OStatic

Recently, Matthew Garrett, a developer who works with a number of open source projects, including Debian and Ubuntu, wrote a guide for good power management practices. Though he states the guide is mainly for those working with desktop environment implementation and power management interfaces and utilities, he points out a few hardware/software relationships that might interest the casual end-user.

I've been doing some thinking since writing about kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman's statement that Linux supports more devices than any other operating system. Readers made some good comments, and after some time spent wrestling with my (yes, supported) webcam, I can venture an additional suggestion as to why it doesn't always seem that way, beyond Kroah-Hartman's theory of a non-supported device becoming personal.

In the case of my webcam, and in the case of one commenter, it seems the problem isn't necessarily the device driver. At lower levels, the drivers work. It's the layers of programming, interaction, and demand piled on the driver that makes the device feel broken. It is difficult to tell for sure, though, exactly what is causing that break.

On the O'Reilly Media site, there is an intriguing interview with kernel developer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Kroah-Hartman says he has evidence that Linux now supports more devices than any other operating system.

In the lengthy interview, he talks about why this is true now, and how hardware suppliers and open source developers can work together to bring more peripherals to life.

VIA Technologies announced that it's moving forward with its commitment to open source software by collaborating with the openChrome Project to improve support for VIA integrated graphics chipsets.

VIA and openChrome have been focusing on multi-head support and improving the implementation of the RandR (resize and rotate) extension. The VIA framebuffer driver source has been checked into the 2.6.28 mainline kernel. Perhaps most significantly, VIA has opened the documentation for the VIA CX700M and VX800 chipsets.

Joe Zonker Brockmeier, openSUSE community manager, announced this morning that openSUSE 11.1 RC1 will not only sport new features and bug fixes, but a new license. The openSUSE release is licensed under the GNU GPL version 2, with the included packages retaining their governing licenses.

Previously, openSUSE installations required an agreement with the terms of the distribution's license. With the 11.1 RC1 release, the license text will be displayed at installation so that the user is aware of the license, but clicking I agree won't be necessary. Brockmeier says that this licensing is based on Fedora's license procedures, and that work is being done to clarify trademark guidelines in openSUSE to make redistribution easier.

On Tuesday, at approximately 10 am Eastern (US), the Fedora Project will make its Fedora 10 ( Cambridge ) final release available for general download.

This release has focused on delivering a number of improvements, including faster booting, smoother start up of the graphical server, ad hoc network sharing, remote virtual installs, and easier installation of GStreamer codecs from third party sources.

In October, MSI's Director of US Sales delivered an interesting statistic that Linux netbooks were returned four times more often than Windows versions. It didn't seem, perhaps, an unreasonable number, but it was a bit ambiguous what data it was pulled from. I had speculated it was perhaps a market-wide number, pulled from other netbook manufacturers (and incorporating MSI's sales data on Linux netbooks internationally, as a Linux version of the Wind has not yet been released in the US).

Apparently that wasn't the case. I just came across a Laptop Magazine interview from late last month with ASUS CEO Jerry Shen. Shen says four million EeePC netbooks have been sold this year, with models offering pre-installed Windows versions rolling out in the later quarters. He says ASUS has found the return rates for the Linux and Windows models are similar. He also said that Linux has been quite popular in the European market.

It's nearly a year since KDE released the KDE4 desktop. The initial roll-out was rocky for KDE, and while subsequent releases have brought ever increasing stability and enhancements, some KDE users feel it's not quite ready for daily use.

In the beginning the solution -- for the KDE project, and for distributions that ship with KDE, such as Kubuntu -- was fairly simple. Offer both the 3.5.x and 4.x versions, either as a installation option, or through repositories.

At some point, however, a disconnect has to come. Celeste Lyn Paul, a member of the KDE Human-Computer Interaction group, talks a bit about the decisions Kubuntu had to face as Hardy (and its 3.5 desktop option) gave way to Intrepid's 4.1.x only environment.

Ulteo is an interesting company. Started by former MandrakeSoft developer Gael Duval, the company aims to make using your computer easier, regardless of whether you're using your computer. The company focuses on the development and delivery of open source web applications and storage.

They offer applications such as the Virtual Desktop Beta, which runs a Linux environment over a Windows installation, allowing users to switch easily between the two, the Ulteo Online Desktop, which allows users access to a remote desktop and applications such as OpenOffice 3, and its full distribution the Ulteo Application System. Having used a few of these products, some are hits (the Windows Virtual Desktop is really sleek) and others (the Application System) still need significant work.

Today Ulteo announced another application, the Open Virtual Desktop.