Title: The State of Kernel Mode-Setting @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12907
Summary: “Earlier this year Fedora 9 was the first distribution providing kernel-based mode-setting (or KMS for short). At the time there was only a kernel mode-setting driver for Intel hardware and it ended up being disabled by default. We had provided a preview of kernel-based mode-setting that showed how the system display looked when it came to the flicker-free boot experience, fast and clean VT switching, and the technical advantages this method provides over the graphics mode-setting within an X.Org DDX driver. With months having passed since our first article and Red Hat engineers working aggressively on KMS improvements for Fedora 10, we are providing another look at this technology and some of the recent advancements.”

Title: X.Org 7.4 Finally Released @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12880
Summary: “It’s been a hell of a time getting X.Org 7.4 out the door, but this afternoon Adam Jackson has released this long-delayed update to this X system. X.Org 7.4 is arriving after the release of X Server 1.5.1 earlier in the day. Yes, it’s finally here! In this article we have information on the features that make up this release along with what it’s taken to get X.Org 7.4 primed for release.”

Title: Ubuntu’s BulletProofX Takes Simpler Step Forward @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12860
Summary: “Introduced in Ubuntu 7.10 was a feature known as BulletProofX, which provides a fail-safe mode that is by default used when the X server fails to properly initialize. In this original implementation, it would default back to using the VESA display driver with 256 colors and then proceed to run the displayconfig-gtk utility. While this is nice for the end-user as it keeps them from touching a terminal to debug an X server problem, for experienced users it inhibits them from easily debugging the problem. This Canonical implementation also had frustrated other users. However, with the forthcoming Ubuntu 8.10 release, it has received some much-needed improvements while making BulletProofX more simple.”

Title: ASUS Eee PC 901 Linux Distribution Comparison @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12840
Summary: “Late last month we published our preview of the ASUS Eee PC 901 and we shared our plans for a number of benchmarks using this netbook with Intel’s Atom processor. Following our Linux desktop encryption benchmarks of the ASUS Eee PC 901 and Intel Atom N270 CPU we have a performance comparison of Xandros, Fedora, Ubuntu, and Mandriva on this low-cost netbook PC.”

Title: Phoronix Test Suite 1.2 Released @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12807
Summary: “Phoronix Media has announced the release of Phoronix Test
Suite 1.2 (codenamed “Malvik”), an update to its leading and
award-winning benchmarking software, during the 2008 X Developers’
Summit. This update incorporates support for new operating systems and
features to better aid ISVs, IHVs, ODMs, and OEMs in profiling their
hardware and software for optimal performance and compatibility. In
total there are more than 250 official changes with many new test
profiles and suites since the release of Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 in June
of 2008.”

Title: AMD Radeon HD 4870 X2 On Linux @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12734
Summary: “While details on AMD’s high-end ATI Radeon HD 4870 X2 graphics card began surfacing last month, today this dual-GPU graphics card has formally launched and will begin shipping to retailers. The good news this time around is that this graphics card will actually be something worth looking at under Linux now that there’s the needed CrossFire support on the horizon. We’re not yet permitted to publish the Linux CrossFire benchmarks, but today we have a few pieces of information to share about the Radeon HD 4870 X2 on Linux.”

Title: SplashTop “Instant-On Linux” Gets Hacked @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12664
Summary: “Last October we were the first to deliver a full-review of DeviceVM’s SplashTop which was an instant-on embedded Linux distribution at the time found on a lone ASUS motherboard. Since then there has been a commitment to SplashTop on all ASUS motherboards and even on ASUS notebooks. While ASUS has been the primary partner with DeviceVM up to this point, other manufacturers are exploring this market. One of our few gripes about SplashTop is that it’s limited in the current applications available and doesn’t allow for much tweaking with no terminal access. However, members of the Phoronix Forums have hacked SplashTop. They have been able to run SplashTop from a USB stick on non-ASUS motherboards, boot SplashTop within a virtual machine, run custom applications, and launch a terminal within this proprietary Linux environment.”

Title: Linux 2.6.26 Kernel Benchmarks @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12618
Summary: “Over the weekend the Linux 2.6.26 kernel was released. This quarterly update to the Linux kernel introduced Kernel-based Virtual Machine improvements, new One Laptop Per Child support, a new video web camera driver, updates to the Direct Rendering Manager, and other improvements. In this article we have done some quick benchmarks of this new kernel from within the Phoronix Test Suite.”

Title: An Early Look At OpenSolaris 2008.11 @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12606
Summary: “Over the weekend we had posted our synopsis of Solaris Express Community Edition Build 93, which brings a great deal of needed changes to the Solaris Nevada code-base in order to bring its packages up-to-date. While OpenSolaris 2008.05 is only two months old, work at Sun is already underway in preparing for the second OpenSolaris release, which will be known as OpenSolaris 2008.11 and has been codenamed Jericho. OpenSolaris development packages for this next release, which are currently based upon Solaris Nevada Build 93, are now available through an IPS update along with early ISO spins.”

Title: Solaris Express Community Edition Build 93 @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12594
Summary: “Two weeks back we had looked at Solaris Express Community Edition b91 to explore some of the recent OpenSolaris advancements. We weren’t completely satisfied with SXCE as many of the features found in OpenSolaris 2008.05 were yet to be back-ported into Solaris Express Community. In addition, many of the packages shipping with this build were out-of-date. The good news is that SXCE Build 93 has been released this week and a number of these packages have been updated. We have screenshots in this article from SXCE Build 93 as well as a brief look at the major changes.”

Title: RadeonHD Driver To Use AtomBIOS @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12563
Summary: “We’ve talked all too often about AtomBIOS and there being two different open-source drivers that support the same ATI Radeon hardware with the key architectural difference between the two just being the use of this video BIOS abstraction layer. From the beginning, AMD was planning to have their Novell partners use AtomBIOS when writing this new (at the time, R500/600) driver, but the developers ultimately declined. These developers have expressed their opinions on AtomBIOS, which range from it being an unbearable mess to this design being nothing more than writing open-source code to power someone else’s closed-source work. However, under pressure by AMD, the developers are now preparing to use AtomBIOS to a much greater extent within the xf86-video-radeonhd driver. In this article we’ll tell you more about what’s gone on and where you can checkout this AtomBIOS-bearing RadeonHD driver.”

Title: ATI Radeon HD 4870 On Linux @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12558
Summary: “A week ago we looked at the brand-new ATI Radeon HD 4850 graphics card under Linux. This graphics card launch was unlike any in ATI’s history where with the introduction of a brand new product generation, Linux users were greeted by same-day Linux support — both through their proprietary fglrx driver and with the open-source xf86-video-ati driver. In addition, some of the board partners are opting to put Tux on their product packaging and shipping the Linux drivers on their product CDs. As we had also exclusively shared, AMD will soon be approaching a feature parity between the Windows and Linux drivers. Today we’re publishing our complete review of the new ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB as well as delivering additional benchmarks from the Radeon HD 4850 under Linux, of course.”

Title: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Linux Performance @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12551
Summary: “Back in March we had looked at the Intel Core 2 Duo T9300 mobile processor with its Penryn core and 6MB of shared L2 cache between its two cores clocked at 2.50GHz. We were very pleased with the performance of this mobile processor on Linux, which was found within a Lenovo ThinkPad T61 notebook, and today we are looking at the Penryn’s desktop counterpart. Intel’s Core 2 Duo “Wolfdale” E8000 series processors were released earlier this year with 6MB of L2 cache, 45nm manufacturing, a 1333MHz FSB, and support for SSE 4.1. The processor from the Wolfdale series we are looking at today under Linux is the Core 2 Duo E8400.”

PC Review have a new article on how to run Linux in Windows, by emulating a Virtual PC :

“Many users of Windows XP and Vista will want to try Linux at some point, often just to see what all the fuss is about. There are many different Linux distributions and it isn’t convenient for a non-technical user to set up dual booting alongside an existing Windows install. Thankfully, there are tools available which mean you can play with a full Linux install inside the familiar surroundings of Microsoft Windows.”

Article URL : http://www.pcreview.co.uk/articles/Windows/Run_Linux_in_Windows/

Title: Ubuntu 8.10 “Intrepid Ibex” Alpha 1 @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12543
Summary: “The first development snapshot for the forthcoming release of Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed Intrepid Ibex) is coming out two weeks late — likely due to Canonical’s focus on getting the Ubuntu 8.04.1 LTS update out next week — but what matters is that it’s finally here. Ubuntu 8.10 Alpha 1 is far from meeting the quality standards for end-users (there isn’t even a desktop LiveCD spin of this release), but that didn’t stop us from playing with this latest build from the Canonical camp. In this article we are looking at the few changes in the Intrepid Alpha 1 release for Ubuntu and Kubuntu as well as looking at some of the changes they have planned before this release goes gold in October.”

Title: Ubuntu MID Edition 8.04 @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12533
Summary: “Two months after Ubuntu 8.04 LTS was released and almost one month after Ubuntu Netbook Remix was first showcased, Ubuntu MID Edition 8.04 has been released. This is the newest Canonical product in the Ubuntu family and is designed for Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs). Ubuntu MID Edition is a cut-down version of Ubuntu 8.04 for the desktop but with many packages sliced away and with optimizations for Intel’s Atom Processor and mobile software enhancements as a result of the Moblin project.”

Title: Radeon HD 4850 Linux Performance @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12534
Summary: “Last week we exclusively shared the steps AMD was taking to make an evolutionary leap in Linux support with same-day support for their brand-new Radeon HD 4800 series, Linux drivers shipping on the product CD, some manufacturers showcasing Tux on the product packaging, and their proprietary Linux driver reaching a feature parity with their Windows driver. We had also shared that the Radeon HD 4850 works with open-source xf86-video-ati driver since day one. Now that we have had time to complete testing of the Radeon HD 4850, today we are sharing the first Linux results from this brand-new ATI graphics processor. Before you think the Windows and Linux performance is equal for the Radeon HD 4800 series, this isn’t the case, at least not yet.”

Title: NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX 512MB @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12524
Summary: “We’ve been meaning to deliver benchmarks of the NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX under Linux for some time, but with the recent rollout of the GeForce GTX 200 series, the competition presented by the ATI Radeon HD 4850, and the introduction of the GeForce 9800GTX+, the GeForce 9800GTX is dropping in price and captivating the interest of a different segment of users. Finally we are delivering these benchmarks of the GeForce 9800GTX with Ubuntu Linux and using the most recent NVIDIA driver release, which has a number of improvements since the G92 chipset was introduced back in April. The graphics card we’re using is the EVGA 512-P3-N871-AR.”

Title: NVIDIA GeForce 8200 IGP @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12509
Summary: “Back in March we had looked at the Radeon HD 3200 graphics found on AMD 780G motherboards. With the Catalyst Linux driver the Radeon HD 3200 had performed about the same speed as the discrete Radeon HD 2400PRO graphics card, which we were quite pleased with considering its integrated and low-power design. The Radeon HD 3200 also offers support for DisplayPort and HDMI, but it’s up to the motherboard vendor which output connections they wish to utilize. The Radeon HD 3200 / 780G certainly impressed us, but today we are looking at NVIDIA’s latest IGP offering for AMD’s Phenom platform. While not all of these features are available to Linux customers, the GeForce 8200 supports DirectX 10, PureVideo HD, GeForce Boost, Hybrid SLI, and other leading edge features. Though between the Radeon HD 3200 and GeForce 8200, which IGP offering reigns supreme under Linux? In this article we’ll tell you our thoughts.”

Title: Solaris Express Community Edition Build 91 @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12513
Summary: “It’s been a while since last looking at a Solaris Express Community Edition release (SXCE Build 75 to be exact) and since then Solaris Express Developer 1/08 and OpenSolaris 2008.05 have been released, which are both based off the same SXCE “Nevada” code-base. With Solaris Express Community Edition Build 91 having been released this past week, we took this opportunity to see what new work is going on within this Solaris community.”

Title: Radeon HD 4850 Works With Open-Source Driver Already @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12503
Summary: “In our article this morning entitled AMD Makes An Evolutionary Leap In Linux Support, we briefly touched on the fact that AMD would be continuing in their open-source support for the Radeon HD 4000 generation of GPUs. AMD will release register information for the RV770 and the code to TCore and KGrids will help the community developers when it comes to 2D and 3D acceleration. Though, with not much work at all, this afternoon we have the ATI Radeon HD 4850 512MB running with the open-source xf86-video-ati driver! The Radeon HD 4850 will not currently work with the xf86-video-radeonhd driver as it doesn’t rely upon the AtomBIOS in these areas, but in this article we have enclosed our patch and other information for using this open-source driver on AMD’s latest hardware.”

Title: AMD Makes An Evolutionary Leap In Linux Support @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12495
Summary: “Less than a year ago we shared with you the revolutionary steps AMD was taking to deliver significant improvements to their once infamous proprietary Linux display driver and at the same time the work they were doing to foster the growth of an open-source driver for their latest graphics card families. These steps have certainly paid off for both AMD and the Linux community at large. AMD’s proprietary driver is now on par with NVIDIA’s Linux driver and there are two open-source ATI drivers picking up new features and improvements on an almost daily basis. AMD also continues to publish new programming guides and register information on a routine basis for their latest and greatest hardware. This has been truly phenomenal to see, but AMD has now evolved their Linux support by taking it a large step further. AMD is in the process of pushing new high-end features into their Linux driver — such as Multi-GPU CrossFire support — and with the ATI Radeon HD 4850 they have even begun showing off Tux, the Linux mascot, on their product packaging and providing Linux drivers on their product CDs!”

Linux Compatibility Enables Secure Flash Drive Use on All Linux-Based Operating Systems

LOS ALTOS, Calif., June 17 /PRNewswire/ — IronKey Inc., maker of the world’s most secure flash drive, announced today that its devices now support Linux, enabling users to initiate and utilize IronKey flash drives on all Linux-based operating systems.

IronKey brings unprecedented mobile data security to individual, enterprise and government users. Its combination of security applications and services along with hardware-based encryption deliver unmatched security for its USB drives, and protection of the data stored on them. Extending these capabilities onto Linux platforms provides a comprehensive solution for USB data security to network administrators running multiple operating systems. Individuals who prefer open source operating systems benefit, as well, as they now have the ability to natively use the IronKey to protect their critical data.

Read the rest of this entry »

Title: Trying Out Ubuntu’s Netbook Remix @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12450
Summary: “Canonical’s Netbook Remix won’t be appearing on mobile devices until later this year — and these software changes are still very much under development — but interested parties can already check out the source-code and Debian packages for this work. Canonical is publishing this work under the GNU GPLv3 license. For now this work isn’t available through any of the Ubuntu repositories, but the packages are hosted within a Launchpad PPA (Personal Package Archive).”

Title: Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva Performance Compared @ Phoronix
Direct Link: http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=12438
Summary: “Last week we released Phoronix Test Suite 1.0 and one of the article requests we received as a result was to do a side-by-side comparison between the popular desktop Linux distributions. Ask and you shall receive. Today we have up 28 test results from Ubuntu 8.04, Fedora 9, and Mandriva 2008.1.”