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Today users have many choices for combining Linux and Windows on the
same machine. You can go with a traditional dual-boot system in which
the operating systems reside on different disk partitions but share a
common partition for files, or you can use an emulator such as Wine, which lets you install Windows applications right in your Linux system. Virtualization programs, such as those from VMware,
bring you closer to the more ideal solution of using both systems at

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Linux Journal recently caught up with Mandriva CEO, François Bancilhon, to find out more about a recently announced partnership between Mandriva of France and Turbolinux of Japan.

In mid-January of 2008, the French Linux distribution maker Mandriva and its Japanese counterpart, Turbolinux, announced a partnership to create a common base Linux system, as well as a joint development lab, logically dubbed “Manbo-Labs”.

As each each player in the distribution game seeks to offer a compelling product that sets itself apart in a competitive, innovation-packed marketplace, we are curious to know how the players themselves view their strategies. Linux Journal Products Editor, James Gray, recently caught up with Mandriva CEO, François Bancilhon, to find out his take on the new partnership.

Read more at LinuxJournal 

Using VNC to remotely access your desktop, applications, and documents sounds like a great solution when you are out and about, but it has a few significant drawbacks: you have to leave your machine turned on, the VNC protocol is not secure, and often you need a dedicated VNC client to access your desktop. Ulteo, the company started by Gaël Duval of Mandriva fame, is set to offer an alternative solution. Ulteo gives you access to a full-fledged KDE desktop hosted on the company’s own servers while taking care of the behind-the-scenes stuff. While the service is still in beta and by invitation only, I had a chance to take it for a spin, and I found it promising.

Read more at Linux.com

Back in 1999, free software believer Joshua Rand and his friend Oscar Mondragon were talking about the changes they predicted were coming for the Internet. Not long after that, the bubble burst and things did change, for the worst, many said. “We didn’t subscribe to that theory,” Rand says. “We saw the Internet becoming a platform for applications and services long before the term Web 2.0 was coined. With the growth and proliferation of things like Web-based email, the next logical step was, why not everything else? Why not more personal productivity tools and office tools?” That was the beginning of Sapotek.

Read more at Linux.com

Hello everyone. Are you enjoying the new design and main page of SOM? The Spanish version of SOM will be available soon.

I would like to take this opportunity to talk about one of the greatest things to ever happen to Theora: the Theora Sea website. Really! And I just found out about it now, today, a hour ago.

Read more at Spread Open Media

The GIMP Animation Package, or GAP, is a collection of plug-ins that extend GIMP with capabilities to create and edit animations. The 2.4.0 version of the GIMP Animation Package is a bug-fix release that makes GAP usable with GIMP 2.4.x releases.A new release for the stable branch of GIMP, version 2.4.4, was released along with the GIMP Animation Package 2.4.0. You should know that this version of GIMP is a bugfix release and no new features were added.

Read more at Tux Enclave

A stealth-mode startup is readying a Linux-based handheld gaming device with WiFi, USB, and a 4.3-inch 800×480 touchscreen. The “Pandora,” headquartered at OpenPandora.org for now, runs Linux on a next-generation ARM SoC with integrated OpenGL 2.0 compliant graphics processor.

Powered by a lithium-ion battery, Pandora measures 5.5 x 3.3 x 1.1 inches — slightly smaller than Nintendo’s DS Lite, or GamePark Holdings’s Linux-based GP2X player, from which it arguably evolved. In terms of processing power, its designers claim Pandora will compare to Nintendo’s GameCube, a non-mobile gaming platform.

Read more at LinuxDevices

As a new user, there comes a time (or there will come a time) when you are playing around with Ubuntu/Gnome, trying different themes, different engines, different window managers, etc, and all of a sudden you run into a problem that you can’t seem to find a way to fix it.

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Mobile Linux company Azingo, formerly Celunite, today announced Azingo Mobile, a comprehensive suite of open mobile software and services designed to help companies deliver web 2.0 applications, music, video, vivid graphics and more to a wide range of mobile phones. Leveraging the economies of open source innovations and based on LiMo and its ecosystem Azingo Mobile provides a less costly and more flexible platform for designing and deploying mobile devices. The platform will be demonstrated at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, (Azingo booth 2.1D57 and LiMo booth 8B135), Feb 11-14, 2008.

Read more at Businesswire

Celestia is an open source application for 3D visualization of space, from structures as small as spacecraft or as vast as galaxy clusters. After nearly two years of development since the last release, version 1.5.0 is now available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. This is the biggest update of Celestia ever, with significant improvements in rendering quality, accuracy, and flexibility. Celestia 1.5.0 uses OpenGL 2.0 shaders extensively. Shaders are used to compute atmospheric scattering effects, giving a much more realistic appearance to planets with atmospheres. A Lunar-Lambert photometric model was introduced to more accurately model the reflectance characteristics of dust covered bodies such as the moon. Per-pixel lighting effects are used for better looking specular surfaces.

Read more at OpenGL