The most pressing question for those interested in the tablet is finding out when they can buy one. Seigo says that pre-order registration will open up next week. The Spark starts shipping in May 2012. They have to take into account the technical issues like the content add-on store and packaging design before they are ready to ship.

The device will be available worldwide, but they will be focusing on Europe primarily at first. They will be able to ship worldwide from day one, but they are looking for distribution partners outside of Europe to make obtaining one easier.

The device can be customized to suit the user’s needs. The software is completely open allowing the user to alter it to their needs. If people are looking to use a lot of the devices for work, they are even offering to ship them with customizations pre-installed.

We already know the majority of the device’s innards from the initial unveiling, but Seigo offers more details on the hardware. It will have a 1.3 megapixel webcam, 800×480 screen resolution, two USB ports, a microSD slot and a 3.5mm audio jack. It has standard Wi-Fi at 802.11 b/g.

For those wanting 3G and GPS, you’ll have to wait. Those features are not in the first run of the device. They do plan on bringing those features to future Spark models.

For those hoping for high-end hardware, they are already looking at potential components. They will create more powerful versions when market demand catches up.

Users will be able to create add-ons using common Linux development programs. They will also be able to add them to the store to sell.

There is no official Skype support for the device, so video calls will have to be made through Linux alternatives.

There are a few more developer-centric options detailed on the blog for those interested. The Spark is already shaping up to be a Linux user’s dream device.

Lastly, he confirmed that the Spark will indeed blend. That’s at least one area where the Spark can stand on equal footing with other tablets like the iPad.

What do you Linux users think? Will the Spark be a worthwhile investment? Let us know in the comments.

The tablet, which will retail for under $300, sports a solid set of hardware specifications. It includes a 1 GHz ARM processor, 512 MB or RAM, 4 GB of onboard storage, and a 7-inch capacitatie multitouch screen. An SD card slot allows for augmentation of the device’s on-board storage.

The new tablet was announced by KDE programmer Aaron Seigo on his blog. Seigo hailed the Spark tablet as “the start to an even bigger flame.” For the first time, he said, members of the free software community “have a device coming to market on our terms.” He promised the device would be “more than an application bucket that sees [users] as a consumer.” And in a not-very-subtle dig at Apple he said, “best of all: there’s no walled garden to get locked into or which can be taken away.”

There is no information on the Spark tablet’s release date. We’ll let you know when more information is available.

What do you think of Spark? Is it something you’d think about checking out? Let us know in the comments.

In order for Windows 8 to be legally installed on a computer with an ARM processor, that machine must have custom boot mode disabled. Custom boot mode allows users to add new operating system signatures to the system’s database, enabling them to install, for example, Linux-based systems on their machines. With custom boot disabled, that capability is taken away. In other words, Microsoft is demanding that every ARM-based computer that ships with Windows 8 must be locked down in such a way that competing operating systems can never be installed.

Microsoft’s argument is that the goal of this new requirement is to give users the best and most secure experience possible. it is difficult to see, however, how preventing users from installing non-Windows operating systems could be construed as a security measure. At any rate, the significantly smaller market share of ARM processors means that these requirements will not impact very many users, at least at first. However, as ARM’s market share grows – especially with the introduction of so many ARM-based ultrabooks at this year’s CES – that problem could grow considerably larger.

[Source: Software Freedom Law Center]

Late yesterday, Tristan Schmelcher, a software engineer, wrote on the Gmail Blog, "If you’ve been wanting to use voice and video chat on Linux (our top video chat request), then we have good news for you: it’s now available!"

Schmelcher then spilled some specifics by continuing, "Visit gmail.com/videochat to download the plugin and get started.  Voice and video chat for Linux supports Ubuntu and other Debian-based Linux distributions, and RPM support will be coming soon."

This development represents a respectable nod to the Linux community if you believe in the phrase "better late than never."  And it’s not like Google could have improved the situation by waiting longer.

Still, it’s hard to imagine Linux users aren’t feeling a little underappreciated due to the 22-month delay, so the matter of how quickly RPM support does (or doesn’t) arrive will bear watching.

Going forward, Google might want to do a better job of keeping the latest versions of other products and services available to Linux users, as well.

Spencer shared the information via a public mailing list (hat tip to Ars Technica), where he said:

Note that this won’t in any way effect the ability of a user to choose and use the search provider of their choice. It’s literally 2 easily discoverable clicks to change this setting, a simple matter of switching to that search provider in the chrome by clicking on the icon and choosing the desired provider. Note also that Yahoo! does not share any personally identifiable or usage information.

I am pursuing this change because Canonical has negotiated a revenue sharing deal with Yahoo! and this revenue will help Canonical to provide developers and resources to continue the open development of Ubuntu and the Ubuntu Platform. This change will help provide these resources as well as continuing to respect our user’s default search across Firefox.

The move is an interesting one for both Canonical and Yahoo. Yahoo needs to do whatever it can to gain search market share, and Ubuntu is a popular version of Linux.

"Canonical is unusual among major commercial Linux distributors in the sense that it doesn’t sell an ‘enterprise’ or ‘pro’ version of its software," notes Ars Technica author Ryan Paul. "In an effort to make this approach sustainable, Canonical is experimenting with a number of different business models, including commercial support for end users, subscription-based Web services, and integration support for hardware makers. In the announcement about the search engine change, Spencer says that Canonical’s partnership with Yahoo will help to fund the ongoing development of the distribution."

Terms of the deal between Canoncial and Yahoo were not made available. Meanwhile, the search and advertising deal between Microsoft and Yahoo is still pending. The effects of that on Yahoo’s market share remain to be seen.
 

Related Articles:

> Yahoo’s Q4 Financial Results Draw Smiles

> Canada Gets Its New Yahoo Homepage

> Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Approval Gets Deadline In Europe

Lots of you heard a lot of hoopla about the OLPC project (er, One Laptop Per Child). This is a strange little machine that’s aimed at bringing computing to kids around the world. It’s been a while since I heard anything about it, other than they had started shipping with both Linux and Windows, which shocked a few people in the community who saw that as something negative.

So, here I visit the OLPC team and get the skinny from the CEO and then talked with the engineer who built its innovative wireless features (hint: dude is smart and the wireless features on the OLPC are truly innovative). Learned a lot and learned about the deal with Microsoft too.

Oh, and next month they are bringing back the popular “Give one, get one” deal where you can buy an OLPC for $400 for yourself and that’ll get one donated to a kid on your behalf.

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Well today, they have expanded on that partnership with Microsoft, buying an additional $100 Million in certificates for expanded support from Novell. This includes SUSE Linux Enterprise Server support and support for moving toward an enterprise-class Linux platform.

The two companies are working closely to make it easier for companies to enhance the interoperability of the two operating systems.

"The collaboration between Microsoft and Novell has been built on our desire to meet our customers’ real-life IT requirements as well as give our partners greater breadth in their solution offerings," said Microsoft COO Kevin Turner.

"Some customers have told us they want to be able to run Windows Server and Linux together seamlessly, but in many cases, they need help with the transition to SUSE Linux Enterprise Server from other Linux environments," he added.

Among companies who are already running Windows Server and SUSE together are BMW, Wal-Mart, and SouthWest Airlines.

The new elements of the deal between Microsoft and Novell will take effect in November, around the two-year anniversary of the partnership’s beginning.

The more Linux fans Microsoft can get on its side, the better the company will probably fare in the OS wars as it struggles with Vista discontent and Apple success.

Air took a baby step onto a platform that isn’t Windows or Macintosh with the rollout of its Adobe AIR for Linux Alpha release. “This prerelease of Adobe AIR for Linux is alpha-quality and is not feature complete,” the company cautioned in its announcement.

Current AIR apps that perform well on the two mainstream operating systems may not perform as well on Linux. That’s due to the missing features as listed in the release notes.

The company also provided an update to Adobe Flex Builder to support application development with Air. Open source fans should note Adobe released both the Flex framework and the BlazeDS messaging technology under various open source licenses recently.

Flash Player 9, available on Linux, is not open source, though the Tamarin virtual machine supported by Adobe and hosted by the Mozilla Foundation (Happy 10th birthday to Mozilla!) is; Tamarin forms the core of Flash Player, as Adobe noted in a statement.

Adobe’s run-up and embracing of Linux and open source took some time, to put it delicately. The company seems to have found a model that opens it to more developers while protecting its valuable revenue stream; perhaps open source projects will bring even more developers to the Adobe banner.

  Everex gPC

There were issues with the $200 machine.  Stories of malfunctions and breakdowns are floating around the Web, and in any case, the gPC was undeniably underpowered.  Also, it’s likely that a lot of people were turned off by the lack of a monitor.

But Everex’s gPC was Linux-based, and fans of the operating system are taking its defeat hard.  Having it available at Wal-Mart – and again, for only $200 – seemed like a way in which some market share could have been gained against Windows.

This could be a loss for Google’s much-discussed (and still-unseen) operating system, as well.  The gPC was tied to a whole lot of Google’s products and services, and if it’s no longer readily available, fewer people will be able to get used to them.

If you want to try one out, or just take a peek, the machines can still be bought, though.  Even as the physical locations prepare to carry something else, Doug Aamoth noticed that the Wal-Mart site continues to offer the $200 Everex gPC.

Unfortunately, it’s just not true.  As the splendid Community Guy notes it can often cost more than some traditional techniques – mainly because there is a start-up stage.  But this is really just an investment like any other.  One that, over time, will create a valuable asset.  However, the classic comment about open source software is highly relevant: "Linux is only free if your time has no value." 

Community building is about smart people spending time building relationships in a way that machines will never do.  Make no mistake community is all about being cost-effective – not cheap-and-cheerful.

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