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Despite the title, I think my experiences could be useful guide for others. Should you need to replace a printer quickly, my choices of criteria could be instructive. I should note too, much of the information I had was based upon faulty inputs and mis-diagnosed problems. Nonetheless, my criteria yielded a decent unit, just more than what was needed. In part that was due to my daughter needing a quick replacement. Moreover, the printer had to function on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. Given those constraints and misinformation, I could have done much worse.

LXer Feature: 08-Jun-2008

In this week's Roundup we have Essential Thunderbird add-ons, Microsoft Free - One year later, Google Gadgets for Linux, 42 More of the Best Free Linux Games and Could the eeePC end up being Microsoft's trojan horse? We have two LXer Features, a review of the EeePC entitled "Wow! It's PINK!" and the continuation of Herschel Cohen's HTML series "Web Input - Securing Data, Second Level of Defense", also Ken Starks finds out that his Linux box is infected. To wrap things up, in our FUD section we have the SourceForge.net 2008 Community Choice Awards brought to you by Microsoft, at least it sure seems that way, and Novell joins Microsoft in Anti-Linux FUD. Enjoy!

I’ve been a KDE user for many years. Maybe it’s just me, maybe the UI world is changing, but the newest incarnation of KDE sucks big time. All was fine until the 4.x series, then suddenly, the switch was made and what do we have now? All glitter, all bloatware. And what’s with the desktop icons? Where’s the simplicity? Do you want to confuse new users to death?

After Hillary Clinton spoke last night I listened closely for what the loudspeakers would play. It was Tom Petty’s hit “I Won’t Back Down.” (UPDATE: Clinton did back down Wednesday, with the official announcement now expected in two stages Friday and Saturday. OOXML opponents, meanwhile, fight on.)

[I love the spin this headline gives to the subject. - tracyanne]

These is a review of 20 essential KDE applications, plus several additions. Included are Amarok, KTorrent, Akregator, K3b, Konqueror, DigiKam and all the others. Screenshots are included.

Mike Beltzner has created a screencast introducing some of the new features in the forthcoming Mozilla Firefox 3. The overview, which is in Adobe Flash SWF format and lasts three minutes and forty-six seconds, covers the new Location bar autocomplete functionality (dubbed the "awesomebar" by its fans), one-click bookmarking using the new star button, bookmark tags, the site identity button (personified by Larry the passport officer), malware protection, improvements to the file download user interface and the built-in Add-ons browser.

I was at another meeting of the Editorial board of the Skibbereen Eagle yesterday. Hopefully you read the outcome of the last one. Some clever clogs suggested that it might be a spiffing wheeze to write something about the possible implications of the much mooted singularity (is that a proper noun, with a capital S?) and what it might mean for the future of both free and proprietary software. Read the full story at FSM

Fifty years ago scientists were restricted to the use of ink and graph paper to assess and compile their data. The first computer revolution of the seventies and eighties vastly enriched the possibilities. But the second revolution in computer technology that has taken place over the last decade has transformed the work of most scientific establishments.

Wind River is readying a vertical-market Linux distribution specifically for MIDs (mobile Internet devices). Wind River Linux Platform for Mobile Internet Devices is the company's second "Platform" product to target Intel's Atom processor, and its second developed in collaboration with Intel, it says.

In this article we will be covering all of the changes in and around the package management stack in the upcoming openSUSE 11.0. There have been a plethora of both visual and behind-the-scenes changes. We’ll also be talking to Duncan Mac-Vicar, YaST team lead, ZYpp and KDE developer, to find out a little more later.

Finland's Movial unveiled a Linux-based toolkit which enables software developers to use web-based technologies to program mobile user interfaces, aiming to cut development times. Movial is a small Helsinki-based software firm, which has mostly been working as a subcontractor for telecom operators.

For web developers, when it comes to debugging the web applications, tools like Firebug for Firefox, Safari Web Inspector and the recently introduced Opera Dragonfly can be handy and very useful. These kinds of tools offers the possibility to trace the DOM, verify the corresponding (computed) CSS, check network usage and resource loading performance, debug JavaScript, etc.

DOSBox is a freely available, cross-platform PC emulator. Rather than attempting to be the technology leader as a business-orientated virtualization environment like VMware or Qemu, DOSBox instead offers a rich set of features aimed at closely recreating the behaviour of a retro gaming PC. To this end, it offers a selection of accurate sound card emulations and facilities to throttle the emulation speed back to vintage PC levels, along with other features designed to make sure that the old games run properly and accurately within a protected environment. Read the full story at FSM

In April, Canonical had a major, Long Term Service (LTS) release of its Ubuntu Linux distribution, both for the desktop and the server, code-named Hardy Heron. There was quite a bit of hype on the Net about the new features and how good it was. I had also previously blogged about how I believed servers to be the entry point for Linux into the small and solo law firm, as it provides the ability to have a powerful, stable server for not a lot of money (especially since you can always retask as the server an older desktop machine in your office).

Linus Torvalds - a classic example of the love-it-or-hate-it type of person. Brilliant programmer, of course, and the father of one of the most extraordinary software projects in the world, but sometimes, he can be utterly arrogant any annoying, yet the other moment completely sensible and utterly spot-on in his statements. CBR listed the ten best Linus Torvalds quotes.

Nothing warms the cockles of a Linux lover's heart more than to hear that X or Y big company/city is migrating its desktops to the free operating system. And nothing can evoke more bitter insults than the reversal of any such decision.

This week, Canonical announced a reworked version of Ubuntu at the Computex trade show in Taiwan. The new Ubuntu Netbook Remix (UNR) is specifically built for new so-called "netbooks" -- mini laptops with small screens geared towards Web browsing and built on Intel's new, low-power micro-architecture called Atom. The new version will allow users to access email, browse the Internet, and use instant messaging, and provide online access to music, photos, and videos, all in one small, affordable package.

KDE was very busy at LinuxTag this year. We were present with two main booths - Amarok and KDE - and a whole bunch of talks within our own track. Additionally, Aaron Seigo gave a well-received keynote on Wednesday, painting a vibrant vision of the desktop in a mobile world, and the direction KDE is heading in. Read on for a more detailed coverage of the event.

Open-source database vendor EnterpriseDB Corp. today said it has appointed a senior sales executive from Linux vendor Red Hat Inc. as its new CEO. Ed Boyajian will become president, CEO and a member of the board for Edison, N.J.-based EnterpriseDB, replacing co-founder Andy Astor, who will become executive vice president of business development.

And please...don't tell me "that's what you get for allowing Javascript to run in my browser." I refuse to be intimidated into crippling my computing experience. Extensions like no-script might take care of this but at what cost? No...we fix the problem, not amputate part of the browsing experience for expediency.