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The venerable GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is undergoing a significant transformation. The next major release, version 2.8, will introduce an improved user interface with an optional single-window mode. Although this update is still under heavy development, users can get an early look by compiling the latest source code of the development version from the GIMP's version control repository.

The Linux Foundation announced a call for papers and open registration for its second annual LinuxCon conference, scheduled for August 10-12 in Boston. The conference will feature several mini-summits prior to the show on topics including security and KVM, says the nonprofit Linux advocacy organization. LinuxCon, which debuted last September in Portland, Oregon, brings together technical and business leadership across the Linux spectrum, including desktop, enterprise, kernel, and embedded development.

Hot on the heels of digiKam 1.0, Gilles Caulier announced the 1.1.0 release of the popular open source photo management application. While the main focus in version 1.0 was on squashing bugs, the new release of digiKam does sport a couple of new nifty features and improvements.

I won't touch OOo Base with a poke anymore. It looks very nice, but it doesn't handle real world workloads. I have to try Kexi and Knoda. I sincerely hope it will be much better than my latest experiences, because I can't allow myself to lose valuable time over this. When I'm working at home, I simply don't have the time for experiments: I need things that just work. Like LyX. Like OOo Impress. OOo Base just falls short.

The European Union's Open Source Observatory and Repository (OSOR.eu) as of today is offering public administrations access to more than two thousand free and open source applications. The OSOR is a platform where public administrations can exchange information and experiences and collaborate in developing free and open source software. The platform has managed to bring together more than 2000 such open source software applications in just sixteen months after its launch. The most recent projects added to the OSOR repository include Zorb, an extension to the open source network monitoring tool Nagios, Comerzzia, meant to aid public administrations in providing services to SMEs and Genericoder, an open source converter for XML files.

Disclaimer: This post reflects my personal opinion and is in no way related to the company I work for. LWN tells us what is happening with the android kernel patches in upstream. The short version: They are gone

So, the XO-2 has moved from promise to hope to scrap, and has made way for a tablet-style, iPhoneiPad-like XO-3 (Read about the 3.0 model at Forbes and Engadget, with the now-in-production 1.5 and the in-planning 1.75 XOs, both using the current design but with faster processors. OLPC, and Nick Negroponte in particular, love to use conceptual designs to create excitement. This works great in normal, commercial development a few times. Once you miss a few targets, people react very negatively too it, even if you do finally release a product. Why do you think Apple pairs announcements with already-planned release schedules?

The mobile version of Firefox web browser has been finally released. But don't get too excited because as of the moment, it is only available for Nokia's Maemo5 platform. This means that the owners of Nokia N900 smartphone are the lucky few who can download, install, and experience Firefox for Mobile in action.

As Oracle digests Sun and OpenOffice, chatter has started about Oracle Cloud Office -- a forthcoming offering that may compete with Google Apps, Microsoft Office Web and Zoho. But where does OpenOffice fit into Oracle's plans? Here’s some perspective.

As the Android kernel code is now gone from the Linux kernel, as of the 2.6.33 kernel release, I'm starting to get a lot of questions about what happened, and what to do next with regards to Android. So here's my opinion on the whole matter...

F-Spot is an almost complete photo management application but has a problem (according to many people): it uses MONO. An advantage over similar tools like gThumb is the option to upload to PicasaWeb or Flickr. For the stable version of gThumb (2.10) that is, because the latest development version of gThumb (2.11.x) has already gained PicasaWeb support (not Flickr support for now though)!

China-based HiVision is readying an Android-based "PWS700CA" netbook with a 600MHz Rockchip ARM9 processor and a 7-inch, WVGA touchscreen, and according to one preview, it's likely to sell for under $100. HiVision also recently introduced a Linux-based "PWS700B" netbook, as well as an "EB-0600S" e-reader, says the company.

Fedora or Ubuntu? That is a question that Linux users are asking with increasing frequency. The question is not random -- the two distributions have consistently topped the downloads on Distrowatch for the last two years. Read Fedora and Ubuntu mail forums, and users who despair of one are constantly announcing their intention to try the other. Although other distributions, including Linux Mint, openSUSE, and Mandriva, offer comparable features, for better or worse Fedora and Ubuntu are widely viewed as the desktop distributions of choice. Unsurprisingly, you can find dozens of comparisons of the two on the Internet. However, except for one posted on PolishLinux.org, few answers are detailed enough to be of much use. And since the one on PolishLinux.org was made in 2006, it’s at least six versions behind the current releases (Fedora 12 and Ubuntu 9.10). So a new extended answer seems overdue.

Microsoft is being coy about when it will release version 7 of its Windows Mobile operating system as it focuses on other areas. It isn't the first time that Microsoft has missed the boat - it was also a late starter in the Internet game - but the company has all but dropped the ball with its Windows Mobile operating system.

Facebook's release of HipHop as open source underlines the fact that along with Google, Facebook has become one of the most powerful demonstrations that free software now scales way beyond proprietary offerings. In fact, HipHop handles over 10 billion PHP-based pages views every day, on average - a number that is likely to grow significantly.

Today, Python is one of the most popular programming languages in the open source space. It’s a vast language and there are many gems to discover, so following on from the success of our previous Python tips article, we’ve compiled more tips to make your Python experience that much more worthwhile…

Isecur1ty team have announced the first version of iScanner 0.1. iScanner is a free, open source, tool that lets you detect and remove malicious codes and web pages viruses from your Linux/Unix server easily and automatically. iScanner is programmed by iSecur1ty using Ruby programming language, the current version of iScanner is "0.1" released on (31-Jan-2010) under the terms of GNU Affero General Public License 3.0.

This tutorial shows how to set up a PXE (short for preboot execution environment) install server with Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala). A PXE install server allows your client computers to boot and install a Linux distribution over the network, without the need of burning Linux iso images onto a CD/DVD, boot floppy images, etc. This is handy if your client computers don't have CD or floppy drives, or if you want to set up multiple computers at the same time (e.g. in a large enterprise), or simply because you want to save the money for the CDs/DVDs.

With the Apple iPad buzz going around, there can't be a better time to demonstrate the 'tablet' implications of Google Chrome OS. With the market leader, Microsoft, not having even one credible OS in the netbook or tablet range, one should be literally sleeping not to see the tremendous opportunity.

In our original article two years ago, we did a complete overview of the entire KDE 3.5 Control Center, a task that was not small by any stretch of the imagination. But since so many of you felt that it was unbelievably helpful to you, as well as instrumental in instructing new users on the usage of KDE in Linux, I've decided to go ahead with a new series, this time detailing the new System Settings control panel for KDE4. The reason I'm doing this now, and I hadn't done it before this, is because I wanted to wait until KDE4 grew and matured enough to make this worth doing. I believe it's reached that point with KDE 4.3. It may still have some growing to do, but the new System Settings panel (the replacement for Control Center) is more or less finalized, allowing for articles such as this to be written without concern for too many changes or obsolescing of features in the meantime as it continues to mature.