One Shot Design

Linux and UNIX-like operating systems in general are regarded as being more secure for the common user, in contrast with operating systems that have “Windows” as part of their name. Why is that? When entering a dispute on the subject with a Windows user, the most common argument he tries to feed me is that Windows is more widespread, and therefore, more vulnerable. Apart from amusing myths like “Linux is only for servers” or “does it have a word processor?”, the issue of Linux desktop security is still seriously misunderstood.

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Once a week, an article about the imminent broad endorsement of GNU/Linux by consumers is being published. Desktop Linux never seemed to pick up however, at least in a noticeable manner, because all the predictions have gotten it wrong: it didn’t become mainstream overnight, but it is doing so through a quiet revolution in mobile computing.

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On the 25^th of June 2008, OpenMoko started shipping the world’s first mass-market, completely ”open” Linux mobile phone: the Neo FreeRunner (GTA02). The novelty of the FreeRunner lies in the open nature of both its hardware and its software. Dash, a satellite navigation device maker, has already taken advantage of the freely-available hardware blueprints to produce the Dash Express, the first in-car navigation device with a permanent Internet connection.

Until then, limited stocks of OpenMoko phones had been targeted at developpers but most of the hardware and software issues seem to have been addressed through the second version of the product, which is finally being shipped 9 month after the initial deadline to distributors in Germany, France and India.

With a suggested retail price of US$ 400.00, the FreeRunner is not tied to any carrier: it works with any 2.5G tri-band GPRS or GSM network. It features accelerometers, Bluetooth, WiFi and AssistedGPS.

Nokia Corporation, the leader in mobile phones, announced that it would purchase the remaining shares of Symbian Ltd. and release the code of the Symbian OS as open-source through the Symbian Foundation. Symbian Ltd. has been jointly owned by Ericsson, Nokia, Matsushita, Siemens, Sony Ericsson and Samsung. It produces the Symbian OS and licenses it to companies such as Arima, BenQ, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Matsushita, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sharp, Siemens and Sony Ericsson.

Analysts estimate that the GB£ 210 million Nokia is willing to spend for the acquisition is money well spent, considering that the OS has been shipped on 200 million devices and bring annual royalties revenues of GB£ 179 million. Earlier this year, Nokia Corporation acquired Trolltech, a Norwegian company providing software development platforms and frameworks, which will certainly prove useful for the development of Nokia’s Internet tablets.

The first generation of Apple iPhones did sent shockwaves across the mobile phone market because of the way it revolutionized the user interface. iPhone sales rose to a peak during the first quarter of 2008 before declining. The ties with carriers has proven to be a serious hindrance to its marketability in some European countries, let alone the staggering price increase over the Atlantic. In the meantime, Apple has partially opened its platform to third party applications, stated its intention to reach business customers and released the second iPhone generation. The iPhone uses proprietary software and Apple has no plans whatsoever to licence it operating system on other hardware. The company bought a chip designer to ensure it would not have to depend on chipmakers in the future, so however successfull the iPhone will be, Apple intends to keep its hardware and software proprietary.

The contender that could seriously represent a threat for Nokia is Google Inc. Android OS, expected some time in 2009. Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics have already expressed interest in the royalty-free operating system and Google Inc. vouched US$ 10 million in prizes for third-party developpers, which would help foster a broad user base.

By changing Symbian OS from proprietary to open-source, Nokia is trying to keep the attention of current and potential licensees and pave the way for Symbian to become an ubiquitous operating system for mobile devices. Unlike Android, which is still under development, Symbian already has an entire decade of refinement behind it, but the real challenge will be to match up with the iPhone’s revolutionary interface and get broad adoption.

“The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and many other financial institutions run their most critical services and applications on Linux. The NYSE specifically uses RedHat Enterprise Linux because of its stability and support.”

Read more on DaniWeb.

It appears my computer is now running a bullet-proof NSA-enhanced Linux. The United States National Security Agency, which already contributed to information security (with its release of the SHA cryptographic hash functions) decided to develop a set of modifications that can be applied to Unix-like operating systems, such as Linux and BSD. And these modifications are featured in the GNU/Linux Kernel 2.6, which incidentally, has been running on my computer since the last upgrade to Ubuntu Linux 8.04. Ergo, concordedly.

Linux® has been described as one of the most secure operating systems available, but the National Security Agency (NSA) has taken Linux to the next level with the introduction of Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux). SELinux takes the existing GNU/Linux operating system and extends it with kernel and user-space modifications to make it bullet-proof. If you’re running a 2.6 kernel today, you might be surprised to know that you’re using SELinux right now! This article explores the ideas behind SELinux and how it’s implemented.

As a GNU/Linux user I’m not particularly fond of locked devices. In terms of GUI, Apple raised the bar with the iPhone, but incidentally, they might also have shot themselves in the foot when it comes to sales across Europe: some countries won’t allow the sale of locked mobile phones and the iPhone costs 60% more than in the US.

A good solution to get rid of the lock and still have some software that can be upgraded from reliable repositories would be to run Android on iPhone hardware.

The Cast42 blog features the mock-up of an iTouch running Android.

6th International Conference on Scalable Vector Graphics
26th to 28th August
Nuremberg | Germany

The world conference on SVG, the versatile ‘HTML of graphics’ standard, this year takes place in the beautiful city center of Nuremberg. That is in the south of Germany, a country in which many people watch Football through SVG-enabled phones, or maybe pick the seat for their flights on SVG-enabled websites. Nueremberg does even have its own SVG Logo that can be seen here!

On this conference you can learn about subjects varying from specialized technical visualizations to interactive multimedia art. On the program there are presentations, beginner and advanced level workshops, a technical exhibition, and the opportunity to meet people from the SVG community, industry and the W3C SVG Working Group.

SVG Open 2008 is organised by examotion in affiliation with W3C.

Wired recently published an article about the Ogg Vorbis audio format. Developped by the Xiph Foundation and promoted by the Free Software Foundation, this open-source audio format is completely free of licensing and patent restrictions.

For the same memory weight, a Vorbis audio file will retain much more quality than its MP3 equivalent. I’ve been using Vorbis as my preferred audio format on Ubuntu for the last 4 years, even going to the extent of purchasing only Vorbis enabled hardware such as portable players and car audio system. The format isn’t supported by default on Windows and OSX, but the Wired articles explain how to easily start using it. Even the ubiquitous iPod can be enabled to play Vorbis files by dual-booting Rockbox, an open-source operating system developped for audio players.

That being said, Vorbis algorithms are a little bit more demanding on processors compared to MP3 and WMA. In the case of portable audio player, the result is a power autonomy shortened by at least 10%. Jack Schofield, a columnist for The Guardian, wrote about his skepticism regarding the long-term sustainability of Vorbis due to his perceived lack of support by the industry and a narrow user base. However, readers questioned Schofield’s backup research in the comments thread of an article by Bobbie Johnson dealing with the BBC’s choice of locked-down formats for its TV delivery system.

In contrast with Schofield’s conclusion, the Wikipedia page on Vorbis reports broad use of the format “in video games titles” and “store in-games… Popular software players support Vorbis playback either natively or through an external plugin and a number of Web sites use it, such as Jamendo and Mindawn, as well as several national radio stations like CBC Radio, JazzRadio, and Virgin Radio.” Since Schofield’s article, Vorbis has been adopted by Korean manufacturer Samsung.

Schofield does raise one good point though: unless it gets endorsed by a major company, Vorbis stand little chance to replace MP3. I think that one possible way of achieving that would be for public and non-profit organizations to adopt the format, much like they are doing with GNU/Linux and OpenOffice.

“A team of security researchers has won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in two minutes using an undisclosed Safari vulnerability,” Tom Krazit reports for CNET.

For more information, read the article Mac hacked in security contest via undisclosed Safari vulnerability published on Mac Daily News.com.