The other desktop environments and window managers supported by Mageia 2 are E17, LXDE, WindowMaker and IceWM. Aside from the Live CD installation images for KDE and GNOME 3, users are offered dual-architecture CD installation images, DVD, and network-based CD ISO installation images for 32- and 64-bit architectures.

The aim of this article is not to present a point-by-point comparison of the two desktop environments, but to present a general overview, so a new user has a top-level idea of what they are.

It is an alternative to Google Analytics and from my experience, better in many respects. The latest version, released just today June 1 2012, is Piwik 1.8, and it comes with its share of new and improved features and bugfixes.

This release is rated critical, so if you are running Piwik 1.7.1, the previous stable version, immediate upgrade is highly recommended.

Everyone is always so fixated on desktop Linux and why it can't get decent numbers in the desktop market.

The answer is obvious. You can't come late into the game when someone has a huge installed base and expect to win based on free over easy.

For those set of users, suitable alternatives are: Modify the interface with extensions, as I showed how to do here, or install Cinnamon desktop, a project from the developers of Linux Mint. Cinnamon appeals to many because it offers the familiar look and feel of the type of desktop environment they are used to.

Specialized Spins for Security, Scientific-KDE, Design-suite, SoaS, Games, Electronic-lab and Robotics were also released. It is very unlikely that I will review these, but there will be reviews of the main edition and KDE Spin. While the reviews are still being baked, here are a few screen shots from test installations of the main edition and KDE Spin for your viewing pleasure.

From my perspective, the worst culprit is GNOME 3. And though I have often criticised the default GNOME 3 interface, with a little bit of tweaking here and there, I have been able to get it to a point where I can actually use it for my daily computing tasks. It is not perfect, but much better than the default configuration.

Consequently, I have not even bothered to install a distribution running GNOME 3 in its default state on a “production” boxen, other than for review purposes only. But while preparing a review of Mageia 2, I came across an extension that could just make me a believer and user of GNOME 3.

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There is Linux Mint 13 MATE, which features MATE, a desktop environment forked from GNOME 2, and Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon, which features Cinnamon, a desktop environment built atop GNOME 3. So, Linux Mint joins a growing list of Linux distributions that do not ship an edition running the GNOME 3 desktop in its default state.

There is ROSA Marathon and ROSA Desktop. According to the Release Notes, ROSA Marathon is designed for enterprise, SMB and SOHO users who do not need bleeding-edge applications and technologies. ROSA Desktop is for personal use, and the 2012 edition is still being baked, slated for release sometime at the end of the year.

There are a lot of test and comparisons about Nginx vs Apache. And yes for static content because it is asynchronous, Nginx preforms better. What happens when you have PHP?

I have setup two servers with:

• Apache + PHP + APC + Varnish
• Nginx + PHP-FPM + APC + Varnish

I downloaded the source to the (video editing) application "kdenlive" (version 0.9 just released), and following the instructions on the kdenlive web site, compiled it, and installed it on my Linux Mageia Cauldron laptop. Maybe I did something wrong, maybe not. Anyway, disaster ensued.

It is often said that Linux Desktop distros spend half their time playing catchup with the Windows or OSX Desktop environments. I'd agree for many years this has been the truth however something is happening in the world of Linux. I is starting to innovate again.
Some might say that it has been doing this for years, however i think its fair to say with the numbers of Windows users coming over to the desktop it's had to slow down the innovation and focus on the usability aspect.

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I recently did a post on cutting the cable which the article explained how you get XBMC 11.0 ontop of the ATV OS. Having run with this for a week or so it turns out that when streaming media from a NAS the playback becomes very choppy and out of sync audio and video occustrs a lot.

Thankfully there is another option however which involves removing the Apple TV OS and putting a Linux based OS onto the box which has been built specifically to work with an AppleTV containing the CrystalHD card.

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Thin Client computing is the current system of choice in so many enterprise systems today with the big players being VMware and Citrix and even Windows 2008 trying to nudge its way into the act with its Seamless Remote Desktop Applications. All of these systems provide clients which will access the applicaitons which are run from a central server and all of them are well tested and run on thousands of systems.

Not to be left out Opensource is now getting its act together and the rudimentry underpinnings of a thin client infrastructure with the recent release of Ulteo 3.0 and its Open Source Virtual Desktop and Application Delivery solutions

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Anyone who knows me, knows me to be a bit of a Fanboy, I love using Linux I use it on the Desktop, i've migrated may of our servers to it and am a firm advocate for Desktop Linux as an alternative for Windows. Using Linux is an entrance to a whole new world and I don' just mean with Linux, its the gateway to other OS's.

My trip into the wonderful world of *nix operating systems started over 20 years ago when working for the BBC a Sun Indigo was plonked onto my desk. I'd been using different OS's for a while, very early in my career i was using OS/2 instead of Windows 3.1 and this sparked an interested I guess in what was to be come the path for the future.

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The latest release of XBMC my preferred application for viewing my Movie collection on the TV and there has been an updated release just recently. I was urged to give this a whirl as it has an Apple Airplay server built in for streaming video on the TV from the iPad.

I have been running XBMC 10.0 on a Sabayon system for the past few months and it's beeen running well, however always one for the new and change I wanted to give XBMC 11 a bit of a go. The first stage was to see if the Sabayon repositories had an update, they did however it wasn't to the release version it was to the release candidate 2. This doesn't include the airplay functionality so an alternative was needed.

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Just a bit of rambling about Linux, as well as reflections and meanderings about computer history in general

Take a look out at the Linux Distro landscape and there are no end of small business server distributions, these are the distros which provide you with a cheap alternative to create a small business server which in turn provides eMail, DNS, DHCP, Web Servers and many other services you'd need on a server when running a small business.

Usually the scenario would be that you use Microsoft's server products to provide your staff with a reliable back end server system, however over the last few years some of the Linux alternatives have risen like cream does to the top. Everything you could do with a Microsoft server can now be done for free on a Linux Small business distro. Zentayal is an example of this type of Distro. Its polished, there are support options, its well documented, it runs on Ubuntu as a core OS.

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LMDE is a mixed bag. On one hand, you get a Debian install with the Mint specific user software that makes the end user a very nice experience. On the other hand, it's still being tweaked and played with. This can lead to some frustration with apps that haven't had all the kinks worked out yet.