I don't mean any offense.. Not that there are any reports of my death..

I have disappeared since December last year, I essentially removed myself from the Fedora community and from the wider community. This is because I have depression.

Depression is a serious clinical illness which involves the serotonin levels in the brain. Basically if you have depression, your brain is under utilizing the serotonin avaliable to it or your brain is not producing enough. Now i’m not going to ask you to click the advertisment on this page, nor am I going to ask you for your condolences and whatnot. I just believe that I should remain honest to the community.

What I try not to do. Credit: xkcd.com

I am really deeply sorry I didn’t effectively communciate to the Fedora Community and especially to the APAC Community as to why I disappeared. I still have yet to send the OLPC, and I will get onto that when I can. (Sorry Bckurera!!! :S!)

Anyway, I’m am taking a break from the Fedora Ambassadors Program. I will probably be back at the end of this year.

I can not wait to install beefy miracle, and it truly is a miracle we had that name approved! Well done Meat SIG!!! =)

Azneita: Thankyou for mentoring me in the ways of Fedora Ambassadors.
Dramsey, Thankyou for being so encouraging all the time.
Tuan; Thanks for being awesome! I love what you do in Vietnam.
LCafiero, inode0, bckurera and everyone in the APAC Community, thank you for spreading this amazing operating system.

Hopefully I’ll be back soon.

Peace,
LMartinez.

Please repost.

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/direct-patent-office-cease-issuing-software-patents/vvNslSTq

Firstly: Apologies to people with multiple copies of this message, as this story has now propergated across the internet. This is a GOOD thing.

It appears that Microsoft wish to (and will likely succeed in if not stopped) blocking us (Linux, BSD etc.) out of all new computers that pre-ship with Windows 8 from 2012.

Microsoft as part of their OEM system require all new
computers shipping with windows 8 to use secure signing keys to prevent ‘unauthorized software’ from running on the computer. This will prevent all free software operating systems from running on the computers that come with OEM Windows 8 by default. [1] This will be an incredible problem for Laptop Linux users. [2] [3] The legality of this is disputed.

I strongly advise you to contact your local Consumer Protection agency and put forward a complaint. This should be against Competitive / trade laws in most countries. Please forward this on to everybody who will be interested / disgusted about this to also voice their concerns with their local agency. I’ve contacted my Local Consumer Rights Center, so why don’t you? [4]

More information to come.

References are in the bottom.

Feel free to comment,
Luke Martinez
me@tluke.asia

Here are some links:

[1] http://video.ch9.ms/build/2011/slides/HW-457T_van_der_Hoeven.pptx (slide 11)

[2] http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/5552.html

[3] http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/49889-will-windows-8-succeed-in-locking-out-gnulinux

[4] Government Consumer Centers

http://www.ftc.gov/

http://www.accc.gov.au/

http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Dl1/Directories/UsefulContactsByCategory/Governmentcitizensandrightscontacts/DG_195948

Original Email:
Hello,
I purchased an Nvidia 2GB 555GTM graphics card as part of my computer.
I have been trying for days to get the card to work on Fedora Linux, I have had no success, My computer would not boot after installing Binary drivers from Nvidia.com. I have recently found out that this is due to Optimus, I am very dissatisfied with this.

I upgraded my computer on the Dell.com.au website, i added $200 extra to purchase this card, I now have a brick sitting inside of my computer.

If i go to the product page it speaks of the product having Optimus by default:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-555m-us.html

When I go to driver section it says that there is a Linux driver for this device:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-display-amd64-280.13-driver.html

By saying the card has optimus and is compatible with linux, you are also inferring that optimus is compatible with linux. This far from the truth, the card is not compatible with linux, even without optimus. I just want the card to work, I don’t care about optimus. By providing false Linux drivers, I have spent time attempting to install something which you (nvidia) know will not work, and will infact destroy X server, preventing me from booting into X without reseting my xorg.conf file.

Before purchasing my laptop I read the following pages:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/io_1265444450529.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-555m-us.html

None of these pages say anything about compatibility or incompatibility to any operating systems, you provide drivers on your website for Linux, I assume that considering the drivers for 555MGt and all previous Nvidia cards are compatible with Linux. It is not fit for use I am requesting a reimbursement for this brick.

Thank you for your time,

Regards,
Luke Martinez

i’ve said enough in this email, I want my issues addressed, i’ve emailed, FB’ed, tweeted this link to you. I am considering legal action if this is not resolved. You claim on your website that the drivers support the GPU, but they DO NOT, i purchased this laptop on the premise that the chip would work with linux as you say. I even upgraded the chip for an extra $200.

I wish for this to be resolved and many others have the same problem, (See: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=161232 , http://phoronix.com/forums/showthread.php?46858-What-should-I-do-wrt-nvidia-optimus-laptop, http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=188184, ) I am expecting at least a reimbursement / refund for the GPU, It’s up to you nvidia if you wish to support Optimus on Linux, but next time you go screwing your customers over; tell us first, update your site, many people ‘just assumed’ that you’d continue support for linux, or at least you wouldn’t break support for nouveau

Feel free to leave comments or email me at: me[@]luke[dot]asia
Added Information Sept 14 15:08
Hello everyone who is watching this post. Nvidia has emailed me with the following points.
- Presently NVIDIA’s Optimus support is limited to Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system although that may change someday. And they do not comment on future plans.

- If I would like to return my notebook back to your notebook manufacturer, Nvidia and I can try talking to my notebook maker and see if it would be possible to return my notebook or exchange for a different model that doesn’t feature NVIDIA’s Optimus technology but we can not make any promises since this is ultimately the discretion of the notebook manufacturer.

Author: Luke Martinez; is a 15 year old Free Software enthusiest who want you to use GNU/Linux. Make GNU not war.

Technology was once learning, developing new techniques and tools for humanity, without a thought of who the idea originally belonged to and this allowed inventiveness and innovation to triumph. Now, on the dawn of the 21st Century everything changed. Patents became common place, Restricting innovation, inhibiting inventiveness with threats of Legal action from mega-corporations such as Apple, Microsoft and Oracle. Thus preventing the traditional tried and true method of collaboration as well as the Idea of Information being free.

Computers were once used as learning, they are now used for learning. The computers of the 1970′s had a basic free operating system pre-installed on them with the source code. Source code is the original information that is used to create the software that is usable, when software is distributed with source code is freely editable to improve the software and learn how computers work.

Microsoft came in the 1970′s and was one of the pioneers of the proprietary software buisness model, distributing the software without the tools to learn from it. Making Microsoft the reason we have proprietary software and are not all running free software. This is shown in the February Third 1976 newsletter of the new ‘The homebrew computer club’. Bill Gates, co-founder of the recently founded Micro-Soft wrote to the newsletter. In ‘An open letter to hobbyists’ he writes: “To me, the most critical thing in the hobby market right now is the lack of good software courses, books and software itself.” “Will quality software be written for the hobby market?” Mr Gates then goes onto make a point for point argument for proprietary or non-free or proprietary software. We can blame them alone for most of the problems in the computing world to date.[1]

Computing Operating Systems distributed without source code, such as Microsoft Windows and Apples’ Macintosh create treacherous computing, which is when your computing security or privacy is at risk for no reason other than for corporations benefit. There are many examples of treasonous computing firstly in 2005 a problem that allowed images to hide malicious code was found in all version of Microsoft Windows since 3.0 in 1990.[2] This problem is believed to be introduced purposely to force users to upgrade to the latest version of Windows. [3] Many other problems have been created by Microsoft such as the Macro-Virus, which allows spreadsheets and presentations and even Microsoft Word documents to contain malicious code inside MS Office. These problems could easily be solved if the computing was free, somebody would find the problem when researching the code and would submit a patch, this can not happen in most commercial software packages.

Treacherous computing as described before extends towards privacy, in a scheme Microsoft calls “trusted computing”[4] along with “Windows Genuine Advantage”.[5]
WGA is a piece of software used by Microsoft to remotely gather data about your computer and your activities online.[6] Its’ use rational is that it prevents pirated copies of Microsoft Windows from being propagated.

WGA is a piece of software used by Microsoft to remotely gather data about your computer and your activities online.

These problems are only smaller components of a greater problem created by patents. Patents are not ways of keeping copyright over the end product, instead it is a way of preventing someone from using the same general idea. This problem of ownership of an idea has now spread to Genetic Technology, where companies are actively seeking[7] and in many cases succeeding.[8] With One fifth of all human genes now patented, where will this stop? Will we need to pay companies for our mere existence? You can get sued for copying software, copying software ideas or copying a software concept like the concept of application windows.[9] So why can’t you get sued for using a human gene concept internally? The ability and legality of patenting something that already exists is currently being challenged by many, but there is no progress towards stopping this.[10]

Why can’t you get sued for using a human gene concept internally?

Patents, Apple, Microsoft, Gene-technology and proprietary software have all combined to create this ‘super problem’ which will be hard to tackle as these Mega-Corporations have vast and wide amounts of money. We must fight this head on and remove Patents and all copyright. Or else we could live in a world where you pay royalties to mega-corporations just for living, would you like to pay for existence? While companies like Microsoft have mega-monopolies on world computer markets.[11]

Luke Martinez
Licensed Under Creative Commons
BY-NC-SA

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

SOURCES:

[1] An Open Letter to Hobbyists – http://www.digibarn.com/collections/newsletters/homebrew/V2_01/homebrew_V2_01_p2.jpg – Written February 3, 1976 [Gates, Bill]

[2] Windows Meta-file Vulnerability – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Metafile_vulnerability – Accessed 27/8/2011

[3] Meta-File Vulnerability – “Microsoft deliberately designed into windows” – http://www.grc.com/sn/SN-022.htm – Accessed 27/8/2011

[4] “Trusted Computing” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trusted_Computing
Accessed 27/8/2011

[5] “Windows Genuine Advantage” – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Genuine_Advantage
Accessed 28/8/2011

[6] Microsoft admits WGA.. phones home – http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/09/ms_wga_phones_home/
Accessed 28/8/2011

[7] An Analysis of Scope and Claims (Human Genes) – http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~anthro/bnc/readings/humangenes1566.pdf
Accessed 28/8/2011

[8] One fifth of Human Genes have been patented – http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2005/10/1013_051013_gene_patent.html
Accessed 28/8/2011

[9] Apple sues Microsoft for copying “Window” GUI Technique – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Computer,_Inc._v._Microsoft_Corporation
Accessed 28/8/2011

[10] Battle over Human Gene Patents Builds – http://www.biopoliticaltimes.org/article.php?id=4965
Accessed 28/8/2011

[11] The case against Microsoft and proprietary software – Monopoly

http://en.windows7sins.org/monopoly/

Accessed 29/8/2011

I’ve successfully converted everyone in my house into using Linux. I gave them Games from the http://humblebundle.com/ #3 and Frozenbyte bundle which sealed the deal.

One of the laptops I converted had a Realtek 8192SE wirelesss LAN card which previously did not work in Fedora (or any other linux distro for that manner) Now that Linux 3.0 is released (A.K.A. 2.60.40-4.fc15) it contains a well written 8192SE Driver which allows for uninterrupted access to the internet.

Great work kernel team! 

Some smaller projects that haven’t gotten attention but are still vary important is nouveau, which traditionally has been critizied for being annoying for users still trying to install the proprietary Nvidia drivers. Is now beginning to mature and become a gem in the free software/hardware interoperability landscape.

Another great project is systemd, which is a new system initialization and service manager, which speeds up the booting and operation of my computer considerably.  systemd[1] is a great improvement over sysvinit, and I congratulate the developers on this great feat.

Libreoffice 3.4 has a massive feature list for a new project. I believe this is the quickest a project has taken to ‘get off the ground.’ With the feature list being great, i hope we can see much more from this project only in its infancy. Unfortunately one thing I don’t like, is the code submitted by Novell, The ability to save to the ooxml (Microsoft’s(R) Proprietary format) also known as, Docx, xlsx, pubx, pptx.

The DocumentFoundation states: “The Document Foundation does not promote nor support OOXML.” But they do provide exporting and importing filters. I believe that it was better to have import only filters.

In conclusion this year has been a great year so far for free software. And we will be moving forward! So Look out!

[1] See why i didn’t start this sentence with a Upper-case letter. Here

“This is a declaration not to use free software.”

Since we all know that proprietary software is incompatible with education, ****** ******* Students being forced to sign contracts in order to get ‘free’ laptops, but what is the real price for these laptops?

With me potentially saving $459 R.R.P. instead of buying the laptop retail, I am losing the freedom to run freedom. The Freedom to run Free Software. Of course by no means will I be using one of these mandatory proprietary software machines.

The Proprietary Operating System isn’t where it stops, The laptops come with the latest and greatest Proprietary Application Suites with the new Microsoft Office 2010 Suite, Adobe CS3 Extended Edition, Internet Explorer, Itunes and many more proprietary applications.

I will be having a serious discussion with the school principal because the IT guys don’t know what linux is, at least the pricipal has an idea of the concept of software freedom. Tomorrow being Parent Teacher Interview day.

“Whats Linux?” — IT Guys

The real problem is dependence, and I’ll make a further post to this another time. For now you can contact me at me at luke dot asia, or leave a comment on my blog.

Further Reading: Why Schools should use exclusively free software.

Luke Martinez
Luke.asia
me[&t]Luke[d0t]A$1A

So, exactly 4 days ago i decided to download fedora 15, the download was corrupted, so i tried again and successfully downloaded it.

I attempt to install it, but it always crashes due to an issue between me and nouveau.

Me, being stupid thought “Oh if i quickly kill of gnome-shell it won’t crash”
So, as soon as i log on i open the installer, create a new instance of gnome-shell and kill it, leaving me with just the installer.

Once I’ve installed fedora 15, i reboot. Since noveau still hates me it crashes On boot now. So, i add “nomodeset” to grub to prevent noveau from starting, therefore preventing it from crashing. Ingenious, i thought.

Now i have this ugly contrast of black and white on my gnome-panel. So, i open firefox, i type google, as I always do then hit enter… but it won’t work, that’s weird, i swear it worked when noveau was running… So, i open “add / remove software” and install aura, then head over to google.com/chrome and download that.

Finally with internet working. head over to the good folks at RPM-Fusion, download the akmod nvidia. Suddenly it can’t find the GPG key, so after much looking around, i find that
RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-free-fedora-latest-x86_64
Should actually be called
RPM-GPG-KEY-rpmfusion-free-fedora-15-x86_64

So I renamed it..

But then, disaster strikes, again.
Apparently the “Public key for kmodtool-1-18.fc11.noarch.rpm is not installed”

So i head over to fedora forum, where the lovely folks help me with a post from 2009

Once that is done, i edit grub conf and reboot.

And guess what, X doesn’t start.

My conclusion: my computer is dying…

Update: My video card was out of its slot slightly. Now it is fixed