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shift writes "I've used multiple monitors for years (currently 3) and find that Linux is lacking in power tools for such setups. Even Windows 7 has added the feature to move a window from screen to screen with keyboard shortcuts. Are any of the major desktop environments adding such features? I'm still stuck on FVWM and have defined functions to swap the contents of screens as well as move windows from screen to screen and so on. But this just seems like such basic functionality people would want in multi-screen setups that I'm surprised I don't find any of these features in our latest desktop environments."

An anonymous reader writes "In a curious contrast to conventional wisdom, there are reports of X11 Chromium being faster than Windows or Mac versions. In the thread titled 'Why is Linux Chrome so fast?,' a developer speculates that it is due to the use of X11 capabilities: 'On X-windows [sic], the renderer backingstores are managed by the X server, and the transport DIBs are also managed by the X server. So, we avoid a lot of memcpy costs incurred on Windows due to keeping the backingstores in main memory there.' Has the design of X11 withstood the test of time better than people tend to give it credit for?"

Dan Jones writes "As the Linux community looks forward to another kernel release, the kernel hackers have been working on improving the memory management so that the X desktop responsiveness is doubled under high memory pressure. The result is an improved desktop experience. Benchmarks on memory-tight desktops show clock time and major faults reduced by 50 per cent, and pswpin numbers (memory reads from disk) are reduced to about one-third. Another improvement coming with 2.6.31 is kernel mode-setting support for ATI Radeon graphics cards, enabling faster user switching and a more seamless startup experience. Peripheral developments that will also improve the Linux desktop experience include support for the new USB 3.0 specification and a new Firewire stack. Even minor Linux releases have heaps of new features these days!"

nerdyH writes "An architect of the Moblin Project has announced that Moblin 2.0 for netbooks and nettops is the first Linux distribution to run the X server as the logged-in user, rather than SUID'd to root. The fix to this decades-old security liability comes thanks to 'NRX' (No-root X) technology reportedly developed by Intel, Red Hat, and others in the X community, and the Moblin-sponsored 'Secure X' project. Besides making Linux netbooks a lot more snoop-proof, it seems like this could lead to an X-hosting renaissance of sorts, since you wouldn't be risking the whole system just to open up a specific user's account to remote X servers."

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix has a new article out on Wayland: A New X Server For Linux. One of Red Hat's engineers has started writing a new X11 server around today's needs and to eliminate the cruft that has been in this critical piece of free software for more than a decade. This new server is called Wayland and it is designed with newer hardware features like kernel mode-setting and a kernel memory manager for graphics. Wayland is also dramatically simpler to target for in development. A compositing manager is embedded into the Wayland server and ensures 'every frame is perfect' according to the project's leader."

billybob2 writes "VIA has released a 113,800 line open source graphics driver with full mode-setting support for CRT, LCD, and DVI devices along with 2D, X-Video, and cursor acceleration. Harald Welte, VIA's open source representative, states that the next step is to add 3D (see preview), TV-out, and hardware codec support while integrating this work with existing open source projects. VIA has pre-installed Linux on a significant portion of the company's latest products, including the EVEREX gPC2, 15.4" gBook, and CloudBook. It has also helped port the open source CoreBoot BIOS (previously LinuxBIOS) to several of its motherboards." VIA seems to be making good on the promise of its open source initiative announced last April.

An anonymous reader writes "Phoronix has up an article looking at the release of X Server 1.4.1. This maintenance release for X.Org, which the open-source operating systems depend upon for living in a graphically rich world, comes more than 200 days late and it doesn't even clear the BugZilla release blocker bug. A further indication of problems is that the next major release of X.Org was scheduled to be released in February... then May... and now it's missing with no sign of when a release will occur. There are still more than three dozen outstanding bugs. Also, the forthcoming release (X.Org 7.4) will ship with a slimmer set of features than what was initially planned."

angryfirelord writes "The KDE Community is happy to announce the immediate availability of the first release candidate for KDE 4.0. This release candidate marks that the majority of the components of KDE 4.0 are now approaching release quality. While the final bits of Plasma, the brand new desktop shell and panel in KDE 4, are falling into place, the KDE community decided to publish a first release candidate for the KDE 4.0 Desktop. Release Candidate 1 is the first preview of KDE 4.0 which is suitable for general use and discovering the improvements that have taken place all over the KDE codebase."

IL-CSIXTY4 writes "'Pyro is a new kind of desktop environment for Linux built on Mozilla Firefox. Its goal is to enable true integration between the Web and modern desktop computing.' This looks like an interesting marriage of the web and the desktop. In Pyro, Web apps run in windows on the desktop, right alongside desktop apps (through compositing). Features expected in a desktop environment, like task/window selection and an Expose-like function, are written in Javascript." "

Quiberon writes "A distribution of Knoppix loaded with games has a bootable CD with 700 MB of open-source games, 3d support for NVIDIA, ATI, and Intel Extreme, gamepad support for XWindows. uni-kl is University of Kaiserlautern, the first on the list for distributing SuSE fixes - they are good. Every kid should have one for Christmas morning."

Okay, here are Hans Reiser's answers to your questions about ReiserFS, starting and managing (and publicizing) a free software project, earning a living writing free software, and the good and bad points of being considered somewhat of a curmudgeon. As a free bonus, Hans adds a little insight into the politics of Linux kernel development, as in what gets accepted and what doesn't. Good stuff!

Shisha asks: "I have to train IT helpdesk staff to be able to solve UNIX related problems. The trouble is I don't really know what will be most useful for them. I can't teach them all about shells, processes, deamons, sendmail, Xwindows etc. because that's just too complex. Another problem is in the slight differences between AIX, Solaris, Irix and Linux. The idea is that they should be able to solve simple problems, so that the really qualified people won't have to waste their time on them. We are talking about 16,000 potential users, on 5-10 multiuser servers and about 300 Xwindows workstations, so the number of problems daily is high. Also what commands would they need with root privileges (through sudo)? So the question is what should they know and what access rights should they have."

phee asks: "I'm trying to get my CCNA. I have some Cisco hardware (a PIX, switches, T1), but no routers to play with. Router knowledge is a big part of the CCNA exam, so I've been looking for router simulators. All the ones I can find are very commercial and very Only-For-Windows(tm). Anyone know of any open source simulators that work in Xwindows or text mode even? There's just no substitute for hands-on experience... " If such simulators don't exist, how about online study-guides or Web pages that talk about such information?

newt asks a question that I'm sure a lot of you have been wondering about: "We've just seen news that Apple has Open-Sourced Darwin, which no doubt fills enthusiasts with a warm fuzzy feeling about the future of Open Source and the way that Apple has embraced it. However, there's a piece missing from the picture: QuickTime. How often have you visited a Web page only to find that all the streaming media on it is QuickTime, and you can't view it without the Sorenson CODEC?" There was once a time when Quicktime as well as MPEG were cross platform, now we only have MPEG without the advantages of the advances made in the newer CODECs. Now that Apple has embraced Open Source, could Quicktime be on its way?

Yet Another Anonymous Coward asks: "I am using a S3Virge/GX video card to run XWindows. I am running Red Hat 6.0. I was able to get Xwindows running but when I close the Xsession, my display is shifted. I have tried using F86_SVGA and XF86_S3V servers but I continue to have the same problem. Any suggestions???"

Jim sends in this intriguing question: "I have a Dell notebook with a docking station. Does Linux need to know that I use a docking station? If not, do I configure Xwindows for my LCD screen or for the monitor on the docking station? Or does Xwindows support multiple hardware configurations?"

Having survived mysterious apostrophes and commas in my columns, weeks of flame wars and assaults from hostile geek warriors, large and expensive Linux handbooks, and useful, enlightening and conflicting suggestions from friendly Slashdotters, a Linux Box was delivered this week to my house this week. Technology being what it is, that's only the beginning of the story, which quickly came to involve CompUSA (the literal incarnation of computer Hell) my yellow lab, a geek hero and a computer savagely assaulted by an overnight delivery service. And I haven't even gotten to Linux yet. Johnny Depp, are you reading this?

fractality writes "With the recent chatter about standardization, it is apparent that some are simply not looking in the right places. A group of people from Verio South Florida have begun one of the most unified and viable XStandard projects. While it is still under development, expect to see this effort start to make headlines. Besides the obvious standardization project, xwindows.org is also an excellent X distribution site."

Joshy has written an excellent piece after going to visit the Xerox PARC. Joshy also talks about what we could learn from the Star, and gives some ideas on how Linux could benefit as well.