Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

One would be hard pressed to find a Linux user who hasn't at one point or another become acquainted with Tux, the fine-flippered fellow who serves as mascot for all things Linux. Everybody needs a break now and again, though, and so Tux has gone on sabbatical — reportedly to work as a barber — leaving the face of a very worthy cause to hold down the fort.

Beleaguered Sun Microsystems, whose share price has been languishing at one of its lowest points ever for the past year, has just been given a shot in the arm with yesterday's talk of an IBM buyout. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how Sun's share price gave the company a market capitalisation only slightly larger than that of Red Hat, despite revenues 20-fold more than those of Red Hat. At the close of the NYSE on March 17 Sun's share was trading at $4.92. With the overnight news of a potential IBM buyout that price rocketed to open at $8.31 yesterday, eventually closing at $8.94. Which gives Sun a market capitalization of more than $6.6 billion.

This summer KDE will once again be participating in Google Summer of Code! This will give KDE another opportunity to achieve the massive forward momentum and influx of new developers that has been the hallmark of each Summer of Code.

Why are there so many Linuxes? Because one size does not fit all. Paul Ferrill introduces us to Tiny Linux, a complete distribution in ten (count 'em, 10!) megabytes that lets you add just the pieces you need to get your job done.

A microcredit co-op bank has sprung up in Northern California, using money pooled from hardware hackers to fund other open source hardware hacking projects.

According to a Novel-sponsored IDC survey, Linux seems to be gaining popularity among businesses implementing servers, and it has a bright outlook for both server and desktop installations in the coming future. On the other hand, netbooks have seen less and less default OEM installations of Linux. Windows now has over 90 percent of netbook sales, quashing any hopes of an open source revolution in the form of netbooks. Android, however, may be able to change things.

Do you look at the amazing dual mode XO screen and think to yourself "that's too small to show a classroom the joys of learning learning"? Might you want a VGA port to attach external viewing hardware? If so, you would not be alone.

A simple question, "Why do you use Linux?" got the attention of more than a few people on the Linux-related blogs this week. Even PC Magazine's John Dvorak, a noted detractor of Linux, weighed in with his reasons why "everyone should try Ubuntu." Now that's high praise.

NEW YORK--The open source route has generated more money for Sun Microsystems than before, says its open source chief, and staying on this path will be central to the company's growth strategy. Sun made more money from Solaris today than it did four years ago after it moved the server platform to an open source model, said Simon Phipps, the company's chief open source officer.

The GNOME Project today achieved a new release of its popular desktop computing environment for Linux. Highlighting the GNOME 2.26 release is a version of the Evolution mail client that could finally open the door to Linux replacing Windows in the enterprise.

The news broke this morning, March 18th, that IBM is talking to Sun about buying the company. Sources from both companies tell me that such a deal is in the works and it may be completed as early as this week. Sun’s pricetag may be as high as $6.5-billion with a large part of the deal being made with IBM stock. Sources indicated that what IBM wants is Sun’s software businesses, not its x86 and SPARC server lines.

Apple's releasing some hot new features in iPhone 3.0 this summer, but will it be better than Google's Android? Let's take a look.

In this edition of the Nouveau Companion, covered is the status of this open-source NVIDIA display driver and what went on at FOSDEM with the Nouveau project status and combining LLVM with Gallium3D. Recently the Nouveau developers have been successful in using EXA acceleration on newer GeForce 9 graphics cards, backlight controls working on more NVIDIA graphics cards, and a port of the Nouveau driver to FreeBSD. Work on kernel mode-setting and proper kernel memory management is also underway.

The U.S. Constitution makes a point of guarding against tyranny through a series of checks and balances. The software market, it turns out, is no different. Or, rather, it could turn out to be that way. Windows has stood alone for over a decade as the dominant operating system for personal computers, and had a growing lock on the server, too. But then Linux happened, and Apple's Mac OS X is increasingly spoiling the Windows party, too (though some recent data suggests that Microsoft's "I'm a PC" marketing may have actually paid off).

Despite ongoing wrangles in court with Apple computer, upstart OS X-based computer manufacturer Psystar has introduced a new desktop model. Psystar's the company that, back in April 2008, started selling its own computers with Mac OS X preinstalled. Apple sued in July 2008, arguing that the OS X end-user license forbids its installation by third parties. Psystar has argued that the company acquired its copies of OS X legally and that the license agreement is unenforceable.

In my last article on OpenStreetMap I looked at the recent mass imports of public data — everything from British oil wells to the entire road network for the United States. But for those interested in more than an alternative to Google Maps, the ability to extract or add data to the project is what really makes OpenStreetMap shine. Whether you want to get an SVG of a campus map or import a local government's database of every building in the city, Linux users will find plenty of tools that cater to their needs.

IBM's reported interest in buying Sun Microsystems Inc. has Java and open-source community members expressing both hopes and worries about the implications of such a deal for the tools, applications and open-source projects they use every day. IBM is willing to pay at least $6.5 billion for Sun, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday that cited anonymous sources. While analysts said a deal would make strategic sense for both companies -- such as by providing a stronger sales channel for Sun's software and a large installed base of Sun server customers for IBM -- some of the talk in the Java world's trenches is not so sunny.

Pushed into the Jaunty repository this morning for Ubuntu 9.04 was a new theme for USplash. This Canonical project for providing a splash screen at boot-up on Ubuntu is being replaced by Plymouth with Ubuntu 9.10 (the Karmic Koala release), but there is a new Ubuntu theme as one last hurrah. This new USplash theme has a fixed-size Ubuntu logo centered in the middle of the display and a new progress bar. From our feelings at least, this new theme looks more professional than its predecessor, but it's not exactly a complete overhaul. Below is a video of this newly-pushed theme.

SINGAPORE--Local institute of learning, Republic Polytechnic, has partnered IBM and Red Hat to groom IT professionals with expertise to meet rising adoption of open source software and mainframe virtualization. The institute has launched a new course that provides training on IBM's System z mainframe based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. At a media briefing Wednesday, Eden Liew, RP's deputy principal overseeing corporate services, said up to 150 students and 75 industry professionals are expected to be trained over the next three years.

Photographers in the Free world rejoice! On behalf of the Digikam developer team, Gilles Caullier has announced the first KDE 4 release of Digikam, the photo management application.