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Eurotech is readying a rugged DVR (digital video recorder) platform for trains and other harsh environments. The "Rugged DVR" is based on a passively cooled P133 or Celeron processor, with optional JPEG2000 or MPEG-4 capture/compression, GSM/GPRS (UMTS) radio, gigabit Ethernet, and hi-speed USB 2.0 ports.

When the Ubuntu Linux operating system was first announced in 2004, few could have expected to become as popular as it has. Based on the Debian distribution, Ubuntu Linux has wowed users with its simplicity and effectiveness. The mantra most frequently heard in relation to Ubuntu is: "It just works."

Since its launch, the distro's popularity has grown in leaps and bounds. It won the readers' choice award for best distro in the November edition of the Linux Journal. It's also won similar awards in the UK Linux & Open Source Awards 2005, been voted by Tux Magazine readers as their favourite Linux distribution, and won Ars Technica's best distribution award.

Seneca College's fourth annual Open Source Symposium last month drew high profile developers and thinkers from the open source community to Toronto, where they spoke on issues of copyright, literacy, and increasing content restrictions.

Dennis Walters likes to compare a computer to a car. It needs a steering wheel, doors, brakes, seats. Most important, it needs an engine to make it go. Linux is the engine that makes Walters' computer go.

The tuXlabs project, which installs Linux-based thin client computers into schools across South Africa, won the Sowetan, Old Mutual and SABC Community Builder's award last night for its achievements.

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux and the maintainer of the development kernel, is cracking down on developers that add last-minute changes to the kernel.

The kernel development team recently set a policy that new features must be added to the next version of the kernel during the two weeks after the release of the previous version.

Companies shouldn't rush to upgrade to Microsoft Windows Vista, according to analysts at Gartner, who believe most firms could safely hold back until 2008. The majority of improvements in Vista will be security-related and most of this functionality "is available via third-party products today", Gartner claimed in a research note published on Friday.

[Apparently the report, "Ten reasons you should and shouldn't care about Microsoft's Windows Vista client", only addresses *some* of Vista's weaknesses. They probably didn't have time to account for all of them. - Ed]

A great many people find new interfaces downright puzzling. However, most interfaces share common features. Having been there and done that, Don Parris shows the technologically challenged how to find their way around nearly any graphical interface, whether it's an operating system GUI or a new office suite.


Diggable

Big guns in the software industry are massing behind OpenDocument as government customers show more interest in open source alternatives to Microsoft's desktop software.

IBM and Sun met on Friday to discuss how to boost adoption of the standardised document format for office applications. The ODF Summit brought together representatives from a handful of industry groups and from at least 13 technology companies, including Oracle, Google and Novell.

That stepped-up commitment from major companies comes amid signs that states are seriously considering getting behind OpenDocument. James Gallt, the associate director for the National Association of State Chief Information Officers, said on Wednesday that there are a number of pushes to adopt the format getting under way within state agencies.

Advanced Solution for Data Exchanges Taps the Cost-Efficiency and Innovation of truExchange Platform

Microsoft Is Leaking Internal Documents to Make Us Think They Have a Plan

At first glance, a shop is not a place where you would expect to find KDE in the workplace. Yet the Dutch Free Record Shop is deploying it on a large scale as the operating system for their point of sale systems. According to the supplier Novell, it is one of the application areas where simple and restricted functionality is required, leading to a breakthrough for GNU/Linux on the PC. An article from Automatiseringsgids magazine is translated below.

The link begins with a notice that the web pages are no longer maintained. At the time I heard the code was terrible. On my connection, the opening page moved to a combined MySQL AB and SAP page http://www.mysql.com/products/maxdb/ and MaxDB. Thus, by pure logic alone Open Source methods suck! It could not even save a crappy product. Guess it just Maxed Out.

The number of useful desktop applications for Linux is growing every day, but there are many would-be users who still have one or more "must have" Windows applications. For those users, running Windows under Linux is a suitable alternative to having to maintain two systems, or a dual-boot system with Linux and Windows. One of the options for running Windows under Linux is Win4Lin, Inc.'s Win4Lin Pro, which was released earlier this year. Win4Lin Pro gets the job done, but its performance and usability are a bit disappointing.

THE MAJOR BACKERS of the Cell microprocessor have sent out software for it which supports Linux, said the EE Times. IBM is sending out source for Linux, while Sony is sending out compilers including the GNU Compiler Collection, the magazine said.

IMlogic has announced the launch of the “IMlogic Inside” program and the availability of the IMlogic Security Engine to enable ISVs and service providers to rapidly integrate IM management and security into existing e-mail and network security solutions.

The Seaside framework is built on the Squeak dialect of Smalltalk and developers the world over recognize Seaside as the top existing continuation server, but Seaside does much more than continuations. This article shows you how to be more productive, and how to be a better, faster, lighter developer with Seaside.

A group of high-profile technology vendors have formalised plans to promote Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) as a global standard after a meeting at IBM last week, according to an IBM executive.

DistroWatch reports - The second release candidate of Damn Small Linux 2.0 is now available for download and testing. From the release notes: Added more base timezones; enhanced LT modem detection; corrected myDSL menu with persistent home usage; updated kernel with SATA module support; enhanced Siag external load to use wget; enhanced German keyboard support; added a minimal version of Joe's Window Manager (see F3 at boot); enhanced Firefox for more mime types and Java; added GtkFind utility. Syslinux and embedded versions are also ready for download.

OSDir has some screenshots of Damn Small Linux 2.0 RC2.

Virus writers have begun taking advantage of Sony-BMG's use of rootkit technology in DRM software bundled with its music CDs.

[Ed.- Now that's innovation!]

Related LXer stories:

Sony's (Non-Existent) Corporate Conscience
Is it time for Sony to recall their rootkit DRM music Cd's?
Sony, Rootkits and Digital Rights Management Gone Too Far
Bots in the A/C, spyware in the 'fridge
Sony DRM is worse than you might think
World of Warcraft hackers using Sony BMG rootkit