Showing headlines posted by jimlynch

LinuxTag 2010 is going on right now in Berlin, one of--if not the--most influential annual European Linux tech events. There's a lot of community energy at a show like LinuxTag, which is why KDE e.V, the foundation dedicated to supporting the KDE interface, probably chose LinuxTag as the platform from which to launch their latest community membership drive. Under the name "Join the Game," KDE e.V. is inviting new individual supporting members to join the organization for 100 Euro/year, to help support their ongoing and expanding programs. If that's all you want to do--and supporting KDE is worthy in and of itself--US$121 (under current exchange rates) is a reasonable amount to help support the development this popular and useful desktop interface. But is this really community building?

Which is better? Microsoft Windows Server or open-source Linux? This debate arouses vehement opinions, but according to one IT consultant who spends a lot of time with both Windows and Linux, it's a matter of arguing which server OS is the most appropriate in the context of the job that needs to be done, based on factors such as cost, performance, security and application usage.

The wild success of Linux in embedded space would lead to application development on an unprecedented scale for the various mobile Internet devices, which would lead to a renaissance of application development on the Linux desktop, which in turn would lead to the Ultimate Success of Linux on the Desktop and a world where we will finally get to say "This is the year of the $Expletive! Linux desktop."

IBM, Samsung, TI, Arm, Freescale and ST-Ericsson are founding members of Linaro. A group of chip makers including IBM, Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments on Thursday unveiled Linaro, a new software-engineering foundation dedicated to improving Linux distributions, including Android, MeeGo and Ubuntu, used in consumer devices.

When will Amazon release a Kindle application for Linux? Amazon’s Kindle applications are one of the most popular ways to read ebooks. Oh sure, some people actually own a Kindle reader but quite a lot of people don’t. They simply use the Amazon Kindle application for their particular hardware.

One of the constants in my interactions with the Linux and open source communities is that they--all of them--are out there, in the big wide world, while I remain ensconced in my fortress of solitude here in Northern Indiana.

The London Stock Exchange has said its new open source-based trading system will save it at least £10 million annually, as well as driving new business.

Well it’s often been said that “it never rains but it pours” and that seems very true the about Linux distro releases in the last two weeks.

The last time I looked at SimplyMEPIS was the 8.0 release. In this review I’ll be taking a look at the latest version, SimplyMEPIS Linux 8.5.

A full review of Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04. I’ve been reviewing various Ubuntu derivatives and this week I thought it would be fun to take a look at the netbook version of Ubuntu. Ubuntu Netbook Edition used to be called Ubuntu Netbook Remix, but Canonical changed the name once this distro became an official edition of Ubuntu.

Does closed source software have the quality edge over open source? Michael Hall, former editor of Linux Today, pointed out a blog entry with an interesting take on the recent beating Apple has been taking in the press lately. (Heads up: colorful language ahead.) It was a posting that made me sit back and re-evaluate some of my own views.

Whenever a new version of Ubuntu is released, a new version of Linux Mint soon follows. This time around it’s Linux Mint 9. Linux Mint 9 is based on Ubuntu 10.04. I gave Ubuntu 10.04 a big thumbs up in my review, and I’ve been eagerly anticipating the release of Linux Mint 9. So how does Linux Mint 9 stack up? Is it still “a better Ubuntu” than Ubuntu itself? Read on to find out…

In addition to Ubuntu, Canonical also produces or recognizes a number of Ubuntu derivatives such Kubuntu and Edubuntu. These derivatives offer different desktop environments or a more focused selection of software, geared toward a particular purpose. But Canonical has a big problem with these derivatives. Ever hear the phrase “red headed stepchild?”

Woof! Woof! Guess what time it is, folks? It’s time for a review of Puppy Linux 5. Puppy Linux, in case you aren’t already familiar with it, is a lightweight version of Linux that is designed for portability. The .iso file of Puppy Linux 5.0 weighs in at an incredibly petite 128 MB. It’s much, much smaller than all of the usual desktop heavyweight distros. But don’t let its small size fool you, Puppy Linux 5.0 is anything but an also-ran in terms of functionality and usability.