Garmin has posted Linux source code for its Nuvi 8xx and Nuvi 5xxx-series GPS navigation devices. The Nuvi 8xx offers a 4.3-inch, 480×272 display, and appears to be based on a Marvell PXA-3xx processor, Gnome Mobile Linux, and GeoClue location technology.

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So in short, the deal is, you get the card, but the only way to use it is to rent a driver to which you have an incomplete access, thereby making your fruitful use of the card consistently dependent on Nvidia and, quite obviously, therefore limiting the control you as a supposed owner of the card really have over it.

My response to many negative comments about Linux drivers:

Let’s just think for a minute why 90% or so of computer users use Windows… It comes on their PC’s. And of those 90% I’d say 85% or more don’t know there’s an alternative. They blindly struggle and curse their way through Vista and all of it’s pitfalls. If you bought a PC that came with Linux pre-installed and that was your one option, you’d be a Linux user. Many of us choose to seek out other options because we grew tired of having to pay for nearly EVERYTHING on a Windows machine. With the whole Anti-Virus, Anti-Spyware, Anti-Malware thing is it puts a sizable dent in your wallet to have to pay subscription and or licensing fees every year on several PC’s and guess what… they still don’t work most of the time and you eventually have to wipe you system and reinstall Windows!!! UGH!!! Sound familiar?

The whole open driver debate is more about keeping the product alive for many years to come and supporting the open source community because they give back to the community. It’s like having thousands of developers and programmers do the work for you for FREE!!! By allowing people to develop their own drivers, they basically guarantee their products survival. Just look at Linksys with the WRT54G or the Linksys NSLU2. They will always have the hardware to sell and profit on. And they can rely on the masses of Windows users who don’t know how to compile a driver from source, much less write one, to use the one they provide them. We’ll see how bad it hurts AMD/ATI my guess is it won’t, not one bit.

I was always an Nvidia fan but am now rethinking that position. I support companies that support Linux, it’s that simple. I also own nearly a dozen computers so when I vote with my wallet it has more of an impact that someone that buys a single new PC once every 4 to 5 years as I’m sure many of the Windows users do.

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Collection of IRC clients for Linux

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This movie looks, well… incredible. Enough said. Coming June 13, 2008.

The Open Screen Project is working to enable a consistent runtime environment – taking advantage of Adobe® Flash® Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR™ — that will remove barriers for developers and designers as they publish content and applications across desktops and consumer devices

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This is the sort of this I used to dream about back in 1997 with my frustration with Windows had hit an all time high using Win98 trying to setup config.sys and that other damn file that I can’t remember to get a game to run. I spent hours tweaking the settings little by little until it finally worked. Now games for Windows are easier to run under Linux than they ever were with Windows 98. That day, I went in disgust, to Staples to buy Red Hat 5.0 and installed it on my machine and have been in love with Linux ever since. Granted it wasn’t easy then but the efforts have paid off for me in spades. No virus/malware issues for the most part to contend with and the overall user experience is tremendous. If you want to dig under the hood you can if you want to only us the shiny top layer you can also do that equally well. The days are fast approaching that Linux will become a major player in the desktop world and that only makes me happier about my switch everyday. It’s been 11 years and counting for me.

Ken Gutkowski

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KDE on Linux has stepped up to become the software platform in the primary school education system in Brazil. That may sound like a bold claim, but the numbers are staggering and speak for themselves….

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The ultimate collection of cheat sheets for linux users. Enough to fill up your whole wall with commands yielded by the geek gods!

Be sure to digg this so more people can have the opportunity to get ahold of all these in one place.

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http://www.itwire.com/content/view/15272/1023/

by Stan Beer

Sunday, 11 November 2007

For any parent, myself included, setting your kids loose on the net is a daunting prospect. We have to do it because the net is a fact of life - it’s in our schools, the workplace, public libraries and in many if not most homes of the developed world. Therefore, do we really have any option but to give them Linux?

When I first conceived this article I considered giving it the title “can we afford to let our kids use Windows online”. However, I felt that taking a positive tack would be more constructive. The fact is that these days security is paramount with kids surfing the net, exchanging emails and chatting online while still in primary school.

Having recently migrated to Ubuntu from Windows, I fully appreciate the risks that our kids are exposed to everytime they venture online with Windows. Basically, kids online are an accident waiting to happen, regardless of what anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware they happen to be running.

Every other day, some anti-malware vendor issues a media release about a zero day attack of a new worm or Trojan horse that has slipped under the guard of known anti-malware signatures. At least once a month - and quite often more frequently - we hear of critical vulnerabilities in Windows whatever the version that require software patching. Microsoft freely admits that exploits for these vulnerabilities could hand control of a computer to a remote attacker. Sometimes exploits are already in the market before patches arrive.

In addition, the anti-malware penicillin that Windows computers are required to run these days just to keep the online experience moderately safe are so resource hungry that computers thousands of times as powerful as the primitive number crunchers that put men on the moon nearly 40 years ago are as slow as a wet week. My highly configured dual core processor computer with 4GB of RAM and a powerful dedicated graphics processor running Windows Home Server 2003 ran slower than a much weaker computer I had in the pre-Internet late 1980s running DOS.

Most average computer users, myself included, would not have a clue which is the best security package to run on our Windows computers. We tend to go with the names we know Symantec/Norton, McAfee, CA, Kaspersky, Microsoft, but we don’t really know what will happen if we open an attachment in a dodgy email or click on a link that leads to a malicious web page. Maybe our security package will capture and quarantine the deception or maybe not. It’s the one time in a hundred that slips under the guard of these security packages that can do all the damage and with our kids that’s not good enough.

There is no question that surfing the net and engaging in other online activities using one of the many excellent Linux distros is a much safer prospect for both kids and adults than turning them loose with Windows. However, given many schools are using Windows in their curriculum, what are they losing by using Linux

Online, there is very little lost and much more gained by using Linux instead of Windows. There are still a few backward websites that insist on Internet Explorer and proprietary Windows Media Player formats to give users an “optimum experience” but with the vastly superior Firefox browser continuing to tear massive chunks out of IE market share, the diminishing number of IE websites will inevitably be forced to wake up.

As far as email is concerned, there is nothing lost with Linux. Thunderbird is every bit as good or better than Outlook Express. Evolution can match Outlook for features and usability any day. And of course all the web mail packages run under Linux.

Kids, like an increasing number of adults, communicate a lot via instant messaging and Internet telephony. Skype, the most popular IM and Internet telephony package in the world, works just as well under Linux as Windows. Yahoo IM also works under Linux, which of course gives users access to Windows IM users.

All the online social networks run under Linux. YouTube works fine.

For my money, or lack of it, OpenOffice.org is every bit as good as Microsoft Office, largely compatible, it conforms to the ISO ODF standard and it can save files in PDF format. Some schools may insist on teaching their students Office 2007, with that horrible “ribbon” instead of the classic menus. Forget the hype, the different interface was designed purely to protect Microsoft’s investment in Office.

If your youngster insists that he or she simply must have Office 2007 and you cave under the pressure, then you can always run it on Linux using a Windows compatibility layer like Wine or a VMWare Windows virtual machine. However, try to hold firm and stick to OpenOffice. You can also encourage your child to explore the possibilities opening up for them through the online software as a service office packages, such as Google Documents and Spreadsheets, Zoho and Thinkfree.

Older kids studying subjects like accounting may be forced to use programs like Quicken and Quickbooks that run only under Windows (thanks Intuit), although there are some excellent Linux alternatives, such as GNUCash. However, once again there is always the option of running a virtual Windows implementation just for the privilege of running proprietary software whose developers have lacked the foresight to port their application to the Linux platform.

Of course if your kids are into Windows PC games, there’s not much you can do except tell them to get over it and point out that there is a growing Linux games market and perhaps buy them a games console to soften the blow. Myself, I would be quite happy to be in the dog house over depriving my kids of Windows games but secure in the knowledge that my kids are safer online because they use Linux. For kids Linux is not a fad or a toy for geeks, it’s a necessity and as responsible parents we cannot afford to deprive them of it.

Finally an excellent Truecrypt GUI for Linux. It’s not a front end but actually Truecrypt. Check it out.

http://polishlinux.org/howtos/truecrypt-5-encrypt-your-drive-in-gui/

A few days ago TrueCrypt 5.0 has been released, a great tool for encrypting your hard drives. It can be used to encrypt existing partitions or create a virtual one located in a single file. In this article we cover the changes in version 5.0 and provide you some useful benchmarks.

http://www.truecrypt.org

An excellent site from what I’ve seen thus far. Thanks to “linuxtechie”

http://linuxtechie.wordpress.com/2008/01/05/my-list-of-useful-applications/

My List of Useful Applications

Posted by linuxtechie on January 5, 2008

I’ve decided to make a list of applications that I’ve found to be helpful/handy. Some of them may be little know, some may be well known. So without further ado:

Blueman

This one isn’t in the Ubuntu repos, but there’s a repository on the home page. This has got to be the best Bluetooth manager for GTK. Coupled with many of the other Bluetooth utilities such as gnome-vfs-obexftp, this is a very powerful application. You can inquiry for devices, keep a list of favorites, send files, and even browse your device right through Nautilus.

Gcolor2

I’ve found this to come in handy a lot. It’s a little color chooser that lets you pick any color on your screen along with a ton of preset colors you can choose from.

sudo apt-get install gcolor2

Grip

More than once I’ve found myself disappointed by Sound Juicer. It doesn’t have a whole lot of options and, for me at least, the resulting audio files came out very poor with lots of pops and click due to scratches. Then I found Grip. Grip is a very light weight yet highly configurable CD ripper. It can rip in many formats and, the best feature in my opinion, it has Paranoia. No it’s not a suspicious application . It will detect and auto-correct any pops or clicks during the encoding process that result from the unavoidable CD scratches. After ripping a few CDs with Grip I was very pleased with the outcome. Not a single pop or click.

sudo apt-get install grip

Brasero

Brasero is the official Gnome CD burning application. Previously I’ve used Gnomebaker but now I’ve switched to Brasero. Brasero is the up and coming CD burning application. Sadly the Gnomebaker project appears to be dying. It’s capable of multi-session data CDs, auio CDs, copying CDs, burning CD images, and erasing CD-RWs. I’ve seemed to have better luck with Brasero than with Gnomebaker or the Nautilus CD burner.

sudo apt-get install brasero

Sound Converter

Ever needed to quickly convert an audio file? This is a great application for just that. It can convert the most common audio file types. The application is pretty much straight forward. I’ve found it to come in handy a lot of times.

sudo apt-get install soundconverter

Gnome Schedule

Gnome Schedule is a little graphical front end to Cron. It’s very useful if you need to run something at a certain time. You can schedule events recurrently or one time only.

sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule

Nautilus Image Converter

This is another very useful little app. Nautilus Image Converter is a little extension for Nautilus that lets you resize and rotate images. A lot of times I’ve needed to resize an image and found opening the Gimp a bit overkill for that. Now I can just right click on an image and resize or rotate it in seconds.

sudo apt-get install nautilus-image-converter

Htop

This is a great little app. It just like Top only it shows a lot more information. You can sort processes by different categories, kill processes and much more.

sudo apt-get install htop

Conky

Conky is a very light weight, highly configurable system monitor. I’ve found Conky to be extremely handy. I love having all my system stats right on my screen at all times. It’s very easy to catch any run away process. There’s a huge thread in the Ubuntu forums full of people’s conkyrc files. I feel lost without Conky

sudo apt-get install conky

Gmountiso

Gmountiso is very useful for mounting .iso images. Ubuntu can do this natively through the terminal, however if you don’t know the commands this is a very helpful application.

sudo apt-get install gmountiso

One commenter on Digg said we all loose as consumers and I have to agree. I am sad to see the end for HD-DVD even though Blu-Ray was my format of choice. More options/choices for consumers equals more competition and that’s always a good thing in the technology market.

Toshiba just made a statements saying, “It will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders.” Finally.

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What we’re going to do is hypermile these cars. Although, much like Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men, we’re not sure you can handle the truth. To be perfectly honest, we were shocked ourselves. Shocked and giddy,

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To be honest, I didn’t see this one coming. Certainly not in the opening month of the year and after the holiday rush. But here it is anyway, courtesy of the NPD, whose numbers are some of the most reliable in the industry. So I’ll just cut to the chase and give you those January 2008 numbers:

274k - Wii
269k - PlayStation 3
251k - Nintendo DS
230k - PlayStation Portable
230k - Xbox 360

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Imagine how successful Dell’s Ubuntu offering could be if just one Dell Ubuntu machine was put in retail stores. If people knew of an alternative to Windows, they would go for it! So what do you say, Dell? Why don’t you try to put at least one of your Ubuntu machines offered in retail stores? Please add your support!

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This sucks since I just bought a Toshiba HD DVD player at Wal-Mart for $148.88 with 7 free movies. Fortunately, I have my Playstation 3 for Blu-Ray duties.

HD DVD fans, we hate to do this to you, but it’s time we called it. HD DVD is now officially on Engadget deathwatch. We haven’t put anything important on deathwatch since TiVo in 2005 (which, as you may recall, still stands); but just as then, we have to step back from our personal preferences and investments in media and gear, ignore the rumors an

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In this PopularMechanics article, Jamie Hyneman, most famous for the show “Mythbusters” describes his Tech Headaches, including his frustration with the “bloated” features in Vista among other irritations. He offers solutions to many of the problems, and apparently, Ubuntu is the solution to Vista.

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Ubuntu 8.04 alpha 4 was released today, with impressive new features like GVFS, PolicyKit, and PulseAudio. We put it to the test so we could give you a first look.

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http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/01/16/sun-mysql-linux-tech-enter-cx_ag_0116sun.html?feed=rss_popstories

Sun Microsystems elbowed into the enterprise database market Wednesday with the announcement of a proposed $1 billion acquisition of MySQL, an open-source database software company. The deal, which Sun Chief Executive Jonathan Schwartz calls the “most important acquisition in the company’s history,” makes Sun one of the first major public companies to offer open-source software and puts the company head to head with the three big vendors in the $15 billion database market: IBM, SAP, and its former database partner, Oracle.

Compared to those three goliaths, which provide database software to 86% of the enterprise software market, according to Forrester Research, MySQL offers a simpler and cheaper solution. That makes MySQL an appealing option for small- and medium-sized businesses, says Forrester analyst Noel Yuhanna. “Unlike IBM, Oracle and SAP, MySQL has never had 50,000 features, but it does have maybe 10,000 relevant features that are relevant to enterprises,” he says. “That cost savings is one of the key reasons that users have looked at open source, and fewer features means it’s easier to use and manage.”

MySQL’s lighter-weight database system may also fit into Sun’s ambitions of becoming a major player in “utility computing,” a model of information technology infrastructure that pipes in software applications, processing and storage over the Internet rather than from a company’s own data centers. “All other databases on the market today were designed for an offline, back-office use,” says MySQL Chief Executive Marten Mickos. “Our relevance grows as enterprises shift to Web-based architecture, and that’s what’s happening right now.”

One billion dollars, split between $800 million in cash and $200 million in stock options, may seem a hefty price tag for MySQL, which gives its software away to 99% of its customers. But the 1% of MySQL users who do pay for support include big names like Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), Yahoo! (nasdaq: YHOO - news - people ), Nokia (nyse: NOK - news - people ), and Alcatel-Lucent (nyse: ALU - news - people ). As Sun’s (nasdaq: JAVA - news - people ) size lends legitimacy and the guarantee of long-term service to MySQL, the acquisition will likely convince more and larger enterprises to sign on to MySQL’s cut-rate database systems, Yuhanna says.

“This makes Sun a major open-source vendor, and it will have a major pricing impact on the traditional vendors,” says Donald Feinberg, an analyst with Gartner.

The purchase of MySQL, which has built one of the best brand names among privately held open source companies, is yet more evidence of how tough it is for open source companies to go to the public markets. Red Hat (nasdaq: RHT - news - people ), which has a market capitalization of about $3.7 billion, remains the primary example of a publicly traded open source company: Last year, it bought open source middleware provider, JBoss, for $350 million. Novell (nasdaq: NOVL - news - people ) snapped up SUSE Linux in 2004 for $210 million.

On Sun’s part, the acquisition gives the server and software company a database offering that is capable of storing and manipulating the information used by its software tools, a role it has largely handed to Oracle. That means Sun is attempting to tap into some of the revenue that it formerly directed to Oracle, and may strain the company’s relationship with its former partner.

For Oracle, the deal shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Sun first hinted at the possibility of entering the database market in 2005 when co-founder Scott McNealy cryptically showed analysts a list of database players including the words “SunDB.” Since then, Sun has made minor investments in another open-source solution, PostgreSQL, hiring developers to work on that non-commercial database product and offering its own support to users.

The MySQL deal, which is slated to close in the first half of 2008, is a sign that Sun is pushing into more open-source software applications and could even enter the Linux market, the terrain of companies like Red Hat. “Sun is doing more and more with being a provider of open source in this enterprise infrastructure space,” says Raven Zachary, an open-source analyst at 451 Group. “I’d start to look at them as a bigger player in software, especially open-source software, through this and other acquisitions.”

http://linuxgeeksunited.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-open-is-open-enough.html
Written by: Don Sanderson

We have seen the signs that changes are happening. Not just specifically in the Linux world, but in Open Source, Open Standards and in the proprietary world as well.

Companies like Microsoft are sharing information, whether it’s because they want to or because a court of law compels them. The recent announcement of sharing SMB protocols with the SAMBA group is evidence of that.

Also, Microsoft has entered the realm of Open Standards by trying to push their own version of an open document standard through the works. While I am not altogether impressed by their methods, it is telling that they see the need to play the open documents game. It’s what businesses, governments and community agencies are clamoring for.

IBM and Sun, to name two of the biggest players in the market, have released some of their most important software under Open Source licenses recently. Giving us a view that they are not just laying back and watching anymore, but are becoming more assertive, even aggressive in pursuing Open Source solutions.

Novell, once the dominant giant in networking with it Netware products, is reinventing itself using Linux and other Open Source apps to regain some of their statutre in the network world and has produced recently some of the best work yet in a Linux offering.

The GPL Open Source license has now been defended at least twice publicly and successfully.

Things are looking good for Open Source and Open Standards. Where do things go from here?

People need to insist on having Open Standards. When you install a word processor, you want to make sure you are getting one that allows you to save it and transport it so that anyone, with any word processor can read it or edit it. That’s a fundamental part of having access to Free Speech. Except it’s not Government imposing closed communications on you, it’s corporate giants. In the name of Big Business, we have allowed corporate types to dictate how, when and with what we should communicate with.

Small businesses are moving to Open Source solutions more and more in order to save on operating expenses, licensing costs and more. As these small business continue to adopt Open Source solutions, they will need to have more “open” access to do business and access other avenues, such as tax preparation and government document filings.

The B2B industry will need to “Open” up quite a bit if the big Corporates who have been resisting find their small business customers stealing away to do business with others who will support their new Open Source software solutions.

It takes time to make big changes such as these. It’s not as mundane as “X OS sucks” and “Y distro is great.” Other Operating Systems like MS Windows will never g oaway entirely and Apple, Linux, Windows and others will continue to share the market as they have, perhaps with market shares of some decreasing while others take up a bit more, but in the end, the monopoly of Software and computers is over and on it’s way out. Even if not Linux, the attention has been brought, the spotlight been shined on the disastrous position that corporate greed and government blindness has wrought.

With the right know-how, a willingness to run a few terminal commands and a mind for efficiency, you can get every last bit of power from your Linux box, or get more life out of an older system. Read on for our roundup of tips that any level of Linux user can implement

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