Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Ubuntu is probably the best known desktop GNU/Linux distribution at street level, picking up new users by word of mouth and astute viral marketing. So much so that for many users new to Linux, Ubuntu has become synonymous with Linux. Linux is Ubuntu; and Ubuntu is Linux. But Linux and free software come in many different flavours, and the adventurous user goes in search of wider options, other distributions and new desktops.

Google’s WebM, an open and royalty-free media format based on the VP8 video codec, was amongst the highlights coming out of Google I/O 2010. After examining the software license, open source pundits questioned whether WebM should, in theory, be classified open source software. The larger question is why Google allowed this debate to occur in the first place, and what it means for your organization when evaluating an “open source product”.

The KOffice team is very happy to announce the arrival of KOffice 2.2.0, half a year after version 2.1 was released. This release brings an unprecedented number of new features and bugfixes as can be seen in the full list of changes. There are two reasons for this very high development rate. Firstly, people have started to notice KOffice again and the developer community is growing. Secondly, Nokia is sponsoring development of KOffice for their mobile office viewer. Here follows a list of the most important changes in this release.

One week after Google open sourced its $124.6m VP8 video codec, Mozilla and Opera have called for its inclusion in the still-gestating HTML5 specification. As it stands, the HTML5 spec does not specify a video codec. Browser makers are free to use any codec they like, and the big names are split between the patent-backed H.264 and the open source Ogg Theora. In open sourcing VP8 and rolling it into larger media format known as WebM, Google is hoping to create a single open and royalty-free standard for video compression on the web, and though it hasn't specifically called for VP8's inclusion in the HTML5 spec, Mozilla and Opera see no reason to wait.

For the past six months we have been monitoring the performance of the very latest Linux kernel code on a daily basis across multiple systems. We have spotted a few regressions -- both positive and negative -- on occasion using our automated daily testing of the Linux kernel, but nothing like what we have encountered the past few days: the Linux 2.6.35 kernel performance has fallen hard. In fact, the performance has fallen very hard in a number of tests and right now, we would consider it a disaster. While the 2.6.35 code has not even seen its first release candidate yet, there are some massive performance drops in a variety of different tests that have yet to be corrected and nothing like we have encountered with previous kernel release cycles especially for a regression that has lived now for about one week.

After achieving success with the OLPC XO-1 laptop, the One Laptop Per Child foundation is setting in motion plans to create a working $100 tablet for CES 2011. Marvell Technologies announced Thursday that it will partner with the OLPC foundation to create the hardware for the proposed tablet, currently named the XO-3.

An iPhone port of GNU Go is currently being distributed through Apple's App Store. However, this distribution is not in compliance with the GNU GPL. The primary problem is that Apple imposes numerous legal restrictions on use and distribution of GNU Go through the iTunes Store Terms of Service, which is forbidden by section 6 of GPLv2. So today we have written to Apple and asked them to come into compliance.

Intel and Nokia have released the first code from their joint mobile Linux project, MeeGo, an effort to challenge Google's Android. Three months after the project was announced, the two companies have delivered MeeGo 1.0. Intel said it provides a stable core foundation for application development and a "rich user experience" on netbooks. MeeGo for touch-based handsets, tablets, and in-car systems is due to appear in June. MeeGo 1.1, which will combine code for netbooks and touch-based devices, is scheduled for October.

When you’re reading up on Wi-Fi security, you’ll find many different interpretations and opinions. One might say disabling SSID broadcasting will hide your network, while others might say it just draws hackers into an easy job. Some might think WPA encryption is cracked, while others say it’s secure. Here we look at each myth and tell you whether it's verified--or busted.

In part one we made a basic movie with kdenlive. Pretty easy! But we can make a better movie by adding some effects, so Akkana Peck shows us how to add transitions between scenes, music and titles.

Google has indicated it will offer native code browser applications from the Chrome web apps store that's due to launch later this year. The Chrome Web Store is designed for use with Google's Chrome browser and the company's upcoming Chrome OS, and it would appear that the store will make its debut when the OS hits netbooks in the fall. Chrome OS will include Native Client, the Google add-on that verifies and executes "untrusted" native code inside the Chrome browser, and in the past, Google has said that Native Client will be an "important part" of the browser-based operating system.

Google released version 5.0 of its Chrome browser -- including the first stable build for Linux -- promising faster performance, multi-machine sync, and HTML5 utilities. Chrome is also part of MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks, which was released yesterday -- and our early tests showed zippy performance.

Emery Fletcher has been exploring small-footprint Linux distributions like Damn Small Linux, SliTaz, and Puppy. Since even small mobile devices have lots of RAM and storage these days, and cloud apps are everywhere, are these small Linuxes still worthwhile?

Now that Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth is devoting his full energies to desktop design, the changes are coming thick and fast. But are these new designs based on flawed assumptions? Is Ubuntu forking GNOME?

The program and schedule for LinuxCon 2010 has been finalized and with the announcement comes news of additional keynote speakers and session details. Representatives from Intel and Nokia will discuss the future of MeeGo in the keynote, "Freedom to Innovate: Can MeeGo's Openness Change the Mobile Industry?"

The Free Software Foundation has said it has approached Apple because a GPL2 licensed application, a port of GNU Go, is available from Apple's App Store. The FSF say that distribution through the App Store is not in compliance with the GPL's conditions because they clash with Apple's terms and conditions. The developers of the application, are also not in compliance with the GPL as they do not currently distribute the source for the application. Brett Smith, writing on the FSF blog, is at pains to say that the FSF have not sued Apple or made any legal demand and says the only reason they are announcing this is because Apple has removed applications from the store before without explanation and that they want to prevent wild speculation.

Microsoft have announced two open source projects which are designed to allow developers to work with Outlook's PST file format. One of the projects, PST Data Structure View Tool (PSTViewTool) is a MFC / C++ applications for viewing the data inside the Microsoft email client's data storage. The other project, PST File Format SDK (pstsdk) is a cross platform C++ library for reading that same information.

Dell says its Streak mini-tablet -- featuring a five-inch touchscreen, voice telephony, the Android operating system, and a Snapdragon processor -- will begin shipping next month. Meanwhile, Opera Software announced an Android-ready, "touch-optimized" tablet version of its Opera Mobile 10 browser.

The developers behind the popular Fedora Linux distribution announced on Tuesday the official release of version 13, codenamed Goddard. It brings some important platform improvements and several new desktop applications. In order to get hardware-accelerated 3D graphics on the Linux desktop, users have typically had to rely on the proprietary drivers that are supplied by the graphic card vendors. The Linux community has had tremendous difficulty building its own alternative open source drivers, but the hard work is starting to pay off.

Network effects being what they are, OpenOffice.org tends to suck all the oxygen out of the room when talking about open source productivity applications. But OpenOffice.org isn't the only game in town for open source word processing. One of the best, if underexposed, open word processors is AbiWord. AbiWord has been around for ages, but without the weight of a company like Sun behind it, the little word processor has gotten less attention than it deserves. Let's try to remedy that a bit.