Why Wal-Mart won't have Linux desktops on its store shelves, Mar 17, 2008

The other day, Wal-Mart let it slip that it would no longer be selling Linux-powered computers in its stores. The retail giant will, however, continue to sell Linux desktop and laptop systems via its online store.

Desktop Linux systems have been available from vendors both small -- such as NorhTec -- and large -- such as Dell -- for some time now. But, until recently, users who feel more comfortable buying from a retailer have had few choices other than some low-end systems from Wal-Mart. Things are changing.

Are you a Linux user suffering from iTunes store envy? If so, Amazon has a deal for you

Anyone who has thought that, as nice as the Linux-powered One Laptop Per Child computers are for the target market of third-world children, they'd also make a lot of sense for U.S. kids too, is in good company. The mayor of Birmingham, Ala., Larry Langford, had the same thought and the result is that the city will be deploying 15,000 OLPCs to its school system.

If you need to repair PCs, even if you don't use Linux as a rule, you should have a Linux repair CD. These self-booting Linux distributions give you all the software tools you need to bring all but the deadest computers back to life. The best of these distributions is, hands-down, SystemRescueCd.

Usually, the North American computer giants introduce their latest and greatest products to the U.S. market first, with Europe an afterthought. Not this time. Dell is bringing its latest Ubuntu-powered laptop, the Inspiron 1525, to the Europeans first. Americans will need to wait until later in February for Dell's newest Ubuntu Linux computer.

I use, on a daily basis, three different Linux distributions: MEPIS 6.5 and 7, OpenSUSE 10.3, and SLED 10 SP1. So, when I saw that Frank Ohlhorst, my colleague over at The Channel Insider, had gotten his hands on a ThinkPad T61 with SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 Service Pack 1, I was interested in what he would find.

While The SCO Group may go on to pursue its plans with a $100 million buyout, it will do so without its longtime CEO Darl McBride.

With open source that can be a very good thing since when security problems are found they can be fixed quickly. That's the case over this last weekend, Feb. 9-10, when a security problem was found, and given a hot fix, in the 2.6.17 to the most recent production Linux kernel, 2.6.24.1.

The Linux desktop may be moving forward slowly in the United States, but it's a vastly different story in Europe. Today, Jan. 30, Chris Kenyon, Canonical's director of business development, announced on a Canonical blog that "the Gendarmerie Nationale [the French national police force] announced the migration of up to 70,000 computers to Ubuntu over the next three years."

At a recent Australian Linux conference, Sam Varghese reported that two Debian developers pointed out that the Debian Project needs more corporate support for "men, money and machines" to advance the operating system.

Say, you're a software developer. Say, you want to write an easy-to-install program for any Linux distribution. I'd say, "You have a problem." OpenSUSE, however, has improved upon its solution for this problem: the openSUSE Build Service, which now supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux and CentOS.

Some people can't believe Sun actually spent a billion dollars for MySQL; I can't believe they got such a great deal.

HP, with other pro-open-source companies and organizations, is releasing programs and policies to help enterprises track corporate open-source use.

For more than a year now, Microsoft and Novell have appeared to be best buddies. While it is true that two former enemies are now on good terms, they'd never agreed to settle one issue: Novell's lawsuit against Microsoft for illegally crushing WordPerfect.

IBM opens the door for Linux-based servers and desktops with a new Lotus Notes and Symphony bundle for SUSE, Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux.

Most analysts agree it all depends on what Sun does with MySQL, the leading open-source database management system.

When the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) was first proposed, much was made of how impossible it was that there could ever be a $100 computer. Well, the naysayers were right. It turned out to be a $200 computer. Now, former OLPC Chief Technology Officer Mary Lou Jepsen says she can make a $75 laptop.

Want to run Mac OS X, Linux and Windows on the same machine? Then you’ll want to listen to SWsoft. This virtualization company claims its Parallels Server will let you run all these and more.

PC vendor Lenovo has promised ThinkPads with pre-installed Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 for some time now. Lenovo will deliver the goods the week of Jan. 14.