Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Oracle released VirtualBox 4.1 on July 19 with a slew of improvements ranging from usability improvements to rasing the ceiling for RAM to 1TB for 64-bit hosts. With 4.1, we decided to take VirtualBox out for a spin and see how it handles.

I’ve been a die-hard Debian fan for about 10 years, and I’ve written several articles on the subject. That said, most of our Linux-savvy readers are Ubuntu users, so that’s been my main desktop OS for as long as I’ve been a MakeTechEasier writer. Ubuntu has always been fine, and generally got the job done without hassle, however this past release (11.04, Natty Narwhal) has been the cause of a rift among many Ubuntu users. This release pushed Unity, their homegrown desktop environment, front and center. Like many others, I’ve never managed to get a feel for Unity. After weighing my options, I decided to jump ship and try out Fedora 15. It’s the first Fedora I’ve tried since Core 1, and things certainly have changed.

A standard for contributor agreements was the promise of Project Harmony, but now the project's agreements have been released, they appear to have hit all the wrong notes with many in the community. We look at why Harmony is off-key.

"First Adobe's off, then on, then off, then on again... Does anyone there know what they are doing?" wondered blogger Robert Pogson. Sixty-four-bit computers are "pretty standard these days, and GNU/Linux and Android/Linux are making waves. Doesn't Adobe want their product to be where it's happening? Isn't the game about maximizing share to exclude the competition?"

This post finds us at the cutting edge of physics, numerical general relativity. Because we haven't perfected mind-to-mind transmission of information, we won't actually be able to cover in any real detail how this all works.

Gumstix announced a controller board designed to integrate its Cortex-A8-based, 1GHz Overo computer-on-module (COM) into robots, for Linux-based planning and other higher-end functions. The RoboVero board includes NXP's Cortex-M3-based LPC1769 processor clocked to 120MHz plus buttons, LEDs, sensors, 3-axis controls, and interfaces ranging from CAN to I2C....

Nina Paley has certainly stirred things up with her recent "rantifesto" on free culture and free software. It has spawned numerous responses on various blogs, both from supporters and those who disagree with her contention that the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is being hypocritical in its licensing of its web pages and other non-software works. For some people it is a bit galling to see an organization that is set up to ensure the right to create and distribute derivative works (subject to some conditions, of course) of software, be so steadfast in its refusal to apply those same freedoms to text and other works.

The newly independent SUSE Linux unit unveiled the first leg of its cloud platform today: SUSE Studio Version 1.2. The development platform, which has been on the market for two years, helps SUSE Linux customers build, update and manage applications. Version 1.2 allows customers to better build, update and manage applications across physical, virtual and cloud environments including public clouds as well as x86 and System Z mainframe systems.

A UK-based developer who finally scraped together enough money for a MacBook Air managed to hack Google's Chromium OS onto it a short time later, according to a blog post published on Tuesday. Chromium's startup time is slower than OS X and the need for BIOS emulation bogs the entire thing down, but the author managed to force the OS and the hardware to put aside most of their differences. For science.

Thomas Gleixner has released the first test version of a real-time (RT) Linux kernel based on a current release candidate of Linux kernel version 3.0; having been slightly delayed, version 3.0 is due to be released any day now. With version 3.0-rc7-rt0, the developers have taken the biggest step towards a modern basis for the RT kernel, a kernel that is chiefly maintained by Gleixner and several other developers – the current stable kernel with real-time capabilities is still based on the Linux 2.6.33 series, which Greg Kroah-Hartman has continued to maintain specifically for the RT developers.

Open source hacker community Gizmo For You is developing a Linux-based controller and separate receiver device to remotely control a model airplane or other vehicle. Starting at $670, the battery-operated Open Source RC (OSRC) runs Linux on a Gumstix Overo SBC and includes a 4.3-inch AMOLED display with optional video, a 2.4GHz RF radio, GPS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth for external thumbstick control.

Are you still taking screenshots? That is sooo last decade. Today if you want to showcase your application, your gaming skills, or even your astonishing new desktop wallpaper collection, you need a screen recorder (or screencasting tool) to capture full-motion video and audio of your desktop. You'll find several solid options, but which one works best for you depends a lot on the type of content you need to capture, and what you intend to do with it.

Mozilla's Chris Blizzard has published a blog entry that outlines the goals of Mozilla's renewed effort to bring multiprocess browsing to the Firefox Web browser. The post highlights the key advantages that deeper process isolation will bring to Firefox and addresses some of the underlying requirements for Mozilla's implementation.

aptosid might sound like a package management tool, but it's actually a desktop-orientated (KDE4 or XFCE) Debian derived Linux distro. It's more than a mere respin of Debian, but does it have what it takes to distinguish it from all of the other desktop distros?

SUSE and Xamarin have announced a deal to support existing SUSE Mono customers, while Xamarin will get a "broad, perpetual licence" to all of SUSE's Mono intellectual property including Mono, MonoTouch and Mono for Android. Xamarin will also become the new home for the open source Mono project. SUSE's Mono customers will now receive support and updates directly from Xamarin via support.xamarin.com for the rest of the lifetime of their support subscriptions.

Cats and dogs; apples and oranges; Linux and Microsoft. Two of these three things do not go together. Would you believe that Microsoft—yes Microsoft—was the fifth largest contributor to the soon to be released Linux 3.0 kernel? Believe it. In a Linux Weekly News story, currently only available to subscribers, an analysis of Linux 3.0 contributors reveals that Microsoft was the fifth largest corporate contributer to Linux 3.0. While only 15h overall, that still puts Microsoft behind only Red Hat, Intel, Novell, and IBM in contributing new code to this version of Linux.

News out of Nuremberg today is that SUSE has formally partnered up with Xamarin to take responsibility for the existing (and future) SUSE/Novell customers using Mono, to take over stewardship of the Mono project, and Xamarin gains rights to the IP surrounding Mono.

LXer Feature: 18-Jul-2011

In the LXWR this week we have the 10 best open source apps you never heard of, the freeload factor in FOSS, why Jason Perlow is smarter than an Open Source surrender monkey, IBM donates its Lotus Symphony code to OpenOffice and will Toyota's membership in The Linux Foundation actually spur it to contribute? Enjoy!

Money. It’s something that most of us don’t have enough of. And what we have, we want to hold on to and keep track of. For many people, an old fashioned spreadsheet is perfect for their needs. The rest of us need a little something more. Not with the features, of say, ,KyMyMoney or GNUCash but something that isn’t as confusing or convoluted as a spreadsheet can be. Presented for your approval: wxBanker, a software that makes it easy to manage your finances. It might not have every bell or whistle, but it does have most of the bells and whistles that you actually need.

While NVIDIA yesterday released a new Linux driver, it was quick to be pointed out in our forums that NVIDIA Optimus Technology still is not officially supported under Linux. But that's not all that's missing from their proprietary driver.