SearchEnterpriseLinux.com posted a look at where Red Hat, Novell, and Canonical are and where they should go in 2008. For the most part, I agree with everything they said, but I do not agree with where they say Canonical should go. To summarize, the article says that Canonical should push their server product. It seems to me that Ubuntu has a unique advantage over Red Hat and Novell on the desktop. More Linux enthusiasts use Ubuntu than use Red Hat or Novell software. On the other hand, Canonical has very little advantage on the server side.

While Canonical, the sponsor company to Ubuntu, could attempt to lure enterprise customers, I think the most likely scenario, in this case, is that another distro comes along and takes Ubuntu’s place on the enthusiast’s desktop. Instead, I believe that Ubuntu should continue to pursue the consumer desktop and, for now, leave the enterprise customers to big companies like Red Hat and Novell.

Red Hat has delayed the upcoming release of their new desktop oriented Linux until January due to problems licensing codecs, according to Yahoo News. For some time, getting free and legitimate codecs for Linux has been a problem. While most distros make it very easy to download the codecs required to play proprietary media formats, these codecs are basically illegal in the US. It is possible to purchase legal codecs and most commercial Linux distros do include legal codecs, but there are still many users out there who will not bother to get legal codecs until they are free.

Due to Red Hat citing codec licensing difficulties as the reason for the delay, it appears that they plan to include legal codecs in their upcoming release, which will, apparently, be freely available. If Red Hat does plan to release a free Linux with legal codecs, it could cause a lot of people to consider Red Hat as an alternative. If, however, the release is not truly free (you must pay for support or something like that) then there is not much new here.

(If someone can say for sure if the release will indeed be fully free, please post a comment. I cannot find anything that specifically says you will not have to pay for support or something like that.)

I have contacted Red Hat and asked them to clarify. I will update this as soon as I get a response.

The KDE team has announced the release of KDE 4 RC 2, codenamed “Coenig.” According to the announcement, RC 2 is now feature complete and all that remains to be done are a few bug fixes, finishing up the artwork, and some user experience stuff. I have not yet tried it my self, although I plan to soon, so I cannot give any opinion. The current expected release date for the final KDE 4 is January 11th.

Everex is said to be planning to launch a re-branded version of the Packard Bell Easynote XS running Everex’s Ubuntu-based gOS, according to Linux Devices and UMPC Portal. Everex’s new laptop, called the Cloudbook, is approximately the same size as the Asus Eee PC, has a 7″ screen, and costs $400, making it a clear Eee PC competitor. You can read the full specifications of the Packard Bell Easynote XS on UMPC Portal. Additionally, Linux Devices reports that a developer version will be available a few weeks before the release date. The developer version will include a touch screen. Linux Devices suggests that the touch screen will be implemented in a later version of the Cloudbook.

Previously, there has never been a successful touch screen based laptop, although there have been rumors of them. If the Cloudbook does eventually include a touch screen and it became successful, it would open up a new way of making ultra mobile computers. Although this may be too much to hope for, it would greatly benefit Linux if the first successful touch screen laptop came with Linux.

The Aleutia is a small desktop PC that is powered by a roll-up solar panel and uses just 8W. It comes with Puppy Linux, a small Linux distributions that is designed for older hardware. Due to the limited resources (128MB RAM, 200Mhz processor, and just 1GB of storage on a CF card), Puppy Linux, DSL, and Windows 95 are just about the only options for it. The Aleutia costs 499 GBP or about 1000 USD.

The problem with the Aleutia has nothing to do with the product itself. It has to do with the product’s competition. If you compare the Asus Eee PC and the Aleutia PC you get this:

• Eee PC is 2.5x less expensive. ($400 to $1000)
• Eee PC has better specs.
• Eee PC is more portable.

The one thing that the Aleutia has over the Eee PC is that it provides a solar panel. Given the price difference (Eee is $600 less), I decided to check the price of third-party solar panels. The first place I found was selling fold up solar panels. A 26-watt solar panel costs just over $300, and provides sufficient power to run the Eee PC at full load and charge its battery at the same time. If you do the math, the Eee PC with a solar panel comes out $300 cheaper, and the Eee PC has a number of advantages over the Aleutia as noted above.

Make Tech Easier recently wrote a guide on setting up a program called SBackup to automatically backup all of your important files to another place. There is no major news with SBackup, but it made me realize the importance of Linux distributions including an easy-to-use GUI application to make backups easy. For technical users, installing the backup solution of their choice is simple and they can choose from terminal tools like rsync or from GUI tools like SBackup, but for less technical users, the kind who are starting to use Linux more and more, who don’t know that they need to go find a backup program, they will only backup if there are graphical tools they can use out of the box to automatically set up their backups.

With Leopard advertising Time Machine and more and more people talking about backups, consumers are starting to realize that their data is not safe. Unless every operating system, Linux and others, makes it easy for them to press a button once and have backups all the time, backups will remain something for the geeks.

If you only think of the desktop and the server market when you think of Linux or if you need a present for a Linux geek, check out Linux Devices’ list of the top ten Linux-powered devices to give a Linux geek. Anyone who knows what Linux is knows that Linux is used on the desktop and on the server, but this list shows that Linux is also used a lot on mobile devices, such as cell phones.

There is also a list of gadgets that run Windows which you should avoid giving to any Linux geek. Comparing the two lists, you might notice is that while the Linux list consists of inexpensive laptops, cellphones, and mp3 players, the Windows list consists of… well.. obscure junk. This includes (no joke) an automated bartender, running Windows XP. Windows XP may not be stable enough for my PC, but I guess it works just fine for an automated bartender. Cheers!

One of the new planned new features of the upcoming release of Ubuntu, Hardy Heron, is a fresh new theme. That’s right, no more brown and orange. While for many users just getting some nicer colors in to replace the “ugly” brown and orange is enough (I personally like the brown and orange a lot), I think the Ubuntu team should take this chance to get ahead of other distributions in another way.

For a while, Fedora has been know for its amazing art, but with the most recent release, Fedora 8, the Fedora team decided to go with a simpler, less distracting background. Although it might not be a good idea to use a theme as complicated as previous Fedora themes, Ubuntu has a chance to become known as the distro to go to for the best artwork. Although artwork may seem like an unimportant part of a Linux distro, an attractive, well thought-out interface can make someone take a closer look and see what the distro really has to offer.

Given the amount of talent in the open-source community and the previous simple but beautiful design of Ubuntu, I am confident that the Ubuntu team can create a really incredible theme to top off all the other features of Hardy Heron.

Linspire’s “one-click” installation website and client software known as CNR, click-and-run, has expanded its field to include Ubuntu users, as well as Linspire and Freespire. Support for Debian, Fedora, and OpenSUSE is coming soon. Systems like this for installing software attempt to create one website that you can go to and click one button to install any piece of software you want, but have previously been limited to a single, or just a few, distributions. Although the concept itself is not new, there are two things that distinguish CNR from other similar systems. First, CNR spans multiple distros that are not directly related. Second, the software offered is not just free software, you can get commercial software there too.

Another interesting aspect of CNR is the premium subscription. For $50 per year, you get discounts on commercial software, professional support, and some other benefits. What interests me is the professional support. I cannot find anywhere on Google or on CNR.com if that means support for CNR or support for the applications. If that means support for the applications, it could be quite useful to new Linux users who are switching to new, unfamiliar software.

Overall, I think that CNR will be a useful asset to many Linux users and may attract some people to Linspire’s products, but I don’t think that it will become the standard for installing software on Linux. While I do believe that Linux would be greatly helped by a universal system similar to CNR, I don’t think that most distros will be willing to include CNR by default while it is still tied to Linspire. Although I could be wrong, I believe that most distros will wait for a fully community-operated service similar to CNR before integrating anything into their OS.

Birmingham’s mayor agreed to buy 15,000 XO Laptops for $200 from the One Laptop Per Child organization, making Birmingham the first US city for purchase XO laptops for their schools, according to The Birmingham News. The laptops will be given to 1st through 8th graders for the purpose of closing the “digital divide.”

If you don’t already know, the XO laptop is a small, rugged Linux-powered laptop designed for children in third-world countries. Obviously, Alabama is not a third-world country, but that does not mean that the XO cannot do anything to help the school children in Alabama, too. Although the XO is designed for third-world countries, the goal of the project is to give every child a laptop, so they can learn about technology and use it as a general educational device. There ar, however, some challenges that Birmingham and the OLPC organization could face. Many of the children will be used to using Windows at school, even if they don’t have a PC at home, so the alternative GUI, known as Sugar, could confuse some of the children. Still, children tend to be very good at figuring out new things, and Sugar is designed to be intuitive and easy to use.