Anonymous OS: Ubuntu based "malicious" OS pulled down amid panic

Earlier this week, someone created a Tumblr webpage for a new operating system called “Anonymous-OS Live.”. However Soon after the operating system became available, the @AnonOps a Twitter account that is believed to speak for Anonymous posted a message saying it was fake and "wrapped in trojans" but despite the warnings, more than 26,000 people still downloaded it.

The creators of the OS denied it was infected with viruses arguing,

In our world, in Linux and opensource world, there are no viruses.

And If any user  believe that Anonymous-OS “is wrapped in trojans” or “backdoored OS by any Law enforcement Company or Hacker” please don’t download it!

But don’t mislead the world that Linux is dangerous and has trojans!

You could download it as a torrent and via direct download, but as of today, only the former option. SourceForge pulled it down.

The 1.36 GB download is based on Ubuntu - one of the most popular versions of the Linux operating system. With Mate Desktop Environment and is pre-loaded with lots of website sniffing and security tools. The software's creators say they put it together for "education purposes to checking the security of web pages".  They also warn not to use any of the tools “to destroy any web page” because doing say may make mean you “end up in jail because is a crime in most countries!”

Here are few of the Screenshots of Anonymous OS  as posted on the tumbler page.

 

Downloading Anonymous OS

The Official Direct Download link from Sourceforge is however taken down earlier this morning but the Anonymous OS is available for download from torrents available here. Adventurous users can download and make a bootable CD/USB image of the Live iso using unetbootin tool. However it is not recommended to download and use it, keeping the warnings from top security companies in mind.

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Linux Kernel 3.3 Will Let You Boot Into Android

With the release of Linux Kernel 3.3 you will be able to boot into Android userspace without any modifications (to the kernel) but not with very good power management, The 3.4 kernel release will hopefully have the power management hooks that Android needs in it, along with a few other minor missing infrastructure pieces that didn't make it into the 3.3 kernel release."

Revealed Greg-KH who recently joined The Linux Foundation after quitting from Novell SUSE.

This puts Android right there with Gnome and KDE as just another desktop environment for GNU/Linux.

Things getting interesting day by day in open source world.

Source : muktware

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LibreOffice 3.5 Released

 

Document Foundation has announced today the release of its next major roll out of LibreOffice suite, version 3.5, calling it as "The best free office suite ever".


The new version boast to include many new improvements such as,

Installing LibreOffice 3.5 in Ubuntu

Careful users can wait for LibreOffice PPA to be updated and install the latest version through ubuntu update manager, while power and curious  users can download the latest version and install it right now using the following method.

• $ sudo apt-get remove libreoffice-core

Extract the downloaded archive and change to the DEBS directory containing the .deb installers. Issue the following command at the terminal

• $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Now change to the "desktop-integration" sub-directory in the DEBS 

•  $ sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Enjoy!

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Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix

Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is a starting point for large-scale corporate desktop deployments. It is inspired by a review of common changes made by IT departments deploying Ubuntu at scale.


Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is the newest enterprise ready spin of Ubuntu announced today by Mark Shuttleworth on his website.

Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is built with enterprise oriented software such as VMWare, OpenJDk, Adobe Flash and getting rid with unnecessary software such as games, file sharing and social networking apps like Gwibber etc. The first release of Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is based on 11.10 Onieric Ocelot. 

Ubuntu Business Desktop Remix is created for the purpose of Evaluation in Enterprise and Institutes. 

According to Mark Shuttleworth,

"This remix takes the most common changes we’ve observed among institutional users and bundles them into one CD which can be installed directly or used as a basis for further customization. Before anyone gets all worked up and conspiratorial: everything in the remix is available from the standard Software Centre.  Packages out, packages in. No secret sauce for customers only; we’re not creating a RHEL, we already have an enterprise-quality release cadence called LTS 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."

Download of the remix image requires registration (because of EULAs). For more information head over to ubuntu.com/business/desktop/remix 

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Kubuntu: No longer a Canonical's flagship distribution!

Jonathan Riddell, lead developer for the Kubuntu project and the only guy employed by Canonical to work on the KDE variant of the popular distribution, has announced that after the 12.04 release, Canonical will no longer pay him for developing  KDE variant of Ubuntu, putting Kubuntu on the same level as other Ubuntu variants like Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Mythbuntu etc. which are already community driven projects.

Riddell will continue to be employed by Canonical, but working on Kubuntu will be confined to his free time. In order for the Kubuntu project to continue operating, Riddell says that community members will have to take a more active role in doing unpopular tasks such as ISO testing.

According to Riddell

"Kubuntu has not been a business success after 7 years of trying, 

and it is unrealistic to expect it to continue to have financial 

resources put into it."

Although this will not going to be a disappointing news for the guys at KDE and the users who prefer KDE over other desktop environments since there are enough other KDE-centric distributions around, and we cannot blame Canonical for not wanting to invest in a project which worth nothing financially.


Kubuntu users who want to join the development effort and participate in testing and maintaining the distribution can learn more about how to get involved at the project's website.

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Mandriva a sinking ship?

My very first tryst with Linux started with RedHat version 8, the time when RedHat was a free operating system like any-other Linux distro and there was no Ubuntu. But RedHat never worked the way I wanted my desktop to be, and I tried as many Linux distro as I could find. A distro which stood apart and worked beautifully for me was Mandriva (known as Mandrake Linux that time).


 

In one sentence, Mandrake Linux was like the Ubuntu of this era in terms of usability and ease. Mandrake Linux provided the easiest way to the Internet and software availability in its infamous discovery and power pack flavors packed with both open source and proprietary software.

Down the year 2012 the old shine and luster is all lost and the company behind the Magical Linux is on the verge of disappearance from the legendary wall of fame of Linux distributions.

But what made this transition from being a legend to a forgotten tale ?

Brian Proffitt argued in his article  “The diminishing of the operating system” that not keeping up with the trends of time is the reason for the decline of French Linux distributor, the other OS vendors are no longer selling Operating System as a standalone solution, rather they offer services such as virtualization and cloud computing along with the OS, training and support (which is no longer a minting machine for Open Source companies).

Brian could be correct in his deduction as far as RedHat and SUSE are concerned since these companies no longer rely on the sale of their brand of operating system and offer a basket full of innovative services and solutions for the enterprise and server space. But it is not the case with Ubuntu, the move towards Smart TV , Mobile and Tablet platform are only the plans for the future and do not create funds for canonical right now.

One should also take the community factor into the consideration when talking about FOSS. One cannot deny that the main source for the new innovations in open source space for RedHat & Novell stems from their community offerings namely Fedora and OpenSUSE which are among the most active free and open source communities along with Cannonical for Ubuntu.

In my opinion the lack of contributions from an active community is also a reason behind this deadly jerk for Mandriva. Mageia Linux which forked out from the Mandriva in 2010 is not a supported community initiative from Mandriva, but an effort from the bunch of dissatisfied developers from the French Linux company.

So even if the Mandriva will recover from the financial crunch (as they had done in 2010) the community effort from the Mageia will carry the legacy of the Magical Linux Desktop forward in the coming years.

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