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IBM's reported interest in buying Sun Microsystems Inc. has Java and open-source community members expressing both hopes and worries about the implications of such a deal for the tools, applications and open-source projects they use every day. IBM is willing to pay at least $6.5 billion for Sun, according to a Wall Street Journal report Wednesday that cited anonymous sources. While analysts said a deal would make strategic sense for both companies -- such as by providing a stronger sales channel for Sun's software and a large installed base of Sun server customers for IBM -- some of the talk in the Java world's trenches is not so sunny.

This two-day introduction to Linux broadens attendees horizons with a detailed overview of the operating system. Attendees learn how to effectively use a Linux system as a valuable tool. They get familiar with the architecture and various components of the operating system, learn both graphical and command line tools, and learn to do basic networking. This class is scheduled for April 9th - April 10th, 2009.

There was a time when having an IT certification was the key to getting a job -- that time may be here again. Back in 1999, when many of my colleagues were out getting MCSE's and CNEs (remember those?), Red Hat launched its Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) program. Ten years later, the program is still kicking, with Red Hat now boasting that it has certified over 38,000 people -- that's a pretty big number. Then again, think of how far Linux has come in the last ten years -- think of how far Red Hat has come too.

Learn how the Squirrel Shell provides an advanced, object-oriented scripting language that works equally well in UNIX, Linux, Mac OS X

A possible IBM acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc. might have its good points. But users and analysts also have concerns that can be summed up in two words: uncertainty and fear. Sun may be a diminished company these days, but it remains an influential one. Through its open-source products and the massive development communities that have been built up around them, Java and MySQL in particular, Sun has a pull that rivals those of companies with far larger and healthier balance sheets. But with the reported acquisition talks between IBM and Sun, there are questions about what IBM might do with Sun's technologies, especially its open-source ones. For instance, the potential deal is getting mixed reviews from Java users.

Pushed into the Jaunty repository this morning for Ubuntu 9.04 was a new theme for USplash. This Canonical project for providing a splash screen at boot-up on Ubuntu is being replaced by Plymouth with Ubuntu 9.10 (the Karmic Koala release), but there is a new Ubuntu theme as one last hurrah. This new USplash theme has a fixed-size Ubuntu logo centered in the middle of the display and a new progress bar. From our feelings at least, this new theme looks more professional than its predecessor, but it's not exactly a complete overhaul. Below is a video of this newly-pushed theme.

SINGAPORE--Local institute of learning, Republic Polytechnic, has partnered IBM and Red Hat to groom IT professionals with expertise to meet rising adoption of open source software and mainframe virtualization. The institute has launched a new course that provides training on IBM's System z mainframe based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux. At a media briefing Wednesday, Eden Liew, RP's deputy principal overseeing corporate services, said up to 150 students and 75 industry professionals are expected to be trained over the next three years.

Once you have a database set up, sooner or later you will want to edit its tables or add a new record. You have four ways to do so. If you created a database using an existing OpenOffice.org Calc or MS Excel spreadsheet, you must edit the spreadsheet itself—in Base, the database will open read-only, and you will be unable to edit it. For other databases, you have three choices: editing the tables directly, using the form wizard to create a form or using the design view to create a form. Whichever way you create a form, you can then use it as a more user-friendly way to edit your database.

Our users can communicate with one another, which is great, but quite often as an administrator the need may arise for us to communicate with a user or users on our site. It may be to remind them about the web site or to inform active users about new changes to the site, which they may not have been made aware of. In this article, you will learn: * About mailing lists, and how to use them with our Drupal social network * How to use an offline approach for contacting our users * How to use blocks of content to get a message across to your users

Photographers in the Free world rejoice! On behalf of the Digikam developer team, Gilles Caullier has announced the first KDE 4 release of Digikam, the photo management application.

A Sunny deal for IBM or a little blue spot on the Sun today?

The first beta of Mozilla's Fennec mobile web browser has been released for Nokia's N810 Internet Tablets running OS2008 ("Maemo"). The beta is the twelfth development milestone and is intended to get feedback from users, testers and Web developers. The Fennec team also want to encourage add-on developers to port their existing add-ons and create new ones for the mobile browser.

I see many people using GNOME these days. Many of them are new Linux users and are happy to be free from the Microsoft clutches. However, I feel a bit guilty for not being able to rejoice about it. Sure, they are not running Windows, but they have fallen in the clutches of the lack of options Nazis.

Tux, the Linux penguin mascot, will be taking a break during the Linux 2.6.29 kernel cycle. Committed to the Linus's kernel tree last night is a new temporary logo known as Tuz. Tuz is a Tasmanian Devil, which is a species in danger of becoming extinct. The Tasmanian Devil is native to Australia and during this year's Linux.Conf.Au conference it was decided that Tuz will stand in for Tux for one kernel release in order to raise awareness for this creature. Tux will return with the release of the Linux 2.6.30 kernel.

The Agora netbook from Kogan Technologies could be considered the most affordable netbook out of Australia. Availability starts in April 2009 at a price of merely AU$499.

Some skeptics think IT certifications aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. But in reality, some certifications actually help to create massive partner and customer ecosystems. Skeptical? Consider the situation at Red Hat, which has certified nearly 40,000 professionals on Red Hat Enterprise Linux.

The server market is shaping into a Linux vs. Windows battle as UNIX declines. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is strong and growing. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES), backed by Novell, should also be strong and growing, but it isn't as it continues the Novell tradition of continually getting whipped by Microsoft. Does SLES even have a reason to exist?

So you downloaded all the X-Files seasons and every episode is packed in RAR. You can use unrarr to recursively unpack the contents of each archive by following these install steps.

This afternoon AMD has released the Catalyst 9.3 driver for Windows along with ADL, or the AMD Display Library. The AMD Display Library is a cross-platform library that provides a single SDK to access graphics hardware information. In the past AMD has provided a few SDKs for obtaining this information on Windows, but this is the first time we are seeing such support on Linux.

Reports are swirling that IBM is seeking to acquire Sun Microsystems for at least $6.5 billion. But if a deal happens, what does that mean for the future of Solaris, SPARC, MySQL and other technologies that overlap with IBM’s core product portfolio? The VAR Guy offers four predictions about the potential IBM/Sun combo. And yes, Linux dominates the conversation. Here's the scoop.