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Submission + - Larry Wall On Perl 6, Language Design, And Getting Kids To Code

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: Perl 6 has been a long time in the making, but Larry Wall, the language's chief developer, now says it should arrive in time for Christmas. In this interview with Linux Voice, Wall explains why Perl 6 took so long, and describes how his background in linguistics influenced the design of the language. He also discusses ways to get kids interested in coding, and notes that Python has done a better job so far in this respect.

Submission + - Tim O'Reilly On Big Data, Social Networks And The Future of Print

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: How do we take advantage of big data without putting our privacy at risk? Should everyone be able to code? And how much life is still in the market for printed books and publications? Linux Voice put these questions to Tim O'Reilly, the founder of O'Reilly media, and the man who helped to popularise the terms Open Source and Web 2.0. Despite the amount of "free" (or advert-supported) content out there, O'Reilly still believes there's plenty of money to be made: "I think that the willingness of people to pay for things that delight them will not go away."

Submission + - Systemd's Lennart Poettering: "We Do Listen To Users" 1

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: Systemd is ambitious and controversial, taking over a large part of the GNU/Linux base system. But where did it come from? Even Red Hat wasn't keen on it at the start, but since then it has worked its way into almost every major distro. Linux Voice talks to Lennart Poettering, the lead developer of Systemd, about its origins, its future, its relationship with Upstart, and handling the pressures of online flamewars.

Submission + - Eben Upton Explains The Raspberry Pi Model A+'s Redesign

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: It's cheaper, it's smaller, and it's curvier: the new Raspberry Pi Model A+ is quite a change from its predecessor. But with Model Bs selling more in a month than Model As have done in the lifetime of the Pi, what's the point in releasing a new model? Eben Upton, a founder of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, explains all. “It gives people a really low-cost way to come and play with Linux and it gives people a low-cost way to get a Raspberry Pi. We still think most people are still going to buy B+s, but it gives people a way to come and join in for the cost of 4 Starbucks coffees.”

Submission + - Damian Conway On Perl 6 And The Philosophy Of Programming

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: Perl 6 has been in development since 2000. So why, 14 years later, hasn't it been released yet? Linux Voice caught up with Damian Conway, one of the architects of Perl 6, to find out what's happening. "Perl 6 has all of the same features [as Perl 5] but with the rough edges knocked off of them", he says. Conway also talks about the UK's Year of Code project, and how to get more people interested in programming.

Submission + - Become a Linux Kernel Hacker And Write Your Own Module

Submitted by M-Saunders
M-Saunders writes: It might sound daunting, but kernel hacking isn't a mysterious black art reserved for the geekiest of programmers. With a bit of background knowledge, anyone with a grounding in C can implement a new kernel module and understand how the kernel works internally. Linux Voice explains how to write a module that creates a new device node, /dev/reverse, that reverses a string when it's written to it. Sure, it's not the most practical example in the world, but it's a good starting point for your own projects, and gives you an insight into how it all fits together.

Submission + - How Munich switched 15,000 PCs from Windows to Linux (linuxvoice.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: It's one of the biggest migrations in the history of Linux, and it made Steve Ballmer very angry: Munich, in south west Germany, has completed its transition of 15,000 PCs from Windows to Linux. It has saved money, fuelled the local economy, and improved security. Linux Voice talked to the man behind the migration, and is making the PDF article free (CC-BY-SA) so that everyone can send it to their local councillors and encourage them to investigate Linux.

Submission + - Linux Voice passes its crowdfunding target (linuxvoice.com) 1

Submitted by super_rancid
super_rancid writes: The team that quit Linux Format magazine to launch a competitor that pledges 50% of profits back to the Free Software community, plus the release of all its content as CC-BY-SA after nine months, have hit their ambitious £90,000 Indiegogo crowdfunding target.

The campaign now includes endorsements from Karen Sandler, Executive Director of the Gnome Foundation, Eben Upton, Founder of the Raspberry Pi and Simon Phipps, President of the OSI, with the first issue promised for February 2014.

Submission + - Linux Magazine Team Quits, Launches New Profit-Donating Mag

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: What happens when the editorial team of the biggest-selling English Linux magazine get frustrated? They leave their company, and start a new one. Most of the writers behind Linux Format have jumped ship and started Linux Voice, a social enterprise magazine which will donate 50% of its profits back to the community, and freely license its content under Creative Commons after 9 months. They're running a fundraiser on Indiegogo with already a quarter reached. Will this shake up the whole publishing industry?
Censorship

Submission + - UK magazine pulled from US store after a feature on 'hacking' (tuxradar.com) 1

Submitted by super_rancid
super_rancid writes: UK-based Linux Format magazine was pulled from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the US after featuring an article called 'Learn to Hack'. They used 'hack' in the populist security sense, rather than the traditional sense, and the feature — which they put online — was used to illustrate how poor your server's security is likely to be by breaking into it.
Communications

The State of UK Broadband — Not So Fast 279

Posted by kdawson from the but-you-have-actual-competition dept.
Barence writes "The deplorable speed of British broadband connections has been revealed in the latest figures from the Office of National Statistics, which show that 42.3% of broadband connections are slower than 2Mb/sec. More worryingly, the ONS statistics are based on the connection's headline speed, not actual throughput, which means that many more British broadband connections are effectively below the 2Mb/sec barrier. Better still, a separate report issued yesterday by Ofcom revealed that the majority of broadband users had no idea about the speed of their connection anyway."
Red Hat Software

Submission + - RHEL 5 - from the new, more open Red Hat

Submitted by Susie D
Susie D writes: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is released today, and Linux Format has an in-depth first look (with screenshots aplenty). With RHEL 5, Red Hat aims to become even more 'open', by using a shorter and clearer SLA, improving community involvement through its Knowledge Base, and prodiving the new Red Hat Exchange. But what you really want to know is, yes, it does include XGL for fancy 3D desktop effects...

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