The touchscreens that are beginning to replace those clunky old air phones on the backs of airplane seats have something in common -- they mainly run on Linux. Because it's lightweight, robust and flexible -- which is more than you can say about other operating systems -- it's ideally suited for in-flight entertainment.
Fierce competition in the desktop and end-user application space is looming large over Microsoft. Google continues to develop knockout, Web-based apps like Desktop, Video and Docs. OpenOffice is going mainstream -- the new Ubuntu distro makes Linux easier than ever for the layman.
Mozilla and Sun Microsystems have developed serious alternatives in the browser and productivity suite arenas with Firefox and OpenOffice.org.
Microsoft has long had a stranglehold on the browser and productivity suite markets. That hold may start to slip. In the Test Center, we are seeing the number of SMB and consumer applications and devices that are being developed with Linux compatability at an all-time high.
Could this latest security issue and the fact that it had not been addressed for the last several years by Microsoft, arguably the Earth's most wildly successful software company, be that proverbial straw that draws the masses to alternative personal computing offerings?
Available in black, gray, or white, the device will have 128MB of internal memory, plus USB and an SD Card slot (it'll come with a 2GB card, too). Because its screen draws very little power, battery life should be extremely long; Foxit says it'll go for 8,000 page turns between recharges; it recharges via either USB or an included AC adapter. It uses an embedded Linux operating system, too.
Linux has a strong following among those who manage corporate servers, a loyal corps of desktop users and a small but growing base of laptop users. But it's also been a big -- if stealthy -- success as a platform for gadgets.
In fact, there ought to be a Linux Gadget Hall of Fame. I'll get it started with the first group of inductees: 10 of the most important gadgets of all time, each one based on Linux.
Acer's aggressive marketing for their netbook is clearly evident. The leading netbook seller has decided to sell the Aspire One at a very affordable price of Rs. 17,499 for Linux, while the Windows XP variant will go for under Rs. 20,000.
An open source project has released a new, more "hackable" Debian-based Linux distribution for the Openmoko NeoFreerunner phone. The Hackable:1 group hopes to build a well-maintained, developer-friendly codebase for use by VARs (value-added resellers) building products on top of Openmoko's open hardware designs.
Around noon today, I picked up my unlocked Android G1 dev phone, and as of now it’s my main phone, plus I’m trying to write an app for it. I suspect that my experiences are going to be shared by quite a few people in the not-too-distant future, so why not record them?
Overall, majority of the changes in Amarok 2 are refreshing. The interface has become more elegant, much simpler and more user-friendly without losing any of its functionality. Some of the newly addons feature such as search filtering and widgets are interesting and useful. I would hope to see better integration and connectivity with my iPhone so that I can stream/transfer music easily.
At Harvard, he won’t be focusing exclusively on intellectual property — the topic that made him famous. He’ll, in the words of Harvard, launch a “five-year project examining what happens when public institutions depend on money from sources that may be affected by the work of those institutions — for example, medical research programs that receive funding from pharmaceutical companies whose drugs they review, or academics whose policy analyses are underwritten by special interest groups.”
Why was this turned into an anti-network neutrality story? Probably because the Journal has long been banging the drum against neutrality, for ideological reasons and because big companies are big advertisers.
Also, I believe, because this is how cable operators — who fear a neutral network will break their video business model — spun it.
Why believe what I’m saying? Possibly because the two “experts” the reporters consulted to justify their spin, Richard Whitt of Google and attorney Larry Lessig, say their words were twisted.