Asus has released an Eee home server. Using the same Atom chip which powers their line of netbooks, this new device is a simplified Linux-based home server. Dubbed the Eee NAS it is intended to provide data storage and backup for homes and very small businesses.

Launched at this week’s Computex show in Taiwan, the Eee NAS pairs the Atom N270 processor with 2GB of RAM and a pair of 7200rpm 500GB SATA drives for a total of 1 terrabyte of storage.

Read more here: Asus releases Eee NAS netbook-based home server
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£8 million a year to Microsoft, with no public bidding. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, say open source activists.

Linux vendor Red Hat, and 17 other vendors, have protested a Swiss government contract given to Microsoft without any public bidding. The move exposes a wider Microsoft monopoly that European governments accept, despite their lip service for open source, according to commentators.

The Red Hat group has asked a Swiss federal court to overturn a three-year contract issued to Microsoft by the Swiss Federal Bureau for Building and Logistics, to …

The new Linux.com site has been launched. For those who don’t remember the Linux Foundation took over the site in March and have been planning the relaunch since then.
In addition to Linux news, product listings, and more, Linux.com is designed to be interactive; ‘for the community by the community.’ You can:

Gain Guru Points for contributions to the site and compete for the “Ultimate Linux Guru” recognition and prizes
Create a group for your LUG or developer group and invite friends to stay informed. (linux.com/community/groups)
Add an Event to the Linux.com …

The Free Software Foundation and Cisco have announced that they have reached a joint agreement and settled the law suit which the FSF initiated in December. The settlement announcement, which had been expected after an order to dismiss, was filed with the district court, sees Cisco agreeing to appoint a Free Software Director for the Cisco subsidiary Linksys who will enforce the company’s compliance with the terms of the GPL. Cisco have also agreed to notify customers who have received products which contain FSF programs of their rights with regard …

It was revealed yesterday that the Linux Foundation, a non-profit consortium chartered to foster the growth of Linux, has bought the Linux.com domain from SourceForge.

I (Gary Sims) have worked with the Linux.com team for several years and they have published several of my artivles and even a video review of Picasa for Linux. At the moment I am undecided about what this means for the Linux community, time will tell as we see what the LF make of the site.

Some key points about the deal are:

LF is taking over the …

What’s the best Linux distribution? It’s one of the most commonly asked questions from people who are new to Linux. The answer? Well, there isn’t really a simple answer.

Many people swear by only one distribution (or distro) while others may recommend you try them all, but the best answer is probably somewhere in the middle of those.

Here are a few of the resources you can use to find out which distribution is best for you.
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If there’s one thing Linux is better at than any other operating system, it’s allowing you to tweak the desktop.

Blair Mathis, has written the article those “who love to see the glitter, glamour, and special effects and want to pimp their Gnome desktop.”

The article looks at:

Compiz
Themes
Icons
Widgets
Dock

Read more here: Eye Candy: Pimping the Gnome Desktop on Ubuntu – LaptopLogic.com
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Mercian Labels, a label printing company in the UK, has completed their migration to open source software.
Mercian Labels decided in 2007 to migrate all of their software to open source solutions. They have now succesfully migrated all possible parts of their business where an open source alternative exists. They are now using 15 open source computers and even their telephone system has gone open source.

They have successfully migrated their email (using Zimbra), Web server (migrated to Ubuntu dedicated server) and CRM. The company is using FreeNAS for network attached storage …

Ubuntu 9.04 Boots in 21.4 Seconds when using the EXT4 as the default filesystem. This is compared to Ubuntu 8.10 with EXT3 filesystem which boots in 26.8 seconds and Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha (Build 20090112.1) with EXT3 filesystem that boots in 24.5 seconds.
The boot times were calculated from the moment the GRUB boot loader appeared on the screen and until the login manager was displayed. As you can see, there is an approximately 8.7 second difference between an Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) installation and an Ubuntu 9.04 Alpha (Jaunty Jackalope) …

There is one way to get Linus Torvalds to laugh in your face; submit code to fix Linux that might solve a major difficulty, but also introduce new problems.
Linux originator Torvalds is following his long-standing policy of attending the Australian Linux.conf.au conference but not appearing as a presenter in the formal program. However, he offered a number of comments from the floor during a presentation by LWN.net founder Jonathan Corbet on the kernel development process.

Read more here: Linus Torvalds on regression, laziness and having his code rejected
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