gnu category archive

A Silly Post Brought to You by the Letters E and F

My daughter has a set of Sea & Learn Bath Shapes that are very entertaining for her and me and the wife alike. (The wife might not want to admit that. But for me I can say that they engage my brain more than a typical work-related meeting.)

I happened to notice that the “e” looks very Microsoft Internet Explorerish. It’s a small letter. It’s blue. So I looked around for the “f” and found that by an amazing coincidence, it is Firefox red!

(Ok, so the Firefox logo is predominantly orange and this is mostly red. Just play along, ok? The stars are orange. Take it or leave it.)

How about that? The forces of good and evil arrayed against each …

Beyond GNU/Linux: GNU/Egg and GNU/Embryo

Something to think about…

Maternal effect loci essential for mitosis

gnu, a mutation specifically affecting early embryogenesis

The mutation gnu identifies a gene whose product is needed for nuclear division during early development. Females homozygous for gnu lay eggs that develop giant nuclei as a result of continued DNA replication, in the absence of chromosome segregation and nuclear division (Freeman et al. 1986). Fertilization of GNU eggs is not required for the giant nuclei to develop, contrasting with wild-type eggs in which fertilization is required before any further development can take place (Freeman & Glover, 1987). Whether or not the GNU egg is fertilized, any of the four products of female meiosis, the three polar bodies or female pronucleus, can participate in DNA synthesis to give giant nuclei. By marking the paternal genome with a bacterial gene, it has

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GNU/Solaris and GPLv3

I found an interesting article at The Register yesterday, “Is ‘GNU/Solaris’ emerging from the Microsoft-Novell deal?” It would be awesome if Sun released the Solaris kernel under the GPLv3, because I think that would be a chance to observe differences between idealistic and pragmatic approaches to free software.

Looking around, I see Linux Today picked up the story, and in comments there I found out there are already projects in progress around an existing free/open Solaris, including OpenSolaris.org and the Nexenta Operating System, which combines GNU with OpenSolaris. But OpenSolaris is based on Sun’s CDDL, and not the GPL, which I strongly prefer.

Why am I writing on these matters of which I know very little? Because …

Spirit of system76

Sometimes, giving away free stickers can get you a $500 sale.

I hadn’t heard of system76 before coming across a post at the Ubuntu Blog back in August. It mentioned free (as in free beer!) stickers, courtesy of the folks at system76. Well, actually for the low low price of a self-addressed, stamped envelope.

But look! My $0.78 investment got me four of these neat “powered by: ubuntu linux” stickers. Coincidentally just the right size to replace a “Designed for Microsoft Windows XP” sticker, or whatever.

I didn’t know what I’d do with them. Pop one on the box if I ever got an Ubuntu system going, of course. Mainly I sent in for them because they looked cool and appealed to …