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Issue 103 (March 2008) - Distro heaven

We showcase the 14 hottest distros for 2008 - find the best one for you!

Special 10 distro double-sided DVD, including Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, PCLinuxOS and more...

Arduino returns - cool hardware hacking for £30

Tutorials on MP3-ifying vinyl records, sorting photos, Ardour music editing, game programming and mail servers

Features

Distro heaven

Why does toast always land buttered-side down? How long is a piece of string? Why are there so many Linux distros, and what are they all for? Find out here... (Neil Bothwick)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Linux at CES

Lucky Blighter John takes the Linux temperature at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. (John Brandon)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Hardware hacking revisited

Thanks to overwhelming popular demand, our hardware hacking feature is back. Here's a Simon-type game using the Arduino and a few LEDs. (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Ubuntu: Pick your passion

Explore the aims, software and philosophy behind the various Ubuntu spin-offs - Mint, Studio, Edubuntu and more. (John Brandon)

Click here to read!

Coverdisc

10 distro special

8GB double-sided DVD with: Ubuntu 7.10, OpenSUSE 10.3 Live, Mandriva One 2008, Debian 4.0r2, Mepis 7.0, PCLinuxOS 2007, Knoppix 5.1.1, Fedora 8 Live, Zenwalk 4.8, Damn Small Linux 4.2.3. Plus: VirtualBox to try the distros via an emulated PC! (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

HotPicks

gscan2pdf, Bazaar, Labplot, Rosegarden, Frets on Fire, Fish Fillets NG, Freecycle, Q DVD Author (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Tutorials

First steps: rip MP3s from vinyl

Records are making a comeback, inspiring Andy to begin ripping his collection of vinyl to the computer for the first time... (Andy Channelle)

Click here to read!

Photography: The Linux Studio

Part 2, Photo album managers - the best software to archive, maintain and search our digital images. (Dale Strickland-Clark)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Ardour: on the right track!

Part 2: We demonstrate how to add moretracks to the Ardour session, and show you how to export a complete song. (Daniel James)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Code project: a ball game

Part 4: In the final tutorial of this series, we take a lighter look at coding with a simple (but addictive) game... (Mike Saunders)

Click here to read!

Build your own mailserver

Most people who use it haven't got the faintest clue how email actually works. Banish the darkness of ignorance today with our beacon of knowledge. (Chris Brown)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Reviews

Eve Online

Now that the biggest spacefaring massively multiplayer online game has a Linux client, Minmatar Orestis lets us know why we should be training up. (Orestis Bastounis)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Navicat 8

Want a cross-platform admin front-end for MySQL? Web-based interfaces not flexible enough? This might be the tool you need. (Marco Fioretti)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Shuttle LinuXPC

Graham lifts a thumb on the recently launched Linux Shuttle and test drives the pricier of its diminutive Linux offerings. (Graham Morrison)

Click here to read!

Mandriva Flash 2008

Graham never saw the point of USB-based Linux distros, until Mandriva and a damsel in distress helped change his mind... (Graham Morrison)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Zenoss Core 2.1

Availability monitoring, event management, performance monitoring and IT inventory management combined? We'll take some convincing... (David Cartwright)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Lightweight window managers

Give your desktop a speed boost and discover a new way of working. Rated: aewm, Fluxbox, IceWM, Ion, lwm, Openbox, Ratpoison, Wmii (Mike Saunders)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

News: KDE goes fourth

New desktop environment puts pretty and practical to the fore. Plus: Microsoft opens up to Samba, $199 KPC from Shuttle, Sim Sity GPLed, Sun buys MySQL, Intel abandons OLPC (Andy Channelle)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

Distrowatch: Back to work

A taste of Linux distributions to come: Ubuntu, OpenSUSE and Mandriva unveil early alphas. Plus: FreeBSD turns 7.0, Geubuntu, and source package statistics. (Ladislav Bodnar)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.

What on Earth: PulseAudio

We explain why you might find this cross-platform sound server useful on your desktop... (Daniel James)

Available as a PDF to subscribers.