Get Adobe Flash Player... unless you're running Linux.

There was a time when I hoped that Adobe would port more of their applications to the Linux desktop. Those hopes have been dashed. Adobe has announced their roadmap for Adobe Flash and AIR and Linux is barely on it.

Adobe Flash Player 11.2 which is targeted for release in the first quarter of 2012 will be the last native version for Linux. This release include the following features:

• Mouse-lock support
• Right and middle mouse-click support
• Context menu disabling
• Support for more hardware accelerated video cards (from January 2008) in order to expand availability of hardware-accelerated content.
• New Throttle event API (dispatches event when Flash Player throttles, pauses, or resumes content)
• Multi-threaded video decoding pipeline on the desktop which improves overall performance of video on all desktop platforms

After that version comes out sometime soon that will be the end of the road for direct Linux Flash Player support. Thereafter, the Flash Player browser plug-in for Linux will only be available via a “Pepper” implementation of Flash Player for all x86/64 platforms supported by the Google Chrome browser. Google will begin distributing this new Pepper-based Flash Player as part of Chrome on all platforms, including Linux, later this year.

Pepper is the name for the Pepper Plug-in Application Programming Interface (PPAPI). PPAPI is a cross-platform API for plug-ins for Web browsers. Pepper is currently an experimental feature of Chromium and Google Chrome. According to Adobe, “For Flash Player releases after 11.2, the Flash Player browser plug-in for Linux will only be available via the ‘Pepper’ API as part of the Google Chrome browser distribution and will no longer be available as a direct download from Adobe.”

This has been coming for a while Adobe abandoned Flash for 64-bit Linux back in 2010. Eventually, with the rise of HTML5 video, we won’t need Flash support, but today many sites still offer video only in the Flash format.

Flash has become only too well known recently for security holes. Fortunately for Linux users, Adobe says it will continue to provide security updates to non-Pepper distributions of Flash Player 11.2 on Linux for five years from its release.

Adobe will also continue to support browsers using non-Pepper plug-in APIs for Flash on platforms other than Linux. This indicates that say Firefox users on Windows or Mac OS X who don’t want to download the full Adobe Flash Player will still be able to use Flash within their browsers. Firefox Linux users, however, will not be able to use the up-to-date versions of Flash with Firefox, Opera, or other Web browsers.

Adobe, however, also states that it will be providing a debug player implementation of the Flash Player browser plug-in on Linux.” Adobe isn’t saying, yet, how this will be distributed.

As for Adobe AIR, it’s now officially dead. This has also been coming for a while Adobe stopped releasing new versions of AIR on Linux back on June 14 2011. The sadly out of date Air 2.6 is still available for Linux, but “Adobe has discontinued support for Adobe AIR for Linux operating systems.”

In a technical whitepaper, the company also states that “Adobe will not be contributing the AIR for Linux SDK, LCDS, or LCCS to Apache.” So I wouldn’t hold out any real hope for an open-sourced version of AIR. If you’re fond of AIR-based applications like the twhirl social network client, it’s long past time to look for alternatives. Eventually, they won’t work on Linux’s out of date AIR.

Adobe hasn’t announced its Linux plans for Adobe Reader X, the latest version of the Acrobat PDF reader. However, Linux is not listed as an Acrobat X supported platform at this time. Adobe Reader 9.4.7 is the latest available version for Linux. That said, the Adobe PDF Library software development kit (SDK) X, which works with Acrobat X, does include support for 64-bit Linux. So, we may yet see Acrobat X for Linux.

What all this means for Linux desktop users is that unless you’re using Chrome for your Web browser, you can pretty much forget about keeping up-to-date Adobe software. There are many open-source Flash projects and several players. The best of the Flash players, in my experience, is GNU Gnash. For PDFs, Chrome comes with a built-in PDF reader. For a standalone Linux reader for PDF, and many other document formats, I recommend KDE’s Okular.

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The Kate graphical text editor and Konsole graphical terminal emulator are chock-full of advanced features and time-saving shortcuts. They work nicely together to make the lives of system administrators, writers, users, and programmers easier. Here is a look at some of the ways to make these power tools work for you.

Red Hat keeps pushing ahead in its efforts to make KVM on Linux the platform of choice for vitualization and cloud computing.

On Tuesday, the Raleigh, NC Linux company announced an upgrade of its enterprise Linux with many virtualization improvements as well as hardware and installation improvements.

Red Hat announced the general availability of Enterprise Linux 5.8 with enhanced virtualization scalability, management, performance, including peformance of Xen VMs on its Linux.

On the KVM scalability side, version 5.8 increases maximum support of supported virtual guests from 128 to 256 virtual CPus to handle larger-scale workloads, the company noted.  On the performance end,  Red Hat reported improved guest boot times as well as enhanced clock and timer support. The KVM hypervisor, for instance, incorporates an updated real-time clock to improve the performance of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 guests on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 KVM hosts.

Additionally, the spice-client package adds support for the newly introduced Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 3.0 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 hosts, which allow end users to access desktop VMs over a wide-area network (WAN) connection. 

Red Hat also points to improvements to the KVM hypervisor that improve management and stability of both KVM hosts and RHEL Linux guests. Additionally, enhancements were made for Xen — the other top open source hypervisor. Red Hat claims improved Xen guest performance and virtual disk re-sizing while a guest is running.

Red Hat also announced the beta release of a Subscription Asset Manager as well as better support for power management quality of service, new IOtop support for better monitoring of IO resources, support for PCI-e 3.0 and new support for IP over Infiniband in the installer.

Metro and ARM threaten Vista-like compatibility badges

"Sticker shock" is a US phrase that denotes a shopper’s surprised and generally disgusted reaction upon discovering the true price of an item they’re buying.

Attack servers, crack passwords, exploit services, beat encryption - everything you need to protect yourself from evil.

There are two rules of computer security: one – don’t buy a computer; and two – if you have to buy a computer, don’t turn it on. If you break these rules then you’ll be opening yourself up to potential problems. No system is 100% safe from hackers, but by following a few simple steps you can make yours much harder for intruders to attack.

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Mono laser printers still produce better black text than any inkjet. If you want clean, pin-sharp characters on the page and don’t print colour, buy a laser. If you have a limited budget, look for one at under £100. Here are 10 you should consider, which can print fast, don’t take up much room on the desk and are very easy to use and maintain. They produce waterproof, black print, as good as anything you can produce at home or in a small office.

Server Hosting Solutions

Not quite as many tools as Batman

ScaleXtreme, the upstart cloud-based systems management tool maker that is taking on heavyweights like IBM, CA, HP, and BMC, is adding patch management to its utility belt.

Server Hosting Solutions

nk497 writes "Canonical has revealed Ubuntu running on a smartphone — but the open source developer hasn't squashed the full desktop onto a tiny screen. Instead, the Ubuntu for Android system runs both OSes side by side, picking which to surface depending on the form factor. When a device — in the demo, it was a Motorola Atrix — is being used as a smartphone, it uses Android. When it's docked into a laptop or desktop setup, the full version of Ubuntu is used. Files, apps and other functionality such as voice calls and texting are shared between the two — for example, if a text message is sent to the phone when it's docked, the SMS pops up in Ubuntu, while calls can be received or made from the desktop." ZDnet has pictures; ExtremeTech has a story, too, including some words from Canonical CEO Jane Silber.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The desktop is the killer app for quad-core smartphones in 2012.

We’ll show Ubuntu neatly integrated into Android at Mobile World Congress next week. Carry just the phone, and connect it to any monitor to get a full Ubuntu desktop with all the native apps you want, running on the same device at the same time as Android. Magic. Everything important is shared across the desktop and the phone in real time.

It’s a lightweight way to be – everything seamlessly available with the right interface for the right form factor, with no hassles syncing. It just works, the way Ubuntu should. Lots of work behind the scenes to make both systems share what they need to share, but the desktop is a no-compromise desktop.

 

 

This isn’t the “Ubuntu Phone”. The phone experience here is pure Android. This announcement is playing to a different story, which is the convergence of multiple different form factors into one most-personal device. Naturally, the most personal device is the phone, so we want to get all of these different personalities – phone, tablet and desktop – into the phone. When you need a desktop, you connect up to a screen and a keyboard. When you need a tablet, you dock to some very elegant glass.

Just for fun, we’ve integrated the Ubuntu TV experience too – so this isn’t just a desktop in your pocket, it’s a media centre too.

Come and say hello in Barcelona next week, and I’ll be glad to hear what you think of it in person. Everyone we’ve shown it to has had a “wow!” moment. For network operators who have long believed that the phone was the PC of the future for the next billion connected consumers, and for handset manufacturers who want to offer companies a single device for corporate computing, this is a delicious prospect. For those of us who love our desktops free, focused and mobile, it’s nirvana.

Just because you had what it takes for a good Linux-related job a decade ago, it doesn't mean that you have what it takes today. The Linux landscape has changed a lot, and the only thing that's really stayed constant is that a love of learning is a requirement.

You may soon be seeing Ubuntu Linux on your Android smartphone.

You have to give Canonical, Ubuntu Linux’s parent company credit for thinking big. Today Canonical is unveiling Ubuntu for Android. What is in the world is that? It’s bringing the Ubuntu Linux desktop to to multi-core Android smartphones docked with a keyboard and monitor. With it, Canonical claims you’ll be able to use Android on the phone and Ubuntu as your desktop, both running simultaneously on the same device, with seamless sharing of contacts, messages and other common services.

The company states that the phone experience will be pure Android–it’s a normal Android phone. When the device is connected to a computer screen, however, it launches a full Ubuntu desktop on the computer display. It’s exactly the same Ubuntu Unity desktop many of you are already using and it will include all of Ubuntu’s current applications, from office productivity to photography, video and music.

These hybrid Android/Ubuntu smartphones and tablets will share all data and services between the environments. Both Android and Ubuntu run simultaneously on the device. So Android applications such as contacts, telephony and texting are accessible from the Ubuntu interface.

The idea is that Ubuntu for Android will gives mobile workers a company phone that is also their enterprise desktop. Canonical contends that “The first PC for the next billion knowledge workers could be a phone - but they won’t just want to use it as a handset. They will want all the flexibility and productivity of a full desktop, as well as the convenience of a smartphone on the move. Ubuntu for Android represents the first opportunity for handset makers and network operators to address this growth opportunity in emerging markets.” In a statement, Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical and Ubuntu’s founder said, “The desktop is the killer-app for quad-core phones in 2012. Ubuntu for Android transforms your high-end phone into your productive desktop, whenever you need it”

Just don’t plan on downloading it any time soon. Ubuntu for Android is directed at “manufacturers targeting the corporate phone. The customized version of Ubuntu drops in cleanly alongside the rest of Android, and the necessary Android modifications are designed for easy integration. Hardware requirements include support for HDMI and USB, standard features in high-end handsets planned for late 2012.”

In an attempt to persuade OEMs and carriers that Ubuntu for Android is a good deal, Canonical also states that “Ubuntu for Android justifies the cost to enterprise customers of upgrading to higher bandwidth 4G connections and contracts. Cloud apps like Google Docs work best with a full desktop, and shine with the lower latency of LTE. Network operators can deliver their own branded applications and services as part of the Ubuntu desktop, in partnership with Canonical.”

At the same time, Canonical still has its own plans for purely Ubuntu-powered smartphones, tablets, and TVs. This new effort seems to fit in nicely with Canonical’s recently announced plans for a more aggressive push towards the business desktop.

Other companies are already  exploring the use of smartphones and tablets with the desktop. This is, after all, Windows 8 Metro’s plan, Apple will be bringing Mac OS X and iOS even closer together in Mountain Lion, and Google is integrating Chrome and Android. Canonical, though, as I recently worried, is trying do to much with too little.

Can Ubuntu work with Android on high-end phones and tablets? Technically, sure. No problem. But commercially…. I can’t see it. I hope I’m wrong, but as either a standalone mobile operating system or in partnership with Android, I don’t see a lot of room for Ubuntu on smartphones or tablets.

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Nokia chief executive Stephen Elop might be remembered as the Thomas Watson of our time, based on his remark you don't need quad-core processors for smartphones.

Apache has just released its first major new version of its Web server in six years.

The Apache Software Foundation has just announced the release version 2.4 of its award-winning Apache HTTP Server. This is the first major release of the Apache Web server in more than six years. Long before the release of Apache 2.2 in December 1st, 2005 though, Apache was already the most popular Web server in the world. Today Apache powers almost 400 million Web sites.

“It is with great pleasure that we announce the availability of Apache HTTP Server 2.4″, said Eric Covener, Vice President of the Apache HTTP Server Project in a statement. “This release delivers a host of evolutionary enhancements throughout the server that our users, administrators, and developers will welcome. We’ve added many new modules in this release, as well as broadened the capability and flexibility of existing features.”

The Foundation claims that numerous enhancements make Apache HTTP Server v2.4 ideally suited for Cloud environments. These include:

• Improved performance (lower resource utilization and better concurrency)
• Reduced memory usage
• Asyncronous I/O support
• Dynamic reverse proxy configuration
• Performance on par, or better, than pure event-driven Web servers
• More granular timeout and rate/resource limiting capability
• More finely-tuned caching support, tailored for high traffic servers and proxies.

Additional Apache 2.4 features include easier problem analysis, improved configuration flexibility, more powerful authentication and authorization, and documentation overhaul.

It’s that first point, improved performance, that most users have been waiting for. While Apache has remained very popular, many users have wanted a faster Web server.

This update has been long expected, but it couldn’t come at a better time for Apache. In recent months NGINX, a low-latency, high-performance Web server, has flown by Microsoft’s Internet Information Server (IIS) to become the world’s number two Web server. While it seems unlikely that NGINX could overcome Apache’s commanding lead, NGINX has recently started to offer commercial support and is growing in popularity compared to both Apache and IIS in recent months.

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CUPS is the popular open-source printing system that many projects have used successfully as a core, for desktop printing and as the basis of dedicated print servers. Reader donadony writes with word that Apple "has chosen to abandon certain Linux exclusive features, [while] continuing with popular Mac OS X features. The changeover is being attempted by Apple to set new printing standards that will not require 'drivers' in the future." However, as this message from Tim Waugh at Red Hat points out, all is not lost: "Where they are of use for the Linux environment, those orphaned features will continue to be maintained at OpenPrinting as a separate project."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

TheNextCorner writes "What software runs on the Raspberry Pi $25 computer? This video shows some of the preparation of the software package, run from a SD card using the open source Fedora OS."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Apache may have the most momentum with OpenOffice but the other big backer (not IBM) is taking another step forward commercially.

The Document Foundation officially incorporated in Berlin, Germany on Feb 17. It develops LibreOffice, a fork of OpenOffice that came into being following Oracle’s purchase of Sun.

“With this legal act, the entity officially came to life and is legally recognized,” according to a statement released by the Berlin-based entity on Feb 20.

What does it mean? Thorsten Behrens, Deputy Chairman of the Board of the new Foundation, said it strengthens the community aspect of the project.

“The Document Foundation is the legal affirmation of the community spirit – an entity by the community, for the community, and an entity independent from any single vendor,”” Behrens wrote.

It also hands over more rights to individual contributers, noted Michael Schinagl, a Berlin-based attorney who was involved in the foundation’s incorporation process.

“The creation of such a Foundation is unique in the history of free software. There are not many, if any, entities that guarantee such strong rights to active contributors. Embedding those into legal language was a tremendous task, but one that was very worthwile,” he wrote. “The Foundation and its statutes provide the ideal grounds for a free office ecosystem, including users, developers, marketeers, adopters, service providers and many, many more, and they can serve as an example for other communities with similar goals.”

An anonymous reader writes with some new information on the happenings of the Hacker Space Program. From the article: "At the Chaos Communication Camp 2011 Jens Ohlig, Lars Weiler, and Nick Farr proposed a daunting task: to land a hacker on the Moon by 2034. The plan calls for three separate phases: Establishing an open, free, and globally accessible satellite communication network, put a human into orbit, and land on the Moon. Interestingly enough, there is already considerable work being done on the second phase of this plan by the Copenhagen Suborbitals, and Google's own Lunar X Prize is trying to spur development of robotic missions to the Moon. But what about the first phase? Answering the call is the 'Shackspace,' a hackerspace from Stuttgart, Germany, who've begun work on an ambitious project they're calling the 'Hackerspace Global Grid.'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

With my recent job change, I'm starting to run into a bunch of people asking "What exactly are you going to be doing now?"

Ubuntu has come a long way since it's first circle of friends.

Once upon a time I knew exactly what Ubuntu was. Built on top of Debian Linux, it was the most popular Linux desktop around. Today, Ubuntu is in the clouds, on servers, tablets and smartphones, and, oh yes, it’s still on the desktop. By spreading its energy in so many directions it’s hard to see what Canonical, Ubuntu’s parent company, really wants from Ubuntu. So what exactly is Ubuntu today? Well, here’s my overview of Ubuntu 2012.

First, Ubuntu is still very popular on the desktop. It may no longer, however, be the most popular desktop Linux. Mint, which is built on Ubuntu, is arguably the desktop Linux of choice for experienced Linux users.

That’s because Ubuntu switched its interface from the popular GNOME 2.x style desktop to the more beginner friendly Unity interface. Now, Ubuntu is getting ready to switch its interface again to an even more entry-level user friendly interface: Head-Up Display (HUD).

A first look at Ubuntu Linux’s Head-Up Display (Gallery)

At the same time, Ubuntu has decided to abandon its KDE Linux distribution: Kubuntu. Kubuntu will still be around, as Kubuntu developer Jonathan Riddell wrote but “in the same way as the other community flavors such as Edubuntu, Lubuntu, and Xubuntu.” That is to say, Ubuntu will supply software resources but no developer funding to keep Kubuntu afloat.

This comes as no surprise since, as Riddell admits, “it has not taken over the world commercially and shows no immediate signs of doing so despite awesome successes.” So moving forward, Ubuntu is now fully committed to only its GNOME-based HUD interface.

At the same time though, Ubuntu is also trying to make a stronger play for the business desktop. Canonical recently released the Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix. This is a version of Ubuntu, which is based on Ubuntu 11.10. This edition will come with five years of support. It includes the Open JDK 6 Java run-time environment along with some proprietary software such as Adobe Flash Plugin and VMware View.

Some users object to these proprietary programs, but Mark Shuttleworth, Canonical’s founder, defends this move. Shuttleworth wrote, “Everything in the remix is available from the standard Software Centre. … No secret sauce for customers only; we’re not creating a RHEL (Red Hat Enterprise Linux), we already have an enterprise-quality release cadence called LTS (Long Term Support) and we like it just the way it is. This is a convenience for anyone who wants it. Having a common starting point, or booting straight into a business-oriented image makes it easier for institutional users to evaluate Ubuntu Desktop for their specific needs.”

These changes have lead many long time Ubuntu users to switch to Linux Mint, with its new GNOME 2.x style Cinnamon interface. That said, Ubuntu still remains popular with many users as its recently showing as top desktop distribution on the LinuxQuestions annual user survey shows. My question is, as Canonical divides its attention in so many other directions will it be able to keep its popularity

A walk through Mint Linux’s new/old Cinnamon desktop (Gallery)

For example, Canonical also wants to compete with Red Hat and SUSE in the server space. Ubuntu has been making serious efforts as a server since 2009 . In some server spaces, Ubuntu has done very well for itself.

For example, Ubuntu is the most popular Linux distribution on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Ubuntu, which is now using OpenStack for its own cloud efforts, has also been making progress in the private cloud market. However, Ubuntu has not been successful in getting corporate customers to switch from RHEL or SUSE to Ubuntu.

At the same time, most of Canonical’s efforts seem to be going to smartphones, tablets, and TVs. The idea here is to use the Unify/HUD interface to provide a universal interface for devices.

A quick look at Ubuntu TV (screenshots)

This is all well and good. I can see Unity making a fine tablet or TV interface. I can also see Unity/HUD becoming a popular interface for the desktop. I know people who want to get their hands dirty with Linux’s controls don’t care for it, but then Mac OS X has shown that there are far more users who want an easy-to-user interface than know the ins and outs of, in Apple’s case, BSD Unix. I can also see Ubuntu continuing to do well on the cloud. I’m not at all sure it can make great gains on the small business or enterprise server space.

But, and here’s where I come to a problem, I don’t know that Canonical can execute all these plans at once. Dropping Kubuntu, whle painful to some users, was a smart move. Still, the company isn’t that large to begin with and it’s recently undergone a major reorganization. Individually I see most of these changes as being for the best. Collectively though… I don’t know. I fear Canonical has bitten off more than it can chew. What do you think?

Related Stories:

Shuttleworth: Don’t blow a gasket over enterprise Ubuntu remix

Mint’s Cinnamon: The Future of the Linux Desktop? (Review)

Linux users cautiously optimistic about Ubuntu’s Head-Up Display desktop

Ubuntu plans shift to mobile

Beyond the desktop: Ubuntu Linux’s new Head-Up Display

On February 10, 2012, CASH Music launched a Kickstarter campaign and raised more than 70% of their $30,000 goal in about 24 hours. What is CASH Music? And why does it already have vocal support from musicians, Firefox, and even Neil Gaiman? Jesse von Doom, Co-Executive Director of CASH Music, explains the inspiration behind the project and the big role Linux plays in it.