[ via @glynmoody]

Linux advocates had a lot of fun recently taking shots at Windows 7 Starter version, which Microsoft has positioned as an option for low-cost netbooks.

What could Microsoft possibly offer in response to the "Starter is a comically bad attempt at an operating system" comments?

They could announce the continued availability of Windows XP for netbook manufacturers for a full year after the release of Windows 7 - which exactly what they've done.

If what Acer said earlier turns out to be true, that means OEMs will be able to sell XP-powered machines until October 2010, and that decision is sure to have repercussions for Linux on netbooks.

After all, one of the key weaknesses of Starter Edition was the three application limit - something that can't be said about Windows XP.

Though it will still add a bit to the cost of a system, the amount has been pegged as low as $15. That's a negligible amount and one most consumers will be willing to absorb to have access to an operating system that is far more familiar to most than any Linux distribution.

The extension will give Microsoft an entire year to build public awareness of Windows 7 and showcase Starter Edition - or scrap it and offer better pricing on another more complete version. Either way, today's announcement could mean a continued rough road ahead for mainstream Linux.

[via PC World]

Open source media player and online video aggregator Miro is taking a cue from the highway service and asking patrons to "adopt" a line of code to help pay the bills much the same way as you can "adopt" a stretch of highway.

Here's how it works. You visit the Miro Adoption Center and pony up $4 per month and you get your name associated with a line in the Miro code base. Your name will also appear in the About Miro credits. But you don't get any tangible benefits like super fast downloads or anything.

In the long run, the only reason to adopt a line of code is because you want to support this open source project. But if you're the sort of person who needs an NPR mug before donating some money to help keep Morning Edition on the air, maybe the adoption page will help encourage you to pull out your wallet for Miro.

[via Boing Boing]

The Opera web browser may not have the name recognition of more popular software like Firefox, Internet Explorer, or Safari. But you know what it does have? History. The first line of code for the Opera web browser was written 15 years ago today.

Back in 1994, Firefox wasn't even a twinkle in the eyes of the team working on the popular Netscape browser. And Microsoft didn't release Internet Explorer 1 until 1995.

Over the last 15 years, Opera has continually added features that were later adopted by other browsers, including tabs, mouse gestures, speed dial bookmarks, and full page zoom.

To celebrate the anniversary, Opera has put together a portal with a comic strip, 15 reasons to try Opera, and a list of innovations that showed up first in the Opera browser.

You might also want to check out Opera.com today for a quick refresher on what the web looked like 15 years ago.

GKrellM is a system monitor utility that was originally designed for Linux, but which now runs on a number of operating systems including OS X, Linux, and Windows.

Out of the box, the utility includes modules for monitoring your CPU, memory, and network use as well as running processes and several other items. Each module can be customized to look different or display different information. And there's a huge list of plugins that you can use to add features like:

• Show clipboard entries
• Display images
• Show the time in several different time zones
• Monitor your Folding@Home account
• Control media players

And the list goes on.

GKrellM is an open source application, with installation packages available for Windows and several Linux distributions including Debian, SUSE, RedHat, and Mandrake. It's also available for FreeBSD, NetBSD, and OpenBSD. Getting it up and running on OS X is a bit more complicated, but still doable.

[via MakeUseOf]

Like many sites offering icon design services, Visual Pharm generously provides a few dozen free downloads for users to enjoy.

As an added bonus, the icon sets they offer are free to use in both personal and commercial settings, provided you supply a link to their web site.

The Must Have pack includes all the OS essentials like disks, users, folders, arrows, gears, and clipboard actions.

For a little international flavor, check out Comrade Matroyshka and From Russia With Love. There are also a few handy computer hardware icons, a small office-themed set (partially pictured), and a half dozen whimsical animals to make your desktop a happy panda.

The icons are well done and provided in Windows, Mac, and PNG format so everyone can get in on the graphical goodness.

Now if I could just get that coffee machine to dispense actual coffee from my desktop...

In case you aren't familiar with the ReactOS project in a nutshell, the aim is to produce an open source operating system that is fully Windows compatible. I've been intrigued by the project for years, and as the developers push toward the release of version 0.4, there's every reason to get excited.

The latest version, 0.3.9, sports reduced memory requirements and major speed improvements, as well as a number of other enhancements. ReactOS requires only 32Mb of memory (it will run with as little as 20Mb), and the installer weighs in at just under 34Mb. Preliminary AC97 sound support has also been added, and GDI fixes have taken care of a number of graphics issues.

Want to take it for a spin? You can play with ReactOS a number of ways. There's an installation CD, LiveCD, VMWare virtual machine, and pre-packed Qemu setup, all ready to download. Just keep in mind that ReactOS is still considered an alpha release at this point.

Once you've got ReactOS running, fire up the downloader to get some apps installed, like Firefox, mIRC, AbiWord, IfranView, or even the Diablo 2 Shareware release. Nice!

[via TuxRadar]

Right on schedule, the folks at Canonical released the latest version of Ubuntu Linux this morning. Ubuntu 9.04 adds a number of new features including a revamped notification system, support for the Ext4 file system, and updated applications like Firefox 3 and OpenOffice.org 3.0.

Canonical also worked hard on system performance, and Ubuntu 9.04 should boot up faster and feature more efficient suspend and reume features. The operating system can also intelligentally switchbetween WiFi and 3G environments using a number of 3G cards.

Ubuntu 9.04 comes in several different flavors. There's a server edition, a desktop edition, and a Netbook Remix edition that's optimized for mini-laptops with Intel Atom processors and low resolution displays.

Kubuntu 9.04 is also available for users who prefer the KDE desktop environment to Gnome. Many of the basic packages in Ubuntu and Kubuntu are the same. Mythbuntu, which comes preloaded with the popular MythTV media center application, has also been updated to version 9.04.

Other versions including Xubuntu (based on the Xfce desktop environment) and Edubuntu (with a focus on educational software) should be updated to 9.04 soon.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. Today's cat: starting torrent downloads on your computer from a remote location!

The first two options require 1) your home machine's address and 2) a forwarded port on your router. If you're on a dynamic IP connection like me, a DDNS updating service like Dyndns.org makes finding your machine much easier - it gives you an easy-to-remember, permanent address likemycomputerathome.dyndns.org. Not too sure how to set up port forwarding on your router? Check out PortForward.com for help with just about any brand or model.

If you'd rather not mess around with port forwarding and dynamic dns, you might want to try setting up Hamachi or Comodo Easy VPN on your machines. Either one will provide you LAN-like access to your main computer with minimal fuss (apart from installing and configuring a new program).

Or you could skip the zero-config VPN software and check out the last two options after the break - neither of which require you to know your home system's address or change any router settings.

Now let's get started!

Using Your Client's WebUI (pictured above)

uTorrent, Transmission, and Deluge all offer a web-based control panel for their clients. Getting remote access is as simple as opening the appropriate port on your router and then opening the right address in your web browser.

For uTorrent, you may need to download the webui.zip from their forums and save it to your %appdata%\utorrent folder.

The next version of the popular Ubuntu Linux distribution is due out on April 23rd. But if you just can't wait that long, you can download the release candidate of Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope today. If there aren't any major bugs found in the candidate, no changes will be made in the next week and you'll have a few day's head start on all your loser friends who wait until the 23rd to install the operating system.

For the most part, Ubuntu 9.04 RC looks a lot like Ubuntu 9.04 Beta which was released last month. Most of the work over the last few weeks has been in making the operating system more stable. But here are a few of the changes since Ubuntu 8.10 was released last fall:

• Updates to the Linux kernel, X.Org server, GNOME and KDE interfaces
• Support for the Ext4 file system
• Improved handling of multiple monitors
• Improved boot speeds
• Updated software including newer versions of Firefox and OpenOffice.org

There's also now a version of Ubuntu designed to run on ARM processors, which means Ubuntu will be able to run on a number of upcoming netbooks and mobile internet devices built around chips that can't run Windows.

No doubt you're familiar with the BBC iPlayer: we've been closely following the product's development since its cross-platform launch a little over a year ago. Since then we've seen plenty of developments, including the release of a desktop client (using Adobe's AIR technology) and today is another notable date for the iPlayer project.

In a move that's likely to please a lot of users - and infuriate already-annoyed internet providers - the BBC has announced that High Definition downloads are now available via a new version of the service's desktop client. The client will detect the speed of your connection which will pick the appropriate bit-rate version depending on your internet connection. The HD content, available as ever to British residents only, is available now via the BBC iPlayer site and there's plenty more content promised including Doctor Who and Dragons' Den.

Blip.fm is kind of like Twitter meets Seeqpod. That is, it's a service that lets you send short messages to your contacts, accompanied by streaming music. We first looked at Blip.fm last summer.

But here's the thing about Twitter: Most of the people I know that use the service regularly use third party Twitter clients on their desktops, cellphones, or other devices instead of using the Twitter web interface. As it turns out, Blip.fm is also a lot cooler when you pair it with third party software like Blipster.

Blipster is a desktop client for Blip.fm that runs on Adobe AIR, which means it can work with Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. You can use Blipster to search for music, listen to songs, see the latest messages and songs from your contacts, and even add new people to follow. If you find someone who shares your musical tastes, you can add them as a contact and listen to the songs they're blipping.

Blipster also features Last.fm integreation which lets you find similar artists. It also has beta support for Last.fm's scrobbling feature which is designed to offer improved recommendations based on the music you've already played.

[via Go2Web20]

xPUD may not be the first light weigh Linux distribution to take up less than 50MB of disk space. But it's certainly one of the simplest, fastest Linux distributions I've seen. And that's largely because it's still in the early stages of development and doesn't support a ton of hardware or software yet. But it's still pretty nifty watching a computer boot a full operating system complete with a web browser, media player, and BitTorrent client in just about 10 seconds. You can see it for yourself after the break.

The operating system has a kiosk-style user interface. In other words, there's no start menu and desktop. Instead, there are a few tabs on the left side of the screen that let you tweak the settings, launch applications, or access files. Right now there are only a handful of applications available and when you click the utility for adding new apps, you get a message telling you the feature hasn't been implemented yet.

You can install xPUD to your hard drive, although I wouldn't really recommend it. Or you can download a ZIP file and prepare a bootable USB flash drive to boot the OS without installing it.

There's also an unimplemented feature labeled "Switch Mode" that lets you "toggle into other OS," which makes me think the goal is to develop xPUD as a quick-boot style operating system like Splashtop or HyperSpace. It could coxisting peacefully on a hard drive with Windows, Ubuntu, or another operating system and give you access to a handful of programs a few seconds after you hit the power button. If you need more power, you'd toggle operating systems and boot into a full desktop environment.

Note: The xPUD download servers were extremely slow when I last tried them. But the files are mirrored at the following site (you'll have to copy and paste the URL, clicking doesn't work):

http://www.hp-umpc.com/xpud/

Check out the xPUD boot sequence after the jump.

[via Liliputing Forums]