Apple's iPad was hardly the first tablet to appear on the scene, but it is unquestionably responsible for the recent spike in tablet development. Now it looks as if Ubuntu — the Linux distro everybody loves to hate, but uses anyway — will be entering the field as well. more>>

Some rumours have emerged that IBM is considering an OS/2 comeback and I'm filled with the same mixed feelings more>>

Have you always wanted to set up your own music station to stream your latest music collection to your friends or colleagues? Have you been thinking lately of setting up an always-on music streaming server so that you can just open up your web browser and listen to your favorite tracks? A music server is great in a dormitory, laboratory or office where the file server can double up as the music server! I will show you how using Zeya. more>>

Linux Mint is another distribution that seems designed for new users, although many seasoned users find it as handy as anyone. Linux Mint takes Ubuntu and makes it usable by adding drivers and codecs and adjusting the default application stack for more mainstream appeal. In addition, they customize the appearance for a more universal demographic. more>>

If we compiled a Top 10 list of contentious subjects on the web, Adobe's Flash would no-doubt be on it, and indeed would probably be a heavy contender for #1. Though there are many charges against it, its total lack of 64-bit support was one it was headed towards resolving — until last week, when its beta disappeared. more>>

Are you like me and have multiple Ubuntu machines under one roof? Are you tired of downloading the same update multiple times? Sick of what seems to be duplicate work? Let me introduce you to my little friend... squid-deb-proxy. more>>

Neelie Kroes is no lightweight when it comes to open v. closed software. She spent six years as Europe's head trust-buster, and in that time, collected billions from proprietary software makers who sought to corner the market with their closed-source wares. When she spoke, big software — and everybody else — listened. more>>

Most users interact with OpenOffice.org on the desktop. But what if you need to do a selective restore on the files that store custom gradients or colors? Troubleshoot why an extension won't install? Share resources with other users? For these kinds of tasks, you need to know a bit about where OpenOffice.org stores its files, and what you can do with them. more>>

We recently touched on one way of being a Linux gamer. Recent news that Valve Software will soon be releasing a Linux client promises to provide another option for Linux gamers. more>>

If you've used the command line much at all you know about I/O redirection for redirecting input to and/or output from a program. What you don't see all that often or that you may not be familiar with is redirecting I/O inside a bash script. And I'm not talking about redirections that you use when your script executes another command, I'm talking about redirecting your script's I/O once it has already started executing. more>>

The Parallel Realities website offers a collection of simple, mostly SDL based action games. more>>

Qt 4.7 has not been released yet, but the curious can download the beta or even grab a snapshot from git. The big news in this point seven release is Qt Quick - a new approach to user interfaces. more>>

When Google announced the initial release of WebM — its collaborative drive to create a new open video format for HTML5 — there was much excitement within the Open Source community. Amid the excitement, however, was concern about the project's licensing, concern that quickly led to calls for change. more>>

In preparation for this year's annual motorcycle trip, I purchased an Acer Aspire One Intel Atom N450 netbook. I'd been looking at netbooks for a while, and finally made my choice. more>>

CountBeats is a cracker of a little application—it's simple, yet it covers such a need for so many musicians. To quote the README file:

This is a simple little program designed to help you determine the speed of a piece of music on the radio or on a CD. more>>

I received an email overnight that has me re-evaluating what my smart phone will be. But the email also raised a number of other questions in my mind that are more diverse and apply to more than just the decision of what smart phone to upgrade to. more>>

In my line of work I get to test, try and evaluate all kinds of new open source software and the occasional new distribution flavor of the month. Sometimes it's a smooth process but other times I find myself casting a line in the lake of forums hoping to get a bite. In a lot of ways, this is how it was when I was first introduced to Linux in the late 90's. more>>

Freemind, the open source Java based mind mapping application, makes a great writing planning tool. A final release of version 0.9 has been a long time coming, but the current release candidates are very usable and stable, and I would recommend making the extra effort to install one of these rather than an 0.8 “stable” release. more>>

People sometimes ask which distribution to try if they want to learn how Linux works. Common answers are Gentoo, Arch, or Debian. However, I disagree. Each of these distros teach users their particular brand of Linux. There's only one truly pure Linux, and that is Slackware. more>>

Dave leads a guided tour of three Linux software packages designed for making music by the numbers. more>>