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New Mandriva Linux release introduces Smart Desktop. Ubuntu Linux may get the majority of attention from Linux watchers but there are many good alternatives available. One of those is Mandriva Linux, a version of Linux formerly known as Mandrake and long considered one of the most user-friendly of Linux versions. And now, just a week after the release of Ubuntu 9.10, Mandriva has released Mandriva Linux 2010, its newest and most feature-packed release to date.

RepRap (replicating Rapid-prototyper) is a 3D printer and it is impeccably free and open source under both the GPL and the Creative Commons Licence. It’s early days but the implications and the promise are potentially enormous in their own right — but the fact that it is resolutely not proprietary is what caught my attention. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

The Subversion version control system is now part of the Apache Software Foundation. The project cofinanced by Collabnet and the Apache Foundation announced at ApacheCon in Oakland CA that Subversion is officially to become an Apache project.

Moblin version 2.1 is available for download. This tiny Linux edition is suitable for netbooks & nettops as anounced by the Moblin project steering committee.

We've seen how to check Gmail using the terminal (shell) in Linux and Mac but how about sending emails from a shell? This is actually pretty easy, here's what you have to do:

The sheer amount of information that Google has on us across its properties can be daunting. The new Dashboard tool is a step toward letting us see what they have.

Gitosis is a tool for hosting git repositories. Its common usage is for a central repository that other developers can push changes to for sharing. This article is how to setup and manage a git repository.There are some great services out there than can do this for you, but why pay money for something you can easily do for free? This article shows how to setup and manage a secure and private git repository that people can use as a central sharing point.

Microsoft Exchange may be one of the most used groupware products on the market but there are also many open source alternatives available.

Wondering how Adobe was able to get Flash onto the iPhone, despite Apple's prohibition against anyone's runtime modules from appearing? Look no further than University Illinois computer science professor Vikram Adve's lab, where he and his students working to support their open source Low Level Virtual Machine (LLVM).

There are plenty of places on the Web where you can find ebooks in the EPUB format, but what if you need to create an ebook yourself? Sigil can help you with that.

The IBM Systems Application Advantage for Linux, also known as the Chiphopper offering, helps developers whose applications run on x86 Linux systems by providing tools to scrub their C/C++ code for portability prior to porting to System p, System i, or System z. Source hardware platforms for 32- and 64-bit applications are x86, EM64T, and AMD systems running Linux Standard Base (LSB) 3.x certified Linux distributions.

One of the reason why Microsoft attracts so much bad press is their trash talk. If you follow Microsoft’s recent track record you will see a pattern. It begins with Steve Ballmer or any spokesperson from Microsoft making a disparaging comment about something

The effort putting Linux on Intel's mobile Atom processor has seen its latest release, with an across-the-board polish for Moblin. The steering committee of the Moblin Project, the Intel-initiated effort that was spun off to the Linux Foundation earlier this year, proudly announced a raft of capabilities new to version 2.1.

As Google continues to build the Google Apps Reseller partner program, the search giant is considering another bold SaaS (software as a service) move. Specifically, Google has started brainstorming about a possible partner program for independent software vendors (ISVs), The VAR Guy has learned. Here’s the scoop.

As I've mentioned before I'm an openSUSE user, and as long as they don't make the "U" lower case again, I'll probably stick with it. When it comes to package management, OpenSUSE and SUSE Linux Enterprice (and SuSE before them) are usually associated with YaST (and yes, I'm still waiting for them to upper case the "a"). YaST works well but it's a bit verbose for installing a single package, and of course that's just more fodder for the apt-getters with all their apt-get install this and their apt-get install thats. And you can't argue with them, but there are other options with openSUSE: yum and apt4rpm come to mind, but the preferred solution is zypper.

Empathy is an instant messaging application for the GNOME Desktop. It supports text, voice & video chat, and file transfers and most used messaging systems such as MSN and Google Talk. Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala comes with Empathy as a default instant messaging client. Although I am using Empathy 2.28.1 on Ubuntu 9.10 in this tutorial, everything mentioned will be valid also on most other distributions like Fedora, Mandriva or OpenSUSE.

Now that's what I call an Android phone. Actually, that's what I call an Android phone that might just kick some iPhone @ss.

Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) edition has been around since Ubuntu 8.04, and has taken on some pretty stiff competition of late from Moblin. Inquiring minds want to know which version is better for my netbook? Paul Ferrill pummels UNR in hopes of finding an answer.

Canonical released Ubuntu 9.10 last week, which introduced the Ubuntu Software Center and brought a wide variety of other improvements, while Red Hat is scheduled to release Fedora 12 in two weeks. With the impending release and the current development freeze, we took the compose release candidate for Fedora 12 x86_64 and have looked at how its performance compares to Ubuntu 9.10. In this article are our results, which actually show some rather large differences between Fedora and Ubuntu when it comes to the speed of the Linux desktop.

This tutorial is designed for new Linux users that are familiar with Microsoft Windows. The goal is to address some of the most common issues that these people face. (Namely, media codecs, and general terminology.) I tried to write it as someone might explain it vocally; I attempted to add humor in an effort to keep it interesting, although I make no guarantees that it is actually funny.