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How much is that sweet little Netbook you're dying to buy? $60? $100? Think again.

This tutorial shows how you can set up an Ubuntu Studio 9.04 desktop that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

Businesses that opt for open source solution equivalents of proprietary software applications can reduce the total budget required for its implementation and operation by 50% to 60% over three years. That’s according to Yossi Hasson, CEO of open source service provider Synaq. Hasson says that with the slowdown in the economy, businesses need to investigate viable alternatives in order to meet their IT needs in the most cost-effective way possible.

Just a little shell script, to roll wtmpx and keep the size down, to complement yesterday's post on fwtmp

Right now you are in a soup if you have a slightly older ATi Card and it seems to me that this is going to remain this way unless someone figures out how to backport x.org 1.5 onto Jaunty, which is going to be a hell of a task

You began to identify with it, even develop a belief system around it. You may have attended regular meetings of others similarly afflicted, and openly despised members of other groups. Before you were even aware of it, you'd joined a cult.

At the beginning of the year, many analysts predicted that, given the economic climate, this would be the year for mergers and acquisitions. Indeed, they were right: acquisitions are up in everything from banking to technology, with the latter category perhaps best represented by Oracle's surprise snatch of Sun Microsystems just a few weeks ago. The buying, at least from where we're sitting, looks primed to continue, and Open Source companies are no exception, as was aptly demonstrated this morning as it was revealed that Open Source vendor Hyperic has been acquired by the likewise Open Source SpringSource.

GNU/Linux had a market share of 0.63% in april 2008. One year later, it's (finally) reached 1,02%. If we look at the sheer number it's still laughable, right? Well, It's not laughable for two reasons: - It's an increase of over 60% year over year for GNU/Linux (the brighter side of having such a low number to start with, for sure). - Also, I bet they are not laughing at this at Redmond, Washington. Windows is one of two cash cows of Microsoft and losing a hundredth of the (potential) income these days plus having to almost give away Windows to be present on one of the few markets that's healthy nowadays (netbooks) is costing them hard cash.

The venerable Linux init system is not up to the job of managing modern dynamic hardware and processes; if a device is not present at boot, then init cannot control it. Upstart is hotplug-aware, and first appeared as an init replacement in Ubuntu, and now Fedora has adopted it. It runs alongside init for a comfortable transition; Juliet Kemp gives us a guided tour in this two-part series.

While anti-virus and anti-malware is not much of a problem on Linux at this time, AVG has added this anti-malware protection to their Linux security software. AVG has supported Linux for sometime when it comes to virus and spam protection, but with version 8.5 they have expanded their anti-malware support.

SpringSource, the company behind the Spring framework for Java applications, has announced it has acquired Hyperic, developers of open source monitoring and management software. SpringSource's CEO Rod Johnson explained that the acquisition would allow the company to offer a complete solution to the entire life cycle of an application, from development to deployment in the data centre or cloud.

There are quite a few good launcher utilities out there that can make a great addition to your productivity arsenal. Gnome Do is probably the most popular launcher for Linux, but if you are looking for something less flashy and more streamlined, try Launchy.

The international SchoolTool development team and the Shuttleworth Foundation set up by Ubuntu sponsor Mark Shuttleworth have announced the release of SchoolTool version 1.0. Developed on the basis of Zope, the software organizes all pupil data - timetables, marks, parent contact details - along with resource booking, calendaring and report card generation. The web browser based SchoolTool can also be used for the central management of several schools.

This is a tutorial to make an Option 225 USB 3G modem work with Ubuntu Linux. It Uses parts from Pharscape.org, but is has a prepared package with everything you need. Works with Ubuntu 8.04 - 8.10 - 9.04.

LXer Feature: 04-May-2009

The Linux and Unix Menagerie has a hilarious look back at what we thought was cool, Mike Weber has a cool tutorial on how to compile a Kernel in Ubuntu 9.04, HP unveiled a ProBook laptop line that you can get Linux Pre-installed on, and can XP save Windows 7? Something tells me the answer is no..

It's bad enough having to deal with torrents of mis-spelled Viagra and weight-loss spam. It's bad enough digging out from under torrents of Windows email malware. It's bad enough getting bombarded with phishes. Now I'm seeing an increase in yet another type of spam: desperate businesses getting suckered into dumb spam schemes.

This is a review of Ubuntu 9.04, done by a regular ubuntu user. It covers media players, Pro's and Cons, Wubi and some other new stuff.

Recently released, Microsoft Office 2007 Service Pack 2 supports OpenDocument Format version 1.1. With Microsoft's tarnished history of abusing standards for profit and obvious preference for Microsoft's own Office Open XML, what could Microsoft's ODF support possibility look like?

X.org 7.5 is scheduled to appear in summer, and could include a new Intel graphics driver. The developers have slashed its code to boost reliability and performance. The kernel developers have now presented versions 2.6.30-rc4 and 2.6.29.2 of Linux, 2.6.27.22 and 2.6.28.10 are released and guest mascot Tuz bows out.

What could be better than a conference for the Free / Libre, Open Source community that is run by the community itself? Ontario Linux Fest 2009 is the third successful year of the community-run conference.