Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

We hope yesterday you enjoyed our interview with the Wallbuntu Linux distribution and then on a serious note the X.Org 7.5 release or there the lack of. With the start of a new month though, there's a few items we need to remind you.

When the Free Software and Open Source movements started, the question was always "How do you make money?". The answer was you give away the software and sell support and services. It is this simple business model which has been evolved by the current set of open source based Enterprise software vendors. Many vendors say their software is open sourced, but that isn't an assurance that as a customer you'll get the benefits of open source.

To hear some media outlets talk on Tuesday, one would have thought that the Apocalypse was closing on the world like Jaws on an innocent swimmer. Havoc, mayhem, hemorrhoids, male pattern baldness — just about everything imaginable was supposed to break loose yesterday as the Conficker worm came crawling out of its hole. Why, then, is Preparation H stock up a mere quarter-point and we all still have our hair?

Envizions announced that it is taking orders for an open-source Linux gaming system, and will start shipping beta units to game developers, resellers, and software partners on April 10. The EVO Smart Console is based on a 2.4GHz Athlon, and includes a Fedora-based Linux distro.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales announced that Wikia Search, a community-based search engine, is officially shutting down. Unlike Google, whose search relies on algorithms, user ratings and input determined the results ranking in Wikia Search....Wales wrote on his personal blog. "In a different economy, we would continue to fund Wikia Search indefinitely. It's something I care about deeply."

The Fedora Project has announced Fedora 11, code-named Leonidas, has been moved to beta and is ready for a tire kicking before it tries to take on the massed ranks of freebie Linuxes, commercial Linuxes, Unix, Windows, and other proprietary operating systems out there. The choice of Leonidas as a code name is somewhat perplexing, since he was the king of Sparta who fought a last-stand battle with his 300 Spartan warriors and another 1,100 fellow Greeks in an effort to hold off the Persian army at the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. That last stand allowed the Greek army to escape a vastly larger Persian force.

As economic times get hard, classical economic theory tells us that expensive goods suffer the most. But lower cost doesn't mean compromising on quality; Paul Rubens examines what it will take to accelerate Linux adoption in the enterprise.

Intel is handing over its mobile Linux effort to the Linux Foundation to stimulate broader interest. The Linux Foundation will run Moblin's developer events starting next week in San Francisco, and it will host Moblin's infrastructure and forums, executive director Jim Zemlin told The Reg. Zemlin noted Intel developers would remain on Moblin adding the Foundation is not: "Going to get in the way of the core developers who work on it [Moblin]. From a governance perspective, that won't change".

Cutting costs is crucial for computer manufacturers and the buying public, which explains the flourishing popularity of Netbooks -- mini-sized and budget-priced laptop computers. But how can manufacturers dice the price even further? Hewlett-Packard might have the answer: use Google's Android OS instead of Microsoft's Windows. The combination is perfect for three reasons.

Get ready for the next stage in the personal computer revolution: ultrathin and dirt cheap. Steve Giddens, right, showing netbooks in Atlanta, where the company is offering netbooks for $50 with an Internet plan. AT&T announced on Tuesday that customers in Atlanta could get a type of compact PC called a netbook for just $50 if they signed up for an Internet service plan — an offer the phone company may introduce elsewhere after a test period. This year, at least one wireless phone company in the United States will probably offer netbooks free with paid data plans, copying similar programs in Japan, according to industry experts. But this revolution is not just about falling prices. Personal computers — and the companies that make their crucial components — are about to go through their biggest upheaval since the rise of the laptop.

In the last several days Microsoft has shown that despite claims of acquiring a newly found respect for open principles and technology, developers should be cautious in believing promises made by this “new” Microsoft. When it counts, it appears that Microsoft still actively seeks to undermine those technologies or standards that are truly open, especially when those technologies pose a significant threat to their business. Yesterday, Microsoft announced with a formal press release a settlement of a nuisance patent case filed against a smaller company. Despite Microsoft’s protestations to the contrary, the press release makes it clear that the motivation behind this case was the fear, uncertainty and doubt Microsoft hoped the suit would create around the use of Linux. Linux is, not coincidentally, one of Microsoft’s strongest threats in the server, embedded and desktop computing arenas as evidenced in recent remarks make by its CEO Steve Ballmer.

Asus has announced a netbook that includes an integral optical disk drive. The Eee PC 1004DN (left) has an Intel Atom N280 processor, a 10-inch display, a 120GB hard disk drive, up to 2GB of RAM, and weighs 3.19 pounds with a six-cell battery, Asus says.

Yahoo has released Sideline, an open source Adobe AIR-powered application that allows users to watch, search and monitor the Twitter public time line. The Sideline application, built with the Yahoo Interface Library, is a customised Yahoo interface to monitor Twitter, the popular microblogging service, for the latest trends and news.

Using a combination of open-source technologies, you can build an unattended network-based OS installer that can save you huge amounts of time and even can install Windows.

Ubuntu has arguably changed the landscape of desktop Linux since its initial release of Warty Warthog in 2004. Since then, its momentum has inspired the creation of numerous Ubuntu-based derivatives---Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu---just to name a few. These newcomers typically offer alternative desktop environments or sets of packages that differ from the standard Ubuntu selection. All target specific sub-audiences; be it KDE-folks, multimedia users, footprint minimalists, economic stimulus recipients, or Barrack Obama.

Syntax highlighting is incredibly useful for any kind of coding or scripting; comments, quoted strings, code, and markup are shown in different colours. Juliet Kemp shows us how Kate supports syntax highlighting for a multitude of languages, configuration file types, and even some applications like MySQL and diff.

The Ardour developers have released version 2.8 of their Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). New features include track and bus templates, which allow specific recording configuration settings to be saved and reused, as well as the improved support of audio plug-ins that comply with the Steinberg VST standard. The release also includes a number of bug fixes. More details about the release can be found in the release notes.

A cloud OS simply refers to an operating system (or an interface filled with a complete suite of desktop applications) that resides on the Web and you can access to it anytime, anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. While there are plenty of cloud OS out there that you can sign up and use for free, there might be instances where you want to have your own dedicated cloud OS. First of all, signing up a free account with third-party cloud OS often means that you have limited file storage space and all your data are stored in other people’s server. Next, the connection speed is dependent on the number of active users at any time. The more popular the site is, the slower it will get when you are using it.

TEMPE, ARIZONA - RedSeven Computer Company is kicking off it’s birthday month by offering a free installation of Linux on April first at their Tempe location, on the southeast corner of Guadalupe and McClintock. RedSeven is known for their support of the Linux operating system in the Valley and across the country. The free install event is an annual occurrence at the Tempe location. The installation is offered to Valley residents who refuse to be dependent on Microsoft’s Windows, opting for a more stable, secure operating system, Linux. In contrast to Windows, Linux software is cost-free and offers alternatives to virtually every Windows based program. RedSeven knows that in this economy, saving money where you can is vital.

Windows Vista gets a lot of grief both in tech circles and the general public — but one Texas lawmaker wants to make it a matter of public policy. Democrat Texas state Senator Juan Hinojosa recently added a rider to Texas' $182bn budget plan that would ban the state's agencies from purchasing Vista (and all Vista-related technologies) unless they get written permission from the budget board.