The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has been expanding through mergers with other trading companies such as Archipelago and Euronext in 2006 and 2007. This has created the challenge of integrating the various trading platforms. The organization has selected Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) with Security-Enhanced Linux (SELinux) and real-time support to run the mission-critical, high-speed financial transactions. The software runs on hundreds of HP ProLiant servers. Read more...

The Linux distribution Fedora version 9 is now available for download. Highlights of this release include:

• GNOME Desktop 2.22 with improved file system and world clock applet
• KDE Desktop 4.0.3 with integrated desktop search
• Ad-hoc networking with near-by wireless devices
• OpenJDK6 - the open source Sun Java software development kit
• Improved monitor/display configuration
• Persistent live USB support

For more information see here.

While most tasks can be conveniently accomplished using the graphical user interfaces of the Linux desktop, experienced users often find it more efficient to go back to the "command line". That is, they use a "terminal window", or "console" to type in commands and start up programs. Unfortunately, the default terminal windows are usually set to a boring black on white or white on black. But this can be easily changed to look much cooler. Read more...

Instead of a traditional rotating disk hard drive, this device uses a solid state drive, which makes it more robust, since hard disk drives tend be the most fragile component of a laptop. A solid state drive has no moving parts and is therefore more shock-resistant. Other features of the PC 900 include:

• high-resolution 8.9 inch screen
• 1.3 megapixel webcam
• multi-touch capable touchpad
• 900 MHz Intel Celeron processor
• 1 GB RAM
• Wi-Fi Internet connectivity

The Linux version is priced at $549. For more information see here.

Krita is a comprehensive graphics program for Linux, that is fundamentally different than the better known graphics package GIMP.

The differences start with the layout of the various user interface components. Instead of having them organized as a set of separate windows, Krita uses a single-pane integrated view, where all the UI functionality is included in the main window. However, the panels and tools can be freely moved around in the window and are dockable to provide a clean appearance. Read more...

Bluefish is a well designed editor and software development environment with a rich graphical user interface (GUI). It is well suited for development of web pages but also works well as general purpose editor and integrated software development environment (IDE). It supports syntax highlighting for a number of languages, including HTML, JSP, Java, JavaScript, SQL, XML, Perl, PHP, and Python. Read more...

If you want to find out which programs are using most of your computer's CPU time or most of its memory, simply type in "top" in a terminal window. It will give you a list of processes ordered by the percentage of CPU time they are using. You can change the ordering to memory usage by hitting the "m" key on your keyboard. Of course the top command has a lot more functions and options, which you can find on its man page.

The Super Gamer VectorLinux-based distribution comes as a live DVD loaded with tons of native Linux games. It includes demos of some proprietary games, and native Windows games can be played with Wine or one of its derivatives (Cedega or Crossover). Read more...

The developers of OpenOffice have released version 3.0 of this productivity suite. This is not a production release but intended to make the software available for testing by the general public.

Highlights:

• A new Start Centre
• New fresh-looking icons
• Zoom control in status bar
• New solver component in Calc
• Increase to max. 1024 columns per spreadsheet
• Support for OpenDocument Format (ODF) 1.2
• Runs on Mac OS X without X11

For more information see here. Download here.

Puppy Linux is a distro with a number of interesting design requirements. For example it is designed so small that it can be loaded completely into RAM and run from there, including a large number of applications (you should have at least 128MB RAM). You can boot it from a live CD, and once booted up, the CD drive can be used for other purposes. Running completely from RAM means that response is very quick. Read more...