ubuntu

French police find "Liberte! Egalite! Fraternite!" in Ubuntu Linux

Au revoir, les enfants de Microsoft. C'est bien l'heure de Linux ici en France!

This was the French police's message to Microsoft today, putting the icing on the open source cake it started baking back in 2005 with a move of 70,000 Windows XP desktops to Ubuntu Linux.

The process and the motives are clear:

"We will introduce Linux every time we have to replace a desktop computer," [Colonel Nicolas Geraud, deputy director of the gendarmerie's IT department] said, "so this year we expect to change 5,000-8,000 to Ubuntu and then 12,000-15,000 over the next four years so that every desktop uses the Linux operating system by 2013-2014."… Read more

IBM snuggles up with Ubuntu

It's easy to overlook IBM's announcement that its Lotus Notes and Lotus Symphony suites will run on Ubuntu. I think this would be a mistake. IBM is not a dumb company. It's not in the habit of wasting resources. For IBM to be partnering up with Ubuntu says something about the enterprise mindset on Ubuntu.

Where it's going, that is.

"We're doing pilots with customers now," [IBM] said. "Some of the requests came from big companies" with as many as 100,000 users that are interested in moving to Ubuntu Linux … Read more

Dell bringing Ubuntu to XPS M1330 laptop

Dell is expanding its open-source offerings. The XPS M1330 laptop is now available with Ubuntu in Germany, the U.K., France, and Spain. On its Direct2Dell blog, Dell instructs would-be U.S. purchasers to "hold on a week or so."

Currently, the Inspiron 530 desktop and Inspiron 1420 laptop are the only two Dell computers to come preloaded with Ubuntu 7.10. While those looking to put Linux on a higher-end XPS model can always go the self-install route, purchasing a preloaded Ubuntu config saves you the cost of having to purchase Windows.

[Via Engadget]

Buzz Out Loud 646: Twitter Novel

EPISODE 646

Ubuntu chief decries interest rate cut

Canonical Chief Executive Mark Shuttleworth, founder of the Ubuntu version of Linux, called Tuesday's interest-rate cut the "most extraordinary failure of economic leadership in recent years."

U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke cut interest rates 0.75 percent on Tuesday, but Shuttleworth derided the move as "press(ing) the 'emergency morphine' button" in a blog posting that indicates the open-source software executive also has an interest in macroeconomics.

Markets "are smart enough to see that all Bernanke has done is cover up the symptoms of malaise," he said and offered a gloomy … Read more

Some reflections on Linux and its community

Over the past weekend, I spent most of my time playing around with OpenSUSE and Ubuntu in an attempt to reintroduce myself into the wide world of Linux.

And while I could have been a bit happier with the support and Linux does take some getting used to after immersing yourself in a Mac and Windows world every day, it's still an ideal platform for the advanced techie who doesn't want to waste his time with things that "just work."

And although this community has built itself up to rival even the most fanatic of Apple zealots, its strength is not shown by calling in reinforcements when it's beaten up in a column, but by the immense support you receive when you run into any problem on the platform.

Simply put, Linux has some issues that shouldn't be overlooked. But with such a vast community at your disposal, now is a great time to get in on the Linux game.… Read more

Play Flash and QuickTime files in Ubuntu

I'm starting to wonder if anything about Linux is going to be easy. But I remain undaunted in my efforts to use Ubuntu 7.10, or Gutsy Gibbon, to accomplish the same computing tasks for which I use Windows. Now that I've got Flash and QuickTime working in Ubuntu, I feel like I'm nearly there.

I say "nearly" because I'm still running into some glitches, this week relating to getting the full suite of updates available for Gutsy installed. The update failure is a minor inconvenience compared to the crashes I experienced last week … Read more

Linux users answer the call: Ubuntu wireless-adapter glitch resolved

Readers to the rescue!

The first thing you learn when you write about technology is that the people who read your stuff are smarter than you'll ever be. So let me start by saying "Thank you" to all the Linux users who responded to last Friday's post on my travails trying to get Ubuntu 7.10, or "Gutsy Gibbon," to recognize my Linksys WPC300N wireless adapter.

The first suggestions I tried were the ones that didn't entail installing a new app, though ultimately a free download was the fastest and simplest solution. I … Read more

Ubuntu Linux: Built-in apps get an "A", wireless support an "F"

It didn't take long after installing Canonical Ltd.'s Ubuntu 7.10 version of Linux for me to decide I liked what I saw. A quick tour of the Applications, Places, and System menus indicated that converting from Windows to Linux would be relatively seemless. The only fly in the ointment was my inability to get any of three wireless adapters to work with the OS.

World-class applications without paying a dime I expected to find the Mozilla Firefox browser bundled with Ubuntu, and seeing links on the Applications*Office menu to OpenOffice.org's Database, Presentation, Spreadsheet, and … Read more