Free Software Linux

From the article: Last fall when the two mega-distros openSUSE and Mandriva both hit the mirrors, it was difficult to decide which I liked better. In an attempt to narrow it down, I ran some light-hearted tests and found Mandriva won out in a side-by-side comparison. But things change rapidly in the Linux world and I wondered how a competition of the newest releases would come out. Mandriva 2008.1 was released this past April and openSUSE 11.0 was released just last week. Read More.

From the article: AIR is Adobe’s software for running and creating Web applications that run both online and offline. AIR 1.0, released late last month, runs on Windows and Mac OS. Adobe had said it will port AIR to Linux and then mobile devices. As part of the AIR-on-Linux release, Adobe is making an update to the alpha version of its Flex Builder framework for Linux. Both will be made available at Adobe Labs for free and will be completed later this year. Read More.

What social networks do you belong to? Personally I use Linkedin for business-related networking and Facebook for personal connecting. I found a very interesting layout of social networking worldwide that shows MySpace and Facebook mostly ruling in the Americas with Orkut, Beebo and some others (a couple of which I was blissfully unaware of until now) having higher share elsewhere. I have noticed Linkedin coming out with a few new features lately, perhaps we can persuade them to get a little more “Facebooky”, though they can certainly stop short of the Vampires Challenges and Sheep-tossing applications that seem to proliferate lately. RossB

Having done this a while ago, I appreciate fully what’s necessary to get Mom intro’ed to the Penguin.  Now if I could just get her to stop forwarding me those darned “Send this to 10 people you know or ____ will happen to you” emails. From the article: For most computer literate children, a request from mom to get her set up on “this web thing” is met with panic and a feeling of drudgery. Are you about to expose your sweet mother to spam, phishing, viruses, or worse? Or perhaps more frightening, sign your life away as a 24/7 tech support center? Perhaps, but there’s a better way. Read More.