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Well, it's just about that time again, Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) was just released and the developers over at Linux Mint are readying for the subsequent release of their flagship Main Edition, Linux Mint 11 (Katya). To kick things off, Clem, the founder and lead developer of Linux Mint, released a preview this morning over at their blog. Since then, a private 32-bit testing release has dropped in for the tester's group over at the community site. For those wanting to keep tabs on the progress of the Linux Mint 11 development process and status this will be an ideal place to do so.

It's been this way ever since I began using Debian in the Etch days (circa 2007) -- GNOME is generally pretty fast in a distro like Debian, and you can get a lot done with the tools provided by the desktop environment.

According to Spafford, security experts monitoring open Internet forums learned months ago that Sony was using outdated versions of the Apache Web server software, which "was unpatched and had no firewall installed." The issue was "reported in an open forum monitored by Sony employees" two to three months prior to the recent security breaches, said Spafford.

Less than a minute in the #fedora channel was enough to remind me why Fedora 13 was the last Fedora revision I had burned.

For many years we have heard warnings that software patents pose a threat to the free software community. Repeated warnings have a tendency to fade into the noise if they are not followed by real problems; to many, the patent threat may have seemed like one of those problems we often hear about but never experience. The recent ruling in the US that Google is guilty of infringing a software patent held by a patent troll named "Bedrock Computer Technologies" serves as a reminder that the threat is real, and that solutions will not be easy to come by.

Cross-platform malware is still a rare occurrence, so when it's detected, it usually attracts more attention than the malware engineered to affect only one particular platform. A recent one, detected by McAfee and "named" IncognitoRAT attacks both Windows and Mac OS users. So, how does it manage to do it?

I’ve been busy tonight spamming mailing lists and otherwise getting the word out: the LSB workgroup is preparing to update the FHS. This update has been a long time in coming; FHS 2.3 (the current version) was released back in 2004. Since then, a lot has happened, and it’s starting to look like the FHS is holding things back due to the lack of updates.

Mozilla officials have refused a US government request to ban a Firefox add-on that helps people to access sites that use internet domain names confiscated in an unprecedented seizure earlier this year.

With Red Hat on the verge of becoming the first billion-dollar company focused exclusively on open source software, it has attracted quite a bit of attention -- from lawyers waving patents.

Ubuntu and Fedora are arguably the most popular Linux distros out there today. They both make a huge impact on the Linux community release after release, but are somewhat opposite philosphies at times. Fedora, the RedHat-sponsored community project is adamant of RPM packages, while Ubuntu is based on Debian and therefore uses DEB packages. Fedora maintains that RedHat corporate environment vibe to it, more like a specialised distro, the perfect choice for developers. Ubuntu, on the other hand, based its strategy around creating "Linux for human beings", a friendly desktop environment that is accessible to all kinds of users.

I said months ago that Ubuntu 11.04 wouldn't be the same old Ubuntu, and boy was I right. With its new Unity interface, Ubuntu doesn't look or act like any other desktop Linux you've ever seen. And, since I've seen almost all of them, I know what I'm talking about! The basics are the same as you'll find in many Linux distributions. It's still based on Debian Linux; it uses the 2.6.28 Linux kernel; it still uses most of the same familiar applications; and its desktop is built on top of GNOME 2.32.1, but with the Unity desktop I couldn't blame you if you didn't recognize anything but the apps.

Evernote for Android has been steadily improving ever since it was released in 2009. But the latest Evernote for Android 3.0 update dwarfs them all in terms of the sheer amount of features it brings with it. Evernote is basically a simple note taking application that lets you create notes online easily and sync it with several devices.

Lots of people are determined to abandon Ubuntu 11.04 in favour of other operating systems only because they hate Unity. But do you know that Ubuntu 11.04 comes with 2 (two!) desktop environments? It also includes GNOME. To be precise, GNOME 2.32.1. Let me show you how to easy switch from Unity to GNOME...

Salih Emin proudly announced earlier today, May 5th, the immediate availability for download of the iQunix OS 11.04 operating system, based on the recently released Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Linux distribution.

Photoshop is an important tool to many of us here. There are people who stick with Windows or Mac for gaining a native environment to use this tool on. For Linux users, there is Gimp, a perfect alternative to Photoshop . However, there are some users that are used for photoshop and for some reason they can not switch to Gimp

Novell's new Spacewalk-based SUSE Manager 1.2 deserves points for its support of both SUSE and Red Hat enterprise Linux flavors, says this eWEEK review. But, author Jason Brooks adds, while the server management tool makes sense for users coming from a Linux perspective, it suffers from some configuration hiccups, due in part to the challenge of integrating two different distributions.

First off, let me tell you something before I start my rant on kubuntu: I've been a kubuntu user for 6 years now... and I don't intend to switch to gnome (ubuntu) or xfce (xubuntu) or any other of the other variants anytime soon. I like KDE and I'm willing to put up with the nag that I have to go through in order to continue using it

Oracle is relinquishing control of the Hudson project after a heavy-handed attempt to stay in charge prompted most community members to fork themselves and undermine the project's viability. The database giant said on Tuesday that it had submitted a proposal to the Eclipse Foundation to create a Hudson project and that it would contribute the existing Hudson core code to the project.

I must admit that I’m not an artist, at least not in the classical sense. My background, professional life and hobby projects are all related to programming, and even though I sometimes need to get my hands dirty with some designs handed to me, I prefer to leave the arena of original and uniquely beautiful creations to the people whom I admire and call ‘artists’ or ‘graphic designers.’ But sometimes it is too difficult to resist the urge to tinker, especially when your computer seems more helpful than ever.

Linux Mint 11, which is expected by the end of May will not come with GNOME 3, like Clem said in a comment a while back, but Gnome 2.32 with the traditional Linux Mint desktop (no Unity):