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Chinese computer giant Lenovo Group has made another step towards becoming a more significant world player, fully endorsing the adoption of genuine software in its computers in partnership with US giant Microsoft and Chinese top software firms UFIDA and Kingsoft.

[Ed: Apparently the GNU/Linux vendors aren't the only ones busy in China. - dcparris]

RealPlayer 10 for Linux, based on the open source Helix multimedia player, has reached gold status and is now available for free download. RealPlayer 10 supports RealAudio, RealVideo 10, MP3, Ogg Vorbis and Theora, H263 and others. The Mozilla-compatible plug-in allows listeners to watch and listen to embedded video directly from their Web browsers, without needing to open up the player. Source: DesktopLinux.com

TUNIS, Tunisia — A summit focusing on narrowing the digital divide between rich and poor residents and countries opened Wednesday with an agreement of sorts on who will maintain ultimate oversight of the Internet and the flow of information, commerce and dissent.

Type Managers are intentional interfaces for files that have similar or the same type of data. The type in Type Manager literally refers to a set of mime types such as images, videos, music, or e-mails...Depending upon how your client stores your messages (one fat file or as separate files) you can use your file manager to view, sort, find, etc your e-mails. Type Manager applications are file managers in disguise. They present a user interface for a specific file type. They also do something much more useful. They often do the file management for the user.

Matt Loney writes: "Asked whether this signalled a growing acceptance within Microsoft of the heterogeneous nature of its larger customers, Muglia said: "Any enterprise customer has a ton of heterogeneous environments, and we have always accepted that. We're just giving them what they want."

[Ed: Does this sound off the wall to anyone else, or is it just me? - dcparris]

'Can you please put Kylie into the photo with her cousins?" a relative asked me one day. "She was asleep when it was taken." I love a challenge. Digital cameras usually come with basic image editing programs but pasting Kylie into a photo is beyond basic.

[Ed: This is a cool little tutorial, demonstrating how to add someone to a photo they weren't originally a part of. Sounds like that could lead to some funny photos! - dcparris]

"The Barenaked Ladies are trying out a new method of music delivery: 28 songs, plus video and audio clips and a few live versions, on a 128 mb flash drive."

OpenDocument got a lot of publicity lately. StarOffice 8 and OpenOffice.org 2.0 finally arrived, and all the other makers of office suites (with the notable exception of Microsoft) have started implementing the new standard into their programs. Massachusetts recently decided to use OpenDocument as the standard file format, effectively locking out MS Office as soon as January 1st, 2007. Other countries are on their way to do the same. Also, OpenDocument recently got submitted to become an ISO standard.

[Ed: Hmmm... View OpenDocument XML in my browser without a special plug-in? I'll take it! - dcparris]

[ED- This got to be a joke or is InformationWeek seriously suggesting that a temper tantrum by the CEO is their secret weapon? For once we really need to "get the facts" TM -bstadil]

Reports that Steve Ballmer broke into a screaming fit when he learned that Kai-Fu Lee was jumping ship to Google should warm the hearts of Microsoft fans. That's the kind of mad-as-hell attitude that, focused in the right way, will work to Microsoft's advantage

Google Inc., the most-used Internet search engine, introduced free software so advertisers can track how often Web surfers click on ads and then buy their products.

Google Analytics also will let customers see how users move around an Internet site and whether they produce a sales lead, said Richard Holden, a product management director.

The new features heighten competition for companies including WebSideStory Inc. that offer rival software. The move also shows Google's ability to use its surging ad business to offer for free a product it once priced at hundreds of dollars.

Autodesk will launch its high-end visual effects Discreet Flame system on Linux workstations this winter, the company was announced. Previously the system, which is synonymous with top-flight effects for films and commercials, was only available on SGI workstations running the Irix platform.

A TRAIN DRIVER slowed Germany's rail system to a halt after he mistook a giant toy penguin for a dead man in a tuxedo.

A storage startup hopes to make a name for itself by basing its solutions almost entirely on open source technologies. The company even chose a not-so-subtle name to get the point across: Open Source Storage, complete with the domain name opensourcestorage.com.

Analysis: If you're moving to Linux, CodeWeaver's CrossOver Office lets you take many of your favorite Windows programs with you.

The wonderfully useful dsniff utility makes snooping on switched segments rather easy. As with all tools, it can be used for good or ill. It's a great addition to the network administrator's toolbox, and it can also be used for difficult-to-detect unauthorized snooping.

It's easy to lose track of what's going on with Linux. That's due in part to the almost total lack of marketing hype. The kernel crew, led by Linus Torvalds, just keeps working away quietly in the background. Red Hat and Novell keep racking up strong revenue gains but don't spend much on advertising. And the big tech players, such as IBM, HP, and Dell, would actually prefer it if customers bought their proprietary and higher-margin products.

[Ed: Those penguinistas will sneak up on you if you're not careful! - dcparris]

Linux kernel 2.6.14 is out, the fourth major kernel version of 2005, and chock full of improvements, including driver updates, new virtual filesystems and wireless connectivity improvements.

Various studies on the total cost of ownership (TCO) of Windows versus Linux have arrived at vastly different conclusions. How is this possible? The short answer is that if you are abstract enough with your goals and methodology, are selective with the costs that you include, and ask the right questions, then you can arrive at any conclusion you want.

[Ed. Maria asks some astute questions here. As Microsoft ramps up its "Get the Facts" campaign this week, more articles like this will hopefully get on the wires. -tadelste]

Related Story:
Linux News Questions Microsoft's Need for a "Get the Facts" campaign?

Nokia announced that it has started deliveries of the first device in its new Internet Tablet product category, the Nokia 770. The sleek, pocket sized device is Nokia's first Linux -based terminal product and is dedicated to convenient Internet browsing and email communications over Wi-Fi.

'We recognise that more and more people are using Firefox, so it's something we want to support,' says one high-street bank

Two large financial companies in the UK have pledged to try to make their Web sites compatible with Mozilla's Firefox, a week after it celebrated its first birthda