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DistroWatch reports - PCLinuxOS 0.92 has been released: On behalf of the PCLinuxOS engineering team, I'm happy to announce that PCLinuxOS 0.92 is now available for download. PCLinuxOS 0.92 features an updated 2.6.12 kernel, hotplug has been moved to udev to provide faster boot times. The fabulous KDE has been updated to version 3.4.3. KOffice replaces OpenOffice.org on the live CD. OpenOffice.org 2.0 can be installed after a hard drive install. X.Org has been updated to X.Org cvs. Approximately 400 package updates brings PCLinuxOS 0.92 up to date with the latest open source applications.

OSDir has some sweet shots of PCLinuxOS 0.92.

LXer Day Desk: 11-25-2005

If you want a desktop or laptop and you want to move to Linux then you're cooked. You have very few options and retailers have used low-cost Linux systems to bait and switch users. So, why don't the major Intel vendors offer Linux? Short answer: Microsoft. The old monopolist still commands and makes demands on its OEM vendors.

What's worse? Unsuspecting PC buyers will be faced with the need to upgrade to Vista in the near future. So, that bargain PC from Dell will probably keep on costing you money. Do alternatives exist? We like to think so.

"Lots of companies are using our products, they just aren't talking about it", is a popular excuse from software companies, particularly those that offer open source software and services.

Linux services and training company Linux Holdings is planning to push the open source-based Bynari into the South African market as a cheaper, more feature-rich alternative to the widely used Microsoft Exchange server.

With literally hundreds of Linux distros available today, it can be a daunting task in choosing one for daily use. This distro is destined to be named "distro of the year".

Red Hat's plans for the next two years call for the company to fund and develop several projects of interest to the Linux community. They company set out its top priorities for 2006 and 2007 in a press release detailing its plans to further fund and support free software projects, including SystemTap and OProfile, as well as develop virtualization and stateless Linux technologies for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL).

Plenty of groups met at the Internet summit in Tunis, Tunisia, last week to talk about changing the fortunes of people from developing countries still locked out of the information society. A few, however, preferred to use the event to announce action.

A new version of the development software aids Web-based application deployment.

The Mono project has issued a new release aimed at taking the software out of the development environment and onto production systems. Release 1.1.10 contains tweaks such as auto-configuration and the ability to work with virtual hosts

Brian Phipps digs deep into an article about open source efforts and pulls out an interesting point that's mostly buried in the story: "A Forbes article on open source reports that Mission Viejo firm Medsphere used the Freedom of Information Act to get the source code for federal hospital management software "developed at taxpayer expense."

[Ed: As a matter of fact, anything the US and state governments develop - possibly with a few exceptions - is in the public domain. This is, as RMS would point out, a special case of free (libre) software. However, there is absolutely no license attached. Follow the link to the Forbes article. - dcparris]

South Korea's Fair Trade Commission said yesterday it will delay a ruling in its an antitrust case against Microsoft Corp. until Nov 30, as its committees are still deliberating.

[Ed: If Korea finds Microsoft guilty, they should apply appropriate penalties. If Microsoft wants to make threats in order to sway the government's thinking, they should consider further charges. How do you say "good-bye" in Korean? - dcparris]

Not everyone sees the mainframe as a relic of the past. In 1996, motor manufacturer Baldor Electric, beguiled by promises of lower costs and the desire to move to the SAP platform for all its CRM and ERP transactions, left the mainframe in favour of a Windows environment. According to Mark Shackelford, Baldor's IS director, the company was very unhappy with the results.

The boom in the intellectual property market will not reap rewards for us all.

[ED.- Andrew Brown draws a great summary of the current state of the "intellectual property" business, and it is not looking good - Tsela]

If you're bored with blogging and ready for new worlds to conquer, podcasting might be just the impetus you need to refuel your interest in Internet publishing. The term is something of a misnomer. You don't need an iPod to create or receive a podcast, and it's not really a broadcast. What it is is hot, and with open source tools for both podcast creation and reception, it's a game that Linux users can play.

These retailer's online stores don't seem to be Linux/Firefox friendly

Sober is known to only affect computers running the Windows operating system. It appears that Apple and Linux computer users have not been affected.

This week, advisories were released for phpgroupware, egroupware, fetchmail, gnump3d, common-lisp-controller, xmail, unzip, netpbm, mantis, fetchmail-ssl, sylpheed, ipmenu, horde3, zope, Smb4k, mtab, phpSysInfo, eix, php, drakxtools, binutils, and fuse. The distributors include Debian, Gentoo, Mandriva.

Next generation browsers will have advanced features that will get tough with hackers, thanks to four rival firms getting together to work on combating security threats. Security developers from Microsoft, Mozilla/Firefox, Opera and Konqueror are discussing plans to help make the Internet a safer place for us all.

Shuttleworth has been talking with RMS and there may be an idealogically pure FSF-like version of Ubuntu launched. Details in Mark's list message

We really want to say kind things about Sun and keep the dialog flowing. Afterall, they claim to be an open-source company. But when we see articles like the one reference here, we have to rethink our position one more time.

So, some unnamed editor from BNamericas.com writes: "Adoption of the Sun Solaris 10 operating system is being led in Latin America by the region's large data centers and SMEs, according to Juan Carlos Barroux, strategic accounts marketing manager for US IT firm Sun Microsystems in Southern Latin America."

Then we see: "SMEs are able to replace a Linux solution without support or one with really expensive support.".

[Ed: Wait a minute. We recently got blasted for writing that Sun said it was trying to kill Linux. The head of the JDS project wrote a vicious blog saying it was not a policy of Sun to kill Linux. So what this? It's you basic flip-flop. - tadelste]