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The KDE Community is thrilled to announce the immediate availability of KDE 4.0. This significant release marks both the end of the long and intensive development cycle leading up to KDE 4.0 and the beginning of the KDE 4 era.

A demo of my Linux installation. My window manager is Compiz Fusion. My virtual machine is run by VirtualBox. Distro is LinuxMint. Video playing is an excerpt from Planet Earth. Recorded with XVidCap.

Who in the *** is Asustek, and why does Microsoft hate them more than any other company in the industry? Why does Apple, Dell and Palm Computing hate them? And why does Intel love them? Taiwan's Asustek -- better known as ASUS -- is one of the most interesting, innovative and fastest-growing companies in technology. At its core, Asustek makes motherboards -- more than any other company. Asustek motherboards are the heart of Sony's PlayStation 2 consoles, Apple MacBooks, Alienware PCs, and some HP computers. But that's not why they're hated. The source of ire is a tiny laptop called...

The extent of Microsoft's generosity to its open-source patent partners has been revealed in Novell's latest financial statement. Novell's SEC filing reveals the company received $355.6m from Microsoft during 2007, although some of that payment is "being recognised over future periods". The payment forms a significant chunk of Novell's revenue, with the company turning over $932m in 2007. Novell was heavily criticised within the open-source community for signing the deal with Microsoft. The agreement saw the two ADVERTISEMENT companies agree to work on a series of interoperability initiatives, and not sue one another's customers for patent infringement. However, Novell came...

Item 3.01 Notice of Delisting or Failure to Satisfy a Continued Listing Rule or Standard; Transfer of Listing. On September 18, 2007, The SCO Group, Inc. (the “Company”) received a Nasdaq Staff Determination letter (the “Determination”) from the Listing Qualifications Department (the “Staff”) of The Nasdaq Stock Market indicating that, as a result of the Company’s having filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, the Staff determined, using its discretionary authority under Nasdaq Marketplace Rules 4300 and IM-4300, that the Company’s securities would be delisted from The Nasdaq Stock Market and that trading in the Company’s...

If you thought open-source software was a threat to big-company profits, think again. Just a few years ago, the open-source software movement was a pariah among big software firms. Shai Agassi, then an executive at SAP (SAP), likened it to socialism. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called it a cancer. The attitude among many in the establishment seemed to be that the “free code” revolution led by software such as Linux would discourage invention and erode profits.That nightmare scenario hasn’t happened. Instead, the open-source movement has helped lower the cost of computing, and fueled a lot of moneymaking innovation, and not...

Apple and Linux are engaged in battle – a battle to win over disgruntled Windows users. But who will win, and what will the consequences be for the loser? The most commonly held belief amongst Apple and Linux fanboys is that both factions are engaged in some kind of a war with Microsoft. The truth is that if you look at the market share figure for Windows, Mac and Linux, both Mac OS and all the Linux distros that have ever been released are dwarfed by Windows. Any idea that there’s a war going on can be dismissed – it’s...

Although the release candidate has many rough edges and is significantly lacking in polish, the underlying technologies are all in place and deliver some very impressive functionality. KDE 4 offers some unique architectural advantages over its predecessor.

Sometimes, several unrelated changes come to a head at the same time, with a result no one could have predicted. The PC market is at such a tipping point right now and the result will be millions of Linux-powered PCs in users' hands. The first change was the continued maturation of desktop Linux. Today, no one can argue with a straight face that people can't get their work done on Linux-powered PCs. Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, MEPIS, OpenSUSE, Xandros, Linspire Mint, the list goes on and on of desktop Linuxes that PC owner can use without knowing a thing about Linux's technical...

The author demonstrates a detailed and very enlightening presentation on how to properly install Microsoft's newest, and flagship, consumer Operating System product.

The software maker wants OLPC to redesign its XO low-cost PC for children in developing nations. Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) has asked the designers of a low-cost Linux laptop intended for children in developing nations to redesign the system so it can accommodate its Windows XP operating system. In a move sure to provoke controversy, Microsoft wants the designers of the XO laptop, available through a non-profit initiative called One Laptop Per Child, to add a port through which the storage capacity required by Windows XP can be added to the system. The XO currently runs on a Red Hat Linux...

Dell has shipped close to 40,000 systems pre-installed with the Ubuntu flavor of Linux, according to multiple sources. By most accounts, that's a heck of a total for what remains more or less a fringe operating system.

A couple of weeks ago, we featured the Sony Vaio TZ21 range of ultra-portable notebooks. Little bigger than a sheet of A4 paper, the TZ21 series is perfect for mobile workers and "hot-deskers", because it's packed full of applications, and fits easily inside a briefcase or a handbag. The only downside is price: at almost £1,500, there's a premium for its tiny proportions. The Eee PC Small but perfectly formed: Asus's Eee PC But what about those people who already have a desktop computer, or perhaps a chunky but reliable laptop that works perfectly well at home but causes hernias...

PC system isn't just for 'geeks' anymore Tuesday, November 27, 2007 By Elwin Green, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette At the beginning of November, Wal-Mart gave shoppers a chance to get an early start on their holiday shopping by offering a $199 desktop computer, both in its stores and online at WalMart.com. As desktop machines go, the Everex TC2502 is not particularly powerful, with a 1.5-gigahertz processor, 512 megabytes of RAM, an 80-gigabyte hard drive and no monitor. But consumers judged it powerful enough -- in less than two weeks, the retailer was out of stock. Given the price point, the sellout might...

Many IT professionals are turning to Mac and Linux systems to avoid installing Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system as an upgrade, according to a survey conducted by King Research. Of 961 IT professionals polled, a whopping 90 percent expressed concerns about migrating to Vista. What's more, over half of those surveyed said they had no plans to use Microsoft's latest operating system at this time. Macs are currently the most favored alternative to Windows with 28 percent of respondents saying they would most likely to turn to Macs, rather than upgrade to Vista.

Use of the Linux operating system on desktop machines is continuing to grow with small and medium business showing the most enthusiasm for the open source software. The Linux Foundation annual survey really runs till the end of the month but entries are drying up, and they've already received 20,000 responses, so they've started crunching the numbers.

York Capital Management's proposed Asset Purchase Agreement and its associated credit agreement for SCO make it clear that if the bankruptcy court lets York buy SCO, that York will be bankrolling SCO's continued lawsuits against Novell, IBM and other Linux-using companies.

A recent column on Zdnet, by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, discussed the reasons why people won't change from a retail operating system to a free one. The implication is that Linux can't even give away their software. That sounds pretty dire. Windows retails for around 200 US dollars, give or take depending on which version and where you buy. If the above statement by Mr Kingsley-Hughes was true, it means that Linux is so bad that people would gladly pay 200 dollars to avoid it. Do users really think Linux is that lame? This article is not to defend Linux and counter...

Wal-Mart officials said Wednesday that the retailer plans to re-stock a hot selling, Linux-based PC that is currently sold out on its Web site. The Everex TC2502 Green gPC will again be available at Walmart.com "in the coming weeks," said a spokesman for the company. Wal-Mart began selling the Everex gPC online for $199 earlier this month, but it's currently listed as "Sold Out". Wal-Mart's spokesman wouldn't disclose precise sales figures, but said the gPC "has been one of the top performing desktop computers on Wal-Mart.com over the last few weeks."

About two weeks ago, Wal-Mart began selling $200 Linux-based PC.  The initial run was around 10,000 units.  Now Wal-Mart is sold out.  Has Linux now found a niche?The system sold by Wal-Mart was an Everex’s TC2502 gPC and is the first mass-market $200 desktop PC.  The spec of the system is very low - 1.5 GHz VIA C7 CPU embedded onto a Mini-ITX motherboard, 512MB of RAM and an 80GB Maybe a more relevant question is not whether Linux has found a niche, but whether Windows has outgrown the average user?hard drive - but this doesn’t matter because the system...