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Many computer users know that if you want to save money, go open source. Open source software is programming that is freely available on the Internet and whose programming language -- literally the software's DNA -- is available to all users. There are open source software equivalents of nearly every professional software product on the market, most sporting the same features as their for-profit counterparts.

Back in August we had looked at the G45-based Super Micro C2SEA with its integrated Intel GMA X4500HD graphics. The X.Org graphics performance wasn't that bad for being an Intel IGP, but Intel had also introduced the G43 Chipset with Intel X4500 (non-HD) graphics. One of the motherboards to use Intel's G43 is the ASRock G43Twins-FullHD, which we happen to be looking at today. This motherboard that pairs the Intel G43 with an ICH10 Southbridge supports both DDR2 and DDR3 system memory and its video connectors include D-Sub, DVI-D, and DisplayPort.

This is WFTL Bytes!, your occasiodaily FOSS and Linux news show for Monday, November 3, 2008, with your host, Marcel Gagné. Today's stories uncover several conspiracies, including a Linux love/hate relationship, Windows payoffs, er, uhm, bribes, business needs, GNOME support, and award-winning content management.

Could open source software benefit from more usability testing? It sure seems so, and usability labs are heavily emphasized at big proprietary software companies, especially Microsoft. In fact, early interface standards in Windows applications, such as common menu options, were largely driven by the experiences of usability testers. Here are some open source projects that are setting a good example when it comes to usability.

I don't get it. Why in the world are people reporting that seven out of ten Asus PCs is news. Hello. Wake up call. Nine in ten PCs, counting Macs as PCs, are already running Windows. The news, the real news, is that three out of ten Asus PCs are being sold with Linux.

Once upon a time, one computer was all you needed. All of your documents lived on that computer, or a stack of floppies or CD-Roms nearby, and nowhere else. Those days are gone, much like the one-car, one-TV, and one-iPod days. Today I have my home computer and my wife has hers. There's also my laptop, my daughter's laptop, my work computer, and my file server. At any time I could find myself sitting in front of any of these and wherever I happen to be sitting there is bound to be a file that is sitting on one of the others that I would prefer to be readily available. These files are mostly along the lines of current projects I'm working on. If inspiration strikes I want to be able to open up the appropriate file or create a new one and start writing without worry. I worry because keeping these files synchronized across all my logins on the various computers I might sit in front of in a single day is a big issue.

A look at simple steganography and one of the easiest ways to implement it keylessly. For this week's Monday Linux/Unix bash shell script, we're following up on what turned out to be a fairly popular script from last week that made it so you could get your local tv listings from the command line with bash. This week's script is an update to include cable and dish TV as well as provide greater coverage of your personal provider's schedule. The next paragraph is another litany of "other scripts we've done before that somewhat resemble this one."

There's no doubt about, when it comes to selling small laptops (or what's now often called a netbook) Asus is king of the hill. Just like most people think of Apple's iPod when it comes to MP3 players Asus' eee PC brand has become synonymous with small inexpensive laptops. I honestly can't remember the last university lecture where I didn't see at least one student with an eee PC and on a short 2h train-ride on the weekend I spotted 3 people using eee PCs.

What do Linux System Administrators do? What are the most important things to know as an SA?

The Data Warehousing Institute World Conference, New Orleans, LA – Nov. 3, 2008 – Pentaho, the commercial open source alternative for business intelligence (BI), will join other business intelligence industry leaders to discuss the latest industry innovations that allow BI to reach more users. Lance Walter, vice president of marketing for Pentaho, will represent open source business intelligence during the TDWI session entitled, “Cool BI: The Latest Innovations,” led by Cindi Howson, founder of BIScorecard, at this year’s TDWI World Conference in New Orleans on Nov. 4 from 2:15 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

A whole week of success stories for Linux and Open Source, while Microsoft is battling the press, thus the summary from Jim Zemlin, executive director of the Linux Foundation. Even the New York Times sees a good positioning for Linux on desktops. Zemlin begins his current blog entry with the words "It is hard for the executive director of the Linux Foundation to feel bad for Microsoft, but they are having a bad week..."

Though it may not be as epically geek as the NetBSD toaster, there is a certain appeal to Chumby, the Linux alarm clock. The hardware and software are open and hackable, for the hands-on type. For the rest of the population, it's still an interesting and functional little device.

In a previous article Linux-Tip explained how to install the current release (Backtrack 3 Final) in a virtual environment using VMWare. The goal was to run Backtrack 3 from the hard disk connected to a Wireless USB Adapter and to use the tool Kismet. It further explains how to collect valid wireless networks and to display them on Google Earth’s worldwide map system. In this article we’ll show how to add Nessus and to use the already integrated SAINT vulnerability scanner and Maltego. We’ll update Fast-Track and will show how to use the web-based interface.

A. Lizard's in-depth howto on setting up secure remote graphical desktops continues with configuring secure Internet access: managing dynamic IP addresses, creating and managing SSH keys, configuring routers, and using Wake-on-LAN for added convenience.

Nearly a year after acquiring MySQL for $1 billion, Sun Microsystems is bolstering its channel partner program to more effectively promote a range of open source solutions. The VAR Guy had been expecting this move for several weeks. Here’s the scoop.

Last month, when the National Center for Open Source and Education announced this year's FOSS and K-12 Education Awards, three of the five awards were given for software designed for the Linux Terminal Service Project (LTSP). Two were given to Eric Harrison and Paul Nelson, the founders of the K12LTSP distribution (now called K-12 Linux). The third was given to Robert Arkiletian, the developer of an administration application called Fl_TeacherTool that is designed specifically for K12LTSP. The award was only the latest acclaim for Fl_TeacherTool, which has a small but dedicated group of users in the classroom. Ironically, though, the award comes at a time when the tiny project faces significant challenges if it is to survive.

Canonical, the developers behind Ubuntu Linux have release Intrepid Ibex, the successor to last spring's Hardy Heron release. Ibex isn't a long-term support release - which might put off some large organizations - but for Ubuntu desktop fans, version 8.10 makes a worthwhile upgrade. If you made the leap to Ubuntu 8.10 when it was released last week you may be scratching your head wondering what the fuss is about. The answer is that it might be a few days before you appreciate the small tweaks and overall streamlining in this release. Naturally, there are a slew of new and updated packages - GNOME 2.24, GIMP 2.6, and more - but much of what we love about 8.10 is more subtle.

Have fun with a lot of reviews - get the overview. So far reviews from Heise Online- and screenshot collections from builder.au - and more reviews from webmonkey, Linuxformat, CRN.com, Polishlinux, Lifehacker, ITWire, LinuxJournal and WorksWithU.

On October 24th, as Lisa reported, a serious vulnerability was discovered in the Google Android powered G1 mobile phone. Though security researchers classified the flaw in the Android browser as serious, Google assured users that the risk wasn't necessarily as dire as it seemed, due to the way the Android operating system restricts each application to its own area.

It's no secret that much of the code-base that makes up the modern-day X.Org server is old and in some places bloated. The X.Org Server continues to evolve and has received a number of major additions in recent times, but wouldn't a clean and lighter server that is designed around today's needs be ideal? Red Hat's Kristian Høgsberg has started a new project, which is currently known as Wayland, and is just that: a new lightweight X Server. Wayland isn't just a rewrite of the current X Server, but instead it's a small server that is designed around some of the latest graphics technologies such as kernel mode-setting and the Graphics Execution Manager. Wayland also has its own built-in compositing manager.