KDE Version 4.6.0 Released - Integrates Support For Mobile Devices

KDE team has released version 4.6.0 of its flagship product - The KDE Desktop. This is a major release that brings lots of improvements, and which promises a far better user experience.

The notable enhancements you will find in KDE 4.6.0 are as follows -
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HTML5 will henceforth be known as just HTML

HTML5 is the next major version of HTML and is widely considered future of the Web. In particular, HTML5 adds many new syntax features. These include <video>, <audio> and <canvas> elements as well as integration of SVG content, which are designed to improve the inclusion and handling of multimedia and graphic content on the web without recourse to proprietary plugins and their APIs [Source : Wikipedia].

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Ubuntu Might Ship With Qt Libraries

In future iterations of Ubuntu (Natty and onwards), Ubuntu CD might ship with Qt libraries - Mark Shuttleworth noted in one of his blog post.

The basic premise behind this announcement is that it is the quality and usability of the application (to be included) that is important; the choice of toolkit should be irrelevant.
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XFCE 4.8 has been released

XFCE is a lightweight desktop environment that aims to be fast and low on system resources. Nearly after a 2 years hiatus, XFCE has released version 4.8. A number of new features have made their way into XFCE ver 4.8. Some of them being the ability to browse remote shares using a variety of protocols, a redesign of the XFCE panel thus improving positioning, transparency, item and launcher management, a new menu plugin to view directories, improved keyboard layout selection, and more.

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First Look At GNOME 3 Prior To Its Release

GNOME 3, due for release in April 2011, is going to be revolutionary. The Desktop is designed to reduce distraction and interruption and to put the user in control. Messaging has been seamlessly integrated into the desktop. An improved file manager, redesigned work spaces, and better accessibility are some of the notable improvements.

The GNOME Project has published a new website Gnome3.org showcasing the GNOME 3 Desktop environment.

If you are really interested in trying out GNOME 3 just now,you can do so by compiling it yourself using GNOME's JHBuild sandboxing tool.

Home Computer - Green, Palm Sized Computer For Rs 5000

elLoka Techsolutions Pvt Ltd a Hyderabad based product design and manufacturing company that delivers Ultra Low Cost Computer Platforms(ULCCP), has come up with a palm-sized computer that is very cheap and consumes very little power.

The computer is on display at the Rambagh SMS Convention center in Jaipur, Rajasthan where a three-day Commonwealth and information technology meet is on.

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Pinguy OS - An Ubuntu Based Linux Distribution on Steroids

Ubuntu has helped spawn umpteen Linux distributions. Pinguy OS is yet another Linux distribution based on Ubuntu (version 10.10 to be exact).

Pinguy OS is targeted at lay persons - people who are going to use Linux for the first time, or those who want an out-of-box working OS.
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1 Second Linux Boot - And It Is No Gimmick !

It is said a picture is worth a 1000 words. In this case, instead of a picture, the following video demonstrates Linux booting to a GUI in a mere 1 second.



And this is what the people who implemented this awesome feat have to say about this exercise (and I quote).
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Cover Thumbnailer - How to install in Ubuntu Linux

Cover Thumbnailer is a small Python script which displays music/video album covers in Nautilus in place of ordinary icons of folders, preview of pictures in a folder and more.

It is similar to what you see in Microsoft Windows 7 where the folder shows a preview of the pictures contained in it.
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GNUCash 2.4.0 has been released

GNUCash - for those in the dark - is a Free accounting package which you can use to keep track of your net worth, your income, and expenses. It operates under the double entry accounting principle.

If you are not aware of double entry accounting, let me direct you to a wonderful article called "A day in the life of Dave the Dollar" which explains this concept in simple layman terms. In fact, a few years back, it was this very article which persuaded me to start using GNUCash in the first place.

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10 Do's And Dont's For System Administrators

System Administrators have an unenviable job. They have to work odd hours ensuring the computers in your office run without a glitch. And people tend to think of System Administrators only when their machines start misbehaving. Obviously they have their work cut out for them.

CHIMIT (Computer-Human Interaction for Management of Information Technology) is a conference that focuses on computer-human interaction for IT workers. Recently they asked what would make the System Administrator's job a wee bit easier than usual.

And the following are the prominent answers they received from the ensuing brainstorming session -
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Linux Ate My RAM - Help!

Help! Linux ate my Memory. Did it indeed?
I was curious where my memory had gone because, when I fired up a terminal and typed the command -

$ free -m

I got the following output.

total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:           882        843         38          0         86        424
-/+ buffers/cache:        332        549
Swap:            0          0          0

From a total of 882 MB, 843 MB has been used leaving only a measly 38 MB free for my use. How is that possible ?

Well, I stumbled upon an interesting website which explains in detail just this conundrum.

The website is (and you might have guessed it right!) linuxatemyram.com. And after reading through the website, I figured out that the whole thing is just a play of words. What you consider free is indeed free, but Linux chooses to call it 'used' because this memory is both used for something and at same time available for applications. Since your and Linux's terminology differs, you think you are low on RAM when you're not.Get it ?

KDE 4.5.4 for Windows Released

KDE Windows team has rolled out the latest iteration of KDE 4.5.4 for Windows.

With all the advances made, KDE developers say KDE for Windows is still not ready for stable use. However, the latest version KDE 4.5.4 compilation for Windows brings with it a number of features which would convince end users and developers to give it a try.

Patrick Spendrin the Release Manager of the KDE for Windows initiative explains why KDE could do well on the Windows platform in this lengthy interview he gave Pau Garcia i Quiles.

You can download the latest version of KDE 4.5.4 for Windows from here.