Exciting Technologies Coming to Linux

The first half of 2009 is over and after your summer vacation, you might want to start gearing up for the new distro releases. Once again open source proved that developers collaborating all over the world deliver constant platform improvement. Let’s see what they have in store for us this time.

USB 3.0

This new bus specification promises a speed of 5 Gigabits per second, about 10 times faster than USB 2.0. And the first operating system to get a USB 3.0 driver is GNU/Linux, specifically, kernel 2.6.31 (scheduled for September).

Ubuntu to support Google Android applications

With a user base of roughly 2 million and more than 20 Android-powered  devices coming this year, Google’s mobile operating system may become a force to be reckoned with. Developers will embrace the platform and given time, Android’s Market will contain hundreds of thousands of applications. Well, at least that is the direction in which the Ubuntu dev team is thinking. They plan to introduce an easy way to port Android apps over to their flagship Linux distribution. While most applications will be useless on a desktop machine, there might be some apps that, with their small size and modest memory consumption, might do a certain task much better than its Ubuntu-native equivalent.

Source: Internetling

He’s a Mac, he’s a PC, but we’re Linux

Earlier this year the Linux Foundation launched a competition for budding writers, film makers and just general Linux enthusiasts to make their own grassroots advertisement to compete with Apple’s highly-successful “I’m a Mac” series of adverts. The Linux Foundation hopes to succeed where Microsoft’s short-lived Jerry Seinfeld experiment failed, namely landing a glove on Apple’s unrelenting “I’m a Mac” ads.

The Linux Foundation think, and rightly so, that a Linux advertisement is overdue and felt it time to produce their own ad they did as Linux does – they sought community involvement.

The Linux Foundation opted not to embark on their own production but rather sponsor a community contest, exploiting the minds and talents of Linuxphiles globally. The contest started on January 26th and entrants are asked to showcase their take on “I’m Linux” within 60 seconds or less.

Participants were asked to showcase their take on “I’m Linux” within 60 seconds or less. There was no requirement to mention or refer to the Apple or Microsoft campaigns. Submissions were expected to be inspirational and explain why the creators love Linux, infecting viewers with their passion. The winner has now been announced.

It wasn’t just a work of love, mind you. The winning prize is a free trip to Tokyo to participate in the Linux Foundational Japan Linux Symposium during October this year.

Over 90 entries were submitted, from across the globe. Five of these were shortlisted as the finalists, and just prior to Easter the winner was chosen, Armitay Tweeto, freelance graphic designer and user interface consultant from Bet Shemesh, Israel.

Tweeto’s winning entry was titled “What does it mean to be free?”

The two runner ups were “The Origin,” and “Linux pub.”

The other two finalists, who did not gain a place, were “The future is open” and “Challenges at the office.”