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Long story short, even though OpenBSD 4.3 isn't scheduled to be released until May, it is available in the mirrors under snapshots. Since version 4.3 is supposed to have ACPI enabled by default, I figured I'd burn a CD and try it on the $0 Laptop, on which I'd love to control my noisy CPU fan. I've written recently on how FreeBSD seems to do a fine job in this regard, but only for a day before reverting to the previous noisiness. Now, I've never actually seen any concrete tips on exactly how to control a CPU fan in OpenBSD, but just maybe ... maybe it would work automatically. No such luck.

I don't know you, but frequently the usual Windows user shows me a photo dvdslideshow edited with the usual programs for video editing. Yes, I can use Windows too ( note: no one of my computer have Windows installation ), but I love to use Linux distro (particularly ubuntu). So I chose to learn cinelerra and I discovered that, over first impression, it's a software very easy to use. The envy of the "Windows users" is priceless.

Server heavyweight Sun Microsystems has made another foray into the world of open source software with the release of its StorageTek 5800 archiving software under a BSD Licence. Java.net uses the Sun StorageTek 5800 source code for its development efforts. Previously known as Project Honeycomb, the code for the 5800 has been donated to the OpenSolaris storage and Java.net communities, Sun said yesterday in a statement.

Next to drivers for graphics cards and (Atheros and Broadcom) wireless chipsets, the Creative Labs X-Fi series is one of the most complained about pieces of hardware for its Linux support or there the lack of. The Creative X-Fi sound card series is a few years old, but it wasn't until a few months ago that open and closed-source drivers started coming about for this hardware. However, this sound card has still been left in a sorry state, but this week Creative Labs has finally pushed out another Sound Blaster X-Fi Linux beta driver. But does this driver correct their wrong doings from the past?

First the good news. Fedora 9 Preview is now out -- woohoo! The bad news? Well since Fedora 9 Preview is out a little late, Red Hat has now pushed back the official release date of Fedora 9 by two weeks. The original release date for Fedora 9 was set for April 29th, the new date is now May 13th.

Less than two weeks ago Phoronix Test Suite 0.2.0 was released, which featured a number of profile updates, improved Linux hardware detection, and incorporating other feedback voiced by the initial users of this Linux benchmarking suite. Last Saturday version 0.2.1 was then released with initial support for PTS External Dependencies, a GLMark profile, GtkPerf profile, FRAC Benchmark profile, and other fixes. Continuing in an expedited development process, Phoronix Test Suite 0.3.0 has been released this morning with a number of major changes, including new test profiles and architectural improvements.

Testing is an important function of the software development process, no matter how big or small the development project. But not every company or developer has access to professional testing tools, which can run into hundreds and even thousands of dollars. The good news is that they don't need them, thanks to the tons of freely available open source software testing tools.

At times one really wonders why established Linux distributions such as Red Hat ever take the trouble to pursue the consumer desktop market. In the case of Red Hat, you tend to be even more puzzled that it considers doing so.

The Dutch NLnet foundation aims to financially support organisations and people that contribute to an open information society. Some time ago they decided to help KOffice in two exciting ways: to sponsor the design of a new logo for KOffice, with matching logo designs for all KOffice applications, and to sponsor Girish Ramakrishnan to improve the ODF support in KWord 2.0. The KOffice team is deeply grateful to NLnet for this support!

For an executive who had just had his company bought for a cool billion a few months ago and was on the eve of announcing a major update to his business' flagship database program, former MySQL CEO Marten Mickos, now Sun Microsystems' senior vice president for databases, didn't look comfortable. Mickos had come to the Linux Foundation Collaboration Summit on April 9 at the University of Texas Super Computing Center to explain that MySQL was not about to abandon Linux. His audience, the movers and shakers of Linux business and development circles, were not overly impressed.

Microsoft has "dramatically" changed because of open-source software, the company's Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie said Thursday as part of a wide-ranging discussion during the annual Most Valuable Professional summit in Seattle. He also talked about Microsoft's mesh concept and the importance of virtualization.

At least three industry consortia are attempting to ease development efforts for mobile application builders with Linux-based, open mobile operating system development initiatives. These efforts carry noble and productive intentions. But if there are multiple ones, leaving one "open" platform to differ from the next, will we be back to where we started?

LinuxCertified Inc, a leading provider of Linux training and services, today announced its next Linux Device Driver Development Course class to be held in South Bay, CA from May 19th to May 21st.

I’ve been testing the latest release of Firefox since my last article, which discussed the areas Mozilla needed to work on. Overall, it looks and feels like the last release.

I never thought I would see the day when a hard drive manufacturer would go from indifferent to outright stupid all with one drive release. Apparently, it has happened.

In the last article, we talked about the new Zonbu notebook, what it features and a few of its benefits and drawbacks. However, we were far from done with our analysis, and with that, here’s part II of our Zonbu review that presents our verdict on the low cost Linux notebook.

Most people these days think of Everex as the company that’s looking to bring Linux-powered desktop PCs with their own brand of Linux to the masses.

Linux distributions have relied on the venerable Sendmail package since the early days of Slackware. But Sendmail's rich mail server features aren't an ideal solution for the typical desktop user whose primary mail support is delivered through a remote ISP. That's the perfect place for a simpler solution: sSMTP.

I wrote yesterday that RAND terms can be discriminatory, and that in fact due to the Microsoft OSP, OOXML is discriminatory against the GPL and Open Source licenses, despite being made available under RAND terms. Microsoft's Jason Matusow responded with a blog entry suggesting I need to bone up on standards and licenses. Why Microsoft folks can't be polite is a mystery to me, but I persist in responding with decency. He thought it would be helpful to hear from lawyers on the subject. So, I did some research for him, and I find that there are quite a number of lawyers who agree with me. So here you are, Jason: what is wrong with RAND from folks whose credentials you will respect.

At LugRadio Live this past weekend, Novell developer Miguel de Icaza gave a presentation on Moonlight, an open source implementation of Microsoft's Silverlight web framework. During the presentation, he described the current status of Moonlight and showed some of the ways that it can be used to create richer applications for the Linux desktop.