OStatic

There is an old joke, popular among venture capitalists, that goes like this: Two guys are walking in the wilderness, when they spot a huge bear speeding toward them, gnashing its teeth. One of the guys pulls a pair of running shoes out of his backpack and starts putting them on.

? What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear, says the other guy.

I don't need to outrun the bear, comes the answer. I just need to outrun you.

That joke is about knowing precisely who the competition is. That's why I thought of it when I read Matt Asay's post about Mark Shuttleworth identifying the Mac OS, and not Windows, as the desktop operating system to beat. Shuttleworth made comments to that effect in this Datamation interview, and I agree with him.

There is an old joke, popular among venture capitalists, that goes like this: Two guys are walking in the wilderness, when they spot a huge bear speeding toward them, gnashing its teeth. One of the guys pulls a pair of running shoes out of his backpack and starts putting them on.

? What are you doing? You can't outrun a bear, says the other guy.

I don't need to outrun the bear, comes the answer. I just need to outrun you.

That joke is about knowing precisely who the competition is. That's why I thought of it when I read Matt Asay's post from last year about Mark Shuttleworth identifying the Mac OS, and not Windows, as the desktop operating system to beat. Shuttleworth made comments to that effect in this Datamation interview, and I agree with him. It's right now, though, that we are really seeing the Linux desktop realize its potential, with the Mac OS still setting a good pace in the race.

Microsoft search to be powered by open source. The company's new Kumo search technology is filled with open source.

What you should expect from Fedora 11. Here's a screenshot-driven tour of it, scheduled for release on May 26th.

Beyond Firefox: 10 other great Linux browsers. Have you tried Midori, Seamonkey, and Arora?

Novell throws support behind Moblin Linux for Intel Atom netbooks, devices. Eschewing its own SUSE Linux, Novell will back Intel's Moblin Linux for netbooks and smartphones.?

In my travels, I discovered David Zeuthen's informative peek at DeviceKit (and its use with and in lieu of HAL) in the upcoming release of Fedora 11.

Zeuthen says that while the new storage device handling stack is implemented in Fedora's GNOME 2.26 desktop configuration, it should be appearing in its entirety in the upstream GNOME 2.28 release. The DeviceKit daemon modernizes and adds to many of the features and functions of the tried and true HAL daemon.

I've noticed, as I get older, time seems to go exponentially faster. Unfortunately, this meant high school lasted an eternity, and I'm burning through my thirties at warp speed. Some events make me more aware of this than others -- it seems like it was only last week that Fedora 10 made its first mark upon the world.

But no, another release cycle has nearly come full circle, and today the Fedora Project announced the Preview Release of Fedora 11 (codenamed Leonidas). This preview will be followed by a release candidate (scheduled for a May 12 appearance), with the final version hitting the streets on May 26.

So what new features can we expect to see in Fedora 11?

Even as a child, I knew that Pixie Sticks were just trouble. The paper tubes loaded with colorful yet mysteriously flavorless sugar weren't particularly tasty, and too many of them led to mom and dad either threatening to pull the car over or hinting ominously about what would happen if they had to tell me again. Parents today know that in addition to the traditional side effects, Pixie Sticks aren't terribly good for USB ports, either.

That's not the case with the other sort of Sugar. Sugar, the kid-friendly open source desktop that was featured first on the OLPC XO laptop is now available (in a beta release) as a liveUSB image. The Sugar on a Stick environment is powered by Fedora 11 and features familiar Sugar desktop applications and functions, as well as new educational and collaborative tools, such as the InfoSlicer online content editor, remixer, and delivery application.

Sun CEO: Open source equals free advertising. By being freely distributed, our products build their own audiences, says Jonathan Schwartz.

Another 100,000+ week for Fedora 10. It's been gaining users at impressive rates.

How to install Google Earth 5.0 on Ubuntu. It's not available by default in the Ubuntu repositories, but here's how to manually get it going.

Round two of a long-time Windows user's switch to Linux. The second installment is here, and the first here.

10 top Linux applications. Banshee (music management), Tomboy (note-taking), and F-Spot (online photos) make this list of top apps, and you'll find 10 more good offbeat Linux apps here.

Bruce Perens: Combining GPL and proprietary software. Thoughts from the creator of the Open Source Definition.

Fedora as a basis for Russia's national OS? Red Hat has spoken with senior government officials.

Monty Widenius talks about why he left Sun Microsystems. The MySQL development organization was not functioning well under it?s capacity.

Mozilla doesn't need an EU bail-out. It has the market share to prove it.

Fennec rising. Here's video of Mozilla's mobile browser handling gestures.