Archive

Wink, a software package for creating tutorial and presentation screen shots, works reasonably well when it works at all. However, getting it to run may not be worth the bother, given the better alternatives available. Wink's premise is a good one for anyone who needs to create a show-and-explain pr...

Xvidcap is a small tool to capture whatever goes on within the borders of an X-Windows display. It lets you capture what you do either as individual frames or as an MPEG video. Recording your computing activity keystroke by keystroke is not a need every computer user has. However, this is an ideal t...

If you fancy game playing, the latest release of the Mageia Linux OS will be a fun experience. Even if you never open a game, Mageia 2 is a solid distribution well suited to newcomers and seasoned Linux users alike. Mageia is a fork of the now defunct Mandriva distro. It was developed by a team of f...

The fear of failure factor is one reason why potential newcomers to the Linux operating system never complete the switch. After all, when was the last time you saw a sign in a big-box computer store identifying the aisle labeled "Linux Loaded?" Most desktops and laptops come out of the box with Micr...

Ubuntu is already the leading Linux distribution on desktop PCs, according to DistroWatch, and now it's set its sights on tablets, smartphones and even TVs as well. Calling the move "probably the most significant broadening of scope in Ubuntu's history," Canonical founder Mark Shuttleworth told re...

Innovation time on the Linux desktop is right around the corner. GNOME.org is set to release the much-awaited GNOME 3 desktop sometime next month. I am always looking to play with new Linux stuff. So I put the GNOME 3 beta release to work on my test rig a few weeks ago. The GNOME 3 Beta version 2.91...

For some Linux adopters, exchanging Microsoft Office in Windows for the OpenOffice suite is a radical change in computing behavior. Swapping out OpenOffice for the LibreOffice suite may be a lot less traumatic. LibreOffice is a near clone of the OpenOffice modules. Yet it provides the potential for ...

The upcoming new Unity shell design for the next release of Canonical's Ubuntu 11.04 could change the face of the popular Linux desktop as we know it. Canonical creator Mark Shuttleworth is pushing the change to Unity while other Linux distros are rolling into GNOME 3. Linux Picks this week takes a ...

New app choices have a habit of getting in the way of older favorites. Sometimes, a new approach or design can tempt you to give up one approach to solving a computing need by replacing it with another. That is the case with personal information manager apps. Open source software gives us Linux user...

Do you ever marvel at those step-by-step how-to product demos of software apps that end-users post on places like YouTube? It is often easy to spot these demo videos shot with cellphone cams or PC eye cams placed over the user's shoulder. But two cool Linux apps give you a the ability to record dire...

Server virtualization technologies for Linux have advanced at a rapid pace of innovation with VMware and Citrix initially leading the way. They are now being joined by significant strategic investments by Red Hat. Unfortunately, the storage side of the equation has lagged behind. Several trends, suc...

Rackspace Hosting on Monday announced the launch of OpenStack, an open source cloud platform designed to foster technology standards and cloud interoperability. NASA is collaborating on the project. Rackspace is donating the code that powers its Cloud Files and Cloud Servers public-cloud offerings t...

In the latest phase of its battle with Intel for the notebook and netbook markets, ARM has unveiled two new 2GHz capable Cortex-A9 dual core processor implementation. These give silicon manufacturers a way to develop high-performance, low-power Cortex-A9 processor-based devices, ARM said. However, i...

Xen.org, the developer of the open source Xen project, on Wednesday announced the release of the Xen 3.3 hypervisor engine. The product is the result of a distributed development effort by senior engineers from more than 50 leading hardware, software and security vendors. Xen 3.3 includes enhancemen...

Intel's low-cost Classmate PC, originally focused on emerging markets, will soon be available to U.S. and European consumers. Intel is working with original equipment manufacturers to bring the second-generation Classmate to mature markets in the developed world later this year at prices likely betw...