There is always a lot going on in the low levels of the GNU Toolchain (gcc, binutils, gdb, etc) but since it is so low level and sometimes a bit specialised it is hard to keep up. Luckily Nick Clifton started a blog writing a monthly GNU Toolchain Update. This month saw lots of GCC updates (a new register allocator, a new set of loop transformation optimizations, a new picoChip port and more). Really recommended for those who want to keep informed about the latest GNU Toolchain improvements.

We bought an Acer Aspire One A150 Ab, which comes with Linpus, a stripped down Fedora GNU/Linux distro. It also came with a nice printed GPL in the box explaining what it meant and various offers for the source code. The stripped down Fedora is somewhat limited, so we might upgrade it to a full Fedora install. What was cool to see was that it came with IcedTea and gcjwebplugin configured out of the box.

Free Java for your netbook!

Benjamin Mako Hill, who is now on the board of the FSF, has a really great site Revealing Errors that has as goal to reveal errors that reveal the technology around us to learn how technology affects our lives. Wish I had seen this site earlier. As he explains it is a great way to reach users and show how technologies affect our lives, and why Free Software is so important:

Errors are under-appreciated and under-utilised in their ability to reveal technology around us. By painting a picture of how certain technologies facilitate certain mistakes, one can better show how technology mediates. By revealing errors, scholars and activists can reveal previously invisible technologies and their effects more generally. Errors can reveal technology—and its power and can do so in ways that users of technologies confront daily and understand intimately.

He gave a really nice introduction to the whole concept in his Revealing Errors OSCON Keynote (ogg/theora).

Finally upgraded my main workstation from Fedora 8 to Fedora 9. If you are lazy like me then you might want to do it through Fedora PreUpgrade:

$ yum install preupgrade
$ preupgrade

Very nice and completely painless!

It also offers an easy way to go from Fedora 9 to Rawhide (the development branch).

From the “Freedom Fry” press release:

The GNU operating system is turning 25 this year, and the Free Software Foundation (FSF) has kicked off its month-long celebration of the anniversary by releasing “Happy Birthday to GNU,” a short film featuring the English humorist, actor, novelist and filmmaker Stephen Fry.

“Yum, chocolately good! The tastiest operating system in the world… and it’s all free!”

And don’t forget to start preparing for Software Freedom Day on September 20 and the GNU anniversary on September 27.