Low-power Linux goes off-grid, Dec 10, 2007

Living in Africa we have abundant sun, a power source we rarely consider when we buy yet another gadget. Along comes the Aleutia E1, an ultra low power computer setup that can be run from a roll up solar panel or car battery and runs Puppy Linux.

Google has rounded out the feature set of the Linux version of its photo suite, Picasa, with the release of the beta version of Picasa 2.7. Linux users will know that Picasa for Linux hadn't included a number of features available in later Windows versions (including Picasa web intregration). However the new version lets you upload to Picasa Web albums using the new "web album" button.

SEAGATE'S latest batch of drives, the ironically titled Free Agent series are not compatible with the Open Sauce operating system Linux.

Several months ago a workgroup of the W3C decided to include Ogg/Theora+Vorbis as the recommended baseline video codec standard for HTML5, against Apple's aggressive protest. Now, Nokia seems to be seeking a reversal of that decision:

Copies of Microsoft's former flagship operating system will be placed on XO laptops as part of a limited field trial. As a result, for the first time in a long while, it finds itself in the role of PC hardware tester.

Wavecom, a developer of embedded comms infrastructure for automotive, machine-to-machine and mobile professional applications, has launched a plug-in to its flagship software platform enabling developers to work in the Lua programming language.

Although most Eee PC owners are satisfied with their $350 to $399 USD purchases, they have been faced with the prospect of voiding their warranty by simply removing two screws from the bottom access panel to upgrade the memory.

Open-source software is very attractive for companies looking to expand their services or quickly get new offerings to market, in part because it's free. Unfortunately, some companies tend to overlook the software license commonly attached to open-source software, the GPL. Verizon is the latest company to do so, and its use of an OSS package in a wireless router has led to a copyright infringement lawsuit from the Software Freedom Law Center.

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.

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