Dell has denied that it will no longer offer Ubuntu on Inspiron systems sold in the UK, and has maintained that a problem which meant that some customers were unable to buy the software pre-installed has now been fixed.
Dell today announced its Latitude 2100, a netbook designed specifically for school children. It is also the first Dell product in Australia to offer the Ubuntu operating system.
From Monday, office supplies retailer Officeworks will start selling a limited range of pre-configured Dell PCs and laptops at 104 locations across the country.
Dell desktops loaded with Ubuntu Linux will cost US$50 less than Microsoft Windows-based systems but it is still unclear if and when they will be available in Australia.
Dell has revealed the reasons behind its decision to delay the availability of Linux sold outside the US.
We take one of Intel's new 34nm SSD drives for a spin and find it a worthy hard disk replacement, delivering massive speed jumps when loading software. But watch out for a penalty when writing data.
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala was officially released overnight and marked the eleventh release of the distribution. It's attractive, polished and measured, but fails "the grandma test".
The latest and greatest version of the Oracle database, 11g Release 2, was made available recently and as the resident technical person, it fell to me to take it for a spin. Little did I realise the hell that I had just walked into.
So, it seems the WOW -- for Microsoft's Windows Vista -- is not now, but sometime in the future, maybe.
Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala will be the distribution's eleventh release, and highlights include the addition of a new boot screen, an updated default theme, and the addition of the Ubuntu One service.
Linux Mint takes Ubuntu and applies a fresh coat of paint to the interface as well as adding a number of helpful utilities.
A lot of the fuss behind virtualisation is focused around the datacentre. That's all well and good, but there is a whole world of virtualisation for workstations where competition for the best suite is red-hot and constantly improving.
Long overshadowed by its GNOME and KDE-based brethren, Xubuntu is a handy Ubuntu solution for older PCs or for users that want a lighter desktop footprint.
There's no doubt that Ubuntu is a worthy rival to Windows 7 and even hands Mac OS X a cold dish of nasty in its stellar 9.04 release. Hats off to Mark Shuttleworth and his team: you got game.
Install Ubuntu Linux on a Windows machine without partitioning your hard drive or booting from a CD.
Ubuntu is very user-friendly but not right for everyone. Oddly, both casual and advanced users will find this operating system wonderful, while day-to-day users may rail against Ubuntu's incompatibility with certain popular software applications.
Hardy Heron is an incremental set of advances on earlier versions, but all the advances are in the right direction. Unfortunately, a known and unfixed bug means we can't currently recommend it for enterprise use.
Ubuntu is a well integrated, practical and absolutely free Linux distribution. There may be worries about support, but the Canonical organisation is building a good reputation and the head of steam in the wider Ubuntu community should provide decent local support from third parties, too.
The Latitude 2100 is an interesting answer to customising for the needs of schools. As a by-product, Dell has created a robust little netbook that can just as easily be tossed around by any techie who likes to work roughly.
The Fusion-io ioDrive is in a performance field of its own. Home users are much better off RAIDing a few SSDs together; however, for those running servers that need extra throughput now, the Fusion-io represents an expensive, but justifiable saviour.
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