find that application in the All Applications tab.

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First look at MeeGo v1.0 netbook operating system Tweet

MeeGo Linux is a custom operating system designed for netbooks, smartphones, and other internet-connected devices. Today MeeGo v1.0 was released, and this video provides an overview of some of the features of the operating system.

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Growth of Linux-based smartphone shipments will outstrip growth of smartphone market in 2010, says ABI Tweet

The number of recent Linux-oriented initiatives in the mobile industry demonstrates that Linux will be a key technology in the next generation of mobile devices, according to ABI Research.

Led by adoption of Google's Android, the growth of Linux-enabled smartphones will outpace the growth of total smartphones, and they will comprise 33% of the market by 2015. With more than 60,000 smartphones shipping per day, Android has catapulted ahead of other Linux mobile platforms.

"Due to its low cost and ability to be easily modified, Linux in the mobile market today is nearly as disruptive as Linux was in server markets a decade ago," said senior analyst Victoria Fodale.

Much of the interest that handset OEMs and mobile operators have in Android can be traced to its flexibility. "The Android platform can be modified so that OEMs can differentiate their products," said Fodale, "and the licensing terms allow OEMs to innovate while still protecting proprietary work."

But although Google has built early momentum, Android is not without competition. Industry heavyweights Intel, Nokia, and Samsung recently announced two other new Linux-based operating systems, bada and MeeGo. The bada platform is also kernel-configurable so that it can run either on the Linux kernel or a real-time operating system (RTOS) kernel – which makes bada applicable to a wider range of devices than just smartphones.

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Novell Announces Support for MeeGo Tweet

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- (COMPUTEX TAIPEI) – Novell today announced it will release SUSE® MeeGo as a fully supported operating system for netbooks. Novell expects SUSE MeeGo to be pre-installed on a variety of devices from Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the next twelve months.

SUSE MeeGo is built on the codestream from the MeeGo Project, the new Linux-based operating system established by Intel and Nokia and designed for next-generation netbooks and other mobile devices. The planned shipment of SUSE MeeGo with multiple hardware OEMs further extends Novell's leadership in this rapidly growing market, and gives users a powerful and affordable alternative to existing desktop computing environments.

"Our commitment to ship SUSE MeeGo further extends our position as the leading OS vendor in the desktop Linux market," said Guy Lunardi, director of Client Preloads at Novell. "Novell is passionate about providing users with a better computing experience and MeeGo will deliver on that promise. Our experience as the leading commercial provider of desktop Linux* environments — from thin clients, to workstations, through netbooks, notebooks and desktop devices — puts us in a great position to deliver SUSE MeeGo to a broad base of original equipment and device manufacturers."

SUSE MeeGo builds on the longstanding collaboration between Novell and Intel to encourage OEMs and original design manufacturers (ODMs) to adopt Moblin. This effort has met with strong success, as large ODMs, including Samsung and MSI, have shipped netbook and mobile devices powered by SUSE Moblin. A leading contributor to the Moblin project, Novell is now also a key participant in the development of MeeGo. To support the development of new Linux-based operating systems, Novell has established Novell® OpenLabs in Taiwan, in conjunction with the local government there.

"Novell's support of MeeGo only further establishes their commitment to enhancing the mobile Linux experience," said Doug Fisher, vice president of the Software and Services Group and general manager of the Systems Software Division at Intel Corporation. "SUSE MeeGo together with Intel® Atom™ processor-based platforms will provide consumers choice for Linux operating systems on netbooks and emerging mobile devices."

Novell will be showcasing SUSE MeeGo 1.0 at the COMPUTEX conference in Taipei, Taiwan beginning today. In addition, Novell will be an active participant in the Intel* Atom* Software Summit as both a speaker and technology showcase provider. To learn more about SUSE MeeGo visit Novell booth L401-L404 at the Nangang Exhibition Hall during the show.

About Novell

Novell, Inc. (Nasdaq: NOVL), a leader in Intelligent Workload Management, helps organizations securely deliver and manage computing services across physical, virtual and cloud computing environments. We help customers reduce the cost, complexity, and risk associated with their IT systems through our solutions for identity and security, systems management, collaboration and Linux-based operating platforms. With our infrastructure software and ecosystem of partnerships, Novell integrates mixed IT environments, allowing people and technology to work as one. For more information, visit www.novell.com.

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Growth of Linux-based Smartphone Shipments Will Outstrip Growth of the Entire Smartphone Market in 2010 Tweet

ABI Research anticipates that Linux-enabled smartphones, led by the success of Google’s Android, will comprise 33% of the worldwide smartphone market by 2015. With more than 60,000 smartphones shipping per day, Android has catapulted ahead of other Linux mobile platforms.

“Due to its low cost and ability to be easily modified, Linux in the mobile market today is nearly as disruptive as Linux was in server markets a decade ago,“ says senior analyst Victoria Fodale.

Much of the interest that handset OEMs and mobile operators have in Android can be traced to its flexibility. “The Android platform can be modified so that OEMs can differentiate their products,” says Fodale, “and the licensing terms allow OEMs to innovate while still protecting proprietary work.”

But although Google has built early momentum, Android is not without competition. Industry heavyweights Intel, Nokia, and Samsung recently announced two other new Linux-based operating systems, bada and MeeGo. The bada platform is also kernel-configurable so that it can run either on the Linux kernel or a real-time operating system (RTOS) kernel — which makes bada applicable to a wider range of devices than just smartphones.

Mobile Linux in Smartphones examines the next generation of mobile open operating systems, including the key market issues in the Linux ecosystem, as well as the technology drivers within the mobile device segment. It highlights the strengths and weakness of each mobile Linux platform, including architecture, development, applications, and governance models. Detailed regional forecasts of shipments by each Linux-enabled platform are included.

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The company Of acer conducted the presentation of immediately several its new products, but besides the officially announced models it was shown one m Tweet

The developers of the operating system Of meeGo let out its [reliz] under number 1.0. It is intended for [netbukov] and [smartfona]- plane-table Of nokia Of n900, OS already it is possible to load here ([netbuki]) and here (Nokia Of n900). Let us recall, MeeGo unites in itself the operating times of the program platforms Of moblin from Intel and Maemo from Nokia, it was announced in February this year. In June developers promise to let out MeeGo for the communicators with the sensory screen and the plane-tables. Furthermore, according to them, approximately through half a year, in October, will leave the new version this OS - MeeGo 1.1

Possibilities Of meeGo 1.0:

* Access to the calendar, the tasks, the renovations of [sotssetey] and the recent files from the working table
* [Kontent] from the social networks in one window
* The browser Of google Of chrome (Chromium), into MeeGo Of handset will appear Fennec Of mozilla
* Applications calendar, electronic mail and [mediapleer]
* High productivity
* Several languages: English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (traditional and simplified), Russian and so on

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Installing MeeGo on your Netbook Tweet

Follow the steps for downloads and installing MeeGo on your Netbook and you'll be ready to go mobile!
Overview

Steps for loading the MeeGo live image on your netbook, nettop or PC:

1. Download the latest live image.
2. Byte-copy the image to a USB drive.
3. Boot the image on your netbook, nettop or PC.

System Requirements

* CPU: Intel Atom or Intel Core 2 CPU (support for SSSE3)
Note: MeeGo will not work on non-SSSE3 CPUs
* Platforms with the GMA-500, Nvidia, or ATI Graphics chipset are not supported.
* Tested netbook and nettop platforms

About Live Images

The MeeGo live image is designed to be used with a USB drive. A netbook or PC can be booted from the USB drive without modifying its hard drive or configuration. This lets you test drive an image before installing it. When you are done, just remove the USB drive and reboot. If you like what you see, you can then install MeeGo from the same live image.

1 Download the Live Image
The live image is available from the netbook downloads page. Save the image to a known location so you can access it in step 2.
2 Byte-copy the image to a USB drive
You will need a USB drive with at least the capacity of the downloaded image.

Note: A byte-exact copy of the image must be placed on the USB drive. It is not sufficient to simply copy the image file to the drive. Be aware contents of the USB drive will be completely erased.
Linux Instructions

Be sure the USB drive is unmounted before proceeding. Some Linux distributions auto mount the USB drive when it is inserted, which can cause corruption when writing.

# umount

Use either of these two methods:

* Image Writer (recommended, requires Python >=2.4)
Image Writer is a small python executable script that detects your USB drive and writes the image to it. The advantage of using image writer is that it will not inadvertently overwrite your system hard drive. Download Image Writer

# cd
# chmod a+x ./image-writer
# ./image-writer
* Use 'dd' from the command-line
Caution: 'dd' will overwrite any destination including your system hard disk. Make sure you know the correct value of before proceeding.

# dd bs=4096 if= of=

Proceed to Step 3: Boot the image
Windows Instructions

There is a simple way to put the MeeGo image on a USB drive.

1. Download the Win32DiskImager.exe program: https://launchpad.net/win32-image-writer/+download (zip file)
2. Unzip the file and extract the contents to a known directory
3. Run W32DiskImager.exe (screenshot)
4. Select the MeeGo image file (.img)
5. Select the drive letter which corresponds to the USB key
6. Click the "Write" button to byte-copy the image to the USB drive.

Proceed to Step 3: Boot the image
Mac OS X Instructions

Be sure the USB drive is unmounted before proceeding. OS X auto mounts the USB drive when it is inserted, which can cause corruption when writing. You can press the eject icon in Finder or drag the USB icon to the trash.

Use this method (thanks to Many Ayromlou for the instructions):

1. Open a Terminal (Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal)
2. Run
diskutil list
to get the current list of devices
3. Insert your flash media
4. Run
diskutil list
again and determine the device node assigned to your flash media (for example /dev/disk2)
5. Run
diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN

(replace N with the disk number from the last command; in the previous example, N would be 2)
6. Run
sudo dd if=/path/to/downloaded.img of=/dev/diskN bs=1024
(replace /path/to/downloaded.img with the place you downloaded the image. You'll need your password for this.
7. Run
diskutil eject /dev/diskN
(where N is the number we found above) and remove your flash media when the command completes
8. You're done! Proceed to Step 3: Boot the image

3 Boot the image on your netbook, nettop, or PC
Insert the USB drive into your netbook, nettop or PC and reboot. Make sure that the boot order tries the USB drive first.

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MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks (Google Chrome Browser) Tweet

Quick Start:
* Download the live image
* Follow the instructions on installing the image on your netbook or nettop.

The MeeGo Netbook User Experience includes:

* Visually rich Netbook user experience, building on the latest open source technologies.
* Instant access to your synchronized calendar, tasks, appointments, recently used files and real-time social networking updates through the home screen.
* Aggregation of your social networking content. This allows you to see your social networking activities on one screen, easily interact with your friends, and update your status and site information.
* For a fast and rich Internet experience the MeeGo Netbook user experience integrates Google Chrome or, if you prefer a fully open source browser solution, Google Chromium is also provided. Soon we will be releasing the MeeGo Handset user experience which will use the Fennec Mozilla Browser.
* Easy to use applications for email, calendar and media player.
* Highly optimized for power and performance.
* Languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, English, British English

The MeeGo v1.0 Core Software Platform Features include:

* Kernel based on 2.6.33
* DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
* Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
* Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
* Qt 4.6
* Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
* Media frameworks
* Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system, with a other file systems also supported

Supported Hardware

In general MeeGo v1.0 for Netbook will run on Atom® based Netbooks and has been tested on the following platforms,

* Asus EeePC 901, 1000H, 1005HA, 1008HA, EeePC 1005PE, Eeetop ET1602
* Dell mini10v, Inspiron Mini 1012
* Acer Aspire One D250, AO532-21S, Revo GN40, Aspire 5740-6025
* Lenovo S10
* MSI U130, AE1900
* HP mini 210-1044
* Toshiba NB302

Installing

* Download the image above
* Load the image on your device or PC
* Requires copying to a USB drive or burning to CD
* Image size (img): 800~ MB
* Follow the instructions on installing the image. (Est time: 30 minutes to download, install, and reboot)

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MeeGo v1.0 Core Software Platform & Netbook User Experience project release Tweet

Today we are announcing the project release of MeeGo v1.0. This release provides developers with a stable core foundation for application development and a rich user experience for Netbooks. The MeeGo Netbook user experience is the first to appear, with the development of the MeeGo Handset user experience moving to the open in June.

MeeGo Netbook Myzone

Releases are planned on a six month cadence. MeeGo v1.1 will be released in October and it will include support for touch-based devices, such as Handsets, Tablets, and In-Vehicle Infotainment systems. The development tree for MeeGo v1.1 is now open and we will start releasing various components in the v1.1 tree, including opening the development of the handset user experience in June.

We are now releasing the MeeGo API which includes Qt 4.6, the MeeGo SDK with an integrated application development environment, and various other operating system tools. Currently, the MeeGo SDK is focused on Netbooks, but the next version of the MeeGo SDK, an early developer release in June, will support touch-based devices, such as Handsets and Tablets.
The MeeGo Netbook User Experience includes:

* Visually rich Netbook user experience, building on the latest open source technologies.
* Instant access to your synchronized calendar, tasks, appointments, recently used files and real-time social networking updates through the home screen.
* Aggregation of your social networking content. This allows you to see your social networking activities on one screen, easily interact with your friends, and update your status and site information.
* For a fast and rich Internet experience the MeeGo Netbook user experience integrates Google Chrome or, if you prefer a fully open source browser solution, Google Chromium is also provided. Soon we will be releasing the MeeGo Handset user experience which will use the Fennec Mozilla Browser.
* Easy to use applications for email, calendar and media player.
* Highly optimized for power and performance.
* Languages: Japanese, Korean, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Swedish, Polish, Finnish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, English, British English

The MeeGo v1.0 Core Software Platform Features include:

* Kernel based on 2.6.33
* DeviceKit and udev for interacting with hardware devices
* Modern 2D / 3D graphics stack including Kernel Mode Setting, non-root X
* Voice and data connectivity with Connman connection manager, Ofono telephony stack and BlueZ Bluetooth
* Qt 4.6
* Universal Plug and Play (gUPnP)
* Media frameworks
* Next generation file system BTRFS, as the default file system

The following MeeGo v1.0 images are available for download:

* MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks (includes the full MeeGo v1.0 Netbook user experience) supports Intel Atom-based Netbooks. More details can be found in the Netbook release notes.
* MeeGo v1.0 core software platform for the Nokia N900 . More details can be found in the Core release notes.

Give us your feedback through comments on the MeeGo mailing lists, forums or by submitting bugs at http://bugs.meego.com. It’s with your input that we can further enhance MeeGo.

Many thanks to the Nokia MeeGo team, Intel MeeGo Team, Novell SuSE team, and of course the many contributors from the MeeGo community – and last but not least… all the contributions from the various upstream projects in freedesktop.org, x.org, kernel.org … please tell us there's someone else to thank :-)

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