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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.

Part two of article from Ian Murdock about the packaging in Linux.

"In part 1, I described the problem of software installation on Linux; in part 2, I’ll describe the solution we came up with at the recent LSB Packaging Summit."

A new feature that will first be availble in the upcoming 2.6.20 kernel is KVM, a Kernel-based Virtual Machine. The project's webpage describes KVM as, "a full virtualization solution for Linux on x86 hardware. It consists of a loadable kernel module (kvm.ko) and a userspace component. Using KVM, one can run multiple virtual machines running unmodified Linux or Windows images. Each virtual machine has private virtualized hardware: a network card, disk, graphics adapter, etc." The project's FAQ explains that the functionality requires "an x86 machine running a recent Linux kernel on an Intel processor with VT (virtualization technology) extensions, or an AMD processor with SVM extensions (also called AMD-V)." The userland aspect of KVM is a slighlty modified version of qemu, used to instantiate the virtual machine.

Spatial Integrators is a mapping services company in Spokane, Wash., that acts as a consultant for electric companies, public utilities, and other government entities that want to develop custom mapping solutions. Now that Autodesk has released its MapGuide software under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), Spatial is offering its clients a completely new solution: open source software.

Once upon a time there was a small, lightweight distribution based on Slackware. It wasn’t all that different from any of a number of small, lightweight distros designed to work on older hardware though it seemed to be well thought out. That was Vector Linux 1.8 six years ago. Since then VL has grown into a full featured distribution available in several different configurations. The latest release, Vector Linux 5.8, appeared on December 18th and it is clearly the most mature yet, in many ways equaling or even surpassing more popular distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, and Mandriva. If the developers manage to smooth out the few remaining rough edges they may find themselves with a distro that is as popular as any of those.

This article takes a good look at what to expect in KDE 4.0 when it is finally released some time this year. Even though the work is still going on and the screenshots shown may not be the final ones, it gives an idea to the end user of the different projects involved which makes KDE 4.0 possible.

Last May I wrote about reviving a pair of ancient laptops using Damn Small Linux. I called them “atticware” (a term I can’t take credit for inventing, BTW) because the attic is where computers that old often end up. My point is that there are current Linux distributions that can allow even decade old hardware to run a current if lightweight OS and software. The uses for this should be obvious: non-profits, the proverbial starving students, anyone of limited means, developing countries, and so on. Various programs to recycle old system and get them into deserving hands have sprung up like weeds though I suspect few if any bother to load Linux on such systems.

[Hmmm... I'm running Debian Etch on a few 450MHz boxes. One of those is using KDE, and is quite snappy. She's apparently referring to the Pentium 133s. Wow! - dcparris]

Being mainly a GNOME user on the desktop, I have been waiting for two main utilities I can find in KDE: a font installer comparable to the one in the KDE Control Center, and a multiple item clipboard comparable to Klipper. I'm still waiting for the font installer, but Desktop Data Manager (DDM) may eventually be a Klipper replacement. In fact, DDM is more than that, since it also includes a screen capture program and provisions for other plugins, but a lack of stability and one or two key features makes it very much a work in progress.

A good, level-headed assessment of a Linux Opinion piece and the Journalist who penned it.

"Microsoft Windows is still unfortunately the most widespread platform which is why most major hardware manufacturers still first and foremost make sure their hardware works well with Windows. Even if Windows Vista is a flop in general compared to previous Windows versions, it is reasonable to assume that hardware manufacturers will prepare their hardware for various novelties that Vista may be offering."

ATTO has revealed that its ATTO Express PCI UL5D SCSI host adapter and Celerity FC-42ES Fibre Channel host adapter have received the Novell YES CERTIFIED compatibility designation with SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 and NetWare 6.5. Through the YES CERTIFIED Program, Novell assures customers that ATTO products are compatible with Novell products, ATTO said.

[I hate to knock a fellow on-line publication for their mispelling, but I think someone was in a bit of a hurry. "Apaters" should be "Adapters", I believe. - dcparris]

Red Herring's Falguni Bhuta predicts "More (Open Source) momentum in developing countries":

If you buy a computer, you often pay for Microsoft Windows even if you didn't ask for it and aren't going to use it. This article shows you how to return your unused Windows license and get your money back, freeing yourself from the Windows tax.

The Southern California Linux Expo announces plans to host a 'Women In Open Source' Mini-conference.

(openPR) - Cologne, Jan. 3rd, 2006: Release 1,1 of the already announced pragmasuite™ is shifted on in the middle of February 2007. The Cologne/Germany – based technology consultancy mceti AG cites a substantial change of the licence model and a new look-and-feel as the reason for the delay.

Yes, Ermintrude, there is life up north...eXtreme Programmers are nothing if not clubbable, but the eXtreme Tuesday Club (XtC) is a City thing, as in the City of London, and I'd hate for Reg Dev to seem London-centric. So, as there are also plenty of eXtreme Programmers up North, I was interested to hear of one of them (with some sponsorship from Erudine) trying to get another XP club going....…

Red Hat's engineer and Fedora Project board member, Bill Nottingham, announced on the Fedora developer's list on Jan. 4 that, "There will be no more releases of Fedora Core or Fedora Extras." Instead, Core and Extras will be merged together.

* Deadline for sponsorship: Wednesday 31 January As previously announced, DebConf7 will take place in Edinburgh from Sunday 17 to Saturday 23 June 2007.

Liferay Inc, an open source Java portal company, has just released a new version of its offering that adds new Ajax mashup capabilities, plus links to workflow engines and enterprise service buses.