Showing headlines posted by salparadise

The OLPC project has, reportedly, not had the anticipated level of demand for its laptop. Added to that, Intel has been selling its own lowprice laptop, the Classmate, in the same market. When OLPC asked Intel to stop doing this and concentrate solely on their project, Intel refused.

When the BBC announced it's intention to develop the iPlayer as the intended method of viewing online content there was an outcry from non-Windows users who were outraged at being left out. An "e-petition" was put up on the UK Gov's (originally started by a certain Mr. T Blair) website asking the government to intervene. Read on for the response.

It's faster than Windows, it fights viruses – and it's free. (Ok, Ok, I know some of you are already reaching for the keyboard to rattle off a correction. Stay thine hand a little longer and read on...)

The National Archive in the UK has issued a statement expressing concern over the amount of data locked up in proprietary file formats. Microsoft have stepped up to the plate to take advantage of the situation, created largely by their own policy.

Google today officially confirmed what many analysts have been saying for months: the Mountain View, California-based search leader is going after the software market in direct competition with Microsoft.

Microsoft's latest attempt at making friends has backfired again. They've published a new site that claims to give people a headsup on "what Linux users are like" so they can be spotted and dealt with. Quite what the people at Novell are to make of this is another matter.

(Based on an article in Computer Weekly (U.K.) by Arif Mohamed) As I was reading through the latest paper edition of Computer Weekly I came across a story about Novell and their new interoperability drive with Microsoft. You've probably read more than I have on the subject. My tolerance for propaganda is thin on the ground.
Then I came across this statement from Microsoft's Bill Hilf. "I have seen in more than 13 years of working in Open Source that the free software audience is becoming smaller."

Various sites including slashdot and kernel trap are reporting that there's a root exploit in more than one of the nvidia binary drivers. Bad news if you (like me) use them to achieve 3d acceleration.

Google has issued letters to media organisations asking them to refrain from using its name as a verb. In order to "protect its trademark", and prevent it becoming a generic term, the search firm has sent letters to publishers advising them on its proper use.

Security threats to PCs with Microsoft Windows have increased so much that computer users should consider using a Mac, says a leading security firm.

If you read way down to the bottom of a Wall Street Journal interview with Bill Gates that ran yesterday, you'll discover that the Microsoft executive admitted to watching pirated movies on the Internet. The confession came as he was talking about content he had viewed on YouTube.

Arguments over whether open source software really does save money over commercial rivals have come to a head...

More than a quarter of the computer software used in the UK is pirated, according to a report.

 LXer Feature: 19-May-06

There's a saying, "use Debian - learn Debian - use Slackware - learn Linux". You might want to take that with a tiny pinch of salt. There's a grain of truth in there but it's not quite as straight forward as it first appears.

This is by no means an exhaustive lesson in slackware, just some steps to get you to to a place where you can get things done.

Imagine you cannot speak, or move your hands. Now imagine your only means of communication is through a proprietary voice synthesiser that only speaks in European languages, cannot be localised and costs a fortune. Researchers at the CSIR are currently developing open source technology and a web-based portal that aims to empower and enhance the lives of over four-million people with disabilities in South Africa.

MIT's "$100-dollar laptop" has created a huge buzz, but does it make sense for the developing world? Linux International executive director, Jon "Maddog" Hall, offered an alternative for South Africans at LinuxWorld Johannesburg on Tuesday.

Open source philosophy under threat Independent software vendors (ISVs) could soon become a thing of the past as major software vendors continue to adopt open source software.

The Linux Desktop Pocket Guide is a valuable resource for new users to the Linux world. Almost everyone has heard of Linux and recognizes it as the "next big thing". However, many people are taken aback at the sheer number of Linux distributions. The advantage of Windows is that there is only one company to go to and that provides some simplicity. With Linux, there is no one-stop shopping, and each distribution has different strengths and weaknesses. This book helps the novice user to navigate the most popular distributions to decide which will work best for them.

Internet satirist Shelley the Republican has embraced Microsoft Windows, barely 10 days since publishing a tongue-in-cheek diatribe that painted the open source community as a bunch of communist hackers.

Dropline 2.14.0, released last month, lets you add the GNOME desktop environment to Slackware. It consists of 271 compressed package format files on a single CD. Using dropline on top of Slackware is like putting icing on a cake.