AVLinux Goodies, Linux Tops XP Poll, and Learning Linux

In today's Linux news The Inquirer reports the results of a recent poll of XP users. Jim Zemlin and Anant Agarwal answered questions about the Linux Foundation's Intro to Linux course. And a hands-on review of AVLinux finds it "jam-packed with elements for multimedia creation, editing and playing."

The Inquirer recently ran a poll asking Windows XP users which operating system they intend to use after XP's official demise. Chris Merriman writes, "One third will move to Windows 7. Linux comes in third at 13 percent, two percent ahead of Windows 8 at 11 percent." Five percent picked Mac OS X.

For those moving to Linux, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, again promoting Linux Mint as the perfect replacement for XP, runs down a list of applications to replace the old Windows favorites. For example, he suggests Evolution groupware for those "wedded to Exchange and Outlook." He figures GIMP might work for their graphic work and LibreOffice should replace Microsoft Office. See his full post for more.

AVLinux "is specifically intended for creating, editing and playing multimedia content," explains ZDNet.com's Jamie Watson. He says it is "crammed with multimedia goodies." During testing Jamie found that the whole system was geared towards that purpose. In conclusion, Watson said, "Besides being jam-packed with goodies, it is a very good Linux distribution to boot!"

Jamie's AVLinux Xfce Desktop

Yesterday "Linux Foundation Executive Director Jim Zemlin and edX CEO and MIT professor Anant Agarwal answered questions in a live Twitter chat about the free Intro to Linux training course that will be available on the edX online learning platform starting around Aug. 1." If you missed it, Linux.com is running some of the highlights. It begins:

When is this course expected to start and what will it cover?

Zemlin: The course starts around August 1st and will cover both command line and graphical perspectives. Key topics include using the command line, text editors, bash scripting, security and much more. Keep an eye on the edX website.

Is any prior experience in Linux required?

Zemlin: No prior experience required.

How long does it take to complete?

Zemlin: We expect a typical user to take 40-50 hours to finish the course.

What distros will you be covering?