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Linux in the newsRecommended Reading A Software Populist Who Doesn't Do Windows (New York Times)The New York Times profiles Mark Shuttleworth, which gives a look into how the "mainstream media" views Linux. "The notion of a strong Linux-based competitor to Windows and, to a lesser extent, Apple's Mac OS X has been an enduring dream of advocates of open-source software. They champion the idea that software that can be freely altered by the masses can prove cheaper and better than proprietary code produced by stodgy corporations. Try as they might, however, Linux zealots have failed in their quest to make Linux mainstream on desktop and notebook computers. The often quirky software remains in the realm of geeks, not grandmothers."
The Perl Future (Heise)Heise has an extended look at the state of the Perl language. "Probably Perl 6's biggest impact so far is the effect it's had on the Perl 5 ecosystem, as ideas trickle down into Perl 5 implementations and CPAN libraries. If you've used Perl 5 before, but it's been a while, then 2009 will be a good year to take another look."
Trade Shows and Conferences Linux Day Italy 2008 (KDE.News)KDE.News covers Linux Day Italy, and the involvement of KDE Italia. "The Linux Day begins with a day in advance here in Salerno. Despite the inevitable unforeseen, the HCSSLug's boys managed to organise a beautiful Linux Day. A large student participation, some of whom are new to the "strange" world of Free Software, ensured the success of the event."
The SCO Problem SCO aims to reorganize, fight on with corporate garage sale (ars technica)ars technica looks at the latest in the never-ending SCO saga. The company is proposing a way to soldier on by selling its "assets" to keep up the court fights. "In the latest reorganization filing, the company proposes an asset sale that would see its server platform and mobile technology sold off to the highest bidder. After the reorganization, SCO contends that its business would be based on its licensing program, commercial UNIX sales, and one-off custom UNIX enhancement projects for customers. The plan also indicates that SCO will reduce its operating expenses by 20 to 30 percent in 2009."
Companies ARM SoC launched with Linux support (Linux Devices)Linux Devices covers Marvell's launch of the PXA168 system-on-chip device. "The PXA168 is said to offer the processing capabilities of an "entry-level laptop," on devices that still often run single-purpose real-time operating systems (RTOSes), says the company. Touted features include instant-on web surfing and widgets, multi-format video, Adobe Flash-based playback, image processing, video conferencing, and advanced graphical user interfaces (GUIs)."
Chrome gets Mac deadline, extensions foundation (cnet)Google is planning to release versions of its Chrome browser for Linux and Mac in the first half of 2009 as outlined in an article over at cnet. "The Mac and Linux versions are up to the level of a basic 'test shell' that can show Web pages. But a test shell is pretty raw. [...] 'That team now is able to render most Web pages pretty well. But in terms of the user experience, it's very basic,' [Chrome product manager Brian] Rakowski said of the Mac version. 'We have not spent any time building out features. We're still iterating on making it stable and getting the architecture right.'"
Business Freescale, Intel count on netbook to lift sales (The Arizona Republic)The Arizona Republic reports that increasing netbooks sales are helping to improve semiconductor manufacturers' revenues. "Banking on netbooks as the next big tech trend to help boost profits, Intel began selling its Atom processor - developed at its Fab 32 facility in Chandler - to the netbook market in June. The company is by far the largest supplier of chips for netbooks, a market which industry analysts say will explode within the next five years. Freescale Semiconductor Inc. announced plans this week to get into the market with a new processor it says will lead to cheaper netbooks with longer battery life."
Linux Adoption Vietnam pushes open-source software for government use (NetworkWorld)NetworkWorld reports on plans to increase the use of open-source software by Vietnam. "The Vietnamese government will move to several open-source applications by the end of next year as the country also tries to reduce the use of pirated software. Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has mandated that applications such as the OpenOffice.org productivity suite, Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client and UniKey Vietnamese keyboard client be installed at government agencies by the end of June, according to a report by Wednesday VietnamNet, a government-owned news agency."
Linux at Work Healthcare IT News takes open-source approach (Healthcare IT News)Healthcare IT News covers the use of Drupal for medical content entry. "Pop the hood on our new Web site and you'll find one very powerful engine. It's called Drupal, a free, open-source platform that powers all of our content entry. As many healthcare IT workers know, the value of open-source solutions isn't just the (lack of) price tag: it's the fact that the products are user-developed, community-tested and constantly improved."
Resources Holiday Cheer, Holiday Uncheer - Part 1 (Linux Journal)Dave Phillips looks at a number of interesting Linux audio releases in a Linux Journal article. "The December holidays always hold some interesting surprises for me, and this year's season was no exception. However, in this context "interesting" can mean either "utterly engaging fascination" or "coma-inducing exasperation". This holiday season I got plenty of both."
Help On The Way: Five Great Linux Support Sites (bMighty.com)Matthew McKenzie suggests a number of Linux support sites in a blog posting. "Linux support and documentation sites are a dime a dozen -- and some aren't worth much more than that. Here are a few sites that really give you your money's worth . . . or at least they would, if most of the content wasn't already free."
Reviews Chrome 2.0 Preview Means Mac, Linux Versions Coming Soon (Wired blog)A Wired blog site takes a look at the alpha release of Chrome 2.0. "The Chrome 2.0 alpha also has some big news for for Mac and Linux users who'd like to try Chrome: Chrome 2.0 uses its own HTTP network library rather than the WinHTTP library on Windows. The Windows-only HTTP library was one of the main stumbling blocks to cross-platform support and now that it's gone the Mac and Linux versions should see some significant progress in the near future."
Ironically, it's free: a review of GIMP 2.6.4 (ars technica)Ars technica has posted an extensive review of GIMP 2.6.4. "32-bits per pixel images are very important to the high-end 3D people on Linux, and there is no support for HDR images in GIMP. That means that they'll still have to use Cinepaint to deal with 32-bits per pixel and 16-bits per channel images. Similarly, photographers looking to merge multiple shots in order to tweak an HDR image can't do it in GIMP. I don't think that I'm out of line in saying this needs to be very high on the list of features to add. Fortunately, with the recent addition of the GEGL graphics library, the foundation is being laid to get HDR support and eventually CMYK as well."
7 Linux web editors that get the job done (TechRadar)TechRadar briefly reviews seven HTML editors available for Linux. The sub-headline of "Break free from the torment of Emacs and into a visual world" makes it clear that they are looking at visual, GUI tools. "You only have to spend some time with the Internet Archive to see shining examples of the terror that could be wrought with a simple text editor and far too much knowledge."
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