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Many users can be slightly confused when first using a new desktop environment. The Bodhi team has put together a desktop user manual that provides both a text based and graphical means for learning about the E17 desktop.

Fabio Erculiani proudly announced a few minutes ago the immediate availability for download of the Sabayon Linux 6.0 operating system, designed for Linux enthusiasts who want the latest packages and the best performance, but don't want to spend days getting things working properly.

It's no secret that the new Unity interface in Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" has been less than entirely successful at pleasing some fans of Canonical's free and open source operating system.

If you wanted LibreOffice in Debian Squeeze until very recently, the package could be installed either from the Testing or Unstable archives. Now there’s a “better,” safer way for Squeeze users to run LibreOffice: The LO suite is now available in Squeeze Backports.

Mozilla has officially released Firefox 5, only 3 months after the releases of Firefox 4 following the rapid release strategy of Google Chrome. The idea behind is to bring about changes in the browser as soon as possible and keep the browser up-to-date by creating different development channels.

Mozilla is continuing development for Firefox not in the 4.0.x series but in 5.x. So there will presumably be no security updates for Iceweasel past 4.0.1, which is what I’m running now from the Debian Mozilla Team’s repository.

While Linux still has trouble getting a grip on the desktop, everywhere else Linux rules. No where is that clearer than it is in the fastest of the fast: the supercomputers.

If the kernel is the heart of Linux, then key applications like LibreOffice and Firefox are its arms and legs. This week, all parts of the Linux Planet body of work were in motion as development pushed forward on Linux 3.0 and Firefox 5, and LibreOffice announced its advisory board.

Intel's current-generation "Sandy Bridge" processors continue to sell incredibly well and perform phenomenally relative to AMD's current offerings and Intel's previous-generation hardware. Under Linux, the Sandy Bridge support is now excellent if pulling in the latest components (namely the Linux kernel, xf86-video-intel, and Mesa) and only continues to be improved over time with advancements like their new driver acceleration architecture. By year's end, Intel is expected to launch their "Ivy Bridge" processors as the successor to Sandy Bridge. Intel is already preparing the Ivy Bridge Linux support code.

One major feature of IPv6 is its ability to auto-configure the host portion of the IP address using the MAC address from the Network Card. We may have seen this already with the local-link address, however, in this tutorial will look at configuring the RAdvD on openSUSE 11 to advertise the Network Prefix and default gateway so we can work with global addresses without any configuration on the hosts. This will differ from DHCP as we do not need to configure the RAdvD with the host addresses. These will come from the hosts own MAC address helping us reach Zero configuration networking. Or at least very little configuration.

Firefox 5.0 was released few days ago. But this time, its going to be a different experience for Ubuntu users. You don't need to add any additional third party repositories to get the latest Firefox update, its already available in your default Ubuntu 11.04 repositories.

Google has been trying out a redesign of Chrome’s famous New Tab page. The new interface is more organized than the previous one as it cleverly categorizes apps and bookmarks into separate screens. The user can slide between the screens by simply grabbing and pushing the mouse in the required direction. Here’s how to enable it.

For the most recent week, I picked the four stories that most excited me about the future of Linux and free software. Here is the trend that I see: Linux and free software are rapidly becoming more accepted, and more mainstream. Pretty soon, you won’t see the name “Linux” being hidden behind names like Android, WebOS, and Meego. This week’s stories demonstrate the fact that Linux can help companies make money, save money, and run extremely fast and powerful computer systems. These four stories illustrate that Linux and free software may have a future even brighter than we imagined:

PlaneShift is a free and open source MMORPG for Linux featuring a 3D virtual fantasy world. Unlike many other MMORPG's, there are no surprises of premium content in PlaneShift which will limit your gameplay or unbalance the game. There are no limitations in skills, ranks, abilities, items you can gain with your free account. There are no time limits or additional constraints. PlaneShift is Open Source for the client and server code, so everyone can contribute to its development. In future, the game will focus on the reproduction of a real world with politics, economy, improving the artificial intelligence of non-player-characters etc.

In a case that could threaten open source GPL licensing in Germany, a Berlin court yesterday began hearing a lawsuit from German DSL router vendor AVM against web-filtering software firm Cybits. AVM charges that by modifying Linux kernel code in router firmware, Cybits is infringing on copyright, while Cybits' defense claims GPL licensing permits it to alter the code....

"Two days into my Mac experiment I found that while the command line options had me feeling right at home, the chrome metal interface was making me want to gag. Further into the experience, I was bothered to learn that my customization options for OS X were much more limited than I had anticipated.

This one was fast! All Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) users can now update their favorite web browser to the latest version, Firefox 5, officially released yesterday (June 21st).

Programming GPUs under Linux is not easy. It often requires massive re-programming existing applications. There are some tools that can help in this process.

It’s been a while since we last checked in with 0 A.D., the open source project which, as I’ve said before and will say again, could have huge implications for open source. Sadly, the game is not yet complete, but it’s made some major leaps in recent months, which the team recently shared with me. Here are the highlights.

Are you an SMB looking for a digital collaboration platform? Maybe you use a conglomerate of tools such as Dropbox and Evernote, but you’d really love something more ubiquitous and cohesive. Enter: Alfresco Team. Here are the details.