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Does FOSS need a common packaging framework? It's an unnecessary waste of time, argued opponents. It will save developers loads of time, insisted proponents. It's irrelevant, chimed in Slashdot blogger hairyfeet: "The problem with Linux is NOT the packages, it is the fact that trying to develop for Linux is like trying to hit a dartboard with a live bumblebee."

The date and location for the 8th Annual Southern California Linux Expo have been set.

Time changes many things; but it seems as though gaming on Linux is still pretty basic. At least, the good stuff still is. Take a look at how much has changed in the last 2 years on this top 10 chart from 2006.

The last time I looked at Ubuntu in depth was 12 months ago with the 8.04 release. I found it to be a solid enough but somehow lacking in ambition. Would Jaunty jump forward with exciting new features? I decided to find out…

cutmp3, as the name implies is a simple command line tool to edit and cut MP3 files without loosing any quality. cutmp3 can edit the mp3 files interactively or selection (start time and end time) can be provided from the command line or even better can be used with a timetable fiile specifiying different start/end times from the same MP3 files.

I have always tried to focus my blog posts on Guides and Howtos as they relate to my experiences in free and open source software. Today however i take an Exception and i will like to speak let out on my opinion about the Ubuntu One issue. First to set some things straight. Am not saying that canonical should not make proprietary software i have never complained about launchpad or Landscape And my issue with ubuntu-one has nothing to do with the fact its not been free of cost. I am a bit

Another month has passed, and it's time to present the second beta release of the upcoming Amarok 2.1. Besides the usual amount of bugfixes it also features some useful user interface improvements, for example the Context View has received some artistic love. More attention has been paid to detail and with the useful feedback from usability testing, tweaks have been made. From having the escape key clear the search box to standardizing the behaviour of the collection tree view to follow your KDE settings, the quirks are being ironed out. Check the release notes and grab your copy of Amarok for some testing and help us find and fix the remaining bugs before the release of Amarok 2.1.

Support for the Creative X-Fi sound cards on Linux has been a mess to say the least. These high-end audio processors were released by Creative Labs about four years ago and there still isn't pleasant support for the X-Fi series on Linux. Months after the sound cards launched there was word from Creative Labs that they would provide a Linux driver complete with support for ALSA and OpenAL with EAX.

Dell is shipping Windows and Linux editions of the new Mini 10v notebook at the same time, with intentions to announce a wireless carrier for the fancier Mini 10.

A well-known Linux analyst has published a blog saying that Linux is failing in the once-promising netbook market. Bill Weinberg's blog in LinuxPundit paints a bleak picture for Linux on netbooks this year, while a CNET story suggests that netbooks in general are seeing high returns.

Open-Xchange, an open source groupware system that some VARs host for customers, has opened its arms to Apple. Indeed, Mac and iPhone users can now access documents stored on Open-Xchange servers. But there’s a bigger story here, folks: The continued, seemingly ironic blending of Apple and open source. Here's the scoop.

One of the most powerful and popular Python graphical programming tools is Python-GTK, or PyGTK. In today's Python programming installment Akkana Peck shows us how to create pushbuttons and windows, and guides us past common mistakes and pitfalls.

Microsoft has unveiled a toolkit for PHP developers building open-source applications that help fluff its planned Azure cloud. PHPAzure is a software development kit (SDK) for programming to both Windows Azure and the underlying SQL-like Windows Azure Storage service's blobs, tables, and queues. PHPAzure is an open-source project developed with RealDolmen and hosted on Microsoft's CodePlex site.

The Open Database Alliance (ODA) has been launched. The consortium, founded by Monty Program AB, the company created by MySQL founder Monty Widenius, and MySQL specialists Percona, has been created as a focal point for all companies, organisations and individuals with an interest in MySQL and the future development of the open source database.

A Hilarious Linux Mastercard Spoof T-Shirt

Canonical is preparing to launch a new Web service called Ubuntu One, which will bring cloud synchronization & collaboration features to the Linux desktop.

Ivan Krsti?, the former director of security architecture for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, has joined Apple. In 2007, at the age of 21, Krsti? was cited as a Young Innovator by the MIT Technology Review. While working for the OLPC initiative, a non-profit organisation whose mission is to provide children across the world with low cost laptops for self-education, Krsti? designed the Bitfrost security specification. He believes that the OLPC Bitfrost system is a fool-proof way to defeat malware attacks and that it "defeats the entire purpose of writing a virus".

If you've ever used fillable PDF forms, you've probably noticed that you can't save a copy of the form once it has been filled in. Being sneaky, you probably might try to print the form to a file (PostScript) and then use ps2pdf to convert it to a PDF. But, this doesn't work either, because ghostscript gives you an error saying the file can't be redistilled. This article shows you how to protect your own PostScript using the same technique.

VMware has signed an agreement with Dimension Data which it says is a step towards meeting a rising demand for virtualization technology skills amidst a shortage of IT skills in the Australian market.

This document describes how to install a Postfix mail server that is based on virtual users and domains, i.e. users and domains that are in a MySQL database. I'll also demonstrate the installation and configuration of Courier (Courier-POP3, Courier-IMAP), so that Courier can authenticate against the same MySQL database used by Postfix.