Microsoft's Bill Hilf Reveals Its Open Source Strategy

"InformationWeek recently interviewed Bill Hilf, Microsoft's leading light on open source issues. Since coming to Microsoft from IBM in 2003, Hilf has been inextricably involved with Microsoft's strategy for dealing with Linux. He's recently been appointed general manager of Windows Server marketing and platform strategy, which means he's taking on an expanded role, but open source is still one of his core issues."

Crytek, Microsoft, NVIDIA Downplay DirectX 10.1

Game developers, hardware manufacturers and Microsoft all have something to say about the next-generation DirectX protocol, but none have anything to say too positive

AMD's Radeon HD 3850 and HD 3870 will be.....

Google to Make $4.6 Billion USD Bid for Piece of 700MHz Spectrum

It seems that Google may not be content with merely playing a co-star in the mobile market presentation. Not even two weeks after the introduction of their Android operating system, and offers of $10 million USD in bounties for software, it seems that the Californian colossus is preparing a bid of $4.6 billion USD or more for a piece of the soon-to-be-free 700MHz wireless spectrum -- and what's more, they're apparently....

Microsoft Releases Vista SP1 RC Preview to Testers

While Apple is using its latest round of TV commercials to further push the butcher knife into Windows Vista -- specifically, Microsoft's decision to extend the sales of Windows XP and allow users to downgrade Vista to Windows XP -- the boys in....

Xbox 360 May Also Gain DivX Support

DivX Inc. announced yesterday that its video technology will be soon introduced to the PlayStation 3. While Microsoft has previously said that it “wasn’t a priority” integrating DivX support into the Xbox 360,attitudes in Redmond may be changing in order to compete with Sony’s system.

At a recent earnings call for DivX, CEO Kevin Hell revealed that....

DivX Playback Coming to the PlayStation 3

The PlayStation 3 is a media hub like few others. It can handle high-definition movies, upscale DVDs, read pictures from memory cards, not to mention play PlayStation games. And it seems that soon the PlayStation 3 will gain the ability to playback DivX-encoded media.

DivX Inc. today announced that its video technology will....

Report: 8GB, 10" ASUS Eee PC Slated for 2008

ASUS' new Eee PC 4G is undoubtedly a hit with consumers and reviewers. The device is small, lightweight and performs quite well despite its aging processor and chipset.

The Eee PC 4G, however, hasn't been without its...

YouTube to Introduce High-Resolution Videos

YouTube co-founder Steve Chen, speaking at the NewTeeVee Live conference today, confirmed that high-quality YouTube video streams are coming soon. Although YouTube's goal, he said, is.....

5 little-known Gmail features you may not yet know about

When we began rolling out a new Gmail code architecture a few weeks ago, we also launched some new features to help improve the speed and convenience of managing email. I've been using several of these new additions over the last few weeks, and while they might seem small on their own, they really can add up to save you a lot of time and hassle. That's why I decided to list my five favorite new features that are so new, you may not have noticed them. We are still rolling them out to IE6, international and Google Apps users, but for those.....

ASUS Extreme Radeon HD 3870 review

This week AMD came to unveil its latest generation of ATI graphics hardware, an awaited release that without a doubt created a lot of expectations and speculation especially because of two factors:
1) The dominant player, Nvidia had just killed its whole high-end line up two weeks before, in favor of an affordable and more efficient model, the GeForce 8800GT.
2) A holiday season that has shaped up to become one of the most exciting in recent times for PC gamers, with a buttload of good titles like Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis, Call of Duty 4, World in Conflict, The Orange Box, Bioshock, Hellgate: London, and the list goes on...

GPL v3: Was It Worth the Effort?

A survey conducted by Evans Data shows that open source developers are not adopting the third version of the GNU General Public License as quickly as some may have hoped. Those who remain reluctant to incorporate GPL v3 cited reasons ranging from questions of its enforceability in court to disagreements with some of its new components....

Linux Goes Hollywood With New Terra Soft Film Rendering Tool

Creating modern digital visual effects in movies is not an easy process. The job falls on clusters of computers called "render farms." Terra Soft, developer of the Yellow Dog Linux distro, says its new offering, Y-Film, is designed to significantly streamline the task, bringing a more efficient process to large studios and putting glossy effects within easier reach of smaller ones.....

The Open Source Time Machine Replicant

An interesting aspect of the project is the fact that an Apple technology is being looked on with admiration from at least some quarters of the open source community. On the Flyback site at Google Code, the About section said, "Apple's Time Machine is a great feature in their OS, adding that Linux has "almost all of the required technology" already built in to recreate it.
.....

VMware Takes Fusion Up a Notch for Leopard

Fusion, the VMware virtualization program that allows Mac users to simultaneously run Windows on their machines, has been upgraded to version 1.1 in the wake of Apple's Leopard OS X rollout. The new offering includes support for Windows Vista as well as enhanced integration with Boot Camp. Also, an iPhone can be synced with Outlook while in Windows mode.

....

IBM's 'Free Radical' Grady Booch: Linux Makes Sense

IBM Rational's "free radical" talks about the enduring difficulties of software development, his advocacy of open source and Second Life, and his license to kill. "The OS wars are largely over. Let's decide on a common platform. Therefore, Linux makes sense," said Grady Booch.
....

The Evolution of Spam, Part 2: New Defenses

"There is no single head to cut off, no centralized command structure to attack. These aren't the Red Coats standing in a neat formation; these are guerrillas scattered across the landscape with known objectives and infrequent need for direction," said Randy Abrams, ESET's director of technical education.

...

5 Reasons to Spring for an iPod - and 5 Reasons to Wait

From iTunes to its elegant design to the way it handles and entire music library, the iPod has plenty of reasons why it's the best-selling personal media player around. Nothing's perfect, though, and there are some ways the iPod could improve. For instance, can't they toss in a pair of earbuds that aren't tortuous to wear?

.....

A Guide to Taming the Leopard

eopard isn't for everybody, but if you think it's for you, keep in mind that upgrading an entire operating system is rarely a simple task. Though Apple makes it easier than most, there are still plenty of things that could go wrong if you're not careful. Should you choose to buy Leopard, here are some guidelines to walk you through the job and get you on your way to playing with the system's new features.
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Historians Recreate Source Code of First 4004 Application

The team of 'digital archaeologists' who developed the technology behind the Intel Museum's 4004 microprocessor exhibit have done it again. 36 years after Intel introduced their first microprocessor on November 15, 1971, these computer historians have turned the spotlight on the first application software ever written for a general-purpose microprocessor: the Busicom 141-PF calculator. At the team's web site you can download and play with an authentic calculator simulator that sports a cool animated flowchart. Want to find out...

Intel Core 2 'Penryn' and Linux

An anonymous reader writes "Linux Hardware has posted a look at the new Intel "Penryn" processor and how the new processor will work with Linux. Intel recently released the new "Penryn" Core 2 processor with many new features. So what are these features and how will they equate into benefits to Linux users? The article covers all the high points of the new "Penryn" core and talks to a couple Linux projects about end-user performance of the chip."

Nice games for your Linux box

Have you ever wondered if your Linux system is never gonna please you game-wise?
Well that's not the case. There are many views on this but lets focus on what you can actually do.

- Emulators
Yes that's right. You can play your old (and new) favorite games from NES, SNES, Gameboy, N64, Gamecube, Sega Master System, Sega Megadrive, Playstation 1 & 2 and so on.

Head over to Linuxemu to find what you want. Just search for the console you want on the upper left.

- Wine
Many windows games can run on Linux using Wine, Cedega or Crossover. Note that the last two are commercial products and require subscription or a fee to own them.
To see if the game you want is supported, go to their sites and search their compatibility databases.

- Native
Unlike what most people believe, there are many good native linux games.
Here is a short (not in any terms complete) list of some good ones:

1) Danger from the Deep

Danger from the Deep (known as dangerdeep or DftD) is a free (as in free speech), Open Source World War II german submarine simulator.

2) World of Padman

World of Padman is an fps with comic-style graphics and is really fun to play it.

If you're into fps games you should definitely give it a try.

3) Planeshift

PlaneShift is a Role Playing Game immersed into a 3D virtual fantasy world which is to play. Fully free means you will have no surprises of premium content which will limit your gameplay or unbalance the game. There are no limitations in skills, ranks, abilities, items you can gain with your free account. There are no time limits or additional constraints. Other similar games just advertize the "free" concept to sell you premium accounts. We don't.Servers and bandwidth will be donated by sponsors.

4) Regnum Online

Regnum Online is a MMORPG inviting you to PLAY FOR FREE with no level or time restrictions. All that is required is that you fight for your realm.

This is just a reference list. For more games you can look in these sites:

http://www.linuxgames.com/
http://www.happypenguin.org/
http://games.linux.sk/
http://www.linux-games.com/
http://www.linux-gamers.net/
http://www.tuxgames.com/

Have fun!

Setting up Samba

There is a nice How-to down at the ubuntu forums for setting up Samba.

Samba is a network protocol which allows Linux systems to connect to Windows Systems. It imitates the windows protocol enabling Linux users to access windows shares.
This guide is for Ubuntu systems but it's supposed to work on any system.

If you're running a debian-based system, then you should not find any problems. If not, you should replace a few commands (ex. instead of using "apt-get install package" you should install that package using your distro's package manager. Note that some packages may have different names on some distros, in which case you should search your package repositories.

Linux Distros: Rolling-Release System or Version System?

One thing that has cought my attention the last years, is the so-called "Rolling Release System" Linux distributions.

What this means, is that you don't get to have a new version of your operating system say each 6 months or so, but instead you are always up to date and upgraded. No need for OS upgrades, reinstalls, waiting for new program versions and so forth.

Such distros are Gentoo, Arch Linux, Debian (the Unstable Branch) and others.

So is it any good? What is the downfall? What are the pros and cons?
Lets try to make a small but helpful list:

Advantages:
1) You don't have to wait 6 months (or more in some cases) for your OS to be upgraded to the newest version.
2) You don't have to upgrade to a newer OS version in order to have newer versions of you installed applications.
3) You don't have to reinstall your OS, ever.
4) You are always updated and benefited from new features and bug fixes.
5) You save alot of MBs when downloading upgraded packages, instead of downloading a new version of your OS (which in many cases has many packages of the same version as before).

Disadvantages:
1) It's not as stable as Debian Etch for example, since the time spent for testing new packages is a lot less. In many cases thought, they are more stable than 98% of "version system" distributions.
2) No good for a critical business environment, for the above reason. In this case its better to have a well and throughout tested distro such as Debian Etch.
3) The Version system is easier for software vendors to target. You probably won't have proper support for a game or a commercial application if you're using a rolling release system distro.

However, don't be frightened by the phrase "not as stable as" . Most version-system distros out there are much less stable than Gentoo or Arch and there are only a few which surpass them in terms of stability.

Evaluate your needs and decide which style is better for you. I personally use arch ;)