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This guide shows how you can shrink the virtual disk files (they have the extension .vmdk) of your VMware virtual machines so that if you zip them, they will use much less space. It is then easier to upload and share them with other people.

Lots of open source fans booed when Novell jumped into bed with Microsoft. But perhaps sleeping with Microsoft really is good for Novell’s health. Here's why.

Solid state drives are in the news right now and IBM has not only pushed the speed barriers for these small devices but is also testing a 4 terabyte SSD. On the Linux front, Intel has bought a Linux distributor and Novell's Linux revenues jump 30% this quarter. And finally (so to speak) Bloomberg accidentally killed Apple supremo Steve Jobs this week.

The Java Model Railroad Interface (JMRI) project is not one to sit at the top of the Debian popularity contest results; it provides tools for model railroad enthusiasts. But the legal wrangling around JMRI has made it one of the more important projects in our community at this time. JMRI has suffered some legal setbacks, but much of that was turned around by the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on August 13. The result is a vindication for much of the legal reasoning behind free software licenses.

The KOffice team, developers, students, packagers and bug reporters have prepared the final Alpha release of KOffice 2.0: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 10. KOffice will enter feature freeze in two weeks, so the next release will be the first Beta. And we are committed to releasing as many Beta's as is necessary before declaring Release Candidate status for KOffice 2.0.

Today's post, as the title suggests, is veering slightly off the beaten path of this blog's general content. But, in keeping with this blog's tradition (and mission) of exploring all things Linux and Unix, it's not too far of a stretch. Hopefully the "Mac" in the title didn't put anyone off (Like, say "Vista," might ;). We're actually going to be looking at their underlying Linux subsystem, which is where we come full circle and it all makes sense. Mac has been fronting their BSD'ish CLI for quite a while now and, if you can use RedHat, Suse, FreeBSD or any of the other myriad varieties of Linux on the market today, OS X's insides should be easy enough for you to figure out. I'm happy, also, that Mac has a Linuxy ( Is that a word? judges? ;) command line interface. The marrying of the fancy windows interface with the bare bones power of Linux should make it easier for the next generation of computer-savvy users to not only enjoy the pretty pictures ( and the funny sounds they make when you click on them with a pointing device), but also (by necessity) possess a rudimentary knowledge of the more powerful underpinnings of all that Window dressing.

Google has undone an earlier ban on the Mozilla Public License, an option for open source projects hosted at its Google Code site. Ostensibly as part of an effort to discourage the proliferation of open source licenses, Google dropped support for the MPL earlier in August. Now, though, the company reconsidered, restoring it and adding support for the Eclipse Public License as well.

I have interviewed Mike Card on the latest development of the OMG working group which aims at defining a new standards for Object Database Systems. Mike works with Syracuse Research Corporation (SRC) and is involved in object databases and their application to challenging problems, including pattern recognition. He chairs the ODBT group in OMG to advance object database standardization.

Why is anyone still defending Novell? Is it because Novell and Microsoft gag journalists, police coverage, hijack voices, and have it all serve as brainwash touting a treasonous relationship?

Obeler is charging that Google, the company, has made a deliberate and conscious decision to use Google Earth to promote a specific political agenda. This charge of explicit bias by Google can be substantiated today even after the Kiryat Yam correction.

Zoho, the SaaS (software as a service) alternative to Google Apps, now has 250 employees, expects to be profitable in 2009, and is embarking on an open source middleware strategy, The VAR Guy has learned. Here's the scoop.

Walter Bender's question 22: What “shoulders of giants” should we stand on? What is it that children should learn? Are there any universals? How do children decide whom and what to believe? I've been providing what I think is a good answer to these questions for some time now but often the response is muted and contradictory. It's not my original answer, it originates from Alan Kay and his analysis originates from anthropologists. The answer is not that children should learn universals but there needs to be more focus on what Kay has called the "non universals". From anthropological research of over 3000 human cultures, Kay presented two lists, the first were universals, the things that all human cultures have in common.

Buddi is a personal finance and budgeting program, aimed at those who have little or no financial background. Designed to keep the software simpler but still effectively help users to manage their finances. Buddi is released a free opensource software released under GNU GPL license. Buddi will run on almost any computer which has a Java virtual machine installed. This can include Windows, Macintosh OS X, Linux, and many other operating systems.

Project Gutenberg, the online library of more than 25,000 free books, is a treasure trove for bookworms and casual readers alike, but turning electronic text files into a readable form is not as easy as it may seem. In theory, since etexts are just plain text files, you should be able to open and read them on any platform without any tweaking. In practice, however, this approach rarely works. Hard line breaks, for example, may ruin the text flow, making it virtually impossible to read the book on a mobile device. Another problem is that most books are stored as single files, so locating a particular chapter or section in a lengthy book can be a serious nuisance. Then there are minor but annoying formatting quirks, such as inconsistent handling of italicized text, use of straight quotes instead of smart ones, and so on.

The purpose of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) is probably obvious from its name -- but what does promoting free software mean in terms of everyday activity? Examining the roles of the organization shows how complex the FSF's advocacy role has become. It also reveals the range of services available to the free software community, and helps to explain how such a small group has had such a major influence on computer technology. As a 501(c)3 charity in the United States, the FSF is run by a board of directors. The current board includes FSF founder and president Richard M. Stallman and long-term member Henry Poole, but, in the last few years, new faces have appeared on the board.

This tutorial describes how to install and run KDE4 applications natively on Windows. Windows 2000, XP, and Vista are supported. KOffice, Kopete, Amarok, Ktorrent, Konquerror, KDevelop, K3b, Kmail, Dolphin are only some of them.

What's that super-bright star in the western sky after sunset? Was the moon full last night? Is Mars visible now? What time will the sun set on Saturday? Do you ever look up at the sky and wonder about it? Your Linux desktop has lots of astronomy programs that can help you explore the night sky. This article will start with the one that's easiest to use: KStars. KStars is a nifty "planetarium program" that's probably available through your Linux distro. Don't let the "K" scare you off -- kstars works fine even if you're not running KDE.

An e-mail client, aka Mail User Agent (MUA), aka e-mail reader is a frontend computer program used to manage e-mail.

Intel is pushing forward with its Moblin mobile Internet and Linux project, focused on mobile and automotive Internet devices based on Atom processors. Its latest move is acquiring OpenedHand, which provides software development and consulting services, in addition to maintaining several ongoing projects focused on mobile and embedded Linux. OpenedHand's team maintains and contributes development efforts to the Matchbox window manager (on Nokia's devices), the Pimlico suite of PIM applications, Poky (an embedded Linux distro), and more. In essence, Intel gets a distributed set of open source applications and Moblin development resources in picking up OpenedHand.

Does Cisco's Buyout of PostPath signal a showdown against Microsoft Exchange? The VAR Guy doubts it. Here's why.