Linux Wi-Fi Works With wicd, Sep 08, 2008

Wireless management on Linux is a bit of a hodge-podge, especially for roaming users. NetworkManager, KWifiManager, and various other utilities that have come and gone all attempt to make managing different network connections easy. NetworkManager and KWifiManager do a pretty good job, though you often have to finick and fuss a fair bit. wicd (pronounced "wicked"), the wireless interface connection daemon, tries to do the job better, so we're going to give it a test drive.

Ever since I wrote "It's Time to Get Over Microsoft," people have demanded in blogs and emails how I could ignore the obvious threat that Microsoft represents to free software. Usually, I ask them to read the article more carefully, and note that it suggests that free software has grown strong enough to take care of itself.

Last week we learned how to create text frames, and how to control text flow across multiple frames. Today we're going to learn some great shortcut for navigating long documents, some simple tricks for managing photo printing, and how to turn on KWord's text-to-speech engine and make it read to you.

gOS, the hot new Linux distribution, has been generating a lot of buzz because it comes with the Everex Green PC, sold at Wal-Mart for $200. Linux reviewers are totally in love with it, and are praising it to the skies. Naturally, I had to find out if it lives up to the hype.

Linux in 2007 definitely takes honors for "most improved." The open source OS, fueled by impassioned enthusiasts but still not embraced by the general public, more than doubled its market share. Data from Net Application shows that it grew from 0.37% in December '06 to 0.81% in September '07. (The figures count only Internet-connected PCs, not servers or embedded devices, two of Linux's strong areas.)

HP is making $25 million by supporting the free Debian GNU/Linux distribution in what may ultimately turn out to be a challenge to commercial distributions from Novell and Red Hat.

Nokia is now scouting about for new application ideas around the N800, its latest Linux-enabled tablet.

In the face of a big vertical marketing blitz by Microsoft, keenly evident at last week's National Retail Federation (NRF) show, several retailers in the "household name" category keep forging ahead with Linux implementations of their internal computer systems anyway.

Somewhat hidden within HP's launch of otherwise Windows-driven consumer products last week was the fact that the HP Media Vault, one of the newly announced entries, uses embedded Linux underneath the covers.

The new "Linux-enabled" Lenovo laptop launched this week at LinuxWorld will not actually come "pre-loaded" with Novell SUSE Linux, a high-ranking Lenovo official said today, contradicting some industry reports stating otherwise.

What are some of the hottest trends in the Linux/open source market today? Avid activity among some resellers, abundant virtualization, and a growing tendency to mixed open source/proprietary deployments, according to a trio of top industry analysts, who helped to preview LinuxWorld San Francisco in an IDG-sponsored teleconference on Tuesday.

Yes, I know you're sick of hearing about Ubuntu. Ubuntu this, Ubuntu that, everyone must love Ubuntu or else. Don't run away screaming just yet, because there are good reasons for all the Ubuntu buzz.

Is the use of embedded Linux rising upward or dwindling downward? Some recent research tends to point in one direction, and some in the other.

Behind the scenes on Wall Street, who is really using Linux? Although developers remain the major practitioners, Linux is also making headway these days as a grid platform for transaction processing, a place for running algorithmic trading engines, and even as a desktop environment, according to participants in this week's SIA (Securities Industry Association) conference in New York City.

Many people in the Linux community know that its an operating system built to handle the most mission-critical of jobs. In fact, Linux is so stable, it can handle the most mission-critical job of all: managing the human heart.

Naturally, you'd expect widespread Linux use at MIT. Over the past few years, MIT's Information Systems & Technology (IS&T) group, including Reed's team, have streamlined the process of installing, updating, and running Linux on student's and faculty machines.

n the first part of this series, the issue of Mono was introduced along with one of the Mono applications for GNOME adopted for Fedora Core 5 (FC5). Another of these is F-Spot, a photo management and editing program that offers a nice change for those who are overwhelmed by The GIMP. While you will not find pixel-by-pixel editing functionality in F-Spot (at least just yet) you will find the ability to many of the common photo manipulation tasks you might have in mind.

So why include Mono in Fedora Core 5, given the controversies and the fact that Mono isn't strictly necessary for the future of GNOME? The answer lies in three GNOME tools that were built with the language: Beagle, F-Spot, and Tomboy

Freespire will be a Debian-based, community-driven and -supported project tied to the commercial Linspire distribution, Carmony outlined, in much the same way as Fedora Core and openSUSE relate to their parent commercial distros, Red Hat Linux and SUSE Linux, respectively.

The GNU/Linux operating system isn't exactly known for gaming, but that doesn't mean that there aren't any games on it that are worth playing. Recently I installed an array of different titles and, combined with some that I had already played, I've compiled a list of must-have GNU/Linux games (and a few "honorable mentions") to joyously erode your free time.