News Archive - July 2006
Distrowatch, Graphics, Fedora and Debian
Saturday 22nd July 2006
Category: News
First of all, on distrowatch.com is an interview with Ladislav Bodnar, the main man behind Distrowatch. Elsewhere, we have the possibility of an open graphics card. You won't be playing the latest games on these anytime soon, but they could make a difference to everybody else's machines.
Also:
On a slightly more personal note, I'll be taking a nice holiday for the next couple of weeks, meaning the site will be without updates for a little while. Despair not, I've got plenty of things planned for when I get back!
And finally: enjoy the summer!
Xubuntu 6.06
Thursday 20th July 2006
Categories: Reviews, GNU/Linux, FLOSS
Hot on the heels of the review of Ubuntu 6.06, otherwise known as Dapper Drake, is its sibling Xubuntu 6.06, also otherwise known as Dapper Drake.
So, what exactly is Xubuntu? Essentially, if you start with Ubuntu, get rid of GNOME and replace it with XFCE, similarly replacing some heavier applications with lighter alternatives, you end up Xubuntu.
Ubuntu 6.06
Sunday 16th July 2006
Categories: Reviews, GNU/Linux, FLOSS
Ubuntu still sits at number one on Distrowatch, and has done so for many, many months. Based upon Debian, it has become one of the most popular distributions in the GNU/Linux world. Ubuntu Dapper Drake, otherwise known as Ubuntu 6.06, is a Long Term Support release, meaning it has support reaching three years into the future on the desktop. Undoubtedly one of the most anticipated releases in recent months, lets see if it can live up to the hype.
Smart, Skype and Laws
Saturday 15th July 2006
Category: News
Smart Package Manager is an application designed to handle package management (who could have guessed!) from the commmand line right up to full blown GUI, capable of using Debian packages and RPMs. There's a general article on Smart on Linux.com, while Beranger takes a slightly more critical look. Personally, I believe that Apt and Synaptic work perfectly, and that it is a good thing Apt doesn't try and solve all the dependency problems - in those situations, where there is a problem, it is not a case of Apt being broken - it's the dependencies themselves causing problems, which I would like to solve. Still, I've yet to try Smart, so I can't comment on its strengths.
Moving on, there's a major new version of Skype for Linux out. In France, the "Worse copyright law in Europe" has been passed. Finally, there's an article about WGA - Windows Genuine Disadvantage.
Interview with Zenwalk's Jean-Philippe Guillemin
Tuesday 11th July 2006
Categories: GNU/Linux, Opinion, FLOSS
Zenwalk is one of the up and coming distributions in the FLOSS world. Jean-Philippe Guillemin, the founder of Zenwalk, takes the time to answer some questions about Zenwalk and GNU/Linux in general.
Firefox, Firewalls, and Fedora Fonts
Saturday 8th July 2006
Category: News
We start off with one of the most popular open source projects - Firefox. Looking to the future, we have a blog post about Firefox in the next nine months, as well as an interview with Firefox's Blake Ross.
Next, we find out that academics at Cambridge have breached the Great Firewall of China. Keeping with the Internet theme, Nominet, responsible for domains under .uk, has signed up to ICANN.
Finally, three things connected to GNU/Linux. Firstly, there's an article addressing the old debate of GNU/Linux or just plain Linux. There's an article on Debian and Ubuntu's relationship, particularly the problems. Finally, Fedora is considering changing default font to DejaVu.
GPL, Zend and WGA
Saturday 1st July 2006
Category: News
First of all, news that might be especially interesting to users of small distributions, as well as MEPIS: any GPL code must have the source code supplied, even if the sources are available elsewhere. This won't affect large distributions, such as Debian, but the many smaller distributions may need to start uploading their source code.
Another article is Why Linux Has Failed Beginners, while IBM brings an article about the Zend Framework.
Microsoft, as ever, are a part of the news. The big story right now seems to be the possibility of Microsoft using WGA to disable pirated copies of Windows. It might sound a fair way to fight pirates, but don't forget that there are still many people that have their copy of Windows incorrectly indentified as pirated. Microsoft are also being sued for spyware laws. And finally, we have the news of Office 2007 being delayed again.