Some of you might not be familiar with thin clients because you don’t use them at home. For the enterprise, there are thin clients that are mainly for input and output and rely on servers for content, software, etc. One of their suppliers is IGEL Technology. This company has launched their “Linux Universal Desktop firmware” and this adds features in power management, multimedia and virtualization.

What’s the benefit of using their firmware?

• Power saving
  It allows them to have the IGEL thin clients go into standby mode and back on in seconds. This means that it won’t take long for them to boot up their thin clients. This would even increase the savings in power usage + time.
  If your company is using IGEL’s thin client lines such as IGEL one, UD2 and UD3, this firmware makes them in line with the upcoming Energy Star certification for thin clients.
• Virtualization
  Virtualization becomes better with this firmware. There is a way for IGEL thin client users to have support for multimedia acceleration as well as USB redirection.

If you’ve got IGEL thin clients in your office, check out igel.com and see what’s in store for you. It’s free to download if you are already using them

OSCON 2009 will be held this July 20-24 in San Jose, California at the McEnery Convention Center. It seems that they’re expecting 3,000+ people at the event from different backgrounds who share the same interest: Open Source Software. Hopefully this will be a good time to meet the software developers our favorite open source applications and learn from them.

A sample of topics:

• Perl 6: Why? What? How?, Damian Conway, Thoughtstream
• Introduction to Google App Engine, Joe Gregorio Google
• How to Write Your Own Eclipse Plug-ins, Beth Tibbitts, IBM
• Django in the Real World, Jacob Kaplan-Moss, Django
• What You Need to Know About Rails3, Yehuda Katz, Engine Yard
• Linux Filesystem Performance for Databases, Selena Deckelmann, PostgreSQL Project
• Cloud Computing - Why IT Matters, Simon Wardley, Canonical Ltd
• Building a Business on the Cheap, Chris Wanstrath, GitHub
• The HTML 5 Experiments, Bruce Lawson, Opera Software ASA
• High Performance APC, Brian Shire, Facebook, Inc.

I am sure that some of my co-workers will want to go if it was possible. There are topics that would be of interest to us:

• Use Open Source Tools to Program iPhone Games on Linux and Windows Without the iPhone SDK, PJ Cabrera
• Writing Open Source, moderated by Addison Berry and Emma Jane Hogbin
• Using Drupal, James Walker and Angie Byron, Lullabot
• Google O’Reilly Open Source Awards
• A Brief History of Software, Michael Lopp, Rands in Repose
• Business Models for Open Source Developers, Darrius Thompson, OpenCandy

Check out the complete schedule of OSCON 2009 here.

Looks like it could be interesting to go there. But as I live in another country, it’s not possible for me. I hope to hear more about it from you guys after the event, in case you will be going. I hope people will have a great time learning together and meeting new contacts.

Register soon so you could ensure your slot in the said event. (OSCON 2009 Registration Details.)

The wait is over for Fedora fans as Fedora 11, named Leonidas, because it has been released. You could start with the downloads already. You could get it from the Fedora Project’s download page. There are install CDs and live ones too.

Nifty features:

• 20-second boot-up. How much faster could boot-up times go? But a 20-second boot-up would be nice.
• Automatic fonts and Mime installer. If you’re not familiar with the file format, it’s ok. You could try opening it and you will be prompted if you want to search for the application that will open it. If you’re opening a file in a word processor or something, you will be prompted that the application will install the appropriate fonts.
• GNOME 2.26 - You could get the latest version of GNOME with Fedora 11. And if you’re not a GNOME user, there’s always…
• KDE 4.2 which has PolicyKit-KDE, Network Manager plasma applet among others.
• Invidia graphics cards will use Nouveau as the default driver.
• Access your Microsoft Exchange inbox using OpenChange. You could use Evolution or kdepim with Exchange using OpenChange.

All those features and more are available in Fedora 11. If you’re dying to see some screenshots, you could view h-online.com’s slideshow of Fedora 11 screenshots.

Just 9 more days before its release, I am sure Fedora users are more than excited to get the distro up and running on their computers. If you’re one of the brave ones who will try the pre-release version, here’s the link to the download page of all the options you’ve got for downloading Fedora 11’s pre-release version.

Fedora

PlanetOSS even has a review of Fedora 11’s pre-release. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols listed down Fedora’s 5 best features even.

On the best features list, I saw that the fast boot up time was included. I saw that on one of the tweets of one person I’m following. The list includes Fedora using Ext4 by default, better graphics because of X.server 1.6, as well as improvements with Synaptics to the point that it made him appreciate touchpads more. Another one is the extra security provided by DNSSEC.

The PlanetOSS review has more screenshots in case you are curious and it gave a more detailed writeup of his user experience with Fedora 11. That includes the good and the bad. Although as other commenters have pointed out, not everything that was mentioned was the same for them. Some agreed to having difficulties with the graphical package manager though.

For me, package managers are critical because users who are new to Linux must be guided about instaling packages. They might get the usual exe files and other such installers online without knowing that they won’t work. So where do they turn to for their favorite kinds of applications, right?

I like that the PlanetOSS also included a lot of screenshots for those who are not familiar with Fedora, like me. The review also mentioned other stuff like Palimpsest which might be a replacement for Gparted.

The name sounds like an expression from some novel, movie or TV show.  (It’s usually “Jumping Jupiter!” or something like that.)  But you get my drift, right?  Ubuntu’s latest release is out! That’s why I expect to check for upgrades really soon.  Though of course, I am still wary as I have no time to fix things this weekend just in case the upgrade does break something.  (You never know, right?)  as much as I’d like to hope, I am still paranoid.

So what’s to expect in Jaunty Jackalope

Some things that I don’t quite look forward to all involve Intel graphic cards and the wifi issues. Most of us at work are using Acer laptops with Intel graphics cards. ~_~  Oh well, we’d see.  I think one of us has started using Jaunty Jackalope so it’s better to ask him first.

In terms of apps, there’s no doubt I am looking forward to things like Brasero and a better user interface for those who want to configure their extended screens.

If this is the first time you’re reading this blog, well, let me welcome you to my space here on everyjoe.com and I hope that you find something useful for you.  I’ve got some how-to’s and some information about fun and geeky stuff here that you might want to check out.

welcome

I am not an expert in terms of sys ad skills and stuff like that but I do love using Linux. I am just like one of you who — I am looking for ways to improve the way my computer works while using Linux. And it’s not always an easy task. Sometimes it could get quite complicated because of the number of steps it would take to fix the problem/s.  But that’s fun about using Linux anyway.  There are a lot of things to learn along the way.  Sometimes we might feel terrible about ourselves while trying to troubleshoot problems.  But everything has a solution.  Although some of them might not be quite as elegant as we would hope for.

And as new readers and new Linux users, you could share your thoughts too.  I hope that you wouldn’t feel too shy or hesitant. :)  You might have some great insights that musn’t be kept to yourselves.

If you know women who are excellent in technology, whether it’s game development, software development, consultants and the like, we hope that you talk about them on Ada Lovelace day. It will happen all throughout the blogosphere on March 24, 2009. Many of you might have signed up for this already but for those who haven’t I hopen you’d join me and make a pledge to write on that day.
Writing about women in technology, especially in the free and open source movement will encourage one other as well as show that hey, even if the thinking that this is a man’s world, women can still excel and be on top of their field. For those who are looking for role models, it will be better because you could know more about these women who have paved the way for better things.

For more details, please check out findingada.com
If you know someone in your community who’s worth writing about, please do so! This will also acknowledge that you appreciate her a lot. It could also bring joy to others.

I hope to read your entries by the 24th!

Here are some tips from all over the internet that could help you change the look of your Aspire One’s user interface, especially for those who are using the default flavor of Linux on it.

• Change the background image of your desktop.
• Move the search bar wherever.
• Edit the panels on your desktop so you basically choose the apps you love using the most.
• Change the theme of your desktop and also gain easier access to software

These first three links are via: Lilliputing’s Tweaking the Acer Aspire One Linux user interface

Not everyone enjoys the default desktop of the Acer Aspire One because some think it’s too limited, that you can’t do anything. Sometimes you just want the desktop look beautiful in your eyes because you might be too stressed out to do anything at all. You need to change the application’s look and feel in this case. Or maybe you have no idea if you could install any application. Try the tips that specifically has something to do with car repairds. So now you’re learning something new, right? I hope that you would keep on doing that. Linux might be intimidating but it doesn’t have to be that way forever. And you could start with whatever you have already — which is your desktop. Just follow the instructions properly ok?

Good luck, folks!

LinuxTracker.org is celebrating their 4th anniversary! Hooray! And they have prizes to share with you if you are a registered user on their site. They will have a lucky draw for 25 days, with different prizes up for grabs.

If you’ve never heard of LinuxTracker.org before, it’s basically a site where there are torrents available for download of the Linux torrents you would like to try and install. It’s really nifty if you’re looking for a one-stop shop of torrents, specifically for Linux distros. (If you’ve got friends who are curious about any distro, this seems to be the place for you to direct them easily.)

Want to know more? Go ahead and check out their site and see for yourself how much torrents they have of Linux distros

I thought I blogged about the Ubuntu Pocket Reference Guide but I haven’t! Ack, sorry folks. And I think that it’s better late than never.

If you’re new to using Ubuntu, you could check out this pocket guide and reference. You could download it for free or buy it from Amazon.com. You will get a better idea of what Ubuntu is all about as well as learn how to use it with Windows or on a Virtual Machine. You’d also get a tip on installing proprietary drivers if you need them.

The instructions and pictures are helpful when you’re doing things all by yourself. You know what to expect and what to do when you see those dialogs.

It’s more like how to start using Ubuntu or how to use certain features you’ve never tried before. You could try them out and you will find something about it in this pocket guide. Sounds nifty? Got that right!

I hope this encourages you on pursuing the use of Ubuntu Linux on a day to day basis!