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Amanda is an open source client/server solution to back up filesystems. Backups are triggered by the backup server, backup definitions are located on the servers but exclusion lists are located on the client.

Microsoft has announced its online Office web applications but are they really going to give Google a run for its money?

RabbitVCS is a set of graphical tools written to provide simple and straightforward access to the version control systems you use. Currently, it is integrated into the Nautilus file manager and only supports Subversion, but our goal is to incorporate other version control systems as well as other file managers.

According to Google cache, at 17 June 2010 05:08:28 GMT, Dell's website stated:
"Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft® Windows®
The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux. (screenshot)

However, within 24 hours, it seems Dell changed its mind, and now their website states:
"Ubuntu is secure -- According to industry reports, Ubuntu is unaffected by the vast majority of viruses and spyware."

I asked Dell for comments using their "website feedback function", will keep you updated. If you think Dell bent to pressure from Microsoft again, please raise your hand!

Update: The VarGuy has already noticed this bold Dell-statement eight days ago, and they made a screenshot - now available in PDF - to prove this was on the Dell-website. Tom's Hardware also wrote about this Dell statement four days ago, and they included their own PDF (time-stamped) showing the 'old' statement on the page. A hand full of other websites also wrote about the 'original' statement.

The enterprise software vendor consolidation trend has now reached the open source corner of the market, with Consona's announcement that it is acquiring Compiere, Inc.,

First quarter global notebook PC revenues grew to $31.1 billion, representing a 31 percent year-to-year increase, says DisplaySearch. Leading the way were mini-note PCs (netbooks), and slates (tablets), which together grew 56.4 percent year-over-year, but tablets may soon start cutting into netbook sales, says the study.

Digium is taking new steps to promote SwitchVOX unified communications and Asterisk -- the open source IP PBX -- to partners. And the efforts seem to be gaining more momentum. Here are the details.

If something doesn't work, try something else. That's a lesson that the FSF needs to embrace, if it wants to succeed with a mainstream audience. Being the Party of Gno, and trying to tell users to just avoid Windows, Cloud Computing, iPads, and proprietary software isn't cutting it. It's time to come up with credible alternatives or be satisfied with remaining irrelevant to the majority of users.

"The result is strong Copyleft licensed Free Software, this design is a reference to that. I made this simple design because I wanted this specific shirt, I think it would be cool to wear."

Last month Linus Torvalds released the final 2.6.34 kernel, following a bumpy few weeks that saw a major virtual memory (the subsystem responsible for memory management in-kernel) glitch, the usual round of regressions, and a power outage that knocked vger.kernel.org…

There was a kernel upgrade today, so I updated everything and rebooted. Upon reboot I found that xorg failed to start. Luckily I have screen, mutt, elinks, irssi, wget and a few other CLI apps installed to get things done in case xorg breaks.

We’re glad you found Dell’s Ubuntu website. If you’re not familiar with Ubuntu, or would like to learn more you’ve come to the right place.

Quote: "Ubuntu is safer than Microsoft® Windows®
The vast majority of viruses and spyware written by hackers are not designed to target and attack Linux."

[This itself is an advertizement, not 'news'. and the link will probably go bad. However, the comparison they're making with Windows is interesting - hkwint]

This was something pretty much obvious, but now Mark Shuttleworth confirmed it: the Unity panel won't allow any kind of customizations. That means not only that you won't be able to add/edit applets like in Ubuntu Netbook Edition 10.04 (which could be easily "fixed"), but the user won't even be able to right click the applets to move them or whatever - nothing will happen upon right-clicking.

MeeGo is an Intel-sponsored Linux distribution designed for netbooks and other mobile devices (such as Nokia's extra-geeky N900 smartphone). We tested MeeGo on a Lenovo IdeaPad S10 netbook and were extremely impressed; we think it's seriously worth giving it a try on your mini-notebook, and maybe ditching Windows or a "normal" Linux distribution.

Flock — the so-called social web browser — has dumped its traditional Firefox core in favor of Chromium, the open source incarnation of Google's Chrome browser. CEO Shawn Hardin calls Flock 3 — released today as a public beta — the first major browser other than Chrome to use a Chromium base, and in making the switch, the Silicon Valley outfit is dumping nearly six years of history. The Flock dev team began building browsers from a Mozilla base in late 2004, which predates the arrival of Firefox 1.0. Before going to work on their eponymous social browser, the team helped develop Netscape 8.x, the first AOL Netscape browser based on Firefox.

Conky is a free, light-weight system monitor for X, that displays any information on your desktop. To use Conky, you must manually set it up - and that's not easy as you must manually create the configuration file and customize it yourself. But now you can do this a lot easier using ConkyWizard, a GUI written in Qt and C++ to set up Conky and customize everything visually.

Linux Mint is another distribution that seems designed for new users, although many seasoned users find it as handy as anyone. Linux Mint takes Ubuntu and makes it usable by adding drivers and codecs and adjusting the default application stack for more mainstream appeal. In addition, they customize the appearance for a more universal demographic. Mint isn't just a revamped Ubuntu. Its developers actually write tools and utilities to increase user-friendliness. Best of all, it's one of the few distros that can truly be considered "install and go." All these factors are surely why Mint has soared into the top 3 of Distrowatch's Page Hit Rankings.

After my last pronouncement that I had sound in Tiny Core, upon further examination I only had test sound out of OSS through my USB Headphone Set sound module. Real sound from applications eluded me in OSS. While creating a second user account in Ubuntu, I discovered by accident that my Toshiba laptop's long-dead internal sound module was somehow working. I tried Tiny Core again. I rolled in OSS and Flash and tried a YouTube video in the Minefield/Firefox 3.0.4 browser. It worked.

Neelie Kroes is no lightweight when it comes to open v. closed software. She spent six years as Europe's head trust-buster, and in that time, collected billions from proprietary software makers who sought to corner the market with their closed-source wares. When she spoke, big software — and everybody else — listened. In February, Ms. Kroes moved on from chasing down monopolists, becoming the European Commissioner for Digital Agenda — the EU's lead regulator of all things information technology. If her recent comments are any indication, she intends to continue her staunch opposition to proprietary software in her new position.

If you are looking for a rugged Android phone this may exactly be what you are looking for. This phone was originally build for windows mobile, but nowadays they also ship it with android. And I have to say, it actually looks nice for a rugged phone.