Google Gadgets for Linux provides a platform for running desktop gadgets under Linux, catering to the unique needs of Linux users. We are compatible with the gadgets written for Google Desktop for Windows as well as the Universal Gadgets on iGoogle. Following Linux norms, this project will be open-sourced, under the Apache License.
BBC announced that a version of the iPlayer that works on the Mac and Linux computers is now available.
The iPlayer is the BBC’s online media player that lets viewers stream programmes for up to seven days after broadcast or download and watch them for up to 30 days.
While streaming had previously been available to Mac users, downloading had not. When the iPlayer first launched it was criticized for only being compatible with Windows XP. The new version of the iPlayer was written with Adobe’s AIR platform.
The product is currently in public beta with a final release expected in February 2009.
This version of Zimbra Desktop brings us close to a full suite of online & offline features, definitely try it out. Incase you’ve missed all the new stuff packed into previous editions, stop by the respective blog entries on Beta 4 & Beta 3.
Zimbra announces the arrival of sharing in Zimbra Desktop for ZCS accounts! read more »
Guys, I am really excited to see this release of Songbird. It really promises to be the Firefox of music management and player softwares. For one thing, they’ve taken the Itunes interface seriously. Artist info for even Indian artists is awesome. It imports directly from Itunes libraries and what more, it’s cross platform and is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. read more »
The final version of OpenOffice 3 is out today, and if you’re looking to save yourself plenty of money, download it instead of buying Microsoft Office — you could save yourself hundreds of dollars, and not lose out on many features.
I put the Windows version through its paces, and am about to download the Linux version as well. The suite has six full-blown applications: the Writer word processor, Calc spreadsheet, Impress presentations program, Base database program, Math equation editor, and Draw graphics program.
Given that the full suite is free, this is one of the best deals you’ll find in all of computing. It’ll do just about anything you expect from an office suite, whether creating documents, spreadsheets, or presentations. You’ll find solid formatting tools, as well as extras including mail merge, macros, charting capabilities, and more.
OpenOffice works with an extremely wide variety of formats, including the OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2 standard, as well as documents created in Microsoft Office 2007 and Office 2008 for the Mac. You can even export files to PDF.
It won’t, however, work with the newest Office 2007 formats such as .docx. At the moment, that’s not a significant drawback, because those formats are rarely used. However, in the future this could cause some problems, so I’m hoping Office 2007 formats will soon be handled as well.
One of the suite’s most useful features are its wizards, which walk you through creating spreadsheets, presentations, and other documents, as you can see below. They pay a great deal of attention to the task at hand. For example, you’re asked for the output medium of a presentation before you begin.
Most people will most likely spend most of their time in Writer, creating word-processing documents. It has all the features you’d expect, but some very nice extras as well. With a single click, for example, you can bring up a gallery of backgrounds, bullets, and other graphical elements, and then embed them in your document, as you can see below. You can even embed sounds.
Writer is also useful for creating HTML documents, and includes tools for creating hyperlinks, as you can see below, and even includes the ability to create targets.
Is the suite perfect? Of course not. The overall interface is just plain dull, and is not nearly as useful as the Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon. It also doesn’t have the high-end features of Office 2007, such as QuickParts. You also won’t find many templates.
Still, if you’re looking for a suite to use at home or a small business — or if your enteprise hasn’t standardized on Office — you should give this suite a try. It’ll save you hundreds of dollars. And in today’s economic times, that’s a very big deal.
Review by Preston Gralla from Computerworld
Today sees the release of Kubuntu 8.10 featuring the KDE 4 desktop. The
Kubuntu developers have been hard at work, bringing you the latest and
greatest software the open source community has to offer. KDE 4 reworks
your system with a major new revision of the desktop.
This Intrepid release lives up to its name by including many changes, but
there are some features that are not yet available in KDE 4. If you would
rather stay with what you know then remember that Kubuntu 8.04 is still
fully supported, see KDE3-KDE4Migration and Is KDE 4.1 for you? for more
information on deciding. You can try it first with the Kubuntu Intrepid
Live CD to see for yourself whether or not it really is "for you".
read more
Article:
The latest KDE 4 update 4.1.3 has moved to the backports section of
Kubuntu 8.10.
To install it enable Unsupported Updates in Adept, then under Changes
click on Upgrade and Apply.
Article:
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