Stories about: Gimp

Less than a week after the latest Ubuntu Linux release - version 7.04 "Feisty Fawn" - users are already crying out for driver support to rival that for Windows in the next release.

Now the geeks can have a full-featured Linux OS booted from a USB stick or thumb drive. Linux distributor Mandriva's Flash 4GB provides Mandriva Linux 2007 KDE 32-bit, which needs no installation -- being ready to boot off the USB 2.0 stick. Plug in the stick, turn on the PC, and Mandriva Linux is ready to use in a few seconds.

Are you looking for a Windows alternative for serious office work? Many people are starting to wonder about their non-Microsoft operating system options, especially given Windows Vista's hefty hardware demands, upgrade costs and license restrictions. We've already examined using Mac OS X in the workplace; now, I take a hard look at Linux by using an enterprise distribution exclusively at work. I'm not simply playing with a test machine; I've been using Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10+ day in, day out to do my job as Computerworld's online managing editor in the U.S.

When existing computing facilities were not meeting the growing need of students and teachers at the Lorien Novalis school in Dural, NSW, students suggested that the school investigate open source software as a cost effective way of improving its computing power.

There's no shortage of open source programmers out there. According to a recent study of 5,000 developers by the research firm IDC, fully 71 percent said they used open source software, and half reported that use of open source was increasing within their organizations.

A full year ahead of schedule, IBM has brought Lotus Notes to the Linux desktop. A Linux client for Notes wasn't expected until the arrival of "Hannover," the next major release of the Notes platform, in 2007. But Big Blue had a surprise up its sleeve, and last week it announced the availability of a Linux version of the current Notes 7 client.

A bug-hunt funded by the U.S. government has tracked down a serious security flaw in Linux's X Window System, caused by a missing parenthesis.

As the speakers at this week's fourth annual Linux Desktop Summit in San Diego looked out onto their audiences, they couldn't help but notice that the number of attendees sporting t-shirts, sandals and bushy facial hair -- the stereotypical Linux movement diehards -- was much reduced from previous conferences.

Linspire, best-known for its commercial distribution of Linux aimed at consumers, said Monday it will create a free, open-source version called Freespire.

Australia's largest regional television network, the Wollongong, NSW-based WIN Television, has gone from no open source software to betting its business on it within five years.

Linux may be struggling to gain a foothold in the primary and secondary education market but one Sydney school is setting itself higher grades - all without Microsoft.