Company executives call on the open source community to do more to make Linux popular as a desktop OS for consumers and businesses.

IBM, whose decision to back Linux years ago was a driving force in its adoption by business, called on developers of the open-source operating system to make it more “green” and to stop copying Windows, if they want to see Linux on the desktop.

Bob Sutor, VP of open source and standards at IBM, told attendees of the LinuxWorld Conference in San Francisco, that what the open source community needs to make Linux popular as a desktop OS used by consumers and businesses are “some really good graphic designers.”

“Stop copying 2001 Windows. That’s not where the usability action is,” Sutor said during his afternoon keynote.

Sutor’s comments came a day after IBM announced at the show that it was joining Linux distributors Canonical, Novell, and Red Hat in building Microsoft-free PCs for business. The four companies agreed to provide hardware partners with the software to build desktops that would have alternatives to Windows and Office.

IBM’s comments to the Linux community of developers carry a lot of weight, given the huge investment and contribution the tech company has made to the OS. IBM threw its weight behind Linux in December 2000, when it promised to spend $1 billion on development of the OS the following year.

Complete Article

Related: IBM exec predicts the future of Linux, open source

[Business & OSS Impact: OSS & FSF Open Source Business ibm linux oss ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization dedicated to accelerating the growth of Linux, today announced that VMware has become a member of the Foundation. The company joins existing Linux Foundation members and technology leaders such as Adobe, AMD, Dell, Fujitsu, Google, Hitachi, HP, IBM, Intel, Motorola, NEC, Novell, Oracle and Red Hat, among others.

“A growing number of organizations run their Linux environments on VMware virtualization, and the Linux Foundation gives us a collaborative forum to effectively address the needs of our customers,” said Dan Chu, vice president of emerging products and solutions at VMware. “We are delighted to become a member of The Linux Foundation and look forward to making future contributions to the Linux community.” According to research firm IDC, revenue for the virtual machine software market may increase by more than four times from 2006-2011 to reach $4.8 billion by 2011*. As adoption of Linux expands as a result of its natural position as a platform for next-generation computing in the cloud and in virtualized environments, companies such as VMware are looking to The Linux Foundation as the forum for collaboration. VMware’s participation in the Linux community includes the contribution of the Virtual Machine Interface (VMI), a paravirtualization interface as an open specification, and subsequent collaboration with the Linux kernel community and others in the development of a source-level paravirtualization interface (paravirt-ops) for the Linux kernel. In 2007, VMware announced the release of its Open Virtual Machine Tools, the open source implementation of VMware Tools, and the creation of the open-vm-tools project to enable community participation. “Linux is a natural platform for virtualization and cloud computing. VMware is obviously a leader in that field and a leading ISV who has embraced the Linux platform,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director of The Linux Foundation. “We’re excited to have VMware as our newest member.”

[Business & OSS Emulation/Virtualisation NEWS Business linux foundation Open Source paravirtualization virtualization vmware ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

I’m no graphics professional, but like probably most of you, I do need to edit photos from time to time. I used Adobe Photoshop before since it is the most widely used image manipulating software. But when I started using Linux, things changed.

Since GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is included by default in most Linux distros, I had no other choice but to try it. I then became more and more comfortable using it that I completely forgot about Photoshop. I know that I can still install Photoshop in Linux through software virtualization, but no thanks.

Here are my reasons why I made the switch and why I think GIMP is better than Photoshop:

1. GIMP has a simple and easy to use Graphical User Interface compared to a more cluttered working environment in Photoshop.

2. GIMP has a way lighter footprint than Photoshop. You don’t need plenty of disk space to install GIMP. The size of Gimp’s installer is less than 20MB; Photoshop could be around 600MB.

3. GIMP is wicked fast. The minimum recommended RAM requirement to run GIMP is only 128MB. The latest version of Photoshop will probably need 512MB at minimum.

4. GIMP has the right amount of essential features that I need. I think Photoshop is way too bloated and some of its included features are unnecessary.

5. GIMP can read and write most Photoshop native PSD format files, but Photoshop does not support GIMP’s native XCF file format.

6. GIMP has a more powerful automation than Photoshop.

7. GIMP’s open development model means that it is much more readily available on more operating systems, plugin development is not limited by developers and as such has no need to compete with Photoshop; by comparison, access to Adobe Photoshop’s SDK requires authorization.

8. GIMP is available at no cost compared to Photoshop’s hefty price tag.

How about you? Do you also feel that GIMP is better than Adobe Photoshop?

- by Jun Auza

[Multimedia Reviews/Previews/Tests gimp graphics image editing Open Source software vs ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Promise Technology Inc., a global supplier of RAID storage solutions for enterprise and SMB customers, announced Monday Linux support for its products as an important extension of its Linux business strategy. Promise has supported Linux product development with storage solutions ranging from the desktop to the datacenter and unified by a common management interface. Linux users [...]

[Business & OSS Hardware NEWS Business Events Open Source promise ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

The 10th annual LinuxWorld Conference & Expo and its partner Next Generation Data Center Conference kick off today at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the open-source operating system will be the center of attention for enterprise users, vendors and IT enthusiasts. As Linux markets grow and innovate, so does LinuxWorld. One new area [...]

[Events/Shows Linux/Unix/OS NEWS Open Source conference event expo linuxworld ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

When Sony first announced that the PlayStation 3 would be able to run Linux natively, a great deal of excitement ensued. Early on, it was a bit of a challenge to get Linux natively installed. The supported installer ran [...]

[Games & Gaming Hardware HowTos/Tutorials/Tips Linux/Unix/OS gaming howto linux Open Source ps3 software ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

I am talking about that latest instant messaging client from the Gaim series, called Pidgin 2.0.0, which came after a long period of waiting and broke the download tops. Why Pidgin 2.0.0 and not Gaim 2.0.0 … the story begins a long time ago, when AOL used to complain about Gaim’s original name, GTK+ AOL [...]

[Applications/Software Gnome Reviews/Previews/Tests gtk im messenger Open Source pidgin software video ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Earlier this month Intel had announced the GMA X4500 series, which is their latest and greatest when it comes to integrated graphics processors. These IGPs were greeted by same-day Linux support (it had actually arrived before the chipset was announced), but it’s still next to impossible to find motherboards using the G43 and G45 Chipsets [...]

[Audio/Video Cards Reviews/Previews/Tests Hardware intel review test video cards x4500hd ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Mozilla took a big step towards Firefox 3.1 yesterday with the release of the first alpha. It includes important improvements to both the user interface and to Firefox’s underlying Gecko rendering engine. Much of Firefox’s internal architecture was overhauled during the 3.0 development process. This means that Mozilla now has a much stronger foundation to build [...]

[Applications/Software Browsers Reviews/Previews/Tests browser Firefox preview software ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

The KDE team today released KDE 4.1. The KDE developers, including the openSUSE KDE Team, have been working on it for the last six months. Lots of feedback from people trying out KDE 4.0 has gone into KDE 4.1, filling most of the gaps people experienced with the 4.0 releases. See the release announcement for [...]

[1. openSUSE/SUSE KDE NEWS howto linux livecd openSUSE software ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

6 months after the release of KDE 4.0, the KDE community today announced the released of the second feature release in the KDE 4 era. Lots of changes have gone into this release and the KDE community hopes to be able to make most early-adopting users happy with this release. Lots of feedback from people [...]

[Featured KDE NEWS great linux Open Source release software ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

KDE 4.1 was finally released to the public today. After all the controversy since the release of KDE 4.0, I’m happy to announce that KDE 4.1 simply rocks. KDE 4.1 packages are available for Kubuntu and several other popular distributions. If there are no prebuilt binaries yet for your distro of choice, you can compile the [...]

[KDE Linux/Unix/OS Reviews/Previews/Tests linux release review ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

With KDE 4.1 final out soon many users again ask themselves if it is the right KDE version for them. While many features missing in KDE 4.0 are now available, the KDE project published a paper to help the users with the decision. The KDE team has created a special page highlighting the pros and cons [...]

[KDE NEWS preview website ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

In this context, a one-liner is a set of commands normally joined through a pipe (|). When joined by a pipe, the command on the left passes its output to the command on the right. Simple or complex, you can get useful results from a single line at the bash command prompt. For example, suppose you [...]

[Other ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

In this context, a one-liner is a set of commands normally joined through a pipe (|). When joined by a pipe, the command on the left passes its output to the command on the right. Simple or complex, you can get useful results from a single line at the bash command prompt. For example, suppose you [...]

[HowTos/Tutorials/Tips Linux/Unix/OS Other System CLI howto linux ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Kde 4.1 release is getting closer and more video reviews are popping up on the net. If you are not, yet, aware of KDE 4.1 release schedule, the final version is expected to hit by the end of this month, i.e. July. KDE 4.1 is the first feature release for KDE 4. Here is a nice [...]

[Applications/Software Audio/Video/Pics KDE Reviews/Previews/Tests dolphin folders games gwenview preview videos ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

El Tunes is a GStreamer plugin that allows Linux users to play all music they have purchased from the iTunes Music Store! For years now, Apple has been slowly but surely gaining dominance in the market of online digital music distribution. Their iTunes Music Store now accounts for approximately 85% of all legal digital music purchases [...]

[HowTos/Tutorials/Tips Multimedia NEWS Open Source Reviews/Previews/Tests cool drm el tunes gstreamer howto itunes linux review software ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

ActiveState’s Open Source White Paper - Find Out How to Manage the Risks Associated with Open Source Software. In 2005, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems quipped that open source software was “free like a puppy is free.” Just as you can pick out a puppy from the pound without paying expensive breeder fees, you can download [...]

[Books & Literature Business & OSS Impact: OSS & FSF Open Source Business software study tco white paper ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

GREAT news for all Linux users who were waiting for 802.11n support. Most of the Atheros excitement had been happening in the 802.11g realm, but the 802.11n Linux support for WiFi has received a big boost. Atheros had announced the release of the ath9k driver. Last September MadWiFi was abandoning their proprietary HAL and really the [...]

[Featured NEWS Network System Wireless ath9k atheros driver Hardware linux madwifi wifi ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

The family of KDE websites has got a new member, the site for the fine utilities applications from the module kdeutils. Despite being one of the first modules, kdeutils has always been without its own website. No longer. At utils.kde.org you can now find a lot of information about the KDE Utilities. See for yourself [...]

[Applications/Software Internet/Web KDE NEWS Add new tag kde utilities software website ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

We don’t often talk directly about our business activities on this blog. But once in a while something happens that rightly deserves a mention. Our Open Source consulting business, The Open Learning Centre, has been very busy of late. We’ve been working with a household name hardware manufacturer and a very well known high-street retailer to [...]

[2. Deb/Ubuntu based Hardware Reviews/Previews/Tests linux Notebooks review ubuntu webbook ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Use Windows? Like Linux? Have it all on a single PC. Parallels Workstation is an easy-to-use, easy-on-the-pocket solution that lets you run Windows, Linux and more side-by-side on a single PC without rebooting. If you find yourself having to use Windows, but you’d rather be using Linux you can do it all on one single PC. The [...]

[5. Solaris based 7. Other OS Emulation/Virtualisation Linux/Unix/OS Reviews/Previews/Tests BSD ecomstation Free linux os/2 parallels review solaris/opensolaris virtualization windows ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Intuit’s new Linux Business Resource Center (www.thelinux411.com). The site is devoted to helping growing businesses embrace the capabilities and learn about using open-source software. Developed in conjunction with the new capabilities of QuickBooks Enterprise 8.0 (Intuit’s mid-market ERP offering) to run on Linux servers, the site is designed to serve as a community for users to [...]

[Business & OSS Internet/Web NEWS Business intuit linux Open Source website ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Learn these 10 tricks and you’ll be the most powerful Linux® systems administrator in the universe…well, maybe not the universe, but you will need these tips to play in the big [...]

[Applications/Software HowTos/Tutorials/Tips Linux/Unix/OS administration CLI essential howto linux System ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Google Gadgets for Linux are simple HTML and JavaScript applications that can be embedded in web pages and other applications. By all accounts, Gadget support for Linux was a major undertaking for the Google team as it is an entire platform for mini applications. You can check out the source code for it on Google’s [...]

[Applications/Software Audio/Video/Pics Gadgets google videos widgets ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Introducing the first Open Source app that lets you write posts, upload photos, and edit your WordPress blog directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch. It’s official, the WordPress application for the iPhone has officially been released. Now you’ll be able to publish to WordPress powered blogs right from your Jesus phone. Here is what you [...]

[Mobility NEWS WordPress/Blogging blogging iphone wordpress ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Forget fear, uncertainty and doubt. How do Windows Vista and Linux really compare against each other? It’s one thing to talk about the familiar applications available to Windows users contrasted with the rich suite of free open source apps for Linux, but something totally different to actually compare the loads of the two operating systems [...]

[7. Other OS Linux/Unix/OS Reviews/Previews/Tests System linux linux vs windows windows ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

ZFS is a 128-bit file system, which means it can store 18 billion billion (18.4 × 1018) times more data than the current 64-bit systems. The limitations of ZFS are designed to be so large that they will never be encountered in practice, as an example of how large these numbers are, if 1,000 files [...]

[5. Solaris based Linux/Unix/OS Reviews/Previews/Tests System file system openSolaris zfs ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

In the previous articles we discussed about Nagios 3.0 Jumpstart guide and How to monitor remote Linux host using Nagios 3.0. In this article, l’ll explain how to monitor remote windows machine and the various service running on the windows server using nagios monitoring server. Following three sections are covered in this article. I. Overview II. 4 [...]

[Hardware HowTos/Tutorials/Tips Linux/Unix/OS Network monitoring nagios software windows ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share

Slackware 12.1 has many improvements over last major release (Slackware 11.0) as well as to that of 12.0 release and is a must-have upgrade for any Slackware user. Among the many program updates and distribution enhancements, you’ll find two of the most advanced desktop environments available today: Xfce 4.4.2, a fast and lightweight but visually appealing [...]

[3. Other Distros Audio/Video/Pics HowTos/Tutorials/Tips slackware tutorial video ]
View original post|Add to del.icio.us | Share