AMD has been very tardy with Barcelona. Countless AMD fans have eagerly awaited a new processor. As the day draws closer, TechARP takes a look at the upcoming quad-core AMD Opteron. Is there more to it than just its four processing cores? Will it be the Intel-killer that AMD promised long ago? From the article: ‘AMD is in the same boat as ATI.’ Delays after delays of their long-awaited Barcelona core not only ensured the dominance of their rival, Intel, in the desktop processor market, it also ensured that Intel would be the only choice for those who want a quad-core processor. Although that wait will end in August, 2007 when the Barcelona is finally launched, it remains to be seen if AMD’s new processor will be able to inflict serious damage to Intel’s dominance.

Finally, the hype surrounding one of this summer’s big releases is justified. Transformers delivers the thrills we’ve been waiting for all year long and love him or hate him, director Michael Bay pulls off something films with bigger budgets and more stars (Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3) couldn’t accomplish. Transformers is the over-the-top slam-bam action dramedy that almost single-handedly redeems the 2007 summer blockbuster season.
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Intel has unveiled an ambitious project aimed at developing open source software for mobile devices. The Moblin project comprises a Linux kernel, UI framework, browser, multimedia framework, and embedded Linux image creation tools, along with developer resources such as documentation, mailing lists, and an IRC channel. Intel says it hopes Moblin will serve as a ‘point of integration’ for multiple sub-projects, and appears eager to see devices such as its Mobile Internet Device design, and chipsets such as its Ultra Mobile Platform 2007 platform, be thoroughly supported by Linux. Although all of the projects currently focus on the Intel architecture, Moblin says it is open to hosting support for other processor architectures.

Nrbelex writes
“The Associated Press is reporting that Google has offered to bid at least $4.6 billion on wireless airwaves being auctioned off by the federal government, as long as certain conditions are met. ‘The Internet search company wants the Federal Communications Commission to mandate that any winners lease a certain portion of the airwaves to other companies seeking to offer high-speed Internet and other services. Such a provision, Google argues, will give consumers — who traditionally get high-speed Internet access via cable or telephone lines — a third option for service.’”

Stephen O’Grady wants to solve Ubuntu’s biggest problem: Microsoft.

The fact that Microsoft has a majority market share in PC desktops is the biggest challenge facing the growth of Ubuntu and free software in general. In fact, the issue is actually listed as bug #1 in the Ubuntu community development site Launchpad. It’s more than just a hurdle to overcome, it’s a bug that needs to be fixed.

In his keynote address here at Ubuntu Live, the RedMonk principal analyst (and Ubuntu devotee) flashed a quote from Sun Tzu on the screen: “You can be sure of succeeding in your attacks if you only attack places which are undefended.”

You can’t out-Windows Windows, he says. Defining and playing to Ubuntu’s strengths are what will make free software succeed on the desktop. [Stephen has posted his entire presentation on his blog]

The first is system maintenance. Debian-based Linux distros like Ubuntu have a huge asset in apt-get. The package handling utility makes finding, installing and maintaining software a breeze. Windows has nothing that even comes close to apt-get. “It’s an experience,” says O’Grady, “an area of functionality that Linux has pioneered.”

Ubuntu’s second major strength is the community. It may sound like a bit of a nebulous commodity, but O’Grady offered an anecdote to argue his point. Without being qualified to do so, he set up a LAMP production environment at his office. Since he lacked expertise, he asked a lot of questions in the Ubuntu forums and got straight, direct answers very quickly. He’s kept his server going for 18 months with better uptime than the commercial provider he used previously. Most would agree with his assessment that the free software community is more centralized, friendly and open than the communities that exist for Mac OS X and Windows.

Maybe Microsoft doesn’t see the importance of these two things, which is why they’ve left them undefended. Either way, it’s by playing to these strengths and others, says O’Grady, that free software can eventually come to rule the desktop.