Fun with Mandrake PowerPack 9.0

"Last week a friendly delivery driver brought me a copy of Mandrake's PowerPack Edition 9.0. This is the complete boxed set, full of bells, whistles, and bangles. As others have said before me, 9.0 is the smoothest Mandrake yet. This article is more in the "tips and tricks" vein than a review, since I think Mandrake's latest has already been reviewed more than enough, more often favorably than not." Read the review at NewsForge.

Introducing the Linux-based Moxi

A few months ago Paul Allen's Digeo company acquired Moxi, who at the time was working on a TiVo-like PVR Linux-based solution, also named Moxi. Many expected that the co-founder of Microsoft would modify the product to use WindowsCE, but instead the Moxi has continued to be developed with Linux. In fact, Digeo seems really happy with the popular open source kernel. Continue reading to learn more about this exciting new product and view the exclusive screenshots we have for you.

Klaus Knopper, Creator of Knoppix Talks to DistroWatch

Ladislav writes: "Knoppix has taken the Linux world by storm. Barely known outside its borders only a few months ago, it has suddenly become the focus of Linux media as a great way of introducing anyone to Linux. This amazing product is a brainchild of Klaus Knopper. Klaus was kind enough to take time off his schedule and agreed to answer a few questions for the benefit of DistroWatch readers."

Grand Tour: the Story of a Penguin and a Red Fedora

The legendary Red Hat Road Tour 2002 is nearly at an end, and a good time was had by all. One of the most successful stops on the tour was the presentation at the O'Reilly and Associates headquarters in Sebastopol, California. Because the Red Hat RV's arrival was delayed due to traffic conditions, Tim O'Reilly gave a rousing speech beforehand that was well received by the audience. Read a detailed report of the event at The Idea Basket.

Sun Flies Desktop Linux Kite

"In May or June next year Sun will ship desktop computers running Linux, the open source Mozilla web browser, email program Evolution and Sun's StarOffice application suite. The desktops, being created under "Project Mad Hatter", will also ship with the open source WINE emulator program, allowing them to run Windows applications, and Samba, providing access to networked file and print services." Read the article at ComputerWorld. On Tuesday, OSNews will publish an exclusive article with more information on Solaris, Linux and Sun's plans for the desktop. Stay tuned for more.

Technology After the Bubble

"Having spent more than $1.2 trillion on information technology in the United States alone from 1995 to 2000, companies now want to wring the elusive productivity and bottom-line gains from this massive outlay. If buyers are glad to end their spendthrift ways, IT providers of course have a different perspective: After years of heady sales growth, they are now engaged in bare-knuckle competition as the industry confronts sated customers and overcapacity." Read the article at C|Net News.

Here’s the Plan for Software

"If there's one thing an effective empire builder needs, it's a good map. Microsoft's map for reshaping and reviving the world of business software can be found on floor two of Building Four on the company's campus, in the office of a technology strategist named Norm Judah. The map itself doesn't look like much. If anything, it resembles a microchip design or possibly an org chart gone mad. But this poster-sized piece of cardboard is nothing less than a schematic of how business works. Not how Microsoft works. How business works." Read the article at Fortune.

MacOSX Journaling: What it is, who Needs it

"The journaling operation itself does impose a performance penalty on disk writes. Mac OS X Server alters the sizes of certain buffers used for file transactions when journaling is enabled, which mitigates much of the performance hit, reducing it from the 10-15 percent range down to the 2-5 percent range, for a system with 512MB of RAM. The more RAM you have, the more buffering can be used, so your performance hit decreases accordingly. This buffering does not occur on "regular" OS X, which is one reason why Apple is not supporting or recommending its use on non-OS X Server systems." Read the article at WorkingMac.