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While I agree that there are applications for KDE 4.2 which still lack several important features (like for example the equalizer and ability to go to the previous/next song using the tag editor in Amarok), I must say that it also improved very much since the last time I have a looked at it. It is definitely faster, the desktop looks nicer, it does not seem a beta environment any more.

An electronic spy network, based mainly in China, has infiltrated computers from government offices around the world, Canadian researchers say. They said the network had infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries. They included computers belonging to foreign ministries and embassies and those linked with the Dalai Lama - Tibet's spiritual leader.

[An entire article about computers and hacking and not one single mention of what OS they were running? Interesting.. - Scott]

When it comes to gaming, the most popular platform isn’t the Nintendo Wii, but Flash, the interactive browser plugin that now boasts 99 percent market penetration on nearly a billion PCs. (Flash game advertising network Mochi Media currently counts 100 million players across its system alone.) That huge audience has led to a lot of games, but most of them are rudimentary at best, the product of amateur enthusiasts working with limited resources. That’s why I was excited to hear about PushButton, a Flash game engine from a team of seasoned game developers that’s free, open source, and associated with an innovative revenue model that should help spur its adoption.

Flourish is U. of Illinois Chicago's free annual conference dedicated to Linux and open-source software, April 3-4. Speaker topics this year include Android, IP law, Solaris, kernel hacking, and more.

I decided to finally check out OpenSolaris 2008.11. While this release came out back in November of 2008 (hence the 2008.11 naming convention), it has taken me this long to finally give it a chance. Maybe it is because I am still somewhat skeptical with the whole OpenSolaris Project and still do not know what to make of it…yet.

Due to Twitters immense popularity, there are far more desktop clients available for it than for identi.ca, especially for Linux. However, this time Linux has it all covered, from simple methods to “ident” your message (still looking for an equivalent to “tweet”) to full-fledged desktop clients, which bring all the functionality of the website to the desktop.

Get a Netbook and some service from your favorite phone company, ISP or bookstore.

Nixstaller is conceived as an installation kit for Unix systems and conducts dependency tests and supports UTF-8.

The merge window for the Linux 2.6.30 kernel is now open and Linus has already accepted a horde of new patches for this next quarterly Linux update. Among what has been pulled in so far is the DRM (Direct Rendering Manager) support for a new Intel chipset. This new Intel IGP is described by Intel's Shaohua Li as "a G33-like desktop and mobile chipset." The patch adds in two new product IDs (0xa001 and 0xa011) for the desktop and mobile version and makes some clock-related changes. Within the code, the chipset is referred to as just an IGD (Integrated Graphics Device) rather than being more descriptive like the I945GM, I965GM, and GM45 defines.

The new version 9.1 of Adobe Reader brings some improvements regarding the command line interface and printing features.

As many LinuxJournal.com readers will know, a number of the Linux Journal crew hail from Houston. Thus we were particularly pleased to learn that the Houston Zoo has just installed Firefox — but not quite how you think.

My 2nd set of ScreenShots, this time it is Xubuntu 9.0.4 Beta based on the New Jaunty Jackalope Beta Release of Ubuntu 9.0.4. I absolutely love Xubuntu since it uses the very light and efficient Xfce 4.6. Granted usually I am praising the fancier Ubuntu based distros, but I do love the simpleness and the fast loading of Applicationsin Xubuntu. Xubuntu also comes with Abiword and Gnumeric, which is the equivalent of Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.The other Ubuntu based distro's have been coming with Open Office 2.4 or Open Office 3.0

Some of the similarities are scary...

Every now and then you stumble across a blog that is run by a so-called Linux enthousiast. Some of them claim to have been using both Linux and Windows for years, so they have balanced and objective view on the advantages and disadvantages of both systems. But when you start to look a little closer, you will see that they spread the SOFUD. Some have a real gift for writing and are so credible that you see no need to investigate their claims.

In late December AMD had released open-source R600/700 3D code and a month later they released the 3D documentation that covers these Radeon HD 2000/3000/4000 series graphics cards. The initial code drop didn't do much good for end-users as they couldn't do much more than render a couple triangles, but over the past few months the open-source developers have been working on the proper Mesa support for the R600/700 graphics cards in a private code repository. Now this code may finally be pushed out to the general public in the near future.

Only four freshmen showed up at the University of Virginia in 2007 without a computer of their own, and the school has decided that it's no longer worth the expense of running campus computer labs. What's the point of running a university computer lab when all the students bring laptops anyway? That's a question that schools have been asking themselves as computer ownership rates among incoming freshmen routinely top 90 percent. Schools like the University of Virginia have concluded that the time has come to dismantle the community computer labs and put that money to more productive uses.

Gnome 2.26 didn't got a lot of attention when it got released. This blog post is reviewing some of the interesting changes in Gnome 2.26 and gives a opinion about them.

Bootloader Syslinux developer Peter Anvin, since 1992 kernel developer, gives an insight into his work.

Thanks to Ed Cherlin for your reference to the OLPC trials in Ethiopia and and the challenge of a rote-learning based culture per Eduvision's Ethiopia Implementation Report. This is a very useful report. As I read it I found myself thinking -I recognise what they are saying - it could have been written for Nigeria.

When it comes to putting Ubuntu Linux on mobile devices, Canonical has two flavors of their popular Linux distribution to suit the needs of vendors and end-users: Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Ubuntu MID. The former targets netbook computers (hence its name), particularly those with Intel Atom processors, and brings a unique interface atop GNOME. The Ubuntu MID edition is targeted for very small netbooks and mobile Internet devices. Particularly, Ubuntu MID aims to be on handheld devices and those with 4-7" touch-screens. Beyond having a different user interface, Ubuntu MID is spun with LPIA packages instead of the i386 package-set. LPIA is quite similar to i386, but targets the Low-Power Intel Architecture with different compile-time optimizations. With the low-power focus, will this distribution extend your battery life? Yes, our results today show that the power consumption can be cut down by greater than 10%.