Yesterday the KDE team announced the release of a series of updates concerning the Plasma Desktop and Netbook workspaces, KDE Applications and KDE Platforms. In my humble opinion, this excellent desktop environment, notwithstanding its greatness, do suffer a lot for the minor attenction that Canonical - which maintain Ubuntu, the most diffused linux distribution - deserve to it, in respect to Gnome (i.e., Kubuntu is clearly not as much developed as Ubuntu). Even if, also Gnome team is somewhat angry with Ubuntu, given the programmed switch to Unity Desktop....
Apple's CEO says that Android is fragmented and that the open vs. closed dilemma is not important as long as Apple's proprietary mobile operating system manages to provide a better user experience.
My point on this: Steve Jobs may be right; i.e., the iOS ecosystem is certainly less fragmented and more homogeneous. I have an iPod and I do appreciate it. That's right.
But what he forgot to tell you, is the price you pay for this self-consistance: namely, the reduced possibility of choice. You have a lot of different choices for Android, from budget to high priced devices (for me, I'm quite fine with a rather inexpensive HTC WildFire).
Conversely, not too many choices are left to you, if you want an iOS device: an iPhone. What else?
From a quick and (admittedly) naive comparison between Firefox 3.6.11, Chrome 7.0.517.41 and Opera 11.00 alpha (all loading the same page), it seems clear that Firefox is still the most hungry of memory...
...anyway I'm too addicted to its extensions, to get rid of it! ;-)
Well it seems that Ubuntu One is moving its first step into the social web; you can easily obtain a link for the song you're listening to. At variance with Apple's Ping, in Ubuntu One you can propagate this link to the (social) web, via all the services you've already set up in your microblogging client Gwibber. Far better than to have all inside iTunes only!
Oh, and as a nice surplus, you find your messages on Ubuntu One front page too. As an example, you can find on that web page a few of my recent played songs (user @mcastel)
I do love the kubuntu community, and spend what some would consider an unreasonable amount on doing certain things twice but there is no philanthropic benefit to having TWO free desktops out there, that won’t help more folks embrace free software neither is there much commercial benefit in having two free desktops.
Great interview with Mark Shuttleworth, spanning a great range of related topics (from Kubuntu to Canonical and business models, not disregarding interesting motivational considerations... "Anyway, what matters to me is that our users are delighted")
A little bit of URL manipulation has revealed separate forums for a new iMovie '11, iPhoto '11, and GarageBand '11, all three of which are core components of the iLife suite, leading us to go ahead and presume that Steve Jobs will be discussing an iLife '11 later today.
Yes, the fact that Apple follow a "closed" business model gave us this environment, in which "fans" are forced to run after deep investigations in order to understand what's going to happen next. I understand that it's a part of Apple strategy, as a whole (and I am an Apple customers too).
Anyway I can't help but notice the difference with the Ubuntu roadmap.. in which you're not forced to run after unconfirmed rumors, but you find all under the Sun...
Interesting point of view about the developement of GNOME, in comparision with the fate of KDE4 ...
GNOME will emphasize simplicity, ease-of-use, and understated modernity over flashiness and over-the-top effects. KDE will be the way forward for ultimate customization, web-connected computing through Plasmoid widgets, and flashy desktop effects (as well as tools for power-users, like Dolphin/Konqueror vs. Nautilus, Okular vs. Evince, Kate vs. Gedit, etc.).Read more at dasublogbyprashanth.blogspot.com
Read more at www.linuxjournal.com
Admittedly, I am a Gnome / Mac OS X person from a good amount of time. Nevertheless, when I look at these screenshot, I am taken by a strange desire, namely, to test KDE again... ;-)
KDE, an international Free Software community, is happy to announce the immediate availability of the KDE Applications 4.5. Be it the high-quality games, educational and productivity software or the useful tools, these applications have become more powerful, yet easier to use.
"We wanted to make sure that there was no central point of failure, so that no industry player can restrict or control the innovations of any other. That's why we created Android, and made its source code open."
Welcome to Android
Read more at source.android.com
"The Linux Mint development team have issued the KDE Edition of version 9 of their Ubuntu-based Linux distribution, code named "Isadora". Linux Mint aims to be user friendly and to provide a more complete out-of-the-box experience by including support for DVD playback, Java, and various plug-ins and media codecs..."
I really prefer low mass stars.. in which they can shine for a much longer time! (Image credits: ESO)
A 300 Solar Mass Star Uncovered
Using a combination of instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, astronomers have discovered the most massive stars to date, one weighing at birth more than 300 times the mass of the Sun, or twice as much as the currently accepted limit of 150 solar masses. The existence of these monsters — millions of times more luminous than the Sun, losing weight through very powerful winds — may provide an answer to the question “how massive can stars be?”
Read more at www.eso.org
Brief but interesting article for those who blogs but have to deal with many activities... sometimes, it's good to return to the core: blogging is about writing (possibly good) blog posts, first of all. Simply like that ! ;)
4 Tips To Help You Stay Focused on Your Blog
Most people who blog also have a full time job or occupation (i.e., school), not to mention other personal activities (e.g., friends and family), so balancing everything can become tricky indeed.
If you don’t have a lot of time to dedicate to your blog, focus on the core activities only. The main one is writing content. If you only have time for one task, use it to write content. If in one day you happen to have some extra time, use it to promote your best posts.
Read more at www.dailyblogtips.com
Since its first apparence, Gmail was rightly considered as "innovative" for a good number of reasons, ranging from the more technical aspects (for example, the interface carachterized by a judicious use of AIAX and other emerging technologies) to end on the more social aspects (the pecuiliar conversational model, etc...). As a consequence, the choice of talking about Gmail, far from being reductive and restricted to a particular brand or service, can easily became (in my humble opinion) an occasion to talk about the "modern web" in a variety of its more aspects.
We hope you'll share in our enthusiasm as today we unveil a simple service we're calling Promoted Tweets. It's non-traditional, it's easy, and it makes a ton of sense for Twitter.
Twitter makes its first moves toward advertising. Personally, I do appreciate the honesty and transparency that comes out from the blog post. Anyway, I wonder what will be the response of the community...
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| If you open Firefox in a brand new Ubuntu 9.04, here is what you get... |
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| Next Ubuntu default Firefox page... |
Well, I came to the conclusion that it's time to add some bytes of music to patch.panel. After all, music is something that can easily run - in its digital form - trough wires, panels and similar stuff... ;)
A friend of mine shared this wonderful song, a cover beautifully played by Peter Gabriel. I find that both music and worlds are wonderful: this video present a static image, so you can better concentrate on the worlds.
..."you ought to give me wedding rings..."
Just stumbled upon the page explaining the "MeMenu" concept, to be fully implemented in upcoming releases of Ubuntu. I like very much the Rationale under this project. With the other news, such as the music store that's just opening, it seems more and more difficult not to love Ubuntu, in my humble opinion ! ;-)
Interesting comparison between the expected features of the upcoming operating releases from Microsoft and Ubuntu.
Broadly speaking, it seems hard to deny that linux on desktop is getting more and more appealing with time... Problems remains in the lack of certain "key applications" (as iTunes, or Photoshop); its avaibility could drive many user to linux, IMHO...
Two forces are at work here, then: the immediate utility of a social service pre-populated with people you know, combined with the habitual behaviors associated with checking your email throughout the day.
Interesting article on the recently released Google Buzz, the social network built from Google in a close connection with its popular Gmail service. The main advantages and limits of the new services are correctly explained, IMHO.
They have a 2 Petabyte disk array, 10gbps networking, and 35,000 cores (4,000+ HP blades) in their data center, and still it takes 48 hours to render some of their graphic sequences.According to Paul, Ubuntu is at the core of all of this,
Ok, I still have to see the film. Anyway, I think that it's fairly impressive just reading about the computational power that nowadays it's needed to produce a film like Avatar! Additionally, I must admit that my "open source" side is pleased to know that they are using Ubuntu on their machines... ;)
