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Less than two weeks ago we reported on the Mac OS X Steam client confirming the existence of a Linux client and then found more Linux references too. We then found the unreleased Steam Linux binaries that were under active development. Some still didn't believe the existence of a Steam client for Linux with Source Engine support, but it's something we have said for nearly two years based upon our sources and then the emergence of these binaries.

Is Steve Jobs at it again? Just days after reaffirming Apple's decision to ban Adobe's Flash from the iPhone, the company's CEO is reportedly pointing the finger at another multimedia technology he sees struggling with major shortcomings -- echoing similar comments, as it turns out, from Apple's longtime archrival, Microsoft.

I feel that all Ubuntu users, even the happy ones, who ever decide to contribute back should just directly join the Debian team. Ubuntu might not realize it, but it is best for everyone if all work is done in Debian first.

Driven by smartphone sales, the mobile phone market rebounded with 21.7 percent year-to-year growth in the first quarter of 2010, IDC says. Meanwhile, as of April 1 Android was available on 34 different devices from 12 manufacturers, with Android ad-view traffic growing at a 32 percent rate over the last year, says AdMob.

Ubuntu 10.04, Lucid Lynx, is a great desktop operating system for Facebook users. Not only is it faster and more secure than using Windows, it also has features that help integrate Facebook into the desktop experience.

Lately, there has been a lot of anti-Apple talk around the open source community. To a point, I can see why. Apple took a lot of software packages that those of us in the BSD and Linux communities have loved for quite some time, and they've bundled that software with their own graphics server, desktop environment, and accompanying software; none of which, is open source. What I think bothers people most is that Apple was very successful with their implementation, and none of us were. Heck, we even had a head start. We started off with our software in 1991, while Apple didn't really start using the same software until the 2000s were well under way.

This is a among the first things I do after installing Ubuntu . And since Ubuntu 10.04 LTS has just released, there is no better time for a tutorial on how to display home/computer icons in Ubuntu desktop permanently. You can use applications like ubuntu-tweak to bring similar funtionality. But here, I am only tinkering with the existing settings to achieve the same instead of installing any new applications.

This Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Post Installation guide describes how to install useful software, audio-dvd-video codecs, google earth and google chromium, eye candy stuff and other things...

LXer Feature: 01-May-2010

The following steps provide two methods of putting the fresh new release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) on a USB stick. The first method will create a bootable USB stick with a live version and the second process will create a live version with persistence. Both methods are an excellent way to always have your favorite Ubuntu system and software with you at all times and it makes for one of the simplest ways to conduct an install to a hard drive.

Greg Kroah-Hartman delivered some "tough love" to Android in his keynote at this year's Embedded Linux Conference (ELC). He is very clearly excited about Android and what it can do—uses it daily as his regular phone—but is unhappy with Google's lack of community engagement. There is hope that things will change, he said; there has been a fair amount of "introspection" at Google that he hopes will lead it in a more community-oriented direction.

The KDevelop Hackers are proud and happy to announce that KDevelop 4.0 is finally available as a stable release. Released together is the first version of KDevelop PHP plugins, which make KDevelop a very interesting option for PHP developers.

Firefox 3.7a5pre now has an option to place the browser's tabs on top of the controls, similar to Google Chrome. This is likely part of Mozilla's plans to redesign Firefox for version 4. The new option can be found in the right-click menu as "Tabs on Top" below "Navigation Toolbar" and "Bookmarks Toolbar".

Mention email and most Windows users immediately think of Outlook. The Outlook email client from Microsoft has become so entrenched in the Windows desktop that most users don't even know there are alternatives. We look at five alternative email clients that run on Windows, and in most cases, other operating systems such as Mac OS X and Linux.

Like any other aspect of life the internet is awash with hype. And snake oil salesmen. It’s lure exceed the benefits those spam e-mails promise that inundate your inbox with offers of little blue pills to reach those parts of your anatomy other chemicals just can’t reach. However, sometimes the hype is not just, well, hype. Mozilla’s Firefox browser has been downloaded more that one billion times and its success is reflected in the millions of downloads of one of its killer features: addons (or extensions, as we geriatrics called them). The Browser operates under a tri licence and the addons for it are overwhelmingly free and open too. They empower the user and extend the browser. They help to put the user in control. Ubiquity does this in a way that makes web mashups creative fun and allows you to command the web, not just surf it, without any need to be a programming master of the universe. Read the full article at Freesoftware Magazine.

"Dear Steve Jobs, Having read your Thoughts on Flash, I could not agree with you more. Flash is not the Web, and I am glad Apple seizes the opportunity of open standards to build better products for their customers."

On Phoronix Global we have more than 25,000 benchmark result submissions from independent users around the world since launching the public version of the Phoronix Test Suite back in early 2008. As I have been hinting at for several months, with the launch of Phoronix Test Suite 3.0 by the end of this year, Phoronix Global will be getting its long overdue overhaul and there are some revolutionary features being worked on as it concerns benchmarking and collaborative testing. This evening, however, there are some hardware statistics to share for the more than 25,000 existing result uploads.

Watching two proprietary software companies deeply opposed to computer user freedom lob accusations back and forth about who is more opposed to freedom has been surreal, to say the least. But what's been crystal clear is that the freedom these companies are arguing about is their own, not that of their users. And what they are calling freedom isn't freedom at all—it is the ability to control those users. Adobe is mad at Apple for not letting Adobe control iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch users via Flash, and Apple is mad at Adobe for suggesting that Apple is arbitrarily abusing its control over Application Store users.

If you are into technical reading or writing, you've probably at least heard of informIT.com. Among other publications, they're responsible for the Unleashed series, and their imprints include Cisco Press, IBM Press, Prentice Hall Professional, and QUE Publishing. While you may use books published by Cisco Press without being overly concerned regarding the presence of a parent organization, you may also be unaware that changes are coming.

Large organization don't contribute that much to the open source projects they use. Why and how can we help create a positive environment inside large organizations that will help them contribute to Open Source projects : bug, patches, translation, documentation for existing project. Is it a dream to have large organizations create and open-source some of the technology they develop internally ?

Performance on my Ubuntu 10.04 desktop has been fairly consistent lately. I'm not sure whether or not my change in "swappiness" from the default of 60 to the supposedly desktop-friendly 10 has made any difference in actual speediness, but seeing swapping go from 9 MB per session down to nothing did make me feel better. And it's all about feeling better (or at least eliminating potential [if not real] causes of desktop sludginess).