The 0.10.4 release of Google Gadgets for Linux is out, with optimized performance and memory consumption, as well as many bug fixes. To install or upgrade your copy of Google Gadgets for Linux, just download and install the binaries for your platform.

Read the full thing at http://googledesktop.blogspot.com/2008/12/google-gadgets-for-linux-0104.html

Back in September we looked at the Intel Atom performance on a few Linux distributions using the ASUS Eee PC 901, but now with new stable releases of some of the most popular distributions out in the wild, we've decided to re-conduct these tests. We are using a slightly different Atom-based system this time and we are comparing the performance on Ubuntu 8.10, Fedora 10, Mandriva 2008, and OpenSuSE 11.1.

Read the full thing at http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=intel_atom_four&num=1

From Linux.com:

Mantis is that rare bug-tracking program for small projects that is neither too bloated nor too featureless. It's an excellent choice for developers who need a bug tracker that the average computer user can use. Its clean interface and numerous features make bug tracking fast and easy.

Read the full thing at http://www.linux.com/feature/1M2947

Over the course of the past few months we have been saying that the NVIDIA 180 Linux driver to be released in the fourth quarter of 2008 would hold in store a few interesting features. Well, today that closedsource driver has been released in beta form. This driver adds a new VDPAU API, which provides PureVideo-like features on Linux, adds in CUDA 2.1 support, new workstation performance optimizations, X Render improvements, and other improvements.

Read the full thing at http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=nvidia_180_vdpau&num=1

Since my "5 Things Every Good Linux Administrator Knows" post the other day, I've received some indirect feedback from friends and readers alike, that admittedly, leaves a little egg on my face. I left out three very important things that every good Linux administrator should know' I appreciate the feedback and I'm glad that my readers and those close to me feel enabled to let me know when I'm in error or at least falling short of a full delivery.

Read the full thing at http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3460.html

Very important to preface this with: it's my own personal opinion, written on my own personal blog. This obviously relates to Mandriva and is informed by my own experience working there, but it is not the official opinion of Mandriva, and please don't read it as such.

Read the full thing at http://www.happyassassin.net/2008/10/28/why-i-dont-like-canonical/

Bordeaux, France, and Bucharest, Romania, October 16, 2008 – AXIGEN (http://www.axigen.com) , the professional messaging solution vendor, and Siteconcept (http://www.siteconcept.com), one of the leading distributors of security products in France, announce today the signing of a partnership aimed at further expanding the distribution of the AXIGEN Mail Server product range on the French market.

Adobe has issued its second release candidate of Flash Player 10, which should be approaching the finish line. Developers have not only fixed a number of bugs, but added a few new features.

Among these new features is the ability to use graphical filters and effects in Adobe’s native Pixel Bender programming language for interactive 3D animation. The text layout engine provides new controls such as ligatures and right-to-left and vertical text rendering. Flash Player 10 integrates with the monitor’s ICC color management so that color graphics appear as developers intend them.

Read the full thing at http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/online/news/flash_player_10_coming_around_the_final_bend

From /.:

The fine folks at Codeweavers performed an 11 day experiment in getting Google Chrome working on Linux and Mac. Their efforts resulted in the Chromium proof of concept. 'Not only does this give Mac and Linux users a chance to see what all the hype is about, it also lets the world see just how far Wine has come and how powerful it truly can be. In just 11 days, we were able to bring a modern Windows application across to Mac and Linux.' Caveat: their implementation is free as in beer but not free as in speech.

Read the full thing at http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/15/1639216

From Linux.com:

Designing and building Web sites can be a maze of tasks these days. One tool that can simplify the task is the well-known Firebug extension, which lets you edit and debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript from within Firefox. As useful as Firebug is on its own, it can actually be extended past its initial setup with additional extensions that can make your work as a developer or designer even easier.

Read the full thing at http://www.linux.com/feature/147354