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When the cheap laptops known as netbooks first came out over a year ago, computer makers were able to offer them at low prices in part by shipping them with the free Linux open-source operating system, rather than Microsoft's Windows. Since then, Windows netbooks have taken over most of the market after Microsoft began pushing Windows XP aggressively to netbook makers and consumers realized Linux netbooks didn't work well with some popular applications and devices.

One month ago we provided benchmarks of the Btrfs file-system and found that while it contained many features to make it a next-generation Linux file-system, its disk performance was rather displeasing. We had found the EXT4 file-system ran faster in a number of the tests and even EXT3 and XFS had their own advantages. Besides offering features like snapshots and online defragmentation, Btrfs has a mode that is optimized for solid-state drives. Will the Btrfs SSD mode cause this new Oracle-sponsored file-system to be the best for non-rotating media? We have benchmarks in this article, but the results may not be what one would expect.

So I thought of a reasonably trivial program I could write which would still be interesting enough and which can be build upon for a while to build some skill in perl GUI programming. I think it would be nice to be able to build a GUI for linux command line programs, that could have some value in the future. As that could quickly become to complex for my purpose and it would probably drive me to start messing with the code for the utility I want to write a GUI for, I chose instead to start writing a GUI for native built in shell commands.

Still using Microsoft Office 97 because you can't justify an upgrade? Check out the free alternatives to that and other commercial software.

An I/O controller is a system component intended to arbitrate access to block storage devices; it should ensure that different groups of processes get specific levels of access according to a policy defined by the system administrator. In other words, it prevents I/O-intensive processes from hogging the disk. This feature can be useful on just about any kind of system which experiences disk contention; it becomes a necessity on systems running a number of virtualized (or containerized) guests. At the moment, Linux lacks an I/O controller in the mainline kernel. There is, however, no shortage of options out there. This article will look at some of the I/O controller projects currently pushing for inclusion into the mainline.

You have likely seen a few commercial Media Center products in stores. Not surprisingly most of these are built on Windows Media Center software, or use proprietary software which of course inflate the overall price. In my opinion, Open Source software can be used to build a far superior HTPC/Media Center than any commercial software product out there. So I've written this guide in an effort to help you save some money and point you in the right direction when building your very own HTPC/Media Center. Check out the Guide To Building An Open Source HTPC / Media Center on Ubuntu.

The Wall Street Journal today (May 28, 2009) published a review of multiple Linux netbooks running Ubuntu, Mi and Moblin Linux. Overall, I think the review offers fair, balanced coverage of what’s right — and wrong — with the Linux netbook market today. But there was one line in the review that I found completely misleading and shortsighted. Here's the scoop.

It's been the better part of a year since the Large Hadron Collider — the massive particle accelerator operated by the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) — was in the headlines, and even then it wasn't good news. The LHC has suffered from everything from poor craftsmanship to hackers to death threats from a paranoid populace — but it looks like the Device of Doom or Discovery will be back online and launching us into the future, or oblivion, by the time Santa makes his annual appearance.

The US Military is by turns cutting edge and clueless. On one hand, they embrace cloud computing and social media tools, yet think it's worthwhile to upgrade from Windows XP/Office 2003 to Vista/Office 2010 when Windows 7 and Office 2010 release are imminent (and it would make more sense to move large numbers of employees to Linux and OpenOffice and save the tax payers a few bucks). Like any large organization, they make good and bad decisions when it comes to technology.

It would appear that spam has managed to hit a new low by reaching a new high, and what a high: up 5.4 percent on the previous month to peak at representing some 90.4 percent of all email by volume. That really does suck elephants through a straw backwards, only 1 in every 10 emails not being some unwanted junk mailing. Sigh.

In part 1 ace coder Akkana Peck taught us how to use Python and PyGTK to bring up a window and draw lines and circles. Today we'll expand on that humble beginning and draw some pretty graphics.

At its I/O developer conference held in San Francisco this week, Google has presented a range of new products and promoted a web-based programming model as the future of software development. The new products include Google's Web Elements, which allow web developers to integrate Google products like Calendar, Maps, Custom Search or News into their web pages, simply by copying and pasting a few lines of code.

After nearly two years in the making, the KOffice project will release version 2.0.0 of if its cross-platform office suite of the same name this week, adding features like scripting support and a new shape library.

Many users keep their emails with webmail services, wedding pictures in photo communities and reading habits with social bookmarking services. What happens, though, when data is lost or websites fold? Archiveteam wants to help in those circumstances.

Specto is a Linux-based desktop application that allows you to watch for configurable events and get notified instantly when updates are available. Things that you can monitor include websites, emails, files/folders, system processes and connection ports.

If smooth-as-silk memory sharing and file caching bring joy to your heart, you know you're a Linux geek. And if you're a Linux geek, there's apparently no time like the summertime to indulge in the sheer pleasure of playing with cool stuff in the Linux universe. Some generous bloggers have tagged some of the shiniest treasures for us. What other gems are out there, friends? We'd love to know.

There are several ways to run Windows programs on Linux (virtualisation, WINE) and vice versa really isn't a problem either with Cygwin, or better yet, native ports thanks to the Windows variants of Gtk+ and Qt. Still, what if Windows support was built straight into the Linux kernel? Is something like that even possible? Sure it is, and the Chinese figured it'd be an interesting challenge, and called it the Linux Unified Kernel.

What does the U.N. and E.U. have in common with the World Bank and the European Central Bank? They want to exchange statistical data in an uncomplicated manner. Out of this need has grown the SDMX standard and its respective tools, as a case study by the Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR) information service has revealed.

PC/OS Developer Roberto J. Dohnert has announced the release of PC/OS 10 Open64 Workstation. The desktop distribution designed for 64-bit systems is based on Ubuntu 9.04 and includes all of the latest security and bug patches up to the 25th of May. All of the PC/OS editions, including OpenDesktop, OpenWorkstation and WebStation, utilise the lightweight Xfce desktop environment and focus on providing ease of use out-of-the-box.

Cobol, the venerable computer language so beloved of Y2K-fearing businesses, has hit 50 years young today, having been invented on the 28th of May 1959 at a meeting of the Sort Range Committee at the Pentagon. The news comes from Cobol specialists Micro Focus, who tell us that there are two hundred times as many Cobol transactions as there are Google searches ever day, and that here in the UK we're all using Cobol-powered applications a average of ten times daily.