Updated the program versions in the database and added the new applications listed below.

Communications Smart Gnome Control Databases FlameRobin Development FirePHP InstallJammer PIDA SVK Education jVLT StarDict Games Falcon's Eye xball XMAME Graphics Bricscad GraphiteOne-CAD Misfit Model 3D PythonCAD SagCAD xzoom

Internet & Networking BlueZ GNOME Applet BlueZ Utils btscanner hellanzb KTuxCall KVIrc Mailman TuxCall Wicd Multimedia Dopi gbDVDenc MP3Gain Office Vondle Worklog Scientific & Engineering ChainLink Kicad KTechlab Scilab

Security AirDefense Enterprise carpaltunnel System httpfs System Management openQRM Splunk ZipTie Utilities disktype GLS MultiTail TM1 Virtualization EasyVZ GUML HyperVM User Mode Linux

I recently read an article describing how to run Windows apps on Linux using 2X ApplicationServer with Windows running as a virtual machine (VM) on the local system. It's a really cool sounding idea and overcomes some of the compatibility problems of Wine, but always having a Windows VM active consumes a lot of resources and may not always be the best solution. If you are running in a networked environment, and have an available computer running Windows, a better solution may be running the applications directly from that one system.

I'm very interested to find out what percentage of visitors are new to Linux versus those who have been users for a number of years already. How long have you considered Linux to be your primary OS? If it is not your preferred OS, do you have any plans to switch in the future.

I created a poll investigating this question. Please vote for the range where you began identifying yourself as primarily a Linux user.

The poll can be found here.

After my previous post on dvd::rip, I continued to experiment with batch processing that would allow me to have titles from multiple DVD's in the queue at the same time. Fortunately, the method didn't take long to discover and before long I was up and running more efficiently than I ever had been before. Here's how I did it.

Updated the program versions in the database and added the new applications listed below.

Databases Data Crow Development CSSED Zend Studio Education FET SchoolBell SchoolTool Games Eat the Whistle Feudal Times Kobo Deluxe Vega Strike Graphics Bibble Gnopernicus LightZone

Internet & Networking Hybrid Share Links Woof wxDownload Fast Multimedia BashPodder Kvdr lltag MiMo My Media System Video Disk Recorder (VDR) VDRAdmin-AM Office KnowledgebasePublisher Pre-Book

System BSCommander Fldigi GwenRename Mass Rename mp3rename Paco WineXS Utilities QuickList Skippy Viewers FBReader

BasKet reached its milestone 1.0 release today. It fixes a number of reported crashes and should be more stable than previous versions. Kontact integration for KDE 3.5.6 now works as well. There are also many useability improvements.

Some notable feature additions are: the ability to export baskets as archives and open them on another computer; easy import from text files; the ability to customize the directory where baskets are stored; and easy backup and restore.

The full changelist can be viewed here.

Wasabi is a new proposal on FreeDesktop.org for a unified desktop search and metadata specification. I'm not qualified to comment on the specifics of the proposal, but I definitely like the vision. Over the past month I had been thinking that an API was needed so I'm pleased to see that others are already ahead of me. Getting this done is the first step towards making desktop search a truly useful feature that's good for more than just searching archives.

Amarok 1.4.5 was released today. The next version will be 2.0. It will be based on Qt4/KDE4.

Some of the notable improvements in 1.4.5 include:

• An integrated Shoutcast stream directory.
• Support for custom labels. Organize your music how you want.
• Magnatune redownload manager allows re-download of any previous purchase free of charge (in any format).
• Improved sound quality when using the equalizer with xine.
• Support for Speex (.spx), WavPack (.wv) and TrueAudio (.tta) files in the collection thanks to taglib plugins.
• Search inside of lyrics using "/" in the Context Browser.
• Download songs from Shared Music (DAAP) directly into the collection.

The full details are available here.

Updated the program versions in the database and added the new applications listed below.

Business & Finance Open Tax Solver Databases SysAid Development Bazaar Bika LIMS Highlight Education TuxMath Games Final Frontier Trader Glest Hero of Allacrost Jackbeat Powermanga Trigger Graphics Qtpfsgui SharpConstruct

Internet & Networking Balsa Ethstatus Gnome SSH Tunneling Manager OpenLDAP UnrealIRCd Multimedia Goggles Music Manager IcePodder iFP GUI IMMS kPlaylist MiMMS RealProducer Varsha Office Oleo Scientific & Engineering OVIS

System Beryl Manager Conky EncFS genpower HardInfo KRename lomoco ntpdate System Management Centeris Likewise Identity Utilities Avant Window Navgator cpuburn dbf2mysql Docvert Gourmet Recipe Manager Screenlets Viewers arCHMage Dbview Plucker Desktop Virtualization Lguest