Since earlier this year we have been waiting for AMD to release documentation and/or code on the ATI R600 series concerning 3D acceleration so that the open-source Linux drivers can begin to support the newer ATI graphics processors. It has taken longer than expected for AMD to complete and release this information, but it's now available. AMD has released the fundamental Linux code needed to begin fostering the development of an open-source R600 3D driver. Furthermore, this code also concerns the latest R700 series of graphics processors! The microcode for the newest GPUs has also been released.
Though it has been nearly two months, it seems as though it was just a few days ago that we reported the beginning of the Fedora Project's election season. Seemingly as soon as it began it has concluded, and the newly elected to the Fedora Project Board, as well as the Ambassadors and Engineering Steering Committees, have been announced.
Around this time last year, we reported on the U.S. Army's efforts to build a state-of-the-art — state-of-the-future, really — system to control everything from communication to unmanned drones to missile launches, and to use Linux to do it. The project's designers were quoted as specifically saying they rejected Windows because they didn't want to be beholden to Microsoft — apparently the thought of having missiles bricked by Windows Genuine Advantage mid-combat didn't go over so well.
Whether between competing distributions and vendors or with that big Redmond, Wash., company the Linux wars were great spectator sport for open source devotees in 2008. Virtualization and the cloud were hot topics, with rollouts from the major players like Red Hat. Novell and Ubuntu throughout the year.
I think KDE4 has the potential to be really good in about 6 months time, and I’d certainly recommend it to anyone coming to Linux from Windows. I also think both Mandriva and Kubuntu have taken KDE in interesting (but very different) directions, and I find myself wanting to see how other distros have implemented it now.
First thing I did was remove FreeDOS and a hidden partition containing Windows XP (possibly used for demo purposes by the shop’s technician - no, i didn’t get it sealed). I am, however, disappointed to discover that U100LX didn’t come with Open SUSE (as advertised on other websites). So I did what’s best for my new box - install Ubuntu Intrepid via a Unetbootin created USB Installer.
Quake III, the classic shooter, has a Linux port which runs surprisingly well on a netbook.
Linux4one - a modified Ubuntu - offers a good alternative for Linplus.
