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A major problem with the officially distributed version of Perl on Red Hat Enterprise Linux has led to a firestorm of complaints among developers. The problem, which also manifests itself on some versions of the Fedora and CentOS Linux distributions, means that some programs will take more than 100 (yes, one hundred) times longer to execute under Red Hat than other distributions. A Red Hat engineer has indicated that it will fix the problem in its next release (i.e., Red Hat Enterprise 5.3), but has not said when that update will arrive.

Initially, The VAR Guy was upbeat about Google Android. But the more he hears about the mobile open source environment, the more he worries that Google is starting to resemble Microsoft. Here’s why.

If like first-person shooters, you'll love Sauerbraten. This open source game might not have the visual finesse of other FPSes, but what it lacks in the graphics department, Sauerbraten more than makes up for with its various single and multiplayer modes, including an experimental role-playing game mode, and a unique WYSIWYG in-game map editor. Sauerbraten blends the best of FPSes like Quake and Max Payne to give you a unique gaming experience.

Web applications are set for a speed boost, but it's nothing to do with their developers. The TraceMonkey project is hard at work on a new and much faster implementation of JavaScript for the Firefox browser. While TraceMonkey is still in its early stages, the target is to make it a part of Firefox 3.1, which is expected in late 2008 or early 2009. TraceMonkey already performs various benchmarks in 4.5 percent to 55 percent of the time taken by Firefox 3, and useful further improvements are thought possible.

The KDE Community today announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.5.10, a maintenance release for the latest generation of the most advanced and powerful free desktop for GNU/Linux and other UNIXes. KDE 3.5.10 sports changes in Kicker, the KDE3 panel and KPDF, the PDF viewer. The KDE community has finalized yet another update to the 3.5 series. While not a very exciting release in terms of features, 3.5.10 brings a couple of nice bugfixes and translation updates to those who choose to stay with KDE 3.5.

You probably know intuitively that applications have limited powers in Intel x86 computers and that only operating system code can perform certain tasks, but do you know how this really works? This post takes a look at x86 privilege levels, the mechanism whereby the OS and CPU conspire to restrict what user-mode programs can do.

Photosynth is one of the most exciting programs I've seen in a long time. It takes a group of photos, typically of a single geographical location, but possibly taken at different times by different people, analyses them for similarities, and then stitches then together into a smooth-flowing, pseudo-3D panorama. It's really great. Just two problems. One: it won't run on GNU/Linux; and two: it's from Microsoft, and so is unlikely ever to do so. My question is this: Why didn't the free software community come up with Photosynth first?

While postal services want to promote letter writing, the trend is clearly working against them. With a push of the button, an e-mail lands in the inbox of its recipient before a letter writer can even moisten the stamp. The tools of the trade are e-mail programs known as"clients." They are used to manage correspondence on the computer, but nowadays they can often do far more.

This guide explains how to set up WebDAV with lighttpd on a Mandriva 2008.1 server. WebDAV stands for Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning and is a set of extensions to the HTTP protocol that allow users to directly edit files on the lighttpd server so that they do not need to be downloaded/uploaded via http://FTP. Of course, WebDAV can also be used to upload and download files.

This article, which is titled “Microfraud?”, provides a testimony from a Microsoft insider who claims financial fraud. Interestingly enough (but not so surprisingly), Microsoft paid him a fortune to go away, keep quiet, and for the terms of the settlement not to be disclosed (recall Iowa and Caldera for similar examples).

In August 2008 a small OLPC XO deployment project was started in Russia. A group of Nizhny Novgorod State Pedagogic University professors has taught 32 students from Nizhny Novgorod how to use XOs in a summer camp environment. The project was launched in a field facility of Nizhny Novgorod State University in Staraya Pustyn village in Nizhny Novgorod region.

If your desktop hardware includes a graphics processing unit (GPU), you can do some cool image processing with the CVL suite of tools, which includes in image viewer, an image tone mapper, and a command-line tool for non-interactive image processing.

Does attracting hordes of Windows users to your FOSS project benefit your project, or help the advancement of FOSS? Or do you just get buried under complaints and demands? Should FOSS developers write applications for Windows?

News wrap: Jerry Seinfeld's Vista gig is still causing mirth in the OSS world, while Infoworld's editors say OSS software is so good that one day all software will be made this way. And if you're a fan of Translate.org.za, hook up with them on Facebook.

The biggest Czech Linux portal, AbcLinuxu.cz, reimbursed a user for a MS Windows Vista Business OEM license in Lenovo CR's stead. The paid amount is the same as the manufacturer offered for returning the license in accordance with the Windows EULA. However, Lenovo CR required the user to sign a non-disclosure agreement that would cover the entire negotiations with the company and its results for the compensation to be effected.

One of the keys to the success of Firefox, the popular open-source browser produced by the Mozilla Foundation, is its extensibility. Developers have created a variety of add-ons to Firefox, ranging in scope from alternative menuing systems to download monitors to the popular Firebug JavaScript debugger. Earlier this summer, the Mozilla Foundation sponsored a contest, dubbed "Extend Firefox 3," that offered prizes to the best add-ons that developers would submit. Last week, contest judges announced the winners.

What's free, looks like Mac OS X, just works and is actually Linux? The answer is gOS, which recently launched a new beta that builds on the distro's initial success and adds new tools like integrated Google Gadgets for Linux. When it launched onto the scene late last year, gOS (which stands for good OS) made quite a splash for getting Linux into the U.S. retail giant WalMart. Through a partnership with PC manufacturer Everex, gOS brought Linux to your parents' generation via WalMart.

There was once a time when the now-defunct Open Source Development Labs, then the employer of Linus Torvalds, used to style itself as the centre of gravity of Linux. Not long after, the edifice toppled under its own weight - probably the force of gravity shifted. Or maybe the restructuring it had to undergo in 2005 and 2006 was the cause. No matter the reasons, the OSDL then merged with the Free Standards Group at the beginning of 2007 to form the Linux Foundation. Now, 18 months on, it appears that an organisation is no longer the centre of gravity for the Linux kernel - no, that role has apparently been taken on by the shiny, new head of the Foundation, Jim Zemlin.

SMPlayer gained a lot of popularity lately due to its rich features and the ability to remember settings and time it was stopped for each movie/video file individualy. So you can close it while watching a movie, and next time you open that movie with SMPlayer it will continue from the time you closed it. SMPlayer is built using the Qt4 libraries.

Today, we're putting out a little Perl script to deal with the obscure. Now, I realize that my view is biased heavily by living on American soil, but I can't remember, for the life of me, the last time I came across a Hebrew web page. And by Hebrew, I mean the whole reading from right to left thing. I probably wouldn't even understand it if I recognized it when I saw it ;) It did remind me however, that HTML 4.0 introduced a tag to deal with just that sort of translation. Come to think of it, when applied more liberally it would be a great translation tool for Japanese comic books that read from right to left and from back to front. Anyway, all this talk of forward and backward, left and right... just add up and down and I'll be running to the drug store for some Dramamine ;)