Linux Archive

Moblin v2 User Interface: “Very Impressive”

"We first got excited for Moblin 2.0 back in January when seeing how fast this Linux distribution had booted on Atom-powered netbooks. This Fedora-derived distribution booted even faster with a newer development release that came out this past March. While Moblin 2.0 final is not yet released, there is now more to get excited over than just amazing boot times. Moblin 2.0 will introduce a Clutter-based user interface and from our initial encounters with this release, it is very impressive! In this article we have more information on this new Moblin UI along with screenshots and videos."

‘The Shape of the Coming Netbook Revolution’

InfoWorld's Neil McAllister looks ahead at the impending netbook revolution, one sure to be fueled by the introduction of machines based on ARM processors. As McAllister sees it, the move to ARM-based netbooks will have implications beyond cost and performance; it will also mean a new OS, opening the door for Linux, most notably Xandros and Ubuntu Netbook Remix. The emergence of ARM-based netbooks running Linux will represent a subtle shift in messaging on the part of netbook vendors. "Expect to see increased emphasis on netbooks as secondary machines or 'companion devices,' designed to be paired with a more traditional, full-featured notebook or PC, rather than standing on their own."

Linux Mint 7: 10 New Feature Videos

Linux Mint 7 RC1 has recently been released, and a poster over at EasyLinuxCDs.com has been good enough to detail some of the features in ten different videos. He details everything from installation to mintUpdate to even small features, such as the Xchat app. Though the bulk of the videos seem a bit elementary for most readers here, I at least found Linux Mint 7 a very good-looking system aesthetically and technically and would like to test it out sometime in the near future.

Linux Hits 1% Market Share Milestone

Yes boys and girls, it's Net Applications time. Sure, their figures are flawed, and sure, they're misused all over the non-scientifically educated media, but that doesn't mean they do not indicate trends. One of those trends was a slowly rising popularity of Linux, which hit 0.93% market share in August 2008, only to sink back again during the following months. Well, it's April May 2009 now, and Linux has finally crossed the 1% market share line!

Getting the Lead Out of Linux

A number of significant opportunities for performance improvements seem to be just over the horizon for Linux systems. OSNews regular lemur2 submitted an overview of the most important potential performance improvements to us.

Clear Away Destop Linux CRON Logs with Anacron

Linux ordinarily uses Cron to automatically perform routine system maintenance on desktop or laptop computers, however not running Cron routinely can result in monstrously large log files and other problems. You can offload most or all of your usual daily and longer-interval Cron jobs onto Anacron enabling your computer to run regular maintenance jobs whenever the computer is powered on, even if those times are unpredictable.

Intro & Benchmarks: btrfs

"Btrfs holds the promise of giving Linux many enterprise class file system features similar to ZFS but with even more features and better performance. In fact, many Linux experts think that btrfs is one of the keys to the future of Linux. While btrfs is not quite ready to be your only file system, it is in the kernel ready for testing and is still undergoing very heavy development. In this article we will introduce the key features of btrfs find out how it compares to existing file systems."

PulseAudio 0.9.15 Released

PulseAudio 0.9.15 has been released with many new features. Phoronix covers the changes: "PulseAudio 0.9.15 introduces native support of Bluetooth audio devices using BlueZ, Apple Airport Express support, flat volume support (similar to Vista's audio controls), on-the-fly reconfiguration of audio devices, and native support for 24-bit samples. The on-the-fly reconfiguration of audio devices is great and as a result there is now proper S/PDIF support. With the release of PulseAudio 0.9.15 also comes an update to the PulseAudio Volume Control program. The PulseAudio Volume Control 0.9.8 update brings support for configuring sound card profiles and various other updates."

xPUD: Linux with an XUL Interface, 10 Second Boot Time

It's rare to see some truly interesting ideas in Linux distributions, as most seem content to just remaster Ubuntu with a different theme. Therefore, we at OSNews are always interested in fresh and interesting distributions that try to add something of value to the landscape. One such distribution is xPUD, a fast-booting, kiosk-like distribution that uses the Mozilla Gecko Runtime to display a simple user interface that allows you to launch normal desktop Linux applications.

ext4 File System: Introduction and Benchmarks

"If you have spent enough time around Linux it's almost certain you know about the file systems ext2 and ext3, and have probably heard of ext4. Get ready to hear some more. On October 11, 2008, the 'experimental' label for ext4 was removed. While this doesn't necessarily mean that you should change all of your file systems over to ext4 immediately, it does mean that you should consider using ext4 moving forward. With the 'experimental' label gone and openSUSE (among others) considering it for the default file system in a late-2009 release, it's a good time to review ext4 so you have a solid working knowledge of what it is and what features it brings to the table."