Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Proposing to change the implementation language for a large project is hardly uncontroversial, but when that proposal calls for moving from C++ to Python, one might expect an enormous flame fest. Surprisingly, a proposal to do just that with the code for the "Battle for Wesnoth" strategy game has resulted in a fairly flame-free discussion. Whether or not the project actually makes the switch—it looks unlikely that any wholesale switch is imminent—there is a great deal of value in the discussion, particularly in its tone.

Ever feel like you're Rodney Dangerfield? You live someplace and Linux shows you no respect, time-zone-wise that is. What I mean is that you live somewhere that's not one of the time-zones that comes predefined with Linux. If that sounds like you, then read on and get Linux to show you a little respect.

There is now talk on the Mesa 3D development list about the possibility of having a Mesa driver for the Nintendo Wii. Those working on developing custom games for this console platform have already experienced some success in bringing OpenGL to the Wii through the use of Mesa. Nintendo has its own graphics API (GX) for the Wii, which is resemblant of OpenGL but still different enough that some work is required to get OpenGL running...

A lot of notebooks and even netbooks these days run Windows, but also offer a minimalist Linux environment that boots in seconds. Now, with the Intel-sponsored Moblin project's alpha release of Moblin 2 Monday, it looks like insanely fast boots will become a standard feature of full-featured Linux desktops, too.

Linus Torvalds makes a minor, off-hand comment that is buried deep in a lengthy interview. The tech press and Linux community act like it's nude celebrity pics and go gaga. Bruce Byfield peels away the nonsense and finds a tiny nugget of actual news. Sorry, no nude pics.

Ordinarily, I don't spend much discretionary income on computers. I get enough of 'em at work. But the other day, I actually considered buying a netbook. In the process of doing some shopping, I learned why Windows is outselling Linux.

Uncertainty over hardware support is a perennial Linux bugaboo--even when vendors claim to love the penguin, it isn't always true. Rob Reilly risks his own money and peace of mind testing various external storage devices on his Asus Kubuntu laptop, including an antique Zip drive, and reports his findings.

The Conservative Party has published a new report on government open-source IT procurement, claiming that the recommendations would save tax payers' money. The report is the result of studies by Dr Mark Thompson, of Cambridge University's Judge Business School, who was asked to pursue the topic by shadow chancellor George Osborne in a speech last year.

The Jetty project has now formally proposed to join the Eclipse project. Greg Wilkins has previously discussed the potential move to place the open source Java HTTP server and servlet container under the umbrella of the Eclipse project, and now the formal proposal has been made. The proposal notes that the Eclipse IDE already uses Jetty to serve help pages and that Jetty is a mature project and technology.

It’s been a while in the coming but KDE 4.2 is here. The latest release of the popular desktop environment packs a truck-full of improvements over earlier releases and developers are saying that KDE 4.2 is the best choice for all users, not just KDE enthusiasts. Previous releases of KDE 4x have sparked controversy in the open source community over its suitability as a general purpose desktop.

The uptake of cloud computing was rendering many traditional systems-administrator functions obsolete, tech author and Google sysadmin Tom Limoncelli told attendees at Linux.conf.au (LCA) in Hobart this week.

The NVIDIA 180.22 Linux driver was released less than three weeks ago, but today NVIDIA has released a new 180.xx display driver update. In addition, NVIDIA has updated all three of their legacy display drivers.

Once you finish adding content to your presentation in Impress, your efforts aren't over yet. You still need to prepare how you will deliver it. These preparations are partly a matter of choosing various options for slide transitions and delivering the show, but they also include some practical choices and -- worst of all -- the practical considerations such as making sure that you have all the graphics, fonts, and audio files you need, and are ready to work with dual monitors in a world in which GNU/Linux is still a rarity.

Hello everyone! I would like to welcome you to the new and improved KDE Dot News. As I am sure many of you know, although the old KDE Dot News has served the KDE community very well, it was beginning to show its age. Because of that a number of people including myself took it upon ourselves to modernise the Dot.

People have been wanting something like a netbook ever since we can remember, even way back in the last millennium. But hardware costs made them unattractive. Now we're tripping over netbooks every time we turn around, and have a wealth of attractive choices. Paul Ferrill takes the Lenovo Ideapad, loaded with SUSE Linux, for a test drive and reports his findings.

I have to admit I let this topic drop after writing my best take on how to go from footnote citations in the text using the [article URL#To-[footnote digit] and back to the approximately the same location using the similar linking syntax: [article URL#back-[footnote digit]. However, I could not do nearly as well when trying to connect external pages with similar easy to use syntax. I must admit my attempt to connect the Home page menu list to specific menu pages with links to articles was weak [1.]. Therefore, I saw further efforts futile.

The Linux Foundation (LF), the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that registration is open for the Linux Foundation's Annual Collaboration Summit taking place April 8 - 10, 2009 in San Francisco. Also available today are further details, including the Call for Proposals (CFP), for both the Annual Collaboration Summit and LinuxCon 2009.

As this amazing chart shows, there are basically three great families of GNU/Linux distros: those based on Red Hat, Slackware and Debian. The last of these was created as a reaction to an even earlier distro, SLS, as Debian's creator Ian Murdock (the “Ian” in “Debian” - Deb is his wife) told me a few years ago.

The KDE Community today announced the immediate availability of "The Answer", (a.k.a KDE 4.2.0), readying the Free Desktop for end users. KDE 4.2 builds on the technology introduced with KDE 4.0 in January 2008. After the release of KDE 4.1, which was aimed at casual users, the KDE Community is now confident we have a compelling offering for the majority of end users.

If Mozilla has its way, you'll soon be able to watch streaming video on sites all over the web without ever having to use a plug-in. The software maker announced Monday that native support for the open-source Threora video format will be added to Firefox 3.1, the next version of its popular web browser. Theora files can be embedded directly into web pages just like images and viewed in any browser that supports Theora playback -- no plug-in to download, so special software to install.