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ASUS have released a cheap subnotebook. It is far from state-of-the-art tech-wise, with 512Mb RAM and a Celeron processor. It has a 4Gb hard drive and no optical drive. Its screen is 7” and runs at the odd resolution of 800x480 and the operating system looks like something Fisher Price might have designed. Why would you buy it? What on earth can you do with this? The answer is lots. Sure, the things I said above are true. But don’t be deceived by a small glimpse at its hardware specs – there’s so much more which can be said. I’m...

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Ok - let me go through the basic checklist. Logged in to FR? Check Logged into my computer? Check Logged into the server? Check Tin foil hat? On and locked Large grain of salt available? Check (although I'm cutting down on salt) I have a small network here at the house. Cable modem into a router, router split into three workstations. I inherited an additional box from a friend, and it's been sitting around for a while, so I figured - heck - let's turn it into a local file/printer/web server. Windows Server 2003 or Home Server are way too...

Do you know how many Ubuntu based Linux distribution there are? More than 40. That’s right. More than forty different Linux distros has been forked out of this ever popular Linux distro. While not all of them are worth mentioning, there are some decent distributions that have evolved from it. For instance, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Ultimate Edition, gOS, and andLinux to name a few. Another Ubuntu based distribution that you might like to checkout is Super Ubuntu. Super Ubuntu contains all that is present on Ubuntu 8.10 and also includes: System and application updates: all updates released for Ubuntu + GIMP...

Once a year, Microsoft president Steve Ballmer, would proclaim that Linux violated some of Microsoft patents. Then, he wouldn't do anything about it. Now, perhaps, he has. In the U.S. District Court in Seattle, Microsoft sued Tom-Tom (PDF Link) on the ground that Tom-Tom's in-car navigation devices violate eight of its patents. At least three of these patents, concerning file management, reference TomTom's Linux kernel implementation. This is the first time that Microsoft has ever filed a Linux patent suit over Linux, despite its multiple claims. That said, according to Todd Bishop, "Microsoft says open-source software is not the intended...

Pundits and business executives alike are predicting gloomy economic times for 2009. But when the talk turns to free and open source software (FOSS), suddenly the mood brightens. Whether their concern is the business opportunities in open source or the promotion of free software idealism, experts see FOSS as starting from a strong base and actually benefiting from the hard times expected next year... The idea that software available at no cost will become popular in a recession is a no-brainer... Zemlin sees Linux and the FOSS ecosystem surrounding it as having insurmountable advantages in any market over its main...

For the gist of it...... just scroll down to the compact step-by-step guide. But if you like to get some of the background and related explanations then just read on. The rumor of the bullet-proof Linux architectureThere is this rumor going around that Linux is virus free. It is said that the old-fashioned multi-user heritage of Linux (and other *nix OSs) prevents malware, since users are not normally running their programs in admin mode (as root user). We are reminded that execute bits are needed to run anything – contrary to Windows – and that execute bits aren't set on any...

This time, Microsoft may have outdone themselves with a proposed patent of such breathtaking hubris that it makes their previous FUD pale by comparison. If it comes off it will either be a licence to print money (Redmond’s version of Quantitative easing?) or the biggest Pyrrhic victory in the history of computing since Steve Jobs refused Bill Gates and hardware vendors a licence to use Apple’s OS and software. When you first read about Microsoft’s proposed patent you are suffused with the glow of righteous anger but before you get carried away, stop. Stop and think. This patent might just...

KDE 4.2 "The Answer" has been released, which the K Desktop Environment community is confident will even be able to satisfy the needs of normal non-technical end-users.

I tried, I really did, to like KDE 4.2 I really didn't like the early versions of KDE 4. I then tried KDE 4.1. I hated it. I kept getting told by people that I just didn't get it. OK, I thought. Maybe I didn't get it. So, I gave the last KDE 4.2 beta and release candidate another try for a month on one of my openSUSE 11.1 desktops. Historically, SUSE and KDE developers work closely with each other, so openSUSE is a great distribution for any version of KDE. Well, they may work well together, but openSUSE with...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- A virulent computer virus has infected as many as 15 million computers around the world so far, according to various estimates. The virus -- a self-replicating computer worm known as Downadup, Conficker or Kido -- spreads across computer networks using Microsoft Windows software which have not been patched or updated properly. Microsoft issued a patch that fixes the vulnerability the virus exploits last October. The Independent on Sunday newspaper said in London at the weekend that more than 3,000 British organizations, including hospitals and the Ministry of Defense, have been hit by the virus.

Back in 2002, as Roy Schestowitz calls out, Microsoft was desperately trying to figure out a response to Linux. The problem wasn't Linux as a product-level competitor. The problem, as its Windows chief, Jim Allchin, told a small gathering of Microsoft partners (PDF), is that Linux changes the nature of software competition with odd things like "community" and "GPL licensing," the latter of which Microsoft didn't like one bit : We feel a huge threat from Linux. Maybe we shouldn't, which is a question you could answer from your perspective...There's Linux the community. We're going to learn from Linux the...

In what may come to be seen as a deeply symbolic moment in the history of operating systems, Red Hat is on the verge of surpassing Sun Microsystems' market capitalization for the first time. Sun, perhaps unfairly, represents a fading Unix market. Red Hat, for its part, represents the rising Linux market. As I write this, Red Hat's market capitalization sits at $2.62 billion, while Sun is just ahead, at $2.7 billion. The stock prices are way out of whack with revenues: Red Hat pulled in $627 million in 2008. Sun? More than $13 billion. Such is Wall Street's confidence...

The New York Times ran a piece this Sunday featuring Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth. Though a majority of the piece was biographical, and the rest wasn't exactly the picture of accuracy in its portrayal of Ubuntu (or Linux in general), there were a few interesting figures. It gives pause to wonder how, in this economy, and in an ever-changing industry, profit still gets much better press than growth. The Times reports Canonical is approaching the $30 million a year mark in terms of revenue, and Shuttleworth feels that is the point when the company will become self-sustaining. The Times also...

Russell Coker is not a man who sleeps with his computers. But he does come pretty close - two servers are positioned in a little cabinet in his bedroom, one being his server and the other his Security Enhanced Linux "play machine." The play machine is open to anyone to log in and try to break the security. The root password is out in public - this is one of the many ways in which he engages with the wider FOSS community and a way by which he tried to improve what has become the project to which he devotes...

From the very start, anyone who paid attention to SCO's attempts to throw a spanner in the Linux works, knew that they had no case. Over the years, I've covered their decline from the last major x86 Unix power to an industry joke. And, now SCO's story is almost over. It's garbage time now for SCO. Those of you who follow basketball know exactly what I mean. This is when the winning team, Linux, and its chief champions in the SCO lawsuits. Novell and IBM, can send in the reserves from the end of the bench. SCO's lawsuits are smashed...

VietNamNet Bridge – The Ministry of Information and Communications has issued an instruction on using open source software products at state agencies. Accordingly, by June 30, 2009, 100% of servers of IT divisions of government agencies must be installed with open source software; 100% of staffs at these IT divisions must be trained in the use of these software products and at least 50% use them proficiently. IT divisions at government agencies comprise the IT departments of ministries and government agencies, provincial and municipal Departments of Information and Communications. Open source software products are OpenOffice, email software for servers of...

Taking baby steps to become more familiar with a new operating system can be as simple as revamping the OS already in use on your computer. It begins with unlearning Windows-born behavior to free up your mind for a new way of doing things. Here are some tips on utilizing different open source resources to make the goal of a full time switch over to Linux a lasting one: Relearning software installation with Win-Get For Windows users, software installation is nearly always accomplished from some sort of simple GUI installer. The idea is basically to keep pounding away on the...

Happy New Year and welcome to this year's first issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Perhaps a good way of starting the year is with a look at the 17-year old history of Linux and Linux distributions - from the modest first release of "it won't be as big as GNU" to today's dominance of the free operating system in server rooms, if not yet on the desktop.

The hedge fund industry is hurting. Perhaps more collaboration among funds will help I read closely BusinessWeek.com's recent special section for CEOs about open-source software, and I wanted to offer some modest suggestions about what open source might do for the hedge fund industry. I run a San Francisco-based hedge fund called Algert Coldiron Investors. Our industry is in a lot of hurt right now, and I want to see some open-source love, too. The financial-services implosion was like an atomic bomb hitting our industry. It nuked profitability. Experts predict anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of hedge funds...