linux

It's nothing new that Intel-powered Macs have been running Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux for some time using Apple's Boot Camp. But one of the best utilities on the market for switching between operating systems lets you switch without a reboot.

Parallels Desktop allows you to switch seamlessly between operating systems without the need to reboot your Mac. Even better, regardless of which system you're running at the time, when you open a file type that's for another operating system, Parallels automatically recognizes the file type and makes the switch for you. Added support for … Read more

Novell will soon cease to exist as its own company.

Shareholders of the former network-software giant voted in favor of Attachment's intent to acquire the company to the tune of $2.2 billion.

At a special investor meeting held yesterday, almost 99 percent of the shares voting approved the takeover, representing a majority of about 66 percent of all of Novell's outstanding stock. Once the merger is completed, Novell shareholders will be able to receive $6.10 in cash for each share of Novell common stock owned.

But the deal is not quite done. Novell said the merger … Read more

BARCELONA--Intel has shown off a developer preview of the tablet user interface for its MeeGo Linux operating system at Mobile World Congress here.

At the same time today, the company also addressed Nokia's withdrawal from the long-term development of MeeGo for mobile phones, with software and services chief Renee James saying the company was "disappointed" with its Finnish partner.

The user interface is based on dynamic panels and does not resemble the Netbook variant of MeeGo--the only version to be shown off so far on a mobile computing device. The tablet UI was demonstrated by Intel … Read more

Many of the most interesting big economic landmarks in IT have happened around what might be called "re-platforming," as users take existing applications and redeploy them on new platforms, such as we see when applications move from corporate data centers to the Amazon Web Services EC2 or the Rackspace Cloud.

We see this trend every few years, for example when the IT masses switched from the mainframe to the client server world, and then again when we went from big iron Unix to Intel-driven X86 commodity platforms. Today, cloud and virtualization represent the next major re-platforming trend as … Read more

Future versions of Ubuntu will include the cross-platform Qt interface libraries and could come preloaded with Qt applications based on the framework, according to Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical and the Ubuntu Project.

Shuttleworth announced the decision on his blog yesterday, noting that, following the Linux platform's Natty Narwhal release, the company will need to assess the benefits of including Qt apps and frameworks with the disc and download installation by default.

"Ease of use and effective integration are key values in our user experience. We care that the applications we choose are harmonious with one another and … Read more

LAS VEGAS--A new gadget from Aluratek takes the idea of an Internet-enabled TV and ramps it up a few notches.

Being demonstrated this week at the Consumer Electronics Show, the new device lets you use your TV as a full computer with the ability to surf any Web site. The device is so new that it doesn't yet have an official name. The working title is Plug PC, but that may change based in part on the response it gets from the crowds at CES.

How does it work? Plug PC contains an embedded copy of Ubuntu Linux. Just … Read more

Few would question the impact that mergers and acquisitions have had on the IT landscape over the past year, and most people believe the acquisition trend will continue to heat up in 2011. Market consolidation is already happening with big companies getting bigger, and a host of start-ups are looking to carve out a niche.

One of the biggest consolidators via acquisition is IBM. Big Blue has acquired no less than 65 companies since 2003 and in an exclusive interview with CNET, IBM Senior VP and Group Executive Steve Mills told me the company will continue to look for acquisitions … Read more

The Linux Foundation is releasing its "Who Writes Linux" analysis, illustrating who crafts the code, the pace of its evolution, and which companies are behind the kernel's development.

Kernel development follows a time-based release model with a new release occurring every two to three months. This is designed to help speed the development for all Linux distributions so that each one doesn't need to make kernel-specific updates or changes. More than 6,100 individual developers from more 600 different companies have contributed to the kernel since 2005, according the report.

Jim Zemlin, executive director of the … Read more

Adobe Systems has announced a beta release of Flash player 10.2 for all supported platforms (Windows, Mac, and Linux) that includes a new "Stage Video" feature that promises high-performance video playback which uses "just over 0 percent CPU usage," according to a news release issued today.

Adobe has been developing GPU acceleration in recent builds of Flash player, and the Stage Video feature in the 10.2 release now offloads the whole video rendering pipeline to the GPU, so not only is H.264 decoded in hardware, but other adjustments such as color conversion and … Read more