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The advantages of open source software really become evident when it comes to using design applications. This category of software is one that not everyone needs -- that is, unless you need software to help you create illustrations for Web design or print publication projects. The Linux OS has a bev...

Capturing a screen image is a basic computing task -- so basic, in fact, that almost every computer keyboard has a dedicated key to grab a picture of what the monitor is displaying in the instant the key is pressed. Three Linux apps have proven very useful to me. I use Shutter, Gnome Screenshot and ...

Pandigital, the company best known for its digital photo frames, on Monday entered the e-book reader fray with an Android-powered device featuring a $199 price point and a 7-inch color display. Through a partnership with Barnes & Noble, the Pandigital Novel also includes an integrated e-bookstor...

Google finally released a beta version of its Chrome Web browser for Linux on Dec. 8, slightly more than one year after releasing its Chrome browser for Microsoft Windows. The wait was worth it, especially given the more than 300 extensions already available to customize the new browser. Because Lin...

In a society far away and long ago, people mostly farmed and ran storefront businesses where they lived. Then came the migration to the cities, where a new generation of workers stuffed into bulging urban-based factory jobs. Many spent their entire adult lives working for The Man in an upstairs offi...

Universities and government agencies, even a few private corporations, are going all "mad scientist" on us in the realm of virtual worlds. But why are they experimenting there and why are so many drawn to virtual worlds like a dying man to a priest? "As a new part of the real world, virtual worlds a...

So you're looking for medical advice. Would you: a) call your doctor, b) consult a medical journal or c) go to a wiki? Perhaps surprisingly, many people are beginning to go the wiki route. At least, they're starting with wikis, and maybe after that they're calling their doctors, reading journals, o...

What a nut I was. Back when Sun Microsystems and Microsoft announced they would be joining forces on interoperability between Sun, nee Java, and .NET -- remember Steve Ballmer of "Ballmer and Butthead" fam] and Scott McNealy sitting side by side -- I thought they meant it. I pushed the envelope, jus...

The One Laptop Per Child Project, an effort spearheaded by MIT Professor Nicholas Negroponte aimed at delivering functional, educational laptop computers to children in developing nations, is looking to wealthier nations to buy its computers for those in need. The project, which looks to rely on ine...

Mandriva has launched a new distribution of its operating system, Mandriva Linux 2007. The new version has a desktop with both AIGLX and Xgl 3D technologies, which allow the average 2D desktop -- Windows 98, Windows XP, KDE or GNOME, for example -- to display 3D characteristics. Mandriva Linux 2007 ...

Software development toolmaker Trolltech, which provides its Qt and Qtopia development software for embedded, mobile and Linux systems developers, completed its initial public offering and earned a listing on Norway's Oslo Stock Exchange this week. "We wanted to have bigger financial muscle," Trollt...

Open source development has always been an international phenomenon. After all, the killer app of the movement -- Linux -- was born in Finland, and the quintessential dual licensing business was started in Sweden with mySQL. Companies like Red Flag have stepped up in Asia to take Linux into double...

Everyone has heard the expression, "You get what you pay for." It suggests that the functionality of something is directly proportional to its price. But that rule of thumb is being turned on its head by open-source software. Open-source software is free, but it differs from "freeware" in some major...