Infrastructure Linux News for Oct 23, 2009

• An Amazing Coincidence or Something More Sinister? (Oct 23, 2009, 23:55)
  Ever-Increasing Entropy: "Yesterday, as anyone involved in computing knows, Windows 7 was released by Microsoft with much marketing hype and fanfare...Hewlett-Packard also did something yesterday, albeit very quietly. HP removed Linux entirely from the part of their website where the sell netbooks."


• Editor's Note: Audio Production in Linux (Oct 23, 2009, 23:02)
  Audio recording and editing with computers is still in its infancy, and is full of pitfalls. Just figuring out what hardware to use is enough to drive a person to drink. But once you get it all figured out and get everything working, it's fun and powerful.


• Amarok 2.2.0: Back on Track (Oct 23, 2009, 22:32)
  IT News Today: "Back in June, I reviewed Amarok 2.1 and was far from impressed. The layout editor was difficult to work with and felt tacked on, and the fact that a great deal of my music was placed under “Various Artists” for no apparent reason frustrated me. Amarok 2.2 has been released recently, and it’s a definite improvement, and may even be the best music player released this year."


• DigiKam - Not really an image editor, but possibly the only one to do what I need it to do (Oct 23, 2009, 21:32)
  Click: "You've heard my moaning and complaining about how just about every image editor in the Linux/Unix world takes the embedded caption information that comes in almost all of the JPEGs I receive and not only won't read it but completely erases it any and every time I modify and save just such an image."


• Battle Of The OS Titans (Oct 23, 2009, 18:02)
  Forbes: "Why consumers likely will win in the operating systems battle brewing among Apple, Google, Microsoft and Linux."


• Ask the Wi-Fi Guru, Episode XX (Oct 23, 2009, 15:32)
  Wi-Fi Planet: "Q: I have a Linksys router with DD-WRT and now a Netgear router. The Netgear is the "repeater" and I followed your setup and it works fine, my question is: On the repeater, do I need to enable DHCP?"


• Five Linux alternatives to Windows 7 (Oct 23, 2009, 14:32)
  Cyber Cynic: "But, say you're not that excited about Windows 7. After-all, it's still as insecure as ever and upgrading from XP to Windows 7 is a major pain. So if you want, or are going to be forced, to move by your aging PC to another operating system, why not give Linux a try."


• Photo: Linus Celebrates the Windows 7 Launch (Oct 23, 2009, 14:02)
  Linux Magazine: "Apparently those Windows 7 Launch Party videos had their intended effect; even the head penguin himself has fallen under the thrall of Microsoft's newest operating system."


• ZaReason Prepares Ubuntu 9.10 Server, PCs and Netbook (Oct 23, 2009, 13:32)
  WorksWithU: "As Canonical delivers the first Ubuntu 9.10 release candidate to users, niche PC makers like System76 and ZaReason are preparing to offer Ubuntu 9.10 on their systems. We’ve already heard from System76. Now, let’s take a look at ZaReason’s system plans for the new Ubuntu â€" including thoughts about a new ZaReason server and an expanding customer base."


• LXer Book Review: Pro Linux System Administration (Oct 23, 2009, 13:02)
  LXer: ""By the end of this book, You'll be well on your way to becoming a Linux expert" is quite a bold claim for a book that is aimed at people who only have some familiarity with Windows and networking. "Pro Linux System Administration" by James Turnbull, Peter Lieverdink and Dennis Matotek aims to do precisely that and surprisingly, it largely succeeds."


• Let your medical practice go open source with Gnumed (Oct 23, 2009, 12:32)
  Ghacks: "Gnumed is an open source management tool for medical practices. If your practice (or a practice you do IT for) is in need of an electronic record-keeping system, and you do not want to have to shell out your entire IT budget for a proprietary solution, Gnumed might be the perfect tool for you."


• A Linux Users Look at Windows 7 Ultimate (Oct 23, 2009, 12:02)
  IT News today: "Having already reviewed Windows 7 Professional, I thought it would be a cool idea to mix it up a bit and give everyone a Linux users point of view on Windows 7."


• Ubuntu's Encrypted Home Directory: A Canonical Approach to Data Privacy (Oct 23, 2009, 11:02)
  Linux Magazine: "How can users protect themselves from the loss of important data when a computer goes missing? Well, the latest release of Ubuntu makes this not only possible, but frighteningly easy."


• 11 of the Best Free Linux PDF Tools (Oct 23, 2009, 08:02)
  LinuxLinks: "This article identifies the best free Linux PDF related software that is available. It covers software that creates, views, manipulates PDFs as well as selecting some useful utilities. All of the applications featured here are released under a freely distributable license, with the exception of Adobe Reader (which is closed source), but this application is too important to ignore. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for anyone who wants to manage PDF documents."


• A sneak preview of new OpenOffice 3.2 part 1 (Oct 23, 2009, 06:32)
  LinuxCrunch: "The last developer milestone ( DEV300m60) of OpenOffice.org has been released. The next version of OpenOffice.org 3.2 has more than 42 features and 167 enhancements."


• Android e-reader boasts dual netbook-like displays (Oct 23, 2009, 03:32)
  LinuxDevices: "Entourage Systems announced the third Android-powered, dual-display e-reader of the week. The Entourage Edge opens up like a book, with one inside panel devoted to a 9.7-inch E Ink display, and the right panel offering a 10.1-inch touchscreen that provides WiFi (or optional 3G) based web browsing and media playback."


• Getting A Refund for Unwanted Microsoft Windows (Oct 23, 2009, 02:02)
  Jamie's Random Musings: "Here is another excellent article describing the steps to take in order to get a refund (from Dell in this case) when you are forced to buy Windows in order to get the computer you want."