Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

KDE is currently moving in three directions: adding functionality, extending the concept of the social desktop, and the introduction of KDE on to every possible hardware platform. Bruce Byfield learns where KDE is going from lead KDE developer Aaron Seigo.

We have already published a look at the Fedora 13 Beta, delivered ATI Radeon benchmarks atop Fedora 13 Beta, and have other articles on the way covering this new Fedora release, while in this article we are investigating Nouveau's power performance using this newest Fedora release. If you are a mobile user planning to use the Nouveau stack right now, or you care the least bit about energy savings with your desktop, its power consumption alone may rule this open-source driver out as even a current possibility.

Late last year, getting a Google Wave invite was reminiscent of getting a Cabbage Patch Kid in 1983. It was the newest gizmo everyone just had to have. As a geek, I was one of the kids begging the loudest. Thankfully, one of our readers from across the pond (Paul Howard, thanks!) sent me an invite, and I cleared my schedule for the product that was going to change the way I communicate. Only, it didn’t.

I've read a bit of angst about cloud lock-in, a lot of weed pulling in the form of interoperability standards for the cloud, and a manifesto or two about 'Open Cloud'. And in between, I've seen lots of interesting new tools for cloud computing, and lots of narratives about how the tools, combined with the formalization of use cases, pave the way for open clouds. But what, exactly, does "Open Cloud" mean? And what role does open source play? Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, likes to say that open source and the cloud go together like peanut butter and chocolate. But does open source necessarily mean open cloud, and vice-versa?

With Linux and free software making a name for itself in the world of big business, many people are testing the feasibility of switching small and home office software to their open source equivalents. Regardless of how you feel about the Linux desktop, this is one area in which Linux can have a real impact, both financially and productively, and any small or home office has the potential to be transformed by just switching one application or two to their open source equivalents.

The GIMP has been a poster child for the open source movement ever since it came out. It has been compared to Photoshop and has often been spoken of as the only worthy open source contender in the graphics editor category. While that statement may or may not be true, it is definitely a rival to photoshop when it comes to complexity. And I’m not the only one who thinks that the GIMP is complex. Apparently the Ubuntu development team also thinks the same way and have removed GIMP from their default distribution. It is still available in the online repository but the Ubuntu 10.04 CD will not ship with GIMP on it. The point is that with all that power comes complexity and GIMP is definitely not a tool for casual users.

To most people, boot loaders aren't the most exciting aspect of an operating system, but they are extraordinarily important. Without a functioning boot loader, nothing else works. Currently, a transition from the old Grand Unified Bootloader (GRUB) Legacy tool to the new GRUB 2 is underway. GRUB 2 is the default boot loader in Ubuntu 9.10, and it's an option in most other major Linux distributions. Sooner or later, other distributions will deploy GRUB 2 as the default boot loader.

The Perl 6 project, which aimed to radically reinvent the open source programming language, first began to take shape in 2000. A decade later, there are several implementations with varying levels of completeness, but it is still not ready to replace Perl 5 in production environments. In order to ensure that Perl doesn't completely stagnate during the protracted revamp, a group of developers have decided to pull Perl 5 out of maintenance mode and begin actively enhancing it with new features. The result is Perl 5.12, which was officially released this week. It was preceded by 5.11, an experimental development release that was issued last year.

Intel announced a new Atom processor aimed at embedded devices and in-car infotainment platforms. The "Tunnel Creek" CPU offers an onboard graphics controller, memory controller, and audio, linking to a separate I/O controller via a standard PCI Express interface, according to the company.

A pair of vendors that offer proprietary solutions based on the open source memcached project are updating their products this week. While both Gear6 and Schooner are adding their own proprietary bits to enhance their respective memcached-based offerings, both vendors are also ensuring that they also are contributing back to the open source core.

Well, actually, no they won't. I'm talking about purchasing and installing a brand new Linux cluster in a pure Windows shop and having any expectations that it will be used. Your co-workers will probably look at you funny, and they might stand way over on the other side of the elevator during that ride up to the fourth floor, but don't count on them knocking your door down begging for access to your shiny new Linux resource.

Oracle presented a beta of what it called a "much faster" MySQL at the O'Reilly MySQL Conference and insists it will be continuing to invest in the open source database. Oracle's Chief Corporate Architect, Edward Screven, presented the beta version of MySQL 5.5 which will now use InnoDB as its default storage engine, saying that the switch offers a 200% performance improvement and over ten times faster recovery times. He assured the audience that despite the switch to Oracle's InnoDB, Oracle will be maintaining the pluggable storage engine architecture and that the company would continue to ship the same code base in the community and enterprise editions.

Does using a lightweight Linux desktop always mean trading lower resource usage for usability and features? Juliet Kemp reviews LXDE, one of the newest lightweight Linux desktops.

The Fedora project released a beta version of Fedora 13 (codenamed "Goddard"). The updated community Linux distribution is touted for features including automatic print-driver installation, the Btrfs filesystem, enhanced 3D driver support, revamped Python bindings, and the Zarafa groupware package, says the project.

Submissions for the Plasma Javascript Jam Session closed at the end of March and the judging commenced, with the community joining the judging panel as a collective "5th member". Every Plasmoid that was submitted was a success and a joy to try out: congratulations to all of those who participated. It was a competition with prizes up for grabs, however, so we had to make the required tough calls and declare some winners. Without further ado, here are your 2010 Javascript Jam Session competition crown bearers!

Despite the fact that version 2.1 of Google's mobile operating system has been available for several months, most devices are still running older versions. According to a device dashboard by Android developer Raphaël Moll, over the last 14 days only 27% of Android smartphones accessing the Android Market were running version 2.1. The majority – 38% and 32% respectively – were running versions 1.5 and 1.6. Version 2.0.1 accounts for just under 3% of users accessing the site and versions 1.1 and 2.0 barely troubled the scorers, presumably because updates are available for popular devices supplied with these versions.

Learn how to choose and configure a boot manager for your Linux system. You can use the material in this article to study for the LPI 101 exam for Linux system administrator certification, or just to learn for fun.

When Google announced a deal to acquire video technology company On2 last year, the move generated speculation that the search giant was aiming to liberate the VP8 codec in order to accelerate the advancement of standards-based open video. Google has remained silent about its plans for On2's intellectual property, but signs have emerged that the company is planning to do precisely what the speculators anticipated.

If you’re a Linux user, you’ve likely been asked at some point if you want Ext3, Ext4, XFS, ReiserFS, Btrfs, or one of many other filesystem acronyms. This choice confuses new and old users alike, and like all software, the options change as technology improves. Many people probably don’t care what filesystem they use as long as it’s stable and reasonably fast, but how do you know which one that is? This guide will attempt to cover the basic differences between the most common options, and provide the pros and cons of each choice.

I’m certain, given the things that have, or in some cases, have not, happened since the completion of the sale of Sun to Oracle, that many would have wished that IBM had purchased the flailing company. Those seeing the commitment of IBM to many open source projects would tend to believe that the progress of the many Sun projects would be better served under the aegis of IBM. As it is, many are wondering what is going to happen to the many Sun projects, with the Java stream being probably the only thing not in some cloud of possible excision from living efforts.