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Desktop on Demand (DOD) is the latest contender to give users a full-fledged remote desktop instead of Web-based applications to help users to stay productive when they are on the move. Similar to Ulteo (which we reviewed not long ago), DOD gives you a full-blown remote Linux-based desktop -- but that's where the similarity ends. Unlike Ulteo, which is based on the VNC protocol and runs entirely in the browser using a Java-based applet, DOD employs the NoMachine NX technology for accessing the remote desktop.

As Dell Inc. approaches its one-year anniversary of selling laptop and desktop computers preloaded with Ubuntu Linux, the company is continuing to expand the fledgling program to new computer models and markets. In interviews at Dell's Parmer campus north of Austin last week, four Dell representatives said sales of the Linux-loaded machines are encouraging.

Novell SuSE Linux has reasonable momentum on desktops and servers. But the company's best shot at beating Microsoft is in an entirely different market.

Linux XP is a strange beast. From what I gather it tries very hard to emulate the look and feel of Microsoft Windows in order to make the transition to Linux easier to the Microsoft-familiar. That is an admirable goal shared by some rather successful commercial entities like Xandros. Apparently with this release, Linux XP is more like "Linux Vista," however. I question the logic of emulating an OS that has received such a chilly reception among end users.

Canonical's recently announced Ubuntu desktop training course could help boost Ubuntu's presence in the enterprise.

The Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) runs Linux, but getting it to run well requires some tweaking. In the third and final article of this series on PS3 Linux Peter Seebach talks about ways to get X11 slimmed down to fit on a smaller memory budget.

Nokia will introduce Qt to the maemo platform in addition to GTK+. The plan is in the earliest stage and recruitment offers for Qt/C++ developers will pop up soon. Don't expect any Qt application developed by Nokia for the tablets anytime soon, though. The first actual step will be the distribution of the Qt libraries for application development in maemo.org during 4Q2008.

Discover OpenDocument for Office Applications, an XML standard that lets you store and exchange documents, including word-processor, spreadsheet, and presentation files. Learn about OpenDocument files as multipart packages and as single XML documents, and how to structure text and tabular information in OpenDocument.

Frustrated with the lack of a decent desktop twitter client for Linux and challenged to make a Desktop app with PHP, phpitter was created. It keeps a good history (40, but you can modify it) of tweets, uses libnotify for notifications, caches profile images, has reply/retweet/direct buttons. Oh, and I'm trying to make it easy to extend by providing hooks for custom function calls. There are 3 hooks implemented with sample plugins provided.

Apple's recently released a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it, the news isn't good. Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go. The SDK itself is a free download, with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator. But in order to actually release software you've written, you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK, and one that requires Apple's approval.

A Kate Developer Meeting was held last weekend hosted by basysKom GmbH in Darmstadt to great success. Developers interested in improving KDE's advanced text editor met to shape the roadmap of Kate. An impressive nine attendees turned up including several new faces.

When I wrote the article appearing in issue 169 of the Linux Journal we had only had George (that's what we named our Chumby) for a couple weeks. We've had him for a couple months now, and George has become well integrated into our family. Things have settled down from the initial excitement we all had when he arrived and now it almost seems like he's always been there, sitting in his corner of the kitchen, there when you need him, and quietly waiting when you don't. That's not to say our relationship has not had some bumps along the way.

Learn how to extend the Eclipse Modeling Framework Ecore metamodel by adding elements to reusable Java snippets. Discover, step by step, how to use dynamic templates with JET to generate the implementation code for the extended model elements.

MySQL owners past and present opened the annual user's conference to re-assure them Sun Microsystems has no hidden agenda for the open source database. Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz and software executive vice president Rich Green pledged it's not just business as usual for MySQL - they'll also commit Sun's engineering resources, sales and global support.

JWChat is a Jabber instant messaging client that is written using only HTML and JavaScript. This means that you need not install a Jabber instant messaging client in order to use Jabber, assuming you already have a Web browser installed. A Jabber client that runs in a Web browser could be just the ticket for such uses as providing instant messaging to visitors to your Web site.

Not a Linux article, but on a topic near and dear to our hearts -- An attack by an IP holding company. In this case, Monster Cable's lawyers sending a Cease and Desist letter to Blue Jeans Cable. Too often, FOSS folk, bless their hearts, panic at the word "patent". This letter from Blue Jeans President and former litigator, Kurt Denke, gives some idea why real companies -- companies with valuable businesses and assets to protect don't just go out and routinely drop "patent bombs".

Fonality is building an IP-PBX company that leverages Asterisk and embraces managed service providers. In other words, Fonality has converged three hot markets (unified communications, open source and managed services) into a single solution. And a new Fonality product release could help the company strengthen its international presence. Here are the details from MSPmentor.

The open-source Eclipse Foundation announced four initiatives that address embedded and mobile device development. The new Device Software Development Project (DSDP) initiatives include a framework for communications among debugging and monitoring devices, and a Texas Instruments (TI)-sponsored project devoted to creating and configuring C/C++ tools for "highly constrained" devices.

Everyone grumbles about Linux driver problems, but kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman actually did something about it. Kroah-Hartman created a program by which open-source developers would create drivers for hardware vendors even if their equipment was proprietary. Over a year later, though, Kroah-Hartman has found that the vast majority of hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) already offer Linux support.

This is the second in our series co-publishing with Fedora Interviews. In Fedora, the supported method for upgrading from one release to the next is by downloading the media and rebooting from the media and using Anaconda. Why was this the case, and what's wrong with a yum upgrade?