December 2007

Humanity to others

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 12/31/2007 - 21:21
ShareThisUbuntu comes from the Bantu word which literally means "humanity to others." The St. Anthony Foundation a San Francisco based ministry to the poor and homeless recently hosted an computer outreach which featured the installation of Ubuntu on some desktops. This video highlights that experience. [youtube awrK28aV-Rc nolink]

Managing WiFi connections seamlessly with wicd

Submitted by Don Watkins on Mon, 12/31/2007 - 10:44
ShareThisI've been looking for a good wi-fi manager for Ubuntu 7.10 and I've got it with "wicd". It stores my WEP key and I can configure so that each specific network I use my notebook with stores its own settings. It's a lot like managing WiFi on a Windows notebook. It's easily installed from Synaptic by updating software sources and adding the following source to your software sources in Synaptic. http://apt.wicd.net feisty extras read more | digg story

Linux.com : HDTV reception and network streaming in a box

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 12/29/2007 - 22:17
ShareThisI just came across the HDHomeRun in a forum post on LinuxMCE.com. This might make viewing HDTV in your home bit easier leveraging existing Windows, Mac or Linux machines already in your home or wherever you care to enjoy your media.

Mohawke's Best of the Best

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 12/29/2007 - 19:58
ShareThisJust when I thought I'd seen all the collections of open source software. Here's another list of free and open source software that provides some new applications to try in the coming year.  Follow this link. If you've got a Macintosh and that includes the older Macs here is a link to a collection of open source software for the Macintosh.

Free software in Polish schools

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 12/29/2007 - 07:42
ShareThisWonderful story about how a group of volunteers from the open source community managed to promote open source throughout Poland. Sometimes it takes energetic young minds to make a difference and in this case it did. read more | digg story

Linux is not Windows

Submitted by Don Watkins on Sat, 12/29/2007 - 00:16
ShareThisI came across an extremely well written piece on another blog written by a Linux user and I think he's made some excellent points. I have not found anything I really disagree with so I'm linking it here. This chap also has many other fine articles that are great reading.
You’d be amazed how many people make this complaint. They come to Linux, expecting to find essentially a free, open-source version of Windows. Quite often, this is what they’ve been told to expect by over-zealous Linux users.

The Flexibility of Open Source

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 12/28/2007 - 09:50
ShareThisThis is a well written and thoughtful article that details a salient aspect of open source software. One of the things that has been a strong point of Open Source Software (OSS) for years, even if it hasn't been held at the forefront of the battle, is the flexibility that OSS offers. read more | digg story

Technology planning and open source

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 12/28/2007 - 04:15
ShareThisDoes open source software figure into your technology budget process? Do Linux terminal servers figure into the future of education?

Notebooks and more

Submitted by Don Watkins on Fri, 12/28/2007 - 02:42
ShareThisRoss Brunson has a good piece that includes interesting links to Everex's new Linux based sub-notebook.  Read more here.  Momentum does seem to be moving toward open source based desktops and notebooks. News that Asus Eee PC outsold expectations at 350,000 units shows that a critical mass is being achieved by Linux equipped PCs. What is there not to like about computer systems fully equipped with all the software you really need to be a power user or just a person who reads email.

The Economist: Ubuntu is the source of Linux's rise

Submitted by Don Watkins on Thu, 12/27/2007 - 19:55
ShareThisThe Economist makes three technology predictions for 2008, two of which concern web surfing and the third of which concerns everyone, whether they surf the web or not. The economist predicts that Gutsy Gibbon's rise and its ability to run on low powered and high powered machines have created an operating system for everyone. read more | digg story