07.30.08

Links 30/07/2008: Mandriva 2009 Reaches Beta; Windows May End

Posted in News Roundup at 12:45 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Is Linux currently at a fundamental disadvantage owing to how computers are set up?

Dell offers full blown computers with Linux installed, presumably, with the engineering I’m talking about done. And over time we can expect to see a full range of different levels of offerings in between. I think when out of the box Linux computers start to become the default Linux for the average end user, and the engineering issues become backgrounded for Linux like they are now for Windows, that we may start to see more momentum in the direction of Linux to the exclusion of Windows. And, for a special breed of user, we’ll see Linux being chosen over Mac.
Companies in Desperate Need of Embedded Linux Developers
NASA launches online historical image gallery

Internet Archive, founded in 1996 to create an Internet-based library, will manage and host NASA’s new interactive image gallery on the cluster of 2,000 Linux servers at its San Francisco headquarters, said John Hornstein, director of the NASA images project for the group. The non-profit currently runs 2 petabytes of storage, Hornstein said.
[Mandriva] 2009.0 Beta 1
What’s next in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (part 1)

This is the first in a two-part series from Summit presenter and Red Hat/Fedora engineer Bill Nottingham. It is based on the talk he gave at this year’s Red Hat Summit. Part two will be published later this week.
Integrating Linux into Active Directory keeps getting easier

Kernel space: no shortage of tracing options

Three weeks ago, LWN looked at the renewed interest in dynamic tracing, with an emphasis on SystemTap. Tracing is a perennial presence on end-user wishlists; it remains a handy tool for companies like Sun Microsystems, which wish to show that their offerings (Solaris, for example) are superior to Linux. It is not surprising that there is a lot of interest in tracing implementations for Linux; the main surprise is that, after all this time, Linux still does not have a top-quality answer to DTrace – though, arguably, Linux had a working tracing mechanism long before DTrace made its appearance.
Plumbers Conference Featured Speakers Announcement

Fast booting ASUS Eee Box hits the desktop

Using the ASUS exclusive Express Gate firmware, the Eee Box can fast boot from cold to being Internet ready in just 8 seconds, ASUS claims. The truth is, like all such figures, this is a best possible scenario.
ASUS Eee PC 1000 (Linux)
ASUS Announces Its Extreme AMD Overclocking Platform
Get Ready for 23 Models of Eee PC
ASUS Expands Eee PC Line with High-Capacity Hard Disk Drive Models

KDE 4.1 delivers a next-gen desktop Linux experience
How to Install KDE 4.1 on Ubuntu 8.04

KDE 4.1 is finally out today, as you probably already know, and it comes with a lot of innovations for the Linux desktop. KDE 4 is the next generation of the popular K Desktop Environment, which seeks to fulfill the need for a powerful yet easy-to-use desktop, for both personal and enterprise computing. The new version provides increased stability over the first KDE 4 version and more eye candy!
Lancelot alpha 2 screenshots

Vijay Patil asked me to explain the application browsing component, so here it is:

At first, you get a panel with two columns – Favourites on the left, and application categories on the right.