Showing headlines posted by tuxchick

Ubisoft, the massive video game publishing and development studio, has been busy playing with Linux. In particular, exploring opportunities presented by Xen virtualization with regards to VGA pass-through as a means of decent gaming performance in a virtualized environment. A discussion began in the Phoronix Forums yesterday about Ubisoft's Xen VGA pass-through demo...

Free-as-in-freedom software is very often free-as-in-beer, too. This is normally a good thing. But one open source project developer is calling out a troubling problem with free software: counterfeit applications. The problem, according to VideoLAN developer Ludovic Fauvet, is this: VideoLAN's highly regarded VLC Media Player, which is licensed under the GPL, is being redistributed by various organizations' websites, some of which claim that VLC is actually their application to distribute. These websites attract users with paid Google AdWords ads that come up in various media-player related searches.

Fluxbox is a fast, lightweight, very customizable window manager for X. Fluxbox is a great choice for Linux users who favor speed and efficiency, and setting up their working environment just the way they like. Today we'll look at some super-saver speed tricks such as grouping applications with tabs, tear-off menus, sticky buttons, the infamous slit, and more.

I have this weird idea about computers. I think that we should control them, and that they should serve a higher purpose than being high-tech TVs feeding us a steady stream of drivel. We don't even get good drivel anymore — it's drivel lite.

Linux Desktop articles are all over the place. I can hardly open up a browser without tripping over one. Most of them are negative whine-fests, complaining that Linux is too hard for new users, or has become too dumbed-down for technical users, or the fonts are ugly, or the next generation desktop environments are too different, or... well I could go on, but I think you get the point.

There are thousands of excellent open source programs to choose from. Here are 10 of my favorites that rarely get breathless buzz or make top 10 lists, presented in no particular order, rhyme, or reason.

The Debian Project is pleased to announce the availability of the Community Distribution Patent Policy FAQ, a document meant to educate Free Software developers, and especially distribution editors, about software patent risks.

The FAQ has been prepared by lawyers at Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) at the request of and with input from the Debian Project. While the document does not constitute legal advice, it provides insights on dealing with software patents, which might be applicable to other community-driven Free Software distributions.

I wanted a sit-stand workstation because I spend ridiculous amounts of time on my computer and am the restless sort, so being able to change positions and maintain proper alignment while I fidget around is a real boon to ergonomics. I’ve made makeshift sitting and standing desks for years, from kitchen counters to book piles to a strategically placed empty dresser, but no matter how well I set them up, a static desk just didn’t seem right.

The past few years of experimentation did teach me about how one should be aligned in both sitting and standing positions, though.

Cincinnati Bell announced a 4G wireless network touting speeds & twice as fast as other national wireless companies,& as well as a new Android phone to go with it. The Huawei Ascend X 4G includes a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, a 4.2 inch touchscreen, 512MB of RAM and 2GB of flash storage, GPS, and a five megapixel camera with geotagging, the company says....

When you’re choosing a database, you’re making a long-term decision, because changing your mind later is difficult and expensive. You want to get it right the first time. Two popular open source databases, MySQL and PostgreSQL, are often the final two candidates when admins are preparing a new rollout. This high-level overview of these two open source powerhouses should help you choose which is more appropriate for your needs.

MSI announced what it says is the world's first motherboard to offer PCI Express 3.0 expansion, for bandwidth up to 32GB/sec. The & Z68A-GD80& accepts & Sandy Bridge& Core processors, has seven expansion slots, includes 6Gb/sec. SATA and USB 3.0, and sports a BIOS that has a graphical user interface and supports 3TB drives, the company says....

CERN, the European organization behind nuclear research and the well-known Large Hadron Collider, has released a new version of its Open Hardware License. Version 1.1 is this new OHL release, which seeks to provide "a legal framework to facilitate knowledge exchange across the electronic design community."..

While the FreeBSD Foundation is now paying for Linux kernel mode-setting and GEM/TTM memory management to be ported to BSD -- and they are making some progress -- this isn't the first attempt at moving major parts of the graphics stack into the kernel. Pre-dating Linux KMS/DRM is the KGI Project, which still is technically around, but it's pretty much dead in terms of new development and any hope of the Kernel Graphics Interface reaching its goals...

While Intel's OSTC (Portland) team is busy at work on Intel Ivy Bridge Linux graphics support for this next-generation hardware due out by year's end, the same team doesn't play with Intel's Poulsbo or other graphics IP that isn't an in-house Intel creation and part of their open-source driver. It seems, however, that Alan Cox is personally working on early "Cedar Trail" support for the open-source GMA500 driver...

Down with the Software Tower of Babel Open...and Shut Businesses everywhere have embraced open source as a way to increase innovation and drive down software acquisition costs. Unfortunately, open source doesn't solve an even bigger problem companies have: making their software/systems talk to each other. Whether you're Chevron or Sam's Truck Stop, at some point you're going to want two disparate systems to talk to each other.…

Now that NVIDIA has officially released the 275.xx Linux driver, they're onto the 280.xx driver series. Just in time for the US holiday weekend they have released the NVIDIA 280.04 binary Linux driver beta...

There's a number of open-source non-linear video editor programs that have been going for a few years, including Cinelerra, OpenShot, and PiTiVi, among others. None of these projects have been particularly promising and yet comparable to the proprietary competition in the video editing world. Lightworks is an option since it's a professional software product that was then open-sourced, but it's Linux client isn't expected until late 2011. There is though another new option coming in the Linux video world and that's Novacut. Novacut is an open-source video editor, but at least it's taking a slightly different approach than the other projects...

The Wi-Fi version of the 9.7-inch HP TouchPad tablet went on sale today for $499 (16GB) and $599 (32GB). Early reviews follow the same general pattern as those of the original Palm Pre two years ago: praise for the promise of WebOS, but disappointment over bugs, performance, lack of apps, and limited battery life....

Calls for papers were announced for CELF's Embedded Linux Conference Europe, co-located with LinuxCon Europe in Prague on October 26-28, as well as the Australian Linux.conf.au, planned for Jan 16-20, 2012 in Ballarat, Australia. Meanwhile, the Linux Foundation announced Kim Blanche's & Flying Penguins& as the winner of the 20th Anniversary of Linux T-shirt contest, earning her a trip to next month's LinuxCon Gala in Vancouver....

Besides releasing libgcrypt 1.5 this week, another GNU project has been updated. Gawk 4.0.0 has been officially released as a major update to this popular free software utility. Gawk 4.0.0 presents several new end-user features along with revamped internals...

Today, all programs must parallelize tasks if they are to enjoy the power available through multicore processors. Until recently, though, parallel programming was the domain of server programmers and their scientific counterparts. Now, programmers from other domains are faced with the problem of migrating existing applications from serial to multithreaded architectures.