Cross-platform, open source application jUploadr lets you upload your photos to Flickr.

Of course there are already lots of ways to upload images to Flickr, but jUploadr’s extensive batch editing, tagging, and privacy options, along with its cross-platform-y-ness is thumbs up in my book. jUploadr requires Java, runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Applications like jUploadr are great for posting photos and editing photosets in the photo-sharing website Flickr, but its Java core can make it slow and wonky for some users. GNOME-based application Postr is a streamlined posting solution that features drag-and-drop file choosing, tag and description editing and, most of all, a clean, simple interface. Postr is a free download for Linux systems and available in many repositories.

Free open-source app Kflickr gives Gnome and KDE users an easy way to upload images to Flickr. Assign the photo’s title, tags, description, upload size, license, photoset, and whether the image will be public or private prior to uploading with Kflickr, which can also upload images in bulk. Kflickr can be found in most repositories under the install command kflickr.

Related:

• Upload your Photos in an Instant with Kflickr
• Flickr uploaders for Linux

For those that may have missed it, the ATI/AMD fglrx 8.42 display driver that was released last month had introduced AIGLX support. The open-source “Radeon” driver for ATI graphics cards going up to the R400 generation has supported AIGLX for quite some time, but the ATI binary display driver hadn’t until last month. However, one of the complaints about the fglrx implementation of AIGLX is that in the 8.42.3 driver, some are encountering slow performance in Compiz / Compiz Fusion. We have taken an ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB PCI-E graphics card, which is supported by both the Radeon and fglrx drivers, and have compared their Compiz performance in a few different scenarios.

ATI Open vs. Closed-Source AIGLX Performance

The system once again was running Ubuntu 7.10 “Gutsy Gibbon” with the Linux 2.6.22 kernel and X server 1.3, but with these benchmarks, the Compiz effects were disabled during testing. The hardware included a PCI Express ATI Radeon X800XL 256MB graphics card, Intel Pentium D 820 (2.80GHz dual-core), 2GB of DDR3-1333 memory, and an ASUS P5E3 Deluxe (Intel X38) motherboard. We had used Enemy Territory and GtkPerf as our vehicle for benchmarking the two drivers, since both benchmarks are compatible with the current Radeon driver. The ATI driver used was fglrx 8.42.3.

ATI Open vs. Closed-Source Performance

Also check out ATI: Linux vs. Windows Vista.

The live version of openSUSE 10.3 is now available as a GNOME or KDE CD. Both contain the same software as the 1 CD installation versions would provide you with, but as a live version.

The live system can be used as a productive system or rescue system. You can also use it to just check out how openSUSE 10.3 runs on your computer without touching your hard drive. The Live CDs are available as 32bit versions in US English only and also contain, for the first time, an install option on the desktop. You can see a screenshot of the KDE Live CD below:

If you click on the Install icon you will be guided through the installation of openSUSE 10.3 onto your hard drive.

For now the images are available at:

• openSUSE 10.3 GNOME Live
• openSUSE 10.3 KDE Live

The Live CDs version will be incorporated into software.openSUSE.org over the next few days.

– opensuse news

“We see the distribution-model-with-software-collection approach as a key part of the story going forward, in terms of how we pull in the broader open source platform that is largely what defines Linux.”

Project Indiana is a Sun project designed to create an OpenSolaris binary distribution that will focus on providing a single CD install with the basic core operating system and desktop environment, along with the opportunity of installing additional software off network repositories. Officially, the final Project Indiana variant of OpenSolaris is expected in the first half of 2008, but Murdock said that Sun’s goal is to get it into the field in March 2008.

Currently The OpenSolaris Developer Preview is the first milestone of Project Indiana. As mentoned above it is a single CD combined live/install image: a core operating system, kernel, system libraries, a desktop environment and a package management system. It is not a final release and is intended for developers to try, test, and provide feedback.

The overarching goal of the project is to encourage the growth of the OpenSolaris eco-system. When the OpenSolaris project started, it was originally focused on developers and a source base. With the introduction of Project Indiana, a binary distribution will be a reference for other binary compatible distributions to form with the hope of avoiding the same fragmentation that is frequent in Linux. One of the project management goals of Indiana is to produce a new version of the distribution every 6 months, operating a strict time based release schedule. Many open source software communities have already adopted similar schedules and have proved to work well.

Indiana will eventually produce a distribution with a faster moving lifecycle, both from development to deployment and support. The core install CD will be freely re-distributable and network repository easily mirrored locally. While Solaris will continue to be a high level enterprise operating system with a much slower lifecycle, Indiana will be a leading edge distribution delivering a current set of best of breed software to those who may require a particular feature set and accepting the consequences of a faster moving train.

The Project Indiana preview also sports a new packaging system called Image Packaging System, which is a network-based, repository-driven packaging system akin to those available for popular Linuxes. The existing Unix SVR4 package system is also still part of OpenSolaris, too, and the IPS packager has been tweaked so it can import the thousands of SVR4 applications out there in the world that run on Solaris. Murdock says that Sun will work with application package maintainers to give them the tools so they can create IPS-compatible packages for OpenSolaris, and in fact, Sun is counting on the vast developer community to eventually make a much broader array of applications available on OpenSolaris and therefore Solaris. This approach, says Murdock, is how Debian Linux grew to support over 25,000 applications in around 14 years. “Of course,” Murdock concedes, “those numbers are a little different from the usual ISV package counts, since it might contain 40 different versions of Tetris.” ZFS being the default file system.

After downloading this ISO (the Developer Preview is only 629MB), the image can be burned to a disc and immediately booted. Project Indiana incorporates a “Slim Install” LiveCD for x86 systems, and GNOME as it’s DE. Just like a number of Linux distributions, you can boot to this CD and start using it without ever touching the contents of your hard drive.

Sun is actively working to bring more developers into the Solaris ecosystem, and one of Indiana’s goals is to make Solaris, and the features and functionality it offers, more familiar and accessible to people, Murdock said.

Check out nice preview of Indiana by phoronix.

The murder trial against Hans Reiser starts on Monday. Even without a body, prosecutors say they have a solid case. Reiser, a prominent and successful East Bay computer programmer, is accused of killing his wife Nina a year ago. ABC’s 20/20 got an exclusive interview with him. It’s been little more than a year since Hans Reiser was arrested and charged with the murder of his estranged wife. A jury was finally selected last week after going through a pool of 300 people.

Video here

I believe Linux will become the de-facto standard desktop operating system. Though it’ll take a while for many users to break free from ties to Windows, there is good reason to believe that this day will come.

Consider that the global community is already beginning to rally behind standard document formats. In addition, as browsers like Firefox gain more market share, users are less tolerant of Internet Explorer-only web sites. However, the transition is slow and will continue to be a slow one. Most people will switch away from Windows only when dollars are on the line.

More from Informationweek

OpenBSD is famous for its focus on security. On November 1^st, the team is proud to announce Release 4.2.

Even though security is still there, this release comes with some amazing performance improvements: basic benchmarks showed PF being twice as fast, a rewrite of the TLB shootdown code for i386 and amd64 cut the time to do a full package build by 20 percent (mostly because all the forks in configure scripts have become much cheaper), and the improved frequency scaling on MP systems can help save nearly 20 percent of battery power.

And then the new features: FFS2, support for the Advanced Host Controller Interface, IP balancing in CARP, layer 7 manipulation with hoststated, Xenocara, and more!

Federico Biancuzzi interviewed 23 developers and assembled this huge interview…

The Asus Eee PC 701 4G is the new affordable ultraportable notebook that’s bound to be on many consumer’s Christmas wishlist this year. Retailing for somewhere between $299 and $399, the Eee PC isn’t exactly a workhorse, but it will do just about every basic task you’d need from a laptop. Our initial hands-on actually proves it does more than we expected.

First, the specs for the review unit we have on hand, which is the Eee PC 701 4G:

• Processor: Intel Celeron M ULV 900MHz
• Storage: 4GB of Flash-based storage (SSD)
• Memory: 512MB of DDR2 RAM (667MHz)
• OS: Xandros Linux (Asus customized)
• Screen: 7-inch screen with 800 x 480 resolution
• Ports: 3 USB 2.0, 1 VGA monitor out, headphone jack, microphone input, SD card reader (SDHC compatible), Kensington lock slot, Ethernet 10/100
• Webcam (0.3 MP)
• Battery: 4-cell 5200 mAh 7.4V Li-Ion (rated at 3.5 hours)
• Wireless: 802.11b/g Atheros
• Input: Keyboard and Touchpad
• Weight: approximately 2 lbs with battery, 2.5 lbs travel weight with AC adapter.

Asus teamed up with Xandros to develop a customized version of the Linux operating system for the new Eee PC, running KDE environment. Microsoft Windows requires a significant amount of storage space on the tiny 4GB SSD, and the added cost from installing genuine Windows would have added to the final retail price of the Eee PC. Xandros developed a point-and-click user interface that looks and acts similar to Windows … but easier. But Asus did recently announced that they are teaming up with Microsoft to release a version of the Eee PC that will come preloaded with Windows in 2008.

A view of the “Internet” tab displayed after startup

The Asus Eee PC comes preloaded with more than 40 applications for everything from work and email to listening to music and watching movies. Unlike the many free applications that come preinstalled on Windows-based computers, almost none of the applications on the Eee PC can be considered “bloatware.” In fact, almost every application on this notebook is both useful and easy to use.

The “Work” tab

The “Learn” tab

The “Play” tab

Click on the “Web” icon and the Firefox web browser opens. Click on the “Documents,” “Spreadsheets,” or “Presentations” icons and the Open Office application (compatible with Microsoft Office) opens so you don’t have to purchase additional office software. Click on any standard movie file and the video plays in either the Media Player application or inside Firefox … you don’t need to spend hours searching for video plugins and codecs, the movies just play. Don’t waste time downloading iTunes. Just plug in your iPod and the Music Manager detects the music player and begins importing the songs.

The point is that the Eee PC just works. We only wish we could say the same thing about the many Windows-based notebooks we review.

The “Settings” tab

Linux Review

More reviews can be found here. Here’s a look at other configurations of the 701 in the Eee PC lineup:

The Eee PC might have a weird name, but it’s one of the few products that lives up to the marketing hype. This notebook truly is “easy to learn, easy to work, and easy to play.” Eee PC is the single most impressive notebook priced below $400. The technical specs might look sub par, but the usability and overall performance of the Eee PC rivals notebooks costing several thousand dollars more.

Even the best technology needs a sugar daddy. Seven years ago, Linux got just that when IBM said it would put $1 billion on the then-nascent open-source operating system, pushing the software into the corporate mainstream. Now the same could be about to happen for Linux with the mobile phone, with Google set to give Linux a major endorsement this November.

Industry insiders say Google is about to release Linux-based software that will bind mobile phones to Google’s online services, a move likely to exacerbate the growing conflict between Google and Microsoft over the future of the mobile-phone market.

Complete Article