Showing all newswire headlines

Scott writes: Ask them if they use IE, WMP(Windows Media Player), Quicktime, Itunes, Word, Excell, PowerPoint, Access and always ask them how many Anti-Viruses they are using. You have to make sure that you always end with the AntiViruses, trust me, I tell you why in a second.

You will find that roughly 99% of the people you talk to do not even use all of those programs I listed and do not use any outside of it. Almost all of them only use, IE, Word, WMP maybe Quicktime a little and whatever Anti-Virus or Anti-Viruses they have installed.

Related to:
Breaking down barriers to Linux desktop adoption

A cautious optimism is running through the open source industry after Sita awarded potentially South Africa's biggest open source deal last week, selecting eight companies to be the suppliers of open source software and support services to the government and Sita over the next three years. The question on everybody's lips: where to from here?

The new Mac minis will be available in two configurations based around the Intel Core Solo or Intel Core Duo processors the Intel Core Duo processor running at speeds of 1.5 to 1.66 GHz, with an Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64 MB of video memory, support for up to 2 GB of RAM, a slot loading optical drive, four USB 2.0 ports, one FireWire 400 port, and built-in gigabit Ethernet, Airport Extreme (802.11g) wireless networking, and Bluetooth 2.0+ER. The Mac mini also offers DVI video output, a VGA output, plus S-video and composite video out, along with combined optical digital audio input and outputs using minijacks (the output also doubles as a headphone jack. The Mac mini's tiny form factor has not changed: users still need to bring their own keyboards, mice, and monitors, but the Mac mini itself is still under 3 pounds, two inches high, and six and a half inches wide and deep.

A new policy announced by America Online and Yahoo! will let email senders pay extra to bypass mail filters. This should not be compared to the much more serious issue of network neutrality, as critics charge.

On Digg.com

  LXer Feature: 28-Dec-05

LXer editor, Don Parris, takes a gander at the MadTux LivePC. Whether you just want to provide Internet access to visiting relatives, setup a computer lab down at the church, or support a high-tech, roaming workforce, you're likely to find the LivePC easy on the budget and heavy on the utilities.

Digg Story

Sun has purportedly gone out of its way to draw Linux developers to its hardware platform. Analysts even say that Sun has finally made peace with Linux. But if you look at their web site they appear to have a different story to tell as they attempt to build community support for Solaris10. Frankly, we believe Linux beats Sun in so many categories that we don't even have a race. While Sun wants you to "get the facts" we notice that they persist in comparing Solaris10 to Red Hat's enterprise model. But that's not the only Linux out there.

On Digg.com

Linux-Based eBusiness Platform Offers 100 Percent Visibility for Supply Chain Management

Although OpenOffice.org Writer offers many tools that allow you to create sophisticated layouts, you might want to use a dedicated desktop publishing application to lay out a brochure or a book. The latest version of the open source DTP application Scribus, 1.3.2, can import Writer's .odt documents, which makes Writer and Scribus a perfect combo for DTP work. Here's a brief overview of Scribus' essential tools and features from Writer users' point of view.

If you're a Mac OS X user who needs to move files securely between home, work, and Web hosts, try Fugu, an open source, graphical front end for SSH File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Secure Copy (SCP), and Secure Shell (SSH). Fugu uses these three protocols to conduct secure transfers and other communication between computers.

Lenovo South Africa launched its products officially on Friday, with desktops and laptops that look distinctly non-IBM. The new company is hoping to capture a slice of the lucrative home user and SME markets with its 3000 series, while the Think brand continues to play in the corporate arena.

IBM has opened a new front in the Desktop Wars with its coming release of Lotus Notes for Linux and Apple Mac OS X. The mature collaboration software instantly adds gravitas and business-user appeal to both operating systems, while providing IBM with the ability to offer a complete environment without a stitch of Microsoft. Assuming the IBM effort succeeds, Email Battles wonders how long it take for Redmond to follow.

Although New Zealand organisations have been late adopters of the technology, local end-users and tech companies accept that open source is here to stay.

Mimos Bhd is organising the 7th ASia Open Source Software (OSS) symposium to strengthen international collaboration in establishing an Asian Open Source Ecosystem.

In a statement on Feb 27, Mimos said the Asian Open Source Ecosystem would enable governments, communities and industries across Asia to continuously interact and collaborate in open source implementation.

Last Thursday, when I wrote about Dell's new Linux desktop, was one of the most frustrating days of my professional life. My eWEEK colleague John Spooner and I tried our best to get Dell to confess that they really had released an honest-to-God Linux desktop.

But Dell simply wouldn't do it.

More than 3,000 FOSS enthusiasts gave up their weekend and traveled from all over the world to attend the sixth annual Free and Open Source Software Developers' European Meeting (FOSDEM) in Brussels last weekend.

Open-source VoIP developer, SIPphone, has announced its acquisition of $6 million in venture capital funding, which will help it extend its Session-Initiated Protocol (SIP)-based network. The peer-to-peer network will soon be available over non-PC devices, including adapters, routers, Wi-Fi phones, and dual mode cell phones.

US Robotics (USR) publishes source code for a variety of network devices based on Linux, including wireless access points, combo router/NAS servers, and DSL broadband routers. Downloads for its USR5461 wireless access point suggest the device runs Linux 2.4.20, and fits a uClibc-based filesystem within 2MB.

People reject Linux desktops for illogical reasons, says IT consultant and developer Jono Bacon. For example, they fault Linux OpenOffice desktops for not having all the features in Microsoft Windows Office, even though few actually use all of the Microsoft stuff. So, in essence, they're saying they want desktops cluttered with unnecessary features.

Bacon discusses the impact of such irrational views regarding Linux desktop adoption in this interview. He also opines on what developers should be doing to reverse-engineer people's fuzzy thinking and make it easier to adopt Linux and open source. Bacon co-authored Linux Desktop Hacks (O'Reilly Media) and is an applications development specialist at OpenAdvantage, an open source software consulting organization that provides free services in the West Midlands region of the U.K.

AJAX Toolkit Framework is a J2EE based technology that assists in constructing Eclipse framework support for AJAX toolkits on Linux and provides enhanced DHTML/Javascript IDE features for AJAX developers.

A trip to Nairobi, cocktails with Microsoft, and a conference room full of African free software advocates. Alastair Otter checks in with the growing African free and open source movement to see how things are going.