Gadgetopia

The GNOME Foundation is set to release version 2.8 of the GNOME Desktop today. The major change in this release is the inclusion of the Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL), designed to make hardware 'just work'. So, if you plug in your jump drive, the drive icon magically shows up on ...

When I first used Linux in the mid-90s, I used GNOME instead of KDE, since KDE looked kind of clunky and you couldn't do a lot of configuration on it. With the more recent releases, KDE looks just as good as GNOME, and seems (to me at least) to have ...

We took a cue from our arch-rivals over at Electric Pulp and finally created a Flickr account (give us six years or so, and we re bound to pick up on a new trend or two). Our first activity is a photoset of the Blend Offices. So, take a tour and ...

vs. Linux GUI: Owen found an interview that really, really hits the nail on the head about a big problem with Linux. Right now, the Linux community values "diversity" too highly to ever get a single, consistent GUI, let alone a good one. At the same time, it holds on ...

Sun's Mad Hatter takes crack at desktop Windows: They demoed this a LinuxWorld today, so it's back in the news. "Mad Hatter, which Sun first disclosed a year ago, is Sun's effort to dislodge Microsoft and its Windows/Office combination from the desktop PC. Like StarOffice, Mad Hatter will include a ...

BlueProximity - GNOME Bluetooth device distance detection and automatic locking tool :-): What a great idea. Of course, I keep my cell phone on my desk or in my coat pocket half the time, so I m still screwed. This software helps you add a little more security to your desktop. ...

Wal-Mart Adds SuSE-Based PCs As Linux Offerings Grow: They've sold Lindows machines for a while now, but this is good news for the Linux camp. "Walmart.com has added the SuSE distribution to its PC lineup, and PC consumers can now purchase the Linux-based machines for under $300. The Microtel-designed systems ...

A link I may come to regret showing Deane: DevX has an article on PHP-GTK, which provides PHP bindings to the GIMP Tool Kit, the foundation of the GNOME desktop environment. Now, PHP has begun to carve a space for itself in the standalone application arena as well with PHP-GTK. ...

Miguel de Icaza of GNOME fame made some interesting observations regarding Microsoft's recent decision to release certain Longhorn technologies (mainly Avalon, the new UI framework) for Windows XP. My prediction is that Avalon v1 will be a throw-away: it is not really the foundation on which you will build applications: ...

Sun Microsystems is releasing an early version of their Project Looking Glass desktop environment into the GPL. What if windows were translucent so that you could see the multiple windows you're working on at the same time? What if you could tack a note to yourself right on the Web ...

Gentoo Linux has announced the release of their first-quarter build, with some cutting-edge enhancements. Gentoo Linux is proud to announce the release of Gentoo Linux 2004.0 for the x86, AMD64, PowerPC, Sun SPARC, and SGI MIPS architectures. Additionally, the Gentoo Hardened team is announcing the inaugural release of a security-enhanced ...

A little while ago, I made a short post on Miguel de Icaza s comments on Avalon, Longhorn s new UI API (which obsoletes WinForms, which obsoletes the unmanaged API s). Miguel, one of the driving forces behind mono and Gnome, pointed out what he considered to be problems with Avalon. Well, Chris ...

If you've read this blog, you may have picked up on the fact that I'm a bit of an open-source advocate. I far prefer to use open-source solutions wherever possible. By and large, open-source doesn't get enough credit. I've run Linux and KDE as my primary work environment on my ...