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In the three years I have been using Linux as my primary operating system I've taken note that in general there are four different types of Linux users. Each one fits a distinct niche and it is possible to change from one type into another over time.

Linux have a special place in Robotics. Many Robots built by multi billion organizations like NASA for advanced space exploration and other complicated tasks are powered by Linux. Robotics and automation is the key for human progress and it is good to know that Linux holds a special advantage when advanced Robotics is concerned. Here is a nicely compiled list of Robots powered by Linux from around the world.

BRUSSELS—The European Union's top Internet official took aim at Microsoft Corp. on Thursday, warning that governments can accidentally lock themselves into one company's software for decades by setting it as a standard for their technology systems. EU Internet Commissioner Neelie Kroes, in her previous post as EU antitrust chief, fined Microsoft hundreds of millions of euros (dollars) in a lengthy row over the company's refusal to share some data with rivals and the tying of a Web browser to a best-selling operating system. She now says she wants to draw up detailed guidelines for European governments to encourage them to require other software, especially programs based on open source code that is freely shared between developers.

One of the most frustrating problems a network administrator can come across is an IP address conflict, when two or more machines on a network try to use the same IP. It's frustrating because it's a difficult problem to detect and resolve -- unless you know the right tools.

The Parallel Realities website offers a collection of simple, mostly SDL based action games. They're all fairly lightweight and might make good boredom beaters on a less powerful machine, or failing that, a handy distraction while waiting for something to complete in the background. If amazing graphics are your thing, be warned that the retro styling of all of these games leans more towards nostalgic appeal than an attempt to wow.

In a short but bold statement, Dell's U.S. website says Canonical's Ubuntu Linux is safer than Microsoft Windows. Here's the scoop and the implications from The VAR Guy.

Larry the Free Software Guy knows that you slept through Latin class. So did he. But with the passing of legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden, LtFSG is reminded of the IBM "Prodigy" ad Wooden appeared in back in 2003, and takes a closer look to find FOSS's messages planted in the ad. Oh, and it translates roughly to "What's in the public domain should not be dominated," or something like that.

You don't need any introduction on what Google Earth is. Google Earth is available with Medibuntu repositories, but the packages available in the Medibuntu repo are mostly outdated. So here we are going to install Google Earth in Ubuntu in a different way.

As I was browsing through the feeds in liferea, I happened upon this little gem. Being a fan of home replacement apps for Android devices, I opened it and began reading. That article contained little information about Zeam Launcher so I installed it from the Android market. Here's what I found.

If open source is so successful, why aren't there any billion-dollar open source companies? Red Hat's CEO, Jim Whitehurst, gives a clue: to get to $5 billion turnover, Red Hat must displace $50 billion of revenue from proprietary companies. That's hard - and why there will be very few big open source companies.

I just came back from an international meeting in Madrid on the reuse of Public Sector Information through open digital standards and open licenses. This is a partial report of the most interesting concepts discussed during the day.

Have you ever thought about how you really spend your time at work? If you're wondering where the time goes, the GNOME Time Tracker is a great tool to help you keep an eye on which activities eat up your days.

The case began in 2004 over a transfer agreement made in 1995. And finally, thanks to Groklaw, its volunteers and Pamela Jones, whose tireless efforts to follow and explain the twists and turns of this case showed what an obsessive compulsive with a blog can do and helped make the case understandable for those of us happy enough not to be lawyers. - John Oates, The Register

Kiddix is offering a 1 week 'pay what you want' sale of their kid-friendly operating system, and going full open source. Thru 6/15, support the initiative by purchasing or donating a copy of Kiddix!

I don’t get it. Or maybe I am not expected to understand it. Yesterday I went to a local Best Buy retail store to pick up a USB Flash Drive. After doing a quick price comparison I ended up purchasing the Greek Squad (the Best Buy) branded product. The next day I took the device into work and just as I was about to open it I quickly glanced at the back of the package and noticed: “Compatible with Windows 2000 SP4/Windows XP/Windows Vista/ Windows 7, Mac OS 10.x and above.“

2010 is definitely the year of the cloud, The IT world is abuzz with the benefits of cloud computing and rightfully so. Cloud computing, the logical extension of network storage and virtualization, is probably the biggest IT leap forward since pervasive use of the Internet. Despite the buzz all that glitters isn’t gold. Despite a widespread interest in cloud computing there may be some pitfalls including cloud lock-in.

This week’s installment of the regular Windows Update pack seems to have included more than Microsoft has disclosed to consumers. On Tuesday, Firefox users began reporting on the mozillaZine forums that a “Search Helper Extension” had been mysteriously added to their browser upon restarting the application after the Windows Update installation.

Canonical will launch an Ubuntu version for tablet computers which should be available in the winter of 2011. The info comes from Chris Kenyon, Canonical's vice president of OEM.

Mplayer updates the information about the amounts of frames it displayed, the played time, the remaining time, etc. every single time it displays a *frame*. This is not only completely unnecessary, it can unnecessarily hog several percent of your CPU in many terminal implementations, especially in current KDE 4 and Windows. The higher the frame rate, the more wasted CPU power.

San Jose Mercury News business columnist Mike Cassidy thinks that maybe the answer for local schools facing daunting technology challenges lies with the penguins. You know, penguins — those who advocate free and open-source software, including Linux and the operating system's mascot, a penguin named Tux.