Ext3 has become one of the most popular Linux filesystems. However, with hard drives sneaking up on a terabyte, concerns exist that ext3 won't be able to handle 21st-century storage requirements. With this in mind, the Linux kernel developers have just released the first real-world test version of ext4.

The Open Source Development Labs and Freedesktop.org announced the 1.0 release of the Portland common desktop interfaces today, less than a year after work started on the project. Portland was conceived last year at the first Desktop Architects Meeting in Portland, as a way of making it easier for ISVs to write applications for Linux.

Tomorrow, Terra Soft will officially announce the construction of the world's first Cell-based supercomputing cluster. Terra Soft will use the test cluster 'E.coli' to conduct advanced software development, optimization, and testing with emphasis on Y-HPC and Y-Bio applied to the Cell Broadband Engine. The production cluster 'Amoeba' will be made available to select University and Department of Energy laboratories to further life sciences research. The clusters will incorporate, in part, Cell-based PS3 systems.

"For a long time, Linux has been blamed to boot slowly, compared to other modern operating systems. In this article, we are going to focus on a new init system we developed for our Pardus Linux distribution, Mudur, together with other initiatives that are worth mentioning. Mudur is written from scratch in Python with simplicity, speed and maintainability in mind. It isn't a replacement for the /sbin/init command like some other alternatives, nor just a parallel script executor. Mudur greatly simplified our boot process, making it faster and more flexible. Authors look forward for future boot process research for further improvement and optimizations."

"Like most companies, my employer has a stash of old, 'obsolete' PCs and laptops that won't run the latest versions of Windows worth a darn. Naturally, this represents a great source of systems for testing the latest Linux distributions. I thought it would be interesting to find out which modern Linux distro made the best OS for a supposedly 'obsolete' old laptop. With this in mind, I requisitioned an oldie but goodie: an IBM ThinkPad 2662-35U, with a Pentium III 600MHz processor, 192MB of SDRAM, and a 20GB hard drive."

ENP has an article on Linux's udev. "udev handles the task of detecting hardware and creating nodes for it in /dev, and also managing device permissions. It works in concert with the Linux Hardware Abstraction Layer and the hotplug subsystem. In effect, all devices, even internal drives and expansion cards, are treated as removable hotplug devices."

"George Weiss, Gartner's open-source analyst, recently said that Microsoft Windows will not suffer irreparable damage on the server side at the hands of Linux over the next five years. He's right. Microsoft will fall flat on its face all by itself, and Linux will pick up afterwards. It's very simple."

"As an MP3 and MPEG player, the Hauppauge MediaMVP lets you play digital media through your television set. As a tightly purposed embedded device, it is an excellent example of a compact Linux implementation on minimal hardware."

Gael Duval has emailed us to let us know of an error in our previous coverage of his new project, Ulteo. "There is small confusion in the Linux Format article which leads to confusion. In fact, what is shown in the LXF article is the 'Ulteo Connected Desktop', which is actually to way to use Ulteo within a web-browser, with all basic applications, for free. Anyway, this feature is just a part of the Ulteo concept, and of course the full Ulteo OS can be installed on a PC." Stay tuned for a short interview with Duval which will give some answers concerning Ulteo.

"FreeDOS is a project which aims to recreate the magic of DOS and bring a truly free GPLed DOS encompassing all the characteristics of MS-DOS with lots of improvements thrown in. A couple of weeks back, FreeDOS developers released ver 1.0 of their OS. I downloaded the full CD ISO of FreeDOS from their website which was around 153 MB in size. Since I have been using Linux as my operating system, I decided to install and use FreeDOS inside Linux by means of an emulator. In the past, I have used Qemu to run Damn Small Linux on my Ubuntu machine. And I was pleased with its performance. So I decided to use Qemu to run FreeDOS as well."

Apparantly, Gael Duval has leaked the first bits of information concerning his Ulteo project to the LXF magazine. "You can't fail to notice that in the screenshot he sent us, Ulteo is running inside a web browser. What's more, the screenshot also shows Duval creating a presentation on the 'Ulteo Connected Desktop'. Ulteo is going to be hosted on Duval's own servers, enabling users to connect to their own desktop from anywhere in the world. [...] The system administration and upgrades will be handled at the server end, as too will application installation. [...] Anyone with a browser will be able to use Ulteo - indeed, Ulteo is going to need a broadband connection to work - as the client will only require Java."

According to a Gartner report in June this year, the overall thin-client computing market will continue to grow at a steady pace during the next several years. The analyst noted that this growth will be fueled by falling thin-client terminal prices. While the thin-client approach makes Linux PCs easier to manage, there are still kinks to iron out with desktop Linux operating system, according to Gartner.

Andrew Morton posted his patch queue with numerous comments about merge plans into the mainline kernel. Among his comments he noted that he would not yet be merging the Reiser4fs, "reiser4. I was planning on merging this, but the batch_write/writev problemight wreck things, and I don't think the patches arising from my recent partial review have come through yet. So it's looking more like 2.6.20."

GNOME's Luis Villa has wrote an interesting entry in his blog, explaining why it is in Linux's best interest that distribution communities seek out small Linux OEM companies and help them in providing the best Linux experience possible. "Obviously it is in RH, Canonical, and Novell's interests to actively pursue Big Enterprise Fish like HP and Dell. But I'm really surprised that the communities around these distros haven't sought out the smaller, and potentially growing, companies that are offering computers with Linux pre-installed. It seems like this is a win-win for everyone."

"There are hundreds of Linux distributions. This handy reference guide includes the ones we think are especially interesting for desktop Linux users - from Arch Linux to Zenwalk - and we plan to update the list on an ongoing basis. Whether you're looking for an easy Windows-to-Linux migration distro, one for home use or serious enterprise workstation use, a free one, a commercial one, a tiny one to fit alongside Windows 98 on an old underpowered laptop, or one aimed at educational institutions, we think you'll find something suitable."

"Is Linux a good choice for your old PC? In this article I'm going to examine the main issues connected with using GNU/Linux on some very old hardware. I will also cover choosing a distro, a desktop and the key applications for such a configuration."

The Linux kernel 2.6.18 was released, changelog is 3 MB in file size.

A 28-page book chapter about loadable Linux kernel modules and device drivers is available for free download on LinuxDevices.com. The chapter, an excerpt from the second edition of 'Linux for Embedded and Real-Time Applications', shows how kernel modules can be loaded, unloaded, compiled, and architected.

"While other articles seem to discuss the impact of this drastic change for some older Windows users, here we are going to discuss how those newbies looking to Linux can tell you if are truly ready for Linux, and which Linux distro would be the logical and best choice for their own needs and/or tastes. More here.

"Are you in need of a great partitioner? Don't want to spend lots of cash for the popular commercial products? The GParted LiveCD offers most of the features that the big boys do, and even some that they don't. The key benefit? This is free."