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The final release of Fedora 9 has been delayed by two weeks, so I thought I’d take this chance to look at what you can expect from Fedora 9 and why you should be excited!

There are many new and innovative features brewing within the X.Org development community right now -- among the many are Gallium3D, the TTM memory manager, and MPX (Multi-Pointer X) -- but one of the features that has risen towards the top of the list and delivers visible benefits to the end-user is kernel-based mode-setting. As implied by its name, kernel mode-setting involves moving the mode-setting code for video adapters from the user-space X server drivers into the Linux kernel. This may seem like an uninteresting topic for end-users, but having the mode-setting done in the kernel allows for a cleaner and richer boot process, improved suspend and resume support, and more reliable VT switching (along with other advantages). Kernel mode-setting isn't yet in the mainline Linux kernel nor is the API for it frozen, but Fedora 9 shipping next month will be the first major distribution carrying this initial support. In this article we're looking more closely at kernel mode-setting with the Intel X.Org driver as well as showing videos of kernel-based mode-setting in action.

I'm always using a mix of machines and OSes for my work, but until this week, my main "home" machine -- The $0 Laptop (Gateway Solo 1450) -- has been mostly used at home for a bit of Web browsing, testing Linux distributions, and my daughter's favorite educational games (gCompris, Childsplay, TuxPaint, Potato Guy). But this week I've needed to use the laptop a lot more while I'm in the office.

Bradley Kuhn is one of the founding team members of the Software Freedom Law Center, and a longtime advocate for the cause of Free Software. Many consider him one of the most influential voices in the worldwide FLOSS community. Kuhn, formerly the executive director of the Free Software Foundation, took some time recently to catch us up on his latest work.

Security with Apache is an important topic, of which SELinux is a part. However, the frustration that results in trying to manage SELinux and how it relates to an Apache Web Server is huge. Most of the time, administrators bail and shut down SELinux because they do not have the time to correctly configure the system. SELinux can be a key to good security for the Apache daemon. This tutorial with help you develop several skills that will provide some level of SELinux management for the Apache Web Server.

Well you know sometimes when you use an OS for as long as I have... One can get bored with it. Maybe it is just my personality but I was just sitting around the old computer the other day and well... I decided to upgrade Ubuntu 7.10 to the new beta release 8.04.

Since I put my workstation, which is at the same time the MythTV server / backend streamer for the family into a new case and added another TV card, I had some issues. I had read about udev already, but never actually cared much for it, not even to make rules for hot-pluggable stuff like USB sticks and so on. However, now I had to read, so this is what I did.

when I woke up today (after sleeping in for the first time with my new roll-top in front of my bedroom window) I was surprised & confused by a couple of "congratulations!" messages in my irc away-log. it took me a bit of time & coffee (& looking into my mailbox) to begin to realize that my Debian account had indeed been created while I was asleep. — in fact I guess I still haven't completely realized my new status as Debian Developer.

[So the wheels are turning once again for Debian - Steve]

The Ubuntu development team today made available a release candidate version of the soon-to-be-released Ubuntu 8.04, codenamed Hardy Heron. The release candidate is the final testing release of Hardy ahead of next week’s final release. What we like: A better selection of default desktop applications, much-improved CD and DVD burning interface and much-needed audio improvements. What we don’t like: Boot speed is still a little slow.

In 10 years, Luis Villa has seen his career expand side by side with free and open source software (FOSS). Starting as bugmaster at Ximian, one of the companies that shaped GNOME as we know it today, he has been a mid-level manager at Novell, the coordinator of testing with the GNOME project, and a frequent member of the GNOME Foundation Board. More recently, Villa has been a student at Harvard Law School. When he graduates, he hopes to use his knowledge of how FOSS and business interact to benefit both.

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.