3202623
submission
billybob2 writes:
CoreBoot (formerly LinuxBIOS), the free and open source BIOS replacement, can now boot Windows 7 Beta. Videos and screenshots of this demonstration, which was performed on an ASUS M2V-MX SE motherboard equipped with a 2GHz AMD Sempron CPU, can be viewed on the CoreBoot website. AMD engineers have also been submitting code to allow CoreBoot to run on the company's latest chipsets, such as the RS690 and 780G.
1160629
submission
billybob2 writes:
Lenovo has stopped selling laptops pre-installed with Linux on its web site, only 8 months after starting the trial program. This means that home customers won't be able to buy a Thinkpad without paying the Microsoft tax. Word has it that the decision to pull the plug on Linux came down from the highest levels of the Chinese company's corporate headquarters. For those looking to buy full-sized laptops and desktops with Linux pre-loaded Dell, System76, ZaReason and Everex all still offer such products.
1139835
submission
billybob2 writes:
VIA has released a 113,800 line-long open source graphics driver with full mode-setting support for CRT, LCD and DVI devices along with 2D, X-Video and cursor acceleration. Harald Welte, VIA's open source representative, states that the next step is to add 3D (see preview), TV-out and hardware codec support while integrating this work with existing open source projects. VIA has pre-installed Linux on a significant portion of the company's latest products, including the EVEREX gPC2, 15.4" gBook, and CloudBook. It has also helped port the open source CoreBoot BIOS (previously LinuxBIOS) to several of its motherboards.
793545
submission
billybob2 writes:
VIA has published three programming guides that total 800 pages in length and cover their PadLock, CX700, and VX800/820 technologies. The VIA PadLock provides a random number generator, an advanced cryptography engine, and RSA algorithm computations. The VX800 chipset was VIA's first Integrated Graphics Processor, while the CX700 is a System Media Processor designed for the mobile market. This is another step in VIA's strategy to support the development of Free and Open Source drivers under Linux, which comes pre-installed on VIA products such as the Sylvania NetBook, HP Mini-Note, 15.4" gBook, gPC, CloudBook, Zonbu, and VIA OpenBook. Earlier this week, VIA hired Linux kernel developer and GPL-Violations.org founder Harald Welte to be VIA's liason to the Open Source community.
665078
submission
billybob2 writes:
VIA has released 16,434 Lines Of Free & Open Source code that enables Linux to natively use the framebuffer on VIA's graphics chipsets. This comes a month after VIA announced that it will provide Open-Source drivers and documentation on its website so that its hardware will work out of the box with Linux distributions. This gives VIA-powered systems that come pre-installed with Linux, such as the gPC, 15.4" gBook, CloudBook and Zonbu the ability to output graphics through digital connections such as HDMI and possibly making them the best-supported framebuffers Linux has ever had. Look forward to documentation and X.org drivers from VIA as well in the near future.
600510
submission
billybob2 writes:
PolishLinux.org has an extensive screenshot review and commentary on the development version of the Free and Open Source KDE desktop. Highlights include the ability to run any desktop applet prepared for Mac OS X inside Plasma, on-the-fly annotation and rating of files from within the Dolphin file manager, improved GUI for the Amarok music player, flexible 3D eye candy configuration in KWin, and improved support for accessing digital cameras via the Solid hardware layer and the DigiKam photo manager.
419409
submission
Peter writes:
Free Software Foundation president Richard Stallman and ITWire have praised KDE and KOffice developers for taking a principled stand against OOXML, while raising serious concerns about the GNOME Foundation's decision to give credibility to Microsoft's broken format. This comes on the heels of GNOME co-founder Miguel de Icaza's depiction of OOXML as a 'superb standard', and GNOME Foundation director Quim Gil's stonewalling of the patent-free Ogg Vorbis / Theora format on behalf of Nokia. Have GNOME's leaders completely sold out their free software credentials to corporate and anti-consumer interests? And will the GNOME Foundation's indifferent response to Richard Stallman's appeal drive him to throw his weight behind KDE?
