Showing all newswire headlines

Is Linux ready for all home computer users? Linux is best installed only if you have some nontrivial computer or programming experience, or if you have a generous neighbor or relative who does.

Thanks to portable applications that can be stored on USB Flash drives, you can now make any PC your own. TAN KIT HOONG shows you how.

Free software games have long ago evolved from the command line. In this article I’ll describe one thoroughly addictive, turn based, graphical online game named “The Battle for Wesnoth”.

Identity is an essential enabler for eCommerce; unfortunately, it's currently a bit of a mess. However, there is hope... Like Microsoft’s InfoCard and Kim Cameron’s vision of an identity metasystem, the open source Higgins identity project aims to move us away from the current hotchpotch of identity systems. InfoCard concentrates on a consistent user experience; Higgins aims to simplify things for developers.

Everyone knows Wikipedia, the community-driven online encyclopedia. Now developers, including a group from Ghana, have developed a barcoding system that links real world objects to their relevant online Wikipedia entries. Point your cellphone and be enlightened.

Twelve years ago, Andreas Girardet, a Masters graduate in philosophy and logic from Berlin University caught the twin internet and Linux bugs. Today Girardet, whose official title at Suse Linux vendor Novell is Linux Evangelist, says logic dictates that Microsoft will not be able to withstand the onslaught of Linux.

Interesting Read! The former Yoper founder expounds on why Microsoft can't win against FOSS. - dcparris

Sekou Diakite has released an alpha version of a KDE Look and Feel for Java. This is an interesting step forward in Linux/Unix desktop integration since Java applications can now use the KDE/Qt libraries for drawing Java widgets and even directly use existing KDE widgets such as the file or color choosers. See the webpage for further details of this accomplishment including future plans and, of course, screenshots.

Reusable software certification smoothes the path to safety-critical embedded systems, writes Joe Wlad from LynuxWorks

Things have certainly been hopping in the open-source world lately. Last week Microsoft announced that Windows will be able to host Linux applications by means of its virtual server software, then followed up with a new site devoted to explaining its Linux moves to its customers.

The web is alive with complaints from Yahoo Mail account holders who didn't get mail, and legitimate senders whose mail never was delivered. Everybody seems to know it happens, but nobody ever figured out why... until now. After Email Battles mapped, analyzed and charted Yahoo Mail's mail servers, it's easy to see why the wealthy company wants to charge for certified sender services. It apparently needs the money for a new mail server.

While the legal wrangling continues, early generation products are coming to market. Some of these appliances run Linux, some run Windows Media Center, and some run proprietary setups. One of the Linux-run entertainment appliances on the market today is the Buffalo LinkTheater High-Definition Wireless Media Player. Dee-Ann and Robert LeBlanc file this review.

Xandros Server, Utilizing BRU(TM) and Other Leadership Tools, Delivers a Long Sought-After Linux Alternative to the Windows(TM) Lock on the SMB Space

U.S.-based software company Novell Inc. will look at acquisition opportunities as it expands its business distributing and supporting Linux-based open-source software, the company's chief operating officer said.

I once thought that technical writers would be one of the next groups to adopt free and open source software (FOSS). I reasoned that they were advanced computer users, and might absorb an interest through their daily interactions with developers. However, after discussing FOSS on the Techwr-l mailing list a few months ago, I realized I was wrong. A handful are using FOSS professionally, and a few were inspired by the discussion to try it. Yet most showed only mild interest. Some echoed myths that everyone in the FOSS community has heard before about lack of support or quality. The majority, though, showed a mixture of pragmatism, a clinging to the familiar, and a double-standard that, taken together shows just how large a gap still separates the FOSS community from many of those it might immediately benefit.

Browsing through other blogs on here recently, I came across a piece explaining how to set Firefox to use vi key bindings. Which sounded great; unfortunately, the method as advertised no longer works (Firefox 1.5.0.1).

Sales of second-hand Microsoft software licences have doubled month-on-month since the market was opened in November 2005, according to the Staffordshire start-up that spotted the opportunity in Microsoft's small print and Britain's insolvency laws.

Linux The Novell-sponsored openSUSE project was named “Best of Show” as "best total industry solution" at the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in Boston and Syndey. Although I personally never have been persuaded by awards of this type, as other products are often better, in my opinion, I think that this award indicates SUSE Linux can still provide the needs of its users.

Butler Group says the acquisition will create the first "open source supergroup", deliver a number of advantages to Red Hat and JBoss, and strengthen the business proposition for the enterprise market, where software buyers are more sensitive to technology provider financial viability and business stability.

The father of Java will be in South Africa for Sun Tech Days on 3 to 4 March. Tectonic's Jason Norwood-Young catches up with James Gosling to chat about Java, open source, and why he has no time for safaris and Johnny Clegg.

Wondering how to create a triple-booting system that involves Windows and two Linux distributions -- one that uses the GRUB bootloader and the other using LILO? Here's a hands-on procedure that lets you do just that, without tweaking cryptic configuration files and messing with geeky commands.