W.I.L. Tech-News Highlights for April 2006

Operating Systems

VMware announces that it is opening its virtual machine disk format specification to allow other vendors to use it in their products – link.

Linux

Ex-Microsoft employee argues that Linux is ready for the primetime and that only thing keeping it away is the number of bugs it has – link.

Novell president says Linux desktop set to take off, with an assist from forthcoming Suse Linux Desktop 10 – link.

Damn Small Linux plus pendrive equals portable paradise – link.

Watching wikis, communities, GNOME vs. KDE at LinuxWorld – link.

Overview of the GNOME platform – link.

Linux.com’s “CLI Series” latest – When, Is that CD still fresh?, Porting DVDs with HandBrake. Series index here.

More Linux sysadmins’ toolboxes – link.

Day one at the Desktop Linux Summit – link. The fourth annual Desktop Linux Summit 2006 concludes – link.

Security and certification at LinuxWorld Toronto – link.

The diffusion and adoption of desktop Linux in government – link.

Security and certification at LinuxWorld Toronto – link. Wikis, gateways, and Garbee at LinuxWorld Toronto – link. Wine, desktops, and standards at LinuxWorld Toronto – link.

PDF is set to displace PostScript as the standard print job transfer and processing format for Linux – link.

BSDs, other Unixes

FreeBSD 6.0-STABLE works well as this reviewer’s desktop OS – link.

Using OpenBSD on the desktop – link.

Mac

Apple’s “Boot Camp” allows a new copy of Windows XP to run on Macs – link 1, link 2, link 3, link 4, link 2. Boot Camp reviewed.

Other OS’s

eComStation 2.0 beta 2 released – link.

OpenVMS is secure, reliable, and low-cost, with consistent performance and desirable functionality – link.

Applications

New and promising applications that can make your KDE desktop more productive – link.

Running .Net applications on Linux with Mono – link.

Set up a secure IMAP/POP3 server with open source Dovecot – link.

How to configure a low-cost load-balanced LAMP cluster – link.

Databases

Interview with Josh Berkus of PostgreSQL – link.

What is a good small database for the offIce? – link.

Oracle and PostgreSQL debate – link. Linux helping Oracle – link.

Scientific (and other) data is still housed in unrelated collections, waiting for some enterprising Relational Database Programmer to unlock the keys to understanding – link.

Internet applications

Internet Explorer, the great Microsoft blunder – link.

Use Thunderbird like a pro – link.

Gregarius is a Web-based server-side aggregator for managing your RSS, RDF, and Atom feeds – link.

Social bookmarking with Scuttle – link.

Network your music with Digital Audio Access Protocol (DAAP) for Linux – link.

Office applications

Using OpenOffice.org’s spadmin as an advanced font manager – link.

KOffice 1.5 released – link.

Manipulating PDFs with the PDF Toolkit – link.

ApplixWare was one of the premier office suites for Unix-like systems. Before it disappears altogether it is worth a loo – link.

Why technical writers are not using FOSS – link.

Desktop-oriented applications

Xara retools to a free and open source business model – link.

Running Photoshop plugins in the GIMP, even under Linux – link.

Create Flash charts with PHP/SWF Charts – link.

The emergence of sophisticated graphics software has coincided with a startling decline in the basic drawing skills of university students – link.

Three Linux audio players that provide the best mix of features and performance – link.

Convert any video file to DVD with open source tools – link.

Programming

Graphical user interface

Compare Web site appearance and functionality. Cut maintenance time and resource costs with Web standards – link.

How to design a client-side slide show using the “Ken Burns Effect” – link.

AJAX resources for beginners – link.

ajaxWrite is the first offspring of ajax13, Michael Robertson’s (of Lindows fame) latest startup that aims to deliver a brave new line of web-delivered, AJAX-based apps – link.

Next in browser development, high DPI Websites? – link.

C/C++/Java family

Interview with the father of Java, James Gosling – link.

Scripting and high-level languages

Programming tool vendor ActiveState reactivates – link.

Security & Privacy

Rhe open source Higgins identity project aims to move us away from the current hotchpotch of identity systems – link.

The problem with random number generators – link.

Nagios 2.1 is powerful enough to replace expensive proprietary network monitoring products and become a tool your organization cannot live without – link.

MS releases long-awaited IE fix. Cumulative update fixes 10 browser flaws – link.

Miscellaneous

Successful public election joins old Diebold machine, free software – link.

Business

After years of refusing to take part in the Internet music boom, The Beatles may finally sell their songs online – link.

Microsoft helped write Oklahoma computer law, with amazing results – link.

Sun founder Scott McNealy to step down as losses mount – link.

The Internet

EU domain registry hijacked, claims GoDaddy, but 1.7 million domains are now registered in just under a week, established .eu as the internet’s 7th biggest registry – link.

AOL censors email “tax” opponents – link.

Social networking sites connect tens of millions of cybersurfers. Naturally, marketers want to capitalize on the phenomenon with their own virtual neighborhoods – link.