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Ubuntu is the Linux head-of-state but Fedora offers an exciting alternative. There was a time when Ubuntu was the upstart: a new Linux distribution that was more promise than substance. When it was launched in late 2004 it was up against a number of distributions that had been in development for years: Red Hat, Fedora, Suse Linux and Mandriva (then still called Mandrake). These were well-developed distributions with their own fans and unique features. Ubuntu, based on Debian, had a solid base but had a long way to go to be as user-friendly as it planned.

Not long ago, the overwhelming issue on the Linux desktop was catching up with Windows and OS X. Partly, the concern was usability, but it also included the need for a rich ecosystem of utilities. But some time in the last few years, that goal was reached, so quietly that exactly when is impossible to say. Some might still quibble over a feature or two, but the competitiveness of the free desktop is strong enough that equaling rivals no longer seems a major concern.

In which the CIA gloats, the FBI rages, and we learn that reports of Franks demise were greatly exaggerated.

There are a number of classic book series in the world of technical and certification books and certainly the "In a Nutshell" series is among them. The LPI Linux Certification In a Nutshell book has a place of esteem in that realm. Like many classics, this book has multiple editions and as of last month, the third edition was released. It basks in the glow of it's older versions but just what does it have under the hood?

Now, the default Dragon Media Player of KDE have a serious competition in Bangarang. Dragon player is simple yet totally functional, which I think are the most basic trait to became the default in any desktop environment. On the other hand Bangarang is new, it's good and it is rapidly improving.

DeVeDe is an application that converts various video file formats into a disc that can be played in a DVD player. Other applications and tool chains can be coaxed into doing this but DeVeDe has the advantage of being a dedicated utility that has been designed for a single function.

At the end of last month the VDrift project did their first snapshot release in more than a year for this open-source drift racing game that's supported on Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X operating systems. The VDrift 2010-06-30 snapshot incorporates a great deal of changes, among which are a rewritten physics engine and a new deferred rendering engine that brings a great deal of visual improvements to this free software game. In this article are some screenshots on this OpenGL racing game and more of the new work found within this release.

Maverick Meerkat, the version of Ubuntu slated to be released later this year, brings with it several features and improvements that the Linux community has been eagerly looking forward to. I’ve taken a look at the blueprints for this next release, and picked out a few of the major items that Linux end-users will be interested in. Here are 5 things to look forward to in Ubuntu 10.10.

Koen Vervloesem doesn’t like shell scripts that are difficult to maintain, therefore he uses Ruby for his sysadmin tasks. Do the same with his four-page guide…

This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on Ubuntu 10.04 and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has his own home directory accessible via the SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read-/write access.

Can we talk about licenses for a bit? It's something I've wanted to talk to you about for a long time, and it's a good time for it, because Mozilla is redrafting its license and would like your input. Here's where you can find the Mozilla Public License, the current version, along with a FAQ that explains it and an annotated version, and here's where you can get the draft of the revised version, and here is a red-lined version. Nothing in the draft revision is yet set in stone. You'll notice that they are working on it like Legos, issue by issue, and this draft isn't addressing all the issues they hope to address.

A few days back there was the release of two updated NVIDIA legacy drivers for Linux, but only their newest legacy driver (they have three different legacy drivers at present) gained support for X.Org Server 1.8. This support though is needed for the older NVIDIA drivers to operate on newer Linux distributions like Fedora 13 and openSUSE 11.3. On this Sunday evening we have now confirmation from NVIDIA that they have no plans on providing xorg-server 1.8 support for their oldest legacy driver...

A student information system (also known as a student management system or school management system) is computer software for educational institutions to manage student data.

This tutorial shows how to set up a Mandriva 2010.1 (Spring) Free (x86_64) server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters: Apache web server (SSL-capable), Postfix mail server with SMTP-AUTH and TLS, BIND DNS server, Proftpd FTP server, MySQL server, Dovecot POP3/IMAP, Quota, Firewall, etc. In the end you should have a system that works reliably, and if you like you can install the free webhosting control panel ISPConfig 2 (i.e., ISPConfig runs on it out of the box). This tutorial is written for the 64-bit version of Mandriva 2010.1.

At Akademy in Tampere we interviewed Dirk Hohndel, Chief Linux and Open Source Technologist (we would call him 'dude') at Intel. He was present representing Intel and checking out what the KDE community is up to. As he sacrificed spending the 4th of July with his family for this, we were anxious to talk to him. read more

Linux.conf.au announced a Call for Papers for its 12th annual open source Linux conference for developers, to be held in Brisbane, Australia, on Jan 24-29. Linux.conf.au 2011 (lca2011) starts off with two days of mini-conferences, and is followed by three days of main sessions and an "Open Day" of events and presentations that is open to the general public.

Project London movie is the triumph of community spirit, togetherness or whatever you call it over money. A team of online volunteers using free software, created the movie, Project London, with as many as 650 VFX shots! Isn't that awesome?

As OSCON (Open Source Convention) gets set to start July 23, I’m reminded of an Ubuntu-centric conference that once showed great promise. The event, called Ubuntu Live, was co-located at OSCON in 2007. But it no longer exists. It’s time for Canonical to revive Ubuntu Live for partners and customers. Here's why.

In this article, we create many visually rich activities combining text and pictures. In this article by Vanesa S. Olsen, author of Moodle 1.9 for Teaching Special Education Children (5-10): Beginner's Guide we will learn: * Learn how to combine images with sounds to represent real-life situations * Create activities to write sentences according to visual and sound resources * Improve simple writing and composing skills

My first install of Fedora 13's Xfce spin didn't go so smoothly. During the initial (and lengthy) software update, something apparently went wrong and the system wouldn't reboot to a desktop. It might have had something to do with a very vertical window opening on my very horizontal screen instructing me to do something about OKing some dependencies for new packages. I tabbed my way through and did it by "feel," rather than by sight, and I guess it didn't work.I didn't have a whole lot invested time-wise, so I reinstalled and then used yum in a terminal window to update the box.