OStatic

Brian Proffitt recently tackled the topic of distro-hopping over on LinuxPlanet. Proffitt wonders whether the practice might be passe or something to be discouraged, but it's here to stay and should be encouraged rather than looked at askew.

Distro-hopping, if you're not familiar with the term, is the practice of switching Linux distributions. While some users find a home and stick with one Linux distribution, others hop around and try out several distros. Sometimes in an effort to find the One True Distro, other times just because the variety between distros is something to be enjoyed and experienced. Whatever the reason, it's a good thing for the user and community when people have experience with more than one operating system.

The next release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is in beta. The release notes give a clue as to what's coming in RHEL 5.5, including improvements to virtualization and support for new platforms from Intel, AMD, and IBM's Power7.

Improvements to virtualization mean better memory management and use of devices. RHEL 5.5 will allow virtual machines running under KVM to use PCI devices as if attached to the guest OS, rather than running as virtualized devices. If deployed on machines using Intel VT-d extensions, PCI devices can be reassigned while a system is running and attached to another guest OS. In addition, RHEL 5.5 will also allow reallocation of memory during runtime, so it won't be necessary to shut down a guest OS under KVM to increase or decrease its allocated RAM.

Firefox 3.7 dumped in favor of feature updates. Mozilla has dumped Firefox 3.7 from the release schedule, replacing it with regular features updates for version 3.6 of the browser.

Why Linux on the desktop is wrong. Perhaps this is a poor choice of focus if we really care about Linux success.

Ubuntu 10.04 Alpha 2 benchmarks with early Fedora 13 numbers. Check out the speed trials.

Norwegian broadcasting moves to OpenOffice and ODF. Norway's national broadcasting and TV facility NRK is intent on going open.

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?