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Archive for the ‘open source’ Category

Open source Diaspora site aims to right Facebook’s social networking wrongs

August 27th, 2010 2:30pm Lee J. 1 comment

Open source Diaspora social network aims to right Facebook's wrongsDiaspora, an open source open alternative to the monstrously popular social networking site Facebook is set to launch on 15th September.

Describing itself as a “privacy-aware, personally-controlled, do it all, open source social network”, the Diaspora project has been driven by four impossibly fresh-faced New York students – three computer scientists and a mathematician – who have so far raised $200,000 (£140,000) in funding.

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Toggl’s time tracking tools look a treat for your timesheet needs

July 28th, 2010 9:30am mike s 2 comments

Toggl time tracking tools look a treat for your timesheet needsBilled as a “timesheet killer,” Toggl  is great way for freelancers and team-workers to keep track of their time spent working for The Man.

The free service comes in several flavours: a downloadable desktop widget for Mac, Linux and Windows, an iPhone/Android application and an iGoogle gadget that runs on all the major browsers – Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera.

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WordPress 3.0 (aka Thelonious) gets official release

June 17th, 2010 8:00pm mike s 5 comments

WordPress 3.0 (aka Thelonious) gets official release

WordPress – the most popular blog software on the planet and the content management system powering this very site – has just enjoyed a major upgrade to version 3.0.

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Is Google really open? An open source guru comments [Video]

May 23rd, 2010 8:15pm Pete Railton No comments

Is Google really open? An open source guru comments [Video]

The good folks at Mashable have put together an interesting interview with Free Software Foundation and GNU founder Richard Stallman, discussing just how “open” Google really is.

Super beardy Stallman is a bit of a legend amongst the open source cognoscenti, so he’s more qualified than most to take a close, critical look at Google’s claims.

Check out the video after the break…

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Categories: open source Tags: ,

Ubuntu v10.04 release packs in the new features

April 29th, 2010 8:30pm mike s No comments

Ubuntu 10.04 release

Ubuntu’s penchant for daft version names for their Linux OS continues with the v9.10 “Karmic Koala” release now being replaced by v10.04 which regales under the name, “Lucid Lynx.”

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Categories: open source, software Tags: ,

VLC Player victorious in media player comparison shoot out

April 15th, 2010 4:43pm mike s 1 comment

VLC player tops media player comparison shoot out

When it comes to the relatively simple task of watching a video file or getting an earful of an audio file, most people are happy to stick with whatever’s already installed on their machine.

But is there anything better out there?

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iTablet: like a Windows iPad, but with a bigger screen

February 5th, 2010 4:12pm Lee J. No comments

iTablet: like a Windows iPad, but with a bigger screen Clearly hoping to scoop up some of that frenzied iPad buzz, UK company X2 Computing has launched their own “iTablet” range of Windows/Linux-based tablet PCs.

Described as coming “hot on the heels of Apple’s latest product launch,” X2 claims “the iTablet will revolutionise the way that Windows users can access and use data on the move”.

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Lenovo U1 Tablet/PC Hybrid: we’ll take this over the iPad, thanks

January 28th, 2010 11:58am mike s No comments

Lenovo U1 Tablet/PC Hybrid: we'll take this over the iPadIt’s still under development and not expected out until the second half of this year, but Lenovo ‘s U1 Tablet/PC Hybrid has already got us a lot more excited than Apple’s frankly underwhelming iPad offering.

Showcased at CES earlier this month, the tablet packs everything you’d need from a fully functioning tablet PC – touchscreen, full multitasking, automatic screen orientation, 3G, Wi-Fi, onboard camera etc, but comes with a very clever  twist: it can clip into a special shell to become a full Windows 7 laptop with a proper keyboard.
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Firefox hits v3.6, throws up funky one click themes, speedier browsing

January 22nd, 2010 12:29pm mike s 4 comments

Firefox hits v3.6, throws up funky one click themes, speedier browsingIt’s taken a while to get drrssed, but the latest 3.6 version of Firefox has finally rocked into town.

Promising nippier performance, natty one-click themes, safer add-ons and plug-ins, improved font handling and other life enhancing properties the browser is now ready for your downloading pleasure.

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Categories: Windows, open source, software, web Tags: ,

Windows 7 grows faster than Vista, passes Mac OS X total

January 22nd, 2010 11:14am Pete Railton 3 comments

Windows 7 grows faster than Vista, passes all Mac OS X versions

After the sheer horror that was Vista, Microsoft looks to have got things back on track, with Windows 7′s strong 2009 holiday season sales being reflected in a growing OS market share.

The operating system now has a bigger overall market share than all the tracked Apple OS X versions  (10.4, 10.5 and 10.6), even if the total Windows market share dropped 0.31 percentage points (from 92.52 percent to 92.21 percent) between November and December 2009 .

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Categories: Apple, Windows, open source Tags:

Run Ubuntu on your Windows desktop

January 10th, 2010 9:51am Tony Fletcher No comments

Run Ubuntu on your Windows desktopHere’s a neat tool for Windows users who’d like to experiment with the Ubuntu operating system without having to faff about with dual booting systems or risk trashing your current installation.

The free Portable Ubuntu for Windows application lets you runs an entire Linux operating system as a Windows application – and then carry it around on a USB stick.

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Categories: computing, open source, software Tags: ,

Lenovo Skylight smartbook serves up a stylish, slimline Snapdragon-powered treat

January 6th, 2010 12:14pm mike s No comments

Lenovo Skylight smartbook serves up a stylish, slimline Snapdragon-powered treatSay hello to Lenovo’s new Skylight netbook, the industry’s first ARM-based, Qualcomm smartbook, purring along on the freshly minted 1GHz Snapdragon processor (as seen in the Google Nexus One phone).

It’s a curious but attractive looking affair, but at least no one could accuse Lenovo of releasing a “me too” netbook, with the super-thin, shiny clamshell serving up a feast of curvy lines with the added bonus of an oddball attachable USB stick.

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Categories: computing, open source Tags:

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 RC1 email client – full review

November 26th, 2009 9:15am Michael H. 1 comment

Mozilla Thunderbird 3.0 RC1 - full reviewMozilla Thunderbird, the free email client produced by the makers of the Firefox browser, has recently undergone some important revisions, and is now available as Thunderbird 3.0 RC1.

RC stands for Release Candidate, meaning that this version of Thunderbird 3 is designed for testing, and might still have a few bugs, so don’t install it in production environments.

I’ve been using Thunderbird 3 in its various Beta iterations for a while, and have now updated to RC1, and I believe that this latest version of the popular email client is a considerable improvement over its predecessors.

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Categories: open source, reviews, software, stuff, web Tags: ,

Firefox is five years old

November 9th, 2009 10:51am mike s No comments

Firefox is five years old

Launched on November 9, 2004, the web browser Firefox is now five years old.

Starting life as an experimental arm of the Mozilla project, whose hefty suite of apps included a web browser, mail client, news reader, irc client and web page editor (Mozilla Composer), Firefox looked to offer a slimmed-down alternative to the wobbly lard of Internet Explorer.

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Categories: open source, software, web Tags: ,

Today’s bargain: Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Desktop PC for £150

November 8th, 2009 4:14pm Lee J. No comments

Today's bargain: Acer Aspire Revo R3600 Desktop PC for £150Anyone looking for a stylish mini PC netbook at a super-cut down price, should swiftly cast their eyes in the direction of the Aspire Revo R3600.

Offered by e-Buyer, who are currently offering the Revo for a few pennies under £150, this looks tremendous value to our eyes.

A stylish, Linux-powered number small enough to fit on to the back of your monitor, the Revo is powered by an Intel Atom 230 CPU (the single-core version of dual core 330), running at 1.6GHz – perfect for a small home server or media centre.

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Categories: computing, open source Tags: ,