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We already reported about the LimePC yesterday, which is an iPod nano sized Linux UMPC based on Freescale's MPC5121e mobileGT processor, which is a so called "motherboard-on-a-chip" device. Freescale has now released a full press-release on their site and technical specifications for their highly integrated multi-core embedded computing platform.

Many people claim that “Linux is about choice!”. That’s a neat phrase, but what does it mean? Does it mean that you should have the ability to twist and turn 400 different knobs on your Linux install? That’s what some think. Does it mean that you have the right to choose Linux, or choose your flavor of Linux, and then choose from the package sets within those flavors? That’s what I and many others think. There is a very distinct difference here too. Let’s look at it from a food point of view (one of my favorite points-of-view).

[ A few minutes ago I read the OLPC / XO will have a dual boot between Linux / XP, but contrary to popular believe, XP doesn't run on the OLPC yet - as this old blog from a Microsoft-dev working on it shows - hkwint ]
There have been suggestions in the press by Nicholas Negroponte and others that “Windows already runs on the XO.” That’s not really the case yet [...] We started the project around the beginning of the year (2007 - ed) and think it will be mid-2008 at the earliest before we could have a production-quality release.

The newest version of the popular RPM package manager is now out with improved performance and functionality. But there's a bit of a catch with RPM version 5.0. Linux vendor Red Hat officially considers RPM 5.0 a project fork.

It looks like the head of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Chief Nicholas Negroponte is not only alienating Intel, but Microsoft, too. A day after published reports quoting Negroponte as saying OLPC XO laptops would dual boot Linux and Windows, Microsoft is denying that the company is pursuing such a plan.

LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, announced its next Embedded and Real-Time Linux Development class to be held in San Francisco Bay Area from January 30th - February 1st, 2008 .

Announcing itself today is KOfficeSource GmbH, a company that will sell services around KOffice. The founders comprise a small group of members of the developer community, as well as outside talent. They share an interest in furthering KOffice by supporting it commercially in addition to the non-commercial support that can be found on the mailing lists and IRC. As the name suggests it has been created in Germany but will operate across Europe and further afield.

I read lots of blogs and planets every day, and do so from multiple computers, so I value the online feed aggregator. It retrieves new items even while I'm offline, and I don't have to synchronize between multiple machines. Google Reader has filled this niche for a while now, but I've kept an eye out for open source equivalents that I could serve from my own domain instead. That is just what GobbleRSS is: a PHP-based feed aggregator that is simple to set up and run on your own.

While Windows may be a "unified" platform that some Linux fans aspire to see mirrored in Linuxland, through the emergence of a more standardized distribution, is that a desirable goal? Is our view of Windows a realistic perception?

CMS are Content management systems created to make creating a website an easier task. Among many others, eZ Publish has some unique criteria. It's a flexible and extensible CMS created by eZ Systems, a Norwegian company was behind the PHP eZ Components Library, eZ Publish is an ECMS ( Enterprise Content Management System) distributed under both GPL and proprietary licenses.

Osmo, a compact yet feature-rich personal information organizer for Linux, separates itself from the pack of other calendar applications due to its light weight and easy-to-use design. The GPL-licensed Osmo includes a datebook calendar, a to-do organizer, and a contacts list, all with lots of intuitive options. Osmo is so new that it isn't included in many distributions' software repositories yet, but the source is available through SourceForge.net. Installing from the source isn't difficult. The only dependencies are the GIMP Toolkit (GTK+) and libxml2, which come with most distributions.

Intel is displaying four new ultramobile PCs designed around its Menlow chips at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), including highly anticipated devices from Lenovo and Toshiba. The Lenovo device runs a Linux OS from Chinese developer Red Flag Software and boasts a 4.8-inch touch screen, an onboard camera and other features. Intel personnel at a booth detailing its Menlow chips called the Lenovo device and two others "Mobile Internet Devices," saying that their smaller screen sizes and use of the Linux OS make them different from ultramobile PCs, a category created by Microsoft.

I don't know you, but frequently the usual Windows user shows me a photo dvd slideshow edited with the usual programs for video editing. Yes, I can use Windows too (note: no one of my computer have Windows installation), but I love to use Linux distro (particularly Ubuntu). So I chose to learn cinelerra and I discovered that, over first impression, it's a software very easy to use. The envy of the "Windows users" is priceless.

Surprisingly one of the media establishment's darling devices at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is fully open, runs Linux and invites hacking - er, customization. The device is the Neuros OSD, a $200 video recorder that allows you to archive, organize and play back all of your video media, such as live television, DVDs, VHS tapes, etc. The acronym "OSD" stands for "open source device". Hot dog, this is our kind of gadget!

News this morning that the OLPC project is working with Microsoft to deliver a dual-boot XO laptop is causing shock waves among many of the OLPC faithful. Nicholas Negroponte was quoted in the ComputerWorld story as saying, "We are working with them very closely to make a dual-boot system so that, like on an Apple, you can boot either one up. The version that's up and running of Windows on the XO is very fast, it's very, very successful. We're working very hard to do both."

Updates about Python, KDE and Perl sections. Nominations for new Project Lead underway.

eZ Publish is an enterprise open-source CMS (content management system) and development framework with functionality for web publishing, intranets, e-commerce, extranets, and web portals.

Sometimes you stumble across an article that makes you wonder whether people are spreading FUD or whether they are really that ignorant. When you take it down, bit by bit, it becomes more and more obvious how ridiculous their statements are.

Last week I started a series of blog entries about my personal view of challenges and priorities for this year. That first entry was about open standards and today I’m going to look at free and open source (FOSS). Incidentally, the first item on this list was on the previous list as well. Needless to say, this is a big topic and one that encompasses a broad range of opinions. My list will be different from someone who runs a FOSS project, someone whose primary and perhaps sole business is FOSS, someone in academia, and someone who is strictly a user of software.

If you run an ecommerce site, you may want a content management system (CMS) to help manage your online product line. VirtueMart, available under the GNU GPL and fully integrated with Joomla!, does that and more. It provides a full ecommerce solution in a LAMP environment.