Linux-Lego man trumpets OSH revolution, Mar 10, 2009

The brain behind Bug Labs' Lego-like Linux building blocks says we're on the verge of open-source hardware revolution. Open Source hardware will happen. There's nothing stopping it.

When it comes to Linux netbooks, PC manufacturers should act more like cell-phone makers and telcos by selling customized and subsidized machines with online services.

TurnKey Linux, an Israeli startup, has taken the wraps off a dozen open source, server-based appliances tailored to work with Canonical's Ubuntu 8.04. Each of the 12 appliances is packaged as a single "universal" image that can install a pre-integrated turnkey server offering in a matter of minutes.

Given the fact that an active rest is always better than a brain-dumbing, sit-and-do-nothing kind of rest, we thought it would be nice to introduce our PC to the Zen meditation techniques. And though in the end Zenwalk Linux 6.0 didn't help our test machine discover its Buddha-nature within, the experience was very pleasant and indeed relaxing.

As iTunes, Google, and Red Hat indicate, the best business models for the Internet age are those that focus on services around content, rather than on monetizing content directly. Speaking of software, in particular, we've reached the end of an era that treated software as a packaged product. Software is a process, and so demands that it be monetized through subscriptions or other service fees.

There are some tough questions about open source "equivalents" when comparing Windows to Linux.

A few years ago, Xfce had a reputation as a lightweight desktop that made few concessions to inexperienced users. However, the Xfce 4 series of releases have shown steady improvements in usability, and version 4.6 is no exception.

There are a variety of package managers available for different Linux distributions. Mandriva uses urpmi; Debian and Ubuntu use apt. Fedora and Red Hat use yum, while Gentoo uses portage. Some distributions provide support for more than one package manager as well.

Commentary: The age of expensive office software may be near its end.

Originally from Cape Town, Stevan Lockhart now lives in the north west of Scotland in a house that is off the electricity grid. Using a wind generator, some solar panels and free and open source software he and his wife both run their businesses off just 20W of power. Here Stevan explains the software and hardware decisions that made this lifestyle possible.

Open source software always seems attractive because of the absence of license fees. However, not all open source tools are free of cost, and, at the end of the day, you may actually spend more money going the open source route. The best open source projects represent true community efforts to create software that equals or exceeds commercial rivals. The Linux operating system and unparalleled Apache web server are two poster children for the open source movement.

Linux-based networking vendor Vyatta is out today with its Vyatta Community Edition 5 (VC5) release, including a host of new security and performance improvements.

Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 will feature the ability to "disable" Windows components, meaning they're no longer available to users of that machine. Unfortunately this largely misses the point. Even disabled components are still "staged" on the machine's hard drive, so taking up space. Open source software shows us the way it should be done.

Open source solutions Red Hat announced that Ecuador's Internal Revenue Service, SRI Ecuador, has developed a stable and secure platform for its Internet-based tax return project using a combination of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and JBoss Enterprise Application Platform.

Vivek Kundra says he'll improve the federal government's technology, but he faces an immense challenge. His plan for using more open-source software, such as the Linux computer operating system and MySQL database, is an affront to Microsoft and Oracle, which sell software that competes with open-source products.

Because Windows has a near-monopoly on desktop operating systems, Windows users tend to think that the world revolves around them and that all operating systems operate alike. In fact, that's not the case. When it comes to installing and updating software, Linux uses a very different set of paradigms than Windows does, and if you're a longtime Windows user, you'll need to understand them before you can properly update and install software.

A couple of months back, at Australia's national Linux conference, a young Microsoft employee sat down discussed ways in which Microsoft has contributed to open source.

Next month Ubuntu 9.04, Jaunty Jackelope, hits an FTP or torrent site near you. With its feature set pretty much frozen the masterminds at Canonical are looking to the future with Ubuntu 9.10 – Karmic Koala being touted as cloud-centric.

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