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Firms have a new J2EE application server option today with the launch of Red Hat Application Stack (RHAS), a Linux distribution that includes Red Hat Enterprise Linux, JBoss Application Server, Apache Tomcat, JBoss Hibernate and support for MySQL and PostgreSQL databases.

A lot of managers are afraid to use Open Source Software, because it doesn't come with any support. Of course that isn't true. It is a classical piece of FUD. And then again, how much is support worth?

Earlier this month, LaCie revealed another one of its SAFE desktop hard drives with biometric fingerprint reader (scan to get access), internal drive lock (lock the drive inside the case), secure password protection (only authorized users can lock or unlock the drive) and external chain lock (securely and physically lock the drive in place).

The FreeDOS project, an attempt to create an open source alternative to Microsoft's MS-DOS operating system, has finally reached a major milestone. After 12 years of work, version 1.0 of FreeDOS is now available for download from the project team's Web site.

It has hardly been a few weeks since the release of KDE v3.5.4, one of the most popular desktop environments for Unix/Linux/FreeBSD operating systems, and the KDE development team is already hard at work. They have a dream of revolutionizing the concept of desktop by providing an array of innovative features aimed at improving both the looks of the desktop environment as well as the productivity of end users.

OS/2 has many applications that had been created by companies, individual developers and hobbyists. Many of these applications still works under the newest version of eComStation and have demonstrated a good quality. The only issue is that they are turning into abandonware since developers had switched to other platforms, but there is a chance to extend their life with the "Open Source Long Live Elixir".

Although it’s been around for a while, the genetic library and its associated kernel plugins by Jake Moilanen have again surfaced in some of the more recent cutting-edge kernels.

MindTouch co-founder Aaron Fulkerson is betting his box, which sells for US$3,000 to $5,000, will become the next must-have office machine for small to medium-sized businesses -- as common as a fax machine.

[Their Dekiwiki is GPL'ed, and Dream is LGPL'ed. The number of users for the Managed Office Server is regulated, whether by a license or support terms, I'm not sure. - Don]

Debian Network Utilities and tools With Examples

This interesting article ponders whether it is right after all to price the OS at par or even more than the hardware on which it runs. The author raises pertinent questions and wonders if it won't be better to use a free OS such as GNU/Linux instead of spending money to buy the state of the art proprietary OS.

Conky is a lightweight system monitor that provides essential information in an easy-to-understand, highly customizable interface. The software is a fork of TORSMO, which is no longer maintained. Conky monitors your CPU usage, running processes, memory, and swap usage, and other system information, and displays the information as text or as a graph.

Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! It's a Mandriva week, no doubt. With the imminent release of its brand new version 2007, all eyes of the Linux community are now on the French distribution maker whose new product is likely to raise the usability and eye candy bar for desktop Linux distributions significantly. Can Mandriva regain its former glory? We'll find out soon. In other news: the development of the venerable RPM Package Manager is in deep trouble, Terra Soft announces Yellow Dog Linux 5.0, NetBSD continues its round of negative publicity, and a trial edition of Xandros Desktop 4 is now available for free download.

When I set out to develop a program in C++, one of the hardest parts is figuring out what tools I’ll use to create the user interface. Since the language standard itself doesn’t provide any GUI classes, it’s up to the development tools to help me out here.

The open community model of Wikipedia.org and open source software has worked well so far for those venues, so why not try it with patents?

The dominant themes of this year's conference are centred around the work of Lawrence Lessig and his many collaborators in the Creative Commons family of resources and projects, and Yochai Benkler's ideas relating to "commons-based peer-production" or "Social Production" as expressed in his book "The Wealth of Networks."

The Asterisk open-source platform touts increased flexibility that proprietary products cannot offer, allowing users to integrate their own applications.

An all volenteer organization in Portland Oregon that recycles and rebuilds computers. You can build your own and then keep on building them for others. Very Cool, I wish we had one in Phoenix.

Amarok gets the roots of support for the Magnatune music store. Work begins on a LiveUI Designer application. Mass import of KBoard code, a lightweight canvas intended for games. Work on supporting the XML Paper Specification format in Okular. Support for multiple galleries in Kipi plugins, used by Digikam and KPhotoAlbum. Support for compressed Scalable Vector Graphics (SVGZ) in kdelibs. Solid gets Network Management and CPU Monitoring capabilities. Continued improvements in KArchiver.

Linux is finding success in much smaller devices than the servers and workstations that have traditionally been its mainstays. For embedded systems developers, the advantage of Linux over proprietary OSes lies as much in its flexibility and openness as in its low cost.

This is probably the last chance to test and help Mandriva Linux 2007 before its final release.