Showing headlines posted by Sander_Marechal

Wizzard Software, a provider of speech technology applications, has announced the availability of version 4.2 of AT&T Natural Voices Text-to-Speech for Linux. The software includes a new streamlined architecture that is said to make it easier for application and web developers to deploy high-performance speech systems.

There is a way to make money from Linux even in a down economy -- it's called subscription revenues. Linux vendor Red Hat yesterday reported growth in income and revenues on the back of renewal rates for its Linux support subscriptions. Revenues for the company's third fiscal quarter for 2009, which ended Nov. 30, hit $165.3 million, an increase of 22 percent over its third-quarter fiscal 2008 performance a year ago.

Talk about tempests and teapots. Yesterday had quite the controversy as reports swirled around the Intertubes that Garmin would be releasing an Android handset. This all started when website DigiTimes posted that Garmin would launch Android handsets during the second half of 2009. Immediately, everyone started speculating whether the upcoming Nuvifone would be Android based. Apparently not. Garmin responded with a press release disputing the DigiTimes report and saying the story contained "a number inaccuracies in both sales figures and product rollout schedules."

Hot on the heels of a mobile device browsing tip, I see that Mozilla has outed the next alpha version of their Fennic browser. Fennic is the mobile version of Firefox that’s currently targeted at the Nokia Internet Tablet line, but that’s likely just the beginning of device support considering the vast amount of mobile phones out on the market.

SATELLAR Digital System with TCP/IP-capabilities and Linux can run software applications as well as operating system, IP-router, and web configuration server. Different units can be combined to construct radio modem with functionalities for specific location; radio unit (basic building block) can be used to access RS-232-based devices or act as a radio repeater, while central unit, with TCP/IP-capabilities and Linux platform, can be added to locations where more functionality is needed.

Lately I've been reading a lot of bad news about Ubuntu. Saying that they aren't giving back to the community, and how they are going to be charging for non free software. I don't know specifics here but I know the Debian community is pissed off with Ubuntu because they don't give back to the community as much as other distros do. The truth is though. Ubuntu has given a lot back to the Linux community as a whole. They are helping set a new standard of sub par distros. There is a reason why they are number one in the community right now. The huge reason is that Ubuntu is user friendly. Although a bit constricting at times, but still much more customizable and user friendly for the first time user.

A new center aimed at speeding the development of mobile computing devices around the Linux-based Moblin OS opened in Taipei on Tuesday. The idea is for Taiwanese companies to use the center as a testing ground for new netbooks and mobile Internet devices (MIDs), as well as develop more applications around Moblin. The Taiwan government teamed up on the center with U.S. chip maker Intel, which developed Moblin. Intel plans to support the new center by further development of Moblin, which includes open source software with an OS, a user interface, a browser, developer tools and other software. Intel created Moblin software to run on devices that use its Atom microprocessors.

I am pleased to announce the availability of LSB 4.0 Release Candidate 1. This version of LSB 4.0 has been put in the normal release directories, but IS ONLY A RELEASE CANDIDATE! In particular, certification is not yet open for LSB 4.0. We are continuing to use the previously-announced beta page for accessing information on LSB 4.0 prereleases.

GroundWork Open Source and Roaring Penguin Software Inc. are preparing a technology alliance to jointly serve VARs and managed service providers starting in January 2009, MSPmentor has learned. From my perspective, the anticipated deal will further legitimize open source in the managed services market. And it could accelerate GroundWork Open Source’s push into the IT channel. On the flip side, Roaring Penguin gains a growing partner that has been disrupting the corporate IT management market previously dominated by Hewlett-Packard OpenView, among others.

You know, we were hoping for a Nokia knock-off to poke fun at this morning, but what we got instead was a comprehensive five page review of a vaguely N810-ish, Linux-based handheld called the MID-2008. The 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 touchscreen phone / media player features a 628MHz processor, 128MB RAM and supports a 16GB expansion card, WiFi and Bluetooth.

I’ve been using Jungle Disk to do offsite backups of my data. Jungle Disk uses Amazon’s cheap online storage service, Amazon S3, to host backups. (15 cents a gig!) I don’t like Jungle Disk because it’s not open source and because the app is a little clunky, at least on Linux. I recently found that s3cmd could do an rsync-like sync of a directory. That’s cool, but it doesn’t do encrypted backups like Jungle Disk did. In this post, I’ll demonstrate how to make an encrypted backup of locally unencrypted data using EncFS, Amazon S3, and s3cmd.

Twhirl is a popular desktop twitter client based on the Adobe AIR platform. Adobe Labs have recently released an alpha version of the AIR platform for Linux. Linux users is now able to install the Twhirl easily.

This morning I went to find the name of a piece of software through Add/Remove programs, only to find that there was only one category (”All”) and there were no applications listed at all. It took me less than 10 minutes to find and implement the solution, but I shouldn’t have to deal with this stuff. Worse, I find that these sorts of little problems are almost common. They don’t take long to fix, but they happen way too often. Not every day by any means, but still often enough to be annoying.

Electronics manufacturer Round Solutions presents the AarLogic C10/3, a breadboard which contains a complete Linux PC on a surface of just 104mm x 63mm. A Quad-band GPRS module and SiRF3 GPS module are also on board, as well as interfaces for USB, RS232 and Ethernet components. An SD-card reader enables the trouble-free expansion of the 4 Mb of RAM which comes as standard.

The Ext4 file system leaves its main development phase and will soon be ripe for productive use. Major renovation work on the code for memory and disk management promises GPU speed increases and better scalability. Hundreds of new and revised drivers improve hardware compatibility significantly.

Lanner Electronics has announced a space-saving, "half-rack" network appliance that runs Linux on a Core2Duo or Celeron M chip. Targeting network security and acceleration applications, the FW-7872 has five Ethernet ports, a serial port, two internal SATA ports, and two external SATA connectors, the company says.

Ah 2008, I hardly knew ye. Actually I knew ye quite well because there were certainly some personal Linux milestone moments. Profound? Hardly. Important? Personally, sure. Will they matter to you? Maybe not, but they might, just might, make you ponder your own 2008 Linux moments, compare them, and make you realize how important Linux has become to you. Enough with the intro. Let’s get on with the moments!

Usually, when I write articles for Linux Journal, they are of a patently technical nature. This article is going to be quite a bit different. As we head into the Holiday Season and the start of a new year, I've begun to think about what I want to do in the next year, and what I wish I had done with this year. I've come up with a list of three things that I intend to do in the next year. I'm sharing them here in hopes that my list, and the reasoning behind it, will inspire you to make a similar list, and to accomplish great things in 2009. So here we go.

Inkscape is a fun, free and very powerful vector drawing program that runs on all major computer platforms: Linux, Macintosh and Windows. This program can give you endless hours of enjoyment, even if you're not an artist. And if you develop mastery of using Inkscape, someone wants to pay you money to create graphics for them. One of the best ways of introducing youth and adults to Inkscape is via the many excellent screencasts that show and explain how to use Inkscape.

Welcome to the 25th issue of Softpedia Linux Weekly! I would like to start this weekly by wishing Merry Christmas to all our readers, and... below is a nice Christmas gift for you, which I hope you will enjoy. After that, the weekly continues with the usual news released last week. The weekly concludes, as always, with the video clip of the week, the latest Linux distributions released/updated last week and the development releases, at the end of the article!