Retail Software Sales Way Down

In the News 53 Comments
According to recently-released market data, retail software sales have decreased by 4%, or by 10% by units sold. That difference in numbers is a telling fact. Though demand is slackening, prices are rising. And this does not include mail order or download sales. Should it be any surprise that people are not buying software at their local Wal-Marts anymore? And the growing disaffection with the upgrade treadmill and the increasing availablity of free alternatives may be having an effect too.
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Introducing the Robotic Operating System

OS News 5 Comments
The Robotic Operating System, or ROS (download), is intended to operate at the center of behavior-based robotics systems. ROS is an operating system within an operating system, running as a normal program on UNIX-like systems and acting as an operating system for a set of other normal UNIX programs and scripts. ROS is used only to start, stop, and provide other services to behaviors, but without behaviors would perform no function. While a behavior might, technically, run without ROS, it would not fit into a system of behaviors and so would not be useful.
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Review: A Slackware User Looks at LindowsOS

Linspire 50 Comments
Lindows.com offered LindowsOS Developer Edition free for one day, GoogleDay (Whatever that is, I don't know, google's birthday perhaps?) so I decided to test it. My favorite distribution this far has been (and still is) Slackware Linux, which has always, well, just worked. I've been using Linux for some years now, I use Solaris at work (I work as software designer). Trying out Lindows after Slackware was totally different world, and here's some of my toughts after trying out Lindows.
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Mandrake Set to Emerge from Bankruptcy Protection

  Submitted by Matt Whipp Mandriva, Mandrake, Lycoris 25 Comments
Mandrake has applied to come out of the French equivalent of bankruptcy protection: 'declaration de cessation des paiements'. Some of the new features of Mandrake 10 that MandrakeSoft will be pinning their hopes on to make succeeding quarters more profitable. "There will be many new features in Mandrake 10.0, but it's a bit early to say more. There will be new improvements on the ergonomy side, the integration of a groupware solution, and of course the inclusion of Linux 2.6.x kernel as default which provides better performance."
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iChatAV 2.1b adds AIM Video Conf Support; Bluetooth 1.5 Update

Multimedia, AV 24 Comments
Macminute reports that Apple today released a public beta version of iChat AV 2.1, an update to its instant messaging application that adds support for video conferencing with those using AOL Instant Messenger 5.5 for Windows (also released today). Apple has released Bluetooh Software 1.5, the latest version of the short-range wireless connectivity technology for Mac OS X. Version 1.5, available via the Software Update preference pane, provides support for Bluetooth-enabled headsets and printers.
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Review: Xandros Deluxe 2.0

Oracle and SUN 36 Comments
I know this has been a long time coming but I've had coursework/exams/an interview to deal with and the actual writing got put on the back burner. However, I have been using Xandros a fair bit and it must be said that I really like it. If you're not a Slackware junkie (like me) I would reccomend Xandros as the best distro to use - it's good for experienced users and completed newbies alike.
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