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In my next three articles I'll profile three native Linux software synthesizers (a.k.a. softsynths). I'll introduce their basic synthesis architectures and program operations, then I'll guide my readers briefly through the process of creating a new sound for each synth profiled. Our voyage begins with Nick Dowell's Analogue Modeling SYNTHesizer, better known as amSynth.

A few weeks ago, one person informed me that my game blew up on his older distro with an error "version `GLIBC_2.4' not found". Most of the dependency issues I’ve encountered involved changing flags used in my libraries, such as libSDL. Unfortunately, this issue was different. It was strange because I was not sure why my game was depending on GLIBC_2.4 since I was not explicitly linking to it. This article explains what the problem is and how I went about trying to solve it.

Version 0.46 of the open source vector graphics editor Inkscape is out, showcasing new tools, new effects, new filters, and a host of interface and speed improvements. Binary downloads are available for all three major operating system platforms on the Inkscape project site. The Linux build is provided in autopackage and ZeroInstall formats. The site links to unofficial Fedora packages, and Ubuntu users can install the update with APT using the Inkscape team's DEB repository; instructions are on the Inkscape home page. More distribution-specific packages are expected to follow soon for other distros.

Less than two months into Sun Microsystems' MySQL acquisition, Sun has succeeded in upsetting the grassroots types with plans to close off features to the community. It's emerged Sun may release extra data back-up features in the Enterprise Edition of the next version of MySQL, due in Q4, to paying enterprise subscribers only.

You can stream your music collection to the whole Internet from your favorite Linux distribution. Take some playlist files, add in the functionality of the Icecast server, and you have your own Web-based radio stream. Use it to listen to music remotely on your home machine, or tell your friends and become the next Internet radio phenomenon. Icecast is a collection of programs and libraries that creates a Web server for your stream. Icecast grabs your audio from a source program and allows it to be accessed by going to a URL. It seamlessly communicates with Shoutcast, announcing the presence of your stream all over the world if you wish. Others can listen to your stream through programs like VLC, MPlayer, and Xine.

Casey Coleman, the chief information officer of the General Services Administration, spoke at a Federal Open Source Alliance Web seminar held earlier today. Coleman noted that the GSA does indeed use a wide variety of open source programs. The agency started using open source for information systems, though is increasingly using the software for transactional mission-critical systems.

I completely realize I'm a geek. I've been using Linux far longer than it's been the "cool thing" to do. I've also been around the Windows world longer than Windows itself. And to nicely round off the playing field, for the better part of a decade, I've been supporting a network of Apple computers. All this experience means two things:..

The future of the standalone operating system is not particularly bright. At least, that's according to Nat Friedman, chief technology and strategy officer for open source at Novell. "The big story here is Linux versus Windows," he said. "I do not believe that Microsoft has shown the interest, time and the will to allow an ISV to embed their operating system and intermediate between Microsoft and the customer."

In part 1 of this series we learned how to measure how much power our systems are using, both hardware and software, and some tricks for reducing power usage without degrading performance. Today we're going to dive into the world of power management on laptops: ACPI, APM, hard disk spindowns, and spinups.

This document describes step by step how to set up a Mandriva One 2008 Spring (Mandriva 2008.1) desktop (GNOME). The result is a fast, secure and extendable system that provides all you need for daily work and entertainment.

Linux and open source software giant Red Hat has abandoned plans to develop a consumer desktop product because it cannot compete with the might of Microsoft. The firm said in a statement yesterday: “As a public, for-profit company, Red Hat must create products and technologies with an eye on the bottom line, and with desktops this is much harder to do than with servers.

The European Commission Says that Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft at el Can't Keep Personal Search Data Longer Than Six Months

The next red-letter day for Ubuntu fans will be April 24, when Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long Term Support) arrives. Mark Shuttleworth, the CEO of Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, guarantees that the next version of the popular Linux distribution will make it on time, with something for enterprise, desktop, and Internet users. In an interview, Shuttleworth made the point that, while many executives have yet to realize it, "Open source software projects and Linux distros are actually better than proprietary companies at hitting deadlines." In particular, Shuttleworth says, "Companies are now comparing Linux with Vista, and it's clear that's Linux does a better job of meeting people's expectations.

Installing software in Linux is nothing like it used to be, but there are still some pitfalls to watch out for. If you follow this little guide, your Linux life will be made simpler and safer. Note: This information is also available as a PDF download.

Novell Wednesday released the beta of its new "Just Enough" SUSE operating system targeted as a platform for Linux-based appliances. The company is releasing the beta in conjunction with the creation of the SUSE Appliance Program targeted at independent software vendors (ISV) who want to package their applications with SUSE Linux on an appliance.

Once upon a time, there were no usable free web browsers for the Linux environment; the binary-only Netscape releases were all that was available to us. For many, the solution to the problem was to be found in the release of the Netscape source code; some years later, we got the Mozilla and Firefox browsers (based on the Gecko rendering engine) from this work. The KDE project, though, took a different route in the late 1990's, developing the KHTML renderer to use with the Konqueror application.

In the last quarter of 2007 AMD was on a spree with their proprietary Linux driver as they introduced their new OpenGL driver, which brought major performance improvements, and that was followed by AIGLX support. This year, however, their Catalyst Linux driver activity has been relatively quiet for end-users. Since switching over to this much-improved code-base, they have been able to deliver same-month product support for their new graphics processors such as the Radeon HD 3650, 3850/3870, and the 780G-based IGP, which once couldn't be said for this company that had taken them a half-year to deliver support for the Radeon X1000 (R500) and Radeon HD 2000 (R600) product families. Today the Catalyst 8.4 Linux driver has been released, and like the 8.1, 8.2, and 8.3 drivers, this month's update comes with minimal changes.

The second iteration of the subnotebook will go on sale on 1 May, although the Windows and Linux versions will include differing amounts of solid-state storage.

It's not that Linux isn't fast or efficient, but in some cases fast just isn't good 0enough. What's needed instead is the ability to deterministically meet scheduling deadlines with specific tolerances. In this article explore various real-time Linux alternatives and how they achieve real time—from the early architectures that mimic virtualization solutions to the options available today in the standard 2.6 kernel.

Linspire announced a new version of its CNR (Click'N'Run) software management system that supports the Ubuntu 8.04 ("HardyHeron") release, expected to take flight on Apr. 24. The client enables users to install, uninstall, and update desktop Linux software available on Linspire's CNR.com download site.