Showing headlines posted by Scott_Ruecker

Major players including Ubuntu, Microsoft, and Red hat join network intent on setting new targets for energy efficient PCs.

When you power on your computer, the first software that runs is a bootloader that invokes the computer's operating system. GRUB, the GRand Unified Bootloader, is an integral part of many Linux systems. It starts the Linux kernel. Here's some background on GRUB, and some tips on installing and configuring the software.

When not threatening to sue Linux makers, Microsoft can't help itself from partnering with them. Redmond today announced a buddy-buddy deal with desktop Linux maker Linspire.

Mandriva announced this week that it has revamped its eTraining website interface for better ease of use. In addition, the free online management modules have been improved, and there are two new free courses: one on urpmi and rpmdrake, and the other on Mandriva Flash.

Chris Mason announced an early alpha release of his new Btrfs filesystem, "after the last FS summit, I started working on a new filesystem that maintains checksums of all file data and metadata." He listed the following features as "mostly implemented": "extent based file storage (2^64 max file size), space efficient packing of small files, space efficient indexed directories, dynamic inode allocation, writable snapshots, subvolumes (separate internal filesystem roots), checksums on data and metadata (multiple algorithms available), very fast offline filesystem check". He listed the following features as yet to be implemented: "object level mirroring and striping, strong integration with device mapper for multiple device support, online filesystem check, efficient incremental backup and FS mirroring".

There are financial programs for Linux, but none of them have achieved the incredible mindshare of Quicken. Now, Intuit has decided to give Linux a try with its release on June 13 of QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions—Intuit's financial and business management software for mid-market companies.

The OpenOffice.org community yesterday released a bugfix and security update of the latest OO.org release and dubbed it version 2.2.1. No new features have been added since version 2.2 was released in late March, a team spokesperson said in the release announcement.

I find myself not browsing the Web as much as I used to, thanks to Liferea, a Linux-based aggregator for online news feeds.

Hot on the heels of Apple's announcement of Safari for Windows, Clint Ecker has published a short discussion with Lars Knoll, one of the original coders behind KHTML. The article focuses on the connection between KHTML and Apple's Webkit, and in turn shows how Apple's announcement of Safari for Windows can benefit KDE and Qt. Safari on Windows will help KDE in two additional ways: improved website compatibility as more coders can now check site rendering when on Windows; and mindshare for KDE technologies for cross platform applications.

Microsoft's standards format has been misunderstood and being "pro Open XML" doesn't make one "anti ODF", claims Australian activist Rick Jelliffe.

[Seems to me like arguing for 2 standards leaves us right where we started - having to convert the freaking documents, when we could have one standard that everyone uses!!! That's not anti-Microsoft; it's pro-users - dcparris]

Novell today introduced a new suite of workgroup applications for small businesses, based on "proven," open standards-based software. The Novell Open Workgroup Suite Small Business Edition includes Linux server and desktop components, and bundles email, collaboration, and other open-source office products.

Four years ago, I bought a book entitled, "Mac OSX: The Missing Manual" and noticed it had reached the #1 best sellers slot at Amazon. I remember wondering how an operating system with 3% of the PC Desktop market could sell enough books to rank #1. Then, I realized there I was buying one too. I didn't use a Mac, but my wife bought one and needed to learn this new fangled UNIX desktop. The point? The Missing Manual served a big need - big enough to warrant a #1 best seller.

Today Microsoft Corp. and Linux desktop provider Linspire Inc. announced a broad interoperability, technical collaboration that also includes intellectual property assurances. The agreement promotes customer choice and strengthens the bridge between the Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems.

[One more down.. - Scott]

Linux Holdings have launched the country's first full time Linux training academy. Mixing theory with practical, students will begin with a four month curriculum, training them up to write the Linux Professional Institute level one exam. After that they will work for an open source company for six months

There is a very interesting back-and-forth going on between Linux creator Linus Torvalds writing on the Linux kernel mailing list and Jonathan Schwartz, President and CEO of Sun Microsystems writing in his blog. Despite the different fora the two actually seem to be talking to each other as well as their respective audiences.

"Do you offer a program like Microsoft Publisher?" Some version of this question appears regularly on the OpenOffice.org mailing lists. Many people automatic answer "no," and say that Scribus is more suitable for desktop publishing. But, in fact, OpenOffice.org boasts two mid-level layout programs -- Draw and Writer -- each of which is far more versatile than its name suggests.

In A Race to the Bottom: Privacy Ranking of Internet Service Companies,Privacy International spray-paints the façades of landmark companies that line today's Main Street on the Web. The painted colors are assessments of each company's performance on privacy issues. Though the rankings are colorful, what they say isn't pretty. Nobody in the"interim rankings" (.pdf) gets the top (green) mark for"Privacy-friendly and privacy enhancing". The bottom (black) mark, for"Comprehensive consumer surveillance& entrenched hostility to privacy", goes to just one company: Google.

Open source document management system plans to user rPath's appliance platform to offer KnowledgeTree as a software appliance as it looks to expand its market share and reduce support costs.

Turbolinux's Linux-based wizpy music player is a beautiful device. It's slick, black, and slightly smaller than the smallest cell phones. Unfortunately, its value and functionality doesn't live up to its good looks.

The top leader of Linuxchix resigned yesterday in the midst of a controversy over her leadership style. In a statement released to all Linuxchix mailing lists, coordinator Mary Gardiner said her decision was a difficult one, but because of a "mismatch in goals, LinuxChix should be run by someone with a better relationship with its current (implicit) goals."