Showing all newswire headlines

This tutorial shows how you can set up a PCLinuxOS 2010 desktop (with KDE) that is a full-fledged replacement for a Windows desktop, i.e. that has all the software that people need to do the things they do on their Windows desktops. The advantages are clear: you get a secure system without DRM restrictions that works even on old hardware, and the best thing is: all software comes free of charge.

A tutorial on how to make Dolphin show the various multimedia files as thumbnails instead of icons as you browse the filesystem.

The past few days we have been reporting on Valve's Steam client coming to Linux (and some of the Source Engine games too) soon as we had found Linux references within the Steam Mac OS X client and then other Linux references. We even ended up finding the unreleased Linux files on the Valve servers.

Surveys suggest that up to 90% of home computer users do not back up their data. That is a pretty frightening statistic bearing in mind how valuable and precious users' files are. Computer users who do not backup their files are at risk of losing all of their personal and irreplaceable documents. The hard drive in a PC can malfunction at any time, sometimes without any warning at all. Alternatively, the computer's hard disk can be damaged by an accident, a fire, flood, power cut, or infected by a virus.

While a bulk of the Linux community is engaged by the release of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS next week, another popular Linux distribution put out its first major update of 2010 a few days ago. PCLinuxOS, the Mandriva-based OS that is one of the top 10 most popular Linux distributions according to DistroWatch, is out with this update that bumps their kernel to Linux 2.6.32.11 while still carrying the BFS scheduler, updated NVIDIA and ATI driver support, locale improvements, and much more. We have a few benchmarks up this morning of PCLinuxOS 2010 compared to the latest snapshot of Ubuntu 10.04.

The final version of the Procurement and Open Source Software Guideline has been published on OSOR.eu. The study, commissioned by the European Commission as part of the "Dissemination of good practice in Open Source Software (GPOSS)" measure under the IDABC programme, gives guidelines for public administration on how and why publicly acquire open source software.

Previously, iFixit was a repair site that posted step-by-step disassembly instructions for gadgets posted by iFixit staff. The company makes money by selling parts (like replacement iPhone screens) that intrepid fixers can use in their repair projects. Later, iFixit implemented a gallery tool for anybody to post an illustrative teardown manual for their gadgets (which Gadget Lab helped introduce with a Sony teardown contest). Now, the site has repurposed itself into a full-blown wiki for repair manuals, where contributors can collaborate on repair instructions in real time.

Linux is armed with Intelligent Input Bus (IBus) now. This is an input method (IM) framework for multilingual input in *nix like operating systems. Having a bus like architecture it is called I"Bus" Two major components of IBus are Input method engine (IME) and ibus-daemon. ibus-daemon provides a system tray configuration utility to select the Input method engine (IME) and then the language. IBus uses D-Bus to communication between the ibus-daemon and clients (engines, panel, config tools)

IBM is turning to technology from Novell to build Linux OS powered software appliances -- a move that aims to deliver easy-to-deploy software for physical, virtual and cloud-based environments in use at small to midsized businesses. The new software appliances deliver solutions for IBM Lotus, Websphere and Cognos software applications. Specifically, IBM will be offering software appliances for the IBM Lotus Foundations collaboration suite as well as the Lotus Protector for Mail Security. IBM's WebSphere Application Server is also benefiting with a software appliance aimed at virtualized environments, while Big Blue is ramping up its analytics offerings with appliances for its Cognos Now! and IBM Smart Analytics Optimizer packages.

Gloobus Preview is a Gnome application based on Apple’s “Quicklook”, designed to enable a full screen preview of any kind of file.

Webmaster Tools from Google can enhance your understanding of what is making your website work. ModSecurity, a valuable security resource, may block the verification page that is necessary for Webmaster Tools to function. This article will show you how to write a rule that will allow you to use both effectively.

TORONTO -- How will we know when IPv4 address space is all used up? And what will happen when that day comes? The modern Internet has been built using IPv4 (define), which provides for 4.3 billion address, a supply that could run dry within the next two years. Organizations that allocate IP address space like the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) have attempted to forecast when IPv4 address space will be gone, but it's not an exact science, and there is no precise date to mark on a calendar.

Calcuverter is a calculator and unit converter in one. Furthermore, you can enter queries in plain English.

Some months ago I described how the XO laptop is used in some Nepali schools. This time I interviewed Bernie Innocenti, an italian developer who worked on that project and now is doing the same thing in Paraguay. Says Bernie "Even if OLPC deployed here in Paraguay only 4000 laptops, I believe that the project is turning out as a huge success."

Most Linux distributions include attractive graphical interfaces, but you can do a lot more from the command line interface once you know your way around. For tasks like controlling and monitoring the distro's underlying system, the command line remains indispensable.

Pandora FMS (for Pandora Flexible Monitoring System) is software solution for monitoring. Pandora FMS allows monitoring in a visual way the status and performance of several parameters from different operating systems, servers, applications and hardware systems such as firewalls, proxies, databases, web servers or routers.

Linux consulting should provide a bigger picture for the client so they better understand the implications of choices they make. This aspect means that as a consultant you need also to train the client so they best understand the situation.

Opera Software has released a version of its flagship mobile web browser that runs on Linux, Windows, and Macintosh desktop computers. Useful for testing mobile websites, Opera Mobile 10 runs in a variety of resolutions and in both touch and keypad-only modes, the company says.

Over on the GCC mailing list is a rather lively discussion (especially for being a Friday evening) that only started earlier today. No, it's not about the recent GCC 4.5 release or even our GCC vs. Clang/LLVM benchmarks, but it's about development participation. A developer is asking why you don't participate in contributing to GCC?

After calling Flash a "CPU hog," Steve Jobs has given Adobe the chance to live down this now famous insult. And Adobe is taking it. Steve Jobs also called Flash "buggy" and littered with security holes. And he summarily banned it from both the iPhone and the iPad - even when it's translated into Jobsian machine code. But with the latest update to the Mac OS X version known as Snow Leopard, the Jobsian cult has added an API that allows third parties to hardware-accelerate H.264 video on the Mac, and Adobe tells The Reg it's already working to tap that API.