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What we'd like to be able to do is efficiently keep two or more servers completely synchronized with each other no matter what gets changed on any of the servers. In the simplest case, we have a production server and a backup server that we need to keep in sync. We might have a cluster of servers used in a load balancing configuration. In the worst case, we might have a group of computers where changes are occurring on any or all of the devices. Consider the case where we have a computer at the office, a laptop, and a work computer at home. We want to be able to work from any computer at any time.

As the release of Kubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) draws nearer, I continue to download the daily updates that are transforming this beta software into the final release. I was pleased to read that one of the most pesky bugs has been patched. Too bad I had to do it myself, but at least it was simple.

Dell plans to continue the push to sell Linux-based laptops and desktop PCs, revealing promising sales as it approaches the one-year anniversary of its open-source strategy.

MySQL is targeting improved security and privacy with a version of its database codenamed Citadel due in 2009 that’ll also see MySQL speed up product release cycles. Citadel will try to close the gap on IBM and Oracle with security and privacy capabilities in the areas of group-level access privileges and transparent data encryption at the table and column level.

Talk about FUD. I came across a release this AM titled, "Free Open Source Software Is Costing Vendors $60 Billion," New Standish Group International Study Finds". This 'research' firm claims in its release that they've spent 5 years studying the Open Source market (funny since in the last five years I've never heard of the Standish Group). After all that 'research' they've come to a big conclusion and one that is obviously very debatable.

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.