ubuntu

Ubuntu takes on Microsoft in a full-frontal assault

Microsoft's hegemony depends upon two cash cows: Windows and Office. Mark Shuttleworth, the founder of Ubuntu, has his sights firmly set on Windows, and has both the means, the chutzpah, and the community to credibly commandeer an assault on Fortress Redmond, as suggested by Ashlee Vance in The New York Times over the weekend.

Others have tried to beat Microsoft at its own game and have failed miserably. The difference with Shuttleworth, however, is that he's not necessarily trying to beat Microsoft at its game. He's hoping to "fundamentally change the operating system market," something … Read more

Challenging Windows with Ubuntu (NY Times)

The NY Times is running a great piece titled "A Software Populist Who Doesn't Do Windows " detailing the vision behind the Ubuntu Linux OS and Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu.

Canonical, based in London, has more than 200 full-time employees, but its total work force stretches well beyond that, through an army of volunteers. The company paid for close to 60 volunteers to attend its developer event, considering them important contributors to the operating system. An additional 1,000 work on the Debian project and make their software available to Canonical, while 5,000 spread information about … Read more

Stay in touch with fellow Ubuntu aficionados

Users of the Linux-based operating system Ubuntu can get quick access to its community forum with this free Firefox add-on.

The options that come with Ubuntu Forums Menu are few, and they simply give you the choice of displaying the links as a toolbar or accessing options in your context menu. A shortcut button would have been a more convenient option. But either way, another menu opens with quick links that take you to the forum's home page and subscribed threads. From the menu, you can also select from a list of support categories, various community discussions, and go … Read more

Freescale chip aims at 1GHz, $199 Netbook

Freescale Semiconductor is expected to launch new silicon for Netbooks--devices that it believes will come in below $200--at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas.

The ARM chip architecture-based i.MX51 processor is designed to enable "low-power, gigahertz performance netbooks at sub-$200 price points," according to Freescale, formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm.

The definition of a Netbook seems to get redefined every month, as different companies push their distinct vision of the device. And Freescale is no different. While Freescale, like Intel, believes the Netbook is a companion device to the PC, it envisions devices … Read more

CNET Live - Episode 84

Kind of all over the place, but it is, in fact, our last show until CES, January 8 and 9, live from Las Vegas. Visit ces.cnet.com for all the details.

Watch the show on CNET TV.

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Warcraft-themed restaurant

iPosture

First Look

Apple 24-inch LCD Cinema Display

Best of the Web

Grocrio

Insider Secrets

What to do with your old gadgets

Your video calls

Shane in Nevada Has a computer that continually drops off his wireless network. He's tried upgrading firmware and trying new wireless … Read more

Yet again, desktop Linux won't claim a year

"[Insert year here] is the year of the Linux desktop!" That has been the Linux community's refrain since at least 2001. Yet it never comes true.

I am an ardent open-source advocate, but I admit to perplexity as to why the Linux community so desperately wants its year on local systems. Who cares?

Now Netbooks are giving Linux desktop enthusiasts yet another reason to proclaim a year of the Linux desktop, despite the fact that four times as many Linux Netbook customers as Windows customers return these machines because they find Linux unfamiliar and cumbersome as a … Read more

HP gives Suse Linux a try (yawn)

Hewlett-Packard has opted to become the last of the major computer OEMs to ship an integrated Linux desktop. Beyond the standard OpenOffice and other Linux desktop fare, HP has thrown in a modified version of Mozilla's Firefox browser, though after reading through ZDNet's description I can't fathom why I or anyone else should care about this "value-added" HP-specific Firefox.

I'm glad to see Novell's Suse Linux find a home on HP's SMB-focused machines. But I wish we could just move on from these now routine fits and starts with the Linux desktop. … Read more

Google's secret operating system

Reports have spread about a possible new operating system in use at Google, one its employees have been using to browse the Web.

There are all sorts of theories about what Google is up to (from a port of Android to the desktop to a new software-as-a-service infrastructure), but I like OStatic's synopsis and theory most:

Android ported to the PC--or even the 2006-era dream of a "Goobuntu" desktop--are, of course, possible, but if not overly costly for Google to undertake, would at least be major time investments. Those sorts of investments might pay off over time, … Read more

Ubuntu to run on ARM-based Netbooks

Canonical has announced that it will be developing a version of its Ubuntu Linux desktop operating system specifically for ARM's Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor architectures.

ARM-based processors have traditionally been used in small devices such as mobile phones, but it emerged in October that ARM's technology would soon be used in Netbooks, the new breed of small, low-cost notebook PCs. Thursday's announcement builds on that revelation, as well as on Canonical's announcement in June that it would create Netbook-specific distributions of Ubuntu.

"The release of a full Ubuntu desktop distribution supporting latest ARM technology will … Read more

Shuttleworth: There's more to Linux development than kernel hacks

As I've noted before, there is more to open-source development than lines of code written, important though that activity is. There is, for example, the critical work done by Canonical, the company behind the ubiquitous Ubuntu Linux distribution, which tends to involve more ease-of-use development than core kernel development.

Canonical CEO and Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth highlights this "secondary" development in an Ubuntu Open Week interview, reported by Ars Technica. Arguing that "Ubuntu and Canonical are making a very big difference in free software, and that has little to do with how many patches in the … Read more