Google Dumps Microsoft Windows Company-Wide!

"Employees wanting to stay on Windows required clearance from “quite senior levels”, one employee said. “Getting a new Windows machine now requires CIO approval,” said another employee."

VirtualBox 3.0.0 for Linux Brings 3D and OpenGL 2.0 Support

"VirtualBox, the popular, amazing, open-source, virtualization software from Sun Microsystems, reached version 3.0.0 a few minutes ago. This major update brings lots of new features, many bugfixes and improvements over previous 2.x versions. The big and breathtaking news is that users can now use Direct3D 8 and 9 games or applications! Moreover, with VirtualBox 3.0.0, support for OpenGL 2.0 (only for Linux, Solaris and Windows guests) has been implemented. Another important feature is the new SMP (Symmetrical Multiprocessing) guest support with no more than 32 virtual processors. Without any further introduction, let's have a look at the main fixes/additions in VirtualBox 3.0.0 for Linux"

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Ubuntu accuses Microsoft of Linux netbook FUD

If you think that Windows now completely rules the netbook world, you've been drinking way too much Microsoft kool-aid according to Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.

"LaBlanc opened by claiming that almost all netbooks sold today are sold with Windows. Well, no, not really. The numbers LaBlanc cites are from NPD's sales survey. NPD focuses on brick-and-mortar U.S. sales, not overall sales. Notice how many Linux systems you see at Best Buy? NPD numbers say a lot more about retail channel sales than it does over-all sales. Besides, as Canonical's director of business development Kenyon wrote, "However here is an interesting fact--when customers are offered choice on equally well-engineered computers around a third will select Ubuntu over XP."

"Kenyon also calls Microsoft on what he's polite to call an out-and-out lie. Microsoft claims that Canonical itself has said that its Linux netbooks are returned at a rate more than four times as high as Windows netbooks. No they're not. Kenyon wrote, "Continually repeating that we 'confirmed' a 4x return over XP when we did nothing of the sort is really not worthy of a great company like Microsoft."

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Living free with Linux: 2 weeks without Windows

Can a dedicated Windows user make it for two weeks using only Linux? Preston Gralla tried it and lived to tell this tale.

January 21, 2009 (Computerworld) It's one of those perennial age-old battles that can never be resolved. Coke or Pepsi? Chocolate or vanilla? Linux or Windows?

I've been in the trenches of those wars for years. I've written about Windows since the days of Windows 2.0, including numerous books and hundreds or even thousands of articles, blogs and columns. Along the way, I've been called every name in the book -- and many you won't find in any books, either -- by Linux proponents, because I've extolled the benefits of Windows, while ignoring those of Linux.

So I thought it was finally time to confront the issue myself. How does Linux stack up against Windows? Which is really easier to use and less expensive? Which actually lets you be more productive? In short: Could I live without Windows at all and run my life on Linux for two weeks without spending a penny for software? Since one of Linux's great virtues is that it, and many of the applications that run under it, are open source, part of the attraction for me was to see if I could use an operating system and applications that were completely free.

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Ubuntu and Its Leader Set Sights on the Mainstream

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.

PEOPLE encountering Ubuntu for the first time will find it very similar to Windows. The operating system has a slick graphical interface, familiar menus and all the common desktop software: a Web browser, an e-mail program, instant-messaging software and a free suite of programs for creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations.

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Techradar.com: How To Run Linux From A USB Drive

"Nothing can beat having a great Linux distro installed on a super-fast hard drive, with all your favourite apps configured just how you like them and all your files at your fingertips.

But this has one major drawback: perfect as your setup is, it's also just one machine, and sooner or later you'll be forced to leave that computer behind and use something else.

Something that might run Windows. Something that might not even have Firefox. Because no one likes being parted from their data for too long, we present a smarter option: store it all on a USB flash drive.

In older days, you were able to store Linux on a CD and use a flash drive just to save changes. After some advancements, you were able to run Linux straight from the flash drive, but it didn't store any changes you made. But the latest generation of Linux distros – namely Ubuntu 8.10 and Fedora 9 – have a memory overlay system that allows you to store your Linux distro and any changes you make to it on a single flash drive. Sure, you'll need at least 1GB to be able to fit the entire distro on there, but it does mean everything you need is all on the one device.

Once you switch your install to a flash drive, it means you can take it pretty much anywhere and get back to work immediately. Whether you're using a server, a desktop or even a tiny little Aspire One or Eee PC, the vast majority of modern computers support booting straight from USB, so you can just plug in your drive and go."

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Banish your daemons for a faster Linux PC.

How to manage your machine's background processes. In common with other parts of the early Unix operating system, the term 'daemon' gives little away about what its function might be.

A daemon is a task that runs in the background, and there's a small army of them that are started when you fire up your machine. There are daemons for controlling automated tasks, daemons for managing power and CPU use, daemons for printing and daemons for writing the system logs. Some denote their status by ending with the letter 'd', while others prefer the anonymity of names like 'binfmpt-support' or 'brltty'.

Daemons are obviously an important part of the running environment. But there's also a slight problem. Without any divine inspiration, the average Linux distribution can't accurately guess which daemons are going to be of use to you, and which aren't. The result is that they'll normally play it safe and err on the side of caution.

This means that your desktop may include a laptop power management daemon, or Bluetooth tools, neither of which may be of great use. These will still get loaded up and use valuable memory, so you can save boot time and memory by spending a little time pruning your daemons, and fitting them to your own requirements. The trick is knowing which ones to cut.

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Hey, Dad...Can I have Linux back?

My oldest son, creator of flame wars, finally discovered that you can only surf to the nether regions of the Internet so many times before even Vista business succumbs to malware. His computer an unusable mass of pop-ups, spewing traffic over our network actually asked me tonight to reinstall Linux for him.

He still wants a Vista virtual machine since Spore is a pretty fine game and his Zune probably won’t play nice with Linux. However, for everyday use, he’s done with Vista. Not only does it lack the “amusing desktop effects” (which his mother hates, by the way, on her new Linux desktop), but even running Clamwin and Windows Defender, he still managed to infect it with a variety of junk, rendering it useless when he had a term paper to write.

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Linux is easier to install than XP

"You might think that installing XP in place of Vista would be easier than installing Linux. You'd be wrong. When you buy a new PC today, unless you hunt down a Linux system or you buy a Mac, you’re pretty much stuck with Vista. Sad, but true. We have this illusion, that’s just because Windows works on the systems it comes pre-installed on, that Windows has great built-in driver support. No, it doesn’t. Once you move to installing Windows on a new system, you’ll quickly find that Linux, not Windows, has the better built-in hardware support."

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Looking to run Virtualization software on OS X for free?

Unfortunately more often then not Macintosh users must give in to the dark side of the force and run a Windows XP or Vista only program. So "virtualization continues to be a big topic among Mac users with Intel-powered Macs. Products from Parallels and VMware allow you to easily run many different operating systems on your Mac, each within its own protected virtual environment. Recently, a third player entered the market—Sun, with its VirtualBox product." I recommend you take a look after all its free and even if you don't own a copy of Windows then you can always install OpenSolaris, Solaris 10 or  Linux on your VirtualBox software.

Macworld Video: A look at VirtualBox

10 Tips for Securing Linux Desktops

Out of the box, a Linux desktop is far more secure than most others.However, this level of security is not necessarily attained through typical security-focused software or techniques. Sometimes, the easiest means to security are those that are the easiest to forget. You might find these suggestions to be pure common sense, but maybe you'll see a means of security you never thought of before. If you're a new Linux user, these tips are a great place to start to ensure that your Linux experience is a good one.Here are 10 steps you can take to secure a Linux desktop.

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Ashley Highfield, BBC executive, Reviews Ubuntu

Ashley Highfield, Director of BBC Future Media and Technology has given Ubuntu a road-test on his BBC blog and provides a pretty positive review, testing a number of different use-cases of the system including wireless networks, picture editing, iPlayer, updates, webcam support and more.

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XO-2 $100 laptop unveils new sleek design

The wraps have been taken off the new version of the XO-2 laptop designed for schoolchildren in developing countries. "It is a totally new concept for learning devices," said Prof Negroponte.The revamped machine created by the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project looks like an e-book and has had its price slashed to $75 per device. The laptops which originally had a target price of $100 now cost $188 each.The new version loses the green rubbery keyboard, sporting instead a single square display hinged at its centre. In mid-May OLPC announced a deal with Microsoft to make Windows & Linux available on the XO machine. OLPC has announced the resumption of the Get-One-Give-One program and this will allow people in wealthy nations to buy two XO laptops and donate one to a child in a developing country. So far with this program OLPC has distributed 30,000 additional laptops to children in Rwanda, Mongolia and Haiti.

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Microsoft Executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer attacked in Europe

Steve ballmer gets egged in Hungary



Bill Gates hit with pie