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Launched yesterday, and available now in Debian "experimental," KDE 4.1 is what 4.0 should have been, one reviewer finds. With some 70,000 software changes since 4.0 launched at Google HQ last Jan., is KDE 4.1 about to usher in the future of the Linux desktop? The first RC1 release of KDE 4.0 appeared nearly a year ago. The full major 4.0 version was then officially launched at Google headquarters on Jan. 18. Then, team KDE really got busy, implementing a roadmap that called for minor releases each month. Those releases, in turn, culminated with the release of KDE 4.1 yesterday.

Even the most casual observer of the linux-kernel mailing must have noticed that, in the shadow of the firmware flame war, there is also a heated discussion over the management of security issues. There have also been some attempts to turn this local battle into a multi-list, regional conflict. Finding the right way to deal with security problems is difficult for any project, and the kernel is no exception. Whether this discussion will lead to any changes remains to be seen, but it does at least provide a clear view of where the disagreements are.

How to lose friends and influence people ;)

In my previous article, I shared my opinions and overall vision of the state of Linux wireless today. In this latest installment, I will demonstrate exactly how one can have a simple way to implement Linux wireless connectivity without all of the headaches.

At the OSCON open source convention in Portland last week, Neuros CEO Joe Born explained how Linux-based embedded devices will bring open source to the set-top market and the consumer electronics space. He also demonstrated how to build applications for the Neuros OSD, his company's programmable DVR product.

What would your favorite small open source project do with a sudden influx of money? Imagine you donated $5000 to a project, where would the money go? Less scrupulous developers might spend the money on Mountain Dew and Twinkies, but more likely the money would just sit, doing nothing. Why? Because it takes time to spend money, and in the open source world time is in short supply.

Launchy and GNOME Do are both two launcher programs that are designed to let you quickly open applications and files and perform tasks you want done quickly, with just the tapping of a few keys. Previously, Launchy had been an open source solution, albeit for Windows only, and GNOME Do was the Linux solution. Launchy is now available for Linux too, so I thought I would do a brief side-by-side compare of the two programs.

Likewise Software has released a new, open-source version of its eponymous AD (Active Directory) program for integrating Linux, Unix and Mac systems into AD. Likewise Fall includes two main features. The most important, LWIS (Likewise Identity Services) enables you to use Active Directory Authentication for your Linux, Unix and Mac PCs. In addition, the program comes with the LAC Likewise Administrative Console. This enables administrators to manage AD users, computers and access rights from Linux.

Now that I've got your attention, don't worry too much: Blizzard Entertainment, the company behind the popular World of Warcraft online game, isn't trying to shut down open source software entirely. But in a recent legal filing (reported by the Virtually Blind weblog), they are asking a judge to take an unusual move: prohibiting a developer from releasing a particular bit of code as open source.

When you, Joe or Mary user, buy a computer at Best Buy or Computer Village or order a computer from Dell or Gateway, you get a computer with a system already installed. Do you think they had any trouble installing that system on that computer? Do you think that if Dell sells Mary a computer with Windows installed and they sell Joe a computer with Linux installed, that Dell had a differentially hard time installing one of those systems compared to the other? Think about it.

El Tunes is a GStreamer plugin that allows Linux users to play all music they have purchased from the iTunes Music Store. With El Tunes installed (Ubuntu .debs available), your GStreamer-based players (such as Rhythmbox, Totem the Movie Player, Banshee, etc.) can play DRM'ed music purchased from the Apple iTunes store. Apple is refusing to make an iTunes for Linux, and it seems they aren't content with their music being played on it, either.

"Why free software and Apple's iPhone don't mix" is the second article in our series describing the threats posed by Apple's iPhone to free software. Apple has imposed TiVo-like restrictions that prevent users from having freedom, and developers from writing free software. These restrictions argue for more developers to use the GPLv3 as their license of choice, in order to block the threat of Apple stripping freedoms away from free software. People aren't going to hear about these restrictions from the Apple marketing machine, and reviewers so far have bought into the hype and ignored their significance.

When you think about it, it's surprising how many programming tasks don't require the use of floating point numbers. If you're an embedded systems programmer, you'd probably get fired for using "double" in a C program. If you write PHP or JavaScript, quick, do they even support floating point? One language that doesn't support it is Bash, but let's not let that stop us.

KDE 4.1 is finally out today, as you probably already know, and it comes with a lot of innovations for the Linux desktop. KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular K Desktop Environment, which seeks to fulfill the need for a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop, for both personal and enterprise computing. The new version provides increased stability over the first KDE 4 version and more eye candy! So, if you don't want to download an openSUSE-based KDE 4.1 Live CD or to wait until a stable distribution is released with KDE 4.1.0 as the default desktop, we will teach you how to install it on your existing Ubuntu 8.04 or 8.04.1 LTS desktop.

Calculating subnets is an essential skill for network administrators, and even home users with small LANs will benefit from understanding how they work. This installment of Networking 101 offers some tips and practice exercises to get you started.

Classmate ain't the XO laptopThis morning, AP bring us news thatPortugal pledged 500,000 Classmate PC's for elementary school students, the largest order for Intel's4P Computing offering to date.Sadly, I think this is an epic error on the part of the Government of Portugal, for three reasons..

Not too long ago, Marc Fleury went public with his newest venture, an open source home automation "project" (not yet officially a company) called OpenRemote. Marc describes it as "an open community in the Home Automation or Domotics space", that "promote[s] open standards, open collaboration, and open implementations in the field."

It's small and silent, sports an array of ports on the back but only one tiny white LED on the front, and it can help you spend hours of time in front of your TV -- and it runs Linux. It's the Netflix Player from embedded device specialist Roku, and we got our hands on it for a review of the service and the hardware. Netflix began delivering on-demand video in January 2007, restricting viewers to watching content through Internet Explorer on Windows. The "Watch Instantly" option uses DRM-encumbered Windows Media Video to lock out all non-Windows Media Player plug-ins (including licensed media players such as Fluendo's WMV codecs). The in-browser player includes minimal playback controls, and the service is built-in to all existing Netflix accounts. Subscribers on plans that include a fixed number of discs per month are alloted a fixed number of hours through the Watch Instantly service; subscribers on unlimited disc plans can watch an unlimited number of Watch Instantly programs.

In an interview with ZDNet Asia, Oliver Bell, Microsoft Asia-Pacific's regional technology officer, said the company has been focusing on building developer tools for server side applications. He cited two examples of such tools. The first one called OpenXML PowerTools allows the OOXML documents to be created and modified without needing Microsoft Office installed. The other tool, OpenXML SDK, offers a kit to help developers create third-party applications that read and write OOXML documents.

Should managed service providers start adding Linux-type devices to their hardware as a service (HaaS) strategy? Before you answer, consider some key observations and Ubuntu trends at Canonical. Here's the scoop from MSPmentor.