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One of the best uses for Linux is special-purpose, tightly managed distributions for a single purpose, and Untangle has created one of the most impressive applications of this principle. The Untangle Gateway bundles together a list of applications that even seasoned sysadmins couldn't install and effectively manage in a timely manner.

With the growing popularity of refurbished PCs with Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Puppy Linux, Damn Small Linux and so on, Microsoft has tossed their hat into the ring as well. While some people have rolled their eyes at the very idea, I see nothing wrong with it.

The Ubuntu desktop may look a little brown and boring to first-time Linux users but beneath that conservative skin lurks a powerhouse of desktop features just waiting to come out, if you are using Compiz Fusion. Here we look at five of the better Compiz features that actually make us more productive as well as looking good. When you have multiple windows open on your desktop, all piled on top of one another, it’s hard to find what you want. With Scale you simply hit a key … and all the open windows are scaled down and tiled across the screen. Clicking on one of them brings it to the front. It’s a real time saver.

Regulators in the EU today announced that they are opening two new investigations against Microsoft, this time focusing not on peripheral functionalities such as media players, but on the core of Microsoft's business: its operating and office suite software. Both investigations focus on the benefits that Microsoft gains by combining features, such as search and Windows Live, into its operating system. But the investigations will also look into whether Microsoft has failed to adequately open OOXML, or to take adequate measures to ensure that Office is "sufficiently interoperable" with competing products

Recently the BBC had a bit of a wake up call regarding numbers and how many Linux users were really out there. Why does any of this matter? It has to do with something the BBC provides called the iPlayer.

Do you have some mundane task that you have to do regularly through a Web browser? Are you a developer who wants to automatically test the interface of your latest Web application? Maybe you want to log into all of the sites you visit on a daily basis with one click. If you fall into any of these categories, you should check out the iMacros Firefox extension.

Ever since the dawn of commercial software, piracy has been a problem without a realistic solution that meets the needs of both the software vendor and the end user. Due to the overall negative reaction from many end users with regard to DRM, a number of open source advocates have pointed out that if software companies simply adopted one of the many open source licenses, the need to concern themselves with anti-piracy efforts becomes completely unneeded. But making this kind of business model switch requires more than simply switching licensing models. There are revenue streams to be concerned here.

I have borrowed a headline from an earlier posting by Shane Schick to discuss something I saw this week. McAfee filed a report last month with the Securities and Exchange Commission that made a few statements about risks associated with their use of some Open Source software. These statements received quite a bit of media attention.

KDE 4.0.0 has been released on January 11th, after a number of delays; the months preceding the release, the KDE developers tried very hard to downplay expectations. KDE 4.0.0 was just the first release in the KDE 4 series, and such, should not be seen as the best possible representation of the KDE 4.0.0 vision. So, when I installed KDE 4.0.0 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation last Friday, I knew what to expect: KDE 4 Developer Release 1. Read on for a few quick first impressions.

More than four billion embedded systems or devices shipped worldwide in 2006, says a report by Venture Development Corporation (VDC). The market research firm forecasts three years of growth in device shipments, especially for devices with commercial and/or open source operating systems like Windows and Linux.

DeviceVM's SplashTop, a product we had named as one of the greatest Linux innovations in 2007, is sharing a booth this week at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) with ASUS. At their booth we were allowed to check out a SplashTop demo running on an ASUS notebook! This notebook has yet to be introduced by ASUS, but it's intended for high-end gaming and comes with SplashTop Linux as a complementary operating system. This version of SplashTop is slightly updated and has new features too. Immediately after the system POSTed, we noticed an updated splash screen. The options now include Web, DVD, Music, Photo, Chat, Skype, and Video.

Daniel Robbins, the original creator of the Gentoo Linux distribution, has offered to return to the Gentoo Foundation as president in order to resolve what he described as the recent “Gentoo leadership crisis“.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars is a hard-core, multiplayer, first-person shooter that will run natively on the Linux operating system. Built off a modified Doom III Engine, Quake Wars was released late 2007, and it is the favorite game of the LinuxHow2 crowd. In the following review, we will show some screenshots, share our thoughts, and give you a few tips on installing this game on your favorite Linux distro.

If you've looked at Linux text editors at all, you've found there is a battle raging that's just as passionate as the GNOME or KDE battle. The two text editors in question, Vi and Emacs, are powerful, extensible, and highly configurable. They've also got a steep learning curve for the new Linux user who just wants to tweak a setting in a config file, or create a simple document. Have no fear. There are plenty of text editors out there that are powerful enough for the average user, and user-friendly to boot.

Welcome to this year's second issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The release of KDE 4.0.0, the deepening crisis in Gentoo Linux and a series of announcements from the Fedora User and Developer Conference (FUDCon) dominated the headlines last week. As expected, the major new version from the popular desktop environment project received mixed reaction from distribution makers and users; while some distros were quick to release binary packages and special KDE 4 live CDs for users to sample the new code, it's clear that the first KDE 4 release is far from ready to take over our desktops. Also in this issue, openSUSE has published a roadmap leading towards the upcoming release of version 11.0 and VectorLinux has announced the first 64-bit edition of its Slackware-based distribution. Happy reading!

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 73 for the week January 6th - January 12th, 2008. In this issue: Hardy Alpha 3 released, Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop Course, KDE 4.0, a new member and MOTUs, MOTU Council election, an upcoming Hug Day, Forums tutorial of the week, and much, much more!!

Many people have pointed out that open-source software is often marketed to the developers, not users. This can be fixed by getting the users to write the feature lists, not the developers.

SCALE is proud to announce they've partnered with LOPSA, the League of Professional System Administrators (http://lopsa.org/), to create "SCALE University". SCALE University will conduct two half-day classes on Friday, February 8th at the So Cal Linux Expo.

KDE released a significantly revamped version of its Linux graphical interfaces software on Friday, incorporating several features that also appear in Windows Vista and Mac OS X. Among new features in KDE 4.0 are an enhanced start menu called Kickoff, new ways of viewing widgets and applications, a revamped file browser, and a new look to some entertainment applications.

What was Warren thinking about? Abandon the ship! I suppose Warren Woodford has some very strong reasons to adopt the Debian Etch core as the engine for SimplyMEPIS 7.0 after having explored the Ubuntu-land! SimplyMEPIS 6.0 and 6.5 were based on Ubuntu. Dapper to be more precise! The interview with Warren Woodford, the founder of MEPIS LLC by DesktopLinux.com on 30th of July 2007 brought out the reason why it was difficult to base his distribution on a non-rolling-release Linux distribution like Ubuntu Linux. SimplyMEPIS 7.0 which was released on 23rd of December 2007, has been logically based on the immensely stable Debian Etch and will be synchronized with Debian Lenny (when it is released).