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VirtualPC and VMWare have a new (and 100% free contender) called VirtualBox. I took this new piece of software for a spin, and just may be completely removing VMWare and VirtualPC from all of my development machines.

An API should refrain from making promises that it cannot keep. A recent episode involving the kernel's in_atomic() macro demonstrates how things can go wrong when a function does not really do what it appears to do. It is also a good excuse to look at an under-documented (but fundamental) aspect of kernel code design. Kernel code generally runs in one of two fundamental contexts. Process context reigns when the kernel is running directly on behalf of a (usually) user-space process; the code which implements system calls is one example. When the kernel is running in process context, it is allowed to go to sleep if necessary. But when the kernel is running in atomic context, things like sleeping are not allowed. Code which handles hardware and software interrupts is one obvious example of atomic context.

MARENA, the government agency responsible for the environment in Nicaragua, has asked us to use a biofilter waste water treatment system instead of a traditional septic tank and drain field for the Geek Ranch. The reasoning is that as we are building in a nature reserve, we are being held to higher standards than is typical outside the reserve. While we don't claim to be waste water system experts, we are geeks so this sounded like a technology challenge. Beyond that, the good news, is that a local friend retired from being a wastewater engineer (even though there are many other titles associated with the job) so we have the resources to combine his knowledge of the, shall we say, material handling part of the system with our knowledge of control systems.

We are trying to gauge the level of interest consumers like you have in buying a new computer that features a Linux-based operating system. Help us to stay in touch with the needs of consumers by taking a quick moment to answer the following questions.

This document describes how to set up an installation environment with kickstart and NFS on Fedora 8. With the resulting system you will be able run unattended Fedora 8 installations on the client systems in your LAN - additionally, you will save lots of Internet bandwidth. The whole client configuration can be included into the kickstart file (especially the post-installation script) so you, the admin, will also save a vast amount of time.

Meet "Zorro, master of the night". Zorro is a Java developer for a major US bank that makes widespread use of open source software. Zorro is keen to participate in open source projects, too, except for one thing - his employer won't let him. "For me, to contribute back to open source, I'd have to become 'Zorro, master of the night' - you have to go underground," our programmer said during last week's MuleCon in San Francisco, under condition of, yes - you guessed it - anonymity. "You have to understand the risk that we take."

There are many ways of peering into the future. This page lists 163 of them, including cephalonomancy (divination by boiling an ass head), coscinomancy, (divination using a sieve and a pair of shears), ololygmancy (fortune-telling by the howling of dogs) and tiromancy (divination using cheese). Me, I prefer to stick with the tried-and-trusted method of reading between the lines of Microsoft press releases.

Google has opened its cloud to outside developers. Last night, while eating S'mores at an intimate developer gathering dubbed Campfire One, the world's largest ad broker unveiled App Engine, a free service that lets anyone to build and run web apps on Google's very own distributed infrastructure. The cool kids call this cloud computing.

GNOME’s Totem Movie Player now includes a plugin for searching and playing YouTube videos without leaving the player, and without Flash. It’s installed by default in Ubuntu 8.04, and works fabulously!

Imagine the next time you are trying reading a great list of Ubuntu programs. One of them catches your eye, and you want to try it. Instead of either using Add/Remove or opening a terminal to install the program, you simply click a link. A message box pops up asking you if you want to install the program, and then you enter your password. Before you could have found the program in Add/Remove, the program is installed! With Apturl, this is now a reality.

In the words of Nelly, “It’s getting hot in here!” In the low-cost laptop market that is. We can now welcome HP, the number-one PC manufacturer, to the sub-$500 notebook club. Today the company released its long-rumored low-cost laptop—the Mini-Note. The HP 2133 Mini-Note is a full-function mini-notebook, starting at less than $500, and according to HP is designed for the education market.

The "Podzilla" open source application suite was ported to a relatively inexpensive line of flash-based mp3 players. Originally developed by the iPod Linux project, the software now runs on SanDisk's $100-$150 Sansa e200 devices, reports Sebastian Duell, chief SansaLinux project developer.

How do you herd cats? Well, as the famous EDS commercial shows, it isn't easy. In a sense, that's what the Linux Foundation, the nonprofit pro-Linux organization, will be doing this week at the invitation-only LF Collaboration Summit at the University of Texas Super Computing Center here. Linux, as anyone who follows it knows, is the result of the efforts of hundreds of developers, and it serves the needs of at least as many companies and--thanks to its role in leading Web sites such as Google and its popularity with Web-hosting companies--hundreds of millions of users.

Yes, as you see the market of low-cost laptops is very hot. Today we are learning about a new low-cost laptop from Netherlands. Van Der Led Jisus laptop comes with 8.9" display means that it want to compete with the second generation of Eee PC ( Eee PC 900) or second-gen of CloudBook ( CloudBook Max) or Wind PC ,…. This laptop will be available for purchase from May 25th 2008.

It's just a rumor, though it's likely spot-on given DigiTimes' past success with its well placed ASUS source(s). Apparently, ASUS is looking to get a jump on HP's new Mini-Note and that upcoming ultra-portable from Acer by launching its second generation 8.9-inch Eee PC early. As such, they'll have to forgo Intel's new Atom processor (shipping in June) and slap in an older-generation dual-core ULV instead.

I must confess to a certain disappointment with Red Hat. On the one hand, it is clearly the leader of the open source world – both historically and in terms of its size. On the other, it is remarkable for the low profile it keeps: it is striking, for example, how much more influence Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth seems to command, even though his company is a tiddler by comparison to Red Hat's whale shark.

Python has not been a language that has been front and center all that much (though it is mature and enterprise ready as I noted in a recent story). Python's position changes today with the official launch of Google's App Engine.

PC vendor Everex and gOS (Good OS), the Linux distribution based around Google applications, is taking the next step in online-based computing by introducing a limited edition MySpace PC. The companies hope that the white-cased, two-pound MyMiniPC will attract what Everex officials claim is some of the more than 100 million MySpace users. As such, it's the first PC, using any operating system, designed expressly to use with a social network.

IDC analyst Al Gillen, who is giving the opening keynote at the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit kicking off today in Austin, Texas, is expected to cite figures from an IDC white paper entitled "The Role of Linux Servers in Commercial Workloads" that show that Linux has done well and proved itself in the enterprise, and is expected to continue that trend through 2011.

Today, Red Hat took a public stand challenging the standards for patenting software. In the Biliski case that is now before the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, this patent issue is ripe for consideration. In a friend of the court brief submitted to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in the Bilski case today, Red Hat describes the special problems that patents pose for open source and seeks modification of the standards for patentable subject matter that take open source into account. Here is a quick summary of our brief.