Notable improvements expected with the release of Evolution 3.0: Migration of local mail storage from mbox to the faster, more resilient maildir format. Built-in duplicate email detection and removal. Significant memory usage and leak optimizations.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6) is out, and it brings a huge set of improvements over RHEL 5 for desktop users. Here is a curated list of highlights that I find particularly useful on an EL6 workstation: Core System & Filesystems Upstart: Replaces traditional SysV init (Upstart Wiki) Dracut: Modern event-driven initramfs generator (Dracut Wiki) ext4: Default robust filesystem (Fedora ext4 Feature) Btrfs: Available as a technology preview (Btrfs in Fedora) Boot & Graphics Plymouth: Smooth graphical boot flicker-free animations (Plymouth) Kernel Mode Setting (KMS): Native resolution and smooth transitions during boot (KMS) Xorg 1.7: nouveau open-source driver for NVIDIA cards (Nouveau) R600 3D hardware acceleration for AMD/ATI Radeon (R600 Accel) xrandr 1.3 dynamic monitor handling (LWN Article) Native DisplayPort audio and video support Performance & Security Tickless Kernel: Significant power savings on idle systems (Tickless Kernel) Tuned: Adaptive power management profiles (Power Management) PolicyKit & XACE: Fine-grained privilege management without root elevation (Polkit) Desktop & Multimedia GDM PAM Stacks: Support for multiple authentication backends (Multiple PAM in GDM) ConsoleKit Fast User Switching: Seamless desktop switching (Fast User Switching) PulseAudio: Unified volume control across applications (Volume Control) Glitch-free audio playback via timer-based scheduling (Glitch-Free Audio) IBus: Modern input method framework replacing SCIM (IBus) Evolution 2.28: Native support for Microsoft Exchange 2007+ via OpenChange (OpenChange) OpenOffice.org 3.x: Native support for reading and writing Office Open XML (.docx, .xlsx) documents NetworkManager: System-wide connection profiles managed independently of user logins (System Connections) Desktop Environments GNOME 2.28 (major upgrade from 2.16 in RHEL 5) KDE 4.3 Xfce available via EPEL SPICE: High-performance remote desktop protocol support Official Press Release: Red Hat Flexibility and Portability Product Overview: Red Hat Enterprise Linux Desktop
I am the not-so-proud owner of an HP tx2 convertible tablet, and it has been quite a headache. It came preloaded with Windows Vista, along with an optional upgrade to Windows 7 available on request. The convertible laptop is heavy, has abysmal battery life, and heats up faster than a toaster. On the positive side, the tx2 is relatively compact with its 12" display, easy to carry around, includes an optical drive (which I still use occasionally), and features mostly Linux-compatible hardware. The touchscreen works under Linux, although I’ve currently misconfigured something there. ...
In short: it’s terrible. Here is the longer story. The Modem The ISP-provided modem is a DNA A211. By default, it uses admin/admin credentials, and the web management console is accessible over Wi-Fi! It appears to run a Linux 2.6.8 kernel, likely with a GNU-based userland stack. However, I haven’t been able to locate the GPL source code published anywhere on their website. The modem requires a daily reboot to maintain a stable internet connection—I still haven’t figured that one out. ...
You love chatting over IRC, IRC is life, and you need your IRC client to support fullscreen mode! Look no further: xchat-gnome requires only a trivial patch to support fullscreen. For more information, see Fullscreen support for xchat-gnome (GNOME Bug 445638). Yes, xchat-gnome needs your love!
When building RPM packages, always avoid using the root account. Fedora 11 configures non-root building by default. For instructions on patching and rebuilding source RPMs as a regular user, see: How to patch and recompile a source RPM
When building RPMs, avoid using the root account. Fedora 11 configures non-root packaging by default. On other systems, create a .rpmmacros file in your home directory with the following line: %_topdir %{getenv:HOME}/rpmbuild As an added bonus for systems with multilib architectures (such as x86_64), add this format string to .rpmmacros: %_solve_name_fmt %{?_solve_pkgsdir}/%%{NAME}-%%{VERSION}-%%{RELEASE}.%%{ARCH} Reference: How to patch and recompile a source RPM
Duh! To receive files from a phone or other Bluetooth-enabled device to a laptop running Linux, make sure to enable the “Receive files in Downloads folder over Bluetooth” option in GNOME File Sharing Preferences. Notes: Bluetooth on Fedora
A few things I have learned: DDL (Data Definition Language) varies significantly from one SQL implementation to another. It is much easier and faster to maintain an application for a single database backend rather than across many. libgda is great when you are designing an application specifically meant to manage arbitrary databases. libgda is overkill when all you need is to maintain a simple, local embedded database. SQLite is fast, lightweight, well-documented, and backed by an active IRC support community. Keep database-related code restricted to as few source files as possible. The SQLite source code is an excellent reference for understanding how to implement commands like .import. Using Git (or any modern version control system) saves an enormous amount of time.
For anyone missing the wireless driver on the Asus Eee PC 1000H: rt2860 has made it into kernel staging and is not yet part of Fedora 11. To build it yourself, download the latest snapshot from the Linux kernel git staging tree using the “snapshot” link. Once downloaded, extract the archive and append the following line to the Makefile: obj-m := rt2860sta.o Then run the command below to compile and install the module: ...