This series of articles is designed to introduced people to Linux and perhaps give them the necessary guidelines and hints to make their Linux experience enjoyable and interesting. And for those living on the moon for the last 20 years, NO, Windows is not the only operating system available, and Linux is not alone either.

Over the last couple of months, we've quite extensively examined the latest Linux display drivers from both ATI and NVIDIA. We have even published two articles about Linux NVIDIA overclocking with both NVClock and CoolBits. Today, we will be continuing this never ending driver coverage as we see just how well XGI Technology fares when it comes to their Volari Linux display drivers as we attempt to run a Volari V3XT and V8 under Linux.

Phoronix

Linux Kernel 2.6.12 has been released, the usual bunch of minor fixes and updates included, Download links and Changelog @ kernel.org

In this article, you will find a comparison of the latest Xeon (Irwindale), the previous Xeon (Nocona), the old Xeon (Galatin), the Dual core Opteron, and the "normal" Opteron, of course. We also included the Pentium-D to get an idea of what a Dual core Xeon could do, although the comparison is not completely fair: the memory subsystem of a Dual core Xeon will have higher latency and slightly lower bandwidth as it will use ECC buffered DIMMs instead of non-buffered DIMMs.

AnandTech

If you have ever visited a Linux support forum, the very first thing you will notice are the massive number of threads with questions similar to, "What Linux distribution should I use?" or "What is the best distribution for me?" Since these questions are asked by those who are unfamiliar with the open-source operating system and are possibly curious about it, do you ever wonder why that?s the scenario? It?s indeed very simple.

Find AMD64 device drivers* from AMD partners now! The following device driver partners have ported or are in the process of porting their 32-bit drivers to AMD64 on Windows and Linux. Some drivers are in Beta phase of development.

Ever since the industry was shocked by Apple?s announcement to partner with Intel for the x86 architecture, people have been talking about the potential threat that might pose to Linux in terms of overall growth. For one reason or another, many believe that Linux would have a difficult time thriving as the desktop operating system with the new partnership. One of the main theories behind this is the possibility of dual-booting Windows and Mac OS X on Apple?s hardware.

NeroLINUX is Nero?s first application to run on the LINUX operating system and Nero AG was kind enough to supply us with a serial number so we could fully test this application. In this review we will be putting NeroLinux through its paces and seeing what this application has to offer to the LINUX user with CD/DVD burning in mind.

CDFreaks

Find AMD64 device drivers* from AMD partners now! The following device driver partners have ported or are in the process of porting their 32-bit drivers to AMD64 on Windows and Linux. Some drivers are in Beta phase of development.

For months now at Phoronix we have been ranting about poor ATI Linux performance, as they simply haven't offered comparable drivers to that of NVIDIA's. However, today we may finally be able to change our stance regarding ATI's fglrx drivers, as they have released an all-new driver set (8.14.13) in addition to their monthly Windows Catalyst (5.6) release. Among other things, these new Linux drivers contain a much-improved installer.

In an interview with Impress PC Watch, Kutaragi disclosed that he plans to install the Linux operating system on the PS3's hard disc drive (HDD) so it will be recognized as a computer, rather than a mere console.

GameSpot

Debian GNU/Linux 3.1r0 has been finally released:

This release includes a number of up-to-date large software packages, such as the K Desktop Environment 3.3 (KDE), the GNOME desktop environment 2.8, the GNUstep desktop, XFree86 4.3.0, GIMP 2.2.6, Mozilla 1.7.8, Galeon 1.3.20, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2, Firefox 1.0.4, PostgreSQL 7.4.7, MySQL 4.0.24 and 4.1.11a, GNU Compiler Collection 3.3.5 (GCC), Linux kernel versions 2.4.27 and 2.6.8, Apache 1.3.33 and 2.0.54, Samba 3.0.14, Python 2.3.5 and 2.4.1, Perl 5.8.4 and much more.

nVidia has released new Linux display drivers for i386 and x86_64.

A few months ago here at Phoronix we published an article entitled "The State of Linux NVIDIA Overclocking", which expressed our views of the overclocking options available, or there the lack of, to Linux NVIDIA users. Up until this time, NVClock has been one of the only utilities available to overclock your NVIDIA based graphics card under Linux, without using a BIOS editor. However, when we last tested the NVClock 0.8 CVS we still experienced several problems when paired up with some of our latest NVIDIA 6XXX and FX graphics cards.

Linux is making a name for itself as a better and more secure system. Mandriva managed to fuse this with one of the most user friendly distributions ever created.

Read the whole review at playREACTION.com

This article is written solely from the frustration that I could not get a clear picture on what the G5 and Mac OS X are capable of. So, be warned; this is not an all-round review. It is definitely the worst buyer?s guide that you can imagine.

Novell released an update to their SuSE OS late last month. The update included numerous system updates and new versions of all the included software. We're going to take a look at SuSE Professional 9.3, to see if it's worthy of a purchase or upgrade.

TechGage

A few days ago, a new point release for Doom 3 was released along with an SDK (Software Development Kit) update. Among other things, there are some substantial improvements in the Linux update, mainly with PunkBuster, EAX support, the installer, and variety of other fixes. Overall, Timothee Besset (Doom 3 Linux port maintainer) has done a great job with this new patch, however, are there any performance benefits or losses from this latest patch? The id Software Doom 3 1.3.1302 patch performance is the focus of this article.

Phoronix

Although Linux is growing meekly when it comes to end-user usage and interaction, the overall experience of using a Linux distribution has turned out to be a positive one for numerous beginners. In recent years, Linux has made advancements in leaps and bounds, which has led to its adoption by many corporate users as well as regular desktop users. Though it?s still not in a perfect state, the rapid pace of development in numerous areas of Linux promises a bright future, nonetheless.

Realtek has released a new Linux driver for the ALCxxx series.

NGOHQ.com