MS Goes Open Source to Boost Identity Management

  Submitted by Punktyras Microsoft 20 Comments
Microsoft is launching a slew of initiatives to help Web sites identify visitors. First, the company is kicking off four open-source projects to support the development of ID cards for online users. Microsoft is also releasing one of its identity management specs, Identity Selector Interoperability Profile, under its OSP, meaning the specification is clear of licensing fees or patent worries.
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Closing the Book on Apple’s Mac Mini

Apple 60 Comments
"Even while at the top of its game, Apple Inc. can seemingly find faults with just about anything, including a bit of itself. The Mac maker is constantly evaluating the market segments in which it wishes to participate and those which it does not. It's an application of love-hate methodology that inevitably produces its share of casualties." AppleInsider says it has learned from 'reliable' sources that the end is nigh for the Mini. "Ladies and gentlemen, AppleInsider believes in all sincerity that the Mini is dead."
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Dell Goes Ubuntu; ‘Windows Tax’ Is USD 50 According to Pricing

  Submitted by Dale Smoker Hardware 108 Comments
When Dell put up its IdeaStorm community-feedback site, the company was surprised by the strong response in favor of shipping personal computers with Linux. The PC company then announced that it would offer Ubuntu Linux on select systems, and as of yesterday, they are taking orders. Ubuntu Linux is now available on the XPS 410n high-end desktop system at USD 849 (compared with USD 899 for the same machine with Windows installed), the E520n desktop at USD 599, and the E1505n notebook at USD 599. For now, the Ubuntu systems will only be available to customers in the United States. Availability is expected 'in the coming weeks' according to an announcement given on May 1, but Dell.com lists a shipping time of three to five days.
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Enthusiasts Progress with Plans to Resurrect Windows ‘Longhorn’

  Submitted by Raymond Preston Windows 34 Comments
Seven months after announcing plans to take up where Microsoft left off with its Windows Longhorn client development, a group of members of the Joejoe.org site have built a working prototype of what they’re calling 'Longhorn Reloaded'. Earlier this week, the Longhorn Reloaded developers and testers posted for download Milestone 1 of Longhorn Reloaded. "Longhorn Reloaded is a Project dedicated to the revival of the Operating System known as Code Name 'Longhorn'. To put the projects aims simply, we aim to finish off what Microsoft started before the operating system was canceled. It is a modification of Windows 6.0.4074, which was originally released during the 2004 Windows Hardware Engineers Conference," explained the Longhorn Reloaded team on the Joejoe Web site.
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Five Days with the Classmate PC and Mandriva

  Submitted by FreeRhino Intel 5 Comments
"Some say the Classmate PC is Intel's answer to (or competition with) the One Laptop per Child effort. Intel is hawking the lilliputian laptop in 'emerging markets' like Nigeria, India, and Mexico as a solution for worldwide education of primary and secondary students. It's to be officially released and shipped en masse to schools in Africa and South and Central America by the end of June. Recently my children and I borrowed a Classmate PC loaded with a custom version of Mandriva Linux. Most of us had fun."
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The Top 10 Dead (or Dying) Computer Skills

OS News 99 Comments
"Those in search of eternal life need look no further than the computer industry. Here, last gasps are rarely taken, as aging systems crank away in back rooms across the U.S., not unlike 1970s reruns on Nickelodeon's TV Land. So while it may not be exactly easy for Novell NetWare engineers and OS/2 administrators to find employers who require their services, it's very difficult to declare these skills -- or any computer skill, really -- dead." My Take: "C" dying should have been "x86 Assembly".
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Review: Darter Ultra Notebook

Hardware 69 Comments
If online articles and blogs are any indication of things, the number of Linux users migrating to, and satisfied with, Ubuntu GNU/Linux seems to be staggering. Given that, it was only a matter of time before a capable company had the resources to offer accessible, affordable Linux desktops and notebooks that delivered the way that Apple's products have. Colorado-based System76 sent us their Darter Ultra for review, and proved that there is an OEM hardware/software combination capable of being the primary PC for the general public.
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Jonathan Schwartz on the Future of Sun

  Submitted by irbis Oracle and SUN 32 Comments
After just over a year as chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz is moving into a new phase as the leader of Sun Microsystems. Much of his opening months was spent emerging from the shadow of the highly visible Scott McNealy, boosted by Schwartz's high-profile blog. Now that the introductory period is over, Schwartz is working to show that the Silicon Valley stalwart can regain its former stature.
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The Efika Book

  Submitted by lugduweb Morphos 5 Comments
The Efika book is a free multilanguage ebook dedicated to the Efika mainboard from Genesi. It contains information about the Efika hardware, its setup and its supported operating systems (Linux distributions, MorphOS). The latest version can already be freely downloaded in English, French and Swedish. Some older versions can also be found in Czech, Italian and Russian. It will be available soon in other languages such as Spanish, German, Turkish, Greek, Portuguese and Polish. This book follows his previous work on the Pegasos book.
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Review: Linux OCR

  Submitted by Austin Linux 18 Comments
"The one 'hole' in my workflow has been OCR. For years, people have been able to scan a document and have it converted into real text. One of my old printers even came with OCR software included - for Windows of course. But when I've really needed OCR, I've just assumed that there were no high quality packages available for Linux. Recently I decided to find out for myself (a complete OCR virgin) what is available, how to use it, and what the results are like. I installed every free OCR package I could find, and systematically tested them. They all work very differently, so I tried to design a simple test for my specific needs."
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Insecure Passwords on Gaim/Pidgin

Privacy, Security 106 Comments
Today, while I was trying to create a SIP Presence account for VoIPBuster, Pidgin kept crashing. I had to find its settings in my personal folder in order to manually edit the accounts.xml file and remove the entry (so Pidgin could start up again normally instead of keep crashing on load). When I opened the accounts.xml file with a plain text editor, all the passwords of all my accounts were listed out in the open in plain text. This is not a new issue, it was discussed many times before, but it can still be a surprise for most users.
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