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The BBC has posted an insightful piece on open source software in schools that not only touches on the strengths of the software, but also the complexities of deploying it in these environments. It's not always about cost, upfront or long-term. And while the "new software learning curve" is always mentioned, it's not necessarily learning the software that throws the wrench in plans. It's often the sheer act of timing, planning, and learning enough to make the right choice for schools.

It's not the redundancies, it's the terrible figures driving the redundancies and their cause that are bad news for Microsoft. Now the deep cracks in the Redmond juggernaut have reached the surface for everyone to see.

Very few Ubuntu users, at least outside of the enterprise, pay for support. Instead, they turn to various free resources, ranging from IRC channels to the documentation wiki to the official Ubuntu Forums, when they run into trouble. While free support in the Ubuntu world is often quite good, it could be improved if those providing it paid more attention to a few key guidelines.

How to add nfs management to an existing VCS cluster with an editor, quickly. Today we're going to take a look at a subject we've covered a bit in the past. If, after reading today's post, you want to things the quick and dirty way, check out our previous post on manually editing the main.cf file.

While big business may be crowning open source as the king of server-based computing, most enterprise movers and shakers vehemently deny any such moves in telephony. Yet, open source in telecom is long past its debut and is, in fact, already in play in much of the Fortune 500. So why is open source a legitimate option in enterprise computing but bastardized so much in telephony?

If you're a fan of offbeat applications of open source principles, you'll definitely want to take a gander at the "EDAG open source Light Car" from German design firm EDAG. Shown here and below, it's slated to debut at the Geneva Motor Show in March, and is based on a core chassis which can accommodate many modular types of exterior designs. Going further with the modularity concept, it has daisy-chained organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) under its surface that allow the user to configure the look of everything from headlamps to brake lights to the car's interior. Although EDAG is approaching other companies to help with the design, it's a stretch to call this car open source, but it does leverage open source concepts.

Community Live aims to be inclusive of all parts of the open community, and with this in mind we went along to the Open Source .Net eXchange, an evening mini-conference for open source developers who use Microsoft's .Net platform. In the minds of some people, the words "open source" and ".net" do not go together, but as I discovered at the Open Source .Net eXchange, open source is actually thriving on Microsoft's platform. One thing in particular probably opened the way for this thriving community, Microsoft's attempt to reinvent the Java language as C#. C# code resembles Java; Java programmers can make sense of C# code and vice versa; what is completely different though is the surrounding ecosystem of libraries. However the similarity of code allows for Java to be ported to C# probably far more easily than any other language.

Microsoft has extended the download deadline for its Windows 7 public beta. The new deadline suggests that demand for the beta might be lower than Microsoft originally expected.

Google is to launch a service that would enable users to access their personal computer from any internet connection, according to industry reports. But campaigners warn that it would give the online behemoth unprecedented control over individuals' personal data. The Google Drive, or "GDrive", could kill off the desktop computer, which relies on a powerful hard drive. Instead a user's personal files and operating system could be stored on Google's own servers and accessed via the internet.

Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, is backing a system to help prevent incorrect changes being made to entries in the online encyclopedia. His endorsement of what are termed flagged revisions has been sparked off by an inaccurate change made to an entry about Senator Edward (Ted) Kennedy, claiming that he and his colleague Robert Byrd had died, after a lunch in honour of the newly inaugurated President, Barack Obama. In actual fact, shortly after arriving at the hospital, Kennedy was already on the way to recovery. Byrd, too, was examined, but members of his staff denied he had suffered any medical problems. As Wales writes on his talk page the incorrect report would never have gone online if flagged revisions had been in use.

I wasn't particularly happy when I heard that Python 3 wasn't backwardly compatible with previous versions of Python, but I tried to keep an open mind about this. When I heard that Programming in Python 3 was being published in Addison-Wesley's Developer's Library series, I saw a chance to get up to speed quickly with what had changed.

Like me, you've probably read articles on how free software, or open source, is going to thrive in 2009, and how businesses everywhere are going to survive the recession by migrating to it. Perhaps you agree with those views; perhaps you don't. However, what I find most interesting is what people mean by the words "open source" and, to be even more specific, what business model they have in mind.

LXer Feature: 25-Jan-2009

This week's Roundup starts off with Steven Rosenberg talking about his Thunderbird IMAP setup and why he wishes it was better at it. We have a couple of desktop related articles where Bruce Byfield gives us his Ideal Linux Desktop Setup and gHacks shows us how to shorten Linux boot time by going through what services you really need turned on.

I've been wanting to write this for some time, but aside from wanting to use Ubuntu for a reasonable amount of time, I'm pretty lazy. What finally prompted me to write this was Amarok, a music player I liked so much better than iTunes that it bordered on being difficult to express. At any rate, I've now been using Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron" as my only work box for over six months, running it on a Compaq nx6325 laptop. I tried running Ubuntu at home as well, thus freeing myself from the annoyance of having to buy or steal most of the interesting pieces of software I like, but I pretty much just use that box for gaming so that wasn't worth it. It was still nice looking for the short time I used Ubuntu though - my brand new NVidia card powering my 30" LCD at some ungodly resolution, the same resolution Windows calls "native" for the monitor.

We've all heard of Firefox and GNOME DO, but there are some little utilities you may not have noticed that make life a lot easier.

A web content management system (WCMS) is software designed to simplify the publication of Web content. In particular, it enables content creators to submit content without requiring technical knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files. A CMS is most commonly used in creating an intranet or in establishing a presence on the Web.

There are number of factors coming together that lead me to believe that open source's moment is right now, today, this year. Open source already runs so many things and just last week as Barack Obama was elected the 44th president of the United States, he asked Scott McNealy of Sun to prepare a report on open source technologies as a first step toward exploring the use of open source in government.

Based on Ubuntu 8.10, you might pass Linux Mint off as being yet another Ubuntu spin-off, though Mint has been around now for while (first release was on the 27th of August, 2006) and it's still a popular distribution, sitting in the number 3 spot on the Distrowatch page hit ranks. It shares the same Ubuntu 8.10 repositories and can also benefit from Ubuntu's large user base for support as the majority of solutions will be applicable to Mint. So why use Mint? What are the benefits? Well, the main benefits are out of the box support for audio and video codecs, DVD playback and Firefox plug-ins. This was very important when Mint first hit the scene as Ubuntu didn't provide the user with painless codec installation or DVD playback. Mint provided users new to Linux or just users who preferred a good out of the box experience with a complete Linux distribution.

Want to beef up the software bundle that comes with your Linux-based Netbook? Here are five nifty applications and tools that are worth a closer look.

What does this have to do with Linux or Open Source? As always, helios crafts his story so that after a few sentences, you really don't care. Rest assured...it will tie in, and in a surprising manner.