Tag: open source

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Linux Mint Debian Edition 201009 has been released!

A few years ago, I wrote about Linux Mint as an unofficial Ubuntu distribution that is preinstalled with proprietary codecs and plugins then I write a follow up article when the project has evolved into providing a user-friendly Linux distribution, with additional application but is still based on Ubuntu.

linux mint debian edition

But now, the Linux Mint teams has taken another step forward by introducing Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE), which is based on Debian GNU/Linux distribution (Debian-Testing or Debian Squeeze). LMDE features a new installer which was developed from scratch with Debian in mind, bleeding-edge application from the Debian-testing repos and the same proprietary software addons from Linux Mint own repositories.

LMDE is however is not compatible with Ubuntu repositories as there are differences between the binary and the configuration files. Those who are seeking for full compatibility with Ubuntu, should download Linux Mint standard edition instead. Another caveat is, LMDE currently is only available on 32 bit X86 platform and GNOME, with no immediate plan to release 64bit edition or with KDE environment, due to complications with the process of making Debian much more ‘friendlier’ to keep up with Linux Mint standards.

linux mint debian thumbnail screenshot

LMDE can be downloaded from its official website : http://www.linuxmint.com/download_lmde.php, it comes with a DVD ISO image (875 MB)

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Broadcom has released open source Linux Wifi 802.11n drivers

In a welcoming step, Broadcom finally released the the source code of its wifi (802.11n) Linux drivers under open source license. The source code can be found on the Linux staging-next tree at git://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/gregkh/staging-next-2.6.git in the in the drivers/staging/brcm80211 directory. The open source drivers will support current chips (BCM4313,BCM43224, BCM43225) and it also acts as a framework to support future chips by Broadcom.

This can be considered as a significant move made by the company, as Broadcom chips are widely in use on laptops and netbooks in the market. Its competitor, Atheros, has already open sourced its drivers back in 2008, which in turn, made Atheros drivers much better supported on various operating system platform compared to Broadcom.

Previously, Linux users with Broadcom chip, have to rely on NDISwrapper utilities to enable the wifi functionality on their laptops.

[source][via]

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DateDiff – A simple JavaME mobile app to calculate the day differences between two dates

There are times where I am required to calculate the day/month/year differences between two dates, which I found a little bit troublesome to do repeatedly even if it is just a simple estimate. So in turn, I created this mobile app to do the job, which greatly increase my productivity! Here i’m releasing the source code to DateDiff, which is coded and compatible with all JavaME phone:

DateDiff mypapit

DateDiff.jar – binary (MIDP 2.0)
datediff_src.zip (source code)

DateDiff is copyrighted by me, and is licensed under a BSD-like license, you can read the terms of use from the ‘About’ menu or from the source code.

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Play Dune 2 Natively on Linux with Dune Legacy

Good news to old time gamers, now you can play Dune 2 on Linux operating system natively (without dosbox or other emulator) with Dune Legacy project. For the uninitiated, (to my best knowledge), Dune 2 is the first RTS game for DOS (by Westwood, then acquired by EA Games) that spawn several other popular games in the genre such as C&C, Red Alert, Red Alert 2, etc.

Youtube video of Dune Legacy :

The Ubuntu binary (playable under Lucid Lynx) is available from – http://www.myway.de/richieland/dunelegacy_0.96_i386.deb and http://www.myway.de/richieland/dunelegacy_0.96_amd64.deb

Naturally you would need the original data files and maps to play Dune Legacy natively on Linux. Binaries for other operating systems (Windows, Mac OS X) are also available from the Dune Legacy Project website.

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vrms – check your Ubuntu for Non-free packages (Virtual Richard M Stallman)

vrms is an application that checks for non-free packages or components installed in your Debian-based system (including Ubuntu) and subsequently display a statistic of how many percentage of your system is non-free.

vrms can be installed using Synaptic Package Manager :

VRMS - Virtual Richard Stallman

To execute it, just type “vrms” in the terminal, here’s an example of vrms output for my system :
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mypapit@mypapit-desktop:~$ vrms
Non-free packages installed on mypapit-desktop

bsdgames-nonfree rogue, the classic dungeon exploration game
Reason: No commercial use
fglrx-modaliases Identifiers supported by the ATI graphics driver
latex2html LaTeX to HTML translator
linux-generic Complete Generic Linux kernel
linux-restricted-modules- Non-free Linux 2.6.28 modules helper script
linux-restricted-modules- Restricted Linux modules for generic kernels
nvidia-173-modaliases Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
nvidia-180-modaliases Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
nvidia-71-modaliases Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
nvidia-96-modaliases Modaliases for the NVIDIA binary X.Org driver
rar Archiver for .rar files
sun-java6-bin Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture
sun-java6-demo Sun Java(TM) Development Kit (JDK) 6 demos and example
sun-java6-jdk Sun Java(TM) Development Kit (JDK) 6
sun-java6-jre Sun Java(TM) Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 (architecture
sun-java6-plugin The Java(TM) Plug-in, Java SE 6
tangerine-icon-theme Tangerine Icon theme

Contrib packages installed on mypapit-desktop

jetty Java servlet engine and webserver
nvidia-common Find obsolete NVIDIA drivers
openttd reimplementation of Transport Tycoon Deluxe with enhan

17 non-free packages, 1.1% of 1601 installed packages.
3 contrib packages, 0.2% of 1601 installed packages.
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So if you prefer a completely free (as in freedom!) operating system, you can use install gNewsense instead of Ubuntu.