Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Linux XP is a strange beast. From what I gather it tries very hard to emulate the look and feel of Microsoft Windows in order to make the transition to Linux easier to the Microsoft-familiar. That is an admirable goal shared by some rather successful commercial entities like Xandros. Apparently with this release, Linux XP is more like "Linux Vista," however. I question the logic of emulating an OS that has received such a chilly reception among end users.

Nokia will introduce Qt to the maemo platform in addition to GTK+. The plan is in the earliest stage and recruitment offers for Qt/C++ developers will pop up soon. Don't expect any Qt application developed by Nokia for the tablets anytime soon, though. The first actual step will be the distribution of the Qt libraries for application development in maemo.org during 4Q2008.

Apple's recently released a software development kit (SDK) for the iPhone, but if you were hoping to port or develop original open source software with it, the news isn't good. Code signing and nondisclosure conditions make free software a no-go. The SDK itself is a free download, with which you can write programs and run them on a software simulator. But in order to actually release software you've written, you must enroll in the iPhone Developer Program -- a step separate from downloading the SDK, and one that requires Apple's approval.

A Kate Developer Meeting was held last weekend hosted by basysKom GmbH in Darmstadt to great success. Developers interested in improving KDE's advanced text editor met to shape the roadmap of Kate. An impressive nine attendees turned up including several new faces.

When I wrote the article appearing in issue 169 of the Linux Journal we had only had George (that's what we named our Chumby) for a couple weeks. We've had him for a couple months now, and George has become well integrated into our family. Things have settled down from the initial excitement we all had when he arrived and now it almost seems like he's always been there, sitting in his corner of the kitchen, there when you need him, and quietly waiting when you don't. That's not to say our relationship has not had some bumps along the way.

MySQL owners past and present opened the annual user's conference to re-assure them Sun Microsystems has no hidden agenda for the open source database. Sun chief executive Jonathan Schwartz and software executive vice president Rich Green pledged it's not just business as usual for MySQL - they'll also commit Sun's engineering resources, sales and global support.

JWChat is a Jabber instant messaging client that is written using only HTML and JavaScript. This means that you need not install a Jabber instant messaging client in order to use Jabber, assuming you already have a Web browser installed. A Jabber client that runs in a Web browser could be just the ticket for such uses as providing instant messaging to visitors to your Web site.

The open-source Eclipse Foundation announced four initiatives that address embedded and mobile device development. The new Device Software Development Project (DSDP) initiatives include a framework for communications among debugging and monitoring devices, and a Texas Instruments (TI)-sponsored project devoted to creating and configuring C/C++ tools for "highly constrained" devices.

Everyone grumbles about Linux driver problems, but kernel hacker Greg Kroah-Hartman actually did something about it. Kroah-Hartman created a program by which open-source developers would create drivers for hardware vendors even if their equipment was proprietary. Over a year later, though, Kroah-Hartman has found that the vast majority of hardware OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) already offer Linux support.

This is the second in our series co-publishing with Fedora Interviews. In Fedora, the supported method for upgrading from one release to the next is by downloading the media and rebooting from the media and using Anaconda. Why was this the case, and what's wrong with a yum upgrade?

You may recall about 4 months ago, I reviewed the Eee PC. As it turned out, the computer was actually a gift from my wife, so unlike many of the other products I review, I got to keep it. I'm going to give you the quick rundown of how those 4 months have been with the little lappy at my side:

Free operating systems differ from the proprietary variety in a number of ways. One of the differences which is most evident to all users is in the provision of device drivers. With free systems, device drivers are free software, provided with the system itself. Proprietary systems tend to provide relatively few drivers; instead, proprietary drivers are shipped with the hardware itself and installed separately. Anybody who wonders about which model works better would be well advised to look at the events of March 28, when Creative Labs shut down an outside developer who had been working to improve Creative's drivers.

Ever want to boot up your Ubuntu Linux system really quick to look something up? Sure, I think we all do that from time to time. Hate it when you get the forced file system check because you’ve booted up 30 times? I do. Imagine how I felt in front of a room full of young students, who were attending a small business seminar when this “lengthy” check kept us waiting, while listening to them snigger and giggle. (”Windows doesn’t do this”, “…that’s a cheap OS…”, “Get a real OS”, “…hurry up man…”, “…slooooowwwww…”, “…Linux sucks…”, and so on).

Linux does everything that many users want it to, but some people have tasks that require Windows applications. You can dual-boot both operating systems, or run Windows in a virtualized environment on Linux. Alas, virtualization makes the guest OS almost useless for processor- and RAM-intensive tasks like editing videos and playing games. Now, a Ubuntu-based distro called andLinux takes cooperation with Windows to a whole new level.

Via Technologies has laid out a new initiative to improve support for the open source development community. The chip maker will launch an official Via Linux website this month as a first step in the programme.

In about 100 days, the United States Federal Government will be required to be running large portions of their systems on IPv6. Now, for the few non-technical in the crowd, it means that the address your PC uses to connect to the Internet, in most cases, is IPv4.

The International Organization for Standardization has called for "personal attacks" to cease in the debate surrounding Microsoft's Office Open XML standard. The move came as an ISO committee meeting in Norway attracted protesters, who gathered to call for the retraction of Open Office XML (OOXML) from the ISO standardization process.

Jeremiah Gray wants to provide an interesting way to learn about Linux, so he's created a new comic strip, called Hackett and Bankwell, about the open source operating system. The strip will be published as a series of comic books that Gray hopes will appeal to new Linux users, but he says it is "more than just a comic book version of a Linux training guide."

If you click this link, you can see my house. That vehicle in the driveway is my 1991 Ford Ranger. I give you that link without hesitation, because with the current state of technology, it's a simple point and click to get my address, and a copy/paste after that to get a map. I'm not so naive that I consider an unlisted phone number viable protection from the prying eyes of the world. Does that mean privacy is dead? Well, I'd argue yes and no.

Attention computer animators -- if you've ever felt limited by working in three dimensions with tools like Blender, check out Pencil, an open source, cross-platform animation app that lets you create in glorious 2-D. Pencil mimics hand-drawn animation techniques, but it's easy to use and produces high-quality output. You can download source code packages as well as pre-built binaries for Ubuntu, Arch Linux, Windows, and Mac OS X. The latest release is 0.4.4b for Macs and Windows boxes, and 0.4.3b for Linux. The differences between the two versions are minor, but include a change to the file format, so if you run Pencil on multiple platforms, you may want to stick with 0.4.3b until the Linux build is updated.