Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Thai systems integrator Norhtec is preparing to release a sub-$300 ultra-mini PC (UMPC) laptop based on a Quanta design. Aimed at the developing-country market, the so-called Gecko Laptop is being built by Quanta and runs Linpus Linux Lite, a new distribution designed for small-screen mini-PCs.

South Africa’s nTier has completed a migration of the Water Research Commission’s Compiere ERP system from Oracle to the PostgreSQL-based EnterpriseDB. The commission made the move from the Oracle database to EnterpriseDB because the EnterpriseDB relational database was a more affordable option, nTier said in a statement today.

Programming the Asterisk open source PBX via the Asterisk Gateway Interface (AGI) is a fun but exasperating exercise for the telephony programmer. It is fun since it can make a telephone dance, but frustrating because errors and debugging information can be difficult to catch since status information arrives on multiple channels: audible, Asterisk console, and STDERR. You can make the process of debugging a bit easier with the assistance of PHPAGI and Festival.

Expect is a venerable tool for scripting interactive command-line tools. One normally sees expect coupled with the TCL programming language -- for example, in the DejaGNU test environment. Expect-lite is a wrapper for expect designed to allow you to capture an interactive session more directly mapped into a script. The expect-lite language also includes simple conditionals and other programming language elements, and can be readily mixed with bash programming.

"Forgive me, Linux Community, for I have sinned. It has been forever since my last confession and I am prepared for my penance. The truth is that I have never particularly cared for the Firefox browser--not because there is anything wrong with it but just because I already have a favorite browser. No, it isn't the one you think it is..."

I’m not particularly fond of backing up my data. I know I should do it and I feel pretty smug when it is done, but it is a time-consuming and frustrating process. Mainly because it requires a whole lot of thinking on my part: which files do I want to back up? where should I store them? What format? And to date I haven’t really found the one tool that makes baking up truly simple.

Open sourcing Windows is more hassle than it's worth and Microsoft sees little gain in releasing code, according to the man leading Microsoft's server marketing and platform strategy. Microsoft general manager Bill Hilf has said the Windows source code is "irrelevant for what people want".

Over the last few years, OpenOffice.org has started to develop a respectable number of extensions, mostly for Writer and Calc, the two most widely used applications. The OpenOffice.org Extensions site lists only a handful that are unique to Impress. The recently released eVoice, which records sounds for direct insertion into a slide, is one of them. Once configured, eVoice is straightforward to learn, and becomes even more useful when you're working with other Impress features.

The OpenOffice.org project has announced that it will release future releases of the open source office suite under the LGPL3 licence, starting with the beta for OpenOffice.org 3.0.

In the wake of the ISO rejecting Microsoft's OOXML document format as an international standard, Microsoft has launched its Document Interoperability Initiative pledging to work with industry to ensure its document formats remain interchangeable with industry standards.

The Mint Linux team made a final release this week for its community edition distribution, while Mythbuntu and Ubuntu both added new alphas in on the way to Hardy Heron’s release in April.

LXer Feature: 9-Mar-2008

This week in the LXer Weekly Roundup we have, a Linux Powered Mini PC, What is your favorite scripting language?, The latest Mandriva release, Red Hat calls strike one against Microsoft, WaSP gives browsers "fail" grade and How to create a Linux box for your Mom. Plus,Amazon's Linux answer to iTunes is a winner, Linux clocks double-digit growth and real results on the power of the OLPC computers in Astounded in Arahuay

Just days after the Ballot Resolution meeting in Geneva to decide on Office Open XML as a standard, Microsoft has come out with another interoperability promise. In an ongoing effort to prove to the world that it is serious about interoperability, Microsoft this weekend announced its Document Interoperability Initiative.

Welcome to the inaugural edition of the"Linux Product Insider", keeping you on the cutting edge of new products and services in Linux and Open Source.Here is what is new and interesting this week.Panopta's Monitoring& Outage Management Suiteread more

Open-source pioneer and Novell Vice President Miguel de Icaza Thursday for the first time publicly slammed his company's cross-patent licensing agreement with Microsoft as he defended himself against lack of patent protection for third parties that distribute his company's Moonlight project, which ports Microsoft's Silverlight technology to Linux.

We know our readers are a multifaceted lot, so when crossword puzzle author Myles Mellor offered to create a Linux-themed puzzle for us, we thought at least some of you would enjoy it. You can complete the puzzle online, but you must have Java enabled in order to see it. Let us know what you think with your comments.

Are you a Linux user suffering from iTunes store envy? If so, Amazon has a deal for you. While any good Linux media player, like my own personal favorite Banshee, will let you rip music from CDs, there hasn't been a good source to buy music online for Linux players ... until now.

Royalties charged by Microsoft on Windows APIs and protocols are the next hurdle the company must clear in its wooing of open source developers. Leading open source figures have questioned charges Microsoft makes on its protocols and APIs, with a call to clarify whether Windows server, client and application APIs and protocols that Microsoft has pledged to "open" will come free of charge, and how payments - if levied - would be collected.

It's been an open secret that controversial SCO CEO Darl McBride was being forced out. Now, in an interview with the Salt Lake City Tribune, McBride admits that his days at SCO are numbered. In the interview, McBride said, "Clearly when we draw up a battle plan for what we've been working for the last several years, trying to get SCO's intellectual rights fought through in the courts and the marketplace, the endgame didn't have this sort of outcome for me personally."

How do two former Microsoft employees end up heading an open source company? In the case of Aaron Fulkerson and Steve Bjork of MindTouch, the decision was based on the wish for independence and to work more closely with customers, according to Fulkerson. The two partners suffered some initial criticism because of their past employment, but have largely survived it by learning how to interact with the free software community.