IBM this week introduced the first major overhaul to its System z mainframe line in three years. This latest Big Iron from IBM could be a welcome development for the company, which has seen its mainframe business struggle for several months.

Linux has a lot of advantages as a desktop operating system. Power management, unfortunately, still is not one of them. But there are plenty of ways to make a Linux system less power-hungry -- and some of the most effective fixes are also some of the easiest.

This is Sean Daly, reporting for Groklaw, I'm in Geneva for the OpenForum Europe conference, and I'm seated here with Andy Updegrove [bio]. Thank you very much for being with us today.

When Asus unveiled their ultraportable, ultra-cute EeePC in October of last year, they may not have anticipated launching a whole new product category, but judging by the overwhelmingly favorable reaction of users online and strong sales numbers, that's exactly what they've done.

The fifth pre-release of Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring is here. This pre-release includes the all-new artwork for the 2008 Spring release, further improvements to the Mandriva software management tools, WPA-EAP support in the network configuration tools, KDE 3.5.9 and available 4.0.1, some new default applications in KDE and GNOME, and the latest pre-release of OpenOffice.org 2.4.

We all know that Slackware means stability and security. But Slackware has never been a distribution for the weak and elderly. It has always been regarded as one of the more geeky and difficult distros, alongside Gentoo. Until now. Well, Gentoo got Sabayon and Slackware got Wolvix.

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) will allow your computer to continue to function for a period of time when mains power is lost. This can help you to smooth over short-term (1-5 minute) loss of power by running from the UPS battery. When the UPS battery is running low, the UPS can signal your computer to shut down cleanly. With a UPS you can avoid lengthly filesystem or RAID checks due to abrupt power loss. Here are some tips on UPSes in general and how to set one up to protect a Linux machine, even if the model you have lacks explicit Linux support.

In some countries' governments, the use of Linux is often viewed as a cultural thing. Linux is closely aligned with the concept that software should be free. "In Europe, governments take open source very seriously. They have a fear of being locked into one vendor," said Paul Smith, vice president of government sales operations for Red Hat. "Linux gives governments leverage against the fear of being controlled."