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A new netbook for European schools runs Linux on a Chinese-designed processor. With a generous 10-inch, 1024×600 display, the 2.4-pound Emtec Gdium boots Mandriva Linux from removable USB flash keys, running it in 512MB of DDR2 RAM on a 900MHz Loongson-2F processor made by STMicroelectronics (ST).

It has been a few weeks since NVIDIA last pushed out a Linux display driver update, but this morning already they have pushed out a new update. The just-released NVIDIA 177.67 display driver doesn't introduce OpenGL 3.0 support or any other major features, but it does look to resolve a number of bugs, provide improvements to the Render extension, add official support to the GeForce GTX 260/280 graphics cards, and a number of other improvements.

T-Mobile has admitted it'll be launching an Android phone this year, and with Google finally allowing developers access to version 0.9, we'll soon see if the Android has managed the finesse of an iPhone with Nokia-grade functionality. Version 0.9 of Google's platform is now available for download, with a redesigned user interface and some significant improvements in functionality, as well as lots of eye-candy to seduce the iPhone crowd. But Google's revolutionary platform is still lacking some of the features we've come to expect of a smartphone, including hardware on which to run it.

This guide explains how you can create advanced virtual hosts on a lighttpd web server on Debian Etch that are stored in a MySQL database. The method described here does not use the lighttpd mod_mysql_vhost module, and unlike mod_mysql_vhost (which allows you to store only the hostname and document root of a vhost in a database), this method allows to store individual configuration directives for each vhost in the MySQL database.

How does OpenSolaris, Sun's effort to free its big-iron OS, fare from a Linux user's point of view? Is it merely a passable curiosity right now, or is it truly worth installing? Linux Format takes OpenSolaris for a test drive, examining the similarities and differences between the OS and a typical Linux distro. If you want to sample the mighty ZFS filesystem, OpenSolaris is definitely the way to go.

Buoyed by a court ruling and prospects for new mobile phone products, The SCO Group says it is on track for a Phoenix-like rebirth. The company believes those two factors have finally given it the breathing room to emerge from bankruptcy and continue its traditional computer server business, as well as market promising new mobile products and pursue its high-profile legal battles.

A shift from multi-core power-gobbling monsters toward whisper-quiet systems with single-digit power consumption is rippling through the desktop market. This trend plays right into the hands of a Paris-based company called Linutop, which offers a miniature Linux-based desktop system. The latest version of the machine appeals to customers who are in the market for a machine with green credentials and low maintenance costs. After testing one myself, I found the tiny desktop has a lot going for it.

Over the last couple day's I have been working on the Bordeaux for FreeBSD 7 port. We now have everything compiling and running but a lot more testing needs to be done before it's ready for a final release. Internet Explorer, Steam and Office 2003 are the only applications ive gotten around to testing thus far. The good news is everything that I have tested works fairly well on FreeBSD.

With increasing interest and influence in the open source movement, women in Australia and New Zealand are pushing their way into a normally male-dominated arena. Recently, the Australian and New Zealand branches of Linux Chix merged their chat and instant messaging forums to maintain better communication and strengthen the scope of their influence.

Growth in Linux vendor Red Hat's Asia-Pacific engineering and support business has resulted in a move to new premises. The world's biggest specialist Linux company's Brisbane, Australia, site is now its largest engineering centre in the region.

Open source software adoption is high in Asia, but the level of contribution from the region's open source developer community leaves much to be desired, says a prominent figure in the open source industry. David Axmark, co-founder of the popular MySQL database, said during a media session here Tuesday that usage of open source software continues to grow significantly across the region.

As regular Deeplinks readers know, EFF's Coders' Rights Project is defending the rights of three MIT students who were prevented from presenting their research on security vulnerabilities in Boston's transit fare payment system. The students were hit with a temporary restraining order that silenced their planned presentation at DEFCON. At first glance, the issues at play may appear obscure, and of interest only to technical researchers and lawyers. But as we noted in a post last week, the right to publish without pre-publication review is part of the purpose of the 1st amendment, and one of the reasons Americans fought the Revolutionary War. (The MBTA's stance is all the more ironic, considering Boston's role in that war.)

[More follow up in regards our DefCon 16 review. - Scott]

Another odd Linux command from the back of the closet. We're going to take a look at a quirky little command (The use of the term "quirky" is my personal bias creeping in ;) called "pidof" that you can, absolutely, find on RedHat ES versions 4 and up. It's probably on lots of other distro's, too, but I can only afford to muck with what's in the free-server-pool at any given moment. This command is actually very interesting and, given that RHEL3 boasts the "pgrep" command, I was quite surprised when I bumped into it. I'm not sure if it seemed contradictory or complementary; just unexpected.

The entity behind one of the most popular desktop interface, GNOME Foundation is doing the right thing at the right time. The foundation has hired Stormy Peters as the executive director. We reached out to Stormy and conducted an e-mailed interview to understand how is she planning to take the computing world by 'storm'. Here is the complete interaction with Stormy.

[Four days old but I thought it still worthy; it being a decent Interview. - Scott]

atftp is Multi-threaded TFTP server implementing all options (option extension and multicast) as specified in RFC1350, RFC2090, RFC2347, RFC2348 and RFC2349. Atftpd also supports multicast protocol known as mtftp, defined in the PXE specification. The server supports being started from inetd as well as in daemon mode using init scripts.

Four years ago I wrote an article for the Linux Journal about my use of Linux software for music instruction. A lot has changed since then, so I thought I should update that article to reflect my current use of Linux in my work as a music teacher. I'll follow the presentation of materials as I organized it in the original article, but first I'll share some observations about the changing nature of my trade. I'm interested in how and where my younger students hear new music. Some of the old channels still work for them, especially live shows, but television and radio have little appeal. On-line music services such as iTunes and Magnatunes are very popular, many students have directed me to music tracks and performances on YouTube and MySpace sites, and the Guitar Hero games have inspired some students to learn tunes they may not have heard elsewhere. Surprisingly, very few have ever tuned in to an Internet radio station. Students still share mix CDs, but of course the iPod is now the preferred portable media player.

Move over, Salesforce.com and SugarCRM. Concursive Corp., a small open source software company, is offering free software as a service (SaaS) for up to 100 CRM (customer relationship management) users for up to one year. Here's the scoop from MSPmentor.

This article walkes you step-by-step through building an Ajax mashup using Eclipse and the deployment it to the Google App Engine.

Windows Internet Explorer (formerly Microsoft Internet Explorer abbreviated MSIE), commonly abbreviated to IE, is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems starting in 1995. It has been the most widely used web browser since 1999, attaining a peak of about 95% usage share during 2002 and 2003 with IE5 and 6 but steadily declining since, despite the introduction of IE7. Microsoft spent over 100 million dollars (USD) a year in the late 1990s, with over 1000 people working on IE by 1999.

Linux distributions can be a pain. Users have to go through the whole process of installation, configuration, and updates, and, often, all they really want to do is to run a single application. The vendors of that application, meanwhile, feel the need to support as many distributions as possible, even though the actual system running underneath their code is nearly irrelevant. Wouldn't it be nice if users could simply get their desired application as an "appliance" which comes with all the necessary component parts nicely hidden inside?