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Google has announced the availability of version 5.0.307.7 of Chrome for Mac and Linux, the latest betas of its Chrome WebKit-based browser for each platform. According to the developers, Chrome on both platforms features stability improvements to plug-ins, such the Adobe Flash Player, and is now even more reliable.

Sure I've tried Wine before. But never successfully. I took the plunge recently, forking over $20 for the Bordeaux GUI front-end for Wine, the non-emulator that allows users of Linux (and Solaris and FreeBSD) to run Windows applications on their Unix-like computers. I decided to use Bordeaux because its developers (or developer singular ... I'm not sure) promised that IrfanView 4.25 — the best image editor on any platform for my particular needs — would run with it. And I saw plenty of Wine users have trouble with Irfanview. Codeweavers, who I'd rather deal with than Bordeaux, doesn't make any promises in regard to Irfanview. Bordeaux does.

GNU/Linux has never been short of audio and video players, but they live in a world of multiple codecs, chief culprit amongst them being MP3, AAC, WMA and (Adobe) Flash. I say “culprits” because they are not free and open codecs. They are encumbered by patents; most websites with embedded audio/video use them and most of the people who view them are also using other patented software: Windows. GNU/Linux is a good alternative and all distros come bundled with free and open multimedia alternatives too: Ogg. You would not be surprised that these players can handle Ogg but what if I told you that Mozilla’s Firefox browser could not only handle this codec but could be used also to transcode videos to that format? Interested? Read on. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

There are a few different programs for ripping DVDs on Linux. The following details my personal experience with four different applications over the last week and a half.

I realize that it's trite for anyone in the computer industry, but I have to confess to being a life long fan of Star Trek. Now, mind you, I don't know Klingon, I don't own a starfleet uniform, and I don't routinely go around quoting obscure Ferengi dialog. So there are many that would say I don't really qualify as a trekkie (or trekker, although I do know that it's a point of debate...

Thats true. Now you can install and get the latest updates of Google Picasa in Ubuntu by adding these repositories. Here is how you do it.

Ubuntu is considering including Google Docs as the default office suite for its next netbook release. Ubuntu's forthcoming Netbook Remix (UNR) will very likely not include OpenOffice.org and instead use Google Docs or other lightweight alternatives as the default office tools. The decision is proving to be a controversial one within the developer community but the lead developers believe that the web-hosted suite will free up enough space to give UNR a speed boost.

Mary, the daughter of a friend is in college: her Windows XP laptop constantly reboots and, we suspect, has a bad hard drive. The system will boot a live CD (Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala Desktop), and data on the hard drive can be read. During boot, the live CD identifies disk errors and tries unsuccessfully to repair them.

The rapid advance of the cloud, along with other existing Internet-based services, into the business space has highlighted the need for trust in the underlying protocols that provide the driving force behind the Internet. Some are now arguing that a secure software-based DNS signing system is essential if business is to maximise the potential of the cloud.

Me and Xorg. It's a long, dramatic tale. OK, it's not so much me and Xorg as it is my Intel 830m graphics chip and Xorg, or more specifically my Intel 82830 CGC and Xorg. In Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) Alpha 2, which I've been testing with a live DVD, there are two ways to boot the disc and get actual video on systems with this graphics chip.

The Morevna Project aims to create an animated film in a modern anime-style retelling a very old Russian folktale known as “Marya Morevna”. It’s a free culture production project pushing the envelope in several ways — entirely using free software tools and releasing under the free Creative Commons Attribution license. The project is purely community-based, without any foundation funding, so they can probably use your help. Joining could be a terrific learning opportunity, whether your interest is in literature, music, animation, or software development. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

Firefox too mainstream for ya? Bored with Chrome or Opera? Linux users with a wandering eye can find plenty of browser alternatives, from the super-useful to niche browsers that offer moderate improvements on existing browsers like Firefox. We look at some of the “alternative” browsers on Linux that we’ve found interesting and useful over the years.

The OpenOffice team have made version 3.2 of the open source office suite for Windows, Mac OS, Linux and Solaris available to download. It offers numerous enhancements over its predecessor which offer both stability and speed benefits. Writer and Calc, for example, should now start twice as fast as in version 3.1.1.

LottaNZB 0.5.3 Usenet client for Linux is released. It both features some new bells and whistles, making the application ready for future releases of your favorite GNU/Linux distribution, but also includes numerous bug fixes.

Google Buzz only came out yesterday, but it's taking a lot of hits around the internet from privacy issues to interface complaints. But the open aspect of it could lead to interesting third party implementations.

Mozilla Messaging is looking forward to a big year in 2010 including Thunderbird 3.1 and figuring out how to make the project financially sustainable. Making Thunderbird better is the easier part. Figuring out how to make money as a project is another story entirely.

Even with all of the high quality software available, sometimes you just have to break down and write a custom application, and usually you don't have a lot of time to devote to it. This is the situation I found myself in when my wife started a new business and needed a simple means of tracking sales leads. To her credit, she realized that she couldn't simply use a spreadsheet and needed a database application. So I decided that I'd see just how involved it would be to write an application with Open Office's database program, known as Base.

Few days ago Ubuntu announced that there is a serious security issue in the kernel from version 6.06, 8.04, 8.10, 9.04 and 9.10 . 7.xx versions are not affected. Canonical has been recommended as a solution to update the kernel of its various versions.Today i show you how to upgrade the kernel the safe way in Ubuntu and LinuxMint. I tested this tutorial on Ubuntu 9.10 karmic koala and LinuxMint 8 helena .

Red Hat released the first beta of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.5, providing memory allocation enhancements to the KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) hypervisor. RHEL 5.5 also introduces new storage and WiFi drivers, and supports new AMD, IBM, and Intel processors, says the company.

The major derivatives of Ubuntu are well known, but what about the others? Just because they aren’t as popular doesn’t mean they don’t have something to offer! We introduce five of the least known, yet simply outstanding distributions.