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The VA-API library, libva, and the Intel VA-API driver have been updated with some minor enhancements...

Particle Code, a software platform that allows game/application developers to easily target multiple operating systems and mobile devices, may not only be gaining Linux support but could also become an open-source development platform if there's sufficient interest...

Welcome to the 171st issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly!

HeliOS has been criticized from time to time for giving computers to kids that probably wouldn't use them to their full potential.

I'm not going to argue the point. the criticism is more than likely valid.

But we don't operate on "mights" and "could be's"

We work on the assumption that with the right encouragement and strong parental guidance, the child will excel once given the right technology tools.

A precocious, smart and goal-oriented 10 year old has helped prove that

Email is arguably one of the most popular and useful functions used on Android smartphones and tablets. Being able to keep in touch with your friends, family, and colleagues on the move is essential for any platform, not least for a mobile platform. Fortunately, the developers of Android did not neglect the email department, with most Android devices coming shipped with a couple of mail clients.

Nginx (pronounced "engine x") is a free, open-source, high-performance HTTP server. Nginx is known for its stability, rich feature set, simple configuration, and low resource consumption. This tutorial shows how you can install Nginx on an Ubuntu 11.10 server with PHP5 support (through PHP-FPM) and MySQL support.

Projects do not thrive when there are ambivalences and ambiguities around the ownership of the code that makes up the project, as can be seen from the fallout among the various projects that Oracle inherited through its purchase of Sun Microsystems.

The problem is not restricted to ownership of the code per se, but manifests itself in a lack of transparency around the future direction and licensing of the code. Devices such as dual licensing, copyright assignment and Community Licence Agreements (CLAs) can have unintended consequences; they can strip away the clarity of a project's purpose and act as a disincentive to the sense of community that is the lifeblood of an open source project.

A few days ago I shared the first one thousand comments about the GNOME desktop from the 2011 GNOME User Survey. Here's now the next set of one thousand comments concerning the state of GNOME in the eyes of end-users.

Games are always popular among all age group. With each passing day, new technology is being developed and with new technology, new games and new platforms are also being developed. One such platform is the Android operating system which has been developed by Google to work for smartphones. A large number of developers are involved with the development of applications based on this platform. Even many new Android games are also being developed day by day. These Android games and apps are either free or paid and can be downloaded or bought from Google’s online app store Android Market. Even there are many third party online stores where the Android games and apps can be obtained.

In this article I will discuss Last.fm, a scrobbling service, and present my “tools of the trade” for utilizing it for scrobbling and broadcasting what I’m playing.

Of course, if I’m going to get busy and miss deadline, it’ll happen on a busy week in FOSS news. The fates work that way, I’m convinced. Indeed, after a couple of ho-hum weeks, the news flew fast and furious this week. Hold on, it’ll be a hell of a ride!

More Apps Downloaded to Android than to iPhone

It was reported on Tuesday that ABI Research says Android now leads the pack in the number of apps downloaded. According to their figures, 44% of all mobile apps downloaded are headed for Android devices, with 31% going to the iOS platform. These figures are miles away from what the research firm predicted back in 2009 as the mobile wars were just getting heated up:

We all love word games. Not only do they help us kill boredom, they also serve as good vocabulary building tools. From the simple hangman to the grid-based Scrabble, people have been playing word games since Victorian times. Now, even though we are in the age of smart phones and tablets, their popularity hasn’t waned thanks to some great apps that let us have the same experience on the go. So, if you’re dying to try out some of the best word games on your phone, read on as we list the top 5 word games for Android.

In September the 2011 Linux Graphics Survey came to an end, but due to Oktoberfest, AMD Bulldozer Linux testing, OpenBenchmarking.org developments, and other matters, I didn't have time to look at the survey results until this weekend when getting ready for the Ubuntu Developer Summit. Here's the 2011 results looking at what Linux desktop end-users are running when it comes to graphics cards and drivers as well as their key concerns.

Here's a look at some of the most popular Linux news stories from this year to date...

Mega Games Pack (MGP) is a standalone client for Ubuntu that allows you to download and play hundreds of free Linux games. MGP is currently in beta testing mode. Some of the planned features include a themeable interface and support for global hotkeys.

Cloud computing is often positioned as a solution to scalability problems. In fact, it seems like almost every day I read a blog post about a company moving infrastructure to the cloud. At Mixpanel, we did the opposite. I’m writing this post to explain why and maybe even encourage some other startups to consider the alternative.

If there was one course I could add to every engineering education, it wouldn’t involve compilers or gates or time complexity. It would be Realities Of Your Industry 101, because we don’t teach them and this results in lots of unnecessary pain and suffering. This post aspires to be README.txt for your career as a young engineer. The goal is to make you happy, by filling in the gaps in your education regarding how the “real world” actually works

The lengths we go to, to guard against mistakes...

Understanding options that can be used with the Linux command cat. This command can be used to view, create, or join multiple text files together.

While Skype has now expanded their Linux API support to allow other applications to take advantage of Skype video calls and other features, a few months ago the Skype protocol began to be reverse-engineered by an independent researcher. Skype took action several times against this work.