Standing next to your laptop to control the slides during a presentation is not cool. Nowadays everyone uses a presentation device or their laptop's remote controller, but a presentation device can be expensive, few laptops come with a remote controller, and for those that do, Linux compatibility may be an issue. The Amora project turns your Symbian mobile phone into a Linux presentation device using Bluetooth.

Device drivers can make or break an operating system. The best engineered kernel is useless if applications running on it cannot interface with the outside world or if device manufacturers cannot readily support it with their wares.

Independent programmers in the community recently achieved Palm's goal of running Linux on Palm devices. Linux is an alternative interface to Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems, which allows you to control and navigate basic Palm device functions.

Independent programmers in the community recently achieved Palm’s goal of running Linux on Palm devices. Linux is an alternative interface to Palm and Windows Mobile operating systems, which allows you to control and navigate basic Palm device functions. The thrust of their efforts have been with Lifedrive and TX.

Microsoft has warned users of its new Windows Home Server that the device could corrupt data when saving files from certain applications. The results could ruin family photos, small-business records or anything else users save on the system. The problem is the latest of three significant quality-control fumbles Microsoft has committed this year, said analyst Michael Cherry.

"I’ve been meaning to set up a Version Control System for a long time now. VCS as a concept has been around for a while but recently a new paradigm in VCS called DVCS (for distributed version control system) has emerged. This new paradigm has cured or at least mitigated the warts of the old “centralized” version control systems and brought new benefits.

“Tomorrow, Steve Jobs and Apple release a product crippled with proprietary software and digital restrictions: crippled, because a device that isn't under the control of its owner works against the interests of its owner.

You can manage most of today's multimedia applications easily with ReMoot, a universal remote control program. ReMoot even provides an esoteric way of controlling your PC remotely from your cell phone or PDA, earning it top geek points.

Some people are happy with their operating systems as installed. Others like to tinker. Still others need to dive under the hood and make those systems run exactly the way they want. Its all about control, and Linux gives you as much control as you can handle. The configuration tools in Ubuntu Linux provide a full range of customization choices. Some are cosmetic, of course, but others dig deep into system settings.