Linux Articles

Believe it or not, CrossOver, a software that lets Linux and Mac OS X users install popular Windows applications and games, is free for download (yes, FREE)... but only for one day! That day is yesterday (October 28th, 2008), so you better go grab the serial number right now from the CodeWeavers website. Hurry up, because the code you will receive can be unlocked until 23:59 (Midnight) Wednesday, October 29th, Central Standard Time (CST). The software has a limit of 1 copy per customer.

How did this happen? Long story short, three months ago, Jeremy White (CodeWeavers CEO) launched the Great American Lame Duck Presidential Challenge, to "force" George W. Bush into achieving a major political or economic goal. Jeremy White stated that if one of the six goals would be accomplished, he would give his CrossOver application for free to customers worldwide, for one day. Well, this happened on October 14th, when the average price of gasoline dropped below $2.79 per gallon.

"My fellow Americans. As you probably know by now, we recently succeeded in reaching one of our Lame Duck Presidential Challenge Goals. Of course, we reached it in perhaps the worst way possible - by destroying the world economy. And while ostensibly President Bush was to get the credit/blame for meeting our goals, the bottom line is that I cannot help but feel personally responsible for the greatest financial collapse since the 1930s." - said Jeremy White, CodeWeavers CEO.

Below is a list of the applications and games that can be installed via the CrossOver software:
· Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0
· Adobe FrameMaker 7
· Adobe Photoshop 6 / 7 / CS / CS2
· Cortona VRML Client
· Dreamweaver MX
· EndNote 7.0
· EndNote 8
· Flash MX
· Flash Player
· Internet Explorer 6.0
· iPIX Netscape Plugin Viewer
· Lotus Notes 5
· Lotus Notes 6.5.1
· Microsoft Excel Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Office 97 / 2000 / 2003 / 2007 / XP
· Microsoft Outlook 2003
· Microsoft Project 2000 / 2002 / 2003 · Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Microsoft Visio 2002 / 2003
· Microsoft Word Viewer 97/2000 / 2003
· Oracle JInitiator 1.1
· Quick View Plus
· QuickBooks
· Quicken
· Quicken 2007 or 2008
· QuickTime 7
· Shockwave Player 8.5
· Superscape Viscape Universal
· VP3 for QuickTime 5
· Windows Media Player 6.4 / 9
· EVE Online
· Guild Wars
· Half-Life
· World of Warcraft

Linux users can grab the CrossOver Office and Games installers right now from here.
Source: news.softpedia.com

Ubuntu 8.10 Free CDs: Orders Are Taken Now - The Intrepid Ibex. One week is left until the final release of Ubuntu 8.10 and, if you are anxious to get your hands on some nice CDs with the Intrepid Ibex, then you should pre-order them right now from Ubuntu's ShipIt service, FREE of charge. They have started taking the orders a few minutes ago, so hurry up!

If you want to count the days until Ubuntu 8.10 is released – which will happen on October 30th – you can get a nice script, to show it on your website. After you get the countdown script from here, you can even modify it to look the way you want. Each day, the image will change, counting the days remaining until the release of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex).

Although many of you have downloaded the Beta release of Intrepid, I am sure that there will be some more changes until the final product gets on the market. So far, we only know the features that are included in the Beta release. The final release of Ubuntu 8.10 is getting closer and closer, with a lot of changes from the Beta version. At a first glance, you won't notice them, because most are internal, like bug fixes, security updates, etc.

Among the new features in Ubuntu 8.10 is Linux kernel 2.6.27, DKMS, X.Org 7.4, Network Manager 0.7, Samba 3.2, The GIMP 2.6.1, Firefox 3.0.3 and GNOME 2.24 desktop environment, which brings a file manager with tabs, the ability to mount archives, an improved Fast User Switch applet that works in collaboration with Pidgin, a better archive manager that adds support for the ALZ, RZIP, CAB and TAR.7Z file types. Also, features such as encrypted private directory, guest sessions, PAM authentication framework and many more will also be present.

You can download the Beta version of Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) right now from here, or wait until tomorrow for the Release Candidate!
Source: news.softpedia.com

Two days ago, Paul Sherman, developer of Absolute Linux, announced the immediate availability of the Absolute Linux 12.1.09. This version comes right after the 12.0.8 release, which was baked and delivered on October 11th. Absolute Linux 12.1.09 fixes three bugs and updates one package.

Let's take a look at the bug fixes:
· The first bug fix is for the TiLP package, which had some permissions set incorrectly for the /usr/share/applications directory. This caused to render useless .desktop files for the regular user accounts.
· The second bug fix resolves the desktop file type association for .gz files.
· Last but not least, the linking problem between Mozilla Thunderbird mail client and Mozilla Firefox web browser (the mailto function in Firefox and url function in Thunderbird) was fixed in this release.

Moreover, Absolute Linux 12.1.09 updates the "absolute" theme in the gtksourceview2 package, so you can use even more visible colors for the mouse cursor.

Absolute Linux is a lightweight modification of the Slackware Linux distribution. It makes maintenance and configuration much easier, has common applications installed and configured. Absolute Linux allows you to play audio CDs, DVDs and movies "out of the box," and is easy to configure and use. Highlights of Absolute Linux include:
· icewm/ROX_Filer as a window/file manager combination;
· Time-saving utilities;
· Preconfigured shortcuts/menus;
· Desktop-oriented software;
· Customized installer;
· Manuals, HOWTOs and other useful documentation.

Absolute Linux includes applications such as:
· Pidgin (multi-protocol instant messenger)
· Avidemux (video editor)
· Azureus (P2P client)
· Mozilla Firefox (web browser)
· Mozilla Thunderbird (mail client)
· OpenOffice.org (office suite)
· Scribus (desktop publisher)
· Adobe Acrobat Reader (PDF viewer)
· Bibletime (Bible study application)
· Deluge (BitTorrent client)

If you want a fast, lightweight, Slackware-based Linux operating system for your personal computer, you can download Absolute Linux 12.1.09 right now from here.

By: Marius Nestor