Open Source

Review: Peppermint Ice Linux

These days, if a desktop-focussed Linux distribution wants to stand out from the pack of Ubuntu-wannabes it either needs to be especially slick or offer something a little bit different to the norm. Peppermint Ice falls into the latter category: It's a Debian-derived (via Ubuntu), lightweight Linux distro that's designed for netbooks and has a strong focus on Web applications.

By Rohan Pearce | 09 February, 2011 10:36

Tags: laptops, Linux, netbook, netbooks, notebooks, open source

Review: Desktop virtualization made easy

Ever since VMware coined the term, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) has conjured images of large data centers, beefy servers, centralized storage, and complex software stacks. It's a given that each VDI installation requires numerous servers, software packages, and storage systems in order to provide desktop virtualization for more than a small handful of users, so VDI just has to be both expensive and complicated to deploy. Right?

By Keith Schultz | 05 January, 2011 22:14

Tags: desktop virtualization, Virtualization, VMware

Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11

If you're looking for a practical business desktop replacement for Windows, your best choice is Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11: a true Windows replacement.

Open-source data aces

If any software market deserved to be shaken up by open source alternatives, it's enterprise data integration. Commercial, enterprise-grade integration tools -- typically cobbled together from M&A and legacy patchworks -- are notoriously unwieldy and impose an arduous learning curve. Complexity frequently stalls deployments by months, and aftermarket consulting can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the TCO.

By James R. Borck | 03 December, 2008 10:14

Tags: Jitterbit 2.0, open source, software applications

Open source video editing with Kino

There are many good video editors on the market and many of you no doubt have your favorite. If you're a Macintosh user you probably are familiar with i-Movie and it's a great product. It ships with every new Macintosh. On the Microsoft Windows side of the house there is Windows Movie Maker. What about the Linux user?

By Don Watkins | 14 October, 2008 11:41

Tags: kino, videoediting

A dozen cool plasmoids for your KDE desktop

Okay, before I begin writing about plasmoids, we have to get one thing straight – what on Earth is a plasmoid? A plasmoid is an applet developed with KDE’s new Plasma application development environment.

By Rodney Gedda | 26 September, 2008 15:04

Tags: kde, plasma

Revving up once:radix for RAD Web apps

Need to do forms development sans Access or Filemaker? Want rapid Web apps without Ruby on Rails? Want a rich Internet interface and abhor Ajax? Need PostgreSQL development, but don't do PHP? Just want a Java application without the, well, Java? Why not check out the once:radix Web-based RAD environment from once:technologies. And, by the way, did I mention it's open source?

Top of the charts: five open source file sharing apps

Why are open source file sharing applications so popular? The answer to that question may be obvious to some, but the explosion in paid-for, online digital content services in recent years hasn't dented the download rates of free file sharing applications. TechWorld takes a look at five open source file sharing applications that can be used for good or evil.

Test Center review: Firefox 3 comes out sizzling

As the window to the Internet, the Web browser is arguably the most important application ever developed, and it will only become more important in the coming years, as applications continue their retreat from the local system and into Web frameworks built on Apache, IIS, Python, PHP, Perl, Ruby, and countless other languages and tools. Against this backdrop, today's official introduction of Firefox 3 may in fact be a watershed event in the history of computing.

First look: KOffice 2.0 Alpha 8

One of the release goals of the next-generation KDE office suite, KOffice 2, is to make the package run on Windows and Mac OS X in addition to Debian Linux.

SLED 10 SP2 makes wireless 3G a snap

For enterprises wanting to roll out SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 on notebooks, the lack of 3G, or UMTS, wireless broadband card support was an annoying hole compared to the available Windows support.

OpenOffice 3.0

OpenOffice 3.0 shows that you don't have to pay a bundle for a great office suite -- in fact, you don't even have to pay a penny.

First look: OpenOffice.org 3.0 developer build for Windows

Open source observers can argue until the end of time over the validity of developing and enhancing free software for Windows, but the fact remains OpenOffice.org is thoroughly committed to the platform and continues to produce a top-notch, cross-platform office productivity suite that work perfectly well on Windows. In this article, we take a look at getting the latest OpenOffice.org 3.0 developer build up-and-running for Windows XP.