Virtualization in Linux: A Review of Four Software Choices

Virtualization is the technique of running a "guest" operating system inside an already-running OS; for example, Windows inside Linux, or visa-versa. This article compares four virtualization products available for Ubuntu Linux: the free, open source Qemu; the closed-but-free versions of VirtualBox and VMware-Server, and the commercial Parallels.

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Design your own desktop with Xfce 4.4

"Xfce is just as customizable as KDE or GNOME, so I set myself a goal: make Xubuntu look like Windows Vista. Why? Because I can."

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Google intoxicates Linux users with Wine improvements

Improvements to Wine sponsored by Google have made it possible to run Adobe Photoshop and Dragon Naturally Speaking on Linux.

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European Union poors US$1million into Open Source!!

Great things are happening in the FOSS community. This will undoubtedly propel Linux forward!! While this figure is by no means extra-ordinary, it is enough proof that the open source community is firmly in the driving seat of tomorrow's innovation.

.....

Tuesday 19 February 2008: The European Union has awarded a €703,000 (US$ 1 million) grant to a consortium of 11 organizations to explore the use of Free/Libre/Open Source Software (FLOSS) as a development tool.

Dubbed FLOSSInclude and funded under the EU's 7th Framework Programme, the two year project will be carried out by a project team of research institutes, government agencies, private companies and non-governmental organizations in 9 countries - Argentina, Cambodia, China, Ghana, India, South Africa, Spain and the UK. The consortium is led by UNU-MERIT, a joint research and training centre of United Nations University and Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

The FLOSSInclude project will carry out an in-depth analysis of the technical, business and socio-political needs for the growth of FLOSS use, deployment and development in the target regions. The project further aims to build on the network developed during the course of the
study to promote international collaboration between the EU and developing countries.

FLOSSInclude will expand on earlier work by some of the consortium partners, such as the groundbreaking FLOSSWorld study, by providing a rich contextual analysis based on the specific expertise and country experiences of the participating organisations and countries.

In pilot efforts, the partners will implement FLOSS solutions, tools and services to ensure they are cost-effective and practical for each environment. The result will be a roadmap for future EU development research cooperation, with concrete and validated solutions for clearly identified needs. Together with a massive push in dissemination and networking, the FLOSSInclude aims to ensure a lasting impact beyond the project duration.

A project fact sheet is available at http://flossinclude.eu

The members of the FLOSSInclude consortium are:

• United Nations University's Maastricht Economic and social Research and training centre on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT) at the University of Maastricht, The Netherlands (http://ccg.merit.unu.edu/)
  

• Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain (http://www.urjc.es/)

• Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Ciencia y Tecnología en Extremadura, Spain (http://www.fundecyt.es)
  

• Open Institute / KhmerOS, Cambodia (http://www.khmeros.info/)

• Canonical Ltd, UK/South Africa (http://canonical.com/)

• Fundación Via Libre, Argentina (http://www.vialibre.org.ar/)

• University of Western Cape, South Africa (http://www.uwc.ac.za)

• Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in ICT, Ghana (http://www.aiti-kace.com.gh/)
  

• IT for Change, India (http://www.itforchange.net/)

• Sarai, India (http://www.sarai.net/)

• China Education and Research Network (CERNET), China (http://www.cernet.edu.cn/)

Dell cheating the Linux Community

I received an email which startled me. Dell has been going about making a lot of noise about open source and Linux. They have started selling "Ubuntu PCs" sometime ago. I actually didn't bother to check their sincerely until I received this email below from a friend. I confirmed and this is true. Is is time to tell Dell to go to Hell!


As I assume you all are aware it is possible to buy Dell with Ubuntu preinstalled. It is also possible to buy some models totally OS-free.

However, the Swedish version of Computer World checked with Dell Sweden and found that it is more EXPENSIVE to  buy one of these without OS than with MS Windows preinstalled "due to agreements with Microsoft".

I wonder what kind of agreement that might be -  "you pay us for every pc you sell with no OS and we give you even cheaper OEM licenses" or what?

Also when I have checked in UK on Dell w Ubuntu the price is sometimes on par with Windows-installed and sometimes more expensive... which is why I for my own budgetary reasons have a Dell Vostro w Vista license (never used Vista however...).

In any other business this would have various authorities alerted and involved on restricting competition in a market economy.

This also shines some light on why Dell SA are not offering the Ubuntu packaged PCs, something I have been wondering since day 1 why they did not.

Sinclair


IMHO, I think the Linux community should start sending their complains to Dell using any media available. Such behavior is tantamount to being a trojan horse. Micro$oft will now have enough ammunition to take their FUD to another level. Soon, they will be launching another campaign claiming yet another TCO coup.

It actually dawned on me the PCs pre-installed with Linux can be used by M$ to incorrectly show that Linux is expensive after all. Could this be why M$ has been proposing love all over the place to Linux distributors?

...And were are the Anti-Competition watch dogs????