It’s produced almost as well as the original commercials — and I like the fact that Linux is a women — but I think they might be taking a bit of poetic license when they say there are 30 million Linux users. While the Linux Counter may almost agree (29 million is their estimate) even they admit that this estimate is an educated guess at best.

Still, it’s a good commercial and would make a great advertisement for Linux. Maybe Dell should consider running it on TV now that they are jumping into the Linux market.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Mac, PC, Commercial, Dell

This judgment also helps to show that Open Source software (such as Linux) is not as vulnerable to copyright problems like many people believed. SCO has had virtually no success in pursuing their Unix copyright infringement lawsuits and never even had a chance in court against Linux.

Hopefully this will bring a halt to SCO attempting to shutdown anything that even appears to be similar to Unix. Just because an operating system works or looks similar to another doesn’t mean that there are copyright infringements and that the company making it should be shutdown. Seems that SCO and others like them have forgotten — Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Technorati Tags: Unix, Linux, Open Source, SCO, Novell, IBM

This article is a good overview of many of the major Linux distributions available today (and some of the not so major distributions), including some background information on how the distributions got started and the intended audience for each distribution.

The best part of this article is the overall tone — the author tries to stay somewhat objective (is this even possible when talking about Linux distributions?) and doesn’t necessarily say that any distribution is bad. Every distribution has its own strengths and weaknesses and what may be perfect for one user is the wrong distribution for another.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Software, Guide, Howto, OS

First off, Slackware 12.0 now uses a version 2.6 Linux Kernel (currently 2.6.21.5) that brings many new features with it — journaling filesystems, software raid, the logical volume manager, support for SATA drives, etc. Also built into the kernel is support for the X Direct Rendering Interface (DRI) for vastly improved 3D graphics performance.

Other major features added to version 12.0 include:

• New Versions of Two Desktop Environments: XFCE 4.4.1 and KDE 3.5.7.
• X11 version 7.2.0 from X.org
• Full support for encryption technologies including GnuPG, OpenSSL, OpenSSH and OpenVPN
• PCMCIA, Cardbus, Firewire, USB and ACPI support for better laptop hardware compatibility

There are also many updated software packages included in the core distribution. A complete listing is available in the following file:
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-12.0/PACKAGES.TXT

Slackware Linux 12.0 can be downloaded from the following ftp address:
ftp://ftp.slackware.com/pub/slackware/slackware-12.0/
There is also a list of ftp mirrors available here — if the ftp site is busy some of the mirrors may be much faster.

Technorati Tags: Slackware, Linux, Open Source

There are some differences between the Linux and Windows versions. Taking a quick look at the features page for the Linux version, there is one major feature that apparently has not made it into the Linux version — the sidebar and gadgets. For those of you who haven’t run the Windows version of Google Desktop, the sidebar is exactly that — a bar that sits on the side of your screen and contains what Google calls gadgets. These are small programs that attach themselves to the sidebar and perform simple tasks like displaying the current weather, rss feeds and even playing some simple games like Reversi. Having run the Windows version in the past, I think not having the sidebar in the Linux version is a good thing. I’ve found the sidebar to be bloated, slow, and crash prone and I always end up disabling it.

Currently, Google Desktop for Linux has been approved for the following Linux distributions:

• Debian 4.0
• Fedora Core 6
• Ubuntu 6.10
• SUSE 10.1
• Red Flag 5

They say approved for these distributions, but it appears from the system requirements on the help page that it will run on any Linux distribution that has a version 2.4 Linux Kernel along with glibc 2.3.2, XFree86-3.3.6, gtk+2.2 and fontconfig/xft. I have yet to try it out, but I’ll be downloading and installing it tonight on Ubuntu and I will post a review tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Linux, Google, Desktop Search, Windows, Open Source

There are a couple of interesting things going on behind the scenes here. First, if Microsoft has found that any of the Linux open source software is in violation of their patents, why wouldn’t they just sue? I understand that this would save them expense of a costly lawsuit, but if the violations were real, wouldn’t all of these companies agree to pay? They could also avoid a costly court battle and I would think that Microsoft is offering them a deal that would end up costing a lot less than what would end up being awarded in court.

But probably the even more interesting issue here is that these deals Microsoft is offering state that neither party will sue the other in a case of patent violation. Is it possible that Microsoft is in violation of an open source software patent or license and they are really trying to protect themselves?

I’m not sure exactly what Microsoft is up to here or if there are even any patent or license violations, but I do know one thing: Microsoft is not stupid. There is only one reason they would be doing this — to protect themselves. I highly doubt that Microsoft is offering this deal to any of these companies out of the goodness of their heart.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Linux, Open Source, Novell, Mandriva, Red Hat, Canonical, Xandros, Linspire

While this may be pretty much all appearance and cosmetics — who cares if you can browse your virtual desktops in a 3D cube if every time you try to create a document your computer crashes — it still does look nice and makes your computer more fun to use.

So for anyone who’s interested, check out the video below. This is a good comparison of the new features in Windows Vista vs. what can be done with Beryl (on Ubuntu Linux, in this case) and Linux. I think it’s also the first computer desktop music video I’ve ever seen!

Technorati Tags: Windows Vista, Ubuntu, Linux, Mac, Beryl, Desktop

• The latest version of Gnome, version 2.16
• A new photo manager that integrates with flicker called F-Spot
• The newest version of the Evolution mail client, version 2.80
• The latest release candidate of OpenOffice, version 2.0.4 RC2
• An updated version of GAIM, the open source instant messenger, version 2.0 beta 3.1
• Many cosmetic changes, including new boot and login splash screens and a new Firefox them (Tangerine) all to make the overall look of Ubuntu more consistent

This will probably be one of the last beta releases of Edgy Eft as the Ubuntu team expects to release the stable version sometime during October of 2006.

If you are currently running the latest stable of release of Ubuntu (version 6.06 LTS), you can upgrade to the Edgy Eft beta by running the following command from a terminal:

gksu “update-manager -c -d”

But since the stable release of Edgy Eft is so close, I would probably wait until it is available. Of course, I write this as I am in the process of upgrading my own Ubuntu install to this beta release!

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Edgy Eft, Linux, Distributions, Open Source

For everyone who has tried to switch from Windows to Linux, this list is for you. Sometimes, finding a Linux replacement for that Windows application that you just can’t live without can be next to impossible — although I’ve found out that if you look hard enough, you’ll usually find it. This list has some apps on it that will definitely make everybodys Linux life a little bit easier (Automatix, Beagle) along with some useful tweaks for Ubuntu — the one on how to turn off the default system speaker beep is priceless!

Technorati Tags: Linux, Ubuntu, Automatix, Beagle, Lifehacker

Admittedly, this survey is not the most scientific of surveys. Outside of only allowing one vote per IP address, anyone was allowed to vote. Even still, the results seem accurate and make a good point about Linux Distributions in general — Users Want a Linux Distribution That Works. When I install Linux, I don’t want to have to worry about knowing exactly every detail of the hardware components in my computer or trying to track down drivers that aren’t included. Just like when I install Windows, I want to be able to run the installer and basically have Linux install. I also don’t want to have to spend hours trying to configure my Linux install with crazy X Server resolution settings.

When I install Linux, I just want it to work from the first reboot. I think this is how most people feel and it is the key to success for Linux on the Desktop — and that success may finally be coming.

Technorati Tags: Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE, Gentoo, Fedora, Linux, Desktop