Low cost software for and by visually impaired

"Chennai (PTI): A city-based visually impaired software professional has come out with an 'open source voice-enabled software' based on LINUX system, for the benefit of visually handicapped."Before this the only option for blind users was to use a Windows solution and pay a high price, now Linux can do it for a lower cost and possibly for free as well.

read more | digg story

AptURL : Web Based Package Installation

"Chris from Ubuntu Tutorials describes how you can create dynamic hyperlinks directly to packages in an Ubuntu user's repository, so that package-name will search the repositories of an Ubuntu install for that package. This could greatly ease helping everyone find what they're looking for."Finally Ubuntu needed a web interface to directly install applications from the web like Microsoft Windows Update and other Windows programs were able to do.

read more | digg story

Simon Scullion » IBM warming to Ubuntu?

"some rumors about a package of IBM products specifically for Ubuntu."IBM may move to support Ubuntu, after Linspire based their Linux distro on Ubuntu it looks like IBM wants to do the same.

read more | digg story

foobar2000 on Linux with Wine

"Features Audio formats supported: MP1, MP2, MP3, MP4, MPC, AAC, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC / Ogg FLAC, WavPack, WAV, AIFF, AU, SND, CDDA, WMA, Full unicode support, Advanced tagging capabilities, Support for transcoding all supported audio formats using the Converter component, ReplayGain support, Customizable keyboard shortcuts, and runs on Linux with Wine."It looks like Michael David Crawford's Ogg Frog program has some competition.

read more | digg story

Your streaming web site only supports IE? Linux will still get your sounds!

"I have recently come across a web site that hosted a multimedia stream. It had just the thing I wanted and I excitedly clicked on the link and prepared to listen to some audio pleasure. I was unpleasantly surprised to be greeted with a message that this site only supports internet exploder and windows media player."This is good info on how to get Linux to stream Microsoft Internet Explorer only media formats.

read more | digg story

Converting e-Books to Open Formats

"Books in digital format, also known as e-books, can be read on devices lacking the power and screen space to afford a regular Web browser. Several publishers, not to mention projects such as Project Gutenberg, have provided thousands of new and classic titles in digital format."E-Books are very popular. They save trees. Classic books are now being converted to open e-Book format. This trend should continue.

read more | digg story

MochiKit by Example

"Interactive Web pages, long dreamed of by designers, are finally here-Web interfaces that respond instantly to user commands, with minimal page redraw. All this and more is possible via Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML), which recently has come into vogue with the Web illuminati."These are a great set of tools for designing interactive web pages.

read more | digg story

OpenOffice.org Calc function tools

"Once you are comfortable with inputting functions and formulas, the next step is to learn how to automate the processes. Calc includes over half a dozen tools to help you manipulate functions and formulas, ranging from features for copying and reusing data to creating subtotals automatically to ones for varying information to help you find the answers"Get OpenOffice.Org sometime. It is well worth the download. Calc is the spreadsheet that can hold its own against MS-Excel. These are some good tools for OO.o Calc.

read more | digg story

Ubuntu Linux Vs. Windows Vista: The Battle For Your Desktop

The prevailing wisdom about Linux on the desktop runs something like this: "I'll believe Linux is ready for the desktop as soon as you can give me a Linux distribution that even my grandmother can run."Linux is getting there. The new Ubuntu should be easy enough that your grandmother can run it.

read more | digg story

What's New in Ubuntu 7.10? (a.k.a. Gutsy Gibbon)

"Oreilly's ONLamp.com digs into the changes Gutsy Gibbon brings to Ubuntu users."Changes look good, I am downloading it right now. Give it a try.

read more | digg story

Learn the basics of C++

A great article about learning the steps in physically creating a C++ program (assuming the design work is done).Read this to learn the basics of C++.

read more | digg story

Linux Related Wikipedia Articles That Need Attention

There are currently 200 articles on Wikipedia about Linux that need more information within the page, or they will probably be deleted (eventually).get to work people, we need Linux experts to complete these articles on Wikipedia or else they will get deleted.

read more | digg story

Is Linux For Losers?

06.16.05(Quite Old), "It's terrible," De Raadt says. "Everyone is using it, and they don't realize how bad it is. And the Linux people will just stick with it and add to it rather than stepping back and saying, 'This is garbage and we should fix it.'"Help us put an end to FUD like this that attacks Linux. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but if it has no facts in it like this one, it is better off not being taken seriously.

read more | digg story

Desktop Linux Is a Reality Now!

Explains how desktop Linux has become a reality on an increasing number of average users' PCs.Desktop Linux continues to grow, and more and more people are using Linux in place of Windows or Mac OSX.

read more | digg story

Seven Simple Ways To Use Windows Applications in Linux

One of the main concerns for a Windows user recently switched to Linux is what Windows software will work on his box as well as how it can be done. This quick overview of several methods to use Windows apps on your Linux PC will help you if you don't know where to start from...A good start on getting Windows applications to run in Linux, a must read.

read more | digg story

The black hole in linux

I have been using this functionality for over a year now (“I have only been using the linux desktop for almost 16 months now”) and it only occurred to me recently while reading the patent suit Microsoft has been making against linux , The black hole in question...........Stop these patent suits against Linux. Linux is a good alternative to commercial operating systems. Free Linux!

read more | digg story

Cap is Back - With New Costume and New Guy

Marvel Comics has announced the return of the Sentinel of Liberty in Captain America #34, due in stores in January 2008. It won't be Steve Rogers, but it will be Captain America, and his new appearance has been designed by Alex Ross.Captain America is back, but now with a gun and a new costume. Will he be liberal or conservative? What does this mean to us Captain America fans? Bring back Steve Rogers, the Classic Captain America.

read more | digg story

Mr. Ballmer's Personal Mushroom Cloud

"Microsoft is going to sue the bejeesus out of Linux. Stock up on a year's worth of food and water and head for the bomb-proof bunker under grandpa's toolshed out back!!!"Yikes! I hope this isn't that serious. I mean Microsoft made deals with Novell, and other Linux companies and I hoped they had resolved the patent issues. Still this may require some rewriting of Linux source code if Microsoft can actually identify in court any code that infringes on whatever patents they may hold.Still IBM has a lot of patents on operating system design since before Microsoft was founded, IBM might come to Linux's defense in this court case. IBM has been a good contributor to Linux and holds a lot of patents themselves.

read more | digg story

Virtualisation in OpenSolaris

"Recently there's been a lot of news about OpenSolaris, more specifically in reference to the great progress made by virtualization technologies in it. In this article, I will examine some of these technologies, and compare them with the state of the art on other platforms."OpenSolaris is catching up with Linux, Sun knows what they are doing. We need to get the Linux community to figure out a way to not only compete with Windows and OSX but also OpenSolaris. It will be a hard struggle, but I think it is a struggle that will pay off eventually.

read more | digg story

A linux defeat

"Once upon a time, neither long ago nor far way, repeated server crashes caused a client’s IT management to replace about 40 x86 Linux servers with nice reliable Windows products."Ugh, this is a reason why we need better Linux quality. Horror stories like this one should be a wake-up call to the Linux community. The story I blogged about that Michael David Crawford mentioned goes as far back as 2001, but why didn't people developing Linux listen to him? There needs to be better quality controls, and Linux really needs to evolve into something better.

read more | digg story

Linux.com :: Linux Quality Database: One man's quest for kernel quality

I hope that Linux follows these guidelines. Linux has a long way to go to get Desktop marketshare away from Windows. The key to that is quality, so that Linux can become better than Windows. In order to get quality there has to be an exchange of information between the Linux groups. Linux also has to be made easier to use like Windows or Mac OSX are. That in itself is a form of quality. I think that Michael David Crawford may be onto something. This article is old, and it looks like it was overlooked until now. The words still hold true for today's Linux.

read more | digg story