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A look at Open Sense Computing's new Linux desktop workstation offering.

Last week I promised to demonstrate why I am not a GNOME zealot simply looking to try to give KDE a hard time. In actuality, I don’t use GNOME much at all, these days. Or KDE. I do keep up with them, but my actual desktop home is elsewhere. "Hey, Clippit! Stop staring at me."

Groovy took a gigantic leap this past April, with the formal release of a new parser aimed at standardizing the language as part of the JSR process. If you weren't paying attention before, now's the time to start. The new syntax is chock full of enhancements to the language designed for a short learning curve and a big payoff.

Tired of debating which Internet browser is superior? Then you may want to try out a trio of niche browsers that are simply interesting: Ghostzilla, BrowseX, and Amaya. Each takes a different approach to the Web experience to serve different kinds of users: Ghostzilla offers a stealthy browser for paranoid surfers, BrowseX provides a minimalist browser, and Amaya serves as both an authoring tool and a browser to showcase new Web technologies.

While Linux and server vendors continue to push the open source operating system into data centers, a recent survey of Network World readers showed that Linux adoption for critical applications is slow.

Software giant's Martin Taylor soldiers on, evangelizing that open source may not be all it's cut out to be.

A huge growth in downloads in the six weeks following the introduction of the new build confirms recent reports from independent site monitoring organizations of increased interest in the OS.

SA telephony company launches open source VoIP software-based call centre for mid-sized organisations looking to run low-cost virtual centres of up to 1000 seats.

Puppy Linux founder and maintainer Barry Kauler has released version 1.04 of the Puppy Linux distribution. Key enhancements incorporated into the standard 60MB Live-CD file include the addition of a spreadsheet program (Gnumeric), audio file player (tomAmp), and text-mode web browser (ELinks), along with improvements to printing, media streaming, and many other functions. Plus, the Linux kernel has been upgraded from version 2.4.27 to 2.4.29.

Embedded Linux powered 14 percent of smart phones shipped worldwide in Q1 of 2005, up 412 percent from 3.4 percent in Q1 2004, according to Gartner Inc. Windows Mobile shipments also grew substantially, rising 50 percent from a 2.9 share in Q1 2004 to 4.5 percent in Q1 2005, Gartner says.

Backers of open standards-based interoperable authentication technologies are happy to report growing membership in the authentication initiative known as OATH, which released its OATH Reference Architecture Version 1.0 specification for cross-device authentication in May. Now they're working to convince more organizations, many of which are reportedly unaware of the option, to go beyond disparate, proprietary standards or one-word passwords.

You can carry GNU/Linux in your pocket with a functional, quick, and useful USB pen drive distribution. Pen drives are faster than CDs, and the small distros that fit on them don't require huge amounts of memory for the operating system and applications.

Fastest-Growing Enterprise Hosting Company Leverages Novell's Linux Management Solution for Centralized Server Management and Automated Patching

Recently unveiled memos suggest that there is no 'there' in SCO's Linux IP claims and make you wonder if SCO can survive suit by Red Hat.

This week's CLI Magic -- by Shashank Sharma -- is all about history expansion. The Bourne-Again SHell (bash) has a major user base and the fact that it has incorporated some useful features from the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh) might be one of the reasons. History expansion, for example, was first implemented in csh.

Last week, LinuxDevices.com profiled the Aeronix Zipit, a $99 instant messaging device marketed to teenagers, but appropriated by Linux hackers for a variety of embedded projects. Today, we're pleased to offer a followup conversation with Ralph Heredia, who conceived and led the creation of the Zipit.

Sun’s executive vice president of software, John Loiacono, claimed he was misinterpreted in reports he had told the recent JavaOne conference Sun would be reducing its emphasis on selling its Java Desktop System (JDS) in combination with Linux.

"We remain fully committed to JDS," he wrote in his blog this week. "The point I made that caused the stir is that you will see us begin to emphasise JDS on Solaris and SunRay 'even more'."

JDS is based on the open source GNOME desktop environment and is used internally by most of Sun's 42,000 users. However the company has experienced problems selling it to corporate desktops, where Microsoft's Windows remains entrenched.

Today at PCBurn we're taking a look at Mark G. Sobell's "A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming". It aims to be a complete learning and reference guide to the Linux shell. We take a look at the salient points that a reference and teaching book should cover and see how "A Practical Guide..." addresses them.

IBM's emphasis on open standards is yielding compelling competitive advantages. A just-published developer productivity study, which the Branham Group independently verified and certified, concludes that IBM has a significant advantage in an area long perceived to be one of Microsoft's strengths: Developer Productivity.

Author Michael Stutz said he has never been satisfied with existing resources for learning about Linux, which is why he wrote The Linux Cookbook. Stutz aims his book at beginners and more experienced users by presenting lessons in a format modeled after a culinary cookbook. In this interview, Stutz discusses shells and graphical versus command-line interfaces -- and why sometimes, in computers, a word is worth a thousand pictures.