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Marcel Gagne's book for Windows users entitled: Moving to Free Software is an introduction to useful Free and Open Source (FOSS) licensed software that runs on the proprietary Windows operating system. Each chapter covers a major application with an introduction of what the application does, how to use it and helpful configuration tips. Each chapter ends with a number of useful links to resources. Applications include Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, Gimp and more. Included is an Ubuntu live DVD that contains all the applications listed in the book. While a good introduction containing much useful information, the book has some misnomers and missing parts.

For only being a release candidate the Linux 2.6.20 kernel has already generated quite a bit of attention. On top of adding asynchronous SCSI scanning, multi-threaded USB probing, and many driver updates, the Linux 2.6.20 kernel will include a full virtualization solution. Kernel-based Virtual Machine is a GPL software project that has been developed and sponsored by Qumranet. In this article we are offering a brief overview of the Kernel-based Virtual Machine for Linux as well as offering up in-house performance numbers as we compare KVM to other virtualization solutions such as QEMU Accelerator and Xen.

Nokia still hasn't announced it, but its new Linux-based N800 Internet Tablet is already for sale and boasts double the RAM, Flash memory and a faster processor than its predecessor.

No one had broached the subject. My inquiries with girlfriends and colleagues led me down a path into a revealing and sensual world as yet undiscovered.

Version 4.2 of Zenwalk Linux is officially released. This version comes with the Linux kernel 2.6.18.6 and X.Org 7.1.1, along with new features and hundreds of updated packages. Some of the more noticeable changes include 'Zenpanel' which is Zenwalk's new system configuration panel that makes customizing your Linux system easy. Zenwalk 4.2 desktop introduces a new panel layout and RSS feed reader that was added to Xfce. - DistroWatch. Screenshots of Zenwalk 4.2 are available at LinuxQuestions.org.

The stress test of hardware (hard drive benchmarks) is a simplistic test. There are a number of benchmarking applications software that can be used as hard disk (storage) stress testing. My favorite is Bonnie++ software. Bonnie++ is a benchmark suite that is aimed at performing a number of simple tests of hard drive and file system performance. Then you can decide which test is important and decide how to compare different systems after running it.

The final version of Dreamlinux 2.2 Multimedia Edition has been released. Having many improvements compared with the previous version, Dreamlinux 2.2 Multimedia Edition brings countless new features. The kernel is 2.6.18, and the distro uses Debian 'testing' repositories. A greater number of applications for multimedia have been added, allowing to open and manipulate many different types of audio and video files. Beyond the many updates, other refinements have also been incorporated: upgrade assistant, new control panel, and the 'Easy-Install' application that allows the user to install non-Debian programs like Google Earth, Picasa, Opera, etc. - DistroWatch. Screenshots of Dreamlinux 2.2 are available at LinuxQuestions.org.

All Speaker and Exhibitor slots have been filled for the Fifth Annual Southern California Linux Expo.

For security and to save bandwidth you may wish to configure Squid proxy server to block content. You do not want users to download files having extension such as MP3, MPEG, MPG, AVG, EXE etc This tutorial explains simple but effect squid content filtering using access control list to block files easily.

Product Demo at 2007 CES; Streams BitTorrent Movie Downloads From PCs; Plays Internet Video, News, Weather and Radio Feeds Directly; Controls PC-PVR Recordings Remotely; Accesses iPods(R) and Other Handheld Media Devices

The Month of Apple Bugs has turned up another cross-platform issue - this time one that affects Windows, Linux and potentially other operating systems in addition to Mac OS X.

The major factor differentiating Mozilla from IE is the fact that you can add extensions to Firefox. To add extensions to your browser is the best form of customization available for a browser and there are amazing Firefox extensions out there. Well, this is the first part of an article where we shall bring light to some of the best extensions available for Firefox 2.0.

January 07, 2007 (Computerworld) -- Propelled by the release of its Version 2.0 in October, the free Firefox Web browser saw almost a 50% increase in use during 2006, according to one Web measurement firm.

Normally Linux systems can only read from Windows NTFS partitions, but not write to them which can be very annoying if you have to work with Linux and Windows systems. This is where ntfs-3g comes into play. ntfs-3g is an open source, freely available NTFS driver for Linux with read and write support. This tutorial shows how to install and use ntfs-3g on an Ubuntu Edgy Eft desktop to read from and write to Windows NTFS drives and partitions. It covers the usage of internal NTFS partitions (e.g. in a dual-boot environment) and of external USB NTFS drives.

The exciting news from Redmond is the release of Microsoft Firefox 2007 Professional Edition. Lot’s of exciting features!

[No, it isn't April 1st yet. Yes, it is still January. 2007. Honest. - dcparris]

The Andhra Pradesh government is forging ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), US, for collaboration in the areas of e-governance, data standards and service-oriented architecture. "MIT will provide funding and technological assistance for developing and promoting different software components including an open source platform," said state IT secretary K Ratnaprabha.

The ASUS P5B Deluxe supports Intel's latest Core 2 processors as well as being backwards compatible with the Pentium and Celeron series. This motherboard also features an eight-phase power design, fan-less motherboard cooling, and many more ASUS innovations.

FOSDEM is yet another one of those catchy acronyms that stands for nothing less than "Free and Open source Software Developers' European Meeting". KDE will again be hosting a room dedicated to talks and chat about the free desktop. These annual meetings are organised by volunteers, free of charge and generally recognised as one of the most productive gatherings available on the European stage. This year it will be held on the weekend of 24/25th February 2007 on the ULB Campus Solbosh in Brussels, Belgium.

Microcross has released GNU X-Tools v4.0 professional embedded development tools for six microprocessor families, including ARM.

Many times in life, when you are on road to one place, you find things to help you on other roads you have crossed, or will in the future. Such is the case for me just today. I presently working on a project where I am reviewing several different Linux distributions. The fruits of this labor are to be seen here in some form or fashion in the near future. That project isn't as important as the small bit of information I happened upon in the midst of working on that project.