Cody Taylor

snydeq writes “The center of gravity is shifting away from the traditional, massive operating systems of the past, as even the major OSes are slimming their footprint to make code bases easier to manage and secure, and to increase the variety of devices on which they can run, InfoWorld reports. Microsoft, for one, is cutting down the number of services that run at boot to ensure Windows 7 will run across a spectrum of hardware. Linux distros such as Ubuntu are stripping out functionality, including MySQL, CUPS, and LDAP, to cut footprints in half. And Apple appears headed for a slimmed-down OS X that will enable future iPhones or tablet devices to run the same OS as the Mac. Though these developments don’t necessarily mean that the browser will supplant the OS, they do show that OS vendors realize they must adapt as virtualization, cloud computing, netbooks, and power concerns drive business users toward smaller, less costly, more efficient operating environments.”

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Microsoft wants to find someone to help it combat open-source competitors on the desktop, but Ubuntu is the most likely target for a range of reasons.

AMD has just announced a new and improved version of its ATI Catalyst Linux display driver, available for both x86 and x86_64 architectures. ATI Catalyst 9.1 introduces final and stable support for the Ubuntu 8.10 Linux operating system, full OpenGL 3.0 support, Hybrid CrossFire support and Multiview support.

Versions affected:Ubuntu 6.06 LTS Ubuntu 7.10 Ubuntu 8.04 LTS

Ubuntu Pocket Guide and Reference is available from Amazon for , but—best of all—the book is also available as a free PDF download from the official web site. Can’t go wrong with free.

Follow the guide below and you’ll be having your own custom usplash screen in no time.In Ubuntu Intrepid, there is a bug that prevents you from setting your own usplash screen. To overcome this, we will remove the default usplash and install splashy.

Some people are scratching their heads over recent Windows 7-related comments attributed to Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth. But Shuttleworth’s words provide an important reminder that innovation and competition from Microsoft will help to propel Ubuntu and Linux forward.

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 8.04.2 LTS, theUbuntu 8.04.2 LTS released second maintenance update to Ubuntu’s 8.04 LTS release. This release includes updated server, desktop, and alternate installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures.

Derwent sends along a Computerworld piece which begins: “The Ubuntu Mobile operating system is undergoing its most radical change with a port to the ARM processor for Internet devices and netbooks, and may use Nokia’s LGPL Qt development environment as an alternative to GNOME. During a presentation at this year’s linux.conf.au conference, Canonical’s David Mandala said Ubuntu Mobile has changed a lot over the past year… ‘I worked on ARM devices for many years so a full Linux distribution on ARM is exciting,’ Mandala said, adding one of the biggest challenges is reminding developers to write applications for 800 by 600 screen resolutions found in smaller devices. ‘The standard [resolution] for GNOME [apps] is 800 by 600, but not all apps are. For this reason Ubuntu Mobile uses the GNOME Mobile (Hildon framework) instead of a full GNOME desktop, but since Nokia open sourced Qt under the LGPL it may consider this as an alternative.'”

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The Jaunty Jackalope Chronicles