Do you believe him?

Microsoft’s Ballmer continues to threaten Linux.

Vista is a blessing for Linux

Replacing PCs to run Vista will increase scrap, Greenpeace warns:

The environmentalist group cited a study by US-based SoftChoice Corp. that says 50 percent of the current breed of personal computers are “below Windows Vista’s basic system requirements” and that 94 percent cannot run the software’s high-end version.

One man’s trash is another’s treasure, right? These computers that are below Vista-specs can run Linux perfectly ok. I’d say send the working computers to the Philippines so we can install Linux and give ‘em to public schools. You’d be surprise what a 3 or 4 year old computer with Linux can do.

C’mon, a 10 year old Powermac 5500 running OS 9.1 still packs enough power to teach primary school students how to use computers in their classes. So, if you belong to a company that will buy new computers for Vista, please ask them to donate the old functional ones to us.

Image courtesy of berbercarpet

Technorati Tags: linux, vista

LPI Linux Level 1 Certification Exams

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Congratulations to my colleagues (in no particular order)

1. Ms. Myra Jill Siason
2. Mr. Eric Pareja
3. Mr. Jeffrey Tan
4. Prof. Ariel Betan
5. Mr. Mark Benedict Uy

for passing!

When will you buy us lunch?

Fedora Core 6 LiveCD

I blogged about this over at my “serious” Linux blog. Check it out – it really is great news!

VideoLan 0.8.6 released!

VLC 0.8.6 released! Download VLC now!

Linux articles moving out…

Well, most Linux and Open Source related articles will move to a new home at Hack It Linux. I hope that you will continue supporting both sites.

French parliament dumping Windows for Linux

French parliament dumping Windows for Linux | CNET News.com:

France’s gendarmes and Ministry of Culture and Communication have done it, and now members of the country’s parliarment are about to switch to open source.

Starting in June 2007, PCs in French deputes’ offices will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open-source productivity software.

The project, backed by parliament members Richard Cazenave and Bernard Carayon of the Union for a Popular Movement party, will see 1,154 French parliamentary workstations running on Linux, with OpenOffice.org productivity software, the Firefox Web browser and an open-source e-mail client.

Technorati Tags: linux, microsoft

On with the war!

Two of my most adored mascots! I just wish that they are wearing Apple armor! Guess who the paper-clips are.

By now, you must have heard/read that Sun GPLs Java. Are you one of those who were waiting for this historic announcement? Well, fortunately, being a Java Champion provides me with inside info about Sun’s Java-related plans. However, like everyone in the group, I was bound under a NDA/CDA.

This single announcement of Sun made it the largest contributor to the open source community, afaik. They released several core Java technologies at JavaOne last May and they will be releasing more in the future.

The challenge to the community now is – how fast can you take advantage of this news? A lot of you have been complaining about Sun’s grip on Java and how you can “easily” improve it – so now, the ball is in your court. Let us see how you handle this now.

Technorati Tags: java, linux, sun

NVidia Linux Driver

Linux Display Driver – x86

Release Highlights

• Added initial support for GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap.
• Added new “Display Configuration” page in nvidia-settings.
• Improved workstation OpenGL performance in Xinerama.
• Added support for NVIDIA Quadro Plex.
• Added support for Quad SLI.
• Improved X driver error recovery.
• Improved workstation overlay performance.
• Added SMBus functionality to the Linux/i2c interface.
• Fixed DFP scaling support.
• Added support for OpenGL 2.1.
• Added new “TwinViewXineramaInfoOrder” X configuration option to control the order of display devices when in TwinView.
• Fixed some problems related to TV Out.
• Added new NVIDIA logo artwork to nvidia-settings and X driver splashscreen; the X driver splashscreen can now be configured with the new “LogoPath” X configuration option.

NVidia always provides better drivers on Linux. The question is – when will ATI follow?

Technorati Tags: nvidia

Nexenta Alpha 6

Until recently, I could not get Nexenta OS to work on Parallels Desktop. The latest build, Alpha 6, brings in Ubuntu Dapper Drake updates, a few interface tweaks from Edgy Eft with an upgraded underlying kernel, OpenSolaris, that is now on build 50.

Anyway, I managed to snag a VMWare image and here are some screenshots:

Apparently, the same error that popped up during my Ubuntu installation on Parallels Desktop also appeared. Notice the same typographical error?

This is what the desktop looks like.

And here’s the evidence that the kernel is indeed Solaris instead of Linux.

Since this distribution is still on its alpha stages, it will take a bit longer for the release build to be made available. I just wish that the folks working on it will work extra hard so that we can get our hands on this superb package – mature kernel with a lot of innovative features that are not found on existing Linux kernel versions plus the userland from one of the best Linux distribution available today, Ubuntu.

Note that this is not running on Parallels Desktop

Technorati Tags: linux, solaris, ubuntu