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Seagate,, the world's leading hard drive maker, and Linspire, Inc., today jointly announced an extension of their agreement to offer the LinspireEspanol desktop Linux operating system pre-loaded on Seagate Barracuda hard drives for emerging markets. This package will enable computer manufacturers to offer affordable Spanish language Linux desktop computers to their customers in Latin America.

One of the main reasons that companies choose Open Source software is because of the cost - even commoditised software based on Open Source code is cheaper than proprietary technology since up to 90% of the code will be Open Source, which the vendor gives away for free, with the end user just charged for the enhanced proprietary components. Plus, use of Open Source does largely make companies less dependent on proprietary vendors that periodically provide updates that IT resources must find time to deploy to maintain adequate security measures.

First of all, we should agree on what the definition of "ready for the desktop" stands for. For some of us it refers to a graphical user interface in which applications have icons and can be launched in an intuitive manner without the need of complex commands. Even a Commodore 64 running Geos could be "ready for the desktop" by this definition, but the fact is that when we read "ready for the desktop" we understand "ready to replace Microsoft Windows".

A couple of days before software movers and shakers got together to talk about changing industry with open source at OSCON, geeks and do-gooders and do-gooder geeks gathered to talk about changing the world with open source at the second Penguin Day event held in Portland last weekend.

Although free software operating systems are getting progressively easier to use, a great deal of work is still necessary. Most of us in the alternative OS community are aware of this but a refinement objective that still doesn't get enough attention is the "less is more" analogy. Sometimes it's better to remove (or at least centralize) functionality rather than toss it on top of the heap. The following osOpinion/osViews editorial contributor made this observation after attempting a Knoppix installation.

A tutorial explaining how to use Pygame, a wrapper built on Python and SDL, for game development and improved execution.

Comprised of some 60 Open Source projects plus the company’s own proprietary integration and updating services, Astaro Security Linux is a comprehensive network security product for midsized to large businesses. It combines a firewall, VPN gateway, intrusion protection, virus protection, spam protection and surf protection (URL filtering). The complete software solution bundles a hardened Linux operating system that can run on any x86-compatible hardware, and is also available as a pre-installed appliance.

Motorola today announced the new Motorola A780 -- a truly converged device offering the speed of EDGE technology coupled with the open, flexible environment of Java(tm) + Linux to deliver the ultimate handset for both work and play.

Welcome to Security Alerts, an overview of recent Unix and open source security advisories. In this column, we look at problems in PHP, Samba, mod_ssl, HP-UX's xfs and stmkfont, Ethereal, l2tpd, Domino, APC PowerChute Business Edition, Webmin, and Lexmark network printers.

Most of the 1,500 OSCON 2004 attendees in Portland managed to shake off the city's abnormally hot weekend and the Portland Brewer's Festival to show up for informative training and discussion sessions on an array of open source languages and software as the event kicked off Monday.

Making the switch from Microsoft Office to OpenOffice can save you a lot of money on licensing fees, and it isn't difficult--most people get used to the changes quickly. But if you've been using MS Office for the best part of a decade and learned a few of its tricks along the way, you may find yourself baffled about how to do certain tasks in OpenOffice. Here are a few tips on using Writer, Calc and Impress.

Zend Technologies, which released PHP 5 last week, announced on Monday that it has launched the Zend PHP certification program, to be offered through the mobile testing facility it is hosting at The O'Reilly Open Source Convention on July 26-30 in Portland, Oregon.

Two and a half years after its chief executive donned the suit of Linux's penguin mascot on an exhibition stage, Sun seems to have fallen out of love with the open-source operating system. Last week the firm detailed plans to focus attention largely on its own Solaris operating system for server lines, on a range of hardware platforms including Sparc, AMD Opteron, x86 and, potentially, Itanium and Power chips.

Oracle is fully committed to supporting the Linux operating system. In fact, Oracle was the first commercial database available on Linux.

Telstra has shaken Microsoft and won a keener commercial relationship with the software giant by talking up its enthusiasm for open-source software. Telstra technology, innovation and products group managing director Ted Pretty last week said the Linux threat had benefited the telco.

The menace of spam has pushed Lloyds Steel Industries to upgrade its mail server, for which the company has initiated a complete evaluation of both Microsoft and Linux based mailing solutions.

This series explores the sort of technologies we could use if we were to build a new platform today. The first 2 parts covered the Hardware and core OS. In this third part we look at security, the file system, file management and throw in a couple of other random ideas for good measure.

"Content Management System" (CMS) is an expression that is widely used in relation to Web site development and maintenance today. Maybe even more than widely: the search for "Content Management System" returned 2,190,000 results pages from Google. What's so special about it? Is a CMS a must for any individual or company that owns a Web site? Can you do without it? If you know the answers to these questions, you don't have to read any further - this article is for those who want to find out what a CMS is and whether they need it at all.

Open Country, a Linux desktop and server software management vendor, launched as a company last week with the aim of helping enterprises lower Linux network administration costs on the cheap.