Ubuntu's contribution to propagating Linux to the client platforms (general desktop/notebook) is invaluable. Its developers are known to codename major builds of the OS after animals. An upcoming version, 9.10 has been codenamed "Karmic Koala", after the cute and cuddly animal from south-east Australia. Going by Ubuntu's six-month development cycle, 9.10 should follow 9.04 "Jaunty Jackalope" slated for this April, and should be coming out by October.

The new client-version is expected to be netbook-friendly, with having significantly lower boot times. The target booting time for 9.04 is 25 seconds, while the developers hope to improve that figure further with 9.10. The developers will be integrating features from Intel's Moblin platform in order to improve performance on Atom-based devices. The Server Edition based on Ubuntu, which is steadily gaining in adoption, yet lagging behind offerings from market heavyweights such as Red Hat and Novell, will also get its share of improvements, one of the most important of them being enhanced support for cloud-computing.

VIA Technologies, Inc, a leading innovator of power efficient x86 processor platforms, today announced the VIA NSR7800 2U rackmount server for network storage solution providers. Powered by a 1.5GHz VIA C7 processor, the VIA NSR7800 offers system integrators the opportunity to provide unparalleled power and energy-efficient server solutions to today's energy-conscious small and medium sized business customers.

With eight 3.5" S-ATA II hard drive bays, the VIA NSR7800 is the perfect balance of power-efficiency, performance and capacity, an ideal starting point for a variety of rackmount server applications including email, file and web server products. The VIA NSR7800's drive bays are easily accessible through lockable front levers that allow hard drives to be securely installed in moments. Dual Gigabit LAN ensures fast data transfer speeds.

AMD today released its timely update to the ATI Catalyst system drivers package that provides drivers driver support for ATI Radeon graphics accelerators, AMD 7-series chipset with integrated graphics. The drivers are effictive for Windows XP, Windows Vista and Linux operating systems.

The new release expands the feature-set of the ATI Catalyst, along with a set of fixes as described in the release notes (PDF). The fixes mostly revolve around Catalyst Control Center and the video acceleration features of the driver. To begin with, the new driver provides full OpenGL 3.0 support, including a few new GL extensions. The release also favours Linux by providing support for Hybrid CrossFireX. More importantly, the Linux version of the driver, provides MultiView support, that enables using independent display-heads on setups with multiple ATI GPUs. It is supported by any combination of ATI Radeon GPUs, Radeon HD 2000 series and later.

DOWNLOAD: ATI Catalyst 9.1 for Windows XP (32bit) | Windows XP (64bit) | Windows Vista (32bit) | Windows Vista (64bit)

In the month of November, the market share of Microsoft Windows fell below the 90% mark, to 89.6%. This is a 15 year low in market share for the OS, according to market share data by Net Applications, sourced by TG Daily. The market share fell from its position same time, last year, at 92.4%.

One of the prime movers of this figure is the growth in market share of Apple's Mac OS X at 8.87%, slightly over 2% growth from its market share last year. According to the same data, Linux is still below the 1% mark.

The Fedora Project, a Red Hat sponsored and community-supported open source collaboration project, today announced the availability of Fedora 10, the latest version of its free open source operating system distribution. Fedora 10 features numerous leading-edge technologies and continues to lay the groundwork for derivative open source distributions throughout the enterprise.
"Fedora volunteer contributors and Red Hat engineers worked together to develop the cutting-edge features found in Fedora 10. Their widespread appeal, combined with Fedora's policy of collaborating with upstream free software communities, means that many of these features will be found in other Linux distributions in the future," said Paul Frields, Fedora project leader at Red Hat.

Now that Intel's Atom is on top of the netbook processor market, while VIA and AMD are trying to compete somehow, it appears that a fourth chip maker is going to enter the netbook business and try to give Intel's Atom architecture a run for its money. ARM and Canonical, the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu, are co-operating to make Ubuntu Desktop operating system that will run well with ARM's ARMv7 processor architecture. This will enable new Linux netbooks and hybrid computers to enter the market.
"The release of a full Ubuntu desktop distribution supporting latest ARM technology will enable rapid growth, with internet everywhere, connected ultra portable devices," said Ian Drew, vice president of Marketing, ARM. "The always-on experience available with mobile devices is rapidly expanding to new device categories such as netbooks, laptops and other internet connected products. Working with Canonical will pave the way for the development of new features and innovations to all connected platforms."
This version of the Ubuntu Desktop operating system will handle the ARM Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processor-based systems. The final Ubuntu ARM distribution will debut in April 2009. Now we only need volunteers to choose ARM and Linux for their netbooks.

Creative staff has announced that it is ready with its first release of drivers for Sound Blaster X-Fi sound cards, that supports 32-bit Linux. The driver comes in the form of a source tar-ball. The drivers allow seemless operation over ALSA. Updates to the x86_64 drivers are provided as well. This driver applies to all X-Fi series sound cards based on the CA-20K series audio processor. Its known issues include lack of functionality for external I/O modules, and that there are no Linux versions of the applications Creative bundles in its Driver CDs, which work under Windows, as of now.

To download the drivers, select your compatible Sound Blaster X-Fi model from this page and choose Linux under the manual selection drop-down to list Linux drivers.

Canonical Ltd. announced the upcoming availability of Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition for free download on 30 October. In related news, Canonical also announced the simultaneous release of Ubuntu 8.10 Server Edition.

Ubuntu 8.10 Desktop Edition is designed for the pervasively connected digital lifestyle. With new 3G network support, users can move smoothly from wired and WiFi networks onto 3G cellphone networks while traveling. Ubuntu 8.10 is also built to be shared - users can start a quick "guest session" on the fly and let someone use their computer to surf the web or check email, while maintaining the security and integrity of their own data. And if that person really enjoys their brief session as an Ubuntu guest, they can put Ubuntu on any USB key and take it home to install on their own computer rather than having to burn a CD.

Following the release of OpenGL 3.0 compliant drivers for Windows back in August, NVIDIA has released drivers for Linux/Free BSD, that provide support for the said graphics API. OpenGL functionality is something driver provider manage. Each compliant display driver carries with it, an ICD (installable client driver) for OpenGL.

The driver, 177.61.02 supports OpenGL 3.0, and OpenGL Shader Language (GL-SL) 1.30, with a broad range of compatible hardware already out by NVIDIA. All GeForce 8 Series or newer, Quadro FX 370/360M or newer graphics accelerators are supported. The release supports x86 and x86-64 variants of most Linux and Free-BSD derived operating systems. The driver can be downloaded from NVIDIA's FTP directory here. Please note, that the driver is in a beta stage as of now.

This is a warning to all Linux users that are currently using the latest Ubuntu OS. Reports claim that some users may damage their Intel network adapters using Ubuntu's latest 2.6.27-rc kernel. Although this is an alpha release and bugs are expected, it might even damage your hardware to a state where you can't repair your NIC. In bug #263555 posted on the bugs.launchpad.net experts say: "In some circumstances it appears possible for the 2.6.27-rc kernels to corrupt the NVRAM used by some Intel network parts to store data such as MAC addresses. This is limited to the new e1000e driver, and reports have only appeared from users of "82566 and 82567 based LAN parts (ich8 and ich9)". The reports seem to be isolated to laptops, but it is not clear if this is because desktop/server parts are not vulnerable, or if use cases simply increase the chances of laptop users being hit. Once this corruption has occurred, recovery may be possible via a BIOS update, but may well require replacement of the hardware. Use of Intel's IABUTIL.EXE is strongly discouraged, as it will worsen the problem to the point where the network part will no longer appear on the PCI bus."

As much as releasing hardware that brings in competition and products at great prices is essential for AMD, backing it up with software is equally important. Company slides that point to tentative time-scales that pertain to AMD's software releases have surfaced. Some of the important software products AMD releases are Catalyst driver suite for ATI products and OverDrive, a tool that provides features to tweak AMD processors and graphics cards, as well as several motherboard parameters for motherboards equipped with AMD chipsets.

The slides also provide a sneak-peak into what could be in store with those releases. VR-Zone has published slides, from which the first one points to release dates for the Catalyst driver suite with respect to release candidates and public releases. The second slide points to time-scales at which software with vital changes are released. We are already past August and AMD has rolled out the feature pertaining to that release, allowing Hybrid Crossfire of AMD chipsets with integrated graphics working in tandem with Radeon HD 3400 series graphics accelerators.

Six months after the release of KDE 4.0, the KDE community today announced KDE 4.1, the second most important release in the KDE 4 era. KDE 4.1 brings support for a lot of new applications and newly developed features. It is also the first KDE4 release to contain the Personal Information Management suite KDE-PIM with its E-Mail client KMail, the planner KOrganizer, Akregator, the RSS feed reader, KNode, the newsgroup reader and many more components integrated into the Kontact shell. Furthermore, the new desktop shell Plasma, introduced in KDE 4.0, has matured to a point where it can replace the KDE 3 shell for most casual users. If you're using KDE Linux distribution, and you find KDE 4.1 to be interesting for you, make sure to take some time and read through the full changelog here. To download the complete source code for KDE 4.1.0 please click here.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) will be releasing the G10IL sub-notebook this September, says Henry Kwan, VP of sales, ECS to Laptop Magazine in a recent interview. What makes the G10IL special is that ECS has managed to squeeze in EDGE, HSUPA, and HSPDA mobile broadband support, but will not feature support for WiMAX. This 'netbook' comes in two screen sizes, 8.5" and 10". The version most likely to enter US markets in September is the 10" model. Prices start US $399. Most likely, the $399 variant could feature a 8 GB SSD with Linups Lite 9.4 Linux. A variant with an 80 GB HDD with Windows XP is also on the cards. ECS says that the G10IL is the first netbook designed specifically for the business user, than students.

ATI has released new Catalyst drivers for all Linux OS users, that bring major performance enhancements to ATI FireGL professional graphics cards. The enhanced 8.49.7 Linux driver represents a significant leap for Linux customers seeking improved performance of CAD and digital content creation applications, offering up to 33% faster OpenGL performance than the previous 8.433.1 driver. If you need them, you can grab them here at any time.

Linux and Unix owners already know and love Wine. No, silly, not the red/white alcoholic beverage, the program. Wine, which has been in development for some time, is a program that allows Linux and Unix users to run Windows applications in a Linux/Unix environment. Wine is getting ever closer to a final version, and this Release Candidate 2 shows this in the list of changes. All that the authors changed from RC1 to RC2 is a list of bugfixes, which can be found here. If you'd like to download the latest version of this revolutionary program, you can check it out here.

When open source software makers made what would eventually become the more current versions of Linux, Unix, and Mac OS X, they undertook a very important task: ensuring that whenever a password was generated to keep confidential data secret, that it would actually be secure. However, they apparently made a rudimentary programming error, and it went out into the world of open source software unnoticed. A couple years down the road, some hackers pointed out with glee that the OpenSSL key generator is basically useless as a security measure (the actual flaw is explained much more thoroughly in the source link). Because OpenSSL is used in far more systems than a couple home servers, we have a serious problem on our hands. Even though the original authors have issued a patch, there's no guarantee that it will get around fast enough to prevent some serious damage.

Taiwanese manufacturer ASUS is to embed a lightweight open source version of Linux called "Splashtop" into all its motherboards it was announced recently. On Wednesday, DeviceVM, the company behind the distribution, said the hardware manufacturer would be putting Splashtop - which ASUS calls "Express Gate" - into a million motherboards a month. Splashtop boots from a flash chip on the motherboard before the main OS is loaded and includes a Firefox Internet browser, e-mail client, Skype and the Splashtop desktop. At first the Linux-based software will be available immediately in the new Intel P45 based P5Q Deluxe, P5Q-WS, P5Q3 Deluxe and P5Q-E series motherboards, due to be out by the end of June. After that the Splashtop OS is planned to be integrated into numerous other ASUS motherboards and even some notebooks in the near future. "In response to great user feedback, our plan is to proliferate Express Gate across our entire motherboard product portfolio, starting with over one million motherboards per month," says Joe Hsieh, General Manager, ASUS Motherboard Business Unit. "Consumers want to turn their PCs on and off like any other appliance, and Express Gate has made that possible."

Fedora 9, the latest release from the Fedora Project, is available for download since yesterday. The free, open source Linux operating system sponsored by Red Hat, promises to include significant new versions of many key components and technologies. The following Release Notes provide an overview of the important changes from the last release of Fedora. To download the new Fedora 9 OS click here.

The newest Ubuntu Linux release, code named "Hardy Heron" and officially called Ubuntu 8.04 LTS is now available for download in two versions - Desktop and Server. The "LTS" version of Ubuntu means long-term support - 3 years for desktop versions and 5 years for server versions. Please refer to the release notes for more information.

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The openSUSE team has released the first beta of the new openSUSE 11.0. New features for this version include KDE 4.0.3, GNOME 2.22.1, a new installer and 60% faster installation. openSUSE is designed to be one of the easiest-to-use Linux distributations available, although as this is a beta there are still likely to be some bugs. You can download it from here.

The Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), which allows developers to take web applications to the desktop and store data offline, is finally coming to Linux. Adobe announced today that the pre-release alpha version of AIR for Linux is available immediately on the Adobe Labs site. Adobe shipped the 1.0 version of AIR for Windows and Mac last month but was forced to delay the Linux release. According to a FAQ on the Adobe site, the reason for the delay was that the AIR team had to "wait on the core Flash Player's support for Linux to be finalized." Adobe is also releasing an updated alpha version of the Flex Builder 3 for Linux to include support for AIR applications.

The Fedora Project has released its first beta for the upcoming Fedora 9 Linux-based operating system. While not intended for production use, the beta includes most of what you'll find in the final release of Fedora 9, including new Kernel 2.6.25-rc5, GNOME 2.22, KDE 4.0.2 desktop environment, Firefox 3 Beta 5, and numerous other improvements and enhancements. The final form of Fedora 9 is slated to arrive later this spring. To download, visit this download page.

After four Alpha releases, the first Ubuntu 8.04 LTS (Long-Term Support) beta has been released. Codenamed "Hardy Heron", 8.04 LTS comes in two versions: desktop and server edition. These new Linux-based distributions sport a number of application and file browsing improvements, as well as the Wubi installer: a new Windows-based installer which allows users to install and uninstall Ubuntu like any other Windows application. Please see the release notes for details.

DOWNLOAD: Ubuntu 8.04 Beta

AMD today announced that it has open sourced it's AMD Performance Library (APL). Now referred to as "Framewave version 1.0," the goal of this new open source project is to further enable the performance-optimized APL and expand its functionality beyond the existing core media capabilities, ensuring developers have an accelerated conduit to high performance application development. Contributions by partners, customers and the broader open-source software development community will accelerate library optimizations and feature enhancements in-line with their respective needs while AMD software engineers will continue to be dedicated contributors to the Framewave project.

Yesterday, we brought you the news of a fine piece of Linux equipment: a £100 ($200USD) laptop built for mass deployment in classrooms everywhere. Today, we bring you news of what exactly will be under the hood. The whole kit and kaboodle runs off of an optimized Debian kernel, and has a slew of useful applications. To make things simple and to spread the Elonex ONE brand, all applications will be branded. For example, to access the internet, you use ONEInternet, to write stuff you use ONEWord...etcetera.

Anywho. As far as hardware goes, the laptop will sport 1GB of flash-based storage, 128MB of DDRII RAM, a seven-inch 800x480 screen, two-channel audio, built-in speakers, a microphone and an audio jack. Networking will be provided by an 802.11G adapter, and a 10/100 Ethernet adapter. The processor is still very much unknown, but it is likely going to be a LNX Code 8 Mobile Processor running at 300MHz. Expect official specifications, and product deployment, on February 28th.