ARMing desktop Linux, Oct 12, 2009

For a brief time in 2008, Linux actually owned a segment of the desktop industry: netbooks. When netbooks first showed up, they ran Linux and nothing but Linux. Microsoft panicked and brought XP back from the dead, offering it for next to nothing to netbook vendors and thus successfully fighting off the Linux challenge.

Forget the netbook or the net-top PC: How about a net-server? A Japanese vendor is touting a lilliputian Linux Web server that weighs 8 ounces and consumes just 8 watts.

One major vendor, Dell, isn't just continuing to deliver laptops and netbooks with Ubuntu Linux; it's actually upgrading the version of Ubuntu it's shipping and, later this week, it will start selling Ubuntu 9.04-powered Inspiron 537s desktops.

In its "Windows 7 Sins" campaign, the Free Software Foundation has labeled Windows 7 as "treacherous computing," and accuses Microsoft of such acts as "poisoning education." This is just the latest in a long line of attacks by open source lovers against Microsoft. But Apple is arguably even more closed than Microsoft, yet always gets a free ride from vociferous open source proponents.

Oh the irony. Today, August 24th, a Federal Appeals Court ruled that while the walking dead SCO still owes Novell big bucks for selling Unix to Sun and Microsoft, the District Court overstepped its grounds in ruling that SCO had never bought Unix's IP (intellectual property) rights in the first place.

IM (Instant Messaging) clients have become invisible. We use them all the time to 'talk' with co-workers, chat with friends, and 'text' with family members on their phone.

Recently I argued that running Firefox off a bootable copy of Linux on a CD or USB flash drive was an excellent approach for online banking. Windows users face a torrent of malware and, for many people, maintaining and using a Windows system securely requires too much time, effort and technical expertise.

Linux-based and open-source healthcare software has been around for years. Unless you were in health IT, however, chances are you never even heard of it. It's time to pay attention, because it may soon be tracking your medical records.

I've never been a big fan of KDE 4.x. I really disliked the first versions, like KDE 4.04. But, over time, KDE became more useful and usable. By KDE 4.2, I finally saw a new version of KDE I could like. Now, with the "so close to release you can almost taste it," KDE 4.3 is the first of the KDE 4 family that I can wholeheartedly approve of.

As security threats escalate every year, even Linux servers and operating systems have become prime targets of malware attacks, revealed IT security vendor Kaspersky Lab as they release the beta version of their antivirus solution targeted at Linux-operated file systems.

Open-source software in schools isn't just a good idea, it's becoming a financial necessity if we're to keep enough teachers for our kids in classrooms. So, it's particular good timing that Sugar Labs and openSUSE have released free Linux distributions expressly designed for education.

HP has long had a love/hate affair with Linux. On the one hand, HP has long supported Linux on servers. For example, they're the one major server company that supports Debian. On the other hand, it took HP forever to finally start shipping pre-installed desktop Linux. Recently, for business users anyway, HP has been making it a lot easier to get Linux on their desktops and servers.

Macs vs. PCs vs. Linux arguments are dominating two mailing lists I'm on. The vitriol may be slightly less than in the past, but many of the same attitudes exist with subjective arguments trumping logic on both sides. While I can ignore fanatics on a mailing list, owners and managers in businesses have to coerce all sides of the operating system wars into working together.

I can talk until I'm blue in my space about the technical advantages of Linux and open-source software. Forget about that for now though. Let me give you a reason for your office to use them that may strike home: It can save jobs, including, just maybe, your job.

Linux's changes may not be as big from version to version, but they tend to be thoroughly tested and stable.

Eclipse has long been one of my favourite open source projects, despite, or maybe even because, it's not as widely appreciated as it should be – though more now than it was three years ago when I described it as Open Source's Best-Kept Secret.

At today's ASUS product showcase in Sydney, a bunch of media representatives where given a taste of the company's latest and greatest notebooks, including the new range of Eee PC netbooks.

In a pre-emptive strike against the expected onslaught of ARM-based netbooks running Google Inc.'s Android operating system, Hewlett-Packard Co. on Tuesday announced a new Intel Atom netbook that will run HP's custom version of Linux and cost just $279 upon its debut.

I was lucky enough to have a friend at Dell who let me play with Dell's new Latitude 2100-N for a few hours. After he chased me down, he pried it out of my fingers. I didn't want to give it up. This is one nice Ubuntu Linux-powered netbook.

Linux desktops are easier to implement than IT staff expected if they targeted the right groups of users.