Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Last month the Parsix Linux distribution made its 1.0 release after almost a year of development. Parsix is a GNOME-based distro based on the testing branch of Debian GNU/Linux with elements from Kanotix. It makes an attractive alternative to Ubuntu. Parsix comes as an installable live CD and features GNOME 2.20.3 as the desktop. It hails from Persia, but the language and keyboard default to en_US. When you first boot the live CD, Parsix provides two handy boot options for wide-screen display resolutions. Many distros auto-detect the optimal resolution, but many don't. This approach is a great compromise, and assured that I was able to boot into my desired resolution.

A few weeks ago I promised to bring in some more general news from the world of Linux audio software development. Alas, my plans were ambushed by the happy intrusion of the release of Renoise for Linux, but I'm back on track. As promised, here's more straight reporting on the world of Linux sound and music software, starting with some news about recently released music notation programs.

While it may not be fully ready for production systems yet, there is no denying that latest version of the K Desktop Environment is one sharp-looking interface. Reviewer Ken Hess takes a test-drive, and clearly likes what he sees.

Few features are as essential to modern Web browsing as feeds. With the rise of social networking and file sharing sites, feeds have become the only way for many people to keep up-to-date with all the sites that interest them. Certainly feeds are more efficient than resolutely clicking dozens or hundreds of bookmarks one after another. To satisfy the need to feed, developers have written dozens of Firefox add-ons to help you view both classic feed formats and sites that lack a feed.

LXer Feature: 24-Feb-2008

In this week's LXer Roundup we have five must-have apps for a new Linux install, 11 Versions Of WINE Benchmarked, how to build your own RAID storage server, a Asus Eee PC product diary, the 2007 LinuxQuestions.org members choice winners, Linux anti-virus programs explained, Microsoft gives away its developer software and in our FUD section we have part 5 of Linux FUD patterns and a Linux advocate who gets his facts wrong, and runs with it.

AstroMenace is a brilliant 3d scroll-shooter allowing you to feel the adrenalin rush of a fierce space battle against relentless swarms of alien invaders. Immerse into a decisive battle against tons of cunning foes, face the terrifying bosses and protect your homeland throughout 15 diverse levels of the game. The hardcore gameplay of AstroMenace, packed with pure non-stop action, will become a full scale test for your basic instinct of survival.

Today marks ten years since Netscape Communications Corporation launched mozilla.org to coordinate the open source development of the Netscape Communicator 5.0 source code, an endeavor that would later become known more broadly as the Mozilla project.

What's new in this release:

- Proper handling of OpenGL/Direct3D windows with menu bars.
- Stubs for all the d3dx9_xx dlls.
- Several graphics optimizations.
- Many installer fixes.
- Improved MIME message support.
- Lots of bug fixes.

So, what's the most secure desktop operating system of all? Well, we'll get at least a hint from an upcoming bout pitting some top hackers against Mac OS X, Windows Vista and Ubuntu.

Linux Journal's James Gray recently spoke with Tyler Mitchell, Secretary of OSGeo, about his organization's efforts to promote open geospatial technologies.

AMD and Microsoft should take note that open source strategies bring painful problems. Sun Microsystems knows this all too well. Just as Microsoft said it’s opening its APIs and AMD made its latest contribution to open source, controversy again bubbled up for Sun’s much-vaunted OpenSolaris project.

There comes a time, right after you burn your 137th MP3 CD, when you start feeling the need to establish a system for finding all the songs you treasure so much. It's the same with movies, application kits, books, and music -- you need software that lets you index your media quickly and output detailed search results. Here's a selection of Linux applications you can use to ease your work.

Recently I have been grumbling about project management, accounting and organizational software in general. Basically, Gixia and I want to just build the Geek Ranch rather than be bogged down with overhead. The reality is, however, this is too big a project to do without some back-end organization.

Over the last few years I have been experimenting with time-lapse photography. One easy way to compile a time-lapse video is to use dvd-slideshow, a tool for creating video slideshows from digital photos, and more. To get started, copy your photos into a single directory on your computer, then use dvd-slideshow's dir2slideshow utility to create the control file that dvd-slideshow needs.

The spread of Threading Building Blocks (TBB) into Linux distributions is gaining momentum: TBB will be packaged into the upcoming Ubuntu Hardy Heron release. If you’re not familiar with TBB — it’s an open source C++ template library that simplifies multithreading of applications to take advantage of modern multicore computers. TBB was originally an Intel commercial product; it was turned into an open source project at OSCON 2007.

JBoss seems to be undergoing some generational pains as it strives to morph from an open source products company to an enterprise open source products company. So its recent formal announcements covered the enterprise tack: something called Enterprise Acceleration that performs the basic blocking an tackling to show enterprises, ISVs, and systems integrators alike that nobody will get fired for buying JBoss. And then there were the pronouncements to the faithful that, while JBoss is trying to go enterprise, that it won't forget its roots.

The installation instructions in most free software reviews aren't enough. If you decide a package sucks, how do you get rid of it? If a package rocks, how do you upgrade it? GNU Stow, a package manager for packages you compile and install yourself, provides an easy answer to both questions. Many GNU/Linux distribution developers use Stow, so you'll find it in the default package repositories of every major GNU/Linux distribution. Stow's only dependency is Perl. If you use a distribution that includes neither Stow nor Perl, you can use Stow's simple bootstrapping instructions to install both.

A new Australian chip small enough to be embedded into home and office equipment promises wireless audio and video transfer at up to 5 gigabits per second, ten times faster than today’s solutions at only one-tenth the cost!

[This is not FOSS related but if true, too cool to not share. - Scott]

GENEVA -- Feb 19, 2008 ' The creators of OsiriX, the advanced open-source PACS workstation DICOM viewer for the Mac OS, will for the first time show the new version of their 64-bit viewer on the new Mac Pro 8-Core workstation at the European Congress of Radiology (ECR) 2008.

Microsoft made major concessions Thursday that should make it easier for open source software to dovetail with or even replace Microsoft products, but a major caveat means the company's legal threats remain alive and well. Microsoft announced a number of moves that could significantly improve its relationship with the open source world.